Fire Prince

  **

  In Pelagos things were eerily business as usual. No one knew what to do other than what they had always done. Half of the fleet was dispersed to keep the shipping lanes clear of pirates and monsters, the rest remained at Greater Pirenna. The prison ship Jagged Reef sailed for the edge of the plane towards the void.

  Punishments in Pelagos were immediate and conclusive, but so was forgiveness. Banishment to the void was the worst the Naval Tribunal could sentence, for it was permanent and afforded no chance to return to good graces with the people of Pelagos. It was saved for mutineers and particularly abhorrent crimes.

  Four men were locked in the brig to be banished. Three were mutineers who slit the throats of ten fellow sailors to steal a warship. One was different. It was a three week voyage from the portal site on Greater Pirenna near the center of the plane to the edge of the world.

  The three spent their time cursing and pleading, any other punishment would do. “Cut out my tongue, brand my face, anything but the void, have mercy won’t you?” begged one of the mutineers. The jailor could only laugh, their fate was sealed after the tribunal, nothing else could be done.

  The fourth spent his time waiting. His task in Pelagos was complete. One of the master at arms leaned against his cell door, “Oi, murderer – do you even know what is going to happen to you?” The prisoner said nothing. “You are no sailor and you don’t look like a bridge crosser I’ve ever seen.” The master at arms pressed against the bars of the cell, “Where are you from?” Again, he was answered with silence.

  He said nothing to the guard who first found him and his three dead victims. He didn’t resist arrest. He didn’t offer an excuse or explanation, the blood was on his hands and he said nothing. The tribunal deciding his fate was terrified of his silent defiance, banishment was an easy way to remove that which they feared and couldn’t understand.

  The vast ocean of Pelagos grew shallow as the ship neared the edge. The entire plane was rung with a halo of soft white sand. The beach ended in cliff face overlooking the infinite void. The ship cast anchor and the prisoners were sent ashore.

  The skeletal keel of a beached warship served as gangplank into the void. The two executioners tied themselves to both the old warship and the sand anchors. The first mutineer was bound; urine darkened the sand beneath his left foot. He walked despondent up the keel, prodded on by the executioners.

  He looked down into the empty purple-black of the void. One executioner read his name, his crime, and his punishment aloud. The other shoved him over. The two men watched him fall, and returned to shore to send off the next mutineer.

  It was time for the fourth man. The shore party feared his stoic silence and confident face. The man felt their fear of him. “You’re next stranger,” said the lead executioner. He led the man to the beached ship. Even bound he had the look and presence of a man in complete control.

  On the precipice the executioner read aloud the crimes of the man, “For the heinous murder of the Prestle family: Marth Prestle, Penny Prestle, and their young daughter Nina Prestle you are hereby sentenced to banishment to the void. Do you have any last words?”

  To this question the man turned, revealing a glass blade in his hand. The executioners were frozen in fear; they did not want to risk their own tethers being cut. The man calmly removed his bindings. Then stepped over the edge without protest and plummeted.

  No one in the shore party understood what had just happened. They were nonetheless relieved to be rid of the mysterious killer.

  The fall would take him about thirty minutes. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes and fell endlessly in the starry dark. He passed one of the writhing mutineers whose face reflected his bewilderment at the calm of the stranger.

  The four men neared the Heart of the World, and entered the territory of the Void Demons. Void Demons were formless beings, black smoke hid their shifting masses of flesh. To see a Void Demon at the edge was a dark omen as they seek only the destruction of man.

  The first mutineer reached them; the demon’s pale and slimy tendrils engulfed and devoured him. His fellow traitors heard his screams moments before they too were consumed. The strange man passed through unharmed.

  The Heart appeared in the distance, faintly illuminated. Enveloping glass shells surrounded the heart. The shadowy man shattered through the layers of glass. The broken shells reformed behind him as he crashed through each successive shell. He landed kneeling on the Heart of the World.

  “They are dead,” he said in a low voice.