Chapter: The Fortunes of Ektibar
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Jack didn't speak.
Sophia shifted her weight from one foot to another, her eyes falling downcast momentarily as thoughts of hesitation flashed through her mind. But no, she'd already revealed more than she ever had before, already committed to what she was about to do, what her father had forbidden her to do.
Jack stood silently, watching the war that waged within her play in an embarrassingly obvious out on Sophia's face with his brow furrowed. The woman wore her emotions on her sleeve, but Jack already knew that. He was surprised when she spoke.
"You'll need to get a bucket of seawater." Her voice was quiet, and she seemed to not be aware of the absurdity of the request. Jack opened his mouth as if to speak, to ask her why on God's green earth she would need a bucket of bloody seawater, but instead abruptly closed his lips and shook his head, deciding to simply resign to the ludicrous demand lest he provoke further emotional outbursts from the clearly sensitive woman Sophia was right now.
Sophia could hear Jack's footsteps echo across the deck of the Pearl and, with a trembling sigh, sat heavily onto his bed, her fingers at the buttons of her blouse. One by one, down they went, until the shirt was completely open, exposing the straight, smooth line of her torso, the valley between her breasts and the fullness of their curves. The shirt did, however, just cover her nipples; at least she could save a small strand of her dignity with that. Sophia tried to make her face blank, set her eyes vacant so they would not reveal the humiliation she would feel as soon as Jack entered the room.
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Despite the curious stares of his crew, Jack retrieved what Sophia had so adamantly and randomly asked for, grumbling as water sloshed over the edge of the bucket as he lugged the thing back to his cabin. Finally reaching his destination, he edged past the door and set the heavy load next to the doorway, turning around to face Sophia. He nearly fell over.
"Jesus!" Jack stumbled back a bit, his eyes wide as he ogled the smooth, white display of skin Sophia so readily exhibited. Jack squeezed his eyes closed for a brief moment, although they quickly snapped open again and he shook his head as if to clear it from a dream. "Wha' are you doin'?"
Sophia flushed, heat rising in her cheeks, but she stood her ground, gazing back at him with a critical glare. For some reason his reaction angered her. "Oh, come off it, Jack. It's not as if you haven't seen a woman's body before," she snapped, her insecurities forgotten at the moment. She crossed her arms over her chest, but then, looking down and noticing the effect it had on her breasts and Jack's increasingly wayward stare, uncrossed them immediately.
Jack couldn't help but allow a small smirk to cross his lips, his eyes glinting eerily in the lamplight as they roamed across the flat plane of her belly, the swell of her breasts just visible before they disappeared behind her blouse. She had beautiful skin. . .
Sophia hadn't expected the look Jack was giving her now, the yearning, fixed look that he'd never really shown her before. She shivered. "Will you kindly stop. . . that and throw that bucket of water on me now?" She nearly shouted at him.
Jack drew his head back, squinting at her and considering her demand with a skeptical gaze. Completely mad. . . She's lost 'er bloody marbles. "Sophia –" he began.
Sophia shut him up with one glare, stalking over to stand beside him and reaching down to grasp the handle of the bucket. "I can't explain right now, Jack. . . You'd never understand why this is so difficult for me."
Jack opened his mouth to protest, but before he could make a sound, Sophia lifted the bucket over her head and spilled its contents down her body. Jack was almost too mesmerized by the image of the briny water running down her bare skin to reply. Almost. "Christ, Sophia! Wha's –" Sophia hushed him with a all-too-serious glance in his direction. Jack could see Sophia's hand shaking as she set the bucket down at her feet.
Shouldn't be much longer now. Shouldn't. . . Sophia let out a near-silent whimper as the familiar pain burned through her body, stepping back until her spine was supported by the wall. She slid down about halfway so that her knees were bent, squeezing her eyes shut and breathing hard through her nose as the pain intensified. She could feel her skin breaking and changing, could feel her family's message forming.
Jack suppressed the urge to curse the hell out of the air as he watched welts blossom across Sophia's chest and belly, the strange red markings marring the previously flawless surface of her skin as if scratched in quickly by someone not handy with a knife and left to fester and inflame. He took a hesitant step forward, wondering if perhaps he should help Sophia through the pain she was so obviously experiencing. The agony in her eyes was identical to that which Jack saw those four years ago when Sophia had fallen into the ocean. Clarity dawned in Jack's eyes.
"That's. . . interesting."
Sophia couldn't see; the room was black and fuzzy. The pain was blinding her. She heard Jack, though, his seemingly unaffected comment infuriating her. Sophia glared at him through her haze, before speaking in a voice strained with suffering. "Write it down."
Jack started, having not expected Sophia to speak. He could see a sheen of sweat beginning to form on her brow, and her knees trembled beneath her weight. She had some strength, that woman. Still, her request confused him. "What?"
"It's a message, Jack. Write it down," she breathed. Jack peered closer, only to recoil sharply as he realized that it was true. The welts were words.
"Bloody 'ell." Jack scrambled to find a pen and paper. Finally, he retrieved them, hidden as they were beneath various papers and maps, and quickly jotted down the message of about a hundred words or so. He felt as if he was in a dream, and the absurdity of copying a message that was burned into someone's skin onto an ordinary piece of parchment had not caught up to him. Jack didn't take the time to really read the words as he wrote them.
Sophia heard the scratching of Jack's pen, heard his muttering as he worked. The pain was receding. She felt the message retract into her body once more, the stretched and burning skin returning to its natural state. She buttoned up her blouse with trembling fingers, glancing up once she was done to find Jack staring at her.
"I'll enlighten you once you've read it thoroughly," she told him before closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall she leaned upon, breathing deeply through her nose and trying to calm the rhythm of her heart.
Jack glanced down at the paper he'd written so hastily on, then returned his gaze to Sophia. "You'd better 'ave a good explanation, love. This 's gotten much too Aztec-gold-curse-like for my liking."
Despite the lingering pain that still tingled across her belly, Sophia smiled, speaking in a throaty voice that caused Jack to raise his eyebrows. She had never sounded so tired before. "You have no idea, Jack Sparrow."
Taking this as his cue, Jack picked up the message he had written down, the stiffness of the parchment crinkling beneath his worn fingertips. Slowly and with a fixed expression of concentration, he read.
So now you have discovered a message
That only sea-brine can show.
If you choose to follow the signs
You find hidden in my words,
You may come upon a fortune
Unimagined by the common man.
Ektibar's gilded cave awaits you.
But how can one find these riches?
The truth is quite simple, you see.
What you so seek lies unseen by
All those save for my messenger,
In a place named for the oldest
And wisest of things.
Follow to the west and along
The edge on a path well worn,
And she will see.
And now a word is needed,
Spoken by she who bears my name
And cannot say of where the treasure lies.
As for the meaning of this saying,
All I can reveal is this:
Most precious to any seaman,
A carrier of both gifts and ill news.
She travels with the greatest of ease,
Although a swift tumult and swell
Of unexpected affairs will fell her.
My own will be the statement you require,
For strongest in her time she was.
"You've heard of the Fortunes of Ektibar, then?" Sophia asked quietly, her eyes still closed. She interpreted Jack's silence as shock, being simply too tired to take the energy to open her eyes and scrutinize his expression.
A small smile flashed across Jack's lips. The Fortunes of Ektibar was perhaps the most well known of any of the pirate legends. The myth of immense wealth hidden by Bernardo Ektibar was dismissed by most as just that, a myth. Those less-sensible men who went searching for the treasure were often lost at sea or mutinied against, having spent months or even years at sea, stopping only to barter for food and drink. But Jack doubted that any of those men had acquired the knowledge he now held.
Sophia finally opened her eyes, feeling somewhat refreshed after her brief period of relaxation, to find Jack smiling, although lost in thought, at the piece of paper he held in one silver-decked hand. She broke the silence in a slightly wavering tone. "The secret has been passed down by the woman in my family for many generations. I believe Bernardo Ektibar was a distant relative on my father's side." Sophia paused, her eyes faltering and falling to the floor as she hesitated. "When I was raped, it wasn't merely a random crime. Word had gotten out of my father's connection with the fortune and a group of bandits kidnapped me, intending to trade my life for the information on its whereabouts. Things simply escalated from there. I. . . I lied to you when I told you that he was a friend of the family and I'm sorry for that." Sophia folded her hands in her lap with a sigh, watching Jack as he lifted his gaze from the paper to her face. She was surprised to find a lopsided grin forming across his lips. His eyes were very dark.
"You really should reform your opinion o' me if you think tha' a wee little fib like tha' 's goin' to ruffle me feathers, love." Jack chuckled, before abruptly standing and grasping Sophia around the waist, his beads and ropes of hair whipping gently against her cheeks as he pulled her towards him, and kissed her soundly on the lips in celebration. He then whirled her in a dizzying circle around the small cabin, his arm firm and strong across the expanse of her back. Sophia let out a yelp of surprise but couldn't help but smile at Jack's uninhibited joy. He was laughing, a deep, filling sound that warmed her core.
"You're goin' to make me a rich man, Sophie!" Jack shouted with abandon, twirling her through an extravagant maneuver that Sophia was vaguely familiar with but had not expected a pirate to know. She masked her surprise with an elegant curtsy once the room had stopped spinning.
"You are far more than just a common scallywag, Mr. Sparrow," exclaimed Sophia, her eyebrow raised, the seriousness and memories of the moment just minutes before completely forgotten.
Jack squinted through his coal-lined eyes at her, still unable to wipe the joyful grin from his lips. "O' course, love." He spread his arms out wide, invitingly. "There are many things 'bout ol' Jack tha' you don' know of," he said, throwing her an evocative smirk, dark eyes twinkling.
Sophia planted her hands on her hips. "Hmm. I don't believe I really care to find out much more, Captain." Sophia had meant for this to be in a scolding tone, but instead her voice revealed an inner playful mood that she had been masking with disapproval.
Jack retrieved a fresh bottle of rum, uncorking it with flourish and taking a large swig before answering, his voice faintly raspy from the consumption of strong alcohol. "You're sure, love?" Jack swayed slightly on his feet in his ordinary manner, the amber liquid in his bottle sloshing quietly against the glass.
Sophia nodded curtly, despite the flush of heat in her cheeks in response to the intensity of his eyes as he locked his gaze upon her. Turning, she opened the door and returned once again to the cool night air of the Caribbean dark, not bothering to close the door behind her as she left Jack's cabin. Her eyes lit as she spied the dim glow of Port Royal in the distance. She was going home.
Jack followed, casting an amused glance in her direction. He wasn't as daft as most thought him to be, and knew that Sophia would not be returning to Port Royal as she expected. She was his guide to the Fortunes of Ektibar, as the message permanently imprinted on her body claimed. Sophia did not think he was so ignorant that he could not solve a little riddle, did she? It had taken Jack little time to determine that he would need Sophia to both find the whereabouts of the treasure and open the doorway into the actual cave in which it lay.
She was Sophia Ektibar, and she was his key.
Jack simply grinned, swigging his rum, and said nothing in response to Sophia's dreams of home.
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Sophia refused to walk into her wonderful, pristine house wearing her pirate rags, and so she could be found searching blindly through her cabin, making a dreadful mess of the room she had taken so much effort to clean. Finally, with a sigh of relief, she found the crumpled red dress from those months ago hidden underneath her bed. She was glad it was red. No one would be able to see the small but still evident stains of Jack's blood.
So she slipped it on carefully, trying with little success to forget the events that had happened when she had donned this dress last. Giving herself one last shake and smoothing the fabric down across her abdomen and thighs, she strode purposefully from her cabin and into the oncoming dawn. Casting her gaze out across the water, she froze, her mouth dropping open in betrayal.
The horizon was empty. They'd turned around.
Sophia found Jack at the helm and stormed directly up to him. "Jack, why haven't we docked? Why did you turn around?" She asked hysterically, the captain's expression of quiet perplexity only succeeding in infuriating her further.
Jack accessed Sophia's change in dress. He'd grown very used to seeing her in simple skirts and breeches and a blouse, and this fiery red contraption she had adorned caught him off guard, as did the contours of her body, hidden for so long beneath baggy linen. He relaxed into an easy grin, successfully masking his surprise. "You really thought tha' I was goin' t' let you go home when all th' Fortunes of Ektibar be in me grasp?"
Sophia could feel rage build up inside her as tears already began spilling over onto her cheeks. "I want to go home, Jack! I've spent nearly three months on this bloody ship and I'm tired. I miss my husband! I miss life!" With that, her judgment completely dissipated as an onslaught of anger flooded through her limbs. She lunged at Jack, her fists beating repeatedly on his chest, a flurry of movement.
Jack raised an eyebrow as Sophia commenced to break down and have a massive temper tantrum. He simply let her hit him for several moments as he tried to recover from the shock of it. Finally, he captured her wrists, one in each hand, with rapid reflexes and squeezed so tightly that Sophia gasped. "If you're goin' t' make a fuss about it then I suppose I'll 'ave t' subdue you, no?"
Sophia only had time to widen her eyes before Jack threw her over his shoulder with an ease that made Sophia's stomach crease in fear.
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"Jack Sparrow, I swear to God I will never forgive you for this until the day I die," Sophia stated matter-of-factly, still fighting feebly against the bonds that tied her hands behind the bedpost of Jack's bed. She was sitting on the grimy floorboards, her arms jerked at an uncomfortable angle behind her and her hands tied with a piece of linen good for nothing else. "How can you do this? How can you be so cruel?"
Jack grinned, standing over her in close enough proximity to make her uncomfortable. He had a bottle of rum in hand. "Pirate."
Sophia scowled. "That is not a response for everything, Jack," she exclaimed, shifting fitfully in an attempt to gain a more comfortable position, her breath still angry and erratic in its pattern. "Are you intending to keep me tied up here all day?"
Jack gazed at her, silently, as her breasts, pale and swelling over her dress, pressed against the lacing of her bodice with each short breath that she took. He knelt down to her level. "Aye, or at least 'till you promise not t' make another display o' yourself as you did jus' moments ago."
"I want to go home." Sophia responded without thinking. Jack ignored her.
She jutted out her lower lip slightly – a habit never really lost since childhood – but soon opened her mouth to object further. She stopped breathing as Jack raised his hand to rest a finger against her bare collarbone.
"I should punish you much further for behavin' as you did, Sophia. Many a captain would," Jack said huskily, trailing his roughened fingertip across the slender expanse of her throat and down her chest to hover just over the swell of her breast.
Sophia swallowed, realizing, perhaps for the first time, that she was utterly at his mercy, tied up and helpless. He could do anything he wanted and she would have no chance of fighting back. She would have to use words to repel him, and quickly set her mind to discover ones that would do just that.
Jack spread his hand so that his entire palm rested upon her chest and shoulder and then encircled her throat gently, testing his way. He marveled at the softness of her skin, the slim circumference of her neck. Sophia shivered, despite herself, as the sensation of the warm, rough surface of his hand contrasted sharply with the dank air.
Nevertheless, Sophia mustered up as much venom and hate that she could pour into her voice, and spoke. "You wouldn't dare, Jack. You wouldn't dare."
Jack raised his eyes to hers, withdrawing his hand in surprise at the dangerous tone in her gaze. He smiled faintly. "As you wish, love." And then he was gone, leaving her tied to the bed, exposed as her skin pricked where he had touched her.
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A/N: Ta da! The big adventure begins! How do you guys like how the big revealing of Sophia's secret played out? Lemme know. I think Ektibar's message turned out decently enough, but then again I'm absolutely terrible at writing poetry. Just be glad I didn't try to rhyme (shudder shudder).
I figured it was about time that I responded to all my wonderful (recent) reviewers. Sorry if I miss any of you guys. You can complain and I will be sure to include you next chapter. So. . .
Lip Balm – Your approval really means a lot to me! I've read many of your fics and really admire your writing. Thank you so much.
Sakhara291 – First of all, thanks! In response to your question about Chamberlin Manor, I'm sorry to say that that aspect of The Fortunes of Ektibar is one of my lesser thought over plot turns. I really had my heart set on getting Jack and Sophia to India because my grandmother lived there as a child (she's English. That was back when India was under English rule). However, Sophia was so shocked because supposedly the Chamberlin family is supposed to be one of the most ruthless when it comes to catching and punishing people who've stolen from them. She had never guessed that Jack would have done something like that, and for the first time she really realized why Gibbs uses the expression "daft like Jack." She'd never seen him in action before. I should have made that more clear in the chapter. I really don't like that chapter. I should rewrite it. :)
Piratex – Thank you much, darling! As for the updating soon, I'll try. My life's a little bit crazy right now. Spring break soon, so look for quicker updates then.
CrazyCanoeingGIT – Oooh, wonderful. Thanks. I actually had read "What's in a Name" before you recommended it to me. Wonderful job! I really like the uniqueness in plot. Now, if only I could accomplish the same goal. . .
AJ-Sparrow – Hey, there's nothing wrong with being addicted to the written word! I always love new addictees (hehe. Addictees). Sorry about the slow posting of chapters. I'm tryin'!
DaydreamBeliever14 – I'm glad you like my ickle ficcy. I know, I was really not liking myself for a bit after forcing poor Sophia into such a terrible situation. Icky icky Norrington! Jack will make it better. :)
