MORT X AZURA
Please keep in mind these events are future events.
Recommended listening: https://youtu.be/6NksUf0xg9k
Recommended listening: https://youtu.be/6NksUf0xg9k
Happiness does not last, and in Mort's case, his past catches up to him.
He and Azura by this point have been happily married and with many children for decades now, and Mort very much is a reformed kia compared to his past self. He no longer works as a pirate, has not for a good while, too much of Azura's pureness rubbed off on him, just works a quiet job in town. Although ever since he'd met Azura, he'd gone about saving lives from being destroyed during raids, hiding the children and as many families as he could, and making sure they were left with enough to survive, so really even before he quit he was hardly what could be called a pirate any more. He feels like his life has been truly blessed, as his life with Azura has been truly bliss.
One day some officials come up to the farm, they didn't say much but he needed to go with them, they'd let him say goodbye to the kids and Azura as one small mercy if he didn't resist. He knew then, what was going to happen, he felt waves of stress, anger and anguish, but also acceptance, Mort knew he deserved it and honestly he'd been expecting it for some time, he knew it didn't suit him to have such a happy life, he knew that one day the world would remind him that his story is meant to be suffering.
But despite that, he doesn't want to tell Azura and the kids. It's not fair on them. So he just goes and says goodbye to each of the kids and grandkids, as if he's going to work, but gives them all extra big, tight hugs, before ending on his eldest son, Diore.
"Here I'm leaving this with you, give it to Azura when the time is right." Diore looks at his father in confusion, "What do you mean, are you going somewhere? Why can't we go with you?" Mort just smiles and pats Diore on the head, "It's not somewhere I want any of you to go, and don't worry about it, I'll be fine, just know that I love you all dearly." Diore was even more confused at this point, but he trusted his dad, if he was going to a not safe place for a while, that was ok, he always came back, Dad is probably just worried this task will take a while, that's why he left me with so much money and precious things to watch over.
Diore gives his dad an extra hug, "Well ok, just come back soon yeah?" Mort smiles a sad smile at his son and says, "I'll try my best." before going off to find Azura.
Mort took a deep breathe before entering the house, he needed to remain calm and act like there was nothing wrong, otherwise Azura would never let him leave, and that'd endanger her and his family's safety, something he was absolutely determined to avoid. He smiled before speaking, "Hey honey, where are you?" "In the kitchen~" Quickly he was by her side, and scooped her up into his arms, "I love you ever so dearly," he whispered into her ear before giving her some gentle kisses. Azura giggled at this, there was never a day that went by without her feeling endlessly loved, it warmed her heart so much, "And I you. You off to work soon?" Mort gives her a smile and nods, "Something like that, try not to stress while I'm gone okay? My heart aches whenever you are sad and missing me, I know you get ever so lonely, but I want you to enjoy yourself even when I'm not here, at least try your best to do that for me, ok?"
"You'll be gone awhile then," her voice had a sad note to it, and his heart tugged upon hearing it, how he wished he could stop this if just for her sake. "Yeah." "Another fisherman trip? Those guys need to stop relying on you so much, don't they realise you have young kids to help raise?" Mort chuckles at this, "And where would we get money from then, hm? It takes a lot to feed so many!" She pouted and pensively spoke, "But I'll miss you."
His breath caught a little and he pulled her closer for a big squeeze of a hug, stroking her hair and holding her as close to him as possible, "I know," he kept stroking her hair, in a soothing sort of way, "I know."
He and Azura by this point have been happily married and with many children for decades now, and Mort very much is a reformed kia compared to his past self. He no longer works as a pirate, has not for a good while, too much of Azura's pureness rubbed off on him, just works a quiet job in town. Although ever since he'd met Azura, he'd gone about saving lives from being destroyed during raids, hiding the children and as many families as he could, and making sure they were left with enough to survive, so really even before he quit he was hardly what could be called a pirate any more. He feels like his life has been truly blessed, as his life with Azura has been truly bliss.
One day some officials come up to the farm, they didn't say much but he needed to go with them, they'd let him say goodbye to the kids and Azura as one small mercy if he didn't resist. He knew then, what was going to happen, he felt waves of stress, anger and anguish, but also acceptance, Mort knew he deserved it and honestly he'd been expecting it for some time, he knew it didn't suit him to have such a happy life, he knew that one day the world would remind him that his story is meant to be suffering.
But despite that, he doesn't want to tell Azura and the kids. It's not fair on them. So he just goes and says goodbye to each of the kids and grandkids, as if he's going to work, but gives them all extra big, tight hugs, before ending on his eldest son, Diore.
"Here I'm leaving this with you, give it to Azura when the time is right." Diore looks at his father in confusion, "What do you mean, are you going somewhere? Why can't we go with you?" Mort just smiles and pats Diore on the head, "It's not somewhere I want any of you to go, and don't worry about it, I'll be fine, just know that I love you all dearly." Diore was even more confused at this point, but he trusted his dad, if he was going to a not safe place for a while, that was ok, he always came back, Dad is probably just worried this task will take a while, that's why he left me with so much money and precious things to watch over.
Diore gives his dad an extra hug, "Well ok, just come back soon yeah?" Mort smiles a sad smile at his son and says, "I'll try my best." before going off to find Azura.
Mort took a deep breathe before entering the house, he needed to remain calm and act like there was nothing wrong, otherwise Azura would never let him leave, and that'd endanger her and his family's safety, something he was absolutely determined to avoid. He smiled before speaking, "Hey honey, where are you?" "In the kitchen~" Quickly he was by her side, and scooped her up into his arms, "I love you ever so dearly," he whispered into her ear before giving her some gentle kisses. Azura giggled at this, there was never a day that went by without her feeling endlessly loved, it warmed her heart so much, "And I you. You off to work soon?" Mort gives her a smile and nods, "Something like that, try not to stress while I'm gone okay? My heart aches whenever you are sad and missing me, I know you get ever so lonely, but I want you to enjoy yourself even when I'm not here, at least try your best to do that for me, ok?"
"You'll be gone awhile then," her voice had a sad note to it, and his heart tugged upon hearing it, how he wished he could stop this if just for her sake. "Yeah." "Another fisherman trip? Those guys need to stop relying on you so much, don't they realise you have young kids to help raise?" Mort chuckles at this, "And where would we get money from then, hm? It takes a lot to feed so many!" She pouted and pensively spoke, "But I'll miss you."
His breath caught a little and he pulled her closer for a big squeeze of a hug, stroking her hair and holding her as close to him as possible, "I know," he kept stroking her hair, in a soothing sort of way, "I know."
With that, he left his home, and went into town with the officials, whom were still waiting for him on the edge of the farm, and steeled himself to hear the charges, for he knew there would be many. The townsfolk as he walked past were a little on edge, ah they must've heard a little of it then, but many still greeted him and asked him how were the kids and whatnot, though he could not wait and chat for long, knowing that the officials had already been so lenient. They arrived at the gaol at the judge over the proceedings gave him a grim look, "I'm sorry Mort. It was the king's decree. I don't know how, but he found out about how you used to be a pirate and wants you dead. There's nothing any of us can do." Mort shakes his head at that, "Don't worry, I know, don't risk yourself too alright? It's okay, I've accepted it, t'was inevitable. They'll be hanging me right?" The man nods wordlessly, and one of the officials spoke up, "You'll be spending some time in a cell while they organise things, but it won't be long." Mort's expression flickered from calm to worried, then back again, stoic as ever, "If any of my family come here, please don't hold anything they say against them." They all nodded, "Yeah we get it, don't worry nothing will happen to them." Mort breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear, ok then, where's this cell of mine?"
They say that him meeting his end was poetic. Others say that there was something about his death that just wasn't justified. Of course, Azura and their children are super distraught by then, even Azura's original daughters see him in a better light, some even start to call him dad. Azura never leaves the forest, so when he doesn't return for a few days longer than usual, she asks her girls if they could go find him. They come back all shifty eyes, trying to avoid Azura's gaze because they don't want to say he's been charged for his old crimes. Their youngest would still be quite young, but the other kids are something like in their twenties at the youngest, like he gets a good number of decades of peace and happiness beforehand. However his own kids don't know what his past was like, so they are just in the dark on it all.
Only Azura's original daughters know anything in regards to his past, and they try and keep the others from finding out, because they want Mort to remain a perfect father in their eyes.
At least one of the adult kids finds out though, hard to keep them all from town. Perhaps one of them actually lives in the town and witnessed part of Mort being taken into custody, and has since seen the notice about the sentence and when it will happen and so they come home then. They go to Azura all in tears, "You gotta stop it mum, it's not dad's fault don't let them kill him!" This is likely the point at which Azura finds out what's going on, as her girls likely are trying their best to keep it from her, knowing just how much it'd upset her, and they weren't wrong. Azura is...upset. More than upset really, totally distraught and beside herself, but there's nothing she could do you know?
It's not like she can call her brother to intervene as Mort actually did commit crimes, he's not innocent. Not only that, but Mal doesn't rule over the kingdom that Azura resides in, so a King from a separate kingdom wouldn't do much good in getting involved. All she could do is shelter the youngest children and explain to the older ones about the situation, and even after his death, she would keep him alive in their younger kid's minds and tell them the story of how they met and came to be, and about some of his adventures.
Some of their children start to hate Azura for not doing anything, as their favourite parent was their father and she just does nothing to save him? These particular kids probably even attempt to break him out of his holding cell. Just end up really angry, and upset and don't know where to direct that so they direct it at their mum who stands by and does nothing.
She does go and see him, and his last words to her are, "Don't cry my love, a bastard like me doesn't deserve your tears." after a pause adds on, "Look after the kids for me."
She ventures into the village to try and convince them to not kill him and rather give him a non lethal punishment, but she knows while she's doing this that it won't work because as she learned of his past doings, she knows what he did in the past was wrong, but also she knows him as the sweet one she fell in love with over the years and because of that, she tries everything in her power to convince the authorities not to do it.
Maybe in another time and place they would've listened to her testimony, but not this time, as secretly, his death had been planned, his death needed to happen. So they say that she is an innocent forest hermit, and that's why her testimony is not valid, and proceeds with the punishment.
Azura feels horrible for not saving him, not helped by the fact that many of her children partly blame her for not doing enough, but she tries to stay strong anyways, and protect her family just like he wanted her to.
Mort leaves behind a letter for Azura that explains how the kids all need to stay with her for a good while, ideally leave the country, as he knows his old crew mates are likely to come destroy the town completely that took their old friend away, and he won't be able to stop it now that he's dead. As while he was alive, Mort kept the town, and nearby towns, safe from being raided as a respectful thing for an old friend, but once they hear he's been killed they will totally go on a rampage. When the crew comes to burn the town, Azura, weeks in advance has all of her kids come be with her, to escape the town for certain. So even in death he protects them.
After this, she would go back and convince the authorities to allow her to bury him in the meadow, and everyday until the day she dies, Azura will always leave a flower chain on his grave.
When Mort's old crew comes, they chase down every single townsfolk, but Mort's scent is still in the meadow so they leave that place alone, realising that this is where he lived with his mate, and this is where he rests. Tristan, his old captain, meets with Azura and meets the kids, and promises to protect them until the end of time in Mort's place. Nothing and noone else survives the onslaught, they make sure of it.
The crew erect a monument of him in memory and honour with something like "This place is where Mort Denver died, we his pirate family took revenge on the village that once stood here for they killed him in cold blood when he would not fight back...Anyone that builds on this place again will meet the same end. You have been warned." Along with a miniature life story of him. They build a statue of stone of an exact likeness of him and everything, they spend months on it.
The memorial would be covered in flowers, and Azura plants many flowers around the memorial and takes care of them every day.
Azura tries to convince the kids to move into her brother's kingdom for safety's sake because she knows that their kingdom isn't safe anymore and she doesn't want that hanging over her children, especially since she wants them to grow and live their own lives, but can't bring herself to move away from her beloved's grave. She can't force them to live in the meadow with her forever, nor would she want them to.
Around this time one of their youngest daughters has been heavily blaming herself for her father's death, as she is very gothic and wherever she goes is referred to as a witch and she would go along with it because it amuses her, and even her older siblings just go along with it and they purposefully make the forest a tad more creepy in appearance in order to help gear up the family protection, and in the end they had created their own little local legend, and nobody had wanted to risk going into the witchling's woodlands. She blames herself because she knows that due to those rumours, particularly because they had been purposefully spread, their family had become well known to their surrounding area, and so some officials had come and checked them out to make sure they weren't a threat to the crown, as the rumours had become pretty outrageous, and it was decided they were fine, but she feels like that investigation caused them to find Mort.
This is the only explanation any of the family can think of as to why Mort gets discovered now of all things, as he is particularly careful, but this explains it. Little did they know there was some truth to that, the rumours had reached the wrong sort of important people, but said important figures had already been on the look out for powerful beings, so it was really only a matter of time, as those with powers exude more energy than others, and that was something Mort could not hide. It just simply happened faster due to the rumours.
None of them end up knowing this however, that the rumours were only partly to blame, so many of the family including Azura end up feeling awful because they totally had a hand in the rumour spreading as much as it did because they thought it'd protect the family. Some even end up with recurring nightmares of a dead Mort blaming them for it. Of course Mort wouldn't blame them, but in their heads they create this massive guilt which then appears in the form of visions and nightmares.
In particular, Morticia, the gothic girl, has a major case of 'Oops I accidentally killed daddy'. Thus after the pirates have left, this child goes off and becomes an outlaw and in his name starts taking out corrupted nobility, just vanishes one night while the family is asleep. Mort's old pirate family funds her endeavors at times, or giving her a bit of assistance when she almost gets caught and all.
But that does not last for long, as essentially, the kingdom they'd been living in turns into utter chaos.
Turns out the main reason why Mort died was so the advisor, Colette Gislain, of the king of this kingdom could have the body, as she's a necromancer and wants Mort to be a minion of hers. The king agrees mostly because he was already mad due to the medicine he'd been regularly taking, and at that point was essentially more or less this advisor's puppet, may or may not be resurrected himself by this point. For the most part she'd wanted funds and land, to not be disturbed and free bodies to experiment on, or to be able to kill people without justice being dealt to herself.