"Captain my captain, you must wake up," a deep, familiar voice coaxed.

Ash groaned and turned over in her hammock, lowering the blanket enough to glare out at the big man with one eye.

"No," she said grumpily, and pulled the blanket back over her head.

"How did you drink two bottles of rum the night the Spanish annoyed you, and stay up the whole night, but last night one bottle of rum took you down?"

Ash gave a very dramatic sigh. Throwing back the blanket, she got up and tried to get her special corset on under her shirt, but found she had to remove the shirt to do so. Jahir turned his back to her, his face expressionless.

"I cheated," she said honestly, "I drew in energy from those around me, boosting my energy and focus to remain wired enough to stay awake and party so much. It's not the most ethical thing to do, and I don't often do it, but I lost my temper."

"So you can do magic," Jahir said.

"Yes," Ash replied, "But I have limits, magic isn't what you think it is. I can't fly, or shoot fire from my hands, or turn people into other things. Such things are story book nonsense. Think of magic more as probability enhancement. You can turn around now too, by the way."

He did so, and she finished dressing. As she thought back to the previous night, she realized she'd better steer clear of rum for a while. She had told Jack more than she wanted to, had almost slipped and told him the Yakuza didn't accept women as members. That would have been a disaster. Ash walked past Jahir and went to the galley to prepare both breakfast and a large batch of hangover cure. Plenty of the crew needed it, as well as Ash. When she took breakfast up to Jack, she found him still sleeping. She set the tray down and stepped closer to wake him, and froze when she saw he was shirtless. Biting her lower lip nervously, she put a hand to his uninjured shoulder and shook him gently until he woke up.

"Captain, I have breakfast," she said.

His eyes opened very slightly, squinting at her.

"And a hangover cure," she added awkwardly.

Wordlessly, Jack sat up and held out one hand. She gave him the cure first, and when he downed that, he moved to the table to eat his food. Ash checked over his injuries and left in silence. The mood of the entire crew was subdued today, even after the hangover cures had taken effect and lunch had been consumed. Ash leaned on the rail, letting the sea mist spray on her face and enjoying the slight breeze and the shade provided by her wide brimmed hat. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something in the air that made her feel... off. It wasn't a bad or ominous feeling, exactly, just something was making her feel on edge, more alert than usual. It was damn irritating, because she couldn't rid herself of the feeling or figure out the cause of it.

Ash paced around deck, fiddling with a piece of rope to keep her hands busy. Then she sat and meditated, but even that didn't eliminate the strange feeling. No one else seemed to notice, they were walking around calmly, business as usual. As the day wore on, half of her started to wonder if she was imagining it. But she had always been sensitive to energy vibes, whether from a person or a general feeling. She knew there was something. Maybe something about to happen. Ash wished it would just happen already, she'd rather just be jumped than sit around waiting.

"Ready for – " someone started to say behind her.

Ash spun abruptly, her right hand curled into a fist and shot out. Her shoulders and hips twisted, her right heel turned out as she dug into the deck with the balls of her feet. All of this lent her more power than if she had just used the strength of her arm, and her punch caused the person that startled her to stumble back a few steps. It was Jack. Horrified, Ash dropped her fighting stance as he frowned and rubbed his jaw where she had hit him.

"Not sure I deserved that," he said mildly.

"I'm so sorry captain, I just – you shouldn't sneak up on me."

"Noted," Jack responded dryly, arching one eyebrow at her.

Ash looked away, wondering if she should tell him why she was on edge today. But no. She didn't even really know. He'd just dismiss it. She should as well, but she just couldn't shake the feeling.

"Well, you're stronger than you look, that's good," he continued, "Ready for your lessons?"

When she only blinked at him, Jack continued.

"Don't tell me you forgot about sword practice."

"I never forget anything," Ash said honestly, "But I thought you had, since you had more to drink than I did."

Privately, she thought he had been drunk and wouldn't still mean it when he sobered up. Jack slung an arm around her shoulders and steered her towards his quarters.

"I've actually never been that drunk," he confided in her.

Once in the captain's cabin, Ash saw the big table and pretty much everything else was pushed to the sides of the room to allow for more freedom of movement. Jack presented her with a sword that was longer, straighter, and lighter than his, with sharp edges on both sides as opposed to just one. As she took hold of it, looking it over and hefting it experimentally, he felt the need to explain.

"This is better suited to you, your smaller frame and the way you move."

Ash looked up from the sword to meet his eyes, arching one eyebrow.

"How I move?"

"You're quick, agile, and graceful," Jack told her, "Your greatest asset in a sword fight will be speed, and a bit longer reach to make up for your size."

Ash wasn't sure how she felt about that assessment. It suggested he had been watching her closely for some time now, which was unsettling. Usually she could feel it when someone was watching her. It wasn't the same feeling as what she had been experiencing all day, so he had been watching her for longer than just a day. Jack taught her how to hold the sword, how to stand, and most importantly, how to breathe. She thought he was joking at the time, but she soon realized she had to breathe differently when she was fighting with the sword. Not only was she exerting more energy than when shooting, but the adrenaline going through her veins heightened her nerves and had a tendency to make her breathing ragged. She had to focus on breathing deep and slow, in through her nose, out through the mouth.

By the end of the lesson, she was sweating and her sword arm was exhausted. After thanking him for taking the time out of his day to teach her, Ash took a bucket of sea water down to the supply room and scrubbed herself clean, redressed and came back up on deck. The sun was setting, and she had to prepare dinner soon. But something made her stop in her tracks. A shiver went down her spine and the unsettling feeling she'd been feeling all day intensified ten fold. Then she heard it.

The sound was high and utterly entrancing, some sort of song, someone singing. But with it came a fog that wrapped around her mind. Alarmed, Ash slammed the mental fog away with pure force of will. It insisted on staying and fought her, which woke her rage and helped to clear her mind. How dare you, she thought, mentally snarling at the unseen enemy. Her mind was her own, and she prided herself on her ability to defend it from magical attacks like this one. Glancing around, she saw the crew had glazed looks in their eyes and were slowly wandering towards the rails. Ash's eyes widened as what was happening revealed itself to her. Mermaids were in the water, and they were singing to the crew to get them to jump overboard. Cursing, Ash ran to find something to restrain the crew with. Jack emerged from his quarters, looking confused, and Ash shoved him back inside, still fighting off the fog from engulfing her mind.

"Stay inside!" she barked at him.

"What is that?"

"Mermaids. Don't come out here, it will only be worse for you."

"If they're here we have to do something."

"Physical violence will do nothing against this sort of enemy, they'll destroy you before you can do it to them, they've already half won. Don't worry, I'll take care of this."

"How are you immune to it? It's so beautiful..."

Rolling her eyes, Ash shoved him forcefully back in his cabin and shut the door. She was hardly immune to it, she just had more experience in mental battles than the average human. She tied one end of the rope to the mast, then jumped up on the rail and ran, trailing the line behind her. Once she got to the bow, she leaped over to the other rail and ran back the way she came, effectively encircling the deck in rope. Jumping down from the deck, the yanked hard. The circle of rope shrunk abruptly, and the spread out crew that had been wandering to the rails were forced against the mast. Ash ran around the mast she had pinned them to, encircling them in more rope. Once she got to the end and used it all up, she tied if off, ignoring their cursing and shouts at her to let them go.

The singing hadn't stopped. Far from that, there was now a note of anger in the song. Fire in her eyes, Ash stepped up to the bow. These people are under my protection, she thought fiercely, unsure and uncaring if they could hear her or not, as she was about to make her position very clear, You will not have them. She closed her eyes, opened her mouth and started to sing a song of her own, as wordless as theirs, but the melody purposefully clashed. She felt the mermaids falter, recoiling slightly in surprise, but then their efforts redoubled. The discordant rhythm was disorienting, and one part of her mind was still shielding her from falling under their hypnotizing spell. Her mind was split into two separate areas of focus. She split off a third part, making it in charge of building and controlling energy. Imagining gold light, she formed a bubble around the ship, protecting it from all directions. What she was doing wouldn't be visible to the eye, but she knew they could feel it, and would know what she was doing. Protection established, she imagined gold tentacles of light sprouting off from the shield around the ship, and directed them in devastating sweeping motions toward the dark energies she felt in the water, song pouring out of her mouth continuously. She felt, more than heard, them shriek and draw back.

Her song was building in force to a crescendo, and with it, she split her mind again to send out a message. Back the hell off. At the height of her song, she imagined a blast of energy explode outward from the ship's protection shield, which forced the dark energy back and made them scatter, stunned. After a pause in which they regained their senses from the magical beating they'd just been handed, Ash felt the dark energy retreat quickly and fade far into the distance until it was gone completely. Ash opened her eyes, her mouth twisted into a grim line. She'd never had to fight mermaids before, and for her first time, she was both relieved and surprised at her success. She reeled slightly as the pieces of her mind slid back into one again, and she shook her head to clear it, noting the fog that tried to enslave her mind was gone along with the mermaids.

The crew was blinking and looking around bewildered as they came out of it and realized they were tied to the mast. She untied them and remained silent as they bombarded her with questions. What was she supposed to tell them that they would even believe, never mind understand?

"I think you owe some answers, lad."

Ash looked up and saw Jack looking at her seriously. She blinked, then yawned. The energy she'd used to fight the mermaids came directly from her, and she thought of taking some from the crew before discarding the idea. She could sleep soon, and that would restore her to normal. Her recent battle had also been more mentally exhausting than she'd had to endure in months. Never before had she had to split her mind into four different pieces in order to carry out a magical battle. But then, these opponents weren't human like the others had been. Added to the physical exertion of her earlier sword lesson, and Ash was just about asleep on her feet.

"Can it wait, captain?" Ash asked tiredly, fighting another yawn, "I just want food and sleep."

"You can talk as you make dinner. Sleep after that, aye?"

"Aye aye, captain," she replied wearily, trudging down to the galley.

Jack followed her, as did the rest of the crew. Like hell a bunch of sailors were about to miss out on a story. Ash pulled out some ingredients and began chopping, not looking at her audience as she spoke.

"If you remember, I told you I knew a wizard, I trained with him for several years."

"Yes."

"I also said he taught me healing 'plus some other stuff'."

"I remember that too."

Ash gestured with her knife.

"Well... that was some of the other stuff."

"If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it," someone else remarked, "But that was definitely magic on me, telling me to jump, to go to that beautiful sound."

The crew began talking quietly with each other, and Ash sneaked a glance at Jack. He looked to be deep in thought.

"Why would they attack us?" he mumbled to himself, "They're drawn to man made light, but there was none of that around."

Ash shrugged.

"I could feel their presence all day, though I didn't know it at the time. Now that I know what it feels like, I'll be sure to give warning next time."

"Not that there's anything we could do. You saved us, lad. Again."

Ash looked back down at her cooking. What was she supposed to say? She finished serving dinner, ate her own food quickly, and stepped outside the galley, intent on her hammock. But Jack stopped her.

"Lad, I could hear what was happening out there, since my mind was clear from their influence while I was in my quarters. You were singing, not back at them, against them. But... you sounded like them. Like a woman."

Ash put on her emotionless mask so the panic wouldn't show in her eyes. She had indeed sang as herself, in a high beautiful and powerful soprano voice. She couldn't hide who she was when she sang, it wouldn't have worked. Deciding on a course of action quickly, she made a face.

"You aren't going to tease me for my 'girly voice' are you, captain?" she asked, "I get jokes about that enough."

"You aren't a eunuch, are you?"

"No."

"Then yes. I will. Not only do you have a girly voice but you're small like a girl and have tiny, soft, girly hands. So go get your beauty rest, princess."

Ash scowled, then stuck her tongue out at him. Jack merely patted her head and gave her a little push toward her small room in the back. She was relieved she seemed to have gotten away with it, but she was rattled. She'd have to be extremely careful from now on. If Jack found out she was really a woman... what would he do? He'd never just let it go, she knew that. Would he shoot her, maroon her, keel haul her? She didn't want to find out. Ash fell into her hammock and was asleep almost immediately. She was so exhausted, she didn't even dream.

Over the next few weeks, Ash had daily sword lessons with Jack and her skills improved remarkably, mostly because she practiced whenever she had free time, which was often. They pulled into port at Tortuga and after exchanging the spices for coin, they divided out the pay from that and the treasure they'd collected from their attackers. After that, everyone scattered. Ash now had so much money, she didn't know what to do with it. She wandered around for a while, exploring the island. Then a thought occurred to her. This was land, they had better food here than what she could throw together on the ship. She walked further into the town, and entered a tavern called the Faithful Bride.

Looking around, she saw some of the crew was here. And so was Jack. She started over to him, but then stopped in her tracks when she realized there were women with him. One sat on his lap, the other draped over his other arm. Only when she realized her mouth was open did she close it and look away, eager to find anything else to occupy her attention. Before she could move, however, Jack spotted her and waved her over to him.

"Ah, Ash, over this way lad!"

Cursing under her breath, she shouldered through the crowd and sat across the table from him.

"Captain," she greeted tersely.

"Have a bottle, lad," he said cheerfully, pushing one over to her.

Ash eyed the thing disdainfully. Actually, now that they were on land that had much more to offer than rum, she was looking to get a bottle of fruity Spanish wine.

"I can get my own, captain."

"Nonsense, I insist!"

Ash rolled her eyes and took the drink. He seemed to be half drunk already, which was impressive since they hadn't even been in port that long. Jack leaned towards her, the strumpet on his lap perched precariously.

"Tonight, lad, you will finally experience the delights a lovely lass can offer."

Ash's eyes widened as he gestured, and a lithe redhead came over to her. Shit, she thought, Shit shit shit. Her vocabulary had expanded dramatically, having been surrounded by sailors for the past couple months. She got to her feet quickly as the woman approached her, before she could sit on her lap and find something amiss.

"Captain, I don't – " Ash began, but he interrupted her.

"Come on, you don't wish to be rude, do you?"

Ash sighed.

"Of course not. And you're beautiful," she assured the woman, before turning to Jack again, "But I'm not so sure..."

"He's shy," Jack told the redhead, "First time and all."

Ash scowled at him, wishing she was close enough to hit him.

"Don't worry," the redhead smiled at her, "I'll take good care of you."

Goddammit, Ash thought, feeling her cheeks heat up and her tongue tie in knots. How could she get out of this? Before she could come up with something, the woman kissed her. Ash's eyes widened, and her body went stiff as her mind screamed at her. The woman pulled away after a few moments, smiling.

"You're lips are so soft," she said, "As are your hands. And you smell nice."

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

"I'm the cook," she said gruffly, "I don't handle the lines."

This only seemed to make the redhead even more excited.

"And he cooks, too! I might have to thank you for introducing him to me, Jack."

Panicked, Ash grabbed the woman's wrists as her hands slid along her body.

"Look," she said, sounding strangled, "Can we just – uh... I don't even know your name."

"What a gentleman!" the redhead laughed, the sound light and beautiful as a tinkling bell, "My name is Rose."

"You should have more of this, lad," Jack suggested, raising his own bottle.

Where did he get another one from so quickly? Ash thought, bewildered, but then shook her head, dismissing the question, Never mind. For once, I think he's got the right idea. She grabbed her bottle from the table and drained it in one go. Her head spun, and she shivered as warmth flooded he veins suddenly.

"If you'll excuse us, captain," she said to Jack.

He raised his bottle in salute as Ash took Rose's hand and led her away. But soon the woman showed her the way upstairs to a private room. Ash closed the door behind her, trembling. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the solid wood, feeling the world spin around her.

"Good lord, you're shaking," Rose said, "Relax. I'm not going to tell him you're not a man."

Ash's eyes snapped open, and her head came up abruptly. She turned around fast to stare at the woman, stunned.

"How...?"

"I thought something was off when we kissed," Rose said, "Most sailors that come through here have rough hands, and they don't smell so nice. But then I felt that corset under your shirt, and I knew."

Ash let out a shaky breath, brushing her hair behind one ear.

"But we have to make it seem like we're about business," Rose said, "We can just sit in here for a while."

Ash nodded and sat down before her shaking legs gave out from under her. Then an idea occurred to her.

"Actually, could I have a bath? And some food? And a lot more alcohol?"
Rose laughed.

"Of course, darling."

The woman went to the door and called out for a serving girl, who she told to get the things Ash had asked for. In only a few minutes, a bath with steaming hot water was set up in the room, with soap and a little scrub brush. Nearby was a bowl of hot, creamy soup, a hunk of bread, some cheese, and fruit, as well as a bottle of the fruity Spanish wine she had been thinking about earlier. Ash ate first, then set the bottle of wine next to the tub. She first checked to make sure the door was closed and locked, then glanced at Rose, who sat on the desk. After only a moment's hesitation, Ash undressed, allowing her clothes and weapons to form a puddle on the floor. When she got into the tub, she actually moaned in bliss as she lowered herself slowly into the hot water.

"Ohhhhh, Fuck," she swore, her eyes rolling back in her head, "This is amazing."

Rose laughed lightly.

"I can imagine," she said, "Not having access to a real bath at sea."

"I think this is better than sex," Ash said, then looked at Rose, "No offense."

"None taken," Rose said, "I actually agree with you. Most of my clients aren't very good in bed. I hardly know what good sex is like anyway."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It puts bread on the table."

Ash soaked in the hot water for a few minutes, feeling her muscles relax. Her mind drifted as she drank her wine, and after a long silence, she looked at Rose again.

"What if you taught them?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Couldn't you teach the men you entertain how you like to be touched?"

"Most men aren't interested in satisfying me. They're the client, it should be the other way around."

"But if more men knew how to please women, perhaps they'd be a little more confident, and sex would be better for both of you."

"I never thought of that. I'll consider it. Not all of my clients are sailors. Some have wives... They could do better. Jack though... he's one of the few men that know what they're doing. More than that, he wants the women he enjoys to experience pleasure. That's why the girls around here swarm him whenever he visits. Generous tipper, too."

Ash made a face.

"I'm not so sure I needed to know that..."

"Don't you want to know what you're in for?"

"I – what?" Ash frowned.

"The truth will come out eventually," Rose told her, "You should tell him. And when you do... you can see what all the buzz is about."

"I'm not interested in him," Ash responded.

"Really? Oh... Just about every woman I talk to is half in love with him, if not completely head over heels."

"Jack is just my captain, that's all."

"Jack?"

Too late, Ash realized what she said. When did she start referring to him by his first name?

"Alright, maybe a friend," Ash amended, "We're not strangers or anything, and we've gotten close over the past couple months. The sea has a tendency to pull people together."

She grabbed the soap bar and began to scrub herself clean.

"Well, I think he's very lucky to have a friend like you."

Author's Note: Please do us a huge favor and drop a review of what you think.