Rowley's Roar #9

For today's blog post, one of the fictional characters from my novels will be sharing a few messages. No, I'm not going crazy. I'm just having a little fun with writing from the perspective of one of my characters, to explain her music.

Without further adieu, please once again welcome Captain Edwina "Roaring" Rowley, who shall be taking a moment to explain another song from an album we're compiling.

Nothing to Mourn

This is it, little itches: we're finally to my account of the final battle against the Dead Queen.

Turns out the genius of Amelia Blackwell goes far beyond machines, because she planned the downfall of the Queen in intricate detail, leading the monster in circles around Junas as the sisters quietly spoke with every one of their friends. Publicly, all of them refused to help, but quietly agreed to meet them in Katuna orbit and Amelia plotted custom courses for every one of them, so they could get there first.

I don't know how they did it, but they even talked The Order of Newts into committing everything they had to that battle. We've talking witches trained for battle, with talents even more broad than the Queen, at least when considered as a whole.

While they led the Queen on that epic chase, always keeping just ahead of her, I limped Glass House to Nuva orbit, where the Queen had left significant resources. That's where my crew repaired and practically rebuilt the ship into her truest form, my weapon of vengeance, sacrificing the vast majority of living spaces to get the death ray to its maximum potential.

That's also where we offloaded most of the crew, because there just wasn't room for them and not everyone shared my sentiments about the Queen. To their credit, however, most of them still helped with the rebuild, because they supported my choice, even if they wanted no part of the actual battle.

That final battle made The Battle of 36 look like a little spat, by comparison, and I guess that's the real truth. That first battle was a pirate affair, but the final battle was something everyone living in Junas orbit had some skin in.

Honestly, you should have been there. You should have seen the sheer masses of star ships, swarming like flies around that eight mile wide block of solid granite, throwing everything they could muster at, yet only barely denting the surface.

Everything from a little fleet of simple fish mongers on up to the entire fey fleet and everything between, but things got nasty when a fleet of ticked-off gnomes showed up, to vent their feelings about the theft of the spell-core from their Ice Palace, Junkshop.

I tell you, those psychotic junk merchants used weapons like nothing I've ever seen, producing blinding flashes of intense light that vaporized half of their own ships, simply because they didn't know the power of their own weapons.

But let me make one more thing clear: we were losing the battle, despite everything we had on our side, because Foundation Stone wouldn't hold still. We were doing significant damage, but the spinning of that ship kept us from focusing our attacks, forcing us to blast four sides of it, instead of just one. That also totally ruined the effectiveness of my death ray, leaving a line round the sides of it, without punching for the interior.

All the while, Amelia and Sakura Grim kept the armada together and focused, despite the fact the Queen kept pulling new tricks on us, the worst of which was some kind of focused gravitic pulse that turned whole star ships into shrapnel that tore into the rest. Then there was her macron cannon spell, which turned the stone of her own ship into relativistic blasts of sand!

She even managed to kill Matron Talbot by reversing a spatial translocation spell meant to deliver some kind of secret weapon, forcing it to go off inside the Matron's ship, bearing a striking resemblance to the gnomish explosions.

The real truth is, we were completely outmatched by her and we barely survived each new spell she invented to kill us. Most galling to me, she even turned my roar back on me, reflecting my bone transduction spell to my own skull.

So there we were, having lost all hope, when I saw the most amazingly terrifying thing I've ever witnessed in my life, which I'll never forget.

At the start of the battle, a star ship blasted its way out of the local Ice Palace, revealing it had been a hidden battleship, all along, but the truly bizarre part was the shape: it was a gigantic sword hilt, but since it had been in literal cold storage, it took forever for that thing to warm up for battle.

However, when it was finally ready, the Goddess of War herself, which the moon we orbited had been named after, rose out of the atmosphere of Junas, a giant woman sixteen miles tall! She grabbed that sword-ship and it produced a plasma blade large enough to do significant damage to Foundation Stone!

Katuna soared through space and joined the battle, taking a direct hand, holding Foundation Stone still for us, while she began tunneling through the hull with the sword her worshipers had forged for her to wield.

That's when she looked across the top of the granite ship and met my gaze, giving me a nod of recognition! That event shook me to my core and served to rally all of us to see the battle through to the bitter end.

I still question my beliefs, even now, because I don't know what to think or feel. I never believed in Katuna before that day, but now I know and I've sometimes found myself praying for forgiveness for my abundant sins, because while I didn't believe in her, she certainly believed in me, based on the way she looked right at me.

Between Katuna revitalized our flagging resolve and the clever work of the Blackwell sisters, we won the day, but even though I'd been a big help, Sakura Grim still took an attack run at me, using her infamous Cherry Bombard.

However, I'd seen that coming and turned my ship invisible as soon as my part was done, leaving an illusion behind, because one Cherry Bombard should be more than enough for anyone.

I'd hoped to get some clemency, some kind of recognition for my part in the battle, but since Sakura had the ear of the Blackwells, I didn't get any of that.

Fair enough, I was there to see the Queen put down, once and for all, so my minimum goals were achieved, but the part that never has sat well with me is the fact all other pirates were given a one-time offer to surrender and receive light punishment. It was a chance to go legit and honest, which was all I'd ever wanted. I just want to make music and perform for crowds. I just want to be me, not the monster I was forced to become!

I never wanted to be a pirate! Yeah, I was good at it, but I didn't choose this life! The Dead Queen and Matron Talbot chose it for me, the first by being an evil monster, while the second could have been more understanding of a young witch that loved music.

That, my friends is a lesson to live by: accept others as they are, because you may just help turn them into a monster if you don't. You never know how close someone may be to the edge and they definitely don't need you pushing them off.

It was so frustrating, hearing about most of the other pirates getting pardons, while the leaders got a slap on the wrist, knowing that same chance didn't apply to me. No, last I heard, Sakura's people began a systematic search for me, because I was the last living pirate and that really sucks.

That, my friends, is why I hate Sakura Grim with a burning passion, even now, years later. She was the only reason I didn't get to taste the freedom I've always sought and what was her reason? Unthinking hatred, based on a pointless grudge, when all I did to earn her hatred was defend myself, followed by signing some space junk.

Is that justice? Is that even right? I don't think so. The Pirate Hunters think they're paragons of virtue, but the truth is: they're just as cracked as the pirates they made their living hunting.

Unfortunately, I also laid the blame for the lack of clemency on the Blackwell sisters, for listening to Sakura, which led to the greatest mistake I ever made, but that's a story for another song...

Here's Nothing to Mourn for your listening pleasure:

Here's a link to the MP3 file, if you'd like to download it.

Nothing to Mourn is copyright 2026, Owen Tyme, all rights reserved, but free for your personal enjoyment. Lyrics by Owen Tyme, music generated by ACE-Step 1.5. E-mail me if you want to use it for something else

Tags: audio, music, roaring-rowley