Cora's Revenge: The Curse of Femmes 40 Ans

SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT UNDONE.

The words were burned into her mind, she knew them well. But the lettering was so faded, a fire long ago had scorched the parchment and the ink had been mostly erased. It read "some things are better left undone" in a childish hand that was clearly not her own. There was no signature and she'd seen it before, in dreams, but never remembered it until now. She'd had dreams of that ship, always in the ocean with a full moon in the sky. She would be standing there, just standing looking at the ship as if contemplating something deep. The dreams made little sense to her and this morning she awoke with a start, cold sweat running down her neck and back.

"Gods make me curse you to hell for giving me such bad dreams," Cora mumbled to herself as she rose from bed and went to tend to her daily business. She wasn't an early riser but this morning she was more than ready for the day to begin. Tying back her red locks she dressed in her usual dark clothing beginning with her leather pants and boots followed by a tunic and finally her favorite leather vest. She strapped on two daggers which rested on either side of her hips and then pulled a hood over her head before leaving the inn room she rented for the night. It was still early enough that most people had yet to stir or leave their rooms so it didn't take long for Cora to exit the inn without incident.

She hurriedly made her way through town towards the docks where she'd kept her boat docked last night after completing another job for Captain Avery who'd hired them both when they were young women looking to make some coin fighting against pirates or other privateers of the sea. Now they were older and wiser in their ways of sailing being they'd been doing it since they were teenagers, but Avery was still as aggressive as ever trying to find new jobs even though those jobs were few and far between these days due to pirates becoming more scarce over time. Cora tried not to be bitter about it all since she knew Avery was only doing what she could for their crew and themselves but sometimes she just couldn't help feeling jealous of those younger than them who made plenty of money with much less risk involved. But at least they still had each other, even if they both thought Avery's ideas were a little batty at times. They might have been willing to give up a long time ago if it weren't for each other, but Cora certainly wouldn't want to abandon Avery now that they've been through so much together already so it was just easier to keep going along for now.

That's why it came as such a shock when Cora arrived at the docks only to find no one there waiting for her as expected. Usually Avery's men would be milling about, talking amongst themselves while others worked on getting things loaded onto the boat or keeping watch for any trouble that might arise but today there was nothing but silence apart from the sound of water lapping against the hulls of ships docked nearby as well as a few seabirds flying overhead making their usual cries as they searched for food or slept on different boats around them.

"What's going on?" Cora asked herself aloud while searching frantically through the crowd hoping someone would be there who might know what happened last night or this morning after waking up alone but finding everyone gone like ghosts in the night without telling anyone where they went or why they left without reason which wasn't like any of them at all especially Avery's men who had always answered every question she'd ever asked them no matter what kind of answer was given back to her so hopefully this didn't mean something horrible happened while everyone slept overnight because otherwise this whole situation would be very troubling indeed...