Tetetuzu, who was a tower of terror taller than perhaps two men, cut a quick path across the cavern despite the foliage in his way. Vines shrieked and shriveled away as he passed under them. Roots ripped themselves from the soil his steps touched, plantlife sending shards of limb and shreds of leaves into the air. As the scowling deity took hold of one sapling that had not been quick enough, Jack Sparrow watched the scrawny plant wither instantly, watched the other plants its roots tangled with scatter to wreak chaotic havoc on the vines, and saw that all of them died.
A sneer lifted Tetetuzu's lips as he tossed the dead cask aside. With a shake of his broad shoulders, he turned to gaze upon the flat black rock where lay the One Great Great God's sword. Its glorious green glitter filled his golden eyes with greed and he strode toward it.
Hector hissed, his own yellow eyes full of emerald fire. He sliced between Tetetuzu's feet, tip of the serpent's tail lashing an ankle. The God of Chaos snarled and reached down with an immense fist to grab at Hector, but the snake was faster. It slipped out of his reach and slithered unheeded toward the rock upon which it coiled happily.
Tetetuzu opened his mouth and let loose a shout that shook the earth. It rumbled through the cavern, stretching on and on but somehow giving speed to his stride. Hector, paying this no heed, gave a great fanged grin and moved to strike. Tetetuzu grabbed the startled serpent by the flat head and tossed it, hissing and spitting, over his head.
To Jack's great dismay, the snake landed in front of him, its cold tail thwacking him across the jaw. Thinking it an opportune moment, and wanting very much for Hector to writhe for mercy in his grasp, Jack reached for the snake. A rougher hand beat his to it, however, and Jack looked up to find William standing over him, Hector seized in an iron fist.
"Oh, aye," said William, fire flashing in his eyes as he brought Hector up to glare into his serpentine face, "I think I might actually like you this way, Barbossa."
Jack blinked and turned a wary eye upon the man's strangely silent son. A flash of silver caught out of the corner of his eye whipped his head around to stare after the Intuit priestess streaking toward Tetetuzu. "Neris!"
Both Turners turned, son staring and father giving a startled gasp.
Neris, robes snapping sparks of colour in the air, was a vision. Long black hair streamed behind her and the fine sword of Mack McGregor shimmered at her side. Still running, Neris hefted the silver blade. She was a pace away from Tetetuzu, whose fat fingers were gripping the golden pommel. Green flames flickered to life and a spectrum of light swirled brilliant in the orb atop it.
"Nai prosperei, Tetetuzu!" Neris' warcry soared through the cavern. "Amnesei!"
With a flick of her wrist, the priestess heaved the glowing flowers of fate at his scowl. Jowls wide, he was cleaved to the rock. Cacophony resounded in the cavern, but three falsetto voices, from somewhere faroff perhaps, wove through it. Golden eyes turned grey and the immense figure turned to dust. It swirled, thickening the air with its darkness. There was a flash of purple, and a shimmer of black, and then the air cleared.
Tetetuzu and Neris were gone.
- () -
"Blessed Saint Bartholomew," breathed Gibbs.
Samson, who'd only just been shouting at the lot of the rest to settle themselves, fell hard upon his knee as beyond the two vessels Pearl and Swan shot great silver beams from the darkness. Threads they were, twisting and knotting together to link toward the heavens where behind two great dark clouds the moon shone brightly. It shimmered, as did the woven, silver chain, and three wisps of divine light fluttered in and out the fancy sterling knotwork. There carried on the sudden soft breeze a soothing trio of falsetto voices, and a sweet incantation of Intuition.
Destineo prosperi.
Beside him, Samson heard two priests' cries of joy.
The third, the one that he'd been upon for answers, exhaled softly. "Fortua accomplei, karosamina." At Samson he smiled. "She has fulfilled her destiny."
Gibbs, who had not been far off, took a hearty slug from his flask. "That be the song of the sisters three then," he spluttered, raking a hand through his unkempt, greying locks. "And what a sweet song it is."
But none of them had the time to listen to that song, as both ships shifted with the rippling waters. The dark sea was not smooth as glass, nor was it choppy. It seemed to swell a bit, and then ebb away, lifting and settling the Pearl and the Swan with the gentlest of ease.
Sharp heels tapped quickly across the deck and Isaac Faust, followed by Elizabeth Turner, made to leap onto the rail of the Swan. Samson, muttering as many curses his spirited mum had taught him, stopped the lad with one finger. He caught Missus Turner by the plait of her hair. Neither seemed to notice much.
"Incredible," Isaac breathed.
Elizabeth, speechless, nodded her assent.
Past the rail, and beyond that of the Black Pearl, a brilliant flash of colour swirled around the three sister wisps. They seemed to merge for a moment and then the spectrum painted the sea. Only for a moment was the water awash in colour. It faded back to an inkish black, and then reflected the silver shimmer of woven moonbeams. There was utter silence and then a whisper of waves and under the moonlight there broke through the sea a silver peak.
All eyes watched, unable not to, as before them rose from the sea a steep incline of silver rock. Samson near fainted when followed shuddering treetops and shivering palm fronds. He watched, spellbound, as the earth rose up out of the water, as the water rushed from the earth before them but seeped quietly back to sea. Precious moments later and he was gazing at a curving beach of silver sand and an island that lay beyond it.
Anamaria found her voice before any of the rest of them did. "Only you, Sparrow, ya mad imbecile."
- () -
Before any of the three men—William, Will, or Jack—could step a foot forth, there rose the falsetto of voices three accompanied by a hushed whisper of Intuition. Jack heard William's sad sigh but chose to ignore it, turning his dismay instead to the man's son. Will, however, was gazing steadfastly ahead.
As if it had never been touched, the glittering blade of emerald ice topped with a golden handle topped with a glowing orb of infinite wisdom lay upon the flat black rock. It glittered as from above came a whirling spectrum of light. Reds and golds cooled to greens and blues and simmered to a faint indigo hue. Purple seeped in, bled to lavendar, and three wisps of silver seperated from it. They took the shape of three lithe ladies, each connected to the other as though woven together by the light of the divine. Lavendar ebbed between them and from it their spindly fingers wove the shape of a man. The sisters three made fast work of it, their singing fading away, and the spectre of a man who swayed gracefully from their grasp looked most grateful for their fastidiousness.
"Ah, yes," said the resplendant one, admiring the loveliness of his fluttering, translucent hand, "that's much better." He turned toward the ladies, presumably to thank them, and a smile curled his lips in a most familiar way as he flourished forth praise on his fingertips. "Astounding work. Amazing. Brilliant, I should think. I thank thee ladies for thine fine accomplishment—restoring one Great Great God to his former glory."
Indeed, the silver-haired man was a vision draped in a shimmering black robe. It swirled about him as he strolled lazy circles around the three sisters. It snapped, though, as he came to an abrupt stop and then it stilled. Bright black eyes agleam with what was either madness or brilliance—hard telling which—he leaned back, lithe and limber as a cat, and lifted the emerald sword.
From the orb behind him, one flash of colour zinged at his head. A small, blue gem appeared fixed over one, silver brow and he winced a bit. "Ouch!"
William, still holding Hector hostage, muttered disbelief under his breath.
Jack arched a brow.
"Verthandi," said the glorious one, one hand rubbing at the offending spot as he strolled too close to the center sister, "darling, it's been…" Three more flashes of colour chose that moment to dart at his face, each one effecting a wince from him. As he was grumbling over the last, two more colours, these bursts of it, spat upon his brow. Uttering what sounded like a curse, his black eyes rolled up to glare at the two large amethysts and down to glint at the girl. "Well, it has simply been too long a time."
"But Ahku," she whispered, clear eyes sparkling just a bit, "there is no time like the present."
"Yes," said the older woman on the left, "the distance between us now lies in the past."
Both sisters and Ahku Neko Neko Khar looked to the youngest sister. To the right of Verthandi she stood, arms over her chest. Lips set in the smallest of pouts, she did not speak.
"Skuld." Ahku folded his arms to face her, lifting just one brow. "Do not tell me that Urd and Verthandi have more to say on the matter than the sister who should have the most to say, for I shall never believe it!"
"Fine," she snipped, lifting her chin just a bit. "Suppose we shall see what happens when it happens."
"That really is the best way," Verthandi agreed.
Ahku Neko Neko Khar looked as if he were about to suggest another way when it was that the last spot of colour flit at his head. Behind him, the orb went dim and the emerald sword crumbled to a pile of gems. Not one beat did he miss—his translucent form turned solid and he turned on his heel to face William, Will, and Jack.
A big, round moonstone shone from the spot between his silver brows.
"I welcome the three of you to my most humble abode." His embellished brows rose and he shot a dark glance at the plants still cowering away from where Tetetuzu had only just been. "And I must apologize for the behavior of my protectorates—if that's what one would call a pack of plants silly enough to have rooted up and run from the very evil they were to stand up against."
All of the palms and plants drooped, dismal in their defeat, and Ahku Neko Neko Khar sighed as they bowed humbly before him. Jack took the moment to study the man who seemed oddly familiar. Odd because the man was so very different from any men Jack had ever seen, and fairly lovely as well—Ahku had a smooth forehead, chiseled cheekbones, long straight nose, and full lips under a silver mustache. Both ends of that mustache were long, silver strands spilling down his jaw and swaying with every movement. Above his slight chin sat a round, smoky gem. Silver mist swirled within it, shining as much as his black eyes, lined in silver, did.
"Reminds me of someone," Jack muttered to Will whose snort drew his attention from Ahku. He frowned. "What?"
Will's mouth twitched but he didn't answer. He looked instead at the smirking Ahku Neko Neko Khar and his brows snapped together. "Those trees of yours nearly killed us."
"Nearly," Ahku agreed, flicking a hand in the air. "But not quite—which I do think is more the matter."
"More the matter!" William's brows mirrored his son's. "There's no matter that matters more than life."
"And," Will muttered aside to his father, "you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"
Ahku regarded father and son warily.
Jack, sharing the One Great Great God's weariness, sighed. "Might I—"
"I do know about it," William said, voice low, "and I have known about it since the day ye were born."
Jack frowned. "William—"
"If my life mattered so much to you," Will seethed, "then why is it you did not seek to warn me that Barbossa might take it?"
Jack's own brows snapped together. "Will—"
"Gentlemen," said Ahku, "it occurs to me that perhaps you may have forgotten that this is neither the time nor the place—"
"Nobody asked you!"
Both Turners had shouted the same. They regarded each other warily, Jack glancing between them. He rolled his eyes. The sisters, all three, giggled. Blushing to the roots of his hair, Ahku folded his arms o'er his chest and bit his lips together. "Well, there is no call for rudene—"
"Scuse me," Jack cut in, waving his hands in hopes of gaining someone's attention, "but we seem to be missing something of ours." Noting that this quieted both father and son, Jack stopped waving his hands and folded them together upon his acheing ribs. "Two somethings. Some things precious as life, as it were."
The One Great Great God raised his brows.
Jack raised his.
"Intuit priestess, lovely woman, comes up to about," Ahku pointed to his shoulder, "here, called Neris, loved someone lost but appears now to be lost herself?"
With a sidelong glance at the suddenly sad-eyed William, Jack nodded.
Ahku turned and began to pace, glaring at the cavern floor. Urd and Verthandi sighed and looked expectantly at Skuld. The youngest sister sniffed and turned away from them. With her pout came Ahku's triumphant shout.
"Beautiful!" The deity swooped low to pluck at the ground and came up with a dark orb in the palm of his hand. "Rarest of rare pearls, this." Swaying slightly with the effort of staring at the thing and making his way towards them, Ahku went on. "A black pearl of intuition she is and beautiful, just lovely."
As Ahku placed the heavy, warm pearl in his hand, Jack heard a whisper of Neris' voice. Startled, he dropped it. Grateful he was for Ahku's quick reflexes—the deity did not move but shot a hand out just in time to catch the gem in the palm of his hand. Jack steepled his hands together, quite sorry, and nodded as a dismayed Ahku took Hector and placed the pearl in William's more capable hands.
It glowed, an aura of purple surrounding it.
"You will carry it out," Ahku said.
William, sad though he looked, nodded. "I will."
"Good," said Ahku. He whirled back to face Jack, whipping Hector wildly as he spoke fast. "And a rather cold, slightly unpleasant, but nice-once-you-get-to-know her sort?"
Jack, choosing to ignore Will's chuckle, nodded.
Ahku lifted a finger to the smoky gem in the center of his forehead. With the slightest touch its swirling fog solidified silver. A spark of gold flashed and he jerked his hand away as if he'd been burned. "I hate it when that happens."
- () -
"Think we should… put into port?"
Samson and Anamaria eyed Isaac as though he were as daft as they believed Jack Sparrow to be. They exchanged glances. Then, they laughed.
"I think we should."
It was an assertive Elizabeth who strode forward, nightrobe snapping. Her glance between the Scot and the woman pirate flashed with fire. The two captains' glances, this time, were wary.
Isaac, grateful for her support, took her hand and squeezed it. The gesture earned him a small smile. Despite the slight quirk of her lips, he saw upon Missus Turner's face that she was yet as worried for her husband as he was for Jack and Alice.
"And I," shrilled an outraged voice "insist upon it!"
There was a great shuffling on deck as the group turned to find a fuming Alice Witter storming from the captain's quarters. Wild white curls sprang from her head and her eyes were white-hot with madness. Jack Turner trailed behind, dragging his reluctant sister along, looking the most apologetic perhaps anyone had ever seen him look.
Alice, balling her hands into fists as she stumbled into the center of the circle, turned her face up to the air in frustration and shrieked. Everyone fell back, startled, and cast a suspicious look upon her. Her own eyes widened with disbelief and disgust. "Barbossa kissed me!" As shock registered upon the faces of the others, anger twisted hers. "And it's all his fault!"
At this, the rest of them exchanged bewildered glances.
"Jack," Alice growled and stomped her foot. "That half-baked, harebrained, ill-considered, crazy cockamamie cuckoo of a man who is on that island!" She grabbed a fistful of Samson's shirt and tugged him down to glare up into his blinking eyes. "That island that you're going to take us to, Sam Samson!"
"Aye lady," he agreed easily, "right quick!"
- () -
"I believe that leaves…" A ghost of a grin on his face, Ahku brought Hector up to glare into his crossed, yellow eyes. "You," he said quietly, "have caused quite a stir, Hector, made much trouble. Sought to aid Tetetuzu in his quest to ruin the universe. Stole a man's spirit to bait his loved ones…" In a tongue more ancient than even Intuition, Ahku hissed a soft incantation. The amethysts upon his brow sparked at the serpent who shed its skin and left Ahku grasping Barbossa's flickering form about the neck. "What have you to say for yourself?"
Barbossa's yellow eyes still crossed, he frowned up at the strange man. "Who's askin?"
A feral grin lifted Ahku Neko Neko Khar's lip, revealing a brilliant flash of white. "One great, great God."
Hearing this, Barbossa snapped to attention, his gaze narrowing instantly. "You!" Something akin to disgust twisted his face. "You're the One Great, Great God!"
"Rich, in'nit?"
Jack passed a glance at William, not quite certain why this seemed to vex the either of them so. He found Will's wary gaze switching between himself and Ahku, and he frowned. "What?"
Ahku, seemingly as baffled, shrugged. "I am," he told Barbossa.
"Well," Barbossa growled, "seems to me ye've got yer wits back, and that it's me ye have to thank for it. If not fer my trouble, ye'd be senseless still."
Ahku frowned. His eyes rolled heavenward as he considered what Barbossa had said. At long last he nodded, but for only a smidge of a second. "But," he said slowly, one finger in the air, "you, Hector Barbossa, intended differently."
"No—"
"Yes ye did," William cut in.
Barbossa's yellow eyes widened. "No—"
"Yes you did," Will said.
"No—"
"Oh," Jack said, losing all remnants of patience, "yes you bloody did, Barbossa. Neko Neko or not, any fool's wise enough to your lechery than to believe the words out of your mouth."
"Shut up, Jack Sparrow," hissed Hector Barbossa, "yer lucky I didn't get my way, else it would have been ye smited to hell! It would have been ye caged and tethered to the eternal flame! It would have been ye—"
"Oh, spare us the rhetoric," cried Ahku. His face contorted with disgust as he held the struggling, flickering ghost up to Jack. "You," he said, gagging a bit, "you're accustomed to him. You do it."
Jack raised his brows first at the hissing Barbossa, whose yellow eyes were slits, and then at Ahku Neko Neko Khar, whose bright eyes were pleading with him. "Do what?"
"Smite him," said Ahku. "Smite the blighter."
"Are you mad," asked William. "Jack can't smite none!"
"He can," said Akhu, "if I say he can."
A feral grin—just as dazzling as Ahku's he imagined—lifted one corner of Jack's mouth as he took hold of the cold figure that felt as much as nothing in his hands. "Did you hear that Barbossa?" All the taunts that he'd thought had been nightmares of his own haunted head came back to him, every last one. "It'll be you taking that trip to hell… all by your onesies." And he couldn't help but think of the ten years he'd suffered without his beloved Pearl… "Best pray."
"Spare me," Barbossa spat.
"No," said Jack, "I'm afraid not."
With that, he did something for a reason he could not comprehend—he bent close to the glowering ghost of Barbossa, he looked him in the narrow eyes, and he blew his breath into them. There was a split-second of strange silence and then the soul-sucking sound of a hellish eternity as Barbossa's ghost shuddered. It faded from sight.
"To hell with ye," Jack agreed.
"Yes," said Ahku, "he was most unpleasant, Hector Barbossa. May his soul writhe in unrest with the unending torments of all hell."
There was, Jack realized, a comforting finality in hearing those words uttered by a deity referred to as the One Great Great God. He closed his eyes to savor the absence of Barbossa's troublesome presence. Quiet peace reigned.
"What reason have you for hating him?" It was William, the voice of reason, who spoke. "Afterall, he spoke the truth for once—were it not for him you may not have had your glory restored to you."
"Perhaps." Ahku smiled at him and then at Urd. "And perhaps not."
"Honestly," Verthandi sighed, ignoring Skuld's giggle and Urd's glare. "Does it matter how things came to be so long as all is once again well?"
"Yes," said Will, his glance at his father not missed by Jack, "it does matter."
Urd, looking very much to be pleased by this assertion, smiled sweetly before she opened her mouth to speak. Verthandi had other ideas, however. She reached over and pinched her older sister's lips together.
Urd glared.
"Very well," the middle sister said, "but don't dwell."
- () -
True to his word, Sam Samson had led the ships into the harbor of the island that had risen from the waters. Two of the priests had assured him all would be well. The third, who'd been bullied, refused to speak. He stood apart from his Intuit brethren, gangly arms folded stiffly o'er his chest. Even when the parties, priests included, made to disembark did he refuse to move. In the end Samson carried him, kicking and flailing much as Little Lucy Turner had, to the boat being lowered into the water. He dropped him with a thunk into the boat and dropped down over the railing into it himself. The boat rocked for his great weight, all of its passengers grabbing hold of the sides and each other for fear of tumbling out into the water.
Once met with the boats from the Pearl, they rowed quickly inland. Samson stepped out of the boat and allowed the others to drag it ashore through the white sand. Samson crouched down, took a fistful of it, and let the smooth, cool powder slip through his fingers.
"Not seen sand before?"
"Naet sand, lad."
"Oh no?" Faust scoffed. "Then what is it?"
"Tis silver." Samson's brows rose. He could not quite believe it himself. "The silver shores of the lost crescent." He looked up at the lad, whose eyes were wide upon the wealth of silver sand and nodded. "Antolune."
"Yes," seethed Alice Witter, breezing by them with a tot-toting Elizabeth Turner, "we're on Antolune! I thought that much would be obvious. Now come on!"
Faust watched the both of them stalk across the moonlit shore and saw Anamaria stomp a path to catch up, a sparkle in his eye though his expression was wary. Samson chuckled. He shook his head. "Glad it's naet me having t'answer to them."
Then hemade after the three women, shouting behind for all to follow.
- () -
After the eldest sister had shrugged away from the middle, ruffled her silvery frock of feathers, and shot one last narrow look at Verthandi, she turned to the waiting men—and the approving deity—and opened her hands to the air. Strands of light spit from her fingertips. The threads wove a tome before her. Too large it seemed for her wispy hands—and it sparkled. Seeming not to notice its ethereal grandeur, she flipped it open and dragged one lazy fingertip down the page.
"'In the event of Ahku Neko Neko Khar's return to sense and reason, after his purposeful venture into the world of madness, delusion, and ignorance, please turn to page…'" A dark glance at Ahku and a sound of disgust later, she'd cursed an incantation at the book. Its pages began to flip over, slow at first and then faster and faster until they seemed a whir of silver. Many moments, and pages Jack wagered, passed before she spat another command. The whir snapped quiet and the book still, and she poked the page with her finger. "'Twelve billion, twenty one million, one hundred sixty thousand, eighty seven.'"
William's eyes narrowed.
"Clever," Urd commented as the One Great Great God grinned, "but where was I… 'In the event of Ahku Neko Neko Khar's return to sense and reason, after his purposeful venture into the world of madness, delusion, and ignorance…'" She tapped the place where the words apparently picked up. "'…and after Antolune has risen from the waters…'" She glanced sidelong at a bored Verthandi who nodded wordlessly. "'…Ahku Neko Neko Khar shall deem it safe to inform his saving grace, who shall be handsomely rewarded, that all their trouble was, unfortunately, necessary.'"
Will's eyes narrowed. "All of it?"
Urd glanced at Ahku, who nodded her on, and frowned down at the page. "'Yes, Will, all of it.'"
Ahku smiled at that. Jack couldn't help but admire that small touch of brilliance. He caught the deity's eye and flashed him a grin, but composed himself when Will cleared his throat. A sober look at the lad found him his own glare and he forced an apologetic smile.
Urd shook her head and continued to read. "'If any one thread in the tapestry past had been differently stitched, the all-encompassing knowledge of the One Great Great God could have easily passed into the clumsy hands of the one it was painstakingly hidden from in the first place.'"
"So all the trouble in our lives," seethed Will, "had to do with that pile of emeralds on the cavern floor?"
Urd seemed as indignant as he but she looked to the text for the answer. "'A good deal of it, Will, but Great Great as the One God is, he is certain that at least some of the trouble you three find yourself in is your own bloody stupid fault.'" Urd, paling under their darkening glares, hurried on. "'Rest in knowing that that pile of emeralds on the cavern floor belongs to the three of you as do all the many and varied riches to be found on this once lost and now found island we stand upon.'"
Jack, however peeved at having been toyed with, did see the merit in such a reward. "It could be worse," he said to Will who turned a dubious look upon him. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "It all could have been for nothing."
"'Please remember,'" read Urd, "'that it could be worse. It all could have been for nothing.'"
Jack's smile faded. If there was any one thing that Captain Jack Sparrow did not appreciate, it was having his better lines stolen—One Great Great God or not. Thinking that it was silly lining one's eyes in silver, Jack's own eyes narrowed on the smirking Ahku. "I don't much like you."
Behind him, Skuld giggled. A girlish light lit her large, opalescent eyes. "You'll like him even less very soon."
"And why," Jack asked, truly dismayed, "is that?"
Ahku winced, rubbing at the gems sparking upon his brow. Weary was his sigh. "The women are on their way."
- () -
Alice wasn't sure how she knew where the cave was but she knew all the same. Having had enough troubling thoughts for a lifetime of lifetimes in what she supposed was but one day, she tossed care of this matter to the wind and led the party of pirates and other persons through the dark jungle. Somehow, Elizabeth Turner's equally furious state drove her on through the thick fronds of foliage faster than she'd thought possible. It seemed not very long since they had dragged boats ashore that the pebbled mouth of the dry river came into view, and beyond it the shimmering overgrowth masking the mouth of the cave. A flash of recollection came to her then—
of watching herself as if from behind, and hearing her voice though she didn't speak… a cold slice of fear and a wave of nausea at the sight of the golden eyes of the snake writhing over the shoulders she could not feel—
Shouts there were and then a strong grip on her shoulder that bade her blink the odd memory away. Isaac's worried blue eyes stared into hers and she flushed a deep angry red at having been caught at such a weak moment. "I'm fine." She shrugged him off. "Trust me when I tell you that your worry would be better placed upon Jack."
"Oh," called Isaac after her as she hurried to move forward, "in that I do trust you."
"Tis bout the only time I'd trust a woman," Samson commented.
"Aye," echoed Gibbs, "can always trust a woman to make ye as miserable as she can."
Roth, who hadn't been far behind, shrugged. "Haven't a thing to complain 'bout meself."
The other three men exchanged glances. Samson gandered disbelievingly ahead at a stomping Anamaria, and Isaac snorted as he accepted the lantern from Roth. Gibbs, with a jolly slap to the young helmsman's shoulder, grinned at the lad.
"Yet," he warned.
"Mister Gibbs," asked Jack Turner, gaping upwards, "what do you make of that in the sky?" At some point the lad had been left in the company of the ungentlemen. His hurried mother had lost all patience with him after she and the other women had been slowed by the snail's pace he kept for his inability to look away from the strange heavens above.
Gibbs couldn't much blame the lad.
For every step forward they took, the woven chain had hovered lower and nearer their heads. Gleamed strangely it did, knots like beads of spider's spit. But it was too translucent to be made of anything other than the moon's own light.
"Well Jack," said Gibbs, "there's no tellin for certain." He lifted the oblivious lad o'er a large rock he'd have likely tripped over and glanced up at the splendid silver thing swaying above them. "But by the looks it appears someone's being paid a visit by the blessed Sisters Three."
"Blessed sisters," Jack scoffed. "Those are the things of fairytales. My sister's more the blasted variety. Wonder if they could teach her to be blessed."
Ahead, Elizabeth Turner was carrying asquirming Lucy into the mouth of the cave when a great swirl of colour swept around she and the two other women. It drifted lazily as if carried on a breeze. Gibbs caught a whisper of a laugh followed by the trio of soft singing they of the Pearl and Swan had heard earlier. He and Jack watched as three wisps of light fluttered in and out the links of the chain up over their heads and out of sight.
Jack grunted. "So much for that idea."
- () -
"Well," said Ahku Neko Neko Khar, "being that's it, fait accompli and all, it's time for me to be off. As it is, I'm unforgivably late for a chat with Zeus—and really, I'd rather avoid that thundering temper of his. So, ta ta for now. À bientôt, actually."
Having said that, the deity twirled in a circle. The long black cape spun out around him. It whistled in the air. His shape shrunk, all the translucence swirling into a spinning spectrum. It spiraled up and over the rocky ledge. Three pale feathers fluttered after it, and then all four disappeared from sight.
William Turner, jaw slack, stared after them. It was a long moment before he closed his open mouth, and another before his brows knit. Finally, they snapped together and he turned in a circle to glare at all the empty cavern.
"That's it?"
Jack swayed. He'd still been trying to figure who it was Ahku Neko Neko Khar reminded him of when William's howl of rage broke his concentration. His eyes uncrossed and his gaze sharpened upon the man he'd thought as lost as Antolune.
"That's all?"
William was really much more worn around the edges than he'd appeared to Jack upon Le Isle de Perle Noire. He really was wearing tan trousers… but they were frayed, the knee darkened by blood, and his big brown boots looked as if they'd seen much better days. His green vest and linen shirt looked near to threadbare. There were heavy lines around his mouth and upon his brow—more than likely from frowning much more than should be allowed a person—and his once glossy chestnut curls were limp waves of greying brown hair that looked to weigh upon his broad but hunched shoulders. What with his frustration and dismay, which both bordered on madness Jack guaged by the wildfire in his eyes, William was the picture of pitiful.
Bootstrap pocketed the black pearl that the One Great Great God had given him and jabbed the empty hand angrily at the empty air. "After all that! After all that and… nothing!"
Jack, much accustomed to William Turner's throwing a fit, watched calmly on as the man stalked the floor of the cave. Pebbles skittered as he kicked them. Jack bent to retrieve the ring that skipped toward him and slid the great smoky gem upon his finger. Will's shout startled him and he straightened in time to see William storming towards him.
"Ye always had the answers, Captain," William growled. His once steady hands shook, but they were as strong as ever as they clamped onto Jack's shoulders. "So what say you to this, eh?" When Jack did not respond but to gaze wide-eyed up at him, he gave him a slight shake. "Was this all fer nothin, Jack?"
"Of course not."
Jack, quite ruffled, reached up and pried William's fingers off his shoulders. Placing him a respectable distance from himself, he took a step back for good measure and couldn't help rolling his eyes at the absurd notion that all their trouble had been for nothing. Really, it was ridiculous!
"Were you not listening, William?"
"T'was you not listening, Jack. T'was all a trick set up to fix his fate—"
"And in return, we have ourselves a pile of emeralds—which, by the looks of it they're set to be worth a pile of piece apiece. And… we are standing on an island that was lost and couldn't be found. By anyone. It's uncharted. No one else knows where it is. And they won't… till we take what we can." Though this was all delightful, Jack saw weary Will out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but feel the anger that flared in his gut. His own eyes narrowed to a glare upon William as he took a measured step forward. "Not to mention, mate, this seems a good chance to appreciate and enjoy the one good thing you gave this world."
"Oh," asked Bootstrap, "and what would that be?"
Jack gnashed his teeth in frustration as he saw Will turn. The lad was walking away when Jack grabbed hold of William's vest and dragged him dangerously close. "Your son." As echoes of voices of those that were approaching reached them, he shoved the man that had once been his closest friend away and glared at him. "Are you really that thick that it does not occur to you that all that trouble has as much fixed your fate?"
"He hates me." William's hard, glaring eyes melted. Dark they were, and deep as he looked away. "And so do you."
Jack opened his mouth to respond but he hadn't the time. A shrill shriek of outrage demanded his attention upwards to where stood a frightful woman. Wild she looked, and Jack guessed she was just as wildly angry. In truth he could not blame her—what he'd witnessed of her merge with Barbossa had rather sickened him and he imagined it must have been leagues more deplorable being the one to have merged with the grimy git.
"Jack Sparrow—" she stopped to pick her way down through the stones, thankfully with much more trouble than had her phantom form. Once on the flat rock she marched forward. In her grey eyes waged a violent storm as she raged at him the entire stalk over. Jack was certain she'd screeched various unbecoming statements, insults, and generally hateful things at him by the time she finally stood before him but he had never been so glad to see her. "—well, what have you to say?"
"I'm sorry, dove."
"Haven't you said enough al—" She blinked. "What?"
"I'm sorry," he repeated.
"Yes, me too," Will echoed to a furious Elizabeth. "Completely sorry. For all the trouble I cause you, my love, I'm sorry."
Jack closed his eyes, inwardly cursing William's son. For one fleeting moment he'd imagined that all would turn out for the better and not the worse. Women, however, were for the most part difficult and twice that if two(or three as was the case as Anamaria was presently on her way to make his own personal hell just a little more hellish) were gathered together in a common cause. Two sorries said simultaneously to two ladies would not an apology make.
"William?"
A great Scot's great echoing brogue and a long-lost thought-to-be-dead man standing found and not-so-very-dead-at-all, however, seemed to suffice. All three women turned sympathetic looks upon both he and Will... and then murderous glares upon William Turner. Jack couldn't help feeling just the smallest bit better as he watched Bootstrap backing up, all three women descending upon him in a scraggle of screeches.
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Author's Babble: Intuition... Neris yells at Tetetuzu "Nai prosperei, Tetetuzu," which means "You won't have it, Tetetuzu." Then she says "Amnesei," which means "Forget it." "Destineo prosperi" means"I have attained my destiny.'""Fortua accomplei, karosamina," means "Fate accomplished, my precious".
Ahku Neko Neko Khar is not based on anything but Jack. Tetetuzu is not based on anything. Urd, Verthandi, and Skuld are the mythological names of the Norns. Urd, the eldest, is said to rule the past. Verthandi, the middle sister, is said to preside over the present. Skuld, the youngest, is said to be keeper of the future. They are usually pictured with birds or outfitted in feathers so that's why they are "wispy" and "fluttery".
