Unfathomable [Gate in the Deep]

[Gildarts]

So that’s his angle, she thought through slanted eyes. A few lies, a truth here and there, and they were sailing smoothly on snake oil. Oh, and quite literally, sailing. They had boarded the dinged-up ship and taken off in nearly the same instant. The demon watched almost too intently where she trod upon the panels of wood, as though she were expecting some undefinable force to seize her. Her eyes hovered over the purple-haired man, he was still unhappy with her presence, though it was nothing personal, she was sure, it just marked his own defeat. A victorious smile slithered on her lips as she looked out over the tranquil ocean, leaving the shore behind, and thinking of the days to come.

It could be a long journey, and still, she wasn’t sure where she was going, the place where the one called Omni dwells. It was all so elusive, but then, the truth very frequently was. Magus was on the far side of the ship and breathing in the ocean air, just as she was. Alex was getting closer to reading his encoded mind, but there were secrets hidden behind the mask he wore, ones she couldn’t quite pry out of his unknown weaknesses just yet. The shoreline now looked line a fine, thin pigment of white over the horizon, as the sail, full of gusts of wind guided their passage over the glassy waves.

The demon thought it was all so nostalgic, to be cast away, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. There was a sudden prickle sparking her neck, then her eyes caught on the man with the beard, he had been watching her dark hair sail with the currents of wind, and evaluating her shape in his mind’s eye. The man who didn’t even look like a captain. Maybe there’d be mutiny on this ship yet... she plotted and looked around for an ambitious man suiting her needs, yet, to her distain the view was filled with but a few men doing a few laborious tasks involving ropes or pulleys. Should’ve kept my eye on the ocean, she complained inwardly and imagined a few other ways to get out of the lustful gaze of the captain... As he approached.

He introduced himself, and then his first mate, Jimmy. Alex shook neither hand, she didn’t like to get hers dirty nor it was not required. “So you’ll take us both to the Rapture then? Do you need navigational advice?” her tone was monotonous, telling not of information, but boredom. Alex listened with half a year, but it was hard hearing them over the roar of masculinity in their eyes. They must’ve thought they’d take turns, it was despicable, even a bottom-dwelling demon like her could tell right from wrong. There was a solution after all, that popped into her head, which set her at ease.

“... And from there we’ll go into the Blue Vast, I think, but I’ve got me map in the quarters, ain’t no problem navigating, it just comes down to whether or not the winds are in our favor.” To Alex, this sounded like quitter talk, but she wasn’t one to snatch anyone’s enthusiasm when it was in her favor. The crossroads demon nodded once, and then tossed her breezy hair over her shoulder, squinting as she thought she had seen a speck in the direction they were headed.

Looking down her olive-toned nose, her brown eyes remained trained on this speck, as at first she was sure it was just some anomaly of glinting light, now she was sure, since they were deeper in the ocean’s stomach, it was an object, if not a creature of the ‘Deep. There was a CLAP! sound in the distance, followed by a wavering whistle and a SPLASH! too close to their vessel for comfort; the woman could taste the salty, acrid spray and traces of gunpowder from the saline water.