When the Revenge docked in Mekna, it was met with a fate most gruesome. Cold-blooded, premeditated murder.
Luckily, Momo and crew weren’t aboard to see it happen.
“Damn,” Kasula remarked. “Your instincts were spot on, Momo. If we had been on that ship, we would have been cooked. Rotisserie chicken style. Damn.”
Their crowded escape boat bobbed along the seaside a hundred meters out from the Revenge, which was currently being assaulted by every means of weapon and ammunition available: spears, fire torches, pickaxes and crowbars, crossbows and spatulas. Just about every person in Mekna, from the hawkers to the waitresses, took part in the all-out attack.
Unfortunately for the people of Mekna, the crew they were so gungho on murdering was already quite dead. A pack of skeletons now stood at the ship’s helm, summoned by courtesy of the Revenge’s previous necromancer captain. Luckily for Momo and crew, the boneguys were proving to be distraction enough. No one had seemed to spot their sorry little row boat yet.
“It wasn't instinct,” Momo said, laughing as she paddled her oar. “Nia accidentally tipped me off. She gave Vivienne a warning about coming back here, said that Kelly had been killed, and the entire town thought it was our doing. So I thought it’d be best if we didn’t sail directly to our deaths.”
“Why would they assume it was us? Ridiculous,” Kasula scoffed. “Not to mention prejudiced. Just because we’re pirates?”
“We’re not pirates,” Ribeye corrected her. “Not anymore. We drop that act right now and leave it to die at sea, or else we risk this entire getaway plan. Speaking of. Gita, have you gotten the story straight with the kids?”
“Aye, aye,” Gita said. “They’re all a bunch of sea orphans, ain’t that right, kids?’
The kids saluted her, rubbing furiously underneath their eyes to redden their cheeks and fake the appearance of sobbing. Gita had also dressed them in oversized sacks of flour to make them look smaller and malnourished.
It scared Momo just how prepared these children were for evading the law.
"What I don't understand is how we're floating on a giant… mechanical wolf," Nyk said dryly, her fingers picking at the metallic lining of the massive rowing boat. “The physics of it seems impossible at best.”
The Revenge hadn't come equipped with any escape boats, so they had been compelled to make do with what they had. And what they had was Vra’ta. The wolf had expanded to its greatest length yet, forming a crew boat that was long enough to house every pirate and every pirate-child aboard the ship. Its legs had turned to oars, its body a concave deposit to sit within.
“And Kasula still dares to insinuate that dwarven engineering is lesser than,” Grimli sniffed, scornfully crossing his arms. “Without Vra’ta, you would be nothing but ash and bones at the bottom of the sea right now. Think about that.”
“Vra’ta is a machine designed for transport, and it is transporting us. That does not make it exemplary,” Kasula responded, stubborn as ever. “You would not compliment a pot for boiling.”
“Yes I would, if it were a dwarven pot.”
Kasula rolled her eyes. “Point made.”
—
They arrived in Mekna without much fuss; the town’s residents had already turned to celebrating their victory against the boat and the bone-people by the time Momo docked ashore. She helped each of the children out of the wolf-boat, her maternal captain instincts kicking in. In turn, they saluted her, their faces brimming with excitement over the tales they would share with their parents and friends back home—stories of their valor as mighty, fearless pirates; their triumphant battles against goat-women; how they sailed under the midnight sky.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Listening to their cheerful voices stirred a warm, fuzzy feeling within Momo—a sense of nostalgia for the childhood experiences she had never known. Perhaps she had been too quick to judge Gita and Ribeye's scheme. Life was different on Alois than it was on Earth. There were no training wheels on the bikes here. No bandaids on the ankles. You were just thrust into it, feet first, and you flapped your wings as hard as you could.
Once the children had been organized into buddy pairs, hand in hand, Kami and his team joined Momo, forming a small, intimate circle on the beach's edge.
"So, my dear captain," Kami said, exhaling a puff of smoke from his pipe, "I'm afraid this is where we bid you adieu. It's been quite the adventure serving under your... unconventional leadership."
“It was a pleasure to have you on my unconventional crew.”
Momo returned his smile, though it was tinged with a bittersweet edge. After all that Kami had revealed, it was hard to look at him in quite the same way.
Going by their conversation the night before, she knew exactly where the lemur would be heading next: Refuge’s End. There, he’d deliver the dagger to Komodo, receive a whopping amount of gold in return, and set out on Mordecai’s next conquest. Momo had pressed him for details about the dagger's purpose, but Kami had insisted it was merely a security deposit. The Wraith Artifacts were viewed as tributes to Sera, expressions of loyalty. Nothing more.
She had briefly contemplated stealing it from him, just in case he was lying, but Kami was, above all, an Excalibur—an Excalibur with an exceptionally capable and loyal crew. It would have been foolish for Momo to challenge him on a ship adrift in the ocean, just as it would have been reckless to confront him here, on the beach, in the presence of Mekna's murder-happy residents.
Momo had asked him if Kasula and the rest knew about the reality of the situation. He swore to her that they didn’t. That they were blind as bats, following only the seductive scent of treasure and wealth. She wasn't sure if that made her feel better or worse. Would they have refused the plan if they had known who they were working for? If it meant betraying their own deity to do what was right? Momo's gut naively hoped they would, but her mind remained skeptical.
God, would I even be brave enough to betray Morgana if it came down to it?
She didn’t know. She hoped, selfishly, it wouldn’t come to that.
“If it isn’t my sister’s new best friend,” Kasula said with a smirk, drawing Momo from her tumultuous thoughts. “I’ll admit it, I’m going to miss you, you rascal. Promise me something?”
“Um, maybe?”
"Promise me you'll keep sowing your unique brand of chaos,” she said, smiling softly. “It’s good for the planet, like fertilizer on dried out weeds.”
“Um,” Momo blushed. “Sure. Got it.”
“Good.”
With her farewells to the crew complete, Kami and his many children headed west, toward a familiar location—the undercanals. The same bustling underground rivers that Akram had once shown Momo many months ago. Man, Akram. She wondered how he was holding up. She pictured him, Sumire, and Nura as one big, happy, slightly insane family frolicking around Morganium. She couldn't be more excited to return to them.
Once the others had vanished into the caverns, only Nyk and Grimli remained on the beachside. Momo, having grown accustomed to the raucous laughter and ceaseless chatter of the ship, felt strangely uneasy in the silence. The only sounds accompanying her now were the lapping waves and the smoldering remnants of the Revenge, now reduced to a charred, blistering hunk of wood.
“So, queenling,” Nyk said, an eyebrow raised. “What now?”
“Wait, you’re not leaving?”
Momo had been certain the dokkaebi would return to the Nether the moment they found Lione, but she didn't. In fact, she stayed for the entire voyage back to Aloysius, dragging her feet the whole way.
“It’d be a torture worse than death to leave you alone with this guy,” she said, motioning to Grimli. “And if anyone’s going to be torturing you, it’s me. So no, I’m not leaving.”
Momo grinned. She wanted to say something, to pry deeper, but she figured the more she pressed, the more Nyk would bristle. Regardless, it was clear she had become… invested, in some way, in Momo’s continued survival.
“I’m touched,” she said, completely genuine.
“Don’t be,” Nyk said, scowling. “It’s purely a matter of business.”
“Right. Business.”
Without pressing the matter any further, the business crew soon departed, riding on Vra'ta's ever-transforming back toward Momo's final destination—Morganium.
Oh, and on the way there, Momo received a little message in the Nether-mail.
Congratulations! For successfully navigating a voyage through the treacherous Barium Sea with no prior sailing experience, a hundred children in tow, and professional thieves lurking around every corner, you have earned the passive skill [Pirate’s Charm] under your [Demagogue] class.
[Pirate’s Charm]: Fish fear you, sailors respect you. Once a week, you can cast Pirate’s Charm on another person with a [Sailor], [Pirate], or other class under Nerida’s domain, and compel them to work on your crew. This skill cannot be resisted, but be careful who use it on – once the spell wears off, you might have hell to pay!
Momo grinned widely.
Sumire’s gonna love this one.