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CHAPTER FOUR ▪▫▪▫▪
CHAOS WAS A GOOD WORD TO DESCRIBE the first time Nikolai had seen Morana.
Dawn was upon them and he had been hired to take a shipment of kruge as well a group of Merchants back to Kerch. The sky was clear and the ocean serene—the calm before the storm.
On the horizon, he'd spotted a fleet of crimson ships, that emerged from thin air and were shuddering like a mirage from the heat would. They'd gotten closer to his own ship and Nikolai's breath was knocked out of his lungs, along with any doubts that the word impossible was a lie. The cursed and haunted ships were being steered by bleeding nymphs of the sea wailing silently in their beauty.
Then Bluebeard's ship had appeared in between the mirage and all hell had broken loose. Safe to say, his first time seeing the Crimson Mirage was not impressive at all once he saw her. Morana stood at the front of the ship, the light of dawn making her face glow as her hair blew in the wind. She'd wiped a trail of blood trickling down her nose and grinned his way once their eyes met. The Crimson Mirage might've been out of the ordinary, a true mythical appearance, but Morana was a siren, a Goddess of the sea, and Nikolai's heart had stopped beating as she stood there.
Her face was the last thing he saw as he slipped into darkness after a rather nasty blow to the head. When he woke up the kruge in the ship was gone, the merchants that hadn't fallen over the ship were riled up, and Tamar had hit him over his healed head for getting distracted by the mysterious pirate princess.
Naturally, from that moment on, he kept wanting to see her again, perhaps get to know this mysterious siren amongst the pirates, and the ocean heard his prayers. And every time he saw the Crimson Mirage right before getting his ship attacked by pirates, she was also there—they favor pirate crews, she'd told him, the nymphs, I mean.
Damn his license.
The Crimson Mirage was a menace of the sea, and no matter how much he warned his crew, for them to beware it was simply an illusion, they fell over to the water anyway, falling right into its trap. And then the pirates attacked. And she was there.
The last time he'd seen the Crimson Mirage was also the last time he'd seen Morana; and now she was merrily chatting away with his navigators, aboard his ship—planning on staying.
It had something to do with the Sun Summoner, this new urge of hers to stay aboard his ship, and it vexed him deeply he couldn't figure out exactly what it was. But that was Morana. A siren in all her might. Tricking him with her beauty, whilst hiding her lies beneath the waters of the sea, and Nikolai was afraid he'd drown if he looked too far.
He didn't trust her, not in the slightest (and she didn't trust him either, he was sure), but she was his friend. A lovely company he had. Someone he could chat away with, as he tried to pry the puzzle she was into order, but there were too many pieces and nearly all of them were face down. That night, when her screams had sliced through the air of the night, and he'd found her curled into herself, pain painted all over her features, Nikolai was sure a couple more pieces had faced up.
