Post by Zen on Apr 2, 2015 21:41:52 GMT -5
A few days before Treyjen's Prelude.
New man attacked Nalyra. It was a simple enough note, delivered to him by Umbregel’s faithful little blue flit, a hastily scrawled note on a scrap of hide tied to the creature’s leg. The blue waited calmly on the table bolted to the floor in the middle of his cabin, appearing to be napping, completely nonplussed by the rage rolling off of Treyjen in waves. The flit had grown quite used to his sudden mood shifts over the turns and had never been the subject of his displeasure, therefore had nothing to worry over. What made the man even angrier was the fact that there was no mention of how his little sister was faring, simply that she had been attacked.
He had been rather content before the flit had popped into his cabin so suddenly. Night had fallen and he’d taken to his cabin, trusting Jusikar at the helm until dawn broke. Yelanna had even been gracious enough to join him and the two of them had been quite enjoying each other’s company when the blue had interrupted their fun. Now the woman lounged on his bed, half clothed, while he stood at the table, drumming his fingers on its wooden edge as he stared down at the scrap of hide. His arm swung out, sending a chair tumbling over as he was not able to contain himself any longer. The blue still didn’t move, or even open its eyes to see what had happened.
He turned as Yelanna stepped up behind him, running her hands over his bare back soothingly. “Get out,” he growled at her, taking a moment to cup her cheek with his hand in some attempt to make sure she knew his displeasure was not with her, “You don’t want to be here right now, love.” He had no desire to take his anger out on her, and at the moment his control was tenuous at best. Luckily Yelanna had been with him for a few turns now and she knew his moods quite well. With a disappointed sigh she turned to retrieve the rest of her clothing, tugging it on quickly before she left him alone. His fist pounded down onto the table as she closed the door behind her and he turned back to the blue flit awaiting him, “You’re going to take a message back for me.” The blue blinked lazily up at him.
He spent a number of minutes angrily searching for something to write with, opening and slamming drawers until he finally found something. He flipped the scrap of hide over and wrote his own short message. Coming over. “Come here then!” he growled at the firelizard, who hopped over with a scolding peep at him for his tone, which he ignored. He tied the scrap back to the blue’s leg, “Back t'Umbregel! Now!” The flit padded to the edge of the table, leaping off and taking flight, disappearing a moment later. Grabbing his coat, Treyjen threw it on as he headed out on deck, stepping up to the deckwall and training his sea blue gaze back to where the Sea Dragon and Bright Wing followed. He lowered one of the rowboats into the water and climbed down into it, making short work of the distance to the Bright Wing. When he reached it, a ladder was thrown for him. Stepping down onto the deck of his sister’s ship to see Umbregel waiting for him, his blue flit settled on his shoulder, he demanded immedaitely, “What. Happened.”
“New man we picked up from the Relevani got t'her,” the man raised his hand as Treyjen opened his mouth to interrupt, “Surprised her and got a good swing atter, but we got t'him quick after that. He’s below under watch. Nalyra’s in her quarters, healer insisted she rest when she said she was a bit dizzy.” Treyjen didn’t wait to talk anymore about it, turning and heading toward the steps that led below, reaching into his coat for one of the knives he kept handy. Umbregel followed behind him, “She… wanted t'deal with the man tomorrow….”
“We don’t always get what we want,” he spat, spinning around to face the other man, “What on Pern is there t'wait for? He can’t be trusted! D’you plan t'stop me?”
The man raised both hands, “O'course not, captain… just thought y'should know her orders.”
He stepped closer, leering down at the man, “Well these are my orders… and this is my fleet.” He turned back, heading down another flight of stairs until he came to a storeroom door, a man named Kallon leaned against the wall next to it.
He looked surprised to see him, “C-captain?”
“I’m ending this,” he growled, but the younger man stepped in front of the door, blocking his way. Treyjen’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before narrowing once more, “Move.”
Kallon took a deep breath and shook his head, “Captain Nalyra ordered he not be harmed 'til she’s had a chance t'deal with him herself.”
He grabbed the man by his collar and pushed him up against the door, “Captain Treyjen is ordering you t'move, boy.” With wide eyes, the man glanced behind Treyjen to where Umbregel stood, the older man jerking his head to indicate that Kallon should get the heck out of the way already. Treyjen stepped closer to draw back his attention, “You can step aside, or I can toss you aside.”
Swallowing, Kallon shook his head, “Y-yes, sir… Captain… sir….” He slid away from the door as Treyen released him, looking helplessly on as he pushed inside.
The room was dark, there were no portholes on this level of the ship and no glows had been put into the room, or perhaps they had been removed when it had gained its current occupant. The man in question was tied up on the floor. Treyjen leaned down to pull the man to his feet, dragging him out into the hall and handing his knife to Kallon, “Free his feet.” Kallon took the knife hesitantly and leaned down to cut the rope that tied the man’s ankles.
“Sharding Threadspore! I hope you’re all caught in a Fall!” the man cursed at him.
Kallon handed his knife back and a cold smile settled on Treyjen’s lips, “If only we were… I’d derive oh so much pleasure from watching Thread devour you.” He tugged the man in front of him, holding his arm tightly and pushing him forward as he led him up on deck. Umbregel and Kallon followed after him. He stopped at the deckwall, turning the man around to face him, “I’m not throwing you in to drown like we did the rest of your crew. I’m not giving you a chance to live. I’m giving you a far easier death… one I’m loathe to grant you. But you see… you hit my little sister….” He spun the knife around one finger thoughtfully, “I’ll not give you another chance to lay a hand on her.”
The man spat at his feet, “Going to talk me to death about your wherry-faced deadglow of a sister?”
“Using your last words to insult her? Very well, they were yours to waste,” he pushed the knife blade up against the man’s throat, slicing through soft flesh before the man had another chance to speak, and pushed him back over the deckwall to plunge into the sea. He turned to Kallon, reaching out to grab the bottom of the younger man’s shirt, cleaning the blood from his blade, and hands, as he looked the man in the eye, his voice dangerously quiet, “Do not… ever… stand in my way again.” He smiled softly, “I know my sister… likes you… so consider yourself warned.” Kallon was Nalyra’s man, she had brought him on to her crew, and he was aware she bedded him on a fairly regular basis. He was incredibly loyal to her, and for that Treyjen could forgive him… once.
Kallon swallowed again, looking down at the blood on his shirt, “Y-yes sir… th-thank you, sir….”
“Good lad!” Treyjen replied cheerfully, sliding the knife back into its sheath in his coat. He was in a much better mood now, “Now then… Nalyra needs her rest, I’m sure… so I’ll check in on her tomorrow.” He wasn’t avoiding her now that the heat of the moment was over and he realized just how angry she would be at him for undermining her authority, nope. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done this countless times before. He waved casually behind him as he made his way over the side of the ship, down to the rowboat he'd taken, and set off for his own ship without a backward glance.
He woke up with a start to a door slamming. He pushed up to his elbows, squinting blearily through one eye at the form rapidly growing nearer until a stinging slap landed on his cheek, “Shove Between, Treyjen!” He blinked rapidly, trying to wake up and figure out just what was going on. That was Nalyra’s voice wasn’t it? What was she doing on his ship? “Get out, Yelanna!”
The warmth beside him left quickly as the woman slid out of bed, “Wait….”
“No! You don’t get to just do whatever you want on my ship and then come back here and do whatever you want on your ship! OUT YELANNA!” Nalyra all but screeched at the other woman as she hurriedly put her clothes back on and slipped out the door as fast as she could, “How’s it feel to have your crew ordered around by someone else, huh?” She shoved her brother back down on his bed and leapt on him, pummeling him as hard as she could with closed fists as he instinctively covered his face with his arms.
“Na-… Nalyra! Stop… st-… Nalyra!” he finally managed to get ahold of her wrists, holding them firmly as she tugged back, trying to free herself, “Nalyra, enough.”
“No! You never listen to me! You never let me handle anything on my own! I’m a grown woman, a captain! The Bright Wing is MINE. The crew VOTED! You don’t respect me, you don’t care how your meddling affects my leadership! You don’t care about anyone but yourself you sharding son of a watch wher!” She shifted, kneeing him in the groin. He gasped and his grip loosened enough for her to pull free. She slapped him again while he was helpless to stop her and stood, glaring down at him, “How dare you go behind my back on my own ship, with my own crew!”
Treyjen took a moment to catch his breath as the pain receded, “Na… you’re being unreasonable-”
“No, YOU’RE unreasonable!” she interrupted quickly, “You always do this, always, and I won’t stand for it anymore! Keep it up and you’ll wake one morning to one less ship in your fleet!”
He raised one hand for peace, “You’re… just angry… you don’t mean that-”
“Oh, don’t I? You’re not the only one with men loyal enough to steal a ship with you. Try me, Treyjen,” her amber eyes blazed with fury as she stared him down, “I’m sick of you deciding everything for me and ignoring my orders and forcing my crew to disobey me! Selfish tunnelsnake spawn!”
“Selfish?” he pushed himself up indignantly, “I stole a ship for you.”
She gave a short, cold laugh, “For me, huh? Yeah, I’m sure it didn’t have anything to do with how much you hated father and Jeylokar and wanted to stick it to them both.”
His gaze narrowed, “If that was all it was, Nalyra, I would have left far sooner.”
She rested her hand beneath her chin, looking mockingly curious, “Oh, yes… I’ve always wondered why you stayed for so long when you clearly hated it so much?”
“I stayed for you, shard it all!” he growled, “After what he did to Jeylokar, what he did to me, you think I would have left and let him use you as nothing more than a pawn to be sold to some stranger for the benefit of his business ventures, risked him laying a hand on you? You were finally sharding happy on my ship before he tried to pull that!”
“No… no, you don’t get to do this! You don’t get to play hero and try to win me over with something that happened turns ago when you keep doing this to me over and over!” She glared down at him still, shaking her head.
“I’m just trying to take care of you… like I always have...-”
“I don’t need you to take care of me! I’m not a little girl!” He reached out for her but she stepped away, “Don’t touch me! STAY OFF MY SHIP!” She spun around and made for the door.
“Nalyra, you’re overreacting-” he cut himself off at the look she threw back at him. If looks could kill… well it was a good thing they couldn’t. She ripped the door open and slammed it behind her and he fell back onto his bed with an exasperated groan. Why couldn’t she just let him look out for her, like she used to? Hadn’t she been the one who came to him, in tears and angry, when their father had told her about her upcoming marriage? Hadn’t he pleaded her case for her, taken her away when that hadn’t worked, kept her free? What did she have to complain about?
All he did was kill some worthless Threadspawn that had threatened her. Here he was doing her dirty work for her and she reacted like this? If she’d done what she should have and immediately killed the man herself, or at the very least ordered him killed, they wouldn’t be having any problems with him having to step in. She insisted she was a grown woman that could take care of herself and yet she continued to make these decisions that made her seem nothing but girlish. Threats to his crew, his way of life, and especially to his sister or himself, were to be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly. Until she learned that, she could expect him to make more decisions for her.
Surely she wouldn’t take the Bright Wing and go off on her own? He had enough of his men on her ship to make that decision lead to nothing. The only reason it had worked for him was because he had made sure all his crew were loyal to him before he’d decided to take the Storm’s Eye and flee with Nalyra. All his crew had agreed to it… though a number had been hesitant, but their loyalty to him had won them over in the end. Men like Umbregel could reason with the rest of the crew, dissuade them from agreeing to follow Nalyra off on their own. She may have a few staunch supporters on her ship, men that would stand by her no matter what she decided, but she needed a full crew to man the Bright Wing, and he was confident she didn’t have the full loyalty of enough men for the job.
He winced slightly at his thought processes. He wasn’t supposed to think this way about his sister. He wasn’t supposed to have to manipulate control over her. And yet he had been doing just that, sending a man here and there to join her crew… good men, hardworking… loyal to him. Needless to say, he had learned from his father’s mistake. He wasn’t going to let anyone he thought he could trust steal one of his ships… especially not his little sister.
