Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Suggestion

They had successfully managed to plan a route to Gossem without too much disagreement. A limited number of ports open to them made things a lot easier. Fewer choices meant less fighting. When there was a group of wildly different individuals that had various backgrounds and history, decision making was a difficult task. Luckily, it had been less of a headache that time around. There were only a few hours until everyone was due back on board and most of the women left to spend their last moments in Niveal having fun. Theo was left alone in an empty chamber, nothing but piles of objects surrounding her.

Besides the vote switch between Oceane and Morgana, the meeting went according to plan. She prepared the crew for the cycles ahead and shared everything she needed to. Xyra hadn't stuck around for long, most likely to go spend some alone time in Niveal with Navi. She left without a word which is what Theo expected after the whole Viv reveal. She figured she would get started on what Morgana requested. Theo had promised her that quartermaster was a temporary job and she hadn't made good on that promise.

She searched her drawers for a paper she recognized as a list of her crew members. She took a quill and an empty paper and began to scan the list for potential candidates. After going through the list twice she had three names on there and she was pretty sure none of them wanted it. Quartermasters were usually long time crew members as those were the ones the women tended to vote for. Quartermaster, like every other higher-up position on the ship, was put to a vote. Theo had to make sure whoever they picked to train for quartermaster would be able to get voted in. She was going through the list for the third time when the door opened. It was Ava.

"Welcome back," Theo said glancing up from her list then back down, "Anything I can do for you?"

"No, I was just coming in here to try and search for my books," Ava said, "If that is okay?"

"Go right ahead," Theo glanced back up, flashed a reassuring smile, and looked back down at her list. Ava looked like she was going to ask a question about what Theo was doing but instead she walked further into the mess of the room.

After a long time of sifting, looking, and rummaging, Ava found her books. Theo found herself looking up and staring at Ava so often that she figured she should help. But by the time she offered Ava was already selecting the ones that were hers from a pile. Ava had them all precariously balanced in her arms while she made her way to the door.

"Thank you!" she called out, chin resting on the books to keep them in place, "See you in the morning! I will be swabbing the deck."

Ava did not say it sarcastically but enthusiastically and Theo laughed at that. She was saddened to see Ava leave so soon and Theo was not below asking her to stay, so she did.

"If you're just going to go down to the library and read, you can stay here if you'd prefer," Theo offered, "The light in here is much better."

"You're not too busy?" Ava asked.

"No," Theo smiled and put the papers down, "I was not getting anywhere with what I was doing anyway."

"What were you doing?"

"Making a list of people that would be good to be quartermaster. I've got three out of 30 possible people"

"Is Skins on there?" Ava asked as she walked over.

"Skins? From carpentry?" Theo raised an eyebrow.

"That's the one," Ava said.

"Are you aware of what a quartermaster does? Cause if you did I'm sure you would not have picked Skins," Theo laughed a bit.

"I know what a quartermaster does. I think. They tend to the rooms and look over the cabin girl, introduce new people to the ship, solve disagreements between the crew, talk to the women and they keep you up to date on the crew. Oh, and they count the votes to make sure it goes your way," Ava listed off.