Prison of the Mind

To The Sea

He felt tired, as though he hadn't slept in hundreds of years, and the exhaustion was just starting to sap the strength from him. Some may think that each chapter of a person's life comes with a clean slate. That could not be farther from the truth, because not only is there never a clean slate, each part of his life had just made him darker, colder. Genuine happiness or contentment seemed so far away that he had forgotten what it felt like.

He had wandered off from the rest of the crew as soon as the fire had subdued, hoping to be left alone. The crystal clear pool in front of him held a certain kind of significance for him. It was here that he had his first experience with a treacherous woman. He had been younger then, only twenty-six. It had been a necessary detour to stop off at the river on one of his trips to Shipwreck Cove. He hadn't known that she dwelled there.

She had been a charming seductive witch, quite capable of luring almost any man into her web. Only, she had trouble with him, because he shared the same manipulative talents that she did. She had brought him here, to this pool, with a mind to make him her bed partner for the night, and subsequently, her slave. He played a long with her manipulation at first. He swam in the pool with her, drank her wine, and let her enjoy his body.

After, she had wandered off into the jungle in search of something she claimed was of 'dire importance'. No doubt she expected that he was too devoted by that time to be suspicious. He took that opportunity to search her hut for some kind of leverage.

He found it.

A small token; it was a bronze necklace with the words 'Et Ad Mare' carved into the back of the charm. Had his mother not taught him latin, that would have been the end of it. But she did, and he had control over the witch. But she wasn't really a witch at all.

Ever since hearing the tale of the beautiful sea goddess and the mortal man, he suspected that the Brethren Court had imprisoned her in a human body. What he didn't expect was finding her.

It was of particular good fortune that he already belonged to the esteemed group of pirates that were responsible for locking her away, and if the need should ever arise, releasing her. When he presented her with the necklace, followed by telling her that he knew exactly who she was, she demanded to know why his knowledge mattered to her.

The door to the hut creaked shut, her chocolate brown skin glowing with the light from the orange lantern hanging in the center of the room. He sat in the chair behind her desk in only his britches and white shirt, staring at her with a smug expression on his face. His eyes were the color of the finest cocoa bean, and his hair, with the plentiful braids and dreads, framed his handsome face perfectly. She could see that he had previously been examining an object that was currently laying in his hand.

"What is that?", she asked.

He ignored her question for the time being.

"You were so sure, so confident that you had complete control of me. Do you treat all men that way?"

Several expressions flitted across her face. He identified one as the feeling of a rug being pulled out from under you.

"Clearly, I miscalculated", she said quietly. "Men are fragile creatures, vulnerable to even the slightest taste of what they desire."

"And women are sensuous creatures, vulnerable to a musician playing the right strings, so to speak."

The corner of her mouth turned up into a slight smirk. "Ah, so you think you know my art of seduction as well, then."