Pirates of The Clover seas - The Curse of the Black Pearl

Chapter 15 - The negotiator

It was a cold night. Noelle could feel it. The heat from the tropical day vanished completely. Replaced by the cold, dreaded atmosphere the Pearl radiated with. She noticed that the Pearl was moving slower. She saw a few men with planks and tools run up and down the stairs leading to the brig. However, tonight was awfully quiet, interrupted only by Pintel an Ragetti's mopping.

"Shiver me timbers" the Parrot suddenly said. Gibbs looked back, and commented:

"Cotton here says ye missed a bit"

Pintel was having none of it and slammed the wall of the brig, sitting opposite of Noelle with his mop. Noelle finally built up courage and spoke to the pirates.

"You knew Acier Silva, my mother?"

"The steel war princess? Yeah, we heard of her. She used to be a bane of villany. She was feared for her strength, outmatching many mages, even the ones with a better type matchup. She was powerful, sharp, focused and all of the above you need to be a ruthless destroyer of evil" Pintel said.

"One crazy woman" Ragetti commented.

"Watch your mouth! Acier Silva was a great woman." Gibbs contrasted.

"So you can imagine she had a lot of enemies. Now, you would think that most of them would be hardened criminals and military leaders, but you'd be wrong. She was feared the most by Royals, who felt threatened by her." Pintel continued.

"Royals?" Noelle asked, confused.

"They feared that one day, Acier might become the next wizard king and upset the balance between the families. So what did the paranoid royal scum do? They exploited every opportunity to kick her right back down the ladder. Uncompletable objetives, minimal progress boost, that was the beginning. They then turned their attention to her children. The second eldest became their target. For years they tried desperately to exploit the poor kid until one day, when they succeded. It got so far, that Acier was forced to choose between her social status and the life of her child. You can guess what happened next." Pintel finished.

"Vanica" Noelle replied, saddened.

"Aye. Now among the more prominent questions, there still lingers the big one. The reason why the medallion ended up in Acier's hands." Pintel said.

"Guess we'll never know" Ragetti added. Suddenly the two heard footsteps behind them. They turned around, only to see Barbossa, Bo'sun and Twigg behind them.

"Bring her" Barbossa shouted as he threw the brig key at Pintel. Meanwhile from a rowboat not far away, a certain royal observes the situation.

"This is bad. Any attempt to storm the caves could turn into an ambush" Nozel said.

"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing" Jack said.

"Mr. Sparrow, mind I remind you, that only thanks to Nebra's personal request, have you been assigned to this mission" Nozel said, annoyed.

"I do know that. Anyway, let's say I go in and get Barbossa to send his men out in their little boats and you and you're mates return to the Doughty and blast them full of lead with your cannons. What do you have to lose?" Jack proposed.

"Nothing I'd lament being rid of." Nozel responded.

"Now, to be honest with you mate, there's a risk to those aboard the Doughty, which includes your sister, and your future brother-in-law" Jack said, a bit mockingly. A few minutes later, on the deck of the Doughty a comic scene played out. Nebra shouting from the top of her lungs.

"Let me go you damn commoners!"

"It's for your own safety miss" the soldiers proclaimed.

"Who are you to decide? State your names, ranks and magic knight's squad" Nebra kept on pressing.