Epic Tale - Chapter 15 - Part 2

“How can I help you, Crystal?”, Lady Riddle asked after closing the door. She waved at the seat before her desk and sat down at the other side.
“I assume you haven’t had a chance to go through all of my notes regarding the strange treasure we’re after.”, the archive began.
“I found them, but haven’t read my way through them.”
“Then I must ask you to do it before we set sail again.”
Lady Riddle arched her eyebrows.
“Why is that?”, she wondered.
“Because I feel I need to leave the ship for an unknown amount of time.”
Even though Lady Riddle had not expected to hear this, she knew better than to urge Crystal to explain why. Whether it was because of the Killer or some shadows of the past which caught up with her, it wasn’t Lady Riddle’s business. So instead she simply nodded.
“During the past days I was able to locate last island mentioned on the map”, the archive stated. Lady Riddle noticed the small movement she made before hesitating. She unrolled the ocean chart and showed the archive their current location.
“Where is it?”
To the captain’s surprise, Crystal pointed at the ornaments surrounding the windrose.
“The island is almost forgotten and hard to reach.”, she explained a pulled forth a self-drawn map. The island shown on it was surrounded by strange swirls.
“Do you recall the text regarding the treasure?”, the archive asked.
“Not entirely. A lot of things happened since then”, the captain admitted. Crystal nodded and said:
“The island is located inside a hole in the ocean.”
“How can there be a hole in the ocean?”, Lady Riddle asked with disbelief. The Archive shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know how it came to be, but the island is often referred to as ‘The End of the World.”
“Sounds wonderfully encouraging”, the captain commented with a smirk.
“Indeed. From what I could gather, the ocean’s waters fall down into an unknown depth surrounding the island. This is what the swirls are supposed to mean.”
“How do we reach it then?”
“I suggest not falling down with the ship.”
Lady Riddle wasn’t entirely sure if Crystal was joking or not. The sound of cabin door caused both to look up as Angel came back inside. The archive looked slightly surprised, whereas Lady RIddle smiled as if she had expected her.
“Come and join us Angel.”  She nodded towards an empty chair and gave the new Co-captain a short summary of the conversation so far.
“You are not going without me this time.” Angel declared, looking at Lady Riddle. She refused to let her friend take any risks this time without her. The captain nodded.
“I don’t plan to”, she said smiling and added:
“In fact, I was wondering if I even should leave the ship.”
Crystal maintained a calm expression this time, but Angel’s eyes widened.
“Me Riddle, you are the last one to pass on an adventure!”
“Indeed. It’s rare to see you stay behind.”
“Aye, and you both know I’d love to explore our new destination. But I think as a captain, my place is aboard the Sangue-Padre. Besides, I can’t fly and have yet to come up with an idea how we can reach the island without risking the ship.”, Lady Riddle explained.
“Then I will lead this expedition”, Angel stated.
“I had hoped you’d suggest this”, Lady Riddle answered happily and the seraph smiled at her.
“So who will be with me?”, she asked. The new captain shrugged.
“That is completely up to you, though of course, you should ensure they can follow you.”
“Of course”, Angel nodded.
“If you excuse me, I shall leave to prepare my journey”; Crystal announced and got up.
“I shall leave as well and start working on my tasks”, Angel added and both pirates left the captain’s cabin.

Lady Riddle leaned back in her chair. Out of nowhere, Dabel appeared and climbed up into her lap. The former trickster chuckled.
“Now I am a fully equipped villain, aye?”, she asked the cat-like creature and started petting her. Of course it didn’t take long until there was a knocking on the door again.
“Come in, come in”, the captain answered and Sarah Grace stepped in.
“I hope I am not disturbing you”, she began carefully.
“Do I really look busy to you?”, Lady Riddle replied and smiled, waving at a free chair.
“No”, Sarah answered with a light chuckle, but it was enough to give away her insecurity of how to act around the new captain. Thankfully, the nymph didn’t ask for permission to speak, but started right away as soon as she was sitting.
“We’re, I mean some people I talked to and myself, we’re wondering what will happen next.”
“We continue the treasure hunt, of course”, Lady Riddle smiled. “We’ve gone through so much, I don’t want it all to be for naught.”
“That makes sense”, the nymph agreed.
“When will we set sails again?”
“As soon as the supplies are refilled and the course it set.”
“You don’t waste any time, it seems”, Grace stated with a smile.
“We have been idle long enough.”
“Then I will not keep you from getting us back on the way. Can’t wait to see where we’ll be going”, Sarah exclaimed happily and left.
“To the end of the world”, the new captain muttered after the door fell shut. Lost in thoughts, she began to pet Dabel again. It was probably just a minor formality, but still it refused to leave Lady Riddle’s mind. Every single pirate so far had pledged their loyalty to Chenbeard. But he wasn’t in charge anymore. Would the crew trust her as they had trusted him? After all, she had let them barely see beyond the painted smile.  She was a trickster,a professional liar. What was even worse, she had sold out crew members to a horrible enemy.
Lady Riddle sighed, trying to stop her circling thoughts. Abruptly, she got up, which caused Dabel to fall down. The creature meowed in protest and looked up to the human with an expression of insulted pride before stalking away. The former trickster didn’t even noticed and quickly grabbed a sheet of paper and began to write hastily, knowing exactly what to do about the strange situation.
When she was done, she looked at the words before her. The hardest part would be voicing them, but it was something the new captain deemed necessary before she could move on. Before the pirates could move on. She crumbled the sheet and tossed it away before returning on deck. She didn’t need the written words for what she was about to announce. The process of writing only had helped her finding an order for the things she wanted to say for a long time already. Maybe this was going to be the strangest of all speeches any captain had ever given. But the Black Fedora Pirates were no ordinary crew. Taking everything into account, strange things were the norm around here..

The captain’s cabin opened.and Lady Riddle stepped out. Leith, Angel, Sparky, Scratch, and Sarah were already waiting for her.
“You look exactly like someone who is about to challenge the whole world”, the rat demon remarked.
“Gather the whole crew. I want everybody on deck”, Lady Riddle ordered confidently.
“Who informs most, wins, ladies!”, Scratch laughed and he, Sparky and Sarah hurried away.
“You already sound like a real capitana, me Riddle”, Angel smiled.
“I try my best”, Lady Riddle answered laughing.
“With your permission, Captain, I’d like to witness the announcement”, Leith said. Neither Angel or Riddle asked him what made him think that there was going to be an announcement. There were not many things that required the entire crew’s attendance and right now, they were not under attack.
“Permission granted”, Lady Riddle answered, torn apart between laughter and annoyance. As the selkie went down the stairs to the main deck, she whispered to the seraph:
“I really need to get used to grant permissions to any profanity, don’t I?”
“You could always order them to stop asking for permission”, Angel whispered back and Lady Riddle jokingly rolled her eyes at the answer.
“Because that’d surely make things better”, she replied.
“It’s your only choice. You know they act weird because they want to show you their respect”, Angel answered. Lady Riddle knew her friend was right, but that didn’t make the situation less awkward. There was nothing wrong with respect, it was the change of behaviour that began to annoy. But maybe she could change that or at least prevent the worst excesses from happening.

The deck was filling with curious pirates and soon Scratch appeared next to Lady Riddle.
“Happy to report that we got them all, captain. Nobody escaped from us!”, he announced cheerfully, and did a satirical salute.
“Do that hand thing again I’ll make you walk the plank”, Lady Riddle teased.
“No, thank you, I already had my monthly bath yesterday”, the demon answered. The captain laughed.
“So, who won?”; Angel asked curiously.
“Me of course”, Scratch said, but two voices answered him promptly:
“Liar!” “You lost big time!”
“Oh, have a cookie!”, Scratch gave back and threw a cookie at Sparky, who snatched it out of the air.
“Me Capitana, I believe everyone’s ready for you”, Angel said with a soft smile, before she and Scratch left for the main deck as well. Lady Riddle straightened her posture, her hands resting on the railing before her and glanced over the gathered pirates. The hardest part was to find a beginning. Everything else was going to simply followed then. She took a deep breath and began: