Hello there lovelies!
Soooo, I decided on a few things... lol
1. This chapter will be two parts
2. I'm almost certain we'll be ending the book at chapter 59, but this could potentially be 60 chapters at most
It honestly depends on how the next chapter after this one goes cause there's A LOT to get through
Anywhoooo, thank you all so much for such sweet comments on the last one! I've been talking a whole lot of shit about how imma put my entire foot in this ending, and I only hope to deliver on that word
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo
P.S. it's almost 2am right now so imma edit this in the morning lol. Beware the errors

Caspian

Alistair's hand quickly grabbed for my left forearm, holding me back by it before I could take another step forward.

The man in front of us came to a sudden halt when those black eyes shifted from Alistair to myself.

He just held our gaze for what felt like eternity, not saying a word to me as his eyes took in my stature. This then forced all our hands into an eerie, uncomfortable silence, one neither Alistair nor myself willingly chose to break. Not even once I saw a smile slowly creep upon this man's pale lips.

He immediately after raised his left hand out in front of him, the palm facing towards him as he guided it slowly across the front of his appearance, and all we could do was watch in clear astonishment as that charcoal black hair slowly began to turn to white.

It began to turn to the length and colour of my own now.

His features were morphing to something of beauty, somewhat elegant like my father's, but there was a hardness there too. A rigidness that left him presenting scars I still simply could not see. Something that had kept him living in the past, for he still looked exactly how I remembered over 15 years ago.

And his eyes...

As they shifted from the beady blackness they once were, I saw the color they swiftly changed to clear as day. It was the color mine took whenever a power I still didn't quite understand presented itself to me. Whenever I had needed additional strength from whatever had snapped my immortality in half all those years ago. I felt familiarity when I looked into them... and I felt home when they stared back.

His presence alone reminded me of the palace.

"Shit." Alistair whispered under his breath once he too saw who it was this man had since revealed to us to be.

"So this was who called." My grandfather finally spoke.

"Called?" Alistair asked immediately after, taking a few steps forward to place himself at my side again. His hand hadn't left my arm however, in fact I was rather sure his fingers had tightened their hold on it.

Daedron pointed over towards my chest, before he brought that same finger to his own. I hadn't noticed just how crisp his floor length black trench coat was, but now that he was only just a few steps away, I took more of his appearance in. His all black attire had once gotten lost with his darker features, that black hair and dark eyes... but now that his features had changed completely, everything he wore stood out to my common eyes far more.

My eyes shifted from his down to the pendant resting on my chest. My fingers slowly reached for it, looking more closely through the glass.

"The Eye of The Sea?" Alistair questioned. "I should've known..." his voice immediately faded as he muttered that last bit. He was hesitant with Daedron, I could hear it clearly in his voice. It didn't sound right coming from Alistair.

"You found it on Jirah's ship I presume?" My grandfather asked.

"Aye." I turned back to Alistair just in time to catch him nodding to the man in return.

That caused Daedron's lips to stretch wide with a smile as his next words turned my gaze to him again. "Good riddance I presume?" Alistair nodded again at those words. "Good." Daedron confirmed. "The man was a fucking nuisance. That, and the only thing of mine I'd ever willingly allow him to hold, is my own shit."

Both Alistair and I suddenly and quite abruptly smiled at that, not expecting those words in the slightest. Well, rather, I wasn't expecting them. I had forgotten how... eccentric he was in comparison to the rest of the Lockehearts.

And perhaps I was now starting to understand why my father had told me this mad man had passed... for there was absolutely no chance I would've believed them had they told me my grandfather now lived inside a mythical creature.

"Besides, if anyone is to own this pendant, it's found itself in the most capable hands. In the hands of a Lockeheart."

Alistair withdrew a sharp breath at those words. "See... now about that... well technically I had given a smuggler in the land of Sicoria my word that I would return this to him. He was the one who helped me hunt down the captain of a ship that attempted an ambush."

Daedron's clearest blue eyes narrowed at Alistair.

"Did he take it out of Jirah's possession at any point?"

Alistair paused with those words, thinking for a moment to himself before he eventually shook his head no.

"Then I don't see how you could be returning anything. As I stated, this pendant is to stay with Caspian."

It felt like all my head could do was turn as I looked back and forth between my grandfather and my Captain.

"I gave my word." Alistair insisted.

"Break it." My grandfather reasoned simply... if one could even call this reasoning.

"That's not how this works." Alistair was quick to respond with.

"Saith who?"Daedron countered.

"I." Alistair snipped back, to which my grandfather tilted his head back slightly to laugh at.

"Then change it." He soon after countered. Alistair release a sigh so deep, it only mirrored the emotion of irritation clearly visible on him now. "Or find something else he'd like if your word means this much to you. I don't care how you go about settling it for I truly do have faith in your ability to negotiate."

As my head turned back to Alistair for what felt like the fortieth time during this entire exchange, he looked even more irritated by those words.

"But I'll leave that for you to decide. For now, I need to clear up a particular... stench." My grandfather took another step forward before his eyes found mine again. "Caspilius, come here." He beckoned his hand towards him, signaling for I to approach, but Alistair's hold didn't ease up on me in the slightest.

I finally turned my head back again to the man whose visceral reaction to protect me was starting to get the better of him. "It's okay." I whispered to him. I kept my voice low, yet I was positive King Daedron could still hear. "He won't hurt me."

The look on Alistair's face told me he didn't trust that, however I watched as his eyes slowly softened. That one brightly burning red iris was still mesmerizing to the sight when I took in his full gaze, pulling me into a light trance as I felt his fingers slowly loosened themselves around me until he allowed his arm to finally drop to his side.

My lips tugged into a slight smile, to which his did the same... for while I appreciated how seriously he took my safety, this was someone I once knew. And knew well. It was also now the only other relative besides my brother who still walked this earth, and between the two, I currently harbored far less resentment for my grandfather.

I turned again, forcing my eyes away from Alistair and allowing my feet to carry me further forward towards this man. Once I finally stood in front of King Daedron, his hands reach up for my neck so quickly I had no time to react.

This wasn't a strike however like I initially thought, his fingers instead gripped my jaw tightly as they tipped my head up towards his. "Caspilius Lockeheart The Second..." he spoke, "your magic reeks."

For the first time possibly ever, I gave my grandfather a look that questioned whether or not he was joking. Considering my senses had only just adjusted to the actual assault of the fish chum odor that lined these very walls, I seriously questioned what footing he had to stand on when it came to speaking on smells.

Instead, I forced myself to hold my tongue in that regard. I found myself answering instead "I don't quite understand."

My grandfather twisted my face roughly first to the right, then to the left, allowing himself to get a very good look at me from every angle available.

"Do you feel the touch of death at your core?" Daedron asked, to which both myself and Alistair found ourselves answering with an 'aye.' That earned Alistair one long, good look as my grandfathers eyes peered past me a moment to just stare at him. I could feel my cheeks growing flush before I could stop them, to which I was sure my grandfather also saw. His face has only about an arms length away from mine now.

I felt King Daedron then shift my head upwards with that same amount of roughness.

"That night... your memories... it's like someone has damned your soul to a good Ol' Keelhaul."

My eyebrows only furrowed further as I now struggled to understand what he meant by that, to which Daedron was kind enough to further elaborate on.

"It's when a Captain drags someone side to side under their ship, allowing both the barnacles and planks to tear them apart." My grandfather explained. That made my eyes widen. "Not only has there been too many cooks in the kitchen up here," his grip released on my jaw bone, yet I felt both hands now rest their fingers on each side of my head. "They've all fondled things they didn't quite understand. You are not just any Lockeheart, Caspilius. That much I'm sure your father must've known."

I... I didn't understand what he had meant by that. And I was positive my father hadn't told me anything along this lines. The only purpose I knew of, was to take his position once it was his time to step down.

"This power of yours. The one you called upon during that night. The night your family was slaughtered... That was where your father had misstepped. You were not to have had access to such power until he explained exactly what it was that resides in you. With you."

There was something about the tips of his fingers as they lightly applied pressure against the sides of my head. I wasn't sure whether I could correctly explain it, but it felt like his touch had seeped through my skin into the skull and brain tissue itself. He was accessing parts of me I didn't know existed.

"The night you answered that call first, now has your mind looking like a once ripe assortment of fruit that's since been smashed all into the platter. And when you used the power you were entitled to, your body didn't understand how to welcome that power home. To interweave that into the very fibers of your being as something this power could latch itself onto and find comfort."

There was something that was surging through me now. Something that felt like fingers trying to pick apart a tightly bound knot. It wasn't all that gentle, but I could feel the determination. The need to unravel this mess.

I believe I felt what he now saw. I didn't understand how I could see it so clearly, but his thoughts had been correct. My mind had been almost... almost separated by this knot that kept different channels of it from speaking to one another.

"That feeling," my grandfathers voice lowered itself as I felt him speak to just me. Something I thought only Alistair had possessed the ability to do. "The feeling of death, my beautiful grandchild... the thing that's made you question your immortality in its entirety... that wasn't a curse. It was no punishment."

There was something about his touch that began to trigger something inside me. I could hear it now, that whisper. The voice that had asked me before what it was I truly desired. The words it spoke were incoherent to me  in this moment but I could hear it. That voice alone was too distinct.

"You accepted something you didn't quite understand. And for that, your being itself was split in two. What you've been feeling dear Caspilius, is not death. It's you energy decaying with no real home to go to. For you did not know to create one."

I felt my eyes widen as I stared at my grandfather.

"You answered the call of something old. Something your father had meant to prepare you for before his untimely sacrifice."

Sacrifice? I questioned.

I could feel my eyebrows creasing with a need for more of an explanation. More than what was given at the least.

"It was his duty to reveal to you the true Lockeheart passage. The one that wasn't hidden within walls of a palace, or tunnels below the ground... but one rather kept away within the walls of our mind. Within the walls of those strong enough to possess such power."

I could feel my heartbeat quicken as my grandfather deepened his touch, forcing me to the soft ground as I found myself now taking a knee.

"You've let too many touch this now shattered mind. My only advice to that is that you start learning to say no." I heard my grandfather chuckle slightly, those words no longer reaching just my ears. This vision of him as he stood above me however, his fingers still gripping the sides of my head, it had started to fade. The world around me had started to quickly darken.

The only thing my body could register amidst this growing darkness, was the voice of my grandfather.

"You've blamed yourself for this crack in your immortality, yet it was no crack that allowed death to seep in. It was the excess magic your body did not know how to absorb nor discard, for it also did not know how to house it either. This blame lies only on those who came before you, myself included... However I do find it more fitting to blame my child. He knew better."

I still hadn't quite understood this, yet I felt it. I felt what I could only describe as a shut window finally opening, letting out the air trapped inside. Just as a stale breath was released, a fresh one was inhaled.

"I regret to inform you that whilst your father would've handled this more gently, my powers cannot spare you from the pain now that you are well past the age of understanding. I will fix what both your father and Gaia have done to you, but it will be painful... is this something you want?" My grandfathers voice now turned to a whisper as he asked that final question.

And in regards to his question, I found myself whispering in return. "Aye." I nodded slowly. There was no pain I could possibly fear after all I had bore witness to... or so I thought.

That was when I felt my head jerk back at the sudden surgence of King Daedron's power as he funneled it into me. It felt like shocks of electricity crossing through the nerves connecting every bit of my brain, before that once darkened vision began to lighten itself once more.

The black turned to white, which then turned to a crisp blue, spanning across all of my vision as I suddenly felt the winds of the sea picking up all around me. I was in the air. My point of view being of something small that took flight, and as I turned, I could see the black feathers of my wings move as they shifted course, taking my direction from the blue sky up above to the rich waters down below.

Or rather, to the massive ship that was sailing on the waters down below.

Before my vision could sharpen, I heard the slight hums of a song that made the now racing heartbeat of this bird only accelerate. That familiar song echoed quietly against the seas of what looked to be reflecting high noon.

This view, the one I looked through as the bird I found myself possessing swooped lower towards the ginormous ship, it allowed me to see these men aboard more clearly. The men that ran the ship which was currently cutting swiftly through the sea itself. Something had beckoned me to the man I saw now standing at the rail of the top deck. The one I instantly recognized as my grandfather for his face hadn't changed at all, and as I neared, he raised his left hand for me to land safely onto.

As these beady black eyes of my own looked to him, his crystal blue eyes showing the reflection of the black bird my grandfather had since put my soul into, I noticed the pendant he wore around his neck. The pendant that was indeed a reflection of those eyes of his.

"Little raven," his words whispered to me. "I wish to now show you our life before land. Before we made Azultia what it once was. Before we found land once worthy of ever claiming."

I could still hear it. The hums that spread across the deck. The quiet words these people had started to sing a bit louder.

As I turned to the massive extension of this ship's main deck, I realized now who these people were... their stark white hair representing of different lengths. Those pale familiar eyes. It was the clothing that finally triggered more memories within me... for they all wore nothing other than the royal color of blue. The colour of the Lockehearts.

"Strong, united, working till we fall..."

These people. This song...

It wasn't just any chantey.

It was ours. The song of my people.

And before they had found land, they were one with these very waters...

For they were pirates.

"Welcome home." My grandfathers voice whispered quietly to me.

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