Despite my utter exhaustion, I planted a hand on one knee and struggled to my feet. After the adrenaline wore off, the fatigue from rowing all day caught up to me. It didn’t help that my head was still swimming from using up all of my mana. I made my way to the aftcastle all the same. Most of the freed slaves were liberating the pirate’s food stores but a handful of the toughest surviving fighters were discussing their changed fortunes by the wheel.

“I say we sell her to the navy. Even with all the damage, a ship like this would set us up for life.” Said a thin, spidery man with a wide bald-spot.

“And which navy would you sell her to? I’ll sink her before handing her over to some stinking rock squatters.” reposted a burly man with crossed arms.

“Oh yeah? I suppose you’d rather sell her to the Rishi? You want to get paid in fish?”

“Fish is better than shame.” growled the big guy.

“And gold is better than fish.” snapped the spidery fellow.

Another man, this one with curly blonde hair stepped between them.

“Friends, calm yourselves. Can’t you see that you’re salting the dog? Why sell her at all? This is our ship now, we stand to gain far more by using it than getting rid of it.”

“I’m no sailor. The sooner I have solid ground under my feet, the sooner I can put this accursed sea behind me. It would be nice if I had something to show for my troubles and there’s no way I’m about to let some Keloran dandy sail off with the lion’s share of the loot.” Said one particularly short man with a neatly braided beard.

“Here here!” shouted a man lounging on the rail raising a mug in a sloppy toast. “You sound like the fool who finds a golden plow and then instead of selling it, hitches himself to it, breaking his back for beans.”

“Oh, I’ve got some friends who would be more than willing to try on some harnesses.” Blondie grinned “A ship this size takes some work to handle, but the opportunity is there. Besides, I don’t expect any navy to keep their word with ruffians like us. Much cheaper to just kill us and take it.”

Berta stood, and the others fell silent waiting to see what the giant thought. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, tapped her wrists together, and bowed to me. That shifted all the attention uncomfortably in my direction just when I was starting to get a handle on the different factions.

“Dolo Taeshi Savior. Are you recovered?” Berta rumbled.

“I’m getting there.” I said with a weak smile “Are you okay?”

“Ha! This is a little fight. it is nothing to a Tolor Witka.” She barked.

“Who’s this runt then?” Asked spider-guy.

“This little savior breaks our bonds and sets pirate captain on fire. You should be thanking him, not insulting.” Her glare drove all the blood from spider-guy’s face, leaving it as white as a sheet.

“Uh, yeah... “ he gulped “thank you.”

“So you’re the one who kicked off this little party?” Asked blondie, looking over my bloody clothes, bandaged shoulder, and broken hand. I shrugged, too tired to drum up any energy.

“I just brought the keys, you guys did the heavy lifting.”

“Don’t lie. I saw you throwing magic at the pirates.” grunted the dwarf

“Yeah… you know, now that I think about it, he did something to that sniper too.” Said

the lounger. “Just after he got shot the whole crows nest just… it was like Berta hit it with a hammer.”

“As grateful as I am for your help, I can’t help but wonder what you were hoping to accomplish by causing this ruckus.” Blondie said. The others went silent. There would be no brushing this off. I was about to tell them that my plans didn’t go much further than not spending the rest of my life as a galley slave but something stopped me. Maybe it was instinct, or maybe I was starting to learn, but I didn’t let the opportunity pass me by.

“What was I hoping to accomplish…” I repeated, buying myself a few precious seconds. This was a golden opportunity. I had their attention and grudging respect for the moment. I could spin any tale I wanted, but how could I say what they wanted to hear when they were already split? Nothing that sounded right came to mind but words started emerging from my mouth of their own accord. It felt like the words were coming from somewhere else, like I was the conduit for some deeper truth. I stepped aside and let my silver tongue have free reign.

“It’s not about me.” I heard myself saying “It’s not about what I want to do, it’s about you, all of you. What could you accomplish in that hold? What could the pirates accomplish with your help? Misery, pain, hunger. That’s what this ship used to spread. It was like an illness. I could never have stopped them on my own. All I could do was give you a chance. You’re the ones who took that chance and made something real out of it. There’s no telling how many lives you saved tonight. People who would have fallen prey to these pirates will never know the service you did for them, but they will live all the same. You did all of this in one night. Imagine what you can do with the rest of your lives.”

In the stillness that followed I realized that everyone on the deck had gone silent to listen in. While the people were looking towards me, their eyes were focused on something else, something only they could see.

“Stormwinds! You sure know how to make a chap feel heroic. Here I was, only thinking about saving my own skin and it turns out I’m a bleeding champion of light!” Said the lounger before raising his mug in another toast and tipping it back.

“Let’s be clear.” said the dwarf “I don’t owe you and I’m not about to let you fit new chains around me just because you broke the old ones. As soon as we get to land, I’m gone.”

I raised my hands defensively.

“Who said anything about chaining you up?”

“Chains of honor and obligation can bind much more tightly than chains of iron.” Grunted the dwarf.

“Well like I said, I couldn’t have escaped without you and you couldn’t have escaped without me. As far as I’m concerned, that makes us even.”

The dwarf spat on the deck but didn’t object.

“So you didn’t have any plans for the ship?” Blondie asked. Cutter snorted. When did he get there?

“You clearly don’t know our glorious leader so let me clue you in. He’s a hopeless idiot who gets by on sheer nerve. Before our little scuffle here, he almost single-handedly took down an imperial outpost. You know why? Because he didn’t want to put some strangers in harm’s way.”

“I got you here didn’t I?”

“Oh? Was this part of the plan?” Cutter asked, sweeping his arm to indicate the wreckage.

“...no, but you have to admit the first part went well.”

“Right up until you sailed us into some pirates!”

Thankfully, blondie interrupted us there.

“So no plan for the ship…” he repeated. I sighed.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with a ship this size. Selling it is probably the best I could manage. Do you have any ideas?”

“A fair few. A ship like this can do all sorts of work. It’s big enough to venture through more dangerous waters. We could trade or raid or rent ourselves out as mercenaries. There are plenty of little kingdoms without a fleet of their own. It can be risky but there’s real money in troop transport too.”

“Do you have any idea how many people are needed to handle a ship this size? Good luck finding a crew that doesn’t toss you overboard and take it for themselves.” Spider said.

“Hah! Like anyone could throw our Berta overboard.” Lounger retorted.

Blondie cleared his throat “I’ve already told you. I know some loyal people who would jump at this opportunity. There are all sorts of ways to make money, but I can’t think of a single other way to get a ship like this. Even if we could agree on who we sell it to, selling would be an enormous waste.”

“That’s all well and good for you salt-stained idiots, but where does that leave the rest of us?” asked the spidery guy.

“Free” Berta grunted, “Is this prize not good enough?”

“No.” spider snapped back “I didn’t break my back on the oars for months and then fight my way free to let someone else take the loot and send me away with a pat on the head.”

The argument devolved from there. No one wanted to lose out on such a rich prize and they weren’t willing to budge. Blondie maintained that selling the ship would be a colossal waste. Another three wanted to sell it but couldn’t agree as they weren’t about to sell the ship to enemies of their respective peoples. The lounger was happy to watch and throw an incendiary comment into the fray whenever things were cooling off. Only Berta didn’t make her feelings known. When they started fingering their weapons I knew that I had to do something.

“How about this?” I started “We all sign a contract that makes us equal partners. People who want to get off can, and they will still be entitled to a percentage of the profits from running this ship.”

“That’s hardly fair” Blondie objected “How am I supposed to run a ship if I’m forced to line all your pockets?”

“Well, if you don’t actively contribute to the ship’s success than I suppose you’d be entitled to a smaller share but we only have the ship because we all fought for it. That should count for something.”

Blondie nodded “That might work, but we should defer payments to ourselves until the ship is repaired and crewed.”

A few objections were raised immediately but I put them off.

“It’s going to take a while to hammer out the details and we’re going to want everyone else’s input too. Lets put this aside for the moment and get some dinner in us. Then we can have a little town-hall.”

“What? You want to make a deal with those dregs?” Spider scoffed.

“Anyone who fought the pirates should be a part of this.”

“What good are those weaklings. They should just do as we say.” The burly guy said.

“They put just as much on the line as you during the breakout. More. Your strength made it easier for you. If anything they deserve more than you do.”

That probably wasn’t the right thing to say. The big guy took a menacing step forward and slapped the flat of his still bloody machete into his palm. He stopped dead in his tracks when Berta started growling.

“You have no honor. Threaten my savior again and I crush one of your bones.” She slowly clenched one hand into a fist and the burly man paled, stepping back and lowering his weapon. I did my best to hide the tremor in my voice, clapped my hands together, and said: “Okay, I can see some of us are getting cranky, lets eat, think about the future, and then make our plans.”

I turned and walked back down the stairs, lowered myself through the hole and followed a familiar voice. I found Pierre banging around in the ship’s galley, grumbling about the lackluster conditions. We found enough clean bowls to serve the freed slaves and I left him to sort out his new kitchen while I went back above, bringing the others who were ransacking the food stores. They happily abandoned their hard-tack when I started filling the bowls with beans and eel steaks, hot off the grill. Word quickly spread and when they had all been served I broke the news to them.

“Alright! I bet some of you are wondering what happens next.”

Glazed eyes watched me, more interested in my food than my words.

“So am I. We’re going to figure it out together but this is what we’ve got so far. Some of us want to keep this ship. Anyone who wants to stay on as a sailor is free to do so.” That earned a few frightened looks and I rushed to clarify. “No one will be forced to row anymore and if you want to leave, we can drop you off. We’re going to enter into a partnership. Anyone who helped fight the pirates will get an equal share in the profits from running the ship. If you stay on as a sailor or provide some other service, your share will increase. I want to speak with each of you and see what you decide and what you can contribute.”

“Who the hell put you in charge?” asked one of the grimy wretches.

“I’m not in charge, I’m more like a moderator here. I just want to get to shore without us killing each other over who gets to decide what to do with this ship. Being in charge of this pile sounds like more work than I’m up for anyways.”

The rest of the night felt like it took forever as I scratched out notes using every last scrap of parchment I had. Blondie knew what it would take to operate and maintain the ship and he helped us decide how much of the profits were needed for that. We split the rest among ourselves, leaving out the two dozen people who refused to fight. That left fifty-seven escapees to sign the magical contract. Before the night was out, the Free Company was born.

Only eleven wanted to stay on board as sailors or guards. Twenty-two were content to take the minimum share and wash their hands of the whole matter. Fifteen said they had contacts that could help us purchase goods in bulk and the last Nine were explorers who knew a great deal about different regions and formulated a complicated trade route, bringing everyone who wanted off to their homes while still making a profit. They would be our eyes, figuring out where shortages popped up and where we could get the resources to fill those needs.

The hardest point was deciding what to do with the loot. This was a pirate ship after all and one of the rooms in the hold was stuffed to the rafters with ill-gotten gains. Berta had to step in to keep a faction that wanted to split the money and run from rioting. We would need that loot as seed money. Not only did the ship need extensive repairs, we’d need a lot of capital to fill the ship’s hold with goods.

It wasn’t a perfect deal and no one was really happy about it except for Blondie, who signed his name as Captain Dortwalt. He was beside himself at the prospect of commanding such a mighty warship. He also got a sizeable chunk of the profits for being such a pivotal part of the operation. No one else got exactly what they wanted, but they all got something. That would have to be enough. When the sun finally peeked over the horizon, throwing gaudy rays of orange and gold light across the clouds, I curled up on a heap of rope, closed my eyes, and let the ship rock me to sleep.