The next day, the Interceptor cut steadily through the open sea.
Daniel stood at the front of the deck, his hands resting on the rail as waves rolled and broke beneath the bow. Watching the water, he found his thoughts drifting.
His first adventure was in sand and ancient ruins. Now it was water as far as the eye could see. He couldn't help but wonder what form the next one would take.
A voice came from behind him.
"What are you thinking about?"
Daniel glanced back to see Elizabeth standing a short distance away, her hair tugged gently by the sea breeze.
"Nothing important," he said. "Just old adventures."
She stepped closer, resting her hands on the railing beside him. "So you really have done things like this before? Traveling… chasing stories people think are fairy tales?"
Daniel nodded slightly. "If you put it that way, my life is one long fairy tale. Just not the kind people tell children."
Elizabeth studied him for a moment. "Then what did you do before this?"
Daniel considered how to answer, then spoke casually, as if listing chores. "Fought an army from the underworld. Killed a mummy. And dealt with a warrior who'd been brought back from five thousand years ago."
Elizabeth froze.
"…You killed your mother?" she asked slowly, eyes wide.
Daniel nearly lost his balance.
"What? No—!"
He stared at her for a second, then finally realized the problem.
This was the eighteenth century.
Mummy wasn't exactly a commonly understood concept here—at least not in the way he meant it.
"No," Daniel said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not mother."
Elizabeth was still staring at him, clearly horrified.
"Mummy," Daniel corrected, choosing his words carefully, "is… a process. Something done to the dead in certain lands. Bodies preserved. Wrapped. Ancient rituals. Very unpleasant."
Elizabeth blinked. "…Oh."
She paused, then frowned. "So you didn't—"
"No," Daniel said firmly. "I did not kill my mother."
Elizabeth seemed relieved when she realized it had been a misunderstanding.
"Wait," she said after a moment, frowning. "You said dead bodies. Why would you kill something that's already dead?"
Daniel paused, choosing his words. "That's the problem," he said. "It wasn't supposed to be moving."
She looked at him, confused.
"It had been resurrected," Daniel explained. "Brought back from the dead. And once it was up, it started draining the life out of living people. So I had to put it down again."
Elizabeth stared at him. "Resurrected… as in truly returned from death?" she asked. "How is that even possible?"
Daniel shrugged lightly. "I told you—the world is full of things most people don't believe in."
He glanced out at the sea, sunlight dancing on the waves.
"Curses. Gods. Undead. Miracles," Daniel said calmly. "Once you've seen enough of them, you stop asking whether something is possible."
Then he leaned in, stopping barely an inch from her face.
Elizabeth stiffened for a moment—
—but Daniel was smiling. Not dark. Not serious. Just… amused.
"Don't worry," he said quietly. "Soon enough, you won't have to take my word for it."
Elizabeth held her breath.
"You'll see the fairy tales you heard as a child," Daniel continued, "standing right in front of you."
He stepped back as if nothing unusual had happened, leaving Elizabeth standing there, her heartbeat noticeably faster than before. She pressed a hand lightly against her chest, annoyed at herself.
This man was impossible.
One moment he spoke calmly, almost reasonably—
the next, he leaned in without warning, saying things that left her unsettled in ways she didn't like to think about.
She wasn't sure how much longer her nerves could handle him.
Daniel turned away from her, his attention drawn to the horizon. Far in the distance, barely visible against the line where sea met sky, a small dark shape cut through the water.
He narrowed his eyes.
The shape grew clearer.
A ship.
Not an ordinary one.
Dark sails. Low silhouette. Clouds gathering unnaturally around it.
A ghostly presence moving with purpose.
'So they figured it out. Took them long enough.'
He glanced back at Elizabeth. "What stories have you heard about the Black Pearl?"
Elizabeth followed his gaze, squinting at the distant shape on the horizon.
"They say it's the fastest ship," she said slowly. "That its crew shows no mercy. That it comes out of the darkness… and disappears back into it just as easily."
She paused, unease creeping into her voice.
"And that the ship—and everyone aboard her—is cursed."
But Elizabeth had never truly believed those stories. To her, they were nothing more than frightening tales told to children at night—meant to keep them in bed and away from trouble, not descriptions of something real.
"Then be ready," he said calmly, "to learn those stories weren't invented."
When the Black Pearl attacked Port Royal, Elizabeth hadn't truly seen anything—only confusion and noise. The pirates' reputation, their cruelty, their curse had all been distant rumors then. She had seen none of it.
But now, she would see.
Daniel drew a slow breath.
"Jack," he called out, his voice carrying cleanly across the deck.
The words that followed cut through the sea air like a warning bell.
"Black Pearl in sight."
Every head on the Interceptor turned.
*****
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