You are Quinn.

You’ve been stuck down there for who knows how long. Half the ship is asleep at any given time, so you have no idea what time it is. You’ve been observing everyone for a long time now. Every now and then, Grim would come down and glare at you through the door.

No DESIRE. Just suspicion, anger, and fear.

Of course, now, it isn’t so boring.  From what you can tell, six ships attacked the galleon. Watching a battle with soulsight was terrifying. You could see their souls ebb away and disappear. You could see the twisted taint that the invaders called souls. This isn’t good at all.

Three ships have gone down, but the last three seem to be doing an all or nothing gambit. Two ships climb higher into the sky ahead, on both sides. One ship drops behind.

You feel panic from the back end of your ship, and you seem to be heading directly on a collision course with the other—

CrAKRAKRAK!

People jump out of the two beached ships before the hulls break apart, sending the slower pirates to their doom. Harpies from the other ship fly up and climb their way through holes to swarm the ship. Two presences make yourself known to you. One calm, filled with disgust.

Yet it just stays out there, not acting.

And the other, Grim, whose fear spikes higher and higher. She’s heading your way. You smile when she opens the door. She’s got the keys.

"Need help?” She grimaces. ”I’m not sure you know this, but demons like myself can form pacts. I’ll promise to defend this ship to the best of all my abilities, you and your crew included, if you set me free.”

Grim is trembling with rage. She steps forwards. You hold your cuffs out for her. She gets the keys close to the manacles.

“No.”

What.

“Even in the face of Armageddon, never compromise.”

No.

No, no, no, no!

She did not just Rorschach you!

She turns around and leaves.

”Come on! I’ll save you! DON’T BE AN IDEALISTIC MORON!”

“Death before dishonor.”

She slams the door shut, and you’re left speechless. Darkness. You can only hear the screams of panic outside. The clash of steel on steel. You try desperately to free yourself. The chains don’t give, and the ankh’s presence still looms behind you. Your soulsight is still on. You can still see hundreds of souls disappearing, all around you. No matter how hard you pull…

The chains refuse to give.

You scream in rage and shake the manacles harder. Black blood flows down your arms before you heal. Slowly.

The pirates are all over the ship. Grim is surrounded. Everyone, from the cooks to the helmsmen are being slaughtered. Not everyone… You feel the DESIRE popping up around the ship. This DESIRE…

It’s like Titanium’s, but worse.

It fills you the same way a cheap burger would. Fast, filling, and addicting, but still wrong.. With your soulsight, you feel these perversions. You feel them push down the females, digging their claws and fingers into their flesh. Their erect shafts bursting from their sheaths and plunging into the helpless women’ depths.

Grim is worn down.

Tired.

Scared.

She brings a dagger to her own throat, but they stop her. You can’t bear to witness this anymore. You turn off your soulsight and resign yourself to the darkness. Bursts of that disgusting DESIRE, make their way to you. Some really close to you. Is it weird that a demon feels bad about rape?

Well, you have a soul, and you’re all up for fun times… But those women weren’t you. So you sit. Chained, prevented from stopping this tragedy. Because of what?

Pride?

Honor?

Neither of those stopped Grim from being raped. Slowly, the DESIRE dies down.

A light reaches you from the hall. The door is opened, and little over a dozen harpy women are lead in. A dozen, from a ship nearing a thousand. Their eyes are dead, their feathers and fur, matted. Until they see you.  Fear fills them once more, and they try to rush back out the door.

“Please…Please don’t chain us in here with IT.” One of the braver women sobs.

Normally you’d say “Well, fuck you too!” but they’ve had a pretty shitty day.

“With what? Another prisoner?”

There’s some scared squawking and feather ruffling.

“Sh-she’s a demon the captain captured. Anywhere but here!”

You could hear the malicious grin.

“She? Good for us. We’ve been hired to spare the females for a reason. A reason all of us are going to take turns enjoying.” The voice gets closer, pushing away the disheveled harpies.

It’s some seedy-looking equint, his penis still hanging free from the hem of his pants, dripping with pre. You glare at him, and he shivers a bit before putting on a brave face.

“You’re an odd creature. But I can tell from here, you’ll be useful. You’ve got yourself a cunny, after all.”  He laughs, but chokes on it when you glare harder. He steps back and grumbles, before starting to chain the harpies near the entrance, far away from you. “It won’t do for you gals to be scared too much. Stress’ll be bad for your purpose.”

This is starting to sound worse and worse. But the women take it with gratitude, rather than seeing it for what it was. He’s scared of you. Once he’s done chaining them to the walls, he scurries out and closes the door, leaving you all in darkness. Your night vision allows you to see them as they huddle far away from you, even though they’re a good fifteen racks away from the closest pair.

They’ve got a lot more chain length.

They’re trembling and whispering things like “I can’t see anything but its eyes,” “Emperor save us,” and “What will happen to us?”

Oddly enough, Grim isn’t among them. You’ve got an inkling of what they want, but you don’t know why. And killing Grim would be counter-intuitive. You close your eyes to concentrate and hear some sighs of relief.

Soulsight reveals that she’s right behind you. As in, the room behind you.

She’s not sad or scared like the others. She’s angry, livid, even. But that’s only second to shame. There’s another two harpy presences, standing above her. They seem to be talking. You take a few deep breaths out of habit before concentrating on your senses, putting your ear to the wall.

“This bitch sure gave a big fight, didn’t she, Glasgow?”

“Yes, sir. It was quite unfortunate that Saw broke her rapier. It was of good make.”

The first one laughs. “And he was so angry that I called dibs. Although I would like to see Saw cocksock one of these women before the job is over.”

Glasgow pauses and seems to move something.

“The captain always does get first choice, sir.”

The captain laughs again and slaps flesh, which is responded with a growl.

“Look at her! Even used as she was, she still growls. No wonder she became a captain, even as a hen. I’ll have fun breaking her. A pity you can’t participate, Glascow. You’ve served me well over these years, even if you are a pencil pusher. And your suggestion to move on from pirating to mercenary work? This is why I’d spend money on you.”

Glasgow doesn’t seem as cheery as his boss, and judging from these pauses, you’d bet he’s pushing up his glasses. What a nerd.

“I aim to please, sir. Well, I aim to increase net profit by any means necessary. Heh.”

Correction: What an asshole nerd. And probably more dangerous than his boss. Another presence draws at your attention. This one…chills you. Soulsight determines this is the guy who looked on passively, even if he was disgusted. He was unlike any species you had detected before. Whereas others were a bit ‘dim’, he shone like a blazing sun. You felt your body straining to change, but the chains and your will stopped the transformation. It was mostly he tips of your ears that prickled with the need to change.

He opened the door and waltzed right in.

“If it isn’t our good ol’ employer, checking in on the spoils of war! How goes it, Emit?”

=”I regret ever giving you my full name, Captain Claw.”

Holy shit.

It’s him.

He did this.

=”Please refer to me as ‘sir’ or Aevum Sistorillian. Only friends call me Emit.”

“And we’re not friends? A lot of these mercs came running after I told them that our job was to basically fuck bitches, get money. It’s no wonder I gathered so many guys so quickly.

=”That explains your rather blasé attitude about the casualty report. May I ask why you are here, rather than the captain’s quarters?”

“Normally the Captain would use the quarters, but this is an Imperial Emperor-Class Galleon. The ankh embedded in the wall is a particular trait of said model: It is displayed for all to see when they enter the Emperor’s room.”

“Glasgow said it. To think some snotty emperor slept here once…and that I fucked his bitch on his desk makes it so much better.”

“You disgrace the Emperor!” Grim growls.

Whereas Claw laughs and Glasgow finds some humor in the statement, HE is sad.

=”I am prepared to pay one fifth of the reward right now. If you keep them alive for the next month, I will be back with another two fifths with fertility potions and my continued sponsorship. The last two fifths will be for their children.”

You feel a bit sick. A moving breeding center. That’s barbaric.

Unless…

An inkling of an idea forms in your head.

“Hahaha! Wow! So we get paid to fuck bitches, and we don’t even need to take care of the kids? And I guess by ‘continued sponsorship,’ we get to add to our collection! And my pregnancy fetish is going to make this even better!” Aevum’s disgust grows.

=”Say, Claw? What’s your great-grandfather’s name?”

“Eh? He went by Gristly Bones, why?”

=”I just need to figure out who to castrate.”

Silence. There’s some giggling before Claw erupts into laughter.

“I thought you didn’t have a funny bone in your entire body, but you sure proved me wrong! A bit insensitive with Glasgow right here, but points for balls…Oop, sorry Glasgow! Gwahahaahaa!”

“Sir, if I may ask, why do you need children? For the slave trade?” Glasgow asks.

=”Incorrect. I simply need a power source, and it seems that one of my investments failed. But despite that—” There’s a rustling and the clank of a coinpurse. “It’s bigger on the inside. I suggest you open it in an enclosed room. Now please leave so that I may inspect this harpy.”

The two harpies leave, and all that is left in the room is Grim and Aevum. He approaches the ankh and leans his head against it.

=”If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry. To both of you.”

To both of—He knows you’re listening in.

=”Yes, I know. No, I can’t exactly read minds, but I can read your vitals, and I am capable of determining when someone is using soulsight on me.”

“If you feel sorry, then why did you orchestrate this…disgusting plot? Why did you…let them…USE ME!?” Grim snarls.

Aevum responds by thumping his head against the wall. There’s some cracking sounds and the ankh seems to loosen up.

=”Because if I want to fix all the wrongs in the world, including mine, I’m going to need a lot of prana. Life energy. The most powerful magic in creation.  And when I fix it, it will have never happened.”

He walks back to Grim.

=”I will use your unwanted children to fuel your hopes and dreams.” He turns back to you, and you feel his gaze go beyond the wall. “Facing one of you is difficult enough. Seeing what must be done…it fills me with regret.”

He’s not lying. But he’s resolute. More resolute than anybody you’ve ever seen. He makes Grim’s determination look about as solid as wet paper towels.

=”So I hope in another life, another time…you will both forgive me. Or better yet, live your lives as if none of this ever happened. I hope for your sake that you produce fine harpy chicks, so that I can better fix all of this.”

Ah, he thinks you’re a harpy. Grim growls once more.

“Fuck you. The Emperor will save us.”

Sadness.

=”The emperor of your country is a bit busy being hunted down after the coup. Not of my ministrations, but of his own foolishness.”

“Wh-what? You lie!”

=”I’m sorry. I have no reason to. The simple fact of the matter is that your economy was unstable, and his pompous attitude attracted too much attention from more powerful countries such as Stellar Principality. Celeste’s ever watchful eyes may have strayed, or the Canids attacked from your mountains, or the bourgeoisie finally organized…too many opposing factors destroyed your country, not I. Worry not, only the royal family is in danger. But with the change in government, this ship will likely be lost.”

“You…you can’t be.”

=”I only need about two years’ worth of babies, after fertility potions of course. If you are fed properly, that would mean anywhere between twelve and eighteen births total. After that, I’ll drop you off somewhere, as your uterus will be not as efficient as another ‘fresh’ hen’s. I’ll even wipe your memories if you’d like.”

“You…monster. You are the evilest elf I’ve ever heard of.”

Elf?

=”Perhaps. At any rate, I hope these ‘mercenaries’ treat you well. And thank you for the artifact. Anything bathed in the blood of those revolting overgrown lizards is fantastic in so many ways for me. Farewell.”

He turns back to you.

=”I’m sorry we couldn’t meet face-to-face as with your captain. But I am a coward. It hurts to see what I have wrought in the name of what’s right. So you will always be nothing more than the listener on the other side of the wall. Farewell, listener.”

And with that, he left. He did not speak to anyone as he walked through the ship. He simply went up top and flew away. Leaving an emotionally turbulent Grim in his room.

Later, Glasgow returned, and dragged her to the brig. She did not fight; she did not speak out. Glasgow rose an eyebrow at the sight of me, chained all the way in the back.

“What are you?”

”A demon. I got captured. But I could reward you if you released us…” I purred and gave him my ‘cum-hither’ stare.

“No thanks.”

What.

What the fuck?! Are you losing your touch? Are these chains affecting your persuasive abilities? Wait, they were joking earlier… He turns around to chain Grim fourteen racks away from you. You focus on his crotch. Demon senses, activate! What’s wrong there?

No balls. Ah.

He leaves and all is silent. Some of the harpies look to Grim in hope, some away in shame. Nothing is said and time passes. They fall in and out of sleep before the door bursts open. An albino harpy struts in, erection first.

Soulsight confirms this is Claw.

“Now…I’m feeling a bit peckish.”