Stormfalcon, Meeting Room.
The five sat on the high-back chairs around the stygian table with Ewan at the head, its burnish mirroring them and the other empty chairs as the crystal-white light cascaded down the ceiling, the brushed-metal walls muffling its glare. The room contrasted the homely lounge in every corner and the curves, and its stature complemented the meaning behind the Stormfalcon’s creation more. Each touch of its design screamed efficiency, from the lack of needless luxury to the interweaved connection with Nyte beyond the screens.
“Aren’t we gathering in bridge today?” Kidd asked.
“Idle resource, let’s use this place too. And it’s better than the bridge in some ways,” Ewan said, tapping on the table while swiveling and rocking his chair, its groans matching his rhythm. “So, where’re we at?”
“Registration’s done, our call-code is E-1240, we can accept and submit the tasks and the payments at the guild now,” Lance said, sliding the wooden token he received over to Ewan—a bronze lacquered hexagonal piece of wood with scripts and numbers printed on it. “The task for the pirates was in the list, we can go for them. There’re several requests for it actually, so the reward has accumulated too. It won't be a loss for us now, sir.”
“Several requests, high reward, yet no one has completed it…,” Ewan said in a soliloquy, rolling the token on the table.
“Boss, its related to what I found,” Kidd said, clearing his throat and sitting straight, the back of his chair creaking forward as he leaned on the table. “Fallsard has just gone through a power struggle. The last Seigneur lost the fight, and the new one is consolidating his position right now. And those pirates were on the last Seigneur’s payroll, almost everyone confirmed it. They did all the dirty jobs for him, and he protected and paid them in return. Now he’s down, the requests to take the pirates out have flooded in. We have to hurry if we want the reward.”
“Could it be a trap?” Nana added in.
“Shouldn’t be,” Stefan said. “They’ve lost their biggest support in Fallsard, they shouldn’t be able to use the guild to lay a trap, unless the new Seigneur also supports them…”
“Either way, they’re already targeting us,” Lance said. “We need to take them out regardless.”
“Will they still target us though?” Kidd said. “They did it because of Stormfalcon, right? But just in this port alone, there’re so many warships parked, most are weaker than us.”
“If they targeted us for Stormfalcon, doesn’t it make more sense to lie in ambush around Fallsard and aim for the weaker ones, instead of tailing a class-m warship,” Nana said. “We…don’t look like an easy prey, do we?”
“Bexthon Haven…” Ewan muttered aloud, and the room hushed for a moment. “The mysterious island that allowed no entry or exit before, broke and became normal after our visit… I would target us too if I were in their position.”
“They think we got some sort of treasure from the island then,” Stefan said. “That old man was roaring from anger back then, it did look like we stole something from him.”
“Technically, they’re not wrong. My natural rune can be considered a treasure, though very finicky,” Nana said, resting back. “And if they continue to follow us even after here, we can confirm that guess.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“If we’re right about it, it can give us an edge for this task,” Lance said. “No need to worry about them slipping away, we can lure them in and take them all out at once.”
“Hmm.” Ewan hummed a mindless reply, his thoughts entangling in his head to cook a plan against the pirates.
The Stormfalcon could be a good bait to ambush them, but they had to confirm the difference in strength first. Else if they chomped on a hard metal slab, even if by surprise, it would be their teeth that would crack. If they were more powerful than the pirates, however, there was no need for the ambush at all—he tapped on the table, and the melodic clack of his claw-ring against the wood rang in the room.
The Eyeless Tribe abhorred the Swordfish Pirates, if he could dupe and pit that old bastard Algernon against these pirates, he could fish in the muddied waters. But that blind bastard was cunning as a rat, not to mention stronger than Ewan by a heavy margin. And the last time they bade their farewells, it wasn’t exactly on happy terms…
A conclave to rally some allies against the pirates could work too, and with better guarantee for safety, but it would diminish the returns. It would undermine the main reason they were targeting the pirates…
“What about the kids, did you find anything on them?” Ewan asked, looking at Kidd.
“Not much, Boss, but there is something shady going on with them,” Kidd said. “I couldn’t confirm the pathogen part, but I did find something that might be the rumor’s origin. They all said that anyone who either got splattered by those kids’ blood or came in close contact with them for a long period of time within the enclave disappeared overnight. None of them ever appeared in public again.”
“Disappeared? Were they silenced because they witnessed something?” Stefan asked.
“Don’t know, I couldn’t get anything beyond this,” Kidd said.
“What about those who met these kids outside the enclave?” Nana asked, but Kidd shook his head at her in reply.
“The same as before then, stay away from any rogue kid you see, and keep an eye out for relevant information,” Ewan said. “Moving on.” And he waited a breath. “We met a man today in the guild. He invited me and Nana into his team, and the reason for it was my ‘other identity’, he said. He knew I was a Potioneer…”
----------------------------------------
Next Chapter Free on Patreon
Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.6
Anima: [Fire – 25.6 | Ice – 25.6 | Blood – 25.6 | Mystic: 25.6 | Dark: 25.6]
Astylinds: 5 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
----------------------------------------
Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
----------------------------------------
Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
----------------------------------------
Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]
----------------------------------------
Necros-Crow [Ghost]: Step-0 [Level-6] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 24,285
Anima Crystals: 7,160 grams