SN-ST-2: Seaside Path

SN-ST-2 Seaside Path	Stultifera Navis: Gran Faro Previous SN-1 Next SN-2
He grew up along the coast. He longed for the freedom to see the ocean.

Characters
Gladiia Jordi Kal'tsit Skadi Specter Alty Aya Dan Saint Carmen Thiago Panicking Townsperson Church of the Deep Cultist Tight-Lipped Adherent
Backgrounds
1 2 3 4 5

“

Thiago attempts to convince Jordi to leave, and tells him about the truth of Gran Faro. The dark sea leaves no way out.

”

<Background 1>
[Thiago runs toward Jordi.]
Thiago	Jordi!
Jordi	Uncle Thiago? What's going on?
Thiago	Quick, pack up. We have to go.
Jordi	Wait, what? Where are we going?
Thiago	The Inquisition is coming.
Jordi	...What?
Thiago	The cultists, the monsters from the sea...
Jordi	...... Are we leaving this town for good?
Thiago	We? ...... No, no, just you. When the Inquisition finds out there are cultists here, the Ægir will be their first target. I don't care what happens to the cultists, or even the rest of us... We've lived here too long. We don't know how to live anywhere else. But you're different. You've always wanted to see the world outside. You're young and talented.
Jordi	But, I... this is all so sudden.
Thiago	It's an opportunity for change, lad. Your last chance. Be brave. Even if you somehow survive the Inquisition's interrogation, all that's waiting for you here is a life spent in fear of the ocean and the Sea Terrors. If you leave, though, your fate will finally be in your own hands. Not stuck in that little chapel. That place is too small for you. You shouldn't just–
Jordi	But, I... It's so sudden.
Thiago	There's no time to hesitate, lad. You must be strong, like your parents and their parents before them.
Jordi	Did my parents really give their lives for Iberia?
Thiago	We don't have time for this. Come, we must pack.
[While Lumen packed up his belongings...]
Thiago	It's been so long since we've had a traveling trader stop by... all your clothes are so old. You can buy new ones so easily out there. All the more reason to leave, don't you think?
Jordi	But why would the Inquisition be looking for Ægir? Couldn't cultists just as well be Liberi or Feline?
Thiago	Ægir come from the sea, same as the monsters and the disaster.
[Suddenly Thiago realizes something.]
Thiago	Wait... have you seen them?
Jordi	No, I... I mean, Uncle, you knew? You knew they were here?
Thiago	Yes... we all knew there was something to the rumors.
Jordi	Juan was one of them. He went into an empty warehouse to hide from the streets. He was hurt, and... he had no hostility towards me.
Thiago	Right, because you're Ægir. I know they've gone mad, that they're not normal.
Jordi	But why? ...Are you sheltering them?
Thiago	None of that matters anymore. You'll be leaving soon.
Jordi	No, I don't want to.
Thiago	What?
Jordi	I... I was born here in Gran Faro. If I run away just to hide from the Inquisition, I... I don't know.
Thiago	You what? Do you have any idea what you're saying? No Ægir has ever made it back in one piece after the Inquisition gets them! If you're LUCKY, you might return missing a few body parts, or maybe your sanity. Most simply disappear though. Some say they've been imprisoned, others that they've been executed. No one comes back! No one! The Inquisition will burn everything to the ground in their "mercy," before the monsters and cultists even get a chance. Nothing cleanses like fire!
Jordi	U-Uncle Thiago, calm down!
The angry old man sees in Jordi the shadow of himself, arriving in this land all those years ago, hoping to construct a new garden out of the ruins. Decades have passed, and those who were once young are no longer so. Yet what have they built in Gran Faro? What has become of Iberia? Their efforts have done nothing to change the tidings of fate, and the home that they put so much of their passion into now stands on the precipice of collapse. A vast helplessness engulfs Thiago, like the dark clouds over the sea.
Thiago	No one... No one... no one has ever come back. Not Marin, not anyone else. Gran Faro is already burning. Be it the Inquisition or the monsters, there's no future for us here.
Jordi	Uncle Thiago...
Thiago	I'll never be able to face your parents if anything happens to you, Jordi.
Jordi	I... I know, I... ...... C-Can I go see the ocean?
<Background 2>
Tight-Lipped Adherent	Gaaaaaaaah!
[The Church of the Deep cultist succumbs to his injuries earlier.]
Saint Carmen	Dream now, and may your sleep be full of nightmares. Leave them to me, Kal'tsit. Soon enough, they will confess where their dark and dank schemes take root.
Kal'tsit	No doubt.
Alty	(Wow, the old man's with you, Doctor?)
Saint Carmen	You are... Alive Until Sunset. A rock band. I must admit I don't understand these new-fangled trends.
Alty	Have faith in the divinity of song then.
Saint Carmen	Iberia hasn't recorded a direct sighting of a Feranmut for centuries, much less an interaction. If your music represents your views on human society, then that would certainly pique my interest.
Alty	We haven't paid attention to that sort of thing since "Deep Color in the Sea." It's a topic that's all too familiar, you see.
Saint Carmen	Ha... I wonder, what music would you put to Iberia? The most surprising thing I've found at my age is how much still surprises me. As we discussed, the Inquisition will prepare a means for you to travel to the Eye of Iberia as soon as possible, Kal'tsit. You will eliminate any obstacles in your path.
Alty	...That Sea Terror. The one that's embedded in the guy. There's the scent of an Ægir on it. A different scent though, one more like us. The scent of the sea.
Kal'tsit	What?
<Background 3>
Thiago's steps are small, but quick. He seems burdened by age, yet surprisingly energetic.
<Background 4>
It was all Jordi could do to keep up with his pace. He said he wanted to see the ocean. He did not know why he said that. Even now, he does not know whether it is he who wants to see it, or Thiago.
<Background 5>
"I'm an Ægir," Jordi thinks. "The sea is my home." "But how do I breathe down there? How did my ancestors live underwater?" Questions pop into his head one after another, questions he had been curious about from a young age. But Thiago is Liberi, and cannot answer his questions.
<Background black>
The Ægir came from the ocean. Why would they drown in the ocean?
Jordi	The sea... When was the last time I saw it?
Thiago	If the Penal Battalion were still here, they would've taken us in for questioning by now.
Jordi	S-Sorry for asking to do this.
Thiago	...It's fine. Look at the coastline. Barren and decrepit. Decades ago, we had big dreams of building an impregnable fortress here. Today, there's a Penal Battalion outpost several clicks to the northeast, and another on the cliffs to the west. Everything else? A lie... or perhaps a dream in the true sense. Reality is before our eyes, reminding us that the old Iberia will never return.
Thiago whistles. Jordi rarely sees him do so. A change seems to have come over the normally gloomy mayor, turning him into a young worker once again, passionate about building his home.
Thiago	Tsk, it's all in the past. We failed. Gran Faro is the final resting place of our failures. You mentioned your parents, didn't you lad?
Jordi	I did.. I don't remember much of the ocean. Everyone talks about Ægir and the Islanders, but none of it feels real. I was born on land.
Thiago	Aye. Your parents, or more accurately your grandparents, came from a place called Ægir, a great country deep beneath the ocean. That's where you were from, lad.
Jordi	Ægir.
Thiago	Years ago, the dream we had for Gran Faro wasn't the lifeless town you see today. It would have been a fortress, one that laughs at any siege. We would have built defenses on the coast around it, protected our country from calamity, heralded her revival, and rebuilt our home. All with our own hands. We really thought so.
Jordi	......
Jordi does not interrupt. Thiago grows increasingly excited, a light returning to his dull and cloudy eyes. Every hair on his body stands on end. He changes his posture. The sea breeze brushes against his brow, and he even looks grander somehow.
Thiago	The last step of our grand design, spanning half a century, was to return to the Eye of Iberia and relight the lighthouse.
Jordi	The lighthouse?
Thiago	A relic of the Golden Age, spared from destruction by the Profound Silence. Not even calamity could break us. We marched ever forward, our hearts filled with hope. Marin wore that blue hat of hers. She said we'd become heroes, that our names would live on. Your grandparents, your parents... two generations of Gran Faro gave everything they had for this blueprint. Their greatness should have been immortalized forever.
Jordi	But...
Thiago	But now there's nothing left. You see that ship? There used to be many ships at the port. The Penal Battalion should have taken it, but they've forgotten all about it. All that's left is some junk, a town out in the middle of nowhere, more troubles than I can count, people stuck in a dead end, and–
Jordi	And that ship.
Thiago	Yes. That ship.
Jordi	My parents, and the grandparents I've never met... were they proud of their duty?
Thiago	This isn't the first time you've asked that. You asked it when you first learned to talk, and when you started working at the chapel. You asked it many times, pointing at the dust-covered notebooks and schematics at home.
Jordi	I... I remember.
Thiago	Yes, lad. No matter how many times you ask, my answer is always "yes." No matter the outcome, they never lost hope after that great disaster, and gave their all to the cause. Your parents even volunteered for our final attempt to reach the Eye. Don't blame them for abandoning you. They were carrying what was left of all our dreams. So many years had come and gone. We HAD to succeed.
Jordi	......
Thiago	The last we saw of them was when their fleet set sail from right here. They were heroes. Marin said we would all become heroes, but now none of us are, except for the dead.
Jordi	I see... So my father and mother...
Thiago	But you know what laid waste to it all? In the midst of despair, we managed to muster the hope to relight the lighthouse. And what came of it? The Inquisition. They arrested the Ægir. They said there were Church of the Deep spies among us. We were fighting for Iberia, but the Inquisition took everything from us–our pride, our dignity, our dreams... everything. Do you understand now? Leave this hopeless town, leave Iberia and go as far as you can. Go to another country, go to a better place. There's nothing left here, in Gran Faro.
<Background 4>
Dan	The sea!
Aya	This is the wrong way. Are we just gonna leave our instruments in that damp room?
Dan	No, I can smell the waves. The sea is just ahead.
Aya	What do waves smell like?
Dan	Like cotton.
Aya	Using olfactory vocabulary to express visual elements... But you're right. The sea's right up ahead.
[Gladiia walks by, followed by Skadi, and nocied Aya and Dan.]
Gladiia	You...
Aya	An Ægir, and of a different breed from the ones who grew up on land. You must be that strange sort of Ægir. What did they call you again? Oh right, Abyssal Hunters.
Gladiia frowns. She rarely expresses her emotions in such complex ways. It came from her instincts as an Abyssal Hunter, as a Consul, as an Ægir technician, as a soldier.
Skadi	You are... AUS.
Gladiia	You know them.
Skadi	Yes, by chance.
Aya	Why so mysterious? Well, whatever, I'm just glad our name is known even among the Ægir. Alty once visited that ship, following your scent trail. But this is the first time we've met in person. I'm Aya, main vocalist of AUS. Dan here is our drummer.
Dan	Greetings, guests from the sea.
Gladiia	You're of the sea too. A pleasure to meet you. When I came to the land, I sought Kal'tsit to learn more about you–about your terrestrial kin.
Aya	Oh... if you're talking about the things on land, then I guess we're kin, technically. Not sure I can say the same about the ones in the sea. What are you here for? The doctor?
Gladiia	Just an appointment. We seek a way back to Ægir.
Aya	Back to Ægir, huh... The three of you, together?
Skadi	We are not so easily separated.
Aya	Aw, what a great friendship. What about the one in the back? Is she shy? Why doesn't she say anything?
Specter?	......
Aya	Something doesn't seem right with her. Her brain is tormented. Is she sick?
Gladiia	You could say so.
Aya	Poor thing.
Dan	–Mm!
Aya	What is it, Dan?
Dan	I just felt something up my spine. Like an electric shock to my brain, then a strange–
[Specter looked upward and says...]
Specter	–Voice.
Unusually quiet, Specter gazes at the sky. She closes her eyes. Waves brush against chaotic thoughts. This place is far from the coast, but something is touching her consciousness. It is in the wind, among the clouds, through the land, from the sea.
Specter	A voice. I can hear it.
Gladiia	Hmm... I don't hear anything.
Specter	The music of the sea. The children of the sea are crying. It is... a song.
Skadi	The scent of Sea Terrors. Lots of them. The town is under attack.
<Background 3>
[St. Carmen walks through the town square, with a townsperson noticing him.]
Panicking Townsperson	H-Hey! How did you get in here? A-Are you an Inquisitor?! The ones you're dragging are–
Saint Carmen	Go home. These two are under suspicion of colluding with heretics. I am performing my duty as an Iberian Inquisitor. Leave now, unless you want to be caught up in battle. Their blood will draw enemies.
Panicking Townsperson	A-An Inquisitor?! When did the Inquisition arrive? W-Were those outsiders your informants? I, I'm not a cultist! I don't have anything to do with those guys!
Saint Carmen	Do you know these two?
Panicking Townsperson	Them? Juan...? It's Juan? I always thought he looked suspicious. He–
Saint Carmen	That's enough. No need to torment yourself. Go home, and be sure your doors and windows are locked.
Panicking Townsperson	A-Alright...
[The townsperson runs away.]
Saint Carmen	...... You can come out now.
[Two Church of the Deep cultists reveal themselves.]
Church of the Deep Cultist A	An Inquisitor... no, a High Inquisitor!
Church of the Deep Cultist B	What's the Inquisition doing here?
Church of the Deep Cultist A	Amaia and Thiago have gone missing. Do the Ægir have something to do with it?
Church of the Deep Cultist B	You killed Juan, you bastard!
Saint Carmen	Not quite, he yet lives. I intend to extract some answers from him. You are different from the enemies I know. Your minds are your own, and you are working under clear directions. But if you're truly sane and awake, then you should understand– –That you stand no chance against me, nor any other brave soldier of the Inquisition.
Church of the Deep Cultist A	Tch...
Saint Carmen	Why give up your lives? What meaning is there in your futile sacrifice? What have the accursed tides promised you? What are you scheming on this barren shore? I have many questions, enemies of Iberia. And I can only hope your god has answers.