Chapter Fourteen: Spells

Sailing the seven seas, adventure at every turn, it actually sounded like a life she would have wanted at one point. It really would have, but not with the man who was currently offering it to her. He stared down at her like she was a piece of meat, like she was nothing more than just a prize to wait in his bed for him to return to. For a moment, for as long as she was on this ship, she could pretend to be just what he wanted, couldn't she?

He stayed on deck most of the time, leaving her to her own devices. Mabel wasn't complaining about that. Gideon spent time away from her, and it gave her time to actually get her thoughts together to where she wouldn't have to worry about putting on an act and pretend to be like the woman he wanted her to be.

The weather was getting warmer, and sure enough, it seemed as though they were heading down to the tropics. Gideon must actually want something to go down there, when they were younger he hated warm weather with a passion. Mabel didn't really care where they went, as long as they got further away from where they could run into someone they knew.

Throwing on a dress he had gotten her, a tight thing that Mabel never would have picked out for herself, Mabel opened the window and considered just jumping out. Someone would find her in the water before she died, wouldn't they? With a sigh she closed the window once more, refusing the temptation that was too much of a risk.

The tropics. That was a strange thing, Mabel couldn't stop thinking about it. It wasn't even to make a pit stop, Gideon made it sound as though they were going there for a very important reason. He wouldn't really talk about it, but Mabel knew what he meant.

"Sugar plum, you're up." Gideon said, making Mabel jump in place and looking from the water outside and at Gideon, who locked the door after he came in. Mabel never thought to check if it was locked when he left her down there. It probably was.

"Oh, you know, just getting a little bored here." Mabel said honestly, watching Gideon sit at his desk. He gave his knee a pat, looking over at her and expecting her to move. Mabel did so after a long moment, trying to think of something else instead of where she was now sitting.

"It'll be all better when we actually get down there, don't ya worry one bit." Gideon gave her head a pat, a little bit condescending as he was at times. Mabel nodded, trying to really think of what she could even say right now.

"Why are we even going down there? I thought you hated warm weather." Mabel said, not even bothering to hide how she looked down at his work, which Gideon quickly hid from her sight. He had been upset when he realized Cipher had taken his book, but he had already copied down the most important parts.

"I don't like it." Gideon confirmed, hand on her waist and fingers rubbing circles there. "But there's a very important item there that I need."

"What do you need?" Mabel asked, completely ignoring how his fingers were spreading. Gideon actually paused at her question, picking up a map and spreading it out so she could see. It looked almost identical to Bill's, except Gideon's didn't have a long line mapping their route, his only had a small island circled.

"Well, butterfly, in that book that Cipher got his hands on," Gideon's fingers tightened on her waist for just a second, "there was a very old spell in it. There was a little list of things needed, but I already have all of them but one."

"What things did you need?" Mabel was honestly more curious rather than anything else, leaning her head on Gideon's shoulder and thinking of the time when she sat in Bill's lap to take a nap.

"Butterfly wings, a mermaid scale, the most prized possession that you possess, and the blood of someone pure of heart." Gideon recited without hesitation, looking down at the map. "It all needs to be mixed together with pure water, from a natural spring in the middle of the ocean that only appears here."

Gideon tapped on the map, right where he had circled the island. Mabel swallowed thickly, looking down at that instead of facing Gideon, because that would mean facing her memories and the knowledge she already had. He had no idea what he was doing.

"Isn't...Isn't that the spell for immortality?" Mabel asked, her voice soft. Gideon looked proud, nodding happily and folding up the map when he realized she wasn't really looking at it.

"It is. You're so smart." He cooed. "We'll get to live forever, sailing the seas, taking everything to our names. I'll always have you by my side, my little butterfly."

Mabel ignored him as he nuzzled her hair, thinking to herself that she knew just how this would end. Her uncles hadn't just taught her in the ways of the sea, they had taught her about the spells and ancient legends they had learned along of their travels. Everyone knew about this spell. Everyone knew about the way to get immortality, but not everyone knew about the way that it was wrong, and that this wouldn't work.

Mabel knew it wouldn't work, she knew it wouldn't work just like how she knew that there was no way to get immortal, and she knew that Gideon would be upset when he found out this wouldn't work. In a way, she was right when she talked to Bill a while ago, just not about the ship. She wasn't going to be getting out of this alive.

The ships sailing set on the ocean water was a sight, despite with Cipher's ship being almost twice the size of the Stan o' War on the water. Bill really had no time to dwell on the small facts though, looking down at the ship and thankful they would help, even if Ford had decided to come along. Bill thought they could do without him, but he supposed that wasn't his call to make.

"It'll take two days to get to where Gideon is heading, if we sail without breaks." Bill called down to the smaller ship, watching the three men nod. "We can send men down to give you three breaks if you need it."

He got a wave from Dipper, which honestly just made him happier that they were on some form of communication. Dipper had been giving him the cold shoulder, but he knew for a fact that they had to get Mabel back some way.

Leaning back against the deck of his ship, Cipher stared down at the horizon before them, uncertain that they would even be able to get there in time. This was a small window of opportunity, where they would be able to get there in enough time and stop Gideon from actually performing the ritual.

"Do they know?" Tad asked, looking over at the small amount of men who had stayed on the ship instead of abandoning their cause. It seemed as though they had been the ones who had gotten along best with Mabel.

"What? The fact that Gideon plans to use her for a ritual, the fact that I'm probably going to do the same thing, or the fact that even if we do get back to her, I'm not letting her go." Bill said, mainly just avoiding the one topic that he didn't want to say. Tad leaned against the railing next to Bill and sighed heavily.

"That you love her."

The two of them seemed to freeze, with Bill staring at Tad with shock, and Tad staring at Bill like he was an idiot. Bill shook his head after a minute, not sure if he was denying that he didn't love Mabel or if he was denying that he had told the Pines family anything.

"I don't love her." Bill sighed, not even sure he believed himself. "I didn't tell them anything other than the fact that Gleeful had her in his clutches."

"They wouldn't be here if they knew what you were planning, Bill." Tad said, his voice surprisingly soft. "Do you even know what you're planning?"

Bill turned his gaze away, pouting slightly but refusing to say a word on that matter. Tad didn't say anything more, not sure how he could comfort the captain and make him understand that nothing good would happen while he kept things to himself.

"She hates me." Bill said more to himself, but Tad just happened to be there. "Even if I get her back, she won't want to be here with me, with us. She'll go back with her family, and...we'll be here. Forever."

"You don't know that until you try." Tad reasoned easily. "If she hadn't gone with Gleeful, he would have had the advantage to take this ship down. Don't you think she left because it was the one thing that she knew would keep us safe?"

"I would have rather gone there as a prisoner." Bill barked out in a laugh, but it was completely devoid of real emotion.

"Gleeful doesn't take prisoners." Tad snapped back, quite tired of this argument. "She left because she knew Gleeful would take us down and kill you, and this was the only thing that could happen where everyone got out alive."

"You honestly expect me to believe that she left because she just wanted to keep m-us safe?" Bill shot back, disbelief and a bit of hope now lacing his words. Tad nodded, not even sure this was really getting through to Bill.

"She cares for you, despite how you keep fucking things up. Just...are you sure that you want to go and throw that all away for immortality?"

Bill's gaze snapped to Tad, the words having a heavier burden on Bill than Tad probably realized. Hadn't they been planning just this? The whole reason they ran away from home, the way that they sailed the seven seas and done everything as they planned?

"I'm not giving anything up. It's the reason we went sailing in the first place." Bill said, voice strangely monotonous. Tad shook his head, turning away from Bill to look at their crew as though that would offer him any sort of answer.

"Family, support, maybe even a nice home on the shore. You know when we were kids, that's what you told me you wanted. I get if that's changed, if you want to spend the rest of your life sailing around and trying to find the next adventure, discover new land and all that, but do you really want to give her up?"

Bill bit his tongue, because he wasn't giving her up. Not in the slightest. He was going to take Mabel from place to place with him as she grew old and he stayed young forever…

"What are you saying, Tad?" Bill ended up avoiding the question, ignoring the thoughts that were now plaguing him. He would have to face them eventually. Just not today.

"I'm saying, that if I could find someone who looked at me the way that she looks at you, I wouldn't let her go for anyone." Tad said softly.

Tad walked away, and Bill was left standing against the railing trying to figure out just the way that Mabel stared at him. He remembered the wide eyes and the laugh when they danced, and he remembered that trust that she had for him, how she trusted him with so much. Did he really want to give that up for everything he worked for his whole life?