Chapter Thirteen: The business side of piracy, the grey areas of freedom fighting and the arts of forgery

'We shall be away from notaries and Licensers for many weeks.'

Fran murmured as an aside to her partner as they walked casually down the winding, stony streets of what was left of Nalbina.

She looked up at the small tent where the officially mandated weapons, armour and accessories Licenser had set up his shop, magicked papers and Marlboro inks set out neatly before the officious looking Moogle.

Balthier also cast a lightening quick glance over to the Licenser. She knew that in that one glance he took account of the position of the Moogle's supplies, the spare inks, papers and stamps at the back of his tent.

' Too open. Easy enough to lift the flap at the back of the tent but the chances of being seen are too great.'

' Do you not have your own supplies?' Fran took a moment to linger by the Licensers pretending to pick a pebble from her shoe.

' No, there was no way to safely carry the alchemicals needed to treat the papers, let alone the stencils and inks.'

' Then we must acquire more.'

Fran rested her eyes on Vaan who was talking to Basch, Penelo hanging on his every word and deed.

' If you can pry Penelo from his side that would be a help.' Balthier spoke in light conversational tones, they were both thinking with one mind.

' The Princess is like to be suspicious if you disappear Balthier, her knight also.'

'Then I shall not disappear. I will simply spend a little time talking to the Licenser while we are here.'

Fran nodded once and picked up her steps to meet Penelo and the Captain.

'Balthier wishes word with you, Vaan.'

'Huh?'

The boy turned to look back at Balthier who had stopped to study the contents of one of the traders stalls. After a moment Vaan ambled over to him.

'Is something wrong?' Penelo looked worried and perhaps a mite suspicious.

Fran shook her head, ' No. Balthier had words with Vaan some time ago and he fears he may have been too blunt. He is often times like that and means it not.'

'Oh, okay.'

Penelo accepted the lie with total good faith. It often amazed Fran how easy it was to lie to Humes.

Basch had stopped to watch the seemingly casual conversation Balthier and Vaan were engaged in, the light of suspicion in his eyes. He would be harder to distract.

' Why have we stopped?' Ashe, who had been trudging ahead stoop shouldered and silent, walked back to the group.

' We are in need of provisions, Princess, and Balthier wished a word with Vaan.' Basch said calmly.

' We need to press on.' Ashe argued, though even she sounded less forceful than usual.

'It does no good to go unprepared Princess. We have a long journey ahead of us and we will be away from any large settlements for a good many days.'

Ashe shifted uncomfortably where she stood and then nodded, ' You are right, Basch. I was not thinking.'

' You have much on your mind.' Basch hastened to reassure the Princess, once indefatigable in her zeal, now wilting as the tragedies mounted.

Ashe nodded then looked up at Fran, her eyes igniting.

' Tell me of Archades, what should I expect from the seat of Empire?'

Fran quirked an eyebrow, as Penelo and Basch also focused their gazes and curiosity on her.

Straining her hearing she could just make out Vaan asking Balthier a question, Balthier answering in clipped, incisive tones and then the two drifted out of her hearing range towards the Licensers tent.

If she was to be the distraction she would need to weight her words carefully.

' I can tell you little of the Empire's Capital, I have not travelled there for many years.'

' Why not?' Penelo asked curiously. 'I thought Sky Pirates went wherever they wanted to?'

Fran nodded, ' We have little want to travel to Archades. They look poorly on Pirates there.'

'And yet Balthier seemed to know the route as if by rote.' Ashe raised her eyebrows pointedly.

Fran raised one elegant shoulder in a gesture too graceful to be classed a shrug. This avenue of conversation would suffice to hold their attention.

' We oft walk the Highwaste on business and the Phon Coast has a settlement of Hunters where one may trade goods.'

Balthier had often remarked that Fran had a way of implying more with a few innocent words than he could with an entire dictionary's worth. She put that skill to work now, with the usual success.

' Business? What business can pirates have on the Mosphoran Highwaste? There is precious little to steal.'

Fran shrugged again, amused privately at the Princess' prurient interest in the doings of pirates and her odd assumption that she and Balthier made their living through treasure hunting and thievery alone.

As if there was enough undiscovered treasure in this world of ever curious Humes to accommodate the greed of all pirates; or the greed of Humes in general.

Basch however was watching her with a keener eye, the soldier, eldest of the Humes, knew something of the workings of the world beyond palaces and city walls.

' The Highwaste is a popular route for smugglers and counterfeiters, Princess. Much of the black market trade comes through the Highwaste from Archades and beyond and back up again.'

' You are racketeers as well as thieves?' Ashe asked scandalized, her voice loud enough that a few listless itinerate workers come to repair the Nalbina palace looked over incuriously.

' Who's a thief?' Vaan bounded over, eyes bright with energy and grin huge.

Balthier walked over at a more sedate pace, the provisions sack slung over one shoulder did not look any heavier but the slight nod he gave to her indicated that their procurement of licensing materials had been a success.

'Something wrong?' He inquired mildly.

' You had some business with the Licenser, Balthier?' Basch asked mildly.

Fran did not frown, she had suspected that Basch had an inkling of what they were about, but the knight, while steeped in honour, was no fool. He would understand that sometimes turning a blind eye was for the best.

' I was enquiring as to where we might find a Licenser on the route to the Hunter's Camp on the Phon Coast, we are like to meet traders on the route and it would not do to be without licenses.'

Balthier's response was cool, unhurried and confident. Vaan for his part maintained a look of innocent faced nonchalance as implacable as marble.

Conversation moved on then, the Princess badgering the two pirates persistently about the route and most particularly about Archades.

All things considered Balthier handled the uncomfortable topic of conversation well; no doubt their successful work of thievery having something to do with his good mood.

Four days later they had reached the clearing in the Highwaste where the caravan's gathered. The Highwaste had been as difficult for all the party to travel as expected.

The Worgan ambushes and the Seeq pirates who used their spells to enrage and confuse had left their mark on the morale of the party. The humidity and changeability of the weather, from thick wet heat to torrential showers, helped to drag down spirits further.

' I hate this place.' Penelo whispered vehemently plopping down to sit next to Fran as she hammered tent pegs into the ground.

Vaan who was assisting in preparing the party's tents looked over at her, ' You don't hate anything.'

' Yes I do. I hate it here.' Penelo pulled her fingers through her loosened, sweat and rain darkened hair, freed of its tattered ribbons.

' It is not far now until we reach Salikawood. It will be easier travel there.'

Penelo looked over to Fran, tugging at her padded light armour to reveal the huge bruises that covered her left shoulder. ' Really?'

Fran nodded and handed Penelo a potion for her bruises.

' You should have told someone of your injuries.'

Penelo shrugged, then winced, ' It's just bruises. I can't even remember how I got them.'

After a moment as the three of them finished with their tents Penelo frowned, ' Fran where is Balthier?'

' Hey, yeah, where is he?' Vaan looked about indignantly,

' He's supposed to be helping while Ashe and Basch get washed up.'

Fran, who in truth had not noticed Balthier slip away, though she suspected she knew where he had gone and for what purpose, shrugged.

'He will return presently.'

Unsatisfied with this answer Vaan jumped up and ambled over to Balthier's discarded travel pack, rooting through it suspiciously for something or other.

' Hey! He said I could help.' Vaan straightened up looking annoyed. ' I got all that stuff for him after all.'

'Help with what?' Penelo asked confused, but Vaan was already running off in the probable direction Balthier had gone, calling out to him.

'Fran?'

Fran could but shrug once more, the moral vagaries of what Humes considered right and wrong, criminal or law abiding, held little interest to her.

' There is more to being pirate than wings alone. It is necessary to have the keys to open the treasury even if one prefers to pick the lock.'

Penelo was frowning at her, clearly not understanding. Fran jerked her head in the direction Vaan had gone.

' Sky pirates need many skills to survive, Vaan is learning a skill you would do well to learn also, if you wish to be his partner.'

After another few moments Penelo got slowly, hesitantly, to her feet and then set off, at a quick trot, after Vaan calling out to him and Balthier both.

They were all three still nowhere in sight when the Princess and Basch came back from washing. It having been agreed that no-one should go to wash alone in case of fiend ambush and Basch not trusting Balthier or Vaan to guard the Princess while she bathed.

' Fran why are you alone?' Basch looked around at the empty camp, almost annoyed. ' No member of the party should be alone in this place.'

Fran looking over Basch's head thought she saw the Princess indulge in a very undignified eye-roll behind her knights back. Freshly washed and in clean clothing the Princess seemed in brighter moods.

' I am well.' Fran replied with equanimity.

' And the others?'

' Well also.'

Basch quirked an eyebrow at this obvious evasion, while the Princess frowned.

' They are well but where are they?'

Fran studied the Knight, speaking in very neutral tones.

' We have a need for Licenses to acquire weaponry. There are no Licensers between here and Archades. Therefore we must make our own way.'

Basch sighed, ' I thought as much.'

His own voice deceptively mild, truly Fran thought, there was more to the man than Balthier, in his youthful arrogant way, gave credit for.

' That day in Nalbina when Balthier took Vaan aside, it was for this purpose, to acquire the means for us to make 'our own way'?' His voice dry and resigned.

' Vaan had the needed skills and a willingness to learn new ones.' Fran agreed evenly.

Basch sighed once more and nodded. ' Tis done now and I cannot argue the logic, though it grates on me that he would use the boy.'

'What?' Ashe was looking from both Fran to Basch confusedly, growing irritated. ' What has Balthier done now?'

Basch looked Fran in the eye sharing with her for a moment a mutual humour for the circumstances they found themselves in.

Fran covering for her thief and counterfeiter partner, Basch left to explain necessity to his Princess, still too young to understand the grey areas of life in which pirates and sometimes renegade Princess' must reside.