Filia Maris [Pirates of the Caribbean | Captain Jack Sparrow]

Jack Sparrow

So it was that their long-awaited confrontation happened on a pier in Tortuga in the pouring rain. Maris was furious and upset, and she was pretty sure Jack was too, though it was hard to tell with him sometimes. He was acting his usual swaggering self, not uttering a single serious word from the moment their eyes met after all those years. 'You haven't aged a day, love,' he all but bellowed, a sly smile on his face. His seeming indifference to the long-awaited reunion rubbed her the wrong way.

And thus had commenced an uncomfortable dance where first he chased her when she turned on her heel and stalked away, reversed when she chased him after they encountered two of his many past paramours and so on until they found themselves on the pier before the Pearl, engaged in a row that they had both likely been dreading since they last parted ways.

"It's not like you were completely honest with me, love. Why should I be honest with you? " Maris nearly gaped like a codfish, until she realized what he was referring to as he continued. "You really haven't aged a day since I last saw you, what, almost twenty years ago? And then I find out you've been around longer than me dad? That's something you kept from me, Maris, after swearing you'd told it all."

"Yes, okay? Yes. It was the one secret I kept from you. But it's not exactly something I like admitting to myself, either, Jack." Confusion flashed across his features for a moment before he smiled, gesturing widely. There was a trace of anger in his eyes and his normally mellifluous voice was coarse, betraying how he really felt at that moment.

"Enlighten me, then." Maris was getting so worked up by this point that she felt like she had just run a mile, her breath coming hard and fast. Her head was starting to throb, and before she could stop herself, the words began pouring out of her mouth, the accent she inherited from her mother growing stronger the longer she spoke.

"I 'ave not 'ad it easy, Jack. My mother all but abandoned me when I was very young. 'Er fury at my father was too strong, and I favoured 'im far more than I ever favoured 'er. I remember the anger and the pain flashing in 'er eyes when she looked at me. And even when dat anger eventually faded, I could always sense 'er watching me when I visited. And I couldn't 'elp but visit. I don't know why I tortured myself; I suppose it was because she was all I 'ad.

"But she was always watching, waiting, sure that I was going to betray her too. After all, I was too much like my father. She t'ought it was inevitable, I imagine. It infuriated 'er, I think, seeing 'is features, 'is eyes stamped on my face. 'E betrayed 'er before my birth, and she never let me forget it. What little childhood I 'ad was spent making my way from port to port, begging my way onto ships, using every scrap of strength and stubbornness and talent I had to earn my way onto the sea. Learning to sail, learning to fight, using my instincts to brave seas no one else would.

"It's in my blood, Jack; the sea...I 'ave never been more at peace than when aboard a ship flying across de waves...the feel of de spray on my skin more precious to me than any jewel or treasure you could dream of." Maris nearly faltered, but she couldn't seem to stop.

"I got dat from dem! Dey were the sea, Jack—my parents... My father? I 'eard you knew 'im, that you 'ad a deal wid 'im." Her expression darkened ever so slightly, "and now, your friend, William Turner, is Captain of my father's ship! The new Lord of the Sea." A faint sense of satisfaction fluttered in her as Jack paled when she uttered those words. He knew now. He understood, but she didn't stop there. Her voice thickened as her pain began to surface through her resentment.

"And you knew my mother, though I don't tink I ever called her dat in person. De only one she ever really loved was my father. De rest of 'er love belonged to de sea. Maybe, on some level she loved me. She wanted to teach me 'er magics and such once, but she 'ated me more, I tink, especially when I turned 'er down for the world my father loved. I reminded 'er of what she had done, and what 'e 'ad done to her, and what she 'ad lost. And no one can 'old a grudge as a goddess can, Jack. Dere is nothing in dis world more vengeful." It was then that the anger bled from her voice, and a great weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. She had held it in for so long, afraid to admit any of it out loud. Jack, for the first time since she'd found him in that bloody tavern, was serious, sympathy coming to light in his eyes. Maris sighed, feeling a deep exhaustion beginning to creep into her bones.