The second she woke, Jinju could feel the violent rocking of the ship. She groaned and shifted in her hammock to try to get back to sleep, in vain. All she could think about was how dizzy she was and her stomach fluids sloshing, making her terribly nauseated. This is what she hated most about living in the ocean. You’d think that after living this way for one year she would get used to it, but no, every time a storm hit she was useless and incapacitated. 

She instantly sat up as soon she felt bile rising up . She tried to quickly run for the door, but reality was cruel. As soon as she got there, it finally dawned on her that she was locked in—a prisoner in a pirate’s ship. Because she could not get out, she was forced to heave into a washing bowl she found on top of a desk close to the door. Thankfully, her stomach was empty so only bile and saliva came out. She stayed crouching down with her head between her knees and the bowl in between, the liquids in it splashing around.

As she watched the movement of the water, she thought of where she was and what she had left behind. One year ago, she lived a quiet life in her tiny home near the shore of Baram. The island of Baram was a quiet place. Sure pirates stopped by, but they never stayed more than two days. The island may have been a hub for information gathering and a good place to hide, but authorities knew of this so their steamboats came around looking for pirate ships once in a while. 

There was only ever one pirate ship that stayed longer than two days. The EXO captained by Byun Baekhyun stayed for two full months. Fortunately for him and his crew of seven, the authorities never passed by the island in that time. If they did, the ship was prepared to embark on a moment’s notice. She was docked for only one day, then her captain decided to move her and dropped anchor a sizable distance away from shore. Jinju had seen Baekhyun alighting from a dinghy multiple times whenever he came by to visit her. 

She asked him once what would happen if the authorities came while he was ashore. He laughed and gave a silly smile saying that even if the ship left without him, his crew would come back for him. “Besides,” he added, “that’s why I always have Suho here with me.” She didn’t understand what that meant at the time so she just returned the same smile that he was flashing at her.

The thought of Baekhyun caused Jinju to heave once more. A gangly middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair, wearing a tattered shirt and pants found her that way. “You okay there m’lady?” Jinju lifted her head up to be met with his sympathetic eyes. She groaned in reply. “I’m sorry to bother you, but you’re needed at the helm.”

“What do you want Elioda?” She slurred due to watering. The question was not needed but it was her way of defiance. Being wanted at the helm during a storm could only mean one thing.

Elioda gave her a look of pity. “I think it would be in your best interest to follow.”

“Just leave me alone.” She lazily waved her arm in his direction and was about to collapse on the floor until Elioda pulled her up by the arm. She groaned in protest as he proceeded to drag her out to the helm. 

“Let me go!”

“M’lady, please yield. Even just this once…”

Hearing the desperation in his voice caused Jinju to calm down until she saw a man with a captain’s hat waiting for her on the upper deck. Sensing that she was about to make a fuss, Elioda tightened his grip on her arm as a warning. As soon as they both faced the man that towered over the two of them, he got a hold of Jinju’s other arm and shooed Elioda. Before leaving, Elioda gave her one last look void of emotion. Jinju knew what that meant; he was telling her to behave.

“Hello my dear, how is your morning?” the captain asked with a smile on his rugged face, but when she refused to answer and turned away to watch the turbulent sea, an ugly frown quickly replaced his smile. He tossed her around but still kept a firm grip on her in order to get her attention. “I will ask one more time. How is your morning?”

Jinju schooled the expression on her face to hide how much being tossed around had hurt her and added to her nausea. “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth.

“But you don’t look fine to me,” he said with a patronizing tone.

She faced him defiantly and spat, “Then why bother asking!”

“Of course it is only good manners to do so.”

Jinju scoffed at his answer. “Manners? What does a pirate like you know about manners?”

Her answer earned her a hard slap to her right cheek. “Don’t test me my dear. You won’t like what happens to you.”

“I already hate what’s happening. Why didn’t you just let me burn to the ground like you did with everyone on the island!”

“Now why would I do that? You’re a very valuable treasure,” he said as he used the back of his other hand to the cheek that he had slapped. “Now be a good girl and make sure my ship gets out of this storm.”

“I can barely stand without assistance. How do you expect me to calm the storm?” she said with derision.

The captain scowled at her and tossed her to the ground right next to the helmsman, who was too busy trying to control the ship in the storm to be bothered with her. “I don’t care if you can barely stand. Do as I say if you want to eat in the next few days,” he ordered her. Before leaving to find shelter in his quarters, he took a necklace out of his coat pocket and tossed it at her.

As soon as he was gone, Jinju took the necklace, put it over her head, took a deep breath, and collapsed on the deck. She closed her eyes and focused on her surroundings. She focused on the heavy droplets of rain pelting down, soaking her to the bone. She focused on the waves crashing into and rocking the ship, then decided against it once she started feeling even dizzier. Next, she focused on the wind and breathed methodically in and out. 

A glittering sliver of light given off by the crystal pendant attached to the necklace shined through her shirt and gradually, the waves started to calm down. The air was still, no wind blowing in any direction. The only indication that the storm had not abated was the heavy drops of rain and that all around the ship the sea was moving around violently, gigantic waves crashing meters before it could reach the ship. 

Jinju heard the helmsman give a breath of relief. His relief was also hers, now that the sea was calm she didn’t have to worry about nausea. But she wouldn’t be able to hold off for long with how weak she was. She hadn’t eaten in two days and her body was clearly protesting. She needed to hurry the ship along so they could get out of this storm before she could pass out. 

“Yah,” she kicked at the helmsman’s foot to get his attention.

“What do you want woman?”

“Have the sails raised.”

“Are you crazy?” the helmsman finally turned in her direction.

“If you don’t want to continue stirring in that storm we need to get out of this area. And I can only make that happen if the sails are up,” Jinju told him in a matter of fact tone without opening her eyes. 

                   ~~~*~~~

Jinju woke up feeling groggy with the sun mercilessly beating down on her. She had a hard time opening her eyes, but once she did she saw the blue sky overhead. After sitting up, she noticed that the ship was docked somewhere she wasn’t familiar with. The last thing she remembered before passing out was sailing away from the storm, which can only mean that the ship has successfully passed turbulent waters. But she can’t remember whether she was able to get the ship through all the way, or if she passed out before the ship fully escaped danger. For her stomach’s sake, she hopes it was the former or else the captain would continue to starve her. 

The captain, who was he? Jinju has been on the ship for one year and she has yet to find out who he was. She didn’t even know his name. The crew always just referred to him as captain. The only thing she knew was that he was a cruel man who brought about destruction to Baram. His sick, twisted mind found pleasure in burning her island nation to the ground. Jinju could not stand by as he and his crew did their evil deeds and she unknowingly exposed her abilities. From then on, she was captured and kept as prisoner on the Floga. The only times she ever saw him was when he needed her to calm storms or when he was punishing her for misbehavior. Because pirates believed that a woman on board brought about bad luck, she was always kept in her room away from their eyes. She wouldn’t be surprised if most of the crew are not aware of her existence. 

The only ones she saw were people the captain knew he could trust to shut their mouths. That list only included three people—Elioda and the two men she’s seen taking the helm. During storms, Elioda would take her to the upper deck only after the sails have been lowered and the captain has ordered everyone to go below deck. Once she’s on the upper deck, usually lying down either due to nausea or the captain’s doing, no one, even if they were out during the storm would be able to spot her. 

Looking around from her spot on the upper deck, she noticed that the ship was unusually quiet. With the clear skies, there should have been more people bustling about. Especially since everything in the ship needed to be checked for damages caused by the storm. “Hello?” she shouted out, but did not get a response. “Hello...” she tried once more with the same results. 

The silence and the light weight she felt from the crystal caused her to have several thoughts. After every storm, the captain always made sure to confiscate her necklace. It was smart of him to do so since the only thing keeping her tethered to this ship was her necklace. Now that no one was around and the captain forgot to take away her necklace, she had an opportunity to escape. The only problem was that she could barely stand, let alone run from there. But this was an opportunity she was sure would not come again so she crouched on all fours and slowly crawled her way to the ladder. 

Going down the ladder was excruciatingly hard, but with time she was able to get down to the dock. As soon as she was down, she tried to stand on two feet because it would look too suspicious if she crawled the whole way. Unfortunately for her, her legs did not have enough strength to support her weight. Fortunately though, she found a small rowboat not too far away from where she was. She could use that and be able to get far without much effort using her ability with help from the crystal.

As soon as she started on her way to the boat, she heard a commotion coming from the ship. From where she was she could faintly hear the captain yelling out for her. She quickly moved to reach the boat and was able to get on and hide behind the edges without much hardship. Unfortunately, she was not the only one on it and it appeared as if the current occupant was sleeping on the boat’s flat bottom, his head beneath the rower’s seat . Only a few seconds later, she heard several footsteps thundering against the wood planks of the dock. Before they could reach the boat she was hiding in, she felt her body being flipped over with the now awake man hovering over her. As soon as she got a good look at his face she gasped, “You’re—“