Siraly_Tull

~Siraly the Red: An Interview With an Anonymous Crew Member~

Anon: Generally speaking, piracy don't exactly lead to long and successful careers, you know?

Sofia Kay: Unless you're lucky.

AN: Lucky, or just a cut above the rest, but even that can be less a blessing than a curse.

SK: How would you describe Miss Tull, then? Talented? Successful? Lucky?

AN: Yes.

SK: ...Can you elaborate?

AN: Well, lessee... One doesn't simply just 'elaborate' on what made Red who she was. Depending on who you ask, you'll get many a tale. Some say she was born under the green flash, her very blood blessed by the Immortals!*
(*Many pirates believe in the Immortals, a vaguely defined cluster of nameless mariners' spirits who were all made into minor deities by perishing during the fabled 'green flash' that can sometimes be seen on the sea at sundown. Very convincing, I know. -SK)

AN: Some say she's the daughter of a demon or even an elemental-mortal marriage. I've heard her accused of being everything from an angel who tore out her wings to a homunculus made by Captain Grenblade to serve as his first mate!

SK: So why do you think she had so many rumours circling around her?

AN: Well, first anyone heard of her was when old Grenblade took her aboard, so-

SK: Ok, but the homunculus theory obviously isn't true.

AN: You don't think so?

SK: Grenblade was an illiterate brigand, not a witch doctor.

AN: Aye, but he could've hired a witch doctor!

SK: Let's try this again. Why was Siraly the Red such a source of myth and rumour? You served under her for how many years?

AN: Eight long, hard years, I did. She was a hard taskmaster, but a finer mariner I never met. She rose before the sun, sharp as the edge of a well-cut blade, and believe me lass, she never dulled. She'd work us raw, but she never put herself above the common swabbie, not once.

SK: What do you mean by that? I assume she gave her fair share of the orders?

AN: Aye, we hardly saw hide or hair of old Grenblade when we were out at sea, and belive me, it was far better that way.

SK: Oh?

AN: Red was always there to back up her word. She rigged and toiled and swabbed like the rest of us, she did. The lass even stowed herself below deck with the meanest, dumbest brutes of them all. Such a thing I ain't ever seen done before or since.

SK: You mean she slept among the crew? Did she ever pay for trusting you all like that?

AN: Trusting us? I never said she trusted us.

SK: You know what I mean. I've been the only woman on a ship full of ruthless men. All it takes is a little drink to turn an entire crew into a horde of ravenous beasts. A lot of the time it doesn't even take that.

AN: Aye, no honest mariner could deny that.

SK: So, how did she survive the lot of you for all those years?

AN: Hah! Red didn't survive us, lass! Just the opposite. It was we who survived Red. ...Well, some of us did, anyway.

SK: Go on.

AN: 'Course there was plenty of drunken plotting at the start, before anyone knew better. For my part, I always tried to talk 'em out of it.

SK: Really.

AN: I'm a good, Baugh-fearing man, I is. Had me a wife in Kalvarr before the Melkai* (shark people) took her. But more importantly, I had the good sense not to tangle with Red.

SK: Or you knew not to try, I bet.

AN: I never knew her at all, lass. Far as I know, none of the crew did. But I can remember those who tried. They found out the hard way what the rest of us got pretty early on: Red wasn't just careful. She was crafty, and more than that... she had a kraken's hunger in her.

SK: Pardon?

AN: A kraken's hunger, lass. Land lubbers might call it something different. But by the stars, she could eat, and eat, and eat! You should've seen her whenever we made port! We could hardly roll her back up the gang-plank after a good, long night's worth of merriment!!

SK: Oh.

AN: See where I'm going with this? It don't matter who you are. When you're born to eat like Red was, the whole world's your buffet. Don't matter if it's platter of fish and a keg of mead, or a king shark pulled straight from Elarel's unfathomable depths!

SK: Or a filthy mariner trying to catch her while she's sleeping?

AN: Aye, many a desperate man met his end sliding down her gullet. She slept with her eyes shut and her maw wide open. Heh.

SK: But this only happened when she was provoked?

AN: If you can swallow that, yes. The lass had some discipline! And a fierce temper, as you might've gathered, but always the cunning to withold her ire until she needed it.

SK: Ok, forget her appetite for a moment. Did she ever kill a man otherwise?

AN: Course she did. We all did. We weren't sailing the seas so we could go handing out milk and cookies.

SK: But she didn't kill on a whim?

AN: Aye. But now you see how her legend may as well've built itself.

SK: What about when she became Captain, on the subject of legends?

AN: She never laid a hand or tooth on old Grenblade, so I swear on me good Ma's name.

SK: But there was a mutiny.

AN: Aye, it was our mutiny. See, the Captain mighta seen Red as next in line from the start, or at least as part of his legacy... Or maybe he just had the craving for booty and could never own up to it. Fact of the matter is, he let her run his ship, and she ran it better than the old fool ever did! Treated us fairer, too.
You might think we spend all our time at sea with knives in each-others' backs, but that ain't always the reality... An honest mariner's word holds water on a well-run ship, when all you've got between you and Elarel's deep is a ship and crew.
When it comes right down to it, Red was an honest Mariner, and that got us thinking about how little respect... and especially how little gold we got from all our plunders over the years with old Grenblade.

SK: So he was too greedy?

AN: Not just that, but a coward! It wasn't so different from any other mutiny, see. A Captain can be fond of his gold, but he's got to keep an iron grip on his men! If you ask me, old Grenblade got soft after all our years of success, and believe me, we had our years. But then he tried to have his grog and drink it, too. He let Red run his ship, let his crew think she could do it without him around to hoard all of the gold, even.

SK: What was the final straw, then?

AN: Nothing special. Crew got to drinking one night. The idea got into our heads that we didn't need the Captain since Red may as well have ran the ship already.

SK: What did Red think? Was she drinking with you?

AN: Aye, she was fond of her drink. Never said much, except in her own defense. But that night, I fathom she was feeling bitter about always doing all the work. She got vocal. Said that not only could she run the ship, but she could get the crew the share we all rightly deserved!
Well, once she'd said that, there was no taking it back. We were all waiting for an excuse to get our mitts on the Captain's gold, and she gave us a damn fine one!

SK: What happened next?

AN: It ain't as exciting as you're imagining, lass. We hauled old Grenblade out of bed and onto the first desert island we saw. Didn't spill a drop of blood doing it! Not one man took the Captain's side. Heh. Red obviously didn't. And maybe that broke the man's heart. Maybe it didn't. But he didn't try to fight, not even for a moment.

SK: So you left him and never saw him again, and that was that?

AN: That was that. I served under Red for my last three years at sea, till sicklebugs took both me legs. Best years of my sailing life, those were.

SK: What difference did it make, having Red at the helm?

AN: I got paid, that's what. She could've gone back on her word, but she didn't. The lass even took the time to drop me in Kalvarr once I wasn't no use to her no more.

SK: She must have been fond of you.

AN: Hah! The lass hated my guts, she did! But it's like I was sayin... She was a true mariner, through and through. It was in her blood. Didn't matter what she thought of us, you gather. Long as we kept out of her affairs, she acted like we meant something to her. I always respected Red for that.

SK: Have you run into her since then?

AN: I seen her a few times since she gave up pirating, but I ain't ever had the guts to step into her path, especially not after she was Governor of Kalvarr!

SK: You still live in Kalvarr, don't you? Is Governor Tull the same woman she always was?

AN: If the tales be true, she ain't changed one bit, except in the waist. And the bust. And the-

SK: It's as if she's pregnant or something.

AN: Didn't say she wasn't! But that there's her business, not mine, and I still know damn well enough to stay out of Red's business.

SK: But does she run the town well?

AN: 'Bout as well as anyone could run a place like this. It ain't no ship, but the laws of the sea still carry weight, and Red's always lived and breathed those laws.

SK: And her appetite?

AN: Still catching up to her, I thinks.

SK: Ok... last question. Is she really single? I heard she was single.

AN: All I know is that whoever gave the lass her baby bulge ain't ever owned up to it, and Red sure ain't telling.

SK: ...Does she like women? You mentioned that she never did any sleeping around while you knew her, but is it possible that was because there weren't any other women around?

AN: ...Why the hell are you asking me?