silver.
The moment he’d heard of the arrival of Jack Rackham’s ship to Shipwreck Cove, he’d wanted to pay one particular passenger a visit. Not for the reasons that Flint or Elizabeth Swann or any of the other pirates here might have; he was being swept up in this next chapter of his captain’s war almost without thinking, going through the motions as he attempted to work through his grief, and therefore was not focused on it nearly enough to think to seek the pair out to ensure that the partnership between the two crews was still in place.
He was here to see her. Silver had been so wrapped up in his loss of Madi that he hadn’t thought to visit after their escape from Nassau, but time, as always, helped to provide perspective. Word had spread of how Woodes Rogers had overcome Teach and, in turn, Rackham and Bonny had overcome the governor’s men, and throughout the telling of the story it had struck him just how much he wanted her to be alright.
Did it hurt to know that she was still here and Madi wasn’t? Of course, but he wasn’t the only one to lose something after the Spanish had razed Nassau town to the ground, and he knew he had to be grateful for everything and everyone they had left.
‟ Concern? ” It was phrased as a question, as though unsure what she would make of such an answer. Anne could rightly tell him to man the fuck up, and more he considered that potential response, the more he wondered whether that was exactly what he needed to hear right now. He took another uneven step into the room. ‟ So much has been lost in recent weeks that it seems disingenuous to pretend there’s any other reason, or to dress this up as something it’s not. ”
The change in him since their last meeting was impossible not to notice. Before her stood a defeated man, one who had lost nearly all the will to fight. Anne knew why, of course; Max’s information had more or less filled them in on everything they’d missed in Nassau, including the untimely death of the maroon camp’s leader. Anne had gotten to know Silver enough since the beginning of this war to know what Madi had meant to him, and the toll her loss must have taken on him.
“ Didn’t mean here, seein’ me, ” she responded at length, though her voice lacked its usual grit; in fact, it was almost gentle, by Anne’s standards. Whether that was because she was too tired and sore, or because she empathized with him over the loss of someone he cared about was difficult to discern. “ I meant here, at Shipwreck Cove. With him. ”
There was no love lost between her and Flint, that much was clear. Some part of Anne had always blamed him for this war and all of the consequent losses, and for wrapping them all up in a losing battle. That Silver would remain by his side, still attached to a cause that had become so severely muddled, was surprising to her.
“ Thought maybe you’d have given up on all this. On fightin' his fuckin’ battles. ” And really, perhaps the same could be said for her and Jack.
