Indebted (working title)

Offers (part 2)

On the Almsgiver it was Louis who first saw that same frigate. He'd been staring into the distance for hours and the allure of sleep was finally strong enough to tempt him. He saw a distant vessel and raised an Eyebrow surprised to see a Spanish slaving frigate out this far... then he heard the boom. the immediate jolt of fear and surprise dragged him from the brink of sleep so quickly and so forcefully that his head slammed hard against the wooden post behind him. People trickled onto the Almsgiver's deck. A short one, well-muscled but very lean, tripped over him as he sprinted to the starboard banner to investigate. The man fell onto all fours and looked back to see what had caused it, making brief eye contact with Louis as he did so. He was the one they called Ekon, and he appeared to be only a few years older than Louis was, Louis placed him at around nineteen or twenty. Ekon stood and peered out into the distance at the Spanish slaver and the entire crew of the Almsgiver did the same.

Amobi stepped out of the galley and watched from the doorway. There was another boom, this one louder and angrier. The sound hung in the air and sent a child aboard the Almsgiver into a screaming fit that her mother had no hope of quelling.

Birds honked and scattered in the all directions and Amobi placed a trembling hand over his mouth as he said "They're screaming... I can hear them screaming". He was the only one who could hear the screams from this far away, his sharp ears again compensating for his lackluster sight.

Just then the belly of the ship split open, and a blast of fire shot out the hole like the organs of an animal being disemboweled. Another explosion followed... then another. Bright collages of oranges, yellows, and reds appeared along the sides of the ship and disappeared behind veils of black smoke that climbed high into the night sky. There was another thunderous boom and the Almsgiver's crew could see something pierce through the Spanish frigate's hull before hitting the water a few yards away.

It was only then that they saw the second ship. It eased out from behind the first in a slow menacing lurch. it was a schooner, half the Frigate, but equipped with cannons that let loose devastating volleys of lead. The frigate's mass toppled, collapsing onto the flaming mess that was once the upper deck like a giant piece of kindling. The Almsgivers crew could see the embers even from where they were. Pieces of the frigate's rigging broke away and fell into the inferno, and orange flakes that moved like a snowfall in reverse, floated gently upward.

The panic that ensued aboard the Almsgiver was not instantaneous, it was slowed by the delay of disbelief. Hundreds of lives had just been violently snuffed out in an instant and the brains of those that watched it happened needed a moment to process the event before the could accept it as a reality. Then, almost as if on cue, the Almsgiver erupted into shouts, panic, and shuffling feet. A knee hit Louis in the shoulder as someone came running from behind him. An elbow slammed hard into his cheek as someone darted past from his left. He started to fear he might be trampled, and he started to think that might be better than dying in the inevitable shipwreck or being seized by pirates.

Zion ascended the staircase to the helm and took the wheel. "We have to go", he proclaimed

Tempest felt the crew's fear course through her body like lightning. She couldn't remember the last time she felt such raw, and powerful panic. It took almost all of her focus to stop herself from smiling. They didn't know how lucky they were, she thought. They did not know what it was like to be hollow, to be reduced to syphoning off flickers of humanity from lesser beings, to be devoid of soul.

She soaked in the pleasure of truly feeling for a long while before deciding to quell the storm of their panic. She walked onto the center of the deck and brought her hands together in a powerful clap that that produced a shockwave of wind and a deafening explosion of sound. The crowd went silent and heads turned to look at her.

"Oh... I have your attention?", She said. "Good". She looked to the skies, and the clouds above her head slowly parted. She closed her eyes and nodded, in agreement to sentiments no one else could hear. "The god's want me... to offer you something. They say that fate has given you an opportunity to liberate others as you have liberated yourself. The crew of that flaming ship is dead, but there are forty-seven innocent souls chained in its hold. You can save them. You can save them all, and stop the monsters who attacked the frigate from ever hurting anyone again."

"We should run..." said Adaeze, who sat propped up against a wall the orange flickering glow of the burning frigate reflecting from her eyes. "We run. We get far away from here and live our lives. I've seen what you can do, how fast you can make this ship move. You control the sea itself, we can outrun them, easily. We could get just go... we should just go."

Murmurs of agreement spread through the crowd. But then Ekon stepped forward and said
"We've already lost so many, are you willing to let more die if we can help them? If the gods are with us, if we can help those, we can..."

"No!", said Zion, "We need to get out of here, there are elders here, there are children here... we are not soldiers, we are not rescuers, we are survivors, and we will survive this by leaving. If the gods take issue with work of monsters..." Zion paused to look Tempest in the eye, "let the gods deal with them themselves." the murmurs of agreement grew louder.

"Good, then it's decided then", Said Adaeze, she turned to make her way to the wheel when she heard a voice say,

"Wait.", She turned to see Ekon holding a sword he'd procured from Melody's collection. "I think we need to hear her out"

"Are you crazy?!", she asked, but after looking behind him and seeing a sizeable collection of nodding heads, she realized he was not alone in his madness.

"We need to think about this", he said.

"We don't have time to think about it!", Replied Zion. "If you have a death wish feel free to toss yourself overboard as we change direction, it'll be even quicker than waiting for them to sink us".

"Maybe I will", he replied. "Might be better than knowing I let people die when I could have saved them. I want to hear what Tempest has to say... she brought us this far"

There were opposing murmurs in the crowd, rumbles of disagreement quickly swelled into furious shouting matches. The conflict was on the verge of getting physical, but Tempest only watched. She scanned everyone on the deck, felt their rage, their fear, their pain, in that instant she knew all of them. She knew the words to say, and she knew who to say them to.

One by one Tempest invaded their minds persuading them without moving her lips. Her influence rippled through the crowd like a wave, and as it did, they fell silent.

The message was different for everyone, for Adaeze the whispers promised her control of her own destiny. "You will have it... The power to make your fate your own... We can give you strength, set you free... No more fear... no chains... we offer you liberation... Your life... will finally be yours...".

To Amobi the whispers came with promises of peace through necessary evils. "We see the struggle in your heart... Peace is short lived without the power to keep it. Let us help you... let us use you to bring peace... Be our hands, Amobi."

For Ekon, Tempest promised glory, the chance to be a hero for those kept in chains, to change things for the better and be known for it. "You failed them... the ones in the hold... the ones you left behind... but you don't have to fail again... You can save them all".

Zion was the hardest to figure out but she knew he would be, in truth she was counting on it. It was a game for her, he'd built barriers in his mind to keep parts of him locked away, but they had the unfortunate side effect of keeping her locked out. His righteous fury, his desire for violence and skill to inflect it, the memories of things he'd done and watched others do. He was a powder keg, who spent his every waking moment extinguishing his own fuse over and over. She heard screams in his mind, pleasant dreams that bled into nightmares. Smiling faces became rotting corpses. She saw glimpses of a man who'd traveled thousands of miles, a man who'd been a soldier, a pirate, a killer, and a thief. She saw so many various, complex shades of evil wrapped in one person who's anger and hatred for the world around him was outweighed only by his hatred for himself. For a moment she thought she felt pity for him, but she knew this was most likely a fleeting emotion that she stolen from his subconscious. When she'd finally cleared the maze in his mind she found that all she needed to say to Zion to push him over the edge, the only thing he needed to hear to access the part of himself that he kept locked behind so many walls of guilt, pain, and misery was, "It's okay... Let go".