It took us seven days to reach the Islands. Otho and I spent the time helping the crew, more out of boredom than necessity. The Lord stayed in his chamber during the day, but at night he drank with the sailors and played cards. They liked him. I did too. In fact, everyone did. He was quite charismatic. You could feel his presence anytime he was around, despite often being quiet and reserved.

The sight of the islands filled me with cheer. I enjoyed the open sea, but after a few days the endless blue horizon became suffocating.

But Otho appeared worried.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I still have pirates on my mind.”

I wanted to say something, but didn't know what, so I remained silent. Then Titus approached us.

“Hey, lads. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing… He worries about the pirates,” I said and glanced towards Otho.

Titus looked at him, smiled and said:

“No pirate dares to come near Vetulonian ships. They’re more after the League and Porosia, the Elves...”

“How come?” Otho asked.

“Our Lord and the pirates have… an understanding…”

“So they’re friends? Allies of sorts? He has a personal relationship with one of their leaders?” I kept digging.

Titus sighed and again smiled.

“Alright lads, time for a story. Sit down.”

And so we did. Titus pulled a wooden box from his pocket, filled with tobacco sticks. He offered us some. We lit them with lenses, took deep breaths and exhaled. Smoking always felt good. Titus looked at us, yawned and began the story:

“Thirty years ago Lord Tiberius was about your age. At that time he was a pledge himself. He and a bunch of others were sent to the islands to hunt for relics of the Ancients. There was awareness the pirates lurked around and that the Big Island was their main base of sorts. But general consensus was they wouldn’t dare to go after the Vetulonians. A grave error in judgment on our part. One of the pirate leaders, I don’t know if he was bold or plain stupid, didn’t care we Vetulonians can be a nasty bunch. He captured Tiberius and the others and kept them hostages for about a year. A year full of misery! They treated us with such malevolent cruelty, women especially! I still have nightmares about it…”

“Wait... You were there?!” I asked.

“I was.”

“What happened?”

“There were six of us, three men, three women. Atia, I fancied Atia, died first. One of the pirates chocked her to death while raping her. I can still see the pirate captain scolding that pig. You went too far, now we only have two left!

The next who died was a girl named Octavia. She was Tiberius’s great love. You know... The one! Yes, I was smitten by Atia and her death devastated me! But Tiberius had to watch Octavia getting raped, day by day, for eight long months! Can you imagine the rage building up inside you? Huh… Well, after eight months Octavia died as well. Her body couldn’t take it anymore. I still remember Tiberius’s eyes changing the day she died. It was like… Hm, what’s the word I’m looking for…? Yes! It was like his eyes dissociated from his body and surroundings. He became indifferent. When I saw the change in him I knew he’d murder them all one day, every single one of them. I had no idea how he’d manage it, but I knew.

One day Tiberius and myself were ordered to check some lizard traps an hour of walk away from the camp. By then we’d been their prisoners for more than twelve months. Our legs were bound with shackles, so we couldn’t run away, and even if we were to try we wouldn’t have gotten very far. They’d catch us and we’d have our feet cut off.

I remember that day clearly – it was very hot, so hot that even insects were acting up more than usual. We didn’t talk, the two of us… There was nothing left to say… By that point we were more dead than alive. After we checked the traps, Tiberius tapped my shoulder and pointed to something. A plant. A blue flower. Telana. You know of this plant?”

“I do, it’s toxic, it puts you to sleep for hours and when you wake up you’re still dozy for days,” I remembered.

“That’s right, Antonius… Tiberius knew of this plant as well. I didn’t. When he started telling me his plan, I didn’t hear him. I was aware he was talking to me, but I couldn’t decipher what he was saying. I was numb to the point of not understanding words anymore! Imagine that! Only barking orders from the pirates, but everything else – gone! So he walked towards the flowers and picked them. Not that many. He then hid them between his ass cheeks – and I’m not even kidding. Pirates would search our pockets on a regular basis so he didn’t want to take any chances. And indeed, when we came back, they searched our pockets – so, good thinking on his part.

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It was our job to prepare the meals. Sometimes it was a roast boar, lizards, birds… But most of the time they ate simple fish stews with bread. So Tiberius mixed the Telana flowers with other ingredients. And the pirates that night, about an hour after they dined, fell asleep. As I said before, my mind was non-existent at that time, so I didn’t realize what was happening. But Tiberius’s eyes started flashing! He walked towards them and took a dagger from one of the sleeping pirates. He then started cutting their throats, taking his time, one by one. The blood started gushing from their bodies and I tell you, it was such a beautiful sight! – the red thick liquid squirting from their necks... As if it’s celebrating our freedom! But he skipped two of them. The worse ones! And only then my mind awoke again. What is he doing? I thought and realized my senses were back. I stood up and walked towards him. What are you doing? I asked. Help me out, will you, he said, you’re good with knots. We tied the last two and made sure they couldn’t get lose. What are you doing, I again asked. You’ll see, he answered. He then took the keys from one of the dead pirates and unlocked our chains. Then we went to a shack where Julia – our last woman colleague – was kept, like a dog, tied up next to a bed. He opened the door of the shack slowly. By that point it was dark already, so we had a torch with us. She thought it was pirates! We approached and she recognized Tiberius. What do they want? she asked. Nothing more, he answered. Then he leaned towards her left ear. He whispered, but I still heard his words. He said, I left a couple of them alive for you…”

We were quiet for a moment, then Otho asked:

“What happened next?”

“We unlocked Julia’s chains and went to the barrack where Flavius, another colleague of ours, was resting. We unlocked his shackles as well and dragged the two sleeping pirates to the shacks where Julia was held. And then she began her revenge. She took her time. They screamed and pleaded for mercy all night, despite being numbed by the flower.

In the meantime the three of us, on Tiberius’s command, cut the heads of dead pirates and spiked them. Flavius threw up... I'm a bit ashamed to say I enjoyed it. We then, although weak, managed to drag a small boat from the shore to the spiked heads and flipped it. Tiberius grabbed some paint from the storage shack and wrote on the boat: WE ANGERED VETULONIANS. After, he ordered we grab their headless bodies and lay them on their bellies next to their spiked heads. He took off their trousers and jammed daggers into each of the anuses, leaving them there. I liked that. It was justice.”

“Gods… How did you get off the island?” I asked.

“We used another small boat of theirs. The main ship was too big for the four of us. The boat had a small squared sail and we roved as well. We rationed our food and water supplies, also collected rainwater. We fished as well and let me tell you, raw fish tastes like ass. Not that I would know what an ass tastes like. You know what I mean!

Flavius was great at navigating, without him we'd never make it. And it wasn’t the hurricane season, so everything more or less turned in our favor. It took us two weeks and three days to reach Vetulonia. Not long after we came back Flavius killed himself. In a way I understood why. I thought about it myself. I think we all did. I also suspect one of the pirates was having his fun with poor Flavius. In secret of course, other pirates wouldn’t stand for such things… Oh, Flavius! He was so kind and gentle and smart! A lovely poet! I often find myself thinking of him. I wonder if we’d have left a few of them alive for him as well, if… If that would have given his tormented spirit some rest? I’m quite regretful me or Tiberius hadn’t noticed his state of mind, but we were busy with our own horror.

Not long after Flavius died, we all got knighted. They told us the Republic needs people like us! I landed in the Navy and Tiberius and Julia became knights of the spy division. You see, Octavia’s uncle, Tiberius's girl that died on the island – was the Captain of Spies. He and Tiberius shared a special bond. After a couple of years they started undermining the old Lord, with the intent of overthrowing him. They criticized him for his let-it-be philosophy. You see, at that time the Cohort started to become too dogmatic. Its original purpose was diminishing. The older knights were becoming more concerned with their personal enlightenment than serving. Philosophers! Pha!

It didn’t take long for the old Lord to step down – retire, and Octavia’s uncle became the acting Lord. He named Tiberius his Vicelord. Some of the Captains protested naming Tiberius to such a high position. They argued he was too young and inexperienced. But then again, what could they do? The public opinion was against them. People saw Tiberius as a hero and they detested the old guard due to their lack of acting… And that was that. After a few years Octavia’s father stepped down and named Tiberius as the new Lord of Vetulonia. Again, some objected, but most Captains accepted it. Tiberius, during his years as Vicelord, showed vast wisdom and a great sense for rule and people, gaining lots of sympathies among the ranks. He then named Julia as his Vicelord. I'll admit, when I first heard that, it concerned me. Being abused by that disgusting lot for a whole year... I wondered what her state of mind was after such a horrific experience. But she more than proved herself. I'd follow Julia anywhere!

Every once in a while Tiberius sails to the Kasos Islands. I’m not sure why. Me, I hate it when we pass the bloody thing. I have nightmares for weeks after.

When Octavia’s uncle became the Lord our navy started actively hunting down pirates. That lasted a couple of years until a few of their leaders sought for peace. From then on we have a non-formal peace agreement. An understanding. Also our repercussions centralized pirate’s rule. Before, they were independent rogues, each captain had his own set of laws and rules, but after our purge they established an alliance between them, fearing that if only one of them misbehaved, they’d all feel the consequences... You never thought to ask why the ship with Julia and your two lady colleagues sailed straight to Porosia? Julia hates the islands more than I do. Anyhow, that is it, end of story. I have to go back to work.”