Chapter 10

Everybody in the prison cell watched in absolute shock as they saw both Eoleo and Sveta being thrown into the small cell brusquely. The cell gate closed as the guards marched away, leaving everyone stunned.

"…Eoleo?" Batta exclaimed, suddenly moving towards him. He felt his stomach churn in disgust as he saw the lash marks on his back, still bleeding and sore. Right next to him was Sveta, who was unable to control her tears.

"What happened to you?" Batta asked, kneeling down next to the both of them. Sveta wiped her eyes, trying to control her composure again, before looking up at Batta.

"I-It's a coup…" she sobbed. "The general who met you at the ship…he's taken control"

Batta's eyes opened in shock as the rest of the pirates gasped around him. But Sveta hadn't finished. The worst news was yet to come.

"…H-he's going to start a military campaign" she continued. "And th-then…h-he's going to execute us all…"

The news struck everybody inside the cell like a hammer shot to the back of the head. Everybody started into the blank spaces around Sveta, trying to digest the news and failing miserably. Some fell to their knees, others slumped against the wall. Batta found himself short of breath, before looking down at the bloody Eoleo, who had fallen unconscious because of his pain.

Batta released a labored breath, falling onto his back and holding his head. Some could be heard groaning, but nobody cried. Nobody spoke a word for what seemed like hours. Everybody was staring at the walls, the bars of the cell, the ceiling, each other, trying to come to terms with the fact that the ends of all their lives was upon them. Nobody wanted to die like this, and even the hardest of the pirates felt their stomachs go weak at the thought of an assured death. At least at sea they had the choice to live by fighting. This, though, gave them no choice. Everybody felt powerless.

Eoleo had remained unconscious throughout, and after a short amount of time, Sveta turned to see his blood covered back. She had managed to stop crying but was still very upset. Batta had accepted that there was no escape, yet he was still very distraught at his incoming death.

Tucked away in the damp, mossy corner of the cell, he watched silently as Sveta stumbled up to Eoleo, placing her hands haphazardly across his back. Closing her eyes, sniffing to control her tears, she summoned her energy and started to heal his back. Batta watched in awe as a green glow surrounded them and the lash marks stopped bleeding, slowly fixing up as if my magic. Batta knew this was Psynergy, he had seed Eoleo use some of his own before, but there was just something fascinating about the concept of manipulating the forces of nature to heal and attack with.

The cuts on Eoleo's back didn't heal fully by the time Sveta stopped, utterly exhausted by the whole scenario she was in. Urging the last of her energy to heal Eoleo, she collapsed backwards onto the floor, unconscious. Batta watched in pity as she fell, looking at both Eoleo and Sveta with an overwhelming sense of sympathy. Batta had been in the situation before where death was staring him in the face and as he looked around to the rest of the distraught crew, he thought of the things that they had all done as pirates back in Briggs's lifetime. There was a slight feeling that perhaps they should have seen a death sentence coming, from the moment they were placed in the cell. But as he turned to look at Sveta and Eoleo once more, he knew that if anybody didn't deserve to die, it was them.

Slumping to his feet, he hoisted both Eoleo and Sveta against the wall in a far more comfortable position than before. Batta removed his own shirt and used it to pad Eoleo's lash wounds before reaching for the rag he used as a quilt, covering both Sveta and Eoleo with it. Staggering back, he looked at his handiwork before he slinked away to the corner, trying to will himself back to sleep.

As the night drew over, Eoleo came to. His back was in a lot less pain that it was before as he realized that the top half of his body was bare after his shirt was ripped off by Stamford's guards. He looked around to see that his crewmen were surrounding him, all now in an uneasy sleep. A few were still awake and petrified by the thought of death. It was then he remembered that he was destined to die as well, and he stirred in severe discomfort. He scanned the room: the walls were made of a jagged, unrefined black stone held together by crumbling cement. The floor was dusty and damp patches dotted the cell. It was of a moderate size, but with all of his crew held inside there was just about enough space to walk inside. It was a closed off cell: the only light came from through the iron bars that doubled as the cell door, where there was a wooden table with a lantern sat atop it. The section of wall beneath the small barred window opposite the door was moist with gutter water that seeped inside. The smell was putrid and stagnant; a mixture of sweat and sewage filled the air thickly, making breathing a more laborious process. Eoleo wasn't sure whether his previous incarceration in a hanging steel cage was worse than the one he was in now.

He didn't realize that a worn out Sveta, still dressed in her royal garments that had now become dirty, had slumped onto him during her fitful sleep. His stir suddenly work her, to which she looked up to Eoleo, discovering that she was resting on his arm. As Eoleo looked down to Sveta, he couldn't help but feel a tear coming to his eye. Sveta's eyes filled with tears as well as she held Eoleo tighter, sobbing quietly into whatever was left of his ripped shirt. Eoleo held his tears back, cradling Sveta's head and shoulders in his broad arms as he looked to the small, barred window that showed the full moon outdoors. He wanted to go home; he wanted to go back to Champa. He ran his hands slowly through Sveta's unruly hair; he assumed that she didn't have the time to braid it in her usual style before she was abducted. The whole tragedy tore away at the two, and eventually, after shedding their tears together once more, they drifted back into an uneasy sleep in their arms.

The following morning brought a bright and sunny day. Stamford was stood in front of the throne of Morgal, examining it with absolute care and attention. He had yet to sit on it, and he knew the moment he did, his place as king would be well and truly sealed. Taking a deep, triumphant breath, he stepped up to the throne and slowly sat down on it. A smile broke out on his face. His previous night of sleep had been uneasy and irritable due to his excitement in becoming the new leader; he had even spent the night in the royal bed, which was many times more extravagant than his previous one.

Adjusting the crown on his head, he clapped, calling his soldiers in. A pair of armored guards walked into the room.

"Good morning, gentlemen" he said to them, the both of them saluting to their new king. As soon as the greeting was over, Stamford cleared his throat, ready to set his new laws into motion.

"Now, the first thing that needs to be done is to abolish the limitations that were enacted upon the royal forces. Fetch me fresh parchments so I have something to write these acts upon" he started. One of the guards saluted and dispatched himself to carry out the order. Stamford then turned to the second guard.

"Once the laws have been returned to their previous stature, I need to hold a meeting with my subordinates to discuss new rankings and battle tactics for the upcoming war I plan to wage. Bring them to me!" he commanded. The second guard saluted and left the room, leaving Stamford by himself. As soon as he was alone, he stood out of his chair and walked to the window, drinking the atmosphere. As soon as he brushed the curtain out of his way, the sounds of the band playing outside intruded his ears. Remembering how irritating the music was, he clapped his hands again. A servant entered the room this time, ready to receive Stamford's command.

"Yes, my liege?" the servant asked.

"There will be no more bands playing out in the town square" he revealed. "Cut that music out, now. That's an order"

The servant was surprised to hear the order but nevertheless acknowledged it and leaved the room as quickly as he could.

Down in the dank prison cell, the morning light seeped through the rusting iron bars of the window and into the cell. The night of anxious sleep had woken the pirates up early, and as they bustled in a depressed manner, the noises stirred Sveta to a conscious state once again. Rubbing the back of her head, her heart heavy from the tragedy that had befallen her, she fixed her dirty robe so its coils were tight around her waist, covering her shirt and trousers beneath.

"Good morning, lass"

Sveta turned around nervously to see Batta looking at her, leant against the wall, his feet tucked beneath a still slumbering pirate. Sveta felt nervous, she had never felt comfortable conversing with pirates, even when they sailed Eoleo's ship during the Grave Eclipse.

"Good morning" he replied glumly. "…Or at least I wish it could be"

"I know…" Batta acknowledged. He shuffled a little closer to Sveta and Eoleo; Eoleo had just started to wake up. Sveta didn't have the energy to cry; she instead let out a sigh, looking to the barred window.

"This is terrible…" she sighed. "I never thought I would spend a night here"

"It's a crying shame" Batta continued. "A girl like you shouldn't be down here like this. This is no place for the young"

"Aahh…"

The two turned to see that Eoleo had fully come to. He was groaning in pain, clutching his back. Sveta quickly leapt to Eoleo's side, moving his hands away from his back.

"Please Eoleo…" she pleaded. "Don't touch it"

"Those bastards flogged you, didn't they?" Batta asked. Eoleo's recollection of the previous day flooded into his mind quickly, bringing a morose look to his face.

"We're gonna die, aren't we?" he said quietly. Nobody wanted answer the question; everybody knew the answer.

Despite this, Batta had managed to smile, which surprised both Eoleo and Sveta.

"Why are you so happy?" Eoleo asked his first mate. Batta shook his head, folding his legs against the semi damp ground.

"I know this is gonna sound odd…" he said. "But there's naught we can do really. I guess I'm just trying to ease the tension in this cell. Just because we're destined to die, doesn't mean that we can't spend the last days of our lives smiling, eh?" he encouraged.

"I can't understand you sometimes" Eoleo huffed. "You're not shaken by this at all, aren't you?"

"Now that's a lie" Batta groaned. "I'm scared of what's to come, but talking makes me feel a little better at least. I suppose I've had a longer life than everybody else here though…" he sighed, looking down to the floor.

"…There's no music playing today" Sveta noticed.

"Oh yeah…" Eoleo added, looking up to the window as Sveta averted her gaze from the same spot. "I wonder why?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if Stamford's told them to stop" Sveta growled. "I can remember when my brother was on the throne, he'd laugh at Stamford's musings when he paced about the castle, cussing about the music being played outside. He never liked culture…only war"

"Do you know what he's going to do?" Batta asked.

"He's gonna start a war with Bilibin and Sana" Eoleo revealed. "If that's what I heard correctly, of course"

"The scariest thing is that he might win" Sveta added, shaking her head. "If there's one thing Stamford knows how to do very well, its running an army and fighting battles. Had the Tuarapang had their way with my brother, then Stamford and his army would have run riot"

"He's that good?" Batta asked.

"I'm afraid so" Sveta confirmed. "Once he's set the campaign through its paces, then it's curtains for us…in front of everyone"

Silence reigned in the room again. Batta disliked the silence so much that he thought of a story to fill the blankness around them.

"…I remember being in a place like this before…in Alhafra, if I remember correctly" Batta started. Both Eoleo and Sveta paid attention to Batta as his story begun. "I was recently promoted to being Briggs's first mate, so I was by his side when we secretly docked in Alhafra. It was exciting: we were in the height of our pillaging days, struggling to feed the mouths back at Champa"

"I remember this story" Eoleo said suddenly. "Is this the one where you and Briggs fought the Warriors of Vale?" he asked. Batta let out a chuckle, nodding his head.

"That's right" he revealed. "Anyway, little did we know, somebody got imprisoned for being mistaken as Briggs, and these three warriors come onto the ship and make their way down to the hold, where me and Briggs were chatting about our next move. When they demanded we go and turn ourselves in, we refused and scrapped with them. Briggs called some other crewmen down to help fight with him, but we lost beaten pretty badly by the three fighters" he explained. "We were jailed then, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they had plans to execute us. But Briggs planned a miraculous escape, and we hightailed it: it was an amazing feeling to break out of captivity, to fight against the odds and escape to safety once again. It was defining living on the edge"

"Wow…it sounds like Briggs was a very daring man" Sveta noted.

"He may have been daring, but he only did it for the good of Champa" Eoleo continued. "My dad was one of the figureheads for Champa during the time our crop had failed. My dad's efforts rescued Champa for starvation, so no matter what people say about him, he'll always be a good man to me" Eoleo defended. "If he were here, he'd be planning his escape route right now…"

"If only we could do the same" Batta sighed. "But I remember the jail in Alhafra was small, and the town itself was meager in comparison to this city here. I don't think we could escape this place, even if we tried"

"…Maybe when they lead us to our execution, we could try and escape then?" Eoleo suggested.

"Perhaps, my boy…" Batta grumbled. "Perhaps…"