The storm came in thick sheets of rain and thunder, the sea a roaring beast under the wrath of the night. Lightning split the sky, revealing two ships locked in vicious combat—the dark-hulled Vagabond and the ivory-decked Valiant. Cannon fire exploded across the water, the scent of gunpowder mixing with salt and smoke.
"Hold the starboard line!" Admiral Seraphine Virelle shouted, her voice cutting through the chaos. She stood tall at the helm of the Valiant, soaked from the rain but unmoved by it. Her white navy uniform clung to her form, elegant despite the mud and blood. Red accents traced along her cuffs and collar, a stark contrast to the storm. Her high brown boots gripped the deck as she fought to maintain balance. The crew scrambled around her, slipping and shouting, eyes wide with fear and fury.
Her emerald eyes were sharp, commanding. Her long brown hair, tied in a tight bun at the back of her head, had loosened slightly in the wind, strands whipping her cheeks. Her jaw clenched as she watched the enemy ship move into firing range.
Across the sea, a dark silhouette moved with confidence and chaos. Captain Elric Dorne of the Vagabond stood at the helm, laughing like he'd been born for this. His deep blue long jacket flared with each gust of wind, soaked but somehow still regal. Underneath, his crisp white Victorian shirt was open at the collar, exposing part of his chest, the vest beneath tailored to his trim, athletic frame. His trousers were strapped with leather belts that held a pair of flintlock pistols and a curved sabre with a brass hilt. His long black boots gleamed wet under the flashes of lightning. His black hair, tousled and layered like a painter's brushstroke, clung to his forehead. Sapphire eyes gleamed with mischief.
"Fire! Let 'em feel it!" he bellowed, his voice cutting through the wind.
The deck of the Vagabond came alive. Smoke poured from cannons. Wood splintered. A shell crashed into the side of the Valiant, sending a plume of water skyward. Seraphine braced herself, her hand gripping the rail. She raised her spyglass, aiming it directly at the pirate captain.
Through the lens, their eyes met.
Elric grinned. He lifted a hand and waved at her as if greeting an old friend. Then he shouted across the crashing waves: "Admiral Seraphine! Fancy meeting you again!"
Seraphine lowered the glass, teeth gritted. "You're a plague, Dorne!"
"And you—a storm! Beautiful and completely unreasonable!"
She turned to her first mate. "Prepare the boarding teams. I'm ending this tonight."
But fate had other plans. The wind howled with unnatural rage. A monstrous wave, taller than either ship, rose like a god from the deep. It slammed into the Valiant, cracking the mainmast. Moments later, another wave swallowed the Vagabond whole.
Screams turned to silence.
…
Elric woke with sand in his mouth and the taste of salt thick on his tongue. He rolled onto his back, coughing hard, blinking against sunlight. The canopy above was unfamiliar—thick green leaves, vines hanging like drapes, and strange birdsong that echoed hauntingly.
"Still alive," he croaked, pushing himself up. His jacket was half torn, his vest clung to his body, and his boots felt like they were filled with bricks. He staggered to his feet.
"What the bloody hell is this place..."
A rustle behind him made him spin. He reached instinctively for his pistol—gone. He turned fully and froze.
Seraphine stood ten paces away. She looked as worn as he felt, uniform ragged, hair coming loose from its tight bun. Her brow was furrowed, eyes wary.
"You," she said coldly.
"Me," he said, managing a weak grin. "And here I thought I'd washed up in paradise."
She crossed her arms, taking him in. "If you're here, this must be hell."
He clutched his heart. "Admiral. I'm wounded."
She stepped closer, cautiously. "Any sign of others?"
He shook his head. "Just the two of us."
Their moment was broken by a deep, guttural sound from the forest line. Both turned toward it.
It came fast—a beast that didn't belong in any natural world. It moved like a cat, but its limbs were too long, its eyes too human, glowing with orange light. Translucent scales shimmered under its fur.
"Move!" Elric shouted, instinct taking over.
Seraphine didn't argue. She ducked as the creature lunged. Elric rolled sideways, grabbing a sharp piece of driftwood. The creature snarled and circled.
"Flank it," she ordered tightly.
"Giving me orders already?"
"Less talk, more stabbing."
She rushed forward, swinging a broken branch toward the creature's face. Elric slipped behind it, jamming the driftwood into its flank. The beast shrieked and vanished into the trees.
They stood in silence, panting. Elric turned to her with a smile.
"You alright?"
"Fine," she said curtly. "Don't mistake this for trust. We needed each other. That's all."
"I'll take that over nothing," he said with a shrug.
She started walking inland. He followed.
---
By the time night fell, they'd found a clearing. Elric gathered dry branches and started working on a fire. Seraphine stood nearby, arms crossed, watching.
"You planning to set half the forest alight?"
"Only if it keeps the glowing death-cats away."
She didn't smile. But she sat, knees drawn to her chest, eyes never quite leaving him.
The fire caught. Sparks danced upward. For a long while, they sat in silence.
Elric broke it, his tone quieter now.
"Look, I know you're not thrilled to share air with me. But we're both stuck here, and being cold and miserable won't help either of us."
She didn't respond immediately. When she did, her voice was low.
"You're too comfortable with this."
"What, near-death jungle survival?"
"Being in someone else's space. Being unguarded."
He chuckled. "Maybe. Or maybe I've just made peace with not having control."
"Some of us never had the luxury to be so..." she searched for the word, "...easy."
"You think I had it easy?" he asked, not offended, just curious.
She turned her head slightly. "Did you?" Immediately, her stomach grumbled and an embarrassing feeling struck her.
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took out a damp but mostly intact pouch from his coat and tossed her a handful piece of dried purple fruit.
"Picked it up along the way, it's edible."
She caught it, suspicious, but didn't refuse it.
Another silence. This one's less tense.
He looked at her, not quite smiling. "For the record, I don't expect you to trust me. But I do mean to survive this. And I don't mind if you do too."
Her fingers tightened around the fruit. For a long moment, she stared into the fire.
Then, quietly: "Thank you."
Elric didn't make a joke. He just nodded.
Minutes passed. The fire crackled. A breeze rustled the leaves. When Seraphine finally spoke again, it was hesitant.
"My father always said weakness starts with comfort. He hated warmth. Laughter. Said it distracted from duty."
Elric looked up from the flame.
"Sounds lonely."
"It was. But it made me sharp. Precise. I couldn't afford mistakes."
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "So you made yourself unbreakable."
She gave him a wary glance. "Tried."
He was quiet for a few moments. Then:
"I used to think strength meant taking whatever you wanted. Sailing where no one could follow. But I was wrong."
She tilted her head. "Then what is it?"
"Knowing when to let go."
She didn't respond, but she didn't look away either.
He picked up a small stick and rolled it between his fingers.
"My mother died when I was ten. She was kind. Loved to sing. My father... he was different. A hard man. Taught me how to lie, cheat, shoot. I think he thought he was preparing me for the world."
He looked up, eyes on the flames.
"But all I wanted was to be free. I thought piracy would give me that. Turns out, you carry your chains no matter where you go."
Seraphine watched him quietly, the hardness in her expression softening by a sliver.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I don't want to die here a stranger to the only other person alive."
She nodded, once. "Fair enough."
The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was full of all the words neither of them yet knew how to say. The fire cracked louder in the quiet jungle night.
A long time passed before either of them shifted. Seraphine leaned back slightly, eyes up at the unfamiliar stars.
"They're all wrong, you know. The constellations."
Elric followed her gaze. "Yeah. It's like the sky's dreaming."
She gave a faint laugh. "You're ridiculous."
"You laughed. That's progress."
"I didn't laugh. I smirked. At best."
"Close enough. I'll take my victories."
The tiniest smile curled at the corner of her lips. And for the first time, the firelight between them felt warm.
Elric turned toward her, serious again. "Can I ask something?"
She nodded.
"Why do you hate pirates so much?"
Her smile faded. Her shoulders stiffened. She looked into the fire again.
"You already know. You're thieves. Smugglers. You burn what you can't take."
"That's not all of us."
"I know."
She took a slow breath. Her voice was quieter when she spoke again.
"I was fifteen. My father was at sea. I stayed with my uncle's family, in a port town. Pirates raided. We thought the fleet would arrive in time. It didn't."
Her eyes didn't blink.
"They took my cousin. She was only nine. I never saw her again."
She swallowed hard. Her voice had turned brittle.
"They set the house on fire. Left me inside. I crawled out through smoke and ash. They laughed."
She wiped at her face. "My uncle died of the burns. I enlisted two weeks later."
Elric didn't speak. He didn't crack a joke. He just watched her, eyes wide with something close to grief.
He reached over, slow, and set a hand gently beside hers in the dirt. Not touching. Just there.
She didn't pull away.
The silence held. She breathed. So did he.
And for once, they were not captain and admiral. Not pirate and officer. Just two people, side by side, staring into the fire as the jungle hummed around them. The stars turned slowly overhead.
"I'm sorry," he said softly.
"Thank you," she replied.
They didn't say anything else.
Eventually, Seraphine lay back and closed her eyes, her arms still crossed over her chest. Elric didn't follow. He stayed sitting up, watching the flame until it dimmed to coals.
—
The morning came heavy with mist. The jungle was quiet in that strange, expectant way.
They packed up their meager things without speaking much. But something had changed. When Seraphine handed Elric a piece of fruit she found, he didn't joke. He nodded. And she didn't flinch when his fingers brushed hers.
They moved through the forest together, the terrain thick with vines and glittering dew. Strange butterflies with translucent wings followed them for miles, drifting like glowing petals.
"These better not sting," Elric muttered.
"They're beautiful."
"That's what makes them dangerous."
She almost smiled.
Further in, the trees opened into a clearing where golden roots curled up from the earth and tangled into archways. Elric touched one and it pulsed with light.
"Think it grants wishes?"
"Probably curses."
He grinned. "You're no fun."
"I'm alive, aren't I?"
He mimicked her voice, "I'm alive, aren't I?" and she shoved him hard.
They laughed. Loudly, freely.
As they moved on, the forest opened into strange, shimmering clearings. Trees grew in perfect spirals, their leaves a soft violet. They passed a tree whose trunk was glass, and inside it: flickers of birds, like light trapped mid-flight. Seraphine stopped to stare.
"It's like walking through someone's dream," she whispered.
Elric brushed his fingers over the bark. "Hope they're a good dreamer."
By midday, they reached a river where the stones hummed when stepped on. The water was clear—too clear—and filled with visions. Elric bent down and stared in.
"What do you see?" she asked.
He didn't answer at first. She moved beside him and looked.
In the water: a young Elric, hiding under a table as men fought above him. A woman screaming. A flash of fire. Then ocean, wide and deep blue.
Seraphine touched his shoulder with a sober expression on her face. He stood slowly and took a deep breath.
"Let's keep going." He looked at her, smiling.
They did. But the mood stayed quiet.
Later, a swarm of creatures—moss-colored, winged things like living roots—chased them through a dense thicket. They fought back to back, with sticks as their weapon, breath heaving. When the last one dropped, they both collapsed in the leaves, laughing breathlessly.
"You're better with a stick than I expected," she said.
"Careful," he replied. "That almost sounded like a compliment."
They shared food. Teased each other gently. Elric tried to balance a glowing beetle on her shoulder while she slept—she woke and smacked him, and they both laughed harder than they had in days.
But as the sun dipped low, something shifted.
They stood on a mossy ledge, looking out at a wide canyon lined with crystal columns.
"This place," she said, "It's beautiful and wild."
He nodded. "Just like someone."
She hit his diaphragm.
"Oww" he staggered back, coughing.
"S-sorry." She hurried towards him to support him.
By dusk, they were tired and aching. They stopped to rest beneath a tree shaped like a weeping willow, its leaves whispering in a language neither of them knew.
"But be honest, Dorne, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't attacked my ship," Seraphine muttered.
"Please," Elric said, slumping beside her. "You fired first."
"A warning shot. You were in royal waters."
"Because your royals steal from the seas."
She snapped, "You don't know a thing about sacrifice."
He stood, fists clenched. "Don't pretend you're the only one who's lost people."
"Then stop acting like this is a joke!"
"How?!" He gestured "Am I laughing right now?"
"Who knows, you could be suppressing it."
"Oh that's just so true." He stood up and walked towards the true, hands on his waist, laughing bitterly and shaking his head. "Hey, look it's Dorne, he's a joker, he jokes about everything." He emphasized.
"Oh please, quit making it look like you've been betrayed by your best friend or something." Seraphine said, slightly raising her voice.
He looked back at her.
She stood up and stepped back, "Don't make this into something. We're not friends. We're not…."
He rolled his eyes. "Right. Pirate and Admiral. Opposite sides."
"Exactly."
"So what was last night?" He asked, looking her in the eyes.
She looked at him for a long moment, eyes searching, maybe even afraid.
"A mistake."
The word landed harder than a blow.
He didn't argue. Just nodded. Jaw clenched and started walking.
They camped apart that night, no words exchanged.
---
The next day, they climbed a narrow path along a cliff. Rocks gave out. Seraphine slipped. Elric caught her wrist, barely holding on. He pulled her up with everything he had, both of them landing hard against stone, panting.
Later, a thunderbird swooped out of the sky. Its talons grazed Seraphine's arm. Elric fired a shot and scared it off—but his pistol exploded in his hand, tearing the skin.
They bled. They burned. They kept going.
And finally, when they were limping through tangled brush, a vine snapped around Seraphine's ankle and yanked her up into the air.
"Seraphine!" Elric shouted.
He charged, slashing at the vine until it screamed—yes, screamed—and dropped her. He caught her in a heap, falling back.
She was shaking, breathless.
And then she was sobbing, face pressed into his shoulder, and his arms were around her without hesitation.
"I'm sorry," she choked. "I was scared. I pushed you away. It wasn't a mistake."
He pressed his face into her hair. "I never thought it was."
They sat there, tangled, broken, and alive.
They sat quietly in the cave as rain started to fall outside, soft and steady.
Elric fed the fire with a few dry twigs from his satchel. The glow touched Seraphine's face, and she looked more at peace than he'd ever seen her.
She was watching him, too.
"Do you ever stop smiling?" she asked.
"Only when I'm terrified. Or asleep. Sometimes both."
She shook her head, barely containing a smile.
They were sitting close now, shoulder to shoulder. She didn't remember when that happened.
"We could die tomorrow," he said softly. "Or tonight. Could be anything out there."
"Then let tonight be quiet," she said. "No more fighting. No past. Just this."
His hand found hers.
Slowly, she turned to face him.
His smile faded, not out of sadness, but because something else filled the space—something heavier. Quieter.
She leaned in first.
Their kiss was gentle. Uncertain. The kind of kiss shared not out of hunger, but recognition. A question and answer in one breath.
Her fingers found the edge of his collar. His hand moved to her waist.
They kissed again, deeper this time. Slower.
Clothing fell away without urgency. Touches mapped skin like they were learning each other by memory.
No rush. No need for words.
Just the hush of breath, the weight of closeness, and a kind of tenderness neither of them had ever let themselves want until now.
He held her like she was a secret. She touched him like he was a truth she hadn't believed in.
The fire warmed the cave, but it was their bodies that kept out the cold.
When it was over, they didn't move apart.
She lay with her head on his chest, listening to the rain.
He ran his fingers gently through her hair, silent.
And for a while, the world outside the cave did not exist.
---
They woke with the sky streaked in pale pink. The jungle was still. No birdsong. No breeze. As if the island itself was waiting.
They dressed in silence, hands brushing here and there, but the softness of the night still lingered in their touch.
Their bodies were tired. Bruised. But their pace didn't slow. The forest grew darker, older. The trees bent over them like archways, and every step felt heavier—like the ground itself mourned what was coming.
Hours passed.
Then, finally, they broke through the last wall of green.
Before them: a glade. At its center, a still pool of water that shimmered like glass. Above it, suspended in the air, was the rune.
It floated in place, glowing softly with silver-blue light. Strange symbols pulsed across its surface. It was beautiful—and final.
As they approached, a voice echoed in their heads.
Only one may leave.
Seraphine stopped walking. "No…"
He walked rapidly towards the water wall and attempted to go through it but it was solid like a glass. She punched it with every power she had but her knuckles only bled. She picked up a hand-sized stone and hit continuously on the wall of solid water but she quickly wore out, panting excessively.
Elric looked at the rune. Then at her. His eye lids heavy.
Only one, huh?
She shook her head slowly, stepping back. "No, no. This can't be. We made it together. We survived together. There has to be another way!"
He stepped closer to her. "Seraph—"
"Don't." Her voice cracked. "Please dont—"
He reached up slowly and removed his deep blue pirates' hat, the edges weathered now, but still proud. He pressed it into her hands.
"You have to go," he said softly.
"I am not leaving you." She stressed as her voice broke. "Why're you asking me to do this."
"I'm not asking." He smiled faintly, his voice steady, though his eyes were wet. "I'm telling you to live. You living is my absolute victory."
She looked at the rune, then back to him, her eyes wide and glassy. "You saved me. You forgave me when I hurt you with my words. You made me feel alive again. And now you want to leave me alone in that world?"
"I want to know you're safe in it." He spoke slowly and solemnly, his smile still evident.
Her hands were trembling as she clutched the hat. "But…. Why not me?"
"Because I've seen enough of the world. You deserve to see it free of chains."
Her tears spilled freely. "This isn't fair."
He pulled her into a hug, holding her as tightly as he could.
"No," he whispered. "It isn't."
They kissed. Slow. Desperate. Not goodbye—because neither could bear to say that.
When they pulled away, he rested his forehead against hers one last time.
"Seraph, please forgive us," he whispered. "Not all pirates are monsters. Some of us just want to explore the edges of the world."
She nodded against him, unable to speak.
Then she turned toward the rune.
Each step toward the pool felt heavier than battle. She looked back once more to see his soft heart-warming smile as he watched her.
Smiling back at him, she stepped into the water as light swallowed her.
---
Seraphine fell onto a shore bathed in golden sun.
The ocean stretched wide and endless before her. Gulls wheeled above. Wind danced over the waves.
She looked to her right—and saw sails on the horizon.
A rescue fleet.
She turned toward the sea again, clutching his captain's hat to her chest.
She sank to her knees in the sand and buried her face into it.
And she wept.
Not because she was lost.
But because she'd finally been found—and had to let it go.