AGAREST LEGACIES
By Greg Wong
Chapter 2: Enhambre
"Ugh. I think I'm going to die," Ellis heard Rex moan miserably.
"Oh, please. Seasickness just builds character," she said affectionately, stroking her husband's hair. In her other hand she had conjured a small ball of light to illuminate their room. There were no windows, so magic was their only source of light.
Hmm. Maybe she'd ask their son if she could borrow a jar or two of the beetles.
"I'll trade character for not dying," Rex groaned.
After a peaceful—and very satisfying—night, she'd awoken to to the sound of her husband retching forcefully into a pail that was apparently in the room for just that purpose. She'd tried to use her healing magic to soothe Rex's stomach, but it had had absolutely no effect. She remembered something similar had happened back in Enhambre when they had been sailing in one of Hildegard's ships. That time it had been Winfield,Vira-Lorr, Ganz, and Sharona who had been laid up with upset stomachs. That time her healing magic—as well as the spells from Plum and Reverie—hadn't mattered to their stomachs one whit, either. When she'd explained that magic wasn't going to solve the problem, Vira-Lorr had declared that her future sight had returned and that she foresaw her own demise from seasickness.
She smiled at the thought as she sat by Rex, watching his breathing. After a few moments her husband rolled onto his back and looked at her.
"Well, I think it's improved a little. I don't feel the need to... to... hurk."
She shifted out of the way as Rex lunged for the pail and threw up into it again.
"Okay, I lied," her husband gasped. "Talking. Bad."
She didn't reply to that, just shifted hands to massage Rex's neck and shoulders. Her husband sighed in appreciation, closing his eyes. She snuffed out her illumination spell, and a few moments later she heard Rex lightly snoring. Good, he'd managed to get to sleep again.
She laid her cheek against Rex's foreheard. Sweaty, but normal temperature as far as she could tell. Just plain old seasickness, which would be overcome eventually. She gave her husband a light kiss on his forehead and quietly left the room. After a second thought she went back inside to grab a light cloak.
She made her way towards the upper deck, passing Matthias, Harper, and Samuel in one of the passageways. Matty was enthusiastically explaining to the two officer cadets a method to weaponize a type of hairy caterpillar using fruits and a jar. The two midshipmen were either genuinely interested or were excellent actors.
Oh, gods, what had she unleashed on this poor ship?
Snorting, she emerged topside. It was only a few hours after dawn, and the breeze made it chilly. Thanks goodness she'd thought to bring a cloak. She walked along the port side of the deck until she caught sight of Murmina leaning on the rails near the forecastle. She made her way to the younger woman. Murmina had her own cloak wrapped around her, a harpuia-tailored one that left her wings free.
"Murmina! How are you—"
She stopped when Murmina turned to her. The harpuia looked absolutely dreadful. Murmina's face was haggard, there were dark bags under her eyes, and, unless Ellis' eyes were playing tricks on her, the other woman's cheeks had a greenish tinge to them.
Oh, dear.
"Murmina? I think you should lie down."
"Tried that," Murmina said in that quiet, unhurried voice she was used to. "Didn't help." The harpuia leaned down, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. Amazingly enough, Murmina's color improved a bit. "The fresh air is actually helping. I just feel terrible, not like I'm going to die." Murmina paused. "Vashtor suggested it."
She blinked when she heard that. Unless she'd misheard that, Murmina had just said she and Vashtor were rooming together.
Of course, she wasn't going to draw attention to it.
"I think I'll try that with Rex, then," she said. "He's not feeling well, either. Maybe after he wakes up."
Oh, she was just too curious about this, but how to go about it? Hmm... Ah.
"Speaking of Vashtor, where is he?"
"He's at the other end of the ship, speaking with your knight escorts that you came with. Davien and the others."
She nodded. "I see. I have a feeling that they'll get along well." The tall, broad-shouldered, black-haired Davien with his sharp blue eyes developing a friendship with the stoic gurg would make an interesting sight.
"Better than me and Vashtor, you mean?" Murmina asked, turned to look at her with a slight smile.
Here eyes widened in response. "Was I that obvious?"
The harpuia shook her head. "No, not really. It's just..." Murmina shrugged, ruffling her feathers. "Well, seemed like a good segue. I've wanted to talk to someone about it, you especially."
"Me?" she asked, puzzled.
"Well, aside from Zerva, Vira-Lorr, and Winfield, you've known him the longest. And he didn't kidnap any of the other three for a month."
She nodded in understanding. "There's that, I guess. What did you want to talk about?"
Murmina didn't say anything. Then, "You know, now that I brought it up, I have no idea."
She couldn't say that she understood, not honestly. It wasn't her family that Vashtor and his forces had wiped out. But she could easily see that Murmina desperately did want to talk about this, but didn't know how. Murmina had never been an emotional one. Whether she had always been like that or if the attack had changed her was anyone's guess, but it didn't change the fact that Murmina didn't know how to go about this.
Ellis had raised four generations of Raglans. She'd like to think she knew how to get people to talk.
"Well, I notice he's not dead," she said to the harpuia.
Murmina was silent for a while. "After that battle in Dandalugan, Rex's words didn't really register for me. The only reason I didn't put a bullet in Vashtor's skull was because was adamant in standing between me and him."
"But later?"
"Later, I had time to think, and Rex's words were true. At least, that's how I saw them. If I did give into my hatred and kill him in cold blood—he was already defeated, with no hope to win against Rex and the others—what was going to happen? I guess there could have been a chance that my hate would have just faded away. But I don't think so. I think it would've just simmered in my heart until I found something else to hate, and the cycle would continue."
"And you'd just tell yourself it a was revenge you lived for, not hate," she said.
"Yes, exactly. I'd just convince myself that I was doing this for my fallen comrades, when in reality I'd just be doing it for myself." She saw Murmina straighten up, still staring at the ocean. "Don't get me wrong. I'm a harpuia, and we're no strangers to war. If a dangerous enemy threatens us and our allies, we'll put it down. Hard. If Rex hadn't been strong enough to best Vashtor, I'd have looked for every opportunity to put a slug into heart. But Rex was strong enough, and Vashtor was helpless. Anything beyond that wouldn't be defense against a deadly foe. It'd just be cold-blooded slaughter.
"I'll admit, for a long while I wasn't convinced of Vashtor's sincerity about repenting. I just saw the monster that had destroyed Uttara Kulu, and the only possible explanation for his begging forgiveness was to save his own hide. Maybe buy enough time to betray you again and kill you later on."
"But you saw how he fought when he was beside us," she said to Murmina. "If he had really only been thinking of himself, or if he had been less than sincere about trying to make amends for what he'd done, he wouldn't have fought as hard as he had against Summerill or the dark gods."
Murmina nodded. "That was part of it. But it wasn't just how determined he fought. It was his..." She saw the younger woman frown, as if she couldn't find the right words. "I was going to say 'his heart,' but you can't see that, not really. But I guess you can get clues. Hints. I could see it in the set of his body, in his eyes, on his face. There was no malice in in him. No hate. Yes, he could be completely ruthless. We all saw how merciless he was whenever we fought against the other dark knights, or the garvels, or whatever other creature that attacked us. It just... duty, I guess. Determination." The harpuia paused. "Sincerity."
She didn't say anything, just waited for Murmina to continue.
"If I could have seen evil and hate in Vashtor, maybe I could have convinced myself to continue hating him. But he had none of that inside him. No hatred. No malice. Ruthlessness, yes. Fierce anger, yes. Raw aggression, yes? But evil? Not really. Not even if I tried to convince myself otherwise. And that got me thinking, if this person that I hated so much didn't harbor the same hatred, where did that leave me? I wasn't hating to counterbalance Vashtor's hate. I'd just be hating for the sake of it, and that would only make me an ugly, hollow person on the inside."
"You mentioned Vashtor's sense of duty," she said to the other woman after a bit. "You know the kind of influence Summerill held over the gurgs, yes?"
Murmina nodded. "Yes, but even Summerill's will wasn't that strong. He couldn't have somehow controlled Vashtor to do what he did. Not with the willpower Vashtor has. Vashtor would have had to willingly do what he did, including leading the attack on Uttara Kulu. But you're right. Sumerill did have a lot of influence on him. It's just that it was less some kind of mind control and more along the lines of Vashtor having pledged loyalty to Summerill, and he wasn't the person to break an oath."
She hadn't known that. Well, the part about how seriously Vashtor would take an oath was well known to her. In a roundabout way, it would explain his betrayal; he wasn't double-crossing them, but rather he was just staying true to his original pledge to Summerill. The part, however, of Vashtor not being coerced mentally, was new to her. She had assumed Summerill or Chaos had warped Vashtor's mind so badly that he had been literally forced to do their bidding.
"That I found out much later, though," Murmina continued, "when I asked Vashtor about it directly."
"How long have you two..." she asked, trailing off. "Been together" just sounded obtuse, somehow. How could she put it...?
"Been together?" Murmina said. Heh, of course. "Pretty much ever since Chaos fell. The two of us helped the other harpuia rebuild Uttara Kulu. In his case, literally, with his own two hands. I guess being able to lift three times more than the strongest harpuia helped with that. But when the commanders decided he was more useful for more than manual labor, were assigned together as vanguard scouts to the outlying areas in Aegisthus.
"The nature of the job meant we spent of lot of time together. You know us, though. Neither of us is the talkative type, especially with what we had between us. But, at least in his case, I learned more from how he acted than how he spoke or what he said. How he fought, how he interacted with townspeople, with the harpuia, that all told me volumes more about him as a person than anything he could have possibly said."
Murmina suddenly chuckled to herself.
"Still though, I still considered myself his... I don't know, which leash handler. His watcher. I even told him, on several occasions, that the moment he went back down the path of evil I would hunt him down, put my pistol into his mouth, and pull the trigger. And every time I said that, he would just nod at me in acknowledgment. At first I thought he didn't care, or that he was underestimating me. It took me a while to realize it: if Vashtor ever did go back to darkness, I wouldn't need to shoot him. He'd pull the trigger himself."
Now that was telling of Vashtor's character. There were times, in her darker thoughts, when she wondered how far she could trust the gurg, especially now that she had a son. But now, if Murmina could say these things about him, she really had nothing to fear.
"So I guess the final question is what we are to each other. We're comrades, yes. He's entrusted his life in my hands when we skirmished against the monsters, knowing full well that I didn't have any obligation to keep him alive. I've also placed my life in his hands, even though there was a chance he could let me die, leaving him free of me. But we've been through more than any other set of teammates could say they have.
"Friends... maybe. I had friends back in Uttara Kulu, and I didn't know them a quarter as well as I know Vashtor now. We're... closer than that, I think. So, in the end, what does it make the two us? I honestly don't know. More than comrades-in-arms. More than friends. What comes after that?" Murmina shrugged. "We're certainly not like you and Rex." Murmina continued in a perfect deadpan. "Speaking of which, I think Vashtor and I are in the room adjacent to yours...and the walls aren't soundproofed.
What did soundproofing have to do... with...
Oh, gods.
She felt heat rush into her cheeks.
"Oh. Er. Well. Uh. Sorry?"
"Oh, don't be," Murmina said with a rare laugh. "I was took sick to fall asleep, anyway, and your husband's still as handsome as ever."
She laughed as well though her cheeks still felt like they were on fire. "I won't disagree with you there."
Still grinning, Murmina said, "So, yes. More than comrades. More than friends. Not quite lovers."
"Yet," she interjected, taking a retaliatory poke back at Murmina.
This time Murmina flushed red a little, which actually made her look worlds healthier. "Yet," the harpuia conceded reluctantly. "Don't expect anything like that soon, if ever. There's still too much of a... wall between us. I'll never, not even in a thousand years, forget the sight of him as he and his goblins and garvels came over the walls to destroy my home. Killing my friends and comrades." Murmina shook her head. "But I can forgive him." The harpuia turned her head to look at her, and she saw a faint sheen in the other woman's eyes. "Have forgiven him. I guess only time will tell what comes next."
She moved a little close to Murmina and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That's how it usually is. Rex gave us that opportunity."
"And that's something else I owe your husband for," the harpuia said softly. The younger woman smiled again. "Thank you so much for listening, Ellis."
She returned a smile of her own. "Thank you so much for sharing."
"So... what are these again?" Matthias heard Samuel ask him.
"Flicker beetles. They're bugs that light up. Watch." He tapped the bottle a few times, and the flicker beetles flashed. The light faded in and out, of course, but it was just enough light to see by.
"So... why bring them?"
"Well, Harper told me that fire is real dangerous to a ship, so bringing a torch down into the 'bilge' area would probably be super dangerous, so I brought these guys instead."
"That actually kind of makes sense," Harper said.
He and the two midshipman had spent the morning looking around the ship. Well, they were giving him the tour. They probably knew this ship inside and out. But still, it was cool to have someone to explore with. Afterward, Harper said he'd show him how they took windspeed measurements and how the rigging worked.
But first, the bilge.
They given him a short explanation. It was the bottom o the ship, which was below the waterline. It was probably going to be wet down there. That didn't make since too much. If the inside of the ship was wet—with water—wasn't that, like a sign that the ship was sinking?
Well, he'd find out.
They tiptoed through the door—hatch—and walked down a short flight of iron steps into the bilge area. He held up his bottle of beetles and saw that the midshipmen had been lying. It wasn't wet.
It was flooded.
"Um," he said eyes wide. "Isn't that bad?"
"Nah, that's normal," Harper answered. "It's below the waterline, so water leaks in sometimes." The bosun had explained to him yesterday that a ship's hull was sealed with tar or pitch. Guess tar and pitch wasn't perfect for keeping the water out.
The blond cadet pointed to a couple of thin pipes to led up into the deck above. "Those lead up to the bilge pumps. When the water level is high, some sailors work the pumps above and suck the water out and back into the ocean.
"Oh, that's kind of cool," he said, moving the jar a bit so he could see the pipes better.
"Cool?" he heard Samuel say. Well, yeah, we're in the part of the ship that's all dark and damp. Of course it's going to be cold in here."
Oh, man, no one understood him! "I meant... never mind. I'll tell you later."
He took a step down, wanting to get a closer look.
"Wait, don't," he heard Harper hiss as the blond grabbed him. "It's slippery and—"
It was slippery. Yeah. With a yelp, he and Harper tumbled down into the water. It was only like half a foot deep, but gah! It was only half a foot deep... but the water felt oily, smelled terrible, and tasted worse. He was still gagging on the gunk when he heard Bosun Buckland's voice coming from the hatch.
"Mister Samuel!"
They all froze as the bosun took a few steps down into the bilge.
"Ah, good morning, sir."
"Uh... good morning, Bosun."
"Good thing I found you, sir," Buckland said. He noticed the Bosun was entirely focused on Samuel and hadn't take a glance at him or Harper. "The captain is addressing some correspondence and requested some assistance. She asked if one of the midshipmen would be available for help, sir."
"Oh. Um. I'll be right on my way, Bosun. Thanks for telling me."
"Of course, sir. By the way, sir, have you by any chance seen Master Raglan or Midshipman Harper anywhere above deck, have you?"
There was literally no way the bosun hadn't seen them. So...
"Er... no, Bosun, I haven't seen Master Raglan or Midshipman Harper above decks."
"Well, I suppose I'll have to continue looking for them then. Although, I must say, if Master Raglan or Miss Harper were to be... frolicking in the bilge area and soaked in bilge water, it might be prudent for them to get cleaned up in my quarters, since it's nearby and empty, and has a spare set of clothing on the off-chance that midshipmen might get their uniform wet. All speaking hypothetically, of course, Mister Samuel."
Oh. He got it.
"Right, hypothetically, Bosun," Samuel said. "I'd, uh, better attend to Captain Yshae. Um. Master Raglan and Midshipman Harper were exploring the ship. They might be nearby your quarters in, er, ten minutes, maybe."
"Excellent suggestion, sir. I'll check there a couple of minutes. By your leave, sir?"
"Yes, Bosun. Please carry on."
Buckland climbed the stairs out of the bilge, with Samuel right behind. And, hey, they didn't close the door.
He looked back at Harper, who, like him, was completely drenched in really icky water. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
Yes, the Bosun was definitely a cool guy.
Still laughing enough that his side hurt, he fished his jar of beetles out of the water—good thing it floated—and started to climb the stairs out of the bilge, a giggling Harper right behind him. Hopefully he could get dry before Mother and Father—
Waaaaait a second.
Blinking, he looked back at Harper.
"You're a girl?"
Harper stuck her tongue out at him.
Okay, Matthias had decided. Even if Sir Davien had told him that all women were delicate flowers who deserved nothing but respect from a man. Even if Father had said the same thing. Even if he loved Mother and would never, ever do anything to be mean to her.
But no, girls were evil.
He and Harper had gotten into the bosun's room without anyone noticing. Inside were two towels, two washcloths, and a small bucket of clean water. The midshipman went through a small chest at the foot of the small bed and came out with two sets of clean clothing.
He was reaching for a towel and cloth—he guessed that the water was for them to sponge themselves off—when the girl slapped his hand away.
"What?" he yelped.
"Me first," the blonde said.
"But..."
"I'm the officer. I go first." Harper looked up, like she was thinking for a moment. Then, "Also, because I'm a girl. You also have to face the wall."
He started to protest again, but then he realized it. Girls were evil. Grumbling, he crossed his arms to try to keep himself warm and faced the door while Harper cleaned up.
Evil, evil, evil.
"All right, your turn," Harper said to him after a few minutes. He turned, and the midshipman tossed a clean washcloth into his face. Harper snickered.
Evil!
He started to strip off his shirt, then remembered. "Hey, you turn around now."
Harper chuffed, but spun around, her back to him.
He scrubbed himself down with the washcloth and the water, keeping a close eye on the girl in case she tried to do something dumb like turn around or throw something at him or whatever. Thankfully, Harper didn't, so he was able to get himself cleaned—kind of; the bilge water totally sucked—quickly. The clothing was the thick pants—dungarees—that the sailors wore and a white cotton shirt. A little big, too. Maybe they were spares for Samuel?
Oh, boy, how was Mother going to react to this? Maybe he could say some rats of improbable size had eaten his shirt. Or something. That sounded dumb.
"Okay, I'm done," he told Harper. "So, uh, what now?"
The girl turned, shrugging. "I guess we wait outside until the bosun 'finds' us."
"Makes sense," he said, looking sidelong at Harper. Looking at the midshipman now, especially when she didn't have her hat on, he wondered how he didn't figure out she was a girl. She was smaller than Samuel, for one thing, and her lips were maybe a little... puffier. Longer eyelashes. Harper's hair, though, wasn't girly at all. It was all clumpy and messy, and he'd guess it was like that under her hat even when she hadn't been doused in bilge water.
Humph. Harper was still evil.
Rex shielded his eyes against the setting sun as he finally caught sight of land.
Twelve days had passed since their departure from Aegisthus, and they had reached Enhambre. Kilik had explained that they were here for a brief hull inspection of the Hildegard and to pick up some "auxiliary personnel," whatever that entailed. There were also another pair of ships—smaller, one-hundred-fifty-foot sloops as opposed to the two-hundredy-twenty-five foot galleon Hildegard—the Star Of Nillea and Fortuitous Winds. Together, the three ships would be exporting materials to the other continents on the way to their destination, Fendias, Graccea, and finally, Lucrellia.
He couldn't wait to dock, honestly. He'd managed to get his stomach in order after the first day, but... ugh. He supposed he wasn't cut out for sea life. The constant rocking of the boat as it crested the waves was driving him insane. To be fair, though, the fresh sea breeze was refreshing, but he had had that back on the cliffs of Roaring Cove, where the ground stayed properly still. He stepped back from the rails.
Uff.
He dodged cleanly out of the way as Matty, Harper—whom Matthias had unenthusiastically revealed was a girl, to his and Ellis' amusement—and Samuel made their way past, obviously on some mission or another. The two older kids seemed to have adopted Matty as their official mascot, which he was happy for. Their son hadn't grown up with kids his age around, with the closest thing to a playmate being Sir Davien, who was twenty-two to Matthias' nine.
The crew of the Hildegard also seemed to like his son. They had especially taken an interest in the jars of beetles, which were hung up in netted bags in the interior passages to provide safe light within the wooden ship. Kilik had even expressed interest in the possibility of doing the same thing to the other ships, in lieu of more dangerous torches or lanterns.
About that time Matty had launched into an enthusiastic explanation of how long the beetles lasted, the best jars for them, and the ideal leaves to feed them to make them glow brightest. To his credit, Kilik had seemed genuinely interested about the whole thing.
"Count Roaring Cove?" a voice asked from behind him.
He turned. It was Yshae's steward. "Yes..." he blanked on the name. What was it, what was it? Oh. "Seafurt?"
"Sir, the Captain wishes to inform you that dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes, in her stateroom. Would you like me to find and inform the countess?"
He shook his head. "No, don't worry about that. I'll find my wife myself, thank you. Although, if you could, if you see my son you could tell him I do expect him there, clean and on time."
A smile tugged at the steward's lips. "I will do that, sir."
With a nod, the crewman departed.
With one last look look at approaching Enhambre, he went to look for Ellis.
Rex hadn't had to worry about his son, in all honesty, both for being on time for dinner and about the trip in general. Both Buckland and Yshae had told him Matthias was practically bugging the crew about the workings of a ship. He was frankly surprised how complex sailing was, since, as far as he could tell, Matty hadn't run out of things to learn yet. Showed how little he knew about traveling across the oceans.
The midshipmen had even gotten Matthias into fishing yesterday. The ship sometimes used it to supplement their supplies but Matty had wanted to try for the fun of it. The captain had seen no problem with it, so Harper and Samuel had abducted Matthias—or maybe it was the other way around?—and rigged the fishing equipment. It wasn't simple fishing rods, either. The poles were as wide as three of his fingers and taller than he was. The fishing line was more like a cord, and the hooks were only slightly thinner than his pinky. After baiting them with some salted beef, the poles had been swung out to trail behind the ship and placed into thick brackets.
He and Ellis had watched for a bit, mostly to make sure nothing amiss happened, and partly to see how Matty enjoy the experience. They hadn't needed to worry; the two midshipmen seemed to know exactly how to get everything set up, with the help of a couple of sailors. Matty had watched expectantly off to the side for a few minutes.
He'd laughed to himself at that. He'd taken his son fishing by a small inlet near the cove once. Matthias had quickly grown bored with tortuous task of waiting for a fish to bite and had wandered off into the forest to poke at insect nests and climb trees.
So he hadn't been surprised when Matthias lost interest with the fishing poles and started looking for something else to occupy him. That's when Midshipman Harper had started up a long lecture on the different kinds of fish that were in this part of the ocean, the best methods for catching them, and how best to cook or preserve. Matthias had clamped onto that, and he had been personally amazed about how much Harper knew about fishing.
About fifteen minutes later there'd been a tug on the line.
After a few moments, he'd seen that the three kids wouldn't be able to land it. He'd quickly ran towards the three of them, leaving his laughing wife behind. It took about ten minutes and the help of another sailor, but they had managed to land the fish, a massive, hundred-pound tuna that was bigger than Matthias was.
His son had stared at the wriggling monstrosity, wide-eyed, even as some more sailors had appeared to haul it down to the galley. Midshipman Harper had been looking at it hungrily.
Two guesses what they were having for dinner tonight.
So here they were, seated at a large table in Captain Yshae's cabin, waiting for dinner. The two midshipman had actually managed to get Matthias here only a few minutes after he and Ellis had arrived, and reasonably groomed, too. Along with his family, the two midshipmen, Kilik, Murmina, and Vashtor were also present. It had been a challenge to get Vashtor's huge frame seated properly, but they'd managed. Davien had been invited, but the knight had declined.
A moment later the captain entered, and as was apparently the custom, they all rose until Yshae had seated herself.
And then the steward served... tuna. Tuna steaks, tuna fillets, and a tuna salad made from flaked fish and some of the rare fresh vegetables the ship had stored. It was actually quite good, and Ellis even asked how what the recipes were. His wife and Bertram had split the cooking evenly back in Roaring Cove.
They initially talked about business and schedule. Kilik explained that the journey from Enhambre to Fendias would be significantly longer than the trip from Aegisthus to Enhambre, so the ship would be in port for a few days as supplies were purchased and loaded. The sailors were even going to be given a couple days of leave before the ship set sail. However, they were going to release anchor tonight, outside the bay, before entering the port at Nillea early in the morning when the tide rolled in.
While talking, he noticed that Harper hadn't said a word, but was quietly devouring her food. The girl was being polite, not shoveling it down, but Harper was clearly enjoying the fish.
"Is tuna your favorite, Midshipman Harper?" he asked.
Harper looked up quickly from her plate, eyes wide in surprise.
"No rank in the mess, Rex," Yshae said to him smiling.
He cocked his head at that, question in his eyes.
"Basically, dinner is an informal time, and we don't use our ranks," Kilik explained. "So here, I'm just Kilik, she's just Yshae, and they're Samuel and Harper."
"Although," he heard the captain add, "with that said, it's usually respectful to append 'sir,' or 'ma'am' to your seniors." Yshae had said that while looking at Samuel.
"Right, ma'am," the boy said with a smile.
"Well, it wouldn't matter one way or the other to me, at least," his wife said. "To be honest, being called 'Countess Roaring Cove' was always a bit weird for me. A simple 'Ellis' was always more than enough for me."
He nodded. "Same as my wife. I've always ever been known as Rex. No more, no less."
"I don't think I've ever heard anyone ever call me mistress of ma'am before," Murmina muttered, scratching her hair. "If anyone did I'd be honestly shocked."
"But the crew does address you as 'Dame Murmina' or 'Sir Vashtor,' don't they?" Yshae asked, suddenly serious.
"Well at first, they did, yes. I eventually convinced them just 'Miss' would be fine. I'm not a knight."
"And neither am I," Vashtor finished.
"Hmm," Yshae said, leaning back in her chair. "You could have fooled me, Vashtor. But, technically you are both knights. I know a little bit about how things work in Uttara Kulu, and a vanguard scout is equivalent to a lower tier Aegisthusian knight, more or less."
He saw Murmina shrug. "Whatever the case is, it still feels odd."
"Still..." Yshae said.
"Just for a quick explanation," Kilik said, "it's not that we're trying to make the crew make you feel self-conscious or uncomfortable. It's a matter of discipline and respect. Ships at sea are dangerous places to work in, and every crewman has to listen to his bosuns, officers, and captains. Lack of respect for superiors can literally destroy a ship."
He understood exactly what Yshae was talking about. During the final days of the war, he'd been in close contact with—and sometimes commanding—contingents of Aeisthusian troops. During a battle, soldier couldn't hesitate, or second-guess his commanding officers. Doing so could lead to his death, the deaths of his comrades, and in extreme cases, the loss of the engagement. There was a reason discipline was so tight in armies, and, it looked like, on ships as well.
"But going back to the original question," Yshae said, shifting the conversion quite well, if he had to say so himself, "Harper here grew up around fish."
"Yes, sir," Harper said as he turned back to look at the girl. "I grew up in a fishing village on an isle south of the Enhambre archipelago. Our village was good at what we did, so were never hungry, and we sometimes caught enough extra to trade with the other islands or the mainland. So I grew up learning about fish, fishing, and everything else related to them."
He gave a little laugh at the little blonde's explanation. "Well, I guess it's the taste of home, then," he said. "Although, if I were you, and grew up around fish, I'd probably have grown tired of them by your age."
"Well, maybe, sir, but I mostly get that from my mother. You see—"
"Belay that, Harper!" Yshae snapped, leaning forward on the table. Harper went silent.
All conversation stopped. He—and everyone else—stared at the dark elf. What had he said to get that reaction?
"Yshae, please," Kilik said after a few tense moments. "This is Rex Raglan we're talking about. Look at his wife. His child. His companions." Kilik gestured to Ellis, Matthias, Murmina, and Vashtor in turn. "Hell, even his lineage."
And that just confused him even more.
With a loud sigh, the captain leaned back, rubbing her temples, eyes closed. "You're right, Kilik. I wasn't thinking. It's just that..." Yshae shook her head. The captain opened her eyes and said to Harper, "Continue."
Harper blinked, looking back between him and the captain. "Um, aye, ma'am." The girl focused on him. "Well, sir, the reason I like fish so much is that I'm half cat."
Wait, what? He stole a quick glance at his wife, who looked just as confused. Harper must have seen the confusion on his face, because the girl's eyes widened in understanding.
"Oh, sorry, sir. I mean I'm half cat. Cat neocolom."
And now he went from confused to completely surprised.
"Don't sorry, sir, it surprises a lot of people, too, since I don't have, um, a tail or cat ears, but..." He watched as Harper opened her mouth and pointed. Now that the girl drew attention to it, he could see that her canines were noticeably longer than a normal humans. "Also," Harper continued after closing her mouth, "some people say my eyes light up a bit when it's dark and I face firelight at a certain angle."
Now that was something he hadn't expected. He'd guessed Harper's gender a few hours after meeting the midshipman—he and Ellis were still amused with how that had escaped Matthias' notice for so long—but being neocolom would never have have crossed his mind. He regarded the girl a little more carefully. Maybe it was just him imagining things, but it also seemed that the pupils in Harper's bright green eyes seemed a little more oval than a human's, too.
"Please, forgive me for the outburst," the captain said. "It was out of line."
"But I think I know why," he heard his wife say from beside him.
Ellis was alluding the to Yshae's obvious dark elf heritage. He'd never seen it firsthand, but both Ellis and Vashtor had told of him the prejudice—and sometimes outright hatred—dark elves face all over the various continents. His grandmother, Lavinia, who had only been half dark elf, had faced that discrimination in her own city.
Neocolom were generally accepted, but that feeling wasn't universal, and bigotry against them turned up here and there. He remembered a few inns that had refused renting a room to Qua, all those years back, for no other reason that she had large ears and a puffy tail. If Harper could pass off as a human girl, the captain had probably thought it would be best for her welfare.
The captain just shook her head.
"That's right," Harper continued. "Everyone in my village was kind, but some of the other villages and the towns on the mainland didn't like my mother, or my father for marrying her."
And that sobered up the mood, if it wasn't already before.
He glanced at his son, who was looking, wide-eyed, at Harper. He didn't know what Matthias was thinking. The revelation of Harper's gender had thrown Matty for a loop for a bit, but he'd recovered from that. He didn't know how his son was going to react to this latest news.
Matthias opened his mouth to speak. He almost spoke up himself, worrying that Matthias would say something that was going to ruin the great friendship he had established with the two midshipmen.
A touch on his arm. He closed his mouth, turning slightly to look at Ellis. His wife shook her head slowly, all the while smiling in that loving, tender way she did whenever she was musing about their son.
He turned back to face Harper. Matty had just finished asking something about Harper's eyes. The girl just nodded, and he caught a look of apprehension on the midshipman's face. She, too, seemed worried about what Matthias would think, if Matthias was going to reject their friendship because she was half neocolom.
He smiled to himself. Of course Ellis was right. Why did he even worry? He knew his Matthias, the son he and Ellis had raised.
"Okay, cool. So do you think if I waved the jar of flicker beetles in front of you, that your eyes would light up, too? Because that would be awesome if they did."
He barely kept himself from laughing as Harper blinked in shock, her jaw dropping open. Then the girl frowned at Matthias, lips pursed.
"You dummy." He saw Harper's mouth arch into a little smile as she said that.
"Girls are evil," Matthias mumbled.
And then everyone started to laugh.
Matthias huffed as he carried the bunch of bananas towards the dinghy. Harper was being bossy again and making him and Samuel carry the fruits while she sat the tree, whacking them down with a machete.
"Isn't this enough?" he heard Samuel yell up to Harper. The girl just grinned and continued hacking.
The Hildegard had landed in Enhambre yesterday, in Nillea. The captain had given the sailors "shore leave," or something, for two days until the ships were loaded and ready to go. That also meant Samuel and Harper were free, too. Well, technically, Samuel had said. They still kind of had to follow and help the captain, but today—the second day at port—Captain Yshae and let them free until the night. Since Samuel and Harper had grown up around here, they'd plotted to visit a small, nearby island to the south.
Since exploring new places was awesome, he was tagging along. Of course, Mother and Father didn't want him wandering alone in a strange new place, so they'd told him to stay close. He generally did what his parents asked of him—well, kind of—but then he realized it would be actually okay. He wasn't going alone, after all!
So he'd left a note by his parent's bedroom, gotten dressed, and ran down to the beach where the two midshipmen were. Samuel had borrowed a small boat from a friend of his family, and they rowed for about an hour to the southern tip of the small island.
The island was nice. No one lived here, according to Harper, so if there was anything interesting to take, no one would miss it. So here they were, about fifty feet into the forest with the banana trees.
Harper chopped down one last bunch—that made four—and carried it to the waiting boat, which they'd dragged onto the sand—"beached"—and tied to an old tree stump. Together, he, Harper, and Samuel dumped the fruits into a small chest in the back of the dinghy. He'd never eaten a banana before, so he'd asked how to eat them, but Samuel had told them they had to be a little more yellow before they were good to eat, after which you had to peel it, or something. Oh well, he could wait.
They walked along the beach a little further, and found something that Harper called a tidal pool. When they looked inside, they found it was full of sea animals. Harper and Samuel pointed out fish—baby cod, eels, gobies—and weird looking things like urchins, starfish, anemones, and barnacles. There were also shellfish like mussels, abalone, scallops, whelks, limpets, shrimp, and these, wide, armored looking thing with lots of legs, pincers, and beady eyes on stalks, which were called crabs. Samuel and Harper were excited about those.
It was amazing, honestly. Back at home there'd been tide pools, too, but the water was usually cold and hard to see into, and the things living there hadn't been nearly as interesting.
Harper ordered him and Sam to go back to the boat and pick up the second chest, as well as the small bailing bucket. Samuel started to argue that, no way, it was time for Harper to do some real work, but by then the girl had already started rolling up her dungarees, ignoring them.
So, grumbling things about bossy girls—which was so true!—Samuel followed him back to the boat to grab the stuff.
When they got back to the pool, Harper was nowhere to be seen. Huh? Where'd the girl go? He set the chest down and moved closer to have a gah!
He yelped and stumbled to the side as a fish came flying out of nowhere and almost smacked him in the face. He overbalanced and fell onto his butt in the sand. Harper poked her head up from the pool, look at him, sniggered once, and bent back down.
He scowled. Next to him, Samuel picked up the flopping eel, whacked it on the head with the spine of the machete, and tossed it into the bucket. He heard a splash, and suddenly another eel came flying of the pool, along with a cod. He actually managed to catch the eel, only for it to wiggle out of his hands. He chased it along the beach while Samuel smacked the cod.
Gotcha! He grabbed the eel and threw it to the other boy, who caught it, fumbled it, killed it, and put it in the bucket. That went on for another ten minutes as Harper batted fish to them and he and Samuel threw them into the pail.
"How does she do that?" he asked Samuel as more fish rained down.
"Well, she's a cat and a fisherman, which makes her like a... super fisherman," Samuel answered. Then the other boy called to Harper, "Full!"
The rain of fish stopped. Harper's head again appeared above the lip of the tide pool as Samuel lugged the bucket over and splashed some water into it.
"Okay! Shellfish!"
This time all three of them got into the pool. Samuel and Harper started yanking various shellfish from the rocks. He followed their lead. Man, some of the—oof—critters were really stuck on there good. He managed to pry off his first mussel, but by then the midshipmen had a handful of their own.
Aw. He didn't want to be the slowpoke. He turned back to look at the water and spied a crab that seemed to be looking at him with its googly eyes. He reached his hand towards it, then stopped.
The crab had a hard shell, and pincers. Hard plus pincers would equal ouch.
Slowly, he moved his hand to the rear of the crab. It didn't move. With a quick movement, he scooped up the creature from behind and clamped down on it with his thumb. The crab waved its pincers around helplessly.
He noticed that Samuel and Harper had stopped their collecting and were looking at him.
"What?" he asked.
Samuel laughed, and gave Harper a little shove on shoulder. "See? I told you he'd be smart enough not to get pinched!"
He stuck his tongue out at Harper, who just rolled her eyes at him. Humph.
They went back to their hunting, and got the chest filled up in less than an hour. Harper was practically drooling over their catch.
Right. Kitties. Fish. And, apparently, mussels and crabs.
They hauled the chest and bucket back to the boat. He looked up at the sun. Hmm. A little past noon. If they left right now, they could get back to town, get the fish delivered to the cook on the ship, and still have a couple of hours to look around town before Harper and Samuel had to report to Captain Yshae. Yeah, that looked like it could work. He mentioned it to the two, and they all decided it was a good idea. Awesome.
They started to push the boat away from the sand when Harper suddenly jerked her head up to look toward the treeline up the beach.
"Harper?" he asked.
"Something's watching us," the girl said, frowning.
Right as the words left Harper's mouth he heard a crash from the trees. He jerked his head around to look, and saw two people sprinting towards their boat.
The first was a bot who only looked a few years older than Samuel, with hair a shade lighter than Father's. The boy had a heavy rucksack strapped to his back and a large sack thrown over his shoulders. The person behind the boy was a wiry, dark-skinned lady in shorts and a sleeveless top. And, oh yeah, she had bunny ears coming out her head. A neocolom?
But the thing is, he didn't know what they wanted. Father always said to be polite, but at the same time to be careful. Almost without thinking, his hand closed on the handle of the sheathed machete. He didn't draw it or show it, but he did make sure it could be freed quickly. He gulped, his heart beating a little faster. Father and Sir Davien had taught him basic swordsmanship but—
"Move! Faster!" the running boy shouted at them. "Hurry!"
"Wait!" he shouted back "Who are you? What do you wan—"
"They're gonna eat us!" the neocolom lady wailed.
"Is it wrong that I'm worried about Matthias?" Rex heard his wife ask.
"No, not at all," he replied. "I'm worried, too. Not too worried, since Matty's a smart kid, as are Samuel and Harper. But you're right, having that boy out of sight for so long is just... odd."
In the morning he and Ellis had found a note outside their apartment door with Matthias' messy scrawl. The two midshipman and he were going to explore on their own. They'd debated going after Matthias to keep him close, but eventually they decided there wouldn't be any harm in letting Matty's curiosity run its course.
It wasn't unpleasant, actually. He was able to have a date of sorts with Ellis, which he hadn't the time—or privacy—for in the past decade. His wife hadn't seen Nillea in almost thirty years, and he had never been here himself, so they wanted to some exploring of their own. They weren't completely alone, since Sir Davien and the knights were shadowing them from a respectable distance, and they kept running into Murmin and Vashtor, who were also venturing around the town together themselves. The town was also crawling with Enhambre Transoceanic crew and personnel, and they caught sight of Buckland, Yshae, and Kilik on several occasions.
He jerked to a stop as Ellis, who he was holding hands with, came to a halt.
"Sweetheart?" he asked.
"Just a few minutes, dear," his wife murmured distractedly, letting go of his hand. Ellis made a beeline for a large shop that had several women's garments display out in front. After stopping to finger the material of a brightly-colored vest, Ellis disappeared inside.
Good grief.
Resigning himself to his fate, he took a seat on a wrought-iron bench that was placed outside the the building. Ellis wasn't a materialistic person, but when she did manage to find a shop that interested her, she'd vanish for hours.
He sighed, and was debating entering the store to at least keep Ellis company when he heard footsteps off to the side.
"Rex," he heard Vashtor say.
"Vashtor," he replied, rising from his seat and offering his hand to the gurg. He and the taller man shook in the arm-forearm grip that was the common form of greeting in Graccea. He noticed a glaring absence. "Where's Murmina?"
Vashtor pointed to the shop Ellis had entered. He snorted. Women. It figured.
"Ellis?" the gurg asked.
He also pointed to the shop.
"Well, I suppose if they're going to spend their time there, I could show you a place that might interest you," Vashtor said.
He almost jumped at the opportunity, but, one, he didn't want to seem so pathetically desperate, and two, while he found the idea of browsing women's garments mind-numbingly boring—even with Ellis—he also didn't want to leave his wife behind.
Oh...
"Sir Davien?" he called over his shoulder.
"Milord, my companions can watch over the Countess while I accompany you." He laughed inwardly as he realized Davien wanted to flee, too. "Although I don't think it will be needed. The town is orderly enough, and even if there's a problem I am sure the Countess and Dame Murmina can take care of themselves."
Well, that settled it, then. Point of no return, etcetera etectera. "All right. Vashtor, lead the way."
They set out east of the town squad, he and Vashtor side by side with Davien trailing behind by a few paces.
The walk was mostly silent, since Vashtor had never been talkative, and he himself wasn't one to bring up inanities. He looked at the gurg out of the corner of his eye. He always wondered that Vashtor was thinking. It never showed on the man's face, that was for sure.
Maybe it showed in Vashtor's dress. The gurg was apparently done with armor, since now Vashtor only wore simple black leather trousers and a black short-sleeved shirt of woven cotton or wool. The ensemble was completed with a heavy black, hooded cloak, black leather boots and a baldric where Vashtor mounted his massive longsword.
Well, at least Vashtor still did black.
Interestingly enough, though, the gurg's baldric wasn't leather, as most were, but instead made up of a series of thick metal links, like a sash made of mail. Odd look.
He squinted when he saw a satchel underneath the cloak, partly open. He caught a flash of blue fabric.
Curious. If it wasn't black for Vashtor, it would be red. Blue, never.
What had he said about inanities? Well, he was throwing that out the window.
"Never thought you would be one to accessorize with blue, Vashtor," he said with a smile. The gurg's eyebrows rose in surprise, which wasn't something you saw often. Then the moment passed and Vashtor's expression returned to neutral.
"It's not mine. It's for Murmina."
If wearing blue was Vashtor never did, he couldn't even fathom what the buying of gifts was. In the—admittedly short—time he'd known Vashtor, not once had the gurg ever gifted something to someone. It wasn't because of unfriendliness or rudeness, it just wasn't Vashtor.
He left it at that. He didn't want to pry any more than he had, but the pale man pulled the object out of the bag. It was a long scarf, navy blue, without any tassels or extra decorations on it. It looked like there were some reinforcing patches of blue-dyed leather sewn along the edges at regular intervals. Vashtor offered it to him, so he hefted it. The scarf was light, yet had a density to it. And, despite its relative thinness, it felt like it would be very warm. He handed the garment back to Vashtor, who put it back in the bag.
"It's difficult for harpuia to clothe themselves," Vashtor explained. "It's usually cold when they're high up in the sky, so they have to keep warm. However, they can't layer on too much clothing, since it would be extra weight for them to carry and the bulkiness might impede their movement. Their clothing can't be too loose, otherwise it would billow in the wind and tangle in their wings. On the other hand, it also can't be too tight, since it will restrict their wings' range of motion. A scarf like that is very practical. It can be tightened to keep their neck and jaw warm while they're flying, and easily loosened for comfort when they're on the ground. In dusty conditions they can wrap it around their mouth and nose to block the grit. It can also be used as a makeshift belt or sash if they need to carry more equipment,or an emergency sling in case they injure themselves."
Okay, things made sense now. It was a completely practical piece of equipment for a fellow comrade. Nothing strange at all.
"Also," Vashtor said, hesitating for a brief moment, "it goes well with her hair, doesn't it?"
Okay. Never mind. Scratch that last. Things were suddenly stranger.
Vashtor didn't seem to notice as he stopped walking, staring, as he tried to wrap his head around that. Then his brain caught up and he took a few quick steps to catch up with the gurg.
"Vashtor," he asked, "You knew my great-grandfather, right?"
"Correct," the other man replied. "My connection with the Raglan line began with Ladius Raglan, and continued with Thoma, Duran, and you."
"Right," he said, nodding. "Murmina never knew any of my ancestors, did she? I was the first Raglan she ever met."
"You could argue that she met them for a few weeks when they were brought back to this plane to evict the gods from the continents, but otherwise yes, you'd be correct."
"So she really wouldn't have much of a personal reason to request leave to see the monuments being erected in Lucrellia."
Vashtor didn't say anything for a few moments. Then, "Yes, you would be right."
They continued on for another few blocks, silent. The last topic didn't exactly lend it self to further conversation, that was for sure.
"She also never told them," Vashtor said suddenly.
He cocked his head, not understanding.
"Between the time of Chaos' fall and our commission as vanguard scouts, I was helping with the reconstruction of Uttara Kulu. Many of the harpuia who were helping with the rebuilding, and many of the new soldiers, had had relatives and friends in the fortress when it was destroyed. I'd personally led the attack that killed them. Killed many of them myself personally." Vashtor paused for a few heartbeats. "Not once did she tell them. She could have, and they would have in all likelihood have killed me, with the death of their friends so fresh in their minds. Murmina would have not have violated the promise she had made to you. Yet she didn't say a thing"
Vashtor looked thoughtful for a few moments, which was just as unusual as the surprise he'd seen earlier.
Someday, when they had more time, he should talk with Vashtor. He didn't know the man as well as his ancestors did, but that didn't change the fact that they couldn't have freed Agarest without him.
He couldn't ever hope to understand what this new, changing relationship between Murmina and Vashtor was, but from what little he had learned, it sounded like it was moving in a positive direction. And that made him glad.
"Ah, we're here," Vashtor said, coming to a stop.
His eyes widened in surprise. It was an armory, set up next to a smithy. Through the shops windows he could see all matter of armor, swords, spear, axes, and anything else that was metal and sharp.
"Well, I guess I can forgive my wife," he mused. I have a feeling I'm going to spend as much time in here as she is going to be looking at dresses."
"Wait, what?" Matthias asked as the neocolom and boy reached their boat. "They're gonna what?"
"Eat us!" the new neocolom yelled. "We have to run! Float! Whatever!"
"What are you—" he started to say, when another crash from the treeline made him look away from the strangers.
Eight things came into view. They were big, probably as big as Vashtor, and looked like huge, staring, unblinking eyes, as big as his head, surrounded by shadowy mist or fog. The eyeball creatures just floated there, by the trees, as the boy and rabbit neocolom shoved the boat into the waves. Then, all together, the eye monsters started gliding down the beach towards them.
Okay, he kind of got what the lady was saying. The five of them piled into the boat. He quickly grabbed the paddles, tossed one to Samuel, and started heaving with everything he had. They were about twenty feet out when the eyeballs reached the waterline and stopped. Phew. Looked like they didn't want to get wet. They were safe for now.
"Don't paddle out too far," Harper, who was by the front of the boat, said. "We've got a lot of weight, and the waves are are starting to get choppy. We'll have to stick close to the island until we're close enough to Nillea."
Ah, that made him unhappy. They had to go around the island—they were on the south end—until they moved far enough north that they could head directly towards where the Hildegard had docked. He looked back towards the land. The eye-things were floating at the edge of the water, following them.
Creepy.
"Well, at least we're safe for now," the new boy said. He heard him sigh. "Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves. My names's Fer. I'm a nelth, if you were wondering."
Oh, a nelth. He kind of knew about them. They were small and looked young. Well, until they looked old. Or something. But in any case, it probably meant Fer was older than he looked.
"And I'm Qua," the neocolom said.
"Matthias," he said, huffing a bit as he rowed.
"Samuel."
"Harper," said the girl.
He saw Qua blink, nose twitching. Then the rabbit neocolom lunged closer to Harper, causing yelps as the boat rocked a bit. Qua sniffed again, then started combing through the blonde's hair with her hands.
"Eep," squeaked Harper.
"Huh," Qua said, still sniffing. "I swear I smell neocolom on you. But human ears and no tail. You didn't, like steal someone clothes or anything, right? That'd be bad."
He watched Harper shake her head. "I'm half. I just didn't get the ears or tail."
"Oh," Qua said, scratching her chin. "That makes sense."
The rabbit neocolom suddenly leaned back, rocking the boat dangerously and causing Fer to yell at Qua to stop moving around so much.
After ten minutes, Qua offered to take the paddles, so the three of them carefully shifted so the neocolom could get seated correctly. They started moving a lot faster as soon as that happened, though not faster than the eyes-things that were trailing them.
"What are those things," he asked Fer.
The nelth made a face. "Devil's eyes. Real nasty phantom creatures."
"Oh. Why where they chasing you?"
"To eat us," Qua said.
"Well, yes, but they wanted to eat us because we woke them up."
"Huh?"
"You see, Qua and I are treasure hunters. Well, I do most of the hunting, and Qua usually just punches whatever tries to kill us."
"Hey, you make it sound like I don't do anything useful," he heard Qua protest.
"Punching things so we don't die is important! Besides, remember that one time? When you failed to disarm that trap? You were hanging upside down for two hours before I managed to get you down. And that was only after I escaped a cave full of trolls."
He heard Harper snort.
"But anyway," Fer said, turning back to him, "we were poking through an ancient burial site, and found some of the offerings people made when they still buried people here." Fer reached down and opened the bag he'd brought aboard. He caught a glimpse of a lot of things that were shiny and golden as the nelth reached inside. Fer brought out two gold cups—goblets?—and a large silver bowl, which the nelth set on the floor of the boat.
"There, payment for giving us a ride."
They—well, Qua—paddled for a little more. The neocolom was really strong, so they were moving a lot faster on the return trip.
They didn't talk much. They seemed like nice people, but they were still strangers. He didn't know what to talk about with them.
"Matthias, mind if I ask you a question?" Fer asked half an hour later.
"Um, sure."
"What are you? I can see you have pointed ears, but I can't tell if you're a nelth, one of the elves, or a greer."
"Well, he can't be a greer," Qua quipped. "He'd be shorter and hairier."
"I guess," Fer said.
"Well," he answered, "I'm a mix. I'm a tiny bit syrium, a little bit dark elf, a little more human, and a lot more high elf." He forgot the exact fractions. Fractions were evil.
"Well, you don't say?" Fer said, cocking an eyebrow. "That's very interesting. I haven't run into many people with that kind of lineage. In fact, the last person who did was a man named—"
"Land ho!" he heard Harper yell.
Cool! Almost home.
Ellis sighed as she met up with her husband in the town square. Rex was carrying a rolled up bundle, and she could clearly see sword hilts.
She smiled, struggling to contain her laughter. "Oh, Rex," she said with an exaggerated sigh.
Her husband's face had the same expression, a wide grin that was quivering as it tried to keep from laughing. Rex had obviously seen her own bundle. "Oh, Ellis," her husband said in the same way.
Murmina popped into view, carrying her own bundle, which was admittedly much smaller.
"Oh, brother," said Murmina, in her usual deadpan.
Nothing.
Then she started laughing, which set Rex off, and then Murmina. Behind her husband Davien got in a few chortles while Vashtor grinned slightly.
She had to put shift the bundle to her other arm so she could clutch her side, it was hurting so much from the laughing.
A few minutes and a little pain later, they'd managed to stop. Rex explained his purchase to her.
"They're some cheap arming swords, backswords, and longswords I saw at the smithy," her husband told her. "Unsharpened. Not very good quality steel, and not a good job on the tempering. I figured I could use these as training swords."
She held up a hand. "Wait, so dull swords of bad quality?"
"Er, yes."
She looked past her husband at Davien, who was grinning widely. "Sir Davien, please tell me..."
"Yes, Countess, I made sure he get a good price on the blades."
Rex gave a long suffering sigh. She smiled. Her husband was many things, but a good haggler wasn't one of them. Luckily, Davien wasn't nearly as bad at it as Rex was.
Rex pointed down at her package. "And you?"
She cocked an eyebrow at Rex. "Just some blankets for our cabin. These one are much more comfortable than what we have in the cabin." She had a sudden desire to wink suggestively at her husband, but with so many people watching it would just be scandalous.
Ohhh... goodness.
She winked at Rex. Her husband stared blankly for a few breaths, then a wide grin stretched across his face.
During that time, she saw Vashtor reach under his cloak and hand something to Murmina. The harpuia unfolded a finely made, leather reinforced blue scarf.
Cocking her head, Murmina wrapped it around her neck.
"Mmm. Very comfortable. Warm. Soft. Feels durable. Thank you."
Vashtor made a noncommittal noise.
She noticed how it matched nicely with Murmina's hair.
"It also goes very well with your hair," she told the younger woman.
Murmina frowned, looking down at the scarf as if seeing it for the first time. Then the harpuia turned to Vashtor, an odd look on her face. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."
The gurg just stood there impassively, face unreadable.
Well, that was probably as much as they were going to get out of Vashtor.
Rex's stomach rumbled.
With a laugh at that they walked down to the waterfront shops, where there was a large collection of eateries and pastry shops. Hmm. She was a bit hungry as well. Some food wouldn't be unwelcome.
She stopped when she heard Vashtor suddenly say "Murmina?"
She turned. The harpuia had shielded her eyes against the afternoon sun and was peering over the water at an island to the south, presumably the one Matthias and the midshipmen had visited.
"That's odd," she heard Murmina say. "I see seven... no, eight... devil's eyes hovering along that island over there. They never show themselves unless they have a victim."
Her skin crawled. She remembered those creatures. She'd met her fair share of them here, in fact, thirty years ago.
Murmina continued to scan over the water. "Wait, I see a boat coming this way. I can't see who's in it because of all the glare, but I think I see five people."
Five people. So not her son and the midshipmen.
Murmina stiffened suddenly. "Dammit, the eyes just faded."
Her throat went dry, Devil's eyes only did that when they went in for the kill.
"Vashtor!" Murmina yelled. Without a word the gurg dropped to one knee, fingered laced together near the ground. As she watched, Murmina drew her pistol and put one foot into Vashtor's linked hands. With a grunt, the gurg straightened, launching the harpuia into the sky. Murmina flapped towards the boat.
She moved closer to the waterfront railing, trying to see. Nothing. She didn't have the vision of a harpuia.
But she could see that the ocean had grown choppy. If the phantoms attacked, Murmina would have difficulty getting a clean shot. The people in the boat were in serious danger.
Before she knew it she had dropped her bundle and was running as fast as she could towards the nearest pier. There was a metallic clatter right behind her, and she knew Rex had just done the same thing. Rex quickly passed her as he ran, driving down towards the wharf. Her husband didn't have the same powerful magic as she did, but he still had the power of the Spirit Vessel, which was amazingly potent in its own way.
By the time she reached him, her husband had drawn his golden-bladed sword, and twin streams of energy—one blue-white, the other shadowy indigo—were seeping from Rex's hands to permeate the blade. She began to gather her own power to herself, light energy and elemental magic from Agarest itself. Years ago, she had required a wand to properly focus her energy. Now, she had enough control over it that she had only to gesture, and she could unleash incredible power. A focus still made it easier, but she no longer needed it.
She focused her mind entirely on the unseen boat ahead of her. She still needed to be very precise, otherwise she could kill the people just as easily as the devil's eyes could.
There! The boat came into view... just as eyes faded back into visibility.
She heard two sharp cracks from above, and twin meteors—bullets infused and charged with Murmina's magic—smashed into the two farthest phantoms, ripping pieces from them and pummeling what was left into the water.
The remaining six danced around the boat. Any second now they would make their move on the boat and its occupants.
No.
Spreading her arms, she sent her power forth. Around the boat, a quartet of brilliant white orbs snapped into existence, crackling with heat and power.
Concentrate... concentrate...
The devil's eyes glided towards the boat, the shadowy mantles surrounding their eyes flaring wide.
She drew her hands down and across, as she were throwing something from both hands.
"Yah!" she yelled as she released the spell.
The spheres flared blindingly bright for a split second, before twisting and elongating into javelins of light that speared four of the phantoms and burned them to mist.
The surviving two devil's eyes skated away from the boat before launching themselves into the sky, towards the circling Murmina.
"Grah!" she heard Rex grunt beside her as he swung his sword. A bolt of energy, half light and half shadow, flashed away from Rex's blade to rise up and meet the phantoms. The spirit energy slammed into them, evaporating the last two phantoms into nothingness.
Heart still beating fast from the adrenaline, she lowered her arms to her sides, letting her remaining power dissipate into the air. Next to her Rex sheathed his sword and likewise let his pent up Vessel power bleed away. A moment later Murmina touched down next to them, holstering her pistol as she landed.
"Are they all right?" she asked the harpuia.
"Yes, except for being soaked," Murmina answer. Suddenly, the younger woman grinned. "And one of them in particular is going to have a case of hero worship for his parents."
"Good," she said, exhaling. "I was worried that I might capsize..." She jerked her head up and turned to look at Murmina. "Wait, what?"
Even with the hot temperature, the breeze had started to pick up, so Ellis had wrapped up her son, Harper, and Samuel in the blankets she'd just gotten. Seawater probably wasn't good for the material, but that was so low on her list of priorities that it didn't even register.
She was deciding how enraged to be at Qua and Fer.
She'd fought beside the two of them before, and she was fully confident that the nelth and rabbit neocolom would have no problem dispatching or eluding eight devil's eyes.
But not on a boat in the middle of the bay. Not when her son was there. In that case, any confidence she had in them plummeted to zero.
"What were you thinking!?" she hissed at the pair.
"Ellis, please," her husband said gently. "That tone's not going to help anything. Let them explain themselves."
Suddenly, irrationally, she wheeled on her husband. One look at Rex' face, though, and she found herself turning back to glare at Fer and Qua.
If she hadn't known Rex as well as she did, his calm manner of speaking might had led her to believe that her son's near-fatal experience hadn't fazed Rex at all. But she saw the quivering in in her husband's lips, the set of his jaw, the hardness in his eyes. If anything, Rex was even more furious than she was.
Fer blinked, looking between her and Rex.
Kilik took that as a sign to motion people away. A crowd of onlookers had gathered even before their son's boat had moored. Fortunately, Kilik, Yshae, Buckland, and a group of Enhambre Transoceanic sailors had found them. Kilik had said a few words, and most of the crowd had dispersed. The rest were kept back by the sailors. Kilik's company was apparently very influential and popular in the area, so people generally did what he asked.
So now it was just her, Rex, Matthias, Samuel, Harper, and Yshae. The captain had positioned herself behind the two midshipmen, a hand clapped on their shoulders.
"They weren't in any danger," Fer said slowly, carefully. "Devil's eyes have to make physical contact to drain a victim. And while they're very powerful if they latch onto you, when they move into attack they're easy to fight off. I was armed" Fer motioned to the pair of breaker discs the nelth had hooked up to his belt. "And you know how hard Qua hits.
"On top of that, devil's eyes can't interact with inanimate objects. They couldn't capsize the boat and put us in the water. We would have been fine once we reached land. They would have gotten too far from their haunts to continue pursuing. And even if they were still able to follow us, Qua and I would have them beat on solid land."
As Fer finished she started to feel the intense anger start to drain away a little. Not completely, though. A dozen things could have happened. Their own motions could have capsized the boat. One of the phantoms might have tried a hypnosis attack. One of the kids might have panicked. They could have—
"Captain, ma'am, permission to speak?" she heard Samuel ask.
"Granted, Midshipman," Yshae said, lips tight.
Samuel looked at her and Rex. "Count, Countess, sir, ma'am, Mister Fer told us the exact same things that he just said right now. He told us to stay as still as possible and not to look them in the eye for longer than a few seconds. Mister Fer had his weapons out and was ready to defend us."
Yshae frowned. "Midshipman Harper, is this true?"
"Yes, Captain, just as Midshipman Samuel said, ma'am."
"It's true, Mother, Father," Matthias said suddenly. "Qua also said she'd jump in the water to lead them away if they got too close."
She shifted her gaze to the rabbit neocolom, who looked at the ground abashedly and kicked an imaginary pebble.
The anger drained away completely, just leaving her feeling jumpy and tired. It made sense, rationally. Fer and Qua knew their way around danger, and she'd fought devil's eyes enough to know their strengths and their weaknesses.
Of course, as she was finding out, she turned irrational if her son was in danger. Guess this was just part of being a mother.
She felt a a hand give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. She didn't even have to look around to know it was Rex.
Then she heard her son's stomach grumble, followed by Harper's, Samuel's... and Rex's.
"Um... is there food anywhere?" her son asked plaintively.
She laughed quietly to herself and rubbed her son's head.
Rex leaned back in his chair and wondered if he needed to loosen his sword belt.
They'd sat down at a small eatery that advertised an extensive dinner menu. After they'd been seated, Fer had walked up to the owner and handed over three exquisitely decorated silver plates and a gold-gilded pitcher. Fer had asked if that was enough for all-you-can eat for their group. The owner just nodded woodenly and hurried away with the payment.
Heh. One of the plates would have been enough.
The food had soothed his nerves a little bit. Just like Ellis, he's been on the verge of screaming at Fer and Qua for endangering his son. Luckily, he hadn't done that, mostly because he was forcing outward calm for Ellis' sake. Fer and Qua were good friends, and he might have said something extremely damaging if he'd had half a chance.
He loved his son so much, and that danger, minimal as it was when examined calmly, had almost driven him insane.
Thankfully, rich biscuits, grilled grouper, a large medium-rare steak, and a large bowl of lobster bisque had calmed him down enough that he wasn't going to go raging at anyone.
During the dinner—he, Ellis, and Kilik and explained to Fer and Qua about the monuments and their emigration to Lucrellia. The two of them had been surprised. Since they had no established home or address, Zerva's letters never reached them.
He looked to his right, where Matthias sat between him and Ellis. The poor kid was nodding off, even though it wasn't even dark yet. Across from Matty, Harper and Samuel didn't look much better.
"I'll take him back to the room," Ellis said to him quietly. "He's about to pass out on his lobster."
"All right," he said.
"Hey, big guy, he said, shaking his son gently on the shoulders. Go with Mother."
"Yeah, Matty, let's get you cleaned up and into bed.
"Mmm," he heard his son mumble. Matthias rose without protest, and Ellis got an arm around their son's shoulders.
"I'll see you tonight," he said to Ellis. "Love you."
"Love you too," his wife replied, bending down to give him a quick kiss. "Take care."
He smiled as Ellis and Matthias left the eatery for the apartment.
"I think that would be a good idea as well, Midshipmen," Yshae said to the drowsy Harper and Samuel.
"If you say so, ma'am," Harper said muzzily.
"I'm fine, ma'am," Samuel protested, right before yawning.
"Orders are orders, cadet," Yshae said with a smile. "Let's go, Midshipmen." The captain turned to Kilik. "Sir, I'll be in my inn room. If you need anything, send a runner my way."
Kilik just nodded.
The captain jockeyed the two midshipmen into motion, where they followed the dark elf into the town. That just left himself, Kilik, Murmina, Vashtor, Fer, and Qua in the diner.
The Enhambre Transoceanic president turned to Fer and Qua.
"Sooo... now that you know about the monuments in Lucrellia, would you be interested in a charter?"
He snorted quietly as the nelth and neocolom were taken aback. From what he'd remembered, they had joined up with the Raglan clan during Duran's travels through Enhambre. They probably remembered Kilik as a high seas pirate, not a... business pirate.
Fer and Qua looked at each other, then back to Kilik.
"Uh, sure," Fer said. "How much...?"
He smirked. As Sir Davien had taught him just this afternoon, you never started up negotiations with "how much." That was bad.
He saw Kilik smile, and knew that president was thinking the same thing. "May I see your treasure sack there, Fer?"
The nelth looked incredibly unsure, but he reluctantly handed it over,
Another rule: never let the seller see how much money you had. Poor Fer.
In quick succession, Kilik extracted eleven decorative plates, seven cups and goblets, four bowls, and a dozen assorted bracelets and necklaces. He saw Kilik stare at the loot for a moment, before returning five plates, four of the cups, two bowls, and six pieces of the assorted jewelry back into Fer's sack. The nelth made a choking noise as Kilik handed the bag back.
"Isn't that a bit... much?" Fer asked, still looking like he didn't believe he'd just lost half of his treasure.
"Well, it's perfectly reasonable," Kilik said, without a hint hesitation. "You're commissioning the character less than a day before we leave. That's going to force us to rearrange personnel, equipment, and supplies to accommodate you. So a little extra seems reasonable, don't you think?"
He didn't point out that Kilik had never quoted a price for there to be "extra" of.
"Well, yeah, I guess," Fer said, looking a bit stunned.
Third rule: never agree with the seller.
"Good, good, glad we can agree to that. Also, there was the matter of earlier today. While, yes, the chance of danger was slim, especially with the Count, Countess, and Vanguard Scout Murmina to help, there was still a chance that they could've gotten hurt. That was endangering important ET personnel, since Midshipmen Samuel and Harper are valuable officer cadets aboard the flagship, the Hildegard. You must understand the need for some additional compensation, yes?"
"Y-yeah."
The bewildered nelth turned to look at Vashtor. As usual, the gurg's face was unreadable. Fer looked to Murmina, who was doing almost as good a job as Vashtor at appearing blank. The harpuia had leaned forward, steepling her finger in front of her mouth. From his angle he could see the grin that kept tugging at Murmina's mouth.
Then Fer turned to him, pleading in his eyes.
His anger had long since faded out, so wasn't inclined to agree with Kilik out of spite towards Fer and Qua. On the other hand, it was... entertaining to see the normally happy-go-lucky Fer squirm a bit. But on a hypothetical third hand, Fer and Qua were valuable friends. He really should do something.
"If I you don't mind my input," he said to Kilik after a pause, "The price might be a bit too steep."
"I welcome input," Kilik said. "How much of a reduction were you thinking, Count Roaring Cove?"
"I was thinking..." he reached towards Kilik's share of the treasure.
Fer's eyes lit up.
He put his finger on the smallest, most battered bracelet, and pushed it over to the nelth.
"There, I believe that is perfect."
Fer's face dropped.
"Splendid," Kilik said, leaning forward to offer a hand to Fer. The nelth shook Kilik's hand, still looking a bit dazed."We leave tomorrow, a little after dawn, on the outgoing tide. Welcome aboard."