‘’Hey!’’ A voice called out, Baybur flinched on his place.

His mind returned from the memory and his ears again caught the shouting waves of the sea. Scarlet left in its wake a dark aquamarine Aegean and a light blue sky. Instead of a tip, the Sun pointed at his eyes.

‘’Brother, are you not eating?’’ Baybur turned to look at the source, he saw the sailor who cried over the fish approach him. The deck creaked under his steps and a drop of blood fell from a knife in his right hand. There were still blood stains on his indigo blue gown, even a few could be seen on a white shirt under it.

‘’Didn’t we just cut the fish?’’

‘’Just?’’ Sailor giggled, ‘’You’ve been dozing over here for half an hour at least, look at the sun!’’ He pointed at the Sun behind him. Baybur tilted his head to glance, then his pupils shrank. The Sun was no longer at the top, it leaned towards the west like the half-a-quarter of a circle and continued to slope down.

‘’Oh...’’

‘’What made you so much focused, brother?’’ The sailor asked, he came to stand next to him and gaze at the sun.

‘’Some distasteful memories,’’ Baybur waved his hand, ‘’Nothing important brother, thanks for your concern.’’

‘’They must be worthy of talking if they bother you so much-’’ The sailor then exclaimed, ‘’Wait, why didn’t you talk about them when we asked? It must be a good entertainment material!’’

‘’It isn’t,’’ Baybur muttered, but he didn’t say anymore. ‘’Where is the meal, under the deck or?’’

‘’Do you see it, brother? If not, it is obvious.’’ Indeed, Baybur cast his eyes to the deck, to the three diverse sails and their wooden poles, to the burly man with sharp eyes standing on the crow’s nest, and at last to the upper-deck where several other sailors seemed to gather around one of the household guards. It appeared that he talked about something, which made the small crowd cheer twice in a matter of ten seconds.

‘’Brother?’’ Sailor shook his shoulder, Baybur’s eyes glazed over at him. ‘’My mistake, did I say something upsetting to you?’’

‘’No, brother, my apologies for keeping you waiting. Let’s go.’’ Baybur walked off towards the small door leading to the inner quarters. Sailor followed behind him as well with mutterings, Baybur couldn’t hear what he pondered about. Within a dozen large strides they came before the door from the railings and opened the gate, then walked inside.

Though they closed the gate behind them, the rowdy nature of the sea still forced its way in with tremors. The path they stood on looked straight and normal, but the ship’s swaying gave one the feeling of walking while falling down. Luckily, Baybur looked up, there were prisms placed between the deck and the inner sections to light up the inside. Else, with all this rumbling and trembling, he doubted any candle would sit still on their place and not burn the ship to a crisp.

Some still used, though, especially the ship captain in his private room, which stood at the opposite side of the inner quarter’s entrance. The some also included Çetin Pasha, who had a lone room assigned to himself, and a man from the household guards that loved reading books in his shared room. He remembered the latter not because he took notice of him, or perhaps a bit of the reason was that, but because he now stood in front of them at the entrance to the shared room.

He closed the wooden door with a single window from his back and locked it with a copper key given to them by the ship captain. Baybur had no doubt there were more than one of this key, but safety was safety. The man did the right thing.

‘’Mustafa,’’ Baybur patted the man’s shoulder, Mustafa turned to look at him. He had a freezing gaze in his dark pupils, perhaps enough to scare someone witless, but the friendly smile hung above his pointy beard negated the effect.

‘’Leader,’’ Mustafa gave a nod, ‘’Going to the meal?’’

‘’There is no where else to go, is there?’’

‘’Of course not,’’ Mustafa nodded again, ‘’Let us go together, I wanted to ask you something as well.’’

‘’Go on,’’ Baybur said and they started walking again.

‘’I hope it is short, because it won’t last more than a few steps, it seems.’’ Sailor said behind them.

‘’It is, brother,’’ Mustafa said, ‘’Leader, have you ever been to Venice?’’

‘’I didn’t. Well,’’ Baybur closed his eyes for a moment, ‘’I didn’t have the chance as well.’’

‘’Oh, understandable. You were a yerliyya, they said. At where?’’

‘’At Stari Ras, at the northwest of Novi Pazar.’’

‘’Isn’t that a fortress, though?’’ Mustafa asked. ‘’Weren’t Yerliyyas situated at cities and towns to secure the order and to...’’

‘’Suppress and check local authority, recruit new novices for the hearth, ensure the payment of taxes go without trouble. Many things, if you like,’’ Baybur completed Mustafa’s sentence. In the meantime, the hallway came to an end and they reached a small opening with a long table strapped to the ground. The strong scent of cooked fish and mixed vegetables rushed over at their nostrils.

‘’But those are unofficial tasks. The first is our real mission and fortresses are, well, places that need protection.’’

‘’I understand,’’ Mustafa nodded thrice and walked over at one of the empty chairs surrounding the table. Although long, the limited capacity and crew of the cog made it so that there were not many people filling in. The passengers amounted to eighteen; fifteen household guards, one Çetin Pasha, one Baybur, the last one the translator, While the crew only consisted of eleven men. Yet this table alone could hold twenty men. There were also other tables for single men or duos to sit together, and if one wanted they could eat on the ground as well, as long as they had a plate and cleaned off the stains.

So the table was relatively empty.

Baybur approached near Mustafa and took a seat left to him, and at Baybur’s left seated Çetin Pasha who cast him a smile. Across him sat other household guards, who still wore their brown tunics over chainmail and carried their shields around. Captain of the ship, who sat between Çetin Pasha and the household guards, advised them many times in the past two days, to no avail. So he also gave up, but sailors would still steal glances at them.

Now that the table had all important people gathered, and those who didn’t want to eat sat outside to mind their businesses, Captain gave a nod for people to start. The few sailors wolfed down first, tearing pieces of the pair of large fish to their own bowls, while household guards kept their hands at bay. To those who got accustomed to the etiquette of the palace, eating like this must have been a bit...vulgar. Baybur didn’t care much though, he also reached with his hand and tore off a large piece and put it on the bowl in his front.

He reached for loaves of bread and dried pieces of meat at the sides, took bites off them and let them rest near the fish piece, then plucked a leaf of cabbage and swallowed it whole. Compared to his reserved eating at the banquet, he felt much better eating like this. Çetin pasha, also, didn’t seem to mind and ate without restraint, though not as greedy as Baybur and other sailors. He was a soldier, after all, thus his lack of hesitation didn’t seem weird in the eyes of the people.

Except the household guards. They still had weird gazes locked on the sailors, Baybur, and their pasha. But not even a minute passed before they gave in and started eating. Mustafa was the first among them to drop the face, and soon others followed.

Among burps and clatters and chewing noises, their meal came to an end.