The Land of Ataraxia : Genesis by S S Merce
Book Excerpt:
It was the end of their third music night, and their crew seemed to be in high spirits like every other music night. It was their longest streak at sea, adrift without a destination in sight, but the crew seemed least bothered, or so Kai thought.
Strumming his finger through the last chords of their encore for the night, Kai fought down the heat that threatened to take over his olive face when the crew hollered jubilantly, offering him praises and a roar of applause for his music. He concluded that he’d never get used to this kind of attention.
The Caelesti Viatrix, their humble carrier, smelled of moss, wood oil, and a bit of ebony. Its wooden floor was unmarked by rotting blood or sword marks from a battle, unlike ships that usually sailed the Elswyth Sea. The waves carried their boat like a gentle mother caressing her babe to sleep and the slow rhythm was starting to lull him into blissful serenity.
“Encore! Encore!” chanted their young navigator, spilling half the contents of her glass onto the wooden floor of their deck and the rest on their boatswain. Viatrix did not seem to mind one of her children sullying her wooden floors, but judging from their chef wrestling the cup out of their navigator’s hand and admonishing her on wasting precious bitter melon wine, Kai reckoned they were running low on food. When she adamantly kept chanting for an encore, he shook his head at her request before the rest of the crew started following her lead.
“I think we have had enough for one night, Asteria,” he grinned fondly at the put-out expression on the pixie-haired girl’s face.
She seemed to recover quickly though. She walked on wobbly feet towards their mechanic and pulled the grim boy towards the fire graciously produced for them on the ceramic stove by their boatswain Fintan. The white fire with its bluish tongue licked at the surrounding darkness, giving the ship a sapphire glow. It was only a matter of time before he and their captain would have to help their drunken crewmates to bed.
Ah, the woes of being a responsible man, he thought.
Setting his beloved instrument aside, Kai marveled at the night sky and the strange cacophony of empty thoughts drifting through his head. Their crew seemed to be getting rowdier in proportion to the receding bottle count from their wine stash.
“They are a rambunctious bunch, aren’t they?”