“Captain…” I said cautiously. “Would you… want us to free you? If we could?”

“And how do you propose to do that?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me.

“Oh, well, the way we do most everything.” I smiled wryly. “Trial and error. Luck? You keep shouting at me not to cook for your crew.”

He took a step back from me. “That’s… you don’t need to remind them of that!”

Soriya suddenly gasped. “You don’t want to be free! You’ve got your own little kingdom here, and you don’t want anyone to release you!”

The captain narrowed his eyes. “I’ve no idea what ye be talking about. But I think this conversation be over. Your passage be paid for, but there be limits to my tolerance. I’ll be thanking ye to get off my deck.”

He turned and stalked over to the wheel, ignoring us. I nodded towards our cabins, and Soriya nodded back. We headed quietly down the stairs and towards our cabin.

“Well, that was clear.” She said quietly.

“Hard to be clearer.” I agreed.

“So. What do we do?”

“What do you think we do?! We’re heroes, right? We’re going to free these captive souls!”

Soriya stopped and looked at me. “Lily… ‘free’ souls… we’re just killing them. Letting them return to the Well.”

I looked at her. “Where we came from. And I think if there’s a place for second chances, don’t you think that’s something a hero can give?”

Soriya laughed. “You really are a perfect heroine. Alright, lets make a plan to free the crew. But possibly a bit later in the journey, you know, so we can get where we’re going first? We’ve already had one ship sink under us; I’d rather not make it two!”

I smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

We walked a bit towards the back and Soriya suddenly said “So, do you wanna talk about it?”

I stopped and blinked at her. “Uh? Talk about what?”

She means the being dead part. She means the coming to terms part.

I stood there, feeling an ache open in my soul.

Soriya didn’t say anything, simply wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. It was nice… I wasn’t going to deny that, Soriya was still incredibly beautiful. But the hug…

“Yes. I do want to talk about it.” I said quietly. “But this is nice too.” I found myself resting my head on her shoulder and crying quietly.

I spilled out my heartache, my pain, my confusion, my talk with Eshaan. I hiccupped.

Eshaan. We’re… we’re really not going back. We’re really a girl now.

Otherme wisely kept her silence, but I could feel her hope leap inside me.

Soriya stroked my hair and then started to speak softly.

“When I died, it was a relief. My life was not good. My culture is not… our games, these games. They are more a manifestation of who we wish to be. Who we are. I wanted to study at university. Instead I found my life an endless cycle of expected roles. I was never myself, never Lee Hyori. I was the wife of someone. I was the mother of someone. I was the child of someone. Once, briefly, I was the student of someone.” She grew silent again, and I could feel my tears easing as she let out her story.

I could feel the pain in her voice, the vast well of anger and sadness as she spoke of her past. I held her as she spilled it out.

“And now…” she took a breath and pulled back. “But now, I am Soriya. Just Soriya. Witch. Black mage. Respected scholar. Best friend of Lilyanna. Dark heroine.” Her violet eyes were filled with pain, but I could see the first hints of healing in them. Both of me reached out towards that, reached for the ease of pain, especially of our best friend.

I hugged her again. “I’m sorry. I can’t say I don’t miss it. My life wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. I had friends. I had family. But… but this is… this is what heroines do, right?” I squeezed my hand into a fist and held it against the pain in my heart. “This is… we give people second chances. Even if those people are… are us?”

Soriya smiled and nodded. “We do.”

I hugged her again. “My best friend.” It didn’t solve the pain I felt… but it did make me feel at least a little better. And if I was Lilyanna… I was going to fix things. Fix things without dying or performing some stupid useless sacrifice for the audience.

I pulled away and nodded, wiping my tears on my cheeks. “Ok. Let’s figure out how to save a ship of pirates.”

Soriya grinned, the dark pain in her eye hidden once more by the spark of mischief that lurked there. “That’s my friend. I think we already have a clue, with the food, and the way Captain Ramon acted.”

I nodded. We discussed the first formulations of a plan as we headed back towards our cabin.

Eshaan looked up as we returned. “Welcome back.” He cocked his head to the side and stared at us.

I felt myself blush. Soriya grinned. “Go on, say the line.” she nudged me.

“No!” I protested, then turned back to Eshaan. “Eshaan, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s something different about you, it seems like. But I’m curious, what were you ‘supposed’ to say?”

Soriya gave me a mischievous glance, then said “’Is there something on my face?’ That’s what she was supposed to say.”

Eshaan blinked. “Oh. That seems… hm. Well actually… hm!” He tipped his head to the side. “Actually that doesn’t seem like it would fit you at all, Lily! You’re much more direct. I like that about you.”

I felt the blush turn into a nova heat on my cheeks. “So anyway!” I almost shouted. “We’re planning on saving the crew, because Captain Ramon is holding them here!” I blurted out.

Eshaan was immediately distracted. “Is he? How’d you figure this out?”

I turned to Soriya but she shook her head at me. “Don’t ask me, sometimes Lily just has moments of insight. The only thing I thought we’d figured out was that the captain didn’t want us to free him, that he liked being the undead captain of a ghost ship.”

Eshaan tapped his lips, then nodded. “Lily’s right.”

We both looked at him in surprise. He hopped off the bunk and started to pace.

“Think about it.” He said. “If he likes being here, likes being the captain of a ship, then he’s nothing without a crew. A ship is like a family, the bigger it is, the more fractious and contentious it is, but they all need to get along well enough. But if they have nowhere else to go, no hope… well. They’re sailing forever.” He pointed a finger at me. “And now we know why the captain was so insistent on the cooking!” he slammed a fist into his cupped palm. “That’s our in! The food will remind them of their mortal lives!”

He suddenly stopped, and sobered. “Oh but this is so sad… they’ve been sailing forever, without a home to go to… I know the crystal dragon will receive their souls, but it feels like killing them again.”

“Actually…” I said. “That’s something we learned from the captain. We came from the space between, which is apparently where souls go. So… apparently, it’s a swinging door. Death can mean new life. Just… on a cosmic kind of scale.”

Eshaan’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh. Woah. I don’t… that’s pretty big to take in… but… but it means that even the people we had to kill… they can start over?”

I shook my head fiercely. “I don’t like that line of thinking! That makes it ‘ok’ to just kill as much as we want! Their lives are their lives! They’re all doing the best they can! But the people on this ship… they’re trapped. They can’t do what they wanted to do, and even if they could, the captain won’t let them!”

Eshaan stroked his chin. “Well then… why don’t we ask a crewman if they want to die?”

I looked at Soriya, she looked at me. “Bold.” She said.

I smiled. “He is the designated hero…”

Soriya grinned. “That he is!”

Eshaan squirmed uncomfortably. “I can hear you; you know?”

Soriya ignored him. “It’s almost lunch time, so let’s kill two birds with one stone!” She grabbed my hand and marched out the door dragging me along with her as we headed towards the ship galley.

I whipped up a huge batch of stew, pulling some tricks from my almost unused {Gourmet} class. It was strange, feeling knowledge just floating into my head, almost like otherme speaking, but… much less intimate. I wasn’t sure I liked it. But the results were… well. By the time I finished, Eshaan told me that we had an audience.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“And I think I know who I’ll ask.” He darted out the doorway. I heard the sounds of a commotion and what sounded like a very bony scuffle, and then Eshaan’s voice saying something I couldn’t catch.

When he returned, my mouth fell open in surprise.

He was holding the hand of a child crewskeleton. The same rotted appearance, but he was perhaps ten. And his eyes were sparks of blue, not red.

How had I missed that before?!

Eshaan caught my eye and otherme nudged me firmly in the medulla.

Close your mouth! It’s rude! Don’t stare! He’s a child who wants a warm meal!

I closed my mouth with a snap, and focused on the child. A child. Not a rotting skeleton. A child. I repeated it to myself, and otherme nudged me even more firmly.

No. Don’t look away. The child is dead, and we’re going to help. We are strong enough to handle this without pretending! She lectured me.

I swallowed and nodded, then swiftly poured a bowl of the stew, turned, and knelt down to offer it to him.

“Would you like some?”

The child looked from Eshaan to me and back to Eshaan. He nodded encouragingly.

“Remember what I said?” Eshaan told the child in a voice totally unlike his normal brash heroism, filled with a soft care and tenderness. “She’s a really good cook. And if you eat, you can leave the ship. Finally rest. If the captain doesn’t catch you, you’re not in trouble, right?”

The child paused, and the nodded, turning back to me and held out his hands. His jaw opened and closed, but no sound emerged. I felt a shock run through me.

Is that why only the captain talks!?

I gave him the bowl and a spoon. He held it to his face, and stared at it. For a moment I was afraid he wouldn’t eat, but then he lifted the bowl to his jaw, and drank. I gritted my teeth and watched, and as I watched, a glowing translucent light swelled out of his chest, the same pale blue as the dots of light in his eyes, expanding and swelling into a translucent outline of a living child. And he spoke.

“Oh… that’s so good…” he said softly. “It’s been so long… thank you, miss…”

And then the empty bowl hit the ground with a clatter, the child’s corpse turned to grey dust that fell in a soft rain over it, and a brilliant comet of blue light dwindled rapidly away while not moving at all, traveling at speed to a place I couldn’t follow, and only barely perceive.

The room was silent, and then Soriya let out a long breath.

“Wow.” Eshaan said softly.

“So that’s what a soul looks like…” Soriya said.

“I… I suppose it must be.” I said, still feeling a confused mix of awe, horror, and guilt.

“One down. 23 to go.” Soriya said.

I nodded. “Right. And then probably a really big fight with the captain.”

Eshaan jerked. “Oh! Oh man… he’s… gonna be super angry, isn’t he? Yeah…” he rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. I feel like I dragged you into this somehow.”

I smiled at him and shook my head. “If you did, we came along willingly.” I sobered. “I’m… still not very happy with the idea of killing people.”

Soriya reached over and hugged me again, which I returned. “This does seem to be the best outcome for them.” She said.

Eshaan nodded. “I agree. Let’s see if anyone else is willing.

I grabbed the dropped bowl, looked at the dust in it, grimaced, and picked up a different bowl. “We’re going to need to do dishes if this keeps up.” I muttered.

Spooning up another bowlful, I waited while Eshaan went out onto the deck to try his luck again. It wasn’t long before a hesitant skeleton came in, rags of cloth hanging from his ribcage. I offered him the bowl, and once again the crewskeleton “swallowed” the bowl, his soul appeared and then vanished, and his body turned to dust as the bowl hit the deck.

“Well-” Whatever Eshaan was about to say was interrupted by a screech of rage from the deck, accompanied by what could only be described as thunder. The ship rocked fiercely.

“GODDESS OR NO GODDESS, YE BREACHED THE HOSPITALITY OF ME SHIP! YOU’LL DIE BY MY HANDS, CURSED BITCHES!”

“Oh dear.” I said, hurriedly grabbing for my staff. “I think he found out.”

Soriya grinned, pulling Diaboli out of her pocket space. “What are you saying?” She grinned, a feral light in her eyes. “This is the fun part!”

She dashes out the door, with Eshaan and I just after her.

In the center of the deck, Captain Ramon had drawn his cutlass, and I noted with unease that it glowed with an eerie blue green light, and its blade did not appear to be entirely physical.

“Now my crew! You’ll serve your purpose for me! Join me, and we’ll be pirates again! Pirates what take the finest plunder there be, the Keys of the Goddess!” He grinned horribly at us. “Ye made the same mistake the goddess herself made in the day! The pact makes no mention of alliance with an enemy! And now ye be rightly my enemies!”

He pointed his cutlass at us, and the crewskeletons around us began to moan, an errie horrible groaning howling noise that echoed with torment and ancient weariness. They started to wisp away, blowing into an ethereal smoke, pulled towards the captain, swirling around him faster and faster, and the captain became nothing more than a shadow within a swirling mist of black and grey smoke, a shadow with glowing red eyes.

“Now ye die!” The shadow screamed as the whirlwind lunged at us.

“Uh… Lily…?!” Eshaan’s voice wavered as he held his sword in front of him. “I don’t know how to fight a whirlwind made of ghosts! Imperial training was remarkably silent on the topic!”

He took a tentative stab with his blade, and the glowing cutlass of the captain emerged from the whirlwind to slap it aside with a ringing clang of crystal on steel. Eshaan staggered back, his hips hitting the railing of the ship.

Soriya shouted over the howling gale. “Change of plans, Lily!” She pushed forward, her hand clamped tightly on her hat, the other holding onto Diaboli. “You’re going to feed the stew to the crew sooner than expected!”

I goggled at her. “Are you insane?! Now of all times?!”

She turned to me and shouted “Just do it!” Then grinned and shouted “Trust me! I’m a scientist! Or a magimathematician, same thing!” She cocked Diaboli and shouted above the roaring torrent of air

“Spirits of the Tempest! Gather at my command and blow away all before you! GALE!”

A glowing blast of green-yellow light flew away into the gale, which howled in response. It staggered to the side, and then turned with killer intent, a storm’s voice through the blurring smoke of souls around it’s core.

“DIE, cursed witch!” A blast of grey black smoke punched into Soriya, and she flew backwards, skidding across the deck, Diaboli falling from her nerveless fingers. She coughed and I saw blood splatter the decks.

“Soriya!” I shrieked in terror.

“Go!” She shouted at me; her lips stained red with her own blood. “Be a cook!”

I stared at her for a frozen moment, and otherme took control of my body, spinning me and running me into the galley. This is insane, what am I doing, what am I even doing here?! I babbled even as my hands grabbed the pot’s handles, and lifted it. Oof, I am really feeling that lack of strength right now. I grumbled, turning and stumbling back towards the door at a staggering run.

The black tornado of souls lunged towards me, its blade extended, but Eshaan dashed in front of me, doing a diving flip and roll that had me blinking in shock.

So fast. I didn’t even see how he did that?!

He came up under the tornado and pushed upwards with his sword, flipping the cutlass upwards and back, throwing the entire tornado staggering backwards across the deck. He waved his blade tauntingly. “Where are you going? I’m your opponent here!” He said with a cocky grin.

“Ye be naught but a minor wave in my ocean, guppy! Away with ye!” But try as it might, the captain couldn’t seem to pierce through the pattern of steel that Eshaan was weaving to hold it in place. Soriya staggered across the deck, lunging for Diaboli.

She grabbed it and spun around; her grin terrifying to behold. “Lets try earth, this time…” I read her lips, unable to hear her voice over the howl of wailing souls.

“Spirits of the Deep Earth, unleash your fury on the unworthy! Terra!” Yellow-brown light spat out of Diaboli’s barrel, darts of power pierced through the storm. It didn’t seem to have done any damage, but it certainly made the captain mad!

The spirit turned on her, howling with fury, what looked like claws of storm reaching out, swatting away Diaboli, which spun across the deck, teetering precariously on the edge of falling into the black waters below.

I ran forward, desperate to keep that storm of souls off my friend. The howl of wind and air tore at me, the cold tearing feeling of shards of soulwind tearing at my healer’s robes, my hair a pink flag in the storm. I could feel my progress slowing, the run becoming a stumble becoming a single staggering step as I pushed further into the storm. I could feel shards of pain flicker across my face, the feel of liquid streaking into the wind.

I’m bleeding. I thought dully. The wind is cutting me!

Suddenly, blessedly, the wind ceased, and I looked up, eyes watering to see Eshaan standing in front of me, claws of black and grey smoke clawing at his face and clothes. He looked over his shoulder at me and shouted “Go!” I nodded dumbly.

I spun around in a whirling circle, the pot counterweighting my motion, and then hurled it, still steaming, into the whirlwind. For a moment, nothing seemed to change. The whirlwind howled, Eshaan bled and Soriya retched on the deck. And then the whirlwind started to change. Motes of blue light appeared in the storm, more and more, a spinning whirling storm of blue motes zipping around the storm, the black and grey fading away and then slowly vanishing.

The storm fell apart, crewskeletons reappearing, falling away from the captain, staggering outwards, and then collapsing, and Captain Ramon emerged from the center of the storm, looking around him in furious bafflement. “No! NO! Get back up! Get to work, ye lazy swabs!” He spun around furiously, only to be halted by Diaboli’s muzzle pressed into his skull.

Soriya smiled at him. “The goddess sends her regards.”

Diaboli’s thunderous roar and the captain’s scream blended together, and the backblast tore at Soriya, her hair blown straight back away from her skull, and a streak of pure white flowed from her temple to the ends of her hair. The captain evaporated in a storm of elemental energy. The air grew silent and still.

With a loud CHUNK that made everyone jump, the glowing blue green cutlass landed point first into the deck, standing upright and vibrating with a faint hum that was somehow more ominous that the howl of souls in torment.

Eshaan flopped backwards on the deck, arms outstretched. “Yaaay.” He said, his voice exhausted. “We won.”

I looked around at the remaining crewskeletons, strewn about the deck, and then nodded firmly to myself.

“Not yet.” I started smiling, which turned into a vicious grin as I strode over to pick up the discarded stew pot. “I’m gonna feed all you meadowlarks!”

It took a little more than that, but all of the crewskeletons did eat my stew, and all of them thanked me for it as they faded into blue mist and their bodies turned to dust.

I sighed and sank down to the deck as the last of them vanished into mist and dust. Mist of the day was just starting to fade into the pitch-black night of the Wake.

I looked over, then pointed to the cutlass still embedded in the deck. “Eshaan? Did you… um. Want to do something with that?”

He blinked at me. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a magic sword, isn’t that supposed to be something warriors like?”

He walked over and reached down, pulling it out of the deck where it was embedded. “It’s weird to look at, and it was wielded by a dead man, but… I like the sword you bought for me, Lily. It works fine, and… well to be honest this one creeps me out.”

I made a wry face, and nodded. “Yeah, ok. That’s fair.” I looked around in confusion. “Hey wait a second, is it getting lighter?!”

Right on cue the sky above the ship opened, a brilliant light shining down from above. The whole of the Passing Fancy started to turn to light and sparkling blue mist.

“Woah, hey, w-what’s going on?! What’s with all the sparkles!?” Eshaan gabbled.

Soriya grinned in excitement. “This is what I thought might happen!” She hurried over and grabbed Eshaan’s free hand and then mine. “We’re going for a ride on the memory express!”

“What do you mean?!” I shouted at her over the rising roar of the swirling vortex of mist and energy opening up around us.

The whole of the ship was translucent now, and I could see down to the ocean below us, the arms of Krakens thrashing far down in the inky black water. Somehow, we were floating, levitating upwards into the swirling mists.

“The crew’s memories! Hopes, fears, dreams… the things they wanted to complete but couldn’t! We’re going to ride them back to reality!”

Eshaan goggled at her. “Are you saying…”

I groaned, my hand on my face. “I can’t believe we’re going to just believe hard enough and-”

There was a decided ‘pop’ like the sound of a cosmic finger in a cosmic cheek, and we were suddenly standing on a dock under a bright and sunny blue sky.

“-and all just go home.” I finished, letting out a long sigh. “Sloppy writing, that’s what it is. Just sloppy writing.” A sparkling mote fell from the sky, and another soft ‘pop’ an ancient sea chest landed with a thud at our feet.

I rolled my eyes. “Ok, now it’s just really sloppy writing!”