The sea called to him when he closed his eyes. Its rolling waves. Its lashing breath. Faris had smelled phantom salt while leading Lenna through the town square. He’d heard the echo of its roars while he’d booked the two of them a room for the night, and he could almost feel its soothing lull beneath him as he’d tried to sleep. Even with Lenna in the bed beside him, his mind refused to clear. No, there was a storm in his heart, and he needed time to let it pass. Time, moonlight, and the sea.

Faris didn’t mean to come so far. It must’ve been over a mile out from the city now, but his feet hadn’t stopped from the moment he’d silently asked his sister’s forgiveness and slipped out into the night. He needed to look at it. Just one glimpse and then maybe his heart would be set at ease. Faris felt his boots slip on the uneven terrain as he marched a course for what he knew was over these hills. Past the waist-tall grasses and the groves of moonlit cricket song, past the rustling of leaves underfoot and the rocky crags that made up his current upward climb. He didn’t need a road -- the sky guided him, and this course...Yes, if the maps were to be believed, this was where he’d find the sea like a lost love, waiting.

Faris heard it before he saw it and he smelled it before that. As he rounded the hilltop, he saw the water stretch before him in all its inky darkness. His footing was hard to find on the way down, and more than once his boot caught between sharp corners, but he’d have hardly noticed if he’d twisted his ankle right then and there.

This was what he’d wanted. Silence but for the crash of the waves. Solitude but for himself and his thoughts. He’d wanted a place to feel, a place to mull things over, a place to…

To…

Faris frowned as the waters lapped at the edge of his boots. He didn’t feel any better.

The waves stretched on like aged glass reflecting nothing and reaching far past the horizon. It swallowed him in its dark void, and for a moment, trapped between sky and sea, Faris felt as though he might lose himself to the nothingness. Above him, the endless expanse of stars curved around him in a great glass dome. Beyond him, something clouded and incomprehensible. It pressed in around him, that blackness. Like malice taken form.

Like the Rift.

Faris shivered at the thought and rubbed at his forearms. ”What kind of devil’s taken you?” he muttered to himself. ”Wincing away from the waves? We’ve been far beyond the horizon and more! I’ll not have such yellow thoughts!” But still, there was that lurking dread somewhere behind his lungs. Something felt wrong here. In the wind perhaps, or maybe the phase of the moon…

He looked up to eye it suspiciously before letting his gaze wander to the trees, the underbrush, and the hills. Then he spotted what looked to be a dock not too far away, stretching far, far out into the water until…

He froze. There was someone there.

Faris cursed and did a double take, his heart beating too fast as the crystals pounded in his blood, but it was just a boy. Or it least, that’s what it looked like from the moonlit silhouette. He eyed it a few seconds longer to make sure it wasn’t a ghost before cursing again, running a hand through his hair, and letting out a breath.

He wasn’t alone, but he supposed collecting his thoughts was a lost cause already. He wondered what else might bring someone out to the far reaches of nowhere on a dock this late. Nothing good, Faris thought darkly. If he wasn’t here to get rid of evidence or kill himself, then the planets must have aligned for fate to bring the both of them out at once. Or the man could’ve been fishing, he supposed. But it was definitely one of the three.

Faris approached him without much caution. Either he’d need to put a stop to this or he’d be on his way, and he didn’t see a need for subtlety either way. His boots clomped wetly against the creaking wood of the dock. He wondered how old it was.

”And what brings the likes of you out this way? It’s not exactly a safe stroll from the city.” Faris couldn’t help the almost accusatory glint to his voice as he stopped several feet from the man and crossed his arms, looking him over closely. ”There’re monsters out this way and worse if you’re not careful. So which are you? Fiend or just a thick-headed dunce?”

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