The Storyteller: Battle for the Pirate Isles

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Fifteenth Birthday

Nobody was angry when Sen returned home. She ran into Sula’s arms, crying that she was right. Even Sula understood why she had run away. She needed to learn for herself who Tu was. She recounted her meeting with Captain Tila and the conversation they’d had. It was only in the telling that Sen realised just how angry she was.

Tu had betrayed her. She pretended to be a good, law-abiding person, ridding the world of pirates one ship at a time, when it turned out she didn’t just want to be one herself, but she wanted to be their lord. Sen wondered how long she had been planning this. It could even have been that the pirate ships she had attacked as a bounty hunter were just her rivals, those standing in her way to achieve her ultimate goal of ruling the Pirate Isles. Not only did she eliminate them, but the Tsaythi government even paid her to do it. Everyone in Tsayth who paid their taxes like good people was funding Tu’s rise to power in the Pirate Isles.

Sen hated her. No wonder she hadn’t let Sen join her crew sooner. No wonder she hadn’t come back. No wonder she had sent one of her crew to find her instead of coming herself. Tu was a horrible, vicious pirate. She killed envoys who just wanted to treat with her. She attacked and sank ships just for coming too close. Sen wanted nothing more to do with her.

Throughout the year, though, she couldn’t help but hear news of the pirate war. A month after she had returned home, the brand new king and queen put out a call for any ships who wished too become part of their pirate-hunting armada. Three months after that, five hundred and seventy-eight ships, the biggest fleet Tsayth had ever amassed, sailed from Ryas with the king and queen in their flagship, the Hentley.

After that, the rumours became sketchy at best. The parade of ships to Jita, usually one or two a week, slowed to a trickle of only one every month or two. All the bigger ones were away in the pirate-hunting fleet, and those few that weren’t felt like they had to make excuses for why they weren’t there. As the months stretched on and on, the villagers started getting worried that the ships might stop coming all together. They would go back to being a dingy backwater village not worth anyone’s time to stop.

It wasn’t until the fleet began to straggle its way back into Ryas nearly six months later that the ships returned thick and fast once more, and with them, stories and rumours of the pirate war.

Sen tried to hide from them all. She didn’t want to hear, didn’t care what had become of the Pirate Isles or their new lord. She volunteered every morning to go out with Nak on the fishing boat, but every time she came back to shore, someone came to her with news.

The Tsaythi fleet had been severely depleted, with only a hundred ships coming back to Ryas, but they had been victorious. Maybe. It was hard to say. They had never actually found the Pirate Isles, having come up against a massive pirate fleet in the open ocean. Or maybe not. There had been two fleets going separately, so as to confuse the pirates. One fleet ran into the pirate fleet, but the other was completely decimated by a dragon storm, or a kraken, or some other sea monster. Whatever it was, it had wiped out the fleet such that nobody survived to reach the Pirate Isles, let alone join back up with the main fleet and return to Ryas.

The king and queen had made it back in their battered Hentley but their official story said they hadn’t managed to capture the notorious Pirate Lord Tu, and there were no plans as yet to try and capture her again.

Sen felt angry at that. How could they have been victorious if they hadn’t captured Tu? They hadn’t even found the Pirate Isles. Just because they had sunk a lot of pirate ships didn’t mean they had won the pirate war. The rumours guessed that the Orana had been sunk, but nobody could properly confirm that.

Except the rumours started saying they had found the Pirate Isles, but they were still sworn to secrecy about that bit. Pirate Lord Tu had been found in her castle on the Pirate Isles, and executed in front of all the pirates there, then all the pirates had been killed, too. Or Tu had been found, but she had escaped on the Orana before anyone had any chance to capture her, but the pirates had all been executed, anyway. That sounded more like a victory, Sen had to admit, but she couldn’t see Tu, who had hunted down a leviathan, running away from the Tsaythi fleet. Another rumour said she had been captured and taken back to Ryas and was now in the dungeons until the king and queen decided what to do with her. More claimed she and her ship had masqueraded as one of the Tsaythi fleet and was now, horrifyingly, sailing and trading among them as one of them.

‘I still don’t care,’ Sen declared to Kaiji, after three solid months of rumours. A new one came ashore with every new ship to carry it. ‘Nobody understands just how much I do not care.’

‘I do,’ Kaiji said, lying back on the sand dune. Where Sen’s anger was aloud and violent, Kaiji’s was quiet and seething. Sen was just angry; Kaiji was angry for both of them. ‘I have extra reason for being pissed at her, because she made you angry, too.’

Nothing more had been said on their parting kiss when Sen had run away a year ago. Sen didn’t want to bring it up. It seemed silly now, getting married because a pirate disguised herself as a man and told them it was possible. It was silly, a little kid’s story.

She sat up, retied her bandana so it sat over her eyes to shade them from the sun, then lay back again on the dune.

‘Do you think I could make everyone stop talking about her?’ she mused. ‘Just put up a big sign on the end of the jetty: No Rumours about Pirate Lord Tu Allowed.’

Kaiji snorted a laugh. ‘Do you know the latest one is that her daughter’s taking after her?’

Sen barked a laugh despite herself. She didn’t care, but that one was just too funny. ‘Where did that one come from? They know she has a wife, don’t they?’

‘No, no, this is the hilarious bit.’ Sen heard Kaiji propping herself up on one elbow, then she pulled up Sen’s bandana to see her reaction. ‘It’s you. You’re the daughter.’

Sen rolled over in tears and groans of laughter all at once. ‘Ugh, I bet I know where that started, too!’

‘What, seriously?’

‘It’s from when I was talking to Captain Tila last year. I told her I was a baby when Tu brought me ashore. She must have made her own assumptions.’

Kaiji laughed anew. ‘Oh, you’ve only got yourself to blame for this one. You totally brought it on yourself. You’ve got your very own rumour!’

‘Ew, no, I don’t want that one!’

‘So you’re not following in Mama Tu’s footsteps?’ Kaiji teased.

‘Ew, no!’

‘Not going to run off and, I don’t know, conquer an island and claim it for the glory of Mama Tu?’

Sen climbed up on all fours and mimed throwing up into the sand before flopping back down. ‘I would rather drink sea water. A whole gallon of it. I would rather be a tax agent all my life.’ She took a deep breath and wriggled closer to Kaiji. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘What do you mean, “do”?’ Kaiji asked. ‘With the rest of my life?’

‘Yeah.’

She felt Kaiji shrug beside her. ‘Never really been allowed to give it much though, being as my parents are both bastards. I don’t know. I always sort of thought I’d just follow you. Be on your ship when you got one.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Will you get one? I mean for real. You don’t have to be a pirate or anything.’

Sen shrugged back at her. ‘Maybe. I couldn’t get on a crew when I tried last year, but that was just before the new king and queen took the throne and nobody knew what was happening. Now that the war’s over, it might be worth trying again.’

‘What sort of ship?’

‘Any that will take me, to start with.’

Kaiji took her hand, picking it up to lace the fingers of both her hands with Sen’s. ‘Nah, not big enough. Think bigger. What’s your dream ship?’

‘I can’t, not yet. I might be legit, but I’ve never sailed a ship, not really. Two trips to Ryas as a passenger don’t count.’

‘No, but think about it.’ Kaiji let go of her hand and propped herself up on her elbow again. ‘After the war, heaps of crews would have lost crew members, right? It’s not like just entire ships were sunk or seized and that was the end of them. Everyone will be looking for a crew. Now’s your best shot, now that people are just getting back into their lives again. So let’s try that again: what’s your dream ship?’

‘Bounty hunter,’ Sen answered through gritted teeth. ‘I want to be the one to bring Tu down myself.’

‘There you go, then,’ Kaiji said, matter-of-fact. ‘Start asking the captains that come in which are the very best bounty hunter ships left afloat. Find where they make berth, go there, and demand—don’t ask, demand—to be part of their crew. That’s the sort of person a bounty hunter ship would want.’

Sen liked the idea, but she still had reservations. Her attempts last year to get aboard a crew, any crew, had left her reticent. ‘But I don’t even know how to fight.’

‘So learn,’ Kaiji said, still matter-of-fact. ‘We can practice together.’

Sen chewed her lip, then finally nodded. ‘All right, but you have to come with me. When we find the best bounty hunter ship, I mean. And you have to demand to be part of their crew, too.’

Kaiji rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, sure, daughter of two backwater bastards. They’ll be scrambling for me.’

Sen smacked her on the nose. ‘Stop that. You just said everyone will be crying out for a crew. You’re legit, even if Nak and Sula aren’t. Like you said, this could be your best chance. Even if I do get to be captain, that won’t be for, I don’t know, ten years at least. Nobody makes captain before they’re twenty-five.’ Even Tu had been twenty-seven when she first took the helm of Horizons, but Sen wasn’t about to bring up that name. ‘You’re coming with me, and you’re going to demand to be part of the crew of the best bounty hunter on the sea.’

‘Deal,’ Kaiji answered with a grin. ‘But if they take you and not me, you still have to go. I can still join once you’re captain.’

‘Better.’ Sen climbed lazily to her feet and dusted the sand from her pants. ‘Let’s get started now, then. The Yuki’s docked.’ She pointed towards the ship floating beside the jetty. ‘We’ll ask them about bounty hunters and see if we can get any training swords.’ She reached out with both hands and pulled Kaiji to her feet.

‘How much is a battered old sword worth?’ Kaiji asked.

Sen shrugged. ‘Only one way to find out.’

STUFF

o Hentley Farm is a frigging awesome winery/restaurant in the Barossa Valley. They have an amaaaaazing dégustation, so of course we name the royal ship after them X)

o Things are just going mildly awry according to my outline. I'm going to have to cogitate a bit here. Might still get another one done tonight and be caught up, though. That's the plan, then I can do two tomorrow and be ahead!

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

I STILL BELIEVE IN TU. Kinda.

But god Sen's sudden like... final straw breaking. Her anger and vitrol. I love it. So real and raw <3

I love that the Tsaythi royals will go on boat and fight man. They are the coolest.

Nothing more had been said on their parting kiss when Sen had run away a year ago. Sen didn’t want to bring it up. It seemed silly now, getting married because a pirate disguised herself as a man and told them it was possible. It was silly, a little kid’s story.
NO. THAT IS THE SADDEST THING YOU'VE EVER WRITTENJSBDUBDGUBDGD

Kaiji is the brains of the relationship.

I love their conversation, and how Kaiji can lead Sen to her own thoughts <3

Your plans always happen to get away from you, man. ALWAYS