We waited, staring at the boulder as the cherry red finally faded away to dull black, and then I stood, squeezing Soriya’s shoulder, and offering her my hand. She looked at it for a long moment, then took a deep breath, and nodded to herself, taking it.

We returned to the Sparrowhawk to find two fires blazing brightly. One with our companions gathered around it, under one of the Sparrowhawk’s wings, and the other by the mothship, with the pirates clustered around it. Seeing it, a sudden idea blossomed in my mind, and a slight mischievous thought danced teasingly in my head.

Well… I do have pink hair, and Soriya says that I smile a lot…

I stopped and turned to Soriya. “Would you be willing to back me up on something? I want to see… if maybe I can bend a character arc towards redemption.”

Soriya raised her indigo eyebrows. “What do you need me for?” She asked suspiciously.

“Redemption tends to need a bit of a scare.” I smiled at her as sweetly as I could. “And we’re both level 32.”

Soriya’s lips slowly curled upwards into an almost cruel smirk. “I think I can arrange to help.” She said, Ægishjálmur appearing in her hands.

I headed to our groups fire, and said “I have a request. I want to give the pirates some money, so they don’t have to immediately fall into criminal patterns again. I want to give them a chance.” I poked my fingers together in embarrassment. “But I don’t actually know how much money is normal for a month of expenses. Daniyel, how much do normal people make in a week?”

Daniyel blinked at me in surprise, and then laughed his deep and booming laugh. “I am not the most likely to know, but I would guess that 320 zeni is reasonable pay for a week’s work, which would mean 1,280 zeni would be a months’ wages.”

I nodded, thinking about our bank account. “So, we can pay these guys a months’ wages out of our supply pretty easy then.”

Lakshmi scowled. “I don’t like this! They’re thieves! Now we’re just giving them money?! For thieving?!”

Eshaan shook his head. “No, I get it. It makes sense. When they make port, if we don’t give them any money, they’ll be zeniless.”

Lakshmi waved her arms. “Exactly! That’s only fair after what they’ve done!”

Eshaan sighed. “But everyone needs money. And the only job they know is crime. They’ll just… immediately go find a job doing crime. If they have a little money, there’s at least a chance?”

I nodded firmly. “A chance, exactly. And I’m going to see if I can just… politely ask them to maybe not do crime. And… maybe scare them a little so they at least think about it.”

Lakshmi crossed her arms and shook her head emphatically. “I’m against it! And Lily is going to scare them?! Lily couldn’t scare a kitten!”

Camaxtli said “It makes sense, at least as an experiment. And if the results are as Miss Lilyanna hopes, crime will be lessened. I think it worth a try.”

Eshaan immediately piped up “I’m with Lily!”

Lakshmi rolled her eyes. “Well of course you are! Daniyel, come on help me out here! Tell them how foolish this is!”

Daniyel raised a single eyebrow at her. “More foolish than building your own airship, and going looking for Air Pirates? Our funds are more than sufficient, captain. Largely due to the help of Lilyanna’s Arcanum taking us on rapid sales rounds from city to city.”

Lakshmi threw her hands in the air and then sat down angrily. “Fine! Do what you want! I see everyone’s gone crazy but me!”

I clapped my hands together in excitement. “Great! Thanks everyone!” and then had Eshaan and Daniyel pull the wads of zeni out of their travel pouches.

Quickly counting out the amount, Soriya and I headed over to the second campfire, where the pirates were staring at the mothship with frustrated expressions.

On our approach, they spotted us quickly, and went on their guard.

Stepping forward, the leader said “What do you want?! You’ve already beaten us! We’re going away, like you want!”

I blinked in surprise.

Well, I suppose that’s normal really. Lets see if ‘nice girl scary’ works in this world.

I smiled my sweetest smile, and pushed a {Persuade} with as much mana as I could. Immediately, the leader took a step back from me, and the little group of pirates scooted together.

“We’re not here to attack you. We’re here to give you a gift, and ask a favor of you.” I said as sweetly as I could.

I held out the wad of cash. “We were hoping you’d consider not being criminals, and turning over a new leaf. To help you with that, we were going to offer each of you money, so you could have a chance at a fresh start.”

I stepped forward, offering one of the bundles of cash to the leader, continuing to smile as sweetly as I could.

The look on their faces was wonderful. As though I’d sprouted horns and claws and grown twelve feet tall. And all I was doing was smiling and offering them money!

“Since, you know, sometimes people that look weak are actually really strong. So you can beat up people who are weaker than you for a really long time, and do well, but sometimes-“

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

In unison, the pirates shivered and moved closer together.

“-it turns out that the people you were picking on are much stronger than they look. So I was hoping, you’d consider helping others out, and not being mean to everyone else.” I pushed the first bundle of cash into the leader’s hands, and felt them tremble slightly. I turned to the others, and forced packets of money on them as well.

I swear I heard the sound of Soriya’s grin behind me and a hum from Ægishjálmur.

Once I was done, I stepped back and dusted my hands, facing the group again. “Because if you’re not mean to others-“ I said sweetly. “-then you won’t be tempted to mistake someone’s niceness for weakness. It would make me so very sad if we couldn’t all learn to get along together. But I understand. People make mistakes. I’m sure it feels good to intimidate the weak, but sometimes, you make a mistake. Please don’t make a mistake again?”

“YES MA’AM!” All the pirates loudly chorused in unison.

I smiled again and gave them a quick, polite bow.

“I’m so glad you’re willing to try being less mean. I really hope we can meet again in happier circumstances.” I said, and then gave them a little wave. Turning and walking away I said “Now see Soriya? If you just ask politely, then most everyone is a good person in the end.” I winked at her.

Soriya burst out laughing, and didn’t stop until we reached our own campfire.

Eshaan looked up, smiling. “Did it work?”

Soriya shook her head, wiping tears from her eyes. “I have no idea! But it was amazing seeing scarynice in action!”

“What’s ‘scarynice’?” He asked in confusion.

I shrugged smiling sheepishly. “Well, it’s where I ask them very nicely while smiling, but with an implication that I could be a little bit angry if they don’t do what I want.”

“A little bit?!” Soriya burst out laughing again. “I could almost see the killing intent aura boiling off you!”

I looked at her with distress on my face. “I was smiling! I was being nice! I don’t want to hurt them!”

“Oh, no, of course you don’t!” Soriya quickly agreed. “But they don’t know that!”

Lakshmi scowled and poked angrily at the fire with a stick, then said grumpily “Do you really think that’s going to work?”

I sighed, my good mood and cheer fading slightly. I shrugged again. “I don’t know, honestly. It depends on if the grooves in the world know the story I was trying to tell.”

Lakshmi looked up with a puzzled frown on her face. “This is one of those seer things? You… can just ‘seer’ your way into making people behave?!”

I shrugged once more, sitting down on a nearby log and holding out my hands to the fire. “I don’t know. Truly. It might work. Things in this world sometimes follow a set track. This is… like we saw a track laying on the ground…” I snapped my fingers and turned to her. “It’s as if we saw a deactivated construct, and we had a power source of a different model. We slapped the new power source into the construct. It might be compatible, but then it might not. I… really hope it is though. It would be so nice to have made things better behind us.”

Lakshmi scowled at me. “I’m not sure how to feel that I understand that explanation better than anything else you’ve told me, and yet it remains utterly illogical.”

Camaxtli said with his even tones “Illogical seems to be a specialty of your group. It makes no sense, yet more often than not, your actions work out for you.”

Daniyel nodded gravely and added “Redemption is a powerful wish. We will pray for your success.”

“Thanks, Daniyel.” I looked up at him gratefully, smiling.

Since it was late, and we’d had to run after the Sparrowhawk before we could eat a proper meal, I started cooking dinner. In short order, delicious smells of panko fried mutton and veggies was wafting through the air.

Eshaan’s said “Lily, if we’re being nice to the pirates, maybe we should offer them food?”

I blinked in surprise then smiled brightly. “Yes, we should!”

Scarynice continued to be remarkably effective, but I could see the utter confusion on their faces as well. As we were walking away, I heard them whispering to each other.

“Do you think it’s poisoned?!”

“Why would they poison us, they could have just killed us!”

“Why would they give us money?! Nothing about this makes any sense!”

“You don’t suppose… she actually means what she says, maybe?”

A pause, then a “Idiot! Who’s actually that nice?!”

I sighed to myself. Well. It’s worth a try. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky.

Once dinner was finished our group all crowded back into the Sparrowhawk, closed and locked the hatch tightly, and settled into our bunks. I lay awake for a long while, listening to the steady breathing of the others, and the rustling as they shifted position.

I wasn’t sure what would happen… but I knew what I wanted to happen. And being the change you want to see in the world… a world where you could convince pirates to be honest citizens just by feeding them? I hoped this was that kind of world.

The next morning, the mothship was gone, and the ashes of the maybe pirate’s camp fire were cold. We lifted off, Lakshmi muttering under her breath about what the pirates had done to her baby, and we flew back to Malazar.

The city was humming, and we had to abort our landing, as the cannons emplaced on the city walls started firing at us as we approached.

“What’s wrong with these people?!” Lakshmi demanded, spinning the Sparrowhawk adeptly to avoid the cannonfire and taking us quickly out of range.

“We fix their city, and they fire on us?!”

“It seems likely that they still think of us as outsiders, regardless of our true identity.” Said Daniyel.

“We did pretend to have two elven ladies with us.” Added Eshaan, giving me a quick smile.

I flushed at the look in his eye.

“It appears that we will be absconding with the city’s treasury after all.” Said Daniyel with a quiet smile. “This will doubtless add to the legend of Lakshmi the Red.”

Lakshmi was quiet as we turned and headed east away from the catkin city.

“I suppose. I just… thought it would be nice to actually give them their money back.”

“Oh? Have you come around to Lady Lilyanna’s way of thinking?” Asked Daniyel.

“No! Maybe. I don’t know.” Lakshmi said irritably.

“We can always return with Gate.” I said softly. “And I think it’s a good idea to give them their money back too.”

Lakshmi perked up. “That’s right! And you don’t have to come with us!”

“I hope that those catgirl thieves are alright.” Said Eshaan.

I nodded silently.

With our return to Malazar off the table, at least for now, we unrolled the world map. I pointed at the Nanwe jungle in the southeast corner.

“I think it’s about time to see if we can find the last Arcanum.” I said.

“Why did we come here of all places first?!” said Lakshmi.

I shook my head. “Because we weren’t ready for it yet.”

“Oh!” Eshaan exclaimed. “Because you needed to get the other half of Oak from the sylvani, right?!”

“Uh, that’s not-“

“Yes, that’s exactly right.” Said Soriya over my hesitant fumbling.

“And now that we’re all level 32, I think that we’re going to make quite the splash in whatever horrible jungle temple is waiting for us!” She added.

Daniyel folded his arms. “And you think this… why?”

“Well, because it’s in a jungle. It must be the other half of Oak! Especially what we felt when we did our seeking ritual.”

“Is it going to be broken in the same way?”

I twisted my mouth sourly. “No, it’s going to be broken in an entirely different way. Oak feels… passive. Quiet. But if that’s only half of it, then the other half is probably angry, and mad.”

“So, we’re flying into the arms of a super angry plant spirit to reunite it with its lost self?! In the middle of a jungle?!” Lakshmi protested.

“Why, did you think this was going to be easy?” Soriya smiled happily. “Air Pirates have adventures!”

“Nasty uncomfortable things that make one late for dinner.” I said softly, and smiled.