The Witch

by V. A. Lewis

  "We disrupt their business. Hit key locations to cut off their supply or drugs. Especially the enuim. That will ruin them for quite a bit and get their allies to leave them."

  "The enuim." Gennady furrowed his brows. "They sell it?"

  "Yes," Jack answered the Dwarf almost begrudgingly. "They don’t just sell it— that’s their main product which they’ve gotten every other person in the city addicted to in less than a year."

  "That’s… terrible."

  I eyed the look on everyone’s faces, then slowly raised a hand.

  "What’s this ‘enuim’?" I asked.

  Ginah faced me, and cocked a brow. "You don’t even know what that is? Are you actually a little girl and not a Goblin or something?"

  I ignored that comment, and looked at Gennady as he tried to explain.

  "The enuim is a terrible drug that doesn’t just get you addicted to it, it also makes anyone on it more… amenable. If you get someone high on the enuim before trying to get them to sign a deal or do… something for them… they’ll be more inclined to do it." His brows arched darkly over his forehead as his implication sank in.

  "That’s… not good," I pointed out the obvious.

  "It isn’t. And the worst part is? It’s not natural," he said. "It was developed in the Holy Xan Empire by a group of corrupt Alchemists. They prescribed it as a medicine to the Noxeus to some noble families for their own advantage— to scam them of their gold. This went on for almost a year before they were caught. They were all executed for their crimes, of course. But at that point, the recipe had already been shared with criminal groups throughout the continent. It’s a problem in Soli, and hadn’t been an issue here in Vitae… until now."

  "You know, I don’t—" Ginah started, but Gennady quickly cut her off and held my gaze.

  "Melas," he said my real name once again, and this time, Lisa and Jack heard it. "I know you think money solves everything. That gold is enough to persuade someone to help you."

  "I don’t think that. I think it just increases your chances."

  "Same difference." He shook his head. "However, there’s something else that works even better than that, and that’s favors. Giving people a reason to trust you, so they would help you back. I have seen what you can do— what you’re capable of doing for others— and I trust you, that’s why I offered to accompany you to Taw. But these people barely know you. They have no reason to bring you to Jahar’taw, even if you pay them."

  "What are you suggesting?" I asked, although I already knew what he was going to say.

  "We help them out," he answered simply. He turned to the pirate Captain and two smugglers, and nodded. "If we help you guys out, will ya bring us to Taw?"

  "You’re offering to help us?" Ginah asked.

  "Well, it entirely depends on what my friend here has to say."

  All eyes turned to me and awaited my response. I answered without hesitation.

  "We’ll help you."

  Ginah blinked. "That was a quick reply."

  I walked forward, and met the look of everyone standing there.

  "If I had known about this enuim drug, I would’ve offered this in the first place. I didn’t, so I saw no reason to get involved. But if innocent people are getting hurt and I know about it and can do something about it— I’ll help where I can. I can’t save everyone, but I definitely can contribute something, can’t I?"

  Plus, I had something to gain from this deal; it was practical as well as good for my conscience. I was not a hero, but even an average person would jump in to help if they saw another man choking in the streets.

  "Huh." Ginah studied my face for a moment. "Perhaps I misjudged you."

  "But"— I raised a finger— "we won’t do anything beyond stopping the diffusion of these drugs. If you try to make us get involved in some petty underground politics unrelated to that, we won’t participate."

  "Of course." She grinned, throwing me a thumbs up. "And we’ll find you a way to get to… uh, where did you want to go again?"

  "Jahar’taw."

  "Right." She turned to a man in the distance and called him over. "Yo, Kai, get over here. We need you to figure out how to get these two to Jahar-thingy after they help us. Think you can do that?"

  The man— the one who shot me with the rifle— came at her behest and nodded. "That won’t be too difficult," he said, then he turned to face us. "They’re helping us deal with the Elise?"

  "Yes." Ginah nodded, a savage grin spreading across her face. "They’ll help us bring them down."

  I quickly clarified. "Only where it involves innocent people, and we won’t stick around beyond that."

  "Right, right."

  Chapter 27: Hidden Lair

  The group of pirates Gennady and I had found ourselves working with were called Ginah’s Crew; they were notorious as some of the best, and most merciful, pirates prior to the arrival of the Elise in Luke. Lisa explained to me how they would often specifically target only large merchant vessels, choosing to spare the crew and guards— although it was difficult to keep the latter alive when they fought back.

  Still, I was not wholly buying into the idea of this ‘noble’ pirate group. I thought the Dark Crusaders were good— and perhaps most of them like Gerritt and Karna were such— but the fact of the matter was that their leadership was content with allowing callous, evil individuals run amok as long as they were useful to them. Perhaps this situation was different: with a significantly smaller group, it was far easier to control each and every member of a pirate ship, unlike the massive organization that was the Dark Crusaders.

  Yet, I still made sure to keep an eye out for any such signs that indicated if anyone in Ginah’s Crew was not who I thought they were. And this time, I was not the same affection-starved, traumatized, and manipulated girl I had been after I just met Victor, who was blinded by the fact that him saving my life must have meant he was any way redeemable.

  I eyed the pirates warily, standing off in my own corner of the ship as we reached their hideout. It was a cave hidden behind a beach, with rocks protruding out of the water, making it difficult to navigate into the pirate lair.

  Gennady had gone to bed early: apparently getting ambushed by both our own crew, then pirates, then three different ships was pretty exhausting. I stayed awake, simply because I wanted one of us to be up, keeping watch for each other, whenever possible. I was aware that doing that for however long we were stuck helping Ginah’s Crew was literally impossible, but we could at least maintain some level of caution when dealing with them.

  Unfortunately, it seemed like these pirates did not feel the same way about us, as a man casually approached me.

  "Yo, little Miss." He waved a hand, striding up to me and flashing a grin. "That was quite the tough fight you guys put up, huh? Your Dwarf friend nicked me in the shoulder. Could’ve killed me."

  I took one look at him and recognized him as the first pirate who boarded our ship— the one that nimbly avoided my volley of spells. He wore a simple beige colored pants that was rolled up to his knees, but he was not wearing any shirt, showing off his chiseled abdominal muscles and broad chest for all to see. I glanced past the large scar on the right side of his chest, and met his gaze.

  I shrugged. "You guys attacked us first. Your friend would’ve killed me if I didn’t have a fast enough reaction time."

  "That’s true," he said, nodding sagely. Then he put out a hand and I eyed it. "But the misunderstanding has been resolved! So it’s good to meet you, Melas— the name’s Braz."

  I scowled, remembering that Gennady revealed my real name to not only Lisa and Jack, but this crew of pirates we had just met as well. Nodding curtly, I slowly shook his hand.

  "So," I started, not wasting any time with small talk, "what do you want?"

  "What do I want?" he asked, blinking. "Well, I’m just here to chat with you. Get to know our new ally!"

  "I’m not your ally," I said simply. "I’m helping you cripple the Elise’s supply of enu
im, and that’s it. Then you guys will have to help bring me to Jahar’taw one way or another."

  He winked at me. "Exactly what I said: allies."

  I sighed, shaking my head.

  "And this is your guys’ hideout?"

  "It’s our secret base," he agreed, looking over at the cave as we slowly made our way to it past some dangerous looking rocks. "We’ve been here for a month now. Kai found it for us when we decided to come back to fight the Elise."

  "And Kai is your quartermaster?"

  "He is one of the damned best ones there is!"

  "Right," I said, staring past Braz, at the man standing next to Ginah. He had a rifle slung around his shoulder, and unlike the regular mana guns I had seen which typically had a mana crystal and no ammunition, his rifle had had a magazine to insert bullets into. It was almost like Felix’s revolver, except I was pretty sure Kai’s rifle was less deadly but had a longer range.

  It was a hunch— not confirmed. But seeing Felix fire shots that bore through concrete like it was nothing, I was pretty sure I would have still died even if I had three or four Force Barriers protecting me.

  "What happens now?" I asked, as the ship finally circumvented the rocks in our path, and entered the dark overhang that was the entrance to the cave.

  "What do you mean?" Braz cocked a brow.

  "We’re supposed to take out this Elise, aren’t we? How do we go about doing that?"

  The man— I just noticed that he was probably in his 30’s, despite his youthful personality— leaned his back on the edge of the boat, shrugging. "Don’t know. But I’ll do whatever Ginah tells me to do."

  "You mean your Captain hasn’t told you any of her plans?" I glanced between him and Ginah who was still standing off in the distance. Kai had broken off from talking to her, and was heading below deck to do whatever a quartermaster was supposed to do.

  "Yes!" Braz said, almost over eagerly. "She hasn’t led us astray so far, and she took us all in even though most of us have been misfits all our lives. Especially me! And she made us better men than we were before!"

  I tilted my head to the side. "Aren’t you guys… pirates?"

  He raised a finger, still grinning. "That’s why I said ‘than we were before’."

  I looked at the man for a moment, as he held that pose. Eventually, I decided to let the issue drop, and ask the more important question.

  "What exactly did you do before—"

  I was interrupted by a cheer. We had finally entered the dimly lit cavern, and our ship finally came to a stop at a beach of glittering white sand. A few dozen more pirates were waiting at the beach for us, and they threw their hands up in the air and they whooped and hollered as Ginah addressed them.

  "We’re back, boys! And we’ve got Jack and Lisa with us now!" Ginah loudly exclaimed. Then she cast a sidelong glance at me for a moment, before adding, "And we’ve got others too to help us bring down the Elise. So we celebrate tonight!"

  I stared down at the very many cheering faces standing at the beach, before looking over at the other two larger ships also anchored next to us. I frowned.

  "Who are these guys?"

  "Them?" Braz turned to face me. "They’re the rest of our crew."

  "...wait what?"

  As it turned out, Ginah’s Crew was not just the small ship of pirates I had assumed they were. They were almost four times as big as I initially thought they were, which in retrospect, was a foolish thought.

  They were pulling hit and run tactics against the Elise, which meant they would only bring a select few trustworthy elites with them, which explained how good of a fighter each of the pirates seemed to be. And considering that they were preparing to assail The Lightbringer’s Vessel— a mana powered ship— before they realized it was tailing us, it only made sense that they took a smaller, faster boat to keep up with it.

  I carefully walked down the gangplank as Gennady, Lisa, and Jack followed behind me. There was, of course, cheering as we came down— as the pirates welcomed us ‘new allies’ into their ranks. Apparently, the Elise was really disliked around here, and anyone joining their fight against the criminal organization was accepted with open arms, a slap on the back, and a drink on them.

  Gennady, who had just woken up from a nap, wasted no time before he was downing some ale and mingling with our new acquaintances.

  The party hadn’t started yet.

  I followed Ginah as she led us to some hastily set up structures that were supposed to be where I was going to be sleeping in. We walked in silence, as my first interaction with the pirate Captain did not exactly leave a good impression on her, even if she had changed her mind slightly since then.

  Finally, I decided to break the silence.

  "How long have you been a… pirate?" I asked.

  "About five years," she said, continuing past a group of her crew calling out to her. She grinned and waved back, but otherwise did not say anything.

  "And why did you become a pirate?"

  "Is this an interrogation or something?" Ginah sighed, shaking her head.

  "I’m just curious." I folded my arms, as we finally came to a stop at a small wooden building. "I’ve been told that you’re considered a ‘good’ pirate, but I’d like to know what made you become a pirate in the first place, since it’s not the most noble of jobs."

  She paused, looking me over for a moment. She rubbed her temples as she answered.

  "The world is not so simple, Melas. And especially not in Laxis." That was all she said. "Go on. This is where you’ll be staying."

  I looked at the small house that was built like a small dormitory, before realizing that it was a shared sleeping quarters. And a large one at that.

  "Don’t worry," Ginah reassured me. "Only women and children will be sleeping here… you’re a girl, right?"

  I nodded hesitantly in response. Then she relaxed.

  "Good. Just wanted to make sure since you’re hiding behind a mask and all."

  "How am I supposed to maintain my privacy if I’m sleeping with others?" I ask, drawing my lips into a thin line.

  "The answer’s simple: you don’t. Sorry, can’t do anything about it. Not unless you decide to build yourself your own room."

  "But—"

  "Listen," Ginah cut me off. "We’re low on supplies and on manpower, compared to the Elise. This isn’t the most luxurious lodgings, but you’ll have to make do if you really are willing to work with us."

  I narrowed my eyes.

  "Compromises require both sides to make concessions, not just me," I stated flatly.

  She halted midtep— she was already about to leave, but my words made her turn around and stay for a moment longer.

  "I am aware," she said.

  "Then what do I gain out of this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Other than giving up my privacy and identity to a bunch of strangers, of course."

  "We’re giving you a place to stay."

  "No." I met her gaze. Her brown eyes flickered for a moment, as I continued. "You providing me with living arrangements is to be expected, since I am offering to help you now. Your payment to me comes later— after the job is finished. Until then, I should be given some sort of accommodation beyond the bare minimum, no?"

  She hesitated, and I finally realized something: before, I had assumed Ginah to be some sort of boisterous, inspiring pirate Captain. But now that I finally had a good look at her and it was just the two of us, I realized that she was a lot more hesitant in her dealings with me. She almost looked… stressed. Overburdened by work.

  And yet, I put my foot down.

  "What do you suggest then?" she asked, gritting her teeth.

  I raised a finger, pointing past her. "There," I said simply.

  Ginah followed it, and blinked. "You want to sleep on the ship?"

  "Yes. I want my own room." I stepped past her, jerking my head in the direction of the small vessel we arrived in. "A proper room. I don’t care where, as long as I don’t have to sleep with a dozen
other people I’ve never met."

  "I…" she trailed off.

  "I’m sure you can get someone to sleep in one of these shared spaces."

  "Fine," she said, voice hiding none of her irritation. "I think I’ve changed my mind about you again. You’re… troublesome."

  I did not respond. Instead, I followed her as she brought me back onto the ship. After speaking with a crewmember, I soon found myself in my own private quarters. There was still some swaying, as part of the boat was still in the water, but it was unnoticeable. Or I was getting used to it.

  "Here you go. Your own room." Ginah was not enthused, but I was.

  "Thanks." I bowed my head slightly; I was grateful for it, although I found the fact that I had to push to get it slightly grating on my nerves.

  She grunted in affirmation as she was about to leave, but I called out to her just before she shut the door.

  "And about my, uh…"

  The pirate Captain rolled her eyes. "Yes, your ‘abilities’. I’ll keep it a secret. Not that I was intending to spread it around. I had already told my men to keep a lid on it."

  "Right," I said, as she looked at me.

  "Is that all? Did you need anything else? Must I fetch you dinner too?" she asked, not sarcastically at all.

  "No. I’m good."

  "Great." And with that, Ginah left the room.

  I slowly settled into the room; it was not the biggest room, considering I was lodging in the smallest ship, but it was good enough for me. The bed was not even a proper mattress, but a thick piece of cloth tied between two sides of the room like a hammock, and there was not even a desk. Still, I had slept in even worse conditions when I was a slave.

  I put down my bag, and sat on the bed-hammock for a moment. I glanced up the porthole, into the sandy beach with tables being set up for some sort of party. Contrary to what I had seen written on Ginah’s face, it seemed that morale here was high. Which made no sense— they were going up against a group that supposedly took over all of Luke’s underground in a year and chased them out. Their chances of success probably weren't too high.

  But I was here now. And while I was not interested in completely destroying this organization, I did not like what they were doing with the enuim. If this drug was really able to make people… more agreeable… I could see a thousand different terrible uses for it, and not a single good one.