Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“So… don’t we normally make speeches for this sort of thing?” Taehyung asked. 

“Never, please,” Yoongi said, settling his glasses a bit lower on his face as he started to count votes. “If we made speeches we’d literally be here all day. No one has time for this. Time of the essence and all that, et cetera, et cetera. But I will take your non-speech into consideration.” 

“That hardly seems fair Yoongi.” 

“Since when is piracy fair?” 

“Well, when I become King--” 

“If you become king,” he corrected.

“When I become king,” Taehyung corrected the correction. “I will ensure a nice healthy process of speeches, platitudes, and bribery before each election. How else will the people with the most  power be accounted for?” 

Yoongi stared off into the middle distance. If Taehyung was careful, he could hear the sigh bubbling from his lips. “It’s a popularity contest, Taehyung. If you’re the most popular, then you get it. If the other people on your boat think you’ll make a good king, they’ll vote for you. If they don’t they won’t. And neither will anyone else. It’s very unfair, in the most fair way possible. Be nice, and you may get what you want.” 

Taehyung sighed. “This is going to take forever.” 

“Indeed. Maybe one of your first actions as king could be to hurry this along,” Yoongi said, gesturing out to the rest of the cavern. 

Taehyung leaned over the outcropping to look down at the cavern below. The natural cavern at some point had been fitted for their own purposes. While the walls were unadorned, every spare square inch of floor was dripping in gold, paintings and tapestries.

It was the take of the pirates.

The only way this thing worked, having so many people in one place was by pooling their resources. If you were part of the larger fleet, you got the take. And if someone brought pain upon you, they brought that pain upon the rest of the fleet; nearly six score ships and counting. 

There was healthy competition among the crews but there were basic rules. 

1. Don’t attack a fleet ship (unless they had it coming)
2. If you’re going to mess with the French, the British, or the Spanish, make sure to warn everyone else
3. The pact between humans and children of the sea was sacred. 
4. When you outplay your hand, prepare for the consequences

Taehyung had been raised within the fleet, as a member of a coven of sea witches. He’d been thrown out onto a fleet ship when he turned 12 and was forced to scrape his way up to the top of a ship. 

It gave him something of an advantage here; he knew a lot of the more prestigious pirates of the area and had done a pretty good job at robbing some of them blind. 

Not that, hopefully, they took it personally. 

This was the first time he’d seen all the pirates gathered here. He’d never seen some of these pirates before. It was relatively new territory for quite a few of them; some he’d remembered seeing near Shanghai, others further south against the coast of South America, others still much further north to the coasts of Newfoundland.  

But they’d all made their way to Antigua. 

He looked from camp to camp, watching as pirates of different stripes all filtered through the cave. The cavern seemed to almost vibrate with anticipation--there hadn’t been an election in decades. 

But under the anticipation, he noted the fear. He could taste it; one of the abilities he’d gotten from the coven. 

Taehyung worried at the string of pearls he kept around his wrist. It didn’t serve well for there to be so much tension among the ranks.

His vision was pulled as another young pirate captain strolled through. Taehyung waved to Jungkook. Jungkook looked up, gave a sharp snort and kept walking to the back of the room. Perhaps he was making a play for the ‘throne’ as well. 

Taehyung sighed and started to walk towards the bottom floor. 

“Time to go talk to my adoring fans.” 

Taehyung walked towards the ‘voting booths’ which had been made up out of some gorgeous tapestries and a couple wooden chests as boxes.

Another pirate captain seemed to be looking between a few of the booths, as if trying to make a decision. 

“Ahh, just some stragglers left dithering about.” 

“Not dithering! Making a decision!” Jin said, turning to Taehyung. “I see your name on the ballots.” 

Taehyung nudged the older pirate. “Aren’t you just going to vote for yourself like everyone else does?” 

Jin waved off the thought. “Absolutely not. Who wants to be king? It’s so much responsibility.” 

“Wait what?” Taehyung said looking up. “Responsibility?” 

Jin’s lips curled in a lazy smile. “Did you not read the missives from the pirate council?” 

“I got bored halfway through,” Taehyung said with a sigh and leaned back. “I just assumed you get a fancy crown, everyone pays tribute to you, pretty straight forward.” Taehyung shrugged. “The new crown around my hat would make me look regal, you think?” 

“There are a lot more steps involved. But you’ll find that out on your own,” he said, and then walked into the box. “I think I just found out who I was voting for.” 

“I said no speeches.”

Taehyung jumped, whirling to face Yoongi.  “I… that wasn’t a speech,” Taehyung said after a moment, looking back at him. “Me? Speech?” 

Yoongi smiled. “I think these results are going to be very interesting.” 

After another 20 minutes had passed, the large cavern that looked out over the enclosed ship docks was filled to the brim with over a thousand pirates. Taehyung had never seen so many of them in one place before. He pulled himself up to an outcropping where a few others were sitting. 

“So, when I’m king, are you going to be my court jester?” Taehyung jumped and turned to see Jungkook, a little smirk on his features. 

“Absolutely not, the nerve of you.” Taehyung said, and leaned against the wall. “Besides, you’d make a terrible king. You just do everything better than everyone else. No one wants their king to be so superior to them in everything they do.” 

“I mean, that’s not my fault if people are inferior to me,” Jungkook said. 

“Truly insufferable.” Taehyung murmured. 

Jungkook opened his mouth to say something else when they noticed the path clearing to let through Yoongi, who was carrying a small wooden box. He shooed a few people off the platform and 

“Alright alright, give me some room you animals.” He asked, and shook his head. “Okay, okay, here we go.” 

“It was remarkable how few of you know how to write your letters. In the fall, please be on the lookout for a reading class. You can’t know whether the contract you signed was with a pirate or a privateer if you don’t know your letters!” Yoongi said. 

With that, Yoongi pulled his glasses out of his front pocket. “We have a winner, which is surprising. Out of the 747 ballots that were readable, Only six names shared enough of a consensus. Over a quarter of you simply voted for yourselves on a vote of one to one, so that is going to be thrown out entirely. 

“With 75 votes, including 95% of his crew, Taehyung has gotten the most votes, and has managed to win the votes of 20 other captains. With the stacking of the odds, that will pronounce Taehyung as our king.” 

Taehyung clapped politely. 

When the eyes in the room turned on him. He looked up. “Hm? Excuse me?” he asked. 

“Come on down, King Taehyung. We’ve got quite a bit of work planned for you. But first, is the coronation.” 

~*~

Taehyung looked down at the black crown that hung from the rafters of the small anteroom. It was a circlet that had been crafted from an ancient He then looked at his own clothes in the mirror. 

Taehyung wore the black and blues of his coven, with runescript carefully stitched down the sleeves of his coat. His coat lay open, with a black silk tunic underneath, with tiny purple flowers embroidered around the laces at the top of it. 

The boots were the last touch. They were silver heeled, and came up to about his knees. 

“Well, at least the color suits me.”

He grabbed the circlet and placed it on his head. He’d taken off his hat, stowing it away on-board his ship, and just leaving the black bandana to push his hair out of his eyes. He wished it had more fanfare, more… something. But it just felt heavy on his head. 

“A bit on the nose there, Taehyung,” he muttered under his breath, before turning to walk back out to the grand hall. 

“Welcome to the monarchy, your eminence.” Jin said, waving to him from the other side of the room.

“Stop it. Spell eminence.” Taehyung murmured. 

“Your grace,” Yoongi cut in, and then jerked his head back to the door he’d just come out of. “Both of you, come here. We’re going to need you.” 

Yoongi waited as about a dozen captains all settled around the room. Taehyung sat at the table, but he saw familiar faces among the crowd, including Jin and Jungkook. 

Yoongi waited for everyone to settle down, and then started talking. “A few years ago, the leaders of our fleet sat down in this room and squabbled for hours. They decided that we didn’t need a ruler normally. But, they did draft a document detailing when we would ever need a king. One of them is if an invading force begins to sink and lay waste to our ships. That time has come.” 

He set down a map, and rolled it out across the table. “If the reports we’re hearing out of Trinidad are right, something is heading straight for the heart of the fleet.” 

“That doesn’t give us much time. What’s happening?” 

Jungkook raised his hand. “There’s a band of storms coming,” he said. 

Taehyung’s eyebrow rose. “And that’s what I’m here to fight against?” 

“If it were just storms we wouldn’t even be risking having the meeting.”  Jin said. Taehyung leaned back, letting his tongue dart out gently between his lips, and tasting the aggravation in the air. He fell silent and let Yoongi continue. 

Yoongi pulled out a sketchbook. “We found this off the coast of Antigua, inside a waterproof chest. It was spirited here by some force from beneath the waves: a wall of storms, and the pirate ships that followed in its wake.”

The pages of the sketchbook were rough under the pads of his fingers. He leaned over to look at the small sketches. They were hastily scrawled, perhaps by another pirate who didn’t have a good enough grasp on his letters to make a good go of it. 

Instead, he saw the charcoal outlines of fishing villages in flames, the black scratches showing the explosion and ruin. The storms would come after that, hundreds of coal black rain drops coming to smother any hope that people had as they tried to look for survivors.

On the other side of the coal lines, he saw the outlines of ships. It was strange that the outlines were the only black marks -- the ships themselves were colored with bone white. 

Taehyung couldn’t help but wonder what they’d used to get that color. 

“Whose borders does it cross through? Is there a projected path of the storm?” 

Yoongi shook his head. “We’ve only managed to find one or two survivors so far and neither made it that long. We thought the selkies would help to slow it down, but they are on their northern migration this time of the year. We’re on our own for the moment. 

“We should sail out to meet this threat head-on, before it can hit our shores.” 

Taehyung looked over to see a young woman, her hair tied back and obscured by her hat. 

Taehyung replied as he pulled her name out of the mists of his memory. “That sounds like a good way for our fleet to be immediately killed, Ryujin. But I appreciate your tenacity.” 

Ryujin rolled her eyes. “I’ve sailed out to the edges of the world and back more times than you could count. I’ve seen the worst of the worst, and sunk a lot of them to the bottom of the ocean, You’ve barely been off the boat you were born on.  I’ve seen others who have been able to push around the waves. The best way to beat it is to attack it while it lies, in wait regaining power. 

“I’m telling you that if you treat this as a game, like you and your crew did back in Tobago, then we will all be dead by winter,” she said. “I’ve seen ghouls like this before.” 

Taehyung saw the slight friction in the air. He needed to get ahead of it immediately. 

“So you know what this one is?” 

“Well, no--” 

“And you know what this is about?” 

“I haven’t gotten that far yet--”

“And surely you’ve fought and won against these bastards before.”

“Well, I wasn’t--”

Taehyung leaned down. “If you don’t know what they are, what they do, or how to stop them. Then why on earth am I taking advice from you?” 

“Because I’m not the only one who thinks this way. You’re king now. That means you have to keep it together.” 

“Well, right now, we have a very neat sketch of a ship. We don’t know whether the storm is metaphorical or otherwise. We don’t know whether it’s hiding one ship or a thousand. We could be walking into a slaughter. Before we bring the whole fleet down there, we need more information.” Taehyung said. 

“We have to cut it off before it meets the waters of the Caribbean. If it picks up steam there, it’ll never slow down. It’ll take our kingdom off the map,” Jin said. He put a small token down in the middle of the table.

The table in the room was large enough to sit 12 people around and have none of them touch. Inscribed on its surface was a map of the Caribbean, with a small ‘logo’ inscribed in the middle. Most British cartographers believed it to be just an ornate shield, the logo where the cartographer of note had put their own initials. What it really obscured was Dosinia, one of the largest mermaid populations in the world. 

“I’ll take a small crew to the south, and figure out what’s going on there. You too, Ryujin. That’s my order as king.” 

“I’ll join you,” Jungkook said. 

“Me as well,” Jin said. 

“I’ll join; but I think your crown should be earned. This is a bad decision. I hope you have what it takes to make the right one.” With that, she crossed her chest and dropped a quick bow, before turning and leaving the room. 

Taehyung and the others weren’t long behind her. He was slowed down by Jin, who pulled him to the back of the group. 

“So, you know about the grotto.” 

Taehyung nodded. “I have been there a few times. It’s beautiful, especially when the coral was in full bloom. The mermaids I’ve met have all been much nicer than you have,” Taehyung said. 

Jin raised an eyebrow. “How long have you known?” 

“I can taste it,” Taehyung murmured, and winked at Jin. “Although you mask it well.” 

Jin’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “What do you mean? Taste? That’s horrid.”

“I’m a witch. Things that other people shy away from is something I happen to specialize in,” he said. 

“The salt shrine is at stake, you know. Your coven has had a pact with my home for as long as anyone can remember. If you all can keep your word, then we will keep ours.” 

Taehyung looked at Jin, and pulled up his sleeve.  The ugly scar he revealed was enough to make Jin step backwards a bit in surprise. 

“Three years ago, my crew gave me my ship, they took it from the pirate who owned it before. In the melee, I was knocked overboard, right against the keel. No one knew the coral reef was so close. Before I could get obliterated, the merfolk dragged me to the surface, their nails digging into my flesh. Without this, there would be no way I would have survived. My coven… and now our fleet will make sure that your home and ours will be safe.” 

Jin leveled a glance at him. Taehyung stood, ready to be assessed. It seemed that Taehyung had passed the test. Jin broke into a wide smile.  “Then I’m with you. Like it or not, I’m with you.”

“Glad to hear it,” Taehyung said. “Now, I need to speak with Yoongi, as he absolutely set me up for this,” 

Jin released a squeaky laugh and then started to head to his own boat, the Angel’s Wing . 

It really was a beautiful ship--well maintained and a gorgeous blue color. Taehyung’s eyes drifted over the maidenhead, a well sculpted mermaid that pointed out towards the horizon. 

“So -- time to get the word out.” 

Taehyung jumped and turned to see Yoongi walking up behind him. “Do I have to go boat to boat or something?” 

“Oh, the word will spread. That is one thing that sails almost as fast as the Montgomery.” 

“That ship is still on the loose amid the waves, hm?” Taehyung said. 

Yoongi gave a slight grin. “I’ll catch him one day.” 

“I’m sure you will. How long do you think we have, realistically?” 

“Four months, depending on the winds. If this scourge has control over the winds then… well, perhaps we’ll just sail out and see what’s on the horizon for us,” Yoongi said. “It’s not just about him, or about the mermaids. If the storms bring too much chaos, it will bring the Crown down on our heads. Britannia won’t just sit idly by if all of her colonies are destroyed.” 

Taehyung nodded. “So we leave, and we make sure that we take care of the storm before the royals do,” he said. 

Yoongi nodded. “Then I’ll follow your lead, Taehyung.” 

Taehyung gave a quick, flowery salute, and walked back out towards the mouth of the cavern, where the ships slid out into the sea. 

His ship was docked close to the front of the cavern. The Sage’s Squall was an old vessel, but it had been lovingly maintained since he had become captain. He was more interested in the ship next to his.

Where The Sage’s Squall was big and sturdy, The Septet was smaller and faster, its dark silhouette cutting an imposing figure despite its smaller size. Taehyung hopped up onto the gangway. He felt more at home as soon as the wood began to twist and sway beneath his feet. 

Jungkook was hopping around the ship as if it was currently under attack. He was shouting out orders to people, but he was also doing the work himself. It looked like his sails were getting repaired while they were docked, and now he was working with several other deckhands to prepare the ship to set sail.

As soon as Taehyung stepped on board, Jungkook checked over his shoulder. Then, Jungkook returned to work on the clew lines. Taehyung rolled his eyes, leaning against the taffrail.

Finally, Jungkook turned around, cleaning his hands as he walked closer to Taehyung. 

“Are you spying on me, witch?” 

Taehyung shrugged “Is it really spying if I’d just been standing here for over a thousand years?”

“You’re so dramatic,” Jungkook said, and then made a small ‘come along’ gesture as he walked towards his quarters.

Taehyung followed, “Hopefully you’re more moved in than the last time I saw you -- still living out of your sacks.” 

Jungkook shrugged. “I…I’m not in here much. It’s hard to be comfortable. It’s better to work through it,” 

Taehyung appraised Jungkook as he moved his belongings from bed to table. Jungkook had definitely gotten brade through the shoulders the longer he’d been out at sea. “I… haven’t been able to sleep the same since… we all separated.” 

Taehyung turned to see Jungkook’s bright eyes looking at him through a fringe of dark hair. 

“...You needed to go out on your own.” 

Jungkook’s face shifted like the tides for a moment, before it settled into coolness. “I… need to give you something. You asked me to find it.” 

With that, Jungkook produced a violin case that looked as if it had been underwater for a century. Taehyung opened the case, remarking at the quality of the instrument. The violin was all black, with strings that seemed to glow in the dying light of the sun. He let his fingers pluck across the strings. The sustained notes floated up into the air, and he hummed in time, the lilting notes began to make the wind shift within the room. But Jungkook placed his hand over the strings, stifling the sound. 

“You won’t be bewitching my crew aboard this vessel without my say so.” 

“I was really hoping to duet with you again,” Taehyung murmured. 

Jungkook shook his head. “We both have work to do, Tae.” 

Taehyung sighed. “I’m king now. Shouldn’t I get to order you to do this?” he said with a sigh. 

He shook his head. “Not like that, King Tae. You’ve got a lot of work to do with me before I start to grovel for you,” he murmured. 

Taehyung nodded, and put the violin in its case. “Where did you find it?” 

“Just where you said it would be. On top of a nest in the middle of a forest on the top of a mountain in the middle of the ocean. What were you even doing up there?” he said after a moment. 

“Looking for something.”

“Are you still after that rapier?” 

“The Zenith would be a powerful tool,” Taehyung said. “It’s not lost. It’s just hidden.” 

Jungkook dismissed that with a shake of his head. “We don’t have time for that anymore. It’s a fool’s errand.” 

“All errands are fool’s errands until you complete them. But… if it’s true--”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. We have bigger problems now. So put it aside until we deal with this storm bastard.” 

Taehyung sighed. “I’ll be in touch. I’m your king now, after all,” 

“Well, I certainly didn’t vote for you,” Jungkook said with a sigh. 

“Move your stuff into the drawers, you gremlin child,” he said, before grabbing the violin and stepping off into the dock. 

He looked up above at the glittering stars, and took a deep breath. It was time to make more waves.