Clink. Clink, clink.

My arms are stuck to chains.

“The lad is fin’lly awake,” says a male voice of unknown origin.

“Who the hell are you?” I say, gritting my teeth. It’s most likely the guy won’t let me know his name. I’ll have to force it out of him if he won’t come forth with a reasonable answer.

“Call me Janyce, but my alias is Khyde.”

“What’s your reason for putting me here?”

I feel a finger softly brushing against my lips as he says, “We know your secrets, and we’ve been hired by someone close to you to find some more details.”

I feel as if forced to say nothing, for if not something might slip out.

“So, what’s your name, lad?”

“Jixia. My friends call me Jix.”

“Jix. What a name.”

“You can’t call me Jix. Only Jixia.”

“I suggest you don’t tell your kidnapper what to do.”

I suppose that’s fair, but aggravating. Even prisoners should be allowed to have a line that shouldn’t be crossed. This Janyce fellow surely doesn’t seem pleasing, I wonder how people get along with him.

And suddenly, I feel water on my feet.

“What’s this?”

“Our boat is sinking. We’re at our destination, and we’re leaving the prisoners here to die.”

I can tell he’s not bluffing, for he quickly runs up what I assume are stairs (I can’t see due to the blindfold and strapped arms) and yells for his crew to get off board. Huh, doesn’t really seem like the captain type.

And, luckily for me, I have a key in my pants, which is just reachable, and this poorly handled duct tape has no match for it. Freeing my first arm and taking off my blindfold, I find lots of prisoners, and the water reaching knee level at this point.

Wait. I didn’t have a key before this.

Maybe it can open these cells?

Put the key in… turn…

It works?

But why would someone on board give me this?

Gathering all the prisoners, we go up the stairs (I was right about my guess) and then follow the original crew.

Unsheathing one of the crews’ swords, I point it at one of the crews’ necks.

“Explain yourself before you’re the one sinking.”

And, quicker than my eyes can react, the crew member puts their hand to the sword that is now mine, slicing it open, and hitting me.

“Stop that!” One of the prisoners says. “We’re supposed to be torturing you! What are you, a masochist!?”

Janyce puts a hand out, likely telling his crew to stop. “We’ve everything we need. We have found out that Jixia,” he points at me, “is able to defend herself and feels pity for those trapped. That’s phase one of our plan.”

Then, quick as a flash, the crew disappears.

Looking at the now free prisoners, we knew exactly what to do.

We would make a crew to take down obnoxious people like Janyce.