The Storyteller: The Legend and the Myth
Nov. 29th, 2018 10:07 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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yrae
Twenty-Ninth Birthday
A mild tropical breeze wafted down over Freetown, carrying the spice of the island’s cinnamon and clove forests and the electric tang of a storm, as yet unseen, but always on the horizon at this time of an afternoon. A Llayan guitarist played at the corner of the Kazinian-styled bar, lilting voice singing in the praises of her homeland in Tsaythi.
Sen leaned over and whispered in Kaiji’s ear, ‘She’s making eyes at you.’
Kaiji giggled and rolled her eyes. ‘Blind as ever. She’s been making eyes at me all afternoon.’
Sen cocked her eyebrows, then slowly and deliberately wrapped an arm around Kaiji’s shoulders, all while staring straight back at the guitarist with a cheeky but possessive grin.
The Llayan shrugged one shoulder and winked mid-lyric.
Kaiji had been giggling all through the unspoken encounter. Now she gave Sen a quick peck on the lips and snuggled into her. ‘I’m glad to see you smiling again,’ she said with a contented sigh.
Sen lay back against the couch, pulling Kaiji with her. ‘I wasn’t sure I ever would for a while there. That’s all down to you.’
Kaiji craned her neck back with a noise that indicated she thought Sen was cute, but which only made Kaiji herself look more adorable. ‘Crew helped, too.’
The Red Cacao floated in pride of place in the harbour, the flagship of Sen’s quickly-growing fleet. Since adding Orana to it last year, and appointing Kes as the captain, Sen had captured a second, the Cocolat to her fleet. After first crewing Cocoa Black, her crew joked they should only target ships that had cocoa in their name. She had even caved to their pressure and had a tattoo inked onto her bicep, just as Tu had done—two cocoa pods in red and black.
Orana she had tasked as returning to their former lives as bounty hunters. They had been good at it, she reasoned, the best, and Kes had agreed. She was done with politics and missed the simple days of pirates and legitimate sailors.
When she had captured Cocolat, she split the crew of Orana and ordered they both fill the other half of their crew with bastards. By this time, word of Red Cacao and its crew of bastards had circulated around the villages of Tsayth. No more was a life on the ocean an impossible dream, not with Captain Sen on the seas.
The Chain of Pearls had changed perceptibly since Sula had taken the reins as governor, with Nak at her side. It remained a Tsaythi dominion, and that wasn’t something Sula planned to change until she could prove to the monarchs that it was a legitimate place now. As Freetown had now officially been recognised as the largest port in Tsayth, Sula had already begun works on a new taxation office. If Tsaythi ships could pay their taxes here, instead of having to travel all the way back to Ryas every year, then that would surely open more of the world up to Tsaythis. She was also working on making a case for taxes being payable every two years, giving legitimate sailors even more breadth for voyaging and exploring.
Most importantly, she declared, it was no longer a safe haven for pirates—at least not officially. Unofficially, it was too far away for Ryas to expend the resources on it. The king and queen were far enough into their reign now that they had become more outward focused. They recognised what the pirate war had cost them and worked on making that money back by negotiating further with the other nations and raising their own taxes.
The oldest of their offspring had only been born last year. There wouldn’t be another tilt at the Chain of Pearls for at least another twenty years, when that prince or one of his siblings took the throne. Until then, the pirates were reasonably safe. At least, Sen left them alone while she and the Red Cacao were docked.
‘I can’t believe that was only a year ago,’ Sen murmured. ‘How much has happened since then.’
‘Mmm,’ Kaiji hummed in reply, more to show she was still listening, though the warm voice of the guitarist was clearly distracting.
Sen ran her fingers back through Kaiji’s hair, earning another hum of pleasure. ‘Do you miss her?’ she asked.
Kaiji shrugged. ‘I loved the idea of her,’ she murmured. ‘Big brave adventurer, hunting leviathan, surviving sea dragon storms, climbing dangerous cliffs to dig for treasure. The Diamond Lake, gold nuggets, glowing phosphor rocks… even all the rumours, was she a pirate or wasn’t she?’ She sighed, and Sen could imagine her frown as she tried to put her thoughts into words. ‘But everything had an ulterior motive. The gold and treasure were to buy the Pirate Isles. The bounty hunting was to eliminate the competition and clear her own path. Even saving the defenceless little pirate baby so she could have a legitimate life, that was just so she could have an heir to the Pirate Isles.’
‘Hey, now,’ Sen scorned, gently. ‘You and I both know I was more than that to her.’
‘Not at the start. Anyway. Point is, I loved the idea of her. Just being around her, she always made you feel like you could do anything. She had that way with people. I loved the idea of her.’ She craned her neck up again, looking sincerely into Sen’s eyes. ‘And an idea can’t die.’
Sen sighed and kissed Kaiji on the eyelid, the only part of her face she could reach in this position. ‘I guess.’
Kaiji smiled encouragingly. ‘She never would have given up on the Chain of Pearls. It was always going to kill her in the end.’
‘I know. I just wish I didn’t have to be the one to bring her in. Her legend could have gone for so much longer.’
‘Or she could have met with another leviathan,’ Kaiji pointed out, ‘or a dragon storm, or any number of bounty hunters. Most likely that, if we’re honest.’
Sen laughed despite herself. ‘What would she think to see Sula, of all people, Governor of the Chain of Pearls?
‘She’d love it,’ Kaiji laughed back. ‘She always said Mama should have been a captain if she hadn’t been a bastard. Now she’s ruling a whole island chain. Nice work, Mama.’
‘And Nak’s still a fisherman,’ Sen finished.
‘Could you see him as anything but, though? He’s got a whole new sea of fish to peruse. That’s more than enough excitement for one man to take.’
They both laughed together and settled back into an easy silence. The guitarist was singing in her native language now, something Sen had never tried to learn. She had hired on a Kazinian for the express purpose of teaching her crew his language. She reasoned that, for a people that didn’t even have a concept of marriage, let alone practice it, technically the whole Kazinian empire was populated with bastards, though they didn’t seem to care. Indeed, their newest crew member seemed to find the concept of bastards bizarre, monogamy even more so.
There was a whole world Sen was yet to explore. She had been a bounty hunter for twelve years now, four of them as captain of her own ship. Tu had said she wanted to show her the world, but all Sen had seen of it was the ocean. She wanted to see the Diamond Lake frosted at the edges in winter, the stark red desert of Raykin, the impossible opulence of Llayad. Did the whole kingdom really dress like its sailors, or were they even more extravagant? The guitarist playing for them now was clothed in a knee-length, sleeveless dress that looked like it was made from leather, it had such heavy embroidery.
‘What are you thinking?’ Kaiji asked. ‘You haven’t said anything in a while.’
Sen shrugged. ‘You know we’ve never sailed up any rivers?’
‘Not too many pirates on the Ra-Lin,’ Kaiji pointed out. ‘Does Raykin even offer bounties?’
Sen frowned. ‘I don’t even know. But no, what I mean is, I’m wondering if it’s time for a career change. Tu was right about one thing; a bounty hunter isn’t a great place for small children.’
‘Hmm,’ Kaiji hummed thoughtfully. ‘Tsuchi and Kei?’
Sen shrugged. She hadn’t been thinking of them specifically, but as Kaiji had pointed out, she was blind until saw the two participants groping each other in the sleeping quarters. ‘Among others,’ she agreed, as though she had been paying attention to the love lives of her crew. ‘What do you think? Learn a trade, maybe even become politicians. We could start clearing the waters for Sula to declare the Chain of Pearls independent.’
‘Up to you,’ Kaiji said with a grin. ‘I’ve always said, I’ll follow you anywhere. And I mean it.’
‘Perfect,’ Sen murmured, ‘because I’m going to bring you the world.’
STUFF
THE END! I did it! NaNo won a day early, after basically starting four days late. I wrote the first chapter over the course of four days on my phone in hotels, in the car, on a plane, at the airport... and I finished a day early. OH and the total word count: 60,196. THANK YOU, PIRATES.
I'm now at Horizons Cocktail Lounge having just watched the sunset with a celebratory spiced rum mojito. Until 20 minutes ago, there was indeed a guitarist in the corner singing Angus and Julia Stone and Missy Higgins, among others. She's a Llayan guitarist in the Chain of Pearls, now.
God I've had so much fun with this. I've loved watching Sen grow up, and it's felt natural to me, at least. I've loved how her relationship with Tu has evolved, how Sula never ended up being the baddie, despite how she looked in the outline.
Aaaaahhh I feel good. That was such a fun story to write. Well back into the writing mood now, so you know what comes next. Ooh baby.
First, I'm going to celebrate this weekend by tidying the house, having a looooong, indulgent shower, doing ALL the washing and washing up, clearing the backlog of hundreds of emails and dA notifications and generally just getting back on top of life. Because shit knows I haven't had one this month. I have been a hermit. But I won NaNo. WORTH IT.
ONTO STEEL OMFG.
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Date: 2018-12-01 07:27 am (UTC)Nice tattoo Sen <3
AHHHH Sula governing the chain! I love it. Yes. That will do nicely.
Not what Tu wanted, but good enough for me.
Nak I love you, you had not enough of this story but I love you so bad <3 Good daddy
Yeah, Kazins and bastards don't work well XD
Good ending, the girls will be happy together living out whatever lives their ships take them to! I love them so much
CONGRATS ON NANOING
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Date: 2018-12-01 08:11 am (UTC)YAY I did a good ending <3 Endings are hard. Just once I'd like to know what the end of a story is before I know the beginning. That'd be a novelty.
THANK YOU FOR THE CONGRATS! I am proud of self.