This app is by far the jankiest shit to be released into this world ever. Just fucking ghetto
Wattpad, I don't want to hear jack fucking shit about this book circulating into an all ages category because I have marked it as mature like 60 times and it keeps reverting.
So I don't want to fucking hear shit, on god.
Anyways, enjoy lovelies!
xoxo

Alistair

Great.

The bloody pirate wasn't even on this shit island anymore.

Just perfect.

And from the looks of things, Cael and I would need to leave by nightfall if we were to reach him in time. Not dawn.

Just fucking great.

"Finnik, I need to ask a favour of you." I spoke to the man who still sat across from both Caspian and myself. The look he gave me was expected. It was the look of astonishment at my bold audacity to even ask this after having insulted him.

"You really must have some screws loose." Finnik replied, to which I outwardly laughed at.

"Name your price." I wagered.

He started to say something that looked to be in alignment with telling me to fuck right on off, but then he stopped himself. Finnik was usually a fairly easy man to discern, he didn't mask his emotion on his face like my men and I could... but in this moment, I couldn't see his mind like it was usually presented to me. I couldn't tell what this man was thinking.

"There's another ship that left Sicorian ports at sundown, its captain being a man named Jirah. On his ship he carries something of mine. Well, genrally speaking it is his, however I was meant to commandeer it before his men left these shores. Something or someone got to him before I could, alerting him of the potential theft, and I wasn't able to get my sticky hands on it in time."

The tone of his voice as he repeated my own accusations towards him, did not go unnoticed. The fact that he still harbored any amount of pride while he openly admitted to his own wrong doings in the same breath, also did not go unnoticed.

"What is it you want me to steal back... or rather, steal, considering it was never in your possession to begin with?"

"No need to dip my open wounds in sea water, Alistair. I'm doing you a favour, or do you not recall?"

It took more in me than I expected not to roll my eyes to back of my head at Finnik's response. All of Cael's heeding words were quickly leaving me.

"And what is that favour?" He continued.

"I need you to get my men here before the sun disappears back into the ground. I have two men hunting down three: Sirius Cuolt, Rhys Gandarian, and Daenir Targar. These men are more than likely dead by now given the precision of Hobbs and Gilly's work, however my men were directed to take refuge with Kiras to keep them off the guard infested streets while the sun still bares its face."

Finnik reached forward, his arms barely long enough to grab hold of a quill in the middle of his desk, and a small container of ink located in one of the desks drawers on his side. He began to hastily write as I continued with my request.

"Cael and Snips will be looking for an appraiser. I do not know which one, however there are very few who'd hold extensive information on any outstanding bounties. I'm sure you can narrow that list of names down."

Finnik gave me a firm nod, not bothering to look up from his paper as he continued to write.

"We need off this island by nightfall if we are to reach Gaelick. He will not make it to the ports of Azul, rest assured, however Cael would not approve of us bringing a fight so close to their borders. Our relationship with Azul is a difficult one at best."

"As is your relationship with every other governing island." Finnik replied with a decent amount of crass. I chose to ignore it.

"Then what of your request?" I asked. "What is it that I'm to commandeer from Jirah's ship?"

Finnik's hand finally rested, setting the ink dripping quill on its stand before he reached down to pull something else out from that very same drawer. This was a piece of tattered, worn cloth, yet as he gently straightened it out on the desk, a painted image started to take shape.

"It's called The Eye Of The Sea." Finnik spoke, but I recognized that black ink painting long before he could say exactly what it was. And once I had, the laughter I let out was so abrupt it made Caspian's entire body suddenly jolt in his seat beside me.

"You were-" My lungs gasped for air once more. "You were trying to steal The Eye Of The Sea?" I struggled to get this sentence past my lips between the bouts of laughter.

Finnik's face scrunched up in disdain for my sudden outburst, yet he found himself slowly nodding.

"And you think I've lost my mind," I more or less muttered to myself. There was no plan that existed in any world where Finnik would have successfully obtained that pendant. None whatsoever. Yet I held my tongue from accusing him of soaring too close to the sun with his lint structured wings.

"This would have been successful had he not departed so soon."

I looked at Finnik as if he had finally lost those last bits of wits about him. The only success this man would've surely seen, was the success of getting himself killed. "Have I crossed paths with this Jirah before? My assumptions are no, considering he still breathes."

It was now Finnik's turn to surprise me with his own abrupt laughter, something that immediately irritated me. "Oh bless the seas. If you had, you more than likely wouldn't have known. To the governing islands, and the seas between, he's known as The Chameleon."

Finnik had started to fold the piece of paper he had written on, having allowed the ink to dry some before doing so.

"I would exercise the most precaution on his ship. He harbors items with more mystery than anything found in my shop, and you know more than most how mischievous magic can be. I only want the pendant."

I could feel the edges of my lips starting to turn up into a smile with every word Finnik spoke, but I did my best to hold it in.

Oh, I knew of The Chameleon.

A man with abilities to take the face of another... and though I wouldn't admit this to Finnik given the disparity of this negotiation, I would have willingly hunted that man down at no additional charge.

I also held my tongue due to the realization that this would momentarily delay our original objective, which was to hunt down Gaelick. I needed Finnik to think that I was the one harboring the most misfortune with this trade, even if my blade burned with the thought of being the one to cut down The Chameleon.

"That will set me back days." I told the shorter man, to which he immediately scoffed at.

"You have the fastest vessel on sea. The Destroyer will easily reach Gaelick before he reaches Azul."

Finnik told no lie, yet still I maintained my look of weariness to really sell this distress. 

"Fine." He sighed irritably. "You may also take something from this shop to assist you. I will give you a moment here to choose while I go gather your men. It will take some time considering the sun has risen now, and Sicorian guards will be on every street, but your pirates will reach these antique shop doors before nightfall, I give you my word."

I nodded to Finnik, watching as he pushed himself off his own chair. Once those fleeted planted on these cement floors, I was reminded of his height once more.

"Keep the front doors to the shop latched, with no lights on. I will place a closed sign on the front window as I leave." Finnik added, to which I myself finally pushed my tired joints up from this uncomfortable chair. A decent nights rest would have done my body some good, but I felt my own stubbornness overtaking that need.

We'd rest better with the head of Gaelick on the table near my bed. That, I was sure of.

Caspian slowly rose himself, standing next to me as we watched Finnik busy himself with a few more things around the study before he finally took his leave.

And as much as I didn't care to leave the lives of my men in this short man's even tinier hands, I realized fairly quickly that he would blend in far better than myself could, let alone Caspian. And my men deserved their best chances of making it through this dangerous city.

I watched as Caspian moved closer to the desk, examining the painted piece of cloth.

"This looks familiar..." I heard him whisper to himself. His hands slowly rose to the hood of his cloak before he pushed the large, thick material back. I could see his face clearly now, along with the skin that had since returned to its inherit paleness. Whatever discomfort he once wore was now gone, and replaced with curiosity.

I didn't understand what he had meant by that. This pendant hadn't been seen for many years, surely more years than this man had lived. Whoever possessed it now had done everything to keep it in his possession, and now knowing that man was none other than The Chameleon, I was sure Caspian had never laid eyes on this before. I wasn't even sure how Finnik had found a painting of it, for only those who knew of the oldest tales knew of it.

Caspian must've been mistaken, I thought. And with the way his eyebrows furrowed deeper in thought, I was even more sure of it.

As he stared at the tattered cloth, I found myself approaching some of the items Finnik had on display in this room.

My trickery with Finnik had earned me a gift, yet had he known my intentions with said gift, he would've cut his own tongue off before ever offering such a thing. But that wasn't a problem of mine. He'd soon learn.

I felt the pull of all the items still tethered to my power. First was the Dagger of King Sorin, the sixth leader to a nation that barely existed now, very far from here. It was called Osiris. An item of extreme rarity... and one that had a past with The Pirate King. One very bloody past.

The man who owned this power before me was one who had lived many many years before my time. I did not know much of what this power would bring once inherited, but with each journey... with each raid, and pillage, and loot, I began to feel this pull towards items that called to me. That cried to me in something I could only explain as absolute terror.

I did not know what this mad man had done to these relics, or how he had discovered they held powers of their own that he could wager, but what I did know was that it made for one very odd first few years as I grew accustomed to being a dead man walking amongst the living.

It was even more difficult to understand that the power they held, I owned every right to. If only this curse came with instructions of some kind.

I could sense that this dagger was amongst one of the oldest items in Finnik's collection. Something he must've considered a great value and treasure, which made what I was about to do next all the more comforting.

My hands reached forward, pulling the top glass cover up and off of the dark, wooden platform the dagger stood against a stand on. The short silver metal blade was met at its base with blood red rubies coating the handle. I could see the shimmering of the jewels even with such limited light, feeling the call to men that distorted the minds of those once righteous, as it had King Sorin who went on to lead his nation with an iron fist.

I could smell the bloodshed that once oozed from the blade, could see the faces of many reflected in the gems. Once my hand wrapped itself around that handle, I heard the piercing cries of all who died at its and King Sorin's hands. Of all the once clean souls that had been poisoned by its and his hatred.

And to think Finnik would so easily harbor something of this magnitude is... well, it was actually very much so something that ambitious half-wit would do.

I felt all that hatred and visceral seep through my right hand which was holding the blade. Its powers returning to its rightful owner. I felt the surgent of my own strength, the addictive burning sensation that had turned the blue veins running up my hand, now a rich, deep, blood red.

And that was when it happened. Starting with the tip of the blade, I watched with solace as the metals started to crumble, falling like ash from a raging forest fire, onto the wooden platter below. It was a level of satisfaction I realized I hadn't felt in some time, the entire dagger eventually disintegrating before my very eyes, before the handle had begun to do the same.

These blood red jewels turned black as they too joined the pile of ash, until all I was left with in my hand were its powdery remnants. My body, in its place, flowed with its rage.

Finnik wouldn't understand this now, but I was the one who had done him the favour. Perhaps saved his life, because this short man was far too stubborn to understand that not every relic was one worth owning.

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