The ship rocks me awake. I groggily sit up and rub the sand out of my eyes; the dirty window in the back successfully fends off most of the sun's rays. My gaze finds its way to the empty bed across the room, and I sigh to myself. I wanted to ask her about Captain Swift yesterday, but never found a good time to do so. That’s why I was hoping to ask her this morning, but she’s already gone. From what I learned about her yesterday, Vio’s probably in the kitchen making breakfast, so I might be able to ask her if I go there.

 After a nice stretch, I grab my aether belt and leave the small bedroom. Surprisingly, little noise comes from the other pirate’s rooms as I walk down the hallway and up the stairs. Without the dirty window to protect me anymore, the sun’s blinding rays shine straight into my eyes as I step onto the deck. I try to cover the sun with my hands and walk to the door of the kitchen.

I push it open, and Vio’s one eye meets my gaze as I enter. A grassy, sweet scent tickles my nose while Vio stands on the other side of the counter and continues to chop tomatoes with a large knife.

“Good morning.” Despite her attention being on me, her chopping rhythm doesn’t break. “Are you here for breakfast?”

I’m here to ask her about Captain Swift, but seeing her unfairly beautiful face, a different idea enters my mind. One that would probably be considered sacrilegious. A desire to tease her, to make her so embarrassed that her face turns as red as the tomatoes she cuts, just like yesterday.

I walk over to the counter and stare straight into her brilliant blue eye. “I just wanted to watch a Goddess at work.”

“Well, you’ll have to go elsewhere, because I’m still not a Goddess.”

“You have to be. You’re too—”

“Beautiful to be a normal human, right? You’ve already said that a couple times.” With a sigh, her chopping rhythm ends. “If you’re going to flirt with me, at least come up with something original.”

I'm not confident in my ability to come up with an original line, but maybe one of my aer can. Of any of them, Wallace is probably my best bet. He’s a bit awkward, but he can be flattering. Sometimes. This isn’t a topic I want to ask him about, but if I get to see Vio’s flustered face because of it, it’ll be worth it.

My fingers find their way down to the blue crystal on my belt, and with a jolt, my mind connects to Wallace’s. “This might be a weird question, but do you know something I can say to make Vio flustered?”

“That is a weird question indeed, Mister— no, I mean Miss Aliyah. I will see what I can come up with.”

“Thanks, but please, just call me Aliyah.”

While I wait for Wallace, Vio continues her work. She dumps the diced tomatoes into a bowl and walks over to the stack of boxes and barrels in the back corner. There’s no way to tell what she’s making just yet, but I’m sure it’ll taste great. Nothing a Goddess makes could possibly be bad. It probably won’t be as good as a muffin, but it’ll be great regardless.

“How about you compare her to the stove?”

A moment passes in silence as I process his words.“What?”

“Calling a person hot is a form of endearment, correct?”

“Oh, I get it now. Thank you, Wallace.”

I disconnect my mind from his and wander over to the corner with Vio. “Even if you turn on the stove, you'd still be the hottest thing in the room.”

She turns to me slowly, her cheeks red. “If you're just going to try to distract me, then leave.”

Satisfied at the appearance of tomato Vio, I nod at her and leave the kitchen, closing the door behind me. I smile up at the blue sky, a bundle of clouds blocking out the sun for me, and revel in the success of my mission. Except, now that I think about it, it wasn’t a success. I went to ask Vio about Captain Swift, but I got a little bit distracted and forgot my original intention. There’s always next time. I’m sure there’ll be another chance.

“Hey, little missy!” The pirate with curly hair, Ian, waves at me from across the deck. He sits on a barrel near the captain’s quarters with a grin. “Come on over.”

“You’re gonna scare her away,” the large, strong pirate, Julius, says beside him. “No way she wants to get closer to your ugly face.”

He’s mostly right. I’d really prefer to keep my distance, and it has nothing to do with Ian’s face or how ugly it might be. Ian was the one that kidnapped me to begin with, so I’d rather stay away from him. That, and Vio told me to be cautious around the rest of the pirates. She said she’d protect me if they did anything, but I don’t want to bother her anymore than I already have.

Ian hops off the barrel. “Shut up, like you’re one to talk.” He pulls a deck of cards out of his pocket. “Anyway, you want to play a new complicated card game, little miss?”

“A card game?” My classmates used to play those, but I never got the chance while I was at the academy. They did always interest me, and I wanted to try one, but I don’t know if I should accept the pirate’s invitation.

“Don’t listen to him,” Julius says. “It’s not that complicated.”

Ian points the deck of cards at him. “Rich words coming from someone that cheats every game.”

“I don’t cheat, you just suck.”

Ian rolls his eyes. “Sure, whatever. Anyway, you wanna play, little miss? I’d love to finally play against someone that doesn’t cheat.”

I am curious, and they don’t seem like bad guys. They’re still a little scary, but that’s to be expected. They are pirates, after all. I’ll just be extra careful with them.

I nod and slowly make my way across the sun-bleached deck to where they stand. “I-I don’t know how to play. Is that alright?”

Ian nods and explains the rules to me. At the start of the game, each player is dealt seven cards with numbers ranging from one to ten on them. The players then take turns asking the other player if they have the same card that they have. If they do, they have to give them all of that kind of card. If not, they take a new card from the pile that hasn't been used yet. The goal is to collect as many groups of four of the same cards as possible, and the player with the most groups of four at the end wins.

I don’t want to be mean, so I won’t say it to him, but the game doesn’t seem complicated like he said it was. If anything, it’s more of a luck-based game, so I really have to wonder how he manages to lose every game to Julius. 

“I know, it’s kind of hard to understand.” Ian shuffles the deck. “It’ll be easier to learn if you—”

The door to the captain’s quarters flies open and slams against the wall. “It’s breakfast time!” Captain Swift saunters out and glances at our group gathered by his quarters. “Come on, Ian, Julius, let’s go eat. Unless you want to face Vio’s wrath again.”

“What about her, captain?” Julius asks, eyeing me. “Can’t she come too?”

The captain shrugs. “She can, but I have a feeling she already visited the kitchen this morning. Isn’t that right?” He smirks at me.

After last night, I don’t know what to think of the captain, but at the very least, I don’t want to anger him. He doesn’t want me to go with them to the kitchen, so I won’t.

I nod awkwardly. “I did.”

“Guess we’ll have to play later, little miss.” Ian shoves the cards back into his pocket. “By the way, sorry about hitting you the other night. Now that you’re with us, it won’t happen again.” He and Julius follow Captain Swift across the deck into the kitchen.

And with that, I’m left alone, unsure of what to do. This isn’t my first time on a boat, since I took one to get to the academy, but it’s the first time I’m allowed to move freely while on one. It may have been boring to be locked in my cabin the last time, but I didn’t have to worry about what I would do. If nothing else, I can always climb into the crow’s nest again, but I can’t stay up there all day, since the pirates use it, and I don’t want to get in their way. 

I glance around the deck and the still-open door to the captain’s quarters catches my eye. If I’m going to find something to tell me about Captain Swift, it would probably be in there. But, if I sneak in and get caught, I can’t even imagine what kind of punishment would await me. Since they have Joshua, they don’t need me, so they might just get rid of me. 

For some reason, even knowing what might befall me, I step towards the door. My eyes briefly scan the messy room full of candles and books, and my heart rate speeds up. I’ll surely get in trouble if I’m caught doing this, but Vio said she would protect me. With a Goddess on my side, I have nothing to fear.

I peek over my shoulder at the closed kitchen door and slink into the captain’s quarters. Even if Vio will protect me, I’d rather not get caught, so I quickly look through the stacks of books for anything that might tell me about Captain Swift. To my dismay, most of them are cookbooks, and the rest don’t seem much more useful. I sigh and cross the room as my eyes lock onto a single book resting on the table in front of the captain’s fancy seat. A brown book with its title being scratched to the point of being illegible. 

Every breath feels too loud. Every creak of wood sounds like a door swinging open. But I can’t stop. Not yet. Desperate to find anything, I pick it up and open it to the page near the back that the captain marked with a folded page. The words, “Admiral Senphu” are poorly crossed out with a pen, and above them in the same ink it says, “Loser.” Curious as to what this person could have done to upset the captain, I read on. 

“Former Admiral Senphu was a prodigy at using wind aer. Many believed that he had been blessed by the wind Goddess, Yrina, herself. 

His exceptional skill and boundless speed were matched only by his ruthlessness. He would do anything to complete his missions, even using his own subordinate’s lives as tools if need be. 

It is estimated that during his time as admiral, over 5000 people died as a result of his actions, despite never going to war. Some of those were criminals, some were his own men, and others were civilians that were dragged in by his carelessness. 

Admiral Senphu perished on a mission, and ever since, the First Division of the Noble Aether Navy has functioned without an admiral.” 

This book must be quite old, since I’ve never heard of Admiral Senphu. Although, based on the way it talks about him, maybe there’s a reason for that. Even still, the part about the First Division being without an admiral isn’t true. Her name escapes me at the moment, but Leorio told me about her a lot. She rose through the ranks quickly after graduating, became the admiral of the First Division, and is currently considered the strongest aether in the world.

Wondering why Captain Swift might have this book, I flip through the earlier pages. The book is a rough history of the Noble Aether Navy, barring the last few years or so. If I had to take a guess, the captain uses this book to read up on his natural enemy, the navy, even if it is a little dated. Although, I have to wonder what the history between him and former Admiral Senphu is, since Captain Swift seems to think he’s a loser.

“Snooping around, huh?” Joshua asks beside me.

I jump at his voice and my heart nearly breaks out of my chest. “Jo-Joshua. You scared me. I thought you were the captain.”

He scratches his head. “What are you looking for? Some way to blackmail your way off this ship?”

I set the book back on the table the way I found it. “What? Why would I want to do that?”

He lifts his eyebrow at me. “Maybe because the pirates basically kidnapped us, and now we’re stuck on a dangerous journey with people we can’t even trust.”

His words have some truth to them, but I can’t agree with him. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”

“Oh, really? Is this because of that Goddess of yours?” He scoffs and shakes his head. “What’s so special about her anyway?”

My eyes widen at his surprisingly disrespectful tone. “She’s a Goddess. Do I really need to specify further?”

“No, I don’t want to hear another speech about how beautiful she is.” Joshua shakes his head again and walks to the door. “Just remember, she’s still a pirate. They’re dangerous criminals that can’t be trusted. Be careful.” 

Without giving me a chance to respond, he walks out onto the deck and disappears.

I’m pretty sure he’s worried about me, but he doesn’t have to insult Vio. She said she would protect me, and I believe her. There’s no way she’s lying. And, I don’t know about Captain Swift just yet, but Ian and Julius seem nice. We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but I don’t think they’re bad people. Bad people wouldn’t apologize for hitting me. I know that, because my father never has.