Content Warning

 

Eventually Hana and the pirates defeated their opponents. The Saint Rose and its cargo was their prize; its surviving crew were their captives. And what a disappointing prize it was: the attackers’ brigantine destroyed; more than half the pirates killed; their spirit beasts all lost to the inferno; and the galleon heavily damaged, barely fit to sail. I wondered if the fire eagle practitioner had intentionally slaughtered the spirit beasts, realizing they were the pirates’ goal. ‘I suppose it doesn’t matter the motive, though.’

Once the fighting calmed down, I carried Sarah to the ship’s infirmary and used the supplies there to disinfect and bandage her wounds. Her skin's discoloration and severe open wounds and blistering had me concerned. However, I had healed her to the extent of my meager knowledge, so I put her to bed. I doubted any healers would come to treat her immediately after a battle, but I wouldn’t accomplish anything just standing around, so I went to find Hana.

In exchange for my support persuading or threatening captive crew who were familiar with me that helping to sail Saint Rose to the pirates’ stronghold was preferable to dying at sea, Hana finally agreed to have a healer see Sarah.

Fortunately, the young woman stabilized. She needed to rest and should soon recover to full function; unfortunately she would likely bear her burn scars for a couple years, perhaps for her entire life. I coped with my distress by keeping busy around the ship, assisting as much as possible during our return to Avalon.

A crew member informed me that Sarah had awoken, so I dropped everything and went to see her in the infirmary.

 

“Sarah!” I cried, rushing in to hug her.

“Ow ow ow stop!” she protested. 

I let her go; I didn’t want to make her injuries worse. “Sorry. But you woke up!”

“Yeah I did,” she responded, less energetically than usual, “and now I look like this.”

She gestured at herself.

Her body was mostly covered with bandages. She probably assumed the worst about the situation underneath.

“Are you in pain?” I asked.

“Not really,” Sarah informed me, “but that isn’t apparently good. I took some kind of medicine that dulls my senses. Worse, the healer said there’s something wrong with my skin where I won’t feel pain properly. I didn’t understand it.”

I wasn’t a healer either. I’d heard about nerve damage in skin before. Maybe it was that? I didn’t want to make her worry, and I wasn’t sure anyway, so I kept that to myself. I tried to distract Sarah and cheer her up by talking about anything except her injuries.

 

I filled Sarah in on what had happened before we met up during the battle and after she passed out. She was amused that I had been so hostile to Hana to the point that I accused her of bewitchment. Obviously I left out the parts where I killed and fed on her crew mates.

“I still can hardly believe the pretty lady turned out to be a shapeshifting spirit monster in the end. What a shame,” Sarah remarked.

“Oh yeah! I didn’t expect that either.”

“Guess I’ll give up on her, then,” she said, sighing, “way too scary now.”

“Definitely. You should believe me if I said confronting Hana was a terrible idea and I regret it?” I asked her.

Sarah responded with a bit more energy, “Sure, sure, tons of regrets. Totally. You’ve never thought twice about anything in your life.”

“I’m serious! She’s powerful and scary like you say!”

We didn’t say anything more for a few moments.

“I didn’t like that you looked after her so much.” I admitted.

Sarah looked at me and raised her brows but said nothing.

“The time we spent together; I really enjoyed it, Sarah. I kind of felt… I don’t know, like Hana ruined it or something. Hahhh, I don’t really understand what I’m saying anymore. Just a bunch of nonsense.”

Sarah giggled, “I think I know what you mean. Someone’s jealous.”

I acted confused.

“Jealous of what?”

“Of Hana!”

That made sense. “Yeah obviously. She is strong, and she can control her body so well. I wish I could do that… hell, she’s even sort of pretty, I guess. In a fox demon creature kind of way.”

She punched my arm lightly, “Ali! You’re so dumb sometimes!”

I clutched myself as though grievously wounded and laughed at her comment, “I’ll admit it! I’m dumb!”

I was glad she felt well enough to move and joke around, at least.

I rubbed her hair playfully, “But I know what you meant! Of course I’m jealous of Hana for stealing my precious Sarah’s attention away.”

She pushed my hand off and looked away from me.

‘Is she being shy right now?’

I decided not to tease her anymore. Truly I was the most merciful of demonkind.

I would have preferred to stay with her longer, but I had rushed straight for her realizing she was awake, so I needed to return to my duties.

 

Whenever I wasn’t helping the pirates out, I would come back to keep Sarah company. Eventually I helped the healer remove her bandages. Sarah cried when she saw herself. The burns left angry marks even after the initial open injuries healed. I sat beside her and stroked her uninjured back, trying to say anything I could so she’d know she’s not alone. Her attitude understandably remained negative. I made sure to be around as often as I could. After some days she started acting like she felt better and accepted her bad situation. Whether that was true I couldn’t tell.

 

When Sarah recovered enough to stand and walk about, I took her up to the deck for some fresher air. 

She breathed it in excitedly, “Ahh, freedom! I’ve been a prisoner in the sick den for days! Days, Ali!”

We chatted briefly.

Sarah suddenly shivered and hid behind me.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.

She shook her head and didn’t speak. I turned where she looked and saw Hana approaching us.

I stroked Sarah’s head to comfort her, then braced myself to interact with the vixen again.

“Ah, hello Hana,” I greeted, feigning confidence for both of us.

She didn’t even dignify my greeting with a response. “Everything fell apart, but you two did your best to free the captives. I won’t renege on our agreement, little cabin girls.”

“Well that’s good,” I offered, so Sarah wouldn’t have to say anything while she was frightened.

“When we return to Avalon, I’ll make some introductions for you, so you aren’t like lost little lambs at the stronghold.”

“How generous…”

“Behave yourselves and don’t antagonize the crew. I don’t want my hands full babysitting you two. If you rejoin colonial society at Fort Breslow, I may find a use for you again.”

She seemed like she was done with us, so I spoke before she could try to leave.

“Hana, we got interrupted before. I’ll ask again. You freely change between being visibly human and your real traits. How?”

“I’m always visibly human. We are human like you, no matter the form.”

She seemed irritated that I asked again. Yet she didn’t make sense to me. Demons are not humans. I didn’t know why she insisted on claiming otherwise. I tried a different approach,

“So then, how did you get here?”

Her anger flared. “How did I come to be here?” she raged, forcing me to my knees with her aura alone, “You dare ask me, you who comes across the sea to settle among us? I’ve lived on Avalon for thirty years, and a hundred more! I know no other land!”

Now I was really confused and frightened, but I didn’t want to back down without any answers.

“So, you didn’t come from Abyss?”

“Of course not! It’s not enough for you colonials to call us monsters? Now you must also call me a demon!? Had we not made a promise together then I would kill you now for your insolence.”

“Restrain your friend!” Hana instructed Sarah, who still cowered behind me. Then she left us.

“Are you crazy!?” Sarah hissed in my ear.

She waited for Hana to leave us alone and continued, “I thought you said earlier that you regretted confronting Hana, and now you did it again knowing she’s a monster! What is wrong with your mind?”

“I just wanted to ask her something. Didn’t mean nothing by it,” I said, getting up and brushing off the encounter.

“You keep provoking a powerful spirit; you’re actually insane! And you were just asking her a bunch of nonsense about demons.”

I wanted to argue, but she had a point.

I did take a lot of risks, especially when over starved. I needed to avoid ever allowing myself to reach that point again.

I decided to later ask someone else about changing forms. As exciting as I found having my fangs back, I needed to learn to hide them if I wanted to keep blending into human society. So far I’d been trying to project a false visual image inside my mouth, but illusions weren’t my specialty, it was far from perfect, and keeping it up was exhausting. I doubted Hana used this method either; she seemed to have physically transformed. Seemed I shouldn’t keep asking her about it though.

“Actually, I do regret it.” I said bitterly, finally responding to Sarah, “you’re right.”

“That’s a start,” she told me, “Please reform yourself before you get yourself killed though!”

“I swear I will survive, no matter what,” I promised, “I really don’t seek to die.”

We spent a moment together in silence, simply watching the ocean together. However, I had something else I needed to say.

“But mostly- I regret about uh,” I continued from earlier, becoming louder as I spoke “If you- if I didn’t ask you to follow me earlier. Then you would not have been caught in the fire. You wouldn’t have been burned like this.” 

“Ali...” She tried to calm me down.

“You’re the person I care about most in this world! And I got you hurt!” I was shouting now; anyone could have heard me, and I didn’t care. Only Sarah mattered and I- I was yelling at her. I took deep breaths and tried to control myself.

“Sarah, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes it- No, I mean I shouldn’t have gotten so agitated. I was wrong.”

“Oh! Yeah, that was a little unsettling.” She gave out a short laugh, “I’ll forgive you though, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“As long as you know not to do it again!” Sarah’s smile looked great, regardless of her scars. “Last thing we need is for Ali to start trying to bully me, on top of being relentlessly reckless.”

“I won’t!”

“That better be a promise!”

“It is, I swear!”

Our conversation soon trailed off.

 

Sarah seemed busy thinking about something. Her brows drew together and she sighed, staring out over the swelling waves. After a bit, Sarah spoke again, “I feel overwhelmed. One day I’m on a boring return voyage to Oestland. Now I’m with a crew of pirates and spirits returning to their stronghold in Avalon. I’m so out of depth.”

“Yeah it’s been hard,” I agreed.

I considered briefly.

“Sarah, later, please come with me.”

“What?”

“I get that you think I’m kind of impulsive and dumb, and maybe that’s true. But I’m strong you know… and if you need someone to take care of you I’ll do my best!”

“Why are you asking this now?” Sarah asked. She seemed amused for some reason even though this wasn’t funny.

“I’ve come to like you a lot.” I told her, “I want you to stick around… Besides it’s partly my fault you got injured anyway.”

“No it isn’t! We got caught up in a battle.”

“Okay,” I decided not to argue that point again.

“Ali. I don’t mind tagging along with you for a while,” she responded, “You know I have no family and was on the Saint Rose since I was a child, so it’s not like I have something better to do. I just don’t understand why you’re being all weird and asking me formally for some reason.”

“I- I don’t know! I guess I’m just awkward or something!” I hastened to explain, “Maybe I’m just more used to getting pushed around.”

I tried to get back to my purpose, “And I really want you to come with me! For my own selfish reasons of course.”

Sarah laughed, “Here I was thinking you’re some silly person trying to run away from something at sea, but you’re acting all serious about this right now. It’s great.”

“I am serious!“ I protested.

The Saint Rose, crippled as it was, eventually managed to drag itself to the pirates’ stronghold. We entered through an illusion formation that disguised the coastal settlement as a stretch of unremarkable shore. There was a deep bay providing a safe harbor. A few small ships remained docked around. None of them particularly impressive compared to Saint Rose or even the pirates’ destroyed brigantine, just vessels Sarah identified as sloops and schooners. Rowboats came out to pull the galleon to harbor. We were back in Avalon.

-End of Part Two -