Behind the group, waves lapped up on the beach, crashing in black waves across the sand that glowed in the moonlight.  Further up from the white sand beach that they were gathered on a dense cluster of trees, too small to be called a jungle, rose up a rocky obsidian slope.  All four recognized it as the isle of the oracle that they'd seen earlier that day when Blackbeard had brought the drow witch aboard Queen Anne's Revenge.  As they gathered their bearings, either through joy, releif, shame, or anger, the drow woman watched.  Her black skin an inky void in the night, starkly contrasted against the white sand as she stood between them all.  Her body equally nude as the four, though covered in several patterns of paint and ash that marred her skin and the white dreadlocks that hung about her face.<br/><br/>She did not ignore any of them, but turned to each as they spoke, nodding as if to recognize them, but it was to Noemi she first spoke.  "Wise woman you.  De magic flow through you.  Mah lady Lolth like de strong women, de sexy women.  She even respect those that serve her purposes even if dey don't believe in her and pray to another."<br/><br/>The drow moved slowly, like a panthar in the jungle, her muscles smooth liquid beneath onyx skin.  She walked past Noemi, a hand trailing across a line that was invisible in the night, but that Noemi knew well.  Walking behind the windfinder she answered in a low voice, one that commanded attention lets you miss her words.  "You been gone from dis world a while.  Long enough for de storms to come and go, an for a demon child to grow in me.  But de lady of webs, she weaves deep and unknowable plots.  So I do as she say, I find your remains, every item dat went overboard with you."<br/><br/>She looked at Arafel and laughed, "an don' you worry little man, I mean every item, so you don' need hide from me.  I saw you dead and rotten wi' yer eyes eaten outta yer skull by fish and yer guts a home for crabs.  You think I care about yer manhood, yer not half as smart as I'd hoped."<br/><br/>She walked around and stood behind Lilith, her fingers tracing a small diamond shaped scar that the woman hadn't even known was there till she felt the cool touch of the witch's fingers, "I tol' Blackbeard that I wouldn't be stopped by death.  But he had his priest cast a spell on me, one I couldn't stop, one that let his foul seed find my womb.  He defeated me then, for I' been conqured by a monster, by mah own shame."<br/><br/>She walked around behind Dalen then, and hugged him from behind, her arms wrapping around his chest and her hands caressing his body before reaching up to stroke the side of his face.  "But it was all a part of ma lady's plan.  When I felt the first beat of the spawn's heart, I cut it out of me belly.  Thrown bleeding and unfinished on a pyre made o' yer bones, I caught your souls and started to bring you back."<br/><br/>She walked on, and touched the light scar on Arafel's back. "Any other souls woulda been too far gone, already romping in yer Elysium fields under yer gods, or whatever afterlife you want.  But not none o' yours.  All four of you was waiting beyond death.  Your souls had a higher purpose than to just pass on, an so for a month and a month I called to them, bringing you back.  Each of you making a promise with somethin' greater than us, some purpose."<br/><br/>She spun Arafel around to face her then, and all four realized they'd been shepherded together closely, within touching distance of each other, and all were facing the drow now.  "You four bound up in strands of my lady's web now, bound together by the strands of fate and destiny.  Bound to a singular purpose, the destruction of Blackbeard."<br/><br/>Her voice was passionate and angry as she spoke, but then a calmness settled over her as the sound of the waves at her back washed the beach.  "But you've questions, an I'll answer them. "  She pointed at the full moon above her head as it hung heavy and pregnant in the sky, "This the fifth full moon since your body slipped beneath the waves."<br/><br/>She looked at Dalen and again began walking in a slow circle around the group, her black feet leaving no trace of footprint, "You be writin him a letter in his own blood, sure.  But that not be a true destruction of the man, would it?  Nay, you need to destroy the man, the legend.  Take and destroy everything he is and has, his name, his legacy, and then you can destroy his body.  To do anything less would be granting him mercy.  An I didn' bring you back to show him mercy."<br/><br/>To Arafel she pointed down the beach where four stones stood, "Beneath them stones lay blackened and burned bones.  A legacy of a life cut short.  With them, you find the trinkets you carried in your last life.  Take them when you're ready to leave my island and seek your destiny."<br/><br/>Then finally she turned to Lilith, "Why does anything happen?  Because Blackbeard didn't want your master on the ship, and didn't want you, but found you a useful tool?  Because he knew that if any aboard his ship could instill mutiny, it would be you?   Because he knew how dangerous you were becoming and would become even more if you ever learned all the tricks of your mistress?"<br/><br/>She shrugged then laughed deeply, "Or maybe it was just because you never let him take you to his bunk.  I know not everything, only what I am shown."<br/><br/>Her voice turned feral and she snarled, her teeth gleaming in the light, "But make no mistake, you are not mistress here."  Then as quickly as the face was a mask of rage it was gone and instead the inscrutable mask was in it's place, "You be guests, an you can join me by de fire an I'll answer all I know.  Or you can take de boat an go out there an find yer destiny.  I done ma part in this dance, an I dance to a different fiddler than you."<br/>