“Now then, let us talk,” Eliana said. She had rounded up all of the Ravadier villagers – whom they now suspected were possessed or under some form of control – on the deck of the Tidesetter. After being ambushed and captured in a matter of moments they had stayed relatively meek, unwilling to talk about what was going on so far.
The crew and Cobal’s party had spent the remainder of the day setting up a camp on the northern beach of Shark Tooth Island before holding a meeting to discuss what to do with this situation.
“Clearly,” Eliana started, “our task has changed from subduing some ghosts to exorcising them.” She looked around but no one argued. “Then my next question is one to which I fear I already know the answer.” She chuckled. “Does anyone have experience getting rid of ghosts or fixing a possession?”
More silence.
Eliana sighed. “So exorcising them is going to be very difficult. It would be one thing if we have unlimited time on our hands and we could visit Marsolin once more, but I think that’s a bit too far away.” She looked at Cobal. “I do suggest you send a letter to Lysa to see what she can do for us, but that shouldn’t be our main plan.”
Cobal nodded. “I’ll do that later.”
“Good, then if we can’t exorcise these ghosts, perhaps we can convince them to leave willingly.”
“What if,” Mana interrupted, “we can release them.”
“Elaborate.”
“Well, they must have possessed the villagers for a reason. If I were to guess, it’s because they want to get back into the mage’s tower and undo the curse that’s on them,” she paused for a second, “assuming the stories are true, of course.” She stood up. “If we can somehow help them do this and release them from their curse, my guess would be that they would have no more need for the bodies of the Ravadier villagers.”
Eliana considered this for a while. “That’s not a bad idea. Good one kid.”
“I’m in my thirties.”
“That’s a kid to Eliana, she’s ancient.” Cobal commented.
“I’ve warned you before boy.”
“Sorry, you look wonderful for your age.”
“You’re on thin ice.”
Everyone laughed.
“So to make a long story short, we’ll need to convince these ghosts that they have to leave the bodies, and Mana suggests that the most likely way we can do that is by setting them free. That in turn means we need to figure out what’s keeping them here, if we can actually solve that curse and if we need to go into that freaky tower to do so.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Lovely, it’s never easy with you people, is it?”
“We strive to keep you from getting bored.” Cobal replied jokingly.
“Well could you not?” Eliana shook her head. “Let’s pull out some teeth and get some information.”
Cassandra wanted to complain but Eliana didn’t let her. “Not literally, calm down baker’s girl.” She stepped away from the group and towards the ship, where the prisoners were rounded up.
“Let’s put our cards on the table,” Eliana said. She cut quite the imposing figure in her pirate coat and hat, with multiple weapons hanging from her belt. She looked at the miserable villagers, some of which looked worse for wear than others. The crew had fought like they expected competent fighters and in doing so perhaps did more damage to the villagers than was necessary.
“Talk away,” said a man who Cobal didn’t recognize but Cassandra had told them was the town carpenter, Bosiv. He looked more hostile than the rest of their captives.
Eliana stuck her sword in the planks in front of him. “We were hired by the good people of Ravadier to find out what happened to the villagers that started walking into the ocean and never came back.” She grinned. “Finding out what happened doesn’t include bringing them back unharmed, mind you.”
“All bark, no bite,” the man they called Bosiv said. “Do your worst.”
Eliana seemed stumped by that, pacing back and forth before a grin appeared on her face. Perhaps we can’t hurt you. We don’t know what’s going on. What we can do is dismantle that sorry excuse for a pirate ship one piece of lumber at a time until there is nothing left of it. We’ll see how well you’ll be able to continue whatever the hell it is you’re doing here.”
This seemed to cause some nervousness among their captives although they weren’t quite ready to change their attitude yet. “Do it and you won’t get these people back.”
“See if I care. I can say that I tried my best, get my money for the job and let you rot here on this island for eternity.”
Cobal shuddered. It was clear this wasn’t the first time she’d threatened someone into submission and although he was on the receiving end of similar treatment a year ago, she seemed much more fierce this time around.
“We’ll never cooperate with you,” the carpenter said.
“Is that so?” Metal flashed and before anyone else could react, a dagger sank into the carpenter’s knee. “Well if you’re not going to cooperate then you don’t need working legs, do you?”
It was moments like these where Cobal remembered that she was a pirate, growing up with a lifestyle so far removed from his own that it was basically a miracle they had become friends. It was a brutal way of living and it seemed to work well as he could see the boisterous attitude that their captives started to slowly fade away and be replaced by fear. Cobal could see that they were starting to doubt themselves which was a good sign since he could also feel Cassandra doing everything she could to stop herself from interfering. Regardless of what was happening here, the people who were being berated and in one case stabbed by Eliana were her friends and family and although Cobal and Mana both had a deep trust of the pirate captain, Cassandra only met her just the other day.
“Alright, we’ll talk,” a young man said. It was the one person in the group who Cassandra struggled to identify and wasn’t fully sure was actually from Ravadier.
“That’s more like it boy, what is your name?”
“Don’t you tell them a thing,” the carpenter said, but it fell on deaf ears.
“My name is Kenar. I don’t know who this body belongs to, but from what I’ve heard you discuss amongst yourselves you’re already well aware that it isn’t my original body. Before I died, I was the first mate on the Justavir.”
There was a hint of recognition in Eliana’s eyes but she didn’t interject.
“We were a pretty successful group of smugglers in this region a long time ago. We would raid smaller trading vessels and use our speed and small size to outmaneuver the larger royal ships. It was a good gig until we got greedy. Some of our fellow sailors had left the crew and that’s when Captain Bartew came with a great offer.” He pointed at the carpenter who was glaring daggers back at him, but also nursing the stabbing wound in his leg.
“Bartew said we’d make it big with this one, steal some magic artifacts from a long abandoned wizard tower. It would be an easy job. Sure, we expected some traps and tricks waiting for us, we’re not stupid enough to think a mage wouldn’t defend their tower, but we’d stolen from strange and dangerous people before. Good preparation and a careful approach would be enough to get it done. And deep down we all knew that in the worst case scenario we’d lose one person to a trap and then abandon the plan. Grim to admit, but that’s the reality of the line of work we’re in, you understand.” He looked at Eliana who nodded. “We also knew that someone told Bartew about this place and guaranteed us that it was easy pickings, and that the mage had been dead for so long their magic was probably gone by now. I always wonder what happened to that person, and why they sent us to our doom, but I digress.” He shifted, clearly uncomfortable in his binds. “To make a long story short, the tower was so far beyond our capabilities that we didn’t even make it past the entrance hall. I don’t even understand what happened, it was suddenly utter pandemonium and the next thing I knew I had a incorporeal body and so did everyone else who was present that day. It took us a little while of settling in before we understood that we’d been cursed to live forever, figuring out what happened to us and somehow reversing it.” Kenar stopped talking, the memories coming back clearly taking a toll on him.
“So you’ve explained who you are and what happened to you, now tell us what is going on with the Ravadier villagers.”
“I was getting to that, it’s a long story, alright?” He sighed and looked around at the others. Many emotions hid behind vacant looking stares, the only one showing their disdain openly being the man now identified as Captain Bartew. He continued. “We eventually found out that the key to end our suffering was within the tower. To get into the tower, we’d need to find the key that was dropped somewhere on the island. We searched for years but with no success so we kept expanding the radius of our search. The magic that kept us on the island seemed to weaken over time, which is how we eventually managed to make it all the way to the shore of the mainland. That’s when I came upon a traveler and found out that I had the ability to take their body for my own. From here on out we devised a plan to take over a group of villagers. That would increase our options in what we could and could not interact with. And that’s more or less how we got to where we are now. We just returned from a search when your crew ambushed us and being in bodies we’re not used to, it wasn’t even close to a fight.”
“That much I can agree on,” Eliana said. She smiled. “Was that so hard?”
“Piss off,” Bartew said, but Eliana ignored him, staying focused on Kenar.
“So, are the villagers still in there? That’s the part that’s most important to me.”
“I am not a mage, but I believe so. It feels like I’m holding something back whenever I’m awake and when I’m asleep it’s harder to do so. Almost as if the person whose body this is is trying to take it back by force. Which is understandable.”
“So it’s safe to surmise that if we exorcise you lot, we’ll be able to get the villagers back?”
“We mean the villagers of Ravadier no harm. If we get what we want, then there’s absolutely no reason for us to do anything bad towards them. But let me make one thing clear, if we don’t get what we want, we also have absolutely no reason to let them go.”
“I’ve got a pretty clear idea of what you want, and you’ve got a pretty clear idea of what I want. Thank you for your cooperation, Kenar.” She turned around before changing her mind. “I have one last question. Whose body is the one you’re in? We’re unable to identify you.”
Kenar shrugged. “Some guy who was walking along the beach. No idea.”
“Thank you.” She turned around and walked away, not addressing anyone to the point that even Cobal was confused about what was expected from him. He’d just watched her do her thing and he was kind of still stuck in the moment.
After the moment of confusion faded he followed her, still not sure about anything, but aware that walking away with confidence was the right move. He was starting to feel some anxiety about his value in this endeavor and it brought up some bad memories of earlier on in their travels. A hand on his shoulder reminded him to take a deep breath and stay in the present. He looked back at Mana who smiled and then removed her hand again. “I can see your worry, but I also have no idea how these things work. Not all of us have the charisma and the experience of a famed pirate captain.”
“I know, but I should have the charisma of a prince at least.”
“You’ll get there.” She slapped him on the back and walked past him, laughing.
Opal Kaharis 