Port of the Northern Strait

[Mellie]

The main port of Aissic, and the one found at the border of the most northern country. The people who do not understand science also find it an amazing wonder (perhaps created by Fiorre herself) that the water does not freeze in such a place. The port itself is a solid glacier cast with an enchantment that prevents it from breaking apart. Stables for creatures cover the land and water of the area, accompanied by docks for the many ships that come to the Northern Strait. Woodrow's own men have gone undercover as tollers to watch for pirates - but the word has already been out about it, and as such any remaining never make a stop here.

[Relos]

Relos was rather nervous as the boat approached the dock. There was no proper port in sight, and the boat seemed to be heading straight into the glacier. Several of the passengers shared his fear and made their way towards the opposite side. Crewmen were flocking about to assure everyone that the magics surrounding the boat would prevent any disasters. It didn't matter to Relos, since he could just fly his way to safety. Of course, his only weapon would be likely to fall with the boat, and that was a chance he could not take.

As the boat finally entered the port, a loud horn blared.

Relos shrugged. "About time."

Making his way to the luggage, he found the case the crew had supplied for him to keep his sword in. Removing his sword from the case, he strapped it to his back. Oddly, his body began to move of its own accord. The crew obviously didn't trust Relos with such a sword, so it was likely that they had somehow cast some sort of spell on him to keep the other passengers safe. Excessive use of protocol, maybe? When Relos was a great distance away from the boat, he felt the spell cast upon vanish. Now he could journey across Aissic as much as he wanted.

[Katerine Vexler]

The Defiled Grail had made port in Raave, despite the many members of the crew who claimed that it was a horrible idea, considering the rumours they had all heard of Woodrow setting up several men here. The captain, however, had said that with a good enough cloaking spell on the ship and good enough clothing change of them, they could easily come across as… not so pirate-y and instead much more like merchants. Katerine thought the idea was stupid. She didn’t want to risk her neck just because a few of the crew members heard that Raave was fun; that Raave was filled with interesting, entertaining people and – of course – lots of good booze. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t particularly interested in the entertainment or the booze. She was in fact worried about the unlucky members of the dead whom did not receive eternal bliss, or new life – instead they were sent to walk among the living. Unheard, unseen, untouchable.

Aras said it was better than getting eternal punishment, Alana thought that it was better to be able to explore Setsuwa – even alone. Jackson, on the other hand, had confided to Katerine on late nights aboard the ship while the other two were fast asleep, that he sometimes wondered if he would not have preferred eternal punishment over the hell he felt walking about a planet he could not touch, smell or feel to the marrow of his bones. Death scared Katerine despite the fact that many said that she was it, that she was death.

“Look at this! Haha!” Aras’ voice sifted only into the ears of Katerine and her other two ghosts. He stretched aimlessly as he walked off of the ship, wishing he could smell the fresh air or feel the cold biting at his skin. Instead he simply revelled in the business that filled the excited port. “Much better than that ratty old hole they call a place to sleep, wouldn’t you agree Katty?” Katerine shook her head slowly, pulling her shawl around her shoulders as she took a few hesitant and bowlegged steps onto the floating port, finding it more and more difficult to gain proper footing as she found more solid land. Aras just looked at her with a knowing smile and shake of his head before beginning to walk off, “I’m going to do some exploring. I never got to come here while I was alive. I’ll find you when I’m done,” He offered his dead comrades and Katerine a haughty wink, “Don’t have too much fun without me… And don’t do anything I wouldn’t.

[/u]”

“I don’t think that anything really fits that profile,” Katerine admitted quietly, smiling tightly at the departing ghost in a sea of real people and several other ghostly figures. She made a note to herself not to look at any of them too closely. If she did, she would sorely regret it. They would come to her by the dozen, asking for her help. “Well, why don’t you two go off as well?” She asked Alana and Jackson, pretending to be making a general comment about the air of the place. Alana easily submitted, going off to do some exploring and talking with other ghosts whereas Jackson shook his ghostly head (the flap on his throat blowing oddly). “I think I will stay with you. Keep you company as I know that you’re not about to go trouncing off making conversation with whomever you may find.”

“Thank you, Jackson,” She said simply, giving a bright smile that made her dried lips crack further. She continued her way of the dock, taking in all of the sights the port had to offer. Nothing really caught her eye in any specific way; or at least not until she saw a face that was vaguely familiar. Not that she knew the person very well, just that she had seen the person do something very wrong. She recognized the boy from the Graveyard in Muerte where she had confronted that redhead she did not quite remember the name of. This boy that she was seeing now was the other one that had been with him. The one who had actually killed the dead man in the end.

She slowly approached him, trying to be sure this was the boy. Jackson followed closely, trying to decipher what she was looking at. He did not remember the boy as well as her, but he did not remember as much as he ought to. His eyes darted between Katerine’s and anything that she could possibly be looking at, but he could not see the interest of the boy she was looking at. He only understood when she went up to him, stared him in the eye with a tight frown and said, “You.” She swallowed her nervousness at the same time Jackson understood what this was about. “Katerine, please be careful. You remember what he did to that poor man, and I’m sure he could do similar to you.” He stood directly in front of her face, between the two of them. She quickly swiped at him, forcing him to appear elsewhere while making her look crazy for appearing to randomly swing at the air.
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[Relos]

Relos thought that he could be on his way. He thought that he would not run into trouble for a while. Instead, he was now being confronted by a girl that couldn't possibly be a living being. That, and she was glaring at him, having only said "You". He looked around to see if she could have possibly been speaking to anyone else, but he couldn't see anyone else that she may have been talking to. Other people did seem to take a look at her, likely because they were just as confused as Relos was.

When he had turned around to face the girl again, she had finished randomly swinging her arm. If she was trying to hit Relos, it would have helped if she walked forward a little bit more.

Deciding that this girl was talking to him, he asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?" He couldn't exactly remember where he may have met her before, and her halfway-to-death's-door look only made remembering her more difficult.

"I have a name," he continued, rather annoyed by how he was addressed. "It's Relos. Since you apparently seem to know me, it may set me at ease if I knew your name, miss...?" He held a pause, hoping the girl would at least introduce herself before she collapsed.

[Katerine Vexler]

The boy looked incredulous, and that fact made Katerine’s stomach flip over in an angry brand of nervousness. Jackson could feel the way her skin crawled with the adrenaline that went along with the way that she – for once – was initiating a conversation instead of sitting in the corner and hoping no one saw her. More accurately, she was always hoping that no one saw her lips move and thought that she was crazy for ‘talking to herself’. When the boy asked if she knew her from somewhere, Katerine opened her mouth and prepared to let loose a lung and stomach-full of anger that she had pent up deep in her gut from when she saw the red headed one and this guy kill someone who was already dead. She knew from what Aras, Alana and Jackson told her; that was one of the worst things to happen when you were dead. She did not release this anger, however.

The boy spoke again. He claimed that he had a name: Not one worthwhile, is all Katerine could think as the boy continued on. Jackson stood behind her, his hands placed on her shoulders hoping that the added cold would give her a reason to pay attention to him. The dead man did not want Katerine to be hurt should this boy attack. He did not look strong, but that did not mean that he wasn’t holding some magical powers that neither he nor Katerine seemed to know. The zombie had not been killed again by physical attacks, after all. Jackson remembered that bright light as clearly as he remembered the moment of his death.

The boy said that his name was Relos, but Katerine didn’t care enough to remember it. As Relos continued, he requested Katerine’s name and without thinking (she was not used to situations like these and her mind escaped her) she answered, “Vexler. Kateri-“ She stopped part way, realizing that she didn’t want the boy to know his name. Jackson gripped her shoulder’s tighter, his hands slipping under her skin and running an unexpected cold through the muscles and bones there. Katerine gasped and swiped her arm back to dissuade Jackson once again you disappeared, only to reappear behind Relos and give her a look that said merely to leave now before she got in too deep.

Katerine ignored the plea and instead frowned while she was crossing her arms, cursing Jackson for making her look like a crazy person. “You were in that Graveyard. With the other boy. The one with the red hair and you… and you… He’s dead because of you!” The poor Katerine was trembling like a leaf on a thin and dying branch, trying to contain her anger and nervousness but instead projecting it onto the rest of her body which made it shake and shiver as she tried to catch her breath and get out everything she felt needed to be out.

“You still have a chance to leave, Katerine. Please. Do it now before this goes too far,” Jackson’s eyes flashed and the cut in his throat moved with each sound. Why did she so desperately refuse to listen?

[Relos]

He hadn't been on Aissic for even an hour and already he was being pestered by some crazy girl. When she seemed to show an ounce of normality by introducing herself, she stopped in mid-sentence. All he could understand was "Vexler", and for whatever reason, she didn't want him to know her full name. It certainly didn't help that he had already heard a majority of her name.

After failing once again to apparently give Relos a well-deserved slap, she began to stutter and mention a graveyard, a red-haired boy, and Relos killing him. Last he had heard, Kiku was certainly not dead, and even if he was, Relos didn't do it. Of course, he and Kiku were attacked by a zombie at a graveyard, and Relos was the one to deliver the final blow. Obviously that was what this lunatic was referring to. Before he could explain that he had done in it self-defense, the girl started to tremble and breathe heavily. He put his hands on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

"Look, that red-head and me were attacked by that zombie. I could have fled, but that would have meant leaving Kiku to defend for himself. Of course, he does deserve an ass-kicking, but you know what I mean. Besides, if a soul is trapped in a body cursed to walk after it has already died, wouldn't destroying it put them at peace?"

To Relos, that logic made perfect sense, but considering how strange this girl was, it would come as no surprise to him if she thought otherwise.

[Katerine Vexler]

She was fuming even more with what he last said, and Jackson shook his head. People who couldn’t actually see the dead did not understand. Still he remembered what happened, and knew that the dead man did not attack unprovoked. He could tell by the way Katerine eyebrows drew together that she remembered as well. That or she was having a conniption.

“That man… That man that you killed didn’t just jump up out of his grave and attack you!” She yelled, Jackson feeling thankful that the Port was so busy and loud that people weren’t paying much attention to the two, “You were digging in his grave! He was unlucky enough to be bound to Setsuwa, and then you go and disturb his final resting place!”

She had to take a moment to review what the boy had said, not quite remembering the second half in all of her anger. Jackson sighed a small bit and decided that if he wanted her to get out of here soon, he had to help her remember all of the information. The faster this was over, the faster they could leave and forget about this. “Katerine,” He said softly from behind Relos, “He said that destroying the body of one… cursed …to walk about would put them at peace.” It was these times where he was peeved at himself and his two dead comrades for telling Katerine all they knew about death. The moment he finished reminding her what Relos said, she seethed.

“And no! No! A soul doesn’t get trapped in a body and that body isn’t cursed to walk! You went digging about in someone’s grave and they wanted to defend themselves! No! If someone went to your house and starting desecrating it, would you just sit back and let them?! No!” Her exceptionally dry eyes began to moisten with tears of anger and sorrow. She bit her dry and chapped lips to try and hold them in as she dipped her head down to use her hair as a curtain. “Destroying someone’s soul like that… it doesn’t put them at peace.”

Jackson, Alana and Aras had never explained to her exactly what happened if your soul was destroyed when bound to the planet. Though they knew, they told Katerine otherwise. The dead knew everything, but if she were to know that then she would want information they were not allowed to give, or information they did not think she should know – for her own sake. All three of them knew that if any one of them were to be killed like the man in that graveyard that they would be gone. For good. Erased from everything. Katerine only knew it was bad, not the extent.

“You don’t know things like I do,” Katerine muttered through her curtain of hair. Jackson thought the same thing about her.

[Relos]

Relos had to think for a bit, trying to think of anything he could use for an argument, but to no avail. This girl had actually made a good point. He had disturbed the grave, and he deserved to be attacked. What he couldn't believe was that he had actually destroyed someone's soul. Now he understood why exactly this girl was so infuriated with him, but why was she so emotional over those that were deader than dead? It was probably because she herself looked dead.

Putting his hands at his side, he barely heard the girl muttering about Relos not knowing things like she did. Relos hesitated to speak, not wanting to sound even more like an ignorant jackass to this poor girl. Without thinking, the first thing that he said was "What things do you know?"

[Katerine Vexler]

Well that was a stupid question. Obviously by the very fact that he looked so dumbfounded by what she had said before, she knew more than him. Wasn’t that good enough?, to know that she knew more, and thus was right? It was for her. But no, of course that wouldn’t be good for him. He wasn’t as smart as she, and thus he required reasoning where reasoning was evident.

“What do I know?” She reiterated, lifting her head up to look at him through a thick, tangled curtain, “I know the things that you do not.” Jackson sighed slightly, bending down to crouch as he set his head in his hands. “Katerine,” He begged, wiping his face down as if it were possible for a ghost to get sweaty, “Please bring this to a close. Leave, now. Go and explore a bit, or go back into the ship and rest up. What you’re doing is only going to end badly for whatever reason. There are some things that they shouldn’t know. That you shouldn’t even know – even with your powers! Just leave now, and keep our secrets inside of you.”

Katerine didn’t listen. Her cheeks were flushed as she searched her mind for the perfect examples to use against the boy. To show her that she was smart, and he was not. That she understood how the world worked, and he did not. To prove that she was useful for something… To show them all that she could do something. “I know that when you die, you are judged. Then again, we all know that… I know that you can get more life. I know that your can get new life. I know that you can be punished, rewarded, or given a choice between walking around with no one to interact with. Nothing to touch. Nothing to smell. Nothing to feel…”

“Katerine!” Jackson demanded more harshly, up on his feet and straight in front of her. He would have gripped her shoulders and shook her if his hands would not pass through her.

“Or taking the pain. Of course, you can’t go back after you choose. Eternal suffering with others, or eternal lonelin-” Jackson shot his hand through her throat, holding it through her vocal chords, causing her to stop her speech. It was not only that she was saying these things. It was that she was reciting things that he often regretted. Picking to walk Setsuwa instead of take punishment. He had been the only one of their trio who had been offered the choice of suffering or emptiness. The other two had requested to come to the surface despite their offer of permanent bliss. Luckily for him there had been Katerine who allowed them to see each other, talk to each other – talk to her and through her. But at this point, he did not believe himself to be lucky, nor did he believe himself to be right in his choosing of the surface over the underworld.

Katerine was muffled, and feeling a sweeping cold pain her throat. It was as if ice was growing right over her vocal chords, and after struggling, she dropped to her knees, finally falling out of his hand’s icy cold touch and down to the exterior icy cold of the ground. She clutched at her throat as she felt it warm slowly, and felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. “Go away,” She managed with a noticeably hoarse voice as she looked up to Jackson’s angered face.

Her most reliable of ghosts moved as if about to say something, as if to apologize – but he stopped himself. And then Jackson was gone. Disappearing into the thin air that he always seemed to be to everyone else.

[Relos]

The girl began to speak of judgment in death. Just how did she know what would happen to you when you die? All of a sudden, she stopped speaking, as if she felt she had said far too much, but it seemed almost like there was somebody else stopping her. She tried to find her voice, only to fall to her knees as tears fell down her face. She turned her head away from Relos and said to go away. Was she talking to Relos, or was there someone else that for whatever reason Relos couldn't see? Either way, Relos could tell that this girl didn't want to bother with him anymore.

"If that's what you want, then I will happily leave." Turning on his heels, Relos began to walk away. Despite the very strange encounter he just had, the girl left Relos curious.

[Katerine Vexler]

Her breathing was slow and laboured, and she honestly could not feel a thing from her mouth straight into her lungs. Everything had been numbed and her breath escaped it gasps of cold air that felt as if it were even colder than the air of Aissic. She didn't understand how it was possible, but it seemed that Jackson had definitely been angrier than she had ever seen or heard him. He had never done something like that to her and even when she walked through him, or had a hand pass over him, she still didn't feel anything but a quick jolt of cold that was gone and done with before anything else could happen.

When she had finally regained feeling to her lungs, and felt satisfied that she could breathe in a way that kept her from dying, she looked up to where the zombie-killer was standing. Or... Had been standing. She jumped to her feet and looked around fervently, but she couldn't see him. She had a feeling that even if there hadn't been huge crowds of people, he still would have been long gone. How stupid was she to think that he would wait for her to catch her frozen breath, when she had made it clear that she had every intention of a) Berating him until she couldn't do it anymore and b) Fighting him with the hope she could avenge the poor dead soul.

"Now what can I do?" She asked herself woefully, not even paying attention or caring when someone looked at her like she was crazy for talking to herself. She was used to it because of her chats with ghosts - which others could not see. Then again, this time maybe she was crazy. She was simply talking to herself, after all. No ghosts to talk to - or at least none that were paying attention to her. She was sure that somewhere in this big crowd was someone who needed the help of a corporeal being. Not that she planned to give any.

Clearing her throat and taking a frustrated breath, she finally began walking, sick of seeing people avert their path to get around her, leaving her in her own little tapered rectangle of crazy. No, she had to go and... Do something. Get involved. Be a normal person instead of the person who talked to ghosts while she still could. She didn't need ghosts anyways. She could make real friends. She didn't need Alana or Aras... And she definitely didn't need Jackson.

I hope he comes back, Her mind said without her permission, causing a grimace to grace her pale and cracking features as she walked out of the area and into the city, No. No I don't. I felt what he did to me and I most certainly do not want him to come back. And if he does... - I'll welcome him back with open arms? Er, mind? - no. If he does I'll tell him to go away. To leave me alone forever. I wish me good luck with that... Oh my god. I am crazy.