17. Decisions...

Dear diary,
 
Another day passed and along with it, another disaster. It was horrid, today. As if the whole lich lord event wasn't enough. Shortly after we escaped into the sea something happened with one of out crewmate, Marc. He apparently was pierced by a blackish ghost, inducing a cold and terrifying fear in him. But not a natural one, I am sure of it. The power of evil is truly fascinating in its scale and intensity. Just when you think you've seen everything, something new comes across and blows your expectations, again. This ghost stole a bit of Marc's life essence, and was using it as a reference point to locate us. That way the lich and his army could track us and obliterate us. We decided to keep this one in house for a while, in the hopes of finding a way to de-mark Marc, or figure out what to do. We didn't want to panic the crew anymore than we had to. We began analyzing our situation. Eve knew that there must be a rune that hides life essence, so she started searching in her Gavan book for it. We on the other had had something else on our table. Dillen wanted to let the crew decide Marc's fate with a vote. People wanted to kill him to get rid of the problem, which I strongly opposed. We can't go on sacrificing people as we please with the excuse of, probably, saving more people in the process. I for one cannot decide someone else's fate like that. We are supposed to protect life. And taking lives for the sake of some other lives isn't protecting life. It's just 'trading' souls. Life doesn't care about numbers. What matters in life is what you do with it. Eve and the rest had the same opinion as me. Alas, we still had to quarrel with Dillen, until he decided to leave us alone and gather the crew in an hour or so, for the vote, if we didn't do anything.
 
I suggested we bring Marc to us and help him better understand his circumstances and help him regain that bit of life essence that was stolen from him. As we know, lifeblood tends to unite itself, and stay together. You can't divide life essence permanently. But his bit was magically isolated and took from him. But the soul is the strongest, and with a bit of help, maybe we could help him. I thought Pullius would be suited for this, as he was the most magically inclined. So I explained how he should try and apply his knowledge on how higher arcane works, but this time with him as the giver, and Marc the receiver. It seemed like a good idea. Pullius started to get closer to Marc, I suppose... He was trying something, but it seemed to me more of a beer talk, than a heartfelt conversation that was supposed to open up his soul to him. Anyway, Heron came and said, I quote: "Leave Marc to me, I'll make him want to get his lifeforce back", while he undressed himself... Umm, yeah. I too was speechless. He then started chasing poor Marc, all naked, around the deck. Verfy and Pullius tried to stop him. Pullius apparently slipped his fist in Heron's face, by accident. Another one of his unconscious actions... I will have a talk with him. Verfy put Heron to sleep and we came back to try and discuss... anything at this point without shouting at somebody. I could sense everybody was tense and angry. I myself was a lot quieter than usual that day. Eve came at us and told us she found a rune, but it was very complex, doable, but complex. And it would take her at least an hour. That was a problem given the time we had spent already. The lich's troops must've been close already.
 
Dillen then came and said that times up and lets vote. Things couldn't get any worse, right? Wrong. Let me explain. After a bit of shouting, a few mean stuff and some warm words we ended up with 4 options. Stand our ground and fight for our lives with whatever came towards us. Kill Marc and get as far away as possible as quickly as possible. Take Marc on a separate boat and carve the runes there and fight whatever was coming for us there, away from the crew. And lastly, fuck Marc in the ass. Heron's idea, Xebec's interpretation. I decided to lead by example and threw my colored stone for option number one, under everybody's eyes. Verfy and Eve followed shortly after. Everybody else voted privately, and the results were, surprisingly, in our favor. So we started to prepare. We brought what we thought we would need in a fight. I commanded the reinforcing of our main mast, so we don't lose it again. Everybody was in position, mostly, when Gerky shot Marc with an arrow. That's when everything started. Gerky rallied some crewmates to revolt, and said that they voted blindly and they weren't informed and they don't want to die. Dillen and Xebec clashed swords, and the crew took sides. It was dreadful and chaotic.
 
At that point I realised the Black Sylph was probably in pain. I quickly grabbed Eve and went downstairs to stay with her, and help her. I know people on deck probably needed me there, since I was good with people. But this time I didn't feel able to convince them. I am very confident in us, and our purpose. And I believe we will succeed. I am surrounded by very good people and friends. And this time I realised that maybe not everybody was thinking as me. I feel like I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I don't think I can explain how. I feel ready to face anything with a clear mind. I am usually good with words, and surely I could have explained them the situation. But people weren't looking for reason at this time, naturally. And I didn't know how to communicate them how I feel. It's just as it was with Eve for the first time. We weren't talking, we were just... feeling. It was magical and true. Obviously I couldn't have used the same magic here with them all. So I was at a loss of... words, for the lack of a better word. I will have to think of a way, a better way to help people in situations like this. I was thinking of music, but now it's not the time.
 
We eventually managed to calm down the situation and Eve and I went back on deck to prepare for the fight. Right after Gerky spotted what was to be our enemy for this fight, I pulled Eve and hugged her strongly and hold her hand. I was there for her, and together we would survive this. Our enemy was a purple, floating Xenatine piece. A big one. A trapped soul Eve told me. The thought of it simply made me sick, not to mention the sight. A big shadow then formed around it, as it approached our ship, wielding a huge, cold, shadow blade. It was aiming for the people on top of the mess hall. Me and Eve were down, near the main mast ready to enforce any side if needed. Xebec pulled some kind of artifact at some point that helped with the fight against this ghost. A lot more ghosts started to appear on the ship's sides, attacking people at will. We couldn't do anything against them as our blades weren't doing them any harm. Only those blades infused with arcanic fire could hurt them. Eve tried to help Heron and infuse his glaive with this kind of fire, but was violently pushed aside. I ran to help her get up as I was trying to coordinate people to stop trying to fight the ghosts and just dodge their attacks. The battle up top was getting uglier, and we didn't have much to do below so I helped Eve climb on the mess hall to join the fight. Drenizek, the drunk, jumped and caught the stone with his hands and hold onto it for a long time, although constantly getting burned by it. Xebec then caught it with his net and everybody started to pull and climb to hit the stone. Nixie, after using that sweet little orb we had taken from the mines, kept invoking lightning after lightning, each one stronger than the one before. The power of those lightnings was mesmerizing, and the control with which Nixie hit was amazing. Together we managed to kill both the ghost and shortly after, as it was forming itself again, and the stone. A powerful burst of arcane pushed us all in every direction. But it was over. The small ghosts disappeared too. Me and Eve were fine. Nixie too. Heron, Xebec and Verfy were hurt a bit, but alive. Pullius too had some harsh cuts, or burns rather. We lost 4 mates. It wasn't the best outcome, but we should be glad it wasn't the worst, I guess. I helped Eve get up and we went to check up on the Sylph with the others.
 
The Black Sylph was hurting, a lot. I felt bad for her, and suffered more from seeing her than from the pain caused by those ghosts and the explosion. She wanted a hug and we gladly and warmly gave it to her. She was so strong... I was glad she at least was getting better from this all. After that we buried the dead we went to sleep, as it was midnight already.
 
Before we went to sleep we agreed we would vote for a new captain, a leader. For the boat. Given the course of the last fight where we had 3 people trying to command everybody. Before I went to sleep I talked with Pullius. I saw how he wasn't really in control of himself these past few days and decided to try and help him combat those feelings by experiencing them first hand. I didn't care about the pain, not even that day when he threw me into the mast. If anything I would have asked him to throw me again. This time with a clear conscience. To feel how revenge feels and how it destroys one's soul. This way maybe he would get over his problems with me, us or whomever. I do believe he is a good guy, and trusted the process. He didn't though. He told me he doesn't want to hit me. Even though I was insisting quite hardly, if I may say. I was almost going to hit him and start treating him bad to make him hit me back, on purpose. But I stopped. I wasn't mad, or something. I was just disappointed in a way. I know he wants to fend this of himself, but I'd take any help there is in a situation like ours. He told me that he believed I cheated and that may be what drove him into what he did. So we made it fair this time. We squared our beef with a manly game of arm wrestling. I won, easily if I may. I felt he let me win, not on purpose maybe. But there wasn't much force in his arm. I don't know what to do about him. And I know for a fact he is hurting more than just me on this boat. Expecially Eve. I hope she sleeps well tonight.
 
May the Almighty guide him towards the light.
 
In the morning we gathered to discuss on who will be our leader. Xebec proposed Verfy, Laimon proposed Pullius(why? something feels strange about him, I think I heard his voice crack at some point), Dillen proposed Nixie, who refused to participate, so Drenizek proposed himself with the promise to let Nixie lead right after. Umm.. okay? And Heron proposed himself too. Eve looked at me and gave me a hunch signaling I should participate too. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I proposed myself. The vote was on, results were: Heron 0 votes, Talion 4 votes, me 4 votes, I know dear diary, sad face Bart. But I had Eve's vote which was all that mattered to me <3. Verfy and Drenizek both had 6 votes. A tie, so we had to decide between them two with another vote. I went for Verfy, and most of our party too. Except Heron who voted for Drenizek. In the end Drenizek came out on top. So Nixie won. Hooray, we had a leader. I was happy for her. I don't really care about leading. I can inspire people to do the right thing from any role. Even the feeble little boy with his nutcase girlfriend. Nixie was a bit nervous to be in the leading role. After her speech, we went to talk in the girls' room to help her calm down. We gave her some advice too on how to handle it. Who knows what else will happen from now on.