Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Pirate Business

Theo had returned from her trip on land with a rush of information. She had been in Takand since the early morning solidifying orders, making sure stores knew where to send the items and doing a bit of shopping of her own. The second she stepped back on the boat Morgana and Cooker were waiting for her to tell her the big news, Ava had decided she was going to be a pirate. Theo's first reaction to the news was a mix of dread and relief. She wanted Ava on her crew; someone smart, quick at learning new things, and apparently knew her way around a dagger. But she kept going over the fact that Ava was a rich girl and she had seen how that story ended a hundred times. Theo would not forgive herself if something awful happened to Ava under her command.

Regardless of her feelings, she was going to give Ava a fair chance and judge her competency without bias. She dismissed Cooker and Morgana and sent them off to go find Ava and tell her Theo was ready to meet. She cleared everyone out of her room once she arrived and settled in her chair, awaiting Ava. Ava walked in with a large grin on her face and she sat down in front of Theo's desk.

"I want to be a pirate," Ava cut to the chase.

"So I've heard," Theo laughed, "I'm not trying to talk you out of it but I am going to go over just a few details and give you time to make a final decision."

"That's fine. I'm sure I won't change my mind."

"Right, well, obviously you're going to have to move out of your room and into the lower decks. You can grab any free hammock. Usually, we would get started on the whole process right away but these next seven suns will be quite busy for all of us here so your training will have to go on pause. If we are successful during our raid then we'll start you off with the process. We'll find you a job on the ship and move you around until you find something that fits. During that, you'll be vetted by Xyra and me just to make sure there is nothing odd going on and then we just hope that you excel at your job and get voted in," Theo said.

"Vetted?" Ava asked, trying to mask her nervousness.

"Aye, just a sit down with me and Xyra. Sort some stuff out with your past. Make sure nothing is going to come back and bite us in the ass," Theo explained.

"Alright," Ava forced a smile, "That seems easy enough."

"That isn't the part I'm worried about. Ava, we are about to go on a mission that we might not come back from. We could get raided, fail at the mission, starve at sea... You have a chance to walk away from all of that uncertainty and settle down," Theo tried reasoning with Ava one last time.

"I lived my entire life caged up because I was afraid of the uncertainty. I am taking risks and it starts with this. I have been on this boat long enough to have confidence that we are not sailing to our deaths," Ava stated.

That makes one of us Theo thought.

She stood up and extended a hand to Ava. Ava stood up and shook it as firmly as she could manage.

"Welcome to the crew, for now, Ava Ableworth," Theo smiled and let go of her hand.

Ava excused herself from the room shortly after and went to her room. She packed what little she had in the bag she had brought with her and went to give up her key. It was easy to find Morgana on the deck, she was shouting at someone in the crow's nest. Ava turned in her key to Morgana and made her way to her new home. The lower decks were less than ideal compared to her cabin. It smelled of people and looked lived in. She saw a few familiar faces among those in their hammocks and she maneuvered around the room finding a space. She found an empty hammock near the wall and she climbed inside. It was more comfortable than she was expecting and the exhaustion she had faced from staying awake the whole night took over her body. She fell asleep, oblivious to the noise and commotion above her as the ship started moving.