Captain Harper

Magni got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as Jax told him the story of how they found Lyra and the state she was in when they found her. If they hadn’t, and if they hadn’t intervened when they did, she very likely wouldn’t have survived. Magni wasn’t surprised by the hunters, though, humans after all, have always been vicious to those who aren’t quite like them, unless they can use them for their gain, of course. “ I’m sorry Jax, I know this couldn’t have been easy for either of you, but she’s safe now- “ As long as they don’t go anywhere near the damn colony. Magni knew they couldn’t be too far away from the island, and he wanted to sail as far away from it as they possibly could. “ What Arroyo and his family did was horrifying, but you’re still doing the right thing by taking care of her brother. He might not deserve it because of what he did, but we’re not as cruel as them. “ Before Magni spoke to Arroyo, his opinion might have been different, but now while he still didn’t trust him, he understood that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt them, at least not intentionally. “ You know I will do whatever I can to keep her safe. so, if there’s anything you need me to do, no matter what it is. I will do it. “

“I know,” Jax said honestly, both to Magni’s offer of help and the notion that the crew wasn’t as cruel as the mer’s colony laws. They were pirates - fierce and brave and cruel in their own ways - but in this matter, Jax felt like they were the bigger people. Sucking in a breath and letting it out slowly, he tried to calm his beating heart. “I’ll just be glad when we’re rid of Arroyo. I know Lyra is concerned about the situation with her family. I don’t really understand what it’s like to have blood relatives you care about, but if she wants to find a way to check on them quickly without getting herself killed, then I’ll do it. I just want to get out of there as soon as possible. If they see her and make good on the law and even try to kill her...I don’t know what I’ll do.”

they had only seen approaching feet when calling out for help. blanching when they realized it was the captain, Bloom did a somersault onto the deck once their ankle had been freed. they offered a hand out to help Jax down. “the ropes were fucked up by the most recent storm and honestly, from what I can tell, weren’t in great condition to begin with…” they trailed off, gesturing up towards the rigging. “did the best I could, but hard terrain will mess with you.” they smiled ruefully and looked down at the rope burns on their ankle. their face dropped again. “Not to say your ship is in any way less than capable…”

Jax took Bloom’s hand and jumped back down onto the deck, still smiling. All of this was awfully amusing to him. At the mention of the ropes, Jax frowned. The spell he’d used to fix them had been awfully quick. Likely, he hadn’t performed it very well. Luckily, he didn’t think Bloom knew about that particular display of his abilities, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them now. “We’ll stock on up on supplies and get the ship in better condition once we get to Port,” he assured them, taking a few steps to grab the canteen he’d left behind earlier in the day. “Jaina seems to think it’s going to be an expensive stop in the port. Do you agree?”

Lyra listened to the steady thud of Jax’s heart in his chest, and she let it steady her, too. It still ached, and she still worried, but there was something reassuring about knowing that she had him in her corner, no matter what else happened. “I love you too,” she lifted her chin to rest against his chest, tilting her head back to look up at him. She smiled weakly, tears still shining in her eyes. “You might run out of breath if you say it every second,” she teased, leaning up to kiss him gently.

Jax’s thumb grazed Lyra’s kiss as he met her kiss with a gentleness that one wouldn’t expect for a pirate captain. There was nothing he could do to soothe all the pain Lyra felt, but he would do his damn best to protect her from any more heartbreak. “I run out of breath around you all the time,” he chuckled, pressing his forehead to hers once he broke the kiss. “How about we go for a swim tomorrow? We can get away from everyone for a few hours...go to the other side of the island. I’ll tell Magni to watch over Arroyo.”

~

“Damn.” Rav couldn’t imagine doing that herself, but circumstances were different for each individual and it was not her place to judge someone who she had so much respect for. “No.” She replied with a quick shake of her head. “At least…I don’t think so. Maybe he had suspicions but, I never told him.” She held her hand out for the book, offering a quiet laugh. “Scared to disappoint the old man, you know?”

Jax nodded, his voice catching in his throat. He handed the book back over to Rav and let his hand fall to his knee, drumming his fingers against it. “I didn’t tell him at first.” Talking about Bradway was still so, so difficult. “Eventually, when we got deeper into learning about the jewels, I fessed up. There was so much we found in the sorcerer’s language. It was killing me not to be able to tell him what it all meant.”

Athena felt herself deflate as Jax took away from the letter the exact opposite of what she wanted. “Believe what you will, but it was not my intention at all to guilt you. Forgiveness forged in guilt doesn’t sound like forgiveness at all.” She saw his jaw tighten and braced herself for the worst. As Jax spoke it was clear he was trying to maintain composure. Instead, it was for Athena to keep herself calm. It wasn’t even his words that upset her– just the fact that he was so bothered by a letter of apology. At least that was the case till he finished his thought. I want you to not do anything that requires you to make these apologies. Anything? What all was included in anything? Was Athena to think of Jax’s approval anytime she attempted anything?

A flash of anger filled her eyes and her jaw clenched to match Jax’s. Athena pursed her tight lips, trying to pick her words carefully. The letter was supposed to prevent this from happening not hasten it. “I’m at a loss.” She wanted to say so much more but it felt pointless. At this point words meant nothing to Jax, he practically said so. Either he gave her a chance or he abandoned her on this deserted island. Or at the next port. Or who knew where. How long would Athena have to hold her tongue? Hold her breath and sit in her office?

Athena was at a loss? It took everything Jax had not to explode with rage. How she dared to be the one at a loss was beyond him. Any other captain - perhaps any good captain - would’ve left her in Westburgh. She’d not only made mistakes that put the entire crew at risk - but she’d threatened him, had made his safety on the ship questionable at best. If she was at a loss, then Jax was beyond reaching her. He was done trying. In his mind, Athena’s mouth wasn’t what got her into trouble. It was the actions behind the words she spoke. 

“Then we’re done here,” he told her simply, turning and walking out of the room and back toward his quarters.

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. She was still struggling with her own sense of self since losing her voice; what was she without it? The crew had helped, Jax had helped, but now she was so insecure about it all over again. Even with her siren song, she hadn’t been enough for her family. She didn’t want to think what they’d think of her now, living with humans, in love with a sorcerer, and having lost that crucial part of her identity. “I know, I just… I can’t help but worry,” she wished she didnt care about what he thought of her, but she did.

Jax’s heart broke for Lyra. He didn’t know what it was like to love a family that deeply, but he knew it what it was like to feel abandoned by one. All he could do was hold her tight and hope that he could keep her heart safe from being broken by her people even more than it already had been. “I love you,” he whispered, pressing a kiss into her hair. “Anyone who doesn’t is a damn fool. If your brother can’t see how wonderful you are - if he has a problem with what you can or can’t do - that’s his problem. Not yours. I know it must be hard...but try to remember that.” H

e pulled away slightly, cupping her cheeks in his rough hands. “If you need a reminder of how great you are, I’m more than willing to give it to you. I’ll tell you how much I love you every second of every day if it will help.” 

Rav was quiet once more, hiding under her hair as she thought. The hardest part is over, just answer the question. But even as she thought the words, she could feel her confidence waning. “My family.” It was barely above a whisper, looking anywhere but at Jax. “Typically, our grimoire would’ve gone to my older brother but…he was born without magic. I-” She froze, fingers pulling at the ends of her sleeves. “-I’m the oldest sorcerer of my siblings. So, it fell to me.” 

Jax couldn’t tear his eyes away from the spell. The sorcerer’s language rattled around his head, practically begging him to say the words out loud - to form them with his lips. He resisted. “I stole my grimoire from my mother.” It was a confession that was easier and easier to make with every single person he told. Only a few were worthy of the knowledge, but it was more than had ever known before. “I took it and left. I didn’t have any siblings.” Finally, he lifted his eyes from the spell and looked at Rav. “Did Bradway know? What you are? That you’re like me?”

“ I care so much because I love him- “ Magni snapped his mouth shut as soon as he realised what he had said. As affectionate as Magni might be, he knew better than to declare his love for one of his crewmates. “ Just like I love you and the rest of the crew. “ He rushed to add, hoping it would be enough to keep Jax from getting suspicious that something might be happening between them. He loved Jax as his brother, just like Jax loved him, but he didn’t need the captain worrying about him or getting angry at Tobias. He already had enough things to worry about. “ I would, Jax, I would tell you if I ever had to leave. “ He promised him. “ Well, it’s not like you have to worry about me leaving without a word. I’m sure you’re going to be stuck with me for as long as you’ll be sailing with the Serpent. “ 

Jax wasn’t fazed by Magni’s declaration. He knew that the quartermaster cared for everyone on the ship - he simply didn’t understand how Magni had been able to forgive Tobias for leaving so quickly. Magni was a better man than Jax could ever be. Jax rubbed his temples and took a deep breath through his nose. “Good, because I don’t want you to leave. This place would fall apart without you.” There was no doubt in Jax’s mind that was true. “Just - I don’t know if I can forgive Tobias, alright? I can’t make any promises on that front. I don’t know if I’ll be this angry at him forever, but I don’t know that I’ll ever fully trust him again.  I can’t make myself let go of that betrayal. It just doesn’t work like that.”

“Oh, joy. That’ll be sure to get people to like me.” It was a jest, if Jax truly wanted her to do it, she would. But she imagined that the crew would be none too happy about it. Not that she could blame them. But storms happened, repairs and restock were to be expected. And these things could not happen for free. “I won’t know the exact price until he get to port, but…it’s not looking cheap.” She held out the list she had made, details of how much inventory they had left, which was…not a lot. “We should be fine to make it to port, assuming the winds favor us and we avoid any more storms.” Turning her attention to the ship, she gave a nod to the deck. “Repairs are coming along considerably. Much better than I would have thought given the damage we took.”

Jax let out a breath. He’d known the repairs were going to be expensive, but he’d been trying to avoid that reality with everything else that was going on. “What about the little stop we have to make?” Jax asked, secretly hoping the ship wouldn’t make it if they did take a detour. “Will we be alright to drop Arroyo off where he needs to go?”

“Aye, Captain.” Arroyo nodded at Jax’s request, not letting it show on his face that he felt the man was being unreasonably thorough. He smirked at Jax’s reply, “I see. Well, good. For a moment there I worried you came because you were curious about all Lyra’s lineage had to offer.” The joke was a risky one, Arroyo knew, but he couldn’t resist making it and thought perhaps there was even an off-chance it would help break the ice. He sat down in the chair he was using to help him stand and crossed his arms the same way Jax had. “Very well, Captain Harper.” He crossed his legs as well and leaned back in his chair, “What is it you wanted to chat about?”

Arroyo was lucky that Lyra cared about him. If looks could kill, the merman would be dead where he so smirkily sat. It took all of Jax’s willpower not to punch him. His jaw twitched as he tried to focus on staying calm. “I don’t care much about Lyra’s lineage. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all nothing more than traitorous assholes who sentenced her to a slow death.” Jax refused to mince words with Arroyo. “Which is what I’m here to talk about. Lyra cares for you, so I’ve agreed to bring you home and check on the situation with your family, but after that, we’re leaving. While you’re here, I want to make it clear that if you hurt Lyra at all - emotionally - I will toss you overboard. Whether you’re healed or not.”

“The one with Alice wasn’t unpleasant, at least not that I remember. But that’s a bit of a stand alone situation at present,” Adeline pointed out, shrugging her shoulders slightly. “Perhaps the Jewel just likes to have a sense of humor about the people who want to control it… reminding us of the atrocities in its past or something of the sort. Bit haunting, but maybe that’s the point.”

Jax sucked in a breath. Adeline might have a point. “I don’t need reminders of atrocities,” he admitted, shaking his head. “I see plenty every night when I close my eyes and dream.” Life at sea wasn’t an easy one, and neither had Jax’s life before he became a pirate. He put a hand on Adeline’s shoulder and looked at her sternly. “If you see anything else, come tell me.” 

“All you had to say, Captain.” She gave him a small smile, she rarely referred to Jax by his rank, usually doing so in jest. But they both knew she would do whatever it took to help, including keeping an eye on their latest addition. Rav lucked out with her family, they were straightforward enough. But she knew that wasn’t the case for everyone. “I’ve-uh-been meaning to talk to you, actually. About the…sorcerer thing.” Rav shifted her weight as she sat, fingers reaching for her journal, spells hidden between memories. “I-well-here.” She held the book out, pages open to a spell that had been passed down in her family, hiding somewhat behind her hat. It felt weird to think that she’d never noticed that Jax was a sorcerer, but they both knew how well one could hide. “Best way I could think of to let you know that…I don’t know…I still trust you.” A pause. “Braver than I am.” She admitted with a dry chuckle.

Jax froze as soon as the word sorcerer came out of Rav’s mouth. All he could do was stare at the book she took out, wondering if it was what he thought it was. “You - where did you get this?” he stammered, trying hard to keep his cool. Looking down at the spell, he said the words silently, careful not to perform it without knowing what it did. It wasn’t lost on him that she was declaring her trust, but that seemed secondary to what she’d just given him. 

“Yelling at the first person who shows up to help you is what I might call a tantrum, yes.” Billie said, pausing a moment to roll up the sleeves of her shirt before returning to work. She shakes her head, “love and loyalty are different. I don’t doubt that you’d willingly square up to any one of our individual enemies, but only Lyra’s have the power to disorient you so swiftly. If family of a loved one is involved, it’s domestic.”

How cruel was the world? Magni had joked around with Athena that if he had the power to use the jewels to do whatever he wished to do, he would bring peace to the world and make it fairer. What happened to Lyra is what Magni believed was wrong with the world. It was cruel and vicious. How could Lyra’s family sentence her to a slow death? Didn’t they love her? “ I’m sorry. “ Magni apologized, even though he wasn’t quite sure why. Was he apologizing for what she had gone through, or was he apologizing for not realizing how bad it had been? “ Not really? I know she was injured when you and Bradway found her. “

“She got caught up in a storm. She was too injured to get away, and she washed up on shore.” The hair on the back of his neck stood up straight as he remembered that day. He’d never seen a mer before, but he was sure they existed. If sorcerers roamed about the world, then why not mers? He shook his head slowly, trying not to get too caught up in it all. “There were a few other men there who...well, she was in her mer form. They were probably hunters or something. Bradway and I came across the scene. We killed them.” Murder wasn’t anything new to Jax, nor had it been back then. The details of Lyra’s story were personal, but he felt that if she knew he gave the basic run down of his version of events to Magni, she wouldn’t be upset.  “She had nowhere to go in the sea. No colony would take her because she’d been exiled from her own, and the land was just as dangerous as the sea. Her family might’ve spared her life in the moment of her sentencing, but I have no doubt that they believed exile would lead to her death.”

Tobias opened his mouth to tell Jax he knew how to use an ax. He wasn’t that useless– good God. It was a little hurtful to realize Jax thought him so incompetent, but Tobias would get over it. Instead he just said, “that sounds good,” and stood up from the ground. Dusting the sand off his pants Tobias let out a dry chuckle. “I’m clear headed– promise, if I had my bible with me I’d swear on it.” He placed his hands on his hips, grinning, “not even hung over!” He stood next to Jax, not grabbing for the ax instead waiting for Jax to offer it to him.

Jax did think the worst of most people lately. How could he not? The past year had been one of the hardest of his life, and he wasn’t in any position to trust that anyone was competent without seeing them put their skills to action. Jax held out the axe for Tobias to take and then stepped back. “You better be telling the truth,” Jax warned, more concerned for Tobias’ safety than he cared to admit. “Because it’s heavy, and I don’t want to run and get Thadd to nurse the headache you’ll get if you whack yourself with it.”