Emerald's POV
Yep, I had met this guy, alight. This was the guy that looked me in the eyes and knocked me out. He apologized for it afterwards, once I woke up and the captain questioned me. She asked me more or less the same questions she had been fixing to ask Ray before we got into this whole trial of affliction thing, just stuff about my background. I told her I was a princess, which, surprisingly, she did not know. I told her about my struggle to learn any magic, and then when I finally did get my companion, how it turned out all horribly wrong. It was all so horribly horribly wrong… my family, the dark court… doing horrible things under everyone's noses, meeting in secret, getting rid of people in order to further their own power.
And then I met James, and like I said, he apologized for punching me in the head. He was a pretty nice guy, as far as I could tell. I still wasn't entirely sure why they picked us up. When I asked, she avoided the question. It was something I wanted to know, something I needed to know. I didn't think we were in a whole lot of trouble with these guys. In fact, they could protect us from the members of the dark court. Or… they were members of the court, acting friendly to gain our trust, only to betray us and turn us in to be executed. They could have… seen the wanted poster of us, could be in it for the reward. That sounded like something pirates would do. But if they were really going to do that, why then make me a part of the crew, or had the captain changed her mind now that I had impressed her or tickled her fancy or something like that.
There was too much about this situation I did not know, and it made me very uncomfortable. I knew what Ray thought of me, at least. He wasn't friendly, but he was a familiar kind of unfriendly. This was… unpredictable. I was in an unpredictable situation. Well, if I wanted a predictable situation, I shouldn't have left the castle, shouldn't have left the capital. If I just stayed and did my princess duty as I was supposed to, lay low and did not question, nothing strange would have happened, and I would be peaceful and trapped and still at odds with Ray. Either way, I would be unfulfilled, withering, like some sort of weird jeweled flower, emerald encrusted.
I saw Ray all tied up and I felt really bad for him. He looked so, sort of weak all tied up and stuff. I asked that he be released, but then Jesse told me why she thought that might not be the best idea. He wasn't entirely himself anymore. I didn't want to agree with her, but it was something I had sensed a few times from him, that something was invariably wrong. Something was wrong with me, too, something different, though. I couldn't tell what it was, and maybe it was actually nothing. I couldn't know for sure. That was the thing, I couldn't know, and I couldn't know about him either. Anyways… it was no use to think about this stuff now. The crisp air here cleared my senses, it seemed. I really felt like I was meant to be here. Something about the surroundings… something about the aesthetics… this was exactly what I had imagined when I dreamed about adventuring across the world… and that was why I was wary. This was a little too perfect, a little too right out of my imagination. And so, I thought, perhaps, there was some trickery to this, some illusion. Maybe this was pulled right out of my imagination, and this was another world meant to trap me. Maybe I never got out of the old world with the bloody city. Maybe my escape was also an illusion.
But, all this speculation was meaningless. If there was a way to break out of the illusion, if it was in fact an illusion, I had no idea how to do it. In the meantime, at least Jesse and James seemed nice. They were definitely rough around the edges, as any good pirate should be, but they didn't seem, well, evil. They weren't just going to kill for fun. They were at least as good as Strider. That wasn't saying a whole lot. I decided to settle on… I was safer here with these guys than I was with the dark court or their minions. I was convinced these guys did not work for the dark court. They were the ruling body, and they had power on their side. From what I had seen of this world, I doubted anyone with that kind of power and authority would bother to put on an act. They could just overpower us. They didn't need to resort to any sort of trickery, unless they just felt like messing with us for their own sick sort of pleasure. Really, who could say? I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to find out anything at this point. I would just… be cautious of everything for now, and take things as they came to me.
"Knock me out?" Ray asked. He still sounded a little slow. They had some sort of weird magic that… wasn't magic? Something about medicine? That was the word Jesse had used, medicine, or drugs. I had no idea what that was, I had never heard of it before this. When I had explained that to her, she compared it to healing magic, but instead of using your own energy, or the energy of nature around you, you took aspects of nature itself and manipulated it in such a way that it bent to the will of humanity. Nature bowing to the will of humanity. That… something about that idea deeply disturbed me. Nature was… nature was supposed to be the most powerful, the world around us, that was what was able to grant us our power.
"Yeah, course, if you start getting dangerous to our crew. Can't have you hurting anyone, even the princess." He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. "Especially not the princess." He said in his husky voice. Heh… why was he doing that? Why was he looking at me like that? He didn't… like me, did he? No, no, I hoped not. And if he did, I hoped he didn't expect anything out of it. He was way too old for me and I had no interest in him like that, and I doubted I ever would. Uh… Strider.
Strider was below deck. He had supposedly had some sort of interrogation, like me, like mine, and had been let out of his chains after the captain decided he would not be a threat. He was an assassin, and nobody on this ship was on his list, so they were in no danger. Although, they were still cautious about him, because it seemed he was also a well known thief, better known for that than for his assassination skills. He had apparently stolen several important artifacts from the royalty. It was even possible he had been in the capital before without my knowledge. That… that was impressive. It took me my entire life to find a way out of the kingdom, eh, the capital, and Strider apparently made it in, even with his goofy clothing, stole something from underneath everyone's nose, and then made it out. He was a very impressive kind of guy.
"Alright, so you'll beat me up if I start hurting people. Can you untie me, then?" Ray asked, an irritated look on his face. Huh… he was coming to, his thoughts moving fast now, back to his usual grumpy self, huh?
"Sure, then." The captain said, then glanced over at James. "Go ahead. You get to keep an eye on him, though." Jesse smirked. James smiled back good-naturedly. Then he went back to the column and began to carefully untie the ropes that bound Ray. They slowly came undone, until Ray could slither loose. It didn't take a whole lot of loosening for Ray to be able to do that, though, he was so slender and flexible. I wondered just how many bones he had to have in his spine to be able to move like that. Or, did he have bones for a spine at all, maybe it was cartilage or something? I didn't know. I never bothered to study the anatomy of legends. Some of my sisters did, but I didn't have time to after I got Ray before we had to run away. The legends were supposed to more or less be able to take care of themselves, and so were us princesses. I was supposed to be way more self sufficient than I was, especially at my age. Once he was free, he tried to fly away, but he did not get very far. The tether had shortened again, from when James pulled us back up… that was what he had actually been doing to pull us up, shorten the tether. And lengthening it was something Ray could not do himself. And I wanted to stay here. James laughed, a full, belly laugh. It seemed his whole body jiggled with amusement at Ray's expense.
"Ah, the caged bird, freed, attempts to fly away, to find a slightly bigger cage… or something like that." James said, wiping a tear from his eye from the laughter. He was a bit of a poetic one, huh? Well, one utterance does not a demeanor make. Something about him felt like a dad, or a big brother, or maybe some sort of uncle? Or maybe he wasn't family at all, and I was just trying to replace father figures because my own dad was ruined for me, and wasn't a super great father figure in the first place, actually. Maybe I was just trying to latch on to someone and someplace to be home, but I really liked it on this ship, just being here, just standing here felt right to me. This outfit, this backdrop, everything was right. And… that could mean it was very very wrong. I had no idea. I would definitely enjoy my time here, though.
"What are you talking about?!" Ray demanded.
"He's talking about you. Even when you're free of your ropes, you're still bound by your tether. Afraid you are staying here, for the time being.
"Why did you take us?!" Ray demanded… again. The captain and James just looked at Ray as if they were looking at a small child who needed everything spoon fed to him and missed the obvious. The captain shook her head a little. "What?"
"None of your business, lad. Anyways, I'll go let the others back up, captain." James said.
"Very good. I'll be making my rounds. After you've let out the crew, please attend to our guests." Jesse said.
"Aye." Answered James. They seemed like they had been together for a long time. They seemed… really in sync, it was sort of impressive. They must have been close. It seemed nice, their relationship, wholesome. That was just my feeling from it, though. The two of them walked off, just walked off, turned their backs to us and walked off. Did they… trust us, or something? Or, did they just know we had nowhere to go. Ray looked to the two of them, then, when he realized they were leaving, he physically relaxed some. As if their eyes were a burden on him, as if their presence alone stressed him out. I suppose it wouldn't have surprised me if that were in fact the case. He stretched out for a few moments, every which way he possibly could. He was… amazingly flexible. I would say I wished I could be that flexible, but that was a biological impossibility. Humans just weren't built for that, the only way I could do that was if something was terribly wrong.
"Get on." Ray said in a hushed whisper as he finished stretching. He gestured with his head for me to get on his back. Oh, I got it. Since the tether was short again, and he wanted off this ship, the only way to do that was to keep me on him. I wasn't about to leave, though. There was no way I was about to leave, this place was too perfect. Maybe this was why he didn't like me? Was this selfish of me? To stay on a dangerous ship because I thought it was cool, to go out in the dangerous world because I thought it was cool, and dragging him with me. Huh… that probably was why he was so miffed, wasn't it. I um… If I was going to appease Ray, was I going to have to do that thing Lilly told me about… be a good leader… compromise… but, this ship was amazing, and I was sure there were awesome things I could learn here, things that would make both of us stronger… and if they had something that was a substitute for healing magic… maybe they would have something that was a substitute to other kinds of magic. And then maybe I could master that and let Ray go home… I did feel bad, keeping him away from his loved ones and his life and everything that ever mattered to him. It wasn't that I didn't care, and it wasn't that I didn't understand. I just, I couldn't do it. I couldn't give it up, I couldn't give up what I worked my entire life for.
But, if there was a substitute, so that I didn't need Ray… if I could fly on my own, defend myself… anything I might want to do by myself, if I could do that with a substitute for magic. If I could learn… I would let him go, no problem. Eh, well, not no problem. In a weird way, I had bonded Ray, and I sort of didn't want to see him go. In his way, his grumpy nature, his drive to go back. I really admired that more than any of his other traits, his drive. I felt like we had that in common. He had this willingness to do what it took to get his goals. Really, we weren't all that different, although I doubted he would say the same.
"There are things to learn here. I think we should stay for a while." I said. He gave me a stink eye. What, just because I didn't do exactly what he wanted? I was doing this for him, too.
"You just like that outfit." He said, I didn't know how much he was kidding, but it seemed at least a little tongue and cheek, at least a little. Maybe that was just in my imagination. Maybe I was just trying to make him more friendly and relatable than he was. I didn't know. I didn't know anything. That was ok, though. I could… I would learn.
"You caught me." I chuckled. Playing along was pretty fun, and being a pirate would be pretty fun too, I couldn't deny that. There was something so romantic about being a pirate, being an adventurer, a pirate on the seven… uh… skies, I guessed? Was that even a thing? The endless sky, maybe. "I'm sorry, we'll talk about it later, ok? There are others coming, and the captain said you might not remember a lot of things that happen right now, and I might not either, er, but I think it wore off for me, more or less. I feel pretty much back to normal. A little light headed, maybe, but I think I'll remember this just fine. You, maybe not. Not sure how that stuff works. Jesse said she would take me down to the medic and have the practitioners there explain it to me."
"Uh… ok." He said. Yep, just as I thought, he was still pretty out of it. James went over to the stairs that led to the lower decks and went down them, and after a moment, more people started filling the deck. All of them looked at us. Had they… not seen us before? I hadn't seen them, but I thought for sure they had seen us. Were Jesse and James the only people on deck when we showed up? They seemed, uh… fascinated, like they hadn't seen something like us before, or were trying to evaluate us? After a few moments, though, they dispersed and went about their business, doing whatever it was sailors did to keep a ship running. There were ropes and sheets of cloth and… I had no idea what was going on. Some were just patrolling.
"So… seems like we're free to move about the deck. Anything you want to do?" I asked, then, without skipping a beat, I answered my own question. "Let me guess, get off the ship?" I said, chuckling. Ray raised an eyebrow.
"You guessed it." Ray seemed pretty amused as well. Good, I thought he might get irritated. He wasn't exactly the most predictable when it came to… me… I wasn't sure what he felt about me sometimes. Like, obviously he wasn't a big fan of me with the whole, not letting him go home thing, but then sometimes he would be friendly with me, and really nice… like we were good friends… like he forgot for a while that he wasn't actually supposed to like me.
"No, no, but I have an idea, but we have to stay here. There's something here, something that isn't magic, but it acts like magic. That stuff they put into our body, that liquid… it isn't magic, Jesse told me. They're going to show us down to the medical bay to explain. If I can learn to do the things magic can do… I could send you back and still be able to live my life… and, well, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. I mean… I'm already sort of an outcast now, and it turns out that the thing I was chasing after demands a ton of horrible sacrifice to actually get any good at…" I trailed off. The old coot. He didn't have any magic, but he sure knew an awful lot… he must have known what it took to be good at magic. Was he going to tell me to sacrifice others for the sake of my power? Or… was there another way I did not know of. Maybe all of that stuff, that dark power… maybe it was all just a cruel shortcut? I did not know what this revelation meant, if, in fact, it meant anything at all.
I was about to continue talking, when the doors to the lower deck swung open, and a few dozen pirates bumbled out. Time to meet the crew, I guessed.
Have an awesome day