A/N: Thank you for the wonderful feedback, redstarsarc, potatogaming69 and devildog35!

The Maiden (1): Axiom

When the night comes and lightning streaks the skies, the maiden removes her bangles, the veiled shackles of conformity that bind her to the laws of this world. In her silence, she revels, allowing the weightlessness of her wrists to fuel her soul and glide her across the damp and fragrant earth, swaying her in the eye of the storm, disguising her tears amongst the droplets of falling rain.

Despite her injuries, the Vendaval cut through the dark waves with grace and resolution – traits not too dissimilar to her captain, Jin Hai mused as he held the helm steady, allowing the westerly wind to draw them away from the wreckage of the Halcón, now lost to the darkness of the night.

With the Vendaval's deck re-lit, he could see Elizabeth clearly, dressed once again in her jade-green oriental garb and caught in a seemingly deep and vehement conversation with Tai Huang while the remaining Singaporean sailors scurried around them, tending to the injured and counting the dead. She directed an open palm sharply to the huddle of Spanish prisoners as a scowl marred her forehead, and Jin Hai knew she had spent the last half hour debating the fate of the intruders that were bound to the mast alongside their captain.

"Curious, isn't it?" a voice asked from behind him.

Jin Hai stiffened, making a mental note to have the ship's new carpenter mend the lock on the captain's cabin door. The existing makeshift bolt that had been guarding Elizabeth's dignity since the night of her attack was hardly enough to keep Jack Sparrow from swanning in and out of the room like it were his own bedchamber.

"This isn't the Black Pearl." Jin Hai informed him bluntly.

"Indeed. We would be miles from here if it were."

"And yet she swims in our wake," observed Jin Hai, casting his eyes over his shoulder at the dark silhouette of the Pearl, knowing full well that she had tactically distanced herself lest the Vendaval's temper flared again. "I'm guessing she won't leave without her captains."

"Captain," emphasised Jack, and Jin Hai could almost sense him twitching his nose indignantly. He allowed himself a discreet upturn of lips in satisfaction, but Jack seemed to perceive the sentiment nonetheless.

"Interestingly, however," drawled Jack, "that is not the curiosity I was referring to."

Jin Hai spared him a sidelong glance and found him staring pointedly at Elizabeth, the infuriating knowing gleam shining in his eyes and a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

"You and I both know a wound like that doesn't heal overnight," he continued.

Jin Hai drew in a sharp breath and scoured the area around them to ensure the words had gone unheard by anyone but himself. Thankfully, the three Singaporean sailors in their vicinity were several feet away and preoccupied with their stations. Jin Hai turned back to Jack warningly.

"I suppose this is as close to a confession as we'll get."

"Yes, Father. Forgive me for I have sinned."

"Father?"

Jack gave him a lopsided grin.

"Still struggling with the ol' linguistics, eh?" he said amusedly, "Well. At least you're taller."

"You cannot begin to comprehend the gravity of your crimes," rasped Jin Hai in a low whisper, shifting his shoulders to glare at him.

All amusement from Jack's face promptly disappeared. He swayed himself on his feet, obviously toying with a complicated thought. Then, suddenly, he whipped the wooden compass from his sash and flicked it open to watch the needle spin through half-closed eyelids. Jin Hai peeked at the device and raised an eyebrow heavy with judgement as the red arrow continued to revolve with no intention of stopping.

Trust Jack Sparrow to captain a ship with basic navigational equipment that was in dire need of replacement.

Jack's lips parted slightly in what Jin Hai could only assume to be disbelief.

"The course to Singapore has already been charted," commented Jin Hai curtly, "I suspect Elizabeth will signal the Pearl by first light, and I don't expect she'll be impressed when she hears of what led to her injury."

Jack snapped the compass shut.

"Quartermaster Jin Hai, I invoke the right of parley," said Jack, the trinkets in his dreadlocks clinking as he turned to face Jin Hai abruptly. "But seeing as your captain and first mate are a little… preoccupied," – he made a quick, nonchalant gesture towards the row on deck – "I suspect the responsibility falls to you." He tapped the air between them with a long index finger, offering a sickeningly bright smile.

Jin Hai glared at him. It wasn't, of course, strictly true. It would have been perfectly acceptable to delay honouring the request until Elizabeth became available, but it was the warning undertone to Jack's jeer that forced Jin Hai to respond, perhaps a little more briskly than he had initially intended.

"Wait inside," he said, inclining his head towards the captain's cabin.

"The Code states that any man unwilling –"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Tai Huang," interrupted Elizabeth, hands on hips. "We've been through this. That is barbaric, and we both know that is not how I –"

"With all due respect," said Tai Huang, raising his voice, "it is because of your methodsthat–" He stopped himself, watching Elizabeth seethe. Setting his jaw, he drew in a deep, controlled breath, and continued in a careful tone, "Dead men tell no tales, Captain Swann. Our leniency was dishonoured. It was the same crewmembers you chose to pardon that betrayed us – betrayed you. The Halcón was spotted a whole half hour before its attack, but an alarm was not raised. Such demeanour deserves death. Look at the damage." He spat the last words out bitterly, gesturing to the men around them.

Elizabeth's gaze did not waver.

"This man saw fit to attack us only because I killed his brother. Has there not been enough bloodshed already?" she asked, pausing to allow her words to sink in. "I just want to get the crew home to Singapore. The men are tired. They crave their homes. It's time we showed a little mercy."

"Mercy?" he echoed incredulously. "An excuse for ineptitude."

Elizabeth faltered, stunned by the directness of the insult.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Francisco Gomez watching her with an expression she could not quite place.

A long moment passed.

Then, stepping closer, she said in a low, steady voice, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

Tai Huang's sneer deepened, the etches of dissent scarring his face a little further. Huffing indignantly, he strode across the deck and disappeared down the nearest hatch.

Elizabeth sighed resignedly, and turned her attention to the helm, hoping to find Jin Hai there. Except he wasn't. Another Singaporean sailor stood in his place. Frowning, she skated her gaze across the deck in search of his lean silhouette, noting subconsciously that his presence had been greatly and uncharacteristically diminished since the attack of the Halcón.

"Caution, Señora," a voice drawled from a few feet away, "Or you'll have a mutiny on your hands."

It was clear that Francisco's crew spoke very little English, but they craned their necks to glimpse him addressing Elizabeth nonetheless.

She fixed him with a stare of her own, taking in his tall frame, the sharp and angular features of his face and his long, dark hair – not unlike the previous captain of the Vendaval. Interestingly, however, this Gomez brother had fewer scars on display to account for his dexterity with the sword.

"Worry about your own crew, Captain," replied Elizabeth, "Defeat at a woman's hand is highly unfashionable these days."

A dark look crossed his face, and Elizabeth found herself wondering if he had been the same person that had broken into her cabin when they were docked at Hout Bay three nights ago. It did seem bizarre that he would try to break-in singlehandedly rather than delegate the task to a crewmember or a marksman. But vengeance often led a man to madness; Elizabeth was well aware of that.

Her fingers wandered to the stitches at her neck, noting subconsciously that they did not sting. Then suddenly aware of Gomez's scrutinising gaze on her, she disguised the movement as a run of fingers across the jagged edges of her short hair.

She gave him a curt smile before sweeping her eyes across the deck one more time and proceeding to descend through the hatch onto the upper gun deck.

Tai Huang was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, a large smile gracing his features as she reached him to place a palm on his shoulder in a show of genuine appreciation.

"Thank you," she said, a wicked smile of her own spreading rapidly across her face.

"This is good," he replied, inclining his head in the direction she had come from. "Give him a couple of hours to mull over that then we can take him in."

"Hours?" exclaimed Elizabeth, laughing. Laughing. "Patience is only for the virtuous, Tai Huang."

He grinned as she sprung in the direction of Jin Hai's cabin.

"Captain?" he called from behind her, poised to head down the steps to the level below them.

She pivoted on the spot.

"It's good to have you back."

Biting back a smile, Elizabeth raised a mocking eyebrow that Tai Huang saw straight through.

"Captain's cabin, twenty minutes."

"Get up." Jack heard Jin Hai say with some asperity as he marched into the cabin and slammed the door shut behind him. It bounced lamely in its frame.

Jack cracked open an eyelid from where he sat snugly in the captain's chair, leaning it back onto two legs to rest his head on the wooden wall. A small smile stretched across his lips as he readjusted his weight, bringing the chair down to the floor in a slow and deliberate motion. In the palm of his hand, he twirled Jin Hai's dagger in an effort to draw his attention, and it worked: Jin Hai came to a halt, his eyes transfixed on the weapon.

Irritation flashed across his face as he, no doubt, recalled the very moment that Jack had pinched the weapon from him –

In the heat of the battle, Jin Hai had distracted, disarmed and cornered Jack into the door of the captain's cabin in one fluid movement to demand news on Ky Ling; but Jack, under the cover of the cannon fire and the startling appearance of the Pearl, had slipped his fingers around Jin Hai to steal the gilded dagger from his sash, effectively re-arming himself without Jin Hai's notice.

What both men had failed to realise in that moment, Jack mused, was the fact that Anamaria had been on the other side of the same door trying to unbolt it. How she had gotten herself into the cabin was a question he would ask her at a later date. It had been sheer luck after that. Jack, having had been closer to the door at the time, heard it unlatch at precisely the same moment that the Spaniard he had been parrying let slip a boast about his captain visiting the female captain for a face-to-face. Jack's heart had been in his throat as he'd pushed open the door of the cabin to find Anamaria in a death-throttle against the wall closest to him, Lewis unconscious on the floor and Elizabeth locked in combat.

He shook himself out of the memory just as Jin Hai cleared the space between them to snatch the dagger from his palm in an almost petulant motion.

"Speak," he said, shoving the dagger back into his sash.

"Question one – did you or did you not meet a 'night fisherman' of oriental sorts in Hout Bay?"

"I don't answer to you."

"Elizabeth is still in danger."

"With you around, I have no doubt."

"Don't fool yourself, Jin Hai. I know it doesn't sit well with you either. One moment, she's at death's door; the next, she's fresh as a daisy." He stood up abruptly, causing Jin Hai to reach for his sword instinctively. Jack gave him a condescending smile, then sashayed purposefully towards the balcony. "The truth is: said door of death still stands, if only you choose to see it. So answer the question. Her life may depend on it. Did you meet a man named Nianzu?"

"Yes," replied Jin Hai reluctantly.

"Good. Question two – are you advanced in the reading and writing of ancient Mandarin scriptures?"

"What's this about? What has it got to do with Elizabeth?"

"Answer the question."

"Yes."

"Blimey! Sao Feng really did take you under his wing."

"I suppose you want me to thank –"

Not wishing to go down that road, Jack pressed on: "Captain Swann has been sent back from the world between worlds… that, too, on borrowed time. The fate that awaits her is far worse than death itself." He threw open the balcony doors even though the shattered panes of glass rendered the structure practically useless. "Luckily, I know how to change it."

"How so?"

"Ah," said Jack, twirling around. "This is the bit where you ask me for my terms." Then without waiting for Jin Hai's response, he continued, "Safe passage across to the Pearl for five people including myself and assurance that the Vendaval will not pursue. I get to choose the five people. We get to keep the longboat."

"A watertight plan, I see."

"Naturally."

"And who are the five people?"

Jack smiled.

Jin Hai narrowed his eyes.

"How do I know you're not making this up?" he asked.

Jack knew the question would surface sooner or later. He paused, remembering his encounter with Will in the Locker. He had been tempted to label the entire ordeal as a figment of his imagination, a twisted result of concussion, and maybe even guilt; but there was something else in that memory, something right at the end, that made it less likely to be a simple dream. He scowled, struggling to remember. There was someone else there. A woman. Calypso? Maybe. She had materialised and the world had crumbled around him. He remembered her fingertips against his jaw, running down his neck, the V of his unbuttoned shirt. She had leaned closer, and he had felt her breath on his cheek, heard her whisper in his ear: a warm caress of words, said as though to a lover. Twenty-four.

It could only have been Calypso, and Jack knew better than to take lightly anything that fell from her lips.

He dug his hand into his pocket, knowing what he would find there before his fingers were upon it. Withdrawing the item, he held it out to Jin Hai.

Warily, the younger man stepped forwards, and Jack dispensed the jade necklace into his palm.

"You know it's the same one," he said quietly.

"Sao Feng's piece of eight… Elizabeth's…" said Jin Hai, running his fingers over its contours and the intricately wrapped silk knots. His eyes snapped up to Jack. "But – that's impossible! It was destroyed when Calypso was released…" He resumed his survey of the gemstone. "How did you get it?"

"Calypso gave it to me."

Jin Hai looked up, suddenly apprehensive.

"Grant my terms, and I will tell you exactly why Elizabeth is in danger and what you must do should you wish to save her."

A/N Dec 2017: Thank you for the constructive comments! Next chapter is going to take a little longer than promised as I act on the feedback. :)