---Orion's POV---

Waking up in a solid bed that didn't slowly rock along with the waves was unnerving after spending so long at sea. Land sickness was not unheard of in a time and era where most of the travel happened on sea.

Due to spending time under the water instead of on a vessel subjected to the whims of nature, I hadn't really felt it myself up until now.

After having spent weeks, or heavens knows how long on Cain's ship, my body had become accustomed to the rocking sensation. To be forced to brace yourself against every motion of the waves that toyed with the wooden vessel beneath your feet.

Now, laying in a bed that was unmoving, I found myself nauseous. Groaning, I rolled over in bed and instantly regretted the motion, as it felt as if my own head was spinning around mercilessly.

There was a chuckle and a gentle, reassuring pat on my shoulder before Cain sat up, muffling a curse of his own as the room spun around. "You get used to it. Takes about a day or two before your body settles once more."

I grumbled, sitting up slowly to avoid any sharp motions with my head. "Does this mean that when you embark after a while on land, the crew gets sea sick?"

Cain's smirk widened, eyes sparking with amusement as he grinned. "We're still only mortal men that sail the seas. Anyone is bound to get sea sick in one point of their lives. Some get over it quickly, others experience it with every day spent on sea."

I didn't need to hear the unspoken words; those that couldn't get over their sea sickness were sailors that lost their jobs the second they reached a nearby port.

No ship would use people that got sick at the slightest of motion in a world where the sea was unpredictable. They needed all the hands they hired, and didn't need to lose people to baby the few who were too weak to stomach the sea.

"There are a few tricks though." Cain murmured, smiling as we heard the giggling of kids running past the room we shared. "Focusing on the horizon for one. Some try to lay down but that just worsens the effects." He shrugged, "Best you can do is focus on the horizon and the task at hand."

He made a little sound as he motioned with his hand, clearly remembering something. "I've learned a trick or two from other captains. They would always hold some gold to the side to buy a particular spice... ginger, I believe they called it. Works like a charm according to her."

"Her?"

The shock must've been clear in my tone of voice but Cain didn't take any offence. After all, many sailors were superstitious about women aboard a ship.

Everyone avoided to bring a woman on board of a crew of only men. Not only because she distracted the crew from their tasks and unintentionally caused tempers to brew, but her mere presence supposedly angered the sea gods.

Having a woman on board of your vessel once you've set sail, would infuriate the gods to the point where the seas grew rough and storms billowed, racing to swallow the offending ship.

I remembered the sad story of an incident where a vessel tried to defy those superstitions, and set out to sea with several women on board.

The ship hit a terrible storm almost instantly in their journey and when the storm refused to relent, the crew had started to throw the women overboard in an attempt to appease the gods.

All for naught, as the majority of the crew perished when the ship sank. The few who survived were lucky that there were other vessels nearby to rescue the survivors.

So to hear of a female captain, ordering a group of men aboard a ship, was quite unheard of.

"Yes, her. She's even more ferocious than most male pirates I've encountered. Seems to have a knack for picking out wealthy male merchants and targeting their vessels when they depart."

Cain sighed, tapping his fingers on the bed as he added "She became a pirate after her family banished her for loving a man of color. Lynched her betrothed in front of her before setting her up with a noble white man twice her age."

My lips pursed in barely restrained frustration, as I had heard and sadly seen too many women in her position. Shackled by the bonds vaguely disguised as marriage, where she would be abused by her husband because it was his right.

And he would do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted, because who was going to stop him?

"She was forcefully wedded and was told to bare him a child by the end of the next year, or else the family of her late betrothed would be hanged as an example."

I was surprised when Cain smirked. "Obviously, her new husband miscalculated. He thought he was going to receive himself an obedient, demure doll that would bow to his every whims."

Cain rested his back against the headboard, eyes flitting towards the window when there was a slight scuffle, followed by kids protesting in annoyance.

"He slapped her around in front of his rich family, pretending that she had offended him. Then they departed on their boat on what was supposed to be a merchant trip. Last I heard, she hung him from the mast by his balls and when he was properly mangled from his treatment, tied him to the figurehead and left the bastard there to rot."

I cringed at the mere idea, though it was a punishment that sometimes happened. Though usually not to rich people has they had the power to remove any evidence.

But if a mob of angry civilians got their hands on a perceived rapist, that was usually one of the punishments dealt out, before they lynched the individual.

If he didn't die from his injuries.

"After that, she's made quite a name for herself. She has an uncanny ability of spotting slave ships disguised as merchant vessels, or the vessels of corrupt merchants." Cain chuckled gruffly, shaking his head.

A niggling thought made me slowly sit upright, still wary of the nausea that came and went in unsettling waves. "But if she murdered her new husband, what became of the family of her former lover?"

Cain's eyes sparked with amusement. "Oh, she liberated them. The family of her now husband had no choice, as all their money was aboard the vessel she held ransom. In exchange for the cargo, the family would be handed over unharmed."

I huffed, warily shaking my head before I slowly shuffled out of the bed, groaning as I stretched out completely. And then snickered when Cain added, "Of course, the moment the cargo was returned and her family safe, the rich folks found out that all they had returned, were empty boxes stuffed with nothing but junk."

"And of course, a letter that detailed the horrific end those rich bastards would come to meet for their actions against her and her family. Last I heard, they wasted away half of their fortune on mercenaries to protect them from any possible attacks."

At that, I grinned, knowing that was exactly what she intended to happen. She was going to let those nobles stew in their own fat, let them grow mad with paranoia. Always suspicious, always looking over their shoulders, looking for ghosts.

If she ever felt inclined to, she could let the nobles lull themselves into a false sense of security. Dismiss their mercenaries, as she hasn't made contact for a long period of time.

The perfect moment to strike.

"Any of the slavers that she catches are interrogated and those who are willfully depriving people of their freedom, justifying it with the old excuse that they're doing it for the money..." Cain trailed off, an immensely satisfied smirk curling over his plump lips.

I didn't need him to elaborate. While it was true that some slavers worked in the field because they were forced to by family, or had even been sold to the slavers themselves, there were different slavers as well.

Slavers who saw other people as beneath them. Excusing their inhumane treatments by targeting mostly people of different ethnicities, people with different skin colors like Cain himself.

Though that didn't mean that the slavers wouldn't think twice of abducting white children and women from poor families. Hell, slavers didn't even have to fall as deep to abduct children.

I had been to enough poor regions along the coast to know that often enough, small families didn't have enough coin. Families who struggled to put food on the table until they sold off one of their kids in the hopes of surviving.

But I wasn't naïve enough to believe that was the only reason. I knew there were more than enough so called parents that would breed like rabbits and then find a slaver willing to buy their brood.

They saw their kids just like a farmer looked at his chickens. Useful as long as they produced money. The first time that I had seen a sign at a house, advertising kids were for sale, I had been well beyond shocked.

It was something I couldn't wrap my mind around, no matter how hard I tried. To see those little ones being sold off to an unknown fate, with their parents not even caring what happened with their own flesh and blood.

Even now, it still filled me with rage to remember the fear in those children's' eyes as they were dragged off with their owner.

The first few times I had seen it happen, I had tried to outbid and buy the children myself, but then realized I had no safe home to give them. No stability, no security and handing them over to another family gave them just an insecure future as letting them go with their so called owner.

Hearing the children run by our room, it was almost like ghosts of the past that ran by to haunt me.

"I'm guessing you do the same?"

Cain nodded at that, tongue pressing against his cheek for a moment as his eyes turned frosty. "After everything that happened to me, all the shit I've seen in my youth, I was angry. Probably murdered more slavers than I needed to but," he shrugged, "Good riddance I'd say."

Remembering his story of a fellow pirate who willingly dumped dozens of people overboard to not get caught, I agreed.

Slavers deserved their fates. Very few of them were innocent, and those that were, are often corrupted by their work.

"So, how long are we going to be here?" I wondered, feeling the nausea slowly subside to comfortable levels. Cain looked at the ceiling, not in a way that portrayed annoyance at me, but more thoughtful.

"Depends really," He eventually answered. "She uses this island as well to drop off valuable cargo." Cain made a gesture towards the window, where the bubbling laughter of children playing and the murmuring of adults starting their day sounded.

I blinked, glancing at the window, remembering the size of the village before frowning. "Where do you keep everyone? I mean, slavers aren't known for traveling with a select amount of merchandise."

He stood up, letting out a small groan as his back popped before he stretched and sighed. "Those that wish to stay here and live their lives hidden on this island, can do so. Some of the former slaves are a tad too...paranoid to stay on one spot, especially in large groups."

I nodded with understanding, feeling even more appreciation well up as Cain continued "So when either one of us has rescued slaves, we lay low for a while and allow them to recover here. Most of them aren't in decent enough conditions to travel large distances."

He wandered to the other side of the room, pouring water into a bowl before taking a rag to clean off the sweat from his face and neck. "Once everyone is healed, fed and cleaned and we're certain nobody is following us, we'll take anyone who doesn't want to stay as far away as possible."

"We can't keep track of where we leave them, just in case someone does find the island." He sighed, whipping off his shirt so he could clean off the sweat from his upper body as well. "But there are trained guards here, both men and women that have more than enough practice and are more than capable of defending everyone here."

I pushed off of the bed as well, following his lead and getting rid of this clammy sensation. The tropical damp heat of the jungle was clinging to our skin as Cain glanced over at me.

"We try to keep on the downlow so we can whisper guidance to Catarina." Cain scratched over the growing stubble on his chin. "Slavers don't really talk to her, knowing that they are her favorite prey."

At that, I nodded slowly. "So you blend in with the crowd and make them think you're one of them. Feeding information to Catarina so she can save slaves and end the slavers."

Cain nodded in agreement. "Sadly we can't attack every ship, because then they'd grow highly suspicious of me. But we do keep track of where they drop off the slaves, and aren't afraid of raiding those places on a later date."

A low hum thrummed through my chest, making my gills flutter slightly. And then I realized that I can help.

Elijah and I can help. Through our song, our allure and our ability to traverse through water with ease, we could save so many more slaves.

And I'm sure Elijah wouldn't mind a helping of fresh meat if given the chance....