The Light of a Life

© 2019 Samurai, all rights reserved.

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Young, benevolent Nolan was as well-read as every pirate shouldn't be, but he was as rash and foolish as any lad who had his own ship and crew at his command. Fearlessly he sailed the seas, plundering merchant ships and coastal towns, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, wreaking havoc across the land. Though he gave a portion of his stolen riches to those in need, he neglected paying his crew, concerned more with the strangers on the land rather than his friends on the sea. Many of the crew members dismissed it as something brought on by the selfishness of his youth and were not angry – after all, they still had enough to eat, and that satisfied them.

Ask yourself, has any a pirate ever been satisfied by merely having enough food and drink? No. A pirate seeks riches and only riches. Rum as well, of course, but that's beside the point. Why this desire was absent from Nolan's crew, Eros the Wraith knew. He knew all too well.

Eros was a man who had never known fear in his life, and he was quite scholarly, having never picked up a book; despite this, he was a [...] good sailor and could navigate better than the stars themselves. He had known Nolan's father, a wily fox of a man who came from a family of alchemists – he'd gotten rid of the captain before him, poor, naïve Achilles, with poison – and, that being said, Eros had an excellent opinion of Nolan. The crew knew nothing of Nolan's father's experience with poison and so remained oblivious to Nolan's own skills, foolishly remaining loyal to their seemingly kind captain.

Eros knew better.

Nolan's father had passed his knowledge of alchemy down to his son before his death in a battle against the navy, and that included the Siren's Potion. Though he fortunately had never tasted it, Eros had witnessed the terrible things the potion did to those who consumed it. It was used to first brainwash one's enemy, and then. ..

As generous as Nolan seemed, a monster lurked within him, and it looked like the crew was in a tiny bit of danger.

Eros was the only one left to destroy that monster. The time had come.

The full moon shed its frigid light on the sea as the lone ship sliced through the waves, sailing towards the horizon. Shrouded in a ghostly fog, the shadows of the ship tightened their chokehold on the moonlight, refusing to let it penetrate the darkness. It was in this darkness that Eros hid, fear absent from his long ago broken heart. Like a grim lion blazing with silent courage, he crouched for an eternity by the entrance to Nolan's study, his sword at the ready.

"If you're going to kill me, Eros, do it like a man."

The voice was unexpected; Eros didn't even have a chance to move before Nolan attacked. The sword cut into him, but Eros stopped the attack before his arm could be severed. Nolan was faster, but Eros was ultimately more experienced; he knew the layout of the ship by heart and thus was more surefooted in the darkness than the captain. Blocking each and every attack, he fought against the alchemist for hours, the stars above cheering him on with their glittering light.

 But before he killed Nolan, he had to express his complete and utter hatred.

 "They trusted you," he snarled, cutting at Nolan's neck.

 Nolan parried the strike and replied with an innocent smile, "Of course they did. I have everything under control."

 "Including their minds, it seems," Eros said fiercely. "What's next, Nolan? Are you going to walk the path your father took? Are you going to kill us all like the weasel of man you are?"

 The adolescent pirate smiled again, and, knowing nothing but hate, Eros charged forward. Nolan's blade sliced into his skin again, but he didn't care; he didn't stop, smashing the captain into the mast before raising his sword for the final strike.

 His dark eyes burned, unfathomably despising the man they looked upon. "I hate you."

<p data-p-id="1d82dc94006a7482a001816e2a794506"> "Don't hate," Nolan whispered. "Hate blinds you. Love, my friend . . . we are all brothers . . ."

<p data-p-id="767357b38a8d84e094a92b59d8cf5b3b"> His whisper joined the haunting chant of voices, and Eros's furious eyes finally recognized what had surrounded him. Souls, glowing with a supernatural light the color of an undead sea, reached for him. In life, they had been comrades. In their fate worse than death, the fate brought upon by the Siren's Potion, the crew were brothers, souls united by their sole purpose:

<p data-p-id="fa8e7b2f166d7a7d59fc13804d0109d8"> Protect their master.

<p data-p-id="b353e420cbe7f4d42af2cddcab064104"> "I have been kind to them," Nolan said, watching as Eros was seized by two of the souls of the sea. "I have given them protection and order, all that is asked of a leader."

<p data-p-id="02111459c0473ffb58a2add4964e0056"> He smiled once more, his face darkened by the shadows of the starless night - his benevolent greed and good-willed deception had stolen the stars from the sky and bestowed their light upon those in darkness. But the light of the stars and the moon wasn't enough, for the world's suffering never ended. More light was needed, and the light of many lives to come.

<p data-p-id="990bc6160f2eb245d2abf8cd1fe82dcd"> "Most loyal souls," Nolan said to the crew, "you shall have your riches and your power, at long last. The light of a life is more valuable than any treasure . . ."

<p data-p-id="0321d5eda96a99bed5b181c91f459752"> The souls swarmed around Eros; his terrified screams were lost to the night as his life was drained. At last, he was gone, and Nolan held the light of his life in his hand, a pulsing, shimmering orb not unlike one of the stolen stars.

<p data-p-id="44b565d42130e30ac163499fdea36e6b"> "My brothers," he addressed the crew, "here is your treasure."

<p data-p-id="cf6d2048a427e06e1377c9bb624ba897"> Casting the light into the mass of souls, he strode to the ship's wheel. The souls divided pieces of the light amongst themselves - evenly, of course - and Nolan spoke to them once more.

<p data-p-id="c4fe07bdfe6d46dbf087f108cecc5f7d"> "There will be more treasure to come, brothers." He pointed to the north. "We sail for England."