Black Hearted

Part 22

Mark's eyes widened in slight surprise. He wasn't sure what he exacted to hear. He hadn't given much thought to where the Sea Crown was... He just wanted to get it. Mark slowly sat up, curiously asking Sean. "Atlantis... Do you know anything about it?" When Sean didn't answer, he turned his head to look at him. Sean was sleeping. Mark put a hand on Sean's bare shoulder to see if he might be in a light sleep. He wasn't. Sean was out cold again. Mark let his hand linger on Sean's arm, feeling how cold his skin was. He felt like ice. He hadn't felt like that before. Mark watched in silence as the cuts on Sean's body slowly healed over. Smirking to himself, he carefully climbed out of bed. Sean had a long day and clearly the medicine had kicked in. Once he was off the bed, Mark grabbed the blanket and pulled it over Sean to keep him warm. He'd give him space to recover. 

Watching Sean sleep for a second, he reached out to trace his finger over a few silver hairs in the short brown hair around his ear. He wondered to himself if all mermen had multicolored hair like him... Or if it was just him. Was the flecks of silver in his hair from age, or where they simple another beauty mark to match the glittering scales he had seen under his eyes. Brushing back Sean's long green bangs, he forced himself to move away. Grabbing the journal off his desk, he walked out of his cabin. He needed to think and Sean was a distraction. He was getting far too attached to the merman. He blamed his curse, but was that really it? Something about Sean was making him feel something and it terrified him that he wanted it. Slipping out of the cabin, Mark locked it up. He didn't want anyone going in there to mess with him. His crew was divided enough as it was.

Making his way up to the stern, Mark sat himself in the far corner of the ship. With his back against the solid wooden rail at the stern, Mark flipped through the journal to see if there was anything on Atlantis. There was a small entry that said nothing more than what Sean had told him. Bethany's dad did put in a few ideas though. He had wrote in that the curse may have wiped the incident from the fleeing clans memories. That Atlantis may be guarded by a creature to keep Merpeople from coming back. Mark closed the journal, resting his arms on his raised knees and bowing his head in thought. They were all troubling thoughts. What concerned him though was what would happen to Sean. If all the Merfolk that sought out Atlantis went missing... Was there something there targeting Merpeople? Mark thought about what Sean had said about the Sea Crown. That it could remove his curse... but only a royal could get to it. Was that what this... creature or mystical power was trying to protect?

Mark glanced at the cover of the journal. He knew he was missing something, but he couldn't figure it out. Mark was brought out of his thoughts by a man walking up the steps. It was Robin. Robin nodded to Bob at the helm, then made his way over to stand before Mark. Mark banged his head back against the wooden rail with a heavily sigh, grumbling out. "More bad news?" Robin huffed loudly with a smirk, answering innocently. "No more than usual. The crew is arguing below deck. With Tyler locked in the brig... The crew is getting riled up over this... incident." Mark shook his head, stating out sourly. "Great. No matter what I do, I'm looking at mutiny." Robin moved closer to lean on the rail, staring out at the sea as he told Mark lightly. "Seems like it. You'll have to defuse this fast. The longer you wait, the worse this is going to get." Mark climbed back up onto his feet, pacing a little as he ranted out. "I can't do anything! They've got me cornered with a double-edged sword!"

Robin shrugged, letting him rant on. "If I replace Tyler as Quartermaster for a man that doesn't know how to run things... Than Tyler will mutiny along with every jackass that didn't want Sean on this ship to begin with!" Robin sighed softly, telling Mark over his shoulder. "Sean isn't prepared to handle the duties of a Quartermaster. However, he knows how to read the sea. Make him the Navigator." Mark stopped in the middle of his pacing to state seriously. "And make Felix my enemy? No!" Robin turned around to face him, adding in just as seriously. "If you asked Felix to step down, he would. You two are closer than you think." Mark moved in closer to Robin, growling in his face. "I tell Felix to step down and Ken will have a few choice things to say to me. He'll see it as I'm punishing Felix for ill gotten services." Mark took a step back, shaking his head as he sternly bellowed out. "No! I can't do that. The men on this ship earned their positions. If I start taking them away from someone who didn't earn them... What will that say about me?"