I am going to kill her.

I am going to pull her off her own bridge, and strangle her with my own hands.

"Just what the hell have you been doing, Sweets?" I ask her as I watch my cargo bays continuously filling with nearly pure silver. Castle responds back.

"we have been sitting stationary, doing nothing but repairs and refinging the minerals you gave us."

"how am I supposed to offload this much silver without raising flags?" I ask the pair on the other ship.

"I don't care." Sweets said to me, obviously annoyed. "I just hope you can distract enough officials for long enough that we can dump half as much gold as we are giving you, and a few tons of synthstone."

"Synthstone!" that claim had Synthstone in it?

"Not much." Castle comes across. "only about 4%, which still comes up to about twenty six imperial tons."

"I think we need to discuss a profit share here." I tell the girls.

"I agree, however Castle does have the recording of you saying she could clean the claim." Sweets tells me.

crap.

"If you think getting rid of that much silver, without sparking a riot, is going to be difficult, imagine what I have to do. and I really don't want her to use the synthstone the same way she used it the last time her storage was nearly full."

"how did she offload it last time?" I ask, but Sweet's tone told me that I may not want to know.

"Ammunition." Castle announces without any aprehension.

"do you realize how valuable Synthstone is right now?" I nearly shout. to which I get a numerical response from Castle.

"2,877.4 credits per troy ounce; and when using it as ammunition, I can only offload 50.5kg maximum per round; so at today's prices each round would be worth about 4.6 million credits."

okay, I agree, Sweets has a bigger headache than me right now, especially hearing those numbers.

"alright, the only place we can offload these ores, is probably the one place that I don't think you want to go."

"And just where is that?"

"a little known planet, that nobody has ever heard of, called Tal Oz, its only the Capitol of the kingdom, and home of the royal family."

"Shit." I hear her mumble.

"look, be glad I took this call in my private quarters, otherwise half the crew would know who you are right now Sweets. I don't know why you left, and frankly, its none of my damned buisness. but, even I could tell that you don't want to be anywhere near that place."

"thats an understatement." she sighs. "I'll tell you a part of it, but there are parts that are national secrets, so I can't reveal them, even to you, Boss."

"I understand, I am getting a partial story, and I can't ask questions about stuff I don't quite get."

"Close enough." she switches to a video feed, and I can see both her, and Castle's proxy sitting on the bridge of the captain's yacht. "Since you know who I am, I don't need to explain that part, however, what most people don't know is that all members of my family, the night after they turn twelve, we are required to enter a room in the royal palace that has the largest known single piece of synthstone in the kingdom, and touch it."

"okay, I don't see how that has any bearing." even though I say that, Castle's eyes are wide, and she is stairing directly at Sweets in surprise.

"Are your family fracking idots!" Castle nearly yells. "That piece of Synthstone is nearly two hundred kilograms, and polished smooth. does your family know what that kind of magical power shifting through that stone can do to a twelve year old human's body?"

"I wish I was kidding, both of you, but I am not. anyway, I did end up going through the ceremony, and it did effect me, I can't say how, none of us are allowed, but suffice to say, I know I had help escaping my mother's plans after the change. if I had stayed, war would have been inevetable, with me being little more than a slave to Mother's machinations." I could tell she didn't want to tell me this. "there is a way for me to return, and not get captured, but it would also require me announcing that I left specifically to reaquire castle for the royal family, as well as reenter the family. Father has made it clear that its not safe for me to do so within the year, and i need to wait."

"I will protect you from that." I hear castle say, as a black orb appears over her hand. "you are my captain now. anything that effects you, effects me. I choose my battles. I choose this battle is worth winning. and I need to clean up some cargo space." she grins.

"your classification as a ghost ship will change." I tell the two I am talking with.

"I know, but I will get to see my son again." she says. this time, both me and Sweets are fully looking at her. "Ark, his crystal structure may be based off of me, but his proxy, and directly his body is from this proxy being raped. its the only way the empire could reproduce sentient ships. they never actually developed the technology, they stole it. Ark isn't a brother, he is my son."

"Okay, so now that we are in agreement to return, are we going to attempt the incognito, or do I need to tell my crew who we are escroting back to Tal Oz, and we consider the cargo pods full of silver as the payment?"

"Lets do this publicly." Castle announces immediately. Sweets flashes a dirty look at her. "What? it has the highest probability for success. going in incognito, in every simulation I can manage, results in the Davidson's Crew's ship getting sunk with zero surviors as the guards will see it as an extortion ploy and sink them without question. also, your mother's desicions in the past five years tell me that she is not the kind of person to ask questions when a short sighted goal is in front of her. only the threat of pissing me off wil curb her even a bit, and to do that, she has to see me."

"Sweets." I get her attention back on me. "I have to agree with Castle on this one. Queen Harmony is almost the exact oppisite of her namesake."

"it comes from marrying into the family rather than being raised in it." she says.

"she may have been a noble on Tal Oz, but she was from a low house. her ambition was bred into her, and cultivated repeatedly as she grew. Mom and Dad grew further apart as I grew up, but I could tell that at one point there had been a loving relationship between the two; but I doubt there is much of a sign of it anymore."

"Alright, give me a couple hours, I will tell the crew that we are heading to Tal Oz."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I turn off the view screen, and Castle's eyes are boring into me.

"Captain, Changes. Now."

"I don't want to...."

"I don't care what you want right now." I shouldn't have unshackled her emotions. "if the wrong part of your physiology changed, then you are a danger to even me. I have to know." she seemed to instantly calm herself, and continued. "to do that to a twelve year old girl, in my mind, is inexcusable. At that age, even in properly trained, there will still be some changes. I need to know what they are; and most importantly, I am a sentient ship, that means I have to actually trust you in order to perform properly, and since I am your ship, I can't tell anyone what you tell me. not even your mother or father."

I get it. I really do. she could be just as scared as I am.

"it changed three things." I started. "the first thing, I use light magic to hide, I am constantly wrapped in it." I undid the magic, and Castle's expression changes.

"Dear gods." she touches the tip of the translucnt membrane coming out of my back, forming one of four wings that are known only to be on fey. I only found out a year ago, that the wings grow based on how much mana I have stored, as well as the larger they are the faster that I can regenerate any reserves I have built up.

"The second change was that I gained affinity to Holy, Light, and Water magics. I could only use Wind and Space growing up, but not well enough to call them affinities. I can't ues darkeness, void, or fire at all; and corruption takes me twice as long to cast as most other people."

Castle nods as though this is expected.

"And the third change?" she prods.

"I don't know for certain, but I am pretty sure I am sterile. since the night I touched the stone, I have never had another period." I felt horrible, knowing the royal line will end with me. castle's hand seemingly appeared on my stomach, right below my belly button. The grey liquid of her nannites surrounded my waist, it felt nice, and warm, compared to how I thought it would look.

"Well, you aren't sterile, but your biological code has changed." she says.

"huh?"

"you won't ever have a period. your body changed to where it would only release an egg if you conciously want a child, so there won't be a period, as the egg isn't wasted. however, there is a sideffect of this, any child you have will be born with a massive mana pool, to the point that when they turn sixteen, their mana capacity would rival, or surpass, mine."

she seems to decide something on the spot, and pushes my platnum hair away from my face, and forces me to look into her azure eyes.

"Candice Brighton Tal Oz; I will protect you." she says plainly. but something tells me she means more than that. I feel something happen to my wings, and pain shoots through my body. I can barely breath through the sudden onslaught of pain. and just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, and seemed only my imagination, if it werent for the knowledge of every system aboard Castle that now flowed through my head.

"Full Recognition of Captain Complete." she said, and then smiled. "this is the first time since I became this, that I have had a fully recognized captain."

"What do you mean, 'became this'? I asked.

"The name at my birth was Christina Alexandria Sierra Tiffany Leann Erica Brighton Tal Oz. King Terrance Brighton Tal Oz was my uncle. I touched the stone on my seventeenth birthday, and became Castle that day. I was called Castle, even as a child." she smiled as though she was glad she could finally tell someone. "The act of fully recognizing you as my captain, opened the last part of my memory structure in the crystal room. so I now remember everything, even the lies that were told around my alleged construction. since my hull basically just appeared one day."

"so that means you are my great-aunt?"

"Great, Great Aunt, yes. and because of that confounded stone, I can't age. I am stuck at my seventeen year old appearance."

"And the Arms?" I ask tinitively

"The stone changed them into these. I now have the knowledge on how to use the nanites to change them, may I"

"Castle, its your body, you decide if you want to or not."

she nods, and within a few seconds the grey nanites spread over her arms, solidify, and disappear. Leaving behind two arms that appear completely human, except for the pink veins wrapping around her hands, wrists and forearms as an unkepmt vine around a pillar. it suited her.

"Alright, lets go piss off your mother." she grins.