Unforgiven Swords: Chapter 6

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And so, none of the RedClaw Pirates knew what waited ahead north. They could only hope it wasn’t far, and that the Unforgiven Swords weren’t going to find them.

Macabre stared the lonely sea and the red horizon from the front part of the deck. His niece came later.

Karen: How are you, uncle Macabre?

Macabre: My chest hurts, but I can survive. Luckily it was only a simple wound... Unlike what happened to Naishi.

Karen: He can survive too... if we find a real doctor soon.

The fight with Hound couldn’t have end in a worse way. With several broken bones, great amounts of blood lost, their first mate would remain uncouncious for a long time.

Macabre: And how are you, Karen?

Karen: Well...

Macabre: Calm down, I need to sit. Sit next to me, Karen.

Karen: I’m not bad, to be honest. That girl could’ve hurt me a lot more if she had the chance.

Macabre: Then it’s good she hadn’t... (thoughts) And if he had... Well, I don’t think I can predict how it would have ended.

Karen, too, felt the same way, the same sense of incapability. Except, in her case, she knew she would lose the fight anyway.

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<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Aman Freel was practically begging to his captain by that time.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Tem minutes passed, in which he tried as much as he could to prove he deserved another chance.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel: Please, Wolff, I won’t let you down again.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">And so he kept repeating. They were inside their ship, talking, along with Hound and Lura, inside the captain’s chambers.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: It was a mistake to recruit you, Freel.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel: What? Don’t talk like that!

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: I’m serious. All that talk about “Furious Tiger” or whatever really made na impression in me. You even convinced me the marines were acting cruel towards you...

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel: But they were!

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: And you deserved it... You deserved it all. Only a few weeks ago I discovered, by contact of a friend of mine, that you weren’t stealing because you needed.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel didn’t react.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: That’s right, you greedy bastard. I have a contact in the marines, whom I asked to investigate you, on the island we first met. You’re only here now because I decided to give you some time to prove I was wrong.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel: But, Wolff...

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: You’re no different than a weak pirate, despite your attempts to prove the contrary. Arrogant, cruel, selfish... You’ll get out of my ship before we sail to the next island.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Freel: Just, please, give one more...

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Lura’s sword crossed Freel’s chest in the blink of an eye. The whole room got covered in blood, and soon the weakest of the Unforgiven Swords wasn’t among the living anymore.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Locke Wolff sighed, looking to his son with the melancholic eyes, which seemed not to hold any more emotion.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: You didn’t have to do that, Lura.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Lura: He’s been annoying me since he first boarded this ship. Besides, shouldn’t we kill pirates, father? You said yourself he was no different than a pirate.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: Don’t distort my philosophy like that. You know that’s not the point of it.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hound: “Maintaining order without following blind leaders”. I believe it is like that.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Wolff: Exactly, Hound. To kill is just an act, to do justice... Why am I explaining this to you? Clean my room, Lura, until you can’t smell any more blood in it. Hound...

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hound: I’ll get rid of the body right away, Master Wolff.

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<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne also didn’t like Freel, so it wasn’t a surprise when she heard Lura killed him.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">She just looked to Kanpare, who looked back, and returned to the book she was reading.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">In fact, she’d have done it by herself if she was as crazy as her brother.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne: (turning a page) Where are we going now, Miss Nu?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna: For what I’ve heard on the port, our Log Pose will point to Ver-Ashtra after two days.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne: Any chance we meet the pirates?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna: The White Wolf’s crew? They are without direction heading north, and they don’t even know is north. Unless they have a very powerful bad-luck charm that makes them go a few hundred meters east from their route, then, we won’t be meeting them. What you’re reading?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne: The Sword of Destiny.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna: It’s about what?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne: To make it short, it’s a novel about people linked by destiny. Even though it seemed impossible, destiny made two characters to meet amidst a war.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna laughed. She stopped painting her nails, her sacred ritual, and looked with a grin to Grainne’s face.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna: Oh, little girl. This is for fairy tales. In fact... ever heard about “Deus ex Machina”? No? I thought so. It’s a concept where things, in fiction, almost without or without any explanation, simply happen, because the author is too lazy to think in a better solution. To say in a history that is destiny is merely an excuse for the author not say “it’s Deus ex Machina”.

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<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">It wasn’t destiny indeed, but it was a storm and a seaking attack.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Three days later, soaked, in cold and badly hurt (in Naishi’s case), the RedClaw Pirates arrived the island of Ver-Ashtra. Their ship was barely standing, so as they.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Macabre: Fine, Naishi, I’ll take you to see a doctor. Karen, Alina, go to see if you can find a shipwright. Pay him as much as you want, then you’re free to rest.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Karen: Atchoo! Yes, uncle.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Macabre: Take care.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Diarmuid: Then, ladies, I’ll be your company this afternoon.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Macabre: Don’t touch my niece or I’ll make this cross-scar of yours bigger.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">So they all went to what they had to do.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Except Jon, who they forgot to call and was still sleeping in the ship.

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<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">At the same time, Ainer Grave came.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grave: Oh, home, sweet, home! How I missed this place, hohoho! Now I just need to get a cup of tea before meeting my family...

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">He was talking out loud, with himself.

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grave: (searching his pockets) Now, there is and old banjo player there, so I must give him some coins... What’s this? Hoho, Felicity left me a letter, what a sweet girl!

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">He read the whole letter, then he laughed and placed it in his pocket again.

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<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Grainne: So you don’t believe in destiny, fate, luck or whatever?

<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left">Hiruna: (looking her painted nails) No, no, my sweet Grainne. I believe in bad writers.

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