Chapter 14: Auria

[—Captain Steele]

He could feel the trepidation coursing through her body soon as the words left his mouth. Eyes wide, staring at him with a blanched face, pale as a ghost, before she stumbled backward out from his line of sight.

She's been very difficult to him since he locked her up in his quarters, but he deemed it would be the best of her to stay out of his crewmen's sight to avoid further unwanted circumstances. Such resulted in actions of him shooting two of his abled men just to set an example for the rest.

Captain Steele found them creeping outside his quarters, intending to harm the lady. She was unconscious back then, wrapped only with a blanket and nothing underneath. It could have been worst, and a mutiny would've risen if he hadn't killed the two.

A lady on a ship isn't going to get them any good, and out of his two hundred crewmen, half of them wanted to lavish her body and, when all of them are done, throw her overboard.

His first mate Lynx also believed that and told him to give what the crews wanted and be done with it. The lady holds no worth to them and considers what her father had done.

However, the very thought of it unsettles him with peculiarity. The image of another man touching her fair pearly skin like a newborn makes him want to let loose and murder everyone on sight. Though he could not have those thoughts when they had planned ahead of them.

All he could do for now was take everything under his control.

She was the payment, her fine piece of necklace would give them any fortune, but the price they wanted was life for a life.

She'll make a fair price that would suffice them for years. He has already sent word to the admiral that he has his daughter, demanding her ransom. Though, he could not risk giving out their location. He wants it to be a wild goose chase. To make that piece of bastard suffer for what it feels like to lose someone he deeply treasured.

But right now, there is something she needs from her.

"Why do you need my blood?" Her meek voice quivered behind him. Captain Steele looks at her, holding the wooden pole as though it is the only thing that keeps her up straight.

He had scared the lassie half to death, and the way her throat bobbed up and down tells him that it was only a matter of seconds before she'll bolt her feet and run for her life. Though, that would be a futile attempt. He'll have her back before she could even take a hundred paces away.

"I already agreed upon your request," he muttered, recalling her ludicrous appeal of feeding every stray child begging along the mucky road. "Now, you do not ask questions about what use you could be to me."

At first, he thought she had gone mad, losing the knots on her brain from all the jolting she experienced while they were on the ship, but the determination glistening in her eyes tells him even something more. Something more profound stirred him underneath.

"But you said you will not have me dead."

"Nay," Captain Steele sighs sharply in exasperation. "I said your life depends on how you will behave."

After he had said that, he captured her hand and dragged her inside the tent without bothering to announce his arrival, nor care that the little woman behind him struggled on her feet, aside from the startled yelp that escaped her mouth.

"Well, well. Good to see you again, captain."

A middle-aged woman suddenly appeared through the line of hanging flimsy red fabric partitions and into their sight. She wore a black see-through veil covering half her countenance, though it did not hinder seeing her entire visage. Dark kohl framing around her eyes, bringing out her striking ominous pair of red hues, black hair coiled on top of her head and pinned with a golden combed. Metal piercing glinting on her left eyebrow.

She almost wasn't wearing anything, save for the flimsy fabric fringed with jingle coins sewn around the edges, twisting around her trim body, hugging each curve, flaunting her beautiful shade of golden brown skin.

A witch he had known for a very long time and befriended with. They have been in fair benefits to one another, in both carnal needs and some other valuable things which they could earn.

"Aye, to you too, Auria." Captain Steele tipped his head slightly, returning the greeting as Auria glided barefooted in front of him. The fabric around her body swirled into the air as though they were alive on their own, echoing into their successive jingling.

She lifted her hand, reaching to his face, grazing her fingers seductively into the rigid contours of his visage until her attention went to the scared little woman behind him.

"Oh, what does a fine lass doing here with you?" She griped, completely shifting her attention to his coerced companion.

The captain looks at both of them interestingly. They almost have the same height, though Auria is quite a bit taller than the lassie. He also noticed how the lassie's body trembled, her breath ragged, and the rapid beating of her heart. Though he only ignored her.

"I have come what you seek of me," he promptly said without any prelude, wanting this thing done sooner as possible. Then so, they could set sail.

"A highborn," Auria asserted slowly, unhurriedly taking the lassie's hair into her thin fingers and twirling as she continued. "A lady of nobility. You dressed her like a peasant, but her beauty scarcely made up for her façade."

The witch's lips pressed tightly behind the veil, releasing lassie's hair as her attention turned to him again, and she held up her hand. "The map."

Captain Steele didn't waste any more time and pulled out a large piece of a parchment paper folded into four haves from his waistband and gave it to Auria's waiting hand. The woman immediately pushed the hanging fabric into the side, revealing a dark red tapestry draping as a wall around the tent. Different kinds of trinkets littered around the long table at the center, baubles and jars filled with colored liquids. One could only decipher what contents they might be.

Auria set aside her strange possessions to the side and laid the man flat on the table. Carefully peel the parchment paper into its full size.

The captain watches her intently. Each movement as she turns around, retrieving a silver cup and a black candle perched on a human's skull. He could even hear the lassie's sharp intake of fearful breath, but he did nothing to ease her dread and focus on what the witch was doing.

She put the candle right next to the map and the silver cup, then pulled out a small dagger under the table, snapping her attention towards the scared woman behind him.

"Bring her to me," Auria sternly instructed.

Captain Steele said nothing and obliged with her words.

"No…" The lass breath out, backing away from him.

"No! You can't hurt me!" She screamed, turned around, and was about to run away. But the captain was quick on his head and captured her before she could take a step.

"No!" She writhed and trashed against his grip, struggling as she pounced her feeble fist aimed at his face. "Let go of me! You sick bastard!"

Auria suddenly came to his side, holding a black cloth, and then covered the lassie's nose. "It would help her calm."

"No! No…No…you'll pay for this-"

Captain Steele watches the woman in his arms slowly become limp, drifting into unconsciousness while her words fade into a whisper. He lifted her off the ground and steered his way around the table into the side where Auria had laid the silver cup. The witch holds the dagger into her face, muttering against the blade before she glides it into the candle's flame.

Afterward, she turned to him and took the lassie's hand, flipping her wrist right above the silver cup. Then she drives the blade into her flesh, slicing through her wrist, immediately drawing out an abundant amount of blood spurting out of the wound.

The captain stared at the cup slowly filled with blood and then shifted his gaze to the woman in his arms, soundlessly unconscious, looking like a corpse.

"This won't kill her, right?"

Auria spared her a glance through the veil of her thick lashes without lifting a head. Her red eyes glinted from the candle's light.

"Does the lady concern you now, captain?"

"I have future uses for her."

"This might render her weak, but it'll not kill her." She subtly tipped the wrist to the side just as the blood continued to flow into the cup, filling it half-full before she decided she had enough of it.

"What you seek, captain is a forbidden treasure," Auria said warily, taking another black cloth and wrapping it around the lassie's wrist, stopping the wound from bleeding any further. "Many have tried, but none have succeeded."

The captain knows exactly what she meant, but Lynx and he had already decided to pursue this journey long before. He wanted to continue his father's legacy.

To find it.

"I know. That is why you're here," he replied grimly and met the witch's gaze.

"Yes, but only I can show you where it is through her blood."

"Then, it will be enough." He nodded his head, taking a step back, telling Auria to begin with the ritual.

Without saying anything else, a long eerie silence had befallen inside the tent. The noise coming from the outside suddenly faded, and Auria's mouth began to move in soundless incantation, blowing into the cup before she lifted it above her head, her eyes closed, and the candle's flames flickered.

The ritual lasted for a moment, and it is concluded as a sudden gist of wind blew the candle out. Auria opened her eyes, yet her mouth continued to move as she poured a drop of blood into the map. Captain Steele watches the small glob of crimson against the parchment paper. Fascinated as it started to move along the names of places, leaving trails and marks until it was on a specific location, marking it with an X.

The treasure. That's where his father's treasure had been hidden.

In the black serpent sea.

Both Auria and he stared at the map with utter bewilderment. They know it will take the impossible to reach such a dangerous place.

However, the trance suddenly broke when the silver cup began to boil, and black smoke rose from it in sizzles.

"Her blood." Auria gasps in befuddlement. Utterly perplexed as to what is happening with the lassie's blood.

"What is it?" Even the captain share's her puzzled sentiments.

"I don't understand," she stammered, immediately dropping the cup as though it burned her hands and rambling about the lassie's identity. "Who is she? What is her name?"

Still wrapped up in puzzlement, Captain Steele nonetheless answered her frazzled inquiry.

"Lady Vereena Braxton of House MacGhille."

"She's the daughter of the Lord Admiral," Auria mumbled, recognizing all to well the name, staggering backward as she met the captain's confused stare.

"Oh captain, you are in big trouble."