The Storyteller: The Imprisoned Pirate

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Eighteenth Birthday

They didn’t bother to keep their relationship from the crew. It was far easier to just let everyone know, stop the boys from trying to romance them and not have to steal hidden kisses in the dark. The captain was only disappointed because it meant he still had to find reasons to keep his male crew on board until he could find some more female crew members. He even offered to marry them, but Kaiji asked instead that her mother do the honours. Captain Gendas said that was cheeky, being as they were halfway across the world at the time, but he agreed to detour through Jita on their next tax trip to Ryas.

Five months later they stood together on the beach in front of their little white dome with the Cocoa Black floating beside the Jita jetty behind them and all the crew and villagers amassed in front of them.

‘My beautiful, strong, brave girls,’ Sula said. ‘You’re women now, and you belong to each other, but you’ll still always be my girls.’

‘Always,’ Sen promised, then looked to Kaiji, grin wide and eyes bright. ‘And I’ll always be your girl, too.’

With a kiss and a signing of papers, it was official. Sen and Kaiji were married. They turned their papers over to the rather confused officials at the taxation office in Ryas, but after confirming those few minor details—yes, Kaiji was a woman and yes, so was Sen and yes, they were both well aware they couldn’t make babies together and that nothing short of their wife dying now would ever allow them to without birthing a bastard—there were no further queries and their papers were entered into the registry.

While there, Captain Gendas, as ever he did, asked for news of Pirate Lord Tu and her associates, but as ever, there was nothing he hadn’t already heard. Even the list of ships associated with her was dwindling—only five were left, and two of those had been officially declared as wrecks, though the crews remained unaccounted for.

‘Current rumour is that she’s in the royal dungeons.’ Gendas stood on the foredeck to address his crew, then he waved his bit of paper that gave the current list of bounties. ‘Which doesn’t explain why this still exists, but who am I to argue with rumour? In any case, none of the bounties offered for the five remaining Tu-associated ships are anything impressive. I’m giving up that chase for the foreseeable future, unless something more reliable comes up. We’re going after Argo’s. It’s worth five times as much as the top-listed one on Tu’s list, because it operates around Kazin. Objections? Good.’

He never gave any time to answer that question, Sen had noticed.

Kaiji instead whispered it back to her in her ear. ‘Objections?’

‘None,’ Sen answered with a shake of her head, and she realised she was right. If anything, she felt like a weight had been lifted from her life. That last, tenuous little tie to Captain Tu had been cut clean. She took a deep breath, her shoulders feeling lighter. ‘I feel free.’

Kaiji gave her a peck on the cheek. She had to drag Sen’s shoulder down to do it. ‘Good, because I’m about to trap you with tightening the braces before we cast off.’

The journey up to Kazinian waters was long, but far from dull. They passed other ships that gave them news from the northern nation, what new taxes they would encounter in port, fancy new foods they should try and where the trade was good. Sen kept her eyes wide open whenever she was up in the crow’s nest, but thankfully never spotted any leviathans or kraken. She did spot the silhouette of a huge shark passing under the ship one day, and warned the captain of it, but Gendas said it was only a great white and not to bother him until she saw a megalodon.

‘I thought that was a megalodon,’ Sen told him.

‘When you see one, you’ll know. They’re as big as the ship.’

Sen’s stomach grew heavy at the thought. ‘Oh,’ she said.

‘Oh, indeed.’

They stopped in every Kazinian port up the coast asking after news of Argo’s, and it wasn’t long before they learned how notorious the ship was up here. It had barely been heard of back in Ryas, because it terrorised primarily defenceless Kazinian ships. Unless the ship was built for warfare, Kazinian crews were completely useless in combat. Most, Sen learned, didn’t even carry swords.

‘Would we better turning it into Kazinian authorities?’ Sen asked First Mate Teza when they were in port. ‘They might pay more, since it’s hardly making a dent in Tsayth’s economy.’

‘They definitely would,’ Teza confirmed, ‘but Kazinians are more open to bribery and corruption. They’ve been turned into Kazinian authorities four times, and bought themselves out with their stolen gold every time. Kazin will pay us, but then Argo’s captain will pay more to get themselves out. Kazin makes a profit every time he’s captured.’

Sen glared off away to her right. Not at anything in particular. Just at Kazin in general. ‘That’s disgusting.’

‘So we’re going to take it down properly, bring it back to Ryas where the crew won’t be able to buy their way out so easily.’

‘Good.’

They lured Argo’s in as they always did, by selecting a likely Kazinian ship to use as bait, hiding most of the Cocoa Black’s crew onboard, then following behind with the main ship operated only by a skeleton crew. Sen didn’t speak a word of Kazinian, but the crew of their little trader was clearly terrified.

After another month or so at sea, they caught sight of Tsaythi sails on the horizon. It was coming straight for their little piece of Kazinian bait, and as it drew near they could easily identify it as Argo’s.

Sen hid belowdecks with the other Tsaythis, where she drew her sword and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Kaiji. It certainly wasn’t their first time fighting pirates, but it was their first mission being promoted from the skeleton crew back on the Cocoa Black to the bait ship crew in the lead. The fighting was always half-over by the time they joined the fray from Cocoa Black’s deck. Today, they would be bursting out with the rest of the crew.

‘Nervous?’ Kaiji whispered in the dark.

‘Ready,’ Sen replied.

She heard the Kazinians screaming up on deck and hoped, however naïvely, that maybe none of them would die today.

‘Now!’ First Mate Teza barked, and the Tsaythis exploded onto the deck.

Sen burst forth with them, swung her sword with them and roared with them. Argo’s thumped hard into the side of their little ship, stronger by far and crushing the Kazinian’s railing, then the pirates leaped over their own railing, swung down from ropes and landed with a rattling thud onto the deck.

The Kazinians were already below decks, save for the two who had been shot by the pirates’ arrows. Sen kept her eye out for anymore arrows, but couldn’t see anything, and in any case, the pirates were already bearing down on her.

She fought back as she had been training to do, though the pirates were far more seasoned than she was. She clashed swords with the first and her arms jarred. She roared back at him, dashed his sword aside, slashed hard at his waist and saw a sword tip poke through his chest from behind. Before she could thank whoever’s sword that was, the second was on her.

Sen stabbed at her, clumsily, and had her sword battered away. The pirate stabbed back and caught Sen on the arm. Sen yelped and hacked back with pure reflex and instinct. Her strike caught the pirate between her neck and her shoulder, and she fell, roaring in pain, to the deck. Sen pulled her sword free and slammed it more usefully into the pirate’s windpipe.

No further pirates came at her. They had surrendered, gathering by the aft deck with hands on their heads and weapons thrown down, all the crew of the Cocoa Black surrounding them with swords pointed. Sen, panting heavily and her arm suddenly heavy, came forward to add her sword to the pointed circle. She caught sight of Kaiji across the other side and wondered how they had become so separated so quickly, then made her way over to hold her wife’s hand.

‘You’re wounded,’ Kaiji pointed out, just in case Sen hadn’t noticed. She sounded proud.

‘Sure am,’ Sen added, squeezing Kaiji’s hand. ‘You’re not.’

‘Still a clean skin,’ Kaiji grinned back.

Kenta jabbed her hard in the ribs. ‘Stop grinning. We’re fierce bounty hunters, remember?’

‘Sorry.’

Captain Gendas stepped forward, wiping the blood from his blade before he sheathed it. ‘Captain Maz?’ he called.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ one of the pirate women answered. ‘We know the drill. Who do you want as hostages to take us in? Usually me, the first mate and my son and daughter. Some take a few others, take your pick.’

‘That’s not how Cocoa Black operates,’ Gendas told him.

The pirate captain’s confidence wavered. She looked back over Gendas’ shoulder, apparently recognising the pursuing Cocoa Black for the first time. Sen tried not to grin when she saw her swear under her breath.

‘We can pay you,’ she babbled. ‘What are we worth now in Ryas? We’ll double it. How easy is that? You can even come back and do it all again next year.’

‘Still not how Cocoa Black operates,’ Gendas said, flat, almost bored. ‘In the hold. Now. Take half your crew—including your daughter. Your first mate will take your son and the rest of your crew into the hold of Argo’s. Then we’re all heading back to Ryas. Go!’

Sen kept her bloodied sword up as they poked and prodded the pirates into the two separate holds. Was that how Tu had turned to piracy? Being bribed by the pirates she was paid to capture?

‘Before you go down,’ Gendas said, roughly grabbing the pirate captain’s arm. ‘Know anything about the whereabouts of Captain Tu? Might get you a reduced sentence.’

Captain Maz reeled back, genuinely confused. ‘What is this? A trick question? You have her.’

‘I can assure you, we don’t.’ Gendas folded his arms, wary. ‘What have you heard?’

Maz chewed her lip, then shrugged. ‘Fuck it, I don’t owe her anything. It’s not what I heard; it’s what I saw. I saw her get captured in the pirate war. The king and queen took her on their own ship. Unless they let her go, you have her.’

‘Interesting,’ Gendas rumbled, then shoved her down into the hold.

Pirates dealt with, Sen wiped the blood from her sword and sheathed it until she had time to properly cleaned it. ‘Do you think she was telling the truth?’

‘Seemed like it.’ Gendas’ frown was deep and glowering. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time the tax office has lied, put it that way.’

Kaiji snatched her hand, her eyes fierce. ‘You’d better not be planning anything.’

Sen shook her head, then shrugged awkwardly. ‘I mean, would it hurt to ask?’

‘It might,’ Kaiji said darkly. ‘Come on. What we have is real. She’s your past now.’

‘It’s just my past that I want to know,’ Sen said helplessly. ‘One thing I’ve never been able to clear up was Tu and my parents. I just want to know of they were actually on Horizons’ crew or if they were on the other ship in the pirate attack. And if they were, were they the pirates, or was Tu? Please. She owes me that much. I just want to know who they were.’

‘Ask at the tax office, then,’ Kaiji suggested, desperate. ‘Give them your parents’ names and have them look them up, then they can tell you whose crew they were on and what sort of ship it was. They can do that, I’m sure. No need to involve Tu in it at all.’

Sen nodded, unable to argue the sense of Kaiji’s suggestion. Something in her, though, still wanted to front Tu once more.

STUFF

o Gendas is a badarse.

o Argo's is possibly the only restaurant/café in Adelaide that actually has a queue to get a seat in. It's in Norwood.

o Written at Red Cacao, posted back at home cos home is where the internet is. I'm now officially ahead! Which I need to be cos I'm doing a thing tomorrow night after work. Ideally I'd still like to get another chapter done tonight so even after tomorrow I'm still ahead, but eh, we'll sea. What's the next chapter? OH right. Maybe it will get done.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

You're a good egg, Gendas. I wonder if he has a wife somewhere.

‘You’re women now, and you belong to each other, but you’ll still always be my girls.’
SULA IS THE GOODEST EGG THOUGH. I love her. Good good mother. Who cares she's a bastard? (Well, all of Tsayth but still)

"She's in the Dungeons!... You'll get XXXGold to get her."

I mean I'm glad that Sen can not feel she has this horribleness hangin over her. BUT LIKE I AM STILL HOPING FOR NARTI TWISTS AND THINGS NOT BEING AS THEY SEEM SJDFBDF

Megalodon fears T_____T;;;

Those darn corrupt Kazinians (I love them) You glare away Sen, you have your pride.

Sen planning to fight alongside her wife is the best <3 I love them

Guys, you bringing arrows to a cannonball fight? (Oh wait, that's not invented yet.)

Sen the natural swordfighter <3 I just imagine Kaiji and Sen after the fight all like Ruby and Sapphire (https://youtu.be/qR5L5F7ebD4?t=219) which probably wasn't the intention BUT ITS WHAT I GET.

Gendas actually means Badass. I love him. HE WILL NOT BE BRIBED. he must have the sexiest wifu.

I AM VERY INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHERE TU IS AND WHAT IS GOING ON WITH ALL THIS, so Sen better HAD have questions.

Even if
‘Come on. What we have is real. She’s your past now.’
Is so goooood a line

[annarti.livejournal.com]

I probably forgot to mention this: First Mate Teza is Gendas' wife. Often--though not always--the way on Tsaythi ships, the captain and first mate are married. That or they're each captain of their own ships and meet up for like a month every year to make babies. To have it otherwise would be a weird power dynamic, though it does occasionally happen.

I'm so glad Sula came out as being a good good <3 She reads as such a buzzkill in the outline. Not villain, exactly, but just very grumbly. So I'm happy with how she came out =D

Pirates without guns and cannons is weird but eh, they haven't been invented yet. Give the next generation Kazinians some time X)

Ruby and Sapphire yessssss <3 It wasn't in my head as I was writing it but yes omg.

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

I am very glad to hear that Gendas has a gorgeous capable wife.