PotC Fic: Fortune's Child (1/1)

[corrielle]

Title: Fortune's Child
Author corrielle
Characters: Jack
Summary: Jack wants to peer into the future, but the Universe is coy.
Rating: G
Author's Note: This is a slightly longer version of a fic I wrote for the "Soundtrack Listing" writing challenge at potc_land. The assignment was a pick a track title from one of the three soundtracks and write a fic about it.  I chose "Wheel of Fortune" from DMC.


Contrary to popular belief, Jack Sparrow thought a great deal about what was to come and how he might get there with his skin intact and his conscience free of any truly egregious offenses.

Even so, there were times when the way before him was not clear.  Thirteen years Davy Jones had granted him, and he had scant time left before payment came due.  He could almost hear the rush of sand through the glass, tumbling faster with each passing day.  And so he sailed for Turkey on the heels of a rumor that he might unlock the Dutchman's secrets there. Who he sought, or what came after, he did not know.

It was in times like these that Jack looked for guidance of the supernatural variety.  He had seen too much to scoff at seers and fortunetellers, and knew enough of the world to tell the charlatans from those truly touched with the Sight. He'd found at least one in every port he frequented.

In Cadiz, her name was Carmena.

He had paid her in silver, and now she sat across the table from him, frowning at the cards before her.

"That doesn't look pleasant," Jack said, gingerly poking at the first card she laid down.  From his fine horse, the figure of Death watched with hollow eyes as gaunt-faced peasants and well-dressed nobles alike fell before Him.

Carmena rested her fingertips lightly on the card, and when she spoke, her voice came from very far away.  "I see a cliff, a coffin, and a crow… you are in the coffin, but it is not your own."

"And is that all the illumination you can provide?" Jack asked dubiously.

She shook her head, annoyed that Jack had never had as much respect for the journey beyond the veils as she would have liked. "It is for me to see, and for you to know what it means when the time comes," she snapped.

"And this one?" Jack pointed to another card she had drawn from the top of her well-worn pack.

She smiled.  "It means you rise and fall on the Wheel of Fortune…"

"As do all men," he reminded her, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"The Wheel turns faster for you than for most," she insisted.  "It takes you to greater heights, greater depths.  You have your Pearl back, I hear?"

"I do… If you'd like to see her…" He gestured toward the dock where the Black Pearl was berthed. Carmena was far from young, but she retained a dusky, fierce beauty.

His advances did him no good. "As much as you love your ship, you must lose her to gain her back again, and trust those who will betray you to bring you back from where you do not wish to go," she said, in that same oracular tone that brooked no argument.

"That makes less than no sense," Jack grumbled.

"You do not pay me to make sense.  You pay me to tell you what I see, and that, I have done." She gathered her scattered cards into her hands.  "There is nothing more to tell."

"Nothing about a key, then?" Jack asked glumly.

"No key."  She shook her head, and her features softened. "Just remember… the Wheel turns.  Its turning may cast you down, but it will always raise you up again.  You are Fortune's child, Jack Sparrow, and she will not desert you."

Though he faced an uncertain future and fled an angry sea god to whom he'd promised his soul, Jack smiled. It was good to know the cards said Luck still favored him.