Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

A Nefarious Plan

Theo exited the room quietly, making sure to not ruin the perfect escape she was about to pull off. Once she closed the door behind her, the mission had been considered a success, 15 people in a room and not one of them had woken up. Theo and many others had spent the night in Xyra's infirmary room, much to Jon's dismay. Many of their crew had come in at various parts of the night and checked in on a very drugged up Xyra. Their crew wasn't the only one, others came in large groups to visit Xyra. Jon was in a state of shock all night. Slovenly and drunk pirates roaming through his infirmary, touching things they shouldn't have.

He had abandoned his place of work and retreated upstairs to his quarters when he realized he could not control what the pirates did. Theo should have felt bad but it was comical the way he chased after drunk pirates playing with medicine they didn't know about. She was going to make sure to leave him some money, as a thank you for his establishment more than his services. Some of the pirates that had made their way in never left and they bunched up in Xyra's room for the night.

When Theo saw the sun begin to rise, she began to make her way out of the room, a puzzle if she had ever seen one. By the time she had gotten out of the room and outside, the sun was already in the sky, the beautiful colors from the sunrise having faded. As she walked, the sun burned her eyes and the weariness that she had been resisting had settled into her bones. Theo had managed to nod off for a few hours but had stayed awake for the most part. She felt the exhaustion to her very core and all she needed was one hour to lay in her bed with no one around.

She walked in the direction of the ship for about a minute before she saw a familiar crown of curly red hair. Ava was standing in front of a store window peeking through it to investigate. Theo could walk right past her and to the ship but as much as she wanted to rest, she also wanted to speak to Ava. She was too tired to be upset at the fact that Ava had kept Cooker and Xyra's plan from her. Theo veered off the path and came to stand next to Ava.

"Good morning," Theo said and Ava jumped a bit.

"Good morning," Ava answered, peeling her eyes away from the contents of the shop and over to Theo, "you scared me."

"My apologies," Theo smiled, "I could have sworn you had spent the night at Xyra's."

"I snuck out a few hours ago. I wasn't getting any sleep anyway so I figured I might as well pop out for some fresh air until everyone wakes up," Ava explained.

"Quite the sneak," Theo complimented, "I was going to make my way to the ship for some items if you care to join me on the walk back."

"I would be delighted," Ava said and Theo held her arm out.

Ava took the offer and linked her arm around Theo's. They walked in silence for a bit until Ava, with great predictability, broke the silence with a question.

"What now?"

"Good question," Theo chuckled a bit and Ava did too. She didn't answer for a while, usually private with her plans before she presented to the group but with Ava, she didn't mind sharing, "been thinking about it all night, really. I think the first step is collecting our reward."

"The ship," Ava said.

"Aye," Theo said, "Seal's a little weasel so as soon as Fletching is well enough they are going to set off so it's best to get it now."

"After that?"

"Call an officer's meeting and decide what to do next. We've got two ships, a crew of sixty-eight, three possible continents to scour for answers and an injured first mate," Theo listed off, "can't make any definite decisions by myself."

"Are we going to wait until Xyra is better before we set sail to wherever?" Ava asked.

"Aye, we will spare some time to stay back and rest, Xyra and the whole crew. Uncilo has set the next pirate meeting for three and a half cycles, from now," Theo had heard the news a few hours into the night.