It was becoming a really bad habit for people to be sneaking unto his ship. The reason he had originally taken an interest in the soup girl was her uniqueness in having actually managed to somehow get aboard a flying ship unnoticed. In retrospective he really, really should have asked her how she had done it. If he had known how maybe the Pirate Queen Efer would not be standing in front of him in his own quarters, ready to kill him.<br/><br/>Rotter was stunned with fear and surprise. He had no weapons at hand and even if he was not wounded, which he currently was, she could probably have defeated him in a straight fight. On the other hand, she had not killed him yet, which allowed enough room in his mind to be outraged at the audacity of dramatically confronting him in his own private quarters.<br/><br/>And even further in the back of his mind he noted the mess he had made of his room and informed himself that he really should have tidied up for her.<br/><br/>"Aaah..." his mouth made noises, but his mind was still not ready to formulate actual words. The pirate queen gave him acidic look and said:<br/>â€œWhat I hate the most....the absolute most,â€ she leaned forward a bit and Rotter peaked down her blouse. â€œI lost rum and wenches in the fight. So, what are we going to do about my lost wenches?â€<br/><br/>"Aaahh... wenches?" He tried to collect his thoughts and his mouth kept being slightly open.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">She's trying to negotiate with you, you dope. Say something clever!</span><br/>"..."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Offer her rum!</span><br/>"..."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Offer her soup girl!</span><br/>"... I didn't cost you wenches!"<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Wait, what?</span><br/>"I took one wench and then you took one from me."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Where are you going with this?</span><br/>"In fact, the soup girl whom you stole from me is a much younger and presumably more nimble model than the doctor. It was a fair trade. As for the rum... you shot me in the shoulder! You cost me no small amount of disinfectants-"<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Don't talk about your infections, she'll find you unattractive!</span><br/>"- by which I mean rum. Again, fair trade."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Nice save, keep it going.</span><br/>"And as I recall I sent you my Crow. Granted, he died, but that's still one splendid lookout you cost me. I will not ask you to replace him, since he was a gift, but still, I believe I suffered the highest economic loss from our confrontation."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Good. Now throw her off balance with a compliment.</span><br/>"And since you are looking scrumptious as ever I surmise I didn't cut your leg half-way off or shoot you in the tits."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Stop looking at her tits!</span><br/>"Or that your beloved ship which your life is tied to did not get shot to hell as much as mine did. I do believe you are the one who owes me tits and wenches.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0040"><br/>She laughed, a good hearty chuckle of disbelief while she took herself a seat and propped her feet up on the table. <br/><br/>"Firstly, that dumbass soup girl ran away and stole one of my sharks," she held a single finger up. "Nextly, she took another dumbass with her so I am down chum for my sharks," another finger held up. "Thirdly, I had to waste time and rum to track your sorry ass down to this god forsaken port, and my ship...my baby has holes in it!" a final finger is held up before she slams her palm down on the table. "Lastly! Thank you for noticing my tits, I tried on a new corset today and had not had an honest opinion on how well it makes them stand out, yet." <br/><br/>Sure there was another in the room, but she was not of any concern. "So, by my math you owe me a lot more, than I owe you. Perhaps we can negotiate a fair trade?"<br/></span><br/><br/>Rotter removed his hat and scratched his head, or rather, he scratched the second hat beneath the other, and tried to do the math.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Carry the soup girl... do we divide by number of holes in the Rotsman?</span><br/>"Let's multiply."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Alright and what is the fire-shark-to broken-mast ratio, and did you just say that out loud!?</span><br/>Rotter looked at the pirate queen again and if he had not lost so much blood lately he would have blushed.<br/>"I mean... yes... Fair deals... Let's."<br/><br/>He scrambled for a fresh piece of paper from among the mess on the floor, which caused his shoulder to ache just a little, and a lot more when he gave a startled jump at seeing the shadow's feet behind him, and by extension the rest of her.<br/>His eyes darted back and forth between the shadow and the pirate queen. He tried to grasp his cutlass but it was still lost aboard the Freedom. Efer was looking fairly relaxed, but the shadow woman was poised to attack and...<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Don't we have a shadow woman somewhere on this ship?</span><br/>Fellyba-something was the shadow pirate's name. Rotter was lousy with knowing his own crew, and he did almost never venture far enough down into the bowels of the Rotsman to meet Fellyba's, but on the other hand she had been a member of the crew longer than anyone, sitting agelessly in the shadows occasionally peeking in to remind him she still existed, shocking him every time.<br/><br/>"Fell... Fella... this is a more sort of a private conversation but I do appreciate that you alone was able to come to my protection, should I have needed protection." He eyed Queen Efer again and she still showed no signs of hostility.<br/>"Right, Febbalas, ehm... " a thought occurred to him. Fellyba's was more trusted than any other crewmember, with the possible exception being Yagos, if only because she had almost as much trouble leaving the ship as he, Rotter, did. Whoever had stolen his precious cypher, it was not Felly. Now how should he instruct her to search without the pirate queen knowing what he was missing? Or better, how should he instruct Felly to search while also reading the Queen's face for signs that she had his missing papers and knew what he was talking about?<br/>"I have a job for you. One of my many papers have gone missing... from my... ehm... diary. Yes, my diary is written in secret legendary pirate code so it won't make sense to others than me. It's not important but for the sake of completion I'd like to have all the pages so in another 200 years I can look back and remember the day I had turtle soup for dinner and what I thought about it. So... yes... if you can search this ship for any nonsense papers then return them to me<span style="font-weight: bold">and kill an'one who's taken 'em!</span>"<br/><br/>He looked at the pirate queen again and tried to determine if she looked surprised or guilty, and if those signs meant she had his precious treasure clues. After a minute of just staring at her face he determined he had no idea how to read people.<br/><br/>"Fair deal, yes, let's discuss that. I can't give you back the doctor. Not yet anyway. My shoulder and my leg need to heal, and there is no doctor who can make sure they do so better than her. I might be willing to part with her once I'm not crippled anymore. But... let me see... my own ship's doctor is not the most competent, since he's dead, but he had an apprentice. He's probably a decent doctor, even though I've never been treated by him, but he is annoyingly strong and almost impossible to whip the skin off of. I'll give him to you as a permanent crew member. I hate his guts, but you might like him, and if my wounds heal and you get the Maiden doctor back, then you can still keep the apprentice. Feed him to the sharks if you want, as compensation for the chum I cost you."<br/><br/>What else would be a fair deal? He could give her gold and jewels which would cost him little since Rotter had so few opportunities to spend it.<br/>"Now... about the damage to our ships, well... I can pay you for reparations as I have paid for my own. Once our ships are shipshape again we'll be friends. And once we are friends I do have one request... our old friend Captain Tom Leumas has been mutinied by his Crew of Dragons and some new bastard called Ned the Dread is their new captain. I liked Tom Leumas and I hate this new Captain Ned. I can beat him myself, as I am going to shortly, but if you wish to help then it would cement our two ship's love. Friendship. Partners! Good-will! All those lies. And we'd have fun."<br/><br/>Rotter got up, leaning his weight on his desk. "Is that a deal?... Oh, one more thing. My lookout foolishly fell off the ship, taking one of my spare sails with him. He was a damn fine Crow, and I'd like to know if he by any chance survived. If he did I'd like him back. Maybe the Maiden can fix his no-doubt broken body. I'll trade you my other lookout for him and... someone else. You can have your pick, except Yarrrgos."<br/><br/>With difficulty he managed to hobble out on the main deck to show the pirate queen his crew of whom she could pick, and strangely they were all looking over the railings, as if seasick and puking. The rain from the storm was starting to hit them as they moved closer, but it was not the winds of the receding storm clouds that made the crew stop in wide-eyed shock, or that made Rotter fall over as the sight below made him forget to keep a steady hand on the pirate queen's shoulder.<br/><br/>Far below there was a hole in the ocean. It would have been nothing but a maelstrom if not for the sheer size of it. To the west of the ship, as far as the horizon allowed you to see the water was swirling down into an unknown void. This in itself was barely a concern to the Rotsman which flew above such ocean phenomena but the maelstrom was moving. The storm was moving away from the crew, chased by Ned who sought shelter within, but the vast maelstrom was moving oppositely, coming closer towards the Rotsman, and the Pervy Freedom below.<br/><br/>And below the Rotsman the crew stared at the other strangeness of the sea: Below the Rotsman, engulfing the Freedom, the sea was a white foam of bubbles, as if the sea was boiling steamlessly.<br/><br/>"Huh... odd."