Chapter Text
The first thing Asha feels is the unmerciful cold of the waters. She hits the surface like concrete and immediately after her head goes under, the panic sets in.
There had been a strange calm in her until now, a resignation to her fate, but now that the fight for her life has begun, the protective layer of indifference is gone.
The water seeps into her clothes and drags her down; she struggles against her bonds, trashing about, eyes held tightly closed.
Sharpness hits her skin, pain as it's broken by... something. Sharks, Asha thinks. Krait. Unknwon horrors of the depths.
Her lungs burn, her body screams for air and Asha cannot hold her breath any longer. Salty seawater fills her lungs and the world goes dark, a mercy after the raw fear of drowning.
When Asha comes to, she feels the sun on her skin, the taste of salt still lingers on her tongue, proof that she did not dream this terror. Not daring to let hope take her again, Asha slowly opens her eyes.
She sees a beach. Waves coming and going on the damp sands, sunlight glittering on the water's surface. Her bonds are undone, but the more conscious she becomes, the more pain Asha feels. Her wrists and ankles are open, raw from struggling against her bonds with no regard to her skin's integrity, adrenaline having clouded her sense of pain for that moment.
Furtherly, there are gashes on her arms and legs, burning from the saltwater. Asha sits up, head spinning, nausea in her stomach.
She scans the immediate area for something, anything, an explanation to how she got her, and why she isn't one of the many unfortunate corpses at the bottom of the ocean.
The coast is rocky, aside from the few patches of sand. Large boulders adorn the beach, grey and bleak. Asha feels like she is dreaming, her surroundings feel unreal and too quiet for her standards. She's not used to this kind of peace, not after the harrowing ordeal of serving on the Rascal.
Then, from the corner of her eye, movement. Asha whips around, limps toward one of the big boulders in her vicinity.
“Who's there?” she calls out, her voice raw and raspy from swallowing saltwater.
In response, the stranger she'd spotted peeks their head over the rock, halfway, just to see wet, pale pink hair and featureless eyes. No pupil, no iris, just a white shadow where they should be, looking at Asha with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
“Wait – Don't leave.” Asha pleads as she makes her way toward the stranger. “Please.”
A pair horrible, clawed hands appears left and right of the face, and the creature pulls itself upward, into view from behind its hiding spot.
At first glance, it looks like a nude woman, pale as the moon, but then Asha sees the gills on her sides and her neck, the webbed hands and the scales on her waistline. She lifts herself up onto the boulder with impressive strength, revealing the mighty, scaled fishtail in place of her legs, the same salmon color as her hair, which clings to her back.
Asha stares at her, frozen in place. She's heard stories of the melodious voices calling sailors to their doom, the beautiful women that feed on the blood and bones of those who hear them sing on the open sea.
“Siren.” she gasps and loses her footing collapsing back onto the ground.
The siren bats her eyes and nods, then brushes her hand ober her tail.
A change occurs with her, her tailfin shrinks, her scales fade into skin, and the entire tail splits, reforming into human legs right before Asha's eyes.
A few minutes later, only a few scale pattern remain of the tail and the siren stands on wobbly knees before her. Once the transformation is complete, she kneels down at Asha's side and gives her a sheepish smile, as if asking if she is more comfortable with her now.
“Did... did you save me?” Asha dares to ask, as she has no other explanation for how she survived her execution and the siren nods.
“I, um... thank you? But why? Aren't you supposed to eat sailors or something?”
The siren hurriedly shakes her head and takes Asha's left hand, her cold fingers tap the rash from the rope. She holds her own wrist next to hers, and a faint shimmer on her skin, an irregularity in her smoothness has Asha's eyes go wide.
“You were cast overboard too? Is that how you became like this?” she asks and the siren nods once more, letting go of Asha's hand.
“Thank you.” Asha repeats, clueless about how to proceed from here. She's wounded, alone with a mermaid on some shore or island without any way to find her way home, let alone back to the Rascal.
Her gaze meets her saviour's again.
“I'm Asha.” she introduces herself. “Do you have a name?”
The Siren opens her mouth, revealing a set of sharp, sharklike teeth, then closes it again, draws breath and produces as rasping, hissing sound from her throat, before managing to form a word.
“Raya.”
–
Vaixx stares into the spot Asha Gaets had submerged at, looking at the air bubbles rising as the girl drowns. His fists are clenched tightly, and he turns away.
“Set a course to Laughing Gull.” he orders, immediately assuming his duties as the new Captain, now that Rowan is no more.
“Hey.” He feels someone grip him by the shoulder as he makes his way into the Captain's Quarters, to clean up the body. “This isn't your fault.”
He hums in response, brushes the hand off.
“Vaixx.” His friend, Raxxi, moves into his way. “She killed the Cap'n. If you hadn't done this, the crew woulda torn her apart.”
“I killed a kid.” he counters and pushes her out of his way.
Knowing not to push the topic, Raxxi follows him, clasping her hands behind her back.
“What now? Taidha will not be happy about losing one of her best Captains.” she asks instead.
“Taidha can suck my dick for all I care.” Vaixx responds sharply and closes the door behind them, cutting off the sounds of the crew celebrating the death of a little girl. He feels sick, and looks upon the corpse of Rowan Gaets.
His daughter's attack came out of nowhere. Rowan's eyes are wide open, his lips parted, as if in silent protest. Nobody would have expected the girl to snap, least of all her father.
“I followed Rowan's orders, not hers.” Vaixx adds and tears off his headband, to run his fingers through his hair.
“Sorry to burst yer bubble, mate, but those were her orders, passed through to the next instance.” Raxxi counters. “Look, I know you don't like her, but she's got an entire fuckin' fleet. We only have this sorry little boat.”
Vaixx pauses.
“What if that wasn't the case?”
“Wha?”
“What if we had a fleet, Raxxi? We wouldn't have to follow her anymore, would we? We could just leave!”
Raxxi snorts humorlessly.
“Yeah, what if we had five million gold? We could retire! Newsflash pal, we have neither that, nor a fleet. Taidha will appoint one of her goons as the new Cap'n as soon as she learns of this mess.” she says and Vaixx shushes her hurriedly.
“Yes, but she doesn't know yet, does she?” he urges. “I hate this situation as much as everybody else, but this might be a chance to leave Covington fleet for good! Your brother.”
“My brother?”
“He's got the means to help us build a fleet, doesn't he? He's got the money to buy the ships we need, and the connections to populate them. We have to do this. We will not get another opportunity.”
“Vaixx, my boy. There is one weakness in your masterplan.”
“What?”
“You just set course to Laughing Gull.”
“Fuck!”
The door bursts open again and Vaixx stomps out from the Captain's Quarters, followed by Raxxi as he makes his way up to the wheel.
“Change of plans! Avoid Laughing Gull, Sanctum Harbor, on the double!” he calls to the Sylvari up there, who looks onto him with hollow eyes. There's a sting in his gut when he remembers her. She was close to the girl.
Regardless, she follows his order, spinning the wheel. Vaixx estimates, she will leave the crew as soon as they reach Lion's Arch but for now, he cannot worry about that.
He has work to do.