He had held fast to Daebru, clung to the lad as tightly as he could without fear of breaking the young man, but Sune, "he's gone..." Timothy muttered, staring at his bed.

"Sorry sir?"

"Ah, sorry just," he shakes his head, "things are changin fast ey?" he tries to cock a smile, but it doesn't stick.

"Indeed, the men want to know our heading, captain. The Lady Haaru being taken by that avariel, we don't have her charter anymore, food is... well, there's plenty of it but the men..."

"It's from Avernai, it's understandable that none want to eat it... has anyone shown signs o' tha sickness that was in tha city?"

The man shakes his head, "no sir, but how long can we wait for signs?"

"if there's nothing at this point, there prolly won' be anything, we were lucky... I think."

"Loosing a home," the man shifts and holds his hands behind his back, "shall we make port then? Timestone?"

Timothy sighs and looks at his map giving a soft nod, "yea, set a course an' Marin?"

"Yes, captain?"

"Let's burn the food before we get there, set a lifeboat for it, we'll get a new one when we make port."

"Understood captain," the man nods and turns to leave the cabin.

Timothy leans back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, his gaze slowly falling to the side staring at his bed again, the place where Daebru had lay, hiding who he was from the world. He closed his eyes shut tight, and I terrified him, knowing his name, saying it like that, "fuck... I'm sorry my prince," his hands come up and cover his face, disgusted with himself for not being more concious of the young man's needs, fear... I was afraid to loose him, to see him going running into the mess to help, I just... wanted him to be safe... and now... there's all these portals popping up to who knows where, "aaaaahhhhhrrrrrrr!"

"... captain?"

He sighs, "I'm fine, just, go about your duties please!" he hollers out and sighs again.

Timestone, capital of the Spire of Knowledge, would the portals pop up so far down the coast? It was hard to know, but it was their heading all the same. Avernai was along the northern edge of this spire, the border that turned from knowledge to trade and had always been a strange place. Now though, it was torment, Timothy let out a sigh and rubbed his face before getting up to make way out onto the deck, "look alive men! we have our heading, we'll make it and then we'll get up to whatever the hells we feel like!" he hollars and swings and arm wide as he moves up onto the rail, spinning on some of the rigging, "burn that harpie's nest of spoiled gutter meat we got and get ta movin boys!"

A hearty cheer rises up from him men and they all start moving, a well worked machine in some ways, they knew each other, were family, worked well around each other. One of the young lads on board was a bit crestfallen as he moved about his duties, "hey," Timothy moved over and knelt down in front of the lad, "don' ya worry bout those we left behind, we'll see em again. Me sis, she'll fix em up and we'll return, smilin faces all around alright," he squeezes the lad's arm.

"I just," his head tilts a bit, "I wanted ta," he shakes his head, "spose it ain't no use now what I wanted, what's done is done."

"What was it ya wanted?"

"I," he fidgets a bit and bites his lip a bit, "wanted ta get a companion fer ya, somethin that suited you as our cap. Evry captn has one, birds, dogs, one I saw even had a big cat. Though maybe I'd see one that just kinda, felt like you before we left, so that you could uh... have a companion from yer home."

Timothy smile broadly, "tha is mighty sweet o ya," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his raven figurine, "see this here?" the lad nods with a curious glance, "this is my companion. He was given to me a few years before I came ta Avernai. There was a young lad, like you, wanted to get me something tha spoke to em about me."

"It's just a statue though," the kid's brow furrows.

Timothy sets it on the deck, "awaken" he whispers and magic swirls around the token as it grows and grows. A shriek is heard as the magic simmers down and a full three foot tall raven sits where the statue was looking at the young lad.

"Woah!" his eyes are wide and Timothy smiles, "that's, it's, woah."

"His name is Aeris, and the one that gave him to me is a very dear friend," he reaches out and scratched the bird's chest under his beak and encourages the lad to join in, "he very much loves the attention."

The lad was happy to give Aeris some attention, and the raven ate it up, even purring a bit and making other happy noises for the kid, "he's fun. I'm glad you have one, a companion... who gave em to ya?"

Timothy smiled sweetly, his hand dropping away from the bird a moment, "ya know that young miss that was with us a bit ago?" The boy nodded, "she gave him to me. When I decided to leave Evermore with my brother to go adventuring, well, she was there for only a moment, threw this token at me and ran off, face all red. She looked angry then, maybe she didn't want me ta leave home or maybe something was going on... I didn't get ta ask, but I've kept Aeris close by my side since then."

"She... will she come back again?"

"I don't know... I hope I'll see her again, get the chance to properly thank her for things, but she's not here now, so we need to do our best to stay alive so that we can have the chance to meet again, right?"

The lad nodded, "right!" He smiled broadly and then took off to go help the other with checking the rigging and compiling the bad food to get rid of it all.

Timothy looked to Aeris, "scout ahead for me old friend? Need to avoid the whirlpools and portals as best we can," Aeris leaned against his leg in affection before nodding and taking flight, "where did you go Dae?" He whispered to himself as he looked to the east, towards land, towards a place that had been somewhere to kick his feet up. The captain leaned on the rail lost in thoughts, how long had it been since then, Daebru couldn't have been but five years old then... maybe? 

His mind began to wander drifting to that time. He had been the son of a travelling merchant and a nomadic mystic. His mother had died, and his father brought him and his brother to Evermore to live with their grandparents, Jeana and Marcovius. They weregood people, strong willed, confident, but something always had them on edge.

"CAPTAIN!!!" He felt a strong arm pull him back from the railing as a heavy wave rolled over the side, knocking some off their feet, "storm came outta nowhere!" Baer hollered and gestured out, "some conjuring shit prolly, but its pullin us to that rift!"

Timothy's head whipped round to look, sure enough he could see the indigo glow of a rift off their starboard side, "shit. Kalla! Get us outta here, I know you got rricks up your sleeve!" He slipped out of Baer's arm and raced up to the wheel to take over, trying his best to turn the ship away from danger.

Kalla, a slender wisp of a woman yeilded the wheel to him and began muttering under her breath, the wind swirled around her, blue and green sparks started to weave in the air before her. He dare not yell she needed to hurry, it would break her conce tration. All he could do was hope and pray that she would succeed before the portal devoured them. 

Baer was by his side putting a firm hand on his shoulder, both of them turned their heads to look, it was too close, the portal to gods knows where was opening wider as they approached, "whatever happens, I'm here with ya cap... Timothy. I have your back."

Timothy reached up and squeezed Baer's hand, letting go of the wheel just moments before they were all awash in an indigo light. He heard his crew start to yell, but then there was silence. Ear splitting silence...