Interrogation.

“Good morning gentlemen, I am so sorry to intrude on your...activities but would any of you happen to know...why this ship just happens...to have no princess onboard?” His eyes flared crimson as he stared at them all, his hands crooked behind his back. Suddenly a bold youth, who had been tied and pressed to his knees with the rest of the men spoke up, his voice high and squeaky. “We won't tell you anything you cur!” The man glowered down at the youth, his lip twisting upward in a cruel smile. “Silence boy...” In one smooth motion so graceful it looked practiced he drew a flintlock pistol from a holster at his belt and pressed the muzzle to the boys pale forehead. “Unless you want me to teach you the meaning of the true, total, silence that awaits you in the void.” The boy’s eyes widened with fear and the man in black put his thumb on the hammer that when drawn back would prime the weapon. Then he turned to the men beside the boy and flashed them an innocent charming smile. “You look like you might know what I want to hear.” The men stared at him, their eyes filled with anger and shock. The man in black winked then ever so slowly pulled the hammer back with a series of menacing clicks. “Tell me! Now!” He clutched at the air with his free hand, fury obvious on his pale face. A man at the end of the line spoke up, head down with dirty blond hair obscuring his features. He looked up at the man in black and a look of defeat on his face, for the boy at risk was his very own son. “Nivana...we stopped and let her and her guards off at Nirvana..” He looked away, shamefaced. “Excellent.” The man in black cried triumph. With a small yank of his hand he pulled the trigger, and the flint came down with a supernaturally loud snap. Everyone except the black clad man flinched and cried out. “Oh? I seem to have run out of gunpowder, imagine that.”