The WindFlyer

Chapter 12

Captain Astoria's PoV

"You."

The word bounces across my roof. I do not acknowledge it as I swirl my scotch in my glass. I knew the prince was up here, he all but declared it when he slammed the small door open. I knock my drink back, the alcohol burning as it travels down my throat. I hear the prince cautiously make his way down my roof until he is looming over me, his shadow blocking out the moonlight I had been bathing in. I peel up at him out of the corner of my eye to see him fuming.

"Good evening, Princess," he hisses at me. I blink once, allowing that to be my own show of surprise. So Amma must have told him. I cock my head at him and deign to finally look at him fully. "It's an honor to finally meet you, Princess Astoria Linnea Roltem." He gives me a mocking bow and using my former title like a weapon against me. I refuse to flinch at it. I refuse to back down.

"You must be mistaken, Prince Draen, the princess is dead, as I told you," I say dismissing what he has just said. He narrows his eyes at me.

"Then you must be a ghost, Princess," he scoffs.

"I am Captain Astoria Roltem," I say with emphasis on the captain part. "Captain of the WindFlyer, the most feared pirate ship yet to sail." The prince crosses his arms over his chest and attempts to cow me by staring me down. I hold that gaze as a snarl manifests on my lip. Two can play at that game. I roll my eyes at his idiocy and poor myself another drink. I take the empty glass next to me and fill it as well. Once finished, I hold it out to the prince.

He sighs and takes it from me before plopping himself down next to me. He looks angry and hurt, but also sad. I peer at him over the rim of my glass as I take a sip and wait for the onslaught of questions I am sure he is dying to ask.

"You lied to me!" He practically shouts. "You told me my betrothed was dead!"

"Everything I've ever done has been to protect this city and these people," I say calmly, "and I did not lie to you. That girl you were betrothed to is dead as far as I am concerned. I gave up that title when I first stepped onto the WindFlyer. That princess did tell me to make the most of my life, maybe not literally, but she did die by my sword."

"You did not tell me who you were, I had a right to know," he says while glaring at me.

"You most certainly did not have a right to know. I didn't owe you anything and... you never asked who I was. I knew all you saw when you looked at me was a filthy pirate..." I say, trailing off at the end. The prince silently fumes, trying to compose a question to ask me. I think it is fair to let him ask, though I do not know why, and I will give him the courtesy of the truth when -- if -- I answer.

"Why?" The first question where I do not know what he is asking of me, there are a lot of actions in my life that could cater to that question.

"Because I wanted to be free, I still want to be free," I say simply. It is the truth and that is all anyone can ask of me, is it not?

"You abandoned them, your people," he accuses, "you abandoned me." Ah, the marriage contract.

"Abandoned you? I didn't know you! I was a girl of barely 7 when my father told me I was to be married!" I say, exasperated somewhat. "As for my... people," I cringe at the thought of who he is talking about, "the people of Roltem are not mine. These are my people."

"The people of Roltem were to look to you for guidance and leadership. And you abandoned them!" The prince shoots back at me.

"The people of Roltem are bloodthirsty mongrels!" I growl. I force myself to rein in my composure before speaking again. "Roltem is the worst offender of the slave trade out there, bringing in the most to harbor. It is a kingdom that rides on the backs of broken and so-called lesser beings. All people are equal, I don't care where you come from or who you are raised to be, there is no justification for ever treating another human like anything but a human.

"I tried, you know, to get my father to outlaw slavery in Roltem. I tried to make him see that it is a vile and cruel institution that violate the very basis of human rights. But my father never listened, and do you know why? Because I am a girl. Because girls are there to look pretty and make children," I spit the last sentence out, the words taste like bile on my tongue. "I vowed that when I took the throne, I would ban it. I would change the kingdom for the better. My father saw this fire in me, he saw it before I even knew what it was, so he decided to sell his firstborn daughter to another king to keep her from 'ruining' the mighty Roltem kingdom. Decided that he wanted his daughter to be chained to a different stone palace on a throne and wanted to deny her what made her happy most: the sea. I never abandoned them, they were never my people to begin with."

Draen is silent for a moment, shocked at what he has learned. I chuckle darkly after taking another sip of the whisky. "Would it have been so bad? To be married to me, I mean? To rule Alture?" The prince asks after finally taking a drink from his glass. I raise my eyebrows slightly before replying.

"Perhaps not and I suppose I can never know because I rushed headfirst into this life without looking back," I say cocking my head slightly, "but it was not my choice to make. I had never known true freedom without the shackles of who I am weighing me down. I longed for freedom, all I've ever wanted was to be free. And can you blame me? Look at the people I've brought here, all longing for freedom just as I do.

"And don't go thinking Alture is without flaws, Alture is full of debtors and assassins looking to make a quick profit. I don't want to rule over that, either," I finish. The prince flinches slightly at the mention of the flaws of his kingdom, as if he knows them all too well. I am sure he is well acquainted with them, seeing as he surely was raised to rule and would have seen them first hand.

"You kill innocent people," he says after a while.

"No," I whisper, "I have never killed anyone who did not deserve it." That haunting scream echoes in my ear, reminding me -- no. I can't fall back to that. I forge ahead and with every word I speak I feel the cage being bolted shut again. "My crew has killed people, yes. But, as I've said, everything we do is to protect what we love."

"Why not become ruler? You could change the world as the queen of a powerful kingdom -- either Roltem or Alture," Draen says, oblivious to the slight pain of my memories, good. I don't need him digging there.

"You know what they say, people never change, there is no hope for any of them to become like this. There is only greed and hate, do not think I did not try and beg and plead for Roltem and her people, do not think I did not learn. There may be blood on my hands but I would sooner spill enough blood to paint the sea red than sit on that throne because that throne," I pause, "that throne is forged from the blood of the helpless and innocent.

My tone is dark as the truth of what I'm about to say forms in my mind, in my throat, on my lips. "I would rather be labeled a cold-blooded killer than sit upon it because that throne is where the true murderers reside."