Red Keels of Okeanos [Exalted 2.5]

[TheCountAlucard]

Meanwhile, elsewhere…

"And off they go…" "Vashti" stands at the stern of the swift vessel, eyes on the horizon. The deck is bereft of any sailors; "Vashti" stands alone on the blood-stained wood.

At sunset a curious thing happens - "Vashti" undergoes a transformation. Shoulders broaden; bosom flattens into toned muscle; the merchant-princess' hair becomes a wild tangle of dripping black hair; sharp teeth crowd the mouth like those of a shark as the jaw itself thickens; "Vashti" is now a large, long-limbed man, with the bloated flesh of a person drowned.

When the sun is gone from the sky, the ship begins to move of its own accord; even the tiller moves of its own volition, allowing the devil to wander into the deckhouse. The real Vashti struggles in her bonds, paling when the monster strides inside.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you yet. Your face is a convenient disguise. I merely wish to wear my sword again." He begins going through the possessions heaped in the cabin, but after a few seconds of casual searching, his expression slips into a frown.

"How… what? Where is it?" His search becomes more urgent; he begins to fling heavy crates about, and then charges down into the hold, snarling angrily.

"It isn't here! How can it not be here?"

Bloodshot eyes seem to glare through wood and across an ocean as he is hit with a realization.

"Seamstress…"

[TheCountAlucard]

Meanwhile, elsewhere…

Once, as the Maiden of Endings waited between turns at the Games of Divinity, she went her way athwart Creation, and Saturn came upon a Thread who had reached the fullness of fifty pages, yet was afraid when Saturn said: "I am Saturn!"

And Saturn said: "Were the forty million pages before thy coming intolerable to thee?"

And Saturn said: "Not less tolerable to thee shall be the forty million pages to come!"

Then Saturn made against him the sign of Saturn and the Life of the Thread was fettered no longer with readers and posters.

And Saturn said: "There's always an ending."

[Thread II]