By: Bryant R. Haake, Honors College, Presidential Honors Student, English Major
“I’ve some questions about your so-called prophecies, Ms. Cassandra,” Heilyn said as he pulled out another chest.
They were already on their fifth of the day, leaving sixteen afterwards. The other five had taken an hour and a half to complete. Heilyn hadn’t said it yet, but he was impressed with Cassandra’s skill with numbers and money, though he turned out to be right about her previous knowledge of money. Or, for better phrasing, her lack-thereof. It was more than once she had to stop and ask for reminders of what each coin was valued in comparison to each other.
“I can try to answer them, if that’s what you like, Captain Payday,” Cassandra replied, finishing the last few numbers on a page, filling it up and grabbing another to continue.
“Whaddaya mean, try?” Heilyn asked. “If I recall correctly, you said you went to school for prophecies and all ‘at.”
“I did, yes, but if I recall correctly, I also said that my prophetic capabilities ain’t like nobody else’s that I’ve ever met. They can’t teach what they don’t know.”
“Fair enough,” Heilyn said with an eyeroll. “Anyways, I mainly have one question actually.” He cracked open the chest and began to pick out coin after coin, from copper to iron to stone and finally silver. “If yer powers of future-telling are so great, why were you so surprised yesterday when we cracked you outta that ship, huh?”
“Well, that’s probably because of you, Captain Payday.”
Heilyn raised a brow. “Imma need more of an explanation than just that if you don’t mind, Miss.”
“Oh, I just mean that you probably made the things I saw a bit off.”
“That is… still wildly unhelpful, Miss,” Heilyn sighed. “Assume I know nothing about what it is you do exactly-”
“Because you don’t?”
Heilyn pursed his lips. “Yes. Because I don’t Assume I don’t know, because I don’t. Explain to me exactly why I specifically made your vision wrong.”
“Well, it’s actually fairly simple still,” Cassandra said with a smile. “Prophecies have a tendency to give false information when major contributors to the prophecy don’t believe in prophecies. Therefore, since you were leading your crew against Bolton’s, I suspect your unbelief caused what I saw to be wrong.”
“That is… remarkably dumb,” Heilyn admitted. “How can anyone ever trust a prophecy in that case?”
“Well, not all prophecies are about people,” Cassandra explained over the clinking of coins. “I’ve told the weather, predicted animal and monster attacks, and more like that. Also, the past is set, so unbelief doesn’t affect anything I see which has already happened.”
“Hmph.” The chest was about a quarter through now. “Well, what did you see?”
“I beg your pardon, Captain Payday?”
“What did you see in your visions? You’ve made it clear that you used your prophetic skills to see whatever attack Riot began yesterday. What did you see that was different to what happened?”
Cassandra grinned. “Would you like me to show you?”
She set down her paper and quill and held out a hand. Heilyn hesitated, not sure why he was suddenly feeling apprehensive. Was it the strange look in her eyes? His hesitancy to touch someone who’d only yesterday been captive? Despite himself, he grabbed her hand.
It was like a shock of lightning coursed through his veins, sending him through space and time before he crash landed into freezing cold water. He could see the sea before him, as well as four ships, but he could not move from his place among the clouds.
“Are you comfortable, Captain Payday?” a voice asked.
“Who- what’s going on here?” Heilyn’s voice rang in a panic. He looked down, but realized he could not see his own body. In fact, there was nothing there to see.
“I am showing you my vision,” the voice—Cassandra’s voice—explained. “Therefore, you have little control here. It is like seeing through my own eyes while I still control my body.”
“Take me back,” Heilyn yelled. “This isn’t normal. I don’t want to be here!”
“Aww, don’t you trust me?” Cassandra coo’d. “I promise you’re safe. No harm can come to you here.”
“I only met you yesterday, Miss,” Heilyn said. “I don’t know you well enough to trust you!”
“That hurts my feelings.” The sea began to close in as Heilyn’s sight rapidly approached the vision. “Either way, I promised to show you, so I’m gonna show you. Don’t be afraid.”
Right before hitting the sea, their speeding sightline leveled out and began to approach one of the ships, still moving quickly. They rose up to meet the deck, displaying the main ship of Riot’s armada, the one Heilyn had thought Riot would be on. This time, he was actually on the ship, standing next to a man in a green sailor’s suit. Heilyn recognized him as the man who had been with Riot on the other ship.
“Captain,” the man in green began, “Captain Vexx’s crew is with the others. I think perhaps it might become us to avoid him and-”
“Absolutely not, Leafy!” Riot exclaimed, earning a frown from the green man, Leafy.
Leafy? Heilyn thought. I know that name, but that man is supposed to be one of the oldest pirate captains still sailing the seas. This can’t be him. He’s far too young.
“Captain, I know you are eager to duel Captain Vexx, but I have it on good authority that he may not be with his crew at the moment. The word on the seas is that he’s died in combat, taking down-”
“-A whole fleet of pirates from the Syndicate, yeah I get it, first mate. That’s ma whole reason for wantin’ ta face him on! Our battle will live among the legends for centuries to come!”
Leafy scoffed, but stayed silent. The vision suddenly began to move once again, and time moved with it. They were suddenly back in the sky again, this time watching as the battle unfolded. Like last time, the Forsaken defended the rear flank while the Stormsailer took on the other two boats. When they were close enough, everyone from Riot’s boat jumped overboard with impressive strength, each one jumping at least nine yards, with Riot himself jumping nearly fifteen, rocking the Stormsailer upon landing.
From there, the battle went poorly for Jasper’s crew. After taunts from Riot, he and his crew were able to easily overpower most of their opponents. Within mere minutes, Jasper was the only one left. He braced himself against the mast of his ship, having sprained an ankle in his fight. He held a cutlass with two hands, the edge of the blade sparking with the same electricity that sparked behind his enraged eyes.
The scene forwarded itself again. All three ships surrounded the Forsaken, pelting it with cannonballs left and right. Riot looked disappointed; no one seemed to be on board the Forsaken. No crew, captain, or otherwise. It was completely deserted.
“Riot changed the plans to stop you all from escaping,” Cassandra said. “That’s all he could think may have happened for your ship to be deserted.”
“We wouldn’t have done that,” Heilyn said. “Not in a million years. Vexx built that ship with his own two hands. Him and Hacksmith.”
“But Bolton didn’t know that, did he?” Cassandra asked. “He never saw any sort of captain on the ship in this vision, so he assumed Vexx would still be captain.”
Heilyn tried to nod before remembering he had no body or head.
“Aye, makes sense,” he said instead. “Though, if you think I’m a good fighter, you should’ve seen Vexx. He was my superior in every way.”
“Did he teach you to use the rope?”
“No.”
Cassandra was quiet for a moment, perhaps waiting for an explanation or further information, but Heilyn offered none.
“Is that all there is to this future sight, Miss Cassandra?” Heilyn asked.
“Yes, allow me to-”
Heilyn’s vision suddenly fractured, like a nail thrown at a sheet of glass. The landscape changed, the images of the sea falling away to reveal what seemed to be a classroom of some kind.
“Miss Cassandra, I thought we were leaving.”
No response.
“Miss Cassandra?”
Again, no response.
“Miss Cassandra, please stop messin’ around with me like this,” Heilyn said, panic growing in his tone. “I do not appreciate this kinda treatment of-”
The door to the classroom slammed open, and a flood of tired-looking children entered. They were all of different ages, primarily boys. Each one found a desk to sit at, plopping into their chairs begrudgingly. From a side door, an older woman walked in, steadying herself on a cane.
Just as she was about to speak, a final girl ran into the room, taking her space near the back. She looked like a younger version of Cassandra, but much healthier looking. No scars or bruises blemished her olive skin, but she still looked tired. She was smaller than most of the other children, though she looked like she was probably older than half of them.
“Cassandra,” the old lady scorned, grabbing a long ruler from off a chalkboard stand, “why are you late again?”
“It won’t happen again, Mrs. Darcy,” the young Cassandra replied feebly.
“I didn’t ask if it would happen again, young lady,” Mrs. Darcy snapped, brandishing the ruler like a spear. “I asked why you were late.”
“Well… I thought I saw class cancelled today, ma’am, but then the others were getting ready and I wasn’t ready and so I had to hurry and change into my uniform, but then-”
Cassandra was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit from Mrs. Darcy. The students waited for it to calm down, but after a full minute, the old lady fell over, still coughing, but was able to spurt out, “CLASS DISMISSED!”
“Cassandra, what is going on here?” Heilyn asked, snapping himself from whatever stupor had caused him to watch for so long. “Cassandra, this isn’t funny! I don’t want to see your own mem-”
Before he could finish his statement, Heilyn’s vision went dark.
Heilyn woke up on his back, surrounded by his crew.
“You seem to have taken a tumble there, Captain,” Deighly said with forced humor.
“What’s going on?” Heilyn asked. “Where’s Miss Cassandra?”
Deighly’s face screwed into a frown. “Well, we all heard you give a yelp, so I entered to see what was going on. There I found her gripping your hand tightly, smoke pouring from her mouth, and her eyes aglow with white fire. It was real creepy, Captain.”
Heilyn leaned forward off his back, looking around for a moment before seeing Cassandra laying face-down on the flood behind the crew. He scrambled to his feet and pushed through the crowd, turning her over to feel her pulse.
“We didn’t kill her or nothin’, Captain,” Deighly said. “We just knocked her out. You looked like you were in pain, and we didn’t know what was going on.”
Heilyn lifted her head up, feeling something sticky on her hair. When he removed his hand, it was red with blood. There wasn’t much, but it made him mad.
“Men, I understand your reaction,” Heilyn said, trying to keep his voice steady, “but she was trying to show me her prophecies on my own request. If I catch someone hurting her again, they will be forced to pick barnacles from the hull. Am I understood?”
The crew went silent. Heilyn thought he might’ve gone too far before he turned around and saw them all smiling. They all nodded and filtered out of the room. Deighly stayed behind a moment, smile still plastered on his face, before he shook his head with a chuckle and left.
What was that about? Heilyn thought.
He shook his head, trying to focus. Cassandra was hurt, but not terribly. Deighly knew the correct way to knock someone out without seriously injuring them. The only issue was when she would wake up, and how serious the headache would be.
For the moment, Heilyn just focused on dressing the wound. He knew Vexx kept rubbing alcohol somewhere in his quarters…
It took a few minutes, but Heilyn was able to find bandages and rubbing alcohol. He cleaned the wound with the edge of his shirt—it was already stained with blood anyway—and wrapped it as well as he could without impairing her vision or other facial operations. When he was satisfied with his handiwork, he took some spare blankets from the bed and sat them aside, laying her head on a pillow.
“That should hold ye’ till you’re better, Miss,” Heilyn muttered to himself.
Heilyn took a step back, grabbing another blanket from the bed and throwing it over her. There were no baths on a pirate ship, but she’d somehow managed to find a way to at least wash the remaining dust off of her. Like her younger self, her skin was indeed olive in tone. He hadn’t heard of the town of Spinetail, but he assumed from her appearance it might be near the middle of the world.
Heilyn remembered his father once saying how the middle of the world could get hot enough to boil the seas, but Heilyn knew that wasn’t true now. He’d been there, seen it with his own eyes. Another one of his lies, though he had to admit that one seemed more like a jest or sailor’s tale than an outright lie. It wasn’t like his father had ever actually seen the middle seas.
Cassandra turned over, groaning as she did so. “Why is the world sprinting?”
“You mean spinning?” Heilyn asked.
Cassandra sat up, holding her head with one hand while wiping her eyes with the other. “Nah, everything is moving and blurry, like the world is sprinting. What happened?”
Heilyn chuckled. “That would be the crew’s fault. Apparently they heard me scream and saw you doing something magic-like and assumed the worst. Won’t happen again, Miss Cassandra.”
She furrowed her brow but nodded, not seeming convinced.
“Are you well enough to continue counting money?” Heilyn asked hesitantly. “We don’t take injuries lightly, but you seem to be relatively okay.”
“Aside from a headache, sure,” Cassandra rolled her eyes. “Don’t suppose you have any salt water?”
Heilyn stared blankly at her. Cassandra’s cheeks flushed.
“Right, ocean. We’re sailors. My bad, Captain Payday.”
Heilyn nodded and went over to a small spigot. He grabbed one of Vexx’s glasses—Heilyn had always thought it dangerous to keep glass on board, but Vexx was unmoving on the issue—and turned the knob, filtering in pure seawater.
“We used to have a few crewmembers who would get frequent headaches,” Heilyn explained as the glass neared full, “so Vexx has Hacksmith install this plumbing system. It won’t taste good, and it is right from the sea, but it won’t kill you.”
Heilyn shut off the spigot and turned, almost spilling the drink in the process. Cassandra had somehow snuck up on him and was watching the spigot with interest. She nodded as he handed the drink to her.
“Thank you, Captain Payda-”
“Just Captain is fine, Miss Cassandra.” Heilyn pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now, whether you’re going to help or not, I needa be getting back to counting the ship’s cash.”
Cassandra gave a curt nod, pinched her nose, and downed the seawater. It took only a few seconds before she smacked the glass down on the table, sticking her tongue out in disgust.
“Thanks, Captain,” she said, walking over to her chair and picking up the ledger. “Shall we continue?”
Heilyn didn’t hear her. He was staring at the empty glass.
“Captain?”
Heilyn blinked, looking back to the chest of coins. “Aye, sorry. Let’s get going, Cassandra.”