So I loved Kidd's/Mary's monologue about Eagle Vision. I thought it was beautiful and absolutely dripping in possibility. Then I saw an article about how living bodies can influence each other (people's heart's electromagnetic fields interacting) and I got carried away. I haven't finished the game yet so please no spoilers in the comments. I've only just gotten past the part where you find out Kidd's an assassin.
It must have seemed strange to Edward, James thought, that she gave him a tool to knock people out rather than kill them.
"You'll take fewer lives," she'd admonished, handing him the blowpipe and watching him scale the tree like it was the main mast on the Jackdaw. She was an assassin, but despite the title, the job, the reputation—Put simply, we kill people—she respected, even revered life more since her training than she ever had before.
Maybe that's why she kept saving Edward Kenway's.
She took a deep breath and dove with a practiced leap over the side of the Jackdaw, stroking down through the clear waters turning murky with the captain's blood. He'd been using the diving bell and apparently didn't go harpooning quite enough because the blood and the glimmer of broken teeth infesting his wound said there were still far too many sharks in these waters.
She cut through the currents with a powerful kick, ramming into Edward hard enough to force the last of the air from his body and into the water. Bubbles rose innocent and deadly from his slack lips. She looped her arms around his chest, locked her fingers across his breastbone (her training told her it was one of the strongest points in the body, natural armor, naturally immune to torque, it would prevent her from hurting him more) and kicked hard off the very tip of the shipwreck he'd been exploring.
It was a great deal of work, getting him to the surface, and when she finally broke into open air she threw her head back and gulped, heaving mightily to get his head above water and keep it there. His blonde locks had come free of their tie and his head lolled. He was thoroughly unconscious.
But not dead. I see you, Kenway. I can feel that heart you forget to use thumpin' on, just hang in there.
His heart was beating hard against her laced fingers, but she didn't know for how long. He wasn't breathing. Adewale was there seconds after they broke surface to haul him aboard, but Kidd knew exactly how long it took a healthy person to expire when the breathing was compromised. Edward, full of booze and yet somehow fit to climb the Jackdaw in a hurricane, was a bit of an anomaly.
She was counting on that to save him.
Quickly, she hauled herself out of the water and scaled the side of the ship, accepting the kind hand of one of Edward's crew to help her over the ropes and onto the deck. Adewale had Edward laid out flat on his back and was bent over him, clear worry, even panic on his face. He was trying to rouse his captain, but the hope was dying in his eyes faster than Edward's pulse was failing. He thought his captain dead already, that much was clear.
"Move!" Kidd commanded, pressing Adewale out of the way and kneeling at Edward's side. The much larger pirate did as he was told, though she sensed it was more out of shock and grief than actual compliance. He looked stunned, even hurt that she'd pushed him away from Edward like that. She ignored his wounded feelings, cradling Edward's head between her hands and closing her eyes for a moment.
Every man and woman on this earth has in them a kind of Intuition hidden deep away. Most never find it. Others, it takes years to tease out. But for a rare few it comes as easy as breathin'. A kind of shimmering, it's the light of life. The very residue of life's essence, attaching itself to every living thing.
She opened her eyes, all her concentration focused on the drowned captain in front of her, and that's how she knew he was still alive. The soft, gentle blue still suffused his body even though she could no longer feel his heart beating against her palm.
"Come on, Kenway," she said, breaking buttons as she opened his robes to bare his breast. "Is this how you're lettin' your legacy end? Embraced too long by your lover? How embarrin', a pirate drowning." She balled up her fist and rubbed her knuckles harshly into his sternum, watching the weak flare of light that resulted from the intentional pain she was inflicting. She was only seeing the barest glimmer of his essence, she needed to concentrate, to go deeper.
Edward seemed to possess their sixth sense effortlessly, something that could serve him very well if he ever chose to use it. For her she'd had winks of it as a young girl and then learned to harness it when she got older, something she owed heavily to her mentor. She focused harder than ever before, delving past what she'd honed in the field, digging deep to see more than Edward's glow. She wanted to see his flame.
She gripped his robes, fisting them up as she stared down into his body where sparks of light raced along branches thin as hairs and more intricate than jungle brush. She was momentarily awestruck by what she was seeing, that fade of light wrapped around the shadows of his bone, intertwined in his muscle, but just as quickly she shook out of it, knowing she would be witnessing death on the most intimate of levels if she didn't coax him to breathe in the next few failing heartbeats. She saw that too, the fading power of his core, his blood the slowing tide of a minute sea just as breathtaking in its power.
"Don't you give up, captain," she challenged him, sliding one hand to support the back of his head while the other rested over his heart. Those were the two greatest points of light, so she focused on them, watching the light in her own body draw bursts from his. It was an almost instant reaction. The pinpricks of life racing around Edward's dying body were attracted to her like moths to a flame, and where their skin touched his lights drew a little from hers and then darted away again, as though trying to draw energy back into him.
Still he didn't draw breath, and for every light he took from her, three more flickered out and went dark. "Fine, Kenway. You won't fight, I'll make you," Kidd muttered, turning her grip harsh. She twisted her fingers in his hair and jerked his head back, ramming the heel of her hand into his sternum at the same time. There was a burst of light as his body recoiled from the abuse, his arm striking out and breaking her focus as he coughed up a great lungful of water.
"Captain!" Adewale's elated cry sounded over Edward's ragged coughing. The quartermaster dropped to his knees and placed a hand on Edward's shoulder, helping him turn over as he curled up and continued to hack blood and water onto the deck.
Kidd smiled and retreated, letting Adewale take over. He was more than capable of binding Edward's wound and extracting shark teeth. She only hoped he'd keep them, she'd rather like to make something out of them and force Edward to wear it. Might make him think more carefully about braving sharks for a handful of gold.
Just to be certain, Kidd glanced over her shoulder and focused, pleased to see Edward's glow back to a healthy strength. Satisfied that he'd live to need saving again, she slipped away and mounted the stairs to the helm, resting her forearms on it and gazing out content at the glittering sea. She'd give the wheel back of course, just as soon as Edward had enough breath to curse her for taking it.