｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
𝔞 𝔰𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔪 𝔬𝔣 𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔰
un. — fae tears!

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Plush silks and furs grazed the blonde's half dressed body, her sea blue eyes fluttering around the room frantically before settling on the silks and fabrics seemingly floating down from the ceiling by themselves — hovering dangerously close to the multitude of candles that provided a small semblance of light in the otherwise darkened room.

It was smokey in the room, the scent of lavender and jasmine was an overwhelming intrusion upon her senses, the woman much preferring the fresh scent of the sea air from the comfort of her ship. And rum, one could never go wrong with the scent of rum lingering in the air.

With her lips pursed into a frustrated scowl she attempted to put her white shirt on whilst simultaneously trying to free her left hand from the rope binding her limb to the bed. Valencia strained her right arm over her left trying to reach for her sword that sat on the bedside table, glistening mockingly in the candle light.

Val cast an annoyed look at her boots across the room, thinking of her daggers sitting within them. Biting her lip she glanced at the candle sat just within reach, before glancing hesitantly to the rope binding her arm. Managing to get a tight grasp on it with her non-dominant hand she set out to free her left.

Just as she raised the candle to the rope the heavy wooden door was flung open. The figure in the doorway was hulking and intimidating, his frame hardly fitting in the doorway as the shadows of the room clothed him in darkness. He slowly stepped into the light revealing a tanned face, dark eyes, long unruly hair -- his beard just as untamed, and a slitted eyebrow. His face was set into a serious expression of contempt as he looked from her to the burning candle she held inches away from her wrist.

"Do you seriously wake up in the mornings with the intentions of making my job protecting you harder, Captain?" The man said with an eye roll.

"Gabe! Come cut me loose, before she gets back!" She whispered harshly, the large man sighing before he crouched down beside the bed placing the candle out of her reach before taking his dagger out and making quick work on the rope binding her.

Val let out a sigh of relief rubbing her sore wrist as she pounced from the bed. Shrugging her left arm into her shirt finally she shuffled her feet into her boots and grabbed her jacket and hat, "So Cap, did you get it?"

"What?" She feigned ignorance, Gabe's face dropping, "Oh this?" Val pulled a clear vial from the back pocket of her leather breeches. Inside appeared to be a small amount of water.

"Bloody hell, you really did it?" He questioned shaking his head as the two made their way out of the home and down to the docks, "It's almost impossible to collect fae tears."

The people milling about the town were painfully ordinary, for a moment Val pondered why a fae would even be there. It was no secret that whilst their world was overrun by a multitude of different species that were mostly able to live in amicable harmony, the non-magic community found it the hardest to get along due to jealousy and spite of their ordinariness. Of course Val and her crew were all of non-magical descent, but the jealous, prejudice tended to come from the lords and ladies, kings and queens, whereas the common folk just tried to not get caught in the middle of the feuds.

Pirates could be human or magical, there was no requirement to be anything other than themselves. Most people despised the pirates equally, for their looting and plundering of towns was not appreciated. Val subconsciously pulled her hat further over her eyes, another reason that it was strange to find a fae there was that the country of Osmaya was ruled with an iron first by the tyrant King Septemis, he had a hatred for all magical creatures and law breakers such as pirates, he was quick to send anyone he considered unseemly to the noose. Luckily for them, the town they were residing in was a seaside town far from the capital, and they wouldn't be there much longer.

"Eh, tears of sadness or joy perhaps," her pink lips pulled into a smirk as she swiped a tankard of mead from a market stool and continued walking, "tears of pleasure? Not as difficult, though it did take two days longer than I expected... and a marriage proposal from her."

He stopped in his tracks, "Please tell me you didn't marry a fae girl?"

"Of course not," she scoffed, "she had to ask her father first, that's where she is right now, hence why we need to leave before they get back." They reached the edge of the dock and she spotted her beloved ship in the distance.

The Dauntless was an imposing ship, a ship that had once been her fathers before her. The sails were a deep plum, swaying in the wind harshly, and Val could just about make out the golden hourglass symbol upon them. It was certainly a beautiful sight for her eyes, as it was not just a ship — it was freedom.

Her eyes scanned the dock for a longboat, only to come up short. At that moment the two heard an angry screech behind them, standing a few feet away was a beautiful yet enraged woman with a face as red as her hair, a stern looking large man stood imposingly behind her. Val winced slightly, being on the bad side of fae was not something she wanted to stick around for, "Time to go!"

Val started tying a rope around her and Gabe's waist, her gaze flickering from the weight it was attached to, to a tilted piece of wood, and finally to her ship sat out in the water. Gabe catching onto her plan shook his head frantically, "No! Not again- this never works."

His words fell deaf upon her ears as she grinned madly and pulled a dagger from her boot, "Oh ye of little faith," by then the fuming fae girl was only metres away from the two, "Aine love, it never would've worked out between us."

With that she cut part of the rope and clung tightly to Gabe as Aine screeched in anger behind them. For several moments they were airborne, Val whooping with joy whilst Gabe had his eyes tightly shut. All too soon the two were crashing back down, and instead of landing on the deck of the ship as planned they instead crashed into the icy depths a few feet from the ship. The crew rushed to the edge of the ship, searching the waters with their eyes when two heads suddenly emerged, spluttering water and shivering from the cold.

"I told you it never works!" Gabe grumbled as the two swam closer to the ship and started climbing the line thrown over for them.

"I'm starting to think you're the problem," Val grumbled, "you're too heavy, if you weren't there it would have worked."

"If I wasn't there you would still be tied to a bed," he paused thoughtfully as they finally made it on deck, "or you'd have set yourself on fire."

Val rolled her eyes, allowing a crew member to pass her something to dry herself off with, "Not going to live that one down I see."

"Good to see-,"

"-you made it out alive, Cap!" The Anson twins seemed to materialise out of thin air on either side of the blonde, she sighed tiredly at their antics, she had stopped trying to figure out which was which long ago and instead simply referred to them both as Anson. The two were meances and Val was certain they must have had some trickster blood in them.

Rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, Val found her way to a desk and rolled out a map and a list, crossing out the scrawled words, tears of a fae. Circling their location on the map, she drew a line from where they were - Blackhill a small seaside town on the edge of the country of Osmaya - to where they needed to go next.

"So, do we have our next heading Captain?" Maura Turner, a woman who towered over her and who she most certainly would not want to be on the bad side of, spoke from behind her with her hand grasping the handle of her leather whip subconsciously, Turner's dark eyes scanning the map, and the location that had been circled.

It seemed their journey would be taking them to The Sea of Sorrows.

AUTHORS NOTE!
Ahhh the first chapter is finally here!! I want to say a big thanks to everyone taking the time to read this story I'm really excited to share it with you guys.

Remember to vote, comment and or share please lovelies if you enjoyed <333

Unedited
-summer