(no subject)

[scourgeofpiracy]

He's up early, as he always is, getting ready for another day's work on the Pearl. And he's trying not to think about how close the repairs are to complete, and what happens when it's all done.

He's about ten seconds from leaving when the knock comes at the door.

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[blue_eyed_lord]

Aphelise straightens, but does not stand or try to restrain Norrington. He speaks, though, as if to calm him down, dismissing Wellard. "Don't let the boy get to you, James. He doesn't know anything."

(The boy knows nothing, sir. Doesn't know the bobstay from the spanker boom.)

Aphelise watches Norrington and the Midshipman sent to fetch the tardy ex-Commodore to the Captain.

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Wellard stumbles back a step, looking at Norrington in surprise. He frowns. "I'm hardly in the navy anymore, Mister Norrington."
("I'm not your whipping boy now.")
Then he glares at Aphelise. "And you can quite stay out of this- None of this concerns you, and you can just leave!"

[blue_eyed_lord]

The Black Rider ignores Wellard, for the most part, speaking softly in his slightly nasal voice. "Of course, you are no longer in the navy either, James, though through no fault of yours."

It's faint, the stress on the last word, but it carries all insinuations of the fault lying with other possibly involved parties. Mostly with the same captain by whom he is now summoned.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

If he was at all rational right now, he'd know that wasn't entirely true. He made his choices, whatever led him to make them.

But he hasn't been entirely rational for a long time. He turns to glare at Wellard.

"Were you the one invited into this room, Mr. Wellard?"

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Wellard shoots a worried glance at Aphelise-

("Mister Norrington lost his commission due to his failure to catch the Pearl and her captain." "I do know that he lost his ships in the hurricane we were in.")

-before looking quickly back to Norrington. "I came to find you- and you should not be speaking to Mr Aphelise here, sir."

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

Norrington raises his eyebrows.

"And now you feel you can dictate who I speak to?"

[blue_eyed_lord]

The Black Rider raises his eyebrows at Wellard's worried look, and his insistence to get Norrington away. His blue eyes glitter with barely-hidden, malicious triumph.

"What's this?" He sounds surprised at Wellard, "You mean you haven't told him yet, Mr Wellard?"

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

His breath catches, yet Wellard remains glaring at Aphelise, even as he tries to answer Norrington.

"Because he is one of the Riders of the Dark." Wellard narrows his eyes at Aphelise. "And you, you were hardly even there to know what did happen-"

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

He had suspicions, before this. But nothing to confirm it.

He has enough, now... and he's never looked more dangerous.

"But you were."

Wellard never sees the blow coming, sending him into the wall.

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Never saw it coming-

And all of his attention was on the Black Rider, who he thought was the more dangerous of the two in there.

Wellard crashes into the wall hard, head hitting with an ominous THUD, and falls into a boneless heap on the floor in the hallway.

[blue_eyed_lord]

There is no trace of satisfaction on his face.
As Norrington sends Wellard into the wall, Aphelise gets to his feet with a startled exclamation, apparently taken aback.
There is no cruel triumph in his eyes.
He stares at the unmoving ex-midshipman, then hurriedly presses the bottle he had been holding into Norrington's hands. "Hold this while I make sure he's all right."
All is hidden in shadow.
And he heads towards the door.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

Norrington watches, with a touch of concern, but the bottle in his hand is distracting.

There won't be anything left in it for very long.

[blue_eyed_lord]

The Black Rider kneels beside Wellard's motionless form, and, instead of checking for a pulse, pulls Wellard's dirk from its sheath at his belt. He stands again and re-enters the room, holding the dirk by the hilt so that the blade lies flat behind his arm, out of Norrington's line of sight.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

He doesn't notice the knife, as he peers in the boy's general direction.

"He's breathing, I take it?"

[blue_eyed_lord]

The Rider doesn't answer, but shifts the dirk within his grip and slices down, dragging the blade across Norrington's abdomen.

With almost one continuous movement, the man in black passes the dirk to his left hand and brings its hilt up to connect solidly with Norrington's left temple.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

He drops like a stone... except stones don't tend to bleed that much.

[blue_eyed_lord]

The empty bottle shatters when it falls from Norrington's hand, scattering jagged shards of glass across the floor. The tiny sounds of the glass pieces hitting one another are the last to quieten before the room falls silent.

The Rider stands tall in the middle of the room, a pillar of darkness in the lit room. He spreads the fingers of his right hand commandingly at the two still figures on the floor, one after the other. From his mouth comes the Spell-Speech of the Dark, momentarily dimming the light of morning that streams in through the window, and sharpening the chill of autumn into that of winter. "Forget", the Rider commands, a cold sneer twisting his mouth. "Forget."

Almost as an afterthought, he tosses the bloody dirk to clatter to rest beside Wellard's prone form. Before it comes to rest, however, the Rider is gone.