Once Donovan was out of sight, Captain Burdette turned a baleful eye on me again. “He a friend of yours?”

“Only when he’s pouring my drink,” I said casually. True, I wouldn’t have called Donovan a friend, but I really didn’t want to get involved in whatever ire the Captain had for the innkeeper.

Burdette nodded. “I can tell you have the experience, so I’ll not waste much time.” He quickly asked about my relevant expertise, and I responded quickly and honestly. He wasn’t about to throw me into a leadership position, but he satisfied himself that I was an able seaman and wouldn’t create any hang-ups with my late addition.

He needed me – probably the only reason he’d given Donovan the time of day. A ship this size had a typical crew of 50 people. I estimated he had just over 20. Besides the difficult workload that caused, the Consort would have steep efficiency penalties.

When the Wind Runner had taken on an amateur crew, it had taken over a week of orientation before the negative effect of their lack of training disappeared. It had taken even longer for efficiency to reach a positive value, though we’d never attained the perks of a well-trained crew.

The Consort would have it worse. Not having even amateurs meant Burdette was looking at a severe reduction in ship handling. No wonder he was in a bad mood.

Burdette’s knowledge and aptitude impressed me. With scarcely two dozen crew, he had things well in hand and the ship was nearly ready to sail. I noticed as he gestured that he had magical rings on all his fingers – all except the two he was missing on his left hand. I’d never used rings, even when the opportunity presented itself. The Captain’s missing fingers were my reason why. Losing body parts was all too common as it was, I didn’t want a caught ring to strip the flesh off my finger bones.

He pointed out the men I needed to know. “That’s Dogen, my quartermaster,” he gestured to a giant, swarthy man. “Zamari, my first mate,” a man similar to the quartermaster, but with a smaller build and a broken nose that had healed flattened. “And there’s my bosun, Willy.” Willy had a similar build and complexion to me and was directing the activity on the main mast just as well as I could have.

“Now, go tell Zamari I want you on the main topsail. The last shipment will be here any minute, and I want to be off as soon as they’re aboard. Understood?”

“Yes Captain,” I said, immediately executing his orders. Zamari glanced at me, then towards the captain before ordering me aloft. I scampered up quickly and set to working.

Under-crewed or not, we were ready to make sail before the slaves arrived. When I saw them coming, I called down. There was a reason they were behind schedule, there were twice as many soldiers escorting them as there were slaves! I knew the occupying force had a surplus of manpower, but I had no idea they saw the slaves as something worth such protection!

The soldiers ushered the slaves aboard and into the deck below. I didn’t pay much attention to the last bit of business, because I and every other sailor were suddenly busy again, trying to be in multiple places at once. I also had one eye on the harbor, where several boats were spaced in a grid with teams diving down to look for me. They were tightening their net, sure that I was caught. I wanted to be gone before they realized the truth.

Finally we were underway! I felt an impatience even greater than Burdette’s. But there was one more stop the Consort had to make before I was free.

Andros wanted to get the slaves out of the area, but they weren’t going to let just any ship leave. Burdette had to come up to the Athair and allow them to inspect the ship before we could pass.

The minutes it took were tense. A boat transferred an officer from the Athair to the Consort to speak with Burdette, before they both went down below decks. I tried to gauge whether I would make it over the magical blockade if I had to dive into the water from the top of the mast. I could make my escape that way, right?

Such thoughts were my distraction from staring at the Athair. I had the burning desire to scan its decks, looking for someone who might resemble me. I had a spyglass in my bag, I could at least identify the officers …

No! I didn’t want to know! I didn’t want to have anything to do with the man! He’d used and abandoned my mother. He’d forsaken me. I hated him! No, I was completely ambivalent, because he didn’t matter at all.

The words of my last quest hovered in my vision, mocking me. The world itself had declared my ambivalence was a fraud.

My inner turmoil and hasty escape plans had no bearing on what was happening. The officer came back up on deck and his boat rowed him back to the Athair. We got underway again.

I was out of the trap.

My relief was tempered by the sight that greeted us as we left the bay. My stomach knotted at the sight but judging by the hollered oaths and muttering from the rest of the crew, I wasn’t the only one surprised.

H.M.S. Emerald

Ship Class: Warship

Captain: Admiral Michaels/Admiral Thurgood

Ship Durability: 322,000/340,000

Ship Level: 12

Sailing towards Tulisang was a warship in a class of its own. There wasn’t a sailor on the inner oceans who hadn’t heard about the Emerald, the jointly built ship between Oorkom and Andros. As we all stared, my mind went through everything I knew about it.

Its length from bow to stern was 590 feet, its beam was 85 feet across. It had a total of six masts, the sailcloth area it could raise was over 18,000 square feet. It needed everything it could harvest from the wind, too. The massive ship had a water displacement of about 15,000 tons! It was a behemoth by nearly any standard, designed to be the end-all in either ship warfare or challenging the most powerful denizens of the ocean. While it actually did very little monster hunting on account of the truly powerful monsters having no issue with ships of any type, it really was the ultimate ship on the seas when it came to wars.

The ship had been powerful from the start, but the best enchanters in two kingdoms had set to reinforcing its durability and strength. It had the highest durability of any ship that had ever plied these waters. It was currently bristling with scorpion ballistae, but also had several full-sized ballistae in addition to the onagers on deck. That was its setup for sinking ships, it had kraken fighting arms stowed below along with other methods of fighting dangerous creatures.

I was awed and strangely honored. This was the ship they sent to deal with me? I warranted this kind of expedition, this huge expenditure? It took a small army to sail such a ship as the Emerald!

The captaincy of the warship didn’t escape my eye, either. Having co-leaders aboard such a ship wasn’t too odd, not when it belonged to two nations. One of the names stuck out to me, though: Admiral Michaels. Was it possible he was the same man who’d captained the Wind Runner? Was it pure coincidence the name was the same?

Thinking of Michaels made me think of Redmund. Irrationally, I thought the man might be coming for an accounting of his nephew’s death.

Captain Burdette began yelling and we all set to our tasks, not quite putting the Emerald out of mind, but forcing it into the back of our minds. The Emerald joined the Athair as they watched their net tighten around an empty trap, and I helped direct the Consort northeast.

I spent the rest of the day working hard above decks. Because below-decks was crowded with people already, I joined most of the crew in sleeping on the main deck that night. In the morning, I woke when an elf nudged me.

I was sleeping lightly, but I wondered if I was still sleeping when I saw his facial features and pointed ears. I shook my head clear, and he was still standing over me.

“Domenic Seaborn?” he asked politely. It was no doubt rhetorical, as my name was on my stats.

I stood and dipped my head. I’d learned from experience that first impressions with elves were the most lasting impression, and always tried to get off on the right foot. “Yes?”

“The captain has tasked me with analyzing your skills and abilities and cross-referencing them with positions we need filled. With your permission?”

I nodded, my esteem for both the captain and this elf rising a notch. The captain was looking to know the skills and capabilities of his crew and capitalize on them – something I highly supported. It was one of the things that had made Coe such a successful whaling captain. This elf could have done his analysis of me while I slept, but he waited until about the time I’d rouse myself and asked permission for decorum’s sake. Normally I’d say ‘analyze the person while they’re sleeping and move on’ but I was a bit more sensitive these days about who was analyzing me.

I analyzed him in return and discovered his name.

Name

Rhistel

Age

Race

Elven

Profession

*Edledhron

Level

XP

,520

Health

Mana

Stamina

Strength

Agility

Dexterity

Constitution

Endurance

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

Luck

Skills

…

Perks

Nature's Empathy