Artist, Dreamer, Storyteller, Terror
#1 of Darkened Seas
Here's a short story that introduces us to the woman who will become the dark pirate empress, Darquebane. Artwork by Toughset with colors done by me.
Artist, Dreamer, Storyteller, Terror
by Xenny Diemes
A long time ago, there was a young and beautiful woman who love to tell stories with needle and thread, make dresses from local folks to the highest members of the town she calls home. She is loved by all from the elderly to the children who loved her works. She runs a small shop close to the town square where they celebrate various events and for her to make a profit so she can fuel her creativity more. Yes, the ever-benevolent artist of the thread Jacqueline DeAteneu is a being to be reckoned with. Who then would have thought that this simple woman would become the future terror and the beast that even the devil himself fears to meet.
Jacqueline, was born 23 years ago in another own miles from where she lives now with her parents who lived peacefully. Her father Marcos DeAteneu is a fisherman who sailed the seas across the far reaches of the region collecting all that he can to feed the towns residents and often comes back with food and a good story in hand, and her mother works as a baker who always makes great breads and pastries that kept the family well-fed themselves for the better. One day, her mother fell ill and sadly passed away while Jacqueline was 15 leaving her and Marcos to care for her up until her teenage years. Then came the worst storm that has ever fell on the town one day when Marcos and his men were still out at sea. When the storm cleared, it was there she learned that her father didn't make it back to shore. The young lioness stayed in the village for a few years until she gained the strength to move on and out of the village to start make a name for herself.
She tried a number of odd jobs that didn't suit her talents, or lack thereof but do help get food in her stomach and a roof over her head. That was until one night, she tore her dress and found some needle and thread to stitch the tear up. Her work showed well that the tear isn't even there anymore. The girl can put that talent to good use when she arrived at the town and finds a small shop that had a help wanted sign in need of an apprentice. That's where Jacqueline met Isabella, an elderly but kind woman who took the lioness under her wing to teach her everything she knows of how to be a seamstress. Learning different stitching methods, make dresses and alterations, quilts and many other things that she can do with needle and thread and loves her work. One day Isabella asks Jacqueline to go on a three-week trip to gather some rare textiles for a special order. She was all to happy to please her teacher and friend. Little does she know that if she stayed, she would have learned of this peaceful town's dark secret.
The townspeople has a long history harsh hatred and resentment towards heretics, blasphemers, demons. Their greatest source of their animosity is towards witches. All of which if found, will be given a quick trial that leads straight to death by being burned at the stake or thrown into the sea if they are foolish enough to prove their innocence. Three where executed in the town square while the lioness is away and afterwards return to normal is if nothing happened. Jacqueline returns with the rare textiles and things were business as usual. More years went by and Isabella decides it was time for her to retire and Jacqueline for all that she has learned, leaves the shop to her to expand her own talents and make the things she wants to without having a dusty old woman dragging her down. The shop is hers. Overtime, Jacqueline made her own dresses, spectacular sheets and developed her own talent that made her a name in this town: Tapestries. She loves the stories her father once told her while he was out at sea and decides to use that to tell her own through the use of pictures made through thread and needle.
Through trial and error, the lioness made her tapestries vibrant with both color and story stitched into it and the people loved it. With time, her own style spread throughout the town and she has more than enough orders for her goods to keep her busy for years to come. She is so happy, that she decided to put all her concentration into the making of a grand tapestry displaying the history of the town she now calls home. From humble beginnings to the present day, it was surely a gift for everyone to remember. That is until a group of troublemakers played with her want of friendship and ultimately invoked the long-hidden wrath of the town. The only thing she remembered was her being forcibly removed from her shop, dragged through the streets through the sounds of boos and scowls by the very people who she thought loved her and watched with horror and sadness as her shop was destroyed.
She pleas for her innocence but those very people who Jacqueline thought of as friends made more "convincing" stories of how she manipulated them even did unspeakable things just to satisfy her pleasures. An ignorant and raving public sided more with those fools than the innocent Jacqueline. She was spared the burning. Instead, the harsher punishment of being thrown into the deepest depths of the sea is suiting, since she was trying to prove her innocence, it is an act the town can only respond by letting her "prove" it. Her heart was too broken when they took her to the shore as her ankles are tied to a giant weight. She didn't even utter any last words as she looked at the very people including the woman who she took in as her teacher and her teary eyes turned into an angry stare promising that heaven will justify her and she will "return". She is then thrown into the sea, never to be seen again.
Heaven didn't respond, but Hell did. The rest... is history.