Turns out I probably didn’t need to make a statement by killing the guard. I forgot one thing. It was small but very important. A lot of slaves still had families.

The next morning the town literally exploded in violence as the surviving families of slaves dragged the government officials out and beat them into submission. Yeah, turns out offing simple debtors that were paying off their debt by working as a slave was not a smart thing to do. And after mourning their dead loved ones, the families took action.

There were far more affected civilians than there were guards or officials. After the mob assembled, they dragged the unconscious public officials onto the same stage the slaves were executed on and returned the favor.

Seeing which way the wind was blowing, every ship had quickly left port. I didn’t know what the Protectorate's response to this rebellion would be but I knew it wouldn’t be pretty. Then again, maybe these people would fight back.

Judging by the growing fires we saw as we sailed off, I expected the town was in civil war. There might not be anything left by the time the Legion arrived to deal with this one island and we had already heard that the fighting had spread to two islands we hadn’t even visited. Likely thanks to the enchanted items I had Em’ah hide.

It was strange being on the periphery of such chaos that you had personally helped foster. I didn’t feel shame for my actions… well, except for the guard. But he would have died the next morning anyway. I did feel a little bad for dragging a bunch of innocent people into the mess I created. But only slightly. If they didn’t turn to slavery, none of this would have happened.

I did wonder if my actions would get back to the Guild. Considering how much they knew about me, it was a high likelihood. While Director Tolish seemed like a nice enough fellow and I hadn’t targeted any Guild ships, it remained to be seen if he wanted to work with me after he learned of my actions.

I figured he still would, simply for the fact that he worked with any Guild affiliated power even though one of those was the Syleen. An empire directly built around slavery. I suspected the Syleen was where the Black Dragon got the idea to start their slave empire from but I couldn’t be certain. It didn’t matter.

We sailed away from the island, while I decided our next course of action. I quickly decided that I had riled up the population enough with our antics. Even without our direct intervention, I suspected the slave revolt would continue to grow.

It was time to go back to why I was still in this area, and that was to hunt down a pirate that wronged me.

***

Chani the Executioner lay on the floor of the ship in a pool of his own blood. His former second of command, bloody and heaving only a few steps away. Lichen had been a pirate for over a decade before he was captured and pressed into slavery. And he knew when a captain was more trouble than they were worth. Chani was one of those types of captains. Fixated on causing the most amount of bloodshed and damage without thinking of the issues that it caused or the response it would bring down on top of them.

Overly aggressive pirate captains tended to disappear rather quickly in the Isles. Either they bit off more than they could chew and got caught or killed, or the pirate kings came to deal with them. There wasn’t anything that got those pricks moving faster than disrupting their bottom line.

The former third mate stepped into the room, took one look at the corpse of the former captain, then looked at Lichen. Lichen could see the thoughts working their way through the man’s eyes. He was injured, perhaps I could take him and become captain myself? Lichen firmed his grip on the sword he held, ready to burst into action if the other man made a move.

But he didn’t, “Captain, we have a fleet of four ships closing in on us from the west. What are your orders?”

Lichen was momentarily surprised by the man not attacking him but he suspected the man was pragmatic enough not to start a fight for captaincy while there were possible hostile ships heading their way.

“Do we have anyone who can identify the ships?”

“Not so far but they aren’t waving any banners and they are larger than a galleon.”

Lichen cursed, had he acted sooner perhaps he could have avoided raising the ire of the pirate kings but it was too late now. Now he could only try and escape from their fleet.

“Turn us about and let's try to lose them. If we need to sacrifice a ship or two to make it happen, do it. Fire on them if they refuse my order.”

Shortly after, the ship lurched sideways as men yelled orders from above. Lichen quickly washed the blood from his face and ordered one of the gun crews to clean up the mess in the cabin and throw the body overboard.

The crew needed to know he was in charge so he headed to the command platform and stood in stoic silence while the crew rushed about to get them moving away from the approaching enemy.

Lichen wasn’t a coward but he knew when to cut and run.

***

“Captain, we have nine unknown vessels on the horizon.”

“Oh,” I replied as Khikall pointed out the tiny dots on the screen. I still didn’t understand how he could pick those up from so far out. “well, let's go see who it is.”

“Em’ah, could you go see if Barcos is up and ready, we may have some action soon.” The woman slid out of her chair and skipped out of the room. I wonder what had her in such a good mood.

“They're definitely pirates, Captain,” Khikall replied, looking a bit distressed. “The group at the front is the ship that the slaves sent off, I’m almost sure of it. But the four at the back are what's making me want to turn around and leave.”

I looked at the Jerboa in surprise, “what? Why?”

“Those are part of Black Gar’s fleet. My guess is they are led by the Enforcer himself.”

I remembered who Black Gar was, there wasn’t a port around that didn’t have his picture up. He was one of the pirate kings and the Enforcer was one of his sub-captains. A ruthless lionoide by the name of Sarvis.

I had studied up on most of the really dangerous pirates in the region. Calling a lionoide a beastman would likely get you ripped apart. Even if it was technically true. They had short tempers and prodigious strength. Like humans, lionoides were the sole intelligent species in their world before the System came along. They quickly found their niche as mercenaries and soldiers. But their beast heritage was mostly gone, leaving only tell-tale signs like the faded striping or wild mane of hair.

“What are our chances?”

“In a direct confrontation… not good. Those four ships aren’t simply retrofitted merchant's vessels, they are full-on warships. If we surprise, them, we may get one or two but I doubt we could take on all four. This is the man the pirate Black Gar sends out when he wants assurances that the job will be done.”

“Why do you think they are out here anyway?”

“My guess… probably to deal with those freed pirate slaves. Attacking their enterprises was not a wise choice by whoever is in charge. It was bound to get noticed by the bigwigs eventually.”

I tapped my fingers on the arm of my table in thought as I decided on a course of action. Foolish it may be but it was better to find out now if my ship could handle the abuse. “Get us on an intercept course for those five lead ships. If there is an opening I want to exploit it.” I figured this was the best of both worlds. Eliminating a problem I helped spawn while giving the more dangerous foe pause to think about the new player. Or I could be wrong and we are all going to die.

A few minutes later, Barcos and Em’ah walked into the room. “What do we got, Captain?” Barcos asked, trying to suppress a yawn and failing miserably. How a man could sleep as much as him, I didn’t know. Even with being drunk, his endurance should make it so he recovered in a few hours but the man slept like ten hours a day.

“We stumbled across those pirate slaves that are making a mess out here. Oh also, seems like they are being pursued by Sarvis.”

That perked the man right up. “Oh, does that mean we are going to get to fight with the Enforcer?” I didn’t like the maniacal gleam in Barcos’s eye.

“What? No, we are going to take out the five former pirate slaves, then leave. Or that’s the plan at least.”

Barcos laughed, “Well, we will see once we get there. I somehow doubt the Enforcer will be happy with our meddling.”

To be fair I was curious to see how we would measure up. I know Khikall didn’t give us good odds, but the man was a bit of a fatalist. Whereas I was a bit more like Barcos, looking for the thrill of battle, although, I tempered my lust with a bit more pragmatism.

While it would be fun to go toe to toe with the bigshot, I had a specific goal here. Plans could change though, and going by the slowly closing fleets, we may not even be needed.

It took around an hour to close the distance to the ships and already the two fleets had exchanged a handful of attacks. I would have thought the former pirate slaves would be heavily outmatched but that didn’t appear to be the case.

In a strange move, one of the fleeing ships broke off and started fleeing in a different direction. None of the pursuing ships gave chase though.

“Khikall, let's go after that lone ship.”

“You read my mind, Captain.”

Invisibly, the Retribution dove toward the ocean surface, picking up speed as we zipped underneath the oblivious ships. Well, not completely unseen. It wasn’t until we went in pursuit of the other ship that one of the pursuing ships of the Enforcer’s fleet broke off to give chase. I didn’t believe in coincidence.

“Looks like we were spotted, Captain,” Khikall lamented while Barcos rubbed his hands in giddy anticipation for the fight to come.

“Khikall, I think, I’m going to be needed on deck. Don’t use the special weapon unless you have to. We should be able to take on two ships.”

Khikall grumbled quietly but nodded his head.

“Alright, let's get ready to geet our guests.”