Jackie could tell that this man wasn't your average joe. For one thing, he was ridiculously built for someone who served drinks at a bar. For another, he claimed to know his family, though he still couldn't bring himself to trust him. It could easily be a trap to capture him.
"Oi. You aren't after my bounty or something, are you?" Jackie asked, lowering his right hand to his cutlass. To his surprise, the man only laughed. "Killing your enemy without asking their name. How disrespectful."
He took Jackie's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "The name is Barke. We're going to my home. I'll explain everything when we get there." The words of a random man at a bar were not to be trusted, Jackie knew. So cautiously, he followed Barke through the streets of Tierra Dorada.
Under the twinkling stars, they walked through a deserted road with very few houses. The night was cold, and Jackie sneezed a few times as they walked along the scattered houses and collapsed structures which appeared to have once been grand mansions or towers. "What is this area? It almost feels like part of a small town rather than a massive city." He asked.
Barke ran his fingers through the short black hair which was visible behind his mask. "This place? Rumors have it that pirates once hid here. They were attacked by the Spanish army, and all of them were killed."
He pointed his thumb back at the shattered stone walls and conical spires that once belonged to a tower. "Those old mansions were given to the pirates by some of their rich mistresses to hide their loot. Big mistake of you ask me." Jackie lowered his eyes to the ground. Pirates often had a tendency to lose their way in wealth. Hundreds of years ago, pirates briefly changed their purpose from robbing and stealing to an obsession with the city of gold, El Dorado. But as times changed, so did many pirates. They became hungry for power, for territory. Even the noble Whitebeard was, based on what he had heard, embroiled in hatred for Blackbeard. He had interest only for vengeance, not treasure.
"Hey. You awake?" Barke asked, snapping his fingers in front of Jackie's face. "Oh. Yeah, I'm alright." He realized he had been merely drifting behind Barke unconsciously while sunken deep into his own thoughts.
Barke laughed a deep, throaty laugh, and pointed at the large house they were standing next to. "We're here."
To say the house was big would've been an understatement. It rose several meters into the air, with a massive dome at the center of the building. The main door was made of oakwood, and was a magnificent work of art. As he walked up the steps behind Barke, he realized the door was at least ten feet tall.
The inside of the house was even more impressive. It was absolutely massive, with the stars shining through the hexagonally structured windows set in a circular pattern on the ceiling. Two stairways curled their way to the second floor landing, where the immediate attraction was a small fountain with the statue of an angel at the center. Two housekeepers, one a black man with curly brown hair wearing a loose fitting waistcoat, and the second a black woman with a white bonnet coupled with her white apron worn over a black dress, appeared to be the ones in charge of the home.
"M-Master Barke! You're here early!" The female housekeeper stammered, and Barke laughed. "Relax, will you? I left the head cook in charge. They'll close up the bar in a little while." He did not remove his mask, but did remove his heavy black overcoat and hung it on the hook next to the door.
"And stop calling me your Master, both of you. You're free now. You don't have to do that anymore." He took a pipe from his overcoat's pocket and lit it with a match. Jackie thought he was going to take the weird mask off to smoke. But comically, he just stuck the damn pipe into the small gap in its mouth and sat down on an intricately carved chair with a green cushion on it. He motioned at Jackie to take a seat on the chair in front of his, and he did.
It was hard to take his eyes off the glamorous surroundings. They were sitting in the space next to the right staircase, which was taken by their two chairs, a small table placed between them, and a fireplace with a small flame burning through the firewood.
Jackie flicked his finger toward Barke's face. "You ever take that thing off?" He was still uneasy despite the grandeur of his surroundings. And the fact that Barke never took the mask off his face, even though he looked ridiculous with the pipe sticking out awkwardly through the mask's grinning lips.
He replied to Jackie with a laugh. "This? Why, of course not! I used to wear a much better wooden mask back in my days of piracy. Someone I once knew gave me this, so I decided to wear it after my own one was ruined. I feel naked when I don't have a mask covering my face. It doesn't feel right." He puffed some smoke out of the bowl of the pipe into the air.
Jackie was about to reply when the female housekeeper arrived with refreshments for him and Barke. It was a simple glass of orange juice for Jackie, and a white cup full of tea for Barke.
Normally, he'd want some alcohol as a beverage, but this time he was glad it was orange juice.
"You don't mind some juice, do you?"
"Of course not." Jackie replied as he slowly sipped the juice. He was impatient for the details on his past, but he wasn't so impatient as to be a bad guest.
That is, until he heard the words engraved to his brain since he was six once more.
We'll meet again someday...my little Jackie! It shook him to his very core. He had to know. He had to.
He placed the glass of juice on the small, round table in front of them and leaned forward, his eyes glued to Barke's face. "How...do you know who I am?"
Barke plucked the pipe out of his mouth and exhaled more smoke through the mask. His eyes were visible to Jackie through the round holes, which at least gave Jackie an impression of his thoughts.
He tapped the cigar and placed it on a small ashtray on the table, next to his cup of tea. With excruciating slowness, he took the cup and hovered it around the mask's mouth. His eyes were now half closed slits as he thought of what to say to him.
"Your father's name...was Harvey Blackheart. He was English, and met your mother in Brazil in 1731, 24 years ago."
Barke let this hang in the air for Jackie to process. And indeed, this was several things at once which Jackie had to absorb. His dad's name. His mother's nationality. When they met. He hadn't known any of this. After all, he was only six when he had been abandoned at Cariboa.
The housekeepers threw more firewood into the shrinking flames. Slowly, but steadily, the warm glow of firelight began to spread across the massive room.
"What...what was my mother's name?" He asked, his lips quivering as he did so. He could barely remember her. The only firm image of her he had in his mind was a brief moment, a final moment they had shared at Cariboa before she left him.
Barke took a sip, and let the tea slosh around in the cup as he moved his hand to the armrest of the chair. With a sigh, he continued, "Her name was Alexandrina de Felicia Rodrigues, and we called her Lexi for short. I wish you could have remembered more about her."
He let his head fall back on the back of the chair, and gently balanced the cup of tea on the armrest. "When she first met your dad, she was but a young girl aged 21, eager to travel and see what the world had to offer her. She was brave, foolhardy, and jumped into situations quite recklessly at times."
"Your father, Harvey, begged his older brother to let her come with them. You see, Harvey wasn't captain. Your uncle Gareth was. He eventually gave in, and she came along with them and just became a pirate. Casually as anything. Harvey and Lexi fell in love after five or six months together, and got married. And about nine months after the marriage, they had you."
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Jackie couldn't believe what he was hearing. And as Barke continued, a clearer image of the masked man he remembered from his memory began to form. He was definitely about as tall as Barke, and had coloured hands. He remembered the hands especially well since he had been picked up and spun around and carried by them when he was little. Although the mask of the man back then was completely different, he slowly realized that this was the same person.
Barke stared at Jackie with a warm look in his eyes. "I knew it was you the moment I saw you sitting there. Because of your hair." He pointed three fingers at Jackie's head. "Your father had the exact same. Blond hair with three strands falling over the left eye. You had the same hair when you were six. Wouldn't have it any other way even if we tried to change it."
Jackie couldn't help but grin, even with his eyes a tad bit teary. "It's the hairstyle I've been raised with. I couldn't change it if I wanted to."
"Because it wouldn't feel right." Barke said, tapping his crudely made mask. Jackie could almost hear the smile in his voice.
He paused again for a few minutes, looking into the fireplace as the wood crackled and snapped loudly. Jackie took another sip from his glass and placed it back on the table with a soft clank.
Barke ran his hands through his hair. "If you want to know what happened to your parents, I'd be more than happy to tell you. But I can't tell you a story with a happy ending. You're the one who has to create that ending for yourself." He called the male housekeeper, and instructed him to prepare some food and a glass of water before continuing with his story.
"Your parents were part of the Blackheart Pirates captained by your uncle, Captain Blackheart. It wasn't the most well-known crew, nor was it the strongest within the fleet it was a part of. You see, the Blackheart Pirates were part of the fleet led by the previous Second Ascendant, Uros 'Ice Man' Vukic." (Author's note: pronounced Uros Vukich.)
Jackie's stunned expression was exactly what Barke had been expecting. "Wha-what do you mean part of the Second Ascendant's fleet? They were that amazing?" To be a part of an Ascendant's fleet was something massive for a small-time pirate.
Barke laughed at his reaction and said, "They were amazing alright. Great fighters. Your mother was ridiculously acrobatic and skilled with a dagger. Her long, braided hair would dance behind her with each flip, sidestep and lunge, so we'd call her the Brazilian Bee. Your father was more of a swordsman, preferring to use a broadsword rather than a cutlass like you do."
Both Barke and Jackie lowered their eyes to his cutlass, the one given to Jackie by his father. Unlike Jackie, however, Barke had a different, far more knowledgeable viewpoint on that weapon at his belt.
What Jackie did next caught him off-guard. He closed his eyes, raised his head high, and smiled. As he did, Barke noticed the scar on the right side of his jaw for the first time. It pierced him with a feeling of both warmth and intense guilt.
He sighed again, and rubbed his forehead. Storytelling was much more tiring when the story was deeply connected to his heart. "I hate to wipe the smile off your face, kid. But unless I tell you everything that happened to your parents, I won't feel at least somewhat at peace." His eyes peered through the mask straight into Jackie's eyes. It reminded Jackie of Morgan's eyes. The same firmness and strict yet lenient discipline was there in Barke's own glare.
Barke pointed to the stone wall, right at a broken sword fixed to the wall on a wooden plaque. A little more than half the blade was still there, but about seven inches from the tip was gone. It was covered in dents, cracks, and even had dried blood stains still remaining on it.
"I was a member of their crew once." Barke said, his eyes averted from the plaque as though it was something poisonous.
Silence. A complete, uncomfortable silence.
It was at that moment that the housekeeper returned from the kitchen with cooked tuna and salad, with two cups of water for Barke and Jackie. He read the atmosphere immediately and practically flew behind the doorway to the kitchen after leaving the food on the table and taking Jackie's near-empty glass of juice.
Jackie kept his strong gaze on Barke, whose eyes looked tired now. The firelight painted his black eyes with a strange orange as he opened his mouth to speak. "As I told you, we were a part of Vukic's fleet. We were a strong group of fighters, scoundrels and adventurers. At least, that's how we saw ourselves. The beloved citizens of England, of course, didn't see us that way."
He knew what Barke meant. Pirates were viewed as monsters thanks to the minority that robbed and killed people. Because of them, all pirates were hated by the public.
"I joined the Blackheart crew when I was 21 years old. I'd been with Gareth Blackheart for a year before your father was allowed to join the crew. Once he did, there was no stopping him. He was a Water Ley user, with the ability to create barriers from water, whether it be water in the sea or the droplets in the air. Once your mother joined us, she trained to learn Elemental Ley, but never achieved it. We believed she was one of those who couldn't master Elemental Ley since they didn't have an affinity with an attribute. So she was satisfied with being an Advanced Ley user. Truth be told, her style of fighting with the dagger suited her far more anyway."
He paused to help himself to some of the steaming tuna, which he offered to Jackie. Although he would very much have liked to pretend he was depressed by refusing food, he was too hungry to say no. As he dug into the tuna, he looked up as Barke picked up where he had left off.
He moved forward slightly and said, "I myself am a Mist Ley user. I can control threads of mist, and weave them together in any desired shape." He raised his left hand and lo behold, an egg-sized ball of what looked like mist materialized in his palm. It spun, wove around and twisted elegantly, almost like silk struggling to exist in this realm. Tiny wisps of mist broke away from the ball continuously, fading away into the air as though nothing had happened.
Barke made the little ball spin, and pointed his index finger up to accommodate the ball on the tip.
"W-Wow. That's incredible!" It was the first time Jackie had ever seen Elemental Ley in action, and he could not close his jaw or stop his blue eyes from sparkling at the sight of the mist sphere.
Barke smiled behind his mask. He had the very same look on his face as his mother, when she was introduced to Elemental Ley. She had gawked at Harvey when he showed off his Water Ley to her, with an excited little sparkle in her eyes as she watched him do fancy tricks with his barrier ability with a silent giggle.
It was one of the few times Barke had ever seen her act so...girlishly.
The smile vanished when he remembered where the story was going. Of course, Jackie couldn't tell thanks to his mask.
He closed his outstretched hand into a firm fist, dissolving the mist into nothingness. His tone of voice once again returned into a serious, foreboding one.
"Needless to say, none of us were particularly weak. How could we be? We worked under the direct command of Vukic. We believed we were the best of the lot. That is, until the Lost War." His mask remained expressionless, but Jackie noticed the change in his voice when he named the war.
"Lost War? I don't remember reading anything about a war with that name. And I've read a lot of historic manuscripts and books." Jackie said, squinting his eyes at him in curiosity.
Barke adjusted the mask on his face and raised himself to his feet with his hands extended to the air. Jackie watched in astonishment as he summoned a massive amount of mist, not just from his hands, but from his forearms, and from the air around them. They whirled around and began forming miniature structures, ships, and people.
"The Lost War is unheard of, because information about it was never released to the public by those involved in it, to prevent complete chaos. It was such a terrifying war, that people genuinely thought the world could end if it wasn't brought into check." Barke explained, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he improved the details on the mist figures.
He continued, "My words cannot be good enough a way to tell you what this war was like. I was not there when it happened, but I've talked to people who were. Their words shook me to the core. It made me thankful to be alive to this day." His voice was hushed, as though he were afraid someone might hear.
Jackie watched as three figures became exceedingly clear through the mist. One was a woman who looked to be in her thirties, with short hair that reached her shoulder. He couldn't really tell what colour anything was since it was all made up of gray or white mist, but she was wearing a Captain's coat with baggy trousers coupled with tall boots which almost reached her knees.
The other was a quite tall man with a short cloak wrapped around his neck. It also concealed his mouth and nose, and was only long enough to reach his chest. He appeared to be quite physically powerful despite the long sleeved shirt he wore concealing most of his body, and had long hair tied back in a bun, with some strands falling across his back.
The final figure was that of an old man, his face greatly lined with age, wearing a cape that appeared to be made using the fur of some kind of an animal. He was bald, and didn't wear anything underneath the fur covered cloth, revealing the most toned and physically impressive body Jackie had ever seen on anybody, even Morgan. His trousers were slightly shorter than his ankles, and were held up by a belt with the initials "CD" on it.
But the most attention grabbing part of this man was the massive staff he held. It rose about half a foot above his head as it hit the ground formed by Barke's mist. There were small indentations which looked like letters on the handle, and the tip had a large sphere on it, from which four sharp prong-like points jutted out, pointing inwards at the center of the sphere.
He stood right in the middle of the other man and the lady with short hair. Despite being shorter than the man next to him, he had a strange, dominant feeling to him. As if even the mist could not remove the sheer strength eminating from his soulless eyes.
"Do you know who they are, Jackie?"
He could have sworn he had seen the old man in the center from somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place it. "No...I'm not really sure who they could be."
Barke's tone remained flat and foreboding. "They are three pirates, Jackie."
That sentence alone made Jackie inhale in shock, suddenly realising exactly who they were.
Barke saw Jackie's eyes widen, and knew he understood.
"That's right. These pirates are the Ascendants of the previous era. Captain Molly Garileth, Captain Collin Devils, and Captain 'Iceman' Vukic."