Glad to have finally arrived somewhere, Jade gratefully took in the sights: the harried crew of a Legion ship about to set sail, a few fishermen and local merchants, and their own battered vessel of which better days were in short supply. The latter seemed quite fascinating to those onshore, the most notable of which being a sallow-faced inspector currently engaged in conversation with Dolphus. Jade had hung back from all the negotiation with the sour man for the most part, and was keen to explore the town.
Suddenly one of her fellow crewmembers spoke up. Jade couldn’t remember his name, but he sure looked like a hunter, what with the mean-looking broadsword that hung at his side. Finally she decided to speak up.
“Not that I’m aware of, other than restocking our provisions most likely. I’ve never traveled here before, and I for one am quite interested to see what there is to see.”
Mako’s eyes darted to the captain’s hand, then to the inspector, then back again. His veins were already filling with feverish fervor at his burgeoning distaste towards this reviled inspector, and he so did wish to say further words.
But…
But he didn’t say anything more. Mako gritted his teeth- he was not finished. He felt he hadn’t had his fill, his vindication. So why, why, WHY was he hesitating?! Why did Mako feel that it was not appropriate? The mage had clenched his jaw so hard he was sure he would crack a yellowed molar from simple frustration- for his answer eluded him, bewildered him.
Mako was less angry at the insult, for he was at that infinitesimal moment, distracted, but more at the fact that he had been disturbed from concentrating on this rather vexing problem that he was focusing on, and now he had his focus broken!
BY THE WINDS AND SEAS, JUST END ME NOW!
He screeched internally, his impatience and indignation roiling like a typhoon inside him.
Anything, and he meant ANYTHING, was better than consorting with this, this FIEND. He wanted just to soil the man’s stupid, aristocratic snobbiness, at least just rock the boat so much that the man goes overboard and gets soaked to ruin his day, as much as Mako’s day had just been ruined by HIS. STUPID. PRESENCE.
“…Fine.”
He grumbled to Dolphus, clearly trying to keep the frustration out of his voice, and failing terribly.
Okay, now please, My Grace, ruin his day. Please just ruin his day.
They should not have docked. They should have gone ANYWHERE else but here. But NOOOO, no no no, they HAD to. Mako practically was vibrating with the need to seize him right then and there, or to walk off, or to hide, or to do anything but stand here and take this inspector’s words for reality.
Not much of a choice, Annabelle thought grimly as she scanned the docks. As impressive as the vessel was, she would prefer to stay away from the inspectors in case any of them were regular patrons of the tavern. She hoped tying her hair in a chunky braid would be enough to change her appearance, but maybe she was just being paranoid. Maybe these inspectors were too classy to mingle with the riff raff she usually serves.
Not even dropping her mask of poise and grace for a moment, she started for the striking warship, intent on speaking with its captain…
She took notice of the hulking woman walking towards her from the ship. She had plenty of experience dealing with muscle-bound brutes lacking inhibitions courtesy of a few too many mugs of liquid confidence, so she wasn’t initially intimidated. As she drew closer, however, she realized maintaining this confident facade might be harder than she thought. Even with the lifters in her boots, this woman appeared to tower over her.
After a moment of mental preparation, she worked up the nerve to speak. “Excuse me, are you with the crew of that vessel over there?” she asked in a measured tone.
Dolphus’s dead stare maintained as the inspector continued. Internally, however, he was very disappointed he had not been able to get under the fellow’s wrinkly skin with his comments about cannibalism. And Mako even wore his best for the occasion. I’ll have to use that angle some other time.
Dolphus could feel his stomach acid rising.
Oh my gosh. He’s literally just Ludo.
His mind raced back to simpler if less happy times, when his father was still alive and his arm was still feathered. Ludo had been his father’s secretary, serving in a lesser position as primary contractor of the capital docks, and controlling three very critical checkpoints as ships wormed their way through the Summer Isles. By now he-
…Feathered … No. Back when it was normal.
Dolphus blinked, only realizing after the fact that he had missed most of what the inspector had said. I have to stop doing that before it becomes recurring.
Dolphus genuinely began to wonder what the repercussions would be for cutting the inspector’s head off.
“We wouldn’t want that.” He sighed, scratching at his temple. After a moment of carefully cultivated visible hesitation, he sighed. “We’re running on rags at the moment. As we fly the Hearthtemple’s flag, you will have to speak to the financier of the voyage.”
He knew he could likely handle the cretin if only he had the freedom to throw the Gorov name around a little. But the good it would do was not worth the risk it posed to him, and subsequently to the entire crew, even though they could just find a new captain in the form of Alexis or Rook.
I wonder what Rook’s been up to. Probably making friends with the rats, if there’s any left.
Dolphus turned to ascend the gangplank, hoping to find Caeseus and confer. However, Mako immediately caught his eye, shaking with rage so violently it seemed the cloak he wore would fall off at any moment. He desperately desired to avoid a scene that could cost him more in an unspecified number of taxes which could bankrupt the voyage, unless some solution could be found.
Perhaps I could pacify his greed by scooping up someone… Granitepeak is not too distant, I hope. It would only be a little while, then we can drop off whomever we’re forced to take on.
“Not that one.” Dolphus laid a hand on Mako’s shoulder, leaning in as if he had stumbled slightly only to whisper, as low as he could, in Mako’s ear: “Keep everyone aboard.”
“I can’t give you any immediate estimate,” He continued, lurching up the gangplank and turning around at the top for dramatic effect. “But I would not get your hopes-”
Dolphus stopped mid-sentence, his eyes squinting out at the conversation Ari had just walked into. The massive muscular figure of Ari blocked whomever she was speaking to - the only indicator being that she was taller than whomever it was, which didn’t help at all - but perhaps she could find someone willing… And most of all, actually useful to the crew.
“One.” He glanced back down at the gaggle the inspector had with him, their little decorative wings flashing in the sun. “Just one.”
Dang it. They probably won’t let anyone go onshore now, Karl thought to himself. Not with that official trying to offload people onto the ship. Not sure why he’s so keen on getting locals on the ship. Is he trying to put a spy among us? Or does the town have a serious unemployment issue?
Oh. Well, maybe they’ll let everyone go about their business now that the Captain’s found someone to hire. Hopefully the tax collector’s not planning on bankrupting the crew as well as the Captain…
He shrugged, placing his hands in his jacket pockets. No harm in loitering around a bit to see how the negotiations would continue.
Ari looked at the stranger with an air of curiosity.
“Uh, I guess you could say that… Yeah, that’s my ship. Why do you care? Do you wanna join or something?” She squinted her eyes and scanned the appearance of her new acquaintance. Isn’t that coat way too big for her?
After a long pause, having decided not to think too hard about it, she said “Alright, you convinced me. What do you got?”
Belle maintained her poise under Ari’s gaze. She opened her mouth to respond…
And immediately stopped. Is this crew desperate, or… she wondered. No matter, this might be her only chance before someone can stop her.
“Ah, yes. I am a physician, and I’m looking to get away from this place before things… ‘flare up’,” she said, hoping she gave no more than a flicker of suprise.
“Physician…” Ari pondered for a moment, before her face lit up with something akin to profound understanding. “You’re lucky one, coz we are definetly in need of one!”
“What do you mean by Flare up? You really wanna leave this place, don’t you?”
Belle felt both releaved and mildly concerned. This crew’s need of a physician was exactly the break she was hoping for. But something about that reaction… why did she sound so enthusiastic? No, surely she was just overthinking this.
“Well, you see…” she said, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. “There’s rumors going around. Some claim that someone has mustered the coin to hire the Cadre of Silence. I don’t know how truthful these rumors are, but I would rather not bet my life on it.”
Mako’s eyes slid to the Captain’s hand. Even if it was not in a moment of great irritation and impatience, it took a grand deal of self control not to tear the boy’s fingers from his shoulder, and leap forward at the constabulary with his lash, to beat the interloper to bloody pieces with inane fury.
I should beat down this verminous man… rend unto his flesh the truth of His Grace….
He went back to staring at the official, hands clenching so tight it might just break the anemic skin that hid behind his dried bandages, as he ground his yellowing teeth against each other.
How dare he… how dare he get in the way of our work… the way of my redemption…
And Dolphus’s statement only fanned the fires of Mako’s fervor, as he looked now like he was ready to do anything to remove this new obstacle from his path.
He DARES TO-
Mako’s thought was cut short as Ari extravagantly careened off of the ship’s decks onto the docks. He stared blankly for moment, before his fury was renewed by the sight of that foul man before him.
“Indeed, I do,” Belle replied, and started towards the ship attempting to match stride with Ari. She had gotten used to the lifters in her boots by now, for the most part.
“My name is Annabelle Costello, although I usually just go by ‘Belle’,” she said evenly as she shook her hand.
As Ari starts back towards the ship there is a flurry of activity as the guards grabbed their pikes and tighten up their armour, they were taking no risks on her behavior. Their formation was a loose crescent to leave an open path back onto the ship. Their pikes were held to side, not in a threat position but certainly kept to ready.
The even beat of footsteps marked a second block approaching from the city itself. With a great clatter of armour they halted just outside the gate, forming up across the opening into the city.
Approximately 60 armed guards stood rigidly to their posts, they didn’t take kindly to Ari’s behavior in their home.
Having caught wind of the commotion, Ari stopped in her tracks, looked back at the city and observed the small army of guards that was now blocking her from any further attempts at exploration, much to Ari’s dismay.
She threw her hands up in bewilderment and turned towards Belle.
“No kidding, this is the second time within the last day that this has happened to me! What’s their problem?!” She once again eyed Belle’s peculiar attire, “Wait, are these losers after you? You look like you’re some kind of big shot!”
Ari kept on walking towards the ship, this time with a bit more urgency.
When she came within earshot of Dolphus and everybody else standing on deck, she yelled excitedly: “Hey, captain! I just got us a ship doctor! And I think the locals don’t like us, for some reason!”
Belle was equally puzzled by the sudden appearance of these guards. A lowly barmaid slipping out of town hardly warranted a force of this size, so they probably weren’t after her. One or two guards? Maybe. Her sister could probably convince them to search for her during their patrols. But around 60 armed guards was unlikely. So why are they here?
“I doubt it,” she said, with a hint of curiosity in her tone. “I couldn’t tell you why they’re on alert…”
Unless things are flaring up sooner than expected, she thought grimly.
Belle, too, stepped up her pace. Things may start getting messy if her concerns are justified, and she’d prefer to fall in with a hopefully seasoned crew of sailors before that happens.
Dolphus was unsure if his plea had gotten across to the stuffy, thick-headed inspectors guarding the port, preventing his crew from going beyond the gangplank. He would eventually need to walk back down and retrieve the vital documents of passage from the assistant; although the fellow in question probably possessed some title greater than the one Dolphus ascribed, he did not feel particularly inclined to honor it.
Regardless, soon…
What is going on over there…
Dolphus did his best to observe the motions of the guards from his peripheral vision, just barely familiarized enough with Armada military style to recognize the guards were being stationed rather than moving into position. However, there were certainly a lot of guards for such a small area. Five or six would be sufficient in barricading the gate, but they stretched on, and on…
…Directly past where Ari was standing.
At the precise moment Dolphus comprehended the purpose of the guards’ movements, Ari’s overpowering voice cut into the scene and forced his neck to retract. The very beginning of a disgusted sneer started crawling up his face, but his eagerly-tightening hand recalled the touch of a hand much larger than his, gently clenched around his heart.
For an extremely brief - and uncomfortably visible - moment, the mask slipped, enough to rouse the suspicion of anyone looking at his face and certainly more than enough for Ari to see through. His heart tightened; he wanted to apologize for ever considering his dismissive attitude towards Ari’s entirely unjustified and impolite behavior, lest he risk hurting her in doing so.
The next moment, however, the storm of emotion was smothered by the mask, sloppily returned as he turned to face the approach of both Ari and, more importantly, her new guest.
The battle against his heart got easier as the veneer of coldness shifted into one of genuine disappointment.
Striding behind Ari’s casual step, and with a noticeable height disparity between the two that made Dolphus more than a little self conscious about how he appeared next to the last Wohlford, came a girl who was clearly older than him and yet carried a naivety about the ship before her that radiated off her body like an internal sun. Her boots were too tall for her legs, and clomped awkwardly against the street, while her jacket was equally oversized, and it was only by the miraculous intervention of not magic that it stayed adhered safely to her shoulders. He only hoped the obvious way it was pinned behind her back was an intentional part of the coat.
This is Ari’s choice. You have to be nice.
So it was that, with a little internal sigh, Dolphus rested his hand as casually as he could on the pearl in the pommel of his blade in the hopes it would give him something of a professional appearance as he stared down the ‘Iron Belle’ he worried might end up on his crew for longer than the fifteen minutes required to get beyond eyesight of the docks and dump her overboard.
I said be nice.
“Found one already?” Dolphus’s face did not match the artificial passiveness his voice carried, nor did it pay any attention to how his body language softened the closer Ari got to him. In fact, he hadn’t considered whether or not Ari had seen any of the prior display; what mattered was getting out before anything else catastrophic happened.
When Ari was close enough to make out Dolphus’s facial features, she saw his face momentarily go through a storm of emotions before settling back into his usual stone faced expression, which she figured by now was a common occurrence in the world of Dolphus.
This time his reaction seemed confusing though. Was he not happy about Ari’s find? Why would he not want a ship doctor on their crew? She had assumed that every crew needed one. Did he not like the one she found specifically?
Having arrived at that baseless assumption and promptly having gotten offended by it, Ari raised her chin and pouted her lips.
She side eyed the inspectors standing at the foot of the gangplank and, not wanting to deal with any nonsense from them, she took a wide diagonal step onto the gangplank, bypassing the officials and started walking towards Dolphus.
“Yeah! Aren’t I amazing?!” She saw the change in Dolphus’s demeanor and her heart instantly melted.
As Ari walked up the gangplank, the Head Customs officer raised his view from his paperwork, taking note of Ari, he took a quick scan and settled on Belle.
“Well, well well, if it isn’t Annabelle Costello. Are you here to take your father’s place in the muster?” He sneered while taking in her oversized garments. ‘Where is the lazy drunk, still complaining of his “injuries”?’ He put as much contempt in to the last word as possible. “Very well, someone has to pay his debts, unless-” he paused as his gaze flicked back to Ari, “Oh are you finally jumping ship to somewhere else?”
Ari glanced at the inspector’s face, then down at his ridiculous garments, making sure to linger on his shoulder wings for a particularly long time, back at Dolphus, then back at the inspector, and then finally back at Dolphus, as she tried to gather as much context as she could regarding what she had just walked into.
What is he… What do you mean finally jumping… Who is… What problem does he have with my ship doctor that I found…
She finally pointed back at the inspector over her shoulder with a frustratedly confused air and spoke.
“What is this jester on about?! Does he wanna join us too? I didn’t even know ship jesters were a thing!” Ari side eyed the silly wing ornaments on the inspector’s shoulders, and the rest of his attire, taking note of how it was similar to Dolphus’s, before firmly locking her gaze on her newly appointed captain with a rather devious air. “Good thing you don’t need those, kid!” She smirked in her typical sharp toothed manner.
Ari’s pouting expression had just begun to register to Dolphus when she stepped directly across the corner of the pier, bowing the gangplank slightly with her presence. Dolphus stumbled slightly at the abrupt change in his footing, but barely had time to register her existence before his comment reached her ears.
And then she stood before him, beaming at him as she ascended the gangplank. It was extremely awkward looking down at her eyes, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief when she approached close enough for him to look up at her.
Her question needed answering, though, and unable to make his parted lips form into any kind of solid word, he eventually settled for a reassuring nod, oblivious to his own face beaming slightly back.
However, his attention quickly snapped to the inspector, targeting the word injuries with a suspicious air. It was a comment made in obvious loathing, dripping with venom and eager to sting, if Annabelle Costello chose to let it. And yet, the idea of a gifted healer being incapable of restoring the injuries of her father was a concerning one.
Perhaps a thorough conversation with her would be able to clear up the issue. Of course, if she turned out to be incompetent at the one thing he cared about being able to do, there was always Granitepeak to dump her off at.
Orrrr… Fifteen minutes from now, over the side… Can’t you make fun of Mako or something?
It would take a prying mind familiar with Dolphus to recognize the expertly restrained laugh that threatened to convulse his features. His lips crinkled and his gaze averted as he did his best to obscure the smile working its way up under his skin, as smiling was both uncomfortable and extremely improper to react in such a fashion to the unexpected joke.
…But it could only last so long.
With the tips of his fingers traveling to insufficiently obscure his lips, his smooth features lifted slightly as a subtle yet genuine smile broke through the iron mask as he failed to restrain any sign of amusement at the joke. It was very likely he would privately reprimand himself for daring to show positive emotion, so dangerous it was to disrupting his act.
Right then, however, he subconsciously accepted the fact that, despite the incredibly uncouth manner she so frequently embodied, and the terrible attempt at humor, he really did like her.
Dolphus could only restrain his smile just enough to make it not immediately obvious as he slightly peered around Ari to get a better look at the Inspector. The little metallic wings on his uniform were quite professional in appearance, but certainly gaudy for someone of his position, and the stuffy appearance coupled with them gave him the overall impression of being a bit of a buffoon.
It took a slight moment for him to recognize exactly what Ari was addressing on the Inspector’s attire. The familiar cuts and folds were incredibly similar to his ow military cape, although with a much more prominent emphasis on red in the palette. However, there was nothing else in his entire uniform that appeared in a pair beyond the decorative wings.
And then the realization hit.
Dolphus could feet a discernible drop in temperature rush across his entire body, the color dropping from his face in an instant. His eyes shot wide open, any presence of a smile vanishing into cold, unfiltered horror.
He did not process his hand nearly grasping at his own throat. His shrunken pupils and parted lips proclaimed his shock as he searched Ari’s features for an answer, unable to find solace in her expression. The underlying emotion behind his features wavered, originating from sadness at the unintentional betrayal and steadily growing towards a righteous indignation at the clear and blatant abuse of his trust.
But mask or no mask, Dolphus was still the master of his emotions. With no hand above his heart, he found it very easy to lock his features behind a shield of ice, coldly rejecting the entire assembled scene and, with a turn and a flourish, strode to the other side of the vessel.
If that girl wants to join the crew, she can come to me. His hand knotted itself around the thick rope railing, grinding the bristles of the rope against his palm and providing his fury some meaningless outlet. I will not wait about for her any longer.