Sputtering, and holding the iron gate with all his strength, Cayd felt a strange mix of emotions as the flood water tried to sweep him off his feet. He had imagined an event precisely like this. The prison had been designed to hamper a red magic user’s ability to control the cathedral’s stonework. But how do you ward the atmosphere?

  Maribel was a smart girl, but how could she have known that a pirate as talented at manipulating her emotions as Zora was slowly working the air around the city into a frenzy? The woman could snipe with the lightning she summoned. She was able to weaponize her fear. No wonder she was able to summon this downburst without so much as breaking a sweat without setting off the magic shackles. And continuing to taunt the Church the whole while.

  But Tidus appearing? Even Cayd was surprised by that. Something strange was at work here if a god was able to constitute his avatar in Gessel’s sacrosanct.

  Zora stretched as she rose to standing. The lightning striking the shackles had been a risk. Her wrists were beginning to blister from the burns.

  “Zora, are you okay?” Tidus asked, the concern tingling Zora’s heart.

  “Yeah, small price for freedom, right?”

  Zora’s attention was caught by a sudden gasp at her feet. The Justicar was floundering at the stairs to the executioner’s stage.

  “How are we, Justicar?”

  “You, you bitch!” he yelped. “What have you done?”

  “Oh, shove off,” she said with a wave. The water responded to her subtle command and swept the man underwater. “Ass.”

  “We need to leave,” Tidus urged as he hovered down to the stage. “I was only given five minutes. Then Gessel will snitch.”

  “What do you mean?” Boldbounty’s sudden inquiry surprised Zora.

  “How’d you all stay up here?” Zora ask incredulously. “I mean, I’m happy to see you not with a lung full, Maribel, but, a woman’s gotta be free, you know?”

  “Sorry,” Maribel said with a shake of her head. “Not really feeling the feminine comradery after you tried to electrocute me.”

  “What have you done with my cathedral!?” the Mother Superior wailed.

  Zora held her hands in her head. “See? This is what I hate about you Church types! Drama! Just drama.” She turned to Tidus. “Let’s go, friend.”

  “Captain Zora! Wait!”

  Zora’s eyes widened with frustration.

  “Who is that?” Tidus asked when he saw Cayd wading through the flushing water, soaked over his waist as the flood rushed from the courtyard.

  “Just a very stupid man,” Zora grumbled. She raised her chin to shout to Cayd. “You hear that? You are a stupid man. Let’s go Tidus.”

  “Laughing Buccaneer! You love this woman? Are you not taken?” Cayd asked and Zora roared.

  “I want to leave!” she shrieked.

  “I do as I please,” Tidus growled at Cayd. The waters roiled with his threatening tone. “Why is it you presume your sense of morality applies to me? The god of the seas?”

  “You are an ascendant, Tidus,” Cayd said with a shrug. “Surely something of your mortality has survived? Though I suppose your love for mortals is stronger than your love for your wife?”

  Zora went wide eyed. “You really are stupid!”

  “What is Cayd doing?” Maribel asked in shock.

  Boldbounty was grinning. “I knew I could trust this man!” he cheered.

  “He’s going to be killed,” the Mother Superior whispered.

  “He doesn’t need to win,” Boldbounty corrected. “Just run out the clock.”

  “You dare not speak those words again.” Tidus’s presence changed utterly. The easygoing romantic had been replaced by an aggressive and frightful force. He stepped down the stairs into the water which moved to eagerly greet its master.

  The Justicar, struggling to keep his head above the waves in spite of the weight of his armor, was submerged again as the waters surged around Tidus’s avatar. The torrent swept him into the air and carried him slowly and menacingly toward Cayd on a briny pillar.

  “Do you think your wife would be pleased to know what you just said?”

  “She does not rule me.” The volume of Tidus’s voice was thunderous, the presence made so much more dramatic by how quietly and calmly he had said the words. “You have trespassed against me, mortal.” Tidus raised his hand and the water responded, swirling and churning up around Cayd, spiraling around his body.

  “Tidus, we don’t have time for this.” Zora was looking skyward nervously.

  As the tendrils of water began to constrict Cayd, he worked a smile. “So, Tidus, your wife doesn’t rule you. What about the pirate?”

  The ocean god’s face turned a shade more grim. He began to clench his fist and the tendrils tightened.

  “Let him go!” Zora called. “He’s not worth it!”

  “I refuse to be talked to like this,” Tidus snarled. “This man will pay.”

  “Tidus!” Zora was looking quickly from sky to god and back to sky. Her nerves were scrambling and the static was drawing the moisture out of the air around her. She was so nervous she did not feel Maribel loop the ribbon of golden light around her.

  The ribbon that emerged from the end of Maribel’s scepter focus pulled tight, yanking Zora from the stairs. She tumbled backward onto the stage sending a shower of sparks across the stage as she screamed out.

  “Damn your pride, Tidus!”

  The clouds above parted, releasing a dense shaft of sunlight on the courtyard. The light fell between Cayd and Tidus and every drop of water the sunlight touched retreated. Cayd, suddenly released, took a deep breath and smiled with pride at a very frightened Tidus.

  “Very nice, Sister,” Boldbounty said, patting Maribel’s shoulder.

  “Kill her,” the Justicar growled as he clamoured up the stairs. “Just kill her.”

  “All due respect, Justicar,” Boldbounty said, nodding to the sunlight. “I think this is out of our hands.”

  “The woman you love?” The feminine voice was sultry and everywhere. With every syllable, the sunlight pulsed brighter.

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  “Damn,” Tidus muttered. “Damn, Gessel. You just could not do me one favor.”

  “The woman you love?” the woman repeated. Sparkling glints of light began to swirl within the column of sunlight faster and faster, growing closer together and more numerous with each rotation until they finally transformed into a large oval of white light. The floodwaters were quickly retreating now, so much faster than natural. The civilians and clergy that were unable to escape were left wet and frightened all across the courtyard.

  “Look, this is-” Tidus whined.

  The oval flashed and left behind a lithe, stunning woman. She had porcelain skin and a long sleeved dress made out of an immaculate, thin white cloth. The woman was hovering level with Tidus and looking at the sea god in the eyes.

  “A misunderstanding?” she offered.

  “Solana,” Tidus said, looking down. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why do we do this over and over. And in a cathedral to Gessel? You think he would not tell me?”

  “He said I had five minutes to save her.”

  “Tidus,” Solana said, gently lifting the god’s chin. “You are a fool. Why do you thirst for mortal flesh?”

  “Not now. Not in front of them.”

  Solana barked a laugh. “Too proud to be disciplined in front of mortals but you will surely remove your trousers in front of one so long as her bosom is ample?”

  “Solana,” Tidus pleaded. “Why are you doing this?”

  Solana’s eyes went wildly wide before shrinking to a thin glare. “What? You really asked me that? I hope every single one of these mortals remembers that. I want your ignorance to become legendary.” Another hole in the clouds appeared casting Tidus in a shaft of sunlight. The god hung his head but did not move. “Stay there, my love.”

  As Solana strolled through mid air toward the execution stage, the sunlight carved through the clouds above and the floodwater below, leaving a trail where Solana had passed. Zora began breathing faster as the goddess approached.

  “Madame,” the Mother Superior called to her.

  “Silence, Mother Superior,” Solana replied, not even offering the priestess the courtesy of eye contact. “Your moment of opportunity has passed.”

  “This is a criminal that has sinned against Gessel, though,” the Mother Superior responded.

  Solana’s face flashed with fury. But she inhaled sharply, closing her eyes to allow for a quick, but superficial calm. “Do the sins against me not matter?” she asked. “This woman played my husband’s wiles and turned him into a murderer.”

  “Wasn’t that hard.” Zora breaking her silence was like a sudden crash of thunder. And Solana responded in like.

  “You bitch,” the sun goddess spat, her temper flaring, causing the sun to surge in intensity. “You would not believe the deals I had to cut to be here. Just to punish you.”

  “Do your worst, you leather skinned wench,” Zora chided with an excessive roll of her eyes.

  Maribel, still holding her scepter with the ribbon of light that was restraining Zora, was dumbfounded. She looked at Boldbounty to see the High Sergeant completely enraptured.

  “High Sergeant,” she whispered. “What is happening?”

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

  “What do we do?”

  “All we can do, Sister,” the Mother Superior whimpered, her pride obviously wounded. “Sit and watch the gods fight.” Maribel looked at Zora, sulking at the edge of the stage with the goddess of the sun looming over her. The god of seas standing, dejected in Solana’s natural spotlight where she had left him. And just behind that was Cayd, not appearing smug, nor excited, and not even scared. He looked concerned.

  “Release her, Sister,” Solana commanded. Maribel did as she was told, not waiting for a second issuance. The priestess was certain that the goddess had multiple methods of getting her way.

  The golden ribbon disappeared all at once. Maribel half-expected Zora to erupt. To leap to her feet and begin slinging lightning through the courtyard. But she did not. The pirate queen rose up, stretched her spine and rolled her wrists, and raised her head proudly to look Solana in the eye.

  Zora searched for something in those dark, murky eyes of the sun goddess. Something human. It was a bit ironic to think, but Zora was not expecting to come to terms with her death on the day of her execution.

  Why did Cayd have to get himself involved? If it weren’t for him, Tidus and Zora would be back at the boat already. And yet he stood across the courtyard, his cloak still sopping wet, with worried eyes. And they were looking straight at her.

  That level of empathy and concern were nowhere to be found in Solana’s eyes. There was just rage, and somewhere deeper, heartache.

  “There will be no appealing to my emotions, Zora.” Solana’s reprimand was biting and sharp. Not in tone, but more so because she had guessed Zora’s plan. “I was a shaman when I still had blood in my veins.”

  Zora said nothing in reply. She was running out of escape routes.

  “Is the silence a lack of faith in my word?” Solana asked. “Why don’t I share my feelings with you?” The sun goddess held a hand up to Zora’s head.

  “Solana, don’t do this!” Tidus shouted from behind.

  The sorrow and fury washed over Zora. It was stunning. Suffocating. The depth of the goddess’s frustration was not with Zora herself, but with the fact that Zora was simply the most recent. Tidus and Solana had loved each other profoundly as mortals, then ascended together. And despite them seemingly having only one another in the celestial realm, the eons had seemed to drive the two apart. Yet mortals still worship the couple and vaunt their heavenly marriage.

  And in those facts, Zora realized her fate was sealed. Exhausted by the emotional assault, Zora slumped to her knees.

  “Stand up, pirate,” Solana snarled. “What to do with you? Can’t rightly kill you, can I?”

  “Why not?” Zora asked, still on her knees.

  “Because I respect the gods, that’s why!” Solana’s bellowing response startled the pirate. “Gessel allowed me here to solve this problem!” she said, pointing at Tidus. “And I will not spill your blood in his sacrosanct.”

  Zora’s heart actually sank at those words. Solana would not be letting her off at all. Death probably would have been a relief at this point. Whatever she had planned had been generations in the making.

  “Just let us handle this according to our law,” the other Superior offered quietly.

  Solana took a deep breath through her small, pointed nose, then swung to look at the priestess. “I told you your window is closed. You have failed Gessel this morning. You live with that embarrassment.”

  Her pride slapped once more, the Mother Superior shrunk back. And where one large personality shrunk, another inflated to replace her.

  “Solana,” Cayd’s voice cut the harsh silence. It was soft and deescalating. Even the whimpering Tidus hushed himself to hear Cayd out. “Why not give her your mark?” he suggested, quietly, but confidently.

  Solana chuckled. “What year is it? Last I checked, sir, the Heroic Age was dead and gone.”

  “But just imagine,” Cayd began. “The woman who trespassed against the goddess of the sun. Who drove the Laughing Buccaneer to, yet again, be unfaithful. Who defiled a holy site of Gessel. She would be doing deeds on your behalf! With a physical display of penance.”

  Solana turned to look at Zora, sizing her up with a sly smile. “An interesting suggestion. A walking emblem of my righteous fury.”

  “And your mercy,” Cayd added.

  Solana literally beamed at the suggestion. But then she frowned. “But what would I have you do? Simply evangelize on my behalf? Kind of gaudy, no?”

  “May I make a suggestion, Madame?” Cayd asked, bowing.

  Maribel saw Boldbounty go wide eyed and lean forward. She swung back to look at Cayd and the Goddess.

  “Please, sir,” Solana said, acknowledging the bow with a tilt of the head.

  “I am searching for someone. A dangerous man that threatens the entire land of Talnorel. My journey shall surely take me far across the continent. And far away from the sea. Send her with me.”

  Although the goddess’s back was to Maribel, she could imagine the wry smile creeping across her face. With a stunning twirl of the breezy gown, the goddess spun and raised a hand. Another shaft of sunlight burst down onto where Zora was kneeling. She began slowly floating from the stage.

  “Zora Dimitova,” Solana began. “You are a cruel woman. But so am I. Your cruelty against me, my husband, and against the clergy of the Church of the Will and their god, Gessel, the Dreamer, shall be met. You shall carry the mark of this goddess.”

  Zora hissed in pain. Smoke wafted from her hands as Solana’s symbol, a feminine silhouette in front of a stylized sun, was burned onto the backs of both.

  “This mark shall be a symbol of your devotion to me. You have a duty now. You are at the whims of this man in his search for the dangerous one he seeks. And until his quest is resolved, you will bear the symbol. And so long as you wear it, you will not set foot on the sea, or even the beach, or you will die.

  But I am feeling gentle, since I am reunited with Tidus. Mother Superior will allow your crew safe harbor for one night. But when my sun rises in the morning, you will be barred from the domain of the Laughing Buccaneer.”

  When she finished her speech, Zora was set gently on the stage.

  Zora felt a tear roll down her face. She would miss her crew. She would miss her ship. But that creature wanted her. It would no longer be able to threaten them. The tear was one of melancholy relief.

  Solana spun and rushed to Tidus. “Now, that’s over. Your contract is voided. Zora is no longer in danger. And mine is complete. I feel much better now.”

  “Glad,” Tidus grumbled.

  “Before we go,” Solana cooed in Cayd’s direction. “What is your name? I would like to be able to call on the man who gave me such an obvious and delightful solution to my problem.”

  “Cayd Zahid,” he responded with a grin.

  Solana’s face fell. “What did you say?”

  “Zahid,” Cayd repeated.

  Solana’s lips pursed tightly. “Enjoy your curse, Mister Zahid.” With a flash of sunlight, the two gods were gone. Two twinkling gemstones were sitting on the damp brickwork of the courtyard where they had been. From the stage, Boldbounty began to guffaw.

  “Amazing!”