In the days between escaping Davy Jones and the East India Trading Company and reaching Shipwreck Cove Elizabeth found her prowess as a Captain being tested. The crew followed her but while her knowledge of ships was proficient as a member of the crew the duties of a Captain were…well, sketchier. The only leaders of pirate vessels she'd met were Jack and Barbossa and while both competent they'd never allowed her access to what little reason they had between them for the things they did when leading men.
However fortune was on her side. Despite having to order the ship's doctor (if he could be called that) to treat James and nearly causing a small scale mutiny as a result the crew had come to respect her because of her actions during their capture and in part felt it was her who had secured their escape. As an escape from the clutches of Davy Jones was something few could brag about it was enough, for now, to placate them. Another stroke of luck; the weather was clement and no ships crossed their paths; piratical or otherwise.
James had taught her a very little of navigation when she was a child scampering bothersome around his ankles back when they had first reached Port Royal, eager for learning and adventure in her new, exciting home. It was enough for her to glean the basics and say the right words to reassure the crew; though Tai Hung and Cheng-Gong (who seemed the closest thing the ship had to a navigator) took control of leading the Empress onward towards the meeting of the Brethren Court.
Elizabeth balanced her visits with James carefully with her duties. While she now had respect and some level of trust with the crew it was evidently still delicate and easily broken. Showing too much favour to the former Admiral was asking for trouble. So she usually reserved her visits to him, in a store room not far from her own quarters, until after all but those stationed to watch had gone to sleep.
Liang, the equivalent of a ship's doctor, had said in his halting English that the wound had not been deep and no serious damage had been done; the only danger had been the blood loss. Still, aboard the dirty ship filled with possibilities for infection and with little to do but hope James took three days to break the fever which left him bedridden. If she had not thought the men would notice she would have slept at his bedside. As it was she stationed Liang to check the wound once every hour and clean it thoroughly with salt water. When that task was done, while the fever lasted and he was not lucid enough to understand what was happening, James' cries of agony could be heard above deck.
Yet James Norrington was nothing if not strong. The fever broke, the stitching held and as they approached Shipwreck Cove he was able to stand, not a week after being stabbed through the gut aboard the Flying Dutchman, at her side on deck.
Ahead of them stood a tall cliff face, reaching up high towards the heavens, steering them alongside it and daring any to try and find breach in its defenses.
"We're close now." she said, not looking away from the sight before them.
"The Brethren Court," he murmured, "If you had told me before all of this that I would be entering a room filled with Pirate Lords of my own free will I would have shot you to spare your descent into madness."
She smiled at the sardonic note to his voice. It was the perfect blend of the James she had known and the more worldly, more jaded version she had come to know aboard the Pearl. That was the kind of man she needed at her side now; not a Commodore, nor a ruthless pirate but a blend of the two.
"You stand next to one," she said, looking to him to judge his reaction, "You know that, don't you?"
His mouth twisted into a smile, not unkind nor mocking, but wry all the same.
"Pirate Lord of the South China Sea. It seems you outrank me considerably."
She laughed, turned back to face the view before them. It looked pleasant enough but Elizabeth knew by now that pleasant looking did not mean safe.
"You saved my life."
A long stretch of silence had passed between them and when he spoke it was matter of fact, with some of the mild mannered Commodore in his tone.
"And you mine, and those of my crew," was her reply, equally reasoned.
"Elizabeth…"
She turned then, fully turned, for though she was a Captain and Pirate Lord when James said her name in the way he had before Jack Sparrow had waltzed into their lives she was all but helpless not to listen. Her respect for that man, the brave, noble, loyal man he had been, if nothing else, made her do so.
"I know you cannot love me."
The statement was a shock and she had to force herself not to recoil, not to berate him for saying such a thing, on deck, before her crew (who were far from them and could not have possibly heard), so boldly and without preamble…
"I do not ask you to." he continued, undeterred, "All that I ask is you allow me to make right to wrongs between us. Allow me to heal some of the betrayal, the ill feeling I have caused."
She wanted to scream at him to stop. He had betrayed her, all of them, gotten them in this terrible mess in the first place…and yet she had done him so many wrongs that to hear his apologies was too hard. It was impossible to take the moral high ground and that in itself made her uneasy. Elizabeth swallowed once, hard, thinking desperately as to how to answer to something like that.
"You are…an experienced sea man."
The answer seemed to take him by surprise but she plowed on regardless. Now she had the answer she was not about to let him stop her from speaking it.
"I already have a first mate and my crew are capable and yet…your advice, your guidance, would be appreciated."
She raised her eyes from where they had settled on the ground and met his. He seemed confused, just for a moment, as though he expected her to make him walk the plank, expected her to keelhaul him or strap him to the mainsail and have him whipped. Which raised the question why - why would he expect that of her? Was she truly so much of a monster?
"If that is your wish…Captain."
She nodded her acquiescence and turned as the sound of footsteps, muted by the bare feet of the one approaching, caught her attention.
"Captain," said Tai Hung, bowing his head to her before continuing, "We approach Móguǐ de Hóulóng…" a pause as the First Mate shook his head, realizing belatedly that he had slipped into his native language, "Apologies…Captain, the Devil's Throat is upon us."
She looked to James and saw his expression was turned grim. She cocked her head, looking for an answer to a question she didn't need to ask.
"This is not going to be easy." was his response.
Elizabeth raised a brow. When was it ever?
They almost wrecked the Empress several times but her crew knew the ship like she was a limb, an extension of themselves, and with their skill as well as a few sound pieces of advice on James' side they navigated the Devil's Throat and the dangerous approach to the aptly named Shipwreck Cove just as night fell.
"Lucky," James said stiffly, "If we'd been any later in the day we'd have been stranded in the dark."
Elizabeth looked around at the men bearing torches around her, her eyes finding Tai Hung at the wheel.
"We're close?" she asked, looking past the dimly lit town of Shipwreck and wondering if this was truly the place where the Brethren Court sat.
"Patience, Captain, almost there." was Tai Hung's reply.
The men aligned at the bow of the ship held torches which lit up the water before them and Elizabeth looked up to James, as he had been since the morning glued to her side, and asked,
"What do you know about this place?"
He smiled that now familiar almost smirk and answered without taking his eyes off the water,
"Little to nothing - the location was a secret we could not find the root of. Impenetrable they say. Impossible to find unless you know where you're going - that was until Beckett got the key to finding it from Tu-"
James cut himself off abruptly. Elizabeth's eyes narrowed but she said nothing for a moment, reminding herself that it was true. Will had helped Cutler Beckett find Shipwreck Cove and though it seemed the East India Trading Company had not yet descended thanks to her fiance it was only a matter of time. Yet her mind strayed to Bootstrap Bill, to the memory of her own Father, and that more than anything brought her feelings of betrayal at odds.
"Will was only doing what he thought best." she retorted finally.
"Yes," James agreed, "But for whom?"
Elizabeth's jaw clenched. For whom indeed. However before she could say anything more a call came from a member of the crew arranged at the bow, his voice threaded with excitement as he called out,
"Shipwreck Cove ahoy!"
An undercurrent of anticipation in the form of fervent murmuring broke out at the bow of the ship and Elizabeth looked up just as they rounded the corner.
There, before them, lay Shipwreck Cove.
It stood tall, soft golden light illuminating every level of what seemed to be a column stretching ever onward, the glow giving the place an otherworldly feel. It was strange that something which bore the council of pirates could feel so…holy. Elizabeth couldn't help but marvel and she felt James' eyes upon her at her side.
"It's…" she said, unable to find a suitable word to finish her sentence.
"Full of pirates." James offered, causing her to look away and see his partly shadowed face not smirking, thank God, but smiling. Almost the same soft smile he had given her before, in the other time.
She returned the smile, her eyes glancing over the many ships assembled in the makeshift port.
"Well, it's about to house a few more."