Edward got up and dressed in his standard attire, save for his tricorn hat. He left that behind, but donned his longcoat, given that night was approaching. Following a visual inspection in a mirror, he left the captain's cabin.
He headed through the gun deck to the ladder leading to the weather deck. On his way, several crewmates tipped their caps and inquired about his health. He gave a few short words telling them not to worry and that he was doing much better now.
On the weather deck, a cold salty wind hit Edward's face and hands on his ascent. The sun was just hitting the horizon, but its warmth had all but vanished.
Edward passed by many a crewmate, some lounging, some testing the myriad rigging ropes and knots, and others conversing about what had happened. Their voices grew silent as Edward approached before quickly returning with concerned tones passed along by well-worn phrases asking of his condition.
After repeating the same words he'd said to the crewmates below deck, he laughed off their concern, ensuring that all knew he was in good spirits despite the opposite being true. After wading his way through the throngs, he entered the quarterdeck cabin—the war room, as they called it.
Inside the war room, a smell of musty tomes and gunpowder wafted his way as he entered. The room had its fair share of old books and maps littering tables and cabinets, lending their essence to the ship's wooden architecture.
At the main table, a large oval table stood beneath an ornate chandelier, and on an equally lavish red velvet carpet covering most of the room. Around the table, Anne, William, and Alexandre were sitting in chairs, as Victoria read one of the books on the port side of the room. Christina, her arms folded, leaned against the starboard side of the cabin next to her brother, Herbert, who sat in his wheelchair facing parallel to the entrance to the room.
Upon hearing the door open, all eyes turned towards Edward, and Herbert turned his wheelchair around to watch Edward enter. Herbert's eyes and expression were inscrutable, a mix of confusion or pity or anger which Edward couldn't pin down. He chose to ignore it.
He walked over to his high-backed chair on the other side of the oval table as the heat of all those eyes bore down on him. After sitting down, his back as straight as he could manage with his wound, he stared down each person in the room for a few seconds before lingering a touch longer on Herbert.
"We missed our golden opportunity in Tortuga. There's no use in dwelling on my mistakes, so let's focus on correcting them," Edward said. He turned to Victoria, who still had the book she was reading in hand. "We go back to the original plan and dismantle Calico Jack's empire. Where was Silver Eyes located, Victoria?"
Victoria opened her mouth to respond, but Christina interrupted her. "We're not to talk of what happened?" she said, her hand half-raised in the air, emphasizing her incredulity. "Are we living in some fantasy where you expect us to ignore that we're talking about your father?"
Edward clenched his teeth. "What of it?" he seethed. "Does it change what he's done to us all? Does it change the undeniable fact that he wants us dead?"
"It changes you. Doesn't it?" Christina asked, her tone of anger shifting to concern. "We all know that part of the reason you went to sea was to find your father. It may not have been the focus, but it was always there. And now you find out that the person who's been pulling your strings, who abused and nearly killed everyone in this room, including your wife, and more, is your father, alive and well? Which also means he truly did abandon you as a child." The room was silent, and even the sound outside the cabin couldn't penetrate the tension left by Christina's plain levelling of the facts. "You mean to say you're still willing to kill him, despite knowing he's your father?" She glanced at the others in the cabin. "Come now," she called. "I cannot be the only one who has doubts."
After another moment of silence, Herbert looked up at Edward. His expression had changed, but Edward still couldn't read him. "I also have questions," he said first, "but, Edward, if you say you're still going to see this through, then I won't doubt you. You've taken us this far, and I'm sure that this only makes you want to confront him even more."
"You can't expect him to kill his own father, can you?" Christina shouted. "Are you mad?"
Herbert turned in his wheelchair to face his sister directly. "Christina, shut it. This is bigger than you or me now." He turned back around, considering the matter done.
Edward stared at Herbert for a moment, trying to read him, but gained nothing. "I plan on seeing this through to the end, as promised."
Herbert paused for a few seconds and then nodded. "That's good enough for me," he said.
Christina clenched her jaw tight enough to bite her tongue, and then stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Herbert's expression didn't change from before, and he didn't even glance over his shoulder when the door crashed against the frame. "Shall we move on then?"
Edward began the discussion and proposed again that they should move back to the original plan and go after either Silver Eyes or Copper Legs. The only one they had reliable information on was Silver Eyes, so they decided to go after him.
Copper Legs was always on the move, so it was hard to pinpoint her location at any given moment. From their information, she was never too far behind where Calico Jack was, but everyone agreed that it was too dangerous to go back to Tortuga.
After making
