A Song of Swords

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If the ocean could speak, what stories would they tell of me? Would you greet the sound of the waves, sit and listen to tales of feathers held skyward by what I had once considered sins?

Would the waters deceive, in an act of kindness?

As I have.

Would they dazzle with diamond cast skies, shield you from the truth of red-stained waters and red-stained screams?

Or would you listen with a heart burned to ice - a dark image poisoning the colour you had created in your own mind.

I wish I could tell you they were lies.

---

Reassurance disappeared with the sunlight under the shadow of a mountain of sails, as the tug of cavern water finally allowed them to leave. The Albatross greeting the two ships as they sat flaunted under the banners and colours of rivals - its own mast splintered and dishevelled, its hull bruised. My poor ship. Sanem held back a whine as it began emanating from the back of her throat.

"Uh, what do we do?" It was Guliz that asked the question, the nervousness in her voice no lie.

What do we do?

Sanem's mind was reeling, what sort of devil's card's luck was this? This wasn't fair. This was profoundly and extraordinarily. Not. Fair.

But life never had been.

"We can fight them." Can suggested, and it was brave, audacious maybe, considering how bedraggled her ship was right now and how small it looked in comparison to those that were literally looming in front of the sun. It was setting, Sanem noted, the glow low and pink on the horizon.

"The ship might be damaged but the cannons will still work," He continued, and she might have felt the need to bark at him over his attempts to command her ship but considering how she was standing almost stupefied, she would permit it. For now. And maybe he had a point, the guns were functional, and her crew plus Can's was almost twice the fighting force she was used to - but a disunited army could not sting as it should, with two voices to command them they'd be scattered like a school of fish away from the teeth of a Mako. And, there was also the fact, Sanem noted, that even with both crews, they really had no business trying to take on the force of a navy vessel.

This was not going to go... very well.

"Have you ever considered, Can Divit, that maybe immediately rushing to blow shit up isn't always the best course of action?" She was frustrated, she acknowledged it likely wasn't fair to be glaring at him. He was trying to help. And the emotion fizzled out in her veins a few heartbeats later, taken aback by the way he appeared to have been genuinely stung by the comment.

She brushed it off, catching sight of Ceycey before she rushed towards him.

"Hide this, hide it well, and then hide yourself," She insisted, hurriedly passing him the weight of the satchel over her shoulder, taking note of Ayhan stood to the left and a step behind her brother, looking white-eyed. "And take her with you."

Ceycey nodded, catching the younger girl's trembling hand and quickly leading her down into the depths of the cargo hold.

"What's the plan?" Deren asked.

It was a shitty one, Sanem accepted, as she headed towards the bow of her ship. But her hand was running low of cards to play, and Sanem almost grimaced as she answered. "We talk."

---

The valuables, naturally, safely hidden, and the majority of her crew standing to attention behind, Sanem stood hoping her thumping heart wasn't audible as she watched Fabri and Yigit board her ship.

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