To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch33 Kalwen

Kalwen

It really was her older brother, he was definitely more muscled, and his hair had grown so long that he had it pulled up behind his head, but it was still her older brother Kalwen. He wore simple navy-blue robes that only covered his right side, leaving his entire left arm and half his chest exposed to the freezing temperature in the hanger. He had two Terran swords hanging from his hip, one was the wakizashi she grown familiar with, and the other was something more like a cutlass. Half covered by his robes his flesh rose up in the scarred pattern of a demonic seal, not the mark of Astaroth, but something similar.

"H,h, how are you here, they told me you left the navy and disappeared, how did you join up with a group of pirates?" Alwen spluttered. She looked around her brother and a good half of the crew walking off the Asmodeus were Torweni, red skinned islanders, horned southern people, and violet skinned mainlanders like herself. Did the Asmodeus recruit them on Torwen after rescuing those slaves?

The last time she had seen her brother was when he got into a massive argument with father over something, after that he left the navy and fell off the face of Torwen. Were things so bad for him that he had to join a pirate crew?

Astarte cleared her throat "I understand that you have a lot to catch up on Bones, but it will have to wait until I am done talking with Captain Modius"

"Modius?" was all Alwen could say.

"Us Archdevil captains take the name of our ships" her brother informed her blandly "My name is now Modius, a shortened form of Asmodeus the prince of lechery"

This was all too much for Alwen to handle, all she could do was stare at them blankly. Alice noticed that Alwen had fallen behind and dashed over to her "Hey Bones, what's the hold up?"

"I, I just met my brother" she said dumbly.

Alice looked intrigued "really, where?" she said now looking through the other Torweni, completely overlooking Kalwen.

"She means me, Ghost" Kalwen said.

Alice turned to him dumbstruck "Alwen is your sister?" she asked incredulously "I guess that explains why we got along so well."

"You know Kalwen!" Alwen blurted out as the thought hit her.

"Uh, yeah I met him on Mars, he was aboard the Beelzebub at the time, first time I met a Torweni." Alice explained simply.

Alwen stared at her friend dumbly "And you never told me?"

"I didn't think it mattered, isn't kind of racist to assume all Torweni know each other, how was I supposed to know Bell's second lieutenant was your brother?"

Astarte sighed "I doubt we're going to finish our conversation at this rate, we'll talk later Modius. Say about an hour from now?" she asked openly.

"My ship or yours?" Kalwen asked.

"Mine, I have better rum." She waved a hand and turned to leave.

Kalwen waved goodbye to the pirate captain, his fellow pirate captain, and turned back to Alwen. "Lets try to make this quick, I know you have a lot of questions, but I have some things that I need to handle." and with that he promptly turned to walk back aboard the ship, his ship. Alwen had no choice but to follow behind him.

He led her across the gang way and into the Asmodeus. As Alwen walked behind him she couldn't help but marvel at the halls around her. They looked just like the halls on the Astaroth, dark teakwood floors, bright fluorescent light, and sliding pneumatic doors. But every so often Alwen saw a distinctly Torweni touch blending in with the Terran made ship. Wherever there was enough blank space on a wall she saw a painted shrine to Fejiu. Over the doors of familiar weapons lockers there was the sword and staff of Torwen. And running along the entire length of the walls was a painted imitation of a sailors knot, an old-fashioned way of telling stories through woven cords.