Vengeance (Pt. 3)

Vengeance (Pt. 3)

Vengeance strode through the depths, unhindered by the weight of freezing water pressing down on her. Trapped within, Renee gazed out through what were once her eyes. The seafloor, to her surprise, was not the gently rippling bed of sand that she had expected. It was like being trapped in some watery hell: great protrusions of dark stone thrust up from the every shifting sands of the seafloor, which was covered in plants, small creatures, and the detritus of seafaring. Corroded weapons, smashed crates, and pots lay about the husks of lost vessels. All this, Renee saw with only the faint plink plonk of the seawater pressing against what once were her ears.

No longer could Renee feel her body. She tried to reach out and move a hand, but felt nothing and got no reaction. All that was left to her was sight and sound.

Suddenly she felt Vengeance’s presence. The being’s voice filled Renee’s universe, blocking her vision somehow. Don’t try and fight me, child. You are better with me than without. I am a gift that you do not yet recognise as such.

“Why?” demanded Renee. “You came to me, imprisoned me in my own mind. You drove away the only man I ever loved – “

Love? Such an insipid, fleeting emotion. Just as you take hold of it escapes your grasp. It serves only to fuel anger, and sadness. Grief is but weakness manifest. But anger, ahhh, that is an emotion that has worth. Nothing drives one like anger, rage is a fuel unlike any other. Your anger called to me, and your grief invited me in. I paid my passage though…

“Paid your passage?!” screamed Renee. “How?”

I gave you back your love, I healed his wounds and put breath back in his body.

“And drove him from me!”

I paid my passage.

Renee raged against Vengeance, screaming and crying, but the being made no reply, but simply kept striding forward through the debris of the sea floor. Renee noticed that Vengeance was looking this way and that, as though searching for something. If she strained, she could just sense they rage filled presence within her that was Vengeance. The tried to envisage Vengeance in the hope that creating some sort of analogue would allow her to get close to the being. To her amazement, a pinprick of blue light filled her mind’s eye, and she moved towards it.

As she approached the light it grew in size. She felt energy pouring out from it, crashing against her in waves. Each wave drained her a little, as though the rage that Vengeance exuded somehow ate away at her. She pressed on, struggling through the waves, until she heard something.

It must be here. It has to be. It cannot be gone. It could not have been found. WHERE IS IT?

Renee froze, and imagined holding her breath. She watched on as Vengeance continued its search, repeating its tirade like a mantra. Then, all of sudden, Vengeance halted and looked up.

What Renee had thought was simply a large rock in the distance loomed large before her. It towered over her and all else on the seafloor. A few fish swam about it, flashing like dust motes in the dim light of the depths. Slowly, Vengeance advanced on the mass before them. As the distance closed, Renee saw planking, and realised this was the wreck of some ancient ship. The portion before her looked to be the bow, and based on its size, was easily ten times larger than any vessel she had ever seen or even heard of. Its bowsprit was so high above her that it faded into the blue of the water, like the spire of a tower reaching into the clouds.

The waves pouring from Vengeance changed. They ceased to weaken Renee. Puzzled, Renee reached out to touch them and felt a tingling sensation. Joy?

The waves grew stronger as they approached the sunken ship. Reaching the base, Vengeance kicked off from the seafloor, and unhindered by the wait of the dress that her vessel war, swam quickly up the bow of the ship. Renee felt ill as the ship’s planking blurred towards her and the pressures on her former body changed. ‘Odd,’ she thought, ‘Why can I feel that?’

Vengeance slowed, and Renee saw her hands reached and grab hold of the ancient railings of the ship. With a tug Vengeance hauled them over it and onto the deck. Slowly, deliberately, Vengeance strode along the deck. As her vision ceased blurring, Renee realised that the deck was not horizontal; the ship’s bow rose vertically from the sea bed. It was eerie, moving in this way. The ship’s mast was still mostly intact, though its spars were shattered and the rigging drifted like a ghostly web in the water.

Renee felt Vengeance’s joy subsiding, and the rage return, and withdrew ever so slightly to avoid being weakened further. She stayed just close enough to still hear Vengeance’s tirade. After passing the shattered bases of two more masts, they came to the door of what looked to be a cabin. Vengence lashed out, shattering the rotten, sodden wood. Light exploded from within the cabin, dazzling Renee.

Slowly she became accustomed to light and found that Vengeance had entered the cabin. Jammed behind a table that had fallen against the wall of the cabin when the ship sank, was a skeleton. The bones were covered in black slime, but the occasional patch of white bone glimmered eerily in the water. Tatters of clothing clung to the skeleton, moving gently in the currents. Its hands were clasped to its breast, and inside them it held a pale gem that had been adorned with delicate gold filigree.

Triumphant, Vengeance reached out and tore the gem away, the force scattering the bones.