“Fuck,” Will swore. Will tried to turn, but his foot slipped on something. His bourbon from earlier. He ended up catching himself on the bar, but he was off balance. Inside him, he felt something seem to slide.

Caine stood up.

The whole room went quiet. To Will, everything seemed like slow motion. He knew this feeling. It felt like the world was sliding sideways, and he was a bystander in his own body. He tried to say something, but it was like he was moving through molasses. He only had time to start to stand back up and get his feet under him before the man Belita had hit went and made the worst mistake of his whole life. He hit Belita back.

Suddenly things snapped back into full speed for Will. He was moving, but it was too late. Belita had already hit the man twice more and then Colin tackled him from behind. They went into a table. Drinks went flying. Angry men stood up. They were about to join in, but the impending arrival of Caine seemed to take the fight right out of them. They stepped aside and out of the way. Besides the fight, it was deathly quiet. The only people who didn’t know the rules were the ones Will had brought with him, and he’d forgotten to tell them.

“Stop, now,” Caine said loudly, jogging toward the fight like the spectre of death holding a dented tankard.

Colin was on top of the man who’d hit Belita hammering down on him with hands like mallets. He looked up at Caine for a moment, pausing, not sure who was talking to him but recognizing the voice of authority when he heard it. Suddenly a larger man with long hair and a lantern jaw burst into the Lounge from the doorway to the games room and hit Colin from behind with a heavy haymaker. Belita hauled the newcomer off Colin by his hair and socked him in the gut. The man beneath Colin threw a punch that clipped Colin’s chin while the big man was reeling from being hit from behind He was stunned, but not really hurt badly. He had a neck like an ox that was saving him from a lot of the damage. He brought his fist down again with a meaty thwack. The Norths arrived, grabbing the newcomer who Belita had hauled off Colin. Caine and Will both swore.

“Someone didn’t learn the rules well enough!” Caine barked right before he tackled Colin at full speed. They both rolled over, but when they came to a halt, Colin was face down and Caine was standing and holding Colin’s arm in a painful looking arm lock. He was holding the lid of his tankard shut with his thumb. It didn’t look like he’d spilled any.

“I keep tellin’ all you assholes not to make me get up!” Caine yelled loud enough to be heard by the whole crowd. A lighting fast boot snapped into the back of Colin’s head and cracked his face into the ground. Everyone in the room winced. Then Caine seemed to twist, his body dropping and pivoting on the floor without letting go of Colin’s arm. The man who’d first hit Belita had started to rise now that Colin wasn’t sitting on him. Caine’s heel caught him right across the face, sending him down in a boneless heap again. Caine ended up on one knee and backhanded Colin across the face with his tankard just as the big man had started to try to get up as well. The metal clunk of the tankard echoed for a moment. Colin’s vision swam and came to focus on Caine’s finger right in his face.

“Don’t fucking move,” Caine snarled at Colin. Then Caine was moving again toward the other part of the fight. Will was still a few steps away with no idea what he was about to do. He thought that it was about to be over anyway, but then it was Colin’s turn to be stupid. He didn’t know who Caine was, and he had a very hard head. He reached out and grabbed Caine’s ankle. Caine went down in a string of curses, but caught himself on his forearms, his knees never quite touching the ground. His tankard skidded away across the ground leaking a trail of fizzing brown liquid. Someone in the crowd muttered, “Oh, fuck.”

“Colin, no,” Will called out, but it was too late. Caine snarled and twisted his hips, uncoiling in the same motion that had knocked out Belita’s original attacker. His boot caught Colin in the head. It sounded like a pistol shot. The big man went down again. Caine rose with one fluid motion that continued the moment of his kick up into standing.

Colin had wasted too much of Caine’s time though. Things were spiraling out of control. Will could feel the world still slipping.

Caine hit both the Norths from behind by hooking his arms around them under their arms and reaching up. He grabbed them both by the throat as he barged passed. He used his momentum to upend them, turning them and lifting so they pivoted and fell backwards at the same time, driven by the power of Caine’s grip on their necks. They spun in opposite directions and then down as Caine knelt. They both hit the ground on their backs, hard, the wind completely knocked out of them and their heads ringing from the impact with the floor.

It was too late.

Suddenly finding himself facing Belita and both the Norths, the long-haired man who’d joined the fight from the doorway had pulled a knife from somewhere and lunged at Belita.

She’d fed it to him.

The man was holding the brass crossguard of his knife against his lips. Fragments of shattered teeth fell across his hand. The tip of the knife was sticking out behind his right ear. His eyes crossed as he stared at the knife. He dropped to a knee. Blood began pouring from his mouth. Caine rose, taking a step forward, leaving the Norths groaning and curling into balls of pain on either side of him. Belita backed up, her fists raised and her eyes wild. She was enjoying this.

“Captain, no!” Will barked. She hesitated. Finally someone listened to him.

Caine stopped. “Done?” he asked grimly. The man with the knife in his face hit the floor.

“Aye,” Belita said with a shrug.

Caine knelt and carefully rolled over the fallen man. “Fuck,” he swore.

Will skidded to a halt and knelt next to Caine. “He alive?”

“Yeah, for now,” Caine growled.

“Let me help-” Will said trying to maneuver to help lift the fallen man somewhere else.

“No.” Caine said, stiff-arming Will away. “His best chance is her,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Cerise, the apothecary was running up with a satchel in her hands.

“You know who he is?” Caine asked. Will looked at the downed man as Cerise began pulling his shirt open. Recognition dawned on him. “Fuck,” he said, feeling like the air had gone out of him.

“Get your friends out of here, Will,” Caine said. “Go now.”

Will nodded and moved over to Colin. The big man was dazed, but somehow still conscious. He hauled on Colin’s arm, helping him up. “Come on, big guy. Time to go.”

Belita was helping Danica to her feet. The first mate looked sick. Her husband was on his hands and knees looking dazed and angry.

“We’re leaving right now,” Will said.

“We dinnae start none o’-” Belita snarled angrily, but Will cut her off.

“Doesn’t matter. Time to go.” He managed to get North to his feet without dropping Colin. Danica moved to help steady Colin as well. Belita helped North on the other side. The five of them moved out of the Lounge and into the game room. Chance was already running toward them.

“Every damn time, Sterling! What did you do?” The redheaded man screeched. He looked like he was about to keep going but seeing Colin staggering and punch drunk hauled him up short. “Is he alright?” It seemed a bit odd that Chance cared so much about the wellbeing of someone he’d just met, but Will wasn’t going to question it now.

“It was Caine. He’ll be fine. It was my fuck up. We’re leaving,” Will said quickly.

Chance was torn between wanting to chew Will out, and getting to the other room. The other room won. “That was the last time, Sterling,” he said before running off.

They made their way out of Merry Mary’s without further incident. Coat check got them their weapons efficiently and didn’t ask questions about their sorry state. Danica was able to walk on her own by then so Belita shouldered all the weapon belts. By the time they were out to the street both the Norths were breathing properly, but still rubbing their heads. Colin’s legs were still wobbly. They found a nearby bench and sat him down on it.

“What th’ hell was that?” Belita snapped, pulling on her gunbelt. “That asshole treats me like a whore, an’ then yer friend goes through my crew like godsdamn chainshot.”

“You punched him, Captain,” Will tried to explain. He buckled his sword belt on and checked his rapier.

“Aye, he ‘ad it comin’!” she snarled. “I tried nice. Told ‘im I wasn’t one o’ the whores, and he kept on!” She adjusted her saber.

“It’s the rules at Mary’s,” Will said. “No violence.”

“Fuck that!” Belita hissed. “I ain’t gonna do nothin’ when a drunk asshole calls me a whore!”

“He shouldn’t have done that, but at Mary’s all violence gets dealt with the same way. Doesn’t matter who starts it. Caine finishes it,” Will said.

“I’ll say,” Colin said, rubbing he jaw and cradling his aching arm. “I got kicked by a horse once and it didn’t hurt this bad.” His eyes wouldn’t focus and his ears were ringing.

“How the hell was I supposed t’ know that defending meself would mean feeding th’ whole crew tae a walkin’ meat grinder?!” Belita yelled.

“I was supposed to tell you. I forgot,” Will said. “I really didn’t anticipate any of you starting a fight tonight.”

“We dinnae start it!” Vex snarled, pacing like an angry tiger.

“That’s not right,” Danica said. “If that’s the policy, they should have told us themselves. Or posted it up somewhere.” She was slowly, gingerly putting on her weapon belt.

“I don’t disagree. Around here though, most folks can’t read, so word of mouth and reputation have to do. It almost never escalates that far. I’ve never seen a stabbing at Mary’s before, ever. When things start to get tense it’s usually enough. Didn’t you notice the room when you hit that guy?”

“Well, yeah,” Belita shrugged. “Felt like I walked o’er everyone’s grave.”

“That’s because everyone knows what happens when a fight breaks out. I’m honestly surprised that the idiot who was mouthing off to you was willing to swing back,” Will said. “He definitely knew.” Will’s brow knitted. “I guess he thought his family would protect him from consequences.”

“What’s he, someone special?” Captain Vex scoffed.

“No, but he thinks he is, and he’s got a big family. The guy you punched is Cal Kidd. The guy you stabbed in the face is his brother Jakob. Old Man Kidd was one of the original settlers on Prince’s Cove. They got a colonial writ from the crown to come out here and establish a port. Of the original settlers, he’s one of two who survived, and there’s a lot of rumors about how he was part of why so few made it. He had seven kids. Those kids all had a mess of kids too, and so did the current generation. All told, I think there’s about seventy of them. Before the Magistrate showed up, they were what passed for a military around here. They’re wealthy, mean, well armed, and prone to completely disproportionate revenge against any slight, real or imagined. And you just stabbed the eldest grandson to the old man himself.”

Belita’s rage finally wound down as Will’s words sunk in. “Alright. Time to head to the ship then. We’re about loaded. We were jus’ waiting on ye t’ finish yer work. We c’n weigh anchor and wait a ways out, just past the harbor.”

“That might work. Old Man Kidd and his sons have ships of their own, but I don’t think any of the ones we need to worry about are currently here,” Will said, his mind racing.

“Can’t we just go to the Magistrate?” Mister North asked.

Will shook his head. “The Magistrate doesn't have nearly the kind of foothold here that they think they do. Most of the soldiers are busy finishing the construction of the fort. They only send about a dozen out on patrol, and they haven’t established a charter of law yet. They’re preparing to take over, but it hasn’t happened yet, so their peacekeeping efforts are all informal. Right now, they’re just a trumped-up neighborhood watch. It’s curbed street violence, but they tend not to get involved in anything that doesn’t threaten the community directly. The Kidd company still has more clout than them and generations more entrenchment. We might be able to convince the Magistrate we’re innocent, but I doubt they’ll want to protect us if Kidd decides he wants our heads. The Fort’s still needs Kidd and his influence to keep the locals from revolting.”

“Pirate holds don’t change easy,” Belita nodded. She’d seen plenty of places like Bastards Bay. The law was whoever had the most money and the biggest crew. “We need t’ leave now. How soon can ye be ready t’ board, Will?”

“Tomorrow morning?” Will shrugged. “I’m not actually packed yet. I thought I had more time.”

“Good enough. We’ll shove off now. We’re still waiting on six smallboats. We’ll have you brought out to us in one of them.” Danica said.

“Can you walk, Colin?” North asked.

“Yeah,” the big man said, standing. He immediately sat back down. “No.”

“Help him. I’ll go with Sterling and help him get packed,” Captain Vex said. “I’ll rejoin ye with him and his witch in a smallboat. Get the Kestrel out of here.”

“Aye, Cap’n.” Danica said, handing Belita her coat. The Norths helped Colin to his feet and started slowly walking down the street looking like they were carrying a drunk.

“Let’s go, Sterling,” Belita said, heading the other way toward the old lighthouse. She took off at a run. He shook his head and followed.

_________________

Neither of them said much during the jog back. Will was wrapped up inside his own head and barely noticed when they arrived. Things seemed like they had been going so well. He looked at his hands, like somehow his curse was in them, specifically. “The bourbon was a nice touch,” he muttered as he stopped running in front of his lighthouse.

“What?” Belita asked.

“Nothing,” Will said, “Just thinking.”

They reached his door and Will spent too long opening his locks. He knew word of what had happened was starting to spread by now. The Kidd clan was starting to wake up. He didn’t have anything to worry about. He hadn’t been involved in the fight, and unless someone had seen Belita leave with him, he was actually pretty safe at the moment. The Kestrel was the danger. Belita wasn’t well known, but she was unmistakable. It wouldn’t take them long to track down who she was and where her ship was moored. If Danica couldn’t shove off before the Kidd clan roused their own ships, the Kestrel would be blockaded in, and then they’d be at the mercy of what Old Man Kidd thought of as justice.

Someone came running up behind them, and Captain Vex whirled, a pistol coming up in one smooth motion.

Bella skidded to a halt and held her hands up. “Please don’t,” she said, her voice trembling. From behind her a tiny monkey dashed out of the shadows and stood it’s ground in front of her. It puffed up it’s fur and shrieked at Captain Vex.

The pistol lowered to the monkey in surprise, then it disappeared back into the frock coat. “What’re ye doin ‘ere?” Belita asked, her eyes flicking from Bella to the monkey in confusion.

“I heard what happened. Jakob Kidd looks like he’s going to live,” she said. “And I wanted to tell you that you need to run.”

“Already on it,” Will said, yanking his door open and striding inside.

The two women followed him.

“Bella, can you-” Will started.

“Clothes, yeah,” she said. The monkey was already running up the staircase with the witch close behind.

“What about me?” Belita asked. She hung her coat and hat on the hook by the door. Will was struck by how much the hat and coat changed her. With them, she was every inch a sea captain. No one could mistake her for anything else. She had the bearing and the presence and the look. Without them, she was still impressive looking and had a strong presence, but she was more… approachable. She was a beautiful and friendly looking blond woman with an edge of wildness to her, and then as soon as she donned the uniform she suddenly became larger than life. It clicked in his head. Right now she was just Belita. When she wore the outfit, she was Captain Vex. It made sense to him. Every adventurer sea captain was trying to build their legend. Belita just seemed to understand the power of theatricality better than most.

Will stepped up next to her to pull the door shut and finish engaging all the locks. Then he crossed the room to pull a steamer trunk out from beneath the sideboard. He hefted it to the table and opened it up. There were ledgers and files inside. “All these go into my office, on the desk.”

He started pulling charts and books off the shelves, stacking them on the table. Belita took an armload out of the trunk and carried them into the office. “What time is it?” Will asked.

Belita looked around and saw the big clock. “Half past one.”

“Janie usually gets here around six. That’s too long to wait. Bella!” Will shouted up the stairs.

There was a brief clattering, “What?” she called down.

“I need you to cast a spell!” Will called back up.

The stairs creaked loudly as Bella came down. “What? Which one?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Something that will set off Janie’s wards,” Will shrugged.

“Alright,” she said, coming all the way back down the stairs. She had an armload of Will’s clothes and was haphazardly stuffing them into a duffel bag. “Why?”

Will dumped the next armload of charts he was holding onto the table. “They’re keyed to her.”

“Oh, right!” Bella said, catching on. “If I do something the wards don’t like, she’ll know.”

“And if it’s bad enough, she’ll come running,” Will nodded.

“I better make it bad then,” Bella said.

“Not too bad though,” Will said, collecting a few more dusty books and papers. “Don’t break the terms of your registry just to get Janie’s attention.”

“Of course not,” Bella scoffed. “How about some evocation? I’m not very good at it, but I think I can work up something big enough to trigger the sigils. They’re pretty sensitive, right?”

“No idea,” Will shrugged.

“You really should know more about your security, Will,” Bella said. She turned in place and drew a circle around herself in the air, then brought her hands up in a dramatic flourish. Evocation was all about quickly drawing up a lot of energy in a framework that can’t contain it, and then purposefully allowing it to destabilize. The trick was to shape the destabilization itself. It was hard, and dangerous. Bella hadn’t actually drawn a control circle, but she’d imagined one. That was the point of all the big gestures. It helped with visualization.  For evocation, a real control circle would have actually made the energies less likely to destabilize, and a real pattern would have focused the energies in a way that might have done something that wasn’t destructive. That’s what circles and patterns and rituals were for. It was all about being safe while harnessing the creative forces of the universe. A truly talented evoker didn’t need to visualize any kind of control methods, but Bella needed those crutches for magicks of nearly any kind.

Bella gathered the ambient energies around them and waited until the vibrations were causing her hands to shake. “Come on…” she pleaded with the magic. Will felt hot. He touched his chest. The paint beneath his shirt was getting warm to the touch. Bella was still feeling what he felt, but didn’t realize in the moment that the sensation wasn’t hers. She looked down at herself in confusion wondering where the sudden heat was coming from. Engrossed in the moment, she guessed wrongly that the heat reaction was resistance from Janie’s wards and kept gathering her energies to the breaking point. Sudden warmth wasn’t an uncommon reaction during evocation, so she dismissed it and kept focusing.

“Uh, Bella…” Will began, not sure of what to say. He was getting uncomfortable now. He started unbuttoning his shirt. The world felt like it was trying to slide under his feet again and time seemed to list around him. “Stop,” he said, holding completely still with two handfuls of his shirt. He felt like he was balanced on knife edge, afraid to do anything. The painted pattern on his chest was quickly becoming uncomfortable.

“Almost got it…” Bella said. She was straining. Will could actually see the energy she was gathering. Will tried to speak again, but he felt slow. Nothing came out of his mouth. A slight waver coalesced in the air between Bella’s  hands like heat coming off sand in a desert. “Ow, what is-” she said, looking down at herself again. Then she looked at Will with alarm. “Wait-”

There was a sound like someone shaking out a bedsheet and a flash of red light and suddenly Will’s chest was on fire.

He looked down at himself in horror, and then started flapping his hands at his shirt, patting it down and peeling it off. Buttons popped and he slapped his bare skin. Parts of the painted pattern were sticking to his hands. The red cream had softened and become sticky and it was burning. He threw himself to the floor and rolled, flopping face down like a fish to smother the flames. Bella was suddenly there helping him.

Then it was over, as quickly as it had started. A thick drop of water hit him in the back of the head. Then more. Then a deluge. He rolled over, trailing stringy red paint that stretched like taffy from his chest to the floor. “What the hell?” A miniature storm cloud hung just below the ceiling and had started dropping a steady shower on them.

Captain Vex had just yanked the door to the office open at the sounds of Will’s frantic screaming, but it was mostly over before she could do anything to help. She stood in the doorway of the office, looking up at the small angry cloud and then down at Will’s half naked, still faintly smoking form. She blinked, at a total loss as to what she was seeing. “Someone want t’ explain why it’s rainin’ in here?”

Bella started laughing. A moment later Will joined her. “What a night,” he muttered, wiping his face clear of water. It didn’t help much. Mostly he just got some sticky, hot red paint on his face.

He sat up with an exasperated sigh. Most of the sigil on his chest was smeared. The sticky red paint was now all over the floor and all over his ruined shirt. Water covered everything. Will wiped his sticky hands off on the shirt and slicked his hair back out of his face. Bella started pulling the sticky paint off of him in long strips like taffy, and wiping it on the edge of the table near where Quincy’s bullet had gouged it. They soon discovered that the best way to get it off was to roll it against itself and slowly gather it into a growing sticky ball. Against freshly scorched skin, the process was painful. They had to move slowly and carefully.

“Why did you still have the pattern on?” Bella asked.

“Well I didn’t exactly have time to go clean up,” Will said, trying to get the strands of red taffy goo off his face. “You went to the baths. I just put my clothes back on and went to brave the crowd. I figured I’d clean up when I got home, but then there was stabbing, and running, and now this!”

“Alright, good point,” Bella conceded. Her red headcloth was plastered to her forehead and her white blouse was starting to cling to her skin as the rainstorm continued.

Belita walked out into the tiny downpour, picked up the whole steamer trunk and went back into the office. “I’ll jus’ be in ‘ere where there’s less insanity.”

“Good choice,” Will said, looking up. “How long is this thing going to last?”

Bella shrugged. “No idea. It isn’t actually weather control. It’s isolated. I think it’s some kind of conjuring. Takes a lot of preparation to do, but very stable once it’s active. It might be a while before the spell collapses.”

“Great,” Will said, peeling off the remnants of his completely ruined shirt. It was stained with sticky red goo, scorched, soaked, and missing buttons. There wasn’t going to be any salvaging it. Where the pattern had been on his chest and stomach was stained pink, and the skin was slightly raised and white at the edges where the burning started. It hurt. He touched it gingerly and winced. He tried to pick some of the sticky red remnants out of the hair trailing down from his belly button and quickly discovered that was a bad idea. The red goo had glued it all into a painful clump. Now that it was cooling and hardening again just moving was starting to pull at the hairs uncomfortably. The entire region was extra sensitive due to the burnt skin laced through beneath the hair. On top of it all, the mystic drugs from the goo were still coursing through his system, so his cock was still hard. He tried to adjust his pants without pulling too much on the messy hair clump. He wasn’t very successful.

He tried to stand. A surprising amount of pain lanced through him as the sticky hair yanked on burnt skin. “Sonofa-” Will cursed.

“Ow, stop that!” Bella said, rubbing herself below her belly button as Will’s pain echoed over to her through their sensory link.

“Well, I have to do something!” Will said. “I can’t just lay here.”

“Don’t move. I’ll… do you have any oil to loosen up the cream from the hair?” Bella asked

“I don’t want to put oil on a burn!” Will knew better. He gingerly eased himself back down. “Don’t suppose you have some kind of magic aphrodisiac-paint remover?”

Bella shrugged apologetically. “I just peel it off.”

Will gestured to the painful clumpy mess at his beltline. “I don’t really have that option.”

“I’ll go get your razor,” she giggled. “Don’t move.”

Will decided that was a good idea. Moving sounded terrible. Everything seemed like it had been going so well, and then it had all become a disaster within a half hour.

“Fucking curses,” he muttered. He slowly lay all the way back on the wet floor, wincing at the hair being pulled against scorched skin and just let the raindrops falling from his ceiling hit him.

“Ye lead an interesting life, Mister Sterling,” Belita said leaning in his office doorway. He rolled his head to the side to look at her.

“Lucky me,” he deadpanned.

“Eh, ye ain’t dead. It’ll make fer a good story later,” the blond captain said.

“I really don’t think this is a story I’ll ever want to tell. Not this part, anyway,” Will grumbled.

I don’t know, it seems like a pretty good adventure tae me,” Belita smirked.

“Adventures are the stories of terrible things happening far away to people who aren’t you,” Will said flatly. “And they’re only adventures if the main characters survive. If they don’t, they’re cautionary tales.”

“Aye, but everyone wants tae be part of an adventure. Might as well try t’ enjoy th’ story you’re in.” Belita put a hand on her hip and looked up at the rain cloud. “Not many people get tae experience something like this.”

“Easy for you to say. You didn’t just catch fire, and your nethers aren’t about to be shaved off by the witch responsible.” Will took a deep breath and wiped the rain out of his eyes.

Bella came back down the stairs again with the bucket from the wash room and his straight razor. She knelt down next to Will. “You’re going to need to take your pants down.”

Will looked up at Captain Vex, who was smirking from the office. She made no move to turn around or close the door.

Will sighed, “I guess you’ve seen it before.”

“Not really. It was buried in her at th’ time. Couldn’t see much of anythin’,” Belita grinned. “Gotta admit, I’m curious though after that show. What the hell’re you packin’ down there that makes flashing lights and all that racket?”

Bella turned her head away, trying not to let Will see how hard she was silently laughing. Belita saw it instead. “I dinnae think we were ever rightly introduced,” the Captain said.

“Belladonna Fortuna,” Bella said standing up and giving the other woman a small curtsey.

“Captain Belita Vex,” the blond woman replied, holding her hand out. Bella looked surprised and took it. They shook.

“Bella and Belita,” the dark-haired" witch sighed. “That’s not going to be confusing at all.” Her sarcasm was impossible to miss.

“Who’s gonna screw that up?” the Captain shrugged. “We dinnae look anythin’ alike.”

Will continued to lay on the floor in the rain. Burns always felt worse a few minutes after they happened. His were starting to feel very unpleasant.

“So was all that at Mary’s the navigation ritual he was sellin’ Morant?” Belita asked.

Bella looked back at Will. “Um, well-”

“Yeah,” Will lied smoothly. “That was it.”

“How often you gotta do it?” Belita asked.

“Not too often,” Will said. “Only when the route changes.”

“Well, if you’re gonna be usin’ my bed next time, I get t’ watch,” Belita grinned.

Bella burst out laughing again. Will sighed.

“Well, we will need someone to hold the salt,” Bella snickered. The Captain looked confused. “It’s a witchy thing, I’ll explain when it’s time,” Bella explained.

“You two are going to be bad influences on each other,” Will said.

“I like her already.” Bella’s eyes twinkled. The Captain winked conspiratorially at her.

“So can we get on with this latest indignity so I can move comfortably again?” Will asked.

“Oh, alright,” Bella said. She knelt back down again. “Pants,” she ordered.

Will unlaced his breeches and lowly and carefully peeled them away from the red goo paint, which had thankfully mostly dried again. He opened them as wide as they would go, and then reached in to adjust his erection and pull it out so the fly of his pants wouldn't be in the way of Bella’s work. He let go and his cock stood straight up like a ship’s mast.

“Sterling, don’t that thing ever go down?” Belita said incredulously, not expecting him to be hard.

“It’s the ritual from earlier. Trust me, I’m not actually enjoying this,” Will grumbled.

“Coulda fooled me,” the blond captain smirked.

“Don’t move,” Bella said. She lathered up a soap dish from the bucket and spread it from navel to shaft and then carefully began shaving the clump of hair away.

“Ow!” they both said at the same time. Bella quickly pulled the razor away, holding her lower stomach with her other hand, just as Will jerked in pain.

“What did I do?” Bella asked.

“You put the razor right on the skin! It’s burnt!” Will scowled, holding in the firey pain that had just lanced through him. Bella rubbed her own lower stomach, trying to get rid of the sensation.

“How can I shave you if I can’t put the razor against your skin?” Bella asked. Her eyes were watering. That had hurt a lot.

“You’ll have to float the razor just above the skin- here, just let me do it.” Will said, holding his hand out for the straight razor. Bella was somewhat frantically rubbing her lower stomach, trying in vain to get the feeling of the scraped burn to go away. It wasn’t helping.

“No, let me do it,” Captain Vex said coming into the room and taking a knee.

Will blinked. “Uh… you sure?”

“I have steady hands, and I’m th’ only one who’s not going tae wince and jerk if th’ skin get’s touched,” the Captain said. She took the razor from Bella. “You wanna hold that thing out of my way though?”

Will reached down and realized there was no way for him to reach his own cock without being in Belita’s way. He looked at Bella. She just shook her head in amusement and moved to Will’s other side.

Slowly, Belita began to shave Will’s stomach, floating the razor just above the skin and lifting the matted clump of hair away bit by bit. She was slow, and steady and surprisingly delicate. The large patch from his stomach came free in one big mass. Will probably could have gotten up and done the rest himself, but the ladies didn’t stop. The dark haired witch leaned his cock off to the right while blond sea captain gently shaved the left. Then they switched. It wasn’t really a sexual experience at all, but there was a whole lot of intimacy to it.

The rain poured down on all of them, soaking the women’s blouses completely. White cloth became transparent and will couldn’t help but look at the two pairs of swinging breasts right in front of his face. Bella’s were considerably bigger, and her darker, deep red nipples showed right through the thick weave of her peasant blouse. Belita’s weren’t nearly as big, but they weren’t small either. Next to most any woman but Bella, they’d have been quite large. The material of her blouse was thinner, so Will could actually see her tanned skin tone as though the fabric wasn’t even there. His erection throbbed and flexed involuntarily.

Bella felt it and gave him a naughty glance. She looked down at herself, and then side-eyed Belita’s wet breasts. A small smile played across her lips. She ran a finger surreptitiously up Will’s cock while she held it out of Belita’s way. Will’s eyes tightened as he tried not to move or let on what Bella was doing. He gave her a hard, frustrated look. Her mouth curled a bit as she tried to hold in her smile. He shook his head back and forth in small motions. Bella ignored him and kept on teasing.

“You alright, Sterling? Did I get ye?” Belita asked.

“No, I’m alright,” Will said.

“Looks like it’s not as bad as you thought it would be,” Bella smiled, stroking across the sensitive skin just below the head of his cock. Will just stared daggers at her.

She ran her thumb subtly back and forth on his glans while she pulled his cock toward his stomach so Belita could get at the under part of the burned ring at the base of his shaft. Will’s whole body shivered.

“Don’t move, this is delicate here,” Belita said, lifting away more of the glued clump of hair.

“Sorry, I’m getting kinda cold. The rain,” He could feel his face getting warm with embarrassment.

“Almost done,” Belita reassured him.

Bella continued stealthily stroking Will’s cock. “Bet this isn’t what you thought you’d be doing with your evening,” she joked.

“Aye, ain’t that the truth,” Belita shook her head. Water was running down the two braids at her temple and dripping steadily from the gold beads at the ends of them. “Almost done now.”

Just before she could finish, all the locks on Will’s door released all at once in a clatter that sounded like someone had dropped a box of tools. It burst open.

Janie crashed in like a soldier breaching a castle gate. She was wearing a Magistrate Acolyte’s cassock instead of her usual modest dress and blouse, and had a sloshing bucket of water in her hands. She took in the scene on the floor with shock and instant embarrassment which turned to indignance.

Belita sat up and yanked a pistol free. She was in the process of leveling it when she realized who’d burst in.

Two Magistrate guardsmen came in on Janie’s heels just in time to see two essentially topless women appearing to be giving a handjob to a mostly naked man, and one of the women had a gun.

“Again!?” wWas all Janie could manage to say before she whirled around to put her back to the three inside the lighthouse. She turned the guards around with her, shoving them right back out the door.

_____________

Will had his pants back on, but he had a balled up scrap of his ruined shirt stuffed down them like a codpiece. Belita had nicked him when she went for her gun. It wasn’t bad, but it was bleeding pretty steadily, so he had his hand down his pants holding the rag he’d cut his ruined shirt into onto his bleeding balls. His pants were still unlaced and open because closing them up would have put the rough fabric right on the burned skin. He was wishing he had suspenders.

At least the rain had stopped.

He was sitting at his table right where he’d been when the guardsmen had been here yesterday, looking at the same pair talking to Jaine. They were laughing this time. The one named Thomas gave Will an amused salute just before they left.

“It really wasn’t what it looked like this time,” Will said as Janie sat down across from him.

“I don’t care, Will,” Janie said. She wasn’t upset anymore. She mostly just looked tired. “Just tell me why the rain ward went off.”

“Because Bella lit me on fire,” Will shrugged.

“It was an accident!” Bella said from the office doorway. She and Belita had shut themselves in to protect their modesty from the guardsmen. In truth, neither had really cared, but Janie had insisted.

“How did that happen?” Janie asked, worried, but also a bit amused.

“We should probably just start at the beginning. There’s a lot to tell,” Will sighed.

“Oh, this will be fun,” Bella grinned. Captain Vex sat in the third chair. Bella just hopped up on the table and crossed her legs beneath her.

“Captain Vex stabbed Jakob Kidd in the face,” Will said. Janie’s eyes went wide as saucers. “So we have to leave. Tonight,” Will continued.

“Oh my. That is not good. You don’t have to leave though, the Magistrate can-” Janie started.

“No they can’t. Think about it. Would they risk a war with Old Man Kidd to protect an outsider? Jakob drew the knife, but it was three on one, he was there trying to help his brother, and Belita started the fight. There’s no way the Magistrate can make that position look good. They might even side with Old Man Kidd if he pushes the issue. Best case scenario, the Magistrate stays neutral.”

Janie was quiet for a few moments, then nodded. She looked sadly at Captain Vex. “They won’t help you. You need to run.”

Captain Vex shrugged, “That’s what they tell me.”

“So I wanted to get your attention,” Will continued. He pointed to the ceiling. “I thought if the right ward was set off you’d come to see what was going on.”

“So you chose fire!?” Janie was horrified.

“Well, no.” Bella looked chagrined. “I was trying for a big flash of light and sound. Evocation.”

“Well, that would set off an alarm ward, and not the rain ward. It was a good idea,” Janie nodded. “What happened?”

“I screwed it up,” Bella’s face scrunched up.

“And Will caught fire?” Janie couldn’t help but laugh.

“We did a ritual earlier. It linked our sense of touch by synchronizing our metaphysical… signatures,” Bella explained. “The pattern was still drawn on his skin when I started the evocation.”

“Sensory conjoining. I’m familiar with…” Janie’s brows slowly furrowed, then her eyes got wide again as she connected the dots on the map Bella had just drawn for her. She put her face in her hands. “Oh no,” she groaned.

“Well I still don’t get it, so if you two great and powerful mystics could let me in on the secret that would be nice,” Will said. He was still hurting and it was making him grouchy.

“Bella called up a bunch of uncontained energy. It destabilized. Usually nothing would happen. It would just… fizzle out. That’s one of the ways apprentices of nearly all disciplines learn their art. They draw energy to see how much they can pull before they can’t contain it and it dissipates,” Janie explained.

“When I was an apprentice my mother made me sit in a protective circle and just draw and release energy for hours to get used to the feeling. I was safe because if there was a destabilization reaction it would get shunted into the circle. Making the circle activate is one of the ways apprentices know they’re drawing power too fast,” Bella added.

“All magic is about learning not to do that. It’s about learning to be slow and careful and in control. Except evocation. It’s considered one of the most dangerous arts to learn because there aren’t any safety nets. People who have a knack for drawing a lot of power quickly make the best evokers, but they’re also the most likely ones to blow themselves up while they’re learning,” Janie shook her head, “So strong evokers are incredibly rare.”

“The only reason I decided to risk it is because I’m bad at it. I can’t draw enough power fast enough to cause a dangerous destabilization. That’s why I thought I’d be safe,” Bella explained.

“When energy dissipates, it’s usually imperceptible. It’s just natural energy going back to it’s usual state. Most people wouldn’t even notice, but with evocation the whole point is to force enough energy together that the destabilization is so large and so fast that it causes a physical reaction. Light, fire and sound are the most common, usually all at once. A lot of people think the ability to conjure up an explosion is what makes someone an Evoker. It isn’t. That just means you’re a strong caster with lousy control.  Real evocation is the art of nudging the reaction itself toward a particular energy state,” Janie said.

“That almost happened. I think I was really close, but instead of being able to nudge the reaction the way I wanted, it took the easiest escape route.” Bella had a rare look of embarrassment on her face. “It all shunted though our connection right into your pattern, Will,” Bella said, looking apologetic. “That’s what the pattern is for. Remember all the energy we put into it during the ritual?”

“Then why didn’t the pattern just hold onto the energy and start glowing like last time?” Will asked.

“Because it was too much too fast. I almost lost control of it during the ritual too, and we were going a lot slower,” Bella admitted. “That pattern was never designed to contain that much power that fast.”

“Magic is dangerous,” Janie said.

“You’re lucky I’m actually pretty bad at gathering energy. My ability to hold ambient power is… small.”

“I don’t really know what that means,” Will admitted. “I’ll take your word for it though.”

“Think of magic like water,” Bella said. “I have a really small bucket. I’m pretty good at filling it quickly, but then I have to put it somewhere before I can carry anymore. That’s what the patterns are for. They’re… like a horse trough, I guess. They’re somewhere to dump the bucket.”

“More like an aqueduct", or a series of pipes,” Janie added, continuing the metaphor. “Patterns and sigils are what directs the flow for a specific purpose, and brings it into the necessary geometry to make a flow system work.”

“Alright, that makes sense,” Will nodded.

“If I had a bigger bucket the whole pattern might have just exploded,” Bella said, looking pained.

“Like pouring water into a funnel. If you go too fast, it overflows and gets everywhere,” Janie said. WIll was starting to understand what had happened.

“It’s not too bad. Feels like being scalded. I’ll be alright,” Will said, trying to reassure her.

“I don’t think you appreciate how close to dying you were, Will,” Janie said gravely.

“Oh, I was on fire. It’s hard not to appreciate how close to dying that is,” Will said, amused. Belita, who’d been listening with interest to the magical theories, laughed. Janie and Bella did not.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m still feeling everything you are,” Bella smiled wistfully. “It’s a roundabout sort of penance.”

Will gave her a slightly incredulous look.

“Alright,” Janie said. I think we’ve covered how everything went wrong and why. I’m following the chain of events so far, but… what was with the…” she sighed, struggling to find the words. “...the stuff. When I came in?” Janie asked, a bit afraid to know the answer.

“Well, when the ritual sigil heated up it turned into burning taffy,” Will said.

“And it gave you a…” Janie was confused. She made an ambiguous gesture toward the lower half of Will’s body beneath the table. Bella giggled.

“No,” Will sighed, “That was from the ritual earlier. It’s had me hard for almost an hour and a half now.”

“Now? As in still? And you couldn’t just ignore it?” Jaine shook her head. “Honestly, you are the most oversexed man I have ever met.”

“Same,” Belita chuckled. “You should have seen him at Merry Mary’s. He had Bella and-”

“I don’t even want to know,” Jaine shook her head.

“I’ll tell you later,” Bella grinned, bumping Janie’s shoulder. Janie and Will both rolled their eyes.

“Anyway,” Will continued, “The fire melted the paint into my body hair while it was burning. After I dealt with the fire it was all just matted together on top of the burned skin. So the hair had to be shaved off.” He ignored Bella and Belita’s suppressed laughter.

“And you couldn’t do that yourself?” Janie asked.

“I wanted to,” Will put his hands up.

“At the time it seemed like a better idea for us to do it for him,” Bella said innocently.

Janie just shook her head and cracked a small smile. “So you’re… all shaved... there… now?”

“Not very well. It’s a mess. Just scalded skin and a strip of really short hair right down the middle,” Will shook his head. Janie wrinkled her nose. Will nodded in agreement of her expression. “At least the bleeding seems to have stopped. I think.”

“Bleeding? What else happened?” Janie was starting to wonder how many problems involving his penis that Will could manage to cram into one night.

“When you burst through the door Belita nicked me with the straight razor,” Will shrugged.

Both Belita and Janie had the good grace to look apologetic. “I thought the place was going to be on fire,” Janie apologized.

“Oh right! That’s why you had the bucket! I wondered about that.” Bella said, still amused.

“How did you do that thing with the locks anyway?” Will asked.

“Well, you wanted the locks to be part of the wards, and the wards are all keyed to me,” Janie explained.

“So you can just lock and unlock my door with your mind?” Will asked.

Janie nodded. “Well, no that isn’t quite… Alright, yes, essentially. It’s better that way. It means I don’t have a key that can be pickpocketed.”

“I wish I could do that.” Will was impressed.

“You’d have to learn how to help me set the wards, but then, sure,” Janie said.

“A magician, I am not,” Will shook his head. “With my luck I’d blow myself up trying to summon a light breeze. Magic is way too unstable for me to be taking risks with. I’ll leave it to the experts who aren’t cursed.”

“Hell, even that don’t seem tae work for ye,” Captain Vex teased.

“I really want to know about that rainstorm,” Bella said.

“Oh, that’s just a fire ward,” Janie shrugged. “I actually don’t understand exactly how they work. Conjuring is very complicated, but once a formula is worked out, any spellbinder can learn the sigil.”

“You don’t have to know how to design an aqueduct to build one, or to pour water into one. You can just use someone else’s designs to guide you,” Will said.

“Exactly. That one is one of the middle difficulty sigils Magistrate Acolytes are taught. It’s the very first Conjuration ward we learn. Every Magistrate fort and cathedral is full of old books and scrolls. That ward is how we keep them safe.”

“I guess wet paper is better than burned paper,” Bella nodded.

“Particularly here,” Janie said. “A long time ago the Magistrate developed water resistant parchment and inks specifically so they could rely on that ward without worrying about losing their archives to water damage.”

Belita leaned back in her chair. “Aye. Those inks and parchments are what most ship’s records are made on these days.”

“Right. All but the oldest books and maps in this room are water resistant,” Will added.

“That’s why I thought the flame ward would work well here too,” Janie smiled.

“No wonder you didn’t freak out about the rain in your library,” Bella said.

“I didn’t even know the flame ward was here,” Will said, looking up and wondering how much more he didn’t know about everything Janie had done.

“You said you wanted me to make this place as safe as I could,” Janie said.

“I meant from people trying to break in,” Will laughed.

“Do you know how dangerous this lighthouse is, Will?” Janie demanded. “It’s a stone cylinder with only one way out, filled to bursting with paper, dust, and old, dry wood. It’s a kiln. You couldn’t build a better fire trap.”

“I never thought of that.” Will looked around, the truth of that revelation dawning on him.

“What would you have done if something happened and the ground floor caught fire while you were upstairs sleeping? The lowest window is fifteen feet up, and overlooking a cliff. The next one is twenty five feet up over a cobblestone street. Are you going to jump down?” Jaine asked pointedly.

“I’d probably try to just brave the flames and run out the door,” Will admitted.

“You think that old staircase wouldn't collapse? It’s on the brink of falling apart even without being on fire,” Janie scoffed.

“Well, it’s not a great plan…” Will shrugged. She was right. “Alright, you’re made your point. So you put a rainstorm in the ceiling in case of fire. I appreciate that,” Will nodded. “When my chest combusted I could have fallen into a shelf full of papers of something, and it could have been a whole lot worse.’

“Or if I’d been a little better at the evocation. It could easily have been a much bigger fire,” Bella added.

“Everything being wet now seems like a small price to pay,” Will said putting his hand over Janie’s. She smiled. Bella added her hand to the stack.

Belita grinned. “Honestly, that’d be a handy thing t’ have shipboard. Fires ‘re one o’ the things we have tae be most careful of. Every ship’s a floatin’ fire trap.”

Janie shook her head. “Part of the magic has to do with trapping the energy in a very stable environment so you can set the trigger condition. Stone is best. I don’t know how wood on a moving vessel would work.”

Belita shrugged. “Ah well, worth a shot.”

“Aren’t we in a hurry? When we came first got here we were frantic, and now we’re just talking,” Bella said.

“Well, there were interruptions,” Will snarked.

“Th’ Kestrel gettin’ away from th’ docks is the important part,” Belita said. “We need tae get ready to run, but we can’t run yet. Best to wait for dawn.”

“Why not?” Bella didn’t understand.

“The Kidd gang will be out in the streets, and they’ll probably be the only ones. We’ve missed our window to shove things in a bag and run before they got organized. The roads are empty right now. If they’re out there, which they probably are, there’s a good chance we’d be spotted if we were out there too.” Will said, agreeing with Belita’s assessment. “We don’t even have a place to run yet. We need to arrange things right. Later, you’ll go help get a boat ready for us. We’ll wait for the market to get going, then hide in the crowd. If things go well, we’ll be able to just walk down to the docks like nothing’s wrong.”

“I don’t know where to get a boat!” Bella looked at him like he was crazy.

“You do. Kaduska,” Will smiled.

Bella blinked and nodded, catching on to Will’s plan. “Can we change clothes?” she asked. “I’ve been wet so long I barely care anymore, but I don’t want to catch a cold.”

Will nodded and gingerly stood up. He pulled the bloody cloth free from his breeches and threw it in his refuse bin next to the sideboard. The ladies all looked at the front of his pants. They were unlaced and pulled open, so his skin was visible down to the base of his cock. The skin from his lower lip all the way down his torso in twisting lines was red and angry and all his hair had been cut to very short dark bristles. The outline of his erection tucked down his pant leg was clearly visible. Janie blushed. Belita grinned. Bella licked her lips.

Will didn’t notice. He felt ridiculous. He walked over to the stairs, holding his pants up at the sides, and climbed until he could see out the window. Bella caught Janie’s eye and gave her a knowing wink. She blushed even more. Belita watched the exchange with amusement.

“The Kestrel isn’t moored anymore. Looks like they shoved off before Kidd could organize a blockade,” Will said from the stairs.

“So we’re safe,” Bella said, relieved.

“For now,” Will said, “Unless the Kidds find out Belita left Mary’s with me.”

“I’m here,” Janie said fiercely from the foot of the stairs. “If anyone shows up I’ll cover for you. I doubt those thugs would risk moving against the Magistrate for this.”

“Then it’s a good thing you came in uniform,” Bella teased, pointing to Janie’s acolyte’s robes.

“They’re my pajamas,” Janie blushed again. “They’re soft.”

“Two years and I never saw you blush, now it seems like all you do,” Will chuckled.

“I… didn’t have reason before,” Janie said. “Everything has become so different in the last few days.”

“I blame Bella,” Will said.

“That’s fair,” Bella shrugged.

“I think she could make a stone blush if she put her mind tae it,” Belita teased.

“It’s like you know her already,” Will laughed.

“Well, I’m going to steal one of Will’s shirts, crawl into bed, and wait for dawn,” Bella said heading past Will up the stairs.

“Need an accomplice?” Captain Vex asked, following her.

“Always,” Bella grinned.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Will said heading up the stairs after them.

“Oh no,” Bella said.

Will stepped through the bedroom door and stopped like he was paralysed. The room was trashed. Everything that could be on the floor, was. His shelves were empty. His footlocker was empty. His dresser was empty and all the shelves were on the floor. Everything that had been under the bed wasn’t anymore.

Bella’s monkey sat in the middle of the bed with a pile of small shiny objects in front of it. Coins, rings, chains, amulets, a belt buckle, some rivets, Will’s father’s compass, buttons. a plumb bob, a small handful of precious gems Will had hidden away, a single solid gold ingot and two of silver.

“What the hells…” Will managed to say.

The monkey screamed at him and disappeared out the window with a handful of treasures.