A young widow takes slow hesitant steps up the aisle formed by grieving pirates. Her mind is spiraling into oblivion yet still seems to have time to focus on how labored her breaths have become, how shaky her steps are, how weak her knees are. But still through the trembling of her soul her arms remained strong and steady, they had no choice.

Her eyes darted from the graves to the pirates that stared back at her with wishes that it were her funeral they were attending plain to see in their eyes. But before her eyes can flit back to the graves looming in the distance, yet defiantly close, she looks down at her arms. Steady as the ground she stood upon they cradled their precious bundle.

Nothing is solid.

not anymore.

Nothing feels right.

not anymore.

Nothing matters.

not anymore.

And yet that bundle remained steadfast and fragile. Ever so fragile is this new anchor on her heart. The chain connecting them made of the strongest substances known to man and yet the slightest scratch, fall, or bump could shatter it. Is this how it feels to have your heart outside of your body?

She blinks away the tears, refusing to let them fall and looks up at the headstones that now stand before her. Her eyes stay firmly fixed on the larger of the two, not yet able to bear looking at the other smaller, far more significant, one.

A voice sounds from somewhere beside her but she can make no sense of the words, only a resentful tone with the promise of a hateful message. With that reminder of the true reason she now stood in that painful and unstable place with a bundle so firmly pressed to her heart, she turned her eyes to the other headstone.

As she took in what remained of the former anchor of her heart she did not cry, she did not scream, she did not beg, she did not move. For how could a mere human possibly grieve enough to cope with this? What amount of tears could make this hurt bearable? How much- No, nothing would heal this wound. Nothing could ever replace what had been lost, and so she simply let a single tear fall and said,

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry Ace. I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but our daughter is safe. Your will lives on, my love."