by V. A. Lewis
"It’s only temporary," Kai said. "We’ve been together for a decade. A year or two apart won’t be anything too bad. And you’ve been fighting so hard all your life. You deserve to rest and relax a little bit, don’t you?"
But still, she protested. "I’m the Captain, aren’t I? I should be the one staying here while you go with them to Taw."
"No. It’s specifically because you’re the Captain that you have to go. You’re the charismatic leader, after all. There’s no way I’ll be able to convince anyone— not even a drunk Dwarf— to come to our backwater country for philanthropy or business. But I can manage logistics. I can hold things down while you’re gone."
Ginah looked between Melas and Kai. The two of them had a determined look in their gaze. Melas with her arms folded, and Kai with a reassuring smile.
"Trust me, Ginah."
She had always trusted him, ever since he agreed to help her take down her father. So why did things have to change now? This deal would solve all the current problems Ginah was faced with… if it worked out.
But if things didn’t work out, it would only serve to cause more problems. But she trusted Kai, didn’t she? So finally, after much internal debates, she gave in.
"I trust you, Kai." She turned back to the waiting Melas and nodded. "Fine. We’ll take your deal."
The young girl released a breath she had been holding in relief. She held a shaky hand out and smiled. "I promise you, you won’t regret it."
"So what now?" Ginah asked after shaking hands with her, still feeling nervous about doing this. She had just made a deal with a child! Anyone would normally think it was ridiculous. But Ginah ignored that thought for the moment.
"Well, first I have to get Jack and Lisa’s help. Lisa said she would help me, and she’s even willing to come to Taw with us since she has nowhere left to go."
"None at all," the young woman said with a smile. "Most of my bridges in Luke have been completely burned. But it all depends on what Jack has to say."
"Righ," Melas said, nodding. She directed her attention to Jack. "What do you think? I know you don’t like Dwarves and all…"
"Lisa has a point," he grunted. "And I don’t have a problem with all Dwarves. I have a problem with a Dwarf. We have nothing else left in Luke, and if we’re going to the Taw Kingdom, I can finally resolve that problem."
Gennady sat up from where he had been seated. He turned to the smuggler who avoided his gaze. "Hey, wait! If ya have a problem with only one Dwarf, what’s your problem with me?"
Jack scowled. "Shut it. The way you talk reminds me of him."
He sputtered. "But all Dwarves talk like me—"
Melas ignored their conversation, muttering under her breath. "Huh, uh, that was easier than I thought it would be."
Ginah turned her attention to the young girl as the argument in the room drew to a close with Lisa stopping Jack from continuing. She regarded Melas optimistically. "So, we just have to bring you to Taw, huh? That doesn’t sound too difficult."
"Nope." Melas hesitated. She glanced between everyone in the room, an uncertain look on her face. "It’s a tad bit more difficult than that."
"What do you mean?"
She took a deep breath. "We’ll have to… deal with Saintess Lilith first."
This time, everyone— not just Ginah— raised objections. But Melas quickly waved her hands, silencing them.
"We have no choice. If we deal with her now, the Church might decide that it’s not worth pursuing me in such a direct fashion any further. But if we don’t deal with her now, she’ll come back again in the future and cause a lot more problems than what we’d have to deal with right now."
"That makes sense," Lisa said, nodding. "But how do you expect us to take care of a Saintess."
"Well," Melas sighed. "I have a plan…"
***
Even at the moment, I knew it was such a cliche thing to say— I was internally cringing as I said it. But it was true. I had a plan. And that plan led to the current situation.
Jack and Braz left me in the storage room of the ship; they didn’t treat me too roughly once they were out of sight of Lilith. They set me down and chained my antimagic manacles to a pillar before they turned to leave.
Well, Jack tried to leave, but Braz stayed for a moment to whisper to me. "Sorry about the rough treatment."
"It’s fine," I said, before gesturing at the door. "Go before you arouse any suspicion."
"Right."
He was about to turn around to leave before I quickly added.
"And thank you."
The pirate paused. He glanced back at me, then shot me a grin. "Thank me once this is all over and we’ve dealt with that insane woman."
I met his gaze for a moment, staring into the golden eyes of his. Then I nodded, before he finally left the room. I watched him as he took his leave, heaving a sigh as I leaned back on the pillar I was chained to.
It was no more than a minute until I heard the creaking of the wooden crate behind me and the hushed whispers of a Dwarf.
"Pst, lass." He tried to get my attention. "All clear?"
"For now. But your role doesn’t come in until later. What if you get caught?" I glared back at him.
"Just wanted to check in on ya," he said, ignoring it. "Think everything will go according to plan?"
"I hope it does. Because if it doesn’t…" I trailed off.
Gennady just snorted. "You’re always so grim, aren’t ya? Relax for a moment. It’ll all go smoothly."
"But what if something goes wrong?" I asked, looking up at the ceiling. "What if they decide to betray us? Rat you out and truly hand me over to the Saintess and the Church?"
It was a fear that had been eating me up inside since we concocted this plan days ago— before we had the rest of the cove evacuated and set the stage for the fake ambush. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, yet it could fall apart any moment.
Anything ranging from Lisa deciding that she wanted to take all the gold for herself and Jack, to Ginah and Kai having second thoughts. Perhaps Lilith might decide she didn’t want to uphold her end of the deal and slaughter every single one of them while I was down here locked up and unable to do anything about it, effectively ruining our plan.
Even bad weather stood to threaten what happened next— if our ship was tipped over by a large wave or if the storm somehow ruined our masts, we might be forced to migrate to one of Lilith’s ships. And that made our plan all the more difficult to achieve, possibly even ruining it.
For all these reasons, I was worried; stress gripped my entire being in spite of me going through with this plan. And it must have shown only my face as Gennady reassured me.
"Come on, Melas. You’ve done your part, now it’s up to them lot. You have to trust that they play their roles well."
"Right," I said. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Trust. It was something I had so little of before; it was something I had robbed from me by a young man who saved my life. But things were different now— things had been different for a while.
I had to trust that things would go well, even if I feared that I would once again find myself bound by my hands with my freedom robbed from me once again. I had to trust that the pirates, Jack, and Lisa would not choose to betray me just because the tides suddenly seemed to shift, even if— no, in spite of the fact that it was a very real possibility.
That was what trust entailed. It wasn’t something incredibly deep or difficult to parse. That was the very definition of trust itself.
So I opened my eyes. I looked away from the Dwarf, and out the porthole to the side. The waves were rather calm— not what I was hoping for. But the weather out in the rough ocean was unpredictable, and if there was one thing you could predict, it was a storm.
And I simply waited there, trusting that things would work out. That the tides turned in my favor, and this plan would work out. That my friends would not betray me.
Ginah rested one hand on the helm,
turning it as she felt the light breeze of the morning blow against her hair. She didn’t really have to do much— navigating was not an issue since she just had to follow the three ships Lilith had brought with her.
The weather was nice, gentle, and ideal for any ordinary voyage across the sea. But currently? It was not what Ginah wanted.
Melas had outlined a plan to separate Lilith from whatever resources and men she had to corner her. And since they would be out at sea, in this ship that wasn’t built to take a lot of hits, the Saintess wouldn’t be able to use her miracles lest she strand herself in the middle of the ocean faced with terrible an unending stream of sea Monsters— something that even a Saint or Saintess couldn’t possibly survive.
The ocean was dangerous even on a boat, and especially when in the water. Everything had been arranged over the course of the last week, from the fake trap they had set up for Melas, to getting Lilith to be on this ship. Now the rest of the plan hinged on a storm ‘splitting’ them up from Lilith’s escorts.
Well, that would simply make it easier. If by the third day of sailing, the weather didn’t turn for the worse in their favor, Ginah would have to stray away from these three ships in the middle of the night. And unless being a Saintess meant Lilith didn’t have to sleep and was up to stop them, there was no way Ginah wouldn’t be able to do that successfully. A storm only made things more convenient.
Whatever the case was, it would work. The plan had to work. The only possible thing that could ruin this plan was Lilith somehow finding out about it.
Ginah cast a glance at the Saintess who was happily chatting with Lisa. The pirate Captain grimaced at the sight. She did not understand how easily Lisa was able to put up a farce to goad someone into a fake sense of security.
It had always been something that Ginah found unsettling about the young woman. In fact, it took years of working with Lisa before she finally stopped being so skeptical of her. That was how she knew Lisa wasn’t planning some sort of betrayal with the Saintess— Lisa was not evil, even if she valued money.
To be honest, even if Ginah was simply following directions and tailing the ships ahead of them, she knew that they were probably headed to port Xenon. It was the closest port in the Holy Xan Empire to Laxis. A small island in between Vitae and Soli that thrived solely on maritime trade and commerce. And that was where the Saintess would leverage her status to get the gold needed to pay them.
The price she offered them was a steep one. When Ginah heard the sum, she thought Lilith had to be joking. But she wasn’t. 10,000 gold. And that was just how much she was offering Ginah and her crew.
As a pirate, Ginah had obviously seen a lot of money in her time. She had probably made more than double that amount ever since she became the Captain of her crew. Yet earning so much for a single job? That was almost unheard of.
It was the kind of gold small countries or large companies tossed around at each other, not individuals. Perhaps if Ginah wasn’t… well, Ginah, she would’ve taken the gold and betrayed Melas. But leaving Melas to die had been an option, but full on betraying her? That was never an option in her mind.
So when the sails picked up and the waves began to get choppy— when Ginah saw the dark clouds gather and the thunder roar in the distance— Ginah did what she had to do. The wind blew harder and harder as the downpour began. The sky darkened and the ship rocked with the rough sea.
The other ships slowly got smaller and smaller in the distance, almost disappearing behind the thick veil of rain poured down from the sky. It was difficult to navigate through the ocean, after all. And it was really easy to lose your bearings. But it was even easier to lose your bearings when you were actively trying to lose it.
Lisa had Lilith distracted. And when the Saintess came to realize they had lost sight of her ships, it was already too late. She demanded they go to Xenon— that Ginah took her there. But the trap had already been sprung, and it was now time to act.
***
"What’s going on?"
I could hear Lilith’s annoyed voice even before I left the deck below and entered up above into the bright afternoon sun— the dark clouds now gone and the sea was now calm again. Gennady had used one of his mana tools to break the antimagic manacles binding me, and was now escorting me up the stairs to settle this problem.
It all led to this: there was no more turning back. If we failed now, then we would probably die. But my friends trusted that this would work. They trusted me, so I trusted them.
And now, with my staff in hand and Gennady by my side as he inserted the Greater mana crystal I had paid for into his large, tube shaped weapon, we approached the Saintess. She whirled around as she saw me come from the corner of her eyes.
"You…" She glanced between the dozens of pirates— all of Ginah’s most elite fighters— surround her. She stood alone amongst enemies. "So this was a trap, huh?"
"It was," I said simply. "And now we have got you where we want you."
Lilith’s eyes flashed. "Do you really think I can’t kill all of you by myself?" She gripped her spear dangerously as everyone— Ginah, Kai, Jack, Braz— all tensed.
I raised my shoulders in a shrug and pointed at the wooden floor around us. "Not if you don’t want to sink the ship and get yourself killed." Shaking my head, I raised my wooden staff and pointed it at her. "This is not a threat, Saintess. You may think I am some kind of evildoer, but I am not. So here’s my ultimatum: leave me alone, and you will never hear from me ever again. I shall disappear into obscurity in the Taw Kingdom, and you can just claim to your higher ups at the Church that you killed me. It’s a win for everybody, is it not?"
That line of thinking had made sense to me, but apparently it didn’t to the Saintess as she scoffed. "The Church doesn’t even know that you exist. I’m here of my own volition."
I blinked. I exchanged a glance with Lisa who was off to the side, but she looked just as confused as I was. "If that’s the case, then why are you hunting me? Is this a personal vendetta? Did my mother do something terrible to you? If so, then I apologize. But I am not responsible for what she did, so don’t hold me accountable for it."
"That’s not the case either." Lilith sighed helplessly, leaving me even more perplexed. "I have to admit. I don’t even want to do this either. You’ve got fight in you, Aria. I like strong girls— unwilling to back down in the face of adversity."
"Then why are you doing this?" I cocked an eyebrow.
"Because," she said, shaking her head. "If I offer you to the Church in exchange for my freedom, then maybe they’ll finally listen to me. Maybe they’ll strip me from my title of Saintess, and I can finally live the life I want to, not the one they’ve always given me."
I stared at Lilith for a moment, into the darkness of her eyes. The shadow that hung over her gaze from the arch of her brows indicated some dark past. Something I didn’t know anything about. It reminded me that I knew so little about other people— like with Bahr whom I briefly met and fought. Did he have a reason for doing what he did? Definitely.
But sometimes, I had to act even when I knew nothing about what someone had been through. Whether Victor’s desire to exact ‘revenge’ was justified or not— even if I thought it wasn’t— didn’t matter, because I had to act there and then. And even if it was for different reasons, the same thing applied now.
I put a hand out, opening it towards Lilith. She cocked her head, eyeing the gesture. "What?"
"Saintess Lilith, I do not know what you’ve been through and I do not know anything about you. However, I shall offer you a deal now. If you want to be free from the Church, then come with me. With us. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do everything within my power to ensure this comes true."
It was a similar offer I made to Ginah. It was an unsubstantiated offer. Something I had no previous results to show that I could deliver. And yet, Ginah trusted me because she had gotten to know me. But Lilith? She said she liked me, but we had only just met.
Sh
e laughed.
"Going against the Church? Haha! Good one— oh, wait you weren’t joking."
Lilith cast her gaze over all of us, stopping at each and every single one of our faces as if she were assessing us. She stopped at Gennady for a moment, narrowing her eyes, before she continued past him to face me.
"And what do you have with you to achieve that goal? A motley crew of pirates? A Dwarf inventor that was replaced by his own country for one of our insane Scientists? And you, Aria— a little girl who can cast some magic?"
"I’m not just any little girl," I said, meeting her gaze. "I am Melas, and I am the [Witch]."
She snickered. "Well then, Melas the Witch. If you truly want to be like your mother, Valeria the Fiend. Then go ahead and try. But I am no fool. I know what the Church is capable of, and I know all the secrets that they are hiding." The Saintess lifted her spear, pointing it at me. "So come then. Try and stop me from slaughtering you all."
Lilith blurred. She moved so fast I could barely keep up with her. Kai tracked her movements, firing one of his beams at her. She easily deflected it as a barrage of bullets came at her from the other pirates. It bounced off, her protective aura, of course. There was no way that would work.
She landed between three pirates, quickly disposing of the first two with a wide swing that they couldn’t dodge. The third pirate barely blocked the attack, but she struck him with the butt of his spear, knocking him back. She was about to finish him off when Braz tackled her from the side, throwing her off balance.
The Saintess stumbled back, and in that brief moment where she was immobile, I sent the spells I had pre-cast flying at her. Three Frost Javelins arced through the air, looping around each other before they crashed into her.
It was not enough to discombobulate her, but it was clear it damaged her aura. Lilith steadied herself before thrusting her spear at Braz. He was fast— I had known he was fast. But I didn’t expect him to keep up with Lilith. And he did, just for a moment.
