Moonlighting as a Pirate Hostess

The waitress ended her shift and changed into a more leisurely dress. Mariana didn't see any reason for this. The woman had such a pretty working skirt, but then again, if she was moonlighting as a pirate hostess, it did make sense to avoid connecting her two identities.

"Stay clear of those," the lady said as they passed a group of homeless men.

Mariana raised her eyebrows. She was not one to shy away from these matters, but she knew better than to doubt the locals.

"Where are we going?" she asked once they had lost a fellow who tried to beg for money.

A few unexpected left turns had been all they needed to shake off the poor man.

"We're going to go gambling," the waitress said. "There aren't that many places where you can lose all your money and have no one nag about it."

"Mh. I don't want to gamble right now."

"A-ha, but you like him. And you like having your palm read? Yes?'

Captain Mariana nodded.

"And you want to hear about your future? Love divination, cartomancy, crystal balls?"

"Aye," Mariana said, faking enthusiasm.

To be completely honest, she did not actually believe that the waitress had found Daniel, although there could be something else in the gambling den that was of some interest to her.

She followed the waitress into a building that had a large cellar, transformed into several little rooms. It was actually more like a dungeon, which was pretty neat. There were obscure Raelian Deco paintings on the walls. The light was dim, as one would have expected it to be in a cave like this one.

The waitress pulled a thick black curtain aside, revealing a makeshift tent of a fortune teller.

The woman was younger than most divinators. It was the profession of dry-looking old women and men like Roinar. Mariana really had some trouble attaching the face to the profession, but then the sappy image of the fresh-faced lady dissipated as the fortune teller raised a finger with dark stains and motioned for her next potential customers to come hither.

"I'm not -"

Mariana's words were cut short when the waitress slapped a hand on the captain's mouth. Mariana's first instinct was to wrestle the insolent woman into submission, but she was able to control herself. With a massive, theatrical sigh, she sat down and slammed a coin onto the table.

Crystals jingled, the red candles dripped their wax on the table. A small fire threatened the tablecloth; the fortune teller poured some water on it and lit a stick of incense that would probably end up being the start of another fire.

"What do you want to hear, honey?" the fortune teller asked.

Mariana hated this woman for using that word. She also kind of loved the lady for having the exact same rosy perfume in her hair that Mariana had been searching on almost all continents.

Rose, northern vanilla, cedarwood, and a note that she could not recognize to save her life, something that made the recipe of the perfume impossible to replicate in the exact same form. Some truly exceptional women had access to a bottle, it was rumored that a courtesan in Sennas had two of them, but the pirate queen has not found a single vial of it, not even during her active pirating years.

"First thing I'm going to ask is if you're willing to sell me that perfume," Mariana said.

"In your dreams, honey, next question."

"All right. I will give you my hand now; tell me whatever feels worth mentioning."

The fortune teller snatched her palm like some crazy hand-stealing monster.

"Interesting…" The woman mumbled something unintelligible. She was examining the lines and mounds on Mariana's palm.

Interesting. That was the exact same thing that every last fortune teller said. It was never interesting. How could two palms be so different that a person could say, hmm, oh yes, this is an exceptional Luminus Mound and it tells me a lot about your past as a -

"A man is grieving for you in Neul," the fortune teller said. "He's engaged to you and he also wants his expensive table back. You didn't think about his feelings when you left him, at all, you didn't care, but it would be unwise of you to return there. He may be dangerous to you if you do go to Neul."

Mariana noticed that her jaw had been hanging open for the duration of this clairvoyant little speech. She shut her mouth.

"Don't worry," the fortune teller said. "It is the same every time. The faces I have seen…"

"Tell me about the future, please," Mariana said. "You told me what is happening in the present moment. Yes, I do appreciate that. But I want to hear about the future."

"I see three different paths for you…"

Three? Mariana had convinced herself that there were only two options.

"You give yourself to him totally, or you destroy him, I mean the pirate king right now, or…"

The dramatic pause indicated that the fortune teller saw the following choice as the best one.

"Or you alternate between loving and hating him, until the end of days, until the sky stops turning above you and even the sun and the moon stop playing their game of cat and mouse. If you have the emotional fortitude for it, you could live forever, chasing the tail of foam left behind by ship and pretending that you only do it because of your hatred towards him. You will surely find that you'll be doubted by many, and some of the doubters may be your own -"

"I will pay them," Mariana said, instantly feeling a lot more cheerful. "I can give them so much gold that they forget to ask questions about our goal. I will chase such obscenely valuable loot on the side that I can bribe my men to pretend that we are definitely chasing him in order to kill him. That should satisfy Wolfe as well."

The fortune teller raised her eyebrows. "Are you done with your monologue, or do you want to tip me?"

Mariana groaned and spent her last coins on the divination stuff.

Then they got up to search for Daniel in the other parts of this excitingly strange dungeon.