Well hellooooo there m'loves!
Just popping in to first say thank you for all the condolences and well wishes...
You all seriously make this writing shit worth it.
Anyways, back it again with another upload
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo

P.S. I might confuse y'all with this but the song referenced in this chapter is one I added before. You'll know which chapter/song to check out when you get there lol, sorry for the homework
The song above is the overall vibe of this chapter and is simply *chefs kiss*
A little recommendation from a fellow reader
Thanks, love <3 this one got me goinggg with writing

P.P.S. I got some more fan art from the same amazing reader and artist after the chapter for ya!
One of them is... well... you'll have to give your own thanks to the artist when you see it;) cause babyyyyyyyyy they did they big one

Privateer: An armed ship or captain commissioned by the government or sovereign that legally exerts their right to pillage
(Gaelick, also Barbossa in POTC On Stranger Tides, which lock me up but I loved lol)

Caspian

I felt the vibration of the floor boards right beneath my feet as this vessel really came to life. The beating of Ol' Bess's heart felt like drums of war against me, which only mirrored the man that Alistair had now become.

No, I thought. Not a man. Something else.

His veins were starting to glow a bright red, like fire under his skin spreading across his entire body. The black cloak he wore was blown back by the wind, only held together at his neck with the silver broach he wore, securing it. Those thick strands of rich charcoal hair melted against the blowing fabric, tossed back into this growing storm.

I couldn't tell whether I even felt my own heartbeat anymore. Not over the pounding sounds of his and Ol' Bess's. Or perhaps they all held the same rhythm.

The hand he had connected to the ledge had placed so much pressure onto the wood, it had started to cave against the print of his hand, but Ol' Bess kept it contained. His power. It was flowing through her down to the sea itself, I could feel it connecting with mine in a way I hadn't felt before as the ink on my arm began to burn. It was like he had somehow linked every man whose feet touched any part of this vessel, to the ship itself, fastening the grip of our boots against the floorboards.

...I release you all.

Those simple words had awoken something within the sea. And I could feel its cold rage spread below us, though none of my skin had been directly touching these waters.

I hadn't noticed it until now, but as I looked past Alistair to the shores ahead, and closer at every ship still standing, they too had began to stir. Every single piece of wood connecting themselves to the very build of their vessels, had begun to rattle. The sound flowing into the cries of agony. The people on shore had tried to move, but they couldn't. I watched as their feet physically fought against what their mind must have been screaming to them.

There was something Alistair had done. Something that now kept them on these shores, and held them here against their will.

"Men," I heard Alistair's voice whisper across the entirety of his ship, but when I turned to him again, his lips didn't move this time. "What say ye?"

I didn't hear any words at first, none from his crew.

Just the grinding sounds of metal slashing, scraping against themselves as the crew began to unsheathe their swords. As my head slowly turned from Alistair to the rest of the deck behind us, I found myself completely stunned into silence.

Each men had slowly begun to lower themselves into to a stance closer to the floor, drawing their swords and daggers close to them. The expressions on each of their faces... it was the terror that full echoed that of their Captain. And it sent deep shivers through my already unnerved senses.

I recognized this stance before, from when we came upon Jirah's ship. They were preparing themselves for a battle. Or rather, a bloodbath.

My eyes slowly moved from pirate to pirate, those deadly smiles now spreading across each of their hardened faces. Their was a glimmer in their eyes that I had never seen before. In any of them, nor anyone. But when my eyes finally found themselves to Cael, they stopped at him entirely.

His right hand had wrapped itself along the handle of the sword I had never laid my eyes on before.

For since the time I had first boarded this ship, he had never unsheathed it.

That strong hand pulled against its handle, yanking it from its hold, and the sound of the blade ringing harshly against my ears was something of which I didn't know. I hadn't heard this metal before. And when that long sword appeared, the blade was surely the longest I had ever seen anyone capable of wielding. He wrapped his other hand around the handle, bringing his steadied weapon forward until it was directly in front of him.

When his eyes found mine from where he stood towards the front, I watched as he pushed his left foot back, dragging against the floorboards before he lowered himself to match the same stance as the rest of his men. To my certainly surprised expression, he then offered me a smile. One that mirrored some of the terror this ship was quickly gearing to inflict.

I saw him mouth something through that smile however, but I couldn't hear him over the chaos behind me.

"What-" I found myself starting to whisper, yet it was Alistair's words that made me understand.

"Part of the crew, part of the ship." He whispered, which pulled my head towards him again. "That's his reasoning to fight. You."

I simply stared at Alistair a moment.

I didn't even know what to say to that. I don't think I had the words to.

The look Cael had given me... he had known more now. I felt the edges of my own lips turning up into a slight smile, and it only grew as did this energy from Alistair. It was multiplying.

Cael knew who I was, and still he was willing to fight. Not because of who I was- a Lockeheart. But because of who I was once I boarded this ship again. A pirate. One choosing to sail under these blood red sails willingly... and now a part of this crew.

"Men," Alistair's voice whispered through the growing winds again, sweeping across each deck of this vessel. "What say ye?"

"Aye." His men's own whisper sounded haunting as the winds quickly dispersed those voices across these decks, and beyond the ship itself. I turned back to Alistair just as he looked my way again. He had remained silent with his burning eyes on mine now, his skin on fire, waiting for my answer.

And it was like the word slipped past my tongue with no knowledge of my own. "Aye." I found myself slowly nodding.

"Well then,"

His whispers grew suddenly, spreading deep into the very floorboards themselves. There was no part of this ship that he wasn't connected to, and yet it felt like in this moment, there was no part of the sea that wasn't at his beckon. At his mercy.

"Cael..." his voice whispered through the ship itself to his Navigator. "...cut down the sky."

My head yanked itself back to the crew again. To those sudden orders Alistair had given, and to Cael himself.

This day had already bestowed many wonders within this ship and its crew, however what I was about to see, left me completely frozen in place.

He drew his long sword further out in front of him, drawing his eyes closed for a moment...

But when they slowly opened once more, those eyes were no longer his.

They were something more, as they now glowed a bright white light. The entire eye itself, contrasting sharply against his dark skin.

That very same light spread, starting to flow from his eyes under his skin much like Alistair's magic had, but the stream of light didn't linger in his veins like Alistair's, it was like the light from a shooting star slowly moving through him until it reached the ink on his neck, illuminating the once black and intricate patterns down his chest and arms. Those patterns that covered what were exposed of his broad chest and further, glowed a bright permanent white now, as bright as his eyes, and it stretched down to his hands.

The only way I could explain it, was if the stars themselves somehow lived under Cael's skin. He had somehow become the embodiment of night.

But the light hadn't stopped itself there. I could feel it now, this ethereal feeling quickly sweeping through the ship. This magic gave Cael's massive sword a white hueish glow that lit his long blade completely. And as he slowly passed the blade downward, closer to the floor, I didn't quite understand what it was he was doing...

Until my eyes shifted from his, to what had suddenly clouded some of the sky above us.

What was starting to form as a thick, black, cloud-like slit against the brightness of day, slowly began to stretch further out across the sky itself, and it quickly grew. That once bright blue of high noon was now being engulfed by this black cloud, as that slit grew longer across the heavens and widened itself out.

I watched the world above us before my very eyes as it was cut open, spreading this blackness across like a night sky, over both Azul and as far and as wide as we all could see.

What was once day, had now become night above us.

And the horrid gasps from the citizens of Azul still planted firmly on the shore, rang out in almost unison, that ghastly sound having been heard over the cries of their own, and those unlucky to dock in Azul on this here day.

The slight chilling chuckle from Alistair brought my attention back to him. I was still standing beside him amidst these winds. The waves were now crashing against each vessel that touched them, forcing more of the citizens to try to move those feet of theirs. To step further away from the water, but the burning of the councilmen's home had also terrified them. There was no safety in front, nor behind where they stood... for they knew not what next Alistair had planned next.

Even I did not know.

...This is for the Lockehearts, and what you did to theirs.

That very line had made me feel something I couldn't quite put to words once Alistair had said them. The way he had chosen to spare my brother even after I had revealed to him the truth.

Well...

As my gaze fixed itself on Alistair and the sinister smile he now bore, the winds since blowing back his hood and hair, revealing the coldness of his features to all. I realized that I actually wasn't quite sure what Alistair was going to do next. I never was. And to make the gift of living sound like the most terrifying a threat... I realized Alistair may not have actually spared Hodrus at all.

I watched this Captain's lips start to move, thinking he would whisper something else out to the people of Azul. They were still struggling against whatever forces kept their feet in place, as the burning ships and now burning docks created bright embers against the darkness of this land. The merchants still boarded on every ship that now rattled with promises of breaking apart completely, were scrambling to find their own source of light.

Alistair had done something to their ships, something I hadn't yet quite understood, and with minimal light aboard their vessels, more panic only ensued.

This burning ship next to us gave Alistair and his men all the clarity we needed. He was making sure we saw every single face of these terrified people, as they could see us.

But when his lips moved, I noticed soon after that he was letting out a different sound- a whistle.

My eyes grew wide at it.

Never had I heard such a sound cut through every single turbulent wind before. Every single blood curdling cry. I heard that tune damn near through my whole body, and once the familiarity of it came to me, I could only stare at Alistair.

How did he know this?
Had he heard Dreska at the market?

No, I thought...

But my thoughts were silenced once I hear what followed that whistle. And it was the low hums of his men behind me. Hums that spread throughout the winds of the sea, carry through what sounded like the entirety of Azul.

The first cry that made it through the wind was muffled, but the second came to my ears. Then the third, and the fourth. Those same words uttered in succession of each other past this ship, and aboard the merchants.

"Hoist the colours!"

"Hoist the colours!"

"Hoist the fucking colours you rotten imbeciles! Move!"

I couldn't even fully understand what that meant until I started to see what the men on the remaining merchant ships had now busied themselves with.

Each man had started to work together, their hands tightening against the whipping ropes from the winds, as they pulled hard to lower the beige sails that signified the ship of a merchant. The men on these vessels were scrambling to thread different sails through those very ropes, in hopes of finding the strength to then hoist them up amidst the storm.

This, this tune, however... the one that overtook the air above the sea.

It was the lullaby from my mother. The very tune that had led me to Dreska.

I didn't understand how they-... how they all-

"Cold!" Alistair's voice cut straight through everything. The ships. The sea itself. The cries from the merchants ship still standing, and those now burning. Simply everything..

"The air and water flowing..." His man sung low, forcing my eyes to widen even further as I turned yet again back to them.

"Hard!" I felt the hair covering the entirety of my body, start to stand to attention, nipping away at the fabric catching on to them under this thick cloak.

"The land we call our home..."

These words... they were words I had never heard before. Words I hadn't known existed to the song my mother would help me find sleep with.

"Push!"

"To keep the dark from coming... Feel the weight of what we owe."

The sea was raging now, and with an anger I had never seen before. Felt before. An anger I hadn't thought possible to come from anything before. Until now.

"This!"

"The song of sons and daughters..."

"Hide!"

"The heart of who we are..."

"Making peace to build our future... strong, united, working till we fall." Alistair joined his men. Their voices seemed to be growing louder and louder... until I heard it.

The sound. This song.

It wasn't just coming from this ship.

As I looked out again to the shore, to the ships still standing, I saw now that the sails flown from these remaining few weren't just any sails. They were the sails of rebellion. The sails of piracy. The sails once flown by those before they became a privateer, a pirate merchant protected under The Holy Men and the power that held Azul.

Had Alistair known... I thought to myself. I wasn't sure how he could, but then again I also wasn't sure how any of this could be. How any of this was.

"And we all lift
And we're all adrift together, together

Through the cold mist
'Til we're lifeless together, together."

I finally realized as the words of these pirates echoed through the winds with strength, that this... this song they sang.

It wasn't what I once thought. It was no lullaby.

It was a chantey.

I had been so distracted by the sky. By the ships, and their flags, I hadn't noticed the water itself until the glimmering finally caught my eye, and I cast my gaze from the ships around us, lower to the waters below.

Below the very waters of Alistair's ship, the sea had started to take on an almost slightly shimmery glow. I leant myself closer over the very tip's ledge of the vessel to get a better look, but Alistair's words spoke to me quickly. His words carried over the signing of his men and the men of those that had turned, joining his crew.

"Don't venture too close. However, don't be frightened either... They aren't here for us."

My eyes peered back to the blackness of the water mirroring the night sky above us, and though it took me a moment, I could see what those glimmers of light really were below the surface.

They were the reflections of scales.

I watched as more and more long tails swam slowly through these crashing waves. Tails that were longer than any fish I knew, the deep golden and blue hues of the scales being the only thing I could see through the water, but as the first thing slowly appeared above, I felt myself draw further back from the ledge immediately.

All I could see was long black hair flowing from what looked like a woman's head, she was turned from us facing towards the shore, therefore I could see nothing else.

Another head then soon appeared to the far right of the ship, revealing more of a face I could see, and it was in fact human. A woman. Her skin as white as ash, with deep brown hair coating the waters surrounding her at the level of her delicate neck. I watched those pale lips of hers part slightly, but the sound I soon heard was something nothing could describe. A melancholic yet haunting tune.

More heads began to slowly emerge from the dark waters all around Alistair's vessel, joining that woman soon in a tune that fell in line with Alistair's men and the men at sea, yet it had somehow also started to form this slight mist right above the water itself. It made it difficult to see how many of these things there were, but the glimmering of the waters below from those scales hadn't subsided.

I watched as more swam past Alistair's ship.

"Sirens." I whispered to myself in complete and utter disbelief.

The creatures of myths. Purely tales...

And yet they were here. Right before my very eyes.

It was the commotion that started ashore which brought my gaze up past these creatures, to the creatures in their own right who still stood standing on the sandy coast. I watched as Zirion reached desperately for one of The Holy Men that had started to leave his councilmen, however his feet weren't drawing him closer inland, they were bringing him closer to us. Towards these waters.

"Quil!" Zirion shouted, but the man did not care to listen. I watched him take those first few steps from the lowest point of the shore where the waters met land, right into the sea itself. As he waded his thick white cloak through the blackness, I noticed there was something off. His body was in almost a trance like state, carrying him deeper and deeper into the water with no expressions visible, as he started to swim out to Alistair's boat.

Rather, to the creatures that were now spread all around it... calling to him as they waited.

...They're not here for us.

What Alistair had said... those world rang through me again as the man soon disappeared into the misty water, his scream ringing out only once across the sea before it was silenced.

"Wait!" Zirion shouted, though his feet couldn't move him as another Holy Man left his side, slowly dragging his own obedient feet against the white sand before he soon followed his comrade past the false security of land, and into the dark, cold waters itself. "Wait!" Zirion cried out again in desperation, but it was no use.

Whatever Alistair had done... whatever he called upon this day. This night, now.

It was no use.

And now I was beginning to understand what Alistair had meant. The only life he would spare was my brothers. Only his. This was what he meant when he has said he was to end him.

Each of The Holy Men slowly followed, one after the other, answering the call of these creatures, and the sirens started to move closer to the men who were soon to join them. I could see one Holy Man had reached a siren still in my sight towards the left side of the ship, his hands reaching up through the water to her face as he forced a kiss upon her.

When her own hands came above the dark water, she tangled those pale white fingers into the stands of his cold hair, before pulling him down suddenly below the darkness of the sea.

If the stories told of these creatures were to be held to truth, that man had lost his life the second he stepped foot into these now infested waters. And sure enough, I did not see him nor that siren return again.

"Alistair!" Zirion called out through the crashing of the waves. The desperate cries for help from the people of Azul all flowed together so perfectly with the chantey that his men, the men of those who turned, the sirens this Captain had since called upon, and the sea itself all carried the tune of.

The chantey I could feel against the sea itself, as every pirate whose vessel touched these waters were now in union with this song.

"Do you finally understand?" Alistair's words cut straight through this chaos, directly to my brother who now stood alone with none but the citizens of Azul at his side. There were no other Holy Men left.

Just he.

"Zirion," Alistair whispered, his voice chilling through this very air. "...Hodrus. There is no name you can take that can aide in your escape from neither I... nor yourself.

"And I hereon bind you to it. To live out the immortality of your forsaken namesake, with that simple truth.

"With knowing you should've begged for death when you still possessed the chance."

••

Okay so now for some more incredible fan art that literally continue to blow my socks clean tf off <3
Thank you so so much, lovely!!

-

At this point I'm just screaming take my money