Mortance: Summer's Snow

Chris Ⅰ

It didn't seem to matter how many times I said it, the role was mine regardless. I ain't fit for such a thing, I should've said, but neither was anyone else here anymore. Jade was dead, and I was to be her successor. There was no other viable path. I ain't fit te be cap'n, I'd always said, but now...

"Cap'n," the boy Jason swung down from the rigging. "Crew's ready te depart."

"Be that so?"

"Aye ser."

"Then it be high time we set sail," I told the boy. "Tell the crew I want us on open water afore the sun's 'alf set."

"Aye cap'n."

The boy scampered off. I watched as the Blind Beauty readied herself for the sea. The name of this port in Viri was already slipping from my mind. It was the same port we'd stopped at just after Jade and I were taken aboard, but everything else was different. Captain Ethan Patch was dead by my sword, I stood in his place, and...

Jade is dead. I hated to even think of it. Haeli and I had stumbled upon her frozen body at the bottom of the temple. There was no telling what might've happened, only that she was dead.

Haeli had nearly sworn vengeance on magic itself then. Justice for Jade was her mission now. Ironic, ain't it? I thought bitterly. Jade called herself "the just," and now it'll be the rest of us getting her justice. To even keep Haeli on the ship with me was a difficulty. She'd wanted to run. The promise of justice after Seasport was all that kept her with me. The Lost Swordswoman was often found sulking and swordfighting belowdecks. I could persuade her into nothing else.

Luckily enough, the ship functioned well enough without her. I gripped the rail as it lurched away from the dock and out to sea. My head turned forwards, towards open water and away from Viri. I'd never gone farther into the mainland than a port, nor did I plan to while I lived. Jade and I shared that, it seemed, only she could never change it. Worse was that she might've even wanted to.

Her body had been given to the sea. None among us had any clue to the customs of merfolk, but that had seemed right. I remembered the day well. "Ye'll all excuse me, I hope, fer I've not much experience with funerals," I'd told the crew. Despite the change of seasons, the day was a blistering cold.

"In my life on the high seas, sailin' port te port, I've never met anybody quite so... unique as Jade. She were the kind o' girl only few are lucky enough to meet. Never 'ave I seen someone so stubborn and persistent. The lass 'ad goals beyond what most o' us'll ever dream, and she fought fer 'em 'til the last breath, doubtless." Were I somewhere private, there would've been tears shed. I was stone-faced before the crew.

"It is because of her that yer all free o' Patch," I continued. "Jade were the only one with enough drive to stand up against what she thought was wrong, even when it surely did not benefit her own ends. Fer that, she be buried with honor. She were the toughest lass I knew, save fer maybe me old cap'n. A woman so tough deserves to die better than she did."

The words moved me, at least. For a good while, the Blind Beauty's entire crew stood silently in the icy wind, mourning our lost captain. I shivered. So often were beaches a sign of peace and prosperity and life and salvation, but this one felt only like death. Even among all these people, I felt alone in my mourning. Only Haeli and I truly knew what Jade was. To the rest of the crew, she was only some girl who'd fought her way to the top. They knew so little.

an uncertain voice broke the silence. "Who captains the ship then," the boy called Julon asked aloud. "Bein' that Cap'n Jade be passed and all."

"First mate succeeds his captain," Haeli spoke before I could. "No mutiny 'as occurred. Keep tradition."