“You’ll keep an eye out for me, Alright Soliel?”, Stitcher Jim asked, glancing over his shoulder to face the ashen guardian he’d found wandering around the empty fortress when he’d been brought back from his purgatory within the sea of the damned. The ashen skeleton who’d been eerily silent since they’d been discovered by the ashen lord didn’t respond, choosing to slowly step closer and closer until they’d stood beside the skeletal lord instead. “Soliel?”, Stitcher Jim questioned, turning towards the ashen guardian as they knelt against the sandy shoreline charred beneath the heat of the volcanic eruptions. Lifting their skeletal hand to silence the skeletal lord, the fiery skeleton pointed to the ocean’s waves where the sight of faded shimmering, a telltale sign of lingering sunken treasure. Gasping, the ashen lord rushed into ocean’s embrace as the fiery skeleton kept watch over the skeletons within the fortress’s keep. Sinking beneath the sea’s surface, the water boiled around the ashen lord who’d ran across the seabed until he’d clutched the sunken treasure within his hands. Although it’d only been a single gilded bottle with concealed piece of parchment inside, the sight of the gilded bottle alone had caused his crystallized heart to pulsate with anxious excitement and adrenaline similarly to when he’d successfully tricked the champion of souls into freeing the ashen sovereign. “He’s been getting the letters!-…Oh, seems other’s have been getting the letters too!”, Stitcher Jim laughed, scooping up each and every bottle he’d managed to fit within his arms.
He’d be busy for quite a while, sorting through and answering each and every bottle before returning them to the sea’s embrace where he trusted they’d find their way back to the islands, the outposts and the writers who’d sent them within the first place. Although he’d have to be a bit more reliant on the ashen guardian he’d befriended to cover his tracks, the ashen lord decided that would be a risk that he’d be willing to take, especially if it meant keeping in touch with those amongst the sea’s without the prying eyes of his master and his master’s following.
