Author's Note: To fans of The Last of Them waiting for a resolution, you will get one really soon. Apologies for the delay. There's only two chapters remaining, and they'll be quite short. I want to push it out in advance of TLOU2, so just bear with me. Without any further adieu:

HARSH LESSON

"And you are certain this is the correct move, Truth Bearer?" the Hierophant asked. There was a note of condescension in her voice, but Illaoi would let it pass. Now was not the time for fighting. Later, the old woman could be taught.

Illaoi did not doubt the Hierophant's faith or conviction. As with all permitted so close to the Truth Bearer, Illaoi tested them frequently and often. Their motion could never be in doubt. But Nagakaborous' will was for them to be here. Illaoi could feel it in her bones. That was how her god spoke to her.

"You yearn for Buhru. This I see, but there is nothing for us there now. The paylangi are drowning on that ship. I want them to swim."

The Hierophant avoided direct eye contact and continued to row the canoe. Illaoi had assisted at first, but now her eyes were on the water. Faint grey mist twirled around them. She did not anticipate the Black Mist to rise against them now, but if it did she would be ready. Usually hoisted upon Illaoi's shoulder, the Eye of God sat beside her feet, patient wisps of green drawing from it.

The Hierophant's eyes flashed briefly at the Eye.

"You think it disrespectful," Illaoi said. "To sit the Eye at my feet."

"I trust in your judgement."

"As you should. The Bearded Lady cares little for sermons or respect. She asks only that we live in motion. And if we are spotted, the woman will order us burned. Does that frighten you?"

Ahead, the great warship loomed, the Syren. Illaoi was not daunted.

"Many things frighten me."

The Hierophant was old, with children, grandchildren. Illaoi selected her from the crowd personally. Someone she could depend on to speak frankly, although how much use that was she couldn't say. Illaoi's way was to follow her hear, and seldom did she defer to others. Illaoi's predecessor had chosen differently from her, typically young girls, but he was long dead. He was not in motion. Illaoi tightened her grip on the Eye.

"Slower now," she said. She lifted the Eye of God and it began to spew a dark blue fog from it. It surrounded them quickly, obscuring them from view. The war galley looming ahead disappeared from visibility, but Illaoi could feel it still. The life onboard, riling. There was a nervous, twitchy electricity about it. Soon the eldritch fog was so thick that the dank saltwater smell struggled to penetrate it. "We are near."

They reached the static war galley in a few minutes, and the Hierophant brought the canoe to a stop just below. Above Illaoi could hear murmurs from people onboard, although they were too high to be made out. She anticipated a fear of the Black Mist, and would use it against them. Then, the Truth Bearer waited.

They waited for what felt like a long time, but she had always been patient. Even as an awkward girl, Illaoi was well-practiced at biding time. Sometimes she would wait after schooling for her parents to leave the Temple of the Blue Flame. Eventually they emerged, exhausted and drenched in sweat. They did not keep to the ways of Nagakaborous like Illaoi one day would; they attended, as did many, to enjoy carnal delights. They were static, limp creatures, but Illaoi missed them. They did not live to see her rise.

A quiet, high creak sounded a few feet ahead of them, and a good ten above. Illaoi kept one hand on the Eye and with her other hand pulled an oar through the water, pushing them towards the noise. A man was peering out at them from the hull. His skin was much darker than Illaoi's, and his accent thick.

"Come," he said, and threw a set of rope ladders down to them.

The Hierophant, as was custom, ascended first, slowly. Illaoi was much quicker to enter the ship. Upon standing at full height, her head brushed against the ceiling. Unable to hoist the Eye onto her shoulder because of her prodigious height, she wrapped her right arm tightly around it. She would need it this night.

"I present Illaoi, Truth Bearer of Nagakaborous," the Hierophant said.

The dark-skinned man offered a sly grin. "Bow, shall I? Kneel?" His accent was thick, and not unlike Gangplank's. Not unlike everyone in Bilgewater.

"You know why I have come," Illaoi said, looking around the room. It was small, but large enough to comfortably hold them. A varied fruit bowl sat on the table in the centre of the room, near a single bed. She walked over and took a pear for herself.

Okko narrowed his eyes. "I am surprised you came in that mist. There's rumours that the captain wants to head back to land. It's bad."

"The mist is not a concern," Illaoi said with a smile. "It was I who summoned it. It is mist; nothing more."

"Geez, lady, you don't do that shit. People really thought that this was the end. And after such a good few months, too."

"If that is what will force them to change."

"Before we go any further. I want my cut."

Illaoi looked at the Hierophant, whose brow was furrowed.

At least he had the gall to ask, Illaoi thought. She had brokered this meeting through the war chiefs of Bilgewater, almost a week before. It had been two cycles of the moon since Gangplank had passed the Test of Nagakaborous, and there had been no contact. That was good. She needed him to forge his place. No more complacency.

"Your cut," Illaoi repeated.

"You're here to rob her, ain't you? I want in. I want whatever you're getting. A hundred serpents, not one less. It just ain't worth it otherwise." He peered suspiciously at the Eye. "That a weapon of some sort? This a big ship, lady. You may be big but you ain't that big. I want my cut before we go any further, or it ain't worth it."

"You know to whom you speak?" the Hierophant said. The heavy-set woman looked incredulous.

Before Okko could respond, Illaoi lifted a single finger. "You think me a thief."

"I think everyone just wants what they can get their hands on. Maybe your eyes are bigger than your biceps."

Illaoi tossed the core of the pear aside. "I do not steal," she said, moving towards the man. "I take." Illaoi was a large human, but she moved fast. She slammed the Eye of God into Okku's skull. A heavy crack, and he crumpled onto the floor.

"Where is she?" Illaoi asked, towering over him. He was cast in shadow.

"You shit," he slurred, trying to move back across the floor. He reached for a flintlock sitting on his bedside table, but the Hierophant was faster. She snatched it and threw it into the ocean, then closed over the window they had used as entrance. The mightiest children of Nagakaborous had no need for such crude weapons. "I'll have you gutted for this—"

Illaoi crouched down beside him. "Fortune. Where is she?"

"Fortune? You want her?"

"You think I would come to a war galley to plunder gold? I would rip open the walls of a bank if I required serpents."

"She's – she's in her quarters. Outside and to… the left," he said, struggling to get the words out. Her bludgeon would do damage, were he to survive this encounter. But while Illaoi was here, she could see no reason to spare this man the truth. He disgusted her.

"Learn!"

Illaoi ripped the crumple man's spirit from his body. A pale blue and transparent version of him was dragged across the floor, screaming silently. It moved more quickly than his physical self. He simply lay there, bewildered, confused. The tentacles, drawn by the power she channelled through the Eye, began to emerge from the walls. They thrashed first at his spirit, detaching him from reality. He writhed on the floor, screaming, and then he drowned. Water flooded out of his lungs and onto the floor. His body, dead, continued to eject the fluid that had filled his lungs. Nagakaborous had exacted her tithe.

"Bilgewater will learn," Illaoi said.

The Hierophant had moved behind Illaoi in the chaos. "You will show them," she said.

Footsteps began to gather outside. Distance closing fast, the wood of the ship heaving under boots. At least three or four, perhaps more.

"There will be no need to wait for me," Illaoi said. "Nagakaborous will see me home." The tentacles began to writhe, and the Hierophant bowed and hurried back down the rope ladders. By the time she had left the window, the door burst open. Illaoi was prepared. The pirates kicked the door to Okko's quarters, cutlasses drawn. Their eyes were wide as they saw the chaos, the dead man.

"It is what it looks like," Illaoi said, raising her idol. "I have come to teach."

They moved on her fast, but she took their souls too. She did not need to wait for the outcome of their tests, moving past them as they howled and slashed at the tentacles with their swords. Illaoi was forgotten to them; they had existential matters to contend with now.

She exited the room and turned to the right, knowing the basic layout of a ship like this. A decade before she had spent much time on the Leviathan. This, she figured, was constructed similarly. One of only a handful of ships this size, constructed near the Slaughter Docks to kill and retrieve the fiercest of sea monsters. Illaoi had enjoyed her time as a pirate priestess of Nagakaborous, but it had eventually become stagnant. She had left Gangplank behind as she charged onwards.

Later, the high priestess accused her of neglecting her duty—she should have subjected Gangplank to the test but had been afraid of what Nagakaborous would do. She should have trusted her god then, as she did now.

The Truth Bearer carved her way through the ship, but her abilities had limits. She had to save herself for Fortune, so she began to crush skulls and crack jaws. Two men fell to her on the stairs, but the pirates on deck seemed oblivious to the commotion below. The mist still had their attention. Still, when Illaoi emerged on deck, she quickly drew attention. A few of the men seemed to recognise her.

"I am here for none of you," she asked. "But if you demand to face my god, then I will show you."

"What are you here for?" one of them asked, unsheathing his weapon.

"I am here for the captain of this ship. Where is she? Where is Sarah Fortune?"

"I'm here."

Captain Fortune was ahead, standing near the galley's helm. Even by the dim light of the moon and underneath a large, wide-brimmed hat, her hair was so bright. Two guns hung from her belt. The last time Illaoi had glimpsed Sarah Fortune she was but a girl. Now she was the captain of her own ship, a crew that was—at least in theory—loyal to her. The woman knew how to navigate the world of Bilgewater, and perhaps she was in motion.

"I was told you'd be coming to see me. Where is Okko?"

Two dozen pirates had unsheathed their weapons; a handful of guns were aimed directly at Illaoi. She was flesh and blood, and Illaoi had no doubt the weapons would be sufficient to kill her. She could bear a few bullets, but not this many. And their captain's aim—Illaoi knew—would be precise.

"It is my duty to test souls," Illaoi said.

"He's dead, then," she said plainly. Her face betrayed nothing.

"I'm not him, Illaoi. I don't do things the way he did. He was a monster. He ruled through fear and butchery and did nothing to better Bilgewater."

"You consider yourself an altruist," Illaoi called, chuckling.

"I consider myself better than a reaver king."

"It makes no matter what you say. I am not here to judge you."

"Oh?" Fortune asked and began a descent down the stairs onto the deck. "And if you're the only one swinging that thing, who judges you?"

"Nagakaborous," Illaoi said, and lifted the Eye. "Every time I pick it up."

"If you aren't here to judge me, why are you here?"

"You will be judged, child. But not by me."

The pirates began to move on Illaoi.

"No," Fortune shouted. "Don't hurt her." The pirates slowly moved back, although did not holster their weapons. Illaoi's death would cause war in Bilgewater; this she knew. But Captain Fortune did not necessarily see that. Where she stood, Illaoi's very presence began to draw out her god. The tentacles were on the deck now, twitching cautiously, as if probing the air. The captain was less than ten feet from her now. "I'm better than him. In every way. He was cruel."

"And you are ignorant. Let me show you."

Fortune drew her guns. "I've got a good feeling about this."

"BEHOLD!"