Nocturna League (Episode 1: The Witching Book) (Nautical Fantasy Short Story) Read Online Free Page B

respect sir, what the hell is wrong with you?”
    “Haha! Nothing, my dear! I have everything I need,” he looks to his left shoulder, “isn’t that right?” he asks to the invisible figure.
    Jim just stares on as Colette waves her hands about her head in confusion. “What?! Captain, did you get the book?”
    He tilts his head a bit to the side. “What book?”
    “The book we came all this damn way for, sir! Vuuya’s witching book!”
    “Ahh, well that shouldn’t be a problem anymore,” The Captain says as the guard and townsperson stand to the side with knowing smirks.
    “Sir! We came here for the book! What happened in there?!”
    The Captain bends his head forward in thought. “Oh… oh! Pardon me. Yes, Vuuya, I met her and she offered to grant my wish,” The Captain says, joyously shaking two invisible figures under his arms.
    Colette stares at The Captain with a cross between confusion and disgust as Jim’s features slowly sharpen. “Sir,” she says, “There’s no one under your arms, sir! You’ve gone senile!”
    The Captain checks both his arms again. “They seem quite real to me, Colette…Oh?” he turns to his left and raises his ear. “…No, worry not, my beloved. It’s obvious she’s just a bit off her nerves, probably from the salt sickness. Tell me Colette: are you, perhaps, salty?”
    “S-What?! The hell I am salty ! Turn around and get the book!”
    “I see no need for that, my little croissant-the task is done; I am home. Please, just come with me and let’s share at the dinner table, this way!” The Captain gestures with a hand to follow him out of the ziggurat.
    Colette strides right up and smacks him across the face, shocking the two villagers watching. “What’s your malfunction? I join this crazy ass ship with the pretense that you’d teach me to fight as well as you, to become an upstanding figure of command! And here you are playing house with imagina-”
    “Colette,” Jim says softly to get her attention.
    “-ary friends as if we didn’t have a job to do that everyone’s paychecks relied on. I don’t know why I-”
    “Colette,” Jim says again.
    “-I even care about any of that. It’s not like you pay me! I feel bad enough dragging Grancis all around this horrible ocean for my sake, but you’re proving to be a huge pain. And sir with all respect if you want t-”
    “COLETTE!” Jim yells. Finally she swings around.
    “What?!”
    “I know how to fix this.”
    “W-what?!”
    Jim sighs, shakes his head. “He’s bewitched.”
    “Nonsense! I’ve never been more lucid in all my life!” The Captain claims with a nervous laugh.
    “If that’s so, then why does your home so closely resemble the layout of Vuuya’s home? Reach your hand out to the left,” Jim says to The Captain, who stops.
    Very slowly, The Captain reaches to his side, and feels the wicker walls of Vuuya’s abode. “My… This is peculiar,” he says, feeling over the forest-bound materials. The guard gets uneasy, and takes to his feet.
    “Yeah, that’s real, Captain. You need to open your eyes. Whatever place you think you are, do you remember a hallway that looks like this there?”
    The Captain pauses. “… No, I don’t.”
    “So then obviously your senses can be tricked, but Vuuya must still make an illusion out of something that’s real. Don’t delude yourself. The two below your arms are fakes!” Jim says with a certainty that makes the other two villagers uncomfortable.
    The guard leans to his side and whispers “He’s lying. Our son is waiting for us to return just like every other day,” to some invisible person.
    The Captain is still as he thinks in silence. “… But… but they look so real…”
    Jim shakes his head, “No, they’re not. Tell me, Captain; when, in all of our adventures, has any ‘wish granting miracle’ given you what you asked for?”
    The Captain sighs, and takes his arms off his invisible loved ones just as Jim coughs and puts his hand over