Sapphire Sword

I dreamt I was back on the ship, while we were all asleep from the gas. So now somehow I can't stop thinking about it. I re-read the entries from when we were about to leave Alomir. Little did we know... I was only spewing my nonsense. We would spend 3 and a half months on that ship, but now I miss it like I miss home...
 
If only I had Nixie's talents, I would paint the whole of it. Every room, every nook and cranny. We lost it, and we won't probably see it again, ever. Like my home in Marion, actually. Heh. Soon, I will probably be too mad to even have these memories. Let them survive here, then.
 
The Sapphire Sword was a sturdy ship, two masts high as northern pines holding 3 sails apiece, with a lateen sail in front, as one does. It had a cute crows nest on top of the main mast, which was the one closest to the helm. There Gerki would bring his woolen blanket, knitted in black and white zigzags, and would eat his supper and breakfast. Later on, it would hold Marv and his array of liquors. One of the wooden stakes fitted to the mast (used as stairs) was broken from when Bart was chased by Xixi all the way to the top of the mast.
 
There was ample space on deck. The stern was elevated, there you would have the helm, a beautiful wooden piece carved out of cherry wood, shiny every day, because Xebec would always clean it and wax it. Even later when a new helm would be built, Xebec would take care of it. Sometimes you would also find Dillen leaning on the edge, measuring the speed of the ship with his funny beads of rope. Below of course were the Captain's quarters. It was a wide but not very tall room with small round windows on each side. It had a big bed and I remember distinctly those pure white sheets Nixie loved to use for her bed, mostly because of the golden "A" embraided on their side; they were some of Tallion's famous sheets. Right above the bed would be this simple painting of a horizon, which Xebec hung over his bed and Nixie kept. There were a couple of chests and a big tall drawer, but also several planches crowded in a corner and of course the wooden tripod Nixie used to put the paintings on. A small table was usually filled with colours and smelled a little funny. Later on it would have a weird back wall, with wood of a different colour, but that's because the dragon had eaten that part haha.
 
If you exited the Captain's Quarters you would get on the quarter deck, around the main mast. You would be surprised to see a weird dent in the otherwise sturdy wood of the mast. It was the dent caused by Bart being crashed into the mast by Tallion. Later on though the main mast would be changed, so the dent would be no longer. Between the two masts we had the Mess hall, rising two and a half meters above the deck, a closed quarter filled to the brim with long wooden benches and simple tables, almost empty, but always with at least a couple of old, dusty cups just waiting for some alcohol of any kind. Oh, and the pair of dice Maltor always left laying about. And the two trapdoors leading below deck.
 
If you took the narrow trapdoors down below, you would reach a damp narrow corridor, which every morning would be filled with hungry crewmates waiting in a queue for Laimon's breakfast. Going forward, you would find the three rooms reserved for the crew. One port-side, one starboard-side, and one ahead. All three were smallish, but roomy enough for hammocks to be hung between wooden poles. Chests would lie in a disorganised fashion all around, and coats would hang on the coathangers inside. You would also have a weapon stand, with swords, maces, an axe, and, of course, Drenizek's Nur'timi stick.
 
Almost hidden from sight between these larger rooms you would get the kitchen, in fact a small warehouse-room which Isbel would take care of quite well. Always clean, well scrubbed and well organised, with onions and garlic hanging by the wall from nets, barrels of alcohol, or filled with crackers, or with fruit, or with more onions, and of course the table with carefully-arranged knives where Isbel would cut the catch of the day, usually tasty fish. She would throw all the bones and nasty parts in a small barrel which one of the crew would then throw overboard.
 
Astern were the rooms designed for the party. We never quite got a permanent room, always moving around from side to side, but I have actually stayed in the same chamber since the beginning, just with different people. It was a cramped room. Once I shared it with Nixie, Verfy and Sea, and I slept on the floor sometimes. We rotated. Again some chests all over the place, including my very own small cute chest with a couple of books in it, my knitting material, my Ael Velle tunic, and tools for making runes, which I somehow got from dad (hm, he knew something, didn't he). And by the bed on a small barrel I kept a small treasure chest, which once contained the ring from Tallion, then was empty, and then contained a very precious piece of paper from Nixie, and another very precious piece of paper from Bart.
 
And how I remember the two blackfire sword hanging by the bedside! And, of course, carefully wrapped around sheets and placed in a chest, Nixie's mesmerising staff. And, somewhere inconspicuous, my other chest, small and cute, with three vial bottles, 2 empty, one still full.
 
And of course you would have the room which was used mostly by the boys, a crowded, beautiful mess, always in complete disarray, always changing inhabitants... And right next to it the room that would eventually become Xixi's by what Mages call "apprehension". After Xixi took it, it transformed into one giant bed, literally, with sheets covering most of the room. At first it stank like hell in there because Xixi would come all wet but she learned.
 
Behind we had a storage room, with a big iron-reinforced door which Vadrek and Brunek would stare at longingly, for they knew it usually housed alcohol. But really it was more onions, crackers, jerky, dried fish and nuts.
 
And, of course, the unused room, which Nixie had turned into a bathhouse, with four big barrels in the middle of it, a couple of coat hangers for your clothes, and a small shelf installed so that Nixie could place her lavender-infused perfumes and scrubs.
 
You could have missed it, but on the corridor between the ladders leading up the trapdoors was another trapdoor, leading below, to the second, wider storage area, where you would find our spare wood, ropes, iron sheets, sails, even more barrels of food, and where we found a very bewildered Marv, who had the immense bad luck of teleporting to the only ship crossing the Desolation.
 
If you went back up, careful not to bump your head against the grid when climbing through the trapdoor, like Marc always did, you could go visit the sides of the ship, with nets coming down from the mast where I would just hang out and read. Sometimes, Drenizek would come and commence his singing, and Marc and Orman and others would come to listen to him or cheer him on. And in the evenings they would come to tell tales, drink or play cards, and throw stones or nuts (!) into the sea, wagering on who would get them farthest.
 
And ahead, on the frontal part of the mast, we would have the training grounds. Plenty of space here for the muscle men to test their skills. Lafku's strong baritone voice would echo through the wooden beam of the deck, and I would always almost stop reading when I heard him. Sometimes, someone got hurt, and an "ouch" could be heard. Sometimes it was just Verfy's laugh, or Xebec's short "ha" of approval. Sometimes I could hear a strange sound, and it would be Tallion practicing his arcane. And the burn marks on the wood on the deck were reminders of that time Miremis got the ship ablaze and Nixie had to extinguish the flames.
 
And of course, the bowsprit of the ship, boldly pointing forward. Strangely enough, the bowsprit was never hurt. Damaged, I wanted to say. Hurt suits it better. It always pointed us ahead. Through storms and through fights with Fatorarkians, through dragon-fights and through chases, it kept intact. It's the bowsprit which held the rope for the poor crewmen who went down to unstuck our ship, back in the Desolation. It's the bowsprit that held fast when a sick Drenizek would climb it in the middle of a giant storm, and would laugh as he saved a panicked Nixie climbing after him. It's the bowsprit that pointed us to Enneth, and to Vaneolin after it, and it's the last thing my eyes saw of our ship.
 
Farewell, Sapphire Sword.