Everett Hoard, unofficially Captain pinched the bridge of his nose as he finally was able to set his bags on the couch in his little flat and relax. After the official summonings of Olympia and SS United States, people were beginning to pay more attention to kanmusu. Especially here in California where the people were, not insane but a tad below normal. The state's budget alloted for a total of five summoning attempts to be made. Hoard had thought the people would give up after the first few tries. But then they ended up getting Iowa somehow with Midway following soon after. And for some reason, despite the battleship's uncouth manners and penchant for finding trouble shoreside, it encouraged Sacramento to offer more funding. Hoard had just returned from that meeting. Not for the first time he questioned the military's strategy on fighting this war. Just sic the Budget Committee on the Abyssals and the fighting would be over in no time.

"Bloody sharks." He muttered to himself.

"Tell me aboot it." said a voice.

Hoard whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice but he didn't see anyone. "Okay, I'm either dreaming or this is a hallucination." he muttered to himself.

"Na, na hallucination." The voice reassured him. It had a beautifully refined Scottish accent.

"Then what? Why can't I see you? Are you hiding somewhere?" He looked around, hoping to find someone, anyone near him.

"A'm richt neist tae ye captain. 'n' ah aye wull be." The voice reassured him.

It was obviously a woman's voice, tendered with age a bit. Hoard thought he felt a brush of cold air past him.

"Are you a ghost?" He asked. It was, since the war began, not the strangest thing he'd ever asked.

"Whit an interesting quaistion, sur. Ah dae nae hawp a'm a ghost as a'm gey muckle alive." She replied.

"Then why can't I see you?" Hoard was getting increasingly nervous, looking around him

"That is something ah hae ne'er bin able tae figure oot. Whiles fowk kin hear me bit th' ne'er see me." She sounded sad.

"I'm sorry. At least I'm talking to you." Hoard tried to reassure her. For some reason he felt compelled to comfort her.

"'n' ye hae mah cheers fur that, captain."

"You said you've been with me. How long have you been with me?" He wondered.

"Sin ye teuk command sur. It's mah duty tae bade wi' mah captain."

It was hard to filter through that Scottish accent but Hoard felt he got it.

"You're bound to me." He said. "Are you a kanmusu?"

"A kanmusu, heavens! I-I hawp ah micht be, bit kanmusu kin be seen kin thay nae. Howfur cuid ah be a kanmusu if ye cannae see me?" She wondered.

Once again there was that cold feeling and this time Hoard shivered. "Whatever it is you're doing, I still cannot see you." He said.

"Why?!" She wailed. "Ah kin be heard easily, felt easily. Understaun, listened tae whiles even. Bit a'm seendle seen. 50 years a've leed in California."

"What's your name?" Hoard asked softly. He asked the question even though he was beginning to feel like he already knew the answer.

There was another brush of cold wind and when it passed he felt warmth pressing against his side, his cheek. He opened his eyes and looked into a pair of green ones, framed by bushy red locks. A pair of pale hands, slightly tanned by the Californian sun, grasped his own, delicate long fingers entwining with his. "Mary, Queen Mary."

Hoard looked up at her in astonishment and no small amount of affection. She was his charge after all and had been for the last several years. She was a head taller than him and sported a lithe fit figure benefiting a card carrying member of the Blue Riband club.

"Of course you are." He said softly, a thumb rubbing the back of one of her hands affectionately.

She gasped. "Ye kin see me?" She asked.

"I don't know how you did it but I can, quite clearly. You are beautiful." He replied and she blushed.

Their moment was broken when Hoard's wife entered the room. Seeing her husband locked hands with a beautiful lady, her face flushed red.

"EVERETT HOARD, JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

The Scottish translator I used can be found here: English to Scottish Slang Translator - Scotranslate