Sham of the Sea

Chapter 16

It was relaxing, sitting with Dahyun like that. They seemed to talk about everything and nothing at the same time, and it made Y/N's thoughts stray a lot, thinking again about how she could flee.

Her starting to befriend some of the pirates was no good sign. Not only did she fear her growing attachment to them but also those enemies of theirs that did such horrible things to the crew. Y/N did not feel courageous enough to have a run-in with them and did not wish to feel herself get as close to the crew that she would suffer too when one of them got hurt.

Because this was only Yeji, somebody she did not have much contact with so far and who also was not that charming to her either. However, Y/N found herself thinking that had it been Nayeon or Minji maybe she would feel great sorrow.

It was a dangerous game to play so naturally her sense of flight heightened, made her wonder how far from home she already was. She could probably never find that woman that promised her to help again, and in the end, it truly did not matter. Y/N was not even sure whether she could truly trust her.

No, instead she had to find a way out herself, all alone. She would get Minji to teach her the ways of map reading, and then she would flee at the next port, find herself some naval base and get home safely.

Y/N felt sad sitting next to a smilingly chattering away Dahyun and thinking about leaving them, but she could not wait any longer. The risk of being discovered was also growing by the day.

"Are you missing something, by the way?" Dahyun asked out of nowhere.

Y/N confusedly lifted her gaze from the clear blue of the ocean, looking at Dahyun. She did not have much in the first place, what could she be missing?

"Don't worry, I'm not speaking about you being no virgin anymore. Did you not notice?" Dahun was pointing at their feet, Y/N still thinking about what a virgin was supposed to be as she looked down.

They were just our feet, I was wearing my shoes and pants too. What am I missing?

"Your shadow. When did you last see your shadow?"

Y/N blinked at that, indeed not seeing one. Her first reflex was looking up into the cloudy sky, finding enough light shine through that normally a shadow would appear at her feet. But as Dahyun said, there was none and the longer Y/N stared at this fail in physics, the eerier it got.

She did notice, however, that Dahyun had no shadow either.

Y/N frowned in confusion and curiosity. "Is this common? I have not heard of people losing their shadows before."

Dahyun shrugged indecisively, pointing with one hand lazily down towards the deck. "We all lost it somewhere. Nobody can tell you where or why. We believe it has to do with the crimes one commits. That your shadow is part of your soul that gets lost if you do so much bad that you can't go to heaven anymore. Or something. We all seek death in Davy Jones' Locker, either way, it's not as if we would care about that. But maybe it's just like that. Maybe you lose it if there's no more redemption for you."

Did I do something horrible like that? Y/N had no idea when she lost her shadow so that was even more difficult to discover. It could have been gone for a long time already; she did not watch out for it that much. "Can you get it back?"

Y/N missed it suddenly, that shadow of hers. It had accompanied her all her life, and now it just disappeared like that? That was pretty upsetting.

Dahyun was thinking for a moment, helplessly blinking up towards the skies. "We never tried. What do you need it for either way? If it's gone, it's gone, we will not indulge in witchcraft just because of this."