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Her father was calling to her again.
“Aria! Damn you, child, where have you got to?”
She was not going to reveal herself to him. Not now. Not again.
He was not going to force her again.
She would show him.
“Aria! If you do not come out from wherever you are hiding, so help me, girl, your mother will be beaten ‘til all she knows is pain!”
It was a bluff. He would beat her mother, that was certain, but he did not know where his wife was either. Aria had seen to that.
Her heart pounded against her chest as though it would explode. She remembered everything she had read. She remembered all the master had told her. She would not let her fear get the better of her. She would hold her fear at bay. She would not be his victim again.
“Aria! Damn you! Come out right this moment! Do not think to disobey me, little girl!”
He was getting nearer. Her heart beat harder and faster - if that were possible. She would not let him beat her. Not again. He was not going to get the best of her this time. Her father would never maltreat her again.
“Aria! Aria!”
He was so near. He did not know. He was not expecting her to be there.
He passed below the immense limb of the tree. He did not think to look up. Why would a girl of thirteen climb a tree? Girls, he believed, did not climb trees. Aria had counted on his ignorance. She had counted on his arrogance. Her fear evaporated; her breathing and heart slowed. He was the weakling. She knew he was a coward.
Months at a time he was gone. Whenever the Dauntless made port, after days of boozing and whoring, he would choose to return to his home. And it was never long before he beat his wife and molested his daughter in his usual drunken state.
After a couple weeks of torment, he was gone to sea again, and Aria and her mom would recover from their wounds - until he returned again.
Aria’s mother had been bruised and battered for days after his last visit. She was a frail woman, and he savaged her. Aria had gone to a larger town farther inland than normal to seek salves to help heal her mother better.
Aria was unfamiliar with the town of Okrasham and found herself soon lost. She wandered about for a time until she had met a wizened woman named Master Enswai.
She was ancient, stooped, and haggard. But she was keen. Her appearance belied her incredible inner strength, and it was she who found Aria before harm might befall her.
The old woman had shared many secrets. She taught Aria about the ways of the empire, and about the history of the other nations outside, in ways the girl had never heard in school. Master Enswai instructed Aria in a great many secrets, showing her many wonders she would find nowhere else.
When it was time for her to depart, the master sent her with several books, and secret instructions that would help her along the way.
She had read. She had studied. And she prepared.
When Aria learned of the return of the Dauntless, she put everything in place. She persuaded her mother to take shelter in a lean-to she’d prepared in the forest and told her she would get her when it was safe.
Aria had waited for him to arrive, and when he stumbled in, she let him get a good look at her. Then she ran into the woods, knowing he would be slow to keep up, and went to await his finding her.
Now he was wandering beneath her. Just below the place she waited, the thick limb of the eldest tree on the edge of their meager village.
“Aria! Where are you, child? Show yourself or matters will only be worse!”
She shifted her feet. He froze. Just as she hoped, he looked up.
With all her might, Aria leapt upon him. The immense stone, nearly as heavy as she, pulled her with incredible speed towards his upturned face.
His eyes first registered anger. Then, in the seconds he had remaining, they flashed to fear.
The rock was helped by her weight, and she let go of it as she felt it impact him, hearing a loud crunch and feeling the blood splash as she landed on her shoulder and rolled away, ignoring the pain of her impact with the ground.
She completed her somersault and turned, certain of her victory.
His head hung oddly off his neck at an unnatural angle. His skull was crushed, and his eyes were open...but all life was gone from them. Aria’s father, her greatest tormentor, was dead.
She moved towards him, feeling neither fear nor joy at his passing. All she felt was a sense of her own power and the freedom of knowing she would never have to fear anyone nor anything again.
Aria was certain that the only remaining feature of his lifeless eyes was the fear.
<->
She awoke with a start. As usually happened when this dream recurred, Aria Knight needed to take in her surroundings and recall where and when she was. She was no longer a thirteen-year-old girl. She was now a woman in her late twenties - and the captain of an Imperial Navy galleon.
She was in her quarters at the naval base, awaiting the completion of the repairs on the Talon.
Aria took a moment, recollecting her thoughts, allowing herself to fully awaken. Why had she dreamed of her father again? It had been a long time since she’d recalled his last day.
It had to be connected to all that had happened and her receiving command of the Talon. Likely, it was also tied into her education from Master Enswai.
That, Aria concluded, had to be it. Usually the memory of her father’s end was connected to the master’s mysteries.
Master Enswai was known to no other that Aria had yet encountered. She had visited the town of Okrasham once again just after she entered the service of the empire, but not only could she not find the ancient woman - nor the home she had occupied - but neither had any heard of her.
Yet it was the teachings of the incredible and mysterious woman that had set Aria upon the course of her life and had led her to know that she could have everything she dreamed of. No ambition was too great for her to achieve. No plan impossible.
A lifetime later, the secrets the ancient master had shared with her still helped Aria to shape her life.
The dream only recurred when Aria needed reminding of Master Enswai. It was a signal, a warning. Aria would have to hold on to all she knew, for she would need it in the days ahead.
The master’s secrets would be refreshed in her memory, and Aria would apply those that she needed to continue onwards into the glorious future she envisioned for herself.
She would prepare for whatever challenges were coming. She was being warned to do so, and she would always heed that warning.
It had never failed her before, and she knew it would not fail her now.