Startup 89: Briefing

Lamashan 13

In my defense, Flare was a more or less ideal first bardic cantrip for a wide variety of reasons. I had chosen whistling as my style of bardic magic, since it’s extremely simple compared to singing and I didn’t intend to carry my keyboard into battle. However, that same simplicity made most complex magic unfeasible. I needed to choose something extremely simple, and a burst of bright light was, in theory, one of the most accessible spells in the warchanting book and an excellent on-ramp.

The problem? I’m a drow.

“FUCK!” I yelled, clutching at my face and flailing around on the floor. “Oh god that hurts! Why! Why did it appear directly in my face! Shit! It’s supposed to happen at a point I’m focusing on!”

Conchobar helped me to my feet, since the entire world was an indistinct mass of arcane auras and not much else. I steadied myself on the table, hoping that I wouldn’t need Sandara to heal me.

Clerics can heal damaged retinas, right? I think I remember seeing a cure blindness spell.

“It’s a common early mistake, Emrys.” He said, “You were probably focused on your instrument more than your target, so it summoned the light directly on your lips.”

The door to my cabin slammed open, and thankfully my vision was already returning enough to see the unmistakable hulking form of Filli bursting into my room and looking around for something to kill.

“I’m fine, Filli.” I said, “I just accidentally blinded myself for a second. We aren’t under attack.”

I couldn’t see her hands clearly enough to actually know what she was signing, but Filli hunched her shoulders the way she usually did when confused. I explained the type of spell I tried to cast, and thankfully she knew enough drow biology to see what went wrong. She nodded and turned to leave around when my eyes finished clearing.

“I’m going to send Linu an update before tomorrow.” I said, “Do you think you’re ready for the primers with actual magic in them?”

“Magic learning fun and safe.” She signed, cocking her head, “For me. I heal. You be more careful.”

I snorted.

“Yes Ma’am.”

Once she was gone, I turned to Conchobar and smirked.

“See, if you stay on the ship you will be literally seconds away from Filli at all times.” I said, “It goes into my shadow when we are both off the ship, but it’s as safe to experiment with the horn here as we can ever expect to be. Any ideas, by the way?”

“I don’t know if it’ll do anything, but I managed to learn a spell while I was cooped up in here.” He said, “I can test if it works with the horn.”

My shadow’s arm reached up and handed me the lion-shaped horn, which I shoved into Conchobar’s hand.

“Alright. Here. I’m going to check in with the pups. They should have another golem ready soon. After that I’ve got some summoning to do, then I’ll rest up and you can fill me in while I’ve got Keep Watch going.”

••••••••••

The flickering light of the eternal flame danced across the box of jewels. The cool metal pressed against my skin as Syl and I dug through them, picking out anything too distinctive. I could only realistically sell around half of them easily; anything that Laurent was likely to recognize had a small chance of being tracked back to me.

I didn’t get the impression that Laurent actually cared much about these things; they’d been tossed into the jewelry box haphazardly and the only ring I’d actually seen her wearing was her Besmaran Pearl. Even so, basically any market in the Shackles would be dangerous if I wasn’t careful. I wanted Emrys M’Dair to be a footnote. An inciting incident that she’d consider secondary to that bastard Jean DuPont. If Linu started selling Laurent’s jewelry after publicly working with me, that would fall apart and I’d have a very angry pirate coming after me.

I should probably find a good fence at some point. A real, professional one. Damn it Jerry, you and Rowe are the only people I know with ties to cartels and I don’t think her uncle Dahk is a big fan of me right now.

“How about the Shae?” Syl suggested, “They don’t seem to have much actual gold, given that they pay you in platinum.”

“Yeah, but I think that’s at least partially an aesthetic choice.” I said, “I talked to Yael about it and apparently it’s considered tacky to have much color. One small splash if you’re feeling daring. She specifically said that someone could get away with my neckcloth because it’s practical, but it would be considered tasteless if it weren’t magic. Gold or gemstones would look garish to them. Plus they don’t really have fingers in the same way we do? They’d need to put them on over a gloved hand and that just seems awkward.”

Syl drummed her fingers on the table, and I shared her annoyance. Of all the game mechanics that would have been great to get my hands on, I regretted deeply that I didn’t get a shop that buys literally anything. Even if I could only sell things at a steep discount, it would be great to always have a market available. The arbitrage opportunities of being able to get rid of trash and scrap would be incredible all on its own.

“Shame Sosima doesn’t want us to talk to House Aulamaxa.” I said with a smirk. “A big pile of exotic jewelry would probably have some kind of market in northern Cheliax.”

Syl snorted.

“Are you insane?” She asked. “If someone tried that in Rahadoum, the Pure Legion would be tracking their movements within the week and they’d lose most of the money to smuggling fines. From everything I’ve heard, Cheliax is much worse.”

I blinked.

“Seriously? How would they even track that?” I asked, “Teleportation seems pretty hard to prove.”

“They don’t need to prove it, Emrys.” Syl said. “They need strange exotic jewelry and suspicion. Especially if they stick to fines, nobody’s even likely to fight back very hard. The crown needs money and if they get it by assuming suspicious piles of goods come from smuggling, that means they won’t charge as much in taxes.”

“I can believe the smuggling thing.” I said. “I’ll believe that it reduces taxes when I see hard evidence. I’ll just figure something else out to do with these.”

Syl rolled her eyes.

“So, you’ll be going with Sandara to do this Voyage thing?” She asked, “Are you sure you can’t bring Sosima? Having someone who can fight underwater seems like a good idea.”

“She’s going to be managing the outsiders.” I said, “I really don’t intend to let Shishe operate without oversight again, and another outsider I barely know doesn’t count.”

“Speaking of… you know that with her in place we might be able to steal Laurent’s ship.” Syl said. “Knock out or charm most of the crew, sail it somewhere disreputable, sell it quick. We’d walk away with a few thousand for a light frigate, easy.”

“With what crew, Syl?” I asked, “We barely have enough people to keep the Enterprise afloat in a storm, and you want me to commandeer a bigger ship in hostile territory during hurricane season?”

“Well we should at least rob her.” Syl said. “I don’t like the way she looked at you.”

I reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

“I approve, but I think I’ll need to let you handle that.” I said. “You have access to all the resources that haven’t already been allocated. Go nuts.”

She crossed her arms.

“So… Conchobar, either Rowe or Filli since we can’t take both off of guard duty, and a bunch of lads who have no particular skill with theft.” She said, “And any crew I bring along will probably be angry I took them off leave.”

“You also have the new girls.” I said with a laugh. “I think they might surprise you. Conchobar too, he’s got a new trick.”

Syl looked at me with horror. I’d already added the tengu twins, Kiko and Sora, to my followers tab and set aside their sign on bonus. They were a bit chatty, but I wasn’t lying when I said they might be useful. I got the distinct impression from their stat blocks and skills that they’d been sneak thieves before they became sex workers, and they had a few other very interesting abilities from being Tengu. That didn’t mean that they were the kind of people Syl looked forward to relying on.

••••••••••

“Yes, Captain.” Sosima said, “I believe that the best thing we can do would be to find Harkalm and extract the relevant information immediately. Afterwards, my companion here shall sanctify the corpse so that no one can use necromancy to interrogate it again.”

Sosima gestured to her side, where an exceptionally thin elven woman with a crown of flowers in her hair and a rather frilly dress stood with her hands folded. The thin elf was actually a Catrina by the name of Mariana, much like that skeleton Emanuel from the Kelizar affair. Emrys had called her mostly to speak with corpses and ensure any Besmaran funeral customs were respected. The fact that she could disguise herself as a pretty but unhealthily skinny woman of any species was just a plus.

He’d even managed to pay her off with a large pile of jewelry stolen from Laurent that she’d carry away to a temple of Pharasma she favored. He’d looked unbearably smug when he’d explained that to Sosima, and she’d felt the need to kiss that smirk off of his lips lest it grow to envelop his rapidly swelling head.

“What of Jean?” Shishe asked, “Will he not be accompanying us?”

“I’m afraid not.” Sosima said, “He will be keeping a close watch on M’Dair, to ensure that he doesn’t try to use his cleric’s Voyage as cover.”

“You know how tricky those drow can be.” The Catarina said in a dry Taldane accent, rolling her Rs slightly. “Addicted to complexity and deception.”

Shishe and Sosima looked at one another, and the slight tightness in their expressions communicated everything needed. They were both resisting the urge to glare at Mariana in front of Alice. This entire operation relied far too heavily on keeping the Hippocampus’s crew in the dark for blatant sarcasm like that.

••••••••••

Sandara rushed through the water, faster than any ship, faster than any fish. She moved like a ghost, cutting through the water with only a thought. In seconds she could cross dozens of feet, all completely effortless.

It was bloody annoying. She couldn’t even look at something without her focus shifting and suddenly she was right next to whatever caught her eye. If she got distracted by a colorful fish, suddenly she’d veer towards it. If she’d been in a ship, it would have shattered on the rocks a dozen times by now.

She sped along beneath the waves, to the inland sea where the Sacred isle could be found. There, she hugged the surface where there was just enough light for her to see. It was a near thing, too; between the eternal storm and clouds of algae spread across the waves like butter. The beasts beneath the waves, and there were many, were mostly silhouettes.

The spell she was using, called “River Sight” didn’t seem to like the inland sea. More of a big lake, really, and lakes are basically just large, round rivers, right? Definitely not an ocean. The rapid movement that had been so annoying while she looked for the Karkinoi slowed down to a crawl as the churning waves and weakening magic made it impossible to jump long distances.

Even so, the blessed isle loomed in the water. It was exactly where Sandara would have expected it to be, in the eye of the storm. She made a note to give Emrys a hard time about that. He hadn’t wanted to risk their lives on “a decent guess,” as if that wasn’t what he did every time they encountered something remotely dangerous.

The storm was bad enough, and the sea monsters would terrify a man with smaller balls than Sandara, but the Voyage didn’t look like it would be all that hard.

Sandara should have known better than to even have that thought.

A ship floated past, near the coast of the Isle. It moved slowly, as casual as a fellow grabbing a pint after the dock master sent him home. Like a shark that hadn’t scented blood, drifting along casually. Sandara didn’t know ships quite well enough to recognize one from half a mile away and underwater, but she knew one thing: ships don’t move like that in storms. Sandara had seconds to examine it before her spell snapped with a sensation like being slapped in the face.

Suddenly she was back on the dock, knocked on her ass. She straightened quickly in case the guards Syl posted had seen her fall over, turning it into a theatrical flop down onto the dock. She took a deep breath, then felt eyes upon her.

Magic wasn’t usually visible to people, at least not other people’s magic. Emrys and his people were just a bit weird for being able to see auras unassisted, but it was useful so Sandara didn’t give him a hard time. With all that said, Sandara was fairly sure that the scrying sensor she saw, a normally invisible eye made from a tracery of white light, was hers. Someone had decided to borrow it to take a look back at her.

That seems fair. Poor bastard needs every edge he can get. Sure we barely know what we are up against, but he’s up against us.

••••••••••

Tuya stood quietly against the wall, hands clasped together, and looked down at a woman several inches shorter than her. A client. Tuya wasn’t supposed to say no to clients, even if they weren’t in bed together. Clients could get angry, Rawna said. They could hurt people who gave them lip. She wanted desperately to leave, but the dark skinned woman was still talking.

“I’ve spoken to him.” Naomi said, “I don’t think he intended to upset you. He’s decent enough most of the time.”

“Then why me?” Tuya asked, “I am no one! What would a man possibly want from me?”

Naomi raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.

“Other than the obvious?” Naomi said, “Cog seems to think he knows something about your past. I told him to shut up about it unless you ask him questions. Either directly, or through an intermediary.”

Tuya gulped. She knew that the kind of woman who could boss around men like Mr. Cogward were often even more dangerous than the men. Precisely because they often pretended to be so nice. It all made so little sense; why was everyone paying so much attention to her?

She was usually the first to be shown to the men, but that was just because she didn’t sweat. Rawna could save so much money on makeup that didn’t need to be reapplied so often, even if it meant Tuya needed to stay secluded and eat less often. She wasn’t anything special! She didn’t want to be special!

“Thank you, Miss.” Tuya said, “I’ll keep that in mind. May I get back to work?”

Naomi nodded, but then she kept talking.

“If you’re happy here, then I won’t try to convince you to ruin a good thing.” She said, “You should know that you could find work like this in just about any town, though. Or something better.”

Tuya’s shoulders tightened. There it was. The sales pitch. The recruitment. Rawna had warned her! Whenever someone seemed too nice, they were probably just trying to lure her away. They’d say anything to get her to sail away with them, even to the point of saying the opposite of what they meant.

“Thank you for letting me know.” Tuya said stiffly, and fled.

She grudgingly trudged to the room where Rawna held their weekly classes. She insisted on teaching all the girls important skills, in case something ever happened to them. None of them wanted to work at any of the non-Callistrian brothels, so Rawna mostly taught them about sailing.

“Now then, I assume you all remember the Carrick Bend?” Rawna said, “I showed it to you a few weeks ago, so you should. It’s quite a simple knot; any sailor would be expected to do it on command. I’ll need you each to show me that you can do it. Tuya, you first.”

Tuya’s hands shook; she hated this part. She especially hated the looming figure of Hekla right behind her, yelling at her to go faster. It was important to be able to work under pressure as a sailor, but Tuya was never going to be a sailor so what was the point?

She finished the knot, and she thought she had done it properly. It looked perfect to Tuya, but when Silk came over to inspect it she shook her head ruefully.

“You really aren’t very good at this,” Silk said, “You know a shit knot like this could get you five lashes on any free captain’s ship?”

Tuya looked down. She did know that. Rawna had told her years ago.

••••••••••

Lamashan 14

Sandara and I stood at the bow, staring at the storm wall. You can’t really see the edge of a normal storm, generally. There’s a point where the rain starts, but it’s more of a gradual progression. Really heavy storms are clearer, for sure, and then you get stuff like tornados, but that’s on the **** end of the spectrum. This storm, unnatural and perpetually maintained by Besmara? We were thirty feet away from an absolute wall of clouds and swirling rain and the only water hitting the deck was normal sea spray.

Syl and Conchobar stood uncomfortably near the helm, shifting from foot to foot and inspecting the sails. We’d stopped short of where the pass got too narrow for maneuvering, but turning the ship around to get back to Queen Bes would still be a serious job. I wouldn’t be there for it.

“Alright.” I said. “We should be back out in a day or less, plus however long it takes for us to catch a ride from the clerics or swim back with an honor guard. That should give you guys enough time to do whatever it is you’re going to do. You’ve got this.”

I looked at them each in turn. We’d gone over the plan more than once, and Sosima was already doing her part. I didn’t linger. I was pretty sure that would be worse for morale. They started the turn.

Sandara called to me, and in her hands I saw a ball of light that slowly rose into the sky until it blended in with all the stars. A thin line of white divination magic trailed back to Sandara, constantly tugging her towards the Guiding Star. That was all the heading we would need on the Voyage, since she knew exactly where we were going.

We’d mapped out the whole day as well as we could given the gaps in our memory, and Sandara’s spell list reflected that. She mostly stuck to healing and support magic by her own preference, but on a nearly solo mission that meant we were dipping much more into the utility aspects of Besmara’s bounty of gifts. That included a spell we usually wouldn’t use, but which was just about perfect when we fully intended to lose whatever ship we sailed into the storm.

Sandara waved her hand, and turned to tie herself to me. Behind us, dozens of bits of driftwood and flotsam bobbed up from the depths, then lashed themselves together with bits of rotted rope. The raft finished itself off with a square of tattered sailcloth affixed to a trio of logs with aspirations towards the title of “mast.” Frankly the whole thing was lashed together with toothpicks and rubber bands. I had it on good authority that it would fall apart the second that the spell holding it together ended, in about seven hours. We didn’t expect it to actually last even that long.

I reached out with my magic. The thin tendrils of orange aura hooked into the storm. At least here at the edge, I could command the winds. I didn’t expect that to last for long as we got closer to the island, but it would let us start on a good footing. I created a current of air pushing us along the heading Sandara pointed out.

The surface of the water churned, which was the only thing keeping a massive amount of algae from forming a carpet across the surface. As we approached the edge of the bloom, I saw a flicker of movement. I met Sandara’s brown eyes and saw a wide, feral smile. She knew what was coming when I cast Levitate on both of us and the raft, then cranked the wind up to maximum. Half a dozen small sea serpents burst from the surface to snatch at us when we rose into the air, and a tunnel of wind whipped us forward and away from their snapping jaws.

The guard dogs congregate at the door, just like I thought. That’s one barrier handled.