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2/4


Two weeks later.



"Pirates!!!"

"Pirate ship ahead!"

"Captain...Captain, look over th-"

"I see it. Stop shouting already." More and more members of the crew assembled around a broad-shouldered man in his fifties; his fleshless lips nearly vanished beneath his full beard, and grey eyes peeked through a pair of binoculars. "It's a ship of the Ribbard's fleet."

"Aren't they said to be quite tame?" Tagis tucked her brow, trying to assess the size and potential canon power of the other ship still a couple of sea miles away."


"Somebody mentioned pirates?"

Thud.


Tagis turned around - and couldn't help showing an amused smile when Lucind hopped down from the bridges railing.
Must've climbed around in the rigging again, Tagis thought.

Ivanek's head popped up behind the captain. He fiddled with the buttons of his jacket and got all the more nervous when he saw the Siren strolling over.
"I-it's only one ship...but ya never know fer sure, roight? Thay probably know we've loaded s-silk...and..couscous and...and why are ye grinnin' loik that?" The sailor blinked at Lucind, scepticism filling his eyes.

"Huh?" The Siren turned her head, blinking back, before an even wider grin spread from one ear to another. With one arm akimbo, the woman leaned in, strands of hair - for some reason it had gotten back to its old length - wipping along the sides of her faces, those that weren't restrained by a scarf wrapped around her head. She wore new boots; the result of a trade in one of Meshkat's ports they had stopped by. But her beloved, dark purple coat was still with her; it had received a leather patch on one shoulder, however, since Lucind had ripped it during a storm, while everybody helped getting the Beringar back under control.
The Siren narrowed her eyes and enjoyed every single word when she answered:

"I. Love. Poirates."

A rough chuckle followed and she watched Ivanek almost reaching out for the captain. "Somebody make her stop d-doing that...yes?"

"Lucind..." Tagis slowly shook her head. But she couldn't be mad with her friend. Too glad she was to see the other woman like that: beaming, full of energy, looking all healthy. When she thought back of that moment before sunrise, two weeks ago, when she had fished an unconscious Lucind out of the ocean and feared for her life, it was a tiny wonder to see the Siren being back to spirits like this. Redux, Tagis found, was the best word to describe the change.


"Hey everybody, look! They're setting another flag!! It's...it's..."

"White?" Lucind tilted her head.

"They want to negotiate," the captain spoke up. His voice was surprisingly soft, something that Lucind hadn't yet gotten used to.

"What could they want?"

"It's a trap! It sure is!"



Well, the reason why those pirates wanted to get into contact with the Beringar was simple: they wanted to talk to Lucind.
Ivanek had a reason to go on whining, finding the Siren was way too enthusiastic and eager to hop into a dinghy to be brought to the other ship. A crew member - a good fist fighter, as Lu had seen herself - accompanied her.
The Ribbard pirates didn't waste many words before announcing that they wanted Lucind to see their captain. Actually, they asked. Yes, they asked. And the Siren wondered if she had ever seen a bunch of swashbucklers being so blue; admittedly, that didn't apply to everybody on the boat. There were enough men who showed interest when she swung herself over the railing but who didn't leave their positions; and she could swear she also saw suspicion and disapproval in some eyes. But those pirates welcoming her were full of honest worry, letting her know that, after their captain had seen around ten physicians, she was something close to their last hope - nobody had been able to diagnose Captain Salinger's disease.

"You do know I'm not exactly a healer," Lucind asked, one brow cocked.

"Yes, but you can do...things...with his head, right? That's what Sirens do...or, I mean...that's what we heard." It was a little amusing to see a tall muscular man, who normally wouldn't hesitate cutting someone's throat, getting all unsure under the woman's firm look.

"Well, if you fear your captain has a mental problem, or that someone cursed him, I can have a look for sure. I'd like to now first, though, what he's suffering from, what symptom, I mean."

But the bulky man just scratched his chin. "Go and see yerself..."





The captain's quarters were spacious - but thanks to the low ceiling, they still showed resemblance to a burrow. It smelled of wood, yellow paper, moss and salt; the scent made Lucind smile, because after going to the sea for so many times, it was this mixture of scents that gave you a homely feeling since it was the same on every sailing ship. That, so her conclusion, must be a detail making it even easier for all those seamen and buccaneers to leave behind whatever home they had on the mainland.

But a burrow it was indeed. Lucind turned her head from right to left and back: everything, every single spot was covered with layers of sheets - drawings, all of the same kind, it seemed -, and spiders above her head told her nobody had bothered tidying up in there for quite a while.

"Come closer."

From behind a heavy desk standing in one corner of the room, the dark, yet croaky voice of Captain Nicholas Salinger reached the Siren's ears. His brown hair covered half his slim face, gushing down in bushy curls. Even when she had entered, he had resumed leaning over his table, adding a few lines and angles on a sheet of paper around two feet in length and width. When he looked up, though, Lu saw his baby blue eyes that stood in harsh contrast to the sharp features: bluish black shadows beneath heavy lidded eyes, hollow cheeks and a full beard dominating the lower part of his face.

Doing as he had asked, the Siren saw that, just like every sheet she could make out in the room, the man hunched over the construction sketch of a boat, a threemaster in this case. Pencils, a sharpener, set and straight squares and different erasers were casually strewn all over the place, while a petrol lamp gave off just enough light to oversee the design Captain Salinger was currently working on.
Since he didn't react when she leaned in closer to have a better look at at the seemingly finished design of a schooner, Lucind carefully picked up the sheet to marvel at the details.
"Beautiful..."

Only then did the man chuckle, which sounded rather hurtful with his coarse voice. "Only a woman can say that. Only a woman...would call a ship beaut--" He had raised his head and cut his own sentence when he fully looked at her for the first time.

Lucind showed a lopsided smile. "Well, I can also tell that all these ships are skillfully constructed and would make sturdy vessels, ready to withstand the cruelest of storms, but...beautiful is the simpliest way to summarize it."

"A Siren, huh?" His mouth was slightly parted. He didn't hide his surprise. "No need to ask about your field of expertise then." His stare was blunt, yet Lu didn't feel offended in any way. Also, it was gone the next second - he returned to adding shades to different parts of the threemaster.

"Are you cold?" Since the purpose of her visit was clear now, Lucind went with what she saw: a blanket covered the captain, running over his shoulders and lap, even hiding half of the chair he sat on.
"Hmmyes," he mumbled, frowning and narrowing his eyes, before removing a few of the lines. "The humidity, you see."
She almost raised her brows, but only put the sheet of paper back on the table. "You know I can't do anything if you don't want to." The Siren did a couple of steps towards a chest of drawer - also covered with sketches -, turned around and leaned against it, awaiting the captain's answer.

Salinger's hands came to a rest. "From what I've heard, you could turn me into a human plant...by breaking my mind." Swollen eyes landed upon the woman once more. "And you're really telling me that you couldn't do anything if I didn't comply?" He sounded honestly amused - not nervous or threatened like his crew.
Lucind answered with a true enough-expression, then went on: "But today I'm here because your men asked me to find out if I can help you or not. However, the thing is that I still don't really know what it is you're suffering from."

For a moment, Salinger gazed at his current work, before he let go of the pen and leaned back. His hands slipped beneath the tightly wrapped blanket. Eventually, the chair slid backwards. Not by the force of the man's feet. It dawned upon Lu - and a second later, the captain turned away from the table, still seated; the blanket fell to his sides and revealed a pair of strongly built, but useless legs: Nicholas Salinger was sitting in a wheel chair.

A chain of thoughts formed in the Siren's head, but she only asked what had happened.
"Nothing. Nothing really." He folded the blanket over his knees and a bunch of wild locks slipped over his shoulder. "Harmless skirmish, was about a border allegedly being crossed. I took a shoot to the hip. A healer looked after me, I rested a day - but when I felt ready to get up, it didn't work." He shrugged, as if he wasn't too interested in the facts.

By then, Lucind had pulled a chair towards her and sat down the wrong way round, bracing her forarms on the backrest. "How long have you been captain?"

"Eight...no, nine months. I took over from my brother after he died in a fight." The arm closer to the table reached out to take one of the pencils. "His opponent was an unfair b*****d. Even for our standards. Shouldn't have found his end like that, my brother. He was..." Fingertips rolled the drawing tool between them. "...a good captain." A short glance at her, before his head turned towards his sketch.

"What dockyard did you work at before?"

"Asturiell Freights, in Reshard." The tip of the pencil started moving over the paper, without leaving any visible traces.
Reshard, Lucind knew, was a city not too far north of Latent - twice as big and of more important for the international economy than Latent ever would be.

"So, you gave up your old life to tread in your brother's footsteps." Lucind tilted her head. "That's a meaningful gesture." She witnessed how the captain fully returned to his desk to keep on working on the threemaster.
"It was only natural," he answered and cleared his throat. "Our family's always had one foot on the illegal side of shipping." He acted as though the two of them were discussing the upcoming weather. "It's a question...of honor."

"Don't you want to start?"

"Excuse me?" Lucind shifted on her chair, pulling her coat out from under her rear.

"You came to examine me. Which means you have to start at some point." Now, a soft scrrch scrrch could be heard as he was taking care of the ship's mast.

"Yes, but I like to exchange a few words before doing the whole peeking in your head thing." Her grin was lost on him, thus the Siren asked: "Do you really think it's necessary, though?"

At this point, Salinger interrupted his doing again. A hue of impatience appeared on his face; he rubbed hid cheek and went to say something, when the door was opened and someone a the crew - one of those, Lucind noticed, who had greeted her with a less than pleased look - shoved his head, then the rest of his body inside the quarters.

"Captain...I need ter have a word with you. Wun take long." His beetle eyes glanced at the Siren before scurrying back to his boss.

Nicholas Salinger had gone through a minute, yet striking transformation the moment the door had opened: the corners of his mouth had stiffened, his eyes had darkened a shade or two and on the whole, the man must've grown in his chair - Lucind felt him changing into grim-mode.
"We've got a guest, Klarins, in case you haven't noticed."

Funny beetle eyes flashed. "But Captain, it's really important." And instead of waiting for a reaction, he directly added: "Ye know, some of us dun like it...her aboard. They say it means bad luck."

Lucind, still leaning on her forearms, cocked a brow while lazy amber orbs peeked at the pirate. Whereas Salinger snarled he had thought nobody on this ship was supersticious and scared of female crew members.

"The problem's not that she's a she." The man wiped his nose. "She's a Siren." The way he pronounced the woman's race made you believe it was something unnatural and dangerous. "I tell you, s'not normal...a Siren traveling the sea."

"Ah, you see..." Lu lifted her head a little. "We got bored of sitting on random rocks all the time, waiting for some ship to come close. This way..." She gave him her sweetest smirk. "...it's so much easier to bring doom and decay."

Beetle Eye snorted and his hand found a sword's hilt near his hip. Lucind didn't move an inch - but couldn't help frowning when--


BAM!


A thin trail of smoke rose from the heavy pistol in Captain Salinger's hand. "I told you: I won't allow any hostility against our guests." He put his weapon back, all calm, watching Beetle Eye clutching his shoulder. "Aye...captain." Just a graze. But it was enough to put the hyena down for a while.

"You know you can't silence them like that for much longer." Lucind focussed on the bullet stuck in the wood on the opposite side of the room. Salinger fell back into his seat, his exhaution and indifference reappearing in an instant. "Hmm."

Scrrch scrrch

She got up, started walking around, and decided to go for a frontal strike. "Why...do you forbid yourself to go back to your old life, even though you're withering out here?"
For a second, she expected him to point his pistol at her, but it was only the pencil's tip that nearly pierced the sheet. And instead of a weapon, the man produced a tattered photograph from the insides of his jacket which he offered her.
A woman was on it. Maybe not what the public would call attractive, but there was that special something about her. She was holding hands with somebody, but the glossy paper was folded right there, hiding the other person. Lu straightened the photo and saw a man, grinning like fool and obviously being more than happy. And: he, sure as hell, was not Captain Nicholas Salinger.

"I don't have a life to return to." He reached out to get the photo back and have it vanish from his sight.

"Then start anew somewhere else. Never easy. But it'd be a shame to stay here and--"

"Start already. Do what you came to do - look into my head." His lips curled as though he was swallowing something bitter. "Or is it...my soul."

Lucind met his eyes. Thoughtfully. She was going to say something, when he pre-empted her.

"Tell me something." His hands ran back and forth over his chair's wheels before they were neatly folded in his lap. "Around a year ago, something changed among your kind, right? I read a lot. I listen. Heard that you experienced some sort of renewal."
"Yes, you can call it like that." She nodded.
"Then why...how comes the balance of powers wasn't changed as well? I met a male Siren, not too long ago. A fullblood. But he told me he didn't have the ability to read peoples' minds. If it had been me, I would've asked for some justice." There was no sarcasm in his voice, only genuine interest. "I would've wanted to get a piece of that cake."

Lucind was honestly impressed. It didn't happened too often that she met somebody who knew such details about her people. And now, this question. She smiled. "It is just. - But believe me, many of us demanded right this to be altered, along with everything else. And not only last year. There've always been some of us who wished male Sirens had the same psionic capability.
Their powers remained rudimentary, that's true, but...

My aunt once gave me an explanation I called weird back then. I was too unexperienced to understand. Over the years, though, I found she was right.

Male Sirens share a bond with our psionic plane, just like us women - but they can't work with it. They can't access minds or souls, only accompany us a short part of the way. Their vocal attacks are far more powerful than ours. Yet, their songs barey have any affect.
But - so my aunt said - that's enough. They oughn't be able to be more powerful. They know what we're doing, they feel it: what we have to face everyday, what pressure we endure and what danger we burden our own mental health with. And because of that, because they understand - they're able to protect us. Hold us, keep us grounded when everything get too much..."

The captain's eyes had trailed off as he listened to her. Now, he nodded slowly. "That does make sense. - Nevertheless...I still would've protested." He chuckled coarsely. She joined him.
"And do you need to be protected? You're not with a clan right now. How do you do...endure that?"

Here, she hesitated to give him the complete answer. Instead, she only said: "I gave up my human blood, that's true. But I am still the daughter of a human man. It makes things different for me."
The captain's eyes told her he wasn't going to prod the subject further.

Finally, Lucind would sit back down, the right way around this time.
"Alright. Let's get it done with then. Try to relax, it won't take me long."

She wanted to be sure, but Lu had almost no doubt that a look into Captain Salinger's mind would show her a heart broken man, nothing more, nothing less. She didn't feel the aura of a curse around him. Neuropathy, or just pinched nerves? Something with the spinal cord? The Siren was confident to exclude these possibilities, too: among all those physicians he had seen, there must've been at least one who had searched for this kind of malfunctions.

She had to make sure she didn't miss something - but his voice had already told her more than his words.
Even more so, Lucind could tell he knew. He knew he wasn't where he belonged to.

But...would he be able to move, even if he was willing to face his truth?







All eyes rested on her when she left the captain's quarters after almost an hour. The wounded beetle eyed pirate stayed in the background, but his expression wasn't any less hateful than it had been when he had left Salinger and her.
Lucind motioned the muscular man aside, the one who had introduced her to the problem at hand.
"So...?" He asked hesitantly. "Will he be okay?"

For a moment, she wondered how to phrase her opinion. Then, she simply said - not too loud, though:

"Find yourself a new captain."

The pirate blinked in confusion, thus Lucind added:

"The sea.

It kills him..."






"And?"

Different ship. Same scene. All eyes upon her.

Lucind saw Ivanek staring at her with a fearful expression all over his face. She almost said something like, I was named new captain of that ship there - and now I'm here to tell you that you've got ten minutes to surrender, just to see the man panicking.

"We can resume our heading. - Here, that's for you." The Siren handed a document wrapped in leather to the Beringar's captain, who raised both brows: it was a sealed letter which guaranteed free pass whenever the two ships would meet.
"Can't tell it'll work, though - those notes lose their validity when the crew gets another captain, right?"



Tagis was eager to get the details. Thus, the two women sat down with some wine and bread, and Lu told her friend what had happened.
A sad story, was Tagis final comment.
"It is. It is indeed.

On the other hand, I got us something for the Feiruza library."

The Siren fished a book out of her bag, wrapped in a protecting cloth.

"...beautiful." Tagis ran her fingertips along the embossed, dark red leather the book was covered with and gave Lucind a confused look when she laughed quietly.

"You're right. It is beautiful."






Only four months later, Lucind got to know that Captain Nicholas Salinger had passed away.
Shortly after the Siren's visit, he had regained control over his legs. But every following day, he had gotten weaker. The loyal ones among his crew had protected him from internal fights and uproars. Sometimes, so they reported, he had been cheerful even.

But one day, he had been found dead, leaned over his construction sketches.

And no medic, no healer had been able to tell what was the reason for his death.

The front door of the Feimurgan Book store opened ever so slowly as a quiet creak echoed into the room. It had been quite sometime since this shop had received any gifts, but alas there had finally decided to be one as the door indicated. The footsteps of the visitor only seemed to be drowned out by the business of the villa.

Standing within the doorway pale grey eyes ventured as a small child began to examine the store. Her appearance seemed rather pale in comparison to the liveliness of everything else that was surrounding her as she had faded grey doll-like clothing on her person. Her face was framed with long locks of grey hair which that was held slightly back by a black ribbon which fell as though it were resting on a sturdy rock. On her shoulder, a black raven rested with its beady eyes examining the rest of the store. She faintly examined the section of food before making her way over towards the large shelves which was a great deal taller than she was.

There were so many choices to make, and yet she didn’t seem to know where to start. There were a variety of different books staring her in the face and she seemed rather confused as she examined the order of each of the books. However, her eyes could only reach so high as her height was not exactly considered to be in her favour. Sighing, she looked over to the raven on her shoulder and frowned.


“Don’t you suppose they put it all the way up there, do you?” Her voice was rather delicate and fragile sounded as she focused her attention on the bird. However, the bird only seemed to c**k its head at its side to pose a question at her in return. With a slight giggle, she pet the side of the bird’s head and smiled at the response.

“You are no help at all, Shadow.” The bird let out a small peep like sound in joy to the girl’s touch. As she continued to give the bird attention, she began to look around the room for some sort of ladder of sorts. Anything would really do, especially considering that it was a book store. Her eyes widened as she took notice of a ladder leaning up against one of the opposing shelves, at last there was hope that she might be able to find the book she was looking for.

Carefully moving towards it, the young girl attempted to move it with all of the strength she could muster. However, there was only one downfall to her attempts; she was a ten year old girl. This sort of work required the assistance of an adult.

Ember almost jumped out of her dress once the taller woman spoke to her. She seemed to be at a loss of words for a moment. Thinking on how she was even able to respond. The raven that was resting on her should quickly fluttered away only to sit up top of the book shelf. It was watching and waiting to see what move the lady who approached its owner was going to say.

As the bird sat on the top shelf, the young girl widened her eyes as she looked rather concerned for what the bird may do. However, it only seems to sit on its new found perch.

“Oh dear, I hope you don’t mind if he sits up there. Shadow always seems to do that when he meets someone new.” Ember smiled softly at the rather nicely dressed woman. She seemed slightly unsure about how she was able associate with the older lady. But she was trying her best to do what she could. After a quick realization, she quickly rushed to the inside pocket of her dark grey cloak that she was wearing and pulled out a piece of paper.

It was a list.

Each word was carefully spaced out and written in black ink in very childish writing. Smiling, the girl looked over the list and began to examine the collection of books.


“If it isn’t a problem, I was wondering if you had Grimoire of Turiel, Grimoire of Armadel, or Libellus Magicus in your collection. Most of the book stores don’t seem to have them.” Each of the titles of the books rolled off of her tongue ever so elegantly as she spoke. However, despite how elegant she pronounced each of the words, these books were definitely not something a child should be playing with. Nevertheless, it appeared that this young lady had been on a mission for quite sometime, and she wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

Ember giggled slightly at the idea of the amount of trouble that Shadow could make. But she knew that her bird wouldn’t cause that sort of trouble. Or at least she would hope not.

“Oh! Where are my manners!” Her giggling quickly stopped and she grabbed the corner of her dress. With much grace, she curtsied before the woman showing her a great deal of respect and politeness that anyone could give.

“My name is Ember. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kara.” The two of them quickly began to make their way over to the counter in search of the two books she was looking for. Her grey hair bounced with every stepped that she made as they reached the counter. Her eyes barely passed over the counter as she attempted to watch Kara’s fingers fly over the magical keys. Her eyes widened as it was clear that Kara was using this contraption to help her out. She was in complete and utter awe.

Shortly, Shadow seemed to have finally make an entrance as he landed on the counter and also watched the woman type. It seemed rather curious about the keys it was pressing too.



“No? Oh shoot.” She frowned and looked rather disappointed over this. She looked as though she had almost failed on her quest.


“Mother isn’t going to like this, Shadow.” She frowned and looked up at the bird who continued to sit on the counter. They made contact as though they were speaking a secret language. It was clear that they had a rather close connection.



Instantly, Ember’s face lit up rather brightly. Kara had provided more hope for the situation.

“Wonderful! Thank you Miss Kara, you are being ever so helpful!” The young girl practically jumped for joy, only to quickly rearrange herself to allow herself to be in her polite and honorable fashion. But despite that, it was clear that she was merely still a child trying to play the adult role.

“Is there a chance that I can meet this person?”

“When do you expect her to be returning?” This girl seemed rather determined to be sure to have her needs met. Although, she was also trying her very best to be polite and courteous, after all, she was being slightly rude. But she was on a quest, a very important quest.

“Thank you ever so much for your help, Miss Kara! I very much appreciate the time you are spending assisting me!” She gave a quick curtsy as she stood before the woman. She was definitely trying to redeem her rude behavior from earlier.

Ember looked rather disappointed when hearing that this strange Varhetel woman was no longer in the building. It was rather saddening. And then Kara was gone! She was off to make a phone call and Ember sighed and leaned up against the desk to wait. Quietly, Shadow made his way over beside her and looked up from the ground he was sitting on. Crouching down, Ember began to rub the side of his head calmly.

“I guess we’re going to have to go on another adventure, Shadow.” Ember held out her finger to have the bird hop on and rest more so on her hand as she rested the appendage on her knee. However, the bird only let out a quiet caw that would cause some of the other customers to look over.

“Oh no! We couldn’t tell mother about that! She’d be furious! She’s not even going to be happy over the fact we have to go out again.” The bird only made another funny call back at her, this only made her giggle slightly and pull the bird closer for a hug. It was clear that these two had a rather special bond.

Finally, Kara had returned with a small card. Happily examining the document Ember took note of all of the details that were on the card. There was a logo that she had never seen before as well as other specific details. Flipping the card over she noticed Kara’s handwriting on the back. Her eyes widened as she looked over the card.



“Oh thank you, Miss Kara. But I was just wondering…” She looked rather embarrassed by asking this, but she knew it was for the better.

“Would it be possible to have a card without your handwriting on it?” Her eyes sank to the floor over this request but she could only mutter her reasoning.

“…Mother doesn’t like me talking to strangers.”

It was somewhat surprising that today was a rather relaxed day at Feimurgan. Kara wondered if half of the load of tourists drawn into town by the tournament had left already after cheering for their favorite fighters was no longer possible. Today, so it seemed, the audience they attracted consisted of their usual book and coffee lovers and fans of their small restaurant area up on the third floor. And those that seeked shelter from the chilly weather.

The slender, dark skinned woman with her black hair tamed in a bun at the base of her neck was busy reshelving stacks of books, placed on a cart that smoothly made its way over the carpet.

She heard steps on the staircase and turned around when the frame of a new customer appeared in the corner of her eye. Kara turned her heard - and stopped a split second before greeting him. She looked as though she knew this man with his scarf and cap from somewhere. Yet, she pushed the cart forwards to the next shelf.