In the Shadows~zayn au~Completed ✅EDITING

~Chapter 26: "It's Only Been A Couple Days"~

Here's the next chapter everyone! Aaaaand guess who's back??? ;)

Dedicated to alexandra_styles96 for her voting string of awesomeness! Thanks, lady!

(RECAP)"Thank you for making me aware," she said, "but it changes nothing."

Louis gestured for them to continue once more. He took her to a small room at the very back of the ship.

"This is where you'll be," he said, opening the door and hanging the lantern on a hook on the inside. "It's not the most stable portion of the ship, so I would suggest coming up on deck as much as possible until the mal leaves you."

"The mal?"

"The mal de mer," he replied, as if it was the simplest thing to understand.

"I'm not familiar with that."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure you've heard of it, but perhaps not with that name. It's what happens when you are on the sea for the first time and you feel nausea and you're unable to stand correctly. You blunder about like you're inebriated, but it passes eventually."

"Oh what a joy," Kalysta quipped.

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She looked around her. She wasn't sure when the mal de mer was supposed to hit, but she didn't feel anything yet. The slight lurching of the ship made her stomach do the same every once in a while, but no nausea had struck her.

Upon investigation she found that her luggage had been placed outside the door to her room. She rifled through it then, looking at all that Delia had packed. None of her packs would fit in the room comfortably. The room was simply that small. The four poster and small side table barely fit without touching each other and they were nailed to the floor, something she'd never encountered before. And the cot/mattress looked more bug-infested than half of the seedy inns in town that she'd come across. If the stains were anything to go by, at least one person had probably died on the bed.

She shuddered, pulled a fresh shirt and pair of trousers out of her bags and changed. Then, she sat on the table to think for a moment, too afraid to risk sitting on the bed. However, soon her thoughts started racing and she knew she couldn't just sit idly by while things were going on. Even if they weren't pulling anchor, she couldn't sit by herself.

Opening the door, she made her way to the ladder, only tripping several times in the process. As she emerged into the open, she saw that the sun was beginning to rise. This far out, it was hidden behind the horizon, out of view because of the land in the way. But the sky was lit up and the clouds reflected multiple hues of pink, purple, and orange, a calming beauty that was welcome in this time of turmoil.

She was stood looking at the sky when she heard Louis say, "What are you doing?"

"I can't stay below," she answered, glancing at him. She was surprised to see that he'd shed the clothes he'd been wearing, proper servants clothes, in favor of time roughened pants, cut off at the knees, and a loose, unbuttoned cotton shirt. With this new attire she could see that he too sported multiple designs of black ink, on the skin of his arms and swirling onto his chest. It was slightly frightening to see, as no one in Elysium had them.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she moved closer, reaching her hand out to touch them before her wits came back. She pulled her hand to her chest and looked down.

"Have you never seen a tattoo before?" he asked.

"No. I had heard of them, but never before had I... Did it hurt? Are they permanent?"