"I said, do you want me to do something about it? "
He repeated, this time making her understand more.
"I can order someone to kill him or maybe we can capture him and force him to tell who you truly are." The last words sent shivers to her spine, absentmindedly she swallowed the lump in her throat in nervousness.
The sound of his voice seemed so malicious, and his words reminded him that if that unknown man would ever be captured she could finally learn who she really was, but at the same time he might confirm that she was indeed an enemy to them.
She felt conflicted.
" But why?"
She forced herself to answer and erase all the thoughts that left her sleepless. She stepped in closer to the man but far enough for him to actually reach and see the hesitations in her eyes.
"You're a crew member, you are one of my people. I would like to disclose such interrogatives about your past and finally know who you truly are. And besides as the pirate king I won't let anyone who harmed my crew live that long."
He smiled sweetly as if his words that he uttered were not threatening as it sounded. He said it as if it was an assurance, an everyday normal conversation.
" Y-you don't have to. I-I'm fine."
She stuttered her rejections., not wanting to cause any disapproval or sudden burst of anger from the man. " Th...thank you captain."
" No, I won't take that."
He abruptly responded, stepping closer to the woman who was now frozen in her feet.
She didn't do anything but wait for him to stride to her closeness. Their eyes locked with each other and although he could clearly see many emotions in her eyes just like how he always did, the emptiness was still visible behind it. It's like these emotions were just purely emitted from this new self she had, a self of no memories.
The emptiness that was fighting to be seen in her beautiful irises were the real eyes of the woman who she had forgotten, who she truly was. Her real self seemed to be more than what she was right now, the emptiness in her eyes sparked an interest in him.
He couldn't help but wonder.
" And besides that, I am curious about you."
He whispered dangerously close to her ear, their eyes still with each other.
She scanned those emerald eyes to search for something, malice, mischievousness, treachery, but she just saw vixen eyes swam by pure curiosity yet dangerous.
Axel reached out his right hand to touch her hair, slowly twirling it in his fingers and carefully tucking it in her ear. She let him do what he pleased, having no way to find any courage to actually back away like how she always did whenever Argus would touch her even with the belief that she was a man.
And clearly she couldn't do such actions when she had been captivated by his eyes, slowly luring her into the dark abyss. Axel noticed her in daze as he continued to capture her, his hands slowly caressed her cheeks as if trying to imprint something. Her now red cheeks completely warmed by his touch, his eyes traveling to the highest of his nose and to the cavern of her mouth, lips plumped with a gap almost seducing the man to do something.
" I didn't notice how beautiful you truly are."
He whispered to no one in particular.
His hands were still wandering in her hair through her delicate skin, almost taking advantage of the paralyzed and frozen stowaways knowing she had no will to move.
" You are still scared of me. "
He almost questioned, and she nodded truthfully, this time finally out of her daze and conscious of what was going on.
She wanted nothing but to walk out of him, but his touch just held her hostage. It didn't necessarily to be described as alluring and captivating; his touch was. His eyes were more the hostage taker than his hands, but the warmth of his hands in her skin made her feel something she didn't know
" I am." She whispered to him, her breath ghostly touching his lips.
His breath hitched as he watched how marvelous her beauty was; something un-telling, unfit for any verbal pass on stories, not fitting any folklore. Her beauty struck him down, and if by having been admiring her from afar made him stance with haze in his eyes; being able to look at her this close made it more harder for any man to function.
[ No wonder Calev stayed up close. ]
She was almost what an enchantress was. Completely sucking you in with her innocence and sweet face. You'd end up wanting nothing but to drown in her eyes and hope she would spare you a glance. That's what he felt when he drowned himself in between those galaxies of crescendo, homed in her hazel eyes.
" You don't have to be scared of me."
He rested his palm in her cheeks carefully, not wanting to harm any inch of her skin.
Momentarily, the warmth of his touch made her close her eyes, feeling the heat from his fingertips in contrast to the wind that slowly touched her hair and face. When she opened her eyes, she met the eyes of fascination, a smile of satisfaction from the man that gave her assurance. He looked delighted as he continued to admire her face, her doe eyes staring at his reaction intently.
Finally he stepped back and gave her space, and a chance to breathe.
To stop himself from going any further while he could still control himself.
She didn't even notice how she was holding her breath that long. Axel's smile stayed, looking at her with amazement as she struggled to hold her reactions and her red cheeks. Embarrassed at how she had acted in front of the man. The feeling of contentment in his face as he managed to put an affect on her made him forget that he held a different reputation to her eyes.
A scary captain and not a flirt.
" Captain, the wind is on our side. The ship will be fine anchored till evening, rowing 'em longboats will be safe with the current."
Felix suddenly called from the crows nest, his voice almost disappearing in the gushing sound of the wind, yet everyone in the deck was able to catch his words.
"Take out the canoes earlier than twilight, tell the men to secure the perimeter by sun down, savvy !"
The captain ordered, his voice made her jump in fright; too loud from where she was standing.
" Well row em boats boys, and scallywags in charge, well stay at the beach guarded for a while. At night we'll rendezvous."
" Aye, aye captain!" Everyone responded with the same volume.
Felix went down from the crow nest by swinging in one of the ropes that tied in the mast, landing perfectly to where their location is.
" Ahoy me proud beauty."
He greeted her with a genuine smile.
He looked at the captain and back to her, his eyes scanned the two as if daring a question yet he voiced out none. A snicker of laughter came out of his mouth in both disbelief and amusement.
" We are not leaving?"
She suddenly asked when she realized they had been anchored in the same spot behind the cliffs through the back of the island where the mountains kissed the strong waves.
A smaller island that is not quite far from the main island was visibly appearing. She walked closer to the lowboard of the aft, wanting a near sight of the rocky cliffs and mountains that were filled with greens. The mighty waves crashed to the rock not far and not near to them yet still equally visible for where the ship was.
" We have business."
Felix said simply, completely dismissing the whole question from her.
The captain did not say anything, although they did welcome her as their new crew, he highly doubted she was ready for any information of the crew. Felix knew this, and of course he knew his captain would not start his storytelling to the woman. The time was not yet made and she might be in the ship as a crew, but that was nowhere near to equip her with the truth.
It's not likely Axel was willing to share such details anyway, when even the crew was also lost in tales about it-at least half of it.
Good for them she pressed no intentions to know further, she was not interested at all. She was more interested in the formation of the island, her eyes traveled in the geography of the land and the waters that seemed to calm down whenever she looked at it.
And in the navigation room, the man who stood next to the glass window saw everything. How the captain caressed the woman in such delicate touches, how both of them fell into each other's eyes.
The hint of difference in his captain's build and presence, so different from what he usually presented and even different from what he knew as his friend. Years in the sea with him, he had seen him with countless women. He had witnessed how he treated them, not of course without respect.
Elijah knew Axel, despite being a pirate, he was not one to deliberately hurt a woman physically unless he was left with no choice. Especially if one was also a threat, an enemy. But Elijah believed that his friend was not that kind of person.
Women in Axel's hands were more of entertainment, a pass time, a place to relieve frustration in exchange of payment whenever they docked to islands. Island after island, he watched the captain get wenches on his own then leaving them in the next morning.
Of course no heart was broken considering the wenches he always had were all sex workers and they understood it's all business. No one has ever mistaken walking towards Axel's mattress unless they were a prostitute hired.
Bottomline was, Elijah was never foreign about his captain women but he was indeed foreign on how he acted in front of the stowaway.
Axel might never intend to hurt women, but he also never cared for them anyways.
Or touched them with delicate hands, caressed them with caution as if they were fragile and would break in his fingertips. Axel never looked at them with glint in his eyes, the way he looked at his treasures.
He had never seen such a sight of Axel touching a woman with such care and caution, but he saw that with her.
His mind pondered on many questions as he remembered the scenes he had witnessed. He sat in front of the desk, arms crossed in his chest as he thought too loudly. The image of them being too close bothered him, and yet he could not find out why. He felt like he needed to stop whatever it was but he was stuck on his feet when he saw how she reacted to his touch.
He was helpless with the scene, worried about the sudden actions of his captain.
First the combatant and now his captain, he couldn't help but wonder too many things. Yet he couldn't carry himself outside and stop it. He was only able to sighed out his heavy feelings when he saw Felix land on the deck after swinging down the crow nest.
To his liking, the two people stopped ogling with one another.
The sight could never leave his mind.
There was just something that came from her, even when she first came to the ship. There was something that was so strange and puzzling about her, something not knowledgeable.
This resulted in his paranoia and distrust towards her, unable to completely accept her even when he tried. He had seen how she could never be in any form of a threat and danger to the crew, yet the alluring mystery that was carried in every step she took, taken was his effort in ever letting her in or at least denouncing such paranoia.
And now as a woman, at long last she was able to be herself needless to be hiding away from a different persona.
Her mystical allure and undetermined mystery danced in the twirl of her dress, in the sway of her hips, the flow of her hair, each strand that moves with the beat and rhythm of the wind announces incredible enigma that was encased in a closed book.
And he didn't know if that was a genuine phenomena in the body of an unknown woman in the ship; the natural effect of feminine entity or was just a product of paranoia and fear of trusting people.
He could just not point it out, and as powerful a riddle she was he knew he was not the only one who thought of such things.
She was not hard to miss, hard not to observe. She lured people to learn about her.
Elijah clutched the small vial in his neck once again, as if he gained calmness over the magic object that Zeki gave him.
Everyone in the ship seemed to be drawn into her, this was not even about her femininity. Because even with the oblivious crew, unable to tell if she was a man or not, they were drawn in still.
With the thoughts that were racing in his head, he decided to step out of the room and approached her. The brightness of the sky blinded him for a second. There she stood next to Felix at the helm, while they talked with her like they were some good friends.
His eyes squinted harshly at the sight, the soft and gentle Elijah from the navigation room who bared his thoughts and paranoia to Axel earlier was no longer present as his facade of tough and rough quartermaster settled in.
He walked with harsh steps towards the two, his eyes glaring at the smiles from Felix's lips thinking about how this woman could successfully seduce everyone in the ship.
" You."
He declared his presence to those who were busy with their chit chats.
The two people both turned their heads to the owner of the voice, Felix smiling at the man while she lost her smile.
[ Still scared of me , I see. ]
Elijah whispered to himself, but shook those out of his thoughts so he could compose himself much better.
" You come with me, you have a new duty." He said curtly but authority laced in his voice.
She looked back at the navigator who only shrugged at him with a smile. The stowaway was unsure of what was heading, but obliged to the higher man instead. She politely bid goodbye to the blue haired navigator and left the deck.
Her footsteps fastened, trying to keep up with the man who disappeared right away to the hatches, which led to her new duty to the ship.
The galley was already empty when they arrived, the sight of soiled dishes and dirty counter almost made her shiver. She could feel what was coming by just looking at it and having to watch the quartermaster guide her to the place.
"You're expected to live on the ship, not as a freeloader so you will be incharge of the galley cleanliness."
That was what Elijah said and which she accepted with no questions.
She thought that she would love it if she had been stationed somewhere in the weather deck, where she can feel the wind and see the sky. However the quartermaster had put her in the galley, limiting her job to cleaning the dishes and assisting him in his cooking. When Elijah had called upon her for a new job for her, she had thought that maybe she was no longer stationed at the gundeck, and finally gone were the days she had been forced to do hard labor.
Her new duty was charged as guilty of exhausting her and tiring her to no ends.
Elijah had wasted no time in teaching her his basic rules in the kitchen, which she found herself agreeing to what she had named Elijah's code. The rules he had spoken made sense to her more than anything and she couldn't agree more. It consisted of what could be written by either your mother or a professional cook; or even someone with a germaphobia. Above all of it stood the emphasis of cleanliness and the significance of water and food; meaning you are not to waste any kind of food.
She could clearly see how Elijah had a huge respect and importance to what fed them, calling the food and water their source of life. Technically he was not wrong; at sea, where you sail for days, months, years, rations of food and water do help.
After all that orientation with Elijah, she was dismissed. She was given a particular schedule that she must follow,
Having been freed from the most tyrannical man in the ship, she walked into the sickbay.
There, a rather busy doctor was unable to greet her entrance but acknowledge her presence anyway. The room was awfully messy, rations of herbs, unknown plants and flowers, objects she could not recognize, with unopened boxes everywhere on the floor, the empty bed, just like how it looked when she woke up earlier.
[ In contrast to the quartermaster's silver rule of cleanliness, the sickbay is nothing but. ]
"Great, you're here." Zeki nonchalantly said all of a sudden.
The stowaway wasn't so sure what could be so great about her presence inside the sickbay. Or what could be in Zeki's mind, the lack of attention and zero effort to even look at her. All the while he was busy on his desk, surrounded by countless piles of notes and equipment he had been using. From time to time, he would write down something on his paper after observing what seemed to be a mixture of chemicals right in front of him.
Zeki took her presence as a blessing, the dirty and unorganized purchases he made from yesterday was catching upon him. He was previously scolded by the quartermaster about the untidy room. Seeing the clueless woman in the same room, sparked the idea that made her clean up the room, having to ask her to organize everything according to a categorization that he produced for her.
"All of it?" She meekly asked, hoping Zeki would spare her.
For the first time he averted his look and stared at her. He had a knowing look, as if telling her the obvious, nodding in the same manner. She couldn't but sigh it all out loud. Her eyes scanned the room, already feeling the tiredness of the labor she had escaped from the quartermaster, only to be given by the doctor.
Without wasting any more time, the unopened boxes were then moved, lifted, and carried to the stockroom. Situated far down the ship, almost close to the blige. There she helplessly carried the boxes. Although not minding the heaviness or the weight, the trip of repeated cycle made her tired.
Luckily, some of the men who were already at the cargo hold gave her a few hands. Considering how they were also busy from Elijah's commands, they couldn't help her any further than that. She wished he would run across with the combatant, she was likely sure he would help her. But she saw him, not.
He had been missing ever since that afternoon at the deck, and now that they had docked near the small beach hidden at the back of the island there had been no sign of him still.
Once, while she was looking at the small porthole in the sickbay while cleaning, she got the chance to have a glimpse that some of the crew had boarded the rowboats and started to disperse in the small sandy beach.
She noted how she saw Hakim and Argus at one boat, and in another boat a crew member with the captain himself and other men. They were too far from where she was to tell if Calev was there.
[ Is this the business Felix talked about earlier? ]
She wondered curiously.
She pressed no issue anyway, she didn't really find any time to wonder about it. She already had a lot of thinking by finishing the job that the doctor had given her. And not even once, Zeki stood up from his seat, took his eyes away from his experiments and helped her.
" I...uh, I just finished the task. Is it fine if-" She hesitantly spoke, trying to get the doctor's attention.
" Have a seat." Zeki instructed without even sparing a glance in her direction.
The stowaway nodded although she was unaware of the reasons. In a small seat, quietly she waited for the doctor's next words. Zeki's attention was on the medicines, it gave her the chance to examine his features more.
She remembered that Draco once told her that the doctor was terrifying. And based on how everyone acted and tried to get into his good side, it seemed that what Draco had said was true.
However she saw no ounce of evidence in his features that supported such accusations.
When in front of her was like a portrait of an angel.
There was no denying that Zeki looks absolutely nothing like a pirate. He looked more like a person in a higher status. Someone who was regarded as someone worthy of gold and jewels, rather than being a man who looted. However she remembered how easily he could shut anyone out with a snap of his fingers.
Maybe that could make him terrifying, but if its looks had become the basis of everything else; Zeki looked more beautiful than terrifying.
"I sense questions from you, this is the right chance for you to ask me."
Zeki said, still not giving her his gaze.
She swallowed hard, not expecting the man to actually acknowledge the curiosity. This could be the power of a sorcerer, knowing a lot without even pondering.
Zeki's vast knowledge and power was so impressive to her, that she thought that she could just ask him about her real identity.
" Do... Do you perhaps know who I am?" She took her chance.
Zeki was taken aback, turning his head into her direction to finally look at her. He saw the eagerness and hope in her hazel eyes, doe in its form and innocently waiting for his response. He sighed out loud knowing he will only disappoint the hope in her.
" I don't." He ended the question.
" Oh." The stowaway nodded, her hopes leaving herself in an instant.
She felt stupid thinking that Zeki, a sorcerer, might be able to tell right away. As powerful he might be, there could also be limitations to his powers-or maybe she just had no identity at all.
" I..." She breathed out, composing herself again. " Can you tell me more about the crew?"
" The crew?" Zeki asked, trying to get confirmation in her innocent eyes. She nodded, not thinking twice.
This could be the last chance she had on learning who these people are.
" Well, it depends on what you want to know." The stowaway pondered on the doctor's words.
Trying to weigh out every question that existed in her mind. She had a lot of questions about all of the things on the ship. The pirate king, the quartermaster, the combatant. The crew, the people, the ship, and the whole purpose of this band of thieves that sailed together.
The mysteries that had hung all over the big ship she took shelter on, she wanted to know all of it. The mystery in the entity of the combatant, he wanted to learn more about it.
Everyone in the ship shared the same enigma of unknown to her, every story that needed to be told. The ship boarded mysterious people and mysterious stories she wished to learn, but she sensed the careful approach of the doctor around her curiosity. As if choosing what questions that needed answering or not.
" Draco told me Calev is dangerous."
She finally picked the one thing that had been messing her mind.
To her, Calev had always been the kindest.
The one who had helped her, the one she could lean on-yet not only from Draco but from everybody else she heard the same warnings towards the combatant.
"He is kind." All of the times she had with him led to this conclusion.
"Of course he is." Zeki smiled, liking the fact that someone who didn't know Calev that much saw the kindness in him.
"Then why-"
"He is kind, but it is what is inside him that is not."
Zeki finally dropped his works, turning his whole body towards her and leaning in forward for the answers she wanted.
"Calev is a tormented soul. A demon lives inside him."
"D-demon." She gasped, her breathing getting uneven with the fear of hearing the things she was not expecting.
[ Demon? What does he mean by that?]
"We met him seven years ago, on a pirate island. Always on a killing spree, we thought he was just a person thirsty for bloodshed, only until he begged the captain to take him. Not even worrying if he will end up being killed by the future pirate king."
The words felt heavy to her, the image of Calev flashed in her mind.
Not imagining that the man who she considered someone her savior could be seen in that kind of description. Admittedly, she could see how Calev can be intimidating and she too was scared of him. However she had always seen more of how different he was, how different he was with her.
"He begged Axel to take him or kill him."
[ Kill him? The combatant? By Axel? ]
"However I saw something different from him, he was being tormented."
The stowaway listened intently but it was clear in her face that she was being affected by the story. Her hazel eyes started to flicker and Zeki was unsure what to get out of it, yet he continued.
"The demon inside him had corrupted him, taking control over his whole body even at how much effort he fought back-it was always winning. Until, he made a pact with us. Having to serve Axel while he tames that beast that chokes him."
[ Pact? ]
" Why?" Her voice cracks, unable to hide her reactions.
"The only thing I could do was to have them both in a taming spell. There was no way we could put down that demon, if we don't know what is the cause of its existence. Calev could not even remember why it existed, even half of his memories were taken by his own beast. It's strong and violent, as if it was venting, always in a rage." Zeki's voice became quieter, he remembered the exact day he met the man.
The image of the tormented friend made him feel sad, not liking the memory of it.
" I wish for it to perish, but there is nothing we can do. I can't do anything about it." He whispered, his voice almost breaking.
[ Calev? I didn't think he was in that situation. A demon, is that why everyone had been avoiding giving answers about him. How could someone that kind be tormented in that way? How did this happened? ]
"I never realize he is suffering." She said, looking down at the floor.
[ The mysteries that surround that man, I have always been wondering. But I didn't expect these revelations. He who's kind yet intimidating, the Calev that is caring as I came to know is someone who has darkness inside him. Is this something he wanted me to know, or was he trying to hide it from me? When all my secrets had been kept by his careful hands, I knew nothing about him. Was it alright to actually know all of these? ]
Zeki looked at her, not expecting such a reaction. He was expecting her to be scared, or even judge the combatant. Zeki was prepared to see the horrified look on her face, the confusion all over her eyes. However, all he saw was concern, the genuine look of worry for the combatant's well being.
"He is being tormented by what was tying him to his past. And sadly, no one knows what it is." Zeki said, feeling the failure all over his hands.
All the years he spent trying to save the combatant, he was still left at nothing but mysteries. However, for the first time he might have learned another thing.
He had always thought that whatever it was that he felt between her and Calev, the connection that he felt, the rage that was getting stronger in the beast at the sight of her. Zeki thought it was a dangerous premonition, something that was an enigma of a collusion.
But with the way she tried to hide the tears in her eyes, as she repeatedly told herself that the man he just described as a demon was a kind soul who was being punished–Zeki realized that she could be the answer to Calev's mysteries.
For the first time, Zeki saw their connection as a hope for his mate.