“For you, my Lady,” the sailor said, handing a ceramic mug of steaming, murky tea to the ship’s Captain. She stood on the forecastle of a beautiful three-mast ship, gazing out at a sea so calm that the crescent moon and stars were reflecting on its surface.
The woman did not look away from the horizon as she gingerly gripped the mug and lifted it to her lips. The sip was as ginger as the grip. After a split second of flavor, the woman began to cough, spilling the mug’s contents.
“This tastes like Chael’s piss,” the Captain said, wiping her mouth with her coat’s sleeve.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the sailor said with a sigh. “Should I brew another cup?”
“No, it’s okay,” the captain replied softly. “I’ll be alright.” As she spoke, a sheer wind cut across the still sea. The wool coat, worn thin by ocean weather, did little to hold back the cold.
“But your lips are blue.”
“I know, I know,” she said, shivering. “Thank you, though.”
“I don’t think she’s coming this way again. It is a big ocean, my Lady.”
“I have it on good word that Scott is in the area. The witch will sink tonight. My intelligence has not been bad yet.”
“A first time for everything, Captain.”
Not for him, Zora Dimitova thought. The Laughing Buccaneer had not failed them yet. But she could not shake the feeling of something dreadful below. A life on a merchant vessel and a career at sea and Zora had had always felt a shadow in the abyss below her. But in recent years, the shadow began to surface. Moments of unease of melancholy that would creep up when she spent too much time looking out at the ocean had been replaced by nightmares and hallucinations.
A leviathan shadow slicing through the depths. Its bulbous eyeballs, large as the sun, peer at her from below. A maw, large and deep beyond comprehension, sends the water around her ship’s hull churning and foaming. The acrid stench of death and decay filling the air around her doomed ship.
Then, a thunderous roar and the splintering of wood and the ship is consumed. And despite the cacophony, Zora can hear her crew, shrieking in horror, cursing their captain, as they are consumed. And that was the worst part.
What began as nightmares to be ignored became daydreams, and now waking hallucinations from time to time. During a battle on the sea, the crash of the waves would become that colossal roar, imbuing Zora with enough adrenaline to lead a three-man boarding party onto an enemy ship. A harbor with an open and safe pier, a reward for months of time underway, would morph before her eyes into the mouth of that mighty creature. She would order them to turn away from the harbor and go back to sea for weeks.
Targets that Zora would normally ignore were harassed at the behest of those terrible sensations. Ships she would just board for supplies before sending them on their way would be fed to the beast to spare her crew, but the chase continued.
And so Zora appealed higher. The god of the sea would surely have answers, but the fool offered no advice about the monster. His penchant for battles and huge treasure pulls would interrupt the captain any time she tried to confide in the god about her fears. He would only help her feed the beast. So Zora resigned herself to the only treatment she had found to be effective. Thus she became the most feared corsair the March had ever known.
“Captain! Light on the horizon!” The shout came from the crow’s nest and instantly brought Zora to attention. She squinted out into the darkness looking for the light of a ship.
“A light?” the same sailor who had offered Zora the tea remarked incredulously. “Why would she have a light?”
“I know, Johnston,” Zora responded, her eyes catching a slight flicker. Her ship had not lit a lantern above decks in days to dodge the enemy. “If it is her then she’s a bigger idiot than I had thought.”
“So we’re going to fight her?” Johnston asked.
Zora responded with a grunt; the signature introduction to a tirade. “The witch wants to come all the way over here and fly her flag? She will pay for it. If Dawnbreak Harbor burns, it will be by my own cannon. Not by some floozy from Gavundar who can’t be bothered to snuff her flames because it gets a little chilly. Scott thinks the winds are cold? Just wait till she feels the sea.”
“And that’s what I like to hear,” came a sudden voice that washed over the two sailors.
“Late as usual,” Zora said, not taking her eyes off of the flickering light. “What kind of scout shows up after the target is spotted by the front line?”
“Scout? Excuse me?” the man asked, scowling as he removed his leather tricorn, flicking droplets of water from it. Despite the dark of the night, the man was completely visible, lit by a cyan glow. He was clad in classical naval dress with a dark blue high collar waistcoat adorned with gilding and gold thread. “I am not an employee of the Scourge of Dawnbreak.”
“Yeah, yeah. Could you grab me that telescope, Tidus?” Zora said, looking away to give the man an exaggerated pout.
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“Grab it yourself, wench!” Tidus barked. Zora somehow redoubled the pouting effort and Tidus roared, snatching the telescope from the nearby metal rings that secured it to the deck.
Zora enjoyed the company of the sea god. He kept her mind off of the shadows and was as good a sport as any of her shipmates. He could, despite his ascendant position, take her worst attitudes and listen to her best ideas. The Laughing Buccaneer could never pass as trustworthy, but was at least something like a friend. For that reason, he definitely fit in amongst the ship’s motley. Not to mention how young he made her feel.
“Do me a favor Johnston and grab the colors,” Zora said as she raised the telescope to her eye.
“Y-y-yes ma’am,” Johnston stuttered, looking at the avatar of the sea god standing on the deck of the ship.
“So, is it her?” Tidus asked as Zora squinted through the apparatus.
“Aye, it’s the Marble Bear alright. That’s Scott and the moron’s alone.”
“Why thank you Tidus, mighty master of the seas, the Laughing Buccaneer. The powerful lord of the currents.” The sea god theatrically gestured as he ran down a list of titles, some real. Most not.
“Did you sink the rest of her fleet?” Zora asked, still watching the approaching ship.
“No. They never got underway. Scott’s truly alone right now.”
“So, you only provided me the intelligence you said you would bring me?” Zora asked, taking the telescope down to look Tidus in the eye.
“You said to let you know when the Marble Bear approached.”
“I did. Have you heard me thank my crew for doing the bare minimum?” Zora smiled wickedly as her game dawned on the god.
Tidus groaned. “You walk a dangerous line, Dimitova! Cross me and this ship would be sunk in the blink of an eye!”
Zora widened her eyes, blinking dramatically at Tidus, who roared in frustration. Zora looked down the deck of her ship. “Johnston! Are you ready?” she cried into the darkness.
“Aye my Lady!”
“Hoist the colors, pass the word, then take the helm!” Zora shouted. As the sounds of the crew scrambling around the deck reached the forecastle, Zora winked at Tidus.
The god shot back a sly smile, smoothly stepping up onto the gunwale. “Fair winds, Lady Zora. The Dreaded Scott shall taste the brine tonight!” Tidus took a step forward and dove into the sea. There was no sign of a splash as the crew got to work wheeling Zora’s cannon into position.
The captain looked back to the main mast and watched her colors raised. The flag was a gift from a renegade priestess of the Will. It was a velvet-black cloth made unique with a Will-enchanted lightning bolt design that crossed over its center. In the darkness, the bolts shined a color somewhere between white and blue, and gave off enough light to allow safe passage across the deck below.
Once the flag was in place, Zora looked to the port and starboard. Her two escort ships had raised their copies of the frightful standard, casting enough light to give the glossy surface of the ocean a brilliant blue glare.
The sign had been shown and Zora Dimitova’s small ambush fleet dropped their sails at once and began to approach the Marble Bear.
Zora looked to the east to see the dull purple of the coming sunrise. “Alright, boys!” she called, channeling just a tinge of magic so that the brisk wind would carry her voice to her other vessels. “The sun is rising, so if we want the Buccaneer's help tonight, we’ll have to make it fast!”
The crew gave a raucous cheer in response as Zora’s eyes honed on her prize. “Not that we’ll need it!” she added, and the crew cheered again.
The thrum of distant cannon shot cut the cheers short. The shots splashed a ways off the bows of Zora’s ships. The shots were not for effect, but to let Zora know that her aggression would be answered. The crew of all three of Zora’s ships moved into action as Zora glided amidships.
“Johnston, formation three!”
“Aye, my Lady!” the first mate responded, and flicked his wrist. A ball of green fire ignited in his palm with a pop and he threw it high into the air off the stern of the ship.
Immediately, the two escorts pulled ahead of the main ship. They opened wider to either side as the Marble Bear continued to advance into its enemies. The vessel focused on Zora’s ship itself, and seemed to not notice the escorts.
When the Marble Bear finally noticed the pincer, it was too late. They attempted to turn toward Zora’s ship to more quickly pass by the escorts, but the winds were not favorable to the movement. Zora had made sure of that. A strong, but icy gust summoned directly into her sails by the captain had turned her ships into waterborne bullets. With her red magic, the ships were traveling at least twice as fast as they could normally be counted on.
The two escort ships loosed their cannon on the Marble Bear simultaneously. Closer now to combat, the cannonfire became aggressive and strident cracks were punctuated by the splintering of planks. Scott attempted to fire back on her attackers, but her crew had not readjusted aim for the closer targets. Her shots soared just over the decks of the pincer formation. A mistake that would cost her.
“I’m ready!” Zora cried to her first mate as the ship rapidly closed the gap with the now wounded enemy vessel.
Johnston responded by initiating a wide turn, opening to the starboard before making a trembling turn to the port. Zora herself was now facing toward the Marble Bear.
As the target approached Zora stabilized her excited breath. The straining groan of the turn echoed in her mind. She let imagination run. The groan became the hunger pangs of that colossal beast beneath the waves. The fear welled up beneath her and she let it. Her heart rate quickened, but she forced her breath to remain slow. Finally, a spark leapt off of her pointer finger. She smiled, shelving the dread of that monster below as she raised her hand, fingers trembling, to point at the main mast of the Marble Bear.
The crash of thunder was deafening on the deck of Zora’s ship as a bolt of blue lightning leapt from her fingertips. It charged through the air, and smashed into the mast. The screams of Scott’s crew were music to Zora’s ears as the main sail of the Marble Bear erupted into flames. The shock of the lightning strike even threw a handful of sailors into the water.
“Breakfast time,” Zora said with a murderous grin that was truly just a mask for the relief she felt. This blood would hold the beast at bay for a while longer. Immediately, the sounds of the naval battle were drowned out by the mad laughter of a god.
A pillar of churning water rose up behind the Marble Bear, eliciting screams from the enemy vessel. The vortex pillar rose higher and higher until it was twice the height of the pirate ship before collapsing across its stern.
For Zora, the sound of the ship being ripped apart by the force of the ocean god’s attack blended seamlessly with the satisfied roar of the beast of her nightmares.
She watched, her grin fading, as fire spread across the weather deck of the Marble Bear and it began to sink, stern first. Day broke to the cheers of Zora’s crews, reveling in their easy victory.
“We did it my Lady,” Johnston called from the helm.
“That we did,” the Captain replied as she crossed to him, hurrying to ensure there was a wicked smile scrawled across her face. “The wench has two more ships we get to sink, too.”