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━━━━━━━━ 🏹 T E U T A 🏹 ━━━━━━━━
Teuta had always managed to keep herself away from prison. She had broken the law many times but knew her way around punishment by the authorities. Although she wasn't walking down the hall to get locked up, an uneasy feeling crawled down her spine as a guard led her through the maze of corridors. Not all cells were used but there were a lot of men and women locked up underneath the mayor's office. The smell was unbearable, and it was louder than Teuta would have expected.
The action of today's events at the meadow behind the mill didn't stay unnoticed by the citizens of the town and many had seen Cassian's attempted murder on Sturmhond. After the two bullets of a duel were shot, neither of the opponents were allowed to strike against the other anymore. The crew were witnesses that Cassian broke the code when he had fired another bullet at Sturmhond. He would be dead if the twins hadn't stepped in.
The guards were quickly called, and they had arrested Cassian for attempted murder. Now he was sitting in prison and awaited his trial. Everybody knew what the sentence would be, the code was holy among sailors – Cassian would be punished with death by hanging when the sun stood on its highest point tomorrow.
"Smith you have a visitor!" The guard who had led Teuta through the maze banged against the steel that was preventing Cassian to walk another step in freedom. He had sat quietly in a corner but looked up in surprise, only to pull his face into an angry stare when Teuta got closer to his cell. "You'll have five minutes, Captain Delahaye."
"Captain!" Cassian spat out like the title had a sour taste when the guard walked away. "She isn't one, I should have been Captain!"
Teuta crouched down and grabbed the bars to support herself, looking over to her best friend with sadness. How did he end up here ... He had changed so much over the course of weeks, and it was like she didn't even recognize him anymore. But how could she? There was nothing good left in him, he had done bad things and the attempt to murder his brother was the crowning of his actions. And after Sturmhond would have taken his last breath, Cassian would have gone after Teuta as well. She was sure of it. He gave her the other half of blame on his situation, he thought her and Sturmhond had plotted against him.
"Are you alright?"
"Since when do you care if I'm alright?"
"You're my best friend, Cassian."
"You stopped being my friend when you started this secret treachery against me with my brother."
Teuta's shoulders dropped. She had hoped they could have one last conversation in peace, but it seemed like Cassian didn't care about what happened. Or making things up with the people he had hurt. "We never meant you any harm, Sturmhond was just doing the right thing."
"If you think so highly of him, why are you here and not helping with the preparations for the next mission? I'm guessing the bastard is already up on his feet, like nothing has happened?"
She nodded. "He was health, is currently resting and commanded the crew to stock up the ship. They can manage without me for the moment, I wanted to see you."
Cassian frowned, like he was annoyed and bothered she came. "Why?"
"Do you have one last wish?"
That made him laugh. "Oh, you pity me, now? Or is it your restless mind the one not coming to rest because you want us to part in peace?"
"Both of them," Teuta admitted. "I hate how everything turned out, but I want to know that you left this earth with your issues solved."
"You never trusted me, did you?"
That question threw her off guard and she blinked a few times before answering. "I did. But I stopped after you slapped Arne and you lost my loyalty after not accepting your mistake with the siren nest. Your actions kept piling up and you lost me completely when you wanted to shoot Sturmhond a second time."
"I knew you would say that ..." Cassian muttered. "It's hard to believe you don't have a thing for him."
"If I had, why would that bother you so much?" She thought out loud.
"Because you're my best friend!" Cassian suddenly yelled. The other prisoners stopped talking to each other and turned their heads, to see what was going on. "And he's my brother! I can't let you have each other; you would walk away from me – Just like you did! I knew you wouldn't get along, so there would be no way in a million years that you two would like each other but I forgot how much time you spent on sea. And time did its wonders, didn't it?!"
So, he wanted them for himself. Cassian had never been great with sharing, he always wanted everything and everyone for himself. When he noticed he didn't get their fully attention anymore, he looked into it and noticed that Sturmhond and Teuta started paying attention to each other. Neither of them were fully concentrated on Cassian anymore, which made them angry because that wasn't supposed how it should be in his mind. He came to conclusions that didn't even occur and was so keen on his point of view that he lost all sense of reality.
"You could have talked to us." Teuta tried to stay calm but it was very hard for her. The emotions were fighting inside her, and the anger was on the brim to win over. And she didn't want to fight with him on his last day on earth. In their last conversation. Forever. "We could have worked this out. We could have made it clear for you that we-"
"Us – WE! Is there anything else you think about! By the Saints, listen to you!" He shouted at her. "You're not even denying anything!"
"I'm not in love with him if that's what you mean!"
"Not yet, but soon you will be - You already have feelings for him! And Sturmhond falls in love way too easy, this bastard-"
"Stop it, Cassian!"
His face was red from the anger. "You should have let him drown with the sirens, he's a hypocrite! He's the reason I'm sitting in here!"
"He is your brother!" Teuta screamed, leaning closer to the bars. "And you wanted to kill him, that's why you're in here!"
"Why care if he's dead or alive?" Cassian yelled back, his voice was shaking. "Would you scream at him like that if it would be the other way around? If he sat in this cell instead of me? You didn't even try to get me out of here! But you would have tried if he-"
"He would have never tried to kill you," Teuta spat out. "He loves you, he shot in the air because he didn't want to hurt you!"
"WELL, HE SHOULDN'T HAVE!"
Teuta got up. There was no way they could see eye to eye or have a last decent conversation. She looked at him one last time before she slowly stepped away from his cell. "I wish you well, Cassian. May the Saints of the Sea watch over you on your journey through the endless ocean on the Other Side."
She turned around and walked towards the guard who was waiting for her a few meters away. Cassian was yelling after her and she tried to shield her mind from hearing what he was shouting but she couldn't. A cold shiver went down her spine when she heard his last words before she walked through the door that was locked behind her and blocked Cassian's screams.
"I'll haunt your dreams, and if I find a way back to life, I'll go after you and your little prince. I promise you that! You betrayed me and you will pay for that!"
