Re: A Pirate's (Un)Life for me! (Rovana)
"We're all damned," Damia whispered back. "Our only choice is whose damnation to we want to share ours with."
She fitted the daggers into her pack, and some of them disappeared into her sleeves, or through a slit in her skirt, next to several daggers that were already strapped there along the gypsy girl's leg.
~~~
"No. You'd never have your ship or your crew. Your crewmen would awake to find you gone from your captain's quarters as if you had never been anything but a dream. The Mists are the will of unspeakable evil. An evil that is dead but will never rest. It's only desire is to make mortals join it in this... undeath."
Madam Eva crooked her ancient head at Rovana's question of whether this was a judgement, a purgatory or a test. She nodded, sagely.
"It may be all of those things, Captain Rovana. Only you can determine the result. My Gift of Sight, the power of the Tarokka Deck... they can show you the path. But you alone can walk it. Walk it with all the guile and bravery that you can muster! To come out on the other side of your journey, you will need to become truly worthy of the title: Captain Rovana the Reaver! Not of the sort to simply scare away a town guard or put fear into a fat merchant's heart. No. You must truly be THE Reaver. You have the power to do this within you, girl. But you don't believe in yourself yet. Not truly. You're not yet The Reaver."
Madam Eva paused and smiled at the pirate's next question, about who the ghost was. She nodded, but let Rovana finish and describe her dream with two halves. The woman crooked her eyes and shuffled her cards again.
"Your question as to who the ghost is, is a good one. And it is at the core of why the Mists have called you here. We shall get the answer in a moment. But first, your dream... I believe it is a dream of prophecy. Let me tell you briefly about prophecy, Captain Rovana. There is such a thing as Fate - but it is not a straight line. It is not a map with a known treasure at X marks the spot. It is many maps, and many Xs, and with each great choice you make, some of these maps fade away, leaving only those that remain. This dream, I believe, describes two different maps of your Fate, with two different Xs. At some point, you will commit to one of these visions. But beware... prophecy has driven people mad, or to grisly ends. These dreams may be the Mists showing you half-truths but hiding key information as well. I advise you to be the Reaver you want to be, and stay true to yourself. And what sort of Reaver will you be? Eh? Shall you define such a title as being a heartless one with unimaginable power? Or shall you seek the freedom of a new morning? To tread the waves in the wake of a red dawn?"
The crone shrugged and covered her aged head with a red and blue shawl, intricately patterned in Vistani stylings. She fed Joe another morsel of bread, and stroked him as he eagerly pecked away at it.
"Rawrk! Where's the Rum gone? Wee Woo!"
"Hnh hnh hnh! A fine question, old Joe!" Madam Eva reached beneath her desk and set down on the table four glasses and a bottle of fine, caramel colored rum.
She poured the glasses full, setting one for herself, one for Jasmina and Damia, and the fourth she set in front of Joe to dip his beak in. The bottle, she then passed to Rovana, with a wink.
"You are thirsty, and for what comes next, you'll need this anyway. Now..."
Madam Eva took her glass of rum and downed it in one gulp. Jasmina sniffed at the glass, her expression souring, and sipped at it. She winced, but then downed the bottle too. Damia took her rum straight up like Eva did. Glancing at Rovana as she did so. Joe happily fluttered and dunked his face into the rum, lapping away with his tongue.
"Ahem.... now. You asked to know the ghost's identity. I shall have her tell you herself... through me."
Setting the cards down in front of her, with one smooth motion from left to right, Madam Eva fanned the cards in front of her and put her palms facing upward upon the table. She then locked eyes with "Molly" and stared.
The lamplight in the wagon flickered, and the shadows in the small space grew longer, as though every dark corner became a pool that would slip away into an endless void. The room felt very small now, and claustrophobic to Rovana.
"Stay still. Stay absolutely still." Madam Eva said, seemingly to everyone. "Something else is here with us. Listening. Be careful what you say.... You there. Girl. Drowned spirit. I command you. By the power of Mother Night, I compel you. Speak. Speak to the living, clearly. Tell us. Who are you? Why have you brought this pirate here? What is the bond you have with her? What --...."
Madam Eva lurched backwards, her frame going stiff as a board, and her eyes rolled back into her skull. The image of Molly flickered, the ghost becoming blurred. The shadows in the room now were coiling, as though they were tendrils or snakes and writhing, unliving things. A palpable aura of dread and terror filled the wagon. It was utterly paralyzing.
Madam Eva's head lolled to one side, then violently swung to the other. Then she lurched forward and spoke in a girls voice, not at all her own, but rather, similar to that of what Molly had sounded like to Rovana, the few times she had heard her speak. Her words now were clearer than ever before... and she had an accent. A Barovian accent.
"Rovana... My name... is Moirya. But Molly will do, for I have been dead so long, I remember so little of my life, and I am now more your Molly than anything else. I know only that I was born here, in Barovia, and so great was my desire to escape, that I... I let out a terrible evil, so that I might leave. And leave I did... the evil and I journeyed together out of Barovia and down into the deepest depths of an ancient ocean... I remember the cold and the crushing force on me... and in my first moment of freedom from this place, I died... my corpse food for the fishes.
"I had a choice Rovana. I could move on to whatever gray, godless beyond was in store for me, but if I did, the terrible evil would live again. Or I could stay... and be the lock that kept the evil at bay. I... I realized that I had been a fool. The evil had used me. Betrayed me to my death. I... stayed at the bottom of the ocean for so long... so long... I would not let it go.
"Then... I met you. You were a corpse. Like I had been. You were sinking... down... down... down... and the evil was going to use you. I could sense it. So I acted first. I needed you to live. So I possessed you, and swam with you to the surface of the ocean. And for days I swam with your body. Keeping you in a state of undeath... until you were close to shore. So much of my power was used... my essence so weak, that the evil was threatening to wake. The sword... I put myself and the evil inside of it and gave it to you. But that was it. I could not speak to you, for every time I did, the evil would pull me away! There was only one place that the evil could gather enough strength to break free. Here... in Barovia. Where we have returned. The Mists wish the evil back... to be a part of them once more. But it still yearns to be free! Its spirit has already diffused into the land. It must be bound again before its power returns! I do not know how, but the Seer can help guide you! If you do not, it will consume our souls, starting with my own, to feed its full resurrection. It is... terrible, Rovana. Ancient, and utterly evil! If it lives, no sea will be safe on any world! It is the sire of the bane of all life at sea! The Father of Krakens! The Curse of the Black Spot! It is Dagon!"
The Shadows became alive and the tendrils whipped around the room. Cracks split the wood of the wagon and the spirit screamed! Jasmina shouted and slapped Madam Eva hard! and the Seer's eyes snapped back into focus.
Immediately, Molly disappeared and once more Madam Eva shuddered. The shadows stilled and retreated, and the lamp light returned to normal.
...
"So... you bring with you an ancient evil that the Mists have sorely missed. An evil that desires to be free... to rule over the oceans on every world. This is... beyond what even I had the ability to predict," Madam Eva said quietly.
There was a long pause, in which Rovana was free to speak her mind.