The sounds of loose chain links dragging across wooden piers filled the salty air of Aeredale. A crowd of locals; a mixture of Elves, Dwarves, Demihumans, Humans, Satyrs, Goliath, and Gnome surrounded the docks where a loud crash of a ship collision and the crumbling stone of a destroyed quayside portion that the Red Pearl now lay perched on.
Sebas Aren, a horribly bloodied birdish humanoid held the stone statue of a Goliath man, leaping from the slanted bow needle onto the wharf. Some people gasped as the creature walked forwards, revolting bloodied visage turning some noses, and some faces sneering at the monstrous creature.
Sebas looked over at the army of children who each had a manacle with three to five links of chain trailing behind on their steel ankle bracelets telling everyone they were together. A single infernal human girl who seemed to be the exception to the dress code ran over to the beast, and held onto the side of the monster by a bloodied and ill-fitting pant leg. A group of official law-enforcing look-alikes appeared, mostly staying stern and professional, however, the youngest of the group of elven men glowered at the blood covered monster.
Sebas was the first to speak.
“Can I get a shower? It’s been a long month.”
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A hoard of children and a monster were led to a small office building made primarily of stone. A pale Elven man with an extendable baton sat across from a red feathered humanoid monster, looking over written reports made by witnesses and guards on site. The monstrous humanoid interrupted the blonde’s focus with a question.
“Do you guys have anyone here that can adjust mechanical armor?”
The elf looked up from his hunched posture, inexpressive eyes landed on the creature. It was closer to a (Shifter)’s changed form, however, it had little difficulty in enunciation, the only issue was finding clothes that fit the strange proportions it’s feathered body.
“What kind of adjustment?” The elf asked before clarifying, “Type two and above augmentations are illegal in most of Oseas, not to mention that Clockwork Grafts are heavily regulated due to the creation of storage artifacts that can be used for smuggling.”
Sebas sat there for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.
“Type… two?”
Apparently that was the wrong question, as the official pinched the bridge of his nose in what seemed like distress.
“Forgive me sir, but I cannot explain that right now.”
“No… problem? You’re forgiven?” Sebas was befuddled from the moment he was placed in a restraint. It was a small cuff that chained his single arm to the table, along with two pieces that connected his feet to the legs of the chair. It looked like a bear was being incarcerated.
“In any case, I must ask once again, you claim that you didn’t kill any pirates, and that you saved…” he paused to check his notes. “Two hundred and sixty-eight, infernal, demi, and human children?”
“It was a mission given to me by my god,” Sebas Lied with a big smile.
[The Goddess of the Hunt does not appreciate you using her as a Scapegoat]
“Which Deity?”
“Mercy,” Sebas lied once again.
[The Goddess of Mercy prays for you]
[The Goddess of the Hunt asks “What the F*ck!” And demands an explanation]
[The God of Humanity snorts, claiming that the “Hunt’s Goddess” doesn’t even have a faithful beneficiary]
The elf widened his eyes, and looked through his notes, pages flipped slowly, filling in the void with some sound in the small interrogation room.
“I can’t find anywhere that you are a Missionary for the Church of Mercy?”
“It’s a bit of a hands off thing.”
“Forgive me if I don’t immediately believe you, I’ll need to confirm this information with the church.”
“They have a church on Oseas?”
“… Yes.” The elven man deadpanned.
“Hmm.”
“While I have you here, where are you from? Sebas Aren, right?”
“Gods don’t call me that, just Sebas.”
“Well, Sebas. Give me something to go off of.” The officer pulled out a small parchment of paper, wrote on it something Sebas couldn’t read, and threw the paper in the air. The parchment seemed to take life on, turning into a small bat made of carefully folded ends and flew out the steel barred open-air window.
Sebas looked at the window, where the paper creature just flew from the man’s position, shook his head and returned his gaze to the elf.
“I’m from Kladia, Disel.”
“Let’s skip ahead a bit, how did you end up in the pirate ship of the notorious Pirates of Freedom’s “Red Pearl?””
“It was the strangest thing,” Sebas began, “I was stabbed in the back, right after my father wanted to turn me into a hunting dog.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Sebas sighed and leaned back in the metal chair that was welded to the ground, “just say it was a falling out with family.”
“And you… the northern continent?”
“What about it?”
“You had a falling out with your family, on the northern continent right?”
“Yep.”
“How does that have anything to do with how you got to the southernmost part of Oseas?”
“I fell in the Ocean.”
“Specifically, the Abyss of Starrous?”
“Maybe? I’m not much of a geologist, whatever’s above the northern continent.”
The elf went back to searching his documents, taking his time with the process while Sebas stared at the wooden panels that made up the ceiling.
After a few minutes, the elf pulled out a small map, and started at Disel with a pen.
“So you fell into the Abyss-… the Ocean of Disel, the Abyss of Starrous, the single most dangerous, uncharted body of water on our planet-“
“-that we know of.” Sebas added
“-that we know of,” the elf said through gritted teeth, “and how did you end up on a pirate ship?”
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“Dunno.”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced the sensation, mister?”
“Inalos.”
“Mr. Los,” Sebas began, “have you ever fallen off a cliff and slammed stomach-first into the brine-y soup of the ocean?”
“No. I don’t think I can claim that, Sebas.”
“Well I have; Let me tell you that it fucking hurts, I felt like I had abrasions over my chest and stomach for a few days after I woke up.”
“Woke up from?”
“… from slamming face forward into the salt diluted abyss that is the ocean?”
“What happened after you “slammed” into the ocean, Mr Sebas?”
“I don’t remember,” Sebas said with a shrug.
“You don’t remember?”
“I vaguely remember hearing “something was praying for me” and the roars of something that was attacking Disel.”
“You were there during the Kraken attack?”
Sebas shrugged once again.
“That would place you there on the 6th, that was about thirty days ago, yet you mean to tell me you were somewhere else in the sea from ten to twenty days while you were supposedly adrift.”
Sebas yawned at the man’s explanation.”
“You said you were with the one named Echo?”
“No I didn’t, I haven’t said anything about Echo.”
“My mistake,” he began,” I meant that Echo told us that you were with her.”
“That sounds like her, the kid has a large mouth.”
“I will refrain from commenting on that, sir.”
“What about it?”
“She said that the naval forces grabbed her and her “comrades” from Ostar on Ayeth.“ The elf mumbled
“I don’t know where that is.” Sebas said bluntly, showing blatant disinterest, “Am I free to go yet?”
“No, you aren’t, I still need to know what happened between the time you were supposedly unconscious and when you woke up.”
“The first thing I remember was punching someone, and being thrown into a cage.”
“I was told you were able to break out of the cage, when we found it in the wreckage the door of the object was practically removed from both hinges that were secured with steel bolts.”
Sebas blinked at the man, hunched back down by his restraining wrist cuff.
“Well?” Inalos asked, raising his voice.
“I don’t know what you want me to say to that.”
“Did you or did you not smash open the cage?”
“Yep.”
“Why didn’t you do it before?”
“Don’t know how to sail, I didn’t really feel like learning and using two hundred children to commandeer a pirate ship, I finally heard the dude up at the top of the thing-“
“Crows nest?” Inalos interupted.
Sebas shrugged, “someone yelled that land was visible, Echo was about to die since the brat hadn’t eaten in a few weeks. I also definitely didn’t kill them.” Sebas said with a smile and settled in his chair as he lied to the man.
“So you left because your friend was going to die?”
“Well… no, I never said that, I did hear that there was land and I didn’t kill anyone.”
Inalos sighed and placed both hands on his face before pulling out a small box of thin leaf tubes.
“Do you smoke?” Inalos asked.
“Smoke what?”
“Drift leaf.”
“Sir I am Seventeen, and don’t know what that is.”
Inalos shook his head, lifting the small foliage object to his mouth and lit it with the snap of his finger, where a ring on his thumb lit ablaze.
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[Perspective Shift; Adam Rynard (LV 20)]
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“Are you sure?” Karri asked Adam while they were walking.
“Would you rather it be the first place or the last place we check?” Adam asked.
“Fortunately there are some remedies for the smell.” Arietta said to Karri.
“The smell isn’t what I’m worried about!” Karri shouted, no attention fell on their group, as the guild hall was bustling with people, laughter, and applause in some corners.
“Is it because-“ Nilo began with a smirk.
“It’s BECAUSE it’s shitty! It’s a shitty job in a shitty town to kill shitty slimes that have overpopulated because they eat shit in the sewer!”
Nilo snickered as Karri bemoaned their current job request.
“You have to admit that it would be a great place to hide a holy sword,” Adam said matter-of-factly.
“I would kill the hero if I found out they were using the shit sword.”
“The shit sword that saved the world.” Nilo joked before snorting.
“Weren’t we going to look for Sebas?” Arietta asked.
Nilo looked back at Karri and Adam, Karri was also turned to Adam, eager to leave the horrific quest behind, however Adam continued to read the small letter he took from the jobs board while he spoke.
“I put in an information request.” Adam said while keeping his eyes down on the page.
“What does that do?” Arietta asked, getting sideways looks from Nilo and Karri.
“The guild will give me the most recent update on jobs or whatever Sebas does.”
“What if he doesn’t do any jobs?” Arietta asked.
“Forgive me, but do you know how the adventurers guild works?” Nilo asked.
“Nilo, that’s not polite to ask.” Karri scolded.
“Forgive me your highness, but I bet Ari hasn’t done a single thing with the adventurers guild before.”
“That’s-“ Karri began before she was cut off by Arietta.
“She’s right,” Arietta said with a sad smile, “I’m a bit of a… novice when it comes to the adventurer’s life.”
“Ha!… called it.” Karri said, while eating small purple cubes from a bowl.
“What are you eating?” Adam asked Nilo, curious by the small lavender snacks.
“They’re called moonberry jellies, they’re apparently filled with sugar… I don’t think I like ‘em.”
“Why not?” Adam asked curiously, “too sweet?”
“My tongue feels like it’s being attacked.”
“You might be allergic.” Adam said while popping one of the small cubes in his mouth.
“I’m sorry about Nilo, she’s very inconsiderate.” Karri said to Arietta with a smile.
“It’s okay, she didn’t say anything incorrect.” Arietta said back.
“I can literally hear you both.” Nilo said, placing another cube in her mouth, her face scrunching up in displeasure.
“Nilo, quit eating those.” Adam said.
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[Perspective Shift; Sebas Aren (LV 24)]
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Sebas held a whisperstick, a small rolled up piece of paper thin bark, inhaling the herbal aroma from the small crushed drift leaf inside, unlit.
“You really like that? Just the smell?” Inalos asked the beast with curiosity.
“Don’t judge me, it smells like flowers.”
Inalos snickered, blowing air through his nose.
“I can light it if you want?”
“You’re a really bad influence for a warden.”
“It’s not illegal, I didn’t do anything Mr-knows-all-the-rules.” Inalos said while he exhaled smoke.
“So, tell me how the whole Warden thing works, we have Knights and Lords and stuff in the north.”
“Okay, so if you start out, you are what’s a junior or newbie warden, and usually get all the shitty tasks to start out with like… hosing off drunks or… just really bad word nobody really wants to do, considering the pay, but if we let every human who tries to out-drink an elf or dwarf run around after the alcohol gets through there system… it’d be a really dirty town instead of Aeredale.”
“Sounds like horrible employee retention.”
“Fuck em…” Inalos said while staring off into space, sending the smoke from his lungs into the air, before a small paper bat with a document in it’s mouth, dropping it in front of the elf in front of him.
“Sebasian Iore Aren huh?”
“I’d rather you punch me than call me Sebastian.”
“Well… Sebas, turns out you’ve got a bounty.”
“For what? It was self-fucking-defense.”
Inalos raised an eyebrow, looking back at Sebas with confusion. “Well… it’s not for Murder or anything.”
Sebas’ head reeled back, before he cocked his head to the side thoughtfully.
“Yeah… that makes sense since I didn’t murder anyone.” Sebas said with confidence backing up his factuality.
“You’ve got a legal summons for a return to your home.”
“I refuse.”
“I’m not sure that you can…”
“I have before, aren’t I considered dead or something?”
“I… maybe?” He said in confusion.
“Is there any room for diplomacy?”
“Kid this is an intercontinental thing.”
“… could I seek asylum?… I’m an honorary elven hunter.”
The elf across from him mumbled to himself, thinking for a moment.
“Do you wish to seek asylum?”
“Yes…?”
“Was that a question?”
“No..”
“Kid you’re fucking with me right? Do you have anything to prove you're an elven hunter?”
“Honorary.”
“An honorary elven hunter.”
Sebas nodded enthusiastically, “I was given metal braided wire by my master, Uhh…”
Inalos looked at him in confusion.
“Uhh what?”
“His name might be Cy?”
“Do you know how many people I could count on my hand that could be called Cy?”
“Wait-wait wait wait!”
“What?”
“His last name is horn-maybe, and he’s level thirty four.”
“What kind of elf would be below level forty before finding an apprentice.”
“A really shitty one!”
“Alright look, kid, you’re nice and all but I gotta do my job, I’ll do my part and look up a “Cy Horn”, but considering I don’t know a human named “John Smith”, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
“I do know a human named very similar to that!”
“Who?” Inalos asked
“John… Johnson?”
“You know the infamous pirate of freedom, “Johnathan Johnson?”” He asked incredulously.
“Well I don’t know him I just…”
“Just?”
“Killed him?” Sebas Shrugged.
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Twelve Elves were required to throw Sebas in a Jail Cell, his bail was set for five gold coins for the collusion destruction of the wharf of Aeredale.
“I’ll let you know what the church of mercy says when I get the word.”
“Thanks assholos.” Sebas said to Inalos.