Chance Encounters

"They called you Empress once, did they not? When you were wed to one that proclaimed and thought himself as a Savior?"

"Dat was anotha life, anotha time, some may even say be jus' ah rumor. Dey spoke otha names for me tae. Dae ya remembah those as well?"

Her smile curled easily as a brow arched up as the shining opal of her eyes rested on the one who kept her presumedly captive.

"Lilia 'Chance' McGlory... seafarin' mistress o' tha Sea Fox. Dat be but one o' muh names. Now be ah good spor' and be lettin' me gae. Dese binds are beginnin' tae chafe."

Another smile there even as her eyes took on a smoldering light. Oh the price of thievery they would proclaim was a heavy bargaining chip. A heavy price to pay... and yet she had managed to get herself out of worse ordeals.

Sea Fox. Empress. Chance. Phoenix.

So many titles. So little time to claim of them all.

Her fingers worked deftly along those binds as she spoke on with the one who had captured her.

She missed the tide, the call of the sea, the taste of the salty sea are on her tongue.

Nimble fingers worked, a brush of fingertip to the raw twine began to smoke until the would fall away.

Up on her feet then with a quick right hook to the man's jaw. Terrible how they would misjudge the wills and ways of a woman to leave only one man to watch over her in the prison.

Didn't they know?

They well should have listened to the truths as much as the secrets.

The bo staff was lifted in her hand, thumb grooming over the familiar runes of the elements. A touch at the seal.

It easily could become a blade if need be. The old comfort of things remembered well.

A nudge of bootheel came to the unconscious man's side as she rested the bo staff along her shoulder.

"Ye forgo' one bloody title dey call me. Phoenix. 'Cause I always rise again..."

A tip of an invisible hat.

"Be seein' ye."

A smile as she murmured a command in Gaelic to bring the prison door creaking open.

A smile as she got her first sight of the sky after so many years imprisoned in Rhy'din.

Damn but it was good to be free.

Misguided turn of the tide it seemed that would draw her to the docks and to that seedy dock pub. The hollers and shouts, the hoots and exclaimations of the men far too deep in their cups brought a smile to her lips. The trademark sass of a fox's grin.

A bottle of whiskey and trouble was on her mind. The good old days could always be rewritten in the present day pages of her life. She missed those wildfire moments of mischief and mayhem.

Fleeting thoughts mused over Patch, over Argus and Devantious, over the self proclaimed Savior that had led her to fall for his crimes.

Lucky for her the tattooed sleeves at her flesh well would conceal the chafe mark of those binds that had held her in the prison. Magic wards.

The grin turned to a light smirk as she hailed the barkeep and ordered the usual bottle of whiskey and glass, eyes bright as she heard the shuffle of cards.

There was a tell tale smile then that could only mean trouble was brewing like a storm on the shoreline.

Oh yes it was.

Cutting her way through the stench and sweat of the dock workers and sea farers she paused before the gambler's table with a hand on her hip.

"Mind if ah cu' in? Ah've muhself ah cravin' fer ah game. Donna i' seem ah good idea... can ya fancy...ah game o' Chance?"

Oh the smile there as she nudged out a chair at their table to straddle, a lean against the back of it as she waited for the current game to finish as the men eyed her up like the next bonny lass to visit between their bed sheets or cot or hammock in the ship...

Her laughter was a carefree, devilish thing. Gods but it felt good to be in old, bad habits.

It felt like a decade ago, and yet here she was standing on the dock and staring out at the ocean.

Maybe it was a dream in that moment because the man that stood beside her she had not seen for years.

A dip of toe in the water after peeling off a boot, a side glance to the man beside her as she grinned that typical Fox smile.

"I's been ah bloody lon' time."
"So it has."

He had never been her lover, not to any extent of stretching out the borders of those opportunities to take a risk of finding out where friendship would go if tested and put on trial.

There were no mind games as were customary for Devantious, Argus, and A'rion... it was just... what you see is what you get and so much more.

Then again she never tested those waters given she figured he had an affection for the gypsy instead.

"I'm glad to see you got free, Chance."

There was a crinkle of eyes then. She knew well he meant more then about getting free of the prison, knowing he meant well about freeing herself from Christian Christ... to free herself from being the Empress given into the delusions that Christian had fed into her mind that in another plane of existence they had born a child of dreams. A Gatekeeper.

It all seemed so surreal.

"Ah'm glad yer back... be nice tae see tha girls... ah know der 'ere... Brilyah, Rona, Ariahn, the Dreamer all o' dem are 'ere... bu' nae seen tha men."

A wry grin, goddess knew that Chance preferred the company of men over women any day.

"Maybe you'll see me down the road."
"Mebbe."

She felt his lips grazing her cheek and she grinned as he pulled an item out of his bag and tossed it to her. A laugh as she caught it.

When she looked to give him thanks he was long gone, just another memory playing repeat and rewind in her head.

A sigh and the shiny green flesh of the apple was brought to her lips as her teeth sank in and tore a delicious mouthful out of that sweetly sour flesh.

Ah memories...ever so sweet