Chapter Six - Day 1631

THE LADY MERRY SHIP LOG, DAY 1631

My beautiful Merry ain’t how I left her. Decks are peeling faster than a sunburnt nether place. The salt-eaten hull needed a good splash of tar years back. Sails so full of holes they look like dirty laundry my mamma’s line. She’s not even the same color she was. ot my mamma.

Ya’d think they might give my beloved ship some basic upkeep while we were prisoners. But I guess scrubbin’ ain’t in those dumb Offies’ job description. Seems them tiny gnomes looted her ropes. I swear I counted thirty-seven when we left Hop. Maybe they let the Merry rot to prevent us from makin’ our dramatic escape. But we had Stav with us, and there was no plannin’ they could’ve made against him.

While I’d love to record all the events that occurred in the five years since I last logged, I really don’t like writing that much. It cramps the hand, and mine are full, handling the aforementioned Stav Izz. We risked takin’ the Merry out this far only to help him. Complete waste, I’d say.

After we made it past Electri’s disastrous sea drills and the wild waves they make, we made it to port with our little patient. Dockin’ went smooth as it always does, not very, but we anchored enough. I ordered all eleven Merry crewman off to help me take Stav to the hospital. His condition only got worse over the trip to Electri. He was meaner, like a once family dog all starved and fidgety. That awful dark rash expanded over most of him. Took all of us to wrestle him down to the street.

We were just about to board the SkyGo, when Stav breaks loose and up and steals some little gnome’s fancy pocket watch clean out of his nubby hands. He then smashes it on the ground and starts combing through the pieces until he finds a tiny spryt, like all those Electri machines use. Then he ate it. No other thing to say. Stav swallowed that little ruby like it was candy. Odder still was that, for the first time since we left Hop, Stav was able to stand on his own right after he ate it. For months he hadn’t been able to speak good, but he ran back to us sayin’ we needed to help him get forgiveness. Had no idea what he talkin’ about. I told him it was fine the way he soiled up the sheets on the Merry.

By now, there’s commotion all around, and the SkyGo goes off into the sky toward the hospital without us. Stav’s cryin’ and rantin’ like a damned loon at the station. The gnome whose watch he just broke was screamin’ for the Order Force. And twenty or so locals were busy oohing and ahhing with their beany thumbs at us. Of course, wasn’t but two breaths before them Offies showed up.

Never liked Offies. Never have. Never will. Clearly, the Order Force came because of Stav’s nutty behavior, so I pleaded with them to pretty please let us get him to a doctor. They scribble in some notes on those electri paper (that ain’t paper) and chat amongst themselves as Stav’s wild mumbling and black rash down his arm continue to draw a curious crowd.

Next, they ask if the Merry was indeed my ship. I ask ‘em why they’re askin’. They tell me the Merry’s is full of illegal white hair dye ingredients, and we’re bein’ arrested!

Turns out, they weren’t full of shit. ‘Cuz the Merry was.

Apparently, what we use to make Hopper White paint, seagull poop, they use to dye their hair. I wasn’t smugglin’ no hair dye! But the commotion was already started. And Stav didn’t help.

Balls. They kindly “escort” me and the whole crew — that’s Avey, Knee- Knocker, all of us — with weapons zappin’ us in the behind all the way. They took Stav separate, though. To the hospital, I hoped. But now, we had our own problems.

So the lot of us minus my old friend are put in front of the Minister Prime for “an assessment of the debt you owe to the citizens of Electri.” For white hair dye? Wipe my nethers! They told us the gnomes use hair dye to look older, like a false identification. Put a lot of focus on lookin’ gentlemanly, they do.

I could curse all I wanted, but then comes them collars pinched around all our necks. We were given the option to either work off our debt in the “myracite” mines or find some other payment way. But as long as those collars were on, we weren’t leavin’.

Myracite was a new word for us, but it turns out that’s what they call spryts. It’s what they use to make electri power. But get this: who knew underneath the Domus Gulf is a truly bogglin’ reserve of this myracite? And I’ll bet ya anythin’ its those awful sea drills posted all around Domus that crack up the seafloor and release spryts over to Hop, where they scare the crap outta us. Ya can sure learn a lot workin’ underground. They took us all down to Lower Electri each day to help weed out the normal rocks from the myracite. Easy to spot because it glows nice and red. They gave us special gloves so the myracite didn’t shock us much. Stuff is wild. They even have to keep diggin’ deeper for it, as it slowly eats its way down into the bedrock of Domus. I heard the gulf was once a flat, grassy place before the myracite came. Oh, I’m sure bein’ around it’s all fine for my health.

I don’t blame no Hopper who don’t know spryts are really just special crystals the gnomes dig outta the ground. How are we little Hoppers, cut off from pretty much everythin’ that happened in the past fifty years, supposed to know that’s how they make electri power? They do look scary floatin’ around and do cause damage pretty easy. Crazy as it sounds, we also got word there’s this group up north who get this myracite shipped in to use for mystical reasons. Per course, I never believed in magic anythin’. Even praisin’ Zeea was a step too fancy. But after what we saw Stav do, maybe that group up north knows somethin’ we don’t.

Now, I can work. Done it all my life. But not knowin’ what happened to Stav or even bein’ able to tell cousin Mape where we were was enough to break my soul. They got kids, ya know? We were still pretty hopeful, celebratin’ each of our first birthdays down in the mines. But after three and four birthdays, with no end in sight, we started wishin’ those collars would just tighten up a bit and let us off the hook, so to speak.

Then one day, our fates took a corner. It felt like a quake was comin’ to knock down the whole mine and squash the Merry crew for done. That’s when we finally saw Stav again. At least, what he had become.

There were Offies yellin’ and blastin’ electri guns, yellow balls of light all over the place. And suddenly, gruesome as it sounds, the whole line of them get ripped apart to pieces like dolls a nasty toddler don’t want anymore. Done in. Each and every one. Then came our old friend. In the years that had passed, I can’t tell ya what they did to him, but it wasn’t healin’ in some hospital bed. First, his awful dark rash covered him all but one eye. His hands were clawed like a meat-shredding beast’s. Just as he cut through the Offies like a hull through smooth waters, he stops in front of us. He looks like he remembers us. I see it in that good eye. He extends his shakin’ claw-hand at us like a beggin’ scooper. We had a pile of myracite ready to go up. I can tell he wants it. I remembered what happened at the SkyGo — Stav eats these things. Don’t know why. I take a good chunk of the red crystal in my glove and toss it to him. It was the same instinct that makes ya throw a piece of bread to a bird. He looked so desperate.

As soon as my old friend touches that glowin’ rock, its light starts to pour into every openin’ he had — in his mouth, eyes and ears, sure, but also into the dark wounds on his body, makin’ them split open even worse.

I can’t explain what happened next in any normal words. I could just say it — We were there in the myracite mines, and then we were all at the docks in front of the Lady Merry. I could go deeper in detail — bright red bolts leap out of his body once he ate that glowin’ rock. Then the air got really cold. Everything went black like we entered a tunnel, bodies feelin’ tugged. But if ya blinked, ya’d miss it. For me, my skin felt like it dragged over tiny pebbles way too fast. Like a rip, then a burn. All I know for sure was I was lookin’ at the depressing myracite mines and then suddenly transported out, lookin’ at my gorgeous ship.

Per course, we run up the gangway and set sail just as those little gnomes started comin’ down the dock, firin’ those zappin’ guns our way. As I said, the sails were shot, but Knee-Knocker and Avey pinched them together best they could, holdin’ the whole sail out. They’re still holdin’ them as I write this.

A hundred or so Order Force Offies lined up on the dock as we pulled out. Stav gets up on the bow and starts yellin’ — roarin’, I’d even call it. We all saw the electri guns zap him in the chest, over and over. And we all saw that man not even flinch. Actin’ cool as a holiday. And then we all saw how those Electri docks rip apart like those Offies, collapsin’ stone splashin’ into Domus all around. The gnomes all fell in, splashin’ like some fish caught in low tide. We made our escape clean out.

I don’t know if that group we heard about up north can help him. But at this point, with even the gnomes and all their fancy electri technology unable to, I can’t say I really got a choice. I can’t bring him back to his family like this! I ordered Avey to steer us up into the Uncharted Sea to a city called Carpè, where this group supposedly does business. But I told Avey to keep it quiet like. Stav is unpredictable. And I’m not even sure he wants to get help anymore.