It was a stupid idea. An embarrassing, pathetic and stupid idea. She was the princess and yet for some reason she couldn't navigate her way around her own kingdom. The castle was the biggest fucking structure in the entire city; it should not be this hard to get back. Piper had been wandering for what seemed like hours and somehow found herself in the more dreary parts of the city. Had any of the civilians been walking around, Piper would've stuck out like blood on a white table cloth even with the hood over her head. The heels and balls of her feet burned, she needed to rest. Not far from her she heard the sound of distant conversation. When she turned the next corner she saw a wooden plaque hanging just above an open door. The plaque had picture of a mug embedded on the wood, a tavern. Everything about it screamed bad idea. A princess did not belong in such an establishment. But her feet were on fire and she needed to sit down somewhere. Just for a minute.

Inside, the tavern was in a loud uproar of all kinds of debauchery. Men were gathered around wooden round tables enjoying a drink with one another as women perched themselves on their laps getting just as drunk and just as loud. A big and burly bear of a man slammed his hand flat on the table, the thunderous sound of the man's voice startled Piper.

"Oy there 'nother round of rum over here mate!" The man snatched up the cup of rum before the host could set it on the table. He guzzled it down greedily. The others urged him on and erupted into cheers when he finished.

Despite the chaotic atmosphere there were much more simpler conversations to be heard. Piper's ears picked up on a distant exchange between two lanky looking men. One wearing a tattered looking tricorne with a scruffy beard and a pockmarked face, the other was missing a part of his ear and wore a burgundy colored sash atop his head.

" 'Av ya heard?" asked Tricorne, "The Widow's taken the Dauntless, blown it to smithereens. No survivors. Word is that the Lady Sylvia Clearborne was aboard that ship taking it as an escort back home."

The other man nodded "Aye I reckon she be dead or a hostage. The Black Widow leaves no man alive and what I hear they do to the women be far worse. But this one has value. If she be alive Capn' Vause probably intends to hold her for ransom. Her father would pay a good amount of coin to get 'er back."

Piper anxiously searched about for a place to sit as she could feel several eyes watching her. Overwhelming relief took over when she found an empty stool by the bar. It was like finding fresh water in a desert.

She looked over in the direction of the door and her eye caught the attention of a woman staring at her from across the room. She was sitting alone in a dark secluded spot away from everyone else enjoying her own drink, her legs were crossed and resting on top of the table. Part of her face was cast in shadow making it almost impossible to make out her eyes. The most Piper could see was a crooked tight lipped smile but Piper knew the woman was looking at her. She was looking at her with intrigue and a stare that reminded Piper of the way a hungry predator eyed its meal before attacking it. Eyes in front to assess the distance to her prey.

She was sure she saw the mysterious woman wink at her before taking a sip of her drink. Piper swallowed and averted her attention away from her and looked into the eyes of the bartender. His arms were folded across his broad chest as he waited on her to make an order.

"Um I'll have a—I'll have a rum please?"

He squinted his eyes at her but did as she requested placing the drink right in front of her. He stood there for a moment watching her with the same curiosity as the woman near the door. She could still feel the weight of the woman's eyes on her back burning into her flesh. Piper looked at the bartender and took the drink with both hands. She made a show of her gulping down the drink as much as she could before gagging. And gag she did. She sputtered and coughed at the strange taste and let out a gasp of fake ecstasy accompanied by a nervous laugh.

"They don't make anything like this back home."

The large man rolled his eyes and continued about his business. Piper took another sip "Oh god," she coughed and sputtered.

"This your first time havin' a taste of rum kid?"

Piper looked up and saw that it was the woman that had been staring at her from across the way. Now that she had a better look at her Piper noticed her eyes were a grayish green surrounded by light smoky black make up. They were hidden behind a pair of armless round glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose. Her long hair was as black as a moonless night with a couple of thin beaded braids at both sides of her face. Tied atop her head, a simple black sash. Her attire: a white long sleeved top with billowy sleeves covered by a black bodice that showed off her shapely figure. On the side of her left hip was a flintlock pistol and on the other, a cutlass. Piper thought it rather strange to see a woman in such attire, yielding a weapon for one. If the dark haired beauty had been a noblewoman or a highborn she might've donned a fine silk gown or dress. A lowborn woman, the attire would've been a bit more drab and humble.

"Oh—Oh this?" Piper gestured stupidly at her cup "No its—its just…the taste is quite different where I'm from…I drink it all the time" Piper took another swig and immediately flattened a hand to her chest coughing like an idiot.

The woman laughed "Easy there lass," Her voice was husky and deep but it still carried a feminine cadence that was warm and as smooth as silk. It was almost seductive. "You must first learn to crawl before you can walk. Take it slow."

The dark haired woman waved a hand at the bartender and he placed a cup in front of her. She chugged it down with ease. The blonde couldn't help but watch in astonishment. She also couldn't help but notice the cross shaped scar on the left side of her face. Though it did nothing to take away her beauty. Piper couldn't help but wonder how she got it.

"Can't say I've ever seen you 'round here before."

"Oh I've been around a few times you've probably just never noticed." Piper said with a nervous tremor in her voice.

"I doubt that. Observation is one of my many talents. I'm quite the expert at reading people. I think I would've noticed someone like you before."
She rested an elbow on the table propping her chin up on the palm of her hand and just stared at at Piper like she were the most fascinating object in the room. It made Piper feel naked and exposed.

"Am I making you nervous love?"

"No." Piper lied

"Your hand is trembling."

Piper looked down and saw that she was.

"Don't worry. I will not bite." She teased "Unless of course you ask." She gave her an easy smile and Piper could feel her cheeks heating up.
The woman then removed the small glasses from her face and slid them into the bodice. In that single motion her appearance went from beautiful to stunning and in contrast to the blackness of her hair you could really see the green of her eyes.

"Lets see here, well combed hair, freshly clean skin without a single scar or blemish, this place smells like shit but yet you somehow smell like a fucking rose garden….what's your name?"

"My-My name is Sarah I'm a scullery maid, I work in the castle kitchens"

The woman lifted an eyebrow "A scullery maid?"

Piper nodded.

She adjusted herself in her seat."Forgive me but I've known scullery maids and you hardly fit the description of any scullery maid I've ever met. Most of them look rather drab from years of service. You're much too beautiful."

Piper blushed "Well I—"

She took Piper's hand in hers and ran her fingers through the spaces of Piper's in a gentle caress that felt deeply erotic. The sensation of the woman's rough hands against her soft ones ignited something deep inside of her.

"You have the smoothest hands," The woman stated in observation. "I don't feel any callouses or blisters, you've probably never carried a fucking bucket in your life."

Piper took her hand away "I just started."

"Ah," She nodded as if it were obvious "that would certainly explain it."

"Your name too is very interesting, though I don't think it suits you. You don't really look like a Sarah."

"What does a 'Sarah' look like?" Piper snapped.

"Not like you."

Piper shrugged her shoulders "Well its the name my family chose." She said taking her hand away."So are you going to tell me your name or did you just come over here to make fun of me?"

"My name is Alexandria, Alex to those I call friend, and my mother of course."

"And what do you do Alexandria?"

"Alex." She said gently.

Piper hesitated and Alex nodded in assurance.

"All right what do you do Alex?"

"I'm…" she paused a moment and looked away as if she was going to say something else but then decided better of it. "I'm in the business of ships….sailing. I transport goods from one ship to another."

"You work on a ship?" That would certainly explain the attire.

"This surprises you?"

"I must be honest, it does, I've never heard of a woman working on a ship before. Most men would say a woman on a ship is bad luck."

"Most men are idiots; and you would be right. A sailor isn't exactly a common profession for a woman. Women are only given two options in this world: The wife or the whore and either way you're fucked."

Alex laughed at her own joke and Piper laughed too, though a little saddened by how true such a statement was.

"I decide my own fate, and fuck anyone who tries to tell me otherwise."

"If only it were that simple for all of us."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Piper opened her mouth to speak and then stopped herself.

"Really." Alex said softly, "I'm interested."

"Well….there's duty, responsibility, sacrificing your wants for the good of your family." Piper was surprised how methodical the words flowed from her mouth, she sounded like her mother.

"Women like me don't really have the luxury of choice."

"Of course you do, you've just been brought up to believe that you don't. There's always a choice….Sarah."

Piper was shocked by how quickly she took a liking to Alex. She was very open and honest and was clearly a woman who didn't skirt around truth nor did she dress up or mince words to make things pretty. Piper had this feeling as if she knew her, as if she had always known her, possibly in several other lifetimes.

"Here have another drink."

"I really shouldn't."

"And I say you should. Come on you only had one, besides I feel as if its my duty to show you how to enjoy a drink properly. Just relax. I'll look out for ya."
Piper assessed the meaning of her words in her head. The phrase 'I'll look out for ya' clearly meaning more than just 'I'll make sure you don't fall out drunk on your ass.'

Alex then pulled back the hood from Piper's head and tousled her tresses a bit "And take this off you're drawing more attention to yourself."
Piper did as she told her to, taking off her cloak, slouching her shoulders a bit, trying to shake off years of etiquette training in a couple minutes. She rubbed her arms from the feeling of no longer being under the shield of her cloak. Now she was completely exposed.

Piper reached for her cup once again. Her eyes looked to Alex for instruction asking if she was doing it right. Alex smirked at her and nodded. With one hand Piper chugged it down.

"You learn fast."

Piper let out a loud burp that any other time would've earned her several dirty looks from her mother in disgust.

Alex applauded and hollered in delight.

Piper smiled at the applause and wiped her mouth with her arm.

As the night went on Piper assumed she was on possibly her fifth or seventh drink. She wasn't sure how or when it happened; but she was sitting on the bar table, legs crossed, her nightgown resting just below her shoulders, and her hair wild and unruly. Several strands of her hair were wet with spilled rum. She and Alex were laughing and drinking with the rest of the crowd and even joined in the company of the burly men that Piper had found frightfully intimidating before. The men too seemed amused by Piper, urging her to drink and participate in their drinking games. They all held up their mugs and sang in their drunken slurs:

What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning!

Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!

Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Early in the morning!

The bar guffawed in a fit of wild laughter. Alex pulled Piper down from the counter back down beside her as Piper was trying to catch her breath. She was grinning from ear to ear looking into Alex's smiling face.

Piper chugged down more of her rum and slammed it down on the table. She hollered with excitement. "Oh this is so exhilarating, I feel like I can do anything, I've never had this much fun in my life." She said breathlessly.

Alex laughed and moved a few strands of Piper's hair away from her face "So what brings a scullery maid down to a shit hole like this?"

Piper gave a noncommittal shrug and her words slurred together a bit "A friend of mine told me I wouldn't do it, she said I was no fun, I'm fun. I am…..I guess I came because I wanted to prove them wrong. And maybe I wanted a little excitement."

She drank some more "God, this is so good."

"I'm getting married in…" Piper held up her hand in front of her and counted, concentrating as hard as she could before she just settled on the word "soon."

"And just who is the lucky bastard?" Piper wasn't sure but she thought she heard a twinge of jealousy in her voice. Hell, she wasn't really sure of anything at the moment. Everything seemed to be in a dim fog.

"His name is…his name is…it starts with an 'M' …don't tell me…I think…fuck I can't remember."

Alex's eyes lit up in amusement "Why Sarah I never took you for a woman of such vulgar language."

"I'm soaked in rum, my hair's a mess, and I'm singing shanties with fat old men in a tavern that smells like shit, I think proper language has long flown out the window."

"Well cheers to you love" Alex said raising her cup with a wide smile "You're a fucking wild woman!"

They clunked their cups together and took another shot. When Piper caught her breath she continued "I've lived in Imperial Terra my entire life…I've never seen what's beyond it. I'm getting married soon so I figured why not do as my friend suggested and sample a taste of what the world has to offer even just for a brief moment. I almost didn't do it."

"Well, I'm glad you did. It doesn't have to end you know…you could just leave."

Piper shook her head "I can't."

"Sure you can."

"No, no my family is expecting me to go through with this marriage. If I don't there could be real consequences."

"You are such a good girl." Alex said shaking her head "I'm sorry Sarah but this marriage that you're talking about just seems a little unfair. If I may ask, what do you want?"

"I thought you said you were a good reader of people or something?"

"I am. I think I know what you want, but I want to hear you say it."

"It doesn't matter what I want." Piper said

"It should. Indulge me. What is it that you want, do you even know what you want?"

Piper thought for a minute which was becoming hard to do with the rum trying to take over. This was the first time anyone has ever bothered to ask her. Not once has Piper ever been asked to voice her desires out loud and if she had, her mother would've gave her that condescending "Oh Piper" smile along with a pat on the head with her uttering the phrase "Don't be silly darling." Her father most likely would've disowned her on the spot and she loved her father. To see any sort of disappointment on his face would be truly heartbreaking.

Piper decided to let herself go and opened up to her new found friend "I want excitement…." she said tremulously.

"Aye," she nodded. "Anything else?"

"I want to meet knew people, learn new things." It all came out like dam of all her pent up feelings and emotions bursting forth and she could no longer hide the passion in her voice. "I want to fall in love and I want it to happen spontaneously and for it not to be something that is forced upon me. I want someone who's warm but also someone I can have adventures with. I want to see what life is like beyond Imperial Terra and see what the world truly has to offer, I want freedom."

Piper looked over into Alex's eyes and saw that she was staring at her, a smile on her face just hanging on her every word. Piper put her face in her hands and groaned "It's stupid of me I know, you don't have to say it."

"No its not," Alex reached out and took a strand of Piper's long blonde hair and played with it between her thumb and first finger as she spoke. "I know exactly what you mean…who knows one day you just might get your wish."

Piper rolled her eyes and scoffed at her "That will never happen …but its always nice to pretend I suppose."

Piper saw a look of sympathy on Alex's face and suddenly found herself admiring other things about her, the arch of her eyebrows, the smooth curve of her jawline, the shape of her lips. She was admiring the shape of her lips a lot and briefly wondered what it would be like to press hers against them. A part of her so badly wanted to find out but she immediately suppressed the thought.

"I have to go, I need to get back."

Alex tilted her head a bit. "So soon? We were having such a good time."

"I have to, otherwise someone is going to come looking for me."

"Ready to return to your kitchen duties I see, fine then let me walk with you."

"No that's really all right." Piper said stumbling out of her chair. "I can find my own way back." she lied.

Alex was already moving towards the door. "Right. There are guards all around this city It's not safe for someone like you to be wandering around here at night by yourself especially after a few drinks. Besides I told you that I would look out for you and I must admit I find you…interesting. I'm not quite ready for the night to end just yet."

Piper paused for moment at the words, someone like you but she didn't bother to press their meaning she just picked up her cloak and followed Alex out the door.

It was a long walk back towards the castle especially with all the guards patrolling the streets. Alex and Piper kept to the darker roads that were hidden in the shadows and waited behind alley ways until small patrol groups would pass them by. Piper couldn't help but notice the way Alex moved: very stealthily, and she would often encourage Piper to do the same. Alex was always physically aware of her surroundings. Piper would catch her looking around as if she were mapping out the area in her head. Even when she was looking at the guards she wasn't just looking at them. She was sizing them up, analyzing their weapons, and the men that carried them. Piper thought the behavior to be odd and it made Alex appear slightly paranoid but she didn't question. When she remembered the cross shaped scar on Alex's face she guessed the woman had every right to be.

A flock of guards came marching by; 12 of them arranged in rows of two and columns of six. Alex quickly grabbed Piper's hand pulling her away and back into the darkness out of sight. She peeped around watching the men until they were far gone.

"His highness seems to have definitely doubled the amount of the royal guards in the streets. The hordes get thicker the closer you get to castle." Alex said mostly to herself.

"It's because off all the attacks."

"Attacks?" Alex asked.

"Pirates. Captain Vause mostly. He's been sighted again to the south of here. The word has spread that he's taken the Lady Sylvia Clearborne as a hostage right after sinking the Dauntless. Some believe her to be dead by now. I'm sure you heard of this there isn't anyone who hasn't."

Alex leaned back against the wall. "I've heard. And what do you think of this Vause character?"

"I've always found pirates to be fascinating and I've heard stories about Captain Vause."

"What stories?"

"Well from what I know they say he was the first mate of another vicious pirate by the name of Captain Kubra. It was said that he was one of Kubra's most ruthless henchmen. But later he abandoned the captain and crew and started his own, commandeering a ship and renaming it the Black Widow. They say he is a filthy cutthroat who tortures men and women, and drinks the blood of his enemies."

Piper looked at Alex who looked to be suppressing a laugh. "And has anyone ever seen this Captain Vause?"

Piper squinted in thought "No actually. Anyone who has ever supposedly seen him has always described a pair of green eyes and a tattoo of a black widow spider in the center of his chest. No one has ever seen his face."

"Drinks the blood of his enemies." Alex repeated back with a humorless laugh "I've heard many stories as well but I can't say I've ever heard that one before.

C'mon." She tapped her shoulder. "Let's go its all clear."

After passing a few more streets Piper was starting to recognize her surroundings so she stopped Alex. "Right here is fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can make it back just fine from here. I promise." Piper looked down at her feet trying to think of something to say to her friend. "Alex I want you to know I had a wonderful time tonight."

"As did I."

"Thank you for walking with me."

"Of course."

"I'm really glad to have met you."

"Will you be sneaking out again any time soon? I would like to see you again."

"I'm afraid not, this was only meant to be a once in a lifetime moment."

"Shame…I really enjoy you Sarah. I was hoping with a little more time I could get to know you better. Its a shame that I will never get that opportunity."

A part of Piper was strongly considering the option of not returning home and staying with Alex; but instead she uttered a solemn "Goodbye Alex" before turning away and trotting off into the night retracing her steps towards the castle.

Alex just stood there for a moment and watched Piper until she was far from sight. She smiled to herself thinking of the evening they had just spent together. The fun may have been over for Piper but for Alex the fun was only just beginning for a dangerous and probably insane plan was forming inside her head. She took into account the number of guards she had counted on the way up to the castle. Roughly five-hundred, all of them pretty experienced soldiers. If she was going to go through with this she knew she was going to need a little more help from the crew in carrying it out. Alex turned around and walked off into the night. "Sleep well princess." She said with a throaty laugh. "We'll be seeing each other again very soon, much sooner than you think."