I bestow upon you all a double update today lol. Yesterday was my dad's two year memorial for his passing so that was why I didn't get a chapter out. It was also my gma's bday so the family stuff was familying fr
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo

P.S. song referenced in this chapter and what the chapter is named after, is above, and updated in the playlist!

"Give and Take only works when both sides really give and take."

Alistair

Caspian stumbled into me from the force I had yanked him up with, however this very same hand immediately left his to wrap itself around the man's waist. My body couldn't deny how good it felt to have him near me again, and I didn't suppress it either.

The sound of Cael clearing his throat was what stopped me from fully losing myself to this man on the very exposed deck of this ship.

"It's time to go." He rememinded the both of us as my eye kept its gaze of Caspian's now slightly bluer ones. Whatever had happened with Hodrus had changed him.

"Have you decided?" I asked Caspian quietly. "Did you recognize him?"

Caspian took a moment before he slowly shook his head up at me, however his answer surprised me.

"I'm... well, I'm not too sure I ever really did."

I had understood those words in somewhat completion, and yet the sadness soaked in them made my arm tighten around that firm waist, forcing his body even more flush against mine. "Aye," I spoke in return. There was a pause I gave myself to think on those very words of his, before I finally turned to Cael. "Bring her 'round to the main docks."

Cael's gaze found mine immediately once that order left my lips, to which I held it. Whatever distaste Cael was to have about this next decision of mine, was one he would simply need to find the strength to overcome.

For my mind had now been made. And the direction I gave was a direct order.

Something that, at the very least, Cael understood. There would be no attesting this.

When he turned to my men who had now began to abandon the ridiculous tasks they had made for themselves to appease their eavesdropping spirit, he relayed my words fully. "Aye! You heard our Cap'in, pull in the ropes and bring her 'round to the main ports!"

That order got my men moving immediately and with quick speeds, but I noticed not only had they already been smiling, that order only made their smiles widen. There was no ill feelings towards the possibility of destruction, and my men had sailed these seas long enough with me to know when a bloodbath would soon follow.

"What are you to do?" Caspian asked, still in my arms. It called my attention back down to him while Ol' Bess had jolted herself back to life, but the floorboards beneath both mine and Caspian's feet remained still.

"You'll see." Was all I told the man before my arm eventually loosened itself around Caspian's waist. Instead, my hand found its way to Caspian's, interlocking our fingers, and I found myself leading him across the main deck towards the very front of the ship.

We watched here together in silence, looking towards the horizon as my crew moved quickly around this vessel. They were preparing Ol' Bess for whatever I was planning next, but I wanted to give Caspian the most perfect view of what was to come.

In actuality, I intended to give them all a perfect view.

There was a lesson to be learnt this high noon. One even the people of Azul would soon have drilled into those thick fucking skulls of theirs.

Caspian turned his attention from the busy ports of this land that were quickly coming into view, towards me again, before he asked "do you intend to kill him?"

I turned my head to this slightly shorter man before I replied "I intend to end him."

Judging by the confusion clearly displayed on Caspian's face, he didn't quite understand what I had meant. And that was okay, for I was a hands on learner myself.

As my ships approached the about twenty of so vessels docked on this side of Azul, she slowed herself to a stop only a few hundred feet away.

And as soon as the first few citizens scattered across the shore, moving products to and from the boats of the merchants docked there, saw my blood red sails, they stopped themselves dead in their tracks. Some had even dropped the crates of merchandise they had been offloading and loading. That was when my hand finally slipped out of Caspian's and joined my other as both hands rested flat on the ledge of the very point of my ship.

I could hear the rusting of thick chains as our anchor was dropped through the water by my men, and that was my signal that it was time to begin.

My eye close a moment, listening to the beating of my ship. Her beat in rhythm with my own.

She and I were both ready to begin.

"Citizens of Azul," I whispered into the winds, watching carefully as more people on that shore had stopped all work at my voice. Even those in the market had quickly started to make their way down those busy paths to the shoreline once my voice had reached everyone on this side of the land. "I hear there's a man here looking for me. Zirion Khan. It would be a pity to leave this shithole without meeting that who called my name by choice. One who dared to."

Even from where my ship stood, it was difficult to miss the paleness that had befallen so many faces gathering at the shore.

These people now knew that I had already walked these streets amongst them with not one noticing, and that this call to me came from the mouth of none other than that who they had just appointed.

"Now I'm a reasonable man... however if you keep me waiting, I will show you just what my patience will cost you."

I could see some of The Holy Men had already started to make their way towards where their people gathered. The white robes they wore stood out, and must've been in association with the celebration that was to be held today. The celebration I was now interrupting.

One of the men had since taken past the shore line to walk towards the edge of a deck located closer to the middle of these lines ships.

"You do not speak to our appointed councilman!" He called out to me. "If you wish to speak to anyone, you may address u-"

My right had eased itself slightly off my ship for only a moment, and with a flick of my wrist, I ripped that dock completely off its steadied pillars that had been stationed into the water, and I sent both the dock, and the man once standing on it, flying into the next ship on my left. The sound was deafening, yet the only sound I heard was the sharp inhale from Caspian besides me.

"What did I just say about my patience?" My voice carried to this now almost filled shoreline, although many of its citizens and those that had only simply ported for a sale, had taken very large steps back away from both the docks and the waters they were built into.

I could hear the sounds of crying merchants once that dock tore through the boat that wasn't nearly large enough to withstand the impact, but I made sure my words cut straight through to the ears of those in range to listen.

"Bring your appointed councilman to me. Now."

The Holy Men had all stood in place, watching the now clear water in disbelief as they soon registered that that dock was no longer there. It took them a moment, but once they finally understood that, two men quickly left the now five Holy Men that I counted on this shore, to go fetch the thing they should've done so as soon as they saw these blood red sails.

"You..." Caspian whispered to me. "How did you.... I thought you... docks don't have a heartbeat, do they?"

I turned to this handsome man with a smile. He was taking my already heightened delight, and making it all the more sweeter.

"No," I shook my head. "But anything that touches these waters is mine. Azul would've done themselves some good to remember that, but I will very soon remind them." Then my eyes returned to the shore once again...

And we began the wait.

Zirion had done himself and his people overwhelming good by making haste. I knew who he was as he and his men sprinted across the sandy beach, by the gold emblem of The Holy Men on his white robe and his alone. He approached these shores with the two Holy Men that had taken off to get him, and three additional guards. They all kept as close to him as possible when the sea of people parted to allow him through.

He was starting to walk towards the next dock on my right, but a guard's hand quickly came down on his shoulder hard. He turned to that man but the man only shook his head slowly. He was one of the two that saw what I had done shortly before their departure. None would take another chance like that. Not like the first of them had.

Then Zirion's pale eyes returned to the sea. Returned to me... for a brief moment anyways. They almost immediately shifted to Caspian who stood right beside me, and the pale reflection of the enemy's face went stark white with realization.

"Caspian." I heard him whisper, but I was the only one who could. I expected Caspian's expressions to change, to soften once he saw his brother, but it only grew harder. And that encouraged me to continue this collection of debt.

"Zirion Khan of Azul." I almost laughed to myself at the ridiculous name he had chosen to take. "Whispers across these waters tell me you've been looking for me. Hunting me, rather. Well I like to think I to be quite hospitable, and what manners would I have if I didn't properly introduce myself?"

"Alistair!" He called through the air almost immediately after my words. "What is it you want with this protected land?"

My eyebrows furrowed at that answer of his. For he really couldn't have been that stupid. I turned to Caspian who now had his fingers massaging the bridge of his nose, his eyes cast to the floor in clear shame.

Aye, I thought to myself, perhaps he really was just that stupid.

This would've felt like robbing a child if I hadn't seen first hand the decisions he and his men had made, and the effects those orders had on both this land and its people. A debt would certainly still need to be collected.

"Well," I started, not sure how to put this. "First you can stop yelling. Very soon you will not want those words of yours to reach your people. Very soon you won't want mine to either."

That made most of the now hundred or so people of Azul who gathered, turn to their new leader.

And the look on Zirion's face was utterly fucking priceless to me. Fear was starting to creep upon him. As his eyes shifted from mine to Caspian's once more, that only confirmed it. Caspian may have been the key to his demise... but I now held that very key in the palm of my hand, begging him to make me use it.

"Next order of business," I continued. "A lesson on some history... for a little raven once told me you didn't care to pay attention in your classes. Luckily for you, I'm an excellent teacher."

The people of Azul kept their eyes darting back and forth between myself and Zirion, hearing my words echo through the edge of their land straight to their very ears, but Zirion's eyes could only shift between Caspian and I.

"Once upon a time, there was an unspoken law passed between the sea and the land." As soon as those words left my lips, that very same right hand lifted it off my ship's ledge ever so slightly, and with another quick flick of my wrist, I swiped the very pillars of the next three docks to my right, ripping them from the fastenings of the dock, and sinking both them, and that walking boards, straight down to the bottom of the sea itself.

I had now destroyed any efforts of escape from eight of the twenty or so ships. Well, seven, considering the ship that was now ruined by the dock I had thrown into it. The men that were boarded on that ship were still wailing ear piercing cries for help, but not a single person on land came to their aid. None still dared to step foot in these waters.

When my eye returned to Zirion, his face was hard, fixed with anger... but I could see well past it. I could hear his heartbeat even from here, and it beat with nothing but fear. Whereas for mine? Well it beat in tune to the drums of war.

I cleared my throat before I continued. "This unspoken law was one both parties understood. Sea and land would act in partisan with one another. This was to keep the peace. Neither party would meddle with what took place in the others domain."

That very hand raised itself again, this time sending one of the few remaining docks straight through the main deck of the ship next to it, who's men were now trying to unboard in an attempt to flee.

I didn't like to be interrupted.

And escaping these waters now was not possible for any man still on their merchant vessels. Those vessels touched the sea itself, therefore they were mine.

"You, Zirion Khan of Azul, and the men who so ceremoniously stand beside you... you made a fateful decision to cross your domain. And while I have left you to run amuck through this once beautiful land, you took that as a sign of weakness... Something I do not take kindly to."

More screams from that now destroyed ship echoed through air, flames starting to burn from the oil they surely once carried aboard. Only a moment passed before there was another deafening boom, and the entire main deck exploded before all our eyes. That cause Caspian to jump, but he didn't back away.

He didn't leave his position here beside me.

"I believe a beneficial relationship works when both parties give and take. I have given you my patience, dear Zirion... I have given you the space to do to this land as you wish... but now? Just as you have overstepped, allow me to join you in this dance. For you called upon The Pirate King, and now it's time to take."

I watched those pale eyes of his widen in horror as they looked at towards the sea... but those eyes were cast in quite the wrong direction...

For as soon as I had uttered those very words, there was a sound that came from land that drowned out all the screams and cries of agony from the men on water.

It was the sound of a serious of explosions all in quick succession with one another, the ear drum shattering sounds as massive clouds of smoke soon filled the air towards inland. There was no escaping that sound. The sounds of stone being blown apart. Wood snapping so easily like one could snap a twig. The citizens turned their heads immediately to it as they cried out in pure shock, moving towards the waters without them even realizing, to escape whatever I had just done on land. This included Zirion himself, and his men.

The Holy Men Could only watch as that smoke quickly grew larger, stretching over the once clear blue skies much like I imagined they had the night Azultia burned.

"This destruction on your ports," I spoke to Zirion and his people, beckoning their now terrified expressions my way again. "This is for being as so bold enough to send a man like Gaelick. After I, nonetheless."

"Wait!" One of The Holy Men shouted, but I fully ignored his cry.

"And that," I raised my right hand again which sent emotions through every being watching. I could see it now... true fear. They knew not what I was to do next. They were no longer safe neither in these waters, or on the land. In which their feet were planted on "What I've just done to your precious councilmen's place of home... Well that was for none other than the Lockehearts, and what your men did to theirs."

Caspian ripped his gaze away from his land immediately to look up at me. I turned my head towards him slightly with a smirk that had never quite left my lips since he boarded, but the look he had given me made that smirk turn to a genuine smile.

"How?" He asked me quietly. I allowed him to pause a moment to think, before realization soon spread across his face. "Dreska." He whispered.

My smile slowly widened further.

"There are some still willing to right their wrongs." I told this beautiful, white haired man. "That, and well, I can be rather convincing when the time calls for it."

That had made the edges of Caspian's lips tug up into a genuine smile of his own. Even with the growing cries of agony building around us. The screams from Zirion's men now as some cried out for mercy... even through all this chaos I had just created, the only thing I cared to listen to was his heartbeat.

The only face I cared to study was his.

My hands removed themselves from the edge of my ship, before I raise my right one to the skin that covered Caspian's sharp jawline. I then tilted his head up some towards me before speaking these words to him and him alone.

"It's about time I get serious, isn't it?" I asked this man.

His eyes grew the widest I think I've ever seen them, but he found himself slowly nodding. Understanding. Then I took this opportunity to bend down slightly, closing my eyes as my lips found his with ease, and brushed gently against them.

Before I pulled myself away from this chastened, stolen kiss, I whispered to him softly.

"It will all be over soon."

Caspian didn't have any time to react as I pulled away and straightened myself out. Then I placed my hands firmly back on the ledge of that ship and hoisted this large body onto it with ease. I took a knee, allowing my right hand to steady me as it rested palm facing down, flat against the very tip of my ship, whilst my left slowly brought itself up to this leather eye patch concealing my harsher truth. 

Caspian's heartbeat quickened when I pushed the material further up to reveal my left eye.

And as both eyes finally laid themselves on Zirion, seeing him clearly now, he looked as if he was having a heart attack. His body still standing told me that he was still alive, to which I found great joy and impending sadness all in one.

Seeing him die from witnessing the kiss I just laid on his brother would have brought a particular amount of warmth to my heart that I was sure I hadn't felt before, but alas, this only meant more fun.

I couldn't remember the last time something like this had felt so... exhilarating.

These next words I spoke were for Zirion's ears and his alone. "Hodrus Lockeheart," I whispered to him, watching as he took a few sudden staggering steps back. "You've overstepped your purpose, which may have very well been worth nothing to begin with. You may think you built yourself from ash, but when I see you now... all I see is the blood of your family that you have since drenched yourself in."

Both my eyes focused on the enemy whose magic I could see but couldn't feel. He was a mere speck of what his brother was. What his brother was forced to become.

This small man wasn't deserving of this royal blood.

"I was going to kill you... but as you may already know... As your brother very well knows," I shifted my gaze slightly to the only other man who could hear me. And the intent gaze of his breathtaking eyes were on nothing but myself. "Death is too easy, isn't it?"

The look Caspian was giving me was inexplicable, yet I forced my focus back on the idiot that still stood on that beach. Him frozen in place along with his men.

"And so," I continued, "I've decided to grant you the very same opportunity I have given your brother." I could feel the beating of my ship, and my heart, accelerating further. I felt past her deep rich wood to the waters below, my reach of the sea starting to both strengthen and stretch itself. "The gift of living."

Caspian's own heartbeat had quickened once more when he felt the energy I was coursing through both these floorboards, and well past them. The sea's waves were starting to stir in rythm with my ship. They were moving at her and I's command.

The sounds of the harsher winds cut through my blood red sails, mirroring the rage I had pushed into the sea.

"Yet yours won't be spent like his. After this day... you're going to wish I had stayed, perhaps carved the time out of my tight schedule, to finish you off completely."

I could feel my left eye burning redder, the power I was about to call upon was now cursing through my veins in waves, turning the veins themselves from a muffled blue to a glowing red... and when I finally shifted my attention down to the ledge of my ship, watching as my body prepared itself for what was to come, I whispered my few final words.

These words weren't meant for the people of Azul, nor Zirion himself, but they had surely heard them... for these words fell upon the thing they'd also soon learn to fear.

The sea itself.

"To every vessel that dares to touch these waters of mine...

I release you all."

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