Mortance: Summer's Snow

Ouran Ⅱ

I was bleeding from seven cuts when I finally reached the witch. The privateers who'd given me those cuts were dead or dying. The witch herself had nothing to defend her as I put my sword to her throat. "Drop your spells," I growled.

"What spells?" she lied innocently. "I'm only a girl with-"

"Save it."

Tempest's privateers began to surround me on three sides, until my only escape became the ocean. "Cap'n?" one asked.

"Aye," Tempest said. "Kill him."

"That would be unwise. I hold your witch's life in the balance," I pressed my sword into her exposed throat. "Ahryn lives if she dies."

"It's funny you think that." Tempest laughed, but his glare gave him away. "Enjoy your death."

"Another time, perhaps," I shot back. "You'll have another chance at Ahryn someday."

With those words, I slit the witch's throat, pushed her body into the sea, and followed it with a splash. The ocean was warm and inviting, though it tasted of blood. I stripped and shifted quickly, swimming down to the rocks and ropes that were meant to kill Ahryn. That I could shift meant it was truly the witch that I'd slain.

The ropes that had held Ahryn now held no more than the shift she'd been wearing. Beside them was an orange fish, quickly swimming away. I followed her south beneath Kark, all the way to some southwest port. We were far and away from Tempest and his privateers by the time we surfaced.

A storm was gathering in the air as I pulled myself from the sea. Ahryn grabbed my arm and ushered me quickly into an alleyway, out of sight from anyone else. "Welcome back te Kark," she said with the swashbuckling swagger that I'd missed so much.

The alleyway was long and narrow, and the sky above it was darkening with rain. Ahryn wore only her scars, and I a torn beggar's tunic; we were ill-equipped for such cold. "I'm in no mood for welcomes," I told her. "You'd one job."

"I left 'er in more than capable hands," she said. "The both o' us knew what risks came with bein' my cargo."

"She's dead." It started to rain as I leaned against the wall and slid to the ground. "Jade's dead."

There was silence as Ahryn sat down across from me on the rotting wood. "And 'ere I'd hoped ye came with good news." Her tone betrayed the joke. "What be the circumstances?"

I repeated the story Lyria had told me, about the Blind Beauty and the temple they traveled to. She smiled to hear of the mutiny, but that smile died when Jade did. "I've come to find a witch who'll show me more," I finished. "Jade deserves justice, at least."

"Aye, that she does," Ahryn agreed. "She were a better lass than even I accredited 'er. Wish I coulda stayed with 'er."

"I wish it was so simple that I could blame you and do her justice, but alas," I shrugged. "The fault is not yours."

"I got a few scars fer it anyways," Ahryn gestured to herself. I saw two new cuts on her face, along with an even fresher arrow wound in her leg. Those were complimented by the rope burns in her arms and legs that still bled.

"You should cover those new ones, to stop infection," I took off my tunic and tore strips from it.

"Yer bleeding too," Ahryn pointed out as I covered her wounds. "Let me..."

"Aye." Her touch was gentle, though her skin was rough. This was not the first time either of us had bandaged up the other. "I would bleed less if I'd been expecting the fight."

"Alas," Ahryn pulled away with a smirk. "Thank ye fer savin' me." There was a sincerity to her words that few people ever lived to hear.

"I don't need thanks," I told her. "I need justice." Those words brought me to my feet. "Let us go."