Startup 81: Resolved Terms

Rova 30, around noon

Cog stared at me with an even, unreadable expression as he gingerly took a seated position. His cold blue eyes bored into me. His skin, mostly regrown but still horribly thin, had a ruddy redness to it that might have been the diabolical essence or might have just been the flush of blood rushing to every inch of his body to help heal. He wasn’t enraged, at least. Cog’s face didn’t stay this calm when he was really pissed.

I’d have liked to consult with someone like Linu before talking to Cog, someone who knew both him and his mother and might be able to coach me a bit and help me form a plan. Unfortunately, Linu had a busy schedule of training advanced students in data analytics, getting railed for money, trying to build a distribution network for me from scratch, and running a one woman maid cafe. I probably wouldn’t be able to see her today and when I sent her a note along with my daily schedule she’d answered tersely.

“Just tell him quickly. He’ll get over it.”

Sandara hadn’t been any help either. She usually had a pretty good read on any given situation, but she’d just laughed at me. It’s not as if I don’t agree that honesty is the best policy; I wasn’t even considering the option of turning this into some kind of torrid secret love affair situation. I just happen to also know that framing can be everything, even when you’re being honest. Just poking my head into his room while he couldn’t walk without assistance and saying “by the way I fucked your mom” would be perfectly honest, and the most dickish thing I could do short of lying about it.

So here I was, having said basically that, and waiting for him to process. I had explanations, but I wasn’t going to shower him with excuses immediately. I still wished I could have done this with Linu present, but she was back to work and was absolutely swamped.

“Okay, why?” Cog said with an exasperated sigh, “I know her well enough to know it wasn’t just for fun.”

I took longer to process his reaction than he did to react.

“I expected you to be angrier.” I said.

He raised one eyebrow, then winced as he stretched the tender skin on his face.

“I haven’t heard anything really upsetting yet.” He said, “My mother is a prostitute. I know she has sex with men. I’m waiting to hear the price.”

Oh thank fuck he isn’t angry.

“Oh.” I said, feeling a hot prickle in my ears. “Well, I was able to convince her to give me some books on disguise and shapeshifting for Filli. I framed it as mutually beneficial. I also asked if she could give me a hand with paying off my debt, but she wasn’t any more receptive than when you asked. She seems a little more interested in Linu working as my agent here, at least.”

He nodded. I hadn’t really talked to him about my business relationship with Linu, but they’d been sitting together for most of the day. It probably came up in passing while they were catching up with one another.

“Alright. Not bad.” He said, “So I’m gonna ask again, what did you promise her?”

“Nothing I wasn’t planning on doing anyway.” I said. “I told her I was going to try to get you to maintain contact a bit better.”

Cog’s neutral expression darkened considerably.

“You used me as a bargaining chip?” He growled.

“Are you telling me you were neglecting Linu and your mom on purpose?” I asked, “Maybe I could buy it with your mom, but that seems a bit harsh for Linu. Especially since you were still colleagues. Honestly it felt like a bit of a nothing promise.”

“That’s not the point!” He said, “That wasn’t your promise to make.”

I stared at him, genuinely confused. I was asking for maybe an hour of his time per week, to do something he wasn’t even morally opposed to on principle. I’d seen real warmth between him and Linu, and Dindreanne was just a stretch goal. In return he’d be doing me a solid financially and giving us written resources that had potential to massively assist not just Filli, but the whole crew.

“What?” I said, words failing me for once. “I genuinely don’t get what you’re upset about. I’m sorry, but seriously. Please try to explain.”

“You just volunteered my time without asking me first, jackass!” Cog said, “This is personal business!”

“And as your friend I would have been nagging you anyway!” I said, “I’m not kidding, even Sandara was apparently snooping around asking about you and Linu. We have the resources needed to make it pretty easy. I’ve set up a lantern archon to act as a courier. I’m going to be in contact at least once a week anyway. What the hell changes when I frame it as a promise to your mom other than us getting a payout?”

“You’re forcing me to do it!” He said, “Now there’s all sorts of costs attached to forgetting for a week or not having anything to say!”

“No, I’m not forcing you to do it!” I said, “You can still say no! I even warned Dindreanne! If you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you to. Forcing you would be using magic to make you do it!”

Which I could totally do with Suggestion, but will not because I’m not an asshole.

“Oh fuck off, you’re doing the same thing she does.” He said, laying back and closing his eyes. “You should have known better.”

What, is this the Callistrian equivalent of Catholic guilt? He’s way touchier about this than I was expecting. Seriously. You could just say no, it’s not that big a deal. We’ll deal with the consequences.

“When was I supposed to ask your permission?” I groaned, “This wasn’t some elaborate scheme to back you into a corner! I didn’t wake up yesterday and pencil into my day planner ‘bang Cog’s mom!’ I was improvising, like I usually do when something weird happens. Look, I’m sorry I overstepped. I didn’t think it would be this big a deal, so I winged it. What am I supposed to do now?”

He glared at me, so still I almost thought combat had started, and sighed.

“Whatever.” He said. “Look, if you ever put me in a position like this again, I’m leaving the crew. You’re a decent guy, I can believe that you just didn’t think things through, but seriously? Do you honestly think that putting me in a position where I have to either cave or screw over you and Filli is the same as just talking to me about it when we are at sea?”

I wouldn’t have held it against you, so pretty much, yeah. That’s obviously not the answer you’re looking for, but it’s true.

I stood up from the chair I’d been sitting in. I didn’t want to leave this unresolved but I also didn’t have any honest way to continue the conversation. I felt a sudden stab of anxiety.

Is he only staying because he’s a party member? Supposedly it helps keep people near me; mind control magic totally exists. Sure, Caulky and Lubo both left, but that just means that they aren’t puppets. People escape cults all the time.

“Alright, let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you.” I said, then took a deep breath. “Cog, why are you staying? I’m going to be honest, I don’t get what the problem is. I’ll try to remember this and act accordingly, but it doesn’t make sense. If I were in your shoes and it really bothered me so much, I’d just say no and deal with the consequences.”

Cog gave me a long, steady look.

“Because as stupid as that sounds?” He said, “I believe you. If I didn’t, I’d be out.”

That didn’t really reassure me.

••••••••••

Rova 31

“Keep that thing away from me, Emrys.” Conchobar said, “I can’t keep it safe.”

“You’re the only one here who might be able to figure out how it works or put it to good use.” I said, “I don't have any other bards.”

I held out the silver horn I’d gotten off of Hinson, apparently called the Horn of Honor based off of my best scans. Its aura was an iridescent sheen like oil on water; at least with the Horn of Riches I’d had a basic idea based on the schools of magic it had.

“Sosima uses bardic magic!” Conchobar pointed out, “Ask her!”

“Sosima dances, sings, and apparently knows how to play a grand concert harp.” I said, “Unfortunately, none of those really transfer to wind instruments. You are exactly the right guy, whether you want to admit it or not.”

“And the moment I was outside of your protection I lost it!” Conchobar practically shouted, “I’m not built for this!”

“No one came out of that night smelling like roses, Conchobar.” I said, “You were specifically targeted by someone we thought was, at least broadly, an ally. Hell, exactly the same trick they used to get the horn from you is how I got this one.”

“And if I hadn’t lost the first one, we’d have two.” Conchobar said.

You have to get back in the saddle. The longer you take a step back out of fear the worse it’s gonna be. I can’t force him or it could get worse, but I can’t let him just dip.

“Look, ok.” I said. “You’re probably right we could use some more security, but I need this thing studied. You’ll need to come to the temple and experiment with it, it can stay in my shadow any time you aren’t.”

“That was always the plan!” Conchobar said, “Then I started carrying it around like an idiot when you got arrested. I was only holding it on Gobron’s Ship because we thought there were no enemies around.”

“Then we follow the plan this time.” I said, “If you’re this worked up, then I think you’ll be quicker to remind me if I get distracted again. For the moment, that’s probably the best plan anyway, and security will be tighter in general, especially here.”

I gestured out at the common room of the suite Rosie and I were sharing, where Rowe, the gunnery crew, Rosie, and a smattering of other crew members were all carving runes into coral blades or assembling bits into small dolls to animate as poppets. Much like the goblin pups, once I got them started my Arcane Craftsmen talent kicked in and they could finish out the day without supervision… assuming they were willing to tinker for eight hours. They could chat with one another like a knitting circle, but the process did require quite a lot of focus.

Most of my crew weren’t really the sort for long, tedious detail work. I didn’t blame them; I could only put up with it by killing the time talking with a third party or trying to navigate through my reference document and index everything myself. As nightmarishly bad as the endless stream of text was, with enough time and effort I was getting to the point where I wasn’t completely reliant on Autopilot to memorize and identify every spell’s effects. I was even getting a general idea of what kinds of magical effects would be possible at various levels.

In any event, most people who volunteered for a life on the high seas weren’t tinkerers at heart. My lifestyle in particular also acted as an extra filter, knocking out any of the people who were realistically signing up for weeks of severe boredom punctuated by a few minutes of terror. The kind of people who would be happy manning a blockade. Anyone around me would be tossed rapidly into danger, unfortunately, with my menu either manufacturing conflict or nudging me towards it.

How many people just accidentally wander into a nationwide conspiracy? I mean, some do, I’m sure. Not many, though. Most of them either get assassinated or paid off, I imagine.

I stood by, watching over the team of crafters churning out a few thousand gold worth of value; they’d all be done with their current projects by the end of the day. While Conchobar grudgingly started to play a few scales on the silver horn, I sat down at the desk in my room and wrote everything I knew. I wasn’t exactly sure who would be carrying it, but if I couldn’t find a courier headed in the right direction then I’d just need to figure something out.

Honestly weird that Varossa went for Lubo instead of killing me or just slipping away with the horn. She probably could have made a clean break. I’m not really in any position to indulge in personal vendettas without some kind of serious payout right now. I might have been willing to cut her a deal if she hadn’t hurt my people. Maybe ransom the last horn back to her on the condition that she let me hold the three pieces all at once so I could finish the quest. Now though?

To Lord Kelizar

“… Varossa was only one of at least 2 clones of Druvalia in the Shackles. I know of another one operating a ranch on the outskirts of Dragonsthrall, and believe she had another installed on the ship known as the Saber’s Kiss before its destruction at your hands and yet another who attempted to rob you several years back.

I intend to share this information with the Callistrian spy network as well, but I believe you are in a better position than they are to operate upon the Dahak Isles. Indeed, she was the one who convinced me to inspect the wreck on the night where your reefs were unfortunately destroyed, apparently as some pretext to search the wreck for something she believed to be in your possession. Do with this information whatever you see fit, Lord Kelizar. After her betrayal I have certain predictable preferences, but I am not the only injured party.

I have been selling the coral blades and poppets. As you suspected, they are adequate materials for my work. This message should be accompanied by a package containing 200 gold pieces. Due to my current financial situation I’m afraid that the remains of my debt to you will need to be managed in installments until I have fully disentangled myself from other more immediate obligations. I hope to maintain a positive relationship with you, so consider it a gift and a show of good faith.

Respect and honor,

Captain Emrys M’Dair

The Enterprise”

Why should my enemies have any nice things at all?

••••••••••

“I’m sorry, Naomi.” I said, “I just don’t know. Jerry hasn’t replied and he’s the only expert on souls I know. Hell, the devil I sent to drop off Narwhal just died, probably before Jerry even saw it.”

“Aaron isn’t waking up.” She said, meeting my eyes with alarming intensity. “The only signs of life we get are him thrashing in his sleep from nightmares. You’re telling me you have no solution? Not even any ideas?”

“I have several avenues I’ve looked into.” I said, “Nothing that we can afford right now, except killing him.”

“What?” Naomi snarled, “It’s a matter of price? And why would you even bring up killing him?”

“Because the expert I was able to contact, a Caterina, genuinely doesn’t see a substantial difference long term between him living the rest of his life in this state and him dying and getting free reconstructive treatment today.” I said, blunt. “Other than the meaningfully higher chance of him losing his way along the river Styx if he dies in this state without having his soul specifically dedicated to the care of a psychopomp first.”

I was feeling a bit testy, but in my defense I’d just put up with a skeleton in a kimono very politely but insistently calling me a selfish piece of shit for not letting her rip Aaron’s soul out and take him directly and irreversibly to the afterlife. I didn’t want him to end up as a shredded lost soul wandering the planes of Abaddon, but if my research was correct he’d end up being reworked into a piece of furniture on the plane of Axis if he was judged in his current insensate state. He’d be safe and he’d be fixed up at some point between now and the heat death of the universe, but that timeline was not an exaggeration in any way.

They want him safe. Nothing else matters to them. I can respect it, but I’m not signing him up for that when it’s possible to get him healed… for a few thousand gold pieces. Hold on buddy; if I can’t pay my own debt I’ll pay yours before I go back.

“I called a few other entities I thought might be able to help.” I said, “no luck.”

“You haven’t even laid eyes on him.” Naomi said, severe, “Am I supposed to just trust that you’re doing so much because you tell me so?”

“Yes.” I said, exasperated, “You are. You don’t have any evidence I’m lying, and I’m not. You’re on my crew. That requires trust. If you don’t trust me, then you’re not going to find a better place to jump ship anywhere else in the Shackles. I have a standard payout to send you on your way if you’d like.”

“Of course you offer that when I can’t leave!” Naomi said, sarcastic.

She reached into her pocket, pulled out a small tin of cigars, and lit one. Naomi had picked up that hobby after the mutiny, apparently leaving Aaron’s side only to buy smokes and demand things I was already trying to do. It wasn’t exactly acceptance, but she’d shifted from the offensive to trying to calm herself down.

“It’s a standing offer to everyone on the ship at all times.” I said, burying my face in my hands. “I’m seriously trying to respect that you’re worried about Aaron, but I just put up with a psychopomp bitching at me for not killing him and a djinn mocking me for not knowing how wishes work.”

I kind of assumed it wasn’t as simple as Aladdin, since the Shackles isn’t already ruled by a bunch of mid level summoners throwing genies at their problems, but I was just trying to get a price check. “I literally can’t grant wishes because I’m not a genie noble, and coerced wishes always backfire anyway” was all I needed to hear. No free lunch.

I drummed my fingers on the arm of my chair.

“Look, it doesn’t seem like there’s a quick or affordable fix here.” I said. “That’s what I’ve been angling for. If I were stronger, maybe, but unfortunately the most powerful healer I can summon right now can’t do anything if he’s not suffering from some kind of active curse, disease, or enchantment.”

Couldn’t help Colin either, but at least they were polite about it.

“So what, you’re going to leave him like this until you can get around to fixing him?” Naomi demanded, puffing away.

“Yes and no.” I said, “I’ll see if I can make him comfortable while he waits. That’s the best I can do right now. You said he was having nightmares? I might be able to work with that.”

Naomi looked at me, eyes hard. I sighed.

Yeah, yeah. Talk is cheap. I’ll get right on that, princess.

••••••••••

Lamashan 1

“In closing, my client has been subjected to assault, slander, imprisonment, and extortion.” Liam said, marching back and forth in front of the court, “All that in the last week, at the behest of known slavers. My client is in the process of winning his freedom by the laws of his people, and the underhanded dealings of his soon to be former owner has turned this court into a weapon against the very freedoms it was created to preserve. It sickens me. It should sicken you. The defense rests.”

The jury was silent and stony faced in the face of my lawyer’s condemnation. Apparently while I was gone he’d really leaned into Nendra’s legal chicanery through Sinkitah du Bekyar to make the whole case seem outright counter to everything Bag Island stood for. I had no idea, since the Slipcove Observer had apparently decided I was a horrible monster on day one and kept doubling down with every article, but apparently the actual proceedings went quite well.

He’d even managed to spin the attempted mutiny into a potential assassination by Dovnu. He never came out and said it, apparently, but he leaned pretty hard on the fact that a Chelish woman had decided to attack me for reasons that were still unclear. To the people of Slipcove, most of which were at most two generations removed from Chelish slave ships, that was enough evidence on its own that I might be a decent guy.

“Captain M’Dair, this court finds you not guilty of all charges.” The tiny judge declared, “In light of the frivolous nature of the charges against you and your cooperation with the court in releasing all captives, we see fit to reward you with damages to the number of nine thousand four hundred gold pieces.”

My eyes widened at the magnitude of the sum.

With an extra 9000 tossed onto the pile, I might not even need to go treasure hunting at all.

Then the Bailiff actually handed me a few documents, and when I scanned the topmost one I couldn’t help but sigh. It was the most Shackles thing I’d ever seen. I looked again at the first few lines.

“The bearer of this letter of marque is hereby authorized to extract damages from the properties and shipping of Lady Sinkitah du Bekyar and her known affiliates totaling 9400 gold pieces in value. The bearer of this letter is to be considered a privateer in service to Lord Jolis Raffles so long as he pursues this restitution via methods recognized by the Fairwind Accords.”

This was followed by a list of 20 ships that Sinkitah or her family were majority owners of, and a short explanation of the rules of civilized piracy under the Fairwind Accords. Basically it can be described as no rape, no slavery, no torture, always give someone the opportunity to surrender, and avoid attacking people who are your allies on paper. There were a lot of signatories, but Autopilot seemed pretty certain that most of them ruled islands the size of Bonewrack. More than likely, they were just hiding behind Fairwind’s skirts.

I have a court order to go rob the person who hit me with a frivolous lawsuit. Shouldn’t the court have debt collectors or sheriffs or something to do that for me? Ah well, Dindreanne did suggest I go rob some slavers. If I see any, I’ll go for it.

“You will also find an itemized list of all lawfully acquired prizes, including Gobron’s Ship, to be returned to your possession. Now then, as to the goblin children.” The judge continued, moving to her next document. “As they do not have any other known guardian, you have officially been declared as such. You’ll need to come pick them up before leaving Quent or you’ll be found guilty of twelve counts of leaving mentally unstable entities unattended.”

She moved to the last piece of paper in her stack and sighed.

“I put out a collection to buy a properly sized cage to transport them and allow them to have occasional time in the sun.” She said, shaking her head, “Unfortunately nobody contributed to the fund. You’re on your own there.”

I shrugged.

“I appreciate that, but I think they’ll be fine.” I said. “They long for the bilges.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. In spite of everything, I could finally get back in the fight.