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Author: Guede Mazaka
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jack/James/Jacques.
Feedback: Whatever you care to give.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Sometimes changes don't show up until a little while after they happen.
Notes: Uses Chinese, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Latin; translations on request, or go to Babelfish. Myth/folklore references from all over the place. For firesignwriter> and permetaform.
***
He was dreaming.
He was drifting.
He was sail
i
n
g.
Zhang He yŏu hŭn duo dė chuan
The Spanish Main's full of pirates, sir.
Here there be dragons
lúng draco
comme voler comme vivre comme mourir
Wings, white and huge and beautiful. Shading himself from the sun, claws hooked to mist.
ching gĕi wŏ men yú
Black pearl beneath his chin, rolling along his back. It takes warmth from him and turns it to water.
The Pearl!
La Perla Negra
La perle noir
Twisting into small cramped space. Hinge at his back, knife at his front and slice--
Incense and flood of white opalescence.
Ice. Frozen.
Terra Incognita
She's angry. When she's angry she locks up the hunt-animals, and the shaman must go to comb her hair, for she has no fingers. She gave them to make the seal, the walrus, the whale, and that is why she cares about us. Why she corrects us when we do wrong. The shaman is our spokesman, and he must stay with her until she spills out her reasons.
Combed the water out of her hair, and that is the river.
Laver et oublier tous les péchés.
el agua es vida
Aqua Vitae
Brandy? It's rum, mate.
je bois, tu bois, nous buvons
wŏ hé jing.
et maintenant tu es mort
So return me to the sea. We all come from and return to the sea. Go out with the tide
mare clausem mare liberum mare nostrum
Ship afire, while the women wail and the men drink to the life lived. Push it off shore and let it go into legend. Ashes to water, dust to foam.
Don't close it in. Don't take it away. Don'tdon'tdon't-
you are condemned to be hanged by the neck until dead
Rope scratching into the neck, eyes watching cold green ice. Color of the Arctic water, set into brilliant snow-pale face. Wood beneath the feet, but only for a moment longer.
No!
odi et amo
peccavi
Peccavi. Peccavi. Peccavi.
Thrice to declare, thrice to renounce. Three knocks for Death and three blasts for Judgment.
Hold out his hands and hold up the sky. Hold up the feet and tear the rope away, gather limp body to chest and feel the breath start again. Step off Via Dolorosa and into the sand, the water.
wŏ aì nĭ
te amo
eu te amo
je t'aime je t'adore
ultima ratio-I love you
And he woke, sweat still freezing his skin and clutching hands over Jack's scarred arm. The other man was stiff as death, but suddenly relaxed and murmured sleepily before James could react.
"You were dreaming," Jacques said. He was sitting in the corner of the bed, head leaning back against the wall. "It comes with the sea."
"No. I was traveling. Sailing." James looked at the long silky length of Jack's back, silvered with half-light, and then craned around to kiss Jack's shoulder. "Learning."
***