Yuhhh, your girl got up and wrote another 3k words lol
Enjoy!
xoxo
Also yet another playlist update, and the song I wrote a particular scene in relation to, is included above (once you get to that point in this chapter, you'll get it)

Caspian

"Don't touch anything that doesn't look like it could hold that pendant." Alistair had instructed with every bit of seriousness in his voice, as he and I continued to rummage through Jirah's collection down below deck.

Most of the crates and antiques were now fully soaked in the blood of Jirah and his men thanks to Alistair, who had simply done something I had never seen before.

I could still hear the almost deafening cracking of the wood when Alistair fully tore the floorboards of this ship apart with just the tip of his sword.

In the many years I had learned about the sword of King Daedron, a weapon forged by him himself before he perished, not one text had spoken of the sword being used like this. With such... ferociousness. At least not to my knowledge.

But I held my tongue this night. I had already experienced one near encounter with the Jirah, and the face he took, I had no longing to experience another.

Had he not taken the face of a man I had cut down, there would have been no valid explanation for the kill. And what he had said... well, I was sure Alistair had heard.
Luck couldn't even begin to explain what that was tonight, and so I decided not to further test it.

Alistair pried open yet another small, blood soaked crate, one of many in this cramped underbelly of the ship. At least Hobbs and Gilly managed to clear out the dead men Alistair had so easily sent below, before we started our search. I still didn't quite manage to grasp how he had slammed a man through the bloody floorboards themselves, but once again silence was proving to be the safest for me right now.

And speechless was how that hole in the ceiling above us left me, whenever I found myself glancing up at it again to the open sky above.

"Do you remember the face of every man you've seen?" Alistair asked, yet he didn't look my way as he spoke. He still kept focus, attempting to find this pendant so we could get the hell off this vessel. I believed he and I both felt whatever strange magic occupied this room, and we wanted no parts, besides that pendent- The Eye Of The Sea.

I found myself slowly shaking my head, before I realized Alistair's back was to me, so I spoke instead. "Only the faces of the men I've struck down."

That had made him finally turn to me, if only for just a moment, before he went back to the more pressing task at hand.

"That's impressive." I heard him say.

"No," I, myself, returned with. "I do not fully remember the whole face, but I'll never forget a set of eyes." They would forever be imprinted on my memory, the soul of the eyes fading as each man finally met death at his door. It was more of a curse, if anything.

As soon as I had stepped from behind Alistair to see the very last man who advanced this deck, begging for mercy, I realized immediately who he was. Who he had to be.

I just hadn't expected him to recognize me too.

Alistair tossed the seemingly useless opened crate onto the pile he had created, before he reached for the next. I moved closer to the man, helping him pull this larger one down from the top shelf in this room, however what the both of us had failed to realize, was what was resting right above it, just out of Alistair and my own's sight.

As the crate tipped towards us, so did the the small jar sitting on it. And when the lid of that jar hit the wood as it toppled over, the lid popped off, pouring its contents onto both Alistair and myself.

Our reflexes mirrored one another as we both tried to jump out of this shimmery dusts path, but it was no use. Whatever Jirah and his men had kept in that jar had coated us from our bloody hair, to our steel toed boots.

"Shit!" I heard Alistair hiss, which only heightened my own concerns. I had not an inkling what exactly we had poured on ourselves, but judging by Alistair's reaction, it wasn't good.

I did my best to dust the dust off my already soaked clothing, but the fine substance clung to the dampness of the material, infusing with the blood. The only parts Alistair and I could properly remove the dust from, was our face and some of our hair.

"What is this?" I asked Alistair.

"Nothing good." Alistair replied, turning to me again. Yet once his gaze glanced down to his trousers to try another attempt at brushing whatever this was, off, Alistair paused a moment. He slowly reached down to grab something that was buried in the dust on the floor. Once he rose again, raising his hand for me to see what he had in his hand, a large smile spread across his face. "Let's get the bloody hell out of here."

Alistair has slipped the pendant attached to a thin leather strap, into one of his jacket pockets, before he ordered his crew off this ship.

Hobbs and Gilly had shown interest in staying to pillage more resources, but Alistair insisted we needed to go. Whatever he and I felt in that room was not worth the hassle that could come with it, and so they set fire to the ship itself and used a plank fastened between this vessel and ours to bring the men back aboard.

I was grateful for this because that last thing I wanted was to have to swing across again. I could feel my heart quicken at the thought of it. How Alistair had grabbed hold of me before I could even process what he was about to do.

My feet landing safely on this ship felt like a miracle all in itself, yet the confidence on Alistair's face forced me to realized that he was inherently far more experienced with this than I was. And judging by how hard Snips had hit the side of the ship when he himself hadn't let go of the rope in time to land safely on that small boat, all this so close to the shores of Sicoria, it made me realize Alistair was more than likely the best man to pull me across.

Once we had safely boarded Alistair's vessel, and dropped the plank connecting both ships, I felt the release of the beams from above. It immediately snapped our ship back into a standing position as opposed to the tilt Coop used to bind us.

Cael was the first to approach Alistair and I, his first words being "what the hell happened to you two?" His face then scrunched up in disgust. "You reek of strange magic."

Alistair was the first to answer with "If I could tell you, I'd be far less weary." That made Cael's brows furrow, but he didn't press it further. At least not in the company of myself. An the revelation that not even Alistair knew, made my worry grow.

Instead, Alistair ordered me to remain on the main deck here near the ship, as he gave orders to his men to move what little we had safely and successfully pillaged, down below.

I watched as his men navigated about the open vessel with energy I hadn't seen before... Or maybe I had? It felt a lot like the night his men raided and pillaged my own merchant ship, but this was... the energy amongst his men was far more charged this night.

Cael spoke with Alistair as they moved about, before the man separated himself from the Captain to make his way towards the top deck. That was when Alistair finally approached me again.

"Go wash your face." He ordered, his eye raking itself over my current appearance. I was surprised he'd only requested me to clean my face. One could say he didn't look much better than I, but his clothes hadn't gotten nearly as dirty as my own. I had to wipe the remnants of the pirates still attached to my daggers and chains, on my clothing in order to maintain the equally distributed weight of my weapons.

I didn't question it however as I felt my feet start to carry me towards our chambers, but Alistair spoke again, stopping those strides before I left him.

"Supper will be served soon with my men. They've extended an invitation this night, and I have accepted on both our behalf."

I felt my eyes grow larger at those unexpected words, and yet I found a small smile making its way to my lips as I gave Alistair a nod.

"You did well." was the last thing the Captain said to me, before he took his leave, moving towards the entrance that led back below the deck.

And so I forced my steps forward, but they moved quicker than expected.

Alistair had only ordered me to wash my face, yet I decided to at the very least change my inner shirt and trousers. I kept the long coat the Captain had given me, on, for the inner lining felt like smooth silk against my bare skin. A feeling I had grown too quickly to appreciate. The material was thick, and yet that inner lining was cooling.

Once I made my way below the deck, I could hear the music before I could see the men playing it.

All of Alistair's crew had gather into a large room filled with long tables and chairs. I had only taken a short while to change, and yet somehow each man had made their way to a drink. None had bothered with their clothing, and only some had made an attempt to wipe the blood from their face. That coupled with the ear to ear grin of every man, made this lot look like a group of men only whispered in tales.

Tales to forever deter you from stepping foot off land.

The last I had seen of bloodshed in this magnitude was the night the Azultian palace burned, and yet this... this was far from that.

Alistair was sitting towards the front right of the room, his men surrounding him and the men who played in the very middle of the room, but once his eye caught mine, he beckoned me towards him. Snips, who was sitting on his right, shifted immediately into the chair next to him to create space for me at Alistair's table.

I maneuvered around the men who had since picked up string instruments, playing a tune I did not recognize but found to be exhilarating.

That was the only word I could use for the energy felt from Alistair's men. The energy that coursed through this full room filled with strong men downing even stronger drinks.

Exhilarating.

I took a seat besides Alistair who I noticed had his hair down again. He had most likely attempted to brush the remnants of that dust, like I had, but I had pulled my hair back from my face againwith a tie once I realized that was no use.

Alistair pushed a glass from in front of him, to me, and I hesitated at first before Alistair insisted with "drink it. Finn has squeezed oranges for you, a sweet treat in replacement of our usual choice of drink. Something earned."

I stared down at the orange liquid, the cup feeling cool to touch as my fingers wrapped around it, before bringing it to my lips.

A smile followed that sip a moment later, which Alistair returned with one of his own before he took a sip from his own glass. I didn't have to question him to know it was rum.

Suddenly, I felt a hand come down on my right shoulder, pulling me from Alistair before I could thank him, and when I looked over to Snips, he was holding his own cup up.

The smile I first found utterly bone chilling the night I was taken aboard, somehow didn't look all that chilling. "Cheers." he said, his gaze shifting to the cup in my hand. I willingly raised it, clinking the ceramic material together, to which Snips's smile only widened. "For you, my dear Caspian, continue to surprise us."

I hadn't even noticed the smile already etched into my face, but I found it widening myself.

There wasn't much I was sure of, however I was positive this had been the most I had smiled in years.

Maybe since before the fire...

"Coop!" Snips snapped his head in the Cooper's direction, who I now noticed was part of the men in the middle clearing of the room, playing along with a few other pirates. The music in Gatvia was beautiful, a melodic tune if you may... but this? This felt like a jig. The tune these men kept was something that matched the tempo of a heart rate during the heat of battle.

Snips stood once that rhythm picked up in speed, him being the first to join the men playing in the middle, yet he didn't bring with him an instrument. Instead, he brought with him his feet, those large boots keeping the tempo of the music perfectly as he started to dance around the men who played.

That smile hadn't waivered from my lips; I watched as another pirate, Gildan, joined Snips, and he kept the same tempo as both their feet moved with miraculous speeds. They soon after linked their arms, keeping their energy contained while they spun each other around.

"Join them if you'd like." I heard Alistair's voice whisper close to my left ear, the sound and proximity of it sending a shiver straight through me. I turned to the slightly larger man again.

"I-" I started, before deciding on more point words. "I don't know the dance they're doing."

That made Alistair's eyebrows furrow a bit, before some realization eased his features. He was about to say some seemingly chosen words of his own, but the sudden pull at my right upper arm forced my gaze to my right once more. Snips yanked me to my feet before I could begin to protest, and pushed me towards both the men playing music and the man that had joined in on this dance.

"Like this," Snips pointed to his legs as he put a foot in front of another. He struggled to keep his pace slow enough for me to follow, while maintaining the beat his feet refused to fall out of synchronization with.

And I did my best to follow, but it looked more like I was drunk if anything. That got a good laugh out of Alistair's men, which I couldn't help but join in with. I looked like a fool.

It was Alistair's voice that cut through the loud music, and his even louder men, as he called out "Simon, ring a tune more haunting!"

Simon, the pirate that was sitting in the far back of the room, suddenly stood. His height separated him from the sitting men. In his hand, he held a string instrument I couldn't recognize, but another pirate got up from the middle of the room to give Simon his seat.

When I heard the first few pulls from the string, accompanied by his and two other men's voices, my body stilled a moment. This music wasn't familiar, however the tempo was. It was something my feet could more easily follow, to which they did before I could direct them to.

It was as if they moved against my will, listening to the music produced by Simon and those two other pirates. The only description for their voices was that which Alistair requested. Haunting.

I had gotten so lost in the music, it took me far longer than it should have to notice it had started to slow. The room itself had somehow started to slow, as did the pirates surrounding me on all sides. This sudden shift felt like magic, but I didn't understand how, or why.

As I looked away from the pirates whose movements had slowly started to fade from my vision, back towards Alistair's table, I saw the large man making his way past his men to me. He was the only other one here still moving at the same speed I was, and that only made my face tighten further in confusion.

Once he finally reached me, I could feel something. It was a thumping that matched the slower tempo of the drowned out music, yet it wasn't coming from any instrument near us.

It was coming from the floorboards themselves.

Alistair was close enough now for me to reach out and touch, and the words that flowed from him without his mouth moving as his eye bore into mine, was something that made my own heartbeat quicken against the heartbeat of these floor boards.

"She's taken a liking to you."

Somehow, I hadn't needed to ask him who. Or what, rather. I could feel her heartbeat flow through each plank of wood. Each nail hammered in, now pulsating with the moving boards themselves.

It was the beating heart of his ship.

And I had no chance to respond to the man, for the tempo of the music began to grow. The movement of his pirates slowly returning to their natural form. And as Alistair reached for something tucked in his shirt before bringing it to his lips, I watched his own feet start to move. He had started to mimic the movement of my feet perfectly, the dance I'd learned from my father when I was younger. His boots were in synch with both those instruments, and my own steps.

Once I heard the sound of his flute, I felt my gaze cementing itself on him if it hadn't already, unable to look away. His eye had closed slightly as he played, somehow connecting whatever world he had suddenly pulled me into, back to the present, with the melody of that instrument. Back to his men, and their music.

Mesmerized didn't even feel like the correct word to describe what he had done to me...

But I knew I could no longer look away.

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