Chapter one
Captain Of Ira Dae
The hearty crew of this galleon was packed full of pirates, serving every type of need it had in order to safely transport the crew and cargo it was taking from the queen herself.
The sun was centered right in the middle of a beautiful blue sky when they caught the merchant ship that was ushered into the shore they had waited in. The older captain of the merchant vessel was warning Captain Reyna (or just (The) Captain as she had gone by for years now) about a fearsome group of navy officers that would surely come upon them unexpectedly if they continued this line of work. He said they were the pride of Her Majesty's power and would never let a band of pirates roam these waters for long. Reyna felt content with her chances.
"I have no other choice!" He shouted over the gap to the ship he was taken from, with its sails furled at the pirate captain's behest and his whole crew and passengers above deck in a line to communicate. "If they wish to take your weapons, jewels, instruments, anything! Just let them!"
The old man looked anxious from The Captain's position in front of his crew and passengers. Calm enough that he might only start pulling his hair out later on when he found some officers to complain about what happened.
"You took our payment and promised us safe travel!" One of the passengers shouted back, distressed by the crew members Reyna brought over to keep them in check.
"They would have blowen us to smithereens from their position ahead if you have forgotten already! And I knew you would 'ave preffered getting home butt naked to never seeing her again! So I wave a white flag and let me crew and you live another day like a good captain should. Just do what the Captain says!" He was further dragged along by one of the taller and bulkier crew members, Frank, to wait near the helm of her ship.
Captain Reyna stood in front of the crew and passengers, midline, center of their attention before speaking to them.
"Would anyone like to step forward and go on account?" A common saying to indicate someone's choice to a life of piracy. When no one made a move toward her, she continued. "Very well. I am sure your reasonable captain has just as reasonable a crew as well."
The Captain, with her golden javelin in hand and dark hair, braided and resting on her right shoulder. It moved to fall behind her as she turned to look back at her ship to see Frank still holding the older captain with ease. The woman swore some part of him was part animal, like a bear or bull, with the strength he possessed. They locked eyes and he nodded, letting Reyna know he was facing no trouble from the older captain as he handled him.
The woman swore some part of him was part animal, like a bear or bull, with the strength he possessed.
They locked eyes and he nodded, letting Reyna know he was facing no trouble from the older captain as he handled him. So she turned back to the line of people in front of her.
"You know the drill."
And just like that, two crew members on either sides of the line with sacks began making their way to the middle where she stood, collecting anything the people had on them. Weapons, jewels, instruments. Just like the older captain said.
She noticed a man closer to the woman collecting things on her left, Hazel. A young woman with curly, light brown hair long enough to reach the middle of her chest.
He was fidgeting and had not taken his eyes off her. He also had one hand closer to the other's wrist while facing slightly away from her. Without realizing it Reyna had already walked over and raised to press the spearhead of her javelin against the man's throat.
"What are you-"
"Stop. Drop it." There was a calm tone in her voice. Confident he would still listen to reason.
"I..." The man seemed to struggle with the idea of being allowed to live. "I can't stand by and let you do this!"
The older captain of the merchant ship called out, still in Frank's grasp.
"Don't do it, Billy!"
But before he could listen to his orders he already grabbed the shaft of her javelin with the same arm that he was hiding a small knife in the sleeve of and moved it around to try and cut at her. Both crew members dropped the sack of goods they held and drew their weapons along with every other pirate in the boarding party still above deck and moved to action. A few other members of the merchant crew began to draw blades, as if spurred on by his lone act of defiance.
Reyna stepped back, switching the hand she held the javelin with to her left before drawing her sword in a motion that crossed the gap, slicing his left forearm and making him release her javelin and step away. Reyna swung the javelin over head and in an act of long hours practiced, switched weapon hands to rest the javeline in her right arm. Pointing at another crew member who had approached her with his sword drawn, she had hers aimed at the one who started this in her left hand. Without a moment to tell them to stand down, they both lunged.
She moved right to stab the man but he stayed just out of reach. The other man on her left, Billy, pursued her without such an imposing barrier between them. He thrust while she slashed to keep him at bay. After a few moments of this the man to her right unintentionally overstepped and was stabbed in the stomach as a result and fell to the ground. She moved toward him, grabbing it by the middle of the shaft while still swinging her sword to keep Billy at bay.
Reyna pulled the javelin out of the sailors stomach who lied on the deck, staining it with blood, and carefully kicked just above the spearhead pointing at the floor. It propelled upward as if she was wielding it with two hands and found its place in Billy's left shoulder. He cried out in pain when the sensation of her javelin pierced the bone in his shoulder and fell back to the floor rather than move further into it. By the time this had transpired the rest of the crew dropped their weapons of laid dead on the floor like the man behind her, clutching his stomach, soon will be.
"B-bastards! You murdered him!" Billy clutched his shoulder with his right hand.
"Yes." Reyna had made no attempt to defend her actions. "Do you wish to join him?"
Billy looked back and forth between his friend and the almost ethereal figure stood before him.
"No..."
"Good." She slammed foot down on the deck of the ship hard, two times. The rest of the pirates who were involved in the skirmish and those that came back up echoed her actions, letting any of her crew currently aboard but searching below deck to know that a fight had ended and could continue their work without needing to come up to check.
Reyna looked to Hazel and the sack she carried now on the floor.
"Continue with the collection, I am going to see if the others found anything below."
"Yes Captain!" Hazel said with an upbeat tone, like the rush of the fight still coursed through her. But right after Reyna turned around to walk to the stairwell, Hazel yelped.
"Reyna! Look out!"
As easy as breathing, Reyna stepped forward before shifting on her feet to turn around and slash across Billy's chest with her sword after he tried stabbing her in the back
"Ah!" He dropped the knife and uncomfortably tried covering his chest with his left arm, hurting his shoulder more in the process. "You bitch!"
"So, you did want to join him?" Sheathing her sword, Reyna moved to hold the javelin in both hands and aimed it close to Billy's face.
"Better than standing by and letting you rob and murder and steal from-"
"Billy!" the older captain called out to him. "Just sto-"
There was a swift motion as Reyna moved her javelin to strike Billy.
Thud
Now, on the deck of the wooden ship he stood on just seconds earlier, laid Billy as had fallen down, bleeding into it with the rest of them.
Hazel, almost as if she was holding her breath, turned to look and exhaled in relief. Reyna had only swung to strike him in the side of his head with the heel of her javelin, knocking him out before making her way below deck to check on the others.
The captain of the merchant ship, whom actually had held his breath, nearly lost his guts along with it when let it out as he realized the pirate captain had only struck his idiot son's head instead of killing him outright. Evidenced by the way her javelin had not been coated in blood after running it through him like he expected and could still be seen breathing, if only slightly, and bleeding onto his ship.
The sun had just only lowered to rest itself on the cool horizon by the time Reyna saw them in the distance. Undoubtedly a man o' war, black and red like the queen had ordered them all to be and her spotter confirmed it.
"Sail ho!" One of the crew member shouted from the crow's nest. "Sail ho! It is a man o' war! Name's Brutalis by the looks of it!"
The people on deck that heard had chanted it as well until every person on the ship knew and repeated it themselves.
"Fifth Cohort!" The Captain said to everyone on their ship with an authority that held a shielded concern she felt for these people. "Prepare for-"
A shot from their forward cannons landed closely enough that it would have scared them without the confidence they had in The Captain. Knowing "warning shots" meant The Captain was already executing a plan she thought of before on how to keep everyone safe.
"An attack!" Gesturing to her second most trusted helmsman and issuing a silent order with a motion of her head that Annabeth wordlessly understood. The blonde woman moved from the starboard side of the helm where she was evaluating the enemy ship with her spy glass and took the handles of the ship's wheel, letting Reyna descend to the deck with the rest of the crew.
"Fifth Cohort on deck! Essential crew stay your stations! The rest of you, make a poor lap around deck! Arms up!" Initiating a somehow near perfect running form with her arms above head swinging around and toned calves carrying her easier than wings could have a bird could fly.
Reyna started towards the foredeck and back, showcasing what she meant. Some of the more cheerful members of the crew even made playful, half assed and quiet screaming noises like the ship caught a big tide while they were using one of the heads (toilet hole).
When it looked like most of them made a terrible show of athleticism and even burned some nervous energy, Reyna instructed Annabeth to turn the ship around and head back to shore where the river had been and ran down the stairwell to the lower deck.
"Fifth Cohort! First level!" Reyna opened a nearby barrel with the golden dagger she kept hanging from her lower back. "Open up any barrels we have not containing food or water!" She grabbed one of the nearby empty sacks from the storage area.
"Put as many silks and valuables you find in these sacks." She made a show of holding up the sack and dropping a necklace into it. "Dyes are to be emptied last." She handed the sack to Hazel who was normally quick to help and continued.
"Dyes come last! I want as many barrels available as you can make." She worked her way cracking open more barrels with her knife as the crew first level started grabbing the other sacks.
"Then I want as many empty barrels as we can get above deck! And one sack of the shiniest necklaces you get from these!" She moved to another crew member and pulled him to the stair well.
"Go down to second level and get someone to help you bring any empty sacks up here to for the barrels."
"Yes Captain!" The man she instructed went down the steps without hesitation.
"I want at least five empty barrels!" She turned back to them from the steps leading above deck. "If you need to, take any of the half emptied barrels and dump one into the other!"
"Yes Captain!" The crew of first level called out while their hands still worked, opening barrels and emptying them into sacks.
"Frank!"
Frank stopped what he was doing near the mainmast and stood at attention.
"First level will be bringing up empty barrels and a sack of valuable soon. I want you and one other to put a cannon ball or two into each barrel and throw them overboard after one of you positions some of the shinier jewelry to stick out so the officers see them. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes Captain!" Frank saluted and went to find someone he trusted above deck to help.
He and Hazel made a cute couple, Reyna thought to herself before coming back up to the helm.
"Any orders, Captain?"
"Yes. I need you to go to down to second level and start making calculations for the ballista again." This was normally a three or four person job to do it quickly enough but Annabeth more than proved her mental prowess, time and again.
"For intimidation or damage?"
"Intimidation, but I imagine you will figure out both by the time I give you the order."
"Oh, thank you." A hand came up to her mouth to coyly feign being a kind of humble that you would never see when she was blatantly outplaying everyone else on board at chess. "I did not know you trusted me that much."
"Quite the opposite." Reyna corrected her. "I just know you will go down and do it regardless of the team I assign."
Annabeth was already down the stairs by that point without a weight on her shoulders. The thought of being able to spend time doing math problems as her job gave the woman a sense of joy that no one else on the crew had for it. It was probably why she did it so well.
Comforted by the sight of her crew member confident in her own abilities and unphased by what the gods had thrown her way, Reyna would lead her crew with near surgical precision to not just escape the much larger warship. She planned on robbing them blind, if possible.
Within minutes the man o' war caught up and steered into the semi-open shore. The first part of Reyna's trap that was created in case the raid on the merchant vessel had gone sideways. Prepositioned to already be facing the warship, she called out to her crew, with a few dummy barrels ready to drop off the port side and all the gunmen instructed to focus on the starboard side cannons only. All the gunports on the port side had been closed except for one, where Annabeth would continuously write down calculations for multiple angles and types of ballista fire.
With complete command of her crew that had more respect for her fill their chests than fear had ever shook their bones. She ordered them to alternate in broken volleys that made them look like they were scared asunder at the sight of these officers chasing them as she sailed for the river heading inland, not knowing she also had them shoot to miss more than hit.
She managed to keep just far enough ahead of the man o' war chasing them that during their "escape" she tricked the larger vessel into believing her crew of pirates were a small bunch of lackluster, tired thieves who prayed on smaller ships unlikely to survive more than a single, broken volley of cannon fire. With every shot of her cannons either missing or ordered to only graze the behemoth's gunwale, there was suddenly no fear to be had on the man o' war when relentlessly hunting down their ship and her crew.
Lions on dogs, as they were told so many times before. Reyna knew well the motto of the royal navy when hunting down criminals.
With their galleon clearly adorned with the same marking that identified every ruthless pirate ship that sailed these waters. A black flag with two long and slender bones crossing diagonally behind an ivory skull. She also made them believe they were a terror enough on these waters (they were) to warrant such a brazen showing of intentions. And so the man o' war in the position that it was, had been obligated by law to hunt down and eliminate the vessel they happened upon, regardless of the circumstances. Unlucky enough for them, that was exactly what she counted on.
Throwing barrels overboard, their original contents emptied into sacks below decks, replaced with a cannon ball or two to preserve their resources should this plan not work. With a few jeweled necklaces and finery precisely placed beforehand, the glint of treasure that stuck out of the barrels were like the flowers that grew from trees. Only instead of plants, what was brought to life by these soft rays o' golden light was the ruse Reyna was crafting before them. The roots digging into the minds of these officers onboard the man o' war and spreading like weeds, which only served to further convince them of the lies she so tactfully left before them like a trail breadcrumbs.
But had they kept an ear out for all the different iterations of stories, of the tale of two siblings, instead of just silencing everything that displeased them and declaring one "true" narrative, then they would remember that the breadcrumbs they used to find their way back? Was more than a one way avenue from the witch's house. They would know when they forgot to pick it up the trail worked for the witch as well, and when she found them sleeping softly, peacefully in their home?
These breadcrumbs lead them to her cottage just as much as it lead her to theirs. But they had forgotten to lock their windows and she would never forget how they tried to kill her. She would use that trail the same as they, not caring for the pedantics of how one is or is not the hero of a story others will reshape as they please. Just to sleep easier at night. In bed, content with the perfect skin that never knew the pain of what they wrought. To reap what they sow.
There was nothing either of the siblings could do before the witch, covered in boiled skin still learning to scar, took their whole family and them back to her house and ate them all. Oh, how this so called trail they believed would help bring an end to the nightmare they were in had forgotten about after permanently disfiguring the witch in her own home. She was suffering, too.
Believing the galleon to have been accumulating this wealth over time with ambush tactics and better odds than what they face now. The red herring only further served to convince them that, pitiful as they thought they were, her crew was robbing countless vessels to amass such an array of riches. Reyna rememberd the name Brutalis (Otherwise known as "Brutal") written under the bulwark on the man o' war as she made a turn with her galleon that they never could.
Forcing it to slow down for fear of crashing otherwise and growing the gap between them enough that Reyna could maintain a healthy distance far enough that she (and her crew) might be safe but somehow never far enough away for them to lose interest and stop their pursuit. Exactly like the sort of filth they always warned people pirates to be. Typical.
The only sign of intelligence the warring ship believed her crew had was dumping these barrels, overflowing with stolen riches to the eyes of the officers, into the waters below off the port side as an attempt to get away from the warship even faster.
High on the horses that their ship could no doubt easily accomodate, Reyna knew the officers on Brutalis were likely foaming at the mouth, thinking of the injustice that has been committed on the waters that they have for so long called theirs.
Finally, after having fully painted the image of them that she wanted in their collective hive mind, Reyna knew the opposing crew thought the grave she had dug for them was just an inconspicuous hole they stumbled upon. One that contained a chest they only so rightly deserved for their troubles, unable to see it for the casket that it was.
It is not that deep, They likely told themselves.
We cannot be fooled into such an obvious trap. Is no doubt what rang through their ears as they pursued the galleon with a fervor that would make her believe, if she did not know any better, that she might have fucked their wives a dozen times, too.
Maybe they if they all lived through this she could at least send the widows flowers.
The bright, golden rays of Apollo's sun no longer shone, fading quickly to near nothingness in such a short span of time. Both ships had already been sailing on the large rivers heading inland from the outskirts of the island when they were first spotted and now carefully altered their course to sail through a smaller canal.
Reyna could see in the dark the officers of Brutalis scrambled to light the lanterns at the fore end of their hulking ship to better see the object of their disdain.
The dimensions, making it suicidal for others to engage it in naval combat to the point it is comparable to a trial from the gods themselves for every other vessel, would also have the admittable fault of being less agile than smaller ships. A quality that rarely came up when the mere size of it would deter any sane crew from challenging them.
Not even the speed of it would likely be surpassed by anything but a sloop as the larger sails allowed it to carry more wind. But the size of the hull and weight of the ship was so much, anything less than full mast would usually mean it was proportionally much slower than the other ships one could find themselves aboard and needed more space making turns. Like when a man would need a ledge to climb high up a steep hill. Or slow to a pace that lets dandelions sleep well.
And when the sloop with its superior speed stood no match against it in terms of fire power, there was nothing else a fair fight would allow it to lose. An ambush with multiple smaller ships, another man o' war or a blessing from the gods themselves could you normally survive being hunted down by these abominations firing upon you in open waters.
But they were not stripped of hope yet. This was not open waters. And Reyna had commmaned her crew through worse. Their ship could maneuver through the more constricted paths they were now forced to take.
It is in no way ideal having a man try and shoot your aft off with the cannons at the front of his bow but it was too tight for either of them to turn back now. Pushing forward aggresively through the tight canal like they were trying to ram into her ship. Normally these types of characters would be the kind Reyna always passed on, but they started it... And by the gods, she would make sure to finish them off.
The man o' war somehow man a' ged to still follow after them in spite of their size normally preventing this type of travel and soon lost the ability to hit the galleon even with the cannons at the fore end of their warship.
Before long, they had lost sight of the galleon entirely, being unequipped to thrive in the restricted path boths vessels were on. It became obvious the further they went why they could not keep up and would only be able to chase after them when they breached open waters.
Making another sharp turn around the equivalent of a corner, Reyna kept the pressure of needing to sail their ship through a more troubling part of the path when the island they were sailing within grew into a narrow valley of unsteady, rocky cliff face.
They quickly squeezed through as the dangers of the sudden mountains dwarfing them were too much for anyone to safely stay under. Reyna had already familiarized herself with these types of hazards during her time commanding this ship and from her training in the royal navy. But it was a day passed the last full moon and the extra high tide would be felt by the hull of every sea vessel tonight.
While there was no issue in finding where to go, the officers of Brutalis often had to slow their course to keep from running aground in their pursuit. Sure that they would only come upon them in open waters when Reyna and her crew might have a chance to fully escape, they pressed on. Not with any other choice available to them either way. If the low tide had hit where they are now the ship could get stuck and all 800 men aboard would be at the mercy of any falling rocks. As powerful as the man o' war was, no sailor in their right mind would trifle with the odds of Poseidon suddenly growing angry.
Reyna had stationed two of her crew members on a rowboat she left at the end of the water lane following the valley and ordered them to signal her when the warship looked like it made it halfway passed the gorge.
"Annabeth!" Reyna called to the woman who had already been brought up to do the calculations for the mortar she had positioned on the foredeck. "Are you ready?"
"Yes Captain!"
"Then on my mark! Be prepared to set sail again as soon as we fire!"
Glancing behind their ship, Reyna looked through the spy glass to watch for signal. After a few minutes, a torch was lit and she called out another order.
"Fire and set sail!"
There was a boom at the front of their ship, careful to avoid any sails and aimed perfectly at the cliffside Brutalis would be under any second now. Shortly after the sound of an echoing crash, the rowboat was pulled along by a rope and Reyna moved to the final stage of her plan.
Reyna steered their ship out of the left exit from the cove they arrived in to breach open waters, barely making it before low tide, likely making it impossible for them cross back over until the sun had risen again.
"Fifth Cohort!" Reyna called to her crew. "We made it out!"
An eruption of cheers and stomps from the deck came before being followed by more cheers and stomping from below deck.
"Low tide will have them locked in there while we make our escape." She jerked her thumb back to point in the direction of where they left. "But I do not think that is just another navy ship passing by.
"If the information is reliable then there was not supposed to be anything like that near here."
"Does that mean someone sold us out?" One of the crew members asked.
"Are we working with a turn coat?" Said another one.
"Calm yourselves!" Reyna told them as firm but gently as she could. "No, it does not mean that we were betrayed. And if we were it would not change the position we are in right now."
"Were they not mentioned because they have higher security needs than other vessels?" Annabeth asked, moving away from the mortar to join the talk. Reyna nodded at the suggestion.
"That is what I believe, yes." She stepped to the side of the wheel, keeping a hand on it to maintain the position of their ship's rudder. "Thank you Annabeth."
Annabeth beamed while quiet grumbles rumbled out of some of the other crew members on deck and muttered something about a teacher's pet.
"Which is why I propose this idea to you." Reyna's mouth thinned not to a frown but pursed her lips in focus. "We stay. We fire on them using the mortar the same as before then sweep past the exit we just left to disable their sails with cannon fire. Hopefully, they will be marooned by that point and we might be able to scare them off the ship without any more bloodshed or we can shoot them using the port side cannons if need be." Reyna grabbed hold of the wheel and made to turn around left, knowing her crew well enough to not need an answer.
"If they are on a more important mission and merely followed us out of obligation to the law, they might have things of more importance aboard they do not want to lose."
A round of cheers came from the pirate crew.
"If we manage to disable their sails and frighten the crew away that could give us plenty of time to search it before needing to leave when another comes looking."
Without waiting for the order, her crew set off to work while she moved their ship into position and waited for the rowboat to give them the signal.
After what felt like half an hour, the plan finally sprung into action
Boom
The mortar manned by one of the crew members who had Annabeth's calculations for the shot lined up fired and Reyna could barely hear the splintering of wood as her crew got the ship moving.
"Fifth cohort!" Reyna shouted froom her place at the helm. "Ready on the cannons!"
The Ira Dae had just passed the last section of hill and trees that obscured them from vision with where they were on the open water. Brutalis was in rough shape. The mortar fire on the mountain side did more than Reyna was expecting.
"Fire!"
Her crew did as instructed. Allowing even spacing so none of the cannon balls ricocheted off each other, they all shot at the sails. The main concern when fighting had to be eliminated.
"Brace yourselves!" Reyna yelled again. "Sharp turn starboard side!"
She steered from one side with the help of Frank on the other. Turning the wheel even faster than either could reasonably manage alone and pulled an arcing right to swoop back in front of the cove's exit again.
They moved slow enough not to require such a large distance and managed to make it in time for Reyna to move to her position at midship and watch as Brutalis to hit the shore where low tide incurred stronger penalties for larger, heavier ships.
Sssssplash!
Reyna could hear an anxious shout from their ship and knew this was the time to strike. Reyna walked back and forth behind the railing of their ship and called out to the officers aboard that man o' war.
"I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost." Silence from the other ship. Good.
"Justice has caused my high architect to move." Reyna called out again, seeing some of the officers just stand around.
"Divine power created me!" She stopped. Standing in place as another person handed her her javeline.
"The highest wisdom, and the primal love." Reyna stepped back slightly and lowered herself, as if preparing to throw the weapon in her hand instead of letting one of the crew members take it while she feigned one with hope that Annabeth had worked out the positioned needed for this shot.
"Before me there was nothing free, but those that last forever-" Their cue. Reyna twisted her body perfectly like the many times she threw it before but this time, Hazel was there to pull it back from her hand to make it look like it left her hand.
All of the people aboard the pirate ship roared and stomped their feet to hide the sound of Annabeth shooting a ballista, hoping to hit something significant. Not even Reyna had quite been able to see knowing where to look for it.
"As do I." A few fleeting moments felt like an eternity Reyna. They could shoot at them but nonetheless, Reyna always felt personally responsible for every misact on their ship.
A second later the officers on Brutalis jumped suddenly and Reyna could partially make out where the especially thicker and heavier gold javeline had pierced the mainmast. Reyna was sure to thank Annabeth later. One of the officers even screamed when they saw it and shouted for others to look.
"Abandon all hope you who enter here." Reyna felt the heat at her back almost instantly as some of the crew lit the giant fire bowl behind her. She grabbed onto the rigging and pulled herself up to stand on the railing and stood in front of every person in her crew, making sure none would have been hit before her.
The long purple coat she had on almost reacted to the fire itself and swayed a little in the gentle warm breeze that kissed her back. A lover letting you know you were doing a good job when you were exhausted. She even felt the light of the moon caress her face so gently for a second she held back tears and hoped this would not be another rug pulled out from under her.
"My name is Reyna." She told them, not letting a single emotion escape her lips but the feeling of control. The kind of control love has on poets, with a hand around their heart. "I am Captain Of The Ira Dae and Harbinger Of The Gods Wrath."
Impatient but still relieved none of them had moved to try and attack, she shouted once more.
"I will give you one blessing to survive this encounter." Reyna could have sworn she saw some of the officers almost breakdown, crying in relief. She drew her sword and aimed it at Brutalis. Even if she had to do it by herself, none of them would harm her crew while she still lives and breathes. Mustering up every ounce of power in her body, she gave them two options.
"Leave now. Or die."
Without instruction the people behind her yelled in support before the organized cannon fire began again.
Someone yelled and stumbled out of a gunport on their port side into the water below.
The cannons did their job, encouraging the other officers to jump ship and make way for land to scurry away.
Even scouting the island days before and pooling over every possible outcome that could happen, it never eased Reyna's worry. Any one of these days she might not have been enough to protect the people she cared about.
This was not simply a woman who commanded the crew on a ship. This was a person who would not stop until she created strategies even the gods would borrow from, winning battles thought impossible for anyone else but her. She convinced men to jump from ships she claims but has never stood foot upon, believing she was an omen of the gods wrath.
To end the fighting sooner than anyone else, before even a single drop of blood had shed from a member of her crew.
This was the stress, pain and responsibility of a leader.