The current leader of this little group of three led Nirou and Laska out of the palace grounds and out into the city proper for the first time since they had got in, grinning and humming as he went. He was more decked out in gear than the first time they had met him hanging out in the armory, clad in metal plate armor that covered most of his body. He was also wearing some impressively ornate gauntlets that were made out of some kind of metal that looked almost blue. Nirou also noted that he didn't seem to have a weapon on him, at least no holsters strapped on that could be seen.

"You were quite quick to take on the two of us, Captain." Laska says, making conversation for the first time as they walked. "I am of course grateful and hope we can work well together, but I'm nonetheless surprised. You seem to have no doubts at all about the arrangement. Is there any reason we warrant such confidence?"

Nirou himself wouldn't have questioned it, but Laska was probably already thinking long term. This man and his team were supposed to be the ones to join her in taking down Temat once the General's whole revolution had gone over. She had every reason to probe all of them to be sure they could take part. It was the whole reason whe came here, after all. But Nirou wasn't concerned. If she had even bothered to drag him along, then these experienced warriors were no doubt more than good enough.

"Haha! You thinking I'm too naive? I do get that a lot. But I did say I had already heard about you, right?" Rashen laughs it off before taking a moment to think of a more elaborate answer. "Well even beyond that, it's an order from the General. And I trust his judgement more than anyone else's in the world. Not only is he the greatest warrior alive, but thanks to that he basically went from a peasant to a noble with nothing but his own strength. And despite rising up all those ranks, he'll still treat anyone with respect. Unlike noble-born officers, he won't promote based on connections, but on talent alone. I only have him to thank for my position, otherwise I'd be a servant cleaning the palace at best. I'd follow him anywhere. If he says jump, I ask: How high, how many times, and do you want that with a backflip?"

The Captain was beaming as he enthusiastically declared his loyalty to the General. Nirou couldn't imagine him as the duplicitous type if he tried. Laska also seemed content with this answer, not prying any further.

The group eventually emerged into the city center, bustling with activity from citizens going about their morning. Nirou could hear a sizzling sound getting closer as they walked, and eventually the smell of fried food wafted in to accompany it. Several street vendors seemed to have set up to line this road, providing easy and tasty meals for people too busy to have caught breakfast at home. All manner of things were being put in pans of oil and fried, but chicken and pork seemed the most popular. Though he had already eaten, Nirou could feel the onset of mouth-watering. He would have to come by this place another time to try some of this stuff out.

Before the Captain could lead them through the entire street vendor gauntlet, he stopped and looked aside. Following his line of sight, Nirou noticed an arm sticking out of the crowd and waving in their direction.

"What is he doing here? I told him to stay put at the docks." Rashen mumbled.

The figure eventually emerged from the crowd, letting Nirou and Laska get a good look at him. First thing to note was that he was pretty big, only just falling short of Nirou. He likely didn't have much of his pick on armor either, as he was also just wearing a leather chestpiece. On his back was a gigantic square shield that Nirou figured immediately must be an artifact. It was just too unwieldy to have actually been made by a person. The man's hair was completely disheveled, sticking out every which way in a manner that could be described as urchin-like. In the sense of both the shape of the creature, and the kind of hair you would imagine a street urchin having. Except on a completely grown man. The single oddest thing about him though, was his right arm. It looked slightly bigger than his left, though it was hard to tell since it was entirely wrapped in bandages from his shoulder to his fist, which was currently balled under its wrappings.

"I knew I'd catch you if I just kept an eye out, Captain." the man says, while absolutely stuffing his face full of fried chicken. The complete clarity of his statement was at odds with the physical reality of his full mouth. "Since this is the best way to get from the palace to the docks, you were sure to come this way."

"Ajandi, I couldn't understand a single word you said." Rashen tells his subordinate, his arms crossed in frustration. "Did you seriously just talk to your Captain while stuffing your face? Not only do you not listen to me when I say to stay put, but you can't even stop eating to talk to me?"

Putting aside the Captain's indignation, Nirou once again realized the nature of his inherent translation ability. As long as it was in the target language, it seemed that literally nothing could actually impede communication. It was almost scary.

"Sorry, Captain." the man apologized as he finished wolfing down the last of his food. "I didn't get a chance to eat this morning, plus I really wanted to hit my favorite spot before we leave. It could be weeks before I get another chance! The girls can handle themselves at the docks anyway, we already had a boat lined up."

"You know you could have just asked me, right?" Rashen sighs and shakes his head. "I would have let you go. You don't have to ignore my orders all the time. Well, I better stop myself before I take up too much time with a lecture. We've got things to do. Ajandi, these are the two that will be working with us for a while. Laska and Nirou."

"Nice to meet you!" Ajandi smiles and waves with his free arm. "I'm Ajandi Nalsetaj. I like fried chicken and playing Taljit in my free time. If we get the chance, we should play some time!"

As soon as she glanced at Nirou's brow lowered in confusion, Laska quietly spoke in a way she knew only Nirou would hear. "It's a traditional Anjdrahm ball game."

With that cleared up, Nirou could realize the full extent of the childishness of this introduction. This was surely the kind of guy that would goof off at all costs. Laska seemed to not expect much from him either, as she was fine with letting the Captain's mention of her name go as her only introduction. It was quite a surprise to Nirou, since she seemed to put a lot of stock into introducing herself before.

"Alright, let's not stall any more." the Captain demanded, setting off again. "You'll have plenty of time to get to know each other on the boat ride out."

The now-quartet left the vendor strip and passed by the giant open market that Laska and Nirou had visited before. The docks were just adjacent, which made sense when you considered the movement of goods probably made the market a priority.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Dozens of boats were tied up to the wooden platforms built out over the river, and people were moving countless boxes on and off of them.

"The Rajan River is the largest river in Anjdrahm." Laska said out loud, as she appreciated the sight. "The commerce facilitated by this waterway is the lifeblood of the kingdom."

"It also makes it easy for us to get out to the ocean fast." Rashen added, before looking about the place with his hand raised to his forehead to block out the sun. "So which one of these did they hire to take us?"

"Just follow me, Captain!" Ajandi declared before running off. Everyone was forced to run after him, and Nirou was glad it wasn't very far or he would definitely have lost the others. "It's this one, sir!"

The man had stopped and pointed to one of the moored ships. Out of all the vessels here, this one could be said to be medium-sized. There were huge ships carrying tons of cargo and small personal boats, but this one was comfortably in the middle. It had two masts and fully battened sails between them. It reminded Nirou of one of those old ships, what were they called? Junk? That was probably it. Anyway, it seemed big enough to comfortably fit a couple dozen people if you had to. That train of thought seemed to have intersected with Ajandi's at the moment.

"They're manning it with only a crew of three!" he shouted. "With only nine people, we'll have tons of space!"

"Well, a small crew means less people we have to pay." Rashen gives a sheepish grin. "We can get away with it because the route down to the archipelago is easy, and the water is calm this time of year. That's what I was told, anyway."

The four of them walked up the ramp laid out from the dock to the boat, and exchanged pleasantries with the boat captain and his two men. Apparently they took out contracts like this to small military units looking to travel to the southern islands a lot, so they were probably trustworthy. Though Nirou couldn't help but wonder why Anjdrahm didn't just use its own navy vessels for this. Maybe they were too busy or something. Assuming that the last two members of the team were below-decks, the Captain then led everyone that way in order to get fully acquainted.

The stairs head down into a hallway running down the center of the ship with various rooms on either side. They did also keep going down a level beyond that, but it was probably into the hold they use for storage. The Captain walked down the hallway as he took glances into the rooms to find the rest of his team. About halfway down the hall he looked into the room on his left and found them, judging by the look on his face. Everyone else followed him inside. The room was pretty bare save for a table and a wooden bench built into the wall, as well as six hammocks hanging up ready and waiting for them. A few bags and a wooden box had been set down in the corner, so they were probably all sleeping here.

"There you girls are, what did I tell you about letting Ajandi go off on his own like that?" Rashen chastised them right off the bat. "If we had missed him, who knows how long we'd be delayed? Hamid, I was sure you would have kept him in line."

The woman he was speaking to was sitting at the table looking extremely bored, with her head held upright by her hand as she leaned on her elbow. Her hair was completely tied into an array of pointed tips like icicles ringing her head, save for her exposed forehead. Her eyes were firmly entrenched in a sharp glare that seemed to want to cut through you. She was significantly less armored than her male teammates, with only some guards on her arms and legs and a lot of her body exposed such as her stomach. Nirou wondered if this was just because she didn't care for the extra protection if it meant she was lugging all that armor around in the heat.

"Shut up. We could leave him behind for all I care." the woman gave a blunt response. "All he's ever good for is standing in the way of attacks. And it looks like we have an even bigger guy for that now."

"Hey now, don't say that." Ajandi sidled up to his teammate with his best puppy dog eyes. "We're friends, right? Haven't we helped each other out of trouble a whole bunch of times?"

"Ptoo." the woman spat right at him without warning, hitting his neck.

"Ah! Cold!" Ajandi flinched and jumped back, grabbing at his neck with his free hand.

"Forget him. My name's Hamid Navalti." the woman introduces herself from her seat without making any attempt at physical formalities. "Good to meet you. Try not to get in our way for this mission, alright?"

"I assure you that we won't be a burden." Laska replies politely, but likewise forgoes a bow or anything of the sort. "I am Laskadia Zysc Voldbend."

"And I'm Nirou Tetsugawa." Nirou quickly chimes in to introduce himself before Laska does it for him. He says nothing after that and had no intention to, so he does wonder a bit in hindsight why he was so set on it in the first place. He supposes he just didn't want Laska to have to do it for him.

After a few moments of silence to confirm that Nirou indeed wasn't going to say anything else, the group looked to the corner of the room and the final member of this team that was sitting on the end of the wooden bench there. Her clothes were quite fancy, a vibrant red with elaborate gold designs and trim. She had long and straight hair, and for the most part she gave off a very 'proper' vibe. If you only looked at her upper body, anyway. The expensive-looking clothes cut off at her waist. Her legs were almost completely uncovered save for a pittance of a skirt, basically just a formality. She was currently sitting with her legs crossed on top of the bench, and the soles of her feet could be seen. Given how rough they looked, one could guess that she didn't bother with footwear and just walked around barefoot. A very odd contrast, but Nirou could guess at an explanation. Looking closely he was able to pick up a decent amount of muscle definition from those legs, so this girl probably fought by kicking. And if that's the case, it'd only make sense to put practicality first.

"And you are the final member of this team, I presume?" Laska directs the question towards the woman as it becomes obvious that she wasn't paying enough attention to involve herself. She was currently lost in reading a book.

"Hmm?" the woman made a big deal of closing her eyes and then opening them to look in Laska's direction without actually moving her head at all. "That's right, I am Kishaldam Sejultara. The final member of the Hujaltam. Though I suppose for a foreigner, it would be easier to remember us as The Four Winds."

"The Four Winds? So that's the name of your group, then?" Laska asks, actually getting curious. "Is there a particular reason you go by that name?"

"Many phrases from the old languages survive in their own parts of the world, ingrained in the people's consciousness." Kishaldam places the book aside and begins the story as if she was just waiting for her chance to do so. "They were said so often and for so long that even when the people change to a new language, the phrases stay in use. One such phrase from Anjdrahm is 'Hujaltam kulse nal.' It is translated as 'It's up to the four winds.' When an outcome is beyond the influence of men and at the whims of fate, the people would say these words. The General gave us this name because we are the hands of fate that he leaves the outcome to. He's no longer in a position where he can go out and solve all the people's problems like he used to. So he leaves things he cannot handle 'up to The Four Winds.' We have a lot of faith placed in us. I know you are close with the General, but I implore you not to get ahead of yourself. We are the ones trusted to carry out our tasks. You are merely tagging along for now."

Nirou could see that she was intending to break out into a lecture from before they even met. He couldn't think of many people that wanted such a first impression besides some of his old school teachers. And they were never the ones he liked all that much.

"That's so interesting. And very much like the General to give that name, to be sure." Laska seemed to have ignored the lecture aspect in favor of expanding her knowledge yet again. "I'm always eager to hear such inherited phrases, but people don't often use them with me because I'm from abroad. If you're particularly knowledgeable on the topic, I would love to hear more of them."

That seemed to disarm Kishaldam, who was trying to put up a harsh front. Her expression cracked, and she couldn't help but grin a bit.

"Well... I wouldn't mind." she mumbles, covering her mouth with her hand once she realizes she's breaking into a smile. "This group is quite starved for intellectuals, you know. I'd gladly share some stimulating conversation to pass this journey."

As the woman talked, Nirou felt the boat lurch away from the dock and set off down the river. Their mission to accompany The Four Winds had truly begun.