Anxious to help, Bastian ran towards the rooms of the women with his flintlock pistol out. He was prepared to shoot anyone who made the girls scream, but right now he just didn't know what to expect at all. A man treating someone badly? A seizure caused by binge drinking? Whatever it was, it sounded bad, since Bastian already knew that the girls of the night were not likely to be squeamish.
Then the first room on the right side of the corridor let out a sound of furniture falling.
Bastian pulled the handle of the door rather violently. On the second try, the poorly constructed lock gave way for him to push his body, gun first, into the room.
A man was screaming in the middle of the floor, lying face down naked, with something pale blue and bright spilling from his ears, along with dark red blood.
The horrified lady covering her body with a blanket was huddled in the corner, eyes wide.
"He was alright just a moment ago!" she shouted. "I didn't do anything to him! He is having a seizure!"
Bastian froze for a split second. Then he connected the dots and erased the doubt from his mind.
This was Gorgo's doing. The naked man on the floor was a friend of the old Captain Bastian Black, someone who might have assisted him concerning the voyage he was about to go on. The man was called Umber, and he was one of the few pirates with disposable income who favored a newcomer like Bastian.
While Bastian had by no means expected anyone except for his ladies to help him, it felt rough and bad to see how the last allies he had were struck down.
He went to check out Umber's condition, helping the madame flip the man over so that they could see if he was even conscious at all.
The pale blue light faded and at the same moment, the light of life faded from Umber's eyes.
He looked more handsome in death than many ever looked while alive. Bald, strong and tattooed, he passed away with a wistful look in his eyes.
"I am not going to work tonight," the brunette who had been entertaining Umber said. "The death policy allows us to take a few days off when a man literally dies in one of these rooms."
She slipped downstairs, with her beautiful, curvy body still bare, apparently intending to fetch some clothes – and a sip of rum, judging by how stressed she looked.
"Bastian is free to come for me if he has something other than black magic for me!" she hollered on the way down.
Bastian shrugged.
Then he saw that Umber had a tattoo on his wrist that looked awfully similar to the one Gorgo had on his arm.
Bastian frowned.
Apparently there was a lot of foul play involved in this little game.
He decided to run after the naked woman, leaving the madame to deal with the situation upstairs. The pirate women followed him.
He caught up with her as she was putting on a ridiculously luxurious purple dress.
"Don't you fear what might happen if you stay here?" he asked.
She shook her head, smiling wistfully. "All I care about is that I am fed, happy, and doing something I find rewarding."
He shrugged. "Don't you think that you could accomplish the same with less effort?"
She narrowed her eyes. "What exactly do you have on your mind?"
"Come on my ship," he said. "Whatever Umber gave you will pale in comparison to what I have to offer for you."
She didn't seem convinced just yet.
"You will be working in an all-women team, with plenty of spare time, and profits that will make your current pay seem like fake money."
"But you cannot guarantee that I get paid at all. Piracy doesn't exactly come with a minimum wage."
"They teach those words to the girls of the night these days…" Bastian whistled. "What if I indulged your tendency to use difficult phrases?"
"As in…?"
"I can read," Bastian whispered to her. "I can read that wage list on the table. It says that the madame deducted ten percents of your wage last week because you were a bit tipsy. I am literate as hell. Believe me, you will be treated as a capable individual with agency on my ship. Come…I can buy you books."
So, this was it. This was the one thing that made her tick. What a lucky man Bastian had become! He could actually charm a woman doing what he loved the most! He was so incredibly happy that he wanted to kiss her on her painted purple lips even though her choice of color was atrocious.
"Books. Hmm. I assume you are going to let me handle the bookkeeping of the ship and let me save us money. Letting me be in control of the finances."
"All the finances," Bastian agreed.
"Do I give my name now or should I just kiss you?"
"Anything goes," Bastian said, reached out towards her smooth, silky hair to pull her head closer to his lips.
"Lia," she breathed. "The name is Lia. And I love me a man who can read."
She sure did, judging by the way she devoured his mouth. The moment was over much quicker than they would have liked as the rest of the team was coming back down, looking shaken by the whole black magic ordeal.
The tattoo…Bastian would have to remember that one. It was a triangle with a dotted circle inside. He had to look for this symbol everywhere so that he might possibly save them from another psychic attack like this.
Captain Gorgo had some power over this symbol. That much was clear. He could kill a person without even being in the same room. That didn't sound too good, but Bastian was not going to spend the rest of his life fearing spooky stuff.
No, he was not going to fear his brother forever.
Then he made his new mental notes about Lia.
Name: Lia
Traits: bookish, practical, likes to read, very horny, very open-minded, individualistic, independent, unafraid of men but doesn't like black magic at all
They exited the building before the madame could realize that another asset of hers had just left her, laughing about how the woman had thought she could cheat her girls out of money if they didn't have access to the documents.
It was already sunset. The sky flashed with orange and purple. The oddly shaped houses were like a string of pearls against the most stunning sight of all – the bellowing ocean in the north, the warm, blue abyss that called for all men and some women, too.