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[hider=Hero]Already tucked in under her blankets, Penelope was not quite ready for sleep. Part of this was simply the natural boundless energy of a six-year-old girl, but another was excitement. The child’s mind was racing through the world in the story and its endless adventures, so different from an everyday life that she was already beginning to conceptualize as mundane and confining. In particular, she was imagining herself as one specific character: a real person, if the book and Madame Touraine were to be believed. 

She was kneeling now, with that preternaturally good balance she had developed on one leg, and her covers were currently sloughing away. [color=8493ca][b]“Mademoiselle Nelle,”[/b][/color] the nanny declared, and she clapped the book shut. [color=8493ca][b]“It is bedtime and you well know what that means.”[/b][/color]

The little princess sunk onto her haunch, letting herself slouch to the side after a moment. She gazed up at her keeper and the woman gazed down at her: kindly but stern. [color=F7976A][b]“Sorry,”[/b][/color] the child apologized. [color=F7976A][b]“I’m just eggsited for the next part.”[/b][/color]

[color=8493ca][b]“That’s wonderful to hear. Books are an important part of your education, but you know what you need to do first.”[/b][/color] Penelope was already in her nightgown, of course. She settled back under her covers properly and lay her little head on her pillows. [color=F7976A][b]“I’m ready, Madame Touraine.”[/b][/color]

The nanny reached out and lovingly poked the tip of her nose. [color=8493ca][b]“You most certainly are,”[/b][/color] she chirped, [color=8493ca][b]“And I wonder what’s in the next part that’s so good, hmm?”[/b][/color]

The child grinned. [color=F7976A][b]“Lady Talit!”[/b][/color] she exclaimed, half–sitting up again. Truly, Nelle could read the book for herself. She was almost seven years old, after all, and quite literate. She just liked to hear other people tell the story because they used cool voices and then they got to hear about how awesome Lady Talit was too.

[color=8493ca][b]“The yasoi lady?”[/b][/color] Madame Touraine inquired.

Penelope nodded vigorously. [color=F7976A][b]“She was my great great great great great great great great -”[/b][/color] she paused to take a breath. [color=F7976A][b]“-great great great great great great great great grandfather’s wife, so that kind of makes her my great great great great great great great great -”[/b][/color] Madame Touraine held up a hand for the girl to stop. [color=F7976A][b]“Grandmother,”[/b][/color] she finished prematurely. It wasn’t enough greats and that bothered her. One needed to be historically accurate, after all. 

[color=8493ca][b]“Your many greats grandmother was the noble Queen Eleanor, dear.”[/b][/color]

The princess sighed. [color=F7976A][b]“I know, technically.”[/b][/color] She sounded accepting as opposed to enthused.

[color=8493ca][b]“A great hero who gave her life to defend the kingdom.”[/b][/color]

[color=F7976A][b]“But Lady Talit did all that too and lived!”[/b][/color] Penelope insisted. She burst out from her covers. [color=F7976A][b]“And - and she was like… running around with her chains and her blade crutches and her magic going whoosh, smash, pew!”[/b][/color] The child hopped about in her nightgown, adding actions to her words. She stood there, face earnest and arms spread. [color=F7976A][b]“Pssshhh.”[/b][/color] She made twinkle fingers, mimicking the fallout from an explosion. [color=F7976A][b]“She was a dervish,”[/b][/color] she added matter-of-factly.

[color=8493ca][b]“Penelope de Perrence,”[/b][/color] the nanny said sternly. The girl threw herself under her covers following two great bounds, and tucked herself in. [color=F7976A][b]“I’m sorry, Madame Touraine. I’m just eggsited… Queen Eleanor was pretty neat too,”[/b][/color] she added after a moment.

[color=8493ca][b]“What is it with you and this Lady Talit?”[/b][/color] asked the nanny with a frustrated sort of fondness.

The child blinked, starting to sit up again and thinking better of it. Madame Touraine had been very patient with her, but she sensed that another interruption would be a bridge too far. [color=F7976A][b]“She was like me,”[/b][/color] Nelle said quietly instead.

[color=8493ca][b]“That’s a much better bedtime voice,”[/b][/color] the nanny approved. [color=8493ca][b]“But she was yasoi, dear, and lived eight hundred years ago, and was very different from all of us, I fear.”[/b][/color]
 
It wasn’t that. Sometimes, Nelle wondered if Madame Touraine was actually all that smart. Mother had said that she was [color=ed1c24][b]“plenty smart enough for your needs”,[/b][/color] but mother also wouldn’t allow her to leave the castle grounds with her brothers and sisters. [color=F7976A][b]“Yeah, but she was like me in [i]one[/i] way,”[/b][/color] the child mewed. She half sat up and freed an arm, aware of but ignoring the nanny’s warning look. Instead, with her funny hand, she patted the empty space under the covers where everybody else had a leg.

Madame Touraine blinked. [color=8493ca][b]“Oh my dear little Nelle,”[/b][/color] she said softly, reaching out and stroking the side of the child’s face. [color=8493ca][b]“How thick I fear I am.”[/b][/color]

The girl snorted. [color=F7976A][b]“Yeah, that was pretty dumb, Madame Touraine.”[/b][/color]

The nanny pursed her lips.

[color=F7976A][b]“Sorry.”[/b][/color] She laid back down. [color=F7976A][b]“I just wanna be like her,”[/b][/color] Nelle whispered, trying to be extra quiet to make up for her bad behaviour. 

[color=8493ca][b]“Of course, precious,”[/b][/color] the woman responded, gently reopening the book. [color=8493ca][b]“She did many amazing things and, someday, you will too.”[/b][/color][/hider] 
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She came to on a beach, gazing up at the star-filled sky. For a moment, there was only peace, and Penny was happy. A crab skittered along somewhere close to her head and the waves heaved in and out at her foot. Then, she felt the aches and pains and it all came flooding back to her: being knocked out in a sneak attack, the throbbing pain in her head, the temporary blindness, darkness, and abduction. She'd cast off the chemical magic and fought her way out. She winced and moaned as she tried to take a deep breath. [i]This is what broken ribs feel like,[/i] the Perrenchwoman thought. She lay there for a moment, giggling stupidly, but it hurt. She'd never broken a bone in her life. She'd barely even gotten a scrape. Climbed a rocky shore? Fought someone to the death? Her heart pounded at the thought of it. It was crazy: bloody and violent and terrifying, but she'd done it: thrown her strength against a half-dozen hardened cutthroats and overcome them all. Tears streamed down her cheeks, dying in the sand. She found herself strangely compelled to pray.

[hider=A Princess' Prayer][color=F7976A][i]In Nomini Ipté, Chune, Orpahe, Echeran, et Dami. Amen.[/i][/color] She made the sign of the Pentad, flinching as a badly sprained triceps was forced to flex. [color=F7976A][i]Thank you, most divine Pentad, for giving me the strength, wisdom, and good fortune to prevail against those who sought to do me harm and who have harmed so many others. I further give my thanks for the station you have chosen for me: the blood that flows through my veins is that of legendary kings and queens, and some of their strength is mine;  the hardness of my mother and father are fires that have tempered me into the weapon of your justice. I shall ever be your faithful servant and endeavour to live as a beacon of your light.[/i][/color] She made the sign once more, just as she had most every night since she'd been a little girl, just as Benedict the Blessed had before the Battle of the Plains of Abnegation, as Arcel the Victorious had in his hour of need against the Eskandish hordes of eight hundred years ago. [color=F7976A][i]In Nomini Ipté, Chune, Orpahe, Echeran, et Dami. Amen.[/i][/color][/hider]
Penny managed a deeper breath and, with great pain, forced herself to sit up. The glove over her weird hand was tattered and one of her fingers was broken. Her ankle was twisted and her right triceps howled in agony when she tried to move it. There were scuffs, scrapes, and lacerations everywhere she looked. The youth closed her eyes and drew from her surroundings, finding ample energy. This, she applied first to her ankle and her finger, but she was dazed and the effort was clumsy. She let the rest slip and her ribs and triceps remained a source of pain. Again, she reached out, this time gripping the small medallion of Dami's Hammer that she'd worn for this mission. Scrapes healed over, soft and pinkish. Lacerations closed themselves, and the tear in her muscles eased somewhat. It was then that Penny heard the distant voices of what she could only assume were more members of the crew that had tried to kidnap her. Pushing off, she rose to her foot and cast about for her crutch. [color=F7976A][i]Dammit![/i][/color] she cursed inwardly. All of the Gift in the world but she was far too dependent upon a stupid stick for basic mobility. 

Straining into the distance, Penny spotted something bobbing in the water. Gingerly, she hopped a few steps forward and recognized it for what it was. Taking another painful breath, she stretched out with Kinetic Magic and called it forth from the waves. It arced through the air and snapped straight into her hand. The waves were such a source of power that she continued to draw from them, concentrating as she converted their energy into binding. This, she used to reinforce the bones of her ribcage and the pain began to fade. She took a deep cautious breath. [i][color=F7976A]Good enough.[/color][/i] There remained yet a painful bruise on her legless hip and a pinch in her right arm, but she was well enough to function and that's what was important.

Peering off into the darkness, Penny couldn't make much sense of anything. It was an unusually black night: only one moon was up, and she still felt a bit woozy. She stumbled around for a bit, searching for some clue, and found herself wandering further up the beach. Then, she saw them: footprints. They were the distinctive mark of a foot and a crutch on sand and they could only be hers. They stretched off into the distance and she now knew a way out. She started to walk.

[hider=A Risky Play]Yet, something else grabbed her attention, and the Perrenchwoman twisted suddenly at the sound of paddles meeting water. Voices rose over the crash of the waves and a small pinnace made its way through the shallows. Adrenaline burning through her arteries, Penny ducked into a small rocky alcove and pressed herself up inside of it motionlessly. She could not make out any of the words for certain, but there were more people back where she had escaped from. The small stone building she had destroyed in the process was clearly not all that there was. As she stood in silence, her mind could not help but wander. By the time that the likely pirates had passed her by, the youth had decided to head back and at least try to get the lay of the land. She could not be useless. She needed to return to the others with something to show for her misadventure.

So it was that Penny found herself hurrying along a black sand beach. The tip of her crutch dug in and her boot squelched with water. Quietly, she clambered over the rocks, grimacing as her still-tender arm was forced to flex and strain more than once.

The smoking ruins were a site of investigation as she approached them and, like second nature, the girl gathered energy from their residual heat. This, she put into a powerful illusion, bending the meagre light filtering in from the moons and a couple of lanterns. Sound covered by the waves, Penny slipped past without drawing any notice. Her heart thudded in her chest with a nervous anticipation and she continued onward, in the direction that the investigating seamen seemed to have come from. 

She found a narrow stone path over the volcanic rocks. Palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze and mist from a small waterfall dusted her skin. Carefully, the interloper placed foot before crutch, feeling herself a charlatan and a fraud as she continued to bend light around herself. [color=F7976A][i]You have [b]one [/b]leg, you dumb girl.[/i][/color] Certainly, it was slow going and, more than once, she stumbled or had to use magic. More than once, she had to scramble off-path and crouch in the shadows as people passed by. Something had seized the once-spoiled royal, however, and she was determined to press on.[/hider]
[hider=Pay Dirt]She rounded a small promontory and then it lay before her: the mouth of a vast grotto, so tall that a sizable ship might go in and out. Penny let out a soundless whistle. [color=F7976A][i]Pay dirt.[/i][/color] She grinned and pressed on, senses on high alert, heart racing. [color=92278f][b]"I jus' said keep yer eyes open, man!"[/b][/color] came a female voice. Two pirates were approaching. [color=39b54a][b]"Eyes open for [i]what[/i]?"[/b][/color] shouted her partner, frustrated. [color=39b54a][b]"A woman?"[/b][/color] he snorted. [color=39b54a][b]"'spose I should keep me eyes open fer [i]you[/i]?"[/b][/color] 

[color=92278f][b]"I told ye' already, Seamus: A bloody [i]one-legged[/i] woman! Can't be easy to miss!"[/b][/color]

[color=F7976A][i]And yet here she is,[/i][/color] thought Penny impishly, [color=F7976A][i]slipping right past you.[/i][/color] She kept to the shadows and went still as they drew near. It was [i]far[/i] less work to bend the light that way. [color=F7976A][i]Nothin' to see here, Wingus and Dingus,[/i][/color] she willed, and soon she was watching their receding backs. [color=39b54a][b]"She's oughta be long gone by now,"[/b][/color] the male pirate grumbled. [color=39b54a][b]"Else dead as dirt."[/b][/color]

There was a large ship in the cavern, lit by a number of lanterns. It hovered, phantasmal in the murky near distance, and appeared to be mostly out of the water. Crew members crawled over its surface like crabs, probably scrubbing the hull of worms and barnacles, Penny decided. Its hull seemed unusually dark, and she counted at least thirty-five cannon. [color=F7976A][i]This has to be it,[/i][/color] she realized, [color=F7976A][i]the Maria Nera.[/i][/color] There were too many people there, even with many of them outside the grotto picking through the ruins or searching for her.

However, she noticed a second item of interest as she came up to the channel that had allowed the ship to slip inside. Some ways from the [i]Nera [/i]was a sizable sub-cave, its entrance well-lit by torches. A handful of guards were talking outside.

Muffling her footsteps and slowing to a snail's pace, the Perrenchwoman slipped smoothly inside. Sure enough, there was a massive treasure trove, much of it in Revidian coinage. She took a moment to tune into the guards' conversation. [color=f26522][b]"Cap's bringing the goods home,"[/b][/color] promised one. [color=f7941d][b]"Nothin' to worry about!"[/b][/color] There came a second voice. [color=fff200][b]"Just hope they understand why. It looks bad from the outside. Everyone thinks he's a hero, you know: busy kissin' his arse."[/b][/color] This kind of eavesdropping would only ever provide her with an incomplete picture. Penny needed more than that, so she decided to go deeper. The cave branched, and curtains covered one of the branches. [color=F7976A][i]Well, if that's not something worth investigating,[/i][/color] she thought, [color=F7976A][i]then I don't know [b]what[/b] is![/i][/color] On a desk in the small, well-appointed room, she found a captain's log. The flag of Segona hung upon the wall opposite wall above an unusually opulent bed: a more battered version of the sort of thing she might've slept on at home. Penny took a moment to open the journal. The handwriting was very neat - feminine, she imagined - and there were plenty of details, particularly something about a 'fight for freedom' and a 'dastardly uncle'. The intruder decided that she could read it all later. She palmed the small journal, stuffed it into her belt, and turned to keep exploring deeper.[/hider]
There was the expected treasure: gold, spices, medicines, and valuable stones. About to leave, the Perrenchwoman paused. There was a midsized lockbox, shoved off in a corner, conspicuous only in its pointed inconspicuousness. Creeping up to it, she drew from the lock mechanism using binding magic and it shattered. She took a moment to apply some of the repurposed matter in healing her arm and her stump. She rolled and flexed the latter and propped the former on her crutch handle. Inside the lockbox, however, lay only disappointment: an old lamp and nothing more. It was the simple kind too, with only a candle and some old-style glass: a Chune Lamp, people called it, for that's how the Seeker of Knowledge's holy symbol was always portrayed. Penny thought about bringing it along. [color=F7976A][i]Wouldn't it be something if that was the actual Lantern of Chune?[/i][/color] She shook her head to clear it, rolled her eyes, and decided that it was probably time to get out of here. 

Before she could make it more than a couple of steps, however, the sound of approaching footsteps threw her into a near-panic. Penny darted into a darkened alcove and held her breath. [color=f26522][b]"Coulda sworn I heard somethin',"[/b][/color] one of the pirates insisted. The other's eyes swept the room. [color=fff200][b]"Aye, I think she doubled back, sneaky lil' wench."[/b][/color] They were talking about her! They were onto her! A cold, prickly shot of adrenaline shuddered through her veins. If these two spotted her, even if they shared their suspicions with other members of the crew, it could be very bad. They would come swarming for her by the dozens and she could not hope to fight them all off. [color=F7976A][b]I'm sorry,[/b][/color] she thought, [color=f7941d][i]but you have to die.[/i][/color] 

Rising up behind them, the Blood Mage pulled with all of her might. The two men disintegrated, heads first, and she watched them die. Immediately, she hunched over, hands on her knee, and swallowed back the bile rising in the back of her throat. [color=F7976A][i]Those were someone's children,[/i][/color] she thought, [color=F7976A][i]maybe someone's fathers. Holy shit![/i][/color] She stood uneasily and gulped a couple of times. Magic power coursed through her veins and she used it conjure some light, doing a final sweep of the caves, that lantern still nagging at the back of her mind. It began to dawn on the one-legged woman, then, that she was playing a very dangerous game. It was time to get out of here. Making haste, she darted out of the cave, glancing about as she went. With the coast looking clear, Penny took a couple of steps, but then she was falling. The world spun and she hit the ground with a painful smack. Her lip split and her vision blurred. The journal tumbled away to the edge of the water, its pages getting wet, and she lay there, stunned, her crutch clattering on the rocks.

[hider=Now or Never]She blinked and started to regain her bearings. [color=f7976a][i]Idiot![/i][/color] She'd missed a step: simple as that. Hissing in pain, she clambered to her foot, retrieving her crutch. There were pirates coming now: a pair of them wading through the shallows, but there might be more at any moment. The youth's mind burned with adrenaline and she called the journal to her hand. Ahead was the channel, and beyond it a sandbar and eventual freedom. [b][color=92278f]"You there!"[/color][/b] shouted one of the approaching enemies, [color=92278f][b]"who are yah?"[/b][/color]

[color=39b54a][b]"Ay! Stop!"[/b][/color] warned the other. Drawing from the current, Penny unleashed an Arcane Lance that skewered the first through the head. Her body dropped with a splash into the shallows. The second, she was only able to wound, and he opened his mouth to scream a warning at the top of his lungs. His friend's killer, however, drew from the current for a second time and dampened the sound all around him. His cries did not leave his immediate vicinity and her stomach coiled up inside. She felt like a monster as she reached out with a telekinetic fist and snapped his neck.

Then, as she began wading though the deepening water, preparing to push off and swim, things took a turn for the worse. A pair of sharks, drawn by the blood, entered the shallows. Instantly, Penny knew that she could not outswim them, and she did not feel confident trying to fight them in the water. Instead, she drew energy from their very motion though it, backpedaling as quickly as she could, and used that to alter their primitive brains. Induced to fear, the beasts fled out the grotto's entrance, startling a second pair of pirates who'd been sauntering closer. Their potential victim breathed a sigh of relief. Nobody else was coming for her. She sat on the rough, gravelly ground at the sub-cave's entrance for a moment, steadied her nerves and...

It was like the damned thing was calling for her: that lantern. Penny stood, retrieved her crutch and hustled back inside. Prying open the lockbox, she fished it out. [color=F7976A][i]I hope you're worth it,[/i][/color] she mused, turning on her heel and making haste out. Diving once again into the water, she found that it was not easy going. She stumbled on a protruding rock almost immediately, and both book and lantern were splashed. Glancing over her shoulder, the interloper could see the pirates who'd been scared off by the shark earlier, making their way over. Their eyes wandered in her direction and one leaned in towards the other. She kicked off, trying to gain some momentum, but it was a struggle to hold both book and lantern clear of the water while swimming. She needed a new plan. They'd seemed to notice her now. They were pretending not to, but one's hand was resting on the hilt of her sword.[/hider]
[hr][sub][center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axt37jhAq98]♪[/url][/center][/sub][hr]Penny drew, then, with everything that she could, from the stone of the grotto itself. Rock began to crackle and a couple of large chunks plummeted from the ceiling to land with a splash. Shouts echoed through the dimness and people scrambled about. Up above, cracks began to form and the youth's stomach went cold. [color=F7976A][i]Too much![/i][/color] Driven by desperation and adrenaline, she turned the repurposed energy into Kinetic and rocketed out the channel, past great crumbling pillars of stone. A small section of the grotto outright collapsed, but she was past it, riding the wave. She found herself bobbing up and down beside her crutch in the cold dark waters of the ocean. Another moon had risen and it was brighter now. The lantern and journal hovering above her head in a kinetic grasp, she continued to tread water for a moment. [i][color=F7976A]You're no fish, stupid,[/color][/i] she chided herself, making for shore. 

[hider=Opportunity Knocks]Then, however, an opportunity too good to pass up presented itself. A small bomb ketch sat there at a small within the hidden cove, completely unguarded as people rushed to deal with the collapse. Tossing the lantern, the journal, and her crutch inside first, the one-legged woman climbed aboard. At the sight of six cannon, a mortar, and crates worth of explosives, her eyes lit up. Momentarily, her thoughts turned to her teammate, Desmond. [color=F7976A][i]Who says you get to be the only captain?[/i][/color] cutting the mooring ropes, she cast about for a captain's hat and any sort of noteworthy gear. Instead, she only succeeded in catching her foot on a coil of rope and tripping painfully. [b][color=F7976A]"Damidammit!"[/color][/b] she hissed, rolling into a seated position. Gritting her teeth, she examined her hands and rubbed at her knee. 

She had bigger things to worry about, though. Penny had read books about sailing: plenty of books. She'd always found it fascinating, adventurous, and romantic, but she'd never actually done it. She hurried about the tiny ship, using her magic to unfurl this or tighten that. Slowly but surely, the ketch started to lurch forward. Her heart leapt and she took a moment to look up at the stars for some navigational aid. With more luck than skill, she was able to make it through the gap between two rocky islets. The great wide sea stretched out in front of her. Yet... to the side lay another opportunity.

Moored at another small dock was a rather large... She paused, trying to remember the rigs of various seacraft. It wasn't a Brig... [i][color=F7976A]A snow![/color][/i] she thought. There were precisely two sailors aboard from what she could see, and the rushed over to shout at her. [b][color=00a99d]"Avast!"[/color][/b] shouted one. [color=0072bc][b]"Aaayy! Where you going with that!?"[/b][/color] demanded the second. They were standing right beside each other. With a puckish smile, Penny smacked their heads together. Both went limp.[/hider] 
[hider=Fortune's Favourite Daughter]She had pushed this far and done this much and it stood to reason that she should not press lady luck much further. Yet, she thought back to those childhood tales of kings, queens, knights, mages, and great adventurers. She thought of the hundred risky plays of Lady Talit. Her first one had cost her a leg. The other ninety-nine had brought her wealth and renown. Penny grabbed the coil of rope, wound up, and tossed it as far as she could. When it began to slacken, she lifted it up the rest of the way with telekinesis. It landed on the larger ship's deck and she followed moments later. 

The thieving interloper found that she had much to do. First, she tied the ketch fast to the snow's stern. Next, she used what spare rope remained to bind the pair of guards to the mainmast. She glanced about the vessel. It wasn't large, like the big merchantmen and warships of her father's fleet, but it mounted fourteen guns that she'd counted and felt like a true [i]ship[/i]: one that was about to be [i]hers[/i]. With a bit of Arcane magic, Penny burnt the mooring lines apart and cast off. Sails unfurled themselves. Ropes tightened. Planks creaked and groaned. A gigantic grin split the lower half of the youth's face. All of those years of being nothing and doing nothing. They were well and truly behind her. Perhaps this was just beginner's luck, or perhaps she was merely fortune's favourite daughter, but she did not believe that either was the case. 

The snow was well underway now, the ketch tethered astern of it. Penny reached out with the Gift, drawing from the endless power of the waves, and created some wind. Sails filled and the little flotilla picked up speed. With some difficulty and a good deal more luck, she left the cove and struck out along the coast towards the town and her allies. Along the way, she found a stool to lean against and, on it, a great plumed tricorn hat. This, she settled jauntily on top of her head. She couldn't [i]wait [/i]to see the look on Desmond's face. Maybe she'd let him have the ketch if he asked nicely. [color=F7976A][i]Time to meet the others. A captain needs a crew, after all.[/i][/color][/hider]
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