Chapter 143

While the ship was much smaller than the Averast, once Luke was actually on it, it seemed plenty big. Still, to go out into open water, to cross the entire ocean in it… It felt like the entire cargo hold would have nothing but food and water in it. Maybe he was overestimating how long it would take to make the trip, or maybe there was a supply stop halfway.

They were met on deck by the captain, who was wearing much the same outfit as Luke remembered from the first time, complete with a truly prodigious amount of cleavage that had made it into Zea’s description. Idly, he wondered how much of the captain’s face Zea could even see without taking a step or two back.

“I was wondering if I’d see you two again,” the captain said with a smirk.

“Why’s that?” Zea asked.

“Well, you got poor Belikaron arrested on charges of heresy, so I knew you weren’t going to be completing your trip across the ocean with him,” the captain told them. “But I had a suspicion you weren’t going to just give up. So I delayed a few extra days and set some men to watching for you to come strolling back into the harbor.”

Luke shifted uneasily. The explanation sounded sketchy as fuck to him, but Zea was taking it calmly, so he resisted the urge to grab the handle of his mace. Listening to her heartbeat remain steady helped calm him too. That didn’t stop him from tossing out an [Analyze] on the captain, just to refresh his memory and make sure there hadn’t been any changes.

[Name: The Captain]
[Level: 17]
[XP: 16287/18255]
[AP: 1]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 21]
[Stamina: 9]
[Perception: 23]
[Skills:]
[Sword Mastery (3)]
[Dagger Mastery (2)]
[Crossbow Mastery (3)]
[Reflexive Aim (2)]
[Ambidexterity (2)]
[Stealth (3)]
[Bartering (4)]
[Intimidating Presence (3)]
[Deception (2)]
[Intuition (4)]
[Gardening (1)]
[Embroidery (2)]
[Cooking (2)]
[Tailoring (1)]
[Navigation (4)]
[Painting (3)]
[Calligraphy (1)]
[Ostari (3)]
[Thalian (3)]
[Consortium Standard (3)]
[Sailing (5)]

The stats were similar to what he remembered, and it was nice to get a look at her skills. There was nothing there that he’d consider all that dangerous to himself, but it was obvious that she took her job as ship captain seriously. Even her name just said ‘The Captain,’ strangely enough.

“Let me guess,” Zea said. “You’ve still got room for two passengers.”

“And I can leave immediately,” the Captain said. “In less than two hours, the tide comes in and the Silk Lady can set sail. In fact, we will set sail, now that you’re here. Whether you choose to board with us or not will be up to you. I’ve already delayed departure by a few days to wait you out; now that you’ve heard the offer, you can either take it or not.”

“Sixty is robbery! It’s twice what passage on the Averast cost.”

“Oh, that does remind me. The price has gone up. It’s now sixty, each.”

“What! Absolutely not. Why would we pay double on your already overinflated price!”

The Captain leaned forward and stared Zea in the eye. “Bitch tax,” she said.

Luke couldn’t help himself. He started laughing, which prompted both women to turn and regard him. “I was wondering if you heard that,” he said by way of explanation.

He quieted himself under Zea’s baleful glare and gestured for them to continue. “One hundred twenty gold,” the Captain said. “Payable in full, right now. We leave in two hours. I’m not sticking around to wait for a bunch of templars to swarm the docks and drag the Silk Lady over to the church’s private berths. You’re either in, or you’re on your own. Make a decision.”

“We get a cabin,” Zea said. “For that much money, I’m not sleeping in a hammock with the crew.”

“Agreed, but you’ll get the same meal portions as everybody else. No one gets extra rations on my ship, not even me.”

“Give us a minute,” Zea said. She grabbed Luke and dragged him over to the railing. “What do you think?”

“I think she’s bending us over a barrel and fucking us on the price, which is the part you’re sore about,” Luke said. “She’s got a predatory streak in her, if what she said about waiting and watching for us is true. She’s probably making a ton of money off us.”

“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Zea said. “But I’m afraid she might just be our only option if we want to leave Sicanti by water.”

“On the other hand, think of how much of a risk it is to her. The last ship that agreed to take us on ended up impounded. We may have gotten that captain killed just by shaking hands with him.”

“You think we should do something about that?” Zea asked.

Luke shrugged. The altruistic part of him wasn’t happy that an innocent man had been imprisoned by the church, but the practical part refused to accept the blame for that. He’d done nothing wrong, and he wasn’t going to let his conscience get weighed down because a bunch of other shit heels were trying to isolate him by imprisoning and torturing anyone he so much as exchanged pleasantries with.

As far as rescuing the captain went, that wasn’t even worth considering. Maybe if it was a bunch of level 20 to 25 templars, he could just run rough-shod over them, but if there was even one inquisitor like Lath in that building, it was going to be a completely different story. Luke didn’t think for a second there would be just one inquisitor there, or that there wouldn’t be other problems he couldn’t even begin to guess at.

“It’s bullshit what happened to him, but I don’t see how we can change it. Not from here, at least. Maybe once we get to where we’re going,” Luke said. He was getting quite the list of things to fix once he finally had full access to the system at the God Machine’s console.

“You know we’re going to be basically broke if we do this, right? This is an insane amount of money. We could live for the rest of our lives in relative comfort for what she’s asking. Sixty was already a rip off.”

“So what?” Luke said. “Let her have her big pay day. That money isn’t going to mean anything to us where we’re going.”

The whining sound that came out of Zea’s mouth was probably inaudible to ordinary humans. Certainly, Luke at least wouldn’t have known what it was if not for the look on her face. With a sigh, he said, “You can have all the money that’s leftover, okay? Whenever you feel like you’ve gone far enough, and it’s time for us to part ways, you keep everything we have at that point.”

That must have been the wrong thing to say. “You’re such an idiot,” she told him. “It’s not about that at all.”

She spun on her heels and jerked the neck purse string over her head. “Fine,” she told the Captain. “One twenty, and we are immediately escorted to our cabin, where we’ll stay until we’re out of the harbor.”

“Count out the coins,” the Captain said.

The first mate ran for a small wooden bowl from the Captain’s quarters, and Zea counted out twelve stacks of ten, going slow and with everyone agreeing on the number every step of the way. Her eyes glinted darkly as she watched the bowl fill and her purse empty. Finally, the task was done, the Captain grinned and poured the bowl into a leather pouch of her own, and announced, “Welcome aboard the Silk Lady. Grimly, if you could take them below.”

“Aye, Captain,” the first mate said. “Follow me.”

Grimly led them to a set of deep, rickety stairs that were probably more dangerous to walk on than it would have been to just jump straight down. Luke reminded himself that not everybody had the strength stat to just leap ten feet straight into the air, and that for them, the stairs were a necessity.

The cabin had a simple lock on it, one which Grimly opened with a key produced from his pocket. He pushed the door open and gestured for the pair to enter, where they found a simple wooden bunk built into one wall with a hammock hanging off a pair of hooks above it. A chest sat in the back corner opposite it, and what looked like a wooden box with an opening for a chamber pot to be placed within occupied the front corner.

“Welcome home,” Grimly said with a sneer. “First class accommodations.”

“Thanks,” Luke said dryly. He hoped the man wasn’t expecting a tip, not after the outrageous price his captain had extracted from them. Zea would gouge their eyes out before she’d consider giving them a single copper more. She was already fit to burst over the whole thing, no doubt because she’d planned on haggling for a better deal until Luke had made it clear that he didn’t care about the money.

He didn’t think she would have gotten it anyway. The Captain knew she had every advantage, that if Luke and Zea wanted to get across the ocean, she was their only ticket. Considering the risk she was taking just having them onboard, and the possible long-term consequences if and when the Silk Lady ever returned to Sicanti, Luke honestly wondered if the Captain hadn’t undercharged them.

“Hey,” Luke said as the first mate moved to leave. The man froze and looked over at him. “What’s the Captain’s name?”

“The Captain,” Grimly said, a definitive note in his voice. “She don’t answer to nothing else.”

“Pretentious cunt,” Zea muttered under her beath, just loud enough to ensure that Grimly heard her say it.

The man snickered. “Go say it to her face, see what she does. It’s always a fun show.”

[Name: Grimly]
[Level: 14]
[XP: 9122/10332]
[AP: 0]
[Strength: 16]
[Agility: 13]
[Stamina: 14]
[Perception: 8]
[Skills:]
[Sword Mastery (1)]
[Bow Mastery (5)]
[Wind Reading (3)]
[Mounted Archery (3)]
[Quick Draw (2)]
[Horseback Riding (4)]
[Implacable Intent (3)]
[Intimidating Presence (2)]
[Task Master (1)]
[Stealth (2)]
[Disguise (5)]
[Akohean (3)]
[Ostari (2)]
[Thalian (1)]
[Consortium Standard (1)]
[First Aid (3)]
[Herb Lore (2)]
[Medicine (2)]
[Woodcarving (3)]
[Sailing (4)]

Grimly’s skills told an interesting history. He obviously been born to a very different lifestyle than where he’d ended up. Many of his skills were impressively high rank, especially for someone who was only level 14. Luke also didn’t recognize that language skill, [Akohean]. Wherever Grimly had come from, his current position as first mate was an odd choice. In the end, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Luke seriously doubted anyone on the ship could make him or Zea do anything they didn’t want to. Luke could kill everyone on board single-handedly, if it came to it. Zea could at least defend herself until he could step in, and he thought he might encourage her to invest some of her remaining AP in her stats and a combat skill or two, just to be safe.

“Got it. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Grimly.”

The first mate left, closing the door behind him. Luke listened to his foot steps retreat back to the stairs and climb them back up to the deck. “What an odd guy,” he said. “I wonder how he went from horseback fighting to sailing the open ocean.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Zea asked.

“His skill list,” Luke said absently. “By the way, the Captain’s name is literally listed as ‘The Captain’ in her status. That’s some impressive dedication to her persona, there. We should probably talk about spending the rest of your AP soon. Some of these sailors could take you in a fight if I don’t intervene right now.”

“Why would they? We’re paying customers. Fuck, they ought to be treating us like royalty.”

“I doubt the Captain is doling out gold coins to everyone on her crew. Don’t be surprised if they don’t bend over backwards to accommodate us,” Luke told her.

“Yeah,” Zea agreed with a sigh. “Wouldn’t want things to be too easy. Well, at least we’re finally getting away from that inquisitor. I can’t imagine him chasing us down now.”

“Jeez, why would you say something like that?” Luke said. “It’s like you’re tempting fate to rub our noses in it.”

* * *

Lath stepped onto the docks and peered around. He was following the dwifkin’s scent more than anything else, and she’d definitely come to the harbor. He just needed to figure out where she was hiding. The scent trail went north towards the church, and he followed it doggedly.