Private Tales Above Deck

[Gal]

“Last night?” Gal arched her brows as she flopped down on the bed.

Maybe she was short. But who wouldn’t be? There was a storm raging above, so fierce and merciless she’d had to sacrifice of herself yet again to pay for protection.

Gal didn’t care for being indebted. Doubly less when the debt was to ancient, fathomless spirits as old as the world itself.

“You say that like something happened last night.”

 

[Selene]

“Didn’t it?” She snapped, the words coming out before she could catch them.

 

[Gal]

Gal didn’t react. Or, if she did, it was so minute the gloomy darkness swallowed it whole. There was hardly any light now, though it certainly hadn’t been abundant while they were still sailing under the stormy skies.

“We talked, Selene,” she said at length, sounding far more tired than before. Throwing her uninjured arm over her eyes, the pirate flopped back down on the hard mattress and sighed. “What the fuck do you want, woman?”

 

[Selene]

Selene’s breath slipped out of her in a whoosh, understanding for her reaction washing over her like the waves over the ship.

She closed her eyes, her anger gone and matched by that tiredness.

“You are the first person I’ve spoken to since I was a child.” And it wasn’t the conversations she had run through her head a million times over, surviving the trial by dreaming heavily of what would come after.

She opened her eyes and bit the rest back. Life wasn’t the fairy tale she had envisioned. Gal didn’t give a fuck. She shook her head, kicking out the desk chair and slumping into.

“Never mind it. Rest well.” And thanks for saving their hides? Nah. She’d keep that to herself.

 

[Gal]

Gal sighed even more deeply, then rolled onto her side. This woman was fraying her nerves faster than being pursued by an Anirian warship.

She toed her boots off and kicked them on the floor. Nothing to be done about it now – just another item to add onto her long list of regrets.

“Night.”

 

[Selene]

It was another sleepless night for her, the transition back to society much… less pretty than she had expected. Where was the knight trying to win her heart? The dresses prepare for her, the wine and feasts of her station, hauled through all this, just to assure a comfortable ride back?

She had envisioned it all. Even though one of those factors were dreadfully unwelcomed, Selene had come to know a certain level of treatment in life.And where was it?

Her punishment was over … but a new level of struggle sat deep inside of her.

Who was she after all this?

A cunning wife of Vel Anir? A noble lady turned pirate? She was proving to be none of this, Gal cutting through every false attempt.

She tore off the stolen clothing, placing them back in Gal’s wardrobe as the woman slept and dawning the shapeless robe once again. It was slightly itchy but warm and … non defining.

A flash of white would fill the room for a spare moment as she stepped out, deigning to spending the hours gaping at magic that was preserving them. It’s frightening presence felt more solid than anything else around her.

 

[Gal]

There were creatures in the sea that no fisherman would ever drag up in his net. Some were too big, others too ethereal; this one was the latter. From afar the ship looked like it was cradled in the grasp of a ghostly squid, still sailing calmly onward in spite of the storm above.

When Selene stepped out on deck, the white presence shimmered, then shifted. Though there were no eyes in the mist, the woman would nonetheless feel as if something were staring right through her.

You are not the wave-walker.

The air curled in on itself as the words rippled through it.

What is your name?

 

[Selene]

Selene’s lips parted in wordless wonder, the door clicking softly behind her as she leaned against it.

The air brought her hair swirling around her, no attempts made this time to reign it in or braid it back. She felt particularly small in this moment, humbled before what she assumed was one of the gods in the world.

She stepped forward, a hand reaching slowly out to feel the strange thrum of energy inside the curling air.

“Selene,” she breathed, her brows pinching in a wave of curious awe. She gave no last name, abruptly feeling detached from titles she had carried with her her whole life. What did it matter before a creature like this?

“You’ve saved us from this storm?” It was rhetorical, the wonder of what Gal had accomplished clear as done. Her gratitude rang clear through her, strong and poignant. But it was not the words that came next, her curiosity overcoming her.

“Why?” She chirped with the tilt of her head.

 

[Gal]

The moon...

A deep rumble that might’ve been a laugh echoed through the whole ship. The slack canvas filled with water as the white streaks swirled and coiled through the sea around them.

Because I can. Bubbles flitted through the air that shouldn’t be there, arranging and rearranging themselves into curious patterns. Because she paid.

A wisp of white meandered across the deck, tangling in blonde hair.

Why do you ask, little one? You have never honored me before.

 

[Selene]

She half turned towards the approaching wisp, apprehensive until it proved gentle and merely curious about her in turn.

A small flush of heat filled her cheeks, her hand lowering from the tangling air she belatedly realized she had likely intimately touched. The body of a god, perhaps? No, Gal had called her a spirit. Was there a difference?

She relaxed back a tad, glancing up towards the gazeless weight of attention over her. “...That was because I had given up hope something like you could exist,” she answered candidly, unashamed by it. “Yet here… you are.”


A timid smile flickered across her lips, fleeting joy.

“What is your name?”

 

[Gal]

There was that echoing laugh again, reverberating through wood and bones.

Is there no sea where you are from, little one?

 

[Selene]

“Sometimes,” she admittedly. “Recently-- always. But it was kept back by walls.” She paused, her mouth opening in a small ‘o’.

“Kai?” She spoke the sea’s name in High Velarian, not entirely the most well known spirit, many nobles of Vel Anir having no need to pay homage to such a thing. But she had heard the captains of her father’s merchant ship swear the name up and down, so it made sense.

 

[Gal]

Sometimes, it echoed in amusement. I have as many names as there are people in the world.

A thoughtful bubble drifted by, merging back into the mass of the sea kept at bay by the spirit. Schools of fish swam on the other side, chased by the occasional shadow of a shark or the wide open mouth of a whale.

Would you… like to see?

 

[Selene]

A flashing sense of apprehension sent her for a pause. Not because she mistrusted this creature before her, though logic told her might be wise to do so-- no. Maybe she was still naive, but she found giving trust to it easy.

It was the blind unknown that bit at her gut-- the what would it do to her once she said yes that kept the word hanging at the tip of her tongue.

She tilted her head, considering it and the kaleidoscope of creatures passing in the distance.

“...Yes,” she answered, the word feeling right as she took a step forward with more confidence than the last.

She reached her hand back into the air, beckoning.

 

[Gal]

You have fire in you, little one. Good.

The deep, haunting song of a whale sounded somewhere to the right. The white wisp was joined by another, its touch as soft as the finest silks from the north. They led Selene towards the gunwale, the shrouds creaking as they wrapped around the lines to help her stand on the edge.

Here it almost seemed the air was halfway water – thick and heavy for the miles of sea above them, yet she could still breathe it.

Be brave, Selene. You must take the last step yourself.

 

[Selene]

“The last step where?” She called out, less afraid and more startled. There was nothing but air around her, her bare feet perched precariously on the last piece of smoothed, rounded wood.

A glance down tore a gasp from her, her arms flailing to regain the balance and cling, just a moment, onto the wisps of light that secured her.

It was obvious this was a moment of faith. And her mind screamed out to obey logic. To not trust a spiritual creature you’ve only just met. There are tricksters in this world!

But she shook her head, brace for the rumbling laugh and empty answer as she was left to make her choice.

She casted a glance behind her, toward the place where her fiance lay chained, then upwards to the cabin where Gal slept off the price of her sacrifice. Her hair whipped around her, stinging her face as she turned to face the emptiness of the ocean around her.

She had stood on an edge like this two days back. And she had chosen not to jump. But that had been a step forward for death. This? Felt like a step towards life.

She let her feet leave the wood, embracing the thick air before her.

 

[Gal]

As soon as she released the lines and let the current take hold, the air swift turned to water.

Icy, heavy water that roared this deep below the waves. The white mist dissipated and the breadth of the ocean spread unbridled before her, a vast blackness that beckoned for no other reason than for the sheer void of it.

The voice had disappeared, the presence now all around her as the weight of the sea pressed in from all sides. A lazy fish sauntered by, its large eye lingering on the blonde phantom for a moment before it changed direction and was swallowed by the darkness again.

 

[Selene]

She arched against the cold, bubbles escaping her mouth as for a moment, it was all she felt.

The blackness refocused before her, signs of life and light inside the murky depths that confused her. What was she seeing? Why do this?

She turned, her skin glowing in the darkness as she faced the fading light of the ship, caught up in the ethereal embrace, sailing away on a current she no longer sat in.

She reached out for it, a pointless gesture. The need for air became a pressing thing, the woman thrashing around before acceptance for her situation could be gleamed. And it was gleamed, the woman growing surprisingly calm as the light leached away and bubbles slipped from her nose.

“Kai?” She called out, like a child momentarily losing their parent in a crowd. She reached out again, looking all around her. “Kai!”

 

[Gal]

The water ebbed, ripples washing over the floating form of the drowning woman. Her blonde hair haloing a beautiful face caught in a rictus of fear. Her screams were reduced to bubbles of air, drowned out by the heavy sea pressing in from every direction.

There was a distant, grinding noise, the sound fighting its way through the black water. It reverberated through the darkness like the toll of a bell, like the peal of thunder.

Moments later another body collided with the . Legs encircled her, then an arm. The very water battled against them, but in the end Gal dragged them both back on deck, a length of rope tied around her waist to keep her tethered to her ship.

The spirit was back again in an instant, though the white was gone. It was all black now, looming above them like some great, pissed-off octopus.

In another situation, Gal might’ve laughed. But she was dripping wet, bleeding, and so livid that even the specter shrank away a little as she stepped forward.

“What part,” she roared, “of don’t fucking. look. outside. do you not. understand?!”

“And you!” She wheeled on the spirit again, pointing a wicked dagger at what might’ve been a mouth. “I pay the price! Not the crew, not her, me!”

 

[Selene]

Selene spilled across the neck, coughing, sputtering, vomiting up water. Raw fear left her limbs shaking, unable to hold her up as Gal screamed over her.

There was a lesson to be found here. Somewhere, there had been a meaning to all this, a small, crystalline voice said in the back of her head. There had to be a meaning, she was searching for a meaning!

Angry hot tears spilled down her cheeks, mixing with salt water as logic told her she had been played the fool. There had been nothing to show her, nothing awaiting for her but a trickers cold death.

Her palm slammed on the deck in a wave of shamed anger, another round of biting salt water coming up from her stomach. Breath came easier then, but her head stayed downcasted, buffering the anger of the nazrani above her.

 

[Gal]

Now the vent had been opened, Gal couldn’t stop herself. The boiling anger of past weeks spilled out of her like the lava from a seething volcano, turning to ash everything it touched.

She ignored the sobbing, sopping mess at her feet, black eyes still boring into the spirit above them.

“Ko te mahi kei waenganui iā maatau!”

But I liiiike her.

“E kore e hoātu e ahau he mate—”

You never do!

“—ʻaʻole hiki iāʻoe ke loaʻa iā ia.”

What iiif… we played fair for once, mm? Put the dagger away, Ngalu.

The pirate laughed a bitter laugh. “Ehara ahau i te wairangi.”

Aren’t you? You keep me here. Your sseal won’t lasst forever. And a teeny tiiny hole iss all I need…

“Tough fucking luck. Take us up.”

The tempesst iss not yet oover. Are you—

Gal flipped the dagger in her hand and sliced clean through one of the tendrils curling around the ship. A pained screech shook the depths, rippling the still sails with its echoes.

I will ssee you ssoon, wave-walker.

The sea bubbled like a boiling pot, and just as suddenly as the spirit disappeared, the ship pierced the surface again. Rain whipped into them with a punishing force, the howling wind buffeting them like a fist of steel.

“Get up,” Gal spat at the girl, yanking her to her feet with a sharp tug. She hauled them both inside the cabin with a grim set to her mouth. Feyrie gaped at them like a fish out of water, eyes wide.

“A thought we was done for, Cap’n. When the rumblin’ started...”

“Not yet, Astor. Wake them up and heave us to.”

He nodded and scrambled belowdecks, leaving the pair alone to the deafening silence.

Well, and the storm.

 

[Selene]

Selene shivered violently, her numb feet stumbling left and right under the pressure of Gal’s grasp and the rocking of the ship. She tried to pull out of the woman’s grasp but found herself as weak as a wet noodle, depending more on the support to remain up than she cared to admit.

“What were you saying?” She rasped, making a pointed move to avoid referencing, you know, her part in that all. How the pirate also wasn’t turning blue to her lips Selene couldn’t fathom, every part of both of them soaked through, her body numb to how her robe hung open.


“How did you stop it, where did it go?”

 

[Gal]

“Get in the fucking bed,” Gal grunted, ignoring the questions flat-out.

She began shucking off the soaked layers of clothes with angry, jerky movements. When the tunic got stuck she tore it off with a growl and threw the scraps down on the floor.

The bandages followed immediately after, drenched with saltwater and blood. She cursed as part of the scab came off with, reopening the bottom half of the wound.

“Fuck. Fuck.” She stalked over to the cabinet, uncorked a bottle with her teeth, and poured the grog liberally over the angry red gash. “Motherfucker!”

Her grip whitened on the neck of the bottle as she threw her head back and weathered the burn. Then she did it again, and tipped a generous swig of the swill down her throat as well.

The grog landed hard on the desk as she put it down, black eyes flicking over to Selene. She curled her upper lip, baring sharp teeth in a sharper scowl.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

 

[Selene]

Selene wavered in place, looking half the mind to go help the woman. The baring of teeth settled her to the latter half, the noble taking a decisive step back.

She wavered no less under the question, knowing no answer she could give would be good enough.

“I don’t know- I-... I thought it would help. It was suppose to help- I didn’t mean-” she outwardly grimaced at the face of Gal’s pain, fluttering helplessly in place.

“Will you let me do that?”

 

[Gal]

“Stupid girl. When you see a wolf do you stick your head into its jaw too? Because it looked nice?”

She was shivering now, though if it was from rage or the cold, Gal didn’t know. Flexing and relaxing her fists, the pirate tore her gaze away from the blonde before she struck her lip open.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Fuck, she was freezing.

“Get in the bed, Selene.”