Torches On The Oars.
Part 1: Frija my mother.
 
 
In a small island, across a huge mainland, laid Tritos.
 
 
It had been colonized so long ago that there were people who doubted that there was a time when there weren’t villages in the isle. And of these, Trito was the oldest. The grandest. The one with houses made of brick, roofs made of shingles, and streets paved with stone and with wood.
 
 
 But it wasn’t the creature comforts that it has on all the other villages in town, nor the size of the town that made it the best in the isle. Tritos, as it happened, had the biggest dock in the whole island.
 
 
And the biggest number of Torchships.
 
 
There was bounty enough in the sea at all points throughout the year to feed the people in it, but the Old Lords of the mainland demanded their cut. There was water enough to satisfy everyone who might be thirsty, but traders stopped on the isel on their way to the mainland, providing for a rather perverse incentive to make it private. The island saw goods from a big great sea pass by its shores, but it was not rich enough to get many of them.
 
 
Times shifted like the tide, and peoples and families who might be of service to both Island, Town and the Mainland were seduced and cajoled into staying all the time. Yet inroads were hard to maintain, and so it was that new connections were sought after all the time.
 
 
The only thing, the only ones, they could depend on, at the end of the day, were themselves. And they had always known that.
 
 
That was why their Torchships sailed, as that was the main reason why they were relevant. These peerless ships rode with peerless traders and raiders. To be a crew member was to be a celebrity. It was to be rich, influential and powerful all in one. But to captain one?
 
 
It was to be a legend.
 
 
They sailed the fogs and the streams. They braved the ocean and the seas. They danced around the ice, cut through the whirlpool and reached the farthest lands. They were so important, that they only made port back home but once a year and stayed but one month before they had to head back.
 
 
They were the veins that transported figurative blood, but even they had a sorting to them. Even there some stood above the others and stayed apart. And many things determined that.
 
 
The size of the ship. The size of the crew. Who the captain was and who handled its oars.
 
 
But more than that, even the youngest child knew that something in particular determined greatness among them.
 
 
And that was the Torches that it held.
 
 
In a world of Gods and spirits, powers and powers, the bearer of a Torch marked him as a priest, a leader and commander all at the same time. But whereas the palace, the barracks or the temple could only be in one place-
 
 
-A Torchship could go anywhere.
 
 
Even, some whispered, inland.
 
 
Tritos currently had three.
 
 
And the greatest of them was captained by Alessia’s mom.
 
 
It was why her family ruled and why her father was Anax of Tritos. It was why her long dress was a blue silk, and why her blonde hair was braided with pearls. It was why she was 5 feet and 8 inches in height, 5 inches taller then the average girl, and why she was quickly gliding through the road.
 
 
“Come on, we have to get there,” Chiara tugged at Alessia’s skirt, almost making her trip as she all but ran after with her friend.
 
 
But she was the daughter of the Anax, and she did not hurry. Rather, she just moved faster without losing her composure. Or was supposed to be doing so, anyway.
 
 
“Slow down, Chiara,” Alessia tried to put the breaks on the small blonde girl, “They haven’t even sighted Mom’s ship yet!”
 
 
“But your father’s already there,” Chiara growled, at least slowing down enough for Alessia to not lose her footing, “What will he think if we arrive late?”
 
 
“He said bye to you this morning,” Alessia deadpanned, “I don’t think he’ll forget that you eat our table that fast.”
 
 
Chiara sighed, but got into step with Alessia, crossing her arms with her in the way good friends did.
 
 
What perhaps went beyond the proper, was the index finger making circles in Alessia’s palm. And the way her waist rubbed against Alessia’s ass.
 
 
Chiara was cute, with plump breasts and a thin hourglass figure that gave depth to her hips. Her eyes brighten when she smiled, and she had away to pull you in with just a look.
 
 
Alessia, meanwhile, had a huge ass along with passably wide hips. Her melon-sized breasts had always given her problems before the temple exercise had made her core strong enough to correctly stand upright. As was her duty, her legs were big and muscled enough to carry the temple torches all on her own across the villages of the island. Her nose was a bit pointy, courtesy of her father, but she at least had her mother’s hair and blue eyes.
 
 
Alessia knew that she was sort of attractive, but it wasn’t like it matter when she had an extra appendage that turned away the eyes of the men who wanted a whole woman. Or the women who wanted the same thing.
 
 
“Stop it,” Alessia said, reddening as Chiara cheekly smiled at her.
 
 
“Stop me,” she challenged as she gave her a look, and Alessia couldn’t help but imagine the things that she’d like to do to her.
 
 
As the daughter of the Anax of Tritos, it wasn’t like Alessia didn’t have friends. Or people willing to put up with her extra appendage in her crotch, but she had grown up with Chiara.
 
 
And…she was sure by now that she loved her.
 
 
“I hope you really aren’t leading me on,” Alessia told her, not for the first time.
 
 
“Of course I am!” Chiara said, smiling like she always did, “I am taking you to the docks!”
She always laughed like she always did. But in the depth of her eyes, Alessia knew that she knew what she meant. And Chiara knew that Alessia knew that she saw it there.
 
 
Alessia’s astrology studies were almost all done, and she knew all the prayers and all the chants to entreat the gods of her land. She knew the names and even some of the secrets of the beings who kept lit the Torches at the temple. All she needed to do, really, was light up a single Torch the temple town all on her own, and she would be an Acolyte under her Dad.
 
 
And when she did, she’d have enough responsibilities to demand to marry whomever she’d want.
 
 
It wouldn’t be too long now, but when it happened? She would propose to her friend.
 
 
But then, she was already visiting when her father was all but wearing her fingers away with mindless repetition. She made fantastic breaks for her when Alessia had to chant her throat raw for the hundredth of many times. She…made time for Alessia, even, when there were several men vying for Chiara’s time.
 
 
And her Father, who was all but unpleasable, didn’t seem to disapprove of her. Which, coming from him, was basically loving Chiara!
 
 
Danos the Anax of Tritos even smiled as he saw them walking hand in hand.
 
 
“Rios spoke to me, girl,” Danos started chiding Alessia as they started crossing the wooden platforms that extended into the sea, “If you were any good, he would have done the same to you. Why are you so late?”
 
 
“I came here the second your messenger reached me,” Alessia grumbled, “I was finishing making the copy of the Stratos that you gave me all of three weeks to complete!”
 
 
“Well, did you finish it?” Danos asked.
 
 
“I-I came running here!” Alessia raised her voice, just slightly. Because, honestly, it wasn’t fair. They were always expecting everything from her.
 
 
But her father brooke no disrespect, however slight it might be.
 
 
“Two failures do not an excuse make, girl,” his eyes started squinting, “When you let failure feed into failure, how can you hope to succeed at anything?”
 
 
It was a fairly common criticism from her father, but all that Alessia had learned from it was that she should pick her failures. And, more rarely, her successes.
 
 
“Hey, hey,” Chiara, like she often did, saved her, “It was my fault Lord Danos. I was slowing her down.”
 
 
Alessia’s father scoffed but didn’t rebuke her like he would have Alessia. Alessia might have even been jealous of her crush if Chiara’s influence with her father wasn’t one of the things she really appreciated about her.
 
 
“You can’t keep making excuses for her,” he still found a way to make it about Alessia, because of course he did, but Chiara was already looking around them.
 
 
“Say, has Captain Frija been spotted yet?” she asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject.
 
 
There were other people in the dock, word having gotten around that Alessia’s mother was due home. It was summer and, although the return of the Torchships changed from year to year, Captain Freija was an oddity in that she could constantly make her trips take 11 months every time.
 
 
But then, that was one of the many ways in which she proved herself to be the best.
 
 
“Of course not,” Danos replied, “Rios is kind enough to give us ample time to make good in our receptions to our Captains.”
 
 
Which raised the question of WHY Alessia needed to be one of the first in the dock, but it wasn’t one she dared raise. It wasn’t like she couldn’t guess his answer.
 
 
“In that case, why not let Alessia finish the preparations?” Chiara offered, pushing her forward.
 
 
“What?” Alessia glared at her friend throwing her to the dogs like this.
 
 
“This is too important-” her father began to shake his head, when Chiara, of all things, bowed to him.
 
 
“Please honored Elder,” she begged, “Let Alessia have this charge.”
 
 
Danos looked conflicted before, to Alessia’s disbelief, sighed and then looked at her.
 
 
“Can you do this?” Danos asked Alessia, who trembled as she realize that it was HER who was going to Welcome her mother.
 
 
Her mother, the Greatest Woman in all of the Island!
 
 
“Y-YES!” Alessia couldn’t help but be excited before her father’s disapproving frown helped her to get her feelings under control, “That is to say, I’d be willing to help give Lady Frija a Captain’s welcome.”
 
 
“...very well,” Danos reluctantly said, “I will step aside and let you get things ready.”
 
 
“I-yes, of course Father!” Alessia replied, her smile breaking out of control.
 
 
Chiara physically shooed her but Alessia was so happy at that moment that, on an impulse, she reached out to her friend.
 
 
And pecked her in the cheek, right then and there, where everyone could see.
 
 
Her father’s frown became murderous, but Alessia floated away into the crowd. Obviously, that alone marked this effort as a failure already, but there wasn’t a single chance of him deeming this a success anyway.
 
 
Her friend had her hands in her mouth as Alessia hit the biggest group of people in the docks.
 
 
“Are the flowers ready yet?” she asked them. A lot of them had baskets of them in their hands, but she had quickly learned to never take anything for granted.
 
 
“Like I told your father,” one of the men grumbled, “We send the women to the plaza. They’ll be here in a bit.”
 
 
“How long ago did you send them?” she still asked, starting to put things together in her mind.
 
 
“I already told your father,” the man scoffed.
 
 
“But you haven’t told me,” Alessia replied and made the man the top of her concerns.
 
 
He was blonde, like true descendants of the Nori were, but he was also very tan, like a good amount of the western island was. She had no idea if he was speaking for this group of men, if he was a leading figure otherwise, or if he was just running his mouth.
 
 
 But it didn’t matter, Alessia wasn’t just a messenger this time.
 
 
“Should I?” he rose to his full height, an inch more then Alessia was, as he probably was making a stand to not let the Anax’s children walk all over him.
 
 
Which meant that Alessia had to disabuse him of that.
 
 
“They say the only Nori that reached the clam villages was Sindri,” she said, not taking him full on yet.
 
 
“My great-grandfather came with his family,” the man allowed, “What of it?”
 
 
“People still say that Sindri was only ever accepted by a single god in there,” Alessia waved her hand as if it were no grave matter, “But I know better.”
 
 
And all of a sudden, the man wasn’t so sure of himself anymore.
 
 
“Y-yes?” he asked, his companions all of a sudden looking very interested.
 
 
“I carried Torches to all the family shrines at the beginning of the year,” Alessia explained, reaching down and pulling her skirt up.
 
 
The men started to look away when Alessia revealed a bright blue tattoo on her meaty thigh. And then they just stared at her.
 
 
Not just the Anax’s daughter, then.
 
 
“I could tell you which Torches lit for-” she began to gleefully say when the man who’d been fixing to stand this ground even in this little thing started to wave his arms.
 
 
“A tick of the dial!” he desperately said, referencing the weirdly accurate dials at the temples. That wasn’t too bad, honestly, and it meant she had plenty of time to get things in order for them.
 
 
“Thank you,” Alessia sweetly said and turned to the rest of the men.
 
 
“Now, could any of you tell me how long ago the criers set off?”
 
 
Due to her familial connections, taking charge of the people getting the Welcome ready wasn’t altogether that hard. The hardest part was getting them to take her seriously. But other than that, the authority she represented was iron-clad. All the same, she couldn’t and wouldn’t depend on her father for the rest of her life.
 
 
She’d have her own house with her own wife and her own children someday. Maybe even her own temple, though that wasn’t likely to happen until her father joined the dirt. But she WOULD be a priestess in her own right.
 
 
But she wasn’t really doing this because she wanted to prove herself. She did this because it was her mother, Captain of The Munin, was coming ashore. She had so much to show the woman who had been sooo impressed by her progress just a year ago. She wanted to show her how much she could run, how much she could write, how many prayers and chants she remembered and how close to being a priestess she was!
 
 
And yes, she wanted to show her Chiara, who she hoped would be her wife.
 
 
Because Frija was not only the woman who had given birth to her and who she only ever had a single month every year to herself. She was the best, the bravest and the most heroic of all Torchship Captains.
 
 
She was, and Alessia wasn’t embarrassed to admit as much, the person she most admired.
 
 
For all that impromptu celebrations were difficult to organize, Alessia had everything in hand before too long. To the point that there wasn’t much for her to do.
 
 
“See that, Chiara?” she asked outloud, sure that her friend would be somewhere by the sidelines watching her like she always did. But she wasn’t there.
 
 
“Chiara?” she looked around, but apparently she just wasn’t there. Maybe she needed to piss?
 
 
“Father, I am going to look for Chiara!” she announced out loud, but no one chided her for doing useless things. Which meant that her father quite simply just wasn’t there.
 
 
She was flattered that he felt secure enough to leave matters on her hands but, wait, no, that didn’t sound like him at all.
 
 
Did HE have to take a shit too or something?
 
 
“My friends,” Alessia called outloud, internally sighing, “Send a messenger for me if Mom-I mean, Captain Frija’s Torchship is sighed.”
 
 
“Whatever you say, Lady Alessia,” various voices waved her off.
 
 
She was 19 years old and so was old enough to be a mother and wife on her own. Only her apprenticeship kept her from starting her own home, but at least her age was no longer a big impediment to how people responded to her. Even though, yes, she WAS still young enough that it was a factor.
 
 
But she had hold of things.
 
 
She didn’t NEED to be present for the people to do what they were required to do anyway.
 
 
She could get her girl and present her to her mother when she got here.
 
 
While just about everyone took a shovel and made do on the fields when nature called, it was easier to just fill up a pot if you were going to be pissing. And since leatherworkers priced the stuff, and the rotting pools that provided their fertilizer also benefited from it, there were plenty of ditches that people in town were encouraged to use for their business.
 
 
The closest one wasn’t too far away and that’s where Alessia went.
 
 
There were people pissing inside squat wooden fixtures along the ditch, little buildings that provided a certain amount of privacy. But her girlfriend didn’t turn out to be in one of them. Maybe she alread did and Alessia missed her when coming here?
 
 
Maybe, like her dad, she needed to crap and was never here instead?
 
 
Sigh.
 
 
She guessed that the only thing she could do was put her faith in her friend and wait for her at the docks.
 
 
On her way back, though, one of the bushes a bit away from the road was shaking.
 
 
Field animals tried to sneak into town all the time, but quickly left once they found there was no place for them in a human community. They used tall patches of grass and bushes to hide, so this wasn’t exactly surprising.
 
 
The problem is that they usually stopped when Alessia got closed to them; animals knew better then to call attention to themselves.
 
 
But, if anything, the bush started shaking more and MORE as Alessia got close to it.
 
 
The thought that one of the animals might be sick or, well, fighting with something else occurred to her. And that alone was enough to make her get a move on.
 
 
But a squeal-
 
 
A single squeal.
 
 
-stopped her on her tracks.
 
 
It had sounded like Chiara, when Alessia got the better of her. And the closer she got, the less animal like the shaking seemed.
 
 
Another squeal, this one quiet enough that she would have missed it if her full attention wasn’t on it, sounded out and still sounded like Chiara!
 
 
Alessia got closer and she began to hear…she began to hear moans.
 
 
These weren’t animals.
 
 
These were people having sex out in the fields!
 
 
Well, people did that kind of thing all the time, right? People of low birth w-who didn’t know how to behave outside the house. And there were many people in town, even a few who sort of sounded like the girl she wanted to propose to.
 
 
This didn’t have to be her.
 
 
“HNG!” but a voice grunted that sounded altogether too much like her father froze her heart.
 
 
No one sounded like her father.
 
 
His was a voice worn away by oration, chanting and drink. His was a strong clear voice that cut through crowds and could be recognized anywhere.
 
 
This couldn’t just be a different couple out in the field.
 
 
B-but that didn’t mean it also had to be her crush in there.
 
 
All the same, all the same, the grunts continued and she became less and less convinced.
 
 
She could go back to the docks, she realized, and save herself some shame. If was her father cheating on her mother with an unknown mistress, well, her mother was coming today and she could let her handle it. And she would have-
 
 
“Harder, daddy!” a girl begged.
 
 
-if she wasn’t dreadfully sure that this WAS her best friend.
 
 
Alessia care fully stopped on grass and circled the shaking patch.
 
 
Her feet made no crunches as she ground wild flowers under her heel, and parted heavy stalks of grass. Green trunks parted under her fingers, and until she started making out robes.
 
 
Until skin, hair, beard and yellow hair reveal who these people was.
 
 
Her father was mounting Chiara.
 
 
“You are always getting in the way,” Danos, husband of Freija the Torchip Captain, was whispering into the girl that Alessia hoped to marry.
“Sorry, daddy!” Chiara moaned as Danos sank his cock into her. Her skirts were raised all the way to her stomach, and Alessia’s father’s robes were tucked into his armpits. His hairy legs and ass were visible as he stroke at the small blonde girl with his hips again and again.
 
 
“But this is why you do it, don’t you?” Danos asked, filling Chiara’s small young breast into his hands and sucking on them, “Because you can’t wait for me to plow you!”
 
 
“Y-you’ll be out of my arms for a whole month!” Chiara gasped, “You are going to have to sleep with t-that harpy while I freeze on the lonesome of my own bed!”
 
 
“That harpy is the Captain of a Torchship,” Danos gently, paternally, chided her in a way that he never had done to Alessia. He caressed her face as if he were trying to convince her, “That means that she deserves respect.”
 
 
“I-I wish she would die in one of those trips!” Chiara growled and Alessia felt tears go down her cheeks, “T-then it could just be me and you!”
 
 
Alessia’s father slapped Chiara across the face, and a small tiny part of Alessia hoped that the bitch she had loved had finally crossed the line.
 
 
“As I said,” Danos sternly told her in the wake of that, still more gently than he’d ever spoken to Alessia in her life, “-She is a Torchship Captain. That merits respect.”
 
 
“B-but-” Chiara tearfully said, but Alessia’s father was already caressing her face, his strokes continuing.
 
 
“Shhhh-” he quieted as he began slamming hips again, “I do too.”
 
 
That killed any other desire that Alessia had to overhear them and she left.
 
 
She returned to the dock, the people there apparently having finished the job she’d overseen. But she was still too shocked to feel anything but numbness.
 
 
Her father and “friend” returned not long after, looking as happy and clean as she’d ever seen them. Looking for all the world as if they were happy that her mother was returning.
 
 
“Is everything done?” Danos harshly asked as he looked around.
 
 
“It is,” was all that Alessia said, not being able to affect anything more than a monotone at the time.
 
 
“The flowers?” he inquired
 
 
“Yes,” Alessia confirmed.
 
 
“The criers?” He asked.
 
 
“You sent them out.” Alessia replied.
 
 
“The singers? The players?” Danos counted off, one by one, “The food, the drink, the dance?”
 
 
“It has all been taken care of,” Alessia confirmed once again.
 
 
Danos looked around him, trying to look for anything else that he might have missed.
 
 
“And you said you got that done when?” he sullenly asked.
 
 
“A bit before you got back.” Alessia replied.
 
 
For the first time that she had seen him, her father seemed to be at a loss for criticism. It was too bad Alessia was in no state to enjoy it.
 
 
“...it should have been done faster,” he ended up saying, which was tantamount to praise coming to him.
 
 
Alessia stayed quiet because there was nothing more she wanted to say.
 
 
“So, hey,” Chiara said, sliding next to her, “You must be pretty stoked.”
 
 
Alessia, who felt a flare of anger make it’s way through her numbness, didn’t say anything.
 
 
“Alessia?” Chiara asked, “What are you looking at?”
 
 
Go away, Alessia wanted to say, but quite frankly, she didn’t even want to speak to her.
 
 
“Alessia?” Chiara asked again, reaching for her hand.
 
 
“Don’t-” Alessia hissed, looking at Chiara with so much hatred that she flinched, “-touch me.”
 
 Chiara’s mouth was slowly falling, as if she couldn’t believe that Alessia had just done that. People were looking at them, and it was starting to turn into a rather pretty public fight-
 
 
“Ship, HO!”
 
 
-when someone finally spotted her mother’s ship.
 
 
After that, they all ran around to present the traditional welcome for a Torch Captain.
 
 
The Murin was a Twice-Rowed ship. That meant that it was big enough to have two banks of oars on each side of it. It was 90 feet in length and 10 wide. It had two big masts fully deployed as winds were always in a Torchship's favor when it was at home.
 
 
The masts were bright white, the hull was painted deep green and the oars were clear red. The bow of the ship had bright blue eyes, the color of Alessia and her mother, as, on top of the bow, was what gave the type of ship its name:
 
 
There were 5 Torches lit on top of the bow.
 
 
5 torches burning different colors that neither rain, wave nor wind could put out. The ship could capsize, the ship could go under, the ship could be fully submerged and, so long as the captain remained? They would still burn.
 
 
All 3 Torchships belonging to Tritos had all 5 Torches in display when they made port; it was about the maximum number of Torches any of the Torch Captains were expected to have lit for one of the ships, though there was a quiet acknowledgment that Captains rarely ever had even 4.
 
 
But they were heroes returning, so no one was about to question which of the Torches were real and which were not; Simply having 1 Torch lit still merited their fame, so they would be allowed to claim them all.
 
 
The same doubt was not extended to Alessia’s mother.
 
 
The 3rd Torch, the one farthest out in the Bow, was a bright Purple that no other Torchship that had ever come through Tritos had ever been able to claim to have.
 
 
Which power, which god claimed the flame was a topic of much contention but her mother had never divulged the answer. No, not even to her father.
 
 
The water in front of the ship was colored by that Torch, making the choppy seas turn purple along with it. The other Torches spurted, of course, but they could not achieve the leading magnificence of the 3rd.
 
 
The ship became bigger and bigger in their sight until the incredibly huge form of the Torchship was close enough for them to see the waving hands collecting at the front of the ship.
 
 
The ship could allocate a crew of 120 but, of course, it barely had 20. To be able to carry what it could carry from across the width and breath of the world, to be able to benefit from a ship carrying a Torch, it needed to not be full. And so it was that the couples and sometimes families crewing the ship were kept to a minimum a lot of the time.
 
 
 The ancestors of Alyssa and her mom, the Nori, would keep a full compliment to raid too but…no, this wasn’t the Nori’s time.
 
 
It was Tristo’s.
 
 
Speaking of, Frija was always a striking woman no matter how many times Alyssa saw her mom.
 
 
She was six foot even, taller then everyone but the tallest man. Her hair was blonde so light that it verged in being white hair, but was just the color she was born with. Her eyes were big, just like Alessas, but she had a snub nose, wide cheeks and a wide chin.
 
 
She had a dress on, but even at a distance she wore a badly, though everyone knew that the dress at sea was different then at land. Still, whatever of her arms that Alyssa could see where muscled. No like a strong man, but like an oarsman, with whip-like cords running the length of her forearms.
 
 
Her breasts, if anything, were even bigger then Alyssa’s were. Her but was just as big, which was to say huge, but her hips were massive.
 
 
She looked like a fertility goddess, though Alyssa remembered a time when she hadn’t been like that. It was just proof that age caught up to everyone, as it was undeniable that her mother look more and more matronly every year that she made the trip back.
 
 
“May I make landfald Anax?” A clear vibrant voice rang out when they were close enough for most of the crew returned to their oars, and start leading the ship to dock.
 
 
“Please Torch Captain,” her father said, with all the proprietary and holiness of a man keeping Lights Lid on land, “Make yourselves at home and lie your charge down for as long as you like.”
 
 
He was smiling as if he had said something funny, and Alyssa’s mother returned it, seeming to be in on the joke.
 
 
It was sweet.
 
 
And it was sickening.
 
 
“Alyssa,” Chiara whispered, having sneaked around until she was next to her as people started cheering, “Alyssa, what’s wrong?”
 
 
But Alyssa ignored her ex-friend.
 
 
Thankfully, blissfully, there wasn’t much she could do to make a nuisance of herself as the Morin docked and, in one smooth motion, her mother jumped into the dock.
 
 
But a hand grabbed on to Alyssa’s skirt, Chiara desperately holding on to it as she looked up at Alyssa with something approaching panic.
 
 
Alyssa’s hand trembled, and she would have slapped her then and there had they been anywhere else.
 
 
“My little azalea,” her mother interrupted her stream of thought, referencing a rather langid flower that she knew Alyssa found annoying.
 
 
But when Alyssa turned to her, there was tears in her eyes.
 
 
“Oh no,” Frija gasped and rushed to her, gathering her in her arms and hugging her.
 
 
“This is so improper,” Danos muttered under his breath as Alyssa tried not to choke.
 
 
“The welcome is for me, isn’t it?” Frija asked her husband as she rocked Alyssa back and forth, “Well, I say there is no better welcome then to be able to have my daughter in my arms.”
 
 
 “I called you an azalea, didn’t I?” Frija asked Alyssa just as she got her emotion under control, “I am sorry.”
 
 
“Mom, that’s not-” Alyssa tried to say but ended up hicupping instead.
 
 
“I happen to think azaleas are beautiful,” her mother confessed, “But no, you are an Orchid.”
 
 
“Those are worse!” Alyssa couldn’t help but laugh.
 
 
“What about a Hazel?” Frija asked.
 
 
“Witch Hazel?” Alyssa tried to look insulted but couldn’t.
 
 
“What about…a simple yellow rose?” Frija tried again, caressing the hair out of Alyssa’s face, “You won’t be mad about that, will you?”
 
 
“Mom…” Alyssa tried to explain to her that there was nothing to even forgive, the things were incredibly unfair, unfaithful and horrid but not from her to Alyssa.
 
 
But from others to them.
 
 
“We’ll talk later,” Frija promised as she finally let her go and turned to her husband, “We have much to catch up.”
 
 
Frija embraced her father of course, but Alyssa had already decided to tell her mother everything.
 
 
She deserved better than her father and this town.
 
 
________________
 
 
 
 
As it turned out, “later” would not be “today”.
 
 
The party that started was joined by more and more people as the news of Frija’s arrival had spread like wild fire through the whole town. Everyone wanted to come up and drink with the crew of a Torch Ship. Everyone wanted to congratulate a Torch Captain.
 
 
Everyone wanted to feel good about themselves.
 
 
Frija brought a bounty with her, but then, that was simply what was expected from her. Spices, jewels, weapons, talismans, fabrics and even fruits filled the hold of the Marin.
 
 
The city would “take care” of all of those for her and, eventually, turn them into profit that they would then hand back. It went without saying that the ship would be repaired while it was docked, and that not a single member of the crew would have to pay for anything while they were on shore. Most any skirt they wanted, would be lifted for them. Most any robe they wanted to drop, would do so even IF the one making the request was a male member of the crew.
 
 
It was a time of celebration and, in truth, replenishment.
 
 
The Torchships always sailed with an extra member or two.
 
 
“Alyssa, I don’t know what’s got into you!” Chiara exhaustedly said at one of the parties that Alyssa had decided to attend.
 
 
Her mother was supposed to be in it along with her father, but apparently, they had been waylaid. It happened, but it left her in danger of being alone with her ex-friend if she exited.
 
 
Alyssa did not trust herself to not hurt her if that was the case.
 
 
“I get that you get sentimental with your mother here,” the other girl started to say, “But what did I do?!”
 
 
“I planned on proposing to you,” Alyssa said, surround by laughter and drink too heavy for anyone but her friend to make out what she was saying.
 
 
Charisa opened her mouth into an “O” but Alyssa surged in, “As soon as I managed to light a single fucking Torch, I would have asked for a house, I would have asked for a wage and I would have asked for your hand in marriage.”
 
 
“I-I mean,” Chiara stuttered, “I guess I was being awfully flirty-”
 
 
Alyssa gave out an ugly miserable laugh.
 
 
“Oh, what’s your answer then?” she sardonically asked the girl, “Do you accept my proposal?”
 
 
Chiara bit her mouth, but didn’t say anything else.
 
 
“That’s what I thought,” Alyssa answered as she got up and left her drink on the table, “Stop chasing me. I am tired of you.”
 
 
This was supposed to be a happy day for her, damn it. Yet it tasted like shit.
 
 
With all the people happy around her, Alyssa felt like going somewhere she could be miserable by herself.
 
 
And that’s why she went to the docks.
 
 
The sea at night looked like nothing a sane person would like to stare at. Dark and endless. It was salty, noisy, but it lapped at the land and hoisted foam under the gaze of moon light.
 
 
What creatures, what monsters, could be lying under there without Alyssa knowing until it was too late?
 
 
She stared at the ocean as the winds buffeted her ears and the rhythmic waves took her under a peaceful trance.
 
 
The purple light of her mother’s ship still shone from where it was docked. The other Torches had waned, but the purple one hadn’t. It never did.
 
 
Even under moonlight, it was easier to stare at the Torch than it was to stare at the dock.
 
 
But then, her mother’s ship was the only good thing in the whole island.
 
 
Alyssa would be a priestess. Whatever her father said, she had done her studies, she had been doing the rites and she had met, and talked, with all the other Torch priests. They were all impressed with her, but no, not her dad. He never could, even when he was fucking her best friend in the same day as her mother arrived!
 
 
Alyssa could achieve what she had set out to do, except what she really wanted because what she wanted had never really existed.
 
 
Had Chiara gotten close to her to get close to her dad? Had she started flirting with her, simply because that kept her under her thumb? Or did she just enjoy the attraction Alyssa felt for her as means to buffet her own self-worth?
 
 
Not that it mattered, it all hurt.
 
 
And tonight, she must have been the only person in the Tritos that felt that way.
 
 
She would get a moment with her mother and talk to her about what she saw. Maybe the marriage between her mother and father would dissolve, as it ought to, or maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe it would be too troublesome to make it public. Maybe it would be better to keep up the farce.
 
 
There was a whole lot of that in the island.
 
 
She stared at the waves and enjoyed the wind for a while longer before she decided to head back and go back to her house. Well, her father’s house. She would, at the very least, get her own soon enough.
 
 
And then she’d do…what? Meet a “nice guy”, preferably one that was gone almost a whole year while she stayed home and cheated on him?
 
 
Alyssa rubbed her forehead.
 
 
Today was really not a good day for her.
 
 
“Maybe I won’t even marry out at all,” she muttered to herself as she started walking back.
 
 
But then she stopped.
 
 
There, on the dock of the ship was another person.
 
 
They were tall. They were female. And they were absolutely beautiful.
 
 
And they were Frija, Alyssa’s mother.
 
 
She was alone, with her dress almost falling out of her shoulders. There was a slight flush in her cheeks, evidence that she had been drinking, but her steps were sure and certain as she walked up to her ship.
 
 
The dress finished its fall as Frija put a hand astern the hull of her ship, letting two enormous breasts to slip out.
 
 
They were tight and not at all droopy for a woman almost 40 years of age. Unde Torch light and under moonlight, she could see that they were veiny with dark areolas. But then, sometimes the color of nipples and the lips of the vagina didn’t match that of ones mouth. That was just how it was, and it appeared her mother was like that.
 
 
Something dribbled out of the corner of her nipples as Frija put her forehead against the hull of her ship and Alyssa stared as she discovered that her mother, at her age, was still lactating.
 
 
Her hair was down. Her skin was creamy, smooth and white.
 
 
She leaned her head into her ship and…she took deep breaths that made moved her chest up and down.
 
 
Alysssa didn’t know why she was here. But obviously, Captains were connected to their ships, right? Nevermind that Alyssa was seeing something she shouldn’t have.
 
 
It was…beautiful.
 
 
 By the time her mother left Alyssa had felt her heart quicken and was feeling sweat in her palms.
 
 
She felt as though she had just experienced a dream, yet here she was in the wake of her mother. Cold and achee.
 
 
Her cock, her futa cock, which made it hard getting into relationships, let alone get married, was as hard as it ever had been and, no matter how much Alyssa tried, she could not bring herself to be ashamed.
 
 
A woman like her mother merited this reaction from her, and she would always believe that.
 
 
But gross lust for her own mother or not, the whole thing made Alyssa realize one thing.
 
 
She…wanted to be like her mother.
 
 
Not to light a Torch on the island and on the town like her father. Not to work hard here until everyone took her for granted like her father. Not to marry some dumbass that she trapped because they hadn’t heard about her big futa dick.
 
 
No, she wanted to go out there like her mom. She wanted a crew that she could call her own. She wanted to deign her own destinations and design her own adventures.
 
 
She wanted to light a Torch, yes, but in her own Ship.
 
 
She wanted to BE her mother.