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Jimmy was a merchant by trade, but an adventurer by heart. Many young men dreamed of a life like a traveler’s account, narrating all the beauties and dangers of the world, but few dared to walk the path of an untethered risk-taker.
Left with nothing but his hopes and dreams, Jimmy had decided that he was no longer bound by old obligations.
Admittedly, it hadn’t been entirely his own choice to abandon his home.
He’d been deemed too young for His Majesty’s Navy when he’d wanted to join them, and by now there was no place for him left in the service of the Emperor. Frankly speaking, Jimmy thought the people still signing up to die in the Emperor’s service were at least a little mad.
Jimmy had not hesitated in speaking his mind too, right in the face of a man in a once honorable uniform and paid the price dearly, his stable home now long gone, traded for the road. While the beginning had been challenging even for someone used to the trade routes of the Empire and beyond, by now Jimmy was more than comfortable on his own and had seen the most curious of places.
Right now, he was on his way to the burning Southern Lands, wishing to see them before they too become consumed by disasters. Unfortunately, such expeditions needed more funds than Jimmy had readily available. Thankfully, the city of Charloin always needed workers and was more than willing to give boys with no identification but plenty proof of their strength, work to do. Especially the docks always had a spot open for Jimmy to earn himself his next meal.
Jimmy left behind the inn and leisurely walked down to the docks, passing the various traders and sailors already up and about, most of them nursing a hangover this early in the morning. Whistling, Jimmy picked up his breakfast from the usual stall, a small booth run by a boy the same age as him, but twice as audacious. At least his bread was cheaper than its taste.
By the time Jimmy arrived at the docks, he’d finished chewing and tried to look for the woman he worked for at this hour. On a regular day, the docks would already be desolate at this hour, the fishermen already gone, the merchants not yet a foot out of their door. Today, however, Jimmy couldn’t even spot his employer as a whole crowd of people rushed around, all caught in a frenzy.
Looking around, Jimmy tried to find someone to catch for an explanation, but their hurrying was disorientating, reminding him of a swarm of wasps, waiting for a moment to strike. If Jimmy dared to approach one of these busy workers, they’d be more likely to push him into the ocean than give him an answer. Never before had he seen this place come so alive.
Stumbling down the stone steps to the beach, Jimmy finally spotted someone leisurely walking through the water, seemingly unbothered by the chaos surrounding them.
The man wore only a thin shirt, which wasn’t anything unusual in a city with such a warm climate, but the fabric seemed a lot more luxurious than that of a usual dock worker. Jimmy’s family traded in fabrics from the West and furs from the North. He’d never gotten his brother’s skill at crafting anything with them, but he could discern their quality at a glance.
Even the pants the man wore were embroidered with fine thread, giving away his status. Jimmy had noticed that most people pretending to be of higher status paid the most attention to the jewelry around their necks and wrists, the cut of their jackets, the buttons on their shirts. The further down a gaze went, the less ornate the clothing became and the more likely it was that someone dressed above their station.
Was this some noble deciding to take a break in the port while his servants carried his possessions into his ship?
Jimmy looked around, but none of the ships currently in the harbor looked nice enough to belong to a noble.
Charloin had been abandoned by the Herne duchy a while ago, and most other nobles had left with them as the city fell further into crime and poverty, but Jimmy supposed that some nobles would be crazy enough to come to this lawless land anyway out of curiosity, thinking of those left devastated by disasters as a curiosity to observe.
If the man had time to take a walk on the beach, his servants had to be working in the chaos above. If he could afford such a break, the man had to be nobility and those of higher standing always prided themselves on their money.
Giving the man another once over, Jimmy concluded that if he was particularly rude, Jimmy had nothing to fear from him. He might be taller than Jimmy, but Jimmy’s ability made him stronger than most people.
“Excuse me!” Jimmy called and walked up to the man. “Sorry, Sir, do you have a second?”
The man looked away from the horizon and turned to smile at Jimmy. Seeing his face illuminated by the rising sun, Jimmy’s steps faltered as he was stunned by the man’s beauty. His face wouldn’t look wrong on ornate paintings of the Sun God in the temple, designed only by artists approved by the pope himself. The man’s piercing scarlet eyes reminded him of the sunset, his sun-bleached hair of the sunrise. Despite wading in the water, his pants pulled up to his knees, the man radiated elegance.
“I have all the time in the world,” the man replied calmly and came a little closer until the water was only up to his ankles. “How can I help you?”
Jimmy beamed at him. “I was only wondering if you could tell me why the port is so busy today? Did anything happen?”
The man returned Jimmy’s smile twice as bright. “You haven’t heard it yet? Supplies are coming in.”
Jimmy’s eyes widened. After the disasters and Charloin’s abandonment, the seaside city, previously heavily reliant on trade for supplies, started to suffer quite a bit, so every time a genuine merchant ship with supplies did come, people were grateful. Trading with pirates, after all, could, at any time, invite the presence of His Majesty’s Navy.
Still, something felt off about the situation. What kind of ship was arriving that everyone was so ecstatic?
“That’s good,” Jimmy commented. “Do you also know whose arrival everyone is preparing for?”
The man’s smile turned soft as though he was suddenly overwhelmed by a memory as warm as the sun as he glanced at the horizon anew.
“Of course I know, how could I not? I will know him in every life.” The man laughed for a reason Jimmy couldn’t discern before finally answering his question. “It is Commander Aile and his crew.”
Immediately, as if pierced in his chest by a spear of ice, Jimmy’s thoughts came to a sudden halt, frozen by dread.
“Aile?” he echoed, his voice pitching high as though he were a child again. “The Captain of the Pethuamet’s Wrath?”
The man smiled in amusement. “The very same.”
Commander Aile, Yudrein Aile – there was no person in the Empire who didn’t know of him. The once so loyal Commander in His Majesty’s Navy, seemingly more devoted than anyone else in his service despite all the ridiculing he had to endure because of his commoner origins.
Once, he’d been hailed a hero, praised for his dedication, a role model to all, who hoped to achieve more than the circumstances of their birth.
And then, as though written in a story by a particularly skilled scholar, the tale twisted into tragedy. The once so loyal man betrayed the royal family, cruelly drowning the previous Emperor’s brother in the depths of the sea. The story was that he’d lured the man out to the deck at night and then used his abilities to send him to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again, not even leaving a body for the royal family to bury.
Nobody could discern what had driven Yudrein Aile to murder the Duke of Peletta when, according to rumors, the duke had been the one to vouch for Yudrein Aile in the first place. Why else would the duke have insisted to accompany the man on this voyage?
Naturally, Yudrein Aile hadn’t been accused immediately, a matter people had called an affront as it had allowed the man to prepare his escape. He was such a terror on sea, the Emperor was forced to send his entire armada after him. Even then, capture had been impossible as His Majesty’s Navy could only destroy his ship, and the story was supposed to end with Yudrein Aile sinking to his destined grave.
And yet that wasn’t the end.
The stories said that even the sea detested him so much that it had spit Yudrein Aile out again the moment the white sails of his vessel fully disappeared beneath the surface. Instead, the sea had expelled him right back at the helm of the Pethuamet’s Wrath, a ship carved from wood so dark it resembled the blood of monsters, the sails as pitch black as the soul of its captain.
Not a single story told of Yudrein Aile after his betrayal was kind, yet the arrival of such a man was celebrated here?
For all the chaos surrounding the harbor today, nobody seemed fearful, as though they were just waiting for their execution at the hands of such a cruel man.
“Is that… safe?” Jimmy asked. The words had hardly passed his lips before he already thought of smacking himself. How could he ask a noble if Yudrein Aile’s presence was safe?
The nobleman, however, just started to laugh. “Don’t worry about it. Commander Aile runs a tight ship.”
The man’s reassurances failed to soothe Jimmy’s worries, but they did pique his interest. How was it that this noble spoke so familiarly about the feared pirate captain?
Before Jimmy could ask another question, the noble spoke, “If you’re searching for work, I would try the end of the port. A fisherman just returned and needs help cleaning the fish.”
Jimmy contemplated asking his question anyway, but he knew a dismissal when he heard it. “I do, thank you! Have a good day!”
It was only when Jimmy was already near the stalls again that he realized he had no idea how the noble knew that there was a fisherman at the other end of the port. When he turned around again to look for the noble, the beach was empty. Could he have vanished so quickly? Considering how tightly packed the port was today, it wouldn’t be too difficult to disappear between the masses, yet Jimmy couldn’t help but think that a man this handsome would struggle to make his presence faint.
Confused by the events of the morning, Jimmy still headed to the other side of the port and indeed, there he found an old fisherman waiting for his help, acting as though he’d been waiting for Jimmy all this time.
Given the man’s advanced age, Jimmy concluded that it was simply the onset of a confused mind, and quickly got to work.
X
By the time Jimmy was done working, the harbor’s activity had only exploded further. His employer of the day handed him his promised coin and a basket full of fish to be delivered to the Pethuamet’s Wrath.
Jimmy hadn’t been able to stop himself from gawking when the ship sailed into the port. It wasn’t as big as the grand ships of the imperial armada that Yudrein Aile must have commanded before, but it was still sizeable enough to be home to a dangerous crew and deliver many boxes full of plunder.
The ship was imposing, even from a distance. It was indeed as dark as the night, its sails as black as the rumors, except, and Jimmy wasn’t sure he was trusting his sight quite right, the symbol of the sun proudly displayed on the main sail. It felt like a mockery of the empire, of the man Yudrein Aile had killed so cruelly, but Jimmy had to admit that it was well done. Even the figurehead, the monster the ship was named after, looked not only intimidating but beautiful too. Whoever had carved it must have seen the beast up close before to make it seem so lifelike.
“Go hurry and deliver that basket personally. Be sure to say it’s from me,” the fisherman told Jimmy. “This is the least I can do.”
Jimmy frowned and swallowed an unkind remark. He was not particularly keen to step foot on the ship of the man who had such a horrible reputation, but he’d be lying to himself if he claimed he wasn’t intrigued.
“Why is that so important?” he asked the fisherman. “Are you paying him tribute?”
It wouldn’t be too unusual. Jimmy had heard that many islands in the south were under the control of one pirate or another, demanding tribute for protection or other goods. Charloin definitely needed a lord to watch over it or control the criminals already there. Yudrein Aile certainly was a man nobody would want to cross.
The fisherman, however, only shook his head. “What? No, as if I’d pay tribute to that boy. He never leaves his ship. Some of his crew just helped me last time they were here and I want to express my gratitude when I couldn’t do so last time. Now go, boy.”
With the basket in hand and the coins in his pocket, Jimmy pressed himself through the masses. Jimmy had done plenty of dangerous jobs already, what was one more? Besides, if the city’s people were this eager for the Pethuamet Wrath’s deliveries, it couldn’t be all awful to talk to them for a quick delivery of groceries.
Jimmy nodded to himself. Yes, this was just like delivering groceries as he used to for his mother.
When Jimmy finally reached the dock of the ship, the Pethuamet’s Wrath was already delivering boxes from the ship into the port, most of them bearing the seal of the empire.
“That’s the last of the booze,” a man with shockingly red hair said, patting down a box. “We’re keeping the rest.”
“Only the best, for crew and captain?” a merchant replied cheekily before grabbing a bottle from the box. He read the label and whistled. “Is this really the kind of quality the emperor is importing?”
“The scraps,” the red-haired man said, his tone cutting sharp. “It definitely costs a pretty penny, so make sure to savor the taste of one bottle yourself and don’t just drink it to get drunk.”
“Bold words for a man who did just that last night!” somebody else called from the ship, making the red-haired man splutter.
Jimmy could only blink in confusion. Was this really the crew of the Pethuamet’s Wrath? It didn’t seem like they were particularly bloodthirsty or horrible monsters. They mostly seemed like regular people. Well, Jimmy knew that the further away a story got from the source, the more it was embellished, but everyone seemed in agreement that the crew Yudrein Aile had assembled after his last battle against the Emperor was as monstrous as the name of his ship.
“Can I help you, kid?”
Jimmy whipped around as somebody suddenly spoke to him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he found himself staring into the handsome face of the man he’d met in the morning. The noble was standing on the ramp leading up to the Pethuamet’s Wrath. Unlike this morning, he was wearing sturdy boots and a white coat that seemed out of place against the dark ship.
The noble was, as Jimmy noticed then, also the only man standing anywhere near the ship without being a part of the crew. Everyone else hurried around the port, but none of them actually dared to approach the ship.
“I was told to deliver this to the ship,” Jimmy answered and held up his basket.
“I see you found the fisherman,” the man commented with another smile. “Come, I’ll take you to deliver it.”
Jimmy nervously looked around. Nobody appeared to be paying much attention to them although they were having this discussion out in the open. “Is that really alright?”
He did not want to end up as Yudrein Aile’s next victim for daring to step onto his ship.
The man smiled mischievously. “Don’t worry about it, I have free reign here.”
Jimmy was not naturally suspicious of every stranger he met, but even he had to admit that the noble was acting oddly. “Are you a member of the crew?”
“Am I?” the man copied his question. Then, with some flourish, he turned to the red-haired man. “Gakane, am I a member of this crew?”
“I know the Commander would object to that,” Gakene answered drily. Then, his bright green eyes landed on Jimmy and he tilted his head. “What’s the kid doing here?”
“Running a delivery,” the noble replied. “I’ll take him up the ship.”
Gakane nodded. “Alright, if you say so. Don’t disturb the Captain.”
“I would never.”
The smiling noble then gently took Jimmy by his shoulder and led him onto the ship. While the Pethuamet’s Wrath was most certainly an impressive ship, standing on deck, with its crew bustling about, it also just felt kind of like a regular ship. For all his previous anxiety, Jimmy was honestly almost a little disappointed.
“I’ll take you to the kitchen,” the noble said and, without waiting for Jimmy’s reply, guided him into the belly of the ship.
After they’d taken the first ladder down, it occurred to Jimmy that he could be led into a trap just now. The slave trade, while officially banned in the empire, still happened and pirates could make a fortune selling people. Sneakily looking around, Jimmy figured that even if that was the case, he was probably still strong enough to escape from it.
Leading Jimmy down a perfectly ordinary corridor, the noble eventually opened a door. “Here you go.”
Beyond the door was a regular ship’s kitchen where a pair of twins with bright sky-blue hair were currently making a mess.
“I have a delivery for you,” the noble said.
Simultaneously, the twins fixated on them with their eyes like sharks smelling blood. “You do? You do!”
The twins were suddenly within Jimmy’s grasp, all up in his face, disregarding his personal space as though he had none. “What have you got there?”
“Fish,” Jimmy answered and held the basket in front of him to create a barrier. “From, uhm, the end of the docks? A fisherman told me he received help from your crew last time.”
“Oh, that guy!” one of the twins exclaimed with cheer before accepting the fish basket. “He didn’t have to do that! We’ll have to think of something good to make of these.”
“Please ask Steiber for help,” the noble said with a slightly pained expression, making the twins beam. “Of course!”
They were quickly ushered out of the kitchen again and Jimmy felt less like he was on the sea’s most terrifying ship and more like he was in some kind of theatre performance. Could this really be the crew holding the entire empire in a chokehold?
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” the noble asked.
“No,” Jimmy replied. “I guess I’ll be on my way again then?”
“I’ll bring you back to port,” the noble decided. “Best not to get lost on the ship.”
It was a ship, Jimmy almost felt the need to point out. How lost could he get here?
Still, he nodded obediently.
“Let me just quickly check on something first,” the noble said and guided Jimmy through another labyrinth of pathways until they arrived in front of a rather ornate door. The noble opened it without regard.
“You can stay here and wait,” he told Jimmy before entering the room beyond.
Confused by the sudden action, Jimmy simply did as told and looked around. For all that the Pethuamet’s Wrath looked terrifying from the outside, the inside of the ship was rather luxurious, more what you’d expect of a pleasure ship than a war ship attacking others for their goods.
What kind of ship had paintings hanging in the hallways?
Jimmy had no eye for art, but the paintings were still pretty to look at, depicting various scenes around a castle covered by snow.
And so Jimmy waited and waited and waited until he could’ve drawn the paintings in his sleep, yet the noble still didn’t come out of the room again. Would it be rude to simply leave? It felt as though ages had passed.
Well, Jimmy had never been a coward, so mind made up, he knocked at the door. “Sir? I have to leave now.”
But Jimmy got no reply. He knocked again and when even that yielded no reply, he simply grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open.
The sight he found was not one he expected.
The room behind the ornate door revealed itself to be an equally luxurious office. Each wall was lined with books and right in the middle stood a large desk, behind which the noble was standing. He was leaning over another man, who appeared to be sleeping. The noble had put his coat over the man’s shoulders, but that was not the most shocking part. The most curious thing was the dark hair of the sleeping man.
Jimmy nearly stumbled back. Who would be sleeping in such an ornate office, with hair as dark of the knight, if not the captain of the ship?
The noble simply smiled and pressed his index finger against his lips as if to suggest for Jimmy to be quiet.
Jimmy nodded hastily. He did not want to be the man waking up Yudrein Aile from his sleep.
“He can only sleep when they’re in port,” the noble whispered conspiringly. “So let’s not wake him.”
Jimmy’s hands curled to fists and he wondered whether, perhaps, he had made a mistake in coming here and should’ve just refused the old fisherman outright, damn his curiosity.
As he took another step back, his eyes were caught by the color of gold. There, at the very right of the room, between two bookshelves, hung a painting. It had been drawn by someone who obviously knew their craft, depicting the handsome noble’s face. Instead of a, if luxurious, still simple shirt and pants, the man was in a white uniform, decorated with all kinds of insignia.
The one that stood out to Jimmy, however, was the symbol of the royal family, the head of a lion combined with the same bright sun he had seen on the sails of the ship. His face turned white as a sheet, Jimmy looked at the noble again, who now looked at him with some pity.
“You discovered it.”
“You are Kishiar la Orr,” Jimmy breathed. “You’re supposed to be dead. He drowned you.”
Kishiar smiled down at him like an indulgent parent, bringing forth the memories of his father pulling him on his lap to show him the family ledgers.
“Who says he didn’t?” Kishiar’s voice turned velvet as though reminiscing about a particularly lovely evening. “He brought me to the edge of the ship when the full moon was high in the sky.”
Kishiar gently ran his fingers through Yudrein’s hair, and instead of seeing the touch as a disturbance to his rest, the sleeping man leaned into it. “It was nearly as bright as daylight, giving me every opportunity to see the deception and scream for help, but how could I make a traitor out of the man I brought into His Majesty’s Navy himself?”
His sorrow was not an act, nor was the devotion with which he spoke.
“I made him bind my wrists and wrap iron around my feet so I’d not dare protest once the sea demanded my breath. And then I abandoned him for the sea.”
“But you are here,” Jimmy protested weakly. “How are you here if he drowned you?”
Kishiar used his free hand to point at the sea lingering behind the window of the captain’s cabin. The sunset turned the sea as red as blood.
“What is the sea if not the sun’s mirror? All my life I was told that I look like the incarnation of the sun. Perhaps the Sun God took pity on my bloodline. He bound me to the sea and I, in turn, when the time came for the Emperor to betray the man I raised so faithfully, bound Yuder to me. He cannot leave the ship and I cannot leave the sea.”
Jimmy recalled their first meeting, that even when Kishiar had walked closer to the beach, his ankles had still been submerged in the water, never quite stepping on land.
“Are you both ghosts?” Jimmy heard himself ask. Was this the truth of Pethuamet’s Wrath, a ship feared in every sea? Its Captain and patron were mere ghosts, imprints left behind.
Kishiar huffed in what could only be suppressed laughter. “My assistant has told me it would be an affront to all ghosts to call us such. No, we are simply wanderers.”
Then, finally, he removed his fingers entirely from Yudrein’s face, though his expression suggested that was entirely unwilling. “I do not mind this existence of ours. My only regret is how little rest Yuder finds, but that is the price to pay.”
A price to pay, yes, Jimmy supposed there would be such a thing for cheating death.
“And what are you going to do with me now?” There was no way that Jimmy would just be allowed to leave now after learning their secret.
Kishiar, however, only blinked at him. “I will guide you off the ship, as promised.”
Jimmy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re just letting me go?”
“Of course, we don’t take prisoners.” Kishiar paused, then seemingly realizing what his statement sounded like, “We also don’t intend to kill you. You truly are free to go, unless…”
He trailed off and eyed Jimmy consideringly. “Unless you want to see how wide the world really is.”
It was all Jimmy had ever wanted, tracing merchant roads on his father’s map, looking at countries he thought he’d never see.
In the face of that, what choice did Jimmy have?
He opened his mouth and said—