Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

The First Meeting

Ava understood now why Cooker was taking it. It helped her be more effective, so much so that the pain that had been apparent in her wrist was gone. She was a stallion, charging through the battle, unable and unwilling to stop. She paid immense attention to the details of those in the room. Their expressions, body language, who talked to who and when, who talked, and who didn't. Which officers seemed uninterested and which didn't. Ava was a hawk and nothing slipped through her gaze. The most noticeable thing, to Ava and to everyone in the room, was what a pain Fletching was. There was nothing that was said that Fletching agreed with and that became apparent when they moved past discussing types of threats and began to identify possible culprits. At every theory proposed, Fletching scoffed and would spout off some reason why their logic was flawed. The frustrating thing was that he wasn't always wrong.

Ava wanted to strangle him by the time they were nearing the end of the night and she knew she wasn't the only one. The others around her, mainly those that leaned more towards agreeing with Theo and her coalition of pirates, looked peeved. There was a clear divide between the pirates. Captain Owl and Blue and about six or seven others tended to rally behind Theo in discussion. Theo had a lot of important names on her side, at least Ava assumed they were important from social clues she picked up from the meeting. Theo's coalition sat near Uncilo and opposite to them was a minority that tended to support Fletching. Captain Firinz, a young Dovish man that sat next to Fletching also proved to be a nuisance during discussion. Together they managed the conversation for what seemed to be the opposing group in the meeting.

Ava quickly caught onto the dynamics of the room because they were not hard to pick up on. Theo was on the inside of Corinspian politics and Ava was constantly impressed by Theo's political prowess. The way she commanded the room when she spoke was impressive. She switched up her tone, engaged her audience, and avoided sounding condescending. Whether Theo was close to the head of the council or not, Ava was sure she would still yield influence over others. The whole night was tense, seemingly endless, and stressful but Ava was invigorated. Alliances, powerful coalitions, and the power of words and discussions were what made The Center tick and Ava was familiar with this environment. She wanted to speak up, counter the arguments made by the opposition, or even just call bullshit on something but it wasn't her place. Instead, she would write notes to Xyra who would pass them along to Theo.

After what Ava could only assume was no less than eight hours. They had cycled through a few theories and a general consensus was forming. Theo, along with another person Captain Tack, led the discussion. Cooker was a large help too, giving historical accounts for the likelihood or unlikelihood of certain conspiracies proposed. With Theo facilitating discussion and asking probing questions to try and assert the validity of certain theories, they were able to narrow it down to one suspect, the government. The pirates had ruled out a merchant guild being behind it. The scope was too large and the costs too high for a merchant guild to want to challenge pirates. It was cheaper for them to incur the costs of pirate raids than call for open war against the group. They also ruled out a coalition of nobles or greater houses for largely the same reasons. Failure to wrangle the pirates would result in a backlash against land dwellers and the population would turn on their superordinate houses.

The Center had the funds, the council members seeking reelection would benefit from attacking the pirates, and the reach these attacks seemed to have all added up to a government scheme. The question in the air was no longer who but how. How did they manage to catch them so off guard? How were they being targeted? How was the navy involved and how many ships did they have?

A middle-aged man was now talking, standing up in an attempt to project his voice did not work. His meek voice barely traveled but it didn't matter much because Ava wasn't paying much attention to the details of his words. Just the general argument and how others reacted.