"Are you asking me to find your corpse?" Bella's mind jumped straight to every horror movie she'd ever seen.
Carina Barbossa blinked. Completely blindsided by that logic.
"Of course not. I don't care about my remains. Let me explain.
I once tried to use secret arts from the Trident of Poseidon to resurrect my father. Calypso interfered. We never reunited. That's the greatest regret of my life."
Before Bella could spiral further, Carina cut in:
"The ritual didn't completely fail. My longing crossed time and space and landed in your era. Or rather—because of your last spirit communion, part of that longing stayed in your time. If you ever meet a woman who looks like me in the real world, please help her. Help her find her father."
Bella frowned. "That doesn't add up. My last communion was three months ago. You want me to look for a three-month-old baby?"
Carina paused. Thought for a long moment.
"Time isn't... linear. It's more like a grid. I can't explain it well. Just know that the girl should be around your age. Maybe a bit older. Definitely not an infant."
Hidden information everywhere. Bella filed it away.
Sounded like some kind of time-related secret knowledge—but Carina clearly wasn't going to elaborate.
"So... how do I find this woman?"
"You think a bunch of pirates know fancy divination magic?" Barbossa cut in, eyes bulging.
No name. No location. Was she supposed to just stumble into this person by chance?
Of course not. Carina came prepared. She handed Bella a compass.
"I made this based on Jack Sparrow's compass. You don't need to know who he is—annoying man, irrelevant. Once you're back in the real world, this will point you toward the girl. Calypso has already noticed her. Please. She and her father are in serious danger."
Bella hesitated. She'd just killed Death. Now she was supposed to pick a fight with a sea goddess?
Hard pass.
Barbossa grinned wide. "Save that father and daughter, and I'll teach you my ultimate technique!"
Ultimate technique? Bella side-eyed him. Every instinct screamed scam.
Seeing she wasn't biting, Barbossa switched tactics.
"You think Calypso will leave you alone? Maybe before, she didn't care. But now? You've made contact with Elizabeth Swann. You think you can avoid this fight?
We are not servants of the Sea Goddess! Not her slaves! The land has borders—the sea has none! Children of the ocean are free!"
Right. So that's where the whole "freedom" thing came from. Ancient roots.
Still, threats and bribes weren't enough to convince her.
What finally did it was Carina.
"Calypso is extremely weak now. The seas today are nothing like her era. She can't enter this world. Her true consciousness can't awaken. This won't be hard for you."
"...Fine. Give me the compass. I'll take a look."
Bella woke from the spirit sea. Looked at the compass in her hand.
Sun emblem on the lid. She flipped it open—the golden needle spun like crazy.
Set it on the table. Needle stopped. Picked it up. Spinning again.
"Huh. Actually pretty cool."
The supernatural stuff from the Pirates of the Caribbean world was legit powerful. Pirate lords sealing a goddess. Immortality everywhere. Voodoo zombies. Blackbeard's cursed sword. Jack Sparrow's compass. All kinds of ridiculous artifacts—though mostly limited to pirate royalty, never seen by outsiders.
Bella had no idea how this compass worked or how Carina had recreated it. But it did one thing:
Find the woman carrying the largest fragment of Carina's lingering soul.
The needle stopped.
Due east.
She set the compass aside, scanned the room, and grabbed a baseball bat from her bookshelf.
This spirit communion was her last one. The Barbossas hadn't just given her a mission—they'd given her rewards too.
Left foot forward. Right foot back. Bat raised horizontal.
Straight thrust. Transition thrust. Charging thrust!
The knowledge was burned directly into her mind through spiritual energy. Vivid impressions. Her body absorbed the technique fast. She focused on muscle memory, turning moves into instinct.
No doubt about it—Barbossa had scammed her. His so-called "ultimate technique"?
Pirate fencing.
How good was Barbossa's swordsmanship? Depended on who you compared him to.
Against Jack Sparrow or Will Turner? Worse. No contest.
Jack Sparrow was like a cockroach—kept getting knocked down everywhere he went, but somehow never died. If he weren't skilled, he'd have been dead ten times over. Will Turner? Besides blacksmithing, swordfighting was literally his only talent. Barbossa was a schemer and a leader, not a duelist.
Still, as the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, even his "mediocre" swordsmanship crushed ordinary pirates. More than enough for normal humans.
Bella practiced until sunset. By then, her fencing matched someone with real talent and five years of serious training.
In modern times, fencing was mostly sport. But it was still combat training—good for fitness, good for digestion, and with enough work, she could be the star of her university fencing club.
Barbossa's "ultimate technique" was useful. Just not world-shaking.
Carina, on the other hand, was generous.
She combined Bella's abilities with knowledge from the Trident of Poseidon and created a brand-new spell just for her.
Including Mind Shield, Invisibility, and Fascination, this became Bella's fourth spell—and her first real offensive one.
Frost Ray.
In theory, it could simulate four energy types—frost, fire, lightning, and sonic vibration—and project them as a ray for long-range elemental damage.