14. Sage
Sage
“Get ‘er out of here,” Lou said to Captain Shadowhart, not even two hours after I’d arrived.
“What happened?” he asked.
“She was meant to cut the vegetables for the stir-fry later but sliced her finger.”
I looked down at my bandaged finger, going along well with the bruise I gained on my leg from slipping. The ship had rocked yet again and put me off balance.
“So, I assigned her to dish duty, where she’s broken at least five bowls.”
“They’re slippery,” I said in defense.
Lou looked like they were about to lose their head. “She doesn’t belong here,” they enunciated each word.
I mentally deflated. I knew I wouldn’t be good at any of this stuff. I was walked through the dining hall and could hear all the chatter and laughs around me. Getting thrown out was embarrassing to say the least.
After lunch, Shadowhart had left me there, claiming this could be a good spot for me, even after I told him clearly it wouldn’t be.
“Come on,” he said, and I followed him along and out of the kitchen.
The next couple days carried on like that. Job after job I was assigned to, only to be told it wasn’t the job for me.
There wasn’t a job for me. That much was becoming very clear.
After being kicked from inventory after dropping a couple jars of pickles, I was done.
“I’ll find you something else,” Shadowhart said, for what had to be the billionth time this week, in his overly patient tone that grated at my nerves.
“No, you won’t,” I snapped. “I can’t do it anymore.”
He turned to face me. “Can’t do what anymore?”
“Any of it! I’m obviously not cut out to work on this stupid ship. No one wants my help. So, I’m done.”
“You can’t just be done,” he said. “Everyone eats, everyone works. Those are the rules.”
“Well I don’t work,” I said.
“It takes time to find what everyone is good at.”
“I’m good at nothing, I think that’s become obvious.”
I began walking back to my room. He was right behind me, his shadow looming over me like a ghost.
“That can’t be true,” he said.
“Name one thing I haven’t fucked up in the last few days.”
The silence of my footfalls and his dragging scales across the floor was answer enough.
“Exactly,” I said. “I’ll just stay in my room until we get there.” Then I’d be out of the way, and most important of all, I’d stop looking like a failure to everyone here.
“No, you won’t,” he said. “I’ll take you somewhere else.”
“There is nowhere else!” I was sure I’d seen the entirety of this ship in the last couple days with how much I was shuffled around.
We finally reached my door. I opened it, making to slam it behind me, but Shadowhart’s large hand smacked against it, preventing me from being alone.
“There’s always somewhere else. You have to do something. Sitting around all day isn’t an option.”
“Well, you can’t stop me.” I pulled it again and he released, letting me creak it closed.
The sudden silence after all the shouting and ship sounds was jarring. But I welcomed it. Alone, finally. I threw myself down on the bed. Every morning Shadowhart had been at my door as the sun came up, ready to take me to wherever else I was destined to fail.
Now I could probably get some shut eye, enjoy a nap. I rolled over, my blue skirts rolling with me. The blanket I had was a bit thin, but it would do, especially with the daylight still streaming in through the curtain bringing forward some of the warmth.
I let my eyes shut, pleased to finally get to rest.
There was truly nothing to do. I couldn’t even sleep, I’d been sleeping so hard from long days of work I wasn’t even tired.
I thought about wandering about the ship, but I’d already taken a stand and said I’d sequester myself in here until we got to land.
But there was nothing in here. I’d sat and written on the pages, documenting my days and time here. There were a lot of people who kept a daily journal. The only one I had was about my plants, but that was just so anyone who had to look after them knew how to.
I hoped whoever was watching over them was taking good care of them.
I would hopefully be back soon, feeling much less cursed, but a lot could happen to a plant in a short amount of time.
Some of them needed to be moved inside when it rained heavily or when there was an overnight chill.
We weren’t expecting a chill this summer, but anything was possible.
However, I could only write for so long. I even doodled some boranis bushes on the edges of the page.
Boredom led me to examining the room top to bottom.
There was hardly anything to study, but I counted all the boards above me, forty-seven of them, and all the ones on the floor, fifty-one of those.
There were six handles in the room, four drawers, three doors—if you counted the wardrobe doors as two separate ones—but I was still unsure whether I would consider them to be that way. A single chair, and a bed.
See, I could have been good at inventory if I didn’t need to touch anything.
When I opened the third drawer another time, found it empty, and closed it, I realized it sounded different than the other ones. Almost a slight, hollow clanking.
Odd. I opened and closed it again, hearing the same sound. I did the same to the other drawers: no sound. I opened the third one again before I started patting the bottom. It even sounded weird when I did that. My hand stayed at the base and rubbed back and forth, and I could feel the slight shift.
It was a false bottom. But how did it come out? There was nothing else in the drawer to take it out. No lip to pull it up on or exposed edge.
Without any other ideas, I took the entire drawer out and flipped it on its head, shaking it hard. It took a little bit, but eventually whatever was holding it together busted and it clattered down, along with a couple of things.
One of them was a pocket watch, which looked to be expensive.
The gold ornate with much filigree. Something was engraved in the metal towards the bottom, but it was very used, scratches and tarnish making it too hard to read.
There was also a single magestone pendant, but it looked to be broken, probably overcharged at some point.
Magestones were used to conduct magic, and could hold it for a time.
Most people used them for everyday things, heating water, or casting light in a dark room.
But magic users could also wield them to make a spell last longer or to magnify it.
Yet they all had a limit to how much they could take before they broke.
That was basically the only way they could break, strong as they were.
That’s why the stones were only sold in small quantities, and it was illegal to own too much of it.
There were a ton of politics and nuances that went into all of that, but it all alluded me for the most part.
Whoever wore this must have overpowered it and shattered the stone within, only leaving shards of it behind.
The final thing I found was a small pouch. Inside, to my surprise, was a sewing kit. There were a few sizes of needles, a couple basic thread colors, a few pins, scissors, and even some mending fabric. It was a strange thing to keep hidden away, but it did give me an idea.
I replaced the drawer and put the other things I’d found back inside, bringing the sewing kit to my bed.
The blanket I had was thin, which made it almost the perfect texture for needle point.
I usually had some kind of frame to keep it nice and flat, but this was only for fun anyway.
There was a deep green I used to begin stitching in some leaves for an ordelia vine.
My fingers easily found their rhythm, stitching along the border of the blanket.
I got about halfway around the whole thing before my stomach began to grumble and it became hard to see my work. The sun was setting, and it was close to dinner.
I set it aside and went out towards the mess hall. When I arrived, everyone was there it seemed, chatting, eating, sipping ale.
I joined the serving line, waiting until I reached Lou, who was right at the end.
As I went to grab a plate, they pulled it backwards, out of my reach.
“Sorry Sage,” they said, at least actually sounding sorry. “Captain’s orders.”
I stood there, slack jawed as others just milled past me, grabbing their own plates from the line.
“But I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“I know,” they said, “but Captain said you weren’t to be served.”
My cheeks turned red hot. So because I wasn’t messing everything up everywhere I went, I was being starved?
I looked around, hoping for some ounce of support—I’d even accept pity at this point. But there was nothing but side eyes and others in the line grabbing their food and passing me, as if I was invisible.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, stomping out of the hall and towards his door.
I banged, hard enough to shake the entire wall.
“Get out here!”