The tavern in Vilpamolan was a welcome environment for Raleigh after the events that had taken place only a few months ago in Sularia. Enough time had passed where her leg had healed, though she still felt a bit of stiffness every so often. Of course, she would never let on that fact, especially not to her captain, Raines – who was currently seated across from her at a small wooden table, just big enough for their two cups and the bottle of rum they were currently sharing.

It wasn’t unusual for Raleigh to share a drink with her captain, though it was much more rare for that drink to be shared elsewhere than the Misery’s End – the ship that Raines was captain of. However, since the mishap in Sularia, Raleigh had spent an awful lot of time pouring over maps and scrawling notes at the makeshift desk she had created in the private quarters she had been allotted. She was determined to make up for the failure she had been a part of – even though he had not voiced such to her and had really given no indication of such, she was convinced that Raines was overly disappointed in her and that she had lost any sense of usefulness she had held for the man. When Raines had finally taken notice, he had almost forcibly dragged her off the ship when they made port in Vilpamolan, and taken her to a tavern where they now sat.

They hadn’t mentioned anything of the event itself that evening, nor had Raines really told her why he had brought her there – but she knew, she was well aware that he had seen the determination she had held in planning and that it was becoming a bit of an unhealthy obsession.

The first bottle of rum the pair had been given had only been about a third full, and that hadn’t lasted long at all. Though petite in stature, Raleigh could hold down her liquor just as well as her male counterparts could. However, now that they were halfway through a full bottle on top of the third, Raleigh’s rather stoic and straightlaced demeanor had waned somewhat. She wore a crooked smirk on her face and she was leaned slightly to one side of her chair. She had removed her overcoat and draped it over the chair behind her, leaving her shoulders bared, which were squared in a rather relaxed position – and she was laughing. It could possibly have been the first time she had laughed since the incident in Sularia.

”I gotta say, Raines, as unexpected as this little outing was, I think you had the right idea,” she said, her speech slightly less eloquent and refined than it normally was, due largely in part to the high volume of rum she had already consumed. She also referred to her captain by name, something she did not normally do. She gave him a crooked smile and grabbed her cup, draining the last bit of rum from it, leaning across the table to grab the bottle for a refill. ”I didn’t know you knew how to have fun without your sword in hand, without treasure to plunder,” she said, with a teasing laugh.

Months had passed since the failure of a raid in Sularia. Months since Raines had lost numerous crew members due to the Rosen guards that happened to be on the ship that they were on, yet his ranks were refilled on the prison assault in the capital. Mere humans that were able to slip in and out underneath the main force of the Rosenites. He knew the reason why they were so successful and that was because he had acquired a fair amount of corpse flower dust, the one thing in the world that cause the blast things to fear.

Even though he was able to whip the prisoners that they rescued back into working shape, there was one that they rescued that seemed to not act like themselves. More so than what he had normally seen before. It was his quartermaster, Raleigh, who seemed like she was trying to push herself to make up for the failure of Sularia. Normally he would appreciate the fact that she would do such a thing, yet this was bordering on obsessive than constructive. He needed to fix the behavior before another incident occurred, one that may destroy the ship if he left it like was.

He ordered the ship to be docked at Vilpamolan, and had dragged her to the tavern. It was a fight to even get her to go there, yet in the end, she ended up going with him and now they sat about a full bottle of rum down. Raines was leaned back in his chair, his boots up on the ledge of the table. His cup of rum just being barely held by his fingertips. He could see that the rum had started to run its course on his quartermaster. Everything was going exactly as he had planned to this point. ”Of course it was, you were driving me on the verge of insanity with your constant planning,” he spat back at her.

He leaned back forward, his boots slamming on the ground and reached for the rum bottle on for him to grab air as she had reached it first. He filled his cup and whistled for the barmaid for another bottle before relaxing again in his chair. ”You wound me with those words. One has to be stern to run a ship of her magnitude, especially when your crew is cutthroats and thieves.” he said taking a drink of the rum. ”I do know how to have fun once we land, you just never have paid attention. Also, have my guilty pleasures that you do not know off. You also are not one to talk, these past few weeks I have seen nothing but work out of you. How hard did I have to drag you out of your quarters?”

The barmaid came back with their next bottle of rum, and he handed over the silver and gave the barmaid a wink. He noticed her cheeks flush before she turned away to help the other patrons and he just grinned before he took another large swig from his cup.

Watching Raines as he responded to her, Raleigh’s clouded judgement thought a good bit of poking fun at her captain seemed like the right thing to do. She opened her mouth to comment on his so called ‘guilty pleasures,’ but snapped her lips closed immediately as she realized what she was about to say could have been taken in too many different contexts. Instead, she watched him quietly as he ordered another bottle of rum for them, watching his flirtation with the barmaid. A pang of jealousy swept through her, though she made every effort to mask such. Normally, such an emotion would have been hidden well down inside her, but the rum was having quite the effect on her with the amount she had consumed.

”You know, just because you’re not bedding me nor are you trying to bed me, doesn’t mean I don’t deserve your respect,” she said, her voice rather short and her words a bit clearer than others. ”Whatever these guilty pleasures are of yours that you want to get that whore of a barmaid entangled with, save it for when I’m not around,” she added, though she did attempt to add a hint of playfulness to her tone, as much as she could.

She averted her gaze from him when he mentioned her behavior as of late, merely shrugging. ”Just… want to be sure we’re set with our stores, what with the cold coming,” she lied. ”But yes, my captain, you’re so much fun!” she exclaimed sarcastically, clearly wanting to change the subject before Raines delved any deeper. She would share with him what exactly it was, but not wasn’t exactly the time.

With that, she reclined in her chair, raising her slender legs and propping her feet up on the edge of the table in the manner that Raines had. She puffed out her chest, as good as she could with the corset confining her, and affected her voice to sound like her captain as much as she could. ”Aye, I’m Raines Blackburn, captain o’ the Misery’s End! I’ll be findin’ me some fun when I come to port, partakin’ in the many guilty pleasures o’ mine! Beddin’ two coin women and ignorin’ those who wish th-“ She was cut off as she tipped her chair too far back and toppled the floor backwards, letting out a yelp before laughing loudly from the floor.

”Alright, maybe I deserved that,” she said, through her laughter. Though, instead of getting up immediately, her hand shot up from the floor and felt around for her cup of rum, sliding it off the table and managing to get it down before spilling a bit of its contents right down the front of her corset. ”Ah, damn it all,” she said, though she still laughed a bit and took a drink of what was left in the cup. ”A little help down here?” she asked, holding out her hand for Raines to help her back up.

Raines just placed his now empty cup onto the table and leaned back forward on his chair grabbing the bottle of rum from it. Slowly he poured into his cup, raising the bottle and higher before it reached its peak as the cup overfilled a little bit. He let out a disappointed click from beneath his teeth and placed the bottle back onto the table. During the whole ordeal, Raleigh was going on about him flirting with the barmaid that gave them the bottle. ”Ah are we done now? Or is there more ye would like to tell me off on?” His eyes met hers, almost serious before he let out a chuckle and shook his head, the rum was starting to affect him as well. He couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not, but he would do as he damned well pleased. No matter who he was around.

He noticed her changing the subject while he was talking about her brooding around the ship as of late. He would not pry, not because he wasn’t interested more so the fact that he knew to respect the boundaries of others if it did not concern him. She could’ve just been embarrassed at the fact that she got captured on that day. His eyes narrowed when she sarcastically made fun of his statement earlier. ”I’ll have you know some of the crew actually enjoy my company, perhaps I shall leave you and join them eh?” This was a partial truth, as only those who knew him long enough could stand him, and at the current moment, there was very, very few of them around anymore.

This did not stop her from mocking him further, as she tried to imitate him by leaning back like did in his and shoot of drunken nonsense from her mouth. As they say though, karma has a way of coming back around to bite you, cause a few seconds later the chair tipped back and she crashed onto the floor with a fit of laughter. Raines quickly grabbed ahold of the bottle of rum before it split over from the impact. ”That will teach you for insulting your captain,” He said jokingly and filled up his now empty cup. Of course, her crash to the floor had other’s staring at them but he ignored them like he tended to do.

He sighed and put the bottle and his cup back on the table and walked around and grabbed her hand, pulling her back up on her feet. ”Perhaps, you be done with the drink for now. Seems like the rum has done its work on you.” He said to her, but knowing the woman before him she wouldn’t agree to that and he was not in the mood to give her an order. He returned to his seat and took his cup in hand again. ”You are free to stay of course, but the drink,” He said shaking the bottle and setting it closer to him. ”Well the rest is for me self of course.” Raines knew this was probably a bad idea to do, but he didn’t want to have to clean up a mess if she drank too much.

”I think I enjoy your company far more than you will ever know,” Raleigh responded, though her words came across in a far more serious manner, her eyes fixed on Raines for a brief moment. With that, however, she cleared her throat, and the strange bout of shenanigans took place that ended up with the quartermaster on the floor.

In a normal situation without the oversaturation of rum in her system, Raleigh’s cheeks would have turned bright crimson had she taken a tumble like that, especially in front of Raines – but currently, she found it nothing more than hilarious, and most certainly not embarrassing. ”Glad to see you’ve got your priorities straight, Raines,” she said, through her laughter, in commentary of his grabbing the rum rather than stopping her from tipping over. She used his first name rather than addressing him formally rather sparingly, giving way to the casualness of the situation at hand. She gripped his hand as he came around to help her up, giving him a nod of thanks before turning her chair upright and having a seat again.

A frown spread across her lips as the captain chastised her for drinking too much and bogarted the rest of the rum for himself. Suddenly, a delighted smirk crossed her lips and she leaned forward slightly in her seat. She grabbed the front of her corset and yanked it down a bit - something could be seen glinting in the dingy light of the tavern, tucked away in her cleavage. With the hand not pulling down on the garment, she retrieved the glittering items - two gold coins. "Joke's on you, Captain," she said with a wry smile, clapping him on the upper leg playfully before getting up from the table, stumbling only slightly as she made her way to the bar counter to order another drink for herself.

The two coins seemed to be enough to get her about a fifth of a bottle of the same rum they had already been drinking, which she took rather delightedly and drained a good amount directly from the bottle. As she was doing such, a pair of men crossed behind her at the bar, one of them reaching out with a dirty hand to give Raleigh’s backside a rather aggressive slap.

The female pirate nearly choked on the rum she had been drinking, whipping around to see who it was that had accosted her. ”’Scuse me, mate,” she said, putting on airs that it had possibly been an accident. ”Might want to watch where you’re going, yeah?” The man leered at her, his eyes scanning her up and down – from the waved hair at the top of her head, to her tattooed arms, right down to her boot-laden feet.
”Yer shipmate o’er there don’t know how ter’ treat a miss,” he said, though for as polite as his words should have sounded, they were laden with a certain misogynistic sexism that gave Raleigh, even in her drunken state, a tinge of disgust. ”Were it me, I would ‘av dropped me belt right there and done ya on the boards,” he sneered.

”Well, the different between you and me captain is that he ‘as some self respect and decency, it would seem, even for a pirate,” she said, her words slurring a bit further as she took on the same affectation that many of her crewmates, Raines included, generally carried. For the most part, Raleigh was much more educated than the typical crewmen of a pirate vessel.

”Aye, self respect, that what they be callin’ a broken pecker these days? Because lack o’ gumption ‘low the belt be the only excuse for not takin’ a lass like you!” the man guffawed, much to the amusement of his counterpart.

Raleigh, however, did not find this funny. She did not find the way that these men leered at her, the way they commented on her body, to be remotely funny – and she certainly did not find their insulting of her captain to be funny, either. In fact, she was rather incensed that they would say such things about Raines, almost moreso than the comments they had made to her.

She was about to turn and walk away, bringing the bottle of rum back up to her lips for a swig. The bottle was just about empty, as the man who had been speaking to her in such a lewd manner reached forward, his fingers catching in the laces of Raleigh’s corset in an attempt to unlace it and expose her.

”Mistake,” she breathed around the lip of the bottle, and before he could make any progress with the lacing, she swung the bottle upwards, catching the man in the side of the head, the thick glass shattering with the impact. That man fell to his knees, clutching at his now bleeding head – while his counterpart rushed at the girl, in an attempt to take her down.

Petite and lithe, even in her drunken state, Raleigh snaked out of his way, and after he had rushed past her, she ran forward, letting out what could have possibly been some kind of war cry, and jumped on the man’s back. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms were around his neck in an attempt to choke him out – though it was unclear how successful she was going to be.

Raines just let out a defeated sigh and rest his head in his free hand, shaking his head. He should have known that Raleigh would have stashed some gold on her person, but was too stupid to even think that hse would hide in her cleavage. ”Accursed pirate, can never trust one.” He gritted between his teeth. There was nothing he could do about the situation, she was buying her own drink rather than stealing out of the bottle he head. She played him well, just like a fiddle and he had lost the game. ”Secret is out now lass, next time won’ be so lucky” He yelled after her as she got up from her seat to get her drink.

He refilled his own cup the last bit of rum that was left in his bottle. He held it up to the candle nearby and shook it to make sure there was not a single drop left. Not seeing anything in it he let out a quite audible tsk sound before throwing slamming it back down onto the tabletop. He had not realized how fast he had gone through it. He whistled for another bottle. Unlike his crewmate, he didn’t care how drunk he got he only hoped that it landed him in a nice lass’ room at the end of the day.

He only heard the sound of another bottle dropping to the table, and looked up to see it was the same barmaid from earlier. ”Well, well, well. What do we have here? The fine maid come ‘ack to see me?”  She rolled her eyes at that statement, but he spotted the blush in her cheek and just grinned getting up from his seat. He almost tumbled from how fast he got up. He was no obviously as drunk as the rest of the people in here. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. Her cheeks turned even more scarlet as her eyes tried to avoid his own.

Compared to most of the men here, one would say that Raines was a diamond in the rough. The number of times he had used that to his advantage was numerous. ”Why don’t we call this place quits? Yer boss won’t be missing you much now will he?” He pushed up her chin so that their eyes could meet, leaning into to plant the final seed that he needed. Yet, it was as if the gods themselves didn’t want him to get what he wanted, the sounds of commotion flew through the tavern. Raines looked over to see Raleigh smash the bottle of rum over another’s head.

”Gods damned that woman!” He let go of the maid, who didn’t seem to be so pleased that he made a move on her only to go to another woman. It was as if Raleigh’s first move opened the gates for others, as more and more fights started to happen all around as Raines tried to make it over to his quartermaster. Some poor bastard tried to step in front of the captain, who just dug his fist into the face of the drunk, breaking his nose and knocking him out all in one. ”Don’t ‘ave time for ye shit,” He spat.

Her shrill battle cry flew out through the establishment which just pissed the captain off even more. She was trying to choke out someone, probably one of the people who sent her off on her rampage. He wrapped his arm around her and ripped her off from the other pirate who started to catch his breath. The gaze he gave her could have killed a man if he so chooses.

“Oy, That Whore is mine.”

Raines turned his head ”I think not mate, this one is mine”

“Like hell she is”

He pirate rushed Raines, in which he stood his ground. When the attacker got close enough Raines grabbed him by the tunic and slammed his head against the bridge of their nose. An ear-piercing scream rang out as Raines through the drunken bastard to the ground. He turned his attention back to Raleigh. ”And just what the hell do ye think you be doing here? I told ye, no order ye to cut it back.” He hissed to his crewmate. ”Yet here ya are, causing this shit to unfold.”

Raleigh’s hands lashed out toward the man she had moments ago been latched upon as Raines pulled her away. She let out a snarl, clearly unhappy about the fact she hadn’t been allowed to do him any further harm – and then, as though she had just realized that someone had a grip on her arm, she stiffened, much akin to a wooden board. She flipped her head to the side, looking to see who it was that had a hold of her, and violently wrenched her arm out of Raines’ grasp. ”Don’t you touch me!” she yelled, her voice shaking with something other than rage. She let out a sharp breath, apparently realizing that she was looking at Raines, and some of the tension released from her body, though she was still rather on edge as she was not sure whether or not there would be another attack on her from an unseen party at that moment in time – she hadn’t been sure if the pirate had any other friends with him.

”One of these days, I’ll defy your orders,” she said, her voice so low that it was nearly inaudible amongst the clamoring noises of the tavern around them. Their brawl had been noticed by a few patrons, but it was such a normal thing around Vilpamolan that over half the tavern had hardly even taken notice. Today did not seem to be the day that Raleigh was going to defy the captain’s orders, however, as she stood down, making no motion to go after the man that she had been attacking – besides, he was laying rather motionless on the floor after Raines had taken a go at him.

”Yes, I caused this,” she said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. ”Would you like a quick recap of the chain of events, here, since you were too busy thinking about your face buried in that wench’s tits to notice what was happening? Here, let me tell you.” She paused for a moment in an effort to gather her thoughts. After all, though the fight had sobered her up some, it hadn’t completely, and there was still a decent amount of rum coursing through her veins. ”That one,” she began, pointing at the last man that Raines had taken down – the one she had been fighting. ”Decided it would be a great idea to grab a handful of my rear, rather aggressively as I passed him, I might add. No harm, no foul – it’s a pub and I am a woman. What’s to be expected, right?” she said, pausing for effect.

”He proceeded to tell me that you didn’t know how to treat me right, and all of the… things, that he wanted to do to me,” she added, her expression steel. ”He made a few rather nasty comments about your manhood, to which I didn’t take too kindly, so I made to leave – and at that point? He attempted to unlace my corset. And, well, you saw the rest,” she said, looking Raines dead in the eye, as though she were daring him to continue chastising her. Her expression had shifted from one of steal to one of unease and distress, and she moved an arm across her chest, almost as though she were going to hug herself. ”But, if it pleases my captain, next time I’ll let them have their way rather than fight back,” she said, and her voice choked up slightly on the last few words.

Raleigh could feel a hot stinging sensation in her eyes, and she knew that she was about to lose composure, and she wasn’t ready for Raines to witness that. She turned on her heel rather suddenly towards the door. ”I’m going back,” she called over her shoulder, and walked out of the tavern.

Night had fallen quite some time ago, and there wasn’t much activity taking place outside the tavern. Raleigh moved to the side of the building, not heading back towards the ship just yet, and leaned her back against the cool stone of the building, closing her eyes tightly. A few tears that had welled up slipped down her cheeks, and she drew in a sharp breath, exhaling in a gentle bout of sobs as she slid down the wall, her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head upon her knees, gently crying as she rehashed the events that had taken place when she had been jailed in Sularia. For her tough exterior, Raleigh had become rather broken on the inside, but she was bound and determined to keep that hidden from Raines for as long as she could – though she had a bit of doubt that she may no longer be able to keep it a secret – not after the way the night had unfolded.

One day, i’ll defy your Orders

Those words rang clear in the pirate's mind. Though he showed no signs that it had affected him from the outside, besides his already clenched fist tightening up more, in his mind he was more furious than even the strongest sea storms. Mutiny was not something that the pirate tolerated, and he had shown that in more than one case with his crew. Whether it be stranding those who dared rise up against him or more violent of flesh tearing style of punishments. The ship they sailed on was his, he built it and his rule on it was final.

Even though the quartermaster had dared to mutter them words, she showed no signs of even continuing with her attack on the poor bastard that lay bleeding on the floor beside them. Before the captain could get a word out, the woman started to recap the events that led them to where they were. His eyes stared at her, unflinching and unmoving as she spoke. He could hear that her words were not as strong as they used to be. There was something else that she was not speaking of, that much he was sure. She herself left the tavern before he could dismiss her himself.

Another patron decided to try and take a blow at the captain. This was quite unfortunate for the poor sod, as it gave Raines a vent for his anger. He dodged the blow and grabbed the man by his shirt and started to rain blow after blow upon the man’s face. By the time Raines was done, the man’s face was almost destroyed and he was barely clinging onto his life, the other fights had stopped and just looked at the captain. He threw the man against the bar, and Raines walked over dropping his whole entire funds onto the countertop. ”Fer the trouble.” He spoke, his words oddly calm before turning to the door.

The only sounds were the cracking of Raines stiff fingers from the blows.

He stepped outside, with another bottle of alcohol in his hands that he snatched from a table close to the exit. The cool, night sea air struck his face and he took a swig of the bottle. He heard the soft sobs of a person and followed them around the building to see none other than Raleigh curled up against the wall. This was a sight that he was unfamiliar with, as she had been one of the stronger people amongst his crew. He had no idea why she was a mess like this, curious as he.

He clanked the glass bottle up against the side of the building. ”Weakness has no part of my crew, ye know this. If this is ‘ow its gonna be, you can stay on land. We don’t need you.” He said and turned away from the alley. It may seem cold, but it was a simple truth for all pirate crews. They were cold, and finding affection upon them was rarer than finding gold. ”Either that or drop yer pride, and explain yourself for real.”

Rarely did Raines give an ultimatum to people, but this woman had earned his respect.

Raleigh looked up at the sound of glass clattering against the side of the building. Her eyes found Raines’ face, and for the first time since she had met him and he had taken her into his crew, she was not happy to see him. She did not want him to see her in the state she was currently in. She had been trying for so long to keep from Raines what had really happened to her when she had been imprisoned in Sularia. She had tried so hard to shut out the memories of that time, but she could never quite push them away.

Her captain’s words cut her to the core – with all of the respect she had for Raines, in this particular moment all she wanted to do was to scream at him – to tell him to feel something other than his pride and his ‘pirate code’ that he seemed to follow. But, she just didn’t have enough energy to do so. Instead, she just looked at him, her eyes filled with a sadness he had likely not seen her exhibit before. She said nothing, but when he turned to walk away from her and shot out the option to tell her story, she called out to him, her voice still slightly broken, and much less confident than usual. ”You say that as though you think I have any pride left,” she said.

She was fortunate that it seemed enough for him to turn back to her and hear her out, and it was then that she began her tale.

”Likelihood is you’ll bar me from the ship after you hear what happened, and seeing how I’ve reacted regardless, but you may as well hear what actually transpired back in Sularia, before you got there to rescue me- well, us,” she said, her voice taking on a soft tone in comparison. She drew in a sharp breath, closing her eyes and tipping her head back against the wall for a moment as though she were preparing herself for something horrible – in a way, she was.

”Nothing at first,” she said, as though she were unsure where to start. ”After about a week… at least I think it was a week, it’s hard to say – the men – your men – started to get… antsy,” she said, hesitating even further. ”They said they knew you weren’t going to come back for us, that you were dead. I didn’t participate much in their discussions – but then, the jokes started. You know, you’ve heard them before. Maybe not as often as I have, but you’ve heard them. Those men’re all convinced that the only reason you keep me on crew is for your own… well, you know.” She broke off for a moment, looking away, her cheeks burning red from the embarrassment of the phrase she had just uttered.

”The guards came in, then, and beat us… some of us more than others,” she said, looking back at him. ”After that, the men were just… angry,” she added. ”They started to take it out on me. First, they just smacked me around a bit, nothing more than you would expect, nothing more than I could take,” she said. ”They decided that wasn’t enough, however, and it shortly turned into…” she trailed off again, her voice starting to waver as it was clear that she was most likely on the verge of crying again. ”They decided they wanted to get ‘a taste o’ what the cap’n was getting.’” She pulled at the side of the cloth on the tunic beneath her corset so the top of her chest was exposed, several angry red scars visible. ”At first it just started as a lot of lewd comments, grabbing, a little more violence,” she said. ”But then…” she broke off again as a sob choked in her throat. She took a deep breath and moved into a standing position, leaning back against the wall of the building. ”They raped me. All of them. Over, and over again,” she said, unable to look him in the eye at first.

After a moment, she regained her composure. With one hand she lifted up the bottom of her corset, the other pushing down the waist of the pants she wore, exposing the flesh near her hip bone and the top of her pelvis, also featuring angry red scars much as the top of her chest was, presumably from the gravel and dirt of the prison floor. She went on to tell him a bit more about what happened, going into rather graphic detail, but she had to stop, as she did not want to lose any more composure than she already had.

”So there you have it,” she said as she wrapped up her explanation, folding her arms across her chest. ”That’s why I’ve not been myself. That’s why I’ve taken to staying kept up in my quarters. I can’t take the way they look at me, can’t take remembering their hands on me.” She sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. ”The crew always told you having a woman onboard would cause problems… and apparently, they were right,” she said, quietly. It was as though she was awaiting Raines to tell her to stay on land, and that she would no longer be welcome on board The Misery’s End.

”Aye, I do say in that way exactly.”

He responded back to her, turning to face the broken woman. He could see the pain in her eyes and feel in every word that she spoke. Something happened down in the Sularian prison, something he had a gut feeling about. He could not take action on just a gut feeling, he needed to hear what exactly happened even if it meant for Raleigh to relive every moment of it. He may be the captain to the vessel and compared to most ships his rules are absolute, but he still had to follow his own rules as well.

So he stood there, in silence as she explained everything that happened. Not only did she explain, but showed him the scars that were given to her on her body, not much was shown but enough that the captain could get the gist of what had occurred. He took a swig from the bottle of alcohol he had taken and swallowed it slowly looking up at the night sky. He would not face her, not because he thought of her as a disgrace to his crew but to hide a burning rage that he could feel in his chest. He turned and started to walk to where the ship was docked.

”What are ye waiting for? Get yer shit together and meet me back upon the ship. And gather the crew while you are at it.”

He knew which men of his were trapped in that cell with Raleigh, he knew exactly who they were. They had broken one of his rules, and not only that decided to use someone who was higher in the chain of command for their own pleasure. They had all thought it would be their demise, that they would die to the hands of the Rosen it did not excuse them for what they had done. Punishment had to be dealt out for daring to spit in Raines's face, for touching that which he had deemed off-limits for every man aboard his ship.

So he waited, sitting down on the stairs that lead up to where the wheel of the ship was. His bottle that he took now nearing its final drop. His anger and the flow of adrenaline through his veins had made it so that he was feeling far more sober than when they first started drinking at the bar. A few of the more older and loyal crew members were aboard the ship already waiting for the rest of the rabble to gather in. [b”]A blood moon sets tonight…” Raines said softly to himself as he looked out to the horizon of the water. It took a while but finally, the whole crew had arrived. Some were obviously pissed that they were called from their whores and bottles, others seemed more confused. There were also a few that had a look of fear in their eyes.

“What’s the meaning of calling us back Cap’n?”

One called out. A younger tough-looking man, who looked like he barely had time to get himself fully clothed, stepped out in front of the group. Raines drank the last of his bottle and placed it down on the step he was sitting on.

”You’d best watch your tone boy. While ur feet are on these boards you are under my rule, ye hear?”
The crew member scoffed and waved him off about ready to leave the ship again when the sound of an ax flew by and dug itself into the boards in front of him. The crew member looked over and Raines was standing upright his other axe drawn in his hand. The rest of the crew were talking amongst themselves.

”Ye will not step another step until I am done. You were one in that cell.” Raines said and nodded to one of the other crew members. The sounds of blades drawn rang out through the night as they swords and daggers alike pressed up against the necks of every crew member that was in that cell.

“So the whore spoke up did she, I can see why you kept her around. She was…quite the treat.”

”Aye yer quartermaster did speak. One gods damned rule I had aboard this ship and you and yer lot decided to toss it aside. SHE IS NOT TO BE TOUCHED!! I could careless if death was knocking on yer door boy. Punishment is to be had, but it is not me who will dish it out…no. Just as you decided her body was yers to take while in Sularia. She gets to decide how you and yer ilk die.”