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"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings."

Thirteen Hallowed Nights

The Tenth Night:

"Fortune"

By Corvus no Genmu

The Pantano River of Isla de Pelegostos was a generally dark and dreary river even with the sun at its zenith. The cypress forest spread itself like a dark blanket along the river, turning it into a misty bayou that hid well its secrets from the eyes of the mundane and ordinary. The river was wide enough for only the smallest of boats and even then those boasts best move by oar for to disturb the murky ambiance of the bayou would certainly draw the many unwanted eyes upon you. Of course, even by oar there was no telling of the dangers that lay in the dark waters of the river for many a vicious reptile had made these banks their home. They were vicious carnivores that made fools of men by their pretending and struck with fangs and snapping jaws.

They were also quite easy to bribe.

A barrel of chicken, freshly plucked and beheaded and the alligators were salivating. Adding in a dose of eleven unique herbs and spices and they were putty in his hands. Now to be fair, bribery of any kind would never really work against the common alligator but these fanged beasties were far from common. They had near-human intelligence in their eyes and magic flickered across their hard scales. A special kind of guard dog for a special kind of person, the very person Jacque was trying to meet with growing success. I'm sure many have seen a boat, especially a small one, pulled along by some kind of marine mammal. A seal or perhaps even a dolphin or whale, but have you ever seen a canoe pulled along by a team of alligators?

It makes for quite the interesting sight I assure you.

It didn't take long to reach the shack that rested high in the branches of an exceptionally large, and also exceptionally dead, cypress tree. Jacque spared it a quick look-over, noting that one particular side looked to be made of fresher materials than the rest before impatient hissing and snapping drew his attention back to the gathered alligators. With a smile, he pushed the barrel overboard and clambered quickly up the ladder lest he end up a part of the feeding frenzy himself.

Making a show of brushing up his appearance, Jacque raised a hand to knock—

"Go away!"

— and grimaced in surprise at how the voice therein, the accented voice of a woman there was no doubt, sounded so hoarse as though it wasn't used to speaking for quite some time.

Coughing into his hand, he called into the shack. "Aren't you the least bit curious to see your latest visitor?"

"Visitor? Bah!" The sound of items being moved about as the shack's occupant searched for something particular vexing in its potency. "Stay a little longer and see how well a visitor be treated here!"

Well she's obviously still grumpy… Jacque sighed. "I'm here to propose a bargain with you!"

The noises stopped so suddenly, the young man was half-worried she had dropped dead inside when she suddenly spoke up, "A bargain say you?" A derisive laugh. "A new trinket dat I could be usin' out in these waters? Keep your science to yourself, dank you!"

Jacque rolled his eyes at that. What is it about the modern day's wonders that make them act more like children than before? "I think you'll find that what I have to offer is just what you need…" Hmm, suppose her mortal name is as good a choice as any. "Petit Baleine."

The laughter died swiftly, though not as fast as the door of the shack as it was pulled back almost off its hinges by a young woman of cocoa skin and ebony dreadlocks, dark lips full and pouty, and a small amount of paint across her cheeks and chin. Her dress was ancient in make but new by her design and bedecked with many a strange talisman of various sort from a chicken's foot to an alligator's claw and she wore a large necklace of rosaries upon her neck with a pendant designed as much like a heart as it was like a crab. She was as of a primordial beauty given mortal flesh and there was little doubt that she could be playful as well as vexing.

Her eyes such a deep brown as to almost be black were narrowed as she gazed upon Jacque seeing well beyond what mundane eyes could see but even then she only saw what she saw in the reflections of a mirror. He did not call her by the name of her choice nor the name of her birth but by a particular person closer to her than any of her brethren had been, who had been gone at her trial of judgment. If this was him, she'd either strike dead where he stood… or…

"Who are ye?"

Jacque's smile was sad but he understood her confusion. Had he not known who she truly was he'd have been just as cautious to be called out by a perceptive stranger. "As I recall, your uncle is still sore over that little mishap involving the Atlanteans."

Her eyes widened and dare he imagine an embarrassed flush cross her face? Nay, for now she was smiling with a teasing flair. "Well, I must say dis be most unexpected…" She turned her back on him and started back into her shack but paused, noting that he wasn't following her. "Coming?"

Jacque gritted his teeth, he hated revealing his weaknesses to anyone but she was different. She'd understand. Oh she'd tease him mercilessly over it but she'd understand all the same. "I can't. Not unless you invite me in."

That teasing smirk turned into a full grin but she spared him for the moment and invited him into her shack. She took a seat at the table that she used to perform her scrying and brushed away a large tarantula before gesturing at the opposite chair. "I suppose ye need no invite to sit do ye?"

Jacque winced but didn't rise to the bait, setting his large backpack down beside him as he sat down before the voodoo practitioner. He had to admit, when she learned human magic, particularly the magic of those not born with its blessing in their blood; she really could be a studious little thing. "Doing well with yourself I see."

She made a show of looking bored but he could still see the pain in her eyes. "Tis an unfair punishment but not one I be unused to. Could be worse by far, yes?" She looked him over. "Mortal are ye?"

"Aren't you?" He asked curious.

"I suppose," she shrugged, "but I 'ave not aged since dis body reach it twenty-first year."

"You're lucky then." Too late did he realize his error as dark brown turned amber, dreadlocks trembling as she shot to her bare feet to glare at him with all the fury she was infamous for.

"Luck? Luck not be havin' me proper self full and returned! Luck be a liar and a cheater!"

"Luck gave you a semblance of mortality. You may be killed yes, but you do not succumb to old age or illness. I have since died a total of thirty lifetimes past, some still in my prime, others well past the zenith. You think it's hell for you, an embodiment of the sea, to be trapped in a permanent body? What then do you think it's like for me!" He was yelling now and on his own two feet as he met her glare-for-glare. "Do you have any idea what it's been like for someone such as I to have to experience death? The lifetimes I've lived, the women that I could not follow, the children that I unknowingly left behind?"

The two stood glaring at one other before sighing, their stiff shoulders relaxing as they sat back down, she covering her eyes feeling exhausted with the whole affair while he massaged his forehead, a familiar aching pain that had been growing worse this past week. A flash of red cloth, empty eyes of a shattered soul, iron shackles and silver fangs. The vision was gone and he repressed another fierce shot of pain. He was running out of time… but for the woman across from him, he'd make time.

"I'm sorry…" He sighed before laughing hollowly at the cruelty of it all. "We always did make a good pair back then… only fitting we be so similar now…"

"Hmm…"

Jacque reached over and pulled her hand down from her face, meeting chocolate with emerald. "Had I known what I know now, I would never have taught you those spells, but just as well you should have known better. You took not one but two men back body and soul from the Hereafter… You knew that the others would be furious with you over it."

"Aye, I knew… but I had chance to be myself… should I not take it… It was chance but one I not dare miss…"

"Hmm…"

"And ye? What mess be bad to have dat done to ye?"

"… I'll tell you when you're older."

She huffed at that, cheeks blowing out like a puffer-fish but she didn't dispute the fact that, despite appearances, he was the elder and she the child, especially in comparison to the other Incarnations of the Seas. She remembered then his original purpose for being here. "Ye said you were wanting a bargain wit me?"

"Ah, I'd forgotten." He reached down and pulled the backpack up onto his lap. "Let's get straight to the business then shall we?" He opened the bag and pulled out first a shiny cloak of glimmering silver tightly folded into a square and set it upon the table. She raised an eyebrow at it, recognizing it as a wizard's pale attempt as a cloak of invisibility, a well made one by its appearance to be so similar… but Jacque wasn't done. The gold of the ring had her attention first but it was the stone that froze the beat of her heart. A small circular stone that absorbed the candlelight like a void and yet shined like a cloudless night.

It cannot be…

But it was, and Jacque still had one item left.

By appearance it was a wizard's wand of fifteen centimeters length made of the finest elder wood but inside it held the hairs of a thestral, a winged beast favored by the Incarnations of Death. This was a wand that was unrivaled by any of its ilk though the traitorous knife remained to stab the heart of its unwanted holder. Its power pulsed like a heart reborn and she could see that its bloodied past had been wiped anew, its power restored to its true glory.

"The Cloak of Invisibility, the Stone of Resurrection, and the Wand of Elder. The Deathly Hallows lost to a trio of brothers that dared to best Death himself. He won the lives of the brothers eventually but the Hallows remained lost to time… until now."

She held an almost reverent hand over the three items. Oh yes, she had many a mystical item in her shack but all had been enchanted by human means, even her own little trinkets save for the locket she still wore despite the pain in her heart from its presence. Yes, she had many magical artifacts all unique and powerful in their own right but these… These were made by Death's hands!

"Equivalent exchange. Three centuries for three Deathly Hallows. I'm sure you'll have the remaining decade left to finish but still, better ten years than three centuries more…"

"What… could I possibly have dat could equal…?" She whispered.

"As I said, equivalent exchange. In return for the Hallows, I want three undeniable requests. No questions asked, no secrets, and no lies."

"Name them."

Ah but will you agree to them so easily when you hear them? "First. Forswear the magics I taught you."

She hesitated but it was only long as the batting of an eye. "I forswear de death arts learned by de one who taught me." A black pulse of light, the sound of chains tightening as a massive iron lock clacked into place.

She didn't say my name… but then I haven't said hers either… She knows they'll see us if we speak each other's name and she doesn't want her chance at early release lost for propriety's sake… Jacque nodded his acceptance and handed her the Wand of Elder. She took it reverently, like a mother would her newborn child. "Second. I want you to take me to Isla de Muerta."

She frowned and with good reason. "Dat island be lost to the ocean depths."

"I know. I'm sure you'll have something to say about that when you return but it doesn't matter. I need the Chest of Cortes and I can't take it without being shown where the island is whether it be sunk or not."

Her frown deepened and her gaze was sharp as she tried to find her answer through less obvious means than by spoken word, still it didn't hurt to try. "Aware are you not of de curse of dat chest?"

Jacque supposed he could allow that one question; it was a reasonable one. "I am just as old as they and know of greater curses than that which they placed upon the chest. Humans have proven their ferocity well to me and though their rage was great, it has diminished.

"Their people are no more and their power limited. The curse remains but is easy to break. Besides, I've other means of transporting it than by actually touching the chest." A hand unconsciously went to his pocket, fingering the object that rested there out of her sight though she heard well the cry of a cockerel on the horizon. Her smile was wide and revealed all of her unwashed teeth.

"Accepted." Jacque handed her the Stone of Resurrection without question though she did not accept it without one of her own. "And de dird?"

"Third…" He leaned forward and whispered softly into her ear. She shivered, her eyes closed though her face was empty of emotion for the longest time. He sat back and waited for a long moment as she sat there in silence before taking a shuddering breath of air, a teardrop falling from her eye and into a small vial that rested below her face, held by Jacque's unwavering hand. More tears followed until the vial was full and he sealed it shut with a rubber stopper, hiding it away in the folds of his coat.

She took another breath and met his eyes clearly without any sign of emotional distress. "Done."

He pushed the Cloak of Invisibility to her and she accepted it gladly. She gathered the three Hallows up and with great care hid them… somewhere… Jacque wasn't quite sure what she did only that she had them in hand one moment and with a blink of his eyes, they were gone and she was standing beside him dressed for travel with a cloak of her own that resembled more a fishermen's discarded net than anything else.

"Coming?" She asked.

Jacque grunted and pushed himself to his feet. "Still the pretentious little child, Petit Baleine?"

"No more dan you be bein' a stuffy old man, Sciocco Anziano."

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.