“HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…”

The man just kept laughing.

The mood was… weird.

Here I was, having just put on the performance of my life while this sick bastard held the executioner's blade over my head the entire time as I did so.

And now, when I’ve finished putting everything I have on the line, he just starts… laughing?

It went on for minutes, and no one could do anything except stay frozen and wait for him to reach the end of his mad chuckle.

Thankfully… he did.

“HAHAHA HA HA! Well what do you know! My son! My pathetic useless son wasn’t lying to me after all, you actually are the greatest minstrel in the world! I would even wager to say that you may be the greatest musician out of any other! Though I have not seen many performances from the sordid Pleasure Association, not one, not one, has ever come close to what I have seen today!”

…Thanks… I guess?

“Boy.” The Master Warrior said as he turned to his son, whose eyes were exceedling red and resting within a tear stained face, but even still consumed with such emotion he stutteringly turned to his father.

“You have done well today boy. To think! That a minstrel of such greatness has emerged outside of the Pleasure Association and has now fallen into my hands. When we arrive on the New Continent and attend our welcoming banquet we shall display him for all to see. Ha! The faces those trollops will make when they see such a precious treasure in the hands of our Scholar Association. I can’t wait.”

Turning away from his son he once more directs his glimmering blood red eyes back to me.

“Minstrel, what is your name?”

“Eric Bowman, Lord Warrior. Eric Bowman” I answer whilst kneeling again as I begin to feel a swelling surge of desperate hope now blossoming in my chest.

“You shall report to my chambers tomorrow morning two hours after sunrise. We shall discuss what to do and how best to use you to shame those Sorcerer sympathisers. Warriors! Back to our rooms!”

With that abrupt closing statement from the Master Warrior, he, his family, and all his retainers got up at once and left the hall, all leaving their cold and untouched meals behind them as they did so.

When they finally left the dining hall, I collapsed to the ground.

I think I may have very possibly remained there for hours, limp and unmoving due to the sheer drain I had just expereinced… if not for Captain Koll coming over and picking me up off the floor to set me right.

“Lad, that was something. May be that was the greatest something I have ever seen across all my years. Borgs!?”

“Aye Captain.”

“Get this man a warm meal and some strong drink. He’s just put on a show for us and now it’s time we repay the favour.”

“Aye Captain. Right away Captain.”

Somewhere I hear the sound of someone running off but I barely register it as the Captain guides me over to what I soon discover is his own table and sits me down with some of his own fellow sailors.

It's only when a steaming dinner and a large pint sized glass of wine is put down in front of me that I arise from my shock… to then start scoffing down vigorously the food and drink presented to me that I was now suddenly realising I desperately needed.

Only when I come back up from a cleaned off plate and an empty glass, do I have the chance to look up and take stock of my surroundings.

As should be probably expected, everyone, and I mean everyone, is staring at me.

Wonder, awe, curiosity, arousal… all eyes are on me as they examine who this wonder was that came out of nowhere.

Seeing me staring back, they all at once begin to return to their cold dinners as they realise how embarrassing they were all just behaving… though only for a little while as individually, everyone takes their own moments to raise their heads up and grab another peek at me again and again.

Hearing the sound of flowing water coming from in front of me though, I turn back to my table to find that Captain Koll is filling up my glass to the top again from a freshly opened bottle of wine.

“You’re one hell of a man Mr. Bowman. I’ve seen man die before, in all manner of ways, but I’ve never seen a man go up and face death like that before… and then against all the odds win his life back from the maw of death like it was nothing at all.” Captain Koll said as he pushed the full glass into my hand then raised his own up alongside the rest of his men.

“To Eric Bowman, the best damn minstrel Calzyn’s ever known. Cheers.”

“““““Cheers.””””””

“Cheers to the magic minstrel!”

“Yeah, the magic minstrel! Cheers”

“““““““““The Magic Minstrel! Cheers!”””””””””””

And so I and many of the other sailors drank on through the night. At one point I broke out my flute which I had actually kept with me the whole time and played a few sea shanties and folk songs that I knew to pay them back for their hospitality, which of course had all the sailors up in arms singing their hearts out.

While this happened, the rest of the ship's passengers filed out one at a time as the night grew darker and the time for bed got increasingly closer. But I noticed that every single one of them let their eyes linger on us all as they left, watching us all sing happily well into the night.

Eventually I put down my flute and excused myself for the evening, and though some of the crewmen began to protest, a stern look from Captain Koll sobered them all up. Reminding them all of what I must yet face tomorrow.

I had survived tonight, but we all knew that my life was still very much in the hands of the Master Warrior.

And tomorrow morning… I would find out how he planned to use it.

*****

The next morning I awoke to the Sun rising over the horizon, just as I had done for decades before when my days were filled with the responsibilities and the necessities of working the farm.

That wasn’t what I had to face today though unfortunately. Today, I had to face something much more dire.

Though I had been slightly drunk the night before it hadn’t helped me sleep as I would have hoped as my night was as fitful a one as I ever experienced. Stress building more and more with every hour in the darkness as I waited for the upcoming judgement awaiting me along with the new day.

With nothing better to do I washed myself up, changed into some fresh clothes, and left my room with my case in tow and went again to the dining hall for only the second day of my voyage. Fortunately, instead of marching to my death like yesterday, I was simply going there to get some breakfast.

The dining hall looked the same as it did the night before. The stage was still there as was the royal dining table set up at the other end although this time around it was, thankfully, empty.

When I went to one of the cooks to pick up my meal she generously explained to me that last night had been a freak occurrence due to my performance, and that from now on the Warriors from the Institute will be taking their meals in their rooms for the duration of their journey and so won’t bother the rest of us normals out here in the dining hall again, much to I’m sure everyone’s relief.

With a very generous serving from the cooks, I sat down to have at least one thing I knew I could enjoy today, food. However, even that simple pleasure was taken away because all around me, I was being peppered by stares.

Everyone in the dining hall was looking at me, with many of the same looks they held the night previous only this time with more concern, worry, pity, trepidation and nausea all mixed in as well.

Needless to say, breakfast was ruined.

So, scoffing down my food again as fast as I could to escape the intense scrutiny, I returned my dishes to the kitchens and left the dining hall as fast as I could to then begin making my way over to my next round of life weighing judgement.

Finding it was no issue. The ship was big, but it was safe to assume that the miniature palace constructed on the deck with regal architecture and fancy materials (as much as can be summoned up on a boat) was the place I was meant to be going to.

Once there, I found a Warrior waiting out the front as a guard, an Adherent from his garments I determined, and when I addressed him appropriately as Great Warrior and begged his explanation as to when I should expect the Lord Warrior to summon me, he just told me to stay there and wait for however long it takes.

Not finding his answer unexpected, though a little annoyed that the goodwill I had earned from last night had seemed to have completely evaporated, that’s exactly what I did.

While waiting, I felt the urge to do something. Practice a baptism, play a few practice songs to get myself ready for what I might face. But under the stern gaze of the Adherent Warrior who was standing guard… I resorted to just standing there quietly.

After some time a young lady Warrior emerged from the palace doors and informed the Adherent that my appearance was requested by their master, who then sequentially moved to the side for the lady to quickly usher me in behind her with an emotionless and unquestionable glance.

Did my music leave no impression at all?

Following her into the depths I made my way over luxurious rugs, through tasteful architecture of mosaics and archways, and beneath paintings and tapestries filled with scenes of great warriors battling against vast arrays of magical beasts.

After a fair amount of time and around quite a few twists and turns down many different hallways, I arrived at what could only be described as… a royal audience chamber.

And upon a modest throne in the centre of the room, sat the Master Warrior, accompanied by what I assumed to be his most loyal and valuable retainers… with his family also there off to the side.

Trying to maintain the Calzyn etiquette as best I could from what I remembered reading, I approached head lowered and hands crossed onto my shoulders before stopping at the appropriate distance, lowering myself then into a kneeling bow.

“So” the voice above me began, “I suppose the first question I should ask you minstrel is why a man such as yourself has not already pledged his talents and services to the Pleasure Association already? Very unusual, you must agree?”

I had prepared myself for such a question long ago from way back on the farm, and while I had been waiting I had modified it somewhat to make it more appealing to the monster now staring down at me.

“Because I do not want to, Lord Warrior.” I answered plainly.

“...Well, pray tell, there must be a deeper reason than that.”

“...Because of my father.” I further explained.

“Ho. Well that must be a story indeed. Please minstrel, tell us all your tale.”

With the Master Warrior permission, that’s exactly what I did.

I explained that my “adoptive father” had actually been a musician with the Bordello, but after an unfortunate incident had rendered him deaf, he was let go from his employment and turned out into the streets.

It was a common enough story I had found. The Bordello was an Association of women, by women and for women, and looked after women before and well after they left the child bearing age as was the code of ethics, but men were seldom afforded such an inclusive kindness when it came to their needs for support.

My “adoptive father” was originally the son of a woodworker, but had left the trade to pursue his passion instead, and so while he was a musician through and through he had learnt the ways of carpentry from his upbringing. When he was cast out of the Bordello, he was left hurt and resentful, but had it in mind to formulate some sort of way of earning himself back into the fold of the Bordello with his still great love for it, but to do so, he needed help.

So, on his dismissal, he took into his care, me. A common enough bastard who had emerged from one of the ladies of the Bordello but had shown no obvious talents to be fostered, and so was easily let go of and adopted out.

From that point on my “father” became obsessed with the idea of creating a new musical instrument. He had the wood crafting skills he deemed necessary, but needed a pair of ears that could hear notes and pitch so that he knew that what he was creating was actually really moving towards his goals.

So that had been my apparent “life”. My “father” and I worked our trade as wood workers in the daytime while at the same time secretly developing a new revolutionary musical instrument during the nighttime all the way from my infancy till now.

Sadly, my “father” had died before it could be completed, and so it was only some years later I perfected it all by myself.

“... and so my father who toiled all his life to win back the grace of the Pleasure Association through this instrument died a sad and regretful man. So, though it may be what he wished, I also built this instrument, and have inherited his works and legacy and so have decided this instrument should not be for the Bordello, but for myself, and for anyone who may listen to me play it.”

The end of my completely made up tale was only met with silence… before the monster started chuckling again.

“...Ha Ha Ha. Your story is even more perfect than I could have hoped. A bastard of the Pleasure Association raised by a man they cast aside who have both together created one of the greatest musical inventions ever conceived. Truly, the tides of the Source sent you my way to show favour.” The monster spoke, more to himself than to anyone else.

“What is your instrument called, minstrel?” the Master Warrior asked.

“...a Guitar, Lord Warrior, after my father.”

“Well, you and your Guitar serve me now.”

…What?

“I take it you wrote all those songs yourself?”

“...Of course, Lord Warrior.”

No, really, what the fuck did he just say?

“Boy, you have done well. I’ll put this minstrel in your charge and you will have him write a grand music piece that will be played upon our arrival and announcement on the New Continent. It will praise the virtues of the Scholar Association while at the same time denouncing and slandering the moral lacking of the Pleasure Association simultaneously.” The Master Warrior said as he looked over to his son.

No, no, no…this can’t be happening!? This can’t be happening!?

“Do what I ask well, minstrel. For all my tools do either what I demand… or they break during the attempt.”

With that final word the Master Warrior, his retainers, and the man’s family all except for his eldest son, filed out of the audience chamber and disappeared off somewhere all through doors to the sides.

Leaving the two of us alone.

The boy Warrior uncomfortable, and I… filled with shock and remorse, for my now lost freedom.