LIMINALITY
Table of Contents
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 56 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 ENDChapter 38
Taking a long set of stairs, Janus and his two companions followed behind the helpful person. Their surroundings transitioned from that of a bustling market to a quiet and almost lifeless place as they went. It was as though this was a completely different area from the main hall.
The woman led them to another floor of the building, where they traversed a new hallway with fewer people present than the first. Their footsteps echoed softly on the polished ground, and they could hear the murmurings of people in nearby rooms.
As they walked, Janus looked around him in wonder. The hallway was beautifully decorated like before, with fine tapestries and paintings hung on the walls. There were small tables and chairs scattered throughout the corner, adorned with intricate designs and topped with various ornamental objects.
The scent of incense lingered in the air, its sweet aroma filling their nostrils. And as they continued to walk onward, Saomi herself couldn't help but wonder how notoriously rich this city must be to afford such luxuries. However, Schrodinger knows the reason why.
Just as they quietly continued forward, following the noble woman, they were greeted by a rather handsome blond man not far from them, wearing pirate attire and a black eye patch on his right eye. "Ah! Fiela! How have you been?" The man said it with a smile.
Averting her head away, she smugly replied, "Just fine." While covering her mouth with a paper fan, "Captain Henry, I never knew you were always sophisticated, man." The lady, now known to be called Fiela, smiled in satisfaction from his laughter.
"Is that so?!" He jestfully chuckled, "Then again, it's not every day that a beautiful woman like yourself graces this place with her presence!" His response had earned him a hard slap on the shoulder from the woman, leaving him with a pained expression.
"You and your compliments," she retorted with a smirk, "speaking of which, I want to introduce to you these interesting figures." Putting herself to the side, Fiela gestured for the three to come forth, "they were the ones who brought to my attentionthe opportunity to meet a lowly man like yourself."
Gathering his bearings, the man turned his attention to the three and announced, "You folks were looking for me?" He asked, taking a couple of steps forward as he raised his hand to them, "Name's Captain Henry, at your service!"
"I'll be leaving then," Fiela commented before returning to the direction of where they had come from, moving Janus, Schrodinger, and Saomi alone with this person. "If any of you three need anything, come by in the main hall!" Her last words as she disappeared to the corner.
Janus looks over at the captain's figure, noticing that he is taller and slightly bulkier than him. Regardless, he took his hand and shook it firmly, "Nice to meet you, sir," answering in a polite tone of voice that completely caused an eyebrow or two from the captain.
"Sir?" Henry smiled as they retreated their hands from each other. "I never thought to have met another one of you landlubbers ever since coming to this place," he stated, glancing over at the person's shoulder with keen interest in their appearances as well.
"It appears you three want something from me." Smiling mirthfully from his own set of words, "and I'm guessing that either of you want to get into my ship," a correct assumption in which Schrodinger himself opened his mouth to speak.
"Indeed," the white feline said, approaching closer before standing just beside his companion, "we got permission from the council of this city," answering in a confident yet well-mannered tone of voice, "so if you think us to be bothersome, then that would be an issue for the both of us," Cooly concluded.
"Oohh~, there's no need to be hasty!" Henry wittily grinned, "Show me, kitty cat. I would like to know the truth behind those words, if you wouldn't mind." He boldly challenged the feline's irritation at receiving that terrible nickname.
Without saying another word, floating documents appeared out of nowhere above Schrodinger's side as they hovered towards the bewildered captain. "Hmm..." Taking the papers, he read each parchment thoroughly from beginning to end. "Quite a bunch of official letters, from what it seems to be," he commented, flipping over the second page.
After spending a good solid minute staring at them, he sighed and crumbled them before putting them inside one of his pockets. "Alright, you three are free to come into my ship," he pronouncing his answer, much to the party's relief, only to receive a strike to the face from his next sentence, "but I need a favor from one of you."
Saomi felt dumbfounded by this: "Favor? I thought we were getting aboard for free." Not grasping why this man is becoming unfair for them, "We already got the papers; what else do you need from us?" Clenching her fists, she is getting annoyed by how people these days are always asking for something in exchange for simple favors.
Sharing her sentiment, Janus gently placed his hand on her right shoulder. "Let's hear out first, Saomi," he advised, turning his head back at the grinning captain. "What kind of favor would you need from one of us, Captain?"
"Simple," he answered in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "a man can't run his gorgeous ship with a bodyguard." The last word had caused further confusion from the group, making Schrodinger want to jump oto him and strangle the captain out of impulse.
Managing to resist such an urge, he kept his composure. "Excuse me, but I don't recall when there are already dozens of slaves working under you," referring to the man's enormous ship and crew mates present in the man's line of work.
The captain nodded. "Not a single one of them is a trustworthy man who will stand by my side and fight alongside me should trouble occur; hence, I need a specific person to do the job, and that someone is you." His eyes landed on Janus. "Are you willing to join my little band, boy?"
Janus stared at the man for a moment before nodding in defeat. "Fine, fine," sighing tiredly of helping others, "just what is this about so we can get this over with already?" The answer greatly pleased him to the point Henry explained the whole thing.
"There is half a man and Minotaur currently imprisoned underneath the dungeon of this tower," he began. "No one, not even the wealthy folks, can enter there, but knowing the three of you, I can tell you people are good at what you do," he said, smiling confidently from his trust in them. "He goes by the name Bull. Tall guy, but straight to the point."
However, Saomi was curious why Bull was imprisoned in the first place. "Excuse me," she called out to him. "What reason for him to be locked up, Captain?" Upon receiving the captain's attention, he didn't say anything but merely showed a nervous expression.
Sweating bullets, "you see..." Gulping silently, "He may or may not have killed someone," smiling awkwardly, he watched the three widen their eyes in surprise, not having expected his answer, "Okay, he actually killed a person, but it's justifiable, alright?!" Raising his hands in surrender of telling the truth, he says, "Look, I know this isn't ideal, but my buddy isn't some killing machine."
Schrodinger shook his head, unable to believe what he heard. "You want us," he said, pointing out the ridiculous notion their hearing from, "to break free a murderer so we could enter your ship?" His eyes were full of disbelief. "Don't you realize how stupidly dangerous this is?! What if he could murder us next or kill any of our party members in cold blood?!" I was outraged at the idea of partaking in this.
Even she had to agree about this: "I'm sorry, Captain, but I believe he has a point," Saomi told him. "What if this bull turns out to be a violent and merciless criminal who wouldn't hesitate to slaughter us alive in a bloody massacre if he can?"
Just hearing them brought out a wave of pain in Henry's head. "Guys, come on!" Trying to reason with them, "He killed someone because Fat rich pig continued to harass him!" His response finally caught their attention as he continues, "Bull warned that asshole many times, but he persisted, so my good friend had no choice but to murder him when the authorities didn't even lift a finger until later and had him arrested! All of this is one hundred percent justified if you ask me."
Finding himself relieved that the two had finally stayed quiet, he then took a deep breath and asked, "Are you going to help me?" Saddened by how he needs to convince them, "Please, he isn't a monster. It wasn't even his fault that this had happened. You got to understand that; he's like a brother to me." The three reluctantly stayed quiet, having a difficult time understanding the situation before them.
An air of silence permeates within the hallway; no one spoke for a minute, as if the entire place itself became still of how awkward and nerve-wracking this had become. They barely notice the captain's nervous sweat trickling down his cheek.
At last, Janus groaned loudly, "Give me the coordinates of his location." He instructed the captain, "I'll break him free without anyone knowing." That answer alone had completely made the captain's mood brighten at the news, seeing how this person is willing to cooperate with him.
Henry wasted no time in giving the necessary information as Janus companions watched him in disbelief after agreeing to the plan but had no words to say other than accepting what was about to happen. Once they received the complete directions to the dungeon, the god of time vanished without trace.
Leaving them alone in this hall.
"Can he do that?" Asked the mystified captain, "teleporting anywhere like that, I mean." Saomi gave the captain a brief glance of understanding before returning her focus to the front as she nodded at his confused choice of words.
"Yep."
The young woman simply answered the perplexed captain, resulting in another silence before he was given an impatient sigh from the cat: "While he was away, would you mind bringing us to your ship?" Schrodinger asked, causing the captain to immediately nod out of guilt, not realizing it.
Leading through the hallway, he begins to start a conversation in regards to the interesting fellow who just vanished in front of him. "That guy is something," he ponders out loud. "What exactly is he? He's not human, that's for sure."
Before Saomi could respond, the cat spoke on behalf of her, "His a God." His answer immediately stopped the captain's footsteps, slowly turning his head towards the cat, who was in turn, having a bored expression with his lack of enthusiasm for the given predicament, "the Roman God of all beginnings, gates, transitions, time, choices, duality, doorways, passages, and endings."
His mouth was wide open, and his jaw dropped from the shocking revelation, but the logical side of him took over. "A...a Roman god?" Carrying a refusal to accept this fact, he inquired with a quizzical look, "You must be joking if any deity would be walking freely in here, let alone a Roman God who isn't even popular enough to be heard in public and has almost no worshipers at all. This must be some sort of prank, right?"
But she confessed, "It's true." She took a step forward as she crossed her arms together, "He's really a god," stating out loud the facts in the most neutral way possible, "Why would you not believe that such a deity exists?" After all, we live in a dream world where everything can come true, whether you like it or not."
Dozens of complex emotions appeared on the poor man's face, where conflict begin to rise inside of him. The thought of a being of such power is now crossing his mind, making him wonder what other entities could be possibly lurking in the shadows.
Finally, the man chose to yield, seeing as there was no point in arguing, especially with the current situation he put himself in. "Okay," the captain murmured under his breath, having little hope that they would accept this nonsense. "I believe you," he said, scratching the back of his head, questioning himself if bringing a bunch of crazies into his ship would be a great idea.
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