The island was already visible in the distance, but due to the storm reaching its apex, the crew decided to keep the anchor down here. Cobal didn’t quite understand the logic at first, arguing that they’d be much safer on land if the storm got worse. Eliana assured him that the Tidesetter could handle a storm like this, especially when anchored down and with the deck fully cleared. As for why they wanted to take this risk in the first place, she was worried that if they got closer to the island and set up camp there during the night without making a move on the rest of the island, they would be spotted by whatever they were trying to find and it would eliminate the element of surprise they still might have. Eliana and two more pirates had instead gone to land in a small boat to do some scouting. Cobal offered to join them, but Eliana refused, saying that he’d just be in the way. Thus Cobal was now sitting below deck, wrapped up in a blanket, drinking and playing cards with several of the crew members. Although he’d spent some time on the Tidesetter the year before, both on the way to dealing with the cultists and then on the way back to Fitseren, he hadn’t really spoken too much with many of the crew. He’d mostly talked with Eliana, Fareh and a handful of others, including Bolar who was sitting right next to him. He was an experienced member of the crew, having joined the Tidesetter a full three decades ago. He was a textbook sailor with an unkempt beard and a crazed smile on his face at all times. He was strong enough to lift Cobal up with one hand and that wasn’t just a guess on Cobal’s end, but a bet that he thoroughly lost a few days prior. Not only had Bolar picked him up with one hand, he’d then tossed him up in the air and casually caught him with his other hand, before putting him back down. By now, Bolar had fully forgotten that Cobal was a prince and treated him like any other member of the crew. The same couldn’t be said for some of the others, who were still a bit more wary about how they presented themselves in his presence. One of the people that Cobal was playing cards with right now, a younger pirate named Jarrod with a full head of curly red hair, seemed to be quite antsy around Cobal, thinking it strange that a prince would be playing cards with pirates. Meanwhile Bolar was in the middle of telling a story about why he no longer trusted women. “So I said to the woman to pack her bags and join us on the ship, and do you know what she did?” He slammed his fist on the floor. “She said she was just going to grab something from the other room and I never saw her again. She bolted straight out the door, climbed the fence and abandoned me.”
“You can’t trust women these days,” Jarrod agreed.
“Don’t you think that if so many women run out on you, perhaps it might be a little bit your fault too?” Cobal offered.
Bolar punched him in the shoulder. “You’re supposed to pick my side man. Besides, you have no moral ground to stand on, traveling with such a pretty woman all the time.”
“What about your captain?” Cobal said.
“She scares the crap out of me. I like a strong woman as much as the next guy, but I don’t think I’d live a long life with the captain at my side.” He looked at Jarrod. “Maybe you got the right idea man.”
Jarrod chuckled. “Don’t oversell it, I’ve dated some very fickle men as well. I think your ideas of women have been skewed a little bit. People are complicated and men can run out on you just as fast as women.”
“It’s because both of you are a bunch of idiots,” a voice hollered from elsewhere in the cabin. “Men, women, neither should be anywhere near you fools.”
“Who said that,” Bolar yelled loudly, but all the response he got was an eruption of laughter throughout the cabin. Bolar sat back down, defeated. He turned his attention to Cobal instead. “What about you, any lords or ladies catch your eye? I’m sure you’ve got a ton of options as a prince and all that.”
“Nothing like that.”
“Didn’t you just go to Lady Vadier’s place? She’s a beauty, ain’t she?”
“She is definitely an attractive woman, I’ll give her that. But I cannot unsee the demonic girl that scared the crap out of me when I was still a boy. Kind of similar to how you see the captain.”
“You’re not into that?” Bolar said, smirking.
“Not really my thing, I’m more into more thoughtful people.” He smiled.
“You had someone in mind when you said that just now, I can tell.” Bolan handed Cobal a drink but Cobal refused. “Tell me everything about him or her.”
Cobal’s head was still a bit groggy from the previous night, which they’d also spent drinking. Mana was in a poor state this morning and stayed in her bunk all day, trying to sleep it off. Cobal hesitated before sharing with the pirates. It felt very personal and it made him feel self conscious. But on the other hand, Bolar had been very open about his own love life as well. “Well, I did spend some time with a young woman while I was in Marsolin.”
Bolar leaned in close, resting his head on his hands as an over the top ‘tell me more’ signal.
“I went there to study and met up with a young scribe there who helped me do my research. We ended up dating for a while.”
“And where is she now?”
“Still in Marsolin, I assume. She has her own life, so it makes sense that she didn’t travel half across the world for a guy she met earlier that month. I for one don’t ask women to pack their bags and join me on the ship. It saves me having to search for them after they dash out the door.”
Bolar wanted to protest the low blow, but the sound of footsteps above deck caught his attention. “I think the captain’s back.”
Eliana gathered everyone in the hull of the ship. Most people were already there, but a few had been left on lookout and some others – like Mana – had still been asleep in their cots. Only two members of the crew – the ones that had accompanied Eliana – were absent.
“How are you feeling?” Cobal asked Mana as she sat down next to him,fitting barely between him and Jarrod.
“Not great. I’m not used to drinking at all and I’m getting older too. When I was a teenager and in my early twenties this wouldn’t have stopped me at all, but now my head will likely be pounding till the early evening.” She sighed. “One day I’ll learn this lesson.”
“But not today,” Bolar said, handing her another mug of ale.
“I’m going to have to respectfully tell you to piss off,” she replied.
“Listen up people,” Eliana said, creating immediate silence in the space. The way Eliana captured the attention of an entire room with seemingly no effort would never not impress Cobal.
“Sahim, Curas and I went out to explore the island. It’s a pretty spooky place, but we didn’t find any actual danger. We did discover something important. There is a small lake at the center of the island, with a secondary island in it. A river leads from the southern side of the island into this lake. Standing atop this island is what we assume to be the wizard’s tower. It’s a strange looking thing, but that is not our primary worry. Docked in that lake, next to the tower, is what looks an awful lot like a ship belonging to ghosts. It’s missing half the wood but it’s still floating. Sahim is confident he saw movement on the deck of the ship, but we didn’t get close enough to see anything properly.” She sat down on a barrel and crossed her legs. “Now we need to come up with a plan.” She looked at Mana and Cobal in particular. “This is your rescue mission, what do you have to offer?”
Mana stood up, still a little bit wobbly. She leaned her hand on Cobal’s shoulder as she spoke. “Right, I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit over the last few days, although my head’s a bit of a mess right now.” Several of the crew members chuckled at this comment. “What we know is that there is a pirate ship with a crew that was cursed by a wizard who might come from the same world as me, or not. These ghost pirates have likely kidnapped the villagers from Ravadier and they’re trying to get into the wizard’s tower. The story also says that the key to entering the tower was lost, presumably thrown into the ocean, and this is why the pirates have been roaming the nearby seafloor. From what we learned in Arana, it seems like these pirates have been getting closer to the shore than they did in the past. I doubt they suddenly got that idea, so perhaps there is an explanation for why they didn’t go to shore before and do now, perhaps the magic is weakening or something like that. I don’t know a lot about ghosts, but one thing that is common from the stories back home is that ghosts can’t touch things. My suspicion is that they found a way to kidnap people from the mainland and make them work for them, either through magic or plain old kidnapping. If we catch them by surprise, we could perhaps take control back over the villagers and solve this problem quickly.” She looked around. “That’s about it.”
“To summarize what our stumbling hero is trying to say,” Eliana said while standing up again, “there is a ship with ghost pirates that have taken the villagers hostage and we want them back.”
“That’s more concise,” Mana agreed.
“So what we need now is a concrete plan.” Eliana continued. “I talked a little bit about this with Sahim already and we think that we should either sail up that river and catch them while they’re docked and unaware, or we hide along the river and wait for them to go out to sea. That way we can ambush them on the ship.”
“What about waiting for them to leave and then seeing who or what they leave behind on the island?” Cobal asked. “If there’s no one there or if we’ve dealt with whomever is there, we can then ambush the ship as it comes back.”
Eliana thought about this for a few moments. “That’s not a bad idea.” She smiled. “You’re smarter than you look.”
“I get that a lot.”
“Either way,” Eliana continued, “in the morning we try to ambush these pushovers. Take over their ship by lunchtime and be back on the open seas in time for dinner, how’s that sound?”
Everyone cheered before going back to their games and conversations. A few of the crew members followed Eliana out of the room, either to continue lookout duties or discuss something with the captain. Cobal and Mana later joined Eliana in her chambers as well to make sure that everyone was on the same page. They would go with Cobal’s plan to wait for the ghost pirates to leave the island and then sail up the river and ambush them alongside it on their way back in. That would be the best way to get them by surprise. Hopefully things would go well, but Cobal was worried. It seemed like they were dealing with something complicated and nuanced and he felt like some part of important information was missing. Not only that, but the mage tower also worried him. Why was a powerful mage allowed to have a tower like that just outside the borders of their kingdom? And why had he never heard of it? He wondered if his father knew about it. If it was another otherworlder that would have been a great ally to have. Was there a reason this was never suggested as an option? You have to be quite the character to do something like this to your enemies, after all. Was this mage part of the reason why his brother decided that joining the Jasmine Order and eradicating otherworlders was a good idea? Cobal didn’t know, but it definitely kept him up that night. Sleep eventually found him although he woke up early in the morning as thunder and howling winds plagued the ship and the nearby island. Was it all a bad omen?
Opal Kaharis 