edge of the ship and turned to look back at Dexter, who was in turn looking at Bekka as she emerged from the top of the stairway.
“Be at peace!” Bekka said, slipping on the ring and holding it up in front of her.
Rosh gave her a funny look and then covered himself quickly, realizing he had given the wildcat in his arms an opening to strike him. No attack came from her, instead she relaxed in his arms. Rosh turned to look at her, mouth agape in wonder.
He stepped away from the ship’s railing, where he had nearly tossed her over, and turned back towards them. “You mean to say that ring controls her?”
Bekka nodded, “I mean to say,” she confirmed.
“Is she safe?” Dexter asked, eyeing the formerly fiery tempered girl suspiciously.
“At the moment, yes,” Bekka said.
Jenna cursed and hurried down the stairs. She looked at the girl and cursed again before turning to Dexter. “I heard of such things, but they looked different then. They used monsters at the time, and called them slayers.”
“Can we skip to the part where this starts making sense?” Dexter asked.
“She’s a slayer? Slayer of what?” Rosh asked.
Kragor emerged from the aft stairs and stared across the deck, wondering what was going on. He held a piece of the broken door in his hand and stared around, seeing Keshira working nearby and the others gathered towards the bow. He overheard their questions as he walked towards them.
“How about you go back to where Rosh was getting beat up by a girl again?” Kragor asked innocently.
Rosh sneered at him, which made the dwarf chuckle.
“The elves would capture creatures… barely intelligent things that lived by tooth and claw, and ensorcel them. With magic they turned them into controllable weapons, and they would send them after whatever they wanted,” Jenna explained.
“Ere I left I had heard, through the network, that they were turning hunting dogs into slayers as well, using magic to twist, strengthen, and corrupt them,” she continued.
“Seems they moved on to people,” Bekka said, stepping closer and studying the placid girl in Rosh’s arms.
“So she’s a weapon?” Rosh asked, staring at her. “Don’t seem like much of a weapon to me.”
Kragor chuckled evilly before saying, “What’s that blood running from your face?”
Rosh scowled at the dwarf and shut up, realizing as he did so that his split lip was getting puffier.
Bekka giggled while Dexter was barely able to contain himself to only smirking. Jenna seemed not amused by it all, instead she was clearly bothered by the turn of events.
“The best thing we could do would be to kill her,” she said. “She was once a young girl, innocent too, probably. But now she has been twisted from what she was into this, an abomination that responds to whomever holds that ring.”
“What kind of things will she do?” Rosh asked, looking at the ring Bekka was only now taking off of her finger.
“Anything,” Jenna said.
Rosh raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. Kragor saw his look and shook his head slightly; signaling Rosh to stop whatever he was thinking because the dwarf knew it would not go over well.
“Alright,” Dexter said with a tired voice. “Put her over the side, Rosh. Let’s be rid of her.”
“Hold on, Captain,” Rosh said. “We could use her! With that ring she’ll do whatever we want.”
“I’ll not have slaves aboard my ship,” Dexter growled.
“Well, I didn’t mean it like that,” Rosh said. He looked about to the others hoping for help, but saw nothing. Then his eyes fell on Keshira, who was minding the rigging in spite of their commotion.
“We’ve got Keshira!” Rosh said. “She’s not much different; she does whatever you tell her, ‘sept you ain’t got no ring.”
Dexter’s eyes smoldered with rage at Rosh’s words. His fist clenched and he opened his mouth to speak but Bekka beat him to the punch.
“Wait,” she said, stepping between them. She held up the ring for them all to see and spoke, “there is much of the ring’s magic in her, and there is some of her in the ring. What if we gave her the ring? Made her the Mistress of herself?”
“She’s not for being in control of anything right now,” Dexter said, pointing at her. She hung limp from Rosh’s arms, seemingly unaware of the world around them.
Bekka frowned and slipped the ring back on, then turned to face her. “Be yourself,” she commanded.
The girl’s head perked up. She looked around and stiffened, staring into Rosh’s eyes.
“Are you going to hurt anyone?” Bekka asked cautiously.
The girl turned her head to behold the half-elf. She studied her for a long moment before her mouth opened. At first a garbled sound came from it, but it quickly changed into words that were not tortured. “I don’t… want to hurt anyone anymore.”
“See, there you go!” Rosh said, startling her and making her look at him with trepidation.
“You’re bleeding,” she said softly. “I made you bleed,” she continued, remembering that she had done it.
“That’s a powerful thing,” Dexter said, staring at the ring Bekka held. “I don’t want her on my ship if that thing can be used against her. Can you destroy it?”
Bekka shook her head. “Not yet, it has her essence bound up in it, I don’t know what it would do to her.”
Dexter’s look indicated he was not terribly concerned about her fate. Jenna looked at her suspiciously as well. Finally Dexter shrugged. “Jenna, she came for you. What say you about this?”
“Do you wish me harm?” Jenna asked her, stepping up to her. When she did not respond Jenna reached out and grabbed her chin, twisting her head so that she looked at her.
“Girl!” She snapped. “Do you wish me harm still?”
The girl’s eyes watered and her chin quivered for a moment. “I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again.”
Jenna stared at her and then let her chin go. She walked away and found herself staring at Keshira, who had stopped working and was watching from afar. She opened her mouth but paused, staring at the construct. “Do what you will,” she said, then descended the staircase to the companionway before anyone could say more to her.
Dexter watched her go, somewhat perplexed. He looked back at Rosh, who just shrugged. “Set her down, Rosh,” Dexter said.
Rosh did so, and let her go so that she stood on the deck unrestrained. She stood still, tears running down her face.
“Alright, see what you can do with her,” Dexter said. “If she can work she can stay, if she gets in the way…”
Dexter let the alternative go unnamed. He turned to Kragor and sighed, then went to the stairs and threaded his way down them so that he could take over on the helm that Bekka had abandoned when she had sensed the situation unfolding.
“Really? I can keep her?” Rosh asked, surprised.
“She’s not a thing to be keeping,” Kragor said, smacking him on the arm. “You and Bekka see what you can do to settle her down. Bekka, you keep that ring with you until you know more about it. Don’t you be giving it to anyone.”
Nearly two days passed with the ship unusually quiet. Bekka and Rosh spent time with Bailynn, or so the girl claimed her name was. Bekka and Rosh began calling her just Lynn., hoping to make her feel better.
Rosh showed her the sails and the rigging, explaining as best he could how the magic of the ships helm somehow enabled the sails to catch the solar wind and sail through the void. Quiet and seemingly morose, she nevertheless drank in the lessons.
Bekka spent time mostly watching and studying them, though occasionally she would correct Rosh when he misspoke on how the solar winds worked on the sails and how the helm could still control a ship even without them, though it was slow and cumbersome.
