Selling You

"First."

Serenica jolted at the sound. It was as if Gadfly had suddenly become a different person altogether. His intonation jumped up and down in the duration of a single syllable.

"He wants to meet you in private," the pirate said with a dissonant cheeriness.

Oh no. This change was way worse.

Serenica regretted everything.

Still, she let Gadfly lead him into a secluded little coffee shop near the harbor district. Everything seemed alright there. The curtains were stained. No one had cared enough to scrub the stains. Serenica could see this from the even edges of the little coffee dots in the curtains of the cute little coffee shop.

It was not the place she had expected Inky to frequent.

Yet there he was, sipping something that smelled like tea but ten times stronger. He had ditched his old robes in favor of a black garment lined with silver embroidery.

His sharp, lively eyes searched her face. She had felt exposed by them earlier. Now she felt something else. Relief?

It wasn't like she was good at recognizing such emotions. They went wild, like a raging fire, and her flattened daytime self just watched helplessly as they would wreak havoc on her life.

She did not trust anything that couldn't be loaded into a rifle.

"Nice gun," Inky said and gestured her to take a seat.

"I haven't gotten around to using it," Serenica lamented.

"Hopefully that day will come soon," Inky said. He grinned. Way too many teeth. The teeth were way too white and sharp. For a split second, he reminded Serenica of a bull shark.

She didn't mind sharks. It was better to have a loyal enemy than a lying friend.

"You're not on the clock?" she asked him.

"No, heavens, no. I have my life, you know. And you…you have one, too, that's why you are here. You want me to give you something."

He tilted his head, bringing to mind a curious bird.

"I heard privateer surgeons get paid well," she replied, raising her eyebrows to drive home the meaning of her insinuation. She wasn't that fond of surgeries, it was just something she had to do when a leg couldn't be salvaged.

"You should minimize the number of amputated limbs. That's a sentence I don't use often."

Serenica chuckled. She ordered a cup of something strong. She wasn't sure what it was, except that it probably came from mushrooms.

"Your men have scurvy?" she asked. That was the first thing she wanted to find out. If some of the men suffered from such a preventable illness, she would be aboard a floating hell. So much work…

"Do you think I'm a complete mouth breather?" Inky shook his head.

He made no effort to reach for her hand. Instead, he warmed his fingers against his cup. He was oddly still, his eyes calm and a perpetual smile lingered on his face.

"Not yet," Serenica said. "I'm sure you can do something about that. They eat their fresh fruit, right?"

Inky laughed. Serenica hated to admit that she felt better in this situation than she had felt at any point of this awful day.

"I'll take up that challenge, then. Before we forget…you need to do something for me, and I need to do something for you. In this moment, we are not enemies. We don't exist in the same world with the likes of Kinley and her guards. We exist in the world of skulls and crossbones. So, relax. It is only after she calls for me that we need to go back to killing each other."

Serenica nodded.

She wanted to ask a few questions about the state of matters concerning him and Kinley, but he already started to explain.

So, Inky was indeed a prince, set out to conquer new lands. He wanted to use his wits more than his armies, but any method would do. He was frighteningly down-to-earth for a royal. The bar for that, however, wasn't terribly high.

Kinley was a distant relative of a distant relative of the Lean family. She was also terribly infatuated with her image of Inky, the Leans, and everything about Lewarnese culture. The exoticism she applied to this land she had never visited bordered on offensive. The more Serenica listened to Inky, the less she liked Kinley. It sounded like she wanted a toy, a doll in the shape of a man.

The poor doctor could not help the rage rising inside her chest. Who was this cynic and one-dimensional woman to treat anyone like that? Serenica had thought that being on that woman's bad side was rough. Now she knew that being courted by her was worse still.

"You know, she picks my outfits when I am working for her. She wants me to take her out for lunch and then decides that Neulian cuisine is not good enough. She thinks I am just as fragile as she is. I once saw her inhale a living snake because she had heard about Lewarnese snake eaters, for fuck's sake."

Serenica would have laughed, but she was too horrified. And worried, as stupid as it was.

"Don't look at me like that. She will lose all legal power over me the moment our marriage is officially recognized," Inky bragged, running his hand down his velvet robes.

"You're an idiot," Serenica said. "You just succeeded in making me think that you are indeed a mouth breather. You think she is going to change one bit? If you bring that harpy home, she will show her best side to your entire family. Then you will look like the bad guy if you don't obey her like a good little dog."

For the first time, Inky seemed a bit thrown off.

He got over it quickly.

"I just need to frame her for something atrocious," he said. "It'll be over it before you can open your mouth and start breathing through it."

Serenica shook her head. "You don't understand. You have met her, and now you reveal your plans to your enemy."

"My antagonist. Don't use that wicked word. Never an enemy."

"I could sell you," she whispered.

He bent closer to her with a grin wider than ever.

"You don't have the choice to snitch me out," he said. "Because no one else is on your side."

Serenica blinked.

"Because you have been framed for the murder of three people. One of them is your friend, Helen."