3 The Dark Mark

The Book of Peridot was, according to the auxiliary chapters of the novel that had cost Seb his life and made him Bastian, an occult collection of spells and instructions that possessed the power to tame beasts of the Southern Murky Sea. Said beasts had a different kind of magical force in them which made them more susceptible to attempts to control them from the outside. Bastian thought that the beasts were quite useful, based on their descriptions, but he hadn't read anything about them in the actual chapters yet.

He had no time to go through the lore right now, though.

Looking calm yet infuriated, Captain Gorgo stood up and passed the map onwards. Cheerful faces turned dark and gloomy as they saw where the book had been taken to.

It was likely that Captain Gorgo had a reward for the one who would retrieve the book. However, as Bastian, too, got his hands on the map with a cross drawn onto it in red ink, he realized what was crushing the hopes of the pirates.

The Hunter's Crypt was the location.

Not much had been said about the Crypt, and even less could be said as the absolute truth. What little Bastian knew had already assured him that the reason for that was simple.

No one got out of that place alive.

There was supposedly a ghoul of some kind in the Hunter's Crypt, or a beast, in any case it was a great place to keep a treasure in. And no one seemed to be willing to take up the mission.

Bastian knew what he was doing. Feeling the hot wrath turn cold in his veins, he decided that he had to do everything within his power to dethrone Gorgo.

Out of these twenty-five men, he was probably one of the five who could read. That gave him an advantage. Out of all these men, he was the only one who knew about Gorgo's double identity. Finally, he had a chance to drag his bastard brother through dirt to show who was the real man.

He cleared his throat.

"I would like to volunteer," he said.

The stares spoke one word without saying anything.

Unbelievable.

"You think you can speak without permission in this room?" Gorgo said calmly.

"You don't seem to think a priceless treasure needs much protection," Bastian threw right back at him. "Why should anyone respect the authority of a pirate who gets pirated like that?"

The gunshot whizzed above his head quicker than anyone could scream, but after realizing what had happened, the black-haired woman screamed.

Bastian did not reply, as he had accomplished his goal: to publicly question what right Gorgo had to command them all like they were just cabin boys.

"What's your name again, drunkard? Bastian Black?"

But Bastian felt sober again. He had never been this powerful before.

And this was only the beginning. He sensed that some people in the room were silently snickering, but not entirely because of him…no, he had managed to plant a seed of doubt about Gorgo. He was onto something.

"You didn't answer my question, Captain," Gorgo said calmly.

"You are not my captain, Captain," Bastian replied.

The air in the room got freezing cold in about the time that it would have taken for Bastian to draw his pistol. Now he could see everyone breathe. His fingertips tingled due to the change in temperature.

Gorgo's eyes were glowing with a pale blue light.

Funny - Bastian had never considered a light blue to be a particularly evil color, yet that was exactly how it looked.

Gorgo raised his arms and rolled up the sleeves of his snake-embroidered jacket.

It was only now that Bastian began to feel fear again.

He had not even started to process his death, since he had assumed that this world would be like a game. But this wasn't make believe. Something sinister was happening in the tavern. He felt Gorgo's presence filling up the entire room.

"You pay dearly for this," the captain said, matter-of-factly, as if earth-shattering evil was just another day, just like drinking a pint. "I curse you with the Dark Mark, so that no man can sail under your wretched flag."

Word by word, Gorgo's tone got more serious as he touched his right wrist with his left index finger and then tapped his left hand's knuckles with his right thumb. He had tattoos all over his body. It was probably safe to assume that most of them were of magical origin or had magical purposes.

"You will never be a captain to another man in your lowly life. I henceforth curse you with the Dark Mark, so it is and shall ever be!" Captain Gorgo roared and pressed his left hand on the largest tattoo on his right wrist, a black circle that contained an occult symbol.

Bastian felt his insides churn, and something was burning his face. He tried to use the coldness of his hands to rub against the heat of the spot on his cheek, but that didn't help. It was as if the burning sensation was under his skin, not on it.

Then Gorgo's eyes emitted such a bright flash of the pale blue light that everything went black. Bastian felt a strong surge of piercing pain shoot through his head. He screamed. Everything went black, this time without even giving him the chance to think.

He woke up to find the black-haired beauty tending to his injuries, giving him quite a soothing glimpse towards her ample cleavage. She had her plump lips partially open as she was concentrating on cleaning a wound on Bastian's shoulder that he did not remember ever getting there.

They were in the empty Poisoned Grog. There were no maps on any tables, just tankards that were half full. A disgusting stench of old booze and sweat lingered in the air, mixing with a floral scent that Bastian could not name.

"Sorry to bother you, lass, but what exactly happened after I passed out?" he asked, feeling the old Bastian seep through into his speech.