Prologue

Captain of Brutalis

The disciplined crew of this man o' war was packed full of officers, serving every type of need it had in order to safely transport the crew and cargo it was taking to the queen herself.

The sun was more than halfway passed to setting when they ran into a merchant ship that flagged them down. The older captain of the merchant vessel was warning Captain Jackson (or Captain Jack as he had gone by for years now) about a dreaded group of pirates that came upon them unexpectedly while they were near an island. He said they were driven into a wide, semi enclosed part of the island. Like a port with natural walls protecting it from the outside.

"I had no other choice!" He shouted over the gap between the two ships that had furled their sails and casted a line to be tied so they could stop and communicate. "Their cannon fire were too long! Shooting all the way from where they was!"

The old man looked frantic from Captain Jack's position at the steering wheel. Like he had been pulling out his hair still trying to figure out what happened.

"But they were somehow gaining on us too! And I knew if we just kept through open waters that they didn't likely care if we would survive it, they could hit us farther than we could hit 'em. Plains and simple. So I had us pull into the island, towards the shores so our cannons at least stood a chance of hittin' 'em when they followed us."

Captain Jack had stepped off the helm and ordered another officer from below to come up and man the wheel in case of an emergency. When they took his position at the wheel he moved near midship to better listen to the troubled seafarer.

"We wasn't that prepared, you see. But I ain't fresh to the wa'er, either. I have been sailing this ship for some long time now and 'ave encountered the occasional brigand before with little trouble." He made a gesture of pulling the sword from his hip enough to show him what he meant. "I am not some Scally wagging bastard 'ose only job is running about and getting his rocks off fighting others to the grave. But they at least let me son go." He sigh, remembering the fear in his heart knowing there was nothing he could do to help him and receded his weapon back to its home in its comfortable position at his side.

"Mostly," He gestured upwards to the sails of his ship. "we can outsail 'em if they get spotted far off. If we can't, then it is probably just a sloop approaching with some foolish bastards thinking I ain't ever seen bad folk in me life. Who in their right minds thinks you flag down a ship just to 'ave a chat?"

The dark-haired captain of Brutalis had looked at the older gentleman with sea-green eyes onboard the merchant vessel with a gaze he child who just talked himself out of dessert.

"This different," He said with a pointed finger. A father trying to explain to his child why he could say certain words but they could not.

"I ain't waving you down with a white flag to ask about where you grew up. I am talking to ya now so that you can catch the bastards who did this to us. There is even some local lords or something aboard we are taking back to their province or something like that. They probably have a word to say to ya 'bout the whole affair but fair warning, captain to captain." He drew a finger between the two. "They're below deck right now, holed up quiet down near the bilge like some fools because I told 'em you might be more pirates posing as officers just to get some peace and quiet."

Both captains shared a gesture of motioning their heads as if trying to shake off the memories escorting the less important and more entitled folk they have sailed across the waters before.

"But if you say you go after them I can tell 'em and they'll maybe stop blasting me in me ear about how they lost jewelry and some instruments they never even knew how to play. Would not let my men play them either. Something about piss stream instruments in their homes only handled by-"

"Do you mean 'pristine' instruments?" Captain Jack interjected, furrowing his brows trying to make sense of what he just heard.

"Exactly. Only to be handled by pretty steen hands."

Captain Jack rolled his eyes at the still slightly butchered pronunciation.

"And you know how that goes." He leaned on to the railing and looked up Captain Jack, eyes filled with desperation.

"Please, spare an old sailor's life and mind from these royals and go after the folk who did this? You do not have to catch 'em if you do not want to. But you are headed in that direction and they won't know a difference. Their ship was darker color in the distance but up close it looked like some sort of veil was covering it. And it had these prit steen purple sails. But I also think they might 'ave been made of gold too, somehow!" He threw his arms up in amazement at the memory of when they were being boarded. "Sun glinting off the back and everything!"

The captain began waving him off and was about to order his crew to weigh anchor and resume course before the older man called out to him again.

"And crossbones! A black flag with skull and bones like you would imagine those bastards to take pride in."

And just like that. Captain Jack's fatal flaw, loyalty, had just kicked in.

Captain Jack began barking orders at the rest of the officers to drop the sails and haul wind and immediately. He walked back to where he was listening to the man before.

The old captain was horrified, the sight of Captain Jack approaching him with the murderous look in his eyes, the man threw his hands up in a show of surrender when he drew his pistol and looked to aim it at the man.

"Wait! Please! What are you doing?!" He cried out, hiding behind the railing of his already raided ship.

"Dogs." Captain Jack said with a personal hatred in his chest and aimed his flintlock at the merchant ship before pulling the trigger. One last cry sputtered out of the old captain that day.

"Pl-plea-"

BANG

The older man's heart stopped at the murderous sound.

Shortly after, when he realized he still felt it beating anyway, he peered over the railing to see the rope that held both ships together was severed on his side. Shot with captain Jack's flintlock. No warning, no concern for the man at all.

With a hand tightly clutching his chest and ears ringing slightly, the older merchant captain now had to reconsider if it would be better on this wretched sea to find what he saw walking toward the steering wheel on the man o' war that already began its course to the island or the "dogs" who killed some of his crew earlier that day, their blood staining the deck.

The sun had barely lowered to sit on the horizon by the time they saw the island in view. Unmistakably the one where the merchants and lords were robbed and the dark ship with purple sails confirmed it when they began leaving just shortly before.

They had found them. The pirate scum on their waters that was polluting and robbing the innocent.

"Sail ho!" The officer had called from the birds nest. "Sail ho!"

The officers on deck that heard had chanted it as well until every life on the ship knew and repeated it themselves. An indication that a ship had been spotted.

"Run a shot across the brow!" The captain barked at the officers on his ship with a venom practically pouring out of his mouth like an animal that found the prey that has been alluding it for days. Looking down at the officers relaying his orders from his position on the helm above the rest of the crew that no one else was allowed on without his approval. "Let them know the end draws near and their vile ways will be judged soon enough."

From below deck one of the cannons at the fore (front) end of the ship, near the bow, shot past the bowsprit (or nose) where the figure head had been. An elegant lion, signaling their concurrent military service to the queen as part of her navy.

If the pirates were not aware of them yet, they were now when the front cannon shot had landed close enough to alert the crew to be warned of the imminent attack from the man o' war but far enough that some of them still winced. Knowing "warning shot" for the captain meant striking their helmsmen clean off the damned thing or suffering his ire.

The dark ship appeared a bit scattered before slowing to turn back to the shores they had just left, probably relishing in their victory over a simple merchant ship. The captain, wide in his stance and powerful, lead the hunt against these animals and cursed them under his breath and bile in his chest.

Dogs

It was what the navy had deemed appropriate to call such creatures. Sub human filth that spread terror, killing happiness and peace wherever they went.

"Lions on dogs!" He yelled at the officers to rile them up, and it had worked. Most repeated it when they heard but some preffered trying to roar like the lions themselves. It always reassured the naval officers to know they were working to stop evil and keep the people safe.

Within minutes they had caught up and steered into the wide shore that had a modest enough entrance with its large hills separating the shore, like a pond, from the rest of the sea. When the captain called to attack they began firing the forward cannons, not losing a second trying to sink the band of criminals. But instead of being an enclosed shore the pirates had begun to sail down a river on their starboard side (right of a ship) that quickly curved right and forced the warship, Brutalis, to follow.

During the first part of the chase when the the river had gradual shifts that led to sharper turns, the man once before in the crow's nest had climbed down to inform them the name of the galleon he had seen been barely able to see during one of their sharper turns through jaggedly cut black cloth using the banana yellow color of the ship beaneath to fill in the lettering.

"Ira dei." The officer told them when he climbed off the ladder. "I think the name of it is Ira Dei, sir!"

The captain scrunched his face at the name of such a pathetic band of pirates. Their cannon fire had been an uncoordinated, out of sync volley first before they first entered the river where almost none of shots came meaningfully close to hitting them. Except for one or two lucky ones that only managed to partially strike their hull but caused no damage.

"Gods wrath?" The captain heard one of the gunners on the maindeck ask the others. "Did I hear that right?" But before any of them could answer the captain ruthlessly shot down any possibility of doubt among his crew like a bullet cured a rabid dog.

"Is a name unearned, boys. Don't fixate on a mistranslation that a pack of dogs managed to carve into some cloth and hang from their stolen ship."

The officers went back to focusing on their stations and thought of what stolen treasure might still be left when the barrels full of it were getting thrown overboard. They were running away scared, trying to lower the weight of their ship and the man o' war knew when they breached open waters again that the galleon would show them real wrath. Enough to have them speaking to Davy Jones himself.

After half an hour of a slowed pursuit down through the river and a thin canal, the man o' war had gradually lost sight of the galleon but knew neither of them could turn their ships back and so they pressed on until they stumbled into a large ravine. With loose rock wall on either side of them, no one spoke louder than hushed whispers for fear of accidentally causing some of it fall down atop them.

They had begun speaking to each other about what they always did to pass the time. Passing stories about the sorts of things that could go wrong at sea.

"I heard there was a storm somewhere north of her Majesty's kingdom by a week or more that some of the people there said they saw trees falling down a hundred miles or more from the coast."

"Bollocks." One of the other gunners had said. "Complete bollocks. There is no way a storm could have gone that far into the mainland from shore."

"It is true!" The first one was shushed by some of the other officers on deck.

"It is true." He repeated, quieter than before. "Said they don't think they did anything to deserve it but when asked if they worshipped Zeus, Poseidon or the like they said no. They were bloody Catholics."

The officers who heard looked down and made a face like a naked man had approached them to ask if they knew where his clothes were.

"That will do it."

"Yep, and get this. They also never-"

Boom

A small booming noise in the distance had come to reverberate between the shaking of the rocky cliffsides to hit Brutalis. Some of the crew jumped as they had been on edge since entering the claustrophobic valley that felt more and more like the earth itself had risen her hands up to clap them out of existence. Looking up, there were no signs of a storm above them and the galleon could have probably already sailed off the coast of the island and into open waters by now, too far to seemingly hit them.

And yet, every officer aboard that ship knew what they heard. That sound had come from somewhere.

Moments passed. The echoing silence of all the military officers louder than the rockface that was still shaking slightly from the force of the noise. Some even made sure to pray as they-

Crash!

Hands over their heads, every person above deck had flicked their attention to the sight high atop the mountain side and saw the blowback of debris had launched from the small, dim bolt of lightning that must have quietly struck when no one was looking. It had not even illuminated the valley they were sailing through.

"Watch it!" The veteran captain of Brutalis had called out to the crew from his position at the helm. "The Rocks will crush ya!" No sooner had he said that did the crew finally witness the more sizable parts of cliffside come crashing down on them.

Panic. In a hurry to move through the death trap that felt like the gods had hated the mention of their names during anything other than prayer, the crew above deck scattered to avoid being crushed to death by any of the falling rocks. However, their ship did not go unscathed. Every cannon on the bow of the ship was reported as being disabled when the figurehead had fallen off after the bowsprit was completely decimated by the falling rocks. Almost all of the sails of the foremast had been rendered useless and some of the main topgallant sail was damaged, too. The ship suffered a heavy loss in speed and the many of the officers below deck prayed while other had been moved to replace the few that were injured by the sudden act of the gods will. If the officer stayed in the crow's nest they probably would have been killed, and so, safe from injury he prayed and told the others above deck to do it as well they get the chance. They would need their blessings to survive something like that again.

The man o' war cautiously sailed on the anxiously shallow but wide river before coming to an opening. The captain of Brutalis steered into it and made to vote on which of the two possible exits they wanted to take.

"There is a gangway out to sea on port and starboard sides. Which one do-"

Boom

The same sound as before. The captain and officers of Brutalis searched for the source of that noise before a mortar shot from beyond the north-western exit had grazed the starboard side railing and bit through some of the gunwale, as well. Without a moment to think, the captain steered towards the north-eastern exit.

"Show a leg and weigh anchor, you fools!" He barked at the men on deck, still reeling from what just happened, to stop lazing about and get the ship moving.

"These scoundrels do not wear long clothes! And they know that dead men tell no tales, so if you expect any quarter from 'em then get off my ship!" A warning that the once seemingly unskilled group of pirates they chased were not as fresh to the water as once thought, and they were never merciful enough to take officers as prisoners.

"They are coming about!" He bellowed out more warnings, seeing the ship pull out from behind the hills and trees at the port side exit. Sailing beyond the cove in open waters the veiled ship, accented with those damned purple and golden sails, had taken at least some of their hits and knocked loose some of the veil to show more of the colors beneath. What looked like a banana color before, according to the officer in the crow's nest, was actually more of a selective yellow or gold.

He could barely see written on the side of it where the part of the dark veil thrown over to cover it had been torn, a name. Before he could see the true name of the vessel that tricked them, three separate, coordinated volleys shot downwind at their ship. Hitting what once remained of their great sails, they further lost speed and came frighteningly close to immobilizing it before it had gone behind the wide section of hill and trees that turned this cove into a dog's playpen.

"We must bring a spring upon her cable! Smartly!" The captain yelled at the crew with an unusual lump in his throat and made a sharp turn port side, aiming for the exit the galleon had just crossed seconds ago, believing them to lure him towards another ambush on the eastern gangway when he saw movement in the bushes over there.

The commotion of the officers was getting increasingly difficult to command, shaken up with how quickly the tides have changed in the favor of these no name dogs aboard a simple galleon. Something that had no hope of facing down their vessel in an even skirmish.

He knew they needed to get out in the open water to have a clear shot at them and a chance with their sails tattered compared to what they had an hour ago. It was only very near the western exit when they were about to cross the crevice into open waters before one of the officers near the nose end of the deck had managed to see the bowstrip of that damned galleon slowly come into view.

"Sink me." The officer said, skin paler than a fresh deck, mouth agape as the enemy ship erupted into view from behind the hill and trees before shouting. "Sail ho! Sail ho!"

Every deckhand, above and below, held on for dear life as they realized they were prepared to be hit with a synchronized volley of cannon fire that had not been shot from this side of the galleon during the entire chase.

There was a loud noise at the bow which halted their ship so harshly the captain shifted on the helm and hit his head on one of the handles that protruded from the rim of the steering wheel. He could barely hear someone yell something from below deck as he laid on his back.

After recuperating for a few seconds, he managed stand again just in time to see the mainmast barely widen the slightest amount and his officers looking around for something. One of them pointed up at it, the slight ringing in his ears meant he could not hear what the officer said but the others looked spooked by whatever happened.

He made his way to midship and looked up to see a large, golden stick stabbed into his mainmast. Before he could ask what happened he heard a woman in the distance.

"My name is Reyna." She said, almost sounding like she held divine authority "I am Captain Of The Ira Dae and Harbinger Of The Gods Wrath."

No one said anything and he was about to bark an order at the officers again before she spoke.

"I will give you one blessing to survive this encounter." Captain Jack could not believe he saw some of the officers breaking down. Crying, even. He looked up at her and saw had drawn a sword and aimed it almost directly at him.

"Leave now. Or die."

At her back, an entire chorus of pirates had roared from above deck in agreement while the sound of cannon fire began and shots came in crisscrossed, effectively grazing the body of Brutalis in a way that shook the bones of every officer aboard. Mini tremors of an earthquake so powerful it could be felt on water and she summoned it as easily she would the air from her lungs.

"Abandon ship!" An officer called from below deck. "Abandon-"

A loud splash in the water signaled the man had gone over board and soon every other coward jumped ship, too. Leaving Captain Jack almost entirely alone on this vessel. Dazed and confused, he would have drawn his blade had he not promptly fell over and passed out.

The last thought any of the other officers had before were convinced.

This was not simply a woman who commanded the crew on a ship. This was a figure who could summon the very winds to her beck and call, for the earth itself to rise up and drop boulders on them. She orders them to jump from ships she claims but has never stood foot upon, believing if they do not obey it would incur her wrath.

She ended this fight sooner than they could draw a blade, before even a single drop of blood had shed from a member of her crew.

This was the power, fear and eminence of a Goddess of War.