Maríangel de la Toledino
Maríangel stood silhouetted against the wide ocean, the dark waves shimmering beneath the stars. She stood tall, shoulders back, her gaze forward; her long black hair resting on the front of her shoulders. She wore a black tunic with white sleeves, brown pants and knee high black boots.
She was every bit the Captain of the Tempest.
"Sailing gear! Ready the munición! Raise sail and a song por favor!"
The crew of the Tempest lurched into action as the Wavesinger began her chant.
"Today! We get revenge! These loco pirates, this is the last time they ataque a wedding that Maríangel de la Toledino attends, amigos!"
Not long before, the pirates of Sencliff had fired a bombardment upon the city, striking the Temple of the Red Knight in order to attempt to harm Chancellor Ginny Fairlen, now Rivorndir as she wed Dax Rivorndir.
There was rubble strewn around the temple, but it didn't stop the Cordorian forces and the Merchant Navy from rapidly rallying to retaliate. Within minutes the Tempest was sailing to join up with the Cordorian vessel the First Sister. While the crews gathered, a score of Cordorians and other wedding guests lead a ground assault upon Sencliff itself, through the leylines, to silence the coastal cannons.
Three ships of Sencliff, the Lost Ark, the Gravekeeper's Mistress and the Stormy Spirits stood against the incoming vessels, ready and waiting for the retaliation.
"Hah! We will be putting the donacións to the make-a-pirata-sink fundación to good use, Zemyso!" the Captain of the Tempest laughed as the Tempest sailed toward the waiting ships.
While the First Sister was engaging the Stormy Spirits, the Tempest made for the Lost Ark and Gravekeeper's Mistress. Bombard fire and ballistae bolts rang from the decks toward their foes. Wood splintered, and was rapidly repaired, the Tempest maneuvered and feinted like a masterful duelist before the two Sencliffian ships.
The Tempest's crew, the Merchant Navy, proved it's name under Captain Maríangel that night. Alone it fought both the Gravekeeper's Mistress and the Lost Ark, and severely damaged them both, while the First Sister battled the Stormy Spirits. The crew of the Stormy Spirits cried out in horror in Undercommon as they tried to lens, but the last thing they heard was the Horn of Cordor as they met their watery grave.
So severely damaged already, the Lost Ark fled before the First Sister could even join the battle, leaving the slower Gravekeeper's Mistress to her doom. Already full of holes from her fight with the Tempest, it didn't take long for the combined might of the Tempest and First Sister to sink her, the crew lensing away as the Tempest put the final holes into the ship.
The Cordorian forces stormed the beach, with the guns silenced, and it was a resounding victory for all. Fire was set to their cove, the galley they were constructing was set ablaze, and all those that had participated in the attack were in hiding or slain.
Yet in all the chaos, in all the triumph of that evening, it also had it's own grief. For the great captain, Maríangel de la Toledino, had suffered a wound in the attack on the temple of the Red Knight, a shrapnel wound had gone unnoticed in the adrenaline of getting revenge.
The wound had become infected, and the infection spread deep within her. The infection was so deep that even trained healers, and clergy with healing magics, could do nothing to abate the sickness.
Over the next few days, her family and friends came to visit her. To show their love for the grand captain of the Tempest.
"Take care of the others, the crew, of my Ayiesha. Promise me you'll take care of them." she said to them, bedridden, but ever a fighter, ever a storm, never giving up.
Maríangel had sailed through shipkiller storms, shouted dragons from the sky, sunk dozens of pirates and slavers, and trained the greatest crew Arelith had ever seen. Yet, there is only so much even the toughest soul can take. A few days later she passed away, carving herself a place as a legend of the Trackless Seas. Maríangel was surrounded by her loving wife Ayiesha, and her family.
The family she had built - the crew of the Tempest, the Merchant Navy.
Good business, Maríangel de la Toledino, as you begin your final sail.
Story researched, recorded, written and embellished by Minto T Cloudpaw, in memory of Maríangel de la Toledino, the greatest captain of the Trackless Seas.