Daughter of Treason Ch. 01

She smiled. "It's good to see that you don't count yourself among them; I admit I was worried I'd have to find a different ship."

Suddenly his features turned stern. "Just 'cause I accept the desert kind doesn't mean my shipmates do. So what do you want, girl. Before you speak, know that we need no whore here." He gave a somewhat unsettling smile. "We get along quite well." Isakei bristled. "The last man who tried to touch me fared poorly. I come seeking employment as a sailor and marine, though if no such openings exist, I would settle for booking passage to a safer harbor."

He looked at the elf one more time, then turned his eye back to Isakei. "Come down to the galley with me." As the she and the elf followed, he led them on a tour; most of the below decks was a communal living space, with the galley acting as the only real distinct area. The only other noteworthy area was the large, damp cargo hold nearby, next to which a small kitchen sat inactive. The captain sat down at one of the benches in the galley and motioned for the others to to likewise. "Can I get you some rum?" he asked.

Out of habit, Isakei shook her head; usually those who offered her drinks did so with malicious intent. "Not at present, thank you." She paused. Though she was loathe to admit it, she was scared; she had just killed the closest thing to family she had left, turned herself into a fugitive, and was about to fall in with some apparently colorful companions. She needed something to calm her down. On impulse, she asked, "Do you have something stronger?"

Smiling, he drew a flask for his coat and poured it into a small tankard. "I hope this does. How about for you, Shino?" The elf shook his head, and Isakei realized with a start that she had never even caught his name. As her elven friend requested some rum, she took a swig of the drink before her; it burned her throat, and it made her eyes water, but it gave her something to focus on other than the acidic feeling in the pit of her (rapidly warming) stomach. "Listen-" said the captain, pointedly ignoring Isakei's grimace as the whiskey did its work, before cutting himself off. "What do I call you, by the by?"

Isakei blinked. How could she forget introductions entirely? "I am-" She paused. Giving her old name was a bad idea; crimes had a habit of following. The only name hat came to mind was the pet name her mother had often called her by. "You may call me Kei."

"You can call me Captain or Salty, whichever you like. But Kei, the sea is a dangerous place for two greenhorns. If I were t' take you two as marines, I would expect the same as from my first mate. Now, I know that neither o' you have any experience on the sea- don't argue, both o' you have had trouble staying on your feet, and we're still in port! And to boot, your friend here is not a warrior. I mean, just look at him. But I am willing to take both of you."

Kei wasn't sure whether to feel angry that he saw right through her or relieved that he didn't care. "Then perhaps I shall work for both of us. I'm not a bad shot with a crossbow, nor am I poor with my rapier. But before I agree to anything, you said that you'd expect the same from us as your first mate. What, exactly, does that entail?"

He chuckled. "I expect your loyalty, m' dear. Well, that an' you take the commands I give as law. Trust me: treason is not a crime you wish t' commit."

Kei nodded once and replied grimly, "Duly noted. I cannot speak for my friend, but as long as his safe passage is assured, I can pledge both my loyalty and obedience."

Kei was so busy thinking of how close her family had been to treason that she did not notice the elf's surprised look. But she did notice the captain nodding. "You're lucky, you know. A few minutes later and you would have missed us." A whistle came from above decks. "It's time t' go."

Almost not daring to ask, Kei said, "So we may consider ourselves employed, then?"

"Aye, and you're working for his fare as well."

Sighing with relief, Kei nodded. "Very well. Where do I report to... sir?"

A smile appeared on the captain's face. "Talk t' First Mate Rourke."

Kei saluted then started up towards the stairs, though the elf put a hand on her shoulder. She wasn't entirely sure what feelings coursed through her at that touch; on the one hand, she was used to feeling disgust whenever anyone laid hands on her. Yet on the other, there was a definite flush of warmth somewhere quite a bit lower than her face. She was on the verge of panicking when he said very quietly, "Why are you being so kind to me?"

Suddenly, all thoughts fled. A half dozen answers raced through her mind, from the sassy, 'what, should I stop?' to the deflective 'anyone would have done the same.' But in the end, all that came out was the one answer she didn't need to think about: "Because you needed me."

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

The next week was a flurry of learning for Kei. She had never been on a ship before, and getting her 'sea legs' threw her off for the first few days, but once she got her balance all else seemed to follow; tying knots was easy, and climbing the rigging was not too different from her old gymnastics weapons. She had been issued a crossbow, some bolts, and some leather armor from the ship's meager armory, and though she hadn't had the opportunity to test it, it felt familiar in her hands. The armor wasn't the most comfortable, as it was obviously designed for men and Kei's chest didn't take to its confinement well, but the old leather had some give, and the more she wore it, the more comfy it became. Between sparring and learning the ropes of sailing, everything was new but only a little bit of work away; the only real thing she was having trouble with was the crew.

It wasn't that they were being rude; that, at least, she could have responded to. She knew how to deal with catcalls, and anything more would give her an excuse to show them what was what, but they didn't do any of that. It was more a feeling of unspoken reservations, almost as if they weren't entirely sure she should be there. Of course, the fact that such concerns were unvoiced was hardly surprising; when she heard one of them trash-talking Shino, she had snapped at them so quickly that they hadn't spoken much outside of ship duties since.

All this changed at the beginning of the second week.

Kei had been climbing the rigging to furl a sail when the lookout in the crows nest had called, "SHIP AHOY!" Everything had moved quickly after that; the Captain appeared on deck, spyglass in hand. Before she had even gotten down from the rigging, First Mate Rourke shouted, "All hands to their stations; we may have a fight on our hands!"

Kei was posted at the port stern, right up against the only real patch of bulwark; Shino had been sent below decks. She had by this time retrieved her crossbow and a quiver of bolts across her back, and was in the process of double-checking all of her weapons; the crossbow, rapier, and all four daggers she had purchased earlier. Part of her mind began thinking, what have you gotten yourself into? but she did her best to shut that part up.

The other ship didn't seem that small, but Rourke insisted, "She's tiny, for a galley." He paused, and looked at Kei, adding the next part clearly for her benefit. "You can tell it's a galley by the oars, see? An' the square rigging; most o' us still use triangular sails."

She nodded, but was focusing mainly on the flag. Though the hull looked in almost as poor condition as the Maiden of the Salt, the flag was Islandport's. "False colors...?" Kei wondered aloud.

"Keep your guard up," Was Rourke's only response. "That's not a national ship."

Redoubling her efforts to still her thoughts, Kei triple checked her weapons.

Sure enough, as the ship drew near, the Islandport flag was run down to be replaced by the long-feared Jolly Roger. As it pulled alongside, with a good twenty feet between the two decks, two of the pirates attempted to swing aboard, only to fall short, strike the hull of the Maiden, and fall into the sea where, though living, they were out of the fight.

On the far deck stood fourteen foes to her and her nine allies, all armed with crossbows. "Fire!" shouted the captain, prompting the first hail of crossbow fire, though it was largely ineffective; only one enemy was wounded, and the others missed entirely. Kei fired with the rest of them, dropping the wounded one before crouching behind the bulwark to reload. As they fired a return volley and two of the crew fell, she was suddenly very grateful to have that bulwark there.

In the ensuing exchanges, the crew got another two, wounding a pair both of which Kei managed to finish off, while the pirates managed to take out half of the crew before the captain raised his hands and shouted, "Alright, damn your eyes, we surrender!"

Already pumped full of adrenaline, Kei immediately started looking for someplace to hide; Salty may have been giving them the ship, but she was going to make them work for it. As it turned out, the crew had similar thoughts; they fired off another volley, taking another pirate out before she could even make it to the cabin.

As she reached the door, the pirate captain ordered his men to board the ship. Though the crew almost all hit their marks while the pirates were attempting to board, bringing the enemies' numbers down to six, all of those but one managed to make it on deck with the last managing only to grab onto the railing of the Maiden. Giving up her plan for ambush, Kei took one last shot with the crossbow, wounding the nearest, before dropping it in favor of her rapier. Her thrust took him by surprise, and the score to his gut put him out of commission. For just a moment, her breath caught in her chest as she saw Raul again, but when one of the fallen pirate's companions narrowly missed her with a wide slash, her mind locked down, focusing only on battle. As the melee between the crew and pirates intensified, one of her daggers found its way to her right hand, her martial training taking over now that rational thought had stepped down. In the ensuing melee, the half remaining crew fell, leaving only three and the captain, but so too did all the pirates except their captain, who still stood on the far ship. As the combat had progressed, the ships had drawn closer, and still in a combative mindset, Kei did the only thing she could think of; she threw the dagger at the pirate captain.

It was a terrible throw, only striking a mast ten feet away by luck, but the Captain nonetheless jumped through the cargo hatch. Giving a cry of rage, Kei sprinted forward and leaped, clearing the now five foot gap between the decks and landing on the other side. Yet more pirates flowed out from below decks, and the world dissolved into a haze of battle rage. There were islands of lucidity in the madness: seeing Rourke fall, watching Salty fight off more boarders, but most memorable was the moment she was surrounded. For a moment, just a moment, she saw through the chaos of combat and saw something familiar; dance. It all could be taken to be a giant, complex dance, and yet the only thing she could think of in the face of this epiphany was, I always preferred gymnastics. And so, in the face of being surrounded, she flung herself backward into a graceful back handspring, kept her momentum with her as the turned it into a cartwheel, drew a dagger and let fly; the last sight in that memory was seeing it sink into a pirate's neck before the general chaos resumed.

As the battle wore on, Kei's ferocity and grace began to take its toll; fatigue caught up to her, and she moved just a little bit too slow to avoid some slashes, taking a particularly deep gash on the back and a lighter one across her stomach as well as several grazes. Somewhere in the madness Shino had joined the battle with only his dagger, and had managed to survive unscathed. By the time clarity returned, the general melee was over and Kei found herself wounded with only one dagger left of the original four; the absent three could be found in the ship or, more often, its inhabitants, and nearly all were bloody. Grunting in pain, Kei finally noticed her elven companion and said, "Shino, I don't suppose you have anything to patch me up?"

As he shook his head 'no', the captain emerged, mistaking the lack of battle for victory. "Aha!" he had exclaimed, "Nobody defeats Phil the--" He stopped mid sentence, seeing the carnage around. The battle-rage gone, Kei had only a cold anger. Stabbing with her rapier, she scored a hit on his belly before he screamed and ran for the edge of the ship. She managed to get another hit in on his shoulder before he threw himself overboard, swimming for the shore. Not one to be deterred, Kei sheathed her rapier, walked over to one of the fallen pirates, calmly picked up the crossbow, loaded it, and fired. Though in her fatigue and post-adrenaline crash she couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, she kept on trying: fire, reload, aim, fire, reload, aim... This was a dance of war, but it was so different from the previous melee; it was rhythmic, certain, ordered. It was driven by logic, not emotions, and though it didn't do a quarter as much damage as twenty seconds of anger had, it felt better. When she finally judged the pirate captain to be out of range, she dropped the crossbow with a sigh.

"Well," said Shino, looking at Kei with something bordering on awe, "at least we got the rest of them."

Kei groaned. "Yeah, but at the price of a rib, it feels like."

"Oi!" shouted Salty, "will you two stop lollygagin' and loot th' bastards!"

Groaning, all she could was respond, "Aye aye, sir!"

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

The rest of the trip proved to be relatively uneventful; though Kei and Shino had to pick up up the slack while the crew recovered, the pirate galley turned out to have quite a bit of money. There were also some books and scrolls there, which Salty had given to Shino. As for the rest, the captain had, citing the fact that Kei had finished off nearly a third of the pirates herself and was still the last one standing, had awarded her a share of the treasure. Given that the captain got two shares and the rest of the crew divided up one share, this meant that Kei could would find herself quite wealthy, indeed. This bounty, however, was paid for in blood; Kei frequently found herself thinking, What I wouldn't give for a cleric.

The only upside was that the crew had stopped being so distant. They weren't precisely buddy-buddy, but they actually spoke to her outside of their duties, and one had even thanked her for her efforts! But Kei was less than animated in her dealings with them; instead she was the reserved one, saying as little as possible to anyone. It got so bad that Shino had to pull her aside and check on her.

He managed to corner her during watch on a particularly calm night. Shino technically wouldn't have to relieve her for another three hours, so she wasn't allowed to lave the crow's nest until he formally took her place.

Kei heard him coming a bit before he peeked his head above the rickety platform which served as a lookout post. His face was piqued; he had cheerfully announced earlier on the voyage that he didn't like heights. Although Kei herself was surprisingly comfortable perched atop the rickety platform, Shino's fear made his presence all the more suspicious.

"Hello," he said with forced cheer. Kei gave only a nod in reply, keeping her gaze fixed pointedly on the horizon, though in her periphery she saw him glance over the side of the nest and take a gulp before continuing, "Are you all right?"

"Yes." She said, a little too quickly.

He stared at her long and hard, and for just a moment she made the mistake of meeting his gaze. Blushing, she looked away again as he said simply, "I don't believe you."

"Believe what you like," she snapped, irritated at the sudden flush going through her body again. "I'm sure you will anyway."

"Hey," he said, gently putting his hand on her shoulder. Instantly, all those emotions came flooding back. For an instant, she fought them, trying to push them away, but with that had on her shoulder, a little dam inside her cracked. The next thing she knew, she had her head buried into his shoulder, sobbing. Shino just held her for quite some time, stroking her hair and murmuring comfortingly. Eventually, when the tears started to slow, he finally asked, "What's wrong?"

Kei managed to hold back a relapse of tears just long to choke out, "I'm a monster!"

"What?" Shino sounded genuinely confused. "You're not a monster."

"I am!" Muffled in his shoulder, she knew he had to strain to hear, but she didn't want to show her face, not right now.

"Alright," he said, all patience, "how are you a monster?"

"I don't feel anything!" In the resulting silence, she finally pulled her head back, looking up at him for the first time since she started crying, searching for some sign that he understood. "I killed a dozen men. They're gone, do you see? A dozen lives, and I snuffed them all out, and I don't feel an ounce of remorse!"

"They were trying to kill you," Shino said, still not understanding.

"But I should still feel something! I've read accounts; even in war, the soldiers have feelings! It's human nature, you see? So why don't I feel anything?"

"You seem to feel something now," pointed out Shino, "something a lot like guilt."

She shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder again. Why, she wondered, did that feel so right? "No, it's different. They all feel guilt over the act of killing, but I-"

"Who?" he asked, confused.

"Them!" she said, waving her hand in the general direction of shore without bothering to move her face from his shoulder. "The plebeians! They-"

"Plebeians?" Shino asked, amused.

She glared at him for a few moments. "Yes, plebeians, common folk, normal people. They would feel guilt over this, or relief, or joy at being alive- something. But I don't care that I just killed more men than I have fingers! That's not what upsets me! I just-" she paused, taking a deep breath before continuing quietly, "I don't want to be a monster."

Smiling down at her, he said, "You aren't. Not feeling anything at doing what had to be done, that doesn't make you a monster. Paladins don't think twice after dispatching evil-doers. It just makes you confident." She started to respond, but he cut her off, "And monsters don't care what they are. As long as you make sure you don't kill anyone who doesn't deserve it, as long as you try to be a good person, you won't be a monster."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it." His smile was entirely disarming. "I'll tell you what. If you start becoming a monster, I'll tell you. Okay?"

Kei hesitated. A part of her, the same part that had kept her alive and sane in the long years without anyone looking out for her, was saying, you barely know this man. YOU are responsible for the person you become, and you only! How could you even think to trust this man, this stranger with not just your life, but your very being? But another part, the same small part that saw him and said, 'he needs me,' the same part that previously hadn't been heard from since Vera had passed away, said, "Okay."

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

They didn't talk about that evening after Kei was relieved, and that suited her just fine. Although she wasn't loud about it, her independence in the later years of her life had lead her to to be quite proud, and her outburst of emotion, which would have meant exposing herself to predators back home, felt like a weakness. However, despite feeling that she had experienced a momentary lapse in strength, she did become much more sociable over the last week of the journey. She spoke with the crew a bit, and with Shino extensively, and for the most part, everyone was as kind as could be asked. One of the crew had even said to her, "Ah, I'm glad to see yer feelin' better. I remember my first battle; I was so torn up after, I had t' pray for a week just to get myself feelin' to rights."