Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Journey

Theo climbed the stairs and stood on the top deck, looking down at her crew. They were all gathered and waiting for her to start. Theo scanned the crowd and to make sure everyone had arrived. Xyra and Morgana were just emerging from the lower decks, escorting three women with them. Theo had sent them to make sure everyone was in attendance given the fact that the crew regularly tried to sleep through these assemblies.

Xyra made her way up the stairs and stood next to Theo, "All set. Everyone's here. Including your redheaded friend."

Xyra looked over to where Ava was and Theo's eyes found her. Theo almost wanted to laugh, of course, Ava the Inquisitive would attend. She probably followed the crowd.

"Good morning, pirates!" Theo began. "As you know, this morning we begin a long voyage to Takand. If the wind favors us and all goes well we should be there before the next cycle. I have a few announcements for us before we begin our journey."

Theo looked around, it was early and the pirates were tired. It was apparent not a lot of them were paying attention. After all, usually, these assemblies that Xyra calls are not very important and the women just want to get to sailing. Theo cleared her throat and spoke even louder.

"Cooker came to me with an idea for how to better divide up the labor. We will be switching to a system of a full working sun and a full sun off. You and your switch partner will decide which person works tomorrow and which will work right now. We will do this for seven sets of the sun and then come together for a vote."

The women's interests were stirred. Whispers were exchanged between them about the new system and Theo waited for a few moments, letting them get the chatter out of their system, before moving on.

"Second, Evana has decided to change her upcoming project. Due to many requests, she will now be making a training room. I will let her fill you in on the details as she is the expert on this," Theo motioned over to Evana who was walking up the stairs.

Once Evana arrived and the cheers the women had commenced had died down, she began to speak. Theo stepped back and stood next to Xyra who looked over.

"How did you sleep last night?" Xyra asked.

"Fine. Thanks for letting me sleep there," Theo whispered back, looking ahead at the crowd.

"Theo... You were having nightmares all night and were gone before I woke up," Xyra said, stare fixed on Theo.

"Now is not the time," Theo said as sternly as she could while whispering.

Xyra knew to drop the subject but she was worried. She knew that the news of Vaith was affecting Theo. It was even affecting her, she had been next to Theo for over 12 lengths and Theo's enemies were her enemies. Having to let him go like that was eating away at her, she couldn't begin to imagine the turmoil Theo was facing. Xyra also knew Theo well enough to know that the lead on Vaith coupled with the upcoming land raid would lead to unhealthy behavior. Staying up, lack of eating, fixating on the plans for the raid and ignoring her own needs and feelings. Xyra would do what she could to stop it but Theo was stubborn and reluctant to face her own emotions at times. This would be a conversation that Xyra had to push her into later. She reached down and took Theo's hand and squeezed it before letting go.

Evana finished speaking shortly after their exchange and Theo stepped forward, "Thank you Evana for the wonderful news. I need you all to pay attention to this next part because it is important. We have a lead on a small hidden island said to house the next camp for Baethian soldiers. They have stocked at least a length's worth of different items that we need.

Right now it is empty. Nobody but a group of soldiers left to guard the supplies. But, like most good things, that is not the case for very long. Training starts very soon and we need to waste no time in getting there. We had originally planned for two nights in Takand but we will not be able to stay for more than a few hours."