They gathered around a huge pot of tea in a tea house that largely sustained its existence on shady paw business and gambling.
They did also have some splendid tea blends, like this apple-flavored one. It had just the right amount of sourness.
Clink.
Wolfe looked at Roinar, seemingly annoyed by the way the witch chose to use his spoon.
Clink.
"I wish the monsters weren't so ridiculously big," Mariana sighed.
She took a sip of her tea.
"Me too," Roinar said, nodding.
Clink.
"It would be so much easier to just send them away if they were small and powerless," the captain continued.
Clink.
"I could step on them, like one would step on a black widow."
"Crunch," said the witch. "Problem solved.
Clink.
"Could you please stop before I break your arm and mix your tea with the broken bone?" Wolfe said, smiling in a way that suggested something like…
…Well, maybe his polite, calm and collected facade was only skin deep. Normal men on the high seas died before they had the chance to get all gray and old. Normal men were weak and unable to commit an atrocity like severing an arm for annoying clink-clinks.
Wolfe was not a normal man by any means, and he was just starting to show that sharp edge.
There was a reason why this seemingly sweet and agreeable individual was a privateer's first mate and not a baker in a small town.
"I will stop, I would very much like to live with my arms," Roinar said, but he didn't have any sheepishness in his voice.
Mariana was getting suspicious, though.
"Wolfe, is something wrong?" she asked. "Be honest."
"This uncertainty must be the worst form of double-dealing I have ever seen." Wolfe looked at her with a stormy expression.
"Excuse me?"
"Even a blind idiot could see that you're so in love with him that you don't have the guts to actually kill him," the first mate said with a terrifying calmness. "I don't like this deal; and the reason for that is your indecisiveness. You don't want to kill him. Except when you do."
"I am thrilled that you can read my mind," Mariana said coldly. "Maybe Roinar here can teach you more about witchcraft."
"Don't play stupid. It's clear that you are not." Wolfe shook his head. "I was willing to play along. Until now. Heavens know how many chances you had to kill him, yet you came back without any news of a victory."
"I -"
Mariana slammed both of her fists onto the table so that all the cups and spoons jingled.
"You DARE suggest that this is easy!"
Wolfe got up without saying another word.
He left the room.
The witch seemed to suffer from a bout of awkwardness. Granted, the situation was tense, and it had not become less tense with Wolfe's departure, but the clink-clink was a bit too much for Mariana.
She forgot it soon, though - it looked like Roinar had something he wanted to say.
"Speak your mind, witch," Captain Mariana said, rubbing her temples.
"He has lost too many men. You know what your sweet Daniel did to one of ours, Mariana?"
The man lowered his voice.
"He…"
And the following method of scalping in his horrible little story was so gruesome that if someone had asked Mariana to write the exact words and the description down somewhere, she would have refused out of a sense of decency.
She knew she couldn't go on like this. That man was heartless, and this was only accentuated by the fact that he was a thrilling man of action and an explorer. One did not get to be a pirate king without all the associated atrocities.
Mariana sighed.
She had to make the choice. It seemed like she had been living inside an impossible fantasy, somewhere between dreams and thoughts, in a place where it was possible to be two different women at once. She couldn't sit on the fence about Daniel. Either she wanted to love him forever and keep him by her side - or then she would destroy him, and along with him, destroy every last part of herself that was still clinging onto him.
She had to do one thing, she could not manage to be both women, the heartless and the…well, how did she even know which one was the evil one?
"You could easily get yourself someone who isn't actively trying to drive you insane, you know," Roinar said and shotgunned his tea like it had been hard liquor. "But then again, that is just my humble opinion."
Mariana was now alone.
"Ahoy, can I get something stronger, please? With the tea. Not into it," she said to the waitress.
"Well, why do you want the strong stuff if you're not into it?" The lady seemed a bit puzzled.
"Yes, very funny. I meant that I do not desire a drop of rum into my tea." Mariana felt her teeth starting to drive her jaws into a quite uncomfortable and tight position. Gods, she was saving her last nerve for something. She didn't know what that something was, but she was mainly concerned about getting over this disaster - she was simply so certain that there would be a new and exciting calamity waiting for her around every new corner.
"Oh," the waitress said. "I heard you talk."
"So did I." Mariana was feeling sour. Uncharacteristically so. She was not up for chit-chat and she wished that the waitress would just go away.
"I know you are being wooed by the king of pirates," the lady continued. "I happen to know where he is."
Mariana raised her eyebrows.
"If you don't mind, I would very much like to hear or see something that could act as proof…"
The waitress grinned. She had such sparkling white teeth that even looking at her made the captain feel a little bit uneasy. Otherwise, the lady was a sweet, bubbly woman in her early thirties and she wasn't obnoxious in a way that many waitresses were.
Mariana considered that her own judgment could be clouded. After all, the sermons she had just received had left her hungry for validation.