#mirka

mirka had only run off to explore the city. she didn't mean to meet the most wanted pirate captain in all of sorrens, didn't mean to get (willingly) kidnapped by him, didn't mean to worm herself into the life of a pirate. it just... happened. trouble just found her, like it found her mother, and her grandmother, and her ancestors before them. her cursed eye bore proof of that, and the eyepatch covering it.

it was good, being a pirate. she got out of the stuffy life of a noblewomen, ditched the frills and skirts and petticoats for a more reasonable vest and trousers, and got to sail around causing havoc. she didn't stay locked up in her room as if she was a prisoner anymore, and she got to know ezra.

ezra fascinated her. a pirate, yes, the most wanted one of all time, but her was more... empathetic than all the stories told about him made him out to be. she was told that the captain of the heartseeker was evil. malicious, not to be trusted and certainly not capable of feeling something for someone else.

instead, he laughed with her. he helped her escape her stiflingly boring old life, and helped her find her new purpose. mirka couldn't picture the pirate she was told stories about rescuing a cat on the ship, but ezra did.

of course, ezra could be cruel when duty called for it. she saw him shoot a man more than once, and stab someone else without a shred of remorse. but she also saw him as her savior and best friend, and he grew as close with her in turn.

the steady rhythm of the ship that mirka's life had fallen into was disrupted when the navy attacked. the heartseeker had docked too close to port, and this particular city was less... lax about security than others, and news of mirka's kidnapping by the pirates had spread to the eastern edge of the continent by then.

...they caught ezra and mirka, while the rest of the pirates escaped. she watched ezra be carted off for execution while she was dragged back to her father's estate, kicking and screaming, to be imprisoned in a way that no one called imprisonment.

he locked her in her room. assigned one servant girl to her, and sent someone to fetch her food. he visited occasionally, made sure she wasn't entirely alone, but mirka felt like she was going mad. she missed the sea-salt smell and the way the waves would rock the heartseeker, and knew she had to get out. she had to see if ezra had managed to escape, too. she didn't know what she would do if he hadn't.

annika got closer with her. they spoke, at length, when mirka got too bored to do much else. infatuated, annika promised to help mirka escape. to help mirka with anything in the future. mirka... wasn't sure if she trusted annika yet, but she wanted to get out more than anything else. needed to.