Cove of Shadows ━━ Will Turner

𝐈𝐈 ━━ Asteria

BACK IN HIS MANSION, the Governor had a much-awaited discussion with his daughter:

"Has the Commodore made his proposal?"

The latter revised herself to explain the very precarious situation that had happened to her. The father, despite wanting to offer his daughter a marriage of love, which would last a long time unlike his own— even if it was long and prosperous until the death of his wife seventeen years ago— wanted seeing her married to the Commodore, like most of the people of Port Royal who didn't live under a rock.

All but one: William Turner, who couldn't avoid rumors about one of the island's up-and-coming celebrity couples. Did people have nothing else to do but talk about fictional couples who will never see the light of day? he wondered.

Asteria's wound was healed and it was not difficult for her to forget the events of the morning, except for one. Her second encounter with Captain Sparrow had impressed her far more than she could have imagined.

Asteria firmly believed in destiny, the one with a capital D and high expectations. Nothing happened by chance, and nothing would happen if it wasn't written on the lines of her hand. The latter had a passion for the Milky Way and the stars.

Indeed, her mother, who died so long ago, was an astronomer in secret. Few people knew about the scientific tendency of the governor's wife. She had ogled this at her daughter, despite the fact that she had never been able to know her except inside her own womb. Thousands of books and years of research brought together in a notebook: the one that Asteria kept close at hand from time to time.

The name Asteria had not come by chance to Mary when she was pregnant.

"Ella? Lyrae," she asked looking at her husband, her eyes filled with compassion and love.

"Why do you care so much that our child has a star name? It would then no longer be unique if it bore the name of something already created," he asserted.

"Weatherby," she said, placing her soft hands against the face of the man in love with his wife. "The stars are the most beautiful creation in the universe— until the birth of our daughter. But, if you want a compromise, why not give it a name that signifies the stars without necessarily being one?"

"Do you have an idea in mind, Mary?"

And everything made sense, as much as the Big Bang, in the mother-to-be's head, as if the light bulb in her brain had been turned on.

"Asteria."

Asteria spent her day staring out the same window as earlier in the morning, the waves crashing against the shore. Turbulent waves in which she had found herself. Surprisingly, that was where she had felt most free. Every hour there was a knock on his door,

"The Commodore is here!" announced the governesses.

But the young girl wanted to remain in complete silence, hearing only the muffled sound of the sea. She was lost in that space of time when the Commodore's request had not been pronounced; yet it was, and one day she would have to face his words well.

The inhabitants of Port Royal were struggling to recover from this day filled with unpredictable events: between the first floods, the ceremony and the almost tragic death of the governor's daughter. No one knew where to go.

Will was unaware of the last event which had much more meaning and gravity— for him— than the water which was rising little by little from his house. The latter lived near the coast, closer to danger, and that hardly frightened him.