The Sea’s Scourge

Zane Joly

Pirate Captain Agnar did not like their situation at all. The water had been pulling their ship, Lady of Tides, in one direction for two days now. It wasn’t that the wind was against the ship, the sails were furled. The water itself was pulling the ship. Agnar had never seen anything like it, and knew that it was very bad. But their crew thought it was even worse.

“Captain?” said their first mate, an annoying man named Tamdris, “The current shows no sign of stopping. We have clearly gotten on Fate’s bad side somehow. I urge you again to try and appease Fate.”

“We’ve made all the offerings to the ocean,” the captain responded, “But I have a feeling that you have a suggestion you’d like to share. Spit it out.”

Tamdris took a deep breath and stared at the planks as he said, “This curse of Fate befell us shortly after you joined as our new captain. And I don’t know what the circumstances were on your last ship towards the end, but it burned down to ashy planks and you were the only survivor. It sounds to me like you escaped Fate’s clutches, and now it seeks vengeance, and is willing to destroy this ship to get it. Pirates are never favored by Fate at the best of times, but we can still avoid being directly in the path of its ire. If you truly care about this crew, then you will leave the ship, in the smaller boat, stocked with supplies. Fate does favor the brave who don’t run from it, and openly face it.”

Captain Agnar sighed. Sailors and their superstition. The reason they were the sole survivor of the fire that claimed their last ship was because they had lit it, as much as it had pained them to destroy their home of over a decade. But it had been necessary. “I am going to let you in on a secret, Tamdris: there is no Fate. Fate is a human construct, made up at the very limits of what we can comprehend. A powerful force that guides us, but that cares about little traditions and fairness, and crap like that. In reality, most of the universe is governed by unfair chaos. But there are powers beyond what we know. The ocean is home to countless horrors, capable of destruction and death on a scale you can’t even comprehend. Silly superstitions are just sailors’ way of trying to understand them and feel like they have control. But if you truly saw the forces that govern the ocean? You would go mad.”

As they spoke, the captain slowly strode towards him.  They were a tall person, and they wore boots that made them slightly taller. They timed their steps so that they had now pushed Tamdristo to the very edge of the railing. “And I can tell you that something has taken an interest in this ship. And that is very likely very bad news for all of us. But it is not a problem that will be solved by your lovely little excuse for mutiny. If you want to survive this, you do as I command. Are we clear?”

With a trembling voice Tamdris answered, “Y-yes.” Agnar said nothing, but didn’t move backwards and maintained their piercing gaze. Tamdris swallowed. “Yes, captain.”

Agnar stood there for a second more, before turning and striding away. “If we are extremely lucky, whatever is pulling this ship along will get bored or something else will attract its attention, and then we can go back to praying on merchants. But I believe in preparing for the worst.”

“And hoping for the best?” Tamdris said behind them.

“No,” Agnar said, “I don’t hope. I envision. I doubt you will be lucky enough to live to the day that you figure out the difference.”

Tamdris seemed confused, but nodded. He was too scared of them to do anything else. Captain Agnar had the ability to command all the authority in an area simply by being present. And there was something unsettling and intimidating about them that he couldn’t put his finger on.

“LAND HO!” they heard a voice call out from the crow’s nest.

The first mate looked up in wonder and excitement, but Agnar just paused and pursed their lips, lost in concerned thought.

Eventually, the full news came down from the nest and Tamdris delivered it to his captain. “There’s an island north-by-north-west, directly where the water has been leading us. Perhaps this is a blessing from Fate!”

“If Fate wanted to bless us, it could do so in far simpler ways. As it is, I am more concerned with the fact that we have sped up.”

“And… why is that concerning?” Tamdris asked.

“We’ll see,” was all Agnar said in response.

An hour later, and the island could be seen reasonably well with the naked eye. It was moderately sized and had green life on it, fortunate considering the ship had been running low on supplies.

“Now do you believe that it's a blessing?” Tamdris asked.

Agnar seemed as impassive as ever. “I don’t much like your tone,” they stated, “but I’ll let it go just this once. And the primary blessing I see is that the water has gotten shallower. Don’t ask me what I mean by that. Get me the most useless crew member we have. And don’t play games, you know the one I’m talking about. Also, tell all the crew to come up to the top deck with harpoons and other weapons. No questions.”

After a slight pause, the first mate nodded and rushed off. It took him some time to relay the captain’s orders, and when many asked why he merely shrugged. A few said that Agnar had gone insane. He found Potch, who’d had several discipline problems in the last few days. He had to be who the captain had been referring to. Tamdris dragged him up to the captain. Agnar turned away from the railing and surveyed him, as well as the crew, gathered like an army. They apparently found this satisfactory, and gave a nod.

Projecting loudly, Agnarsaid, “You are all probably very confused, so I am going to explain this as quickly as I can and to the best of my abilities. That island is almost certainly a trap. I don’t know if it's an illusion, or a giant monster in disguise, or if it has enemies hiding in the trees, but I know that we must strike before we reach it. Something has been pulling this ship along, and if we’re in shallow waters, it will be forced closer to us. And it will have a clear view of,” they gestured to Potch, “the bait.”

Before anyone could object, they took out their cutlass, slit both of Potch’s wrists, and threw him into the ocean. He screamed and began thrashing in the water. Agnar just observed with satisfaction, taking up a harpoon. “Good,” they said, “Jerk around. It will show them that the meat is live and fresh.”

Then, rising from the deep, a massive tentacle wrapped around Potch. The captain hurled the harpoon down with all their strength, and it buried itself deep in the monster’s flesh. There was an awful screaming sound from somewhere deep below. The injured tentacle dragged Potch down into the darkness.

The crew stared in shock, but Agnar readied another harpoon and quietly said, “That’s right. Come on out. You know that we’ve seen you, there isn’t much point in hiding now.”

The clouds above began to darken. The ship suddenly stopped. Instead the sea began to churn. A silhouette rose from below, as if it was bringing the sunless midnight of the deep with it. More tentacles started to rise out of the water and wrap around the ship. The harpoons were let loose and the monster screamed once more.

Captain Agnar was fortunate enough to have never seen a kraken before. But they were well-read, and from what they knew, this creature seemed to be an especially small and weak one. Their primary evidence for this was that they were still alive, and the ship wasn’t already driftwood. It was possible for a ship to survive the attack of a weak kraken, and a pirate ship had more weapons on it than most.

The tentacles continued to rise and the crew began chopping at them with every blade they had. Agnar saw an eye, about six feet in diameter, rise out of the water. The pirate looked around. No one was paying much attention to them. They picked up a harpoon and using its blade, made a small cut along their arm. “I invoke a sliver of the dark power I bargained for,” they muttered. The blood on the harpoon turned pure black. They hurled it straight into the monster’s eye.

Not only did it pierce the eye, causing another shriek from the kraken, but a darkness started spreading from where the harpoon landed. Soon the entire eye was black as midnight, and Agnar could sense the corruption spreading through the rest of the creature’s body, until it reached the internal organs.

The kraken gave a shudder and released the ship, its corpse floating on the waves. But still the clouds continued to darken and the waves continued to worsen. There was something more powerful behind that beast. The crew also sensed that it was not over, and instead of cheering there was only nervous silence.

More shadows began to rise out of the water, much smaller than the kraken. When they surfaced, the horrors were revealed. merfolk. When one hears that name, one thinks of beings, usually female, with the top halves of humans and the bottom halves of fish, with colorful scales and smooth skin and an invariably stunning physique. Actual merfolk looked a little like that imaginary version of them, but inbred for ten generations, thrown into a meat grinder, and then stitched back together with spare parts from a seafood-based butchery.

Their heads were mostly fishlike, and a few had multiple heads. Some had tails, some had legs, some had only one arm, or crab claws, or tentacles. But they almost all seemed to have sharp teeth, and they were all climbing their way up the side of the ship.

“Prepare to repel the ugliest fucking boarders you’ve ever seen!” yelled Agnar. The situation was still manageable. But a swarm of idiot monsters weren’t enough to command a kraken, even a weak one, or maintain the storm that was still growing.

The merfolk reached the railings, and the crew attacked, slashing at the monsters. At first, things were going relatively well. Until the wave rose up. A mass of dark water crashed into the deck of the ship, sending pirates overboard, where they were immediately claimed by the masses of merfolk waiting in the water. But much more concerning was the figure now standing on the deck, using the term “standing” loosely.

Not a merfolk, but not human or beast either. It appeared to be a man, with blue skin and the lower half of an eel, holding a trident of gray stone in one hand. His eyes glowed bright red and he had long black hair, dripping seawater like the rest of him. Wrapped around his torso were several strands of seaweed, forming something a little like a coat of aquatic plant life.

“I am Lir,” he proclaimed loudly, “The Sea Witch, Lord of The Horrors Below, Commander of Abyssal Armies, Breaker of Vessels, Scourge of The Seas, Harbinger of Oblivion, Butcher of Humanity, Pronouns He/Him!”

Well, that’s refreshing, thought Agnar as they impaled a merfolk on their cutlass. Lir seemed to be even more dangerous than the kraken. He wielded the trident with skill, and it delivered a shock of lightning to those it struck, killing them quickly. Occasionally the sea witch would conjure gusts of wind or small waves to knock pirates into the water. Further, the merfolk seemed to become stronger and more determined just by being in his presence. He was quite likely the source of all this. Meaning it would be much easier to survive if he was eliminated.

Unfortunately for Agnar, that was currently implausible. They were surrounded by merfolk, and all the crew, including Tamdris, were dead. Which wasn’t much of a loss. The captain sighed and drew a dagger with their left hand, opposite the cutlass. “Alright then,” they said, “The captain’s serving cold sharp steel, and they’ve got enough for everyone. Now who wants a taste?” The merfolk charged and everything became a blur. Agnar entered an emotionless and thoughtless battle trance where all they could register were creatures lunging at them, screams being cut short, blood flying through the air, and bodies hitting the deck. When the assault finally stopped, they were panting heavily. Captain Agnar was surrounded by merfolk corpses and blood ran down her cutlass. But the sea witch and his remaining army were standing triumphantly above the mass of crew corpses that littered the main deck. At some point, Agnar had lost their dagger.

“You fought well, pirate,” said Lir, “Even eliminating my kraken. But you are still weak. You are still human.”

“What I am,” said Agnar, marching up to the railing that overlooked the main deck, “is a wolf, constantly surrounded by sheep. And you are no exception.”

Lir theSea Witch, Lord of The Horrors Below, Commander of Abyssal Armies, Breaker of Vessels, Scourge of the Seas, Harbinger of Oblivion, Butcher of Humanity, Pronouns He/Him, looked confused. “What’s a ‘sheep’? Or a ‘wolf’ for that matter? Are they some kind of land thing?”

Agnar just sighed. After a pause they said, “Fuck it.” and slashed their cutlass across one of their arms, and held the bleeding wound above the blade. Soon it was coated in blood. They drove the cutlass into the planks. “I invoke the full dark power that I bargained for,” they said, watching as the blood turned black. Then they twisted the handle, shattering the blade and completing the ritual.

The blood that stained their arm turned as dark as midnight and the wound stopped bleeding. Black, heatless flame began to form around their feet. Sea witches were powerful, vessels of oceanic nature and its magic. But there were other powers in the ocean. Other, darker entities that most humans feared to even acknowledge the existence of. Things that were willing to make a bargain with those who had the strength to pay the appropriate price, like a ship and all the souls on it.

The black flame spread, but it did not consume the wood. Instead it spread to the fallen bodies on the ship and then out in the water. The fire simply slid over the corpses of merfolk and of the kraken, but it flowed into the mouths of Agnar’s dead crew. All of the blood that had come from humans turned black, and a darkness covered their eyes. Bones mended, muscles knit back together, and slowly Captain Agnar’s crew rose to serve them once more. Such simple undead could only last for about a half hour, but that was all the time Agnar needed.

“I am Agnar,” they proclaimed, parodying Lir’s declaration, “Pirate Captain, Dread Lord-Lady, Terror of Merchants, Scourge of the Seas. My pronouns are they/them, but I identify as your worst fucking nightmare.”

With that they drew out two more daggers from their coat and leaped, landing on one of the merfolk and burying their blades in its skull. The undead army charged the remaining merfolk. 

Lir only smiled. “Well this is a relief. I was worried that slaughtering you humans and reducing your ship to splinters would be boring.”

“Well, I’m very glad I didn’t disappoint,” the cursed pirate said as they lunged forward to join the fray, Lir doing the same. Even though Agnar couldn’t reanimate merfolk, as something about their souls was different, the monsters were not immune to their powers. One of them burst into black flame when it touched them. The captain drained the life force out of another one by glaring at it until it was a withered skeleton. There had been many times when Agnar regretted having made their bargain and sacrificing their first crew and ship, but now was not one of those times.

The sea witch seemed just as deadly against the undead as he was against the living, but soon enough all his merfolk were dead and he was considerably outnumbered, and finally facing Agnar. “Do you have any idea how long it took to dominate that many merfolk?” he asked, seeming annoyed, “And the kraken wasn’t easy either.”

On reflex, the pirate replied, “Kinky.” 

Lir just rolled his eyes, but he smirked a little. “I meant in the sense of magically bending them to my will.”

“You think that it was easy finding a pirate crew and ship? I’d say we’ve both lost quite a bit in this battle. You were the one who attacked us.”

“I didn’t know that you would be pirates! And I most certainly didn’t know it would have a crazy, dark magic wielding, merfolk slaughtering captain on board who carries four different bladed weapons on their person, apparently.”

“Well, thank you,” they replied, “but your excuse for attacking us was ‘I thought you would be easy to kill’?”

“Yes!”

“Huh,” said Agnar. After a pause they shrugged, “Well, I’ve known people to do ruder. Let’s get to it then.”

The sea witch held out surprisingly well considering histactical disadvantages. But Agnar was relentless. Eventually they had an opening and they brought both of their daggers down. Lir moved his trident to block the incoming strikes. Agnar’s blades broke off the left prong of the trident and shattered the tip of the central prong.

Lir just stared at the broken weapon in horror. It crackled with uncontrolled energy. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” he asked.

The dozen or so remaining undead crewmembers advanced on the sea witch, but were cut down by lightning that lanced forth from the trident and seemed completely out of Lir’s control. A leviathan of a wave larger than the entire ship rose out of the water, rushing towards them. The two figures screamed in unison.

The wave hit with immense force, and Agnar heard wood shattering before they were caught in the wave. They tumbled about and about, images flashing by, occasionally hitting objects they couldn’t identify. Despite their not-quite-alive nature, Agnar still needed air and burst above the surface of the water every half a minute or so, desperately gulping in air before another wave hit and they were forced under again.

***

After some time, Agnar washed ashore, coughing up water. Looking around, they saw the distinctive form of Lir lying on the beach as well, eel tail idly brushing side to side along the sand. He was watching the pirate and holding his broken trident in one hand.

 Agnar realized they had lost their knives again. They reached down to their boot and drew out a hidden dagger.

“You have five swords?” Lir asked, incredulously.

“Technically one is a cutlass, which is a type of sword and the other four are daggers,” the captain of the destroyed ship answered, “But I don’t feel dressed in the morning without them. Now come on. Aren’t we going to fight to the death?”

“I’d really rather not.” Lir yawned and stretched. 

“Oh, come on!” Agnar yelled, “You were trying to kill me like fifteen minutes ago!”

“Actually a couple hours,” Lir responded, “You passed out when you washed up on shore. You talk in your sleep.”

The pirate didn’t remember having passed out, but everything that happened had been a little fuzzy, so it was entirely possible. “Then why didn’t you kill me while I was out?”

“I attack ships because I have a hatred for humans. They are arrogant and have caused destruction to the natural world on land, and I refuse to allow them to do the same to the seas. ButI have already killed many humans today, what does one more matter? Especially since you don’t seem very human. And I suspect that you have killed almost as many land-dwellers as I have. Worst case scenario, I could swim away and leave you stranded here on this island.”

Agnar narrowed their eyes. “I’m going to ignore that last part and just focus on what you said before. I have to agree with you that humans, on the whole, aren’t really that amazing.”

“Before today, I might have said that particular rule had no exceptions,” Lir said.

“Well… what do we do now?”

“For starters, you owe me a new trident,” the sea witch said, “Artifacts for channeling primal magical power don’t just grow on coral formations you know!”

“I might actually be able to help with that,” Agnar said, “Give me the trident.” Hesitating a moment, Lir complied.

Agnar’s dark magic had run out. They would have to renew the ritual. They sighed and cut their other arm with the dagger, shattered its blade, and completed the ritual. Holding the trident, they concentrated. “One of the other perks of being a dark pirate is the ability to create spectral echoes of things. The same basic concept as ghost ships.”

“You can make an entire ship?” said Lir, sounding impressed.

“No,” Agnar responded, “doing that takes quite a bit more power than I wield. But I should be able to do this.”

Pale mist began to rise from the trident. Slowly, the mist solidified. When they were done, there was a gray, translucent, spectral prong to replace the missing one and the damaged prong was whole. “Impressive,” said Lir, “but breaking the prongs inhibited its ability to do magic. I don’t care much about being able to stab somebody three places at once.”

“Please,” Agnar said, “what simple craftsman do you take me for? It should work better.”

Lir took the trident and closely inspected it. Then he pointed it at a pirate’s corpse floating in the water, and a bolt of lightning arced out from the trident and struck it, sending pieces flying everywhere. Agnar even thought they saw a little bit of black fire twining around the lightning.

“Amazing,” said Lir, “I think it's actually more powerful. Perhaps you truly are an exception to the rule that humans should all be crushed to death by the freezing depths.”

“I’m flattered,” said Agnar, “How about in exchange, you return me to the mainland? I’ll need to find a new crew.”

“I’ll do you one better,” said the sea witch with a smile, “You mentioned that you have the skill to make a ghost ship, just not the power. Try it.”

Cautiously, the pirate complied. They reached out a hand and the pieces of driftwood flew through the air to the places they had once occupied, many floating in empty space. A shivering pale translucent smoke tried to fill in the gaps, but there were too many. Agnar could feel it coming apart. Then Lir lifted up his trident and something surged out of the water. Coral.

The rocky carbonate animal skeleton expanded with unnatural speed, and Agnar could see it taking the shape of the boat, not only providing structure, but magically strengthening it. The finished product was made of a mix of pieces of the original ship, spectral matter, and coral. Lir frowned and flicked his wrist. The coral turned black. “There we go,” he said, “Much more aesthetically pleasing. What do you think?”

“I’m impressed,” responded Agnar, “I didn’t even think this was possible. But this vessel needs a crew.” Then their eyes spotted the corpses of the merfolk floating in the water. And an idea came to them.

“Can you help me with one more thing?” they asked, “Oh, and are you okay with me desecrating the corpses of your allies?” “Feel free,” Lir responded, “I had to magically enchant them into serving me anyway. No one’s willing to serve a male sea witch. It's really quite frustrating. And I suppose I can lend you more of my assistance. This is a lot of magic in one day, though. I’ll probably have to go into a dormant state for three days after all this is over.”

“Alright,” Agnar said, “Just point your trident out in front of you.”

Lir complied. The pirate grabbed on to the trident as well and concentrated. Black fire poured forth from their other hand. It flowed across the waves and settled on the corpses of the merfolk, but could not reanimate them. The sea witch seemed to realize what was going on. He readjusted his grip on the trident, and Agnar’s hand accidentally settled on top of his. 

The water started to churn and move. It flowed into the mouths of the dead merfolk, carrying the cursed black fire with it. The two magics worked strangely well together, and the monstrosities of the sea began to stir. Soon enough they were swimming towards the ship and pulling themselves up onto its deck. The two magics also made them more stable than the undead Agnar had previously commanded, and they sensed that these would be able to hold up for at least a month, quite possibly more if they were occasionally renewed with both dark and sea magic.

Then Lir said, “I have an idea.” He made a slight twisting motion with the trident and the black fire moved over to the corpse of the kraken. The two figures both knit their brows in concentration as they focused on the beast. Slowly, its tentacles stirred. An undead kraken. It sounded like something out of a sailor’s nightmares, and Agnar loved it.

The sea witch lowered his trident. “I think that makes us even. If I ever see you again, I might try to kill you, fair warning.”

“Really?” asked Agnar, “You’re just going to swim away? You don’t see the opportunity in front of you? It must have taken you some time and effort to collect this little army, and you’re giving them up so easily?”

After a short pause, the sea witch turned and said, “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m not a pirate for the loot. I once was, but I gained perspective when I made my deal with the dark powers that be. I do it because of the power. Because I want to know that I am the most dangerous thing on the seas. Well, it turns out there is someone more dangerous. You want to bring destruction to humanity, I just want to bring terror to humanity. We have similar goals. And I think it’s been established that our magic works well together. We could be the most dangerous duo on the seas. We could reduce even the mightiest warships to splinters in moments. No human could stand against us. We could burn the coastal cities, flood them, command the dead to serve in an army, make those pathetic-”

“I’m in,” said Lir, “You had me at the mass destruction of air-breathers.”

“How would you like to be my first mate?” Agnar asked.

“You may be preferable to most humans, but I have no desire to make you my mate,” said Lir, “And would I really be your first?”

Agnar sighed. “First mate means that you are my second in command. My lieutenant. The second-most powerful person on a ship.”

“I’m not loving the ‘second-most’ part, but very well,” he said, “Now, let’s… what is the term… set sail?”

“That’s actually correct,” Agnar said, “We do need to get aboard the ship first…” The sea witch just made a twisting motion with his trident and a giant hand of water rose out of the waves. It picked up the strange pair and set them down at the prow of the ship. An undead merfolk took the place of a helmsman at the wheel, and another one used its tentacles to crawl up the mast and unfurl the sails.

Lir barely needed to flick his wrist and a sea breeze filled the sail, sending the ship forward.

“We do need a name for the ship,” speculated Agnar, “Something that strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear it… I’ve got it!”

They reached out a hand and thin tendrils of black fire emerged. They carved into the coral on the side of the ship The Sea Scourge.

“Hang on a second,” said Lir, “I am ‘The Scourge of theSeas’.”

“It’s a title that we both have, fish brian. And since it would be ridiculous for us to share an epithet, it's going to be the name of the ship. You have, like, a dozen other titles.”

“Ugh,” Lir said, “The sacrifices I make for the mass destruction of humanity.”

“I can tell that the two of us are going to do some great things together,” Agnar said.

The pirate drew out a fifth dagger and pointed it dramatically towards the horizon. Lir just looked at them with shock and said, “Where the fuck do these things keep coming from?”