Chapter 28: The Pirate Queen

Morning had returned to Gamindustri and in an area east of Lowee stood a series of snow clad buildings surrounded by trees with hidden barbed wire, everything looked peaceful and sounded quiet, but it was all an illusion as there were camouflaged guards walking around with swords, spears and rifles, they wore little armour and their snow camouflaged clothes made it hard for them to be spotted. Many of the guards had jackets and other winter clothing on to warm themselves up, even little camp-fires had been introduced to some of the shivering guards. They were all on patrol and seemed to be ready for an all-out attack in case anyone was nearby, if there was anyone daring enough to attack a fortified fort.

One of the guards walked up to a steel door that led into the largest building and opened it, as he stepped inside he found himself in a heated stone corridor with a few steel doors, there weren't many guards inside the buildings as there wasn't much to protect, it was defending the perimeter that mattered to their leader. The young guard walked down the corridor until he reached some stairs and walked up to the higher level, once he reached the top floor – there were only three floors and not including the basement – the guard approached the steel door at the end of the corridor and came face-to-face with a giant of a man, the so-called 'giant' was dressed like the other guards except for a green sash that was strapped from his right shoulder all the way down to his left waist, the 'giant' also had a big bushy black beard.

"What is it?" asked the 'giant' with a rude tone. "The lady doesn't want to the interrupted."

"I know, but … I want to speak with her, not just on my behalf but for the behalf of many others here," replied the guard. "Plus I have some news."

"Your funeral, just don't take too long or else she's gonna impale you with her peculiar weapon."

The 'giant' then opened the door and watched as the young guard stepped into the room, the door was closed and the guard was left staring at a woman sitting on a soft leather couch with a coffee table in front of her. The walls were brown concrete and the floor was covered in a blue mat, the room itself wasn't too big yet it wasn't small, there was a bed in one of the corners and there was a steel breastplate with steel arm-plates and leg-plates, a trident with the two end blades curled towards the middle was leaning up against the wall closest to the couch. The woman held a cup of hot tea in front of her and was taking small sips from it every fifteen seconds. Once she saw the young guard enter the room she sighed, put the cup of tea down on the table and looked over at him.

"What is it? Was there something important that occurred? If not then leave," the woman spoke.

"Lady Severia, Squad 4 hasn't returned from patrol, I fear the worse," reported the guard.

"It is the doing of The Wraith, he's been harassing the patrols lately and whenever I go to find him he always disappears into the shadows, he is a sneaky character and one to be feared."

"I-I see. If I may ask, who is he?"

"The Wraith? Hmm, how do I put it … well, I'm not a hundred percent sure what he is but I know one thing; he has the power of a god, and he may actually be one. He is just as fearsome as the other Dark Captains, in fact, if he hadn't fought alongside the CPUs then people would possibly have mistaken him as one of us, strangely enough he is rumoured to be older than the Goddesses of this dimension and can travel between dimensions."

"Alright then, by the way … I – no, we – have some concerns about what is going to happen, we're not sure what is going to happen but we feel … uneasy about it."

"Care to explain more about this uneasiness that you and your comrades are feeling?"

Severia stared deep into the man's soul as she spoke, it made him rather scared. He had heard from some of the other guards that Severia the Stoic wasn't like the other Dark Captains, instead of being cruel and plain nasty upfront to everyone she was instead dignified, calm and rather upper class. However, the guard had also heard that she was just as cruel and brutal as Agandur's Right Hand while also fiercely intelligent like the rest, with that in mind the guard knew that he would have to keep himself out of harms way and make sure he didn't annoy Severia.

"Well, we don't know what's really happening and what the objectives are, all we know is that we are defending this place until further notice. So what are we fighting against? Who is the enemy? Why are we doing this?"

Severia sighed and continued to look at the guard. "Tell me, why did you join us?"

"I joined because I had nowhere to go and nowhere to call home."

"Heh, just as I thought: you're clueless about what it is you are supposed to do. Very well then, I'll tell you. We are here to bring about the resurrection of the Dark Lord Agandur, we plan to gather the Share Energy of the four nations of Gamindustri and use that power to bring about his return, then the world shall be reborn anew and unity will prevail, a world ruled by humans for humans. No goddesses or gods, no divine beings at all that can rule the masses by force."

"That doesn't sound so bad, I can fight for that."

"Good, because it is our destiny and our destiny cannot be moved as the stars themselves, now shut up and leave so I can drink my tea in peace."

"V-very well then, Lady Severia."

The guard quickly opened the door and stepped outside the room, the 'giant' looked at him and smirked. "You still seem to be in one piece, so that's something to be proud of."

"But now I don't know what to do."

"Just get back to patrolling the area and keep an eye out for any intruders, especially The Wraith."

"What does he look like?" The guard was rather interested in who or what The Wraith was and wanted all the information that he could gather, he didn't want to end up as mince meat if he ever got into a fight with this ghost-like figure.

"How should I know? I never seen him, in fact I doubt anyone has seen him except for those he kills, but we never hear their story cause they're dead, so just keep your wits about you and stay alive; a storm is brewing and bloodshed will follow."

Back inside the room Severia continued to drink her cup of tea, which by now had started to cool down, much to her annoyance. She enjoyed drinking tea, it was something that she had got addicted to during her childhood back in her home dimension, it was something that the other Dark Captains didn't understand and could never understand. As Severia drank the last of her tea she looked at her trident and felt her heart grow heavy, it had been a while since she last gave thought to the painful memories that haunted her past.

"I will never forget you, all of you, especially you … brother" muttered Severia quietly.


It was a bright and sunny day, the wind was gone and there were little clouds dotting the sky, everything seemed peaceful in the medieval styled mansion, yet there was always a source of conflict. Inside what is modernly called the living room was a small family settling a debate in strong, harsh words.

There were four people present, the first was a tall middle-aged man with dark brown hair hair and blue eyes, his hair was short and he wore a set of fancy robes that stretched from the neck and long sleeves all the way to his knees, embroidered in bright jewels covered the rims of the sleeves and the clothes were a dark brown colour, his boots were as brown as his eyes. A gold belt ran across the waist of the robes and a steel dagger was strapped to the left waist. The second person was a woman who wore a long silver dress with gold lining, a brown belt was worn around the waist, he hair was long and grey, the hair was tied in a ponytail and her eyes were blue, she was covered in different types of jewellery around her neck and on parts of her clothes. These two were the owners of the mansion and were parents to the other two before them.

The last two looked to be brother and sister and appeared to be around sixteen years old and also looked like twins, both had blue eyes and grey hair and both wore upper class clothes, the boy wore an outfit similar to his father but shorter and with less jewellery, his boots were black and a black belt was around his waist, his hair was short and he looked uneasy as he stood next to his sister while their father yelled at her. The sister's hair was long and reached down to the middle of her back, she wore a similar attire to her mother but was instead a sky blue colour and a white belt was around her waist. The two twins were of the same height – around five ft six – and were attempting to survive a barrage of harsh words that were directed towards the young girl.

"You will do as I say! This is what has to happen and you will go along with it, and nothing you can say will change that!" shouted the father to his daughter.

The girl cringed and glared at her father while the boy face-palmed and sighed silently, the mother sat on a chair at a marble table, she had her head down and openly sighed at the scene, the mother knew that the plan that she and her husband had created was going to cause some problems but what they were now experiencing was completely not what they were expecting: their daughter had been missing for several days and had returned under imperial guard back to their mansion, apparently she had taken up the life of a bandit but was caught by the local guard. Now she was at the mercy of an angry father, a deeply disappointed mother and a brother who wasn't sure what was going to happen.

"And why should I listen to you, father?" asked the daughter venomously.

"You will marry him and that is final!"

"No! I refuse to marry that jerk of a nobleman, I don't care if the family will get more powerful because of it! I refuse to become his wife just for power!"

"The deal has already been made, you will just have to out up with it, Severia. Now then, go to your room and wait. Stephen, take your sister to her room."

Stephen nodded and guided his twin sister up a set of marble stairs and led her down a heavily decorated hallway until they both reached a large door that led into Severia's room. They both entered the room and closed the door behind them, Severia walked to her bed – which was a large king-sized bed with green sheets – and fell on it weeping, the green sheets began to be soaked with her tears. Stephen looked on at the site with pity until he sat down next to her and patted her back.

"Please, don't cry, there is still a way out of this," said Stephen.

"Why should you care?" asked Severia with anger. "You're just a pawn of our father."

"You know that isn't true, you're just saying that because I led you up here. Don't you want to know my plan to get you out of this?"

"You … you want to help me get out of this damn wedding? Well I'm up for some ideas, what do you have in mind?"

"The first one is: kill yourself, but I would never allow that to happen. The second is: fake your death. The third is: leave this place and never return. Those are your options."

"Let me think it over, I still need to recover from all that formal abuse."

"Alright then, take care."

Stephen then stood up and left the room, leaving Severia by herself to mull over the ideas that her twin brother gave her. None of them seemed to be pleasing, especially the first one which she had already ruled out. Severia spent the next three hours thinking over the ideas that had been presented to her, that was the case until she heard loud noises radiating from down the hallway, she walked over to the door and opened it slightly to see her brother and father in a heated argument, she didn't know what they were arguing about until she heard them speak her name, it then sounded as if they were arguing about the weeding.

"If she doesn't want to go through with it then she shouldn't, haven't we got enough land that can fit three whole villages on already?" remarked Stephen.

"This is more than just land, my son, this is also about power. The more power we have the better we shall be seen in the emperor's court, and then who knows, maybe someday we'll finally get a family connection to the imperial bloodline," responded the father.

"Damn you and your political machinations, can you not see the mental pain you're causing Severia to go through? Can you not understand that what you are doing is just stupid? Do you even care about her?"

"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone, you do well to remember who is in charge of the house around here."

"Yeah, I do know: a wretched man who cares only for power. You're nothing but a fool."

Stephen walked away towards Severia's room and ignored his father's protests as he entered the room and closed the door, locking it to prevent the man from entering and continuing the argument. The twins heard their father walk away back down the corridor, much to their relief, and once they couldn't hear his muffled footsteps they both looked at each other and sighed simultaneously.

"I've had enough of the old man. Have you come to a decision already?"

Severia had hoped he wouldn't ask about it yet, but he seemed to be rather pissed off and therefore wanted some sort of answer to cool down his nerves. During the three hours of thinking Severia hadn't liked the three options, but the third one was the most promising as she had already attempted to do that once before. That was going to be her answer.

"Yes, I'm going to leave this place behind and start a new life, I don't know what I will become but anything is better than this I suppose," replied Severia.

"Good choice, especially since faking you're own death will would have been a hard task to accomplish. Hmm, now that I think about it, I'll be coming with you."

"Coming with me? Why? Wherever I go will be filled with danger as I will be sought out by every single bounty hunter in the Empire. I cannot allow you to travel along with me if anything like that is going to happen to me, or to you."

"Hey, we're twins, we have to stick together. You better get packing, and get into some travelling clothes, you can't go walking around as an outlaw in that attire."

"I wasn't planning on it. Now make yourself scarce, I don't want you around when I'm getting changed. Meet back here in half an hour."

"Alright then, just pack light, we're going to travel through the wild you know."


The moon had risen over the land, the stars were out and about and the air was cold, meanwhile on the ground in the trees and bushes rode two teenagers on two horses, these were the two twins. Severia wore brown pants, a dark blue shirt with short sleeves and a sword was strapped to her back, a steel chest-plate was worn on her chest, steel gauntlets were on her hands while small pieces of plate armour covered parts of her arms and steel boots were upon her feet. Stephen wore black pants, black boots, a brown shirt with leather armour around the chest, arms and legs, a mace was strapped to his right waist, both of the twins had stolen their armour from the local guards during their escape. They both had leather backpacks on their horses filled with food, water and other essentials that would help them survive. The two of them had been riding in the wild for several days towards the east, making their way to a town on the coast, their plan was to gather supplies there before deciding where to go next.

"What happens if the guards there are looking for us?" asked Stephen.

"We'll just have to be sneaky," replied Severia. "I'm sure the whole Empire knows about our disappearance."

After many more hours they arrived at the stone walls of the seaport town that they were aiming for, they dismounted from their horses and hid them in the most dense part of the forest before approaching the wall with a long set of rope and a hook attacked to one end, Stephen looked up at the battlements and saw several chain mail armoured guards with steel helmets and long spears walking along, there weren't many of them and after watching them for a while he noticed that the area of the battlements above them were unguarded for a small period of time, so they both waited until there were no guards in sight before throwing up the rope and hook and managed to climb up the wall before any guards turned up.

The two twins made their way through the town secretly, avoiding any guards by walking and hiding in the shadows, until they reached the tavern. Stephen's stomach growled loudly as he smelled the cooked meat, he looked over at his twins sister and smiled slightly, causing her to shake her head and chuckle.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some supplies from this tavern, we are starting to run out of food," said Severia. "But we cannot both enter here, only one at a time to ensure our safety. I'll go first."

"What? No, I'm going first."

"Says you, besides, you're carrying a mace and I've only got a sword and that means I would look less conspicuous, plus I can actually talk my way out of certain situations. You just wait nearby and if I don't come back out in around fifteen minutes then come and get me."

Stephen nodded and walked away towards the docks, which happened to be nearby and full of various merchant ships and a few boats for the war fleet, he then proceeded to sit on a wooden crate and watch his surroundings, Severia entered the tavern and prepared herself mentally for anything that was to happen. When she entered the wooden building and closed the door behind her she was left staring at various wooden tables, stools and chairs filled with people from their young years to their elder years, many of the people present in the tavern appeared to be merchants from other coastal towns, a few were sailors from the war fleet and most others were common citizens. No guards were in sight and everything appeared to be alright for her, there were a few mercenaries around but they didn't pay any attention to her.

Severia walked up to the bar and sat on a free stool, on either side of her were two drunk men who appeared to be citizens of the town, out of the two only one seemed to be capable of speech. He looked over at her and grinned at her, causing Severia to cringe in distaste as the man had a missing tooth and bad breath, not to mention his ragged clothes which looked like an army of moths had been at it.

"Stop your foul grinning and go somewhere else," grumbled Severia.

"Why? You seem lonely and in need of company," said the man. "Perhaps I can give you that."

"I advise you to stay your distance away from me, or else."

"Else what? Let's just have some fun … wha?!"

Severia then grabbed the man by the throat and punched him in the face, breaking his nose, before holding him with two hands and throwing him over the bar, sending the drunk man into a state of unconsciousness as he smashed onto the ground. The bartender merely glanced at the unconscious man and shrugged, causing Severia to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You're not going to charge me for that?" she asked.

"Nah, he had it coming for a while now, he ain't been nothin' but trouble ever since he got in that damn fight," responded the bartender.

"Fight? What fight?"

"I can tell you ain't from around here if you're asking that question. Well, this fellow over 'ere, the one you kindly knocked out aka Jimmy, was in a fight with some strange fellow a while back, around a few weeks ago I think. The fight took place outside of town and ol' Jimmy here got completely traumatised to the point where his brain doesn't work properly, now he goes about getting drunk and attempt to have his way with any woman near him."

"So who was this strange person? And why was there a fight?"

"I don't know why there was a fight, maybe it was Jimmy trying to get some money of the guy, but the fellow whom he fought with … well, he ain't natural. Apparently he's some sort of ghost in physical form, or some sort of demon."

"I've seen him," spoke a new voice that came from the other end of the bar. Severia and the bartender looked at the source of the voice and saw a ginger haired woman covered in a fur cloak and leather armour underneath, she looked over at the two of them and drank the last of her ale from her wooden mug.

"You heard me, I said I saw him once, just a week ago up north, he was dressed as black as night and I couldn't see any sort of skin, but what stood out was his eyes, his flaring red and blue eyes, I thought I could even see a hint of dark purple swirling in those dead red and blue eyes of his." The woman shuddered as she recalled the memory and looked away.

Apart from the news about the mysterious wraith – whom Severia had taken to calling him 'The Wraith' – there was also news about repeating bandit raids and the restlessness of the barbarian tribes across the northern border, then there was some news about a certain young man: The Nameless One.

"Aye, he's been up and about in the lowland countries to the south-west and now he's heading to the northern border, not sure what he's expecting to find except for hostile guards," said an old man.

"I can only pity the towns and villages that get in his way," commented another man.

Even Severia had heard of the Nameless One, a young man who had taken up the life of a rogue mercenary at a very young age and had carved his place in imperial history through blood, steel and magic, to her mind he sounded horrible but that was before she and her brother had fled their family mansion, now the life of a rogue sounded like a holiday. Although, as she thought about it, being a bandit was too generic, plus their father would expect them both to be somewhere on land, so where to go? Perhaps leaving for the sea and taking up the life of a pirate? It wasn't a popular career but it sounded like fun and came with rich rewards in plunder. Then she felt someone tap her shoulder and as she turned around she saw her brother staring at her, disappointed and unamused.

"It's way past fifteen minutes, have you even gathered some supplies at all?" he asked her in a serious tone.

"Erm … no, er … sorry, brother," replied Severia with an upset voice.

Stephen sighed and patted his sister on the head. "Don't worry about it, let's get out of here before we catch too much attention."

"Um, about that … I kinda did cause some attention. You see that guy down there, yeah … I kinda knocked him out."

"And what a throw that was!" exclaimed a voice from behind them. The two twins turned around and saw a man wearing leather and chain mail armour that covered his chest, arms and legs, an axe was strapped to his waist, a scar ran down his forehead and across his blind right eye, he had messy black hair and a black moustache. This was the leader of the mercenaries.

"It wasn't much," said Severia.

"Wasn't much? Wasn't much?! That bastard had it coming for a while, he's been trying to beg money off me and my pals for a while now, almost wanted to kill him but I didn't want to clean up the mess afterwards."

Stephen chuckled at the remark. "Well that's all and good, but we've gotta go after we get some supplies."

"Hold up, brother, maybe they can be of use to use," suggested Severia. "I was thinking of an idea before you came in here and I want to share it with you: how about we become pirates?"

"Pirates? That isn't a popular career you know, but, I can see the merit behind it. Alright, I'm in."

"So you two plan on being pirates? Since I have respect for the young lady here I can sign me and my lads up for a life on the seas, but everyone has their price. What can you offer to me and my lads?" asked the mercenary leader.

"A large portion of any loot that we can get from coastal towns and trade ships, plus we can pay you up front here and now," replied Severia as she pulled out a small leather purse filled with gold coins and presented it to the mercenary leader. "Here's the first part of your payment, be loyal and there will be more gold coins for you and your lads."

The mercenary leader looked at the coins and smiled at the twins. "Our blades are at your command. What is your plan?"

"First thing to do is for my brother here to get our horses inside the town and sell them, then he'll gather some supplies, in the meantime the rest of us will capture a navel vessel from the dock. Stephen, if you run into trouble we'll bail you out, I promise."

"I know," responded Stephen. "Good luck and may the Gods smile upon you."

They all left the tavern and Stephen left for the gates while Severia and the mercenaries – which numbered around ten in total – made their way towards the dock, when they walked past a blacksmith that had been closed for the night Severia noticed a peculiar weapon that was laying on the ground next to the anvil, she bent down and picked it up to reveal it as a trident that stood over four ft long and the two end blades were curled towards the middle, all the pointed edges were sharp and deadly.

A trident eh?" remarked the mercenary leader. "A fitting weapon for a pirate captain."

"No, not a pirate captain, a pirate queen: Severia the Pirate Queen. Once we get out to sea we're going to have a good time raiding the coastal towns and plundering the trade routes. Let's show the Empire what we're made of!"


"Yes, those were the good times. Now I am the last one … the last one …" muttered Severia quietly to herself. It was then that she noticed a single tear dripping down her right cheek, she wiped her eyes and sighed to herself.

As she looked out through an open glass window she noticed that the clouds had gathered densely and the wind had started to pick up swiftly, deciding to close the window to reserve the heat in the room she stood up from the couch and closed the window tightly, the cold air from outside no longer could infiltrate the room. Severia returned to sitting on the couch and looked down at her empty cup of tea, now she wanted another one as she felt rather uncomfortable without having at least eight cups of tea per morning, and the last one was her third. With a grunt she picked herself off the couch once more and walked over to the steel door, there was to be more tea to make before mid-day arrived.


A/N: And that's a part of Severia's back-story done, now I have to create one for Lothar and Kharzark, although I have a feeling that I will have to up the rating if I do that though. I took a look at the reviews and there was one that caught my eye: a lemon fic for Angel and Plutia. That idea sounds interesting and I could incorporate that into the story, if only I knew how to write a lemon scene. Anyway, have a good day readers.