A bloody smile.

Not much bothered Kiren McCormick. He had committed acts that would make Vlad the Impaler proud. He destroyed families, turned proud leaders into sniveling cowards, and made nobles watch their estates burn by his hands. Never once did Kiren not have a smile on his face.

However, Clovis' bloody smile after he died in the fight between him and Kiren made the infamous pirate's skin crawl. Clovis did something to the blue pearls that made them impossible to find, and Kiren spent the last 16 years trying to figure out what the old man did.

When Kiren's crew didn't find the peals despite many of them being skilled swimmers, he quickly moved on to increase his empire. He wouldn't let obsession bind his freedom and figured he would be better if they didn't show up again. Still, he couldn't shake away the desire to know what Clovis knew in his final moments.

Something shifted on top of Kiren, causing him to open his eyes.

He was in his private quarters, sitting in his chair. The desk in front of him had a map buried under a fruit bowl, empty plates of food, an assortment of books, and ornate trinkets that he needed to put in a secure chest. Hanging on the wall next to the door is the bloody coat of Clovis Sylvestre.

Looking down, Kiren found sleeping on his chest Lyssara Tidecaller, the lookout for the Obsidian Wraith. Everyone on the ship calls her Whisper as a joke. She stirred slightly in her sleep, her shimmering tail twitching as if she were dreaming of swimming in the water.

Everyone on the ship except Kiren was a monster, and Whisper was a siren. She was a lithe, fish-like humanoid with shimmering, scale-covered skin and fins that resembled fabric ripped from the queen's dress. Though beautiful to look at a glance, her inviting smile hid deadly teeth meant to hold onto prey until they drowned. She could speak but chose to stay mute for the crew's sake lest she accidentally bewitch them with her singing voice.

As the lookout, she was meant to be outside watching the waves for danger or the next quarry or landmark. This wasn't shocking, though. Whisper would often neglect her duties to mess with other crew mates or cling to Kiren, but thankfully, she was good enough at her job that she couldn't be replaced easily, given her hearing was unmatched. If she was here, it must mean the sea was calm.

Kiren liked having her warm body on him, but it wasn't lost on him that she, in part, only got this close to him because of the strong scent of blood on him and the fact he was a human. Either way, seeing as Whisper wasn't waking up soon, he leaned his head back into the chair to try and rest again.

"Kiren!"

Kiren's eyes snapped open as his door was unceremoniously opened by the harpy that employed him, Denny.

She looked infuriated, her black feathers ruffling and falling onto the wooden floor. Whisper was unmoving even though Kiren knew she heard the nagging harpy as soon as she set her talons on the ship. Her voice, sharper than her talons, was filled with contempt for Kiren's relaxed position.

"I come here to report where the blue pearls are only for the first thing I'm told is to wait for you since you are taking a nap." The talons on Denny's feet clicked against the floor in a desynchronized pattern, slightly irritating Kiren.

"We've already set course to Linburg," Kiren retorted tiredly. "There's no need to rush these things."

"He's not in Linburg anymore," Kiren sat up in his chair as Denny continued. "He's making his way south."

Denny proceeded to explain what she saw: the merchant boy, the girl with him in the garden, and the man who suddenly appeared to help the merchant boy, all on a small boat.

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Kiren nodded through Denny's briefing, but he returned to relaxing in his chair when she was done. His grin widened as he drummed his fingers on the edge of the chair.

"So," he said finally, his tone now light while dripping with malice, "you had the boy at your mercy, far away from a hoard of bodyguards and defenses, yet you chose to leave him be?"

"'A cornered animal bites the hardest.' He may be inexperienced in using the powers of the Gia Whale, but after our first encounter and being around water, I didn't want to risk a fight."

Kiren tilted his head. Denny's feathers rustled as she could feel the silent judgment coming from the infamous man. Her blood boiled at the thought that anyone would look down on her in such a way.

With puffed-out feathers, Denny said, "You don't get to question my methods, Kiren. Remember, you're the one working for me."

Kiren's chuckle was low and predatory. He rose from his chair, and Whisper slid gracefully to the floor with a hiss of displeasure. Kiren ignored her, his full attention on Denny.

The harpy didn't move until she heard a guttural growl behind her. She looked to see an ethereal dog with short hair that laid flat on its body as if it came out of the water, droopy ears, and fish eyes that blankly looked up at her. The growling beast bared its full row of teeth at her, showing that the long canines could go through a grown man's arm in one bite.

This was the spirit Kiren manifested, but as far as Denny knew, no one knew its name. It was an intelligent yet strange move to keep something like your spirit's name hidden since most Sailing Spirits openly reveal such information.

Denny turned back to Kiren, who was now standing before her. Despite her height and imposing wings, he still managed to loom over her with a suffocating presence. It didn't help that another similar-looking dog was standing next to him. His left eye now looked like a drop of blood floating in the water.

Another mystery about Kiren's main spirit was how multiple individuals could exist simultaneously. Each spirit can only manifest as one creature, so Kiren has multiple horrifying creatures.

"Working for you," he repeated as though tasting the words. "I suppose, technically, that's true. It's also true that I can't kill you, given your curse and all. However," Kiren's voice dropped while still smiling as he saw the dread form in Denny's eyes, "don't forget who's the captain here."

Denny tried to step back, only for the dog behind her to snap at her ankles. With a hiss, she said, "All I'm saying is that if you don't move fast, the pearls will slip away from us again."

Kiren pulled back from Denny, his eyes trailing upward as if calculating something. He then returned to his desk while the dogs remained where they were. With one sweep of his arm, Kiren brushed aside the clutter to see the sea chart underneath the trash. He pulled out his bone knife to help scan the map methodically until he found what he sought.

"You said they were going south?" he mused. "Then their next best stop is Erytha."

Denny stiffened. "How can you know that?"

"Simple," said Kiren cheerfully. "If your merchant boy has as much wit as you believe he does, he will want a neutral port, and Erytha has made a name for itself as a safe place."

Denny's claws dug into the wood, trying to remember Erytha. She had been flying around the sea for a while and yet never heard of a safe, neutral haven called Erytha. "How do you know about this place?"

"Because one of my ships is coming soon to retrieve something."

"Retrieve what?"

Kiren's grin widened. "The specifics aren't important to you. Just know that my control over the Mediterranean is tight, and the merchant boy has nowhere to run. Now, do you see why I'm not in a rush?"

Kiren's spirit dogs faded back into the nothing they came from with a whine, leaving the ship's creak and distant call of seabirds. Whisper, who had been watching silently from the floor, finally rose, her movements fluid and unnerving in her grace. She crossed the room to stand behind Kiren, her luminous eyes fixed on Denny.

"Prepare the crew," Kiren said, his tone brisk and commanding at last. "We'll make for the islands near Erytha at full speed."

Denny lingered for a moment, her feathers still ruffled. She wasn't a part of Kiren's crew, so she didn't understand why he was giving her orders. Still, she was too shaken to argue semantics and left the room, her frustration palpable.

Whisper's laugh was ethereal, as if she was underwater, her lips curving into a faint, predatory smile. She swayed behind him like a coral reef, gazing at her human captain with fascination. Although he accepted her and other monsters when the rest of his kind feared them, Kiren could be just as cruel to them as he was to other humans. It was paradoxically pleasing and terrifying to her.

"I agree," Kiren replied to the unspoken comment. "She will be fun to have around even though we are both after the blue pearls."