Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Converse with the cosmos
The Gods were angry.
And so was Nickel Pumperipple.
He was an unfortunate lad. Not much had gone right for him in his twenty years. He had been bullied from a young age, now working as a servant to an arrogant prince and he had around two weeks to save his entire kingdom from slavery.
Not to mention the fact that it was raining.
Bullets of hailstones smashed into the ground, leaving tiny craters into the cobble path as cracks of pure molten gold appeared over the horizon. Overhead, heavy thunder bellowed, loud enough to shake giants from their sleep.
Nick cursed the skies, his wings turning an angry blood red as he peered down at the soaked sheet of paper he was carrying, desperately trying, despite the smudged ink, to read the directions that the Prince had written down for him. Finally he seemed to make a decision - or just a well-educated guess, and turned left down Bergamot street, coming to a stop in front of a long row of shops. He headed into an old and slightly weatherbeaten building with a sign outside reading: ‘Garcia’s maps and collections’.
Inside the shop, it was cluttered and confusing, full of odds and ends. Overhead, large hardback books and miniature handcrafted ships littered the shelves whilst in the corner, old glass bottles with faded labels filled a large open cupboard, their contents seemingly empty. A particularly curious bottle caught Nick’s eye and he went over to inspect it. It was a large bottle, and the peeling label seemed to read: converse with the cosmos.
What could that even mean? He wondered until curiosity got the better of him and he foolishly twisted the lid and peeked inside.
There lay a tiny, perfect star - glowing with life, swelling with the sweet harmonies of the universe. Beauty in its purest form. Nick watched it for a moment and felt all of his stress and worries just melt away, his heart slowing as he became at one with the world. His wings faded into a shining translucent shade, meaning only one thing; his soul was at peace.
For a moment.
“GET AWAY FROM THAT” A woman yelled suddenly, breaking his trance.
Nick looked up to see a large figure appearing on the stairs behind the counter.
“Don’t ever stare at stardust, at least not in its purest form. It’ll kill you, so peacefully you won’t notice. Make your heart beat so slow, you will just simply stop workin’” She explained rapidly, rushing over to Nick and replaced the lid on the bottle.
She was quite beautiful with a familiar smile and striking curly red velvet hair glittering with streaks of gold under the glow of the centuries old chandelier. She was in a strange dress made of snake skin.
“You saved my life,” The fairy whispered, staring at the woman in complete disbelief.
“Yeah, I’m awesome like that,” She replied.
He stared at her, wondering why she seemed so familiar until all of a sudden he recognised her, it was Adeline Vayne. He was sure of it.
The legend of Captain Vayne was a terrible one, one of pain and death, one that… well… that was actually quite awesome to be honest. She was known as many things; a murderer, a lover, a monster, a captain, a myth but most of all she was known for her disappearing act. She hadn’t been seen for five years, going from the pirate captain whose bloodthirsty crew terrorised the western borders of Celestas to a shadow that no - one was quite sure when it would emerge again. Her boat, the Silver Dagger, had been found empty, floating quite happily in the middle of the sea. It had been towed back to land and sold to the highest bidder, from which it had promptly disappeared from the public eye. She had been forgotten.
“Hello? Anyone in there?” The woman asked impatiently, waving an ink stained hand in front of his face. “You gonn’ buy something or just stand here all day gawkin’?”
Nick put the thought to the back of his mind and, remembering what he came in for, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a pile of silver Ari. He dropped them on the glass and the woman began to count them out. As she took a closer inspection of a slightly burnt coin, a little head popped up out of the remaining coins. Sensing the room was distracted, the rest of the dragon appeared. It was a curious breed, with crackling scales as dark as the most expensive obsidian and that let out a mysterious steam from below, just like a teapot. He slowly tiptoed behind a globe and as soon as he was out of sight, he took his chance and scarpered up to a shelf . Then, feeling a dangerously explosive mixture of extremely hungry and extremely angry, he proceeded to set fire to a whole row of miniature pirate ships, as you do.
“MARTIN!” Nickel shouted, angrily.
Martin put the fire out, letting out an annoyed sigh as he did so.
"Um.. ever sorry about that, have you got any maps for sale?” Nick asked quickly, shooting his dragon an angry look behind his back.
“Gonna need a little bit more information than that, but follow me,” The woman replied, rolling her sharp emerald eyes.
She led him into a little area just behind the counter.
It was a pleasant room, an organised chaos of trinkets and treasures from a pirate’s past, mingling with the faint cinnamon smell of shots of charisma from the coffee shop next door. In a corner there was a desk, strewn with paper and above it, shelf upon shelf of maps.
“So what takes your fancy?” She asked, stopping in front of her desk, “You going for a bit of exploring?”
“Actually well, I’m here on the king’s business.” Nick answered, adjusting the ridiculous glasses he had been forced to wear to seem a little more intelligent.
“Ooh posh. So what’ old Basil got you looking for?”
“We’re on a quest for a sword, not sure if you’ll have heard of it, the ’Ultimum diem?”
These last two words seemed to have an immediate effect on the woman. She stumbled backwards a few steps, catching herself on the chair. Her mind raced, memories flooding back as her olive skin turned a deadly pale.
“It means the last -”
“The last fate, I know” She cut in quickly. “Don’t say its name so loud. People don’t like to think about it anymore. Too many deaths.”
She moved towards a small black marble cabinet and unlocked it. Reaching in, she paused before pulling out the scroll. “You do know how dangerous it is, right? No-one has found it before, my only knowledge on it is from the legends and studies. ”
He nodded absent mindedly, eyes anxiously trained on his watch.
She took a deep breath and looked at the map as she passed it to him. Images flickered through her mind as she let go of the parchment, of wide open skies and the glorious scent of danger. She missed it. The thrill of chasing down her enemies, searching for treasure, it had given her a rush that she had yet to find on land. Not that she didn’t love her work, crafting maps from memory and sending naïve travellers on their way, but it wasn’t the same.
But she had a family now. She couldn’t leave them. Her wife would worry too much and after all, she wanted to watch her daughter grow up. She couldn’t miss out on all that, however much she missed travelling the seas.
Nick pocketed the map, called to Martin and started to leave, but he had barely made it past the door before he turned back. He just had to know.
“This is going to sound utterly ridiculous, but you aren’t, by any chance, Captain Adeline Vayne?”
She let out a hollow laugh.
“The one an’ only.”
He looked at her, his face full of awe and his urgent manner dropping right away in the presence of his childhood hero.
“No, no way. It can’t be! No. No? So, where do I start, umm.. So, s - So I have to know, is it true? What they say? That you lost your arm in a shark attack and the selkies saved you?” He asked her excitedly.
Adeliane’s voice dropped in a theatrical whisper, smiling warmly at the young man, “I owe ‘em my life. They gave me a new arm as well, made of salt water and tattooed it for m’, with kraken blood.“
She showed him her arm, pointing out the tattoos, depicting patterns of beautifully dreadful bloodshed.
“And when the tides change, it wanes and waxes, following the sway of the moon.”
He gestured excitedly, with all the energy of a young elf at their first sighting of Saturn, at a scene of a group of orcs being decimated by a gang of unruly pirates.
“So that’s the battle of Rettian? For the diamonds of Dibjual?”
“Ah yes, I can tell you’re good with your history classes. It was an easy fight, but one I will never forget, gave those diamonds to Annie for our anniversary actually. They’ re very bad fighters, the Retta’s; good cooks though. Had one as a prisoner once; out of two jars of pickles and a pile of tinned tomatoes, that man made the best stew me and the crew ever had. No clue how he did it but bloody hell, he could cook. Shame what happened to him really.” She trailed off, staring into the distance.
Nickel took the hint and left, quietly shutting the door behind him as he headed out onto the street. Yet a part of him couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that he had spent so little time with the woman he had always dreamed of meeting.
“Wait!” A voice behind him called.
He swung around, ignoring the muffled protesting from his pocket.
The pirate queen was standing in her shop door, watching him leave, a wistful look upon her face.
“Can I meet you’ crew? See if they have half a chance at this quest?” She asked him.
