“Alright, who’s up for a little music before dinner?” Neko asked holding up a guitar as they all returned to the ship.

  Amanda’s eyes lit on the instrument, one of several he’d brought out from somewhere. Oh how she’d missed playing. She took it from his outstretched hands eagerly.

  “Haha, I knew you’d be keen,” Neko remarked with a grin. He then picked up an accordion and played a brief joyous tune.

  Amanda joined in and they improvised something fun and imperfect.

  The sound summoned others. Some of whom gathered around closely to listen. Some of whom sat along the railing to rest their feet.

  “What about work?” demanded Shiv as he came out on deck to see several sailors sitting around and not doing much of anything.

  “Works done and it’s almost dinner bell,” Neko replied.

  Shiv looked to Sirius who simply smiled, and replied with a shrug, “We’re in port. There isn’t anything that needs doing that can’t wait until tomorrow. Sirius took a seat on the edge of the forecastle deck next to Amanda.

  She paused in her playing, smiled at him, and offered him the guitar. “You want to play something?”

  He shook his head and looked surprised. “I don’t know how to play anything.”

  “I can teach you.” She handed him the guitar and then showed him where to place his fingers. She taught him a simple song, one often sung in a school playground but which also doubled as a sort of catchy sea shanty. It needed only three chords. Once he’d gotten the hang of switching between them she covered his large hand with her smaller one and taught him how to strum.

  As they played, Neko joined in with a more complicated background beat and a few sailors started singing. Even Sirius joined in with his soft but deep voice and that was when Amanda just stopped to listen to them all. She was captivated by the feel of it, the unabashed relaxation and sheer spontaneity of the moment, lit up by the last rays of a setting sun. If she had to be frozen in time she would have picked right now.

  Someone passed around some wine and for a time it felt like they had infinity to enjoy themselves. The mood was only disrupted when a scuffle broke out over by the wheelhouse.

  “Don’t you know what this is?!” Mathias' voice carried across the deck. He appeared to be arguing with Dickie, the sailor who was distributing the wine.

  “Mathias,” Sirius called. “What’s the issu?.”

  “This is the wine you brought over from Morgan’s ship. He’s broken it open and they’re all drinking it.”

  “So?” slurred Dickie, who had evidently already consumed a fair amount of it.

  “So this is human wine, very expensive human wine. Don’t you know what we could get for this if we sell it, how much cheap wine it would buy?”

  “Sounds like all the more reason to celebrate,” retorted Dickie.

  “It won’t be if you drink it all.” Mathias tried to take the jug of wine off him.

  Dickie tugged back. If they weren’t careful they were going to end up with wine everywhere.

  “Alright, alright, enough!” Shiv told them.

  But they kept tugging, both refusing to let go until Sirius got to his feet and walked across the deck at which point Mathias conceded the jug.

  Sirius held out his hand for it.

  Dickie reluctantly handed it over.

  Sirius turned to the rest of the crew. “It’s dinner time anyway.” He nodded toward the door and the crew needed no more a telling than that. They all filed down into the mess hall to await food.

  Amanda joined Sirius as he said to Shiv, “We’ve got plenty of it and if it’s really worth as much as Mathias says then we might as well celebrate a little.”

  Mathias shook his head sadly. “It’s wasted on them.” But he didn’t argue anymore than that.

  “They’re gonna be shitfaced by tomorrow,”Shiv remarked.

  Sirius nodded. “Better tonight than when we’re in Scarlett port proper. They’ll talk less.”

  Shiv gave a wry smile. “Ah, so that’s your plan.”

  “Just see if you can keep a handful of them sober enough. We’ve still got to exchange some barrels later, which will also go a little easier if it looks like we’re doing a lot of drinking.”

  “You going to explain that plan to me then?” Shiv asked.

  Sirius filled him in on their way down to dinner while Amanda and Mathias listened.

  Amanda didn’t think twice about accepting a mug of wine after her dinner. The bet she’d made with Sirius felt like a different time and she was just too happy to be back on this ship and surrounded by people who didn’t seem to care about her powers after all. In fact they were all extremely eager to hear about everything that had happened on Morgan’s ship.

  “Did you really fight the Butcher?”

  “Was there really a dragon?”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Is Captain Morgan as fearsome as they say?”

  “I heard she once ate a man’s entire head in one bite!”

  “I heard she can walk through walls.”

  “Werewolves can’t walk through walls.”

  “This one can.”

  Amanda intended to tell them at least some of what happened, leaving out certain details like how she’d actually tricked The Butcher, but as she took a mouthful of wine to lubricate her throat she was immediately distracted.

  “Eugh!” She stared down at her glass. For such an expensive wine she’d been expecting something that tasted a lot different than what it did. She’d imagined it would be fruity and sweet but all she got was bitter dirt. “The humans like this?” she asked.

  “I know right!” cried Pierre. “It’s disgusting.” And with that he took a large gulp of it. As he set his mug back done he added, “I kinda like it.”

  That prompted a roar of laughter and murmurs of agreement from the others while nearby Mathias just sunk down in his seat with a groan. Unlike the others he swirled and sniffed his mug several times, all the while mumbling “fools” beneath his breath.

  “Did you and Sirius escape Scarlett prison through the underwater tunnel?” Benny asked Amanda from her right.

  Amanda nodded. “So, what exactly did he get arrested for last time then?” She’d never heard the details of the story. They’d mentioned it had been in defense of some woman and Amanda wondered if it had been an old lover or something. “You said he was defending someone.”

  She felt Sirius stiffen slightly to her left as she asked her question and she wondered if maybe she was crossing a line by asking the others about it. It was too late though, the question had been said and they were only too keen to fill her in this time. And Sirius didn’t object. He remained barely distracted from his quiet conversation with Shiv.

  The excitement of the others covered up any of the words shared between Sirius and Shiv.

  Bruce answered before Benny could. “Yeah, a complete stranger too. “

  “She was being beaten on by her partner,” Crick added just as enthusiastically, without any of his usual standoffishness. It seemed like he’d warmed up a lot since she’d last seen him.

  “Sirius picked the guy up and dumped him in the sea.” Neko laughed. “Poor man was sopping wet.”

  “Turned out he had friends in high places though and he got Sirius and Maverick thrown in prison.”

  “They tried to resist but one of the soldiers was a water elemental.”

  “He threw a whole funnel of water at Sirius.”

  “But he just walked straight through it right up to the guy and threw him in the sea too.”

  As the crew took turns filling in details Amanda noticed that Sirius had stopped talking to Shiv and was now also listening to the men give the rundown of events.

  She thought it a bit hypocritical of him given he’d chided her for basically doing the same thing he had done. She turned to him and remarked in a teasing tone, “So much for keeping out of other people’s business eh?”

  But he didn’t take her comment as she’d expected. Instead, his face darkened, and he replied in a mumble only just loud enough for her to hear, “I should have.” Without another word he left the table.

  Amanda looked after him in confusion. None of the others seemed to notice. They were too busy now arguing over how many soldiers it had taken to arrest Sirius.

  Amanda excused herself and went after Sirius.

  She could hear the men still arguing about the details of the event as she left the room.

  She eventually found Sirius alone up on deck, looking out at the city lights.

  She approached cautiously, understanding that he was upset about something but not sure exactly what it was.

  He glanced at her with an expression that was more sad than angry so she joined him at the railing.

  “What do you mean you should have stayed out of it? You saved someone didn’t you?” she asked gently.

  He shook his head and looked toward the city. “I thought I did but when I came back on a different day I saw them again. The same couple. The same situation. Him raising his hand to her over something silly and the fool that I was I intervened again. He was hitting her with a bag and I grabbed his arm to stop him. And that’s when she attacked me, in defense of him.”

  “Oh.”

  Sirius continued. “And the worse part of it. Maverick, the crewman who was with me at the time, the first time, the one who helped me resist arrest and defend this woman who it turned out didn’t even want saving, he died in that tunnel we went through. Got crushed by the trap wall. That’s how I knew about how to get through it.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Mmm, I just don’t understand why she stayed with the guy.”

  Amanda thought of his past and what he’d told her of his own parents and she wondered if they were still talking about the same person. “I guess you can’t always save people from themselves.”

  Sirius nodded. “Exactly. There’s no point in intervening in other people’s lives. You can’t save people from themselves and others just get hurt in the process.” He sounded angry.

  “But you did give her a chance,” she told him. She thought back to the man she’d defended, how he’d been hanging so limply and the look on his daughter’s face. “And if I had to do it over again I wouldn’t do any different. I’d still save that man.” There was not a speck of doubt in her mind about that.

  To her surprise he didn’t argue. Instead he met her eyes and he gave a soft smile, all anger had evaporated from him. It was still a sad sort of smile but not one without hope. “I know you wouldn’t,” he replied. “And that’s why I love you.”

  His words filled her with warmth and hope of her own. “I love you too,” she replied.

  With a mischievous sort of smile now he said, “I heard you back at Scarlett, before we escaped prison.”

  Her eyes widened. “You did?”

  His smile grew. He nodded.

  Then he kissed her. And she kissed him back. The lights of Scarlett reflected like stars in the water behind them.

  "I'm sorry about your friend... or crewman?" Amanda said once they broke apart.

  "Both I suppose," Sirius replied. He seemed puzzled by something so she cooked her head at him.

  He answers, "It feels almost wrong sometimes to enjoy something when there are others who don't get to."

  Amanda shook her head. She thought of Pinto and his lifeless gaze. She'd only known the man a short time. How much worse it must be for Sirius and yet she understood at least a little of how he felt. She has lost others before too. "I think it would be wronger not to," she replied carefully, wanting to get the wording right. "It would be like two people had died then. I think it's far better to find a way to live, to enjoy things or what's the pain and suffering for? After all, the dead don't know what they're missing."

  "What if they do. The dead must exist somewhere if necromancy works right?" he asked.

  "Necromancy only ever works for a short time," she replied. She knew that much of the rules.

  But Sirius shook his head. "The police sometimes use it to solve crimes that are decades old."

  She met his gaze. His green eyes were bearing into her. What was he asking? Technically that sort of necromancy only worked for a short while too but in a very different way. "I don't know how it works," she answered honestly, "but I know when it's old it never works for very long. I wonder if maybe it’s not really a person but more like an echo, just a memory."

  He nodded. She thought maybe he was thinking about his mother and resurrecting her so it surprised her when he said, "I don't want anything to happen to you and I just thought..."

  She waited for him to continue but he seemed at a loss for words. Finally she replied, "It's difficult magic to pull off."

  He nodded again. Then he asked, "What's the best use for this mind walking do you think? I don't much fancy hearing people's thoughts without their permission even if it might be useful."

  "Well, how about with their permission then. It can be useful for unspoken comms. Team coordination when you can't speak normally."

  "Maybe under the water then?" Sirius suggested. "We could use it for wreck salvage."

  "That would be a good use of it yes," Amanda agreed. She wondered how it was She'd never thought of that before.

  "Sorry, I walked out of dinner."

  Amanda smiled. She glanced toward the city. "I'm not. It's pretty up here."

  Sirius nodded but he wasn't looking at the city.