Em’ah slipped through the grimy back alleys of the port town in the guise of a malnourished adolescent male. It was hard taking a form so small but she found over her years that slaves tended to only trust those worse off than them.

Her destination was a storage warehouse and sleeping quarters for dock slaves. She wasn’t going to bother with the ship slaves, since most of those were hardened criminals. She still couldn’t believe how idiotic those freed slaves on the island had been. There was no way they didn’t know what they unleashed. But years of pent-up anger and frustration had clouded their common sense.

Slavery as a concept didn’t bother her all that much. It was a universal constant with some form of slavery existing in almost every world within the System. Boss was an idealist, even if he didn’t realize it. This plan of his would likely backfire on all of them but she was carrying it out anyway.

Normally she would have just slipped away at the next port and disappeared but the boss didn’t know that he had saved her life by recruiting her. She had been tracking a group of Protectorate assassins looking for her on Gorsh. They had even given her the correct passphrase, but she wasn’t an idiot. She had long since stopped using passphrases as a means of determining friend or foe. It was much easier to rely on rumors. That’s how she knew the Captain was with Barcos and Khikall and that he was likely trustworthy. She despised owing anyone, especially for saving her life.

Testing him as she did was probably foolish but she had to make sure. And if they hadn’t come when they did she would have died within the hour. While she had some skill at subterfuge and hiding, she couldn’t hide forever against a trained assassin. And the group looking for her was right behind the Captain and his group, literally. She spotted them lurking in a nearby alley during the reunion. But they knew better than to mess with the Blademaster, Barcos. I mean he trained them after all.

So that was why she stayed with the crew, to avoid death at the hands of the Protectorate. And she carried out this hair-brained scheme of the Captain’s to get an ounce of revenge against her former employer. She would give it her all to pay off this debt if it took the rest of her life, but she certainly wouldn’t tell the captain about it. The man was borderline suicidal and while she was fine paying off this debt, she wasn’t going to risk her life for someone else. Besides, if the man got himself killed, her debt was cleared.

She slipped inside the warehouse and faked falling down and dropping one of the enchanted items the Captain gave her. It flew from her hand and she ‘scrambled’ to pick it up, only to have a burly man place his foot over it. Inwardly she smiled.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A starving street urchin here to steal what little us slaves get? And what’s this?” he asked, slipping his foot away from her grasping arm and picking up the item.

“Gimme, I need that to free my father!”

The large man looked perplexed, as he stared at the unassuming piece of leather. “And how pray-tell are you going to free your father with this?”

Em’ah clamped her mouth shut and tried to scoot into a sitting position when two more slaves grabbed her. “Answer him, boy,” one of the gruff men behind her said, his breath reeking of cheap booze.

Playing the terrified child act, she answered. “T’was tol’ it could get his collar off. Only need to rub it along the side.”

Murmurs broke out amongst the slaves and Em’ah suppressed a smile. Her plan was coming together perfectly. All except for the next part.

A few of the slaves took exception to her lies and beat her, not that they hurt her all that much but it still sucked.

“He’s a gods damn liar is what he is,” one of the men spit and Em’ah felt the disgusting projectile land on her back. The Captian was going to owe her big for this.

“What if he ain’t?” Another slave asked.

“Only one way to find out,” the man with the leather item replied. Nobody tried to stop him as he rubbed it across the collar. There was a loud click as the collar broke into its default halves and clattered against the floor amongst shocked silence.

There was a stampede of feet and a chorus of voices clambering for the leather strip, Em’ah all but forgotten as the slaves fought to be the next to be free. Em’ah used the uproar to change into an unassuming man and slip out through the same door she entered.

She had a few more locations to visit before returning to the ship.

***

The ship was prepped and ready to leave at a moment's notice. While it wasn’t visible, you could sense something had changed within the town. The guards were more hurried, yet trying not to seem like they were and the citizens could be seen in clusters talking amongst themselves in low whispers and glancing around nervously.

People were aware something was going on but not what just yet. It wouldn’t take lon-.

The bells that were normally reserved for signaling pirate attacks started clanging throughout the city.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” Barcos snorted, pointing into the distance where a waft of smoke could be seen coming from the warehouse district.

It wasn’t long before flames joined the smoke as the flames leaped into the air. Minutes later an angry mob of mostly men stormed the dock near where the fire erupted and a violent riot broke out. The men carried makeshift clubs or spears as they clashed with a group of guards and a few unfortunate crew from ships near that dock.

The Guards were holding the mass of angry men back but there were more than they could handle.

“Perhaps they will take my warning seriously now. If they can’t handle a few angry dock workers, how can they expect to handle a fleet of hardened pirates, hellbent on revenge and murder?”

Barcos just shrugged. “If I were still with the Legion, I might condemn your actions but it seems my fair country has fallen quite far in my absence. Perhaps you are correct, they need a wake-up call.”

I didn’t think Barcos cared one way or the other. At least his actions to date haven’t indicated as much.

“I think it’s time to go, Captain,” Barcos nudged me, pointing toward a figure running down the dock. It was Em’ah but she wasn’t alone, being chased by another group of free slaves going by their ratty clothing and improvised weapons.

“Alright. Khikall, get us moving, Em’ah will have to catch up as we are on the move,” I spoke into the radio.

“Already on it, Captain.”

The ship rose in its cradle and started moving slowly back. I saw Em’ah mouth what was probably a curse as she put on more speed, her arms growing those flaps so she could fly across the distance when she arrived.

The men chasing her were shouting and trying to throw rocks at her but she did her eye trick and swerved to avoid the projectiles as they sailed at her. With a powerful leap at the end of the dock, thanks to her transforming her legs into Jerboa legs, she sailed high above and flapped her arms to propel herself to the Retribution where she landed with a light thud.

“What the fuck! Couldn’t you have waited at the dock for me?”

I shook my head. “If we did, we would have had to deal with those angry men chasing you. Then we would have had to stay and explain why they were chasing you. Better we get out before this entire town turns into a madhouse.” I could already see other ships with the same idea. Crews were running for their ships and ships that recently docked were already leaving port. Some of the crews weren’t as lucky as groups of angry former slaves cut them off from their ships and beat them.

“Well, fuck,” Em’ah replied as she gazed at her handiwork. “By the way, you owe me a nice dinner after this.”

“… um, huh, what. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for you,” I stammered out, not wanting to lead the woman on.

“Pff, in your dreams. I meant I want a nice dinner with someone I choose, ya daft ninny.”

“Oh, thank god,” I replied without thinking.

“What, you think, you’re too good for me?” she glared back.

Knowing any answer I gave would be the wrong one, I simply turned and headed below deck to strap myself in. I could hear her angrily muttering as she followed far behind me, all the while Barcos chuckled.

By the time we made our next stop, news of the slave uprising had already spread. There was a tense fear in the air and slaves were being watched with a very critical eye by heavily armed guards.

Still, I sent Em’ah in, this time to hide the tags with a note attached to them. By the time they were discovered, we would be gone… hopefully.

We did this three more times, finding one island that had executed all of the slaves to prevent any issues. I had to ruthlessly squash my anger and desire to rain death and destruction on this island.

I knew my actions would have dire consequences but the slaves couldn’t even fight back, they could only stand there while a bored soldier slit their throats as if he was at a butcher's yard.

We stuck around at this island until past nightfall. When it was dark enough, I followed the guard responsible for the killing. What he got next was well-deserved retribution for his inhumane actions.

I couldn’t stop islands from executing slaves but I could send a message that their deaths would be avenged.

I may have gone a bit psychotic in doling out justice. Using my prodigious strength, I ripped the man’s ribcage open while he was under the effect of Silence. He was alive when I did that. Not my proudest moment but it finally wiped the bored look off his face so it was worth it.

I did end his suffering shortly after but I strung the body up and left it hanging from a street light. I didn’t think anyone would miss the symbolism of a dead guard wearing a slave collar and swinging from a lamp but I never underestimated the power of stupidity.

I also left it in a very visible spot so the guards couldn’t simply cut it down and hide it away before people saw it.

As I was returning to the ship, I ran into Barcos.

“Was that necessary,” he frowned at me. It was the first time I had seen the man genuinely upset by something. And considering he was trapped on a hell hole for ten years, It was surprising.

“I may have snapped a bit,” I replied, owning up to my mistake. He nodded and fell into step beside me.

“We all have our demons, Captain. But you need to control yours because you are responsible for the lives of others. What would have happened if you were caught?”

I hadn’t thought about it at the time, I only wanted revenge. But he was right. If I was caught killing a guard, I would likely have died as other guards swarmed the area. Then the ship’s failsafe would activate and ‘BOOM’ no more ship, hell probably no more town, considering the amount of mana stored in the ship. Even if I did survive, the ship would be seized and my crew would be arrested. I needed to be better and let my anger go, but seeing people treated like disposable cattle brought all the rage flooding back that I had felt when I was a slave myself.

“Nothing good,” I replied quietly.

Barcos snorted, “a gross understatement, but I will let your actions slide. So long as you know they were wrong. There is no point drudging up the mistakes of the past.”

I gave the man a curious look.

“What? I can be serious and understanding, I just choose not to be…I had enough of that in the Legion.”