the truth always hurts [CHARADE] // blitz.

The hunt. It was always thrilling to Cap'n Kat to bring in a bounty, especially one as sought after as Slade. She and the crew of the Song of The Storm had been tracking this scallywag for near of a week, and now, they were finally closing in on his hideout. Why was he wanted? Legend had it that he was had stolen some secrets, secrets that didn't belong to him and were certain to be worth a lot in the right hands. It was possible that he even knew what had happened to the crew of the Piscatus. Wouldn't that be tale to tell?

Katrina was watching the boy from a distance with a hard look etched on her face. Almost a year since the cruise ship had vanished and a quartet of wedding guests had turned up in a small boat. Among them, her brother was not. But that was to be expected; Branden had never been a strong swimmer. What pricked her with annoyance was the flimsy story the authorites had concocted about the shipwreck. The ones that came back sure as heck didn't seem trustworthy. They seem and tired and afraid when people approached them, or otherwise non approachable.

It was annoying.

Since Mayson Slade was the only one that came outside on a regular basis, she has chosen to follow him around, until a time came when she could question him directly and alone. She waited until he had jogged past her perch on the curb and went after him, lingering behind before falling in step with him; an easy feat given her height. She spoke bluntly and to the point as he noticed her. "I'm Katrina Sykes. Your name is Mayson. I believe you knew my brother."

The sailed into mutineers cove silent as the grave, each crew member searching the gloom with baited breath for the prize. It was Missy Franklin who first spotted the lantern light on the shore. Cap'n Kat selected a small team of three to accompany her in the coracle, muffled oars masking their presence as they made for the single house in the cove. One way or another, she was going to get to the bottom of this. He saw them approach, and waved greeting them, but insisting that they had the wrong person and that they should look somewhere else. Oldest trick in the book.

There it was again, the look of apprehension soon replaced by something else. She kept pace with him as a hard look twisted her mouth up. "That's complete bull and we both know it. You're one of the Piscatus Four."She held out a sinewy arm to stop him dug her heels in as they both ground to a halt. " I don't like being kept in the dark. I know my brothers got to be dead since he isn't with you, but the peacekeepers explanation has got more holes in it than chunk of coral." She glared at him with all the force her five eleven frame could muster. "I want the truth."

The bounty inclined his head conspiratorially, claiming he would tell them the secrets he had stolen if they would just him let him go afterwords. The crew looked to her for direction and she deigned to hear him out. But she made no promises. If he tried to trick her, he would suffer for it before being thrown in chains. She wasn't the only person that wanted some information out of him; she was just the first one to reach him.

Kat nodded, if he was going to take her back to his house, it meant that he had resigned himself to spilling the beans. She could understand his want to keep it on the down low, even if it annoyed her. There were plenty of other family members that hadn't gotten as far as she had with her questions. Chalk it up to a refusal to quit for any reason. She followed him back to his abode, not even bothering to give it a second glance before entering, grabbing a chair before he could offer one and plopping herself down backwards, elbows resting on the frame. He made good on the offer of water, and she held it aloft in one hand, not taking a sip from it, but holding it all the same before coughing meaningfully.

"Near as I can figure, The shipwreck story stinks. Was it rebels? A plague?"

She studied his face for any sign of emotion. "My other sisters want to know more than I do, but one's a mouse and the other'd try to get in your pants before she got any info out of you. And I'm going easy on you." she coughed a little before adding a mumbled thanks.

The captain found it easy to find the measure of a man from his pattern of speech. If a man stuttered or paused too often, he was likely not to be trusted. It he could look you in the eye and talk with even breaths, it was likely that he was telling the truth. That or he had some practice weaving a tale or two. At any rate, The captain decided to reserve judgement until he was finished speaking.

It wasn't what she had expected to hear at all. He took his time to say what little he did, but a wedding in flames was a stretch. Katrina felt a cold chill creep along her shoulders and she put the glass down. Something in his tone told her that he was just barely getting started with this explanation; though it remained to be seen if it was just another fabrication. "Go on. A cover-up for an arsonist then?"

Katrina Sykes

The man launched into a rather fanciful re-telling of one of his personal experiences, claiming that he had actually been on board the Piscatus right before it had been sunk to the briny deep. Captain Kat said nothing as the few members of her crew that had gone ashore with her gave her a meaningful look. Sharkbait and Missy both knew that the Piscatus, besides being one of the more well-known galley ships on the seven seas, had also been the workplace and home of her elder brother, Quartermaster Brand; a fine man, but a poor sailor. If Slade really had served aboard the ship, then it was probable that he had encountered Brand at least once, if he knew him at all. Which meant he'd also know what her brother's final fate was. Truly, those that kept secrets like this had a reason to seek solitude. With a grimace, she motioned for the man to continue.

He said that things had started out normally enough, but that there was talk of mutiny trickling throughout the ship. The Piscatus had always taken the time to transport civilians from one port to another; for a nominal fee of course, but the landlubbers that could afford it were given a pleasant trip to their destination. Not this time. No, the men and women in the crew were dissatisfied with the needless extravagance that the current passengers had been traveling in. The following day, some of them had gone missing, their belongings pilfered and their bodies presumably tossed overboard. Then the fires had started. A good portion of the ship had been ruined by "accidental" lantern spillage. They were forced to make port, where they met up with a couple members of the crew that had been left on shore leave. Among them was a Quartermaster by the name of Brand.

The alto in her voice dropped an octave as she commented on what Mayson had just told her. "Hmph. Told my parents forcing Branden to take a vacation was a bad idea." One of her hands started to shake a little and she forced it to stop by grabbing the back of the chair. Katrina was not an emotionless person, but she didn't believe in displaying how she felt in front of strangers. Least of all strangers like this one. She felt dismayed; She had known better than to accept the official story, but this was a bit of a stretch. A relentless killer stalking a bunch of party guests on an island? It sounded like something out of a book. And yet...she wanted to know more. Hearing this wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be; the harder part would come when she relayed this to her two sisters. It wasn't worth it to tell her parents, they had given up on Branden the first day he had failed to come back. "You said you got to know him. Guess that means he didn't die right off the bat."

"What...what happened next?"

Katrina Sykes

Mutiny. Stranded. Death. Destruction.

That was the tale that the old sailor weaved. Some met their ends by pistol shot, some by saber slash. Others were drowned overboard or hung from the mast. The port was cursed, or so he said, and it had been ill of them to make their berth there. Eventually, their numbers had dwindled down to only a scant few hiding in the ruins of the dock. They wanted to make a break for the ship, and so they did, but the distraction that one of the hands pulled was not fast enough, and the evil that stalked them claimed her brother only several feet from safety. The members of Kat's crew looked to her as one, waiting with baited breath to see how she'd react.