Punch Clock Villain

"You look like you've seen a ghost," the pirate commented. "He's just my captain. I have no idea what history you share with him, but he's not that bad. At least…not bad enough to warrant that expression."

"He's a pirate?" Serenica asked.

She wasn't that dumbfounded, actually. She dealt with the healing of the leg and sat down with a cup of tea in her hands.

"Sure, if you want to walk the plank, go ahead and call him that. He prefers the term privateer."

Serenica rolled her eyes.

"I should have known he's that pretentious," she said.

"Oh, so you have met him in person."

She nodded. "And you are his…?"

"His quartermaster. I don't want to brag, but I'm one of the most wanted privateers on these seas."

"I thought privateers were on good terms with the crown," Serenica said.

"Don't be like that, it's just a pretentious word for piracy with a fancy letter attached to it. The crown will eat us the moment we cease to be useful."

This privateer was a great guy. Serenica already liked him and they had just met.

To take the opportunity or not, that was the question. She knew by now that old Inky was playing two games at the same time. In one game, his goal was to serve the businesswoman named Mariana. In the other one, he was a privateer, and apparently Mariana either had no idea about it or approved the harmless hobby on the high seas.

Serenica nodded.

"You know, your captain is supposed to kill me," she said. "And I don't even know his real name yet."

"My name's Gadfly. Joseph Gadfly. Inky doesn't like to be called by his real name. It's Oscar of Lean."

Of.

Those two letters changed everything.

Who the fuck was called "of something" except for extremely powerful witches and royals?

Lean was a familiar name to Serenica, but she could not place it in any certain point in history. It was not a Sennite name. It certainly wasn't a Raelian name, let alone a Karshaan one, or a northern name. To make things even more obvious, Inky of Lean was about as pale in complexion as Helen, but he did have something eastern about his appearance. Could it be so that Serenica almost remembered something about the foreign history of the far east?

Sennas was located right next to a princedom called Lewarn. They shared many cultural features, except that the princedom was led with more competence while Sennite royals focused on creating as many scandals as they humanly could.

"Of Lean," Serenica said. "You people know everything about me already and I only now learn that Inky's a goddamn royal."

"Not just any royal, the prince of Lewarn."

Serenica felt her soul leave her body. She had threatened the literal prince with a gun.

"I need a drink and my pipe," she said and dug up the latter. She made no move to get the tea, or a bottle, but she gave Gadfly her bag of tobacco and her precious briar pipe.

"Put some in there," she said. "Please. I can't handle this. I can't do this, I am overwhelmed. Because this morning I had your princely captain at gunpoint. Then I proceeded to have some ale with him."

"Given the way Cap'n lives, that's just another day for him," Gadfly chuckled. He moved with grace and ease now, with the leg healing as they spoke. He didn't only whip the tobacco in the neatest little nugget Serenica had ever seen, no. He also fetched her some rum from the cupboard.

It looked like he had an innate understanding about the places where people hid their booze.

"I think there might be a slight conflict of interest if he hires me," Serenica said. "That bitch called Mariana wants Inky to kill me. I am so tired."

She waited for Gadfly to light up her tobacco.

She took a mouthful of the tasty smoke and blew it out.

"I don't think so," Gadfly said, shaking his head. "He's only on Mariana's good side on the clock. From what I gathered, Mariana Kinley is either getting a husband out of him so that he can extend the princedom with her connections and money, or then she's gonna get her head chopped off and the exact same thing will happen."

He stole a whiff of her smoke.

"Albeit with more bloodshed," he added.

"So, Inky is only dangerous to me on the clock, right." Serenica shuddered. Somehow this was way more fucked than having an actual enemy who hated her.

Not like she had any experience with that, being extremely patient and likable and all that.

"I will take this chance," she said. "Is Mariana Kinley going to let him sail away now, though? I smell exile coming my way soon and I would rather not wait around here for him."

"Kinley trusts him," Gadfly said, surprising her.

"Why?" Serenica asked.

Gadfly laughed. "Why do women trust a man like him? It's just his face. Mariana wants to marry a prince, so that's what she's trying to do."

Serenica was annoyed at herself. She should have been overjoyed to hear about her number one enemy having a human weakness.

Instead, a strange competitive streak arose in her. Was Inky really about to use Kinley as a pawn, or was there something more? Why did he not intend to kill her straight away without resorting to desperate measures as his first option?

Marrying a snake like Mariana Kinley sounded like it shouldn't have been anyone's first option.

"I take my chances," Serenica said. "How soon can we set sail?"

"You need to do something before we can do it," Gadfly said. "I don't know what that something is, but Inky said he's not gonna leave before you do it. He needs some information to give to Kinley, preferably something true. Something he can back up."

Serenica had an awful feeling that she knew what that was.

She had to get involved in something horrible, like yet another murder, so that Kinley would have some dirt to use as leverage. The city guards had been on an illegal mission as far as she knew. They didn't count.