A Letter of Marque

There was one problem.

Or several problems.

In any case, Mariana had to find out how to escape her mother's home so that she would be free to attempt a daunting task.

She needed a letter of marque so that her pirate hunting activities would be completely acceptable on paper.

Perhaps she was a bit dainty, but at this point she had seen so many weird things that she didn't believe she'd have trouble because of her gender. There had been one case of a female privateer before. Granted, the lady had been exceptionally talented with a sword, but that didn't mean anything compared to the outstanding tactical mastery that Mariana possessed within her pretty head.

She intended to frighten Daniel into complete submission. As she slipped out of her window with nothing but a bag full of bread and clothes, she thought about what she was going to do to him.

Would she make him kneel? Would that be satisfying enough? To be worshiped as a divine thing, like she should have always been worshiped?

The street was still wet, and the splashes her feet made were a bit too loud for her liking. She didn't know if her mother was awake.

By gods, if she was, then Mariana would meet her doom. No mother wanted her daughter to become a privateer after giving up piracy.

Mariana smirked, but even as she tried to keep her mood jolly on the way to the Commoners' Office of Registration and Permits, she felt tears building up their salty stinginess once again.

She knocked on a door in the magnificently lukewarm house that served as the center of all mundane contract issues. There were so many people working here, and none of them had bothered to do anything about the dreadfully neutral color scheme of the place.

"Hm, come in, young lady."

The man was as forgettable as his occupation. There were honorifics attached to his name, but he did not care enough to remind her of them, and neither of the two people in the room made a fuss out of treating each other with any dignity or respect.

Mariana knew that there was always a spare permit, a letter of marque that had been forgotten, unsigned, into a box or into one of those envelopes full of other envelopes.

"Name, age, occupation," the dull man said, tapping a paper with his quill.

"Mariana Adams, twenty-four, unemployed, unmarried, no children."

"A spinster, then," the boring man said.

Mariana didn't know if she was supposed to be offended.

"A spinster, and what do you seek? Judging by those hands you surely don't need a hunting permit for big game? Or a tax reduction, if you are unemployed?"

"I need a letter of marque."

The man spit out a piece of chewing tobacco. It was pretty disgusting, but it was probably better for him to get it out than to choke on it.

Dead people couldn't sign anything. Not officially, at least, although Mariana had an inkling of the reasonably long and difficult processing of stealing the identities of the deceased.

"I'm not sure where they would treat people for delirium," the boring man finally said. "But I think that a temple would take you in, you just need to ask nicely and they'll give you something for the…the insanity symptoms."

Mariana sighed. She wasn't in the mood to start lying about her intentions.

She rolled up her sleeve, showing off the bracelet that was an exact copy of the cursed one she had given to Daniel. It was by no means a beautiful item, but someone had carved a decently shaped X into the unknown metal.

X marked the spot, right?

But this wasn't just about that. It was a sign that only pirates had been allowed to wear, and it was done in a specific art style, signifying that it had been done before the cultural shift to more toxic methods of displaying piratical status, like tattooing. It was something that was quite widely known. The dull man looked like he listened to those stupid stories about pirates and great adventures. He would surely recognize the one legend that was actually true.

She had never told anyone where she had been all those years.

Well, except for her dear parents, who were strangely calm about the whole thing. Her mother had grumbled something about her own place in the world, to which her father had somehow passively retaliated and this in turn had caused everyone to give each other the silent treatment for weeks.

Then there had been this whole business with her big sister and that illness that seemed to take a new form as it was inherited by one daughter after another, but at the time of her return, Mariana had thought that the case of Sanna had been under control.

This made for quite a decent sob story, but Mariana still needed the gold. Otherwise, the dull man would have bought everything about her strange tale.

"Piracy! What a thought," he muttered. "And you say you have one thousand gold coins in your savings?"

"A bit less than that."

"And I can rely on you to come back later and pay us?"

"Absolutely," Mariana lied.

She wasn't sure about that, no.

"So, sign here, and go hunt that bastard down, young lady! Be prepared to slap him for me, send my regards…with a hand or a sword. Nice to be a part of someone's big adventure."

She signed the papers and pressed her precious letter close to her chest, thanking the boring man with a smile. He lived through others. She was only now starting to live through herself, but the version of the pirate king that lived in her memories needed to be washed out with Daniel's blood.

It was still raining when Mariana walked towards the harbor district. Red and blue tapestries were hanging from the balconies of rich families. The Festival was about to start properly today, with most of the major events happening tonight.

It was a great way to begin anew.