Maria didn't dare move from the cot she'd woken in, her head throbbing from where she'd been hit. The hiss of the Silent Mary as she passed over the ocean had woken her, but at the very least Maria was alone - though she despised being so still on the cot, instead of feeling the sway of the waves in her hammock. It didn't help her pistol, saber, and miscellanies were no longer on her person.
From her vantage, however, Maria was able to sketch out her functioning cell, which must have been the captain's quarters when the Mary was whole. The door into the hold was to the right from the foot of her bed, solid wood although blackened and splintered. There was a great amount of space, even for just the captain's quarters, and Maria could see the remains of a desk, lamps, bookshelves and other furniture. The windows that would have wrapped about the stern and enclosed the cabin were completely gone, with the ocean wind whipping through the broken timbers.
She moved very slowly, even though Maria's head kept throbbing once she was sitting upright. Maria made sure to wait for the pounding to stop before daring to stand. Luckily she didn't fall, and Maria carefully untied her headscarf to shake out her hair and check the bruise along her temple. No lump, no break; it could have been far worse. She wrapped the scarf about her neck before taking a few steps towards the door.
Almost as soon as Maria pushed open the door one of the ghost sailors pushed his unnatural weight to the door to keep her from slipping out. Maria could only get a brief look out to the quarterdeck - mizzenmast and wheel in front of her, other figures including her father - before she was pushed back inside and the door shut firmly.
"You can't keep me prisoner forever, Papa!" Maria shouted before slamming her fist into the door. "You can't just leave me in here!"
Maria hit the door once more before pacing back in agitation. He wouldn't have taken her hostage, she figured, had he not believed at least a part of her tale. Not to mention spared her crew and the Falcon entirely, even with the more-than-quarter of her crew murdered as Maria tried to sway him. Maria stepped carefully towards the ruined windows and looked out from the rear. She thought she could faintly make out the sails of a ship behind them - following, perhaps, at great distance. None of her crew would leave her to whatever fate the terrible Salazar had in store for her. That, she knew for fact.
She took a few steps away from the gaping view and just managed to catch herself from falling through a tear across the floor of the cabin. Once Maria caught her balance, she crouched to examine the broken deck. There was just enough room, perhaps -
Maria yelped as the Silent Mary bucked under her, timbers groaning all around her, and Maria just managed to pitch herself forward through the floorboards. She landed on a gun deck below the captain's quarters - four stern chase guns were there, unattended - and, luckily, no members of the Mary's crew to stop her. Maria picked herself up and brushed her wild hair out of her face before moving back into the ship's massive gun deck - or tried to. After making it about a third of the way onto the gun deck a splitting, screeching sound rang from the burned timbers, and Maria just managed to catch onto a support beam with both arms as the ghost ship began to rise out of the water above another ship - this one a galleon as well, but flying a red flag marked with a black skull and crossed sabers.
One of Barbossa's fleet, Maria realized as the boards under her opened, forcing her to wrap arms and legs around the column. The hairs on her arms rose as vicious, angry power flowed through the Mary, and Maria had to clench her jaw to restrain a howl of fear that tried to claw out of her chest. As swiftly as the Mary towered over her prize, she crashed down upon it, the splayed ribs closing like a fist around the pirate vessel's mainmast and top deck. Maria just barely clung on, eyes shut but she could still hear the terrified screams of the pirates below as their ship was immediately split in half. A flare of heat and the stench of gunpowder was Maria's only warning, and she just managed to release her panicked grip on the column and bolt back for the stern chase deck. As soon as Maria dropped to the deck, the explosion of the ruined vessel's powder magazine sent fire tearing through the Mary's already-burned holds. The force and heat reverberated through the floor, and Maria fought back that panicked yell as the Mary passed over the ruins of the ship, resettling on the water and continuing on her course.
"Madre de dios," Maria breathed as the seconds of panic passed and she tried to calm her pounding heart. She raised her head to see the wreckage strewn on the waves behind the ghost ship; it seemed that there were no survivors to tell that tale from what she could see. Hopefully there was one; all the stories said so.
Maria had just gotten to her feet to shake the dust off when she heard heavy footsteps on the deck above – heading towards her intended prison. She swore under her breath and did so again to find the splintered timbers above were too high for her to jump to. The best she could do would be going back down the deck and finding a way up to the fore or quarterdeck, then praying she could make a quick dash to the cabin. Shouting above hinted Maria would be found before she ever set foot on deck.
"So much for any plan," she muttered as she began moving back into the Silent Mary's interior. No sooner had Maria returned to that same beam she had clung to was she suddenly surrounded by the ghosts that made up the ship's remaining crew. Maria stayed very still as they watched her, none going for their weapons but clearly awaiting the order. She sensed her father's approach long before he appeared in front of her, leaning heavily on his sword and teeth bared in a sickening smile.
"Did you really think you could just slip away into the water, hm?" he asked, still with that smile. "Where would you go if you did, we are in the middle of the Caribbean, eh?"
"At least out of a holding cell, as lovely as the view is," Maria retorted. "A captain's cabin with the door held shut doesn't make much of a cabin."
Salazar's vicious grin faltered slightly, as if recalling whatever orders he had given regarding Maria's imprisonment - or if it had even been that at all. He glared at the nearest of his sailors before with a swift, frustrated bark they dispersed back to their stations. Maria shivered as they moved, some actively rushing towards the center of the ship and ascending while others simply disappeared, likely to reappear elsewhere on the Silent Mary. But it left her and Salazar alone on the gun deck as he limped for her slowly. No malice was in his expression as he stopped a few steps from her, wheezing softly as he came to rest.
"…you did not need to see what this ship can do, what I can do," he hissed. "Unless you think you do."
"I'm a grown woman, capitan," Maria retorted. "You think I can be scared by a ghost ship that can rise out of the water and crush any ship you command her to?"
"No," Salazar admitted, "but this might."
He grabbed her arm, and Maria yelped as the Mary suddenly shifted around and past them. When Salazar let her go, they were on the quarterdeck, near the wheel, and Maria's knees gave out as her stomach churned.
"…unpleasant, unnerving…not terrifying," Maria managed to groan, earning a gurgling snicker from Salazar.
"Then you are that much more interesting to keep alive," Salazar replied as Maria willed her stomach to calm and managed to get to her feet. "More so if you tell me more of the little boats, mm?"
Maria didn't answer right away, focusing on regaining her feet and making sure she wasn't about to lose her nerve on the sea for the first time. As she stood up slowly, Maria was able to get a complete view of the Silent Mary's quarterdeck and forecastle. Despite being a wreck, Maria could see just what made the Mary so magnificent and imposing: her length and width had to accommodate for no less than eight total guns from quarterdeck to bow, and Maria didn't doubt more guns had once been hidden in her towers as the fore. Those alone, as well as the stern chasers, were enough to give any pirate vessel pause.
"…tell me more about your ship, and I will tell you about mine," Maria offered, turning to glance at Salazar as he stood at the wheel, watching her. Something in him now seemed more…human. As if whatever terrible thing had found him in the Triangle had a looser hold on him in quieter moments such as this.
"A full one hundred guns made up her arsenal," Salazar murmured, "and no pirate ship was her match. They had nowhere to run once we had their cursed black flag in our sights! Until…"
Salazar snarled, rage flaring in his eyes enough to make Maria shift back warily. If she could distract him, perhaps…perhaps that would be a way to reach the man her father had been - the person her mother still loved, even after so long.
"It was after Mama was free and she left Hispaniola that she made a boat, to remember you and perhaps…guide you to some kind of peace," Maria began, watching Salazar turn away though he was certainly still listening to her. "But she didn't know where you had gone down, so she let them go into the cove where we lived. It wasn't until the first captain to take me on told me where you were that I made one of my own. Sent it into the Triangle for you."
"The pirate that set you off to becoming like them," Salazar spat with a growl.
"No. He was different. And if it were not for him, I would not have found you."
Salazar cocked his head when he turned back to look at her curiously, gaze narrowed but not on the verge of openly arguing. Maria chose her next words very carefully.
"I was a child when I found a yearning for the sea, to venture on the waves. Even if you had lived I could not have done this without becoming a pirate. You wouldn't even know I had been born if I hadn't become a pirate. Does that make me no different than those you hunt even now?"
Maria was too aware of her missing effects as Salazar considered her words, eventually turning over the wheel to a helmsman standing at the ready. He came closer, his steps heavy and the soft rap of his sword keeping Maria firmly in place. She would not flinch in front of him.
"…interesting," Salazar breathed. Maria dared to meet his eyes and was not sure what to make of his expression. Confusion? Regret? Perhaps even disappointment? "More and more interesting, capitan Maria."
Maria wasn't sure that interesting was the right word to reassure her - if that was his intent. But apparently intriguing her father was enough to keep staving off his sword, and he seemed lost in his own thoughts as he moved past her and went out onto the quarterdeck to check over his crew.
"…senor capitan is…lucky to know of you, senorita," a voice said behind Maria, making her turn to find her father's one-eyed first mate standing a few paces behind her. Other than the massive burns on the right side of his face, there was little indication of what had ended his life. The mate inclined his head in a small bow before he added, "Disculpen, Senorita Salazar; I have not introduced myself. Lieutenant Lesaro, first mate of the Silent Mary."
"De nada, Lesaro, y gracias," Maria replied, effecting a brief curtsey by lifting a side of her justacorps. Maria was surprised by the small smile Lesaro offered as she straightened - clearly, despite his appearance being dead, trying to be as polite and courteous as a Spanish naval officer could. "I guess you are to be my chaperone while I am aboard?"
"Unofficially, si," Lesaro confirmed. "But…there is one thing I would inform you, first, about the capitan's quarters. It may seem a prison to you, but it is where you can be safest."
"¿Por que?" Maria asked in confusion. A place where she was to be restrained and kept from view, and yet protect her? From what? And how?
Lesaro motioned her to follow him, and Maria quickly crossed the quarterdeck after him to the cabin door. He opened it, motioning Maria to step inside though he did not follow her in.
"Look at the boards nearest the door," Lesaro noted. "It is those that prevent any of us from entering - even el capitan."
Maria frowned briefly before crouching to the boards Lesaro had pointed out. They were smaller than the other planks, even though they ran parallel to the existing floor. Despite having the effective appearance of being burned, they seemed newer, and as Maria ran her hand over one of them she felt symbols carved into them, the same as she had carved into all the little boats she had sent into the Triangle.
"…how…how are these here?" Maria asked as she looked up at Lesaro. "Why are my boats making up this floor?"
"That, you may have to ask your father," Lesaro admitted. "And not even he dares to cross those boards. Each time one was found, he…reacted strangely."
Maria remembered how Salazar had been transfixed by the newest memory boat when the Mary had come upon the Falcon. Were her memories and the faint charms carved into it reaching to him, somehow? She would need to think on this. Such a curse - if this was a curse - would not be so lightly broken.
