Chapter Text
The sun started to rise over the horizon, casting everything in view in a soft morning light. A merchant's ship is floating upon the calm waters, beams of light sneaking through the scattered windows. One of these beams manages to sneak through the cracks of a door that leads to a rather… plain looking crew member. His name? Error.
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Error never thought his life would turn out the way it did. Even as a young boy, during his academic years, teachers and students alike believed he would achieve something great one day. That his name would be known across both young and old magic users... of course, that dream got crushed when he was expelled from the only college of magic in the kingdom. He could still recall what his headmistress had stated in order to explain the sudden decision... "To destructive" She had called him.
So here he was, at the age of 27, using the cover as a poverty stricken crew member to hide his magic roots. You see, shortly after Error had been rejected, magic was discovered in his home kingdom. The royals, instead of seeing it as a blessing, saw it as a threat. News of magic and its users spread through the world like wildfire- new laws, jailings, restrictions, even public executions, started to gain popularity as a way to control and eliminate magic from the world.
Unable to stop the suffering of his fellow magic users, he fled. One of the last magic users in the world, now staring at the wooden ceiling of a merchant ship. How many years had it been since he left? Four, Five? He hadn't been keeping track.
Error had been lucky enough to get a job as a crew member in the early stages of the executions, effectively smuggling himself out of the kingdom before he was able to be identified as a magic user. As he laid in his hammock, the silence was broken by the sound of several loud knocks from the door. He could only assume it came from Ink, the ships navigator… and also a massive pain in the ass.
After about the seventh knock, Error managed to pull himself out of his hammock and tiredly wobble over to the door. As Error opens the door, he's met with the familiar short frame of Ink. Error let out a sigh, rubbing the gunk out of his eyes.
“What is it, Ink.” Error grumbled, looking down to meet Inks eyes. The sun continued to rise, now illuminating the medium sized ship in a large ray of orangey golden light.
“Oh, just wanted to remind you, roll call is in two hours.” Ink responded, a hint of condescension in his tone. Ink and Error had never necessarily gotten along, especially after Inks recent promotion to Captain Dreams right hand.
"So why exactly did you choose to wake me up now?” Error huffed, trying to hold back his annoyance. He could've insulted him, but held himself back. He couldn't risk getting fired.
“Well, It never hurts to be prepared, now does it?” Ink goaded, turning on his heel and walking away. From the looks of it, Ink only bothered to wake him up. Error made a silent reminder to get him back later, but for now he let out another groan, slowly closing the door again and walking back to his hammock.
“Damn squid…” He uttered under his breath. After double checking he had closed the door, he halfheartedly snapped his fingers, his coat springing up off of the crumpled pile of clothes in the corner and floating over to him.
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The day dragged on like it always did, Error went through his assigned chores as per usual- doing the bare minimum like most of the other crew. There were more people on lookout duty at the moment, as the ship was passing through waters that didn't officially belong to any kingdom. Or as it's known to merchants and sailors, pirate territory.
Error was the unlucky crew member to be assigned night watch for that night, which he wasn't particularly looking forward to. He didn't see the point in looking out at the dark night for hours on end, it's not like he'd be able to see anything approaching the ship with just a few lanterns lit... Although, he did have to admit, he enjoyed the quietness of the task. It was one of the few times aboard when there was complete uninterrupted silence. He continued to think until he was snapped out of his thoughts by a few of the crew members calling to him, asking for help lifting some barrels of wine down to storage.
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Nightmare POV:
Nightmare awoke in an sour mood. Last night there had been a particularly… destructive battle between a marine ship, which meant today would be a long day of fixing the damage that had been done to his vessel.
Finally deciding to get out of bed, he quickly changed into his usual eccentric clothing. A little unconventional, sure, but it was one of the few things he refused to change- no matter the setting. He stepped onto the main deck, the bottom of his shoes making a sharp clicking sound against the wood of the ship. He called for his crew's attention, watching them with an unamused look on his face as they all scrambled in his direction.
The crew formed an uneven line, a few of them whispering to their neighbors to 'shut up', others lightly hitting the ones still making noise. After the crew had finally managed to silence themselves, Nightmare began to speak. He spoke confidently, being sure to give specific instructions so that his crew weren't given room to be lazy like usual. It would be unwise to go off raiding and looting with an unprepared ship, they had a reputation to live up to after all.
After making sure everyone knew what they were doing, Nightmare excused himself to his quarters. He left the crew under the eyes of his current right hand, Cross. After he shut the door to his quarters, Nightmare moved to light the candle on his desk, illuminating the once dark room. Ignoring the sounds of his crew's conversations going on outside, he pulled a large book out from a desk drawer. A small hobby he had managed to collect as a way to fill the days. This particular book was his favorite. It wasn't anything special, simply being about the basics of magic and those who used them. The book was originally meant for royal guards, as a way to identify magic users while out on duty. Nightmare had, of course, stolen this one off of a guard while raiding a town.
Ever since magic was revealed to the world, Nightmare took a deep interest in it. The idea of one person being able to manipulate so much power... it plagued his mind. His crew often called his interest and "obsession," not that he cared. How did it work? He desperately wanted to know. Call it what you will.. but if he could just get his hands on one user… well.. it certainly would help satisfy his curiosity. Along with being a good tool for his crew.
But alas… magic users were few and far between these days. The chances of finding one weren't in his favor.
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Error POV:
The day went as quickly as it came. Slowly the crew left one by one, eventually leaving Error by himself, surrounded by nothing but the night sky above and the dark ocean below.
As the midnight breeze swept through the air, Error leaned his back against the railing of the ship. He looked around one final time before quietly whispering something under his breath. As he finished, small wisps of light started to extract from the stars overhead, flying over to where Error was. He watched as they swirled together to form a small ball of light, then zipping back into the air. The ball grew, casting the ship in light for a few minutes, then erupting back into wisps and fading away. After all the wisps faded, Error was left in the darkness once more.
What he had just done was nothing special, just a small incantation to ward against evil. It's not like he was concerned about the ship getting attacked, it was just… a safety measure. Besides, the chances of getting attacked by pirates were small. Nothing to worry about.
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