Chapter Text
It's a quiet day. She stands at the fore of the ship, the wind tousling her hair, the edge of the sea spray splashing her face. She catches sight of a flash of orange behind her and smirks.
"Oh, what a boring day!" she says out loud. "The treasure is found. No merchant boats are due for some nights. The crew is restless."
Ah, he's right behind her, now. She keeps her eyes steady, staring at the sea before her.
"It's almost enough to make me wish…"
Two hands are placed on her sides, one the cool metal of a prosthetic hook, the other warm and of an otherworldly flesh. She leans backwards into their touch, letting them caress her hips, and reaches up to twine her fingers with those of the other two hands.
A voice whispers –
"Wish for what, Dilara?"
She laughs and looks up at Nadakhan's face, pressing her head against his chest. "But what a useless thing to waste a wish on!" she says. "A day of excitement? We've had plenty of those, and we'll have plenty more. I don't need to wish for that."
Nadakhan shakes his head and smiles. "You have yet to use any of your three wishes, my love. Surely you can afford to waste one."
"Oh no, not for this." She lowers her voice to a murmur. "Each of these wishes carries a tremendous power over you. I must be very careful."
"Such confidence!" Nadakhan releases one of her hands to tease his fingers through her hair. "You know, many others have thought they had that sort of power, that sort of control. They were all wrong. What makes you different?"
"Oh, my dear…" She closes her eyes for a moment. "I don't need a wish to control you. You're madly in love with me."
She feels Nadakhan's chest shake with his laugh, and abruptly, she's picked off the ground. A yelp escapes her as Nadakhan spins her around before placing her back on the deck, facing him. He leans down close and strokes her cheek.
"Such confidence," he repeats, and he kisses her.
She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses back. Nadakhan lifts her up again, hovering just above the ship's deck, under the sunny sky. Why would she ever think these days were boring? She has the heart of a djinn in her grasp, has riches and power beyond what she could have ever imagined as a child.
She smiles.
No days are boring on Misfortune's Keep.
She wakes up with a gasp, her heart pounding. The dream is bright in her memory, and for a few moments, she can't shake the feeling of being on Misfortune's Keep, thinking that Nadakhan could appear from the shadows at any moment –
She breathes.
The night is cool and dark. The other ninja are all asleep – well, maybe Zane isn't, but he does like to sleep, even if he doesn't need to. She has a room to herself, being the only girl. It's nice, sometimes, and then sometimes it isn't.
She decides to go outside.
It's a little colder than she expected. She wraps her arms around herself and shivers. The sun has yet to rise; it'll take another hour before the sky begins to lighten. She takes deep breaths and finds a rock to sit down on. She'll head back to bed soon, she thinks. She just needs a minute to let the fear pass.
She does not let herself think of the dream. It doesn't matter. Dilara is long, long dead, and no one will ever find that teapot in the wreckage of Stiix. She doesn't have to tell anyone about it, because it means nothing, not after the timeline was reset.
It's just a dream.
She goes back inside.
The way to Djinnjago is only accessible by Nadakhan. He does not take any of the crew with him – no, not even her. She can't help but feel relieved. Nadakhan has told her about his father, and his opinions of those who are not djinn. He decided it was safer for her to stay with Misfortune's Keep, while he went to Djinnjago alone.
He does not return happy. Nadakhan barks orders at the crew and has them set sail at once.
"My father has disowned me," he tells her in private. "He would rather the royal line die out than allow our marriage."
"Because I am human," she says.
Nadakhan turns away. "Yes."
She stands up from the bed and goes to him, placing a hand on his back. "You need not despair," she tells him. "This only means the path will be more difficult than we imagined."
"To gain infinite wishes, I must be married on djinn land," he says. "I have just been banished from all djinn land."
She frowns. "There must be another way," she mumbles, more to herself than to him. "Are you truly never able to return?"
"Oh, I may return. With my father's blessing, though –" He lets out a bitter laugh. "Not a chance. He would never allow our wedding."
There must still be a way. She refuses to accept the alternative, that all her careful words and touches have been for naught, that the power she fell in love with may never be within her grasp. She puts her cheek against Nadakhan's back, feeling anger rise up inside her.
"We will find a way," she says. "You have a right to that power. You will not be denied it forever."
She will not be denied it, either.
"Eventually, my father will be forced to step down, and then there will be no one to take his place." Nadakhan moves away from her touch. "One day, I will be king. But that may not be within a human lifetime."
Oh, she can't allow that. "You cannot sit around and wait for power to be handed to you!" she says sharply. "Don't you know that?"
He says nothing, his back turned to her. She clenches her fists.
"You are used to everything being easy," she says. "You are strong, you are clever, and you have powerful magic at your disposal. Nothing has challenged you thus far, has it?"
"What are you saying?"
She takes a deep breath. "This is a trial of love, my dear. Prove to me that our love is true. We will be married on djinn land."
Still, he says nothing. Has she pushed too far? "And of course, I will be with you every step of the way," she says, her voice softer. "You know I would never leave you."
When he turns to face her, Nadakhan is smiling.
"Is that a proposal, Dilara?" he asks.
She blinks, then laughs. "I suppose it is! Normally, the man is supposed to propose – I don't even have a ring!"
"We're pirates, my love," Nadakhan says, and he takes her hands in his own. "When have we ever done things the right way?"
She splashes water on her face and groans, staring at her reflection in the kitchen sink. "You alright, sis?" Kai asks from beside her.
"I'm fine," she says.
"You sure? You don't look it."
She sighs. "I've just been having a hard time sleeping. It's been a weird few months."
"No kidding!" Kai says. "The Hands of Time, finding our parents, and Wu…" He trails off. "It's a lot. It's really a lot."
And she has to carry this timeline that never happened with the burden of everything else.
"You know you can talk to me, right sis?"
"Yeah," she says. "I know."
She knows Kai can tell she's hiding something – but what can she do? She can't tell anyone about this. She turns off the water and goes to make herself breakfast.
Jay is sitting at the table with Cole, eating cereal. He looks up at her, and she sees the worry in his eyes, and she turns right around and goes to eat somewhere else.
"Nya –" she hears him call. She ignores him.
They're supposed to be looking for information on where Sensei Wu could be. She volunteers herself to talk to Ronin, and when she gets to the pawn shop, she drops the money on the counter, sits in one of the ratty old chairs for sale, and buries her face in her hands.
"Uh," comes Ronin's voice. "Thought you were looking for information. You alright, Nya?"
She looks up at him and fights back tears. "God, no," she says.
Ronin frowns. "That's not good. What's going on?"
"I can't tell you," she says. "I can't tell anyone. Not you, not the ninja, not a goddamn therapist –" Tears well up in her eyes, and she screws up her face to keep them from falling. "– dammit!"
She has to be helped off the chair and into Ronin's back room, where he sits her down on the couch. She can't stop sobbing, and her attempts to contain the tears are only making it worse. She can't see where Ronin is, but she hears the microwave ding, and a few moments later he sits down next to her and hands her a hot mug.
She sniffs it. It's hot chocolate. "How did you make this so fast?" she asks through her tears.
"Microwaved it," says Ronin. "Listen, I can't do much. I'm not gonna ask you to talk to me about whatever you can't tell anyone. But, y'know, if you need a place to get away from everything… pawn shop's better than nothing."
She manages a smile. "I do need some information, you know," she says.
"Oh, sure, sure. You're paying me, after all. What do you need?"
"What do you know about Misfortune's Keep?"
Ronin doesn't know much anything, so the next place she goes is the library. She finds the story of Misfortune's Keep in a history book. It tells her things she already knew. Two hundred years ago, Nadakhan sailed the seas with his pirate crew and his lover, Dilara. His crew was banished across the realms, and Dilara died an unknown time later. It doesn't tell her how his crew survived those years in banishment, or how Dilara died, or anything she cares to know. She groans and slams the book shut.
And there's no one else alive who would know anything, is there? She leans back in the chair and closes her eyes. The only people who've met Nadakhan are Jay and herself.
And…
Her eyes fly open.
She shows up at Ronin's pawn shop in the dead of night. She almost thinks he's not there, after her knocking goes unanswered for some time, but finally, the door opens. Ronin rubs his eyes and squints at her.
"It's two in the morning," he says. "I know I said you'd be welcome here, but damn –"
She shoves the money into his arms and shuts him up.
"I need to break someone out of Kryptarium," she says. "Will you help me?"