text: \ I watched as the dying light finally claimed the island’s outline. Kadear Coalfields - or Pomafauc Reset, whatever it was to be called - was gone once more. I tore myself away from where the island had been, andI sat on the side of the boat, my legs dangling between two railings as a weak breeze pushed us lazily through the waters. A late summer moon lit up the flat ocean in an indigo blue. Light enough to be seen. Dark enough to appear as a shapeless canvas, a blank slate where my thoughts could land. Alessia walked up beside me and leaned against the bullwark, holding her palms together. “Done what I can with the wind, but it’s gonna be slow sailing.” I nodded, but my eyes didn’t look up. Alessia was studying my face, waiting for a reaction. I had no idea what she could see. My mind and body felt numb, sucked of all consciousness. I can only assume I looked like a faceless statue, waiting for someone to engrave in the details. She sighed and sat down beside me, dropping her legs off the side next to mine. “I’m sorry, Ferdinand.” “It’s not your fault.” My gaze remained fixed on the blue expanse, as gentle waves rolled into shapes. Thomas’s smile. Lachlann’s guitar. Jacob’s nod before he jumped off that ladder. Alessia shuffled awkwardly. “I know this has been a lot of loss...” She paused, rubbing her neck with her hand. “I wish I had something better to say.” Once more silence came back. Another wave came, this one reminding me of Thomas’s friendship, a more abstract shape. “All you can do...” Alessia spoke slowly, seemingly unsure of what words would come next. “...is try and do right by Thomas. And Lachlann. Try and live the life they’d want you to live.” “I’m not even sure what Thomas would want,” I muttered. Alessia leaned forward, turning to try and better see my face. “He’d want you to go chase your ambitions. Do what you wanted to do.” “At least...” I paused, a small moment of grief caught in my throat. “At least with Lachlann, he died with everyone loving him. Everyone who ever hears of Lachlann will know how great he was. Thomas?” I shook my head. “Everyone on that island is going to be told he was a traitor.” “Those who knew him will think differently.” “I don’t know. Even if they do. There’s a lot of the island who will only ever know him from the scaffold. Know what Jacob wants them to know.” “There’s always a chance someone found the papers you left.” “Maybe.” I stared down at my feet, feeling the heaviness in my chest. “He died not knowing he was right. He died with everyone thinking he deserved it.” “He died after speaking with his best friend,” Alessia said, stressing every syllable. He died knowing you were going to investigate just because he asked. He knew how you felt.” I thought back to Thomas’s face on that scaffold as it lay beneath my own. The soft rise at the corner of the lips in contrast to the physical pain in the eyes. “He deserved so much more.” “We can respect him. And everywhere we go we can tell people who he was.” Alessia let out the softest of chuckles. “Never underestimate how quickly word can travel among traders across the sea. When all this is done, we’ll make sure the whole Archipelago knows.” I nodded, trying to take solace in the offer. She looked to her right, staring off at the lightless horizon. “Meanwhile, guess we’ll see what we can find on Yotese Over Haven.” “You know anything about the place?” I turned, staring into the blackness with her. “Only cause I’ve sailed around it rather than into it.” Alessia sniffed. “Beyond that, not a damn thing. Gets little trade. Some insular, deadwater types from what I understand.” I sighed. “Into the unknown again then.” “It’s what we do best though, ay?” Alessia pushed herself to her feet and placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’s gonna be a few days sailing in this wind. Try and get some rest, okay?” I twitched a nod. Alessia left for the night and once more I was alone with the ocean, and the tides slowly filling with my every thought and my every regret. I would sleep eventually. But when I did, it would be through exhaustion, because there were no more thoughts to be had. \ Rest came with difficulty over the next few days. The fourth night, I spent the full stretch on the deck, only sinking below deck when the orange hue that disappeared in the west had begun to reemerge in the east. I woke with a thud. The whole boat lurched with enough force to throw me against my bedside wall. My eyes shot open. Something was wrong. I leapt from bed and hurried up the stairs, still only wearing my pajama shorts. My conscious mind was still waking up to its surroundings as adrenalin drew me to the door and out onto the deck. I ran outside and looked over the edge. Beach. We had landed. “You probably wanna get dressed before we head on out,” Alessia snickered from behind the wheel. The tension left my body and my body deflated. “You could’ve let me know we were about to land.” “Thought you could do with the extra sleep. Besides, nice to know how quickly you’ll rescue me if needs be.” She cast an eye across my bare torso and shorts. I sighed and crossed my arms, partly out of protest, and partly to stave off the chilly morning air clipping against my bare skin. “I’ll go get dressed,” I said, turning to the door. “Hopefully we can find out a bit about why Sannaz was here.” “Oh, I’ve got a fair idea of that already,” Alessia called out, raising her chin. I stared at her, my eyebrows narrowed in. She nodded behind me, looking over my shoulder. I turned. Across the shoreline, the beach curved outwards and the banks climbed higher. Thin reeds of grass poked out from the sand in a thin patch before disappearing where the coast descended once more. But in that next part of the bay, rising above the dune, there was a structure. The metal had slowly rusted, a former sheen had turned a copper colour at the edges, the surfaces eroded to sharp and brittle points. However, the bulk of it was intact. It was around five storeys tall, though the circular windows on the side didn’t seem to be evenly distributed. At the very top, orbs and dishes decorated the roof, and long thin poles pointed to the sky. Near the front, a lower section stretched out, two sides meeting in a point at the shoreline. It was then I realised I was looking at a boat, stuck and marooned on the sands of Yotese Over Haven. But this boat wasn’t built here, or anywhere in the Archipelago. It had to be of the old world. “How is that here?” The words left my mouth compulsively. “How has it survived?” “Your idea is as good as mine.” Alessia shrugged. “Go get dressed, we can venture out when you’re done.”. I hurried below deck and changed as quickly as I could. The possibilities of the odd structure had wiped away the weariness and given my brain something to latch onto, something to think about other than Pomafauc Reset. We trudged along the deserted shoreline, our feet falling into the soft powdery sands of Yotese Over Haven. My mind craved activity. It wanted noises and distractions. But Yotese seemed so still. Any coast should bring with it small fishing boats, the odd parked vessel, or even just people enjoying being near the sea. Yet, here, we were alone. I began looking for signs of life. Up the hill to our left, I could see some old wooden shacks, and farmland. However, it all seemed in disrepair. The fences around the pens were falling apart, and the buildings were peppered with holes and rotting planks. If it weren’t for a small group of pigs patrolling the fields, I would assume the place to be abandoned. Instead, I was trying to work out why it was so uncared for. Resources couldn’t be the issue. These were simple wooden homes surrounded by tall trees. Something else was missing. We continued till we reached the top of the dunes and could see the whole of the ship. Only the smallest pool of water ran by the base of the boat, a mixture of a stream heading out and the edge of the waves that ran up the inlet. As such, much of the keel sat atop the sand, causing it to list to its port side. Still, even the height of the keel was enough to dwarf Alessia’s boat. As I continued to examine the details of the ship - the railings at the side of the vessel, the rivets that held the great sections together, old faded paint lines where the ship’s lettering used to be - I noticed a solitary man standing watch at the base. He looked out away from the ship, his hands clasped behind him. He had a long sleeve shirt far too hot for the summer sun, and I could see the glistening sheen of sweat on his red face. Next to him there was a wooden pole with a bell fixed on top and a rope that ran down its side. He had seen us already. His back was straight and stiff, but his head glanced between the bell and us. His arm twitched, ready to grab the bell if needs be. “Hello,” I announced as I walked down the slope. “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters.” He answered. His voice was croaky through unuse, the words only arriving through drilled-in instinct. “You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” I stopped. “Okay. I just wanted to know if we could enter the ship.” The man swallowed. “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters. You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” “Understood,” I said, turning to Alessia, my face scrunched, before returning to the guard. “Do you think they’ll let us into the ship?” “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters. You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” The man seemed to gain confidence with each repeated verse. Alessia tapped me on the arm. “I don’t think this is going anywhere.” I leaned over, lest my voice carry and cause offence. “What’s with the strange answer though?” Alessia lowered her head in return. “I don’t know. But you could try asking him that. I’m sure you’ll get a different response this time.” I turned halfway towards the man, before glancing back at Alessia and noticing the tongue bit between her teeth. “Very funny,” I muttered. “Thanks, we’ll come back later-“ Something interrupted me. Not a sound. A sight - a brief visual caught out the corner of my eye - a sleeve poking through the sand. It was the same navy of the guard’s shirt, except at the end of this one were the brown bones of a dead man’s hands. “What... what is that?” I said, the volume increasing as I transitioned from confusion to anger. The guard raised his hands, his voice slightly panicked, but the words were the same. “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters. You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” “Is that a man? Buried there? There’s a dead body, right there.” I pointed at the arm resting in the sand less than three metres away from him. “Why are you just standing there?” “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters. You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” Something inside me was flickering, a quivering set of thoughts that left me confused, angry, disorientated; as though any attempt at rationality was repeatedly being kicked out of me by some force. My mouth spluttered for coherency until it found something that felt like a sentence. I pounced on the thought, screaming it. “How could you just leave a body like that? How could you not respect it?” The man took a quick pace to his right, leaned over, and pulled hard on the rope of the bell. The clapper struck and a hollow ring echoed out across the sands. The reverberation faded just in time for the ball to strike on the other side and the alarm to sound once more. The trilling cut off my thoughts. I looked to Alessia. Her eyes darted back and forth, watching the hills, as her hands poised by the belt on her hip. Slow shallow breathing took over as I felt my chest pound with each sounding of the bell. The guard spoke once more. Confidence had returned to his demeanour and he spoke with enough volume to clear the ringing of the bell. “All visitors must report to the Council headquarters. You can find the headquarters on the western side of the island.” \ *The Archipelago is posted every Wednesday.