Chapter 32: The Meeting


CHAPTER NOTES: My apologies, but out of necessity there will be a certain amount of Spanish in this chapter, as Capitán Salazar speaks in Spanish to his 'mother'. Mostly, it is not essential to understanding what is happening in the chapter, but translations can be found once again at the end.

Many thanks to my lovely beta, who put up with two weeks of me struggling and being frustrated and sad, and talking me out of feeling like a failure more than once.

Lastly, I posted this chapter after a long day of editing; any mistakes are my own, however I hope you enjoy this very pivotal chapter between Athena and Capitán Salazar.


The first time I'd ever watched the movie Groundhog Day I was fifteen.

But here, in Capitán Salazar's prison, in this fake memory he was being kept in, I could barely remember it. I couldn't remember how the loop in the movie was broken. I couldn't even remember how it ended, but I was sure it had a happy ending. I realised that there must be something more insidious than usual going on, because the more I tried to remember, the harder it got. In this place, all thoughts of the real world became fainter and further away. But one small thing I did remember, was that in the movie the loop didn't always happen exactly the same way. Different interactions brought different consequences. Different actions brought different reactions. Even small things done could alter what happened each time.

So I figured the best way to help Capitán Salazar was to interact with him - or at least, to try.

I watched as the loop restarted. I watched as he ran and embraced his mother, the repetitive Spanish starting to become familiar to me. I caught the word, 'Armada', and realised for the first time that he wasn't wearing a uniform. Not the black and white striped uniform I was familiar with, nor even the uniform of a regular officer. Was this fake memory him telling his mother he was thinking about joining? Or was it him telling her he'd just been accepted into the Armada? And how long ago had that been? I couldn't help but wonder just what year he thought this was.

As the scene drew to its close, I took a deep breath, and then as they disappeared, I moved to stand directly in the path I knew he'd take, and waited. I wasn't sure what I could say or do to get his attention, but I had to start somewhere.

"¡No puede ser!" His mother suddenly exclaimed, closer to me than I'd expected her to be.

Glancing back, I saw with more clarity than before just how handsome his mother was. Especially when she realised who it was coming through the orange trees. Her face transformed as soon as she saw it was her son: she went from looking like a weathered and worn woman with too many cares, to - utterly stunning. Her eyes brightened with delight, her smile was radiant, and she stood straighter as she whispered his name.

"Mando?"

"Mama?"

I turned, hearing his quick strides coming towards us from behind the orange trees.

The moment he appeared, I spoke.

"Capitán?"

At first, he didn't seem to have heard me - he didn't even look at me. Instead, he seemed to look through me, to the figure of his mother.

"Mama!" He cried in delight, and I saw him start to make a move to run towards her.

"Capitán Salazar!" I tried again, louder this time.

His gaze shifted. I saw his eyes unfocus, and for a second I was sure he saw me... but then he blinked, shook his head, and broke out into an affectionate grin as he cried again, "¡Lo hice mamá! ¡Estoy en la Armada! "

I barely had enough time to shift out of his way before he caught his mother up in a hug, and spun her around.

La María shook her head in impatience.

"Tchhhhh!" She stabbed the air with a wooden finger at me, and then at Capitán Salazar; clearly telling me to go to him.

"But he didn't even see me -"

She strode to me in one step, bent down and took my arm in her massive fist. She jerked my arm up, showing me my hand, and then shook it in his direction.

"Tch tchlck tch," she ground out.

I looked up at her, uncertain what she was wanting. "My - hand?"

"Tch!"

"You mean - touch him?"

She nodded, exasperated. "Tch!"

She didn't even wait for me, already dragging me towards the unaware Capitán, who was still laughing and spinning his mother around in a hug.

"W-wait!" I pulled back in alarm at the way she was yanking me towards him. "Wait!"

She shook her head at me, refusing to stop. "Tchhhkck!"

"No - don't!"

"Tch!"

I got the distinct impression she was going to throw me onto him if I didn't do something about it, and I tugged violently backwards in a panic.

"TCH!"

"Okay, okay!" I pleaded. "Wait! Stop ! I'll do it, just - you've got to let me do it myself!"

She paused, looking down at me.

I swallowed.

"If you really think touching him will help, I'll try it! I'll try anything - but - please, you have to let me do it myself."

She didn't say anything for a moment.

Then she made a rasping sound, like she was grinding something in her mouth, and shook my hand in front of my face again, as if for emphasis.

"Tch kcktch kcktch," she said abruptly, before letting me go and straightening with a hard nod at me.

"Thank you," I said dryly, rubbing life back into my arm.

She jerked her head in an imperious way, as if to say, just hurry up and do it, and I was reminded for a second of Magda, and the haughty way he jerked his head when he was annoyed.

"Okay… but," I looked up at all twelve feet of her, to cautiously say, "If this doesn't work, I don't know what else I can -"

"TCH."

"Okay, okay!" I raised my hands up in surrender. "I'm going, I'm doing it."

I turned to see Capitán Salazar laughingly setting his mother back down again on her feet.

I straightened my own spine, half wishing I didn't have La María as my audience, but knowing I had no choice about it, and moved towards them.

Stopping just behind Capitán Salazar, I couldn't help but hesitate just once more as I stared at his broad shoulders.

Even though this Nightmare reality had returned me to an approximation of my real body - and even though I was technically standing at my real height - against Capitán Salazar, I was still shorter than him by a good couple of inches.

But no matter how intimidated, no matter how uncertain I felt right now, I reminded myself that I had fought to get here. I'd wanted to talk to him from the moment he'd left me alone in his cabin. And now I'd finally found him again. So no matter what, I had to wake him up. Whatever it took, however hard it might get, I was here to wake him up.

Ultimately… there was nothing I would not try.

"Capitán Salazar?" Gently, I laid my hand against his back. "It's me… Athena."

And then three things happened at once.

The mother froze, mid-gesture, and stopped speaking; there was a muffled crack! followed by a soft clattering sound, like a small rock or two tumbling onto the ground next to me, and - Capitán Salazar heard me.

"Dios mio!" He whipped around, reflexively catching my wrist so fast it made me gasp, and looked at me with such a forbidding expression I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from apologising.

"¿Quién eres?" He stared hard at me, and then without warning pulled me close against his chest. "¿Estás tratando de robarme?"

"Capitán!" I pleaded, trying to pull away; but it was like trying to pull my hand out of a rock. He had me so close against him, he'd effectively trapped my other hand against his chest. "Capitán Salazar, please!"

"Capitán Salazar?" He scowled. "¡Capitán Salazar es mi padre!"

I recognised that offended, threatening note in his voice - and I knew exactly the kind of unreasonable rage it led to.

"Please! I'm - " I forced myself to keep looking him in the eye, no matter how angry he was, and tried to sound as harmless and gentle as possible. "I'm just here to help you -"

"Inglesa?" His hand squeezed my wrist harder. "An English woman? Here, in my home?"

"I'm not! I'm - I'm …" I floundered in the face of his increasingly fierce glare; all my previous determination vanishing like dust in the wind.

"Not - English?" His eyebrows rose when I shivered, and he loosened his grip a little - but he did not let go, choosing instead to study me for a moment in silence.

We hadn't been face to face like this since our fight in his cabin.

He was so different - his skin whole and tanned and smooth, his hair no longer floating wildly, but perfectly groomed into a low queue.

Yet his hard expression, his dark steely eyes, the way he'd lost all his warmth the second he saw me - an intruder - made me so nervous that I dropped my gaze. But the alternative was, in some ways, worse. Because I was face to face with his chest. Tanned skin was visible in the V of his unlaced shirt collar, and beneath my trembling hands I could feel the unmistakable definition of hard muscles. He may not have been wearing his habitual black-and-white uniform, but without the extra layers he was even more intimidating - not less. And seeing him, feeling him as he must have been when he was human, before he had been Cursed… if Bracero had been here to see us, he would've been cackling in vulgar delight at my heating cheeks. A part of me wished I could just sink into the ground beneath us, and disappear; but at the same time, I felt a strange elation at knowing I had Capitán Salazar's full attention.

He'd apparently even forgotten his mother for the moment. She still stood awkwardly and silently behind him, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Who are you? Are you English?"

I focused desperately on the edge of his shirt collar, and managed to get out a stifled, "N-no."

"I'm sorry?" He tilted his head a little, as though he couldn't hear me. "Does the lady wish to speak? Or stare at my chest?"

I shot a look up at him in surprise, fast enough to see his lips part in a slight quirk of a smile.

"You are telling me the truth, mi bella Señorita?"

Even here, in this place, Capitán Salazar still obsessed with being told the truth; but at least this was familiar ground to me. "I am. I am telling you the truth -"

"Are you?" He interrupted.

I stared as that smile of his became a wry one.

"I apologise, but I find that here in Cadíz, pretty ladies do not follow me, unless they mean to rob me… but you are not from here, are you?"

'Not from here' was an understatement. But his words confirmed it for me: he had absolutely no idea he was trapped. Not a clue that he'd been reliving the same fake memory over and over again. He really did think he was in Cadíz… if I was going to convince him, it'd have to be one piece of information at a time. I could not start with the fact that this place wasn't his house in Cadíz - instinctively, I knew I'd have to win his trust first before I started telling him everything else.

"I didn't come here to rob you," I began. "I came because there's something I need to tell you."

"Ah," he looked impish. "So you did follow me! But why?" A small crease formed between his eyebrows, as if puzzled, and then he shook his head in impatience. "But do not escape answering me! Are you or are you not from England, Señorita?"

"I'm not," I swallowed again; his intense scrutiny was disconcerting. "I'm from…"

I stopped, alarmed.

He frowned at my hesitation, but I couldn't help it.

I'd never told him where exactly I'd been born, because I was certain it didn't exist in the 1700s… but right now, it was more than that.

Because I no longer knew. I just simply couldn't remember. I'd actually forgotten where I'd been born. Which was wrong. I'd always remembered. I'd made myself remember, from a very young age, every little detail I could find out about who my parents had been, what had happened to them, where I'd been born... but for some reason, I couldn't remember any of it now.

I figured it had to be another aspect of this place. It had to be the Curse, again stifling all memories of the outside world. Which was going to make convincing Capitán Salazar he was trapped in a fake memory in the fake courtyard of his fake house a damn sight harder.

"I - I can speak English…" I said carefully, keeping my eyes down to avoid his stare. "But -"

Unexpectedly, he cupped my face in his hand and forced my chin up, and there was no avoiding him now. I had to make myself take a slow breath in, hoping to calm the rapid warm shivers that swept over me at being touched by him like this.

"But," I forced the words out, though they were hoarser than I would have liked, "I'm not - from England."

"If you are not English...?" He spoke now with unmistakable gentleness, and to add to my inner agitation, his thumb stroked lightly across my cheek. "Who taught you to speak it?"

"Um." I unhelpfully said. "I'm sorry but - it's not important. Because I - I'm here to…"

I stopped again. What could I say? I'm here to wake you up from the most happiness you've had in decades? I'm here to bring you back to a reality where you're suffering from a Curse and all you've known is rage and hatred?

He tilted his head, in that familiar way he had; but there was still no recognition. He really didn't know who I was.

"You're here to - what? Spy on me?"

"No! No, I'm not a spy..."

"Tchhhh," La María's voice sounded from somewhere over our heads, encouraging me. "Tch kckk tch tchtchhhh!"

Do better, I knew she was telling me. Do not stop speaking!

But that was easy for her. She was twelve foot tall and unintimidated by the suspicious Spaniard that currently held me.

His frown deepened. "Then you are here to steal from us?"

Well, not steal from you, I wanted to tell him. More like, steal you. Away. From this place.

"Ah." His voice became sharper again, his expression colder. "Is that a yes?"

I stared, stricken. "... no."

He suddenly let go of me.

I was nearly unbalanced at the loss of him, as he said with stern formality, "Señorita, tell me. Why are you really here?"

I took the plunge. I had no choice. "You're trapped. You've been trapped in this place for hours. And I've been brought here to wake you up -"

"Mando," his mother interrupted icily. "¿Qué estás mirando?"

The mother had suddenly come to life. She was no longer a stringless puppet, but seemed to have become possessed - moving forward stiffly to insert herself at Capitán Salazar's side, her black eyes briefly meeting mine with hostility, before turning away to face him.

"¿Mando?"

At the first sound of his mother's voice, his eyes glazed over. He half-turned, distracted. "Mama?"

"Mannn-do," His mother said again, her voice high and sweet; in that singsong cadence adults use, when they think they are good with children. "Mando?"

Capitán Salazar suddenly shook his head, and looked around as though not sure what had just happened. I was directly in front of him, but I might as well have been invisible, because he clearly could not see me anymore.

"Mi favorito," his mother reached forward, cupping a coarse hand to his face, making him look at her. "¿Qué estás haciendo?"

"No sé ... pensé que había alguien más aquí …" The confusion in his eyes stayed, though he gave his mother a strained smile as he turned away from me. "Nada, no es nada…"

His mother started to draw him away, back to the side of the fountain, tucking her hand in around his elbow, murmuring to him softly in Spanish.

What the hell - ?

I stared after them.

How had he gone from seeing me to - not?

Alarmed, I followed them.

"Capitán…?" I called out.

But I might as well have not been there at all, for all the good it did. He didn't turn his head once.

"Capitán, I'm right here..."

I stood at his side, helpless to get him to notice me: but he just couldn't hear me anymore. Yet he could hear me before... so why couldn't he hear me again now?

"Tchtchtchtchtchtch!" La María pointed, fast and frantic.

"I know, but I don't know what happened!" I shook my head in frustration at her. I was standing close enough to him that he should have still been able to see me and hear me, but he did not. "He's just - stopped seeing me!"

"Tch!" She pointed again, and I realised she wasn't alarmed or upset - she seemed… excited.

I looked at her, and this time I realised she wasn't pointing at them - but at the fountain beside them.

One of the carved dragon faces had crumbled.

"Tchtch!" She gestured me enthusiastically towards Capitán Salazar again.

Try again, she was telling me. Touch him again!

"Oh…"

Could it be? Was it really our touch? There was only one way to know. I reached out again, and clasped my hand over his arm.

The second I touched him again, the mother jerked into stillness, her expression angry and shocked; and the same muffled crack as before sounded, followed by the clattering of more broken stones falling to the ground.

The fountain - was crumbling.

And Capitán Salazar himself stiffened at my touch, before whipping around to face me again, his eyes widening as if seeing a ghost.

"Capitán!" I wasted no time addressing him, "You need to wake up!"

"Inglesa?" He said hoarsely. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

He stared down at my hand, as if something about my touching his arm both bothered and offended him; and then he shook my hand off roughly.

"I do not allow strangers to touch me, Señorita, not even pretty ladies with sunset hair…"

"Mando," his mother hissed through tight lips, "¿Qué está pasando?"

And again, his eyes glazed over, and he looked all around the courtyard as if he'd temporarily forgotten what he was doing here.

Light dawned.

It really was my touch. Our touch. Every time I'd touched him, I'd got his attention. His mother stopped talking. The fountain cracked and crumbled.

I'd got his attention two times in a row now - but when I'd stopped touching him, or he'd stopped touching me, he'd somehow lost the ability to see and hear me only moments after.

La María impatiently gestured at me again, bringing both her hands together in a loud clap, trying to tell me to hurry up and physically touch him again.

"I know, I know!" I told her.

Stepping forward to him, I risked doing something I would never have done in real life. But I had to. I didn't know how much time I had before their loop would start up again at the beginning, so I shot my hand out, grabbed his upper arm, and wrenched him around hard to face me.

He was surprised at being handled so roughly, and then enraged. "¿Que es esto? ¿Qué estás haciendo?"

The mother hissed at me, a sound that was increasingly similar to the way the Curse had sounded in the hold, but this time I would not let go.

"Capitán Armando Salazar," I said, emphasising his whole name. "I'm sorry, but you need to listen to me!"

"Listen to -?"

"This - all of this - it isn't real! You're under a Curse! This -" I gestured around the courtyard. "All this, is a bad dream - a Nightmare!"

"Curse?" He stared. "... I am - Cursed?" His eyes lit up in sudden mirth. "Ah, very amusing! You are making a joke! But I am in no Nightmare."

I stared back, in complete confusion.

"My friends have told you to come, no?"

He shot a quick grin at his mother, as if wishing for her to share in the joke before smiling down in genuine humour at me.

But his mother did not smile. She stood there looking at me in absolute venomous rage - and I realised for the first time, that his mother could see me - she'd just been pretending not to.

But before I could understand why, or really process the fact that she didn't like me taking Capitán Salazar's attention away, he was speaking again.

"I come here to give good news to my mama, about being accepted onboard the Santa Teresa, but my friends like to play tricks, and send -" He stopped and tugged lightly on a stray lock of my hair. "Hermosa chica inglesa, an unusual English lady, to make sport with me."

"I'm not - I'm not 'making' sport with you!"

"Por favor," he tilted his head, "Tell Pedro, he has done well to find a beauty to distract me; but I can only spend my afternoon with one lady, and that is my mother."

I could feel the warmth of his skin through his sleeve, and I clenched my hand around that warmth, wishing for some other reaction - any reaction, even anger - anything that wasn't this pleasantly dismissive attitude.

"Please - don't you remember? Don't you -" I swallowed, feeling a flush rise up my neck. "You're the one who called me Athena. You said you - you liked that name. That's why you call me that. Don't you remember?"

"Ah, did I? Muy bueno, but you are as serious as a goddess of wisdom." He smiled, and leaned in close to me; speaking in a low, dark rumble. "And you blush like a virgin, too. Athena… the name suits you."

I lost all ability to speak as he actually purred something short and low in Spanish to me, but very quietly, as if not meaning for his mother to overhear.

"What..." I choked out, though I had a feeling from the way his mouth had quirked up, and the subtle wink he'd slipped me, that I probably did not want to know what he'd just said.

"What, lost your tongue?" He chuckled again as he playfully took a stray lock of my hair, twisting it between his fingers. "Tell me the truth now, bella dama, are you an actress? I did not think the English allowed ladies to act, but you did sound very convincing."

"I'm not acting!"

"No, no, no, no," he suddenly took my hand in his, and gave a charming bow over it. "No need to lie to me, Señorita."

He smiled at me, before kissing my knuckles lightly and letting my hand drop.

His mother, who was watching me with absolute vitriol; shot a hand out to snatch him by the wrist, but though he patted her hand distractedly, he didn't seem to notice the way her face was twisting up with hate.

"Mando," she again sang in that sweet, syrupy voice, and once more his gaze slid away towards her, and I no longer existed.

I watched, powerless, as he continued talking to her as though nothing had happened.

That was when I realised that, no matter how many times I might touch him, it wouldn't make a difference. It still wouldn't matter - he'd forget it all the moment I let go.

He farewelled his 'mother', completely unaware that I was still standing right behind him.

"Hasta pronto!" He told her cheerfully, before promptly disappearing.

I'd failed. Each time I'd tried, I'd failed. What was going to get through to him?

"Ugh!" I turned and slumped down next to the fountain, feeling overwhelmingly tired and demoralised, as their scene re-started. "What am I going to do? Nothing is working!"

I watched again as Capitán Armando Salazar ran through the orange trees, oblivious to both La María and me, and embraced his 'mother' for the hundredth time.

"He sees me - he'll talk to me -" I said glumly, "But he won't believe a word I tell him."

"TCH." La María was livid. She towered over me, stabbing a finger first at me, and then at the fountain.

"I know - I know," I sighed. "The fountain breaks more every time we touch, but -" I shook my head and blew out a frustrated sigh. "What difference is it making? I mean, really?"

"Tchhhhhh!" La María stood impatiently next to me, her hands clenching and unclenching, as if she was thinking about picking me up and dragging me over to him again. Or maybe throwing me at him. She could probably do it too. With one arm, if she wanted.

"Don't." I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back against the edge of the fountain behind me. "Just - don't."

I heard her make that rasping sound again, like she was grinding something in her mouth.

"Well, what's going to get through to him? It has to be something more than just touching…"

"Tchhhhh…" La María was thoughtful. "Tch tchtch… tchhh tch."

She placed a heavy hand on my shoulder.

Before I could even turn my head to look up at her, an image was shoved into my mind.

A very clear, highly specific image.

My jaw dropped.

"What."

She took her hand away.

"Tchhhh." She nodded firmly towards Capitán Salazar.

I looked as well, the image she'd just sent me replaying over and over in my mind, like an unstoppable train wreck.

"I - I couldn't." I could barely get the words out.

She turned her blank head towards me, but her posture, her shoulders, the tilt to her head, all said the same thing.

What have you got to lose.

I didn't answer her for a full minute.

But I couldn't stop the rising feeling - that she was right. What did I have to lose? It would either fail - again, like everything else I'd done - or ...

It would work.

And then he'd wake up.

And then -

"So -" I halted. "If it works. Will he… remember?"

La María jerked her head in that imperious way she had, as if to say, what does it matter if he remembers?

I stared at him hopelessly.

I saw how genuinely he smiled down at his fake mother, how warm his eyes were, how… how much he loved her.

I sighed.

But maybe. Maybe I didn't have to do exactly what La María had shown me. I didn't know if I was ready for - for what she'd showed me - but I could still follow the general gist of what she wanted.

I just hoped he wouldn't remember afterwards.

But, more than that… if it worked, he may not thank me for waking him up.

"If this works," I said to her. "If it works… I hope he forgives me."

"Tchtch," she gave the equivalent of a shrug, and gestured again for me to get on with it.

Sighing once more, I got to my feet.

The current loop was nearly over - they would be starting from the beginning again soon. I waited for them to close the loop, waited for the "Hasta pronto!" that he always finished with, waited for them both to 'disappear'.

I started to move as soon as I saw the mother reappear again by the fountain.

By now, I'd heard their loop so many times I'd memorised the exact number of steps Capitán Salazar took to reach his mother.

9, 8, 7, - he was in view - 6, 5, 4 -

But I didn't let him get to his mother.

I stood in his way - just like before. Only this time, I pushed both my hands firmly against his chest, and held him back. He stared down at me in surprise.

"I need you to wake up," I whispered hoarsely.

"Inglesa?" He started to frown in confusion, looking between my hands on his chest, and then up at my face. "Why are you, an English woman, here in my -"

But I had no time for a repeat.

I didn't let myself breathe, or hesitate.

I simply slid my hands up on his shoulders, stretched up, and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

He grew utterly still.

I could feel him tensing beneath my touch.

"Tchhhhhh!" La María was sharply disappointed, I knew. She'd shown me how she'd wanted me to kiss him: passionately on the mouth, complete with entwining my legs around him and everything - but. I didn't think it'd be - welcome.

I pulled back a little, anxious about how he'd react.

He'd closed his eyes.

"Capitán Salazar?"

He didn't answer.

All my nerves were on edge.

"Please... " I whispered. "Please, I need you... to come back to me."

He opened his eyes.

He looked directly at me, and for the first time, I saw a familiar glow in them.

"... Athena?"

His mother hissed behind me at once, making him blink and shift his focus from me to her. I saw his vision start to glaze over again as she sang something to him in Spanish, like a sweet, high-pitched lullaby.

His face became blank, and his body felt slack beneath my touch.

"No…" I clung to him tighter. "No, no, no! don't look at her, look at me!"

I cupped his jaw, turning his head to look at me again, but the brief flare of recognition had gone.

"Please, please don't look at her!"

"Inglesa?" He tilted his head, puzzled. "Who are you -?"

"Please - please! You need to wake up!" I begged, but I'd already lost my chance.

His mother crooned over my shoulder, "Mando, ¿por qué no hablas con nadie?"

I could almost feel the subtle sting underneath the honey in her voice; and it made me hold on tighter, trying to touch as much of him as I could. She hissed again behind me, but I ignored her; clasping both hands up around the back of his neck, not allowing him to even move his head to look at his 'mother'.

He stared at my audacity, but he wasn't angry; instead, he just looked more confused than ever.

"Do you know me?" He murmured, his forehead creasing as if trying to remember something.

"Yes! And you know me!"

The garden around us immediately started to darken, the sunlight above became grey, and the courtyard tangibly less welcoming than before, but I refused to let go of him.

"You're the Captain of a Spanish warship, you're anchored just off St Martin, and it's - it's a different year than you think it is -"

The courtyard was now as dark as dusk, and a cold wind sprang up from out of nowhere, whistling around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the figure of his mother starting to change: growing and blurring into something dark and angry.

"You're Capitán Armando Salazar," I said firmly, keeping my fingers locked tightly together behind his neck. "You're asleep on your ship - because there's a Curse that wants to stop you from waking up! None of this - this memory, your - mother, none of it is real! You're in..." I searched for the words he'd used to me before. "La Pesadilla! You're not in Cadíz, you haven't just joined the Armada - you're already in the Armada!"

He shook his head at me in disbelief.

"No, it's true! You're Capitán Armando Salazar of La María Silenciosa!"

"Tchhhhhh!" La María's voice boomed warningly, and I saw her placing herself between us and - it wasn't his 'mother' anymore. No, the dark thing that had been playing at being his mother was now a roiling black mass of shadow, towering as high as La María itself, hissing incoherently at us.

"TchtchtchTCH!" La María cried down to me, before turning to block the Curse.

I didn't need to be Bracero to know what she'd said.

I had run out of time.

"You need to wake up," I turned to face him again, terror making me urgent. "Lieutenant Lesaro asked me to help you! Please - you have to have known Lieutenant Lesaro?"

He looked blankly at me.

"What about your other men?" I rushed on. "Officer Miguel Magda, he's been asking me lots of questions - and - there's also Officer Moss, and - Officer Santos, and Officer Cortez -?"

I paused, hoping one of those names would ring a bell, but he continued to stare at me in silent perplexity.

"Don't you remember any of them?" I asked in desperation.

He shook his head. "The names - I feel - I should know them… but I do not…"

What was I going to do?

There was no more sunlight anymore, and no more sky either - the courtyard itself seemed to be drawing in, the walls groaning closer and closer, the immaculate orange trees whipped bare by the icy wind, the fountain all but a crumbling heap of stones, save for the stone carving of the man tied to the gnarled tree.

I had no time left.

"Please…" I lifted my voice to a shout, trying to be heard above all the noise. "Your men need you. La María needs you. We all need you to wake up!"

"What are you saying?" He shouted back - but I realised he wasn't shouting to be heard. He was shouting because I'd been shouting. Not once had he looked around at the walls closing in, or shivered at the icy wind that howled about us. He seemed oblivious to the growing dark, the Curse looming behind us, the giant wooden woman matching her strength against it just to buy us more time.

"My men? María?" His brows furrowed heavily. "Who is María?" His impatience was reaching its peak. "Señorita, this is not amusing! You must stop this! You must stop calling me 'Capitán'. I -" His expression became grieved, and I had to strain to hear him as he said in a low voice. "I cannot be a Capitán. I cannot even be an officer. They said to me, not yet. Not until I pass their tests. Not until I prove myself first..."

Even in the danger of the moment, his sadness squeezed my heart; I wanted to yell and shout in my frustration at what the Curse had done to him, but I knew it wouldn't help.

The wind cut around us, yanking the ribbon from his hair, lifting strands of it wildly about his face - and still he barely seemed to notice.

I could see La María struggling; she'd planted her feet wide, and was using all her strength to block the roiling shadow of the Curse from engulfing us. But she was losing, her great wooden feet slowly but surely being pushed back across the polished stones. I knew if I didn't do something soon, we'd all get engulfed, and then there'd be no leaving for any of us. It'd probably orchestrate some fake reality to keep all three of us here, forever.

I stared up at him, seeing his uncertainty, his anguish, his confusion - and I knew this was it. This really was the moment I had nothing else to lose. No other ideas to try. This was it. It would either work, or it wouldn't.

I stretched up on my toes again, pushing myself entirely against his chest, and pressed my lips against his ear.

"You don't have to prove anything. You already are Capitán Armando Salazar."

I heard his sharp intake of breath, and felt his own hands come to a hesitant rest on my waist - as if he wasn't sure he should push me away or hold me in place.

"And - " I drew back a little, to look at him. "I'm - I'm so sorry, but I'm out of time."

And then I did it.

I pressed my mouth on his, and kissed him.

He went completely still again. I could feel his muscles tensing under my hands, I felt his breath stopping; and I couldn't help but silently apologise to him for it. I felt like it was the worst thing I could have done to him; I closed my eyes as I desperately tried, tried to make it work.

"Please wake up for me," I whispered against his lips.

And then his hands, which had been immobile up to now, slowly started to stroke up my back. He tilted his head a little, to slot his mouth more firmly against mine, even as he drew me in closer against him.

I think I gave a small muffled sigh into his mouth, half-surprised and half-relieved, as he willingly kissed me back.

All at once, there was a loud cracking sound, and then - silence.

Breaking away, I looked and saw the courtyard was empty.

The Fountain was gone. In its place, was a statue of - us. Capitán Salazar and me. Standing exactly as we were now. Face to face, with our arms about each other.

"Oh…" I felt my cheeks heating, as I realised the statue was extremely... well, very romantic. And intimate.

I tore my eyes away from it, but there was no one else in the Courtyard. La María had disappeared, and so had the Curse. I didn't know what it meant - I didn't know where the Curse would be when we woke up - but I had a strong sense that we were, at the very least, one step closer to breaking its grip.

"It worked!" I didn't hold back my awe as I turned back to Capitán Salazar, grinning in excitement. "I think it worked! You can wake up now!"

I faltered when I saw the way he was looking at me.

His eyes had been half closed, as if he'd just had the most incredible experience. But when I turned back, he looked at me from under his lashes with a very heated expression. He still had his arms around me, and I felt the strength of them. He was not letting me go.

"Worked, Señorita?" He murmured. "Por favor, what worked?"

"Um - the, um. The. What we - I - we just did." I stammered.

"Ah? And what did we just do, Inglesa?"

Wait... Inglesa?

I stared. "You - you still don't know me?"

His eyes lit with a wicked light, as he said, "I feel perhaps I should like to know you, bella Señorita…"

I froze.

He still didn't know me. And worse, he seemed - to have quite the wrong idea about me.

"Uh - please - um. Could you - I didn't mean - I thought it would help you remember - um. Not that we've… done that. Before."

Without warning, Capitán Salazar bent his head closer, studying me intently.

"We haven't?" A mischievous smile started to spread on his face, and I was sure my face was about to catch on fire. "Then why do I feel like I have held you before?"

I couldn't deny it. He had.

"We've stood. Like this. Before," I said.

He took a deep breath in, and then the next words came bluntly. "We are lovers, no?"

Wanting to sink into the ground before, when he'd been merely flirting, was nothing like the absolute mortification I felt now.

"No!"

"No?"

"I mean - not that - I wouldn't - with you -"

He raised an eyebrow.

Oh my God, please someone just bury me now, I silently prayed.

"We aren't lovers." I made an attempt to sound cool and unaffected. "I was just trying to - help you, because I... made an agreement to help you break your Curse..."

"Did you." He murmured, watching my mouth as if fascinated by the movement of my lips. "You agreed to help.. me? Why? Are you sure, it is not because you and I are secret lovers?"

"Please..." I begged, sure I was going to die of embarrassment. "Don't you remember anything that's happened?"

I'd thought he would get his memories back - I hadn't counted on his memory loss being permanent.

"I think this is not the first time," he paused, eyes flicking over my face, "That you've said 'please' to me... in just that way..." He lifted a hand up, and ran it through my hair. "Por favor, say it again, I might remember..."

His touch was terrible - soft and gentle, caressing and provoking, and I struggled to want to move away.

"Please, Capitán Salazar..."

"Sí, sí, sí, like that..." He closed his eyes, as he bent his mouth towards mine.

"Señorita!"

"W-what?" I stuttered, startled.

Capitán Salazar stopped, a hair's breadth from my lips, and sighed in frustration.

"Always, the interruptions!" He muttered.

The voice came again, insistent, desperate. "Señorita, por favor, wake up!"

I felt an odd momentum, like in an elevator: as if my body was fighting gravity but in two different directions.

"Señorita!"

Capitán Salazar growled - he actually growled, and whispered, "No, no, no, Athena, I am not ready to go yet!"

I snapped my eyes up to his in shock, and saw the mixed amusement and chagrin in them.

"Capitán?" I whispered. "You - you remember?"

He smiled ruefully. "I've remembered these last few minutes, Athena... but. Lo siento. We are rarely alone, and I was curious to see just what you'd do if I -"

"Señorita Athena, wake up!"

The blackness engulfed me, as a pungent smell hit my nose; and I was flying backwards through the dark, back towards consciousness, torn from Capitán Salazar's grasp.


SPANISH TRANSLATIONS:

¡No puede ser! - It can't be!

¡Lo hice mamá! ¡Estoy en la Armada! - I did it, mama! I joined the Armada!

¿Quién eres? - Who are you?

¿Estás tratando de robarme? - Are you trying to rob me?

Capitán Salazar es mi padre! - Captain Salazar is my father!

Inglesa - An English woman

Mi bella Señorita - My beautiful Lady

Mando, ¿qué estás mirando? - Mando, what are you looking at?

Mi favorito - My favourite

¿Qué estás haciendo? - What are you doing?

No sé ... pensé que había alguien más aquí … - I don't know... I thought there was someone else here...

¿Qué está pasando? - What is going on?

¿Que es esto? ¿Qué estás haciendo? - What is this? What are you doing?

Mando, ¿por qué no hablas con nadie? - Mando, why are you talking to no one?

Hermosa chica inglesa - Beautiful English girl

Muy bueno - Very good

Hasta pronto! - See you soon!


AUTHOR'S NOTES: The Santa Teresa was a ship that sailed in the Bourbon Fleet in 1704. I am headcanoning he was made a Capitán before 1714, in time for the war of the Spanish Succession to be over, and for the new King of Spain to commemorate his beloved wife's death by commissioning La María Silenciosa. (I also headcanon he was Capitán in time for the flourishing of the golden age of piracy, circa 1715-1725, which culminated in the battle at the Devil's Triangle..)