16
Sea Serpents
I couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened.
In all the tales and legends that I once thought were lost and are now coming to life, making me a part of them. About how a day ago I was wishing for something, and now I was having it all. Thinking about the things I had lost too. And in the secrets I was suddenly getting involved in. But above all, I couldn’t stop thinking about this feeling, about this desire I had to run and uncover them all. And as I watched the captain and Raaq talking, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of those secrets were really dangerous or even real.
Captain Pierce locked eyes with me at the same time he was still talking to Raaq. It was as if he somehow perceived my tremors and was trying to tell me that everything was going to be fun and exciting. That smile of his never gave up, really .
“I can’t believe you changed. That dress was made for you,” muttered Ela from the mirror.
Sadly, I had to ask Raaq for another dress, because I was not about to go running down the streets of this island nor sailing the seas with the Soulshroud itself. No matter how much I felt like my true self while wearing it, or how it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen, it was not appropriate to wear it. I at least knew that I was not worthy of doing so.
“I love this one too,” I said, skimming the skirt of the dress with my fingers. “Raaq said he made it from a plain white fabric, so I just had to.”
It was a simple, yet exquisitely crafted, flowing white gown with intricate lace details at the long sleeve and hem, and a small bow that closed the neckline.
I watched as Ela traced black paint beneath her eyes and applied a rich crimson hue to her lips. She looked so fearsome and beautiful, like the kind of pirate I always wanted to be.
She strode forward with a commanding presence, changed into an emerald coat adorned with intricate gold embroidery that caught the light with every movement. The coat flared dramatically at the hem, reveling the deep crimson lining that matched the bandana tied around her dark, wild curls, now adorned with those little golden rings she was putting on before. Her outfit was a mix of elegance and defiance, from the sharp lines of her black, lace-up pants to the ornate belt that cinched her waist, holding an array of pouches and her gleaming pistol .
The right leg of her pants was rolled up, as it always was, showing the marble leg with subtle veins of gold and the delicate carvings of tiny flowers that I loved so much.
“You want some?” she asked with a black kohl pencil in hand.
I nodded and approached her to the mirror.
“Raaq has all the colors, you can choose whatever you like.”
I smiled and flipped through all the pencils and products with my fingers. And suddenly, the pink parrot came flying and picked up in its beak something that looked like a rosy pencil, and perched on my shoulder. “Coco!”
“I think she loves pink,” said Ela with a smile.
“Good thing I do too, then,” I said, laughing as I tookthe pencil out of her beak. “Do you want me to put this one on, little friend?”
“Coco!” the parrot chattered.
Ela took the pencil from my hand with a quiet laugh, and asked, “Can I?”
I nodded with a smile, and she started painting under my eyes.
When I looked in the mirror and saw my reflection, white dress with brown boots, long copper hair moving free, pink parrot perched on my shoulder, and soft rosy paint adorning my eyes, I smiled as if I had just found a pearl inside an oyster.
“You look like a pirate,” said Ela, watching me through the mirror.
“I have never seen a pirate that looked like this.”
Ela laughed at my comment, and said, “And I’ve never heard a pirate saying please or sorry, and yet here you are. ”
My smile faded a little and she took a step forward, resting her chin on my shoulder.
“Being a pirate is not about looks, Pink Arrow. It’s about who you are, your essence.” She grabbed my arms and gently moved them. “Let’s see how you shoot those arrows.”
I smiled again and put my arms in position to shoot. I closed my eyes imagining a bow and arrow, took a deep breath, and made myself shoot. When I opened my eyes and saw myself in the reflection, it was me, my truest and best self. The one I loved most, and always wanted to be.
“That’s you, Pink Arrow. In all your essence and power. A pirate.”
I dropped my arms and smiled wider. My heart started to beat faster, like all those nights I stood on the shore and listened to the waves breaking, and among them, a voice that said, "Go live!”
It was now. I was going to go, and live.
Among all the commotion of voices, I didn't realize that Efren and Jonah had also entered the shop and had joined the captain's conversation with Ela and Raaq.
“Coco!” The pink parrot who was still on my shoulder, took flight and went behind the mirror.
“Wait!” I whispered out loud, following her. “You can’t go there, that’s Ela’s.”
I heard the parrot’s distant “coco’s” as I entered the secret room.
“You can’t be here, let’s go. ”
But as I went deeper into the clothes and jewelry, I couldn’t see her, nor even hear her.
“Where are you?” I whispered, a little bit louder. I still couldn’t hear anything, and suddenly it occurred to me how I could call her.
“Coco,” I said. “Coco?”
“Coco!” she finally responded, and I went straight to the sound. “Coco!”
Among piles of clothes and chests full of gold, there was the beautiful pink parrot sitting on something tall and pointed that seemed to be a stick.
“What are you doing, we have to go,” I said, softly approaching her.
“Coco!”
“Yes, coco. Let’s go.”
But when I tried to reach for her, she went flying straight to my shoulder, making the thing she was perched on fall to the ground.
And then I saw what it was.
As I took a step forward and knelt down, my breath caught in my throat. There, lying before me, was the most exquisite bow I had ever seen. The wood was smooth and light, polished to a deep, lustrous sheen, but it was the carvings that captivated me. Delicate waves seemed to ripple along the length of the bow, as if the sea itself had been captured in the grain.
Tiny seashells, starfish, and corals were etched into the wood with meticulous detail, their forms so lifelike I almost expected to feel the rough texture beneath my fingers. The intricate design flowed seamlessly, with each element of the ocean blending into the next, creating a masterpiece that was both weapon and work of art.
I ran my fingers along the carvings, feeling a connection to the sea and the life I had chosen.
It felt like this bow was more than just a tool for battle.
A symbol of your spirit, Lady Love. Fierce and free, as boundless as the ocean itself.
A smile curved my lips as I lifted the bow, feeling its perfect weight in my hands. It felt like it had been waiting for me, hidden away like I once was, waiting for the right moment to be found.
“Thalassa,” I whispered into the dimly lit room.
“Coco!”
I laughed. “You wanted me to find this, didn’t you?”
Next to where the bow was, lying on the ground, I found a globe of the Romantic Order. It was tinted in a beautiful rose gold, and suddenly I remembered that I owed a globe to someone.
“Donna? Donna, c’mon we’re going to The Inked Anchor!” Jonah’s voice outside the room made me get up and step out, carrying the bow and the globe in my hands.
“C’mon, the captain’s waiting for us on The Rebecca, we set sail in an hour.” He looked down at my hands. “What is that?”
I smiled. “Raaq, can I take these?” I asked, looking at him. “I’ll pay you eventually, I promise.”
He laughed. “Words of a true pirate.”
“Would you look at that. The Pink Arrow has found a real bow,” said Efren between laughs. “Your tights will be grateful, I’m sure. ”
“Isn’t it beautiful?” I breathed out.
“Not as much as you, princess,” he said with a wink.
In an instant, Jonah had him by the back of his vest and was directing him towards the door.
“I have flatteries for you also, Goldie Tusk, don’t fret.”
Ela rolled her eyes and approached me. “Let’s go. The Inked Anchor awaits.”
“The Inked Anchor?” I asked, following her to the door.
“We’re getting some ink before we leave port.”
“Like… as in a tattoo?”
“Aye." She smirked. "There is an old maritime tradition about tattoos, do you know it?”
“I read about it.” Like so many other things. In one of those banned books I wasn't supposed to have.
There was something so hauntingly beautiful about this tale. About this idea that ink could hold both hope and heartbreak.
When sailors set out for their first voyage, they'd get a tattoo before stepping onto the ship. It was a tradition—a charm, they believed, to keep them safe on the journey. Then, when they reached their destination, they'd get a second tattoo to show they had made it. And the third... that was for when they finally came home. That was why they said it was bad luck to have an even number of tattoos, because it meant the sailor never made it back.Lost to the sea, their story unfinished.
“How many do you have?” she asked me.
“Umm… None, I fear. ”
“So this is the starting port of your first adventure, huh? Fascinating and intriguing,” she said, raising her eyebrows up and down.
I smiled. “And how many do you have?”
“Enough to tell about a good dose of luck that has always allowed me to find the way home.”
I didn't notice any ink on her hands, so maybe she had them along her arms or back.
I was about to ask when Raaq’s voice sounded behind me.
“Is that parrot going to follow me everywhere?”
“Oh, she’s following me don’t you worry.” I laughed
“Coco!”
“And why, by the name of the Gods, are you following us?” Ela asked with crossed arms.
Raaq let out a laugh. “Oh you’re gonna love this, Starfire. Didn’t your beloved captain tell you?” he said, approaching her and touching the feather of her hat with a finger. “He wants me aboard The Rebecca.”
Her entire face changed. Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. Her hands clenched into fists and her face took on the color of her crimson painted lips, surely on anger.
“This better be one of those terrible jokes of yours,” she said through her teeth.
“All my stuff is already packed,” he muttered with a smirk. “Don’t worry, Starfire. You will have clothes to spare.” He turned his back on us and started walking.
“You bastard! How much is he paying you! I can double it! ”
I laughed. “You know, I once read a book about two lovers that started as—”
“Don’t you dare continue that sentence.”
???
Once out of the beautiful streets of Loro, we passed under the arch and I couldn’t help but look up and study the exquisite design that I now knew, was made by a ten year old Captain Pierce.
A pang of sadness quickened my heartbeat when I began to imagine a small child being forced to do something he loved to be used for a common evil. Or maybe it was true that it was for a common good, but punished with a permanent individual evil. He created something precious in order to protect a community, in exchange for an eternity of suffering.
“So, do you like it? I think it’s pretty incredible.” Efren’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“It is, yes,” I exhaled, still looking up at the arch.
He nodded to my hand. “I meant the tattoo, Pink Arrow.”
“Oh.” I looked down at my left hand on instinct. A fresh inked sea serpent coiled gracefully around my index finger, its scales shimmering with an iridescent sheen as it wound its way up to the knuckle. The serpent head rested just below my nail, its eyes sharp and watchful, almost as if it was guarding my every move. We all got the same sea serpent, the ones that rested on the knobs of the arch that opened its doors to Loro, a reminder of where we came from, wherever we went next .
I chose the index finger of my left hand because it was the one where I held the bow, and the finger with which Ahmose taught me to set my aim, a long time ago. At first I was scared because I had never done anything like this before, but I really wanted to get it. The ink wasn’t just a decoration; it was a promise to myself, a vow that I would embrace this new journey with all the strength and skill I possessed. I could be brave enough. I was no longer just the girl with a bow, the devil’s daughter turned angel—I was the pirate, marked by the sea itself. So this was a reminder, of what I had known all my life but never believed myself capable until my wounded body got submerged in the sea.
I smiled to Efren. “Yes, I really love it.”
I flexed my finger experimentally, imagining the way it would draw the bowstring taut, the serpent seeming to come alive with the motion.
“Hurry up, Barone! Your ass has to be the first on that ship!” Jonah shouted from afar.
Efren cupped his hands over his mouth so that his words could be heard louder. “Stop thinking about my ass, Goldie Tusk!”
I smiled, and he winked at me while saying, “Duty calls, princess. See you on board.”
“Coco!” Exclaimed the pink parrot that was perched on the bow I carried on my shoulder. The new beautiful bow I took from Raaq’s shop and I still couldn’t believed I now held.
“Aye, you too, Coco!” Efren yelled as he run to The Rebecca.
I looked to the parrot with a smile, and said, “Coco, huh? Do you like that? Coco? ”
“Coco!”
“Yeah, I had a feeling you would say that.” I laughed. “Well, welcome aboard The Rebecca, Coco. Are you going to help us get that map?”
“Coco!”
“Just what I thought.”
When we boarded The Rebecca and started sailing, the heavy reality of what I needed to do began to sink into my very bones. They waited for a direction, they needed a direction. And I didn’t know how to give it.
The Rebecca’s deck creaked beneath my feet as I stepped onto it, a steady reminder of the world I now inhabited—one of shifting loyalties, treacherous waters, and an unforgiving code.
The wind seemed to tug at me like a hundred unanswered questions.
I paused, staring out at the endless horizon, and my heart started pounding, a chaotic rhythm that echoed the storm of thoughts in my mind.
I was the compass. How could that be?
I felt a tightness in my chest as the enormity of it all sank in. Everyone depended on me. They trusted me. They had to. And that trust was as terrifying as it was humbling.
I clenched my fist, trying to ground myself, but instead felt the cool ink of the new tattoo, the serpent’s scales, a reminder of the promise I had made.
But what if I couldn’t? What if I led them all astray ?
The questions swirled around me, as restless as the waves crashing against the hull.
I glance at them, my now crew mates, busy with their tasks, oblivious to the tempest brewing inside me. My hands shook as I forced myself to take a deep breath, trying to steady the rising tide of panic, like the one I had at the tavern, in front of everyone.
I was no longer just fulfilling a silly dream—I was guiding them all towards something they had been looking for ages, and they couldn’t even see it. Only I could. And I had no idea how to do it.
What happened at the tavern was still a mystery to me. A vision I’ve never had, from a place I had never seen. The only thing I knew was that the captain was the key. My neck burned every time he came close and blew on my birthmark. On Thalassa’s mark.
“Thalassa, please help me,” I whispered to the waves. “Show me the way. Help me show them the way.”
The sea’s restless heart finds solace in the wind’s tender touch, Lady Love.
And as soon as I heard her voice in my mind, the wind picked up, filling the sails. I looked up and took a deep breath.
The air entered my lungs slowly, filling me with a cool, steady calm that felt almost foreign after the storm of emotions. My mind began to quiet, the waters within me stilling as if the wind had whispered a command to the sea itself.
Listen, Lady Love.
I closed my eyes and listened.
What do you hear, Lady Love ?
“A long distant chatter.” The voices of Jonah, Efren, and Ela mixing.
Beyond, Lady Love.
“The creak of the ship.”
Beyond.
“The sea,” I whispered. And then I heard it too. “The wind.”
A hundred of voices echoed everywhere. A hundred of tales, happy and sad, heroic and fearful, finished and unfinished, romantic and heartbreaking, battles and songs… And suddenly, I heard a familiar whispering voice above and louder than the others. “A pirate is she. The pink arrow of the sea.”
And instantly, I felt it.
The familiar, searing heat of my birthmark igniting just beneath my skin. It was not a painful burn, but intense, a fierce, radiant heat that spread from the spot on my neck through my entire body. I gasped, instinctively reaching up to touch the mark, but the moment my fingers made contact, my vision blurred. That feeling again. The world around me seemed to fade, dissolving into a swirl of colors and light. In its place, a vivid image burst in my mind—that island again. It was the same island I saw in the tavern, but this time it felt more real, I could feel the sand beneath my feet, hear the crushing of the waves.
As the wind continued to blow, the heat of the birthmark flared brighter, and the images sharpened, every detail searing itself into my memory.
Beyond, Lady Love .
I held onto the ship’s rail, gripping tightly while I concentrated to try and see something, a path, a direction towards the island, anything.
Beyond.
And suddenly, I saw it. A line that passed between reefs and tides, a line that crossed a map, a map that I had seen before.
And as quickly as it had come, the wind shifted, and the burning subsided, leaving me breathless and shaken, but with a strange sense of direction.
I opened my eyes immediately, and ran to the aft cabin.