Border Crossing

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"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

Blackbeard hadn't been expecting those words either. He was staring at Sharyn now. "If I set you free... it's to a place I can't go, you know that, don't yer lass?"

Vivien hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head. "I understand, there is no one left to miss me anyway." She assured the elf.

"I do not think you truly care. You have plenty of other women to replace me. I will watch over you and you will not miss me." Sharyn whispered.

Yena didn't hesitate. She stabbed the young woman. In the heart with the letter opener she'd found in the hall.

"You know everything, don't you?" Blackbeard replied rather bitterly. "Why should I bother telling you any different, when you apparently already know what I'm going to do?" He added, waving a hand at the door to signal an end to the discussion.

"Viv really thought she was the one?" Auron was leaning lazily in the door, watching Yena where she stood over the dying handmaid with a bloodied weapon in her hand.

"I am taking the boy." Sharyn said, walking past him. "Goodbye, Jack." The boat was rocking gently, her mood taking a sad turn. 

Yena paused, her fingers shaking. She'd been about to take herself to the Black city. "She said...if she wasnt...stop...I have to follow her...he is waiting for me..." she said softly.

"Takin' him where? To die with your people?" Blackbeard challenged. "Even if he somehow survives in your matriarchal world, you really think he will just forget the girl?"

"What does he have on you?" Auron asked, though he was making no move to take the letter opener from Yena. "Why are you so willing to do serve a king who isn't even here?"

"You are going to kill the girl. Soon it will not matter. It is safest if he is not around to see who hee murderer is. Don't you think?"

"He has my heart. Both of them." Yena confessed. "I have no choice."

"The girl could already be dead, judging from the wound one of my men inflicted." Blackbeard shrugged. "You really think you have it in you to console the boy?"

"Trust me, you don't need a heart to live." Auron replied rather somberly.

"The boy still cares for me. Otherwise he would not have fought so hard to get to my cage.  That should make it easier." Sharyn said not looking at him. 

"I don't want to live. I want to be with my mate." Yena said, taking the dagger and turning it toward her chest. "You don't understand."

Blackbeard just nodded. "Then take him, before he regains consciousness." He wasn't looking at Sharyn either, knowing he would beg her to stay if he did.

"And you honestly believe your mate is even still alive?" Auron snorted. "The King doesn't like loose ends. He probably killed the poor sap the second you returned here and put the heart in a jar somewhere."

Sharyn paused again, as if waiting for Blackbeard to say something. When he didn't, she went on, the boat beginning to rock wildly. The crew was protesting. At least until they saw her. When she arrived on deck everything went still. "Give me the boy." She demanded.

"No..." Yena knew his words were true. The moment she'd woken up she'd felt that something was missing. She felt empty. She should have known. The letter opener fell out of her hand and clattered onto the floor.

Blackbeard was behind Sharyn and nodded at his first mate. "Let her take him, seems she thinks she knows everything anyway."

Auron was watching Yena. he knew the feeling because Kane had done the same thing to him. "You were naive, and it cost you, Mouse." He warned her simply.

The firstmate shook his head ever so slightly. It was the first time he'd even disagreed with his Captain. "She'll kill the lad." He said softly. "He may be a half breed but he wont..."
"I can care for my child." Sharyn snapped. "Get out of my way human!"
"I will not!" The dark skinned man said firmly.

"Shut up!" Yena howled, her grief a very real thing. It had happened again. She gotten him back only to lose him. The bad part was she couldn't even express her rage and kill the one who had done this. She couldn't even destroy everything he cared about. She could do nothing but stand there in her pitiful elven form. She was weak and worthless. A mouse.

"And what if the boy don't even want to go?" Blackbeard asked his former lover calmly. "Maybe he's old enough to make the decision himself?" Even as he said the words, the pirate knew his son wouldn't chose a stranger, mother or no, over the woman even Sharyn had claimed was his destiny.

"Shut up? That's it?" Auron scoffed, clearly mocking Yena in her grief. "That's your revenge? Shut up?" He laughed even more now. "Get angry! Attack me, do something more than stand there and be a mouse!"

"I don't care how old he is." Sharyn said, stepping past the man who was now gasping for air. Water was pouring out of his eyes and ears and even his mouth. She didn't seem to notice. "I will protect him from the death of this world, just as I did you."

Yena's fingers still shook as she bent and reached for the letter opener. Killing the fool with magic was one thing but a well placed blade was another.

Blackbeard made no move to help his first mate. He knew it was pointless. "And then what? He will die in your world, and you know it. You can't force him there on the half a chance he might survive!"

"You think you have it in you?" Auron challenged when he saw Yena pick up the letter opener. "Do it, if you think you can." He added, offering her the chance to take him on.

"I will manage." The fire headed woman said darkly. Behind her the first mate dropped dead on the deck. The rest of the crew scattered. "You are more interested in the girl anyway."

Yena's eyes flamed and she turned on him, baring her teeth. "I should send you to your king. You are already a demon. Serve him like the beast you are!" She shouted.

"That's what this is about, you think I want the little thief who stole the crown from me?" Blackbeard sneered as the rest of his men scattered.

"You should do a lot of things, Mouse, but killing me wont be one of them. You just don't have it in you." Auron replied confidently.

Sharyn nodded. "I know you do. So much so that you spilled you own child's blood for it. Have her. I only want what you have stolen from me." She paused in front of Alice and knelt, "You were planning to leave him anyway. This is for the best."

Yena continued to stand where she was, the hole in her chest growing bigger by the moment. She'd given the bastard king a gift and he'd taken everything from her. He was a monster. "Leave me alone." She finally managed to whisper, the blade slipping from her fingers a second time.

Alice's eyes were heavy, but she thought she heard the musical sound of someone's voice speaking to her. The young woman opened her eyes only a fraction and was greeted with a blurry and too bright image of someone's face. All she could do was simply murmur Garrik's name.

"No chance, mouse." Auron breathed, suddenly beside Yena and picking her up. "The king will be busy with the hand maid, for now, but he will send for you before you know it if it's the wrong girl."

"Never speak that name again. He does not belong to you. Any of you. He is mine." Sharyn hissed, grabbing Alice by the chin and giving her head a hard shake. "I can protect him. You will only break him. I spoke to your mother she told me how you like to break your toys." 

"Put me down, you over grown beast!" Yena shouted, twisting to pound on his chest. "You don't touch me ever! This is your fault!" She, of course, knew it wasn't but that wasn't the point. She needed someone to blame. She needed someone to hurt as much as she did.

Alice had lost a lot of blood and was still in a lot of pain, leaving her wondering if she was even hearing any of this at all. "My... my mother... is dead." She wheezed, believing what her father had told her ever since she had been young.

Auron simply allowed Yena to pound away at his massive chest as he walked. It didn't bother him, and he knew she needed it. "Sure it is, mouse. I killed your boyfriend. I cut out your heart. I forced you to open a portal to the Black City."

"Or perhaps your mother hates you." Sharyn said darkly. "The only one that ever loved you was that nasty little bother of yours. You cannot destroy what is mine. Not anymore."

"You did!" Yena howled. "You did it all! I hate you! You put me down!"

The full force of those words struck Alice like a mace. She was supposed to be the brave and strong pirate Queen, a woman who was feared simply by reputation, yet this stranger had reduced her to a sobbing, frightened little girl with very little effort.

"Make me." Auron taunted. "Fight back and make me suffer for what I did. That is... if you can." He replied with a devilish grin.

"Your mother is weak and broken like you. You must understand why I will not leave the boy in your hands." She snapped her fingers and two water nymphs appeared,  lifting Garrik up and carrying him to the deck.

"Leave me be!" Yena howled. No one even looked their way. They were used to the giant carrying women down the hall. She would get no help from anyone.

Despite her life threatening injury, Alice tried to stand. Blood was dripping through her fingers as she struggled to her feet. Garrik was the only person in her life to have never given up on her, she'd die before letting him slip away. "My mother. Is dead." She spat from clenched and bloodied teeth.

Auron was smiling when he too realised no one even cared. "Looks like youre going to be my latest conquest, little mouse." He chuckled, referring to the gossip that would no doubt have already started.

Sharyn threw back her head and laughed. "Yes. Let's believe the lies they tell you, child. It's no wonder Kane is so hot for you. You'll fall right at his feet like a good little fool. Even BlackBeard knows what became of your mother."

"These people are no better than you are." Yena muttered, finally realizingshe was doomed. "They're monsters."

Alice kept her fingers pressed to the wound between her ribs, but it was no longer helping. She simply couldn't entertain the thought that her mother was alive, because if she was... It meant even she had simply walked away from her daughter. "Why should I believe a bitter old hag like you?" She spat.

Auron's usually wolfish grin was somewhat sad now when Yena said this. "And you are no different that the rest of them either; you see what you want to." He breathed, balancing Yena easily in one arm as he opened the door to his own quarters and deposited her inside. "I had one of the women fill the tub for you. You can wash away the blood from the murder you so easily committed, monster."

"Believe or don't it's no concern of mine." Sharyn purred. "Good luck getting Jack back to the elf. Without Garrik there's no way he'll even entertain the idea." She passed the bearded man and patted him on the stomach. "She's all yours, my darling." 

Yena cringed as his words hit home. He was right. She had no right calling anyone a monster when she was the biggest one of them all. She couldn't even look at herself in the mirror anymore.

"And you say I'm the selfish one?" Blackbeard sneered, refusing to even look at Sharyn now. "Just go, creature. Enjoy the time with your son while you can, 'cause he sure ain't gonna forgive you for this."

"You came here thinking you knew everything." Auron warned. "You know less than nothing, monster. There is more at stake here than your pathetic broken heart."

"I'm his mother. I'm not supposed to care if he forgives me." Sharyn said evenly. Her legs began to turn a soft shade of green. "I am saving him from torture and hell simply because he fell for the absolute worst female ever. I am fixing this, like I do everything."

"Like what? Slaves for the king in his new Underworld." Yena said darkly. "What's so bad about that? I am making him happy. Isn't that the idea?" She began to shed her clothing as she head!ed toward the warm tub of water in the center of room.