The Storyteller: The Truth

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Twenty-Seventh Birthday

The sky was suitably dark when the Red Cacao and Cocoa Black sailed into Freetown. The sea was steely grey and white-capped and Sen could see the dark smudge of a storm on the western horizon. The Orana was in port, rocking against the most favoured of the docks, closest to the centre of town. Behind it, palm trees whipped back and forth in the stiffening wind.

Sen stood with Kaiji at the prow, eyes darting between every person she could see on the docks and trying to identify Tu among them. She held Kaiji’s hand, providing comfort just as much as she took it.

‘Nervous?’ Kaiji murmured.

Sen took a deep, steadying breath at the word. ‘Ready,’ she agreed. Being scared was the best time to be brave. Tu had taught her that. ‘Ready.’

As the Red Cacao pulled into the docks, Sen jumped over the railing to land with a heavy thud on the wooden planks. ‘Take me to Tu,’ she demanded of the first dockhand to come by, a young boy with the ginger hair of a Kazinian.

‘Yes, Captain,’ he answered with a dip of his head, then bolted off down the jetty towards the town.

Kaiji was off. Sen glanced at Captain Gendas, just jumping down from the Cocoa Black, before chasing after her. She was ready.

The boy led them to a Llayan-style inn built from the local black, volcanic rock and pink granite. It was affectionately called the castle, such as the Chain of Pearls had any defence. Until recently, their secrecy had been their best defence. Now the world’s bounty hunters were catching wind of their location, Sen wondered if they would build something more defensible.

Inside was a courtyard with a small palm grove in the middle. The inn’s rooms surrounded the palms on two levels.

‘She’s up there,’ the boy told them, holding an expectant hand out. ‘Room eighteen.’

Kaiji ran for the stairs and started taking them two at a time.

‘Thanks.’ Sen pressed a pair of copper coins into the boy’s palm and chased after her wife, Gendas’ heavy footsteps thumping behind her. Her longer legs caught up to Kaiji and she grabbed her by the arm just before she was about to wrench the door open.

Kaiji spun, face contorted in rage, but Sen knew the rage was directed behind the door, not at Sen. She held Kaiji’s hands more gently, then pulled her close for a hug. Kaiji’s back muscles softened as she returned it. When she took a deep breath, Sen released her. The rage was still writ large on her face, but it was controlled now.

‘Ready?’ Gendas’ voice rumbled behind them.

Sen nodded. ‘Thank you for being here,’ she told him. ‘I don’t know how this is going to end.’

Gendas moved forward and braced his hand on the door. ‘Let’s find out.’ He turned the knob and pushed the door open, filling the doorway as he forced his way into the room.

‘Gendas!’ Sen heard Tu’s ever-chirpy voice from behind the huge silhouette of her old captain, but there was something on edge in Tu’s tone now. ‘A pleasure as always.’

Sen took Kaiji’s hand, holding it white-knuckled as Gendas shrugged and stepped aside. ‘I’m just the muscle this time around.’

Tu’s face looked at Gendas in mock disappointment when Sen saw her. She sat in an ornate wooden chair at a desk by the window. The surface could hardly be seen under her papers and maps. Kes sat on the corner of the desk, arms folded. Both of them suddenly looked old, Sen realised. ‘Gendas. You’re more than that.’

The captain stood aside, gesturing forward for Sen and Kaiji to take the floor.

‘Hand over Sula and Nak,’ Sen ordered, forcing her voice to stay calm, ‘and we might even leave peacefully.’

Tu’s elbow rested on the table, holding her head up as she frowned, studying the two women standing before her. ‘You know,’ she murmured, almost to herself, ‘even after all you’ve done, every cut you’ve tried to make on me, I still love you. Isn’t that strange?’

Sen clenched her jaw and tensed her arm to keep Kaiji from charging at her. ‘Hand them over,’ she said again. ‘I’m not joining the Orana.’

‘I wonder if that’s what mothers feel for their children,’ Tu mused. ‘Is that what they mean by unconditional? Because after all I did, all the care and love I’ve ever shown you, you’ve actively set out to hurt me, haven’t you?’ Her teeth were starting to show in her words now.

Sen hesitated a moment. ‘No, Tu, I haven’t. But you’ve set out to hurt me.’

‘I saved you!’ Tu sprang to her feet. The chair scraped behind her before clattering to the wooden floor. It took all Sen’s self-control to not take a step back from her; instead, Gendas took half a step forward.

Tu didn’t seem to notice him. ‘Jita would have dissolved into just another backwater without me. Without my jetty, you would never have seen another ship. Without the ships I brought you, you would never have joined the Izakaya; you would never have learned to sail. Without me, you would have had a shitty little junk not capable of leaving the shore. Without me, you would never have met Kaiji.’

Sen heard Kaiji take a rage-filled breath beside her.

‘I gave you the world!’ Tu exploded. Her eyes were red. ‘You’ve repaid me with betrayal. Why did you do that, Sen? What did I do to you that was so horrible?’

Sen shook her head, slowly. Even now, she felt a pang for her once-friend, but it was pity she felt. ‘I never targeted you,’ she said, carefully. ‘I followed you.’

‘Followed me?’

‘I wanted to be a bounty hunter, just like you.’

Tu set her hands on her hips, casting her face skyward as she turned a small circle on the floor. ‘Just like me,’ she murmured. Her lips parted in a bitter smile, then she spun on Sen again, teeth bared as she gestured forcefully out the window. ‘This was all for you, you understand? I gave you the world, but I wasn’t done yet. This stupid, fucking country… you can’t have a legacy without children to carry it on. That was going to be you. No, you’re not my blood, but fuck, Sen, I love you like you might as well have been. You know Llayad does that? They call it adoption. An adopted child is part of their adoptive parents’ family in all things. The parents might as well have given birth to the kid, they’re so close.

She held both hands out to Sen, almost as though asking for a hug. ‘That was you, Sen. I was going to make this place legitimate. Real. The Chain of Pearls were going to be my legacy, but without someone to take it over after me, it’d just dissolve back into this lawless place. The Chain of Pearls was going to be a real free place… and I was going to give it to you.’

She let out a rush of breath and raked her fingers back through her hair before setting them once again on her hips. ‘I still can,’ she pointed out. ‘I still want to. Wind and tide save me, I still love you. You’re a better person than I am, Sen. You’d do this place right. Would you take the Chain of Pearls after me?’ She swallowed. ‘Will you?’

Sen caught herself before she gave an answer. She just wanted to captain her ship, train her crew, maybe one day expand into a fleet. A whole fleet crewed by bastards. That was how she wanted to shape the future. But here, she saw a sickening opportunity.

She gave a tiny nod; a lie. ‘If,’ she said, before Tu could react. ‘If you turn over Nak and Sula, and you turn yourself in.’

Kaiji gasped. Gendas shifted, creaking the floorboards. Kes’ hand flew to her mouth and she slid from the edge of the desk. The wind whistled through the roof.

Tu closed her eyes, her face suddenly serene. Her shoulders relaxed, and a tiny smile touched her lips. She mouthed something Sen couldn’t hear, but it looked like, ‘That will do.’

Sen’s grip loosened around Kaiji’s fingers. She rubbed her thumb comfortingly over her wife’s knuckles.

Tu took a deep breath without yet opening her eyes. ‘You can get them now,’ she told Kes.

Kaiji’s grip tightened again as she watched the big first mate leave the room. Nobody else moved.

Sen watched Tu standing before her, eyes still closed, arms down by her sides. She could hear the wind building outside, hear her own heartbeat in her ears. Was Tu listening to hers now? Was she anticipating her own end?

Sen let go of Kaiji’s hand and crossed the distance to her old friend. She hesitated a moment, then held her arms around Tu’s shoulders. Tu hooked hers around Sen’s waist and rested her head against Sen’s chest with a shaky sigh.

‘Did you ever…’ Her words trailed off with a shake of her head. ‘No. I don’t want to know.’

Sen guessed her question. ‘You were the second-most special person in the world to me.’ She took a breath, feeling tears stinging the back of her eyes.

‘I’m glad,’ Tu whispered through a sigh. ‘The only regret I’ve ever had was the Horizons wreck. If only, I keep telling myself. If it hadn’t wrecked, I would have taken you on board on my next visit—which would have been your eighth birthday. I had it all planned, down to what I was going to say to Sula. We would have returned every year, and you’d have been the one telling ocean tales. I’d have taken you to the Diamond Lake in Kazin, up the Ra-Lin into the red desert of Raykin.’

Sen shook her head and sniffed. ‘Stop it. I still wouldn’t have been a pirate.’

‘No,’ Tu replied with a soft chuckle. ‘You were always so headstrong! The first time I came back, down on the beach, you came running up and hugged my legs. I felt special, like somehow you’d remembered me, though you’d only been a few days old when I left you the last time. Sula spoiled that, told me you did that to everyone you met, whether you knew them or not. Always open, always with a mind of your own. You wouldn’t be told anything.’

Sen closed her eyes, squeezing tears from them. ‘We can still do all that, you know. I haven’t seen Tisadez yet, haven’t been to Llayad. Just give up this stupid dream for the Pirate Isles. They’ll always be pirates, but you don’t have to be.’

Tu patted her back with a quiet noise of sympathy. ‘Except the world has branded me one. Years and years before I became one. When the Tranquilo turned up in Ryas, that was when I was branded a pirate. I tried to be legit for another two decades before I gave up on the world, and then the pirates said I was too legit and they wouldn’t show me the Pirate Isles!’

She pulled back, eyes red but serene as she held Sen by the shoulders. ‘But you, my strong, brave girl.’ Sen smiled, watery, with her. ‘You’re going to bring in the notorious Pirate Lord Tu. You and your bastard crew are going to be famous—and you, for the right reasons.’

She hugged her again. ‘You’ll be the right thing for the Chain of Pearls. I know it. You’ll be the one to bring them, shining, into the world.’

STUFF

o This was the only chapter I hadn't totally planned at the beginning. Tu's portion of it was 'Tells of why she saved Sen' because I figured--or I hoped, more accurately--that the real reason would become apparent as I wrote it. And it did! So that's worked out nicely. She wound up being more passionate about the Chain of Pearls than I had ever planned. Good onya, Tu. GOD I LOVE HER SO BAD.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

It is a big showdown coming. And the weather knows it.

Being scared was the best time to be brave. Tu had taught her that.
SEE HOW IMPORTANT SHE IS IN YOUR LIFE???GNDFNG

Lookit that boy, earning his cheeky ass coin.

Kes sat on the corner of the desk, arms folded.
The eternal leaner.

Oh come on Tu, now's not the time to act all abusive mother grothal on us.
(Although like I understand where her hurt comes from, with her POV)

Tu's plans are too big for even her, and that's the sad truth.

AN ANSWER SO SHOCKING IT MAKES KES MOVE. And makes me gaaaaaasp. Sen has a plan?? Because I know she suddenly hasn't come around to piracy.

God Tu is the rock and Sen is the hard place and they both kinda wouldn't have the other any oher way.

I LOVE TU SO BAD TOOjdbgubdfg

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Lookit that boy, earning his cheeky ass coin.
Unsure if Gendas or random Kazinian dockhand. Both are acceptable X3

Tu's just hurt, never abusive. She's just trying to say WHY she's hurt and can't you all see I'm hurting? Why would you hurt me like this when I love you? (Valid point, honestly.)

God Tu is the rock and Sen is the hard place and they both kinda wouldn't have the other any oher way.
My favourite trope honestly. Look at Nol and Mithé over Alurié's memory. Assili arguing with Lynnlita over what to do with the assassins. Nimay and Yamin over Nol, even. People who love each other having wildly different and stubbornly immovable opinions.