"There's a blood moon tonight."  An old man, dressed in red stared up at the crimson orb burning in the starry sky.  

"That a good omen, or not?"  Next to the old man stood a hunched back private at the wheel.  "What with our merry work, and all, I can't tell."  One of his eyes was three times the size of average and the other one narrowed at the darkened ship they headed towards.  

The old man shrugged.  "Hard to say.  Tempting to say its a good sign, means there'll be a good show tonight, but."  He shrugged.  "No point in reading the stars anyways.  None of that stuff ever works out with a read anyways."  He crossed his arms.  

"Go ahead and give the signal."  He said to another marine waiting at the back of the cabin.  "Don't want those damn pirates getting jumpy and firing on us, again." 

The youth nodded and hurried away to flash the signals. 

"Hopefully we'll get a pretty penny for this lot."  The hunch back said as he directed the ship.  

"Maybe.  Some of them look pretty strong.  Others."  Another shrug.

"Well I'm sure the show will be good, if nothing else."

The marine captain nodded.  "Should be."
*******************
Meishu Kenja frowned as she took her seat.  Around her, the pitter-patter of pirate banter thickened the air like bad breath in a sauna.  The crowd was huge.  She'd figured maybe there'd be a dozen or so lowlifes in attendance, but even with the shadows, it was easy to tell there were more than fifty crowded into the make-shift arena.

Down the rows was a large ring, with a sea prism cage around it.  In there, in a few minutes, if scum followed their schedule, there'd be a few prisoners thrown inside.  They'd fight to the death, and the winner would get to go on another round.  Then another.  Till the one person left standing got a chance to join the lighthouse pirates or made to kneel before the axeman.