A tale of the Crystal Lands

The Black Ship

The black ship sailed past the eye of the maelstrom. The wind lashed at the sails, and purple lightning raced across the sky. The crew of the Dauntless were undeterred from this storm that most sailors would flee from. For among there crew were the undead.

The ship was captained by a man so evil, on hell would allow him to enter. Not that it would matter if hell would take him, for he and his friend would make their way out. It was said amongst the crew that nothing could kill their captain except for the first mate.

She was a different kind of undead. None could say what made her so. She seemed like a demon, with her long flowing red hair, and her agile movements. She moved like a serpent or cat, quickly moving about the ship. She sometimes wore earrings given to her by the captain, or taken from her victims.

Holstered to her waist were two guns. They were said to be her children, for she cherished them like nothing else. It was said amongst the crew that she would rather kill all of them than lose her pistols, her soulguns some called them. If it weren’t for her homicidal and odd habits, the many of the crew would have tried to court her. After all, if you could get past the personality, she had the body of a goddess. It was often rumoured amongst the crew that the captain had once tried to seduce her, but had failed miserably. None dared ask the captain, because past his outward appearance, he to was a killer.

The captain was in fact something of a vampire, this much anyone could see. When the crew often asked him if he were in fact a vampire, he would say “I’m one of a kind, that’s all I can say”, and so they often assumed that he was some kind of hybrid between human and vampire, or human and something demonic. He had hired the crew in ports around the world, and even the oldest members only remember him and the woman enlisting them.

To the world, she was known as the Blood Goddess, Blood Demon, Demoness, and many other names. She preferred Blood goddess, since it kindles something inside of her. She enjoyed being looked upon with admiration and fear, since emotions fuelled her life. She lived for the moment, not caring if her actions would bring misfortune later on in her life, since she thought that she could deal with these threats no matter what.

The crew admired her, but she mainly ignored them. She would see something in the far of distance and act, not talk. There were only a few of them who had ever had a meaningful conversation with her over the years, but none of them though that she was mute. She would often curse at their mistakes, and they often heard her talking to either the captain or to her guns.

The crew followed the captain and the Demoness blindly, for they were the crew’s best chance of survival. Although there was a slight risk of death, they all agreed that the chances of death were equally high back home, were warfare ravaged their homelands. Many came from the abandoned islands near the empire’s coast, and they were currently being conquered by the empire.



The captain was inside his quarters, sitting by the table and reading the reports from different ports, noting which were sending rich ships his way. He wore a plumed black hat, his black hair encircling his once beautiful pale face. It was covered in cracks and small scars, and when he smiled his pointy teeth could be clearly seen. He looked as his job required him to look, terrifying. He wore a white shirt and a pair of black leather pants. On his belt hung a rapier that seemed kind of red, with a ruby on its handle.

Behind him, The Demoness lounged on some pillows looking out of the window at the back. Her stance would seem like a cat, uncaring about the world not revolving around her but still looking beautiful. She wore a short leather top, with a necklace of bullets around her neck. Her pants were of darker brown leather, and on her belt there hung a variety of things, prominently her guns.

She drew them from her waist, inspecting the cravings on them. Symbols crisscrossed them, and as she inspected these she procured a bullet from her necklace. Here and there she drew new symbols onto her guns, some seemed to disappear and she would do another symbol onto the same place. Sensing the fury of the storm, she hissed and stood up.

She stormed out of the door, and pushed the pirates in her way. She ran towards the mast, slipping her way past her crewmembers or pushing them out of the way. As she reached the mast, she ran horizontally up it. The crew stared at her, some continuing with their work, and other staring at the beauty of her movements.

At the top of the mast, she stood at the highest point of the ship. Her crimson red eyes glared at the sea, and the sea glared back fiercely. The wind howled at her, wiping her hair this way and that. Rain poured out from the sky, soaking her in seconds. The waves crashed into the ship from all sides. The Goddess stared mutely at this scene, watching the crew scurry around like ants to keep the ship floating.

She lifted her arms into the air, and slowly swivelled around, facing the other way. New crew members stared at her, whilst the more experienced ones looked once, then changed what they were doing. Her hair was still flowing backwards, which meant to them only one thing, she had changed the direction of the wind. Suddenly she opened her red eyes.

“Get a move on you filthy humans!” She screamed at the crew that had stopped to stare. She bared her teeth at them, and they could clearly see the fangs in her mouth. The crew climbed over one another in a hurry to pull ropes and climb railings. The Captain appeared inside his quarters. He stared at the busy scene, and slowly realised the direction of the wind.

“Why do you want to go there for?” he asked his first mate, puzzled. The Demoness jumped down from the mast and landed in front of him, standing tall. She looked at him for a second, and then shrugged her shoulders.

“I sense something happening there” she replied to him.

“Is that all?” he asked, slightly annoyed. He didn’t doubt the way she could foretell things, and sometimes it greatly helped him. But he didn’t like it when she started acting on whims, since the last time she had done so they’d been stuck in a prison in the middle of the desert for months.

“Well… yes”, she replied, “that and there’s a merchant ship loaded with gold and apples”, she added, and after seeing his face “… I like apples. ‘Specially the red ones”. The captain stared for a moment, and then laughed merrily. This was such and odd sound that many of the crewmembers stared at him, only to be met with a fearsome frown.

“Anyways, what’s in Roderia? It’s just sand and sun.”

“Aye, there’s sand aplenty, but there’s something else there. Something powerful that I have not felt in many a year. ” she said and jumped up onto the side of the ship and looking outwards into the sea.

“How many a year?” the captain asked intrigued by her mystery. She didn’t reply for a long while, and the captain was just ready to give up, but then she shifted and looked at him again.

“Not since the Emperor’s time” she replied, red eyes gazing intently at him. Then she let go of the rope she was holding on, and swept away back into the cabin. The captain stood still for a long time. To someone looking at his dark face it would have been pale. And after some time, it would have returned to its dark grey colour, filled with resolution.