Both boats were on fire, the pirate captain was escaping and a massive river snake had just risen from the Lûne, looking for prey to devour. A grin spread across Niccolo’s face. Today would make for a great story.

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Niccolo had always dreamt of becoming an adventurer. As a young noble, he spent most time lying around and drinking, but when he hadn’t been doing that, he’d been practicing his swordplay. That had led him to become the stellar duellist that he was today.

However, his father hadn’t supported him in this new career move. It was not fashionable for a noble to travel around, selling his sword for noble in service to someone else. The di Falcone never served, or at least not for something as common as money.

In the end they’d reached a compromise. His father would not disinherit him, as long as Niccolo went abroad for his adventures. After all, it would not do for the rest of Taluan nobility to see him doing common people’s work.

So that was how he had found himself in the neighbouring country of Charaîne and more specifically its capital, Lazanne. Lazanne wasn’t a bad place. There was plenty of entertainment to be found, even if their wine was inferior to the Taluan vintages. The men and women were both delightful too.

Niccolo had even found himself a few companions willing to assist him in his quest for glory. Admittedly, they had been inspired by more basic and duller desires such as escaping poverty and famine, but no one was perfect.

Therefore, when they had been contacted by baron Valoix to return his pleasure barge, the Esprit, they’d jumped at the opportunity. The boat had been stolen by river pirates when the baron’s eldest son had been touring the Lûne with it. While no one had gotten hurt, the slight had demanded for vengeance.

To make matters worse, the captain of the pirates was a man named Diego Reyes, an Aranian. After the war between Charaîne and Arania had finally come to an end, Reyes had travelled to Charaîne to continue harassing the local population. Clearly, Reyes was still angry about the admittedly horrendous peace terms.

Thus, the four of them were currently on a smaller boat, searching the Lûne for Reyes and the Esprit. Niccolo had taken the liberty of hiring a local crew to man the boat. No matter the numerous qualities of himself and his companions, maritime skills were not one of those.

Instead, he could stand at the stern and gaze at the Lûne, looking for Diego Reyes. He hoped the pirate was not hiding. To further entice him, Niccolo had hung a massive Charaîne flag from the mast and had four musicians continuously play the Charaîne national anthem. While the musicians weren’t very talented, they did play loudly.

“See anything yet Niccolo?” Irina asked, shouting to be heard above the music.

Niccolo turned to her and smiled. He liked Irina. It was hard not to like anyone who had the guts to wear a chainmail while on the boat. While Niccolo considered chainmail pointless in this time and age, rapiers slipped right through the rings and muskets shot straight through it, he had to admire someone who stuck to her principles.

“Nothing yet, but it can’t be long. From what we’ve heard, Reyes has been prowling these waters for some time now and we do make for a very tempting target,” Niccolo chuckled.

“True enough. Are you sure the music is necessary though?” she asked, casting a look at the musicians who redoubled their efforts, clearly inspired by the attention.

“My dear Irina, nothing is ever necessary, but I do think it improves our odds of finding Reyes significantly. I can ask them to play a different song though. I will admit that after having heard it ten times in a row, the Charaîne anthem has lost some of its glamour,” Niccolo said as he walked towards the musicians. “Alright everyone, time for something different. How about another typical Charaîne song?”

The musicians paused, sticking their heads together. The violinist and the tuba player argued briefly, while the drummer and cello player used the opportunity to rest. Eventually the violinist turned to Niccolo.

“How about ‘La Triomphe’? It should greatly anger Reyes as it is new piece about our glorious victory over the Aranian scum, present company excluded of course,” the man rapidly added when he saw Aitor approach.

Aitor was the third member of their little group and, sadly, from a farm in Arania. Not only did that mean he did not appreciate the merits of the fine arts, it also caused quite some embarrassing moments. With the war still so fresh in everyone’s memory, Aranians weren’t that welcome in Charaîne. Niccolo didn’t fully understand why Aitor had chosen to come Charaîne of all places, but he didn’t mind. He was good enough with a sword to be worth the occasional diplomatic incident.

“Hello Aitor, feeling better?” Niccolo asked.

“I no longer spend all my time sick if that’s what you’re asking,” Aitor responded. “Who knows, maybe I’m getting used to boats.”

“That’s good to hear. While I do not doubt we are also capable of handling Reyes without you, I would not want you to miss out on our very first adventure. Speaking of missing people, where’s Sophia?” Niccolo asked, realising it had been quite some time since he’d seen the last member of their group.

“Reading in her cabin. She had grown weary of staring at the river,” Aitor said.

Niccolo had to admit Sophia had a point there. The Lûne, while pretty enough, wasn’t that exciting. Just an endless stream of water with forest and fields all around them and the occasional fish getting scooped up by a bird. At least the scarecrows on the field made for some pleasant diversion. The Charaîne put a lot of effort into them.

So far, Niccolo had seen several rather unflattering depictions of Aranians, all of them with red heads, drooping moustaches and oversized hats. There had also been one that seemed like a cross-breed of a donkey and a Charaîne noble. Niccolo had to admire whichever farmer put that one up. Most local nobles flayed people for that.

With a loud squawk a big bird landed on the deck and stared at Niccolo. It had a fish in its mouth that it spat out, tried to swallow, spat out again and then tried to eat once more. Niccolo gave the bird a doubtful look, one it returned with much more pride than a bird choking on fish should.

“A common Charaîne seagull, or Larus Canus Caraina. Known for its big yellow beak, white feathers and annoying habit of chasing boats while squawking loudly. I wonder what it does here, so far away from the sea,” Sophia said as she walked up to their group. “The lack of music made me hope we had found Reyes, but alas.”

The musicians took that as their cue and started the new piece. It immediately sent the bird scattering, the poor creature so scared it even abandoned its half-chewed fish. Not even the bravest of birds was a match for their tuba player.

Like Niccolo, Sophia was a Taluan and that alone made her an invaluable member of their group. She was the only one he could discuss politics with, even if she preferred more academic subjects.

Moreover, she was also a mage. Why she bothered adventuring as a mage, Niccolo would never get. Usually mages became academics at the renowned Taluan magical universities, or a court mage, though the latter had a relatively short lifespan. Last year, the Bianchi court mage had been poisoned by order of Niccolo’s father. No one had discovered their involvement, mostly because the mage had been crushed by a falling chandelier before the poison could take effect. The Andreotti had not been able to deny their guilt in that one, mostly because their duke would not stop bragging about ‘dropping a chandelier on that annoying twerp’s head’ for three weeks straight.