Private Tales No Jackets

[Peyton]

Her body was too exhausted to be restless, but her mind was another story. She was back in that alleyway with the brutish orc, only when she'd stabbed him he'd laughed before biting down on her neck, and his grip only intensified the more she stabbed at his sides.

There was no getting away in her mind, and as Lucius' fingers tightened on her skin she panicked and jolted awake with a sharp gasp, trying to pull his hands off of her and crying out for him to stop. She couldn't breathe, and her eyes filled with tears as she frantically tried to get away from him in her confusion.

 

[Lucius]

"Hey hey hey!" Lucius called as he was pushed and shoved backwards, his fingers pulling free of Peyton.

He couldn't read her mind of course, couldn't see what scared her, but the fear was almost palpable in the small room as she practically jumped and tried to get away from him.

"Peyt!" Lucius called. "It's me! Relax!"

His voice was frantic, quick.

Most of all though, he sounded confused. "It's me!"

The Captain repeated.

 

[Peyton]

She pulled herself away, creating as much space as she could between them without falling out of the bed, her mind still half way between asleep and awake and she kicked and thrashed at the sheets. A hand slammed to her neck to find no blood, but she checked her hand just to be sure.

Her heart was stumbling over itself, thundering so hard in her chest that it ached and she breathed short, sharp breaths to keep up with it's rhythm.

It took her some time to realise where she was and she looked at him and let out a breath, muttering a sleepy sorry as she rubbed at her face and held her head in her hands for a moment whilst she calmed.

"Sorry.." she repeated and huffed, raking her fingers into her hair to pull it back from her face before shuffling back toward him to reach for him guiltily.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius looked hurt, confused, sympathetic, and oddly...guilty?

His range of expressions ran through a dozen ranged before Peyton suddenly woke and then drew herself back towards him, her lips twisting in a quick apology as she shuffled back towards him and reached out to him. Lucius did not push her away, but he was still confused.

"It's..." He trailed off. "It's okay."

Was it? "Are you alright?"

Lucius didn't really understand what had happened. Both of them had suffered nightmares before, but none of them had gotten reactions quite like that.

Never.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton frowned at the hurt in his eyes, she couldn’t handle that, it’d been a bad dream, she hadn’t meant to hurt him..

Her arms snaked around his waist and she pulled herself against his chest to nuzzle at him, her nose grazing against his neck where she left a soft kiss in further apology..

“Just a bad dream..” she murmured and let out a huff, closing her eyes as though trying to rewind and wake up in a calmer way. She squeezed him, trying to ply him with as much warmth and affection as she could after the unintentional coldness he must have felt to look at her the way he did.

“Good morning..” she sighed, her heart slowly returning to a normal pace.

 

[Lucius]

For a few seconds Lucius was going to ask more questions, but after the night before...he decided against it. They had held the discussion, they had talked about it, and he figured that if Peyton needed to tell him something she knew he was there.

"Okay." He said quietly, wrapping his own arm around her and pulling her in close to him with an embrace.

A smile settled on his face as he caught the tail of her scent, some of the tension easing from his body for a few seconds as she nuzzled herself into his arms. "Morning."

He repeated back to her.

"Big day today." For both of them.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton had been manhandled by many men in Teth, she could handle it and wouldn't dwell on it, but her recklessness and that bite was difficult to shift from her mind.. She sighed deeply and smiled as she felt him ease.

"Mhmm.." she frowned gently and opened her eyes and chewed gently on her lip for a moment of silent consternation..

"Are we making the right decision?.." she asked quietly, fingertips trailing softly over his neck.. She thought of how she had felt when she opened the desk drawer and found the ledgers and journal, she'd been terrified to look at it again for fear of finding anything else, now they were going asking for information.

"I’m not sure if I want to know..."

 

[Lucius]

He shook his head a bit. "I don't know."

Lucius really didn't. This was not one of those things that he really understood well. Emotions...feelings, hell it had taken moving a mountain to actually get him to admit he'd loved her. All of this? It was something he didn't really grasp all that well.

He wished he did, for her, but all he could do was his best.

"I think not knowing might be worse." Lucius said softly. "Mind will run wild, something else will come up...it'll surprise us."

Like the ledger. "At least if we confront it we can plan for it."

Wasn't that better?

 

[Peyton]

Peyton propped herself up onto her elbow to look over his face as he spoke, a soft huff given in agreement.. "I know, you're right." she groaned and pressed a kiss to his lips before rolling to the edge of the bed and gingerly getting herself up.

"I had been so impatient to find him and speak to him, and now that we're finally going to meet him, I feel sick.." she frowned and wandered over to the mirror to check at her wounds with a huff. The bite on her neck was angry, raw and bruised around the stitching, she'd have to wear a neckerchief to cover it. She twisted in the mirror, noticing the bruises on her sides and thighs, and her nose wrinkled in disdain before she turned away and moved toward her armoire to find herself an outfit.

"What if he refuses to tell us anything.." she glanced over her shoulder at him before pulling on a pair of leggings.

 

[Lucius]

"He won't." Lucius said the words with all the authority of a Captain.

There was a confidence to the way he spoke, almost as though what he said were simple fact. Of course the truth of the matter was...if he didn't divulge every little bit Lucius would take him and cut off a finger until he did spill.

A harsh method, but...they were pirates.

Lucius pulled himself up and out of the bed, deciding that he wouldn't just grab what he had been wearing the previous day.

Instead he went to the other closet that the cabin had and pulled out one of the outfits that Peyton had purchased for him. It was a black thing, leathers and marked with a small sigil on one of the shoulders. Lucius inspected it for a moment, frowned, and then started to pull it on.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton glanced at him with a small smirk at his confidence, thinking back to the day she'd found him in a puddle of his own puke, and again when she'd told him she wanted him to sail with her, and finally when he'd thrown up after she'd told him he was to be captain.. He'd come such a long way in such a short time, and she done nothing to hide how proud she felt of him.

"Well then lets hope for his sake he chooses to be nothing but compliant.." she laughed under her breath as she laced her corset over her shirt.

She couldn't help but smirk to herself as he dressed, her lips twisted as she tried to suppress her amusement, but she cleared her throat and gave a brief nod in approval.. "Good choice.. Authority, wealth, stability and strength...commands respect." she nodded firmly, letting him in on a little of what her mind thought of each time she picked an outfit. She took out a favourite of her own, light blue and navy with silver stitching and buttons and she walked to him as she fastened them..

"Wisdom, confidence, compassion..." she lifted her eyes with a small smirk and gazed her lips over his.. "Loyalty." she kissed.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius nodded his head. "Yeah you do have all that."

He said the words as his lips briefly pressed against hers.

Oddly enough, he'd never felt more a Captain than he had after yelling at the crew the night before. It was a strange thing, and he would still get them something to make up for it, but it had also been the first time he'd taken any real step towards true authority with the rest of the crew. They had been afraid, and int hat fear Lucius had seen a certain amount of respect.

Of course he wanted far more of the latter than he did the former, but...a healthy mixture of both wouldn't be too bad. He was a pirate after all, and his legacy needed to spread before they ever left the harbor.

"Ready?" Lucius asked as he slipped a dagger into a slot on the front of the odd leather armor.

She really had done a good job in finding an aesthetic for him.

Now he just had to avoid one of those jackets she was always trying to get him in.

 

[Peyton]

"Almost.." she answered and returned to her dresser to lift her daggers from the table and sheath them at her hips before picking up a navy blue neckerchief which she tied around her neck and knotted. She combed her fingers through her hair to tame it and sighed as she looked over her reflection for a moment. It wasn't for vanity's sake, she simply needed a moment to look into her own eyes and make sure she really wanted to go through with this...

Lucius' words ran through her mind again and she huffed. He was right, she'd only drive herself mad with not knowing. "Ready." she nodded firmly and turned to him with a nervous smile before heading for the door.

A few of the crew were hovering around deck, hoping to be chosen to accompany them and win back favour. Peyton offered an apologetic look to anyone who would meet her eye, and turned back to Luc.. The decision was his.

 

[Lucius]

As they stepped out onto the deck Lucius was already rattling out a list of three names.

None of them were those who had escorted Peyton the name before, though it wasn't because they had screwed up. Their crew was nearly up to eighty people now, recruitment efforts having gone rather well. He needed to make sure that everyone got a chance to be a part of something.

"Ferg, Chris." He tossed a bag of coin to the lads. "Get the crew something to eat."

Lucius glanced at Peyton. "Something fancy."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders, as a few cheerful 'whoops' went up from those who were standing around. After a few seconds Lucius motioned to Peyton, and the small group disembarked the ship and began to head towards the Inn.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton grinned at the celebration among the crew and she offered her reassurances to the few who had come to check on her wellbeing, and she crouched to Vreek to press an apologetic kiss to his cheek before joining Lucius to disembark.

She was quiet as she walked, but she held her chin up and carried herself with the same confidence as she always did despite how her stomach churned with nerves. She paused outside the inn and glanced to a burly human man who opened the door for them and she pulled in a breath before stepping inside.

The buzz about the inn dulled slightly as the patrons paused their conversations to look toward the door, but they were soon muttering amongst themselves again, and she picked their names as people gossiped. Her gaze settled on a man sitting in the corner booth who was looking directly at her, and she looked to Luc uncertainly..

 

[Lucius]

There was no hesitation in the way Lucius moved. His steps were quick, heavy, crossing the inn as he let a hand finger the knife sitting on his chest.

He came to a sudden stop in front of the lone man sitting in the corner. "Felren."

There was a sternness to his voice, no warmth, nothing. He remembered well that the first-mate had abandoned them. Not on the ship, but afterwards. The man had made no attempt to keep the crew together, no attempt to get everyone a new ship. He had simply disappeared like a ghost.

"Lucius."​

The man glanced up, then looked top Peyton.

"Peyt."​

Slowly Felren looked back towards Lucius, his eyes were weary, looking the newly christened Captain up and down for a few seconds before shaking his head and motioning for both of them to take a seat. Lucius pulled out a chair for Peyton, though made no move to seat himself.

 

[Peyton]

"Felren.." Peyton answered in response and took the seat that Lucius had pulled out for her. She looked the man over, remembering his face, his friendship with her father and how he'd abandoned them. She frowned..

"You've aged.." her brow arched.. Must be the guilt, she thought, but kept the thought locked behind her teeth.

"This doesn't have to take long, Felren, I doubt you want to be in our company for any longer than necessary. I need to know what trouble my father got himself into, and I want the truth, everything he never told me about - you're going to tell us." she told him calmly and folded her hands on the table, golden hazel eyes fixed on him patiently.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius stood behind Peyton, deciding that if the man tried to get away he wanted to be in a position where he could stop him.

Already in his chest he could feel the slight well of magic, power growing in his chest as it flittered beneath his skin. A breath filled his lungs, and he gazed sternly down at Felren with an expression that spoke of murderous intent.

The man looked up at him, and then at Peyton.

For a few seconds it looked like he wasn't going to speak, and then suddenly a burst of information spilled from his lips like nothing Lucius had expected. Felren spoke of when he and the Captain had sailed on a ship before the Concordant, spoke of the slave trade, the money to be made there.

Nothing really surprised Lucius, though it did disgust him.

Then the truth came. The truth that he'd never expected. The truth of the Captain meeting a woman, a woman who had his daughter. His real daughter. "Fuck..."

"He sold ya...didn't want to but...ship was no place for a kid and we weren't in charge. Always swore he'd be back and...well he did come back..."
​

There was clearly more, clearly other things that Felren had to say, but the man paused on that bombshell, staring at Peyton and Lucius both.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton had expected the worst, because anything less than the worst would be easier to deal with. She didn't want to believe that her father was involved in the slave trade, but deep down she knew and still it turned her stomach and made her jaw clench as she listened. This was the 'worst' that she'd expected, and when Felren continued on about who she really was, who her father really was, she could only stare. The moment he stopped talking was the moment her heart broke.

The last week had been taxing, physically and emotionally, and truthfully she'd been teetering on the edge of a full scale melt down on several occasions. Now though, she didn't know what she felt. There was the briefest flicker of happiness that caused her eyes to glaze, but it was quickly extinguished by the bitterness, pain and rage that burned so hotly it hurt. Her expression was one of utter shock, blank and numb, but her fists curled and trembled on the table for a moment as she reminded herself to breathe..

Her parents, and how they could have sold their own daughter into servitude had always left a bitter taste in her mouth. She didn't want to know them, she was an orphan as far as she was concerned. Peyton's mind reeled, trying to cast herself back, and she realised that it had been no coincidence that she'd wound up on the Concordant..

She looked away to hide the glossy sadness in her eyes, her movement too slow to be normal, and when she spoke her voice trailed slowly like her words were unwilling to take flight..

"He sold me." her brow furrowed in response to Felren trying to justify her father's actions by reminding her that he'd come back after the first six years of her life.

"My mother?..." she asked, still unable to look at the man. She had to know, she had to hold it together and then she had to leave.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius stared down at Felren, his hand coming up to gently rest of Peyton's shoulder in a gesture of reassurement.

It wasn't nearly enough of course. The Captain had been...the Captain, but to her he had been a father, a real father as it turned out. Lucius couldn't help but feel sick to his stomach, and he couldn't even imagine what Peyton must have felt in that moment. His fingers tightened gently.

He wanted to lean down and hold her.

"I...I'm not sure Lass...Jon didn't...he didn't exactly ask for her permission..."​

A frown touched Lucius' face. "What do you mean?"

For the first time in what seemed like an age Felren looked at Lucius. There was a pain in his eyes, though whether it was real or not The Captain couldn't really tell.

"We were young, and that was around the time that Jon got it in his head that he needed something new. Things weren't going too well and-"​

"What?" Lucius echoed. "I thought you guys captured the Concordant and your old Captain gave her to you?"

Felren shook his head.

"It was just a bit after he...well after he sold you. Your mom had disappeared, couldn't forgive him for what he'd done...and Jon...well Jon made a decision. A new start he called it. Came back a few weeks later with the Concordant and no crew."​

 

[Peyton]

Peyton always appreciated Luc's comfort and reassurance, but she was so numb that she barely registered him until his fingers tightened on her shoulder. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, feeling herself carry some of her father's shame, a man they'd both respected and thought the world of.. All he was to her now was a liar who'd had the audacity to allow her to think he was a good father.

Her brow knit angrily as Felren spoke of her mother and her jaw clenched. Why hadn't he just allowed her mother to care for her?...Coin? There was little point in asking, it didn't matter now, but it meant that there had at least been one parent who hadn't wanted to sell her. One who'd been so upset by her loss that she'd left. Her chest ached and the pain of it was clear in her eyes that welled but she refused to cry in front of the man..

"Who was she? Where was she from?.." she asked firmly and cleared her throat as her voice cracked.

Peyton's head shook in confusion..How had her father managed to come by a ship like the Concordant on his own without a crew, where had it come from?.. Felren didn't know, there was little point in asking, even if she could bring herself to speak again.

 

[Lucius]

"She was from Amol-Kalit...well no...maybe not. She was a slave-girl, or was one at a point. Worked at a Tavern when your father met her, didn't have a penny to her name and was just lookin to make her way through the world. She liked to draw...had a talent for it. Could see something once and make a painting of it."​

There was a slight pain to Felren's voice, though whether he genuinely cared about Peyton or just didn't like recounting the old stories Lucius couldn't quite tell.

The man had never been bad...just unremarkable. As far as Lucius had ever been able to tell Jon Sullivan had trusted Felren because he was reliable, loyal, and didn't ask too many questions about anything at all. That was important sometimes.

"Wisp of a thing, not much bigger than you. You...you look at alot like her lass."​

Lucius frowned.

"Jon didn't give her no choice in sellin ya. She disappeared right after. Couldn't forgive him."​

What kind of monster would have?

 

[Peyton]

Peyton frowned as she focused on the man, she could see his lips move but the sound seemed muffled as too many thoughts crashed through her mind at once. Her mother had been a slave, she might still have been alive...she had wanted to keep her. The unexpected hatred she felt for her father at that time was crippling and she felt her body shake with it, a cold sweat rushing over her as she felt saliva thicken at the back of her throat as her stomach threatened to throw up it's contents onto the table.

She liked to draw, like her.. She even looked like her.. Peyton let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding and a single tear fell but she quickly wiped it from her cheek with the back of her wrist and cleared her throat.. "Fuck." she frowned and pushed herself to her feet, unable to meet Lucius' gaze..

"I'm done.. Cooper can accompany me back to the ship if you have anything more you need to ask.." she told him and made her way to the door without offering Felren any thanks or farewell.

 

[Lucius]

Felren opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Lucius shot him a murderous glance. Fingers tightened, and the former first-mate settled back down against the bench he'd been sitting on. "Vel, Watch him."

Lucius had more questions, but he was going to be damned if he let Peyton just walk away without her knowing he was there.

Leaving her alone was not something that he could do, and he'd rather one of his men keep Felren in place until he had time to ask just what the fuck Jon Sullivan had done to actually get the Concordant in the first place.

With quick steps Lucius caught up to Peyton just outside the house, Cooper standing with her.

"Peyt." Lucius said as he caught her in his arms, embracing her before she had time to argue.

 

[Peyton]

She didn't want to be stopped, she was too afraid to fall apart in public and Luc would only try to comfort her which wouldn't help matters. She tried to protest as she heard him come after her, but as he pulled her into his arms she buried her face against him for a moment and shook as she tried desperately to hold it together.

"I'm fine.." she assured him of what they both knew was a lie, her voice cracking with rage. "I'll see you back at the ship.." she sighed and her jaw clenched as she pushed herself gently away from him,

Peyton stepped back with a glassy glance up at him and forced a painful smile before turning away and nodding toward the young pirate who followed quickly behind her.