"Huh? Bl-Blackheart?" Jackie stammered. He had never known his last name when he grew up on Cariboa. The townsfolk never told him. "That's my last name?"

The bartender nodded, and motioned to Jackie to follow him. Jackie complied, and walked after him as he exited the bar through a back door. It shut before he could get out, and he had to open it back again to leave.

All this was watched by one man in particular, sitting in a private booth by the far wall. He was in a partial suit of silver armour made up of an iron chestplate and two shoulder guards, with a short, blue cloak swung over the left one. The grey hat that sat on his head had a red feather on it, which matched the red gemstone in the mask he wore, which was covered in blue wavy markings.

This man was a personality who wasn't seen very often in public, if ever at all. He was the leader of the Bounty Hunters Guild, popularly known as the Hunters, and he was rumoured to be someone on the level of an Ascendant.

The man in front of him was Brosse, a French bounty hunter from an independent French guild called the Violet Hawks. He wore a chest guard over his green long-sleeved shirt, and refrained from wearing a mask. He chose instead to allow his mousy, bearded face to be revealed.

"This happens once or twice a week. Someone decides to fuck around and start a fight. Never ends without bloodshed." Brosse growled, taking a long swig from the bottle of wine he'd bought. "But of course, you aren't exactly new to this nonsense, are you? After all, you are Guildmaster Frost. Your own guild looks something like this, based on what I hear."

Frost shook his head and pulled the mask up a tiny bit to allow a sip from his glass of water. "Having a wild gang around me doesn't mean anything. They all look up to me."

"That's different. Frost, you don't command the same level of respect as the Ascendants. Or the deputy commanders of England. That's why it's hard to believe you're on the same level as they are."

Brosse lowered his hand to his belt, and removed a leather bag from his waist. "Payment. All three hundred gold you asked for." He placed the bag on the table, and the coins inside rattled loudly.

Frost took the bag and strapped it to his own belt. "So remind me again what information you want from me?" He asked Brosse, who chuckled with a hint of skepticism in his voice. "Don't you play dumb with me. I asked you for confirmation about what I've been hearing has been going on in England."

"Ah. That. Well I'm sorry, but I'm not someone with a particularly good memory." He leaned back into his seat, apparently thinking about something. It was impossible for Brosse to tell what he could be thinking about, thanks to the mask covering his face.

Suddenly, Frost snapped his fingers and leaned forward. "You wanted information? Here it is. England are going to start a new program to announce the existence of Ley to it's citizens. They're planning to release documents regarding Ley to the Public Library too."

Brosse's eyes widened in shock. This could be revolutionary.

"Then that means this decision was approved by the Supreme Commander and the King himself?" He asked, almost whispering now. Mentioning the Supreme Commander and the King of England in one sentence was in itself a terrifying thing.

Frost nodded. He raised a finger and said, "If the citizens of England learn of Ley, news will spread to other countries like wildfire. And then more and more pirates will learn about Ley, and the number of Ley users around the world will likely increase tenfold."

"But why? What's the purpose of this?"

This time, Frost raised three fingers. "There are three main powers in the world that keeps the balance of power."

"The King of England,"

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"The First Ascendant of the pirates, Blackbeard,"

"And myself, as Guildmaster of the Hunters."

"The King of England leads the battle against the pirates, of whom Blackbeard is their biggest threat. There's a deeper, more sinister side to that story, but I can't tell you that one, Brosse."

Brosse shook his head in disappointment. "What the hell are you talking about? If there's a sinister side, you know I want to-" He stopped when he saw Frost's raised hand.

"Now, the King of England and the strongest pirate are constantly at war, Blackbeard with his fleet and the King with his own. I, as the Guildmaster, am the neutral space in between these two sides. Give us enough pay, and we help whichever side. That's been the rule for a long time."

"But now, the King is planning to increase the infighting within the pirates with this move. What the Royal House and the King are planning goes back a long, long, time, Brosse. You cannot even begin to fathom what's going on. Increasing the violence within the pirates is only the start. The three Ascendants are the pillars of the pirates, and something has to give way."

Brosse have Frost an intense stare. "Is that part of the reason why you're here?"

Unbeknownst to Brosse thanks to his mask, Frost's sea-blue eyes moved towards the table where the Jackie Pirates had just been sitting.

"Perhaps."

* * * * *

Elma watched Jackie leave with the bartender from afar, and sighed wearily. If Jackie was going to go with him, there really was nothing she could do. Not after she called his name and he motioned for her to stay back.

Ugh. What a pain. Now I've got to tell Eddie about this. And Borris will probably be furious too. She yawned, and walked over to where Eddie was, bent over on the ground near the bar's entrance as he patched up the injured thug's new stump.

"You've got some nerve, sealing up my wound after cutting my hand off." He growled at Eddie, who only pushed his long blonde hair out of his face and smiled. "I know what I did, but it was in self defense. You did take out the dagger to stab me first."

"And anyway, I've always helped anyone who's hurt. Regardless of whether they hate me, like me or want to kill me. Because I'm a doctor, and that's what a doctor does. As long as anybody is still alive, I can't allow myself to give up on their life." He said as he finished patching the man up.

He looked at Eddie in genuine shock, and turned away. "You're a strange man. And certainly a strange doctor." He rubbed his neck, which ached where Elma had struck to knock him out.

"Thanks."

Eddie's eyes practically popped out of their sockets in surprise at this. The man didn't say another word, and walked off to get more people to help carry the rest of his group of unconscious friends off the streets.

Even though Eddie knew he couldn't hear him, he still stuttered, "Y-You're welcome." He narrowed his tearful eyes and rubbed his face with the sleeve of his white coat, leaving a dark gray stain on it. Elma watched this quietly from a short distance, knowing what Eddie had gone through to provoke that reaction. He had changed greatly since they'd first met. Though from time to time he might show brief hints of his trauma or unhealthy habits, he had in general become more confident and more open with other people.

She waited a moment or two for him to gather himself, and gently touched his shoulder. "Eddie. You alright?" He turned around, his face looking much more firm and almost normal already.

"Elma? Where's Jackie?"

She told him what she had seen, and what Jackie had instructed her to do.

"St-stay back?! Leave him on his own with a suspicious bartender? Bullshit! We've got to-" Elma tightened her grip on his shoulder.

"Eddie. Trust Jackie. This is one of the things from the past you still hold onto. Your fear of losing others. You need to learn when to help someone and when not to, or else it's gonna come back to bite you." She looked at him with a mixture between a motherly warmth and a warrior's ferocity.

Eddie still wasn't completely convinced. "Elma, I... I'm not sure. He got in trouble with those other guys when he went after the thief. What if he gets in trouble again?"

This time she pulled he hair, and he yelped in pain. "He beat all three of them on his own, didn't he?" She asked, and forced him up to his feet.

"Eddie. Please." She looked at him with her eyes wide and serious. It was the first time Elma had ever said the word "Please" to Eddie in all the years he'd known her.

He groaned. "Well, if you're asking that nicely, there's no way I can say no, is there?!" He had always admired her courage and conviction. Yeah, she's the vice-captain of our crew for a reason.

He tapped her forehead lightly, a renewed smile on his face. "You go ahead. I'm going to go and visit Miss Boudicca now, and see if she's feeling better!"

Elma stared at him judgementally.

She stared.

And stared.

"......What?"

She slapped his face with all her might without warning, knocking him to the ground. "OUCH! What the fuck was that for?"

"No sex." She muttered, pointing at his face. "No. Sex. With. Your. Female patients. Got it?"

Eddie gritted his teeth before nodding. "Fine. No goddamn sex. You happy?"

Rubbing his throbbing face, Eddie walked away in the direction where Boudicca's house was. As she watched him stagger around the busy street, she yawned again.

Why does Jackie always leave the hard work to me?