Dark Waters Rising

Idiot

The ivory keys of a slightly out of tune piano bounced beneath the fingertips of a burly, bearded man. Amber ale sloshed out of countless mugs as they slammed onto the bar top in time with the tune. 

Cassius grinned, fresh mead warming his belly as he sang the lyrics of a familiar sea shanty alongside friends and strangers alike. He belted some mid range harmonies that mixed nicely with the other men's voices before grabbing the hand of the beautiful woman clinging to his arm and hauling her to her feet. He bowed swiftly to the maiden, not yet liquored enough for his balance to make a fool of him, and she returned the gesture with a clumsy curtsy. Soon the pair were dancing merrily alongside the others.

Cassius's smile was charming, his eyes a vibrant blue. Though he was getting on in years, he still looked to be in his mid twenties. Many of his friends cursed him for his luck, but only he knew that the secret of his retained youth lurked deep in the caves of Anakondra. It was a secret he would take to his grave, for he'd been the only surviving member of that shipwrecked crew to find it. 

It was luck of course. The few surviving members of that particular crew had been stranded on a remote island with no hope of rescue. He'd wandered into the caves in a desperate search for food or fresh water. It was there he found it. Ancient magic that bound itself to his soul and kept him from perishing while he watched his fellow crew members succumb to starvation and insanity. 

He spent about a year on that island before he was picked up by a crew of siren hunters. Over years aboard that ship, he learned all he could about magic, eventually coming to some sort of understanding about what had happened to him on that island. He learned about the deadly creatures that lurked in the depths, too, rising to the rank of first mate before another shipwreck left him stranded. This one, at least, was close to the mainland, so once the waters cleared, he and several others of his crew were able to make it to shore by clinging to pieces of the wrecked ship and letting the waves pull them home. 

It was shortly after that that he had met Valentine. He'd been a curious discovery. Clearly lost in both mind and body, but determined nonetheless. Cassius was drawn to the man like a moth to a flame, and despite the undirected anger that consumed the man with lavender eyes, the pair became close friends and Cassius was determined to follow Valentine to the edge of the world on his quest for revenge. 

That's how they'd come to pirate the Blight of the Sea together, and Valentine had captained the ship so ruthlessly, he had made them infamous.

It had taken nearly half a decade of friendship for Valentine to reveal his big secret to Cassius. He found it ironic that after years of hunting and killing sirens, he'd befriend one so wholeheartedly. In the end, it didn't matter. The past was the past, and in those days, Valentine brought the future. The gold, the respect, the kinship, and the direction his life needed. In turn, he revealed his suspicions to Valentine that he was unable to die by conventional means. They didn't go into much detail about it, or rather, Cassius didn't, for fear that someone may try to take the magic from him or try to find it again for themselves and abuse it, but Valentine understood that. To this day, he was the only person who knew of Cassius's affliction.

Well he would be, if he was still alive. The last Cassius had seen of Valentine had been with the Kraken's ink marking his palm. 

He was dead now.

The thought saddened him, for Valentine had been like a brother to him, but he pushed the gathering clouds away from his mind and focused on the pretty lass across from him. She twirled beneath his hand, her skirts swaying and the ringlet curls in her corn silk hair bouncing.

When the song finally came to an end after several repeated verses, Cassius was out of breath. He bowed again to the woman and placed a quick kiss on the back of her hand before gesturing for her to return to the booth they had previously occupied. He returned to the bar to order more drinks.