gunmetal gold

𝐢𝐢𝐢 - 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐲𝐚

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

"This is the shittiest job I've seen so far!" Ash hissed, running out of the engine room. I'd been worried about Halle the first time Glen mentioned explosives, but now, they looked like nothing but fireworks behind a smokescreen.

As I weighed disappointment against relief, I made a mental note to suggest that our terrorism needed more terror to Ianthe.

Ash ushered me out in front of him. The wooden hallway, polished until the boards shone, was lined with small sailors' decorations like souvenir anchors and rare seashells. This ship with everything in it would probably sell for over sixty-thousand alloys.

"How's the treasury for the Grit Zealots?" I asked, grabbing an expensive-looking brooch that had dropped to the floor from someone's uniform. It was clearly a technologist emblem—a torch with a snake curled around it, all beneath a rounded crescent moon.

Ash glanced at the find. "Technologist paraphernalia...could be useful. Don't sell that." When we reached the end of the hallway, he lifted a bluish tapestry, revealing a wooden hatch behind it. He unbolted it and swung the small door open. Waves crashed against the bottom of our ship, the sound of people running across the dock above much louder. A buzzing sensation crawled under my skin. 

"Hurry up. Guards'll be swarming this place soon," he whispered. "Get out."

"What about you?" I lowered myself from the hatch. Cold water shocked me like static, and the tingling sensation grew into an intense buzz...they hadn't successfully purified the port waters after the recent Azoth spills, after all. I winced as I let go of the ship. Treading water felt like jumping with cinderblocks strapped to my limbs as Azoth began numbing me bottom up.

"I'm a dockyard worker, I can't leave!" Ash muttered, throwing me a faded navy coat. "Take this. Glen told me you'd be meeting Ianthe." I grabbed the coat and slid into it. As water seeped up its sleeves, the extra weight slammed away any relief it brought from Azoth contamination.

My hands shook as I fastened the belt around my waist. "W-where do I go? I've never been to New Stegend—" Ash had already begun to close the hatch, but he leaned back down.

"Coat pocket. The water probably won't ruin it, but there's a note. Seriously, stop talking before someone wins the game of I Spy the Domestic Terrorist!"

With that, he shut the door. I pushed off against the hull, swimming along the dock. Clinging to briny dock posts, I watched as the smoke dissipated to reveal wooden splinters and steel parts floating by. A few white-uniformed technologists stumbled past a burning boat, eyeing the wreckage in silence. Two dark-haired girls walked among them, whispering to each other.

I took a deep breath and hoisted myself onto the platform. One was definitely Halle, her brown hair coiled in a tight technologist bun. She said something I couldn't make out, laughing shakily as she turned the street corner and vanished behind a market stall. It felt as real as ever: her, living in daylight, while I could only emerge under moonglow.