Converted into Flesh

Deim had many things to offer, and information wasn't the first of them. He gave them sweet little date cakes and some yellow juice of a fruit that Serenica had never tasted before but instantly fell in love with. Deim himself was skinny, and it made absolutely no sense for him to have enough sweets to send a whole orphanage into a sugary euphoria. Serenica was rather good at making calculations like this. There was no way he was planning to eat all those cakes himself. He had been expecting visitors.

Spade saw her estimate the number of the cakes and poked her with a finger.

"Cut that stuff and say what you think. I can hear you think and I don't like that when I have no idea what you're going on about inside your head."

"You must have a lot of guests," she said to Deim.

The man turned around. When he turned back towards the pirates he was holding a human skull. It looked real.

"This used to be a guest of mine," he said expressionlessly and put the skull back on the shelf.

Serenica wanted to scream, but that would have been impolite.

"The ratio of what is actually converted into flesh on my body is very poor with human meat, also known in some regions as long pork," Deim said all of a sudden after a long and terrifying silence. "It's the reason I have stayed moderately fit. I don't eat any other meat. It wouldn't feel fair to the animals. My meals have always agreed to certain terms. If they break those terms, whoops, I'll have dinner."

That was way too much information for Serenica. She dipped a date cake in her glass of juice and tried hard to think about desserts such as that. She pushed away any and all thoughts of savory dishes.

"So, Theod," the captain said. "He's been bad."

"Oh. I know. He has no business coming here anymore. I'd prefer if he didn't. Redheads taste just as good as anyone else, but there's something about eating them that gets me some bad luck."

"Any idea about the whereabouts of his men?"

"You're not going to blackmail them into service, are you?"

"Do you think I'm some kind of a monster? I'll offer them better pay, less restrictive rules and a better captain. I bet they would gladly take me over living as bums in Aja."

"If you hurt them, you'll answer to me. They're in the Black Goat, probably playing cards and complaining about Theod."

"What exactly did he do to them?"

"Ask one of them to show you his scars… You'll get why they left him."

Spade made a funny face and Deim replied with an even funnier expression.

"Oh." The captain shook his head, looking unsettled. "Theod's even worse than I thought."

"What do you have for me?" Deim asked. "I suppose you don't want to give me that lass."

"No, we still need her, and she is too bony for you, isn't she? No, I have something better on my mind. Theod himself."

"Oh, mother of worms!" Deim let out a belly laugh, slamming the table, finally showing all of his sharp, perfect teeth. "You're good. You know that? You're too good. Bring him to me within two months and we'll be even. Forget what I said about redheads. I think Theod will be just delicious with rice."

"You know he wants you, right?" the bookkeeper asked her man as they were walking back towards the city. "One day you'll die, and he'll be there to collect his own. You keep asking him for favors, well, that's what it'll get you. It'll get you eaten. You will never have peace with those under the waves."

"Deim wants to eat him?" Serenica asked. "How come are they such good friends?"

"How can we not be, when he's an insufferable egoist and I'm a complete monster," Spade said. "I need something, darling. Something strong."

"I'll see what we can afford," Myorka said.

"Damn, I don't get you people." Serenica rolled her eyes. "Here we are, casually talking about graverobbing."

'It's not exactly graverobbing if the dead have never been buried," the captain said.

"So you don't want to sleep beneath the waves? Does the water belong to the dead or not?"

"If you could stop questioning my choices, I'd find us a place to rest our feet before we move towards the Goat. I don't give two damns about how you want to go and I think that's just polite."

"All right, all right, I'll shut up and let you doom yourself."

The sun was hot and it scorched Serenica's tongue no matter how much she kept it inside her mouth. It was a great time for a drink.

The Black Goat was some blocks away from the usual tourist attractions, but it did have plenty of class nonetheless. It was just the kind of place Serenica could see Spade frequenting. As pricey as it was, the options on the menu were satisfying and they sounded like they were full of fat and blood. Serenica had gathered that those two things were the captain's favorites. Judging by what was on his plate after some contemplation she was right about that.

She stuck with plain rum. It was beginning to taste way too good and she knew she should cut down a bit. Still, it was the pirate way of life. What use was gold if one had to save it all? What use was a liver if one drank only water?

"You need to stop meeting the Dreamer in your sleep," Spade said to Serenica as they were waiting for the mutineers to show up. "It is putting our mission in danger. If he decides to snitch..."

"And yet you let him see inside your own head," Serenica remarked.

"That was an accident. You do know there are talismans and such for that? For protecting your dreams?"

"Fine, then," Serenica said, but she still felt that strange yearning towards the Dreamer. "Once we have secured a good crew, I will go shopping."