Gula POV

Sweat dripped down my neck and face with a long bang of black hair sticking to my right cheek. I paid it no mind though as the minutes went by with my sore hands idly thumbing the sword handles on my left hip or wrapping around a mug of cold water, like the rest of my fellow workers. We were all sitting on a long wooden bench with similarly tired Frojan and Kelton guards on my right and left. No one talked while my eyes lingered over the open water before me as it gently lapped against the stone base that served as the foundation for this soon-to-be city. The reflective surface was interrupted only by the occasional snail gliding over the new lake or gust of wind with the grey sky above giving the scene an eerily calm atmosphere. Breezes I would have called freezing at any other time blew through my white shirt as the clouds above provided almost as much relief from my heat. The sweat that drenched the cloth had also helped cool me down, a small mercy that I could only wish I had during my hard day's training as a wayfarer.

The sky above the swamps wasn’t nearly as generous in how often it blocked the sun’s gaze, but those labors were done in leather armor. Not that Beaton hadn’t tried his best to make up for that comfort in his slave-driving. Being Eli’s wife had afforded me a degree of respect that bordered on fawning from some, recently perhaps too much, but the instant my foot stepped on the ship the older captain became God-King-Emperor-Master of all existence and he had no issue with enforcing his divine rule. But he was even-handed in his iron grip as he drove me and the others in an egalitarian spirit.

That spirit wasn’t in everyone, though. One of the newest Kelton additions to our group had made a very unsavory comment that still lingered in my head during the early days that, for some reason that was no doubt very stupid, I was still wrestling with. Fortunately, I was among old friends and suffering along with them in that way that kept the mind too tired to ponder.

Our group also included Lokan, who sat on the stone's edge further away to my left. The blue snake woman with a frill along her neck and a purple robe, now accompanied by a thick cloth vest and pants, had been eager to visit the southern lands. Eagerness that had seen her take the last supply ship here and sent Kantor back to oversee the main base with the rest of my kind and the newer Kelton recruits. Though the tiredness in her eyes, including the one with a vertical scar along her left, said she was quite done with preparing for this trip.

Looking further toward the left, I saw the past week's work taking shape in the form of six wide pillars with a round wall between them standing tall over the other half-finished buildings. Gone was the ruined tower, with its collapsed sides and dreary interior. Cell was coming and going constantly these days, but he had scoured the basement on his first visit here. The first three floors had been empty, presumably where a lot of the housing would be. It was on the last floor where the great treasure of the dead people had been found. Stores of gold bricks, scoured from the churned earth of mole packs, accompanied by several mana crystal tools had been laid to rest in the open space. A space that was quickly pilfered and then filled in with the rest of the basement. I thought it would make a fine addition to our holdings, but Eli had written back about load-bearing walls and tensile strength and a whole lot of other words that meant ‘not a good idea’.

I had also heard of some weapons and assorted items among the goods, but these past few days had been spent mastering knots and ship rigging. Glancing at my hands and taking in the sore calluses, I was both irritated that I had to spend so much time on what was going to be a fake career and proud that I had risen to ‘passing’ in Beaton’s eyes in such a short amount of time. Swigging down the last of my mug's water, I got off the bench and walked towards the construction going on a few stone tosses away.

It took less than a minute before I was in the main vein of traffic and rubbing elbows with Kelton laborers. All around me people were molding bricks into smooth walls or giant ovens for bakeries using boards of wood enchanted with earth molding spells. Foremen shouted, bricks smacked against each other, and workers complained, but overall, it was far quieter than what putting up a small town should have produced. I remembered the constant hammering and sounds of axes whenever the local market in my homelands required a repair or expansion and compared it to the construction several times larger going on around me. The conspicuous absence of loud noise continued until I came up to the center of the soon-to-be city and the sounds of clanging utensils and chatter ahead raised to what my mind said was an appropriate level.

The source of the chorus was the thick, circular wall towering at nearly five floors with six towers evenly spaced along its perimeter. The place was going to look quite grand if the paper Eli showed us was anything to go by, but the soldier in me still had some reservations. The future domed roof wasn’t going to be strong enough to hold up to any kind of real bombardment even when the walls were supposedly thicker than anything a caster earth mage could easily wreck. As I walked through the crowd, I noticed almost all of them were Kelton’s bringing wood and bricks from enchanted boards around the walls to one of the buildings being put together around the vast expanse of flat stone that served as the floor.

Coming through the wide arch that stood above an entrance wide enough to allow four carriages through with space, the crowd only barely died down as people ate at various benches stacked in rows on all sides. Most of the feasters were positively pudgy, taking to their task of consuming magical resources with gusto. At the center was a massive cauldron of soup nearly thrice the size of a man, its steam wafting through the open air before the chilling breeze above the walls killed the white whisps. Below the giant black bowl of iron was a square brick oven with a mana crystal disk inside bellowing out heat from its fire enchantment.

On the tables to its sides was a wide variety of meats, all salted white, mixed with vegetables, and being prepared by knife-wielding cooks. Most of whom were looking as full-figured as their patrons. Perusing the food and the stoves further to the right as I walked to the center, I saw a wide array of reds, blues, yellows, and greens in the meats and vegetables being prepared. Cell had hauled in quite a catch since he arrived and now the main task was just getting it all down these people’s throats.

However, it was the space behind the pot that I was walking up to. Salamede was standing at a table covered in a single long sheet of paper. Drawn on it was the general layout of the future city, but for now, it was all bricks, wooden planks, and dreams. Her white shirt and brown pants flapped with her hands as she directed the Keltons around her to one labor or another. Motions that stopped when I came up to the table. When her white eyes looked at me, she quickly left her position among the surrounding attendants to take me in a hug.

‘Hello, sister. Are you a lady of the seas now?’ She asked in a spirit connection.

‘Pff. More like a girl of the pond, but I’m passing as far as Beaton is concerned.’ I said before looking towards the written plans for this place laying on the table. Salamede pulled back and looked it over with me.

‘We finally settled on the arrangement when we got Eli’s advice to have the metal and crafting markets separate from the food section. Anything you’d like to say?’

It looked pretty standard, with warehouses by the docks, houses and towers in the middle, and forges by the water. I noticed a few good choke points for the rings of streets outside of the denser inner circle and the bazaar, but right now it was all black squares and lines whose subtleties escaped me. Perhaps if I had the time to look it over in-depth, I could find some flaw like Eli could with just a glance, but time was something I didn’t have much of.

‘Looks good. This domed building isn’t to my liking, but that’s been said already.’

Salamede shrugged.

‘It’s a government building. Not a military one. A place for debates and discussing the latest disaster.’

I rolled my eyes, the phrase ‘Pretty and useless. A fitting building.’ on the edge of my mental tongue. Fortunately, I had the sense to keep it there considering this was going to be her main residence. Thinking of that, I looked her up and down. The Kelton mage seemed fine until I saw her left hand clutching her brown pants. I wasn’t too familiar with the contours of her snout, but I would bet she was biting her tongue.

‘Do you see any problems with it?’ I asked.

She shook her head.

‘I spent my whole childhood hearing tales of these lands. How our ancestors hunted giant moles and even the bigger snails here for wealth and prestige. We used to have traders drop off bits of these tales in shells and colorful rocks from the mainland, most of which were probably painted fakes, but it was the imagination behind them that counted.’

My puckered lips stopped the chuckle trying to force itself out of my throat as she continued.

‘And now… we very well might bring it back. A lie at heart, but back all the same.’

Her grey hands waved around the table and wider room.

‘A dream brought into the waking world.’ I offered with a nod. Instead of agreeing with my sentiment, she turned to me with a blank face on her goatish features.

‘The dreams of a maid. Directed by someone who should be changing the sheets of the people she’s ordering around.’

I raised an eyebrow at her, thinking back to when Eli first brought up this crazy plan.

‘You didn’t seem very low on the totem when you head-butted that guard and yelled at everyone to shut up.’

Salamede furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

‘That was as the ‘chiefs’ wife, supporting his decisions. Now I’m only working under my authority.’ She said in the same tone one would have to declare the color of the sky.

I could only give her a blank stare as I tried to parse out how being Eli’s wife would make her more right or wrong. Alongside it was the flicker of anger from the Kelton lad’s comment from earlier. The task and emotions eventually became too much and I pushed them aside to attend to the task at hand.

Self-confidence had been an ongoing issue with her, but as overwhelmed as Salamede felt, putting everything in Eli’s lap would be impossible. He was too far away and too busy trying to put the other pieces of this mess back together. Besides our marriage to him, another bond I had with my sister-wife was the knowledge that our actions had marked us irredeemable by all merits of sense, altruism, and duty. A mutual wound we took turns mending when the need arose.

I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a soft hug. A difficult thing considering I had to shift to avoid poking her with my sword's handle.

‘Few start great. I was pond scum back home and rose all the way to dirt. It takes time, but we eventually fit into the positions we have. As for being a lie, you are a descendant of those skeletons. You have the birthright and magical ability to claim these lands and if things get as bad as everyone thinks they will, you’ll be walking on the clouds and commanding the stars to the masses when the time comes.’

She snorted before pulling away. Her white eyes looked me up and down as she straightened her back.

‘We’ll see. You’ve been working a lot and those clothes need a change. I’ve made sure we have enough supplies at the showers for you to grab a shirt and pants.’

All this moaning about not fitting into roles and she slipped into motherhood without a thought.

There was the errant notion that I was a grown woman, but I suppressed it as Salamede began walking closer to the table. With a wave goodbye, I turned around and walked around the large center kitchen. Coming out of the wide walls, I walked to the left and around the back to a makeshift camp.

Not nearly as polished or as organized as the growing town, the only advantage the mass of tents and quick stone shacks had was that it was finished. In the back by the edge of the stone foundation were several stone boxes that served as outhouses and showers, the latter of which was on the further right and easily distinguishable by the steam coming out of them. Walking by several of the workers, I made sure to pay attention to how they treated me.

When I went up to the table near the showers that sported freshly clean unisex clothes for everyone and an accompanying towel, most did a light bow or nod as they scurried out of my way. Comparing it to how they treated Salamede, I wanted to say it was about the same amount of respect she got. Still, an errant thought dug into me as I approached one of the open stalls.

Closing the door behind me and stripping, I couldn’t help but think about how Salamede saw so much of herself in being Eli’s wife and my observations of people these past few weeks. Turning the handles on the sides of the wood flower fused into the back wall, my thoughts pondered on what people thought of me. I was scum for most of my life, but I was scum on my terms. My own person. But now was I more ‘Eli’s wife’ than I was ‘Gula’?

Some horrible voice in the back of my mind said yes and the image of the young Kelton lad with black fur asking his innocuous, outrageous question seemed to confirm it.

Biting my lip as I retrieved a soap bar from a bench on the left, I pushed the voice and thought away. Quickly scrubbing myself down and washing the soapy bubbles through the slits in the floorboards, I quickly shut off the water and rubbed myself down with the towel. Donning the white shirt and grey pants, I quickly made my way out of the showers. Walking to the right, I stopped in the stone shacks that served as outhouses. It was a clean affair, as the waste was kept in a wood trough and carted off at the end of the day to feed our magically grown crops.

My business in this stone oasis now finished, I walked further ahead to the side of the stone foundation facing out towards the ocean on the right. The docks were a bare thing, having only plain wooden totems and floorboards that were at odds with the flowing grace a lot of the other buildings were looking to affect. As bare as the harbor was, it was the large ship in the middle pier that had been the center of my world these past few days.

It bore the typical thick head and wide back of an ocean-faring ship, but it looked more like a mansion on water to my eyes. The back end had a dark wood siding of what was the captain’s quarters while the rest of the dark oak ship bore a supple look of finished furniture. The row boats with pulleys in the back had a similar level of craftsmanship. Sporting three masts and a heavy set build, if it wasn’t for the flag atop the spotter's nest sporting waves marking it of the Waveborn, most would assume it to be a central piece of some grand navy.

The pristine craftsmanship of the boat was far above anything the other Orc ships and their human husbands had. That had been a point of worry considering we were supposed to be smugglers. Beaton just laughed when I brought it up, though, waving away the concern and saying a few days on the sea would ‘settle her in’. The sudden onset of gender into our vessel had raised eyebrows from Lokan and me but we didn’t say anything about it. Even if it was a ‘she’, the ballista at the end, middle, and back clashed with the femininity of the vessel.

Off further to left was another ship, the starkest difference being the balloon above it and the fact it was out of the water and on the stone foundation. It had been my home for weeks and raised an eyebrow at the figure coming down its side. After a few seconds of walking to me, the thick leather coat, glasses, and leather cap became the form of my mother as she opened her typical pilot suit designed to handle poor rain and cold winds.

“Hey, pup” She called as her long brown braids twirled behind her. I quickened my step, only just giving her enough time to raise her thick glasses before I was in front of her.

“The pup just became an official sailor,” I responded in a light tone.

She nodded and her red eyes in the black spheres looked amused.

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, so don’t do anything to stress your poor mother out too much.”

I stared at her for a second, the look of worry on her face unhidden. We were sailing out to a potentially dangerous situation but I had been doing risky missions my whole life. She had always kept her obvious worry buried deep down and I suppose the easy life here had softened my mother's hard shell.

Grabbing mom into a hug, I squeezed as hard as I could around the muscular woman.

“I’ll be fine. As always. This is just a glorified trip to the market.”

Her light chuckle lightened the mood with its rarity and lighthearted nature.

“Fine, brat. But make sure to tell me when you bring anyone on board.”

I nodded as I pulled back.

“Of course.”

With that, we pulled back and left for our respective homes for the next few weeks.

As I came up to the ship, the sailors looked positively giddy as they worked the crates of vegetables and grains onto the ship. Some of the food was grown here or harvested in the wilds elsewhere but most had been sourced from pirate ships that had met a monster at sea or fell to bad weather or whatever other stories they would come up with to explain the disappearances. Whatever tale they used to explain the losses, the truth of their demise died with the crews who had the air sucked out of their lungs by Salamede and Cell. We hadn’t intended to use the pirates as a source of supplies, but when we were discussing how many ships to disappear to slow the bandits down and Beaton casually mentioned that the Mist pirates didn’t keep slaves onboard their regular forward ships and main fighters, we decided we could hunt them in enough numbers to make a proper harvest of their supplies.

While I walked along the pier and up to the side of the ship past smiling sailors and haulers, the energy was enthusiastic as more than one of them rubbed the hull with appreciation. Waiting for my turn to go up the ladder, a crane near the end of the pier helped hoist a pallet of goods skyward and onto the deck. As the ladder finally cleared for me, I shimmied up and onto the main area of action on the ship.

It was flat save for the back end and a half floor on the front with a ballista sporting a metal tip. Between the three massive wooden pillars were men moving goods off pallets and directing the madness stood Beaton, keeping near the steering wheel in front of his cabin in the back. His large white beard slightly blew in the soft breeze, but his brown eyes had a joy I hadn’t seen in them before. It was clear this was a dream project for the seasoned captain and his crew and they certainly reveled in it.

“Are we going to be ready to shove off soon?” I called as I moved to the right and out of the way of the line of traffic coming up the ladder.

His muscular hand rubbed his beard while his nose sucked in the wet air.

“She’ll be ready to move in the next hour.”

Again, ‘she’.

A light chuckle further to my right made me turn toward the source.

“Are we s-sure its breasts won’t get damaged on the rock below the waves?” Lokan lightheartedly asked, her blue frill shifting with her head nod towards the captain. She wore a long grey robe, a garment she insisted on no matter the weather, over a fluffy inner coat.

Beaton gave a low bow.

“We only want to show the utmost respect for you and the quad mage's ship, my ladies.”

I rolled my eyes as a smirk stole over my face.

“I don’t think ‘she’ was ever mine. Or Eli’s.” I called up as I walked closer to my friend.

The older, muscular man didn’t even bother denying it, only treating me to another low bow before returning to his duties with a look back towards the deck. I looked into Lokans’ slitted red eyes and we both could only shrug. Dream projects tended to grip people in ways the chain of command didn’t. Still, despite the joyous mutiny we were ahead of schedule due to their enthusiasm and I was willing to indulge them.

“Keeping warm, Lefty?” I asked my old friend.

“As-s well as could be expected. But business calls. Ah, pockets-s are such a wonderful invention.” She mused as she took a roll of paper from her robe's inner fold. “I’ll have to make sure to have them stitched into all my robes.”

Her list showed storage capacities, maintenance costs, and general wages for our business venture. The second and last were lies, but we still needed to pretend to have certain limitations. I had a lot of confidence in our ability to do it as the logistics were very similar to our drug running days. But as we went over it, the differences between the two ventures quickly became apparent.

We weren’t looking for too much profit this time around and we had to factor in the far longer shipping times. Starving masses would give us a fortune for the food, but the Kelton’s were eating enough magical resources to buy a small kingdom and a few bowls of their soup would probably net thrice any profit we would make in this venture. For the first time in my life, we were doing business without trying to scrape up as much money as we could, and it took a few minutes before we realized we were planning for maximizing price as opposed to keeping it as low as we feasibly could without drawing too much suspicion.

While we were putting the general food prices back in the Coalition into our calculations, Beaton’s voice yelled out over the workers.

“Time to shove off lads!”

With our earlier shift still in our tired muscles, Lokan followed me down to the lower decks. Going down the double doored hatch on the front of the ship, the fine woodwork kept up down here. Smooth walls of oak had the same high quality as the floors. Smaller windows near the ceiling let a breeze in and would no doubt let in the sunlight on clear days. Right now the middle had a wide open hole that crewmen were closing.

Kelton men and the few human males on our trip scattered about as they pulled the panels in the floor to cover the hole with a loud, metallic click as the room became properly closed to the outside world. Off to the sides were tables and chairs that the workers quickly put back into place to re-establish the dining room for the kitchen opposite the entrance. Turning left, we went down the next set of stairs to the top of the two sleeping levels.

My new home was a large space with bunk beds in stacks of three, apparently a great luxury on the seas. More windows were along the wall and in the middle of the room was a communal meeting area that already had its floor put back in. We moved off to the left and took up one of the bunks by the wall and under one of the windows. While the mostly Kelton workers left to see to the day's work, several frogmen came down to slouch onto one of the larger beds towards the right while I plopped into a bottom bed on the left. Getting onto the upper bed, Lokans’ blue tail swatted my head as she pulled herself into the alcove above.

“S-sorry.” She said as I leaned back into my fluffy pillow.

“It’s fine.” I accepted before she started shifting on the sheets above.

As I stretched on the bed, a sudden shift in the ship said we were leaving port. Tired from the previous work, the remaining fussing over our business plan was left unfinished as the faint afternoon light shined through the window above and the world went black.

A faint knock above my bunk brought me out of my lovely slumber.

Turning to my right, the blurry visage of Beaton standing beside me presented itself in a respectful bow. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the faint starlight shining through the window. When the man came into proper focus, his right hand stuck out a radio towards me with its copper pole attached.

“We’re supposed to do a small check-up every night. I’m afraid I spent the time I was supposed to use mastering this thing working on the ship.” His brown eyes had an apologetic look as he held out the box with two metal meshes on one side.

Nodding and getting up, I relieved him of the impossible wonder. Motioning towards the walkway leading upstairs, we both walked for a second when I heard a slight patter behind me. Turning around, I saw Lokan gingerly walking across the floor to us. When she finally caught up, the three of us made the trip up to the main deck.

Stars littered the black sky as we made our way onto the main deck. Two lanterns lighted the floor and some of the ropes of the sails, but beyond those dim glows, the air was almost black. Waves smashed against the hull and a light spray could be heard pattering against the wood as we moved closer to a lamp on the left.

When the flickering light of the wax candle covered all three of us, I held the radio up to my mouth and pressed the button on the side.

“Evening report coming in. Over,” I said into the bottom mesh.

Beaton nodded as I handed it over to him.

As he started giving a quick rundown of the supplies and general situation, Lokan took out the page with our logistic plans from earlier. Life started coming back into her eyes as her intellectual side took over. While we were going over some of the food prices, Beaton finished what was a minute-long report.

“That’ll be it… O-over” He finished, nearly forgetting the final word. Those brown eyes turned to me as he hefted the wooden box into his blue coat. “Thank you, Mrs.”

I nodded but Lokan took a step closer to him with the paper.

“We need to go over the math for our venture. I as-s-sume you know what venturing smugglers would expect in Baker’s port.” The snake woman insisted.

The captain nodded with a stroke of his wide grey beard. Going over the figures, the numbers we arrived at were in the range of what we had during the mayhem of the Phoenix empires invasion. Some dissatisfaction must have shown on my face because Beaton raised a bushy eyebrow at me with an unspoken question.

“These are pretty rough as far as food goes. Twenty-five copper for a bushel of wheat is robbery with taxes.” I answered.

The older captain chuckled. His laugh played against the backdrop of wind and waves while I tried to figure out what was so funny.

“Those prices are near what the poor pay during a regular bad season. They’ll eat far better than they were, even if it won’t be the buffets you’re used to.”

Heat came up my neck and into my cheeks at the familiar insinuation.

“Just what do you mean by that?!” I growled at him as the anger took control of my tongue.

That snide little comment had set off some deep well of resentment in me. Beaton quickly stood straight with a blank face; the soldier getting ready to take some crap from his superior.

“Eli wasn’t there when I had to hunt for crawdads and fish at the ripe old age of five. You think I’ve spent my life eating steaks and sweets while getting looked over like royalty? I was getting used as arrow fodder when he first dropped from the trees. Do you have any idea how many times I starved and froze? Or went out to the market and hid my face in shame because my clothes were more patch than cloth.”

He took the tongue lashing well, only giving a light nod as I wrangled myself back into propriety with a look down. Lokan, however, knew me well enough to be a bit freer around me.

“He didn’t know your life story. It was-s natural to assume you were used to the base’s indulgence considering how much we’d taken its luxuries-s for granted before they arrived.”

The blue snake woman’s words were a verbal ice bath for my anger. Taking a deep breath, I took a moment to release my anger and followed it up with a small nod to Beaton.

“My apologies, captain.”

He huffed as he moved his right hand over the bald cap of his head.

“I was a big lad growing up, despite our scant offerings at the dinner table. Took a fishing job at ten that most fishermen only allow at fifteen. Can’t say I’m proud of my lackluster youth, but anyone who treated me like I grew up in the royal house would get full ears worth.”

A smirk stole over my face, but I moved up to the rail without a word. My stomach churned like the sea as the other two joined me leaning against the wooden beam, with Lokan on the left and Beaton on the right.

“Well… we grow a bit faster than you humans, so I guess it’s roughly the same.” I moaned as the two waited patiently.

Lokan was a good friend and Beaton always had a fatherly air around all the Orcs. Like the green women were all his lost daughters. When he wasn’t being the captain, at least. It was a stupid reason to be more trusting towards him, but I needed someone who knew about relationships and was a bit more detached from my situation than Salamede.

“Look, I get it,” I said with puckered lips “Eli’s the big dog. He’s …” My hands waved in the air trying to find the words. “Everything. And I’m just a woman. A woman who should know their fortune to be with him in any capacity, romantically or as a follower. And I do. Gods, do I thank the heavens for meeting him.

But people barely seem to register me. Everything I do revolves around my husband. Anytime anyone talks to me, it’s to ask about him or trying to get closer to him. Even that I can understand. But to question my abilities is so beyond… Just.”

My words failed as I looked at my companions, both clearly lost due to not sharing my memories.

“One of the new lads we took off the icy wastes. I offered to teach him some swordwork. You know what he said to me? ‘The quad mages lady knows the blade?’… As if I spent my life on my ass. Like I got these scars from paper cuts writing to heads of state.”

Lokan did a light cough to hide what I knew was a chuckle. However angry I felt, I could feel how petty the words coming out of my mouth were. Especially considering how many people were starving and dying. But for all the senseless illogic of it, my identity crisis didn’t care.

“I love him, but I do have skills and abilities I can bring to the table. And I spent too much pain and agony in training to just be Eli’s request messenger. Is this what marriage for a woman is? Just being a man’s external limb?”

“Hmm,” Beaton responded as he strummed his fingers on the railing. “No. I can say my wife never felt like that. Though she was probably too busy trying to wrangle me into being a decent man to even consider it. If you don’t mind me asking, what was marriage for you before you accepted?”

I shrugged, thinking back to those frantic days, when it seemed like it was only our small group hanging by a finger on the edge of a cliff.

“Love. A universal scream to the world that we belong together. Contractually bound to the hip for sex and baby making.”

A few snickering huffs to my left made us both turn to Lokan. Her tongue flickered in the ocean breeze as her grey robe covered the arm she used to rest against the rail.

“That is a delightfully possessive view.”

I puckered my lips before she continued.

“But I don’t think your ascension into wifehood is the problem. Beaton, how did Rodring come to power?”

We were both thrown off by the sudden change in direction. Beaton, however, centered himself.

“He arose from the lands where the royal family now resides. His metal magic made quick work of his foes as he forged them into the kingdom we now struggle under. Though, his brother had a different complexion and left him due to some squabble. Why?”

“What about those people he ‘forged’? What is remembered about them before he put them on the anvil?”

The older man shrugged.

“I remember that one of the southern kings got the nickname ‘the Complimented King’ due to Rodring’s praise. Aside from that? Nothing.”

Lokan raised a scaly eyebrow, her red slitted eyes looking amused.

“Do you think all the other chieftains, kings, and leaders he conquered sat on their bums the whole time? What about the soldiers or staff? Rodring didn’t personally fight every battle by himself.”

I strummed my fingers on the rail, the sign for her to get to the point.

“Pff. Such impatience,” She huffed before finally getting it out. “When someone reaches a certain level of fame, everyone around them stops being an individual. Any interests or characteristics they had is wiped away and their lives become solely seen through whatever interactions they had with that person who mattered.”

As horrifying as it was, I had the personal experience to see the truth in it. When we took out the big viper base near the swamps, the only people talked about were Borba and the giant golem crashing through the gate. Most damning of all, I had cheerfully extolled to Baloo on how we helped lead the Orc fire mage to victory. Not ours, hers.

“It’s not being married to him that’s causing this. I just stopped being an individual the moment I talked to him.” My emotionless voice rang out.

Lokan puckered her lips as she lightly shook her head.

“Jus-st not as much of one. Make no mistake, no songs will be written about the quad mage's wife’s friends. Little boys will not wonder how sensuous a woman I was when the woman the quad mage risked his very life to save is around. We are all side characters in this play. That you get to be so close to the center is a great privilege.”

As impossibly stupid as it sounds, I did feel a bit better. I wasn’t foolish enough to think I stood on equal ground with an ultimate mage and the removal of uncertainty in the order of the world softened my anguish. Making a mental note to get an armor suit that I could comfortably wear anywhere, we went over the last few items and decided on the prices we would charge.

Our task finished, Beaton bid us goodnight before heading towards his cabin and past the navigator manning the steering wheel. Moving towards the opposite side of the ship, Lokan walked on my right as we left the candlelight and moved under the stars. Descending the stairs in darkness, a question came to me.

“You really think men will be wondering over my beauty in the future?” I asked as my feet tested the barely seen stairs with a soft creak.

“Of course,” Lokkan snorted. “Anyone would have to wonder just how full-breasted a woman would have to be to make a man with the world in his palm risk his life to rescue her.”

I stopped dead on the last step and turned towards her. It was dark, but I was pretty sure she was cupping her chest and shaking her top. A swatting hand took her in the side before I could even think of a proper response.

“It is too late for us to be talking about this. If you fall, don’t think I’ll pull your ass up.”

With that, we went down the steps and towards our bunk. Night took us both into the land of dreams and horrors in short order. As it did the next day and the day after and so on and so on.

Thrilling as the seas were, it couldn’t compete with the bird’s eye view and speed of an airship. Beaton and his crew were quite skilled in their work and I heard more than one of them remark on how quickly we were moving. How they knew of the ship's speed among the same endless waves was a mystery to me, but curiosity wasn’t an indulgence I had the energy to give. Working the rigging, sails, or swabbing the deck took up a lot of my time. Beaton had made sure I wasn’t treated any differently than the other crewmen and the hard life of a sailor pressed on for what I wanted to say was three days, but the water, sweat, and aches all blended into a long stream of consciousness by the second sunrise.

On the fourth day, when the sun was shining down through a clear sky, I was pulling on the ropes to shift the sails on the side of the ship. My mind was elsewhere, trying not to focus on the soreness in my hands or the feeling of sweat in my grey shirt and brown pants. Even then, the sudden stop of orders from Beaton at the helm far away to my right broke me out of my laboring stupor.

Everyone stood still as a voice sounded out from the radio in his hand. I was too far away to hear what was being said, but after a bit of back and forth, the captain got a hard look. Well, harder. From stone to steel. The biggest surprise was the sudden pull he did on the spoked wheel, making the ship take a hard turn to the right.

“All fresh sailors,” Beaton called. “Form up in front of me.”

A lot of us abandoned our tasks while a small stampede formed a small mob in front of the raised level holding the steering wheel when all were present, Beaton took a deep breath before explaining.

“Our guardians above have spotted a net of pirate ships further ahead and out to the wider sea. They haven’t spotted us yet, but they soon will. As glorious battle on the waves isn’t what we’re here for, we’ll have to tack into the poisonous coasts’ waters. It’s the sovereign territory of Thousand Screams Toad and when we get into his domain his spanning spirit connection will cover everything. Under no circumstances are you to use your spirit magic while in his embrace because…”

His brown eyes looked over us before his blue coat lifted with his shrug.

“If you’re so stupid that you can’t put those pieces together, you have no business doing anything but peeling vegetables and working the mops. Back at it, lads! We’re officially behind schedule now.”

A hesitant moment passed between all of us, with shaggy-furred heads looking worried. Beaton immediately noticed the tell-tale signs of conversations in spirit magic.

“Oi!” The captain yelled down with some red creeping up into his face. “Have you curs already forgotten? If you get stuck writhing in agony on the floor, don’t think I’ll be putting your sorry hide in the beds. You’ll be tucked into a comfortable corner until the shakes pass.”

That snapped them out of the habit. Rough voices started talking between each other as the crowd dispersed. Seeing as I rarely used spirit connections outside of special operations, I didn’t give it much thought as I went back to my rope pulling. The doldrums of labor continued for an hour longer until my shift finally ended.

Making my way down the stairs, I walked up to one of the long tables on the right towards the back near the kitchen. A decision informed by the agony of trying to eat in peace while in the main flow of traffic. Placing my head in my arms, I waited for the kitchen staff to drop off a bowl of soup as the light from the falling sun came through the windows near the top of the walls.

“Damn,” One of the sailors at another table said “I still can’t get over having full beds. It’s like we’re in the royal navy.”

God. If this is luxury on the seas, keep my ass on the dirt. Baloo plopped down to my right and was quickly joined by the other Frojan. Their large bodies moved through the crowd as the conversations in the room made a background chorus of noise before the bench creaked from their sitting down.

“We weren’t meant to be working this hard.” One of the older brown Frojan moaned.

It was true. Frojan’s bones and muscles don’t do well with heavy lifting and walking for long periods of time, the price for their mastery in the water. Still, whiners must be shown their place.

“If it’s-“

A sudden silence from the left made me stop. Looking toward the front of the ship, the crowd had come to a complete stop. The servers and patrons all stared forwards with eyes that peered at something far away in front of them even when they all looked in opposite directions. A change that moved through the crowd towards us. Knowing what was coming and fully accepting it as the tide of stiffened spines and head jerks moved in a wave towards us, I could only take a deep breath before it finally came to my corner of the room.

The odd sensation that accompanied walking over a carpet and raising the hairs on the back of my neck rolled over my skin. However, touching the metal of the sword on my hip did nothing to dissipate the sensation. Most spirit connections had the size of a finger or so to the skin. This, however, covered every inch of my body, from the tip of my toes, the inner fold of my armpits, and the top of my scalp.

Moving my arms, there wasn’t any place in the air where I could escape the sensation. Clanks in bowls around the room marked a few people returning to the world. Their noise helped return the rest of us to our senses as the expected sensation began to be accepted into our psyches. I opened my mouth to talk and the all-consuming spirit connection went around my lips until stopping just near my teeth.

“Shit,” I announced.

Surprisingly, the Frojan seemed a bit more relaxed. I watched Baloo, his shoulders now looser and the others casually stretched to accentuate their leisure. It took a few more seconds of stretching before the big green frogman’s amber eyes looked at me.

“Does this feel…bad to you?” His deep voice rang out as he took a bowl of soup from a server.

“It feels like a spirit connection all over my body. I assume it feels a bit better for you guys.”

He nodded, though one of the blue guys to my left let out a warm moan before answering.

“It has that odd energy but there’s a warm tinge to it. Like a blanket only unrestrained.”

“Hmm.” I pondered openly while I took my bowl from a server and dug into the spicy stew. “I’ve heard from some of the sailors he might be your species' sire. Is it like ours or are you more cordial?”

The indifferent shrugs from Baloo and the rest made me raise an eyebrow.

“From what little we know, it’s more likely that we descend from the regular frogs only with magical growth giving us thought,” Baloo explained as he swigged from his large mug that would be a pitcher in any other hands. “Even if he is, he was a whole continent way. Aside from a few tales of him slugging it out with the Devourer, we gave his presence little thought.”

I poked a fish filet in the red liquid as I absorbed his indifference towards the Thousand-Screams Toad and my peoples struggle with…him. Of course, the giant toad hadn’t made his children’s lives torture, so maybe it was understandable that they wouldn’t be so focused on such matters. Baloo seemed to pick up on some of my thoughts as he coughed into a webbed fist.

“It looks like we both have some roots to explore in these lands.” He offered.

A smile and a nod were all I responded with as my eyes continued staring into the red liquid. These were the southern lands where we were unleashed all those untold years ago. Something both enticing and repulsive.

Despite the interruption to the meal, life soldiered on. As is did for days after when we pulled out of the massive spirit connection. While the foray into the poison coast seas was an unforeseen delay, we didn’t have to go deep into the territory and not anywhere near close enough to brush up against the yellow clouds that were said to waft around its shores. After riding the clouds like a lazy bird, the trip was a crawl to my sense of time. The insistence of the sailors and Beaton that our ship was among the fastest in the waters, owing to the indulgence of its designers and the fact we had the crew to run all night long, did little to make me feel the time at sea wasn’t stretching into wasteful. Until the day to touch soil again finally came while I was swabbing the deck.

“Gula!” Beaton called from his steering wheel. The shining sun played over him and my moist white shirt. “We should be in port by the end of the day. Wouldn’t do for our Orc boss to be caught doing grunt work in rags.”

A smile stole over my face as the prospect of sitting around and not working presented itself. Handing off my mop to a coming worker, I walked over to the front of the ship past the sailors working on the deck. Going down to my bunk bed, I took out a change of clothes from the chest below my spot and took them to the stall near the stairs by the wall. Sweat was still on my body, but most of it was soaked in the pants and shirt I threw to the floor. My new attire was a fresh white shirt beneath a good red coat and some black pants that played well with my sword holster ever present on my hip. Slick leather boots and a rimmed brown hat helped fill out my ensemble.

It was odd, not having certain bits tug at my shoulders and breasts. Custom wear wasn’t something I had considered in my time at the base, but if this was what Salamede felt like in her dresses, a trip to our tailor for some personal items would be in order. As convenient as filching Eli’s clothes have been.

Coming back onto the deck, I made my way past the massive pillars of our three masts toward the captains’ quarters. Beaton had the steering wheel manned by another sailor while he sat on a barrel near the rail off to the right, watching the rolling waves of the sea. I had a moment where I wanted to tease him about getting old, but he was the captain right now and he probably wouldn’t appreciate me ribbing him while he was acting in that station.

“Captain,” I announced.

His large beard and blue coat shifted with his move to look at me. A faint nod was all he gave as he remained in place.

“Please forgive me, lady. While it isn’t as animated as deck work, standing in place takes a toll even on the younger bodies.”

Glad that I had made the correct social move, I came up to the rail right of him.

“I wanted to discuss what I should expect about in the port.”

He nodded again as he leaned his back against the rail.

“Such as?”

I shrugged, moving my longer right bang out of my eye.

“How bad is the crime? How do they deal with monsters and plant life if there are no mages around?”

“Ah,” Beaton exclaimed as he wiped the knee of his black pants. “It’s relatively peaceful. Not paradise, but if you want a real adventure go to the gangs just past the fairy lands. That’ll put some notches in your sword. Or head in a shark’s stomach. As for how we carved it out, it’s like most things on the seas. The island is mostly rocks and even then, it took a lot of blood and funerals to make the rare wildlife in the small jungle on the east end see the port as anything other than a lunchbox.”

I strummed my fingers on the wood as I felt my respect for these people rise a bit.

“A tough land for a tough people. What about port taxes and other government entanglements?”

“That depends on how things have been recently. During good years the pirates aren’t a big pain, and they don’t need to deploy too many ships. I’d imagine the taxes are quite a big pinch this time of year unless things are so bad that they need as much food in as they can get. In all my decades on the water, I’ve only remembered two times where things got so desperate they waved the fees.”

Keeping in mind that I would need to be appropriately grumpy when the tax bill came, I shifted in place as I put a hand to my sword hilt.

“It shouldn’t be a big problem,” Beaton continued “But the bigger issue may be unsettling the local council by taking away too many of their people. If this smuggling venture is to be used as a screen for people we’d deem untrustworthy with the knowledge of your husband, we’ll have to employ a large workforce. Both at Crasden and on the ship. Some established types may bristle at having a new player suddenly arrive and start throwing their weight around.”

I could only smile at the notion.

“Even if Eli can’t come in and bash their skulls to paste, we have the upper hand. A stable supply of food isn’t anything they’ll risk over some petty spat. Besides, there should be a lot of new space in the coming days.”

A raised grey eyebrow greeted my words even as the man kept his lean against the rail.

“I’ll take your word on how big a city he can make in a week or two. How much space will we need? We’re not keeping people on with those contract-things.”

That had been a confusing point for a lot of the sailors. Sea-life typically had the understanding that you either saved enough to get your own ship or died in the one you signed up on. Working only for a fixed time and then being discharged wasn’t an offensive concept to them, it just defied the common sense of their lives. But we were trying to find people who weren’t caught up in the fervor of the Bastard’s vision and we needed to cycle through the crews to make that happen. Some paranoia about people learning too much of my ship and workings would easily explain such an arrangement to outsiders. But Beaton was still trying to wrap his head around the concept.

“A warehouse or two. I don’t know. We’ll have to see what they immediately buy from us.”

With that settled, he gave me a few more bits of advice before I left him to go practice my sword moves near an empty corner of the lower deck. When I was surrounded by wood walls and ceiling, I started some of the basic swings and forms. Despite my lack of practice these past few days, the impeccable craftsmanship of my blade more than made up for it. Perfectly balanced with a custom fit for my hand, it was a divine craft compared to the crude job I could only just barely afford back in the swamps. Combined with the quality of my clothes, a smile crept up my face at how well I did despite being out of shape by a near week.

My time was not very productive, but it was relaxing, which I needed if I was going to pull off the swagger of a daring captain. A role for our deception that fell to me. Beaton might very well be recognized by some of the older higher-ups and mother was one of our only pilots, a skill resource we were desperately short on. Between that, and not wanting any potential traitors to be given the opportunity to compromise our real purpose when they were negotiating alone, the burden of fake leadership fell to me.

As the streaks of orange began playing over the clouds, we finally came into the Waveborns home. Where it was on a map was lost to me, but wherever we were it was pretty chilly. Larger than the big town I visited saving the Waveborn, it rested on a rocky outcropping near a larger island, though it looked like a single wooden mass. Houses stood atop rock slabs that stuck out of the waves, their construction showing decent craftsmanship. Not shabby, but not well off.

Despite our ship's size, the middle of the small city was obscured by the houses and shops as we approached the left side of the town. Speaking of, as we came up to one of the piers that jutted from the wooden mass like a tentacle it was obvious that our vessel was a full floor higher than even the largest ship here.

Our fort on the water drew more than a few eyes as we came up to embark. My time to play the part of sea captain finally arrived. When we came closer, an Orc woman in brown overalls and a white shirt waved us away at the tip of the pier. Her long brown hair flapped with her arms and a faint ‘Too big’ could be heard above the waves.

“I was afraid of that,” Beaton called as he maneuvered the ship to the side. “Get the dingeys. We’ll be giving the Kelton lads some practice coming ashore. Captain!”

I turned away from the rail facing the town towards the big man.

“I stand relieved,” Beaton intoned with a sad voice. I nodded in sympathy as I moved out of the workmen’s way while the big man moved below deck to help move cargo.

The crew moved like ants opening the hole in the middle of the ship and getting the rafts in the back towards the front. When they brought up our boat along with several boxes, we fastened it into the pulley system and one man went down into the waves with it. Beaton said it was good diligence for a captain to get the initial prices agreed upon and then leave a trusted worker to oversee the transfer.

For now, it was me and several of the Kelton crew coming along, with boxes of vegetables and salted meats placed in the middle that we moved around as we filed into the raft from the side ladder one person at a time. When we were all ready to go, the goat men seized their oars and started taking us into port. With the spray of the seas wafting over us, the chill air added to its sting as it fell on my face and exposed hands. As the lower section of the pier closer to land came closer, we were all eager to make landfall.

When the sailor tied the rope to the pole, I almost leaned down to help move the goods. But at the last second, I made it look like I was wiping my pants before standing straight again. Stepping on the wooden platform and savoring the first solid step I had taken in what felt like a lifetime, I started walking up the stairs to the regular section of the pier.

“Captain!” A voice called from my right. It was the woman from earlier, her red eyes looked me up and down over her sharp nose. She opened her mouth to speak but when her eyes looked at our cargo with its vegetable greens sticking out the sides and the jiggle of the fatty meat, her jaw was still open as her tongue licked her lips.

“Yes?” I asked as I stood still with my left hand casually resting on my sword hilt.

“Oh, yes!” She said, snapping out of her stupor. Her subsequent bow was a few degrees steeper than simple respect. “Sorry, mistress of the sea. Welcome to Baker’s port. Will you require any help in offloading your cargo?”

Damn, the harbor official is more concerned with the food than collecting the tax. Well, I suppose that’s just more leverage for me.

“I’m very particular about who I let onto my ship. We’ll have to drop it off with the dingeys. Though I can’t start until I’m done figuring out what the local cut of taxes for the transaction is.”

Another low bow accompanied my final word as some harbor workers came from the left side of the pier.

“I have a list of food exchanges that I am permitted to offer here and now. In order to encourage trade, all levies for food have been suspended.” She offered. Looking over her chart holding the rates for meat, fish, and vegetables, I saw it was a significant bump from what we were going to charge. My palms sweated at the prices getting into silver as memories of my desperate days counting every copper at vendor stalls came back. If I had to subsist on these rates, there was no doubt in my mind that I would have been long dead from such costs.

Between that and waving the taxes, Beaton’s worst-case scenario had been made manifest.

“Excellent,” I declared with a smile, though inside my heart was getting squeezed from guilt at such lavish profit.

Looking back towards the city, I saw a few Orcs and men walking back and forth. Logically, I knew that I needed to be a ruthless smuggler concerned only with my benefit. But if a child with ribs showing came up to me begging for food, I don’t think I could be mercenary enough to turn them away. Some of the workers standing by weren’t far off from such emaciation themselves.

We were quickly offered some scales and paid out in a hand-sized sack of seventeen silver. At another time, in another life, I wouldn’t have dared dream of such wealth. It was the first of what I wanted to say would be nine or ten hauls, but my mind was on another topic. A simple cough drew the harbor attendants’ eyes from the crates being hauled into the city by the workers to me.

“I hail from the Coalition and am unfamiliar with these lands. My interests lead me to our people in the northern city of Crasden and I’ve heard I can’t just stroll up to them like I can here. Would you know where I could go to get the how of meeting them?”

That last question made her stop stealing glances at the food to look me properly in the eyes. Her bit lip was the first bit of defiance she had shown.

“That can be a… It’s beyond my station. I will ask the council to see if they could set up a special allowance. Though they will probably barter some compensation for such expedience.”

“Good.” I declared. “Up to a certain point, of course. I will be sending an associate to overlook more of these transactions with the next load.”

Her long brown hair moved in a wave with her excited head bob before bowing again and walking past me. The attendant immediately began ordering the workers to move the haul faster and prepare space. Turning around, I went back down the steps to the lower section of the pier. I stepped back into the now empty boat and my crewmen took to their oars. Rowing away from the dock, the wet breeze of the sea pushed itself back into my face as I waited near the back of the boat. It took a few minutes of crawling up to the mansion on the water, but when we finally arrived, I wasted no time speeding up the ladder toward the deck above.

When I made it up onto the floor, Lokan approached from the right as men started working crates out of the hold through the open hole in the middle of the two back masts. Making my way to the captain’s quarters, I went towards the double wooden doors as Beaton stood at the helm. Opening the entrance to my home going forward, my leather boots smacked across the smooth wooden floor with my walk towards the desk opposite the entrance near the wide window taking up half of the entire backside of the room.

On my left was a bed of fluffy red blankets and white pillows, while a table for private dining sitting on my right sat opposite it. The white of the tablecloth and pillows was spotless and as well arranged for what I would have felt belonged to royalty if seen in isolation. Moving across the room, I sat behind the desk in the wide leather chair with so much cushioning it felt like a second bed.

Leaning back, I had to spend a minute adjusting to the softer chair. Looking through the drawers, I pulled out a paper quill, an ink well, and a previously done-up report. Even if this whole thing was a farce, it had to be a convincing one to anyone monitoring our goings-on or stealing our papers. Going over the figures involved, including the Coalition side provided by me and Lokan, with wages and ‘maintenance’ already provided by Beaton’s scratching, the spread of expenses made my skin crawl. Seeing firsthand how worthless a few dozen silver was with my own eyes left me speechless. Lifetimes of wealth were bought, gained, and exchanged in weeks.

“Geoff!” I called.

It was only a few seconds before an older gentleman with long strands of grey hair sticking out of the sides of a bald cap poked his heads through the door. His sharp chin and green eyes looked me up and down with a raised eyebrow. His leathery brown skin had cracks everywhere and his skinny frame told of poor prospects on the battlefield. Still, he came with Beaton’s highest recommendation.

“These expenses. We need to work out how much we can justify bringing back.”

He came forward with a nod, his loose white shirt with blue stripes and grey pants swaying with his walk. It was a simple thing that continued for a while as the sun above gradually moved toward the horizon and bathed my new room in rays of golden light. While I was working through the projected food expenses, one of the Kelton workers interrupted me with a knock.

“Yes?” I yelled.

“They’re asking to allow a representative on board.” He yelled through the door.

My head jerked up before looking at my new advisor. The consultant's simple shrug left me feeling his services were lacking.

“Can’t say they’ve ever asked for that before. But I’d accept if you don’t want to raise suspicions.”

“Thanks for the…” My tongue was on the verge of a scathing put-down, but I was the captain now and I couldn’t let my thoughts run so free. Turning towards the door, I contended myself with a sigh before giving the order.

“Let them in. Tell Beaton so he knows to stay below deck.”

The worker left with his task received.

Seconds became minutes before the guest arrived. Two men escorted her through the doors before I put down my paper to look her up and down. Her green skin was as wrinkly as Geoff’s but her long grey hair was in a single braid.

The brown dress around her frame was a bit loose, though her body was more wiry muscle than emaciation and the brown walking stick in her right hand had a gnarled top that looked like it could do some damage if directed at a knee or rib. Her light bow showed respect but those gold eyes in black orbs told me she was measuring every facet of my being.

“Greetings.” I offered politely. “Geoff, move the dining table chair for her.”

Her grey eyebrows shot up in surprise as my assistant retrieved the chair for her. When it was in place, she strode forward at a pace unhindered by age or past injury.

“I am the official representative of the government of Baker’s port. In that capacity, I am fully authorized to bargain with you to any extent I see fit. If only because the others couldn’t do the job. Rocks are all they got between their ears.

But I’m not very interesting. You are a mystery wrapped in a question, and that is an exciting thing.” Her soft voice rang out as she sat into the chair. “Almost certainly from the Coalition or Far Shores and unquestionably skilled. Though your crew is from the north.”

I played off the observation with a bemused lean back into my chair, making sure to be as casual as possible.

“What are you basing your assumptions on?”

She scrunched her nose before sending another piercing look my way.

“And polite. Quite the treasure. You have Kelton crewmen who’re still burning under the sun, so your crew’s origin is no secret. As for you personally, you want passage into our holds in the human cities north, no one has seen this ship here before, and if you were from the western seas or anywhere past, you’d never have the snake woman in your crew.”

I pursed my lips together. Lokan was a good friend of mine and if there was a war between the Waveborn and her kind, it wasn’t coming onto this ship.

“She’s a good friend of mine. If you have problems with her kind, leave them on the shore.” I commanded in a firm tone.

Her stubby chin pulled up with her small frown. I wanted to prepare for some verbal scuffle, but those golden eyes told more of pity than anger.

“Well, she’s sane and away from her kind. Though your lack of knowledge about her condition is understandable as only those like me with history on the other side of the fairy lands would see her kinds entanglement. Tell me, did her parents raise her by themselves away from civilization, or was she an orphan?”

My palms started sweating and suddenly the red coat felt almost suffocating. Yes, her parents died when she was quite young. I didn’t know much about her mother’s demise and hadn’t asked, but one day her father died and mom came home with a sad look before she explained how we needed to help Lokan out as she was now alone in the world. Leaning forward, I made my best attempt to control my face.

“I don’t feel like it’s my place to divulge such information. But to what are you specifically referring?”

She nodded before leaning back.

“Consider this education a gift for future relations. Entens are solitary creatures. Some perhaps by choice but necessity mandates the nomad life for all of them. Every single one of them is different as far as tolerances go, but the end is the same. After puberty, if Entens come into contact with other Entens enough times, their minds go. And they don’t go peacefully. The part of them that does math, talks, or can be reasoned with dies. What is left behind is blind animal aggression.

I’ve worked with a few of them before. Good people, but I’ve also seen their fallen forms. A word of advice from a dear, caring old lady. If you see one and they look at you with an animal’s eyes, get your sword out or run. There are a few colonies of them in or near the Beastmen lands further west. Whole mobs of animals wielding the weapons of previous victims. Worst part is, they work in tandem like a highly trained army. Coordination brought about by some mastery of their spirit connections.”

I had pulled my hands inward to cover my chest, keeping my face stone as best as I could. The imagery was almost too horrible to accept but her foreknowledge of Lokan’s lonely childhood was hard to deny.

“That is quite an interesting tale,” I admitted as I pulled myself together. “But such speculation doesn’t change the situation here. I need passage to the northern colonies, and you need my food. And judging from the situation outside, I’d say affirming the agreement as soon as possible is in everyone’s best interest.”

She nodded with a small smile.

“Of course. Whatever slack diligence with the Enten woman, you clearly have a lot to offer. But we also have some other needs and getting you that passage will take time. Time of yours I would like to borrow.”

She coughed into a hand and when I offered no objection, the older Orc continued.

“We had a group leave out to the islands further west. The land place has been growing recently and some of our people went to catch the local fish or smaller crabs bubbling up. They have not yet returned and normally we’d send some ships to retrieve them or confirm the deaths. However, those ships were sent out to retrieve food from some promising prospects, and using the ones we have now, for even a day, would invite attack. But your ship is so large, I have no doubt it could handle bringing them back.

Not for free, mind you. While the stream of food from the Coalition has stopped this has left us with a back stop of iron and leather. Perhaps a discount for these could be worked out in exchange for a three-day trip west?”

I took a breath and cleared my throat to answer. Which was when a spirit connection from Geoff gave me pause.

‘Look over our cargo manifests before answering. It should be in the right drawer.’ His thin voice rang out in my head.

My temper in check, I calmy gave out a measured response.

‘We have enough room for a few loads.’

‘For now. Trade routes are scheduled out several steps in advance and taking on a load out of nowhere must be carefully worked around. Which we would have to plan for if we were actual smugglers.’

Coughing into my hand, I reached below the desk to retrieve the needed item. Taking the ledger out, I perused several sections and pretended to work out a suitable number of crates.

“Five,” I finally proclaimed. “I can take five full pallets of iron.”

The older woman nodded.

“Thirty-five silver per two-dozen bars. Sounds fair?”

‘Yes. Very much so.’ Geoff quickly sounded off in my head.

A bit pushy, this one. But perhaps that’s what’s needed right now.

“Deal,” I said with a hand outstretched. We shook on it, her hand having the texture of wrinkled leather before she pulled back. Our business concluded, she got up and left. When she went out the door, the nervous energy left my body. Even then my mind was still in tangles over Lokan. A thousand questions rushed me, though I was too busy to give them any attention.

My time was quickly taken up by overlooking the offloading of the cargo and informing the crew of our unexpected trip west. I was playing captain and it wouldn’t do for me to not have a basic knowledge of how these usual workings on the sea were done from the leader’s perspective. After an hour or two, the sun finished dying in the sky and the stars took back their hold. We decided to get a few hours of sailing in before we stopped at one of the dead islands to avoid the morning feeding frenzy.

Sitting back at my desk with nothing but a candle on the left side of the desk and the schedule ledger laying in front of me and my assistant, the ship gently rocked back and forth. The gentle dips seemed to synch up with my churning stomach. When we were finished, Geoff was finally leaving and making for the door when I stopped him halfway there.

“Could you call Lokan in?” I asked in a firm voice.

He gave a light bow before making his way through the door. My time was spent looking over the figures as the thoughts about my best friend refused to let me focus on my fake work. When the door finally opened, the sight of the blue snake woman coming through was not the comforting sight it usually was. She didn’t say anything as she came forward and pulled back her grey robes to sit down in the chair still on the opposite side of my desk.

“The prices-s were the same as when you first agreed.” She offered casually. Her slitted red eyes took in the room “Did we sell too much of the food?”

“No,” I refuted with a small wipe across the ledger on the desk. “It’s something else. When we negotiated our arrival into the Orc hold north, the old lady brought up a certain issue with having an Enten on board. Is-“

Her immediate look down stopped me. So, it was true. I felt the hair on my neck stand up at being deceived for so long and by someone so close. Anger that died when her lower jaw started shaking.

“I’m….S-sorry.” She moaned in a shaken voice. Her clawed hands pawed at her eyes, but the falling tears were easily seen in the candlelight. Without thinking, I got out of my chair and came up to her on the right. My hands wrapped her in a proper hug as I rubbed my cheek on her downturned frill.

“It’s ok, Lefty. I’m not mad, just worried.”

My consoling words had little effect as she leaned into my hug. Her body shook with each sob for a few seconds before she looked up at me. Tears were around those red eyes and her jaw was still shaking.

“You should be. Having a friend who could turn on you at a moment’s notice. No one should have to constantly watch your back around someone you should trust.”

I shook my head as I put my hat on the table, my right bang falling to my cheek as I started patting her back.

“Come on. I’ve never thought about that around you. I didn’t even know and even if you told me, I would never think you’d try to hurt me.”

Her jaw stilled for a second, her eyes peering into my soul for a second longer before she finally spoke.

“We’re friends, Gula. But bonds don’t matter when the time comes. My mother loved me so much. Kindest woman you’ve ever met and would give a hungry soul her last fist of grain. It didn’t count for much when I woke up one morning and she was sniffing around the kitchen. There I was, walking up to give her a morning hug and she hissed at me. The worst was the eyes. There was nothing there. Whatever was in her skull, it wasn’t her.

She…It. Lunged at me. Dad came off the floor and wrestled her away before she could finish the job. S-Still, she gave me a gift for the occasion.” She pointed to her left eye and the vertical scar. I just numbly stared at her, trying to process what she was saying. As unprepared as my mind was for her to go on, there was no way I was stopping her.

“I had no idea what was going on. All I remember was running out of the house while screams from my dad and some beast’s roar sounded out behind me. Your mother was there, delivering some wooden fishing poles. She ran in with her axe and helped dad finish the thing off.”

My mind felt like it was trying to push through sludge. Only the worried look on my mother’s face as she asked about talking to me when letting others onboard here could penetrate the fog in my mind. Taking a deep breath, I made a commitment to myself to offer her a special mother-daughter dinner.

Giving Lokan another pat on her back, I took her in a hug. When we had finally gotten enough, I pulled back. She was drying her tears with swipes of her hands while I moved to get my own chair beside her. When I was sitting to her left, I pulled my shirt down to sit in silence as she pulled herself together with a similar tug on her grey robe.

“Honestly, as hard as it was on me for the next few years, Dad had it a lot worse. He and mother ran across continents to get away from that madness and the ‘water’ and it took her all the same. Physically, he was left with a pained leg. Emotionally? He died along with mother a year before that gator took him.”

I raised an eyebrow to her.

“Water?”

She pursed her lips before slumping back into her chair looking totally drained as she looked to the ceiling.

“Contact with others of our kind and being a bit older are the only reliable causes. That hasn’t stopped every theory and drunken thought from taking root. Some think it’s an interaction between the poison clouds and our skin. Others say feeling with the spirit connection of the Thousand-Screams Toad. My parent’s believed it was something in the water. How that was supposed to work never came up, but they believed in it enough to drag us to the other side of the world. All for nothing.”

Her voice dripped with the bitterness of a lifetime of happiness spent and lost. My mouth opened to talk to her about how strong she was when a horrible realization rolled over me. Of course she never told me about this. I’ve been dumping so many little comments about Orcs and the Bastard on her for years. She had been alone for a long time and when her mother died, I had assumed it was because of the thousand reasons people died out on the swamps like her father. But if it was from this natural cause, why would she think I would be accepting of her when I couldn’t accept myself?

Sitting there in mute disgust at myself, I could only offer the small comfort that came to me. Getting up, I came forward and pulled her into another hug. One she gladly returned.

“Lokan, even if the worst should pass, I would still be by your side. Even if you turned, you would only be restrained until… Eli could find a way to fix whatever caused it until you came back into the world.” I offered, grasping for the only idea at hand.

“Could he?” She asked as she pulled back a bit, those slitted red eyes filled with hope instead of tears. “His skills only seem to be concerned with big ships and machines. How would he heal the mind?”

“I don’t know. But it couldn’t hurt to ask. Even if he can’t fix it, maybe he could make a suit or machine to prevent it.”

Despite the emotional anguish, the snake woman looked a bit better as one would when an old wound has been made right.

“Perhaps. But… Thank you, Lefty.” She pulled me in another hug to accentuate the point before pulling back to stand in front of me. “I’ve dreaded this conversation for so long. Or worse, we’d never have it and I’d die of age while living as a fraud. Spirits, it feels like a sack has been lifted off my shoulders.”

A stretch sold the point as I forced a smile on my face. I had no idea where to take this conversation, partly because I was too distracted going over all of our past ones. In them, I couldn’t see any signs of discomfort from her. Was I socially inept or was she that good? As I pondered these things, Lokan coughed.

“It’s getting late, and I’m out of soul-destroying secrets. Unless you have any other questions, do I have permission to turn in for the night, captain?”

Standing a bit straighter, I nodded to her before taking her in a final hug. Our farewells said, Lokan turned and walked out of the door. Nodding to me one final time, she shut the door with a small thud to leave me alone. I swayed in place for a second before sitting back into the bed. My mind kept going over all the conversations I had with Lokan as I undid my boots. Still, I couldn’t say there was any indication that I was making her uncomfortable. Nor did any come to me as I pulled open the blankets.

When I saw the golden glow playing across the red fabric, I turned back to the candle on my desk.

“Ugh!” I moaned to the open air as I forced myself from the cozy bed. When I was up to the desk, I thought about talking with mother about this. My hand even reached across the desk to retrieve it before I stopped myself. Tired from a long day’s work, I shook my head and licked my fingers. Extinguishing the light with a pinch, I turned back to my cozy abode. Moving in the faint starlight, I resigned to having that conversation in person sometime later.

The next day was pretty standard after we left the bare rock of an island that served as our shelter from the morning feeding. Even as I looked up and down the ship, trying to affect the captain I was pretending to be, all my senses were clogged up with a sense of shame. All centered around what a bad friend I had been and not even having the decency to know it.

Fortunately, the world didn’t turn on me and our trip eventually came to its destination with me on the right edge of the boat. Over the horizon were large pillars reaching into the sky like the towers of a castle with no walls. The ones on the right were half destroyed and the local barnacles and crabs were molding the mass of crumbled stones into a pocketed mass of stone with each staking out a little fiefdom for their own.

“Seen it a good dozen times,” Geoff said casually to my right on the rail that we were both leaning over. “If the lands stick, we’ll have a new base if we can move in before the plant seeds arrive. Most, however, eventually get obliterated by the current or large monsters.”

An ominous creek could be heard as one of the pillars on the left pushed out of the sea. Cracks and falling rocks announced the protests from its fellows but all the soft patter was drowned out as one of the pillars on the right finally gave out. It teetered for a second before plunging like a giant tree into the mass of stone bits behind it, joining its fallen brothers.

As insanely dangerous as this place was, the temptation was plain to see as the expanding stone pillar pulled up an entire coral reef in its wake. Fish, octopuses, lobsters, and shrimp were stuck in the rocks now jutting into the air. But we were good on food and the bounty we came for wouldn’t be very appetizing on any dinner plate. It took several passes around the place before the two hulls sticking between three sizable pillars near the back was finally spotted.

The dual masses of boards had as many holes in them as wood and I feared that we had come upon a makeshift graveyard. I looked around and turned back towards the dingeys before one of the sailors yelled.

“Survivors!”

Looking back to the wreckage, I saw an Orc in a yellow dress standing on top of the hulls. Her arm waves showed off frantic energy as other Orcs and men started coming out of the holds.

“Form up!” I yelled, “Get the boats in the water. Baloo! Make sure the trip over there will be safe. Afterward, catch whatever you can. Let’s see if we can get some of the catch they came for.”

The big frogmen was already moving down to the sides of the ship before the first word left my mouth. By the time the dingeys were freed from their locks, the squad of Frojan was on ready and leaped off the side of the ship into the choppy waves. A minute later the boats loaded with sailors followed.

“What’s with the boats” Mother's voice called from the inside of my coat.

Taking out the radio, I put the lower metal mesh to my lips.

“Picking up survivors. All Orcs and humans.”

A second of silence stretched into several and I knew right away what mother was trying to ask.

“Mom, there are no Enten’s among them.”

More silence. After a few more seconds, she finally responded.

“How’s she doing?”

I couldn’t keep a smile down as I pressed the button.

“Better. Thanks, mom. I love you. I want to have this conversation face-to-face, so if that’s all…Over.”

“Over.”

With that finished, I put my mind back to the seas in front of me instead of someplace up in the clouds. Our people arrived in only a few minutes of rowing. The survivors promptly came onto the forming shore far away from the dangerous pillars. Most of the sailors came between the rocks close to the shore while a few of the more sure-footed almost sprinted right up to the boats. From my view, two dozen sailors were working their way to the ship. As the first of our boats came back with survivors, I had thought to set up guards for security but looking at them in the approaching raft and struggling to get up the side ladder, the only threat they presented was falling on us from starvation or exhaustion.

“Tell the kitchen to get a few dozen meals ready,” I ordered a sailor to my left. He nodded before shuffling off toward the hatch at the end of the deck.

Our guests came up the ladder and over the rail, the first was a young, brown-haired man with a shirt that looked a few sizes too big on his skinny frame. He had some tears in his eyes as he moved to the right to let those behind him come on board.

“Bless you! We thought the Rodring navy had come to really put us in the shitter.”

“Ron!” One of the older women coming up the ladder yelled. Her grey dress flapped in the soft wind as her loose black and grey hair moved with her shimmy onto the deck. “By all that is good in the world, if you don’t grow some manners, I’ll ask the captain to let the dirty pots and pans do it.”

Her red eyes resembled my mother’s when I had done something stupid. The respect in them when she turned to me was new, however. As was the small bow she afforded me.

“A thousand thanks over a thousand lifetimes, captain.” That was as far as she got before moving out of the way of the newcomers. The men knew what to do with harried castaways, handing out blankets as they lead the lost souls below deck for some quick meals. I was standing to the side overlooking the last few arrivals of this load when a hard ‘Thwap” rang out on my right.

My head jerked towards one of the ballistae near the back. The one missing an iron-tipped spear had a sailor pointing to the shore. Following his finger, the spear of wood was sticking out of a wide slab of a shell that made it hard to distinguish from among the rocks. It took a second before the form of a horse-sized crab finally presented itself from the rough stone. The man's aim had been true, taking it square in the front near the eyes and the limp legs twitched in the water.

I turned to him with an approving nod.

The people on the shore weren’t so appreciative. A mass of people started packing closer to where the boats had landed.

“Baloo! Keep them in order.” I called over the seas. I didn’t know where he was, but he always kept in earshot when he wasn’t personally needed. It took a few seconds before the water around the boats shifted and three of the large frogmen came onto the new land, keeping at least one old tradition alive. The survivors looked askance at the big Frojan in fine robes and shirts but they all filed away on the arriving boats in a more disciplined fashion.

Finally on solid ground and among friendlies, the starved workers took turns giving praise or helping us move one of the poor wretches too injured to move on their own. When the last lost soul in the last boat came aboard, we quickly cast about for the stranded food. Ruined bits of dog-sized fish and lobster were scattered about from the morning frenzy but there was still a bounty of whole specimens to be speared or netted. The live catch was kept in barrels of water that would last until we came back to port and the rest were sent to the larder to fill out our stocks.

The task finally finished, we headed back out to sea, leaving the growing and falling mass of stone pillars behind to crumble into a new island or eventually join the rocks on the seabed. On the way, I had been stopped for fervent thanks at almost every spot on the ship by recovering survivors. Most marveled at how fast we moved on the seas and how we had the crew to keep sailing in the night. Though I suspect us not having to cut back on meal portions impressed them the most.

The desire to sign up with us was barely hidden by the newcomers. Alas, the contract with the official defense fleet of the Waveborn was still in effect and none were foolish enough to try and break their agreed term of employment. Truth is, I was grateful for the distraction. Lokan seemed happier now and I got a hug from her in the early morning, but I was wrestling with how terrible a friend I had been to her for years.

When the sun was at its full height in the sky, beating down on the ship and the rest of us with little mercy and no clouds to block its fury, the port finally came into view from my perch at the steering wheel. As we came close to the docks, sailors began preparing the boats for the water. Survivors quickly moved out onto the deck, bearing the oppressive sun with little fuss. As fine as our ship was, it didn’t have their family and friends.

When we finally got the last of our guests off board, the old lady came back with the boat. Her smile sent a few more wrinkles into her skin as she came up the side of the ship and onto the deck.

“A rescue and haul of food brought in.” She called as I came down the steps towards her. “You’re quite the miracle worker.”

“We all are.”

The surrounding crew did some slight nods, but most were only barely listening as they help load the fish barrels into the boats. As I finally came within arm’s reach of the older woman, she put a hand to her chin to affect a look of deep thought.

“Well, I’d imagine it was a lot easier for the Frojan than those of us who could only crudely slosh forward.”

Standing there, I put my hands behind my back, my red coat and grey undershirt swaying over my sword handle on my left hip. Her piercing red eyes looked me up and down like a predator, the questions only just stopping at her lips as we both stood in silence for a moment.

“Valuable members of our crew, one and all.” Was all I offered to explain their presence.

Her smile never left her face as her hand left her chin to grope her dress's side pocket.

“As promised. The key to the north.”

Those wrinkly hands pulled out a flute of dark wood with four holes along the side and a piece of paper. Looking it over, I could only look back up at her.

“What kind of lock does that key go with?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The ears.” The older woman mused like she had pulled a trick on a small child. “But it only works in certain places. Go north of Crasden and once out of sight of the city by a mile or two, play it over the rocky plains as described in the page.”

I had a moment where I wanted to know more, but her shrewd nature was as clear as the sky. All it would take for me to screw this whole thing up was letting loose one scrap of knowledge I shouldn’t know. Not trusting myself with such a responsibility, I decided to merely nod.

“Thank you.”

With a final bow, she turned to leave the ship before looking at me one more time.

“If you want to make a more established arrangement here, ask for Duluk. I won’t guarantee you a great deal, but I'll make sure you get it quickly.”

Those final words fought among the bumps and yells, though the hope they were tinged with made them stand out. Perhaps it would be a good idea. Even if I thought it was, I had spent most of my time as captain scouring the new and perilous depths of my poor judgment. So, I would leave it to Eli’s future discretion.

“Perhaps. We’ll see how Crasden goes.”

Our business concluded, she turned back towards the railing. Waiting patiently for the traffic to let her go down the side handholds that formed a permanent ladder, she looked at the masts and floorboards of the ships as she stood idle. Her face had an approving aspect, though those eyes were still taking in every detail. It took only a second for a space to open for her, which she promptly took. A few more minutes of waiting and idly thumbing the steering wheel ambled by before the last boat was brought back onboard and fastened.

My first foray into being a captain was near its end as I swung the steering wheel and took us back out to sea. When we were beyond sight of the town, Beaton came up from below deck. His grey beard was well-kept, and the blue coat waved in the wind as he came up the stairs on the left.

“How was your time on the throne?” He asked with a small smile as he came up to my left.

“Hmm. Ok. I’m still learning a few things but I feel like I could make a go of it if needed.” I offered as I pulled back to offer the wheel. He nodded before he stepped forward. His hands squeezed the wheel and its spokes like it was an old pet being lovingly fawned over.

“I stand relieved. Captain.”

Beaton stood a bit straighter as he took in the deck below and started mentally going over the thousands of tasks that needed doing. Geoff left his usual spot near the right side of the captains’ quarters, his babysitting duties now completed.

From there, I spent a minute getting back into my laborer’s clothes.

The trip back was about the same amount of time as the one south, but it felt a lot longer. I made sure to watch my tongue around Lokan, taking every care that none of my usual little remarks about my people or the Bastard slipped in. Inversely, the blue snake woman seemed happier than she had been in many months.

Talking freely with the crew and rubbing shoulders with me came a bit more naturally to her and as the good friend I apparently never was, I encouraged her. She didn’t see any others of her kind during this trip as she had hoped and dreaded, but it was still a nice excursion for both of us.

The voyage continued for a good week, this time without any interruptions or detours. No announcement came when we returned to the snowy lands. A slight drop in temperature was all the warning I got before waking up one morning with icy air trying to claw its way down my throat and steal the life from my exposed arms. The typical greeting these lands gave to newcomers. Despite being ‘Home’, we weren’t going anywhere familiar, and we stayed far away from any city or other ships. As I was pulling on some ropes for the sails on the left side of the ship, Beaton suddenly yelled over the typical den of noise accompanying a working ship.

“We’re close to shore. Will the ‘captain’ get ready for making landfall?”

I looked towards the steering wheel, seeing an indulgent smile steal across his face as he looked at me with a simple nod. Handing off the rope to a waiting sailor, I dashed towards the end of the ship and down the stairs with whatever faint light could seep between the clouds guiding me.

Redressed in my red coat with a white shirt and black pants, I went back up the steps and halfway there I met up with Lokan. No words were exchanged before she took me in a hug.

“Now remember to mind your manners-s and don’t put your elbows on the table during supper.” She teased as we walked up the stairs.

I could only smile as we came onto the deck. Excitement ran up my spine in anticipation of seeing my husband again after two weeks on the seas. Waiting off to the side with a few Kelton men, the boat was gradually lowered into the water. Looking past it, I could see a faint hint of the rocky shore. This was supposed to be north of Crasden, but no feature on the landscape or position of the unseen midday sun could tell me what corner of the world I was being dumped off on.

The time for landfall came with the splash of wood in the ocean. Getting one last hug in, I walked off towards the rails. Geoff waved to me from the side of the steering wheel halfway, a small smile playing across his lips before looking back out over the deck. When the goods for our trip were loaded up, four crates of food, I shimmied down the side hand holds. As I approached the boat, the fact that I had adapted to sea life enough to not even notice the shifting of the ship left a spark of pride in my chest. The sailors still had to help me get into the boat safely, but small victories counted all the same.

Taking the oars, the men started rowing us away from the ship. I, as captain and leader, sat in the back idly thumbing my sword hilt. The rocky shore gradually came into proper view until the stone-riddled land finally brushed up against our boat with a thunk. I didn’t want our men caught with luggage if an undead monster came by, so I headed forward with two guards armed with swords on the hip.

I walked a few dozen feet forward before taking out the flute and paper from a coat pocket. Looking over the order of holes it wanted me to unplug with my fingers, I remembered the sequence and put my lips to the cold tip of the wood. Perhaps my lack of musical talent was my fatal flaw in the assessment but I couldn’t say the blaring and short chirps coming out of my flute were anything approaching artistic. Stealing a look back towards the men, they all shrugged while one of the younger lads clapped with all the speed of a man half awake.

Looking back over the rock-strewn plains, I couldn’t see any change when a bit of the stone to my left shifted. My hand was on the sword on my left hip before I even decided to be scared. Luckily, the long blonde hair and green face that peered from below the slab was friendly looking. Her squat face and long nose accentuated the lines of her greater years.

"Can't say I’ve seen you’se around here before.” She offered in a rough voice before looking over towards the Kelton men. “The goat fellas.” Her red eyes looked at them with a raised eyebrow before she turned to me.

“You run that far north?”

I responded with my warmest smile even as I felt totally exposed out in the open like this.

“There, the south, a bit of everywhere but here until now. As pleasant as conversation can be on windswept plains in the middle of winter, I would most like to get onto my business. Preferably before I get my face bitten off by an undead bear.”

The older woman nodded, pushing open her lid and letting out a big bellow of hot air behind her as the warmer air was sucked away by the forces of nature. I nodded to the sailors and they moved to get our goods in place. When the first crate of vegetables came in, the woman gave a low whistle.

“Now that’s a perfect view for yearning stomachs. You might be new but you’re in for a warm welcome.” She moved to the side to allow the workers down the stone steps. “Please hurry, I’d hate to call for people to hang around other sections of the tunnels to distract the undead. Christ knows we’ve been too busy these past few days.”

A raised eyebrow was all I gave the barely remembered name, but I quickly dismissed it. Years of being a wayfarer and soldier made me nervous about an unwatched back in unfamiliar territory. The guide was distracted by the four crates of food, leaving me to monitor the surrounding landscape. It was all the same dead rock, with the snail home starting another mile or so north from what I remember of the maps.

Three of the sailors stuck with me, bigger Kelton men with swords, while the other two went back to the ship. Going down into the surprisingly well-lit tunnel, the walls had a rough texture that the lamps dotting the ceiling every dozen feet or so made very easy to see. Unlike everything else I had experienced these past few weeks, it was also quite dry.

“Walk down the tunnel and to the main hall. A guard will be there to escort you to the trader's welcome area. Given how few goods we’ve managed to bring in these past few days, I’d imagine it will be a quick affair.” The lady called as she squatted on a chair on the right of the stairs.

Our destination given, we started lugging our goods towards the residence of my kind under Crasden. Footsteps echoed over the walls while the occasional creak of a box interrupted the monotonous sounds. Along the way, several long slits had been placed along the sides with some indistinct movement behind them. Murder holes with archers ready to pincushion any attackers, if I had to guess.

After ten minutes of marching, the sounds of a crowd began filtering through our noise. The official announcement of civilization came when a brown-haired Orc with a metal helm, study shield, and short knife greeted us near a turn in the tunnel.

“Greetings.” She announced with a blank stare in her golden eyes. “First time here?”

“Yes,” I responded.

She nodded, pointing her head further down the tunnel towards the increasing noise. Following her lead, I turned the corner and came onto a wide set of stairs serving as the entrance to a small village. In the center of a rough circle were stalls selling an assortment of every good needed for daily life. On the sides of the market were buildings going three or sometimes four floors high into the rock, all sporting wooden doors and windows along the central alleyway used to move between them. Aside from the candles in the back of the building’s alleyways, the only illumination was the occasional beam of light filtering through the ceiling above.

Towards the back was another tunnel that was wide enough to allow two carts through. Coming down the steps, the state of the crowd became a bit more apparent as well. Not filthy, but after being spoiled by the daily showers and towels of the base, my gag reflex was being tested by the swirl of sweat and grime. Mothers went about buying whatever scraps of food the stalls still had and workers plowed carts of dung with dead faces. All seemed used to the humid air and choking sense of tight space that was readily presenting itself. As we moved through the crowd and came up to one of the larger buildings set into the wall on the left, our clean clothes and fully-fed frames made us an almost otherworldly existence here.

The guard held the door open for us, ushering us into a wide room with a stone floor and candles on the walls. It was the table across from us that drew the greatest interest. A scale with bricks off to the left shined in the golden flames while the thin orc with grey hair done up in a ponytail sat with a bored look to the right of the instrument.

“Cargo.” The guard announced idly.

That livened the worker up, her gold eyes getting new energy as she sat straight up and adjust her black tunic.

“Excellent!” She beckoned with a handwave. Marching forward, I nodded to the men who place the four crates in front of the worker. Taking out some papers from a drawer, she went about her work. After having weighed out every potato, carrot, and onion, she nodded before handing me a paper. The figures for a dozen silver made me stop for a second. It was still a good stack of coin, but the figures suggested a much better situation here than our stop in the south.

“I know,” The worker announced with a hand towards the chair on the opposite side of the desk. “It’s not as much as you were expecting.”

I nodded as I took my seat.

“I have to say, you’re a lot better off than Baker’s port. Must have piled up good stores for a hard season.” I responded, trying to sound a little put out as I handed the order back to her.

The small headshake she gave me was a touch playful as the worker promptly handed off the page to the guard. It was a second longer before we were left alone to discuss the local happenings.

“Sadly, we were caught unprepared like everyone else. That spat months ago stopped food from the Coalition and we’ve all been trying to pull our heads out of the troll’s mouth ever since. Our good fortune has stemmed from a plant mage, believe it or not.”

I raised my eyebrows in genuine surprise. Eli was certainly a hard worker if he was having such a great effect already. Making a mental note to give him a good thanking later, I turned back towards the conversation and what I should naturally assume as an ignorant traveler to new lands. Leaning forward, I made sure to look at her with a bit of hope.

“Have we captured him? Is it a male mage?” I whispered in fervent anticipation, quickly covering up my slight slip near the end.

She got a small smile, her face having the same eager energy of a small child.

“No, we don’t have him. But he’s been helping out the city and that’s filtered down to us. A few expeditions out to sea have seen him bring back a big catch and the guards have even gotten a good look inside his fortress. With our skill we may be able to expand a bit further out and start pilfering from the occasional harvest of magically grown plants. The men he’s hired from the guard say the first crop of onions and wheat is almost ready for the plucking.

Our husbands describe him as an older gentleman with a muscular frame and green eyes. A few have even said it reminds them of our skin.”

Well, mine, at least. I basked in a moment of smug satisfaction before leaning back.

“Even if this isn’t the treasure trove I thought it was, I have enough destinations for my food. Tell me, where would I go to start setting up my enterprise here? A bit of land for any goods or a place to recruit prospects.”

“Hmmm,” She drawled on. Her face had a pensive look for a moment before her answer came. “If you’re looking for a permanent home here, I’d say the church is where you want to go. They’re four holds over and their tunnel has a sideways X over the top. They handle all the paperwork because they’re the only place that can keep the pages dry if you don’t mind the company and the history.”

This time, my curious look at her was genuine.

She also leaned back, this time biting her lips before getting a less easy-going look.

“A decade or so past, there was an incident and it involved the typical amount of evidence, no one can really say what exactly happened and nothing was written down. But there is an unrelenting rumor that one of the clergy found an unconscious mage. A male mage who had gotten involved in the bad side of some business or another. It ended with their former allies dumping their body in the sewer, only the slight breath still pumping in their chest left the professionalism of the killers in question. The priest slit the throat of the injured man and kicked his body into the river.

At least, that’s what a few passersby claimed. Most dismissed it at first. Mages are strictly forbidden from visiting our side of town, they have their section guarded by the Lions, and they employ earth magic to cease our digging into the ‘proper’ side of the city. So, there were a lot of reasons to not believe the rumors. Until one mage, matching the description given by the witnesses, turned up floating in the nearby sea.

It’s been known that the priesthood isn’t as… enthused about Garren’s vision as those in the Cradle or most elsewhere.”

My throat tightened at the wretched name, though she thankfully missed any reaction on my face.

“Even with that, it wasn’t very clear what exactly happened. Some people claimed they saw her kill him, others that she came upon a long dead corpse, the loins already cut off. Sadly, dark nights and things seen far away while on walks don’t make for consistent stories. It was a big, long mess with no real conclusion at the end, but it’s still a thorny issue even to this day. The fact that the church doesn’t give a straight answer when asked if they would capture a mage when given the chance doesn’t help matters either.

My advice, only be with them to the extent you need to. Any who would deny our birthright are no better than those who kill our daughters.”

For the first time in weeks, the breath I sucked in was equal parts hope and air. Finally, a potential destination for my real and fake trip here converged on a single point. I leaned back casually as we discussed the weather and some other gossip of local happenings before the guard returned with my silver.

My business concluded; I shook the worker's hand before turning around and walking out the door and onto the main street with my men in tow.

Back into the fray, we carried forward. Our small group moved to the wider tunnel on the left, maneuvering around the packed masses trying to survive the daily necessities of life. As we went through, I paid a bit closer attention to the walls. It didn’t seem like a natural stone as I could see several sharp corners in what I had to assume was softer rock at one point.

I was given little time to consider it, though. The throng moved apace towards the thousand different destinations its members were intent on. We came into another open space with buildings riven into the sides of the rocks. While it had the same light from candles and beams of faint light from the ceiling, the center was taken up by craftsman. Or rather, craftswomen. Seamstresses, carpenters, and leather workers molded their raw materials into proper items. There was a distinct lack of forges and people making the actual leather, almost certainly owing to the tight space.

The tunnel out was on the opposite side of the entrance this time. Between that and the thickness of the crowd, it took an irritatingly long time to reach the exit. Still, we eventually got through and down to the next hold. Coming out of the long tunnel the first things that hit me were the open light towards the right and how much lighter the air seemed. Windows on the right gave off the sound of sloshing water and a few door handles suggested most of the wall could be opened. As I kept walking, it took a second before my mind registered the sheer size of the space.

I had come into a proper cavern, with the back end being slightly indistinct. Along the paths between packed brick houses were more of the masses going about their lives. It was the first place that had standing constructions and relied on natural lighting. The buildings were made with hard bricks and thick wooden beams, combined with the cleaner air and increase of guards, It was plain that this was the better end of the dwellings. Looking along the back I saw several tunnels but the one I had been directed to was near the tail end.

Moving around the now slightly less pressed crowd, we kept along the wall. Red and gold eyes were naturally drawn to us. A few stared a bit longer than others, including some guards. Whatever curio we were to the masses, none deigned to accost us with some good to ply or other such trouble. Several times we cut through an opening in the carts and walkers moving through the tunnels along the wall, and in brief flashes, I saw more houses, shops, and tunnels to yet other abodes further ahead. My mind tried to grasp the mazelike nature of this place though the task was quickly abandoned as I came to our destination with the sideways X above it.

When we moved up the steps, the crowd squeezed again as we walked through the tunnel. The end of which opened into what looked like an armory that took up the entire left side of another cavernous space. The walkway lead towards another tunnel on the far right while a gentle slop down on the left opened into a small field where a few dozen archers were practicing their craft on straw dummies and a few younger girls dueled with wooden swords. Further beyond them was a bigger carving into the stone with a lot of guards moving in and out. The tunnel on the right, however, had another cross above it and our group quickly pushed towards it.

The walkway was a bit looser now as half the crowd veered down onto the lower field and one of the other tunnels on the opposite side of the lower wall. I sighed in relief as we came up to the entrance in decent time. Going through the tunnel that was now large enough for three carts, we walked a while longer over the smooth stone floor with nothing but the chorus of slapping feet to greet our ears. After a few minutes, the sound of chatter reasserted itself before we opened onto another wide pavilion.

It was a more homely abode with a few tables scattered about while the entire left side of the space was taken up by a single building with open stone windows. A large tunnel to the right showed more paths forward but the big cross near the top of the rooms dug into the stone said we were in the right place.

The most immediate difference here was the number of children who were talking around the tables and the odd garb of the Orcs. Green women in black robes with white neck guards bounced here and there trying to see to the children or talking with an Orc of one description or another. Maneuvering around the other visitors, I saw most of the children were being taught various mathematics. The inclusion of lines and shapes beyond my understanding of multiplication and division caught my eye for a second. Long enough for one of the Orc priests to intercept us without me noticing.

“Hello, dears.” An older priest with streaks of grey in her black hair welcomed. Her smile pulled on a mole below her left eye and her short nose with ponytail did nothing to hide her generally good looks. “Can’t say I’ve seen you here before and it’s been a season or two before Kelton’s have walked these halls.”

Her motherly aura practically radiated out from between the folds of her robes.

“I’ve come to Crasden to establish my business and was told to come here.”

She nodded before ushering me towards the big door near the center of the building. It led to a long hallway with other doors but the priest ushered us through another door on my immediate left. I briefly took in the hall and the stairs showing further down the hall lit with candles before following her direction. Inside the room was an oak table with a stack of papers plopped on its right side. The priest moved towards the table and took a seat while holding out my hand to sit in the one opposite of her.

“You were directed to the right place,” She declared. “I deal with the business matters handed down to us by the city council. Typically, we are a bit more professional here, but we’ve had so many orphans come in that we’ve had to make room wherever we can.”

I nodded patiently, trying to find some way of talking about mages before it occurred to me to bring up the local situation.

“I had intended to make my fortune bringing in food from… elsewhere. But even if it’s not as profitable here as I had anticipated, there’s always money to be made when you have a ship. I’d like to set up a special shop to sell whatever extra cargo I can haul in and take special orders from interested parties here willing to pay.”

She nodded as she took a page from one of the stacks to her right.

“Who knows, our fortune may yet wilt back into your boon.” Her dry wit rang out.

I raised an eyebrow at her while her hands started preparing a quill and inkwell. Her slight shrug barely showed under her robes.

“If you haven’t been told already, a mage has been the source of the good news recently. He’s helped bring in a few hauls from the sea and flooded the local food markets with fish, crabs, and shrimp. Even expanded the docks.”

She started looking over her page and writing on it while continuing to elaborate.

“As good as that all is, he’s still a mage. For now, at least, he’s more the other mages' problems than ours. He’s been flicking their noses over one issue or another and I’ve heard there’s going to be a rumble over his work sometime soon. Despite that and his charitable nature, he’s on the wrong side of our survival all the same. If he starts getting too invested in this place, part of his charity will be expunging the green scourge from the bones of this city. And unlike the fools they’ve been sending, he’ll have the earth magic to pull us out for a year or two.”

“Aren’t worried about losing the city forever?”

The scratching of her quill stopped with her head still facing down. It was a long moment before the priest took a deep breath and continued her work.

“They’ve never been able to get rid of us for good. We always have a hold somewhere else and if the worst should pass here, it’ll be many years before we fully recover. But they can’t keep what little space the monsters and ravenous trees don’t occupy on lockdown forever nor fund a city that’s half guards.

Not that it would do them any good considering almost all of the watch sired our daughters. As encouraging as that may be, our return provides little comfort to the children we have to pull out of the rubble after the purge subsides. As nauseating and feckless as Waveborn life may seem, I suppose knowing where your home will always be has its appeal.”

Her slight smile made me nod before she handed the page off to me.

“We have some space here, but before you’re shown around we require your signature and a fee of five silver before selecting the desired building.”

Handing off the required coin and signing my name to the line, I returned the page with a satisfied smile. My acquisition completed; we left the room as the priest lead us out of the church's hold. She waved to a few of the children as we went back to the main area. The girls all looked a little thin, dancing the line of hunger though their eyes still had some energy about them.

Leading us past the tables, we were led back to the larger hold by what I assumed to be the river. While the crowd was less oppressive here, the streets were still unkind to anyone trying to idle around and take in the sights. Going over the offerings, it was obvious the seas had seen more than one fortune consigned to oblivion. Worn-out signs of associations with paint fading in the moist air adorned all of the abandoned buildings.

Even so, there were few signs of unemployment typically accompanying such closures. While standing at the side of the road and looking over a two-story warehouse missing a few boards on its windows after poking around its insides, I decided to pry the priest for an answer as she stood to my right.

“For all the closed businesses, I’m not seeing too many people going without work. Have they left for better lands?”

She shook her head

“The council has approved a massive work project to start making tunnels towards the mage’s town. We’re not desperate enough to start making holds under it just yet, but space is getting a bigger premium than it already demanded. Without the need for so many miners and concrete workers, these buildings would be filled with poor souls struggling for a day’s meal.”

A small part of me was tempted to ask more about the work site, but I didn’t trust myself to effectively broach a subject no smuggler would be interested in. Taking a deep breath, I looked over the wooden flats poking out of the stone wall and to the right where the tunnel towards the entrance was only a stone’s throw away. Nodding in satisfaction, I turned to the priest with a smile.

“The niceties need some work, but it looks like what I need.”

The priest nodded. Taking me back to her office, we went over the needed paperwork and the final prices. Considering the investment needed for digging into the stone and regulations concerning fires and materials that could fill the closed space outside with smoke, the arrangement was that the city itself owned the land. A far cry from the more carefree approach back in the swamps, but it certainly made my purchase more straightforward.

When I was walking out of the church’s office with a new deed to my property, I felt a bit of pride. Totally unearned, but it was my name on the paper and the first place that was ever ‘mine’ alone. We had planned to spend the night here and get ready for the needed scouring come morning, but since our acquisition of a front had gone so smoothly a swift exit was our next move. Getting back out to the tunnel where our whole tour had begun took a while longer as the crowds rushed for the long cavern.

On our trip through the big hold, the sun had properly set and the doors to the outside opened. A few men started coming in from the dark river, most getting swamped by two or three little girls and a loving Orc wife. An absurd scene. All these green women being with their children’s sire or father and the men so happy to be around them. It was a picture of happiness and love I had dreamed about many times before, but seeing it firsthand made some part of me wonder if I was dreaming or had stopped for booze along the way and forgotten. Fortunately, I was able to keep moving, having seen somewhat similar acts with the Waveborn.

Our time underneath Crasden now finished, we pressed forward until we came back to the tunnel from where we had first entered. Walking down the tunnel with only faint flickers of light from the cloudy sky seeping in through slits in the wall, I could only concentrate on how much cleaner the air was here.

When we reached the end, the old blonde waved us goodbye as she held the hatch open for us.

“Now that I know you’ve been accepted, you won’t have to use the flute again when I’m greeter.” She offered as the men walked past her. “But bring it just in case. I’m not the only one who works this post, and they won’t allow passage on my word alone.”

I nodded to her as I ascended the stairs and walked out into the cool, fresh air. A loud clunk announced our official exit from my people's world here and back onto the rocky plains. The cloudy sky has dissipated some and a tapestry of stars covered the sky. After a few seconds to adjust to the lack of light, we moved back towards the ship with the occasional crunch of rocks beneath our feet. A bit off the shore waited our ship, still at anchor among the soft waves gently rocking it back and forth. On the side was the rowboat, now being slowly lowered into the sea. It took a few minutes for us to disembark and get under way but the water was soon pushing about like a leaf as the hulking mass of wood and occasional candlelight on the sides began looming over us.

When I had finally shimmied up to the deck, I turned towards the walkway leading to the lower deck when footsteps came up behind me.

“Captain,” Beaton said with a respectful bow, his long grey beard and blue jacket flowing in the breeze.

“I thought it would be a few more days yet before I took over, Captain.” I fired back with puckered lips as he walked towards the stairs. He huffed and casually waved his hand goodbye even as he walked through the dark hole.

“Not tonight, apparently. I’ll make sure the beds been changed and scrubbed when I mutiny back into command. Capt’n.” Was all he offered before turning into the other side of the stairwell. The men casually followed him while I turned to the lit windows of the captains’ quarters. Getting an idea of what was going on, I jogged over the wooden floor and up the side stairs. My heart began to race, not from exertion but anticipation. Walking up to the door, I opened it with far more force than needed.

Leaning against the desk was a taller man with some muscle showing in his white shirt, which lay beneath a leather vest and hung above black pants. The grey hair and green eyes, combined with a few wrinkles around the cheeks, gave me an odd moment of hesitation before I looked deeper into those eyes and saw the love. I wanted to slap myself for forgetting his change in appearance, but my feet were already moving me forward without any command from me to do so.

He pushed himself from the desk but I was the quicker combatant. No words filled our room, but the sounds of kissing and sucking soon bounced off the walls. When I felt lightheaded from the lack of air, we finally pulled back. I stared into those green pools and relished the love and lust in them.

“God, I’ve missed you.” He said as those powerful hands gripped my hips.

Instead of doing what I was supposed to do, ravaging him in a fit of lust like the wives had instructed me to, I found tears forming in my eyes. I tried to fight the well of sadness and anguish forcing its way up, to do my wifely duty for him, but the damn man took my head in his palms. The lust in those green pools melted into concern as he held my gaze, wiping the tears from my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Eli asked. He moved me towards the bed, not like the ravenous beast a man left without sex for two weeks should be, but as a comforter. My arms wrapped around his sides for support as we sat on the soft mattress. I looked up at him, fighting to do what I should, but it was clear he wasn’t going to let me sidestep this.

Well, my arrow has truly missed.

“Lokan. I’ve been such an awful friend to her.”

From there I explained everything that had happened at baker’s port. It took only a few minutes to lay out my conversation with the old woman and Lokan. He nodded patiently the whole time, waiting for me to finish. I ran through the part about saving the sailors on the new island, but his concerned eyes made me stop for a moment.

“You didn’t get too close to the volcano, did you?”

I stopped for a moment, my mind grasping for how a mountain exploding in fire was involved. But then I remembered how the jellyfish that attacked our first visitors had used a fire spell to melt the ice they were laying on and that meant there were surely other beasts out there with such power. Having figured out the problem, I took a moment to collect myself.

“No. We weren’t in any danger.”

I was grateful for the interruption, honestly. It gave me a moment to work out how I would go about telling him the offer I made on his behalf to the blue snake woman.

“I offered her some hope that you would know what to do. It was stupid, but…”

I couldn’t finish the sentence, nor could I keep myself from looking at him with unfair expectations. He bit his lip for a second, the gears of his unfathomable mind turning before he finally sighed.

“It sounds like something similar to what happens to locusts. When grasshoppers come into enough contact with others through leg rubbing, it triggers a change in their brain’s chemicals. But-“

I bit my lips and widened my eyes, a blooming aspiration that he had to snuff out.

“But. I can’t say for certain if that’s the case here or if that biological mechanism is a one-to-one comparison in this world. Even if it is, the change may cause a permanent altering of the neurons. If that’s what’s happening, they are fully dead in a way I don’t think even science could fix.”

The answer, as uncertain and unclear as it was, was finally delivered.

But it wasn’t the only poison slithering through my mind these past few weeks. I looked him in the eyes, my mouth open and ready to offer a question. The profound stupidity of which suddenly hit me. Did the man who trusted me to set up a smuggling ring, who stored away his wife under my care, and fought with me across several battles think I was a worthwhile partner? Not just a warm sleeve for his manhood or a mare for his brood, but a fully formed person worthy of his respect.

A smile crept onto my lips at the absurdity I almost foisted on my poor husband. Even if I and everyone else was thinking that, I had no reason to suspect he felt the same. In fact, he had given me every cause to believe otherwise. Yet here I was, with this thing, this ugly malevolent parasite in my soul, obscuring what was so obvious from the start.

“I hate this.” I moaned as pressed my head into his chest. I closed my eyes as I tried to peer inward, a vain attempt to glance at the abyss in me. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted. A warm bed, a full stomach, and a handsome, caring, wonderful man…”

“If you want to keep going, there’s no need to stop.”

A chuckle escaped my lips. I continued to laugh as I pulled my head up to meet his gaze, staring deeply into those green pools as golden candlelight played across his strong chin and grey hair.

“I have everything. All the things that I desired from my youngest days and some beyond even those dreams are now in hand. I might very well see Orcs and humans live in peace, side-by-side. No hiding or killing such affairs, but living out in the open together for all to see. If I had been hopeful enough to even consider such a thing growing up, I would have coveted it with all my heart.

Yet here I am with this stupid…thing in me. Sucking all the joy out of it. Making me question what should be clear and chewing out everything it said would bring me happiness.”

Eli gave the best response he could. Those big arms enveloped me in a hug that pushed the coldness of the world away for a time. When he pulled back, my aching heart thumped with a bit less pain.

“It sounds like you need to learn to be happy.” He offered.

I moaned as my face scrunched up.

“Learn to be happy? Happiness should work like healing magic, where it washes over me like a soothing bath and all my problems go away.”

Eli could only smile at me with some pity.

“If it worked like that, god would never tempt us with heaven.”

I couldn’t refute the ancient man’s wisdom. Even if happiness didn’t work like that, the feeling of his warmth was coming quite close. Being the poor wife that I am, I did not give my husband his release while I had been largely drained of my venom. There was still that part of me, stubbornly hunting for the sour in the sweet joy. But as Eli pulled me down onto the bed proper, it felt like that bit of me was put in the cage it belonged in.

He put a finger up and a whisp of wind shot out and snuffed the flame of the candle on my desk with a small whoosh. Plunged into almost total darkness, I could do nothing but mold myself against my husband and thank whatever gods or fates sent him my way. A nice thought that gradually faded with everything else as the night finally took me.