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Epic Tale - Chapter 13 - Part 2

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Genoveva stepped out of the shades of an hallway, with a javelin in her right hand and even more in a quiver on her back. She looked worryingly proficient.
The trickster raised her hands, but her face showed only confidence.
“You are not going to kill me”, she stated.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t”, the selkie hissed.
“How will you explain a corpse here, where everyone can see it? Besides, this is not your style.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you?”
“I haven’t been wrong so far”, Riddle answered. She had enough control over her voice to mask the slight insecurity.
“You’re wrong now”, Genoveva said and with a swift movement, she moved forwards, the spear aimed at Riddle’s chest. Quickly the trickster jumped away and landed in the water.
“You are trapped”, Genoveva stated satisfied.
“The pond has no exit you can use, if you want to survive”, she sneered.
Riddle hated to admit it that she was right. her only hope was the return of the others, but for some reason, she was sure Genoveva had taken care of this.
“I’m curious. How did you know of my plans?”
The trickster blinked and this time, her confusion was real.
“What plans?”, she asked.
A very well aimed javelin landed next to her in the water, missing her slightly.
“Don’t play dumb! You know very well what this is about! I spent years to get within reach of the crown and now that I am so close to get it, you came along and ruin everything!”, Genoveva shouted out, full of frustration. Lady Riddle decided to stay silent, trying find out what the selkie was talking about.
“You somehow summoned the demon!”, Genoveva shouted angrily and if Riddle hadn’t dived down in time, a javelin would have hit her.
“Because of you, Leith is the only heir left!”, the selkie shouted as soon as the trickster was above the surface again. The next javelin flew through the air. Again Riddle managed to dodge it, but if the selkie would start throwing within short time, she wouldn’t last long.
“And you stole him!” This time, the thrown weapon was followed quickly by a second one. The trickster tried to move sideways while diving down in order to escape. But she couldn’t see under water. She knew she couldn’t dodge the next javelin and hadn’t enough air in her lungs to dive away. Hoping moving irregularly somehow would ensure she wasn’t killed, the trickster surfaced.
Thankfully, no javelin pierced into her head so far.
The reason stood near the edge of the pool and turned around.
“You didn’t drown, that’s good”, Reaper commented. Slightly confused, Riddle moved towards the edge, when she noticed a thin red stream dripping into the pool.
“what-?!”, she asked and climbed out. Before Reapers feet there laid  Genoveva. A puddle of blood was growing around her in an amazing speed.
“You… you killed her..”, Riddle gasped.
Reaper did not shrug, but his voice was still cool. Awfully cool, In Riddle’s opinion.
“It was either you or her. One of you would have died anyway and honestly, I like you more”, he stated. The trickster could not believe her ears. How could he be so unimpressed?
“There was another way for sure”, she whispered.
“Like what? Talking her out of it? Open your eyes, Riddle! I just saved you from certain death!”
Reaper then sighed and muttered to himself, but the trickster could still hear him:
“No good deed goes unpunished...”
“You killed her and expect em to be thankful?!” Lady Riddle almost shouted. Reaper’s face darkened.
“I don’t know since when you’ve become so soft. It’s not like you don’t have any blood on your hands. Face it, without me, you’d be feeding the fishes. Don’t tell me there’d be another way!”, he hissed.
Riddle took a step back. She had never seen him angry like this. It was frightening, especially since she didn’t know what he was really capable of. The silence between the two pirates didn’t allow any more words.
“What will you do about the body?”, Riddle wondered as it became unbearable.
Reaper shrugged and picked it up.
“Do you want me to bury her?”, he asked and Riddle assumed he was being sarcastic, though she couldn’t be sure..
“I doubt leaving a murder behind will do us any good”, she answered slowly.
“Whatever…”, Reaper murmured and disappeared with the body.
Lady Riddle slowly left the hall. It was true she had killed somebody before but that had been something entirely different. She was still convinced there could have been another way. the hate Genoveva had displayed was unexpected. Riddle had believed she was just a bored noble woman enjoying putting others into misery. But there were so many things that didn’t fit together. The trickster hated unfinished puzzles and unsolved riddles. She knew her life had been at stake, but still… she had been in worse situations. She sighed. This was all so wrong. Ever since they arrived at this island, they brought misery and death upon the selkies. It was time to leave before even worse things would happen. Also, though nobody would willingly admit it, the trickster was sure a part of the reason why the theft had no further consequences, was that the selkies were happy to get rid of the pirates.

Soon the Sangue-Padre hoisted the sails and headed for the open water. Since the crew had been split up, there were a lot of stories to share about what had happened in the remains of the city. Especially Sparky didn’t get tired of telling how she almost had to force the guards to arrest her and each time she retold it, the truth became more blurry. But nobody did mind at all. After the past events, it was good to be able to laugh again. Lady Riddle joined in as usual and tried her best to cause some more. But as the sun set and the deck emptied, she was standing alone at the rail when she heard a very familiar voice.
“What’s the matter, me Riddle?”, Angel asked softly.
A part of the trickster wanted to lie and say “nothing”, but the seraph was her best friend and she had promised to always be truthful towards her.
“It’s Reaper…”, she sighed with low voice, hoping only Angel would be able to listen.
“What did he do?”, the seraph asked, her eyes slightly narrowing.
“... He … well.. probably it was for the best…”, the trickster muttered.
“What did he do?”
“He killed … someone.”
Riddle didn’t need to look into Angel’s face to know her eyes were widening.
“Why? I am sure he had a good reason for it”, Angel then said in a calm voice. Riddle wasn’t too sure whom she tried to calm, the trickster or herself.
“Aye.. someone wanted to kill me, but Reaper was faster”, Riddle said. Angel smiled at her.
Angel stared at Riddle and her heart thumped loudly within her chest at her words. Her eyes searched for her friend’s. So many thoughts raced through her mind in those few moments.
“If he wasn’t there.” Angel finally spoke in a very quiet voice, “I may have lost you..”
She blinked several times as a fear welled up in her. “I...can’t….” Angel said looking down, her voice fading.
“There could have been another way! There’d been so many deaths…”, Riddle  whispered, still staring at the water.
“Honestly, me Riddle though I understand how you feel but…” Angels began and added in a lower voice:, “I am glad he did.”
The trickster still didn’t turn her head.
“So do I, but at the same time, I wish he’d just knocked her out. I know I owe him an apology, but the moment I see him, I know I’ll just yell at him”, Riddle sighed.
“Then show him through actions, me Riddle”, Angel suggested and showed a smile, which had become rare recently.
Lady Riddle shrugged her shoulders.
“If I’m lucky, he is listening now anyway…”
Both pirates stood next to each other, looking a the nightly ocean in silence. But this silence was a good one. It was peace and understanding.

The two women were not the only one who weren’t sleeping. Crystal used the uneventful time to find out more about the ruby they had stolen. The red stone was not big, maybe the size of a phalanx. Also, it wasn’t even very pure or well cut. It was hard to believe it was part of a royal jewel collection. But maybe the selkies had simply other preferences. The archive pulled up the translation and the copy she had made of Finn’s tattoos.
She didn’t really know what she was looking for. It was like solving a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture was supposed to look like, nor if pieces were missing. But very much like the trickster, the archive liked a good brain teaser. While others would call a task like this “impossible” or “frustrating”, her words to describe it were “interesting” and “challenging”. Crystal was sure the ruby was one of the keys they needed, she only had to find out how it worked.
While she was pondering, she turned the ruby around and holding it against the light of the lantern illuminating her room. Suddenly some of the runes before her starting glowing crimson red. Crystal was sure it weren’t simply reflections of the light falling through the ruby, but the paper itself was glowing. Carefully the moved the gem and the glow did not disappear. Quickly she compared the glowing runes with the translation and a majority of them belonged to the part she had believed to be nonsense .
“Most fascinating”, she muttered and tried to decipher the single glyphs. Knowing ancient magic often relied on spoken words, she pressed her lips together tightly. There were enough stories about summoning accidents and there was no need to repeat that common mistake.
Soon the archive was able to read the text before her.
She then translated it a second time and a third, checking for possible mistakes she made.
But even a fifth and a sixth translation ended with the same result. shaking her head, Crystal reached for the notes she had made regarding the witch doctor and the islands he had showed.
“Hmm…”
The archive rubbed her chin and got up. She picked a book out of her vast collection and opened it. To her surprise, the answer she thought to find here wasn’t there.
“Interesting”, she muttered and opened another book. But it also wasn’t the right one. Crystal was slightly confused. Normally she knew exactly where to find the desired information. How could she be wrong twice?
She looked at her notes and the translation again.
The blind leads the seeing to the end of the world. The forgotten god guards they key.
Crystal had more then enough books featuring “the end of the world”, but only few gave a location. None made any connection to an island and the witch doctor had given them very specific outlines.
The archive spent the rest of the night trying to solve the mystery lying on her desk.
I don't own any crew member character except for Lady Riddle. The other BFP characters belong to their respective owners, listed here:fav.me/d4umfs0
All other characters belong to me.
I am writing "Epic Tale" with :icondarlingangel0565:.
Please tell me if I displayed any character in a wrong way!

The Epic Tale

Chapter 1: Black Fedora Princesses
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 2: An Unexpected Treasure
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 3: A Passenger
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 4: Storm Ahead!
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 5: Hostile Environment
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 6: The Witch Doctor
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 7: A Date With Lady Riddle
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 8: Home, Bittersweet Home
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 9: Fight!
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 10: Demon Of The Deep
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 11: Plans And Schemes
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 12: Valediction
Part 1: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Part 3: diluculi.deviantart.com/art/Ep…
Chapter 13: To New Shores


It's a very short chapter again ... I'm sorry!
© 2014 - 2024 Diluculi
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DarlingAngel0565's avatar
She got what she deserved. No one messes with me Riddle.