Finn felt like his skin was two sizes too small as he let her into the cabin. Every time the girl moved, he would get goose bumps and his brows would frown in visible irritation. He kept his eyes glued to the starch-white parchment of the sea charts, his fingers trembling slightly as he held his dear compass.
"Hey," she chirped, leaning over his shoulder. "What's that squiggle? Is that a rock? An island?"
Finn flinched, scooting his stool six inches to the left until he hit the bulkhead. "Current. It's a current. And Ay don't…don't lean like that. You're blocking the light."
She didn't move back; if anything, she leaned further in. "Master Finn, I'm not an AY. I have a name and its a nice name. R I S S A. do you know whats the meaning of my name? it…"
"Whatever. Not interested, just... stay back, and just stick to master instead of calling my name" he muttered. "Captain told me you want to know where we are heading. Here. We're in the Atlas Ocean." He tapped forcefully on the parchment. "It's the main artery. It connects all the states even Sahirra."
He kept his back turned, hunched over the navigation table like a man trying to shield a candle from a gale. It wasn't a gale, though. It was just her.
Rissa's eyes widened, glowing with an eagerness. "The Atlas? The Atlas Ocean??? So we can go anywhere? We can go to the Jade Isles? Or the Sunken Cities? The Azure Dominion? Obsidian Peaks, or the vesper plateus? Even the Cinder Hegemony???? Well we don't want to go to cinder, not there AT ALL…Right??? Why aren't you saying anything master finnigan! I am talking to you!"
"Master! You're squinting, why are you squinting?" she called out without a break to let him talk, her voice cutting through the silence of the room, about which she wasn't delicate at all; she spoke with a jagged, rhythmic confidence that reminded Finn more of the veteran deckhands than any girl he'd ever encountered in the temple libraries.
"You keep staring at that parchment for like 5 minutes! Is it 5 minutes? Well not exactly 5 minutes, more like 6 minutes or so I would say, but never mind for your ease lets say 5 minutes or so, but you are staring at it like it's going to grow legs and walk you to shore. Tell me its that ocean right??? Give it here, let me see."
Finn was quiet and was getting headache now listening to all her nonstop talking, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the edges of the map. "I told you, stay back. This is high-level cartography. You wouldn't... it's not for you." He said in a voice so low that if rissa didn't know he spoke like this, she would assume that he was whispering.
"Oh," she scoffed, moving in closer with a total lack of hesitation. She bumped her shoulder pushing him back as she leaned in, looking at the ink-lines. "I've navigated mud-flats and mountain passes since I could crawl Mr. Finn. Those squiggles are just water-roads. Don't make it sound like something utterly..." and then she was dumb quiet as she really looked at the parchment because it really was totally utterly inapprehensible. She couldn't understand at all.
Finn scrambled to the side, nearly tripping over a crate of sextants. His face was a hot, blooming red.
"Hey! Look, just…get your hands off," he stammered, trying to get the map from her hands aggressively. "You're a kid. You're a little kid who doesn't know when to shut it. Go find something else to do if you don't want to listen to me. Go shooo don't waste my time." He tried to pushed her away with the broom stick.
Rissa let out a sharp exclamation. She didn't say anything instead she moved forward planting her hand on the table with a loud bang, other hand on her hip, looking into his eyes with a rough, masculine ease that made Finn's heart hammer against his ribs in a way he couldn't explain. She wasn't being girly or soft; and it was devastatingly effective making him feel a little intimidated.
"If I am a kid then you are a kid too… I didn't want to bring it, but maybe we are the same age master finn." Finn was about to say something, when she put a finger on his mouth, that he instantly pushed away with a strong force, making her stumble, "shhh shh shhhh don't try to say we are not, captain grandpa told me. Don't take my respect for granted!"
finn gained his balance, and cleared his throat while cursing captain under his breath, "I've survived three purges and a shipwreck, I know what I am doing" she countered, "okay! I accept it, that you are really great, Now stop being like this and tell me where we're going. We've been running north for eighteen hours. We're deep in the Atlas Current, days for now. Where's the port?"
"No," He cleared his throat, turning back to the map to avoid her gaze. "We aren't hitting a port. Not a free one, anyway." He traced a line past the Northern Shelf, pointing to a vast, shaded region labeled with a jagged crown symbol. "We've caught the deep-water slide. In six hours, we cross the maritime border. We're heading for the Cinder Hegemony."
The bravado vanished. It didn't fade; it was cut away. Painfully at that
Rissa's hand, which had been resting on the table, suddenly gripped the wood so hard the grain groaned. The color left her face, leaving her eyes looking like two dark pits of coal. "The Hegemony?" she whispered, the roughness in her voice turning to a sharp, brittle edge. "Cinder Hegamony? Nooo… nooooo... tell me you're joking. Tell me you're just trying to scare me because I'm being 'annoying and because I just told we cannot go there!"
"I don't joke about navigation," Finn said, regaining a bit of his cold, mechanical distance now that the conversation had turned to facts. "Yeah" he continued totally missing the change in her tone as he kept focused on the math. "Land of Ash. The Hegemony controls the southern gates of the Atlas. We'll be in their waters by the dusk tomorrow."
Rissa let out a sharp, choked breath. She staggered back, hitting the doorframe, her eyes unfocused. "No. No, we can't. Master Finn hey, look at me. We have to turn around. We're running from them. We can't go back there."
Finn finally looked up, startled by the sheer terror in her voice. He felt a pang of something pity, maybe but he quickly shoved it down. "I told you, don't use my name. And we aren't turning. The winds are locked."
"Please," she whispered, stepping toward him again, but this time her hands were trembling. She reached for his sleeve, her voice cracking. "Tell the Captain. Tell the crew. There has to be a way. Use the secondary sails, or the oars, or... anything! We can't go to Cinder."
Finn stood up, his height finally giving him a sense of distance. He moved his arm away from her, his expression hardening into a mask of stubborn logic.
"Listen, ay," his voice cold despite the hammering of his heart. "It doesn't matter who asks. You could have the Queen herself crawl in here and order a change of course, and it wouldn't happen. The Atlas currents are one-way streets this time of year. To turn now would be to capsize. We're going to the Hegemony, and there isn't a soul on this ocean who can stop it."
Rissa looked at him as if he had just sentenced her to death. The cabin, once filled with her annoying energy, was now silent, save for the ominous creak of the hull as it sliced through the waves, carrying them closer to the smoke of the south. Her knees buckled slightly. She reached out to the table to steady herself, the room seemingly spinning around her. The very place they had bled to escape was now pulling them back in like a magnetic tide.
"We're going back," she breathed, her voice a hollow shell of the vibrant, argumentative tone from moments ago. "We're sailing right into the fire."
Finn didn't answer. He just picked up his compass and stared at the needle, watching it point relentlessly south, toward the land of ash. Then he folded his parchment putting it away.
He cast a glance on her. She was still shivering holding the table. He moved to get out but then thinking something, came back pushed the stool near her and went out. and then he heard a loud thud inside the cabin room.
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