First, they took care of the dead.
"I know that he were a pirate an' he attacked us,." Vega said, and she gave a tight, tense smile. The people of Sweetsong were afraid, and she understood it. But there was a bottom line here.
"But there's two things, isn't there? There's the fact that he's also someone's son, maybe someone's brother or father or loved one. An' there's also the fact that we are not the kind of people what take grudges out on corpses. We're better than that." She was quite sure of that. No one had grumbled - yet - but she knew it was brewing and so she got on before it started.
"So, we'll do what Scalvoris does," she said.
"an' we'll do what we do. We'll do it right, because it's our way." She looked at them, though, and she added,
"But we empty pockets and we take jewelry and so on. Everythin' that could be of use to us, we take an' we place it over there." She pointed to a large clear area. Respect the dead, yes. Bury them with their valuables after they'd caused actual harm to the place? No, not so much.
There were nods of the head at that, and Vega divvied out jobs and then got on with the worst bits herself. Some of the pirates were not recognisable as people and she knew that it would be a difficult job. So, of course, she did it. Once that was done, Vega turned her attention to the ships. She knew that her ability to work in the wilderness, to make do with things and not have the reliance on things that
others had would be useful.
After that was done, or as done as could be, Vega turned her attention to the ships. It had only been a few breaks since
the attack and the situation they had was simple.
"I reckon Noodle said it best," Vega said.
"Gutripper ship is destroyed, all crew dead. Hopeless Durge is stuck on top of a frozen water spout an' all aboard the Unforgiven are either dead, or surrendered.." She frowned for a moment, thinking it through and then she saw the
big picture, allowing herself to focus on that.
She had with her the
whip that she'd picked up in the fight, but she didn't yet want to use it. She
hooked it on to her belt and turned her attention to the ships. The first one to deal with was the Hopeless Durge, she knew. But it wasn't the first one to deal with, also. She wanted to bring the Hopeless Durge to Sweetsong as intact as possible and that meant that it needed to be as undamaged by the so-doing as she could make it. So, first things first she picked ten people, those who were strong and well-rested (so not those who had been fighting) and she directed them to clearing the debris from the Gutripper. All of the debris, the wood of the ship, the contents of the ship and all of it, it needed sorting.
"I want the wood from the ship to be put over here. See, where Noodle has made an area. Then, anythin' that isn't ship wood, put into piles. We will be sortin' it into types, an' so if you can do that as you're goin' that works. Noodle will be overseein' that area, so chat to him an' you'll know where to put things."
Clearing the Gutripper took a little time but people were
more than efficientsee Sweetsong link in my siggie. There's a lot of buffs, this will be done in 1/4 of the time and so very soon there were neat and usefully sorted piles of wood, debris, useful items, household items, broken items and so on. That cleared that. But while that was going on, Vega made sure that the Unforgiven was emptied, too. It was damaged, and so she directed people to empty it of all items - because it would mean that nothing would get destroyed when she let the water back in. While people emptied it, she went about fixing it up, both with her skill and with her Vindecaldra-granted
abilityHealing living beings isn't all that Vindecaldra's restoration can be used for. This alteration to the basic breath power allows the Bearer to breath out a cone of grey fire that repairs damage to inorganic matter, such as brickwork, metal, or even woodwork, though it doesn't affect living plants. This power repairs damaged material, but does not create new material. So it can repair single bricks, but can't replace entire missing bricks wherever she could so that it would be, at least, able to float for a while. As this happened, the two things in tandem, Vega turned her attention to the Hopeless Durge. That ship was intact, frozen in place.
When, and only when, she was completely sure that it was safe to do so, Vega turned to the ice that she was - and had - controlled. Slowly, she began the process of melting it and then allowed it to very slowly, very carefully, lower the Hopeless Durge. In doing that, of course, the area re-flilled with water and that meant that the Unforgiven was once again afloat. Her cousins and the other members of Sweetsong were there, checking for anywhere that she'd missed in the Unforgiven or any place that her
repairs didn't hold in order to make sure that there was minimal damage later.
But Vega's attention now was on the Hopeless Durge. She and a small group went on there and checked for damage of any kind, repairing and fixing as she went. There was a larger group, too, who came on to collect up items and bring them to the camp proper. Once they'd fully checked the ship for any needed repairs, they all joined.
It left them with large piles of things. Vega knew that she needed to turn her attention to those, but first of all she made sure that the two still intact ships were safe and moored and ready to be properly repaired. Then, she would look at the items but, before that she called out.
"There's hot food to be had in the central camp. Lets get ourselves fed an' watered. Everyone's welcome an' we'll have songs an' stuff." Of course, in the meantime, some of the Elements had turned up and she had included them in the tasks at hand. Vega wasn't one for standing on ceremony and there were these pirates that were all being held currently, in one tent and with lots of guards. Sweetsong didn't have a prison, but this would do for now, in the short term.
And then there was this Pirate King person, too. Vega had asked him to wait - using the messing around with water and so on as an excuse. Once they'd eaten, she'd go see him, going to his ship. But in the meantime, she wanted to gather her thoughts. It seemed the most sensible thing to do.
As dawn began to whisper a promise on the horizon, she looked around. They'd done a lot and, as the new trial started she figured that they'd been better off than many. Most, even, in the places that had been attacked. She'd help, she was happy to do so. But first and foremost her responsibility was to Sweetsong and it's people.
"Noodle, lets have a list of stuff, an' we'll get goin' from there." she said.
That, after all, was the next job.
