“Ho! The ship!”

Anton didn’t think the cry made much sense, but he took the meaning. “Ho! Yourself!” he called back. He’d already reduced his speed to a crawl, allowing the Imbube’s Pride to draw near.

Up close, he could appreciate just how much skill went into piloting a sailing ship. The other ship’s captain, Anwar Kaelan according to Delver’s Discernment, was trying to have his ship come alongside the Whiskerwind. Unlike Anton, he couldn’t control his speed by pulling a lever. He was at the mercy of the wind, and so he had sailors opening or closing sails to get the speed he wanted.

It was a complicated and tricky process, and not at all like the illusory sails hanging from the Whiskerwind’s masts. They just hung there and did nothing. Anton could feel the disbelief radiating from the sailors on the other ship whenever they got a second to stare at the fake sails.

Part of Anton thought that they should have left the masts bare, but he reminded himself that they were always going to attract attention. The sails were to divert it, not hide from it.

With the ships close enough, and their velocities nearly matched, the other ship started throwing ropes over to them to bind the ship together. Since this was a peaceful boarding, the crew of Anton’s ship caught the flung ropes and… stood there, not knowing what to do with them.

“Oi, quit standin’ there like a fish outta water! Run that line through the fairlead, then belay it proper on the cleat!”

Thalorin, the former gladiator slave, stared blankly at the sailor who was yelling at him. He pointed at the rope questioningly.

With a curse, the sailor untied a rope on his ship that was attached to the end of one of the… branchy out thingies on their main mast. He stepped back and took a running jump, swinging on the rope across the gap between the ships. Anton stared in amazement.

Tariq Amane, Level 18, Human, Master Sailor, Deckhand/Sailor/Master Sailor, S: 28 T: 28 A: 17 D: 15 P: 15 W: 1 C: 3

Tariq grabbed the rope off of Thalorin and started to tie it to part of their ship, berating the man all the while.

“You need a good double half-hitch ‘round the bollard or we’ll be driftin’ apart like the girl you left back home. And mind yer slack! We don’t need any more drag than we’ve got already.”

He was speaking the same Tiatian Trade that they spoke back in Zamarra, but no one understood a word. A few started copying his actions, though. Only one managed to satisfy the sailor with his results. The other gladiator got shoved out of the way as Tariq redid it.

“Listen here, mate, a ship’s only as strong as the hands that haul her lines. You slack on those ropes, and she’ll buck you like a wild beast in a storm. Keep ’em tight, steady, and never let a knot slip. A loose line’s the fastest way to lose a mast—or worse, your life. So haul hard, keep your eyes sharp, and remember—every pull could be the one that keeps ya afloat.”

Deep booming laughter came from the bridge of the other ship. Anton looked up—the Pride’s deck was ten feet higher than Whiskerwinds— to see the captain, Anwar Kaelan. He was a large and muscular man with short, stubbly grey hair. Like the rest of the crew, his skin was a rich chocolate brown.

“Your crew are no sailors, that is for sure,” he called down. “But I think that you do not need them to be, hey?”

Anton shrugged. “We’ve managed fine so far,” he said.

“So it seems! Will you join me on board, or shall I come down to you?” At the captain's words, a simple rope ladder was tossed over the side of the Pride.

Anton didn’t look at the front of his boat, where the Decksweeper was covered in an illusion of tied-down barrels and crates. Some crewmembers were strategically placed crew to ensure that any of the Pride’s crew that came aboard stayed away from the area.

As far as Anton was concerned, the fewer of the Pride’s crew that came aboard, the better.

“I’ll join you,” he said. Eschewing the ladder, he climbed directly up the side of the Pride. Kelsey headed up as well. She took the ladder.

Anwar stepped back to give Anton room as he clambered on board.

“Well met, Captain,” he boomed. “I am Anwar Kaelan, as I think you might know, captain of this ship. This is my first mate, Suri Ralan.”

Anton nodded at the tall, lean woman with tightly braided hair and deep, piercing eyes. Her skin was darker than the others, almost obsidian.

“My first mate has keen eyes, you know, keener than most,” Anwar said.

Anton nodded. He’d been expecting this. Kelsey had expected that someone on a military ship would have an identification skill.

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“What do your eyes tell you about her?” he asked, pointing at Kelsey, who was coming up to join them by a less direct route. The sailors in her way were standing aside, looking at her suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Suri said, after a pause. Her voice wavered, and she looked at the captain. “Nothing, Captain.”

Kelsey smiled as she joined them. “No Trait is perfect,” she said. “Just because it always worked, doesn’t mean it always will.”

The Captain snorted. “My own eye is for boats, but I would be greatly taken aback if I saw something on the water that I didn’t recognise,” he said.

“This is Kelsey,” Anton said. “She’s… my comrade.”

“So pale,” Anwar said, looking at her. “Is she a ghost? Is that why Suri’s eye doesn’t work?”

“A ghost wouldn’t have to climb that ladder,” Kelsey pointed out. “I’m pale because I’m from the Frozen Coast.”

“If you say so,” Anwar said doubtfully. “We have sailed that far north, but I’ve never seen your like.”

He shook his head, breaking off his gaze. “But strangeness is to be expected when dealing with Heroes,” he said, looking back at Anton.

Anton shrugged. “There’s been a bit of strangeness,” he admitted.

“A bit!” Anwar exclaimed, throwing up his hands. “We see an Elitran trader, but what has happened to it? Steelcutter? Fireheart? Those are not Elitran names. We get closer and we see it is full, not of Elitrans but of… Zamarrans? Is that where you hail from?”

Anton nodded. “And where we’re headed for,” he said. “Most of these people have escaped from the Empire. We’re heading home.”

The captain's eyes narrowed, but it was Suri who spoke. “Some of your crew still hold slave Classes.”

“Some of them don’t want to do Tier One again,” Kelsey explained. “They’ll finish the class and take a Tier Two that they qualify for.”

“Finish the class?” the captain said doubtfully. “Will they be practising their current profession in Zamarra?”

“They don’t have to,” Kelsey said. “Slaves can get levels from killing monsters, same as anyone.”

“And where will you find these monsters?”

“There’s a dungeon near Kirido,” Kelsey said. “Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

“I have not,” Anwar stated. Kelsey frowned. “I have better things to pay heed to than the geography of foreign nations.”

“It’s on the coast,” Kelsey said, her voice rising slightly. “Isn’t it your business to know what’s there?”

“Kelsey,” Anton said warningly. She looked at him, her eyes flashing. “It’s not important,” he told her. She stared at him for a long moment, and then she sighed.

“I suppose not,” she said.

Anwar looked at her for a moment and then turned to Anton. “Now, this boat,” he said. “Where did it come from?”

“We bought it,” Anton said. “And then we made some improvements.”

“We?” Kelsey said.

“We have a mage travelling with us,” Anton spoke over her.

Anwar raised his eyebrows and looked at Suri. She shook her head.

“We did not see this mage of yours on board,” Anwar said.

“She hid herself,” Anton answered. “We needed to keep some of our cards hidden.”

“And yet you tell me of her?” Anwar asked. “I’m not sure you have thought this strategy through.”

“We’re not keeping her existence a secret,” Anton said. “We’re keeping her location a secret. In case things take a turn for the worse.”

The Captain looked at Anton levelly. In truth, Anton wasn’t too worried about things going badly. Between the Decksweeper and the personal firearms that Kelsey had distributed, Anton liked his side’s chances of winning any fight that broke out.

Winning that way, though, would be almost as bad as losing. Suliel had told him, in no uncertain terms, what would happen if his first report as a freshly minted Baron was to tell the King he’d started a war with the Tiatian Empire. Not to mention that casualties would be all but certain. Guns could erase the gap between the first and second Tiers of his crew versus the second and third Tiers of the Pride’s crew, but they couldn’t protect people. Anton didn’t want to be bringing corpses back home.

It was the captain who looked away first. “Perhaps that is fair,” he said. He looked at Kelsey, perhaps wondering if she was the mage.

Kelsey just grinned, as if daring him to ask.

Anwar shook his head again. “Ships and wizards don’t mix,” he said dourly. “You need your boat to be reliable on the water, not subject to the whims of some fellow with a robe.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Kelsey said. “But I notice you have an enchantment on your ship?”

“Not the same,” Anwar claimed. “That is the work of the Navy’s Legendary Shipwright. Craft, not magic. Reliable.”

He cast his eyes up at the Whiskerwind’s false sails and snorted. “Unreliable,” he said. “How is it that you are sailing on the right heading.”

Anton shrugged. “We have a map and a compass. Kelsey knows how to use them.”

Anwar looked at Kelsey with new respect. “How does a ghost know these things, when she is not a sailor?”

Kelsey just smiled. “I used them in a previous life,” she said.

“And where did a group of escaped slaves get such a thing? Or a boat, for that matter?”

“I had funds for a boat,” Kelsey said. “The map and the compass… let's just say the people that tried to stop us leaving don’t have any use for them anymore.”

Anwar narrowed his eyes. “Fierce, aren’t you? That’s no small amount of funds, though. Have the northern kingdoms decided to intervene in the slave trade?”

“I have,” Kelsey said. “I don’t represent any kingdoms, though. I’m just a humble merchant.”

The captain laughed. “Aye! A humble merchant taking on an Empire! Though…” he looked over at Anton. “Such a merchant would do well to fall in with a Heroic Liberator. I’ve not heard of the Class before, but the name paints a picture.”

“I can’t claim any great victories against the Empire,” Anton said. “I just wanted to bring back my people. We got a few more than that, but it’s just a drop in the ocean.”

“You’re young yet,” the captain said. “I’ll wager your victories are still ahead of you.”

“Speaking of which, captain,” Kelsey said. “Were you planning on stopping us?”

The captain laughed. “Just itching for a fight, aren’t you? No, the Tiatian Empire has no quarrel with ex-slaves wanting to return home. We stopped you because you were a strange Elitran ship, but we aren’t blockading Zamarra.”

“Then, if you’ll excuse me, Captain, I’m in a rush to get back to my wife,” Anton said. He gave a quick bow.

“Ha! Another sign you’re not a sailor. Go on then, be off with you. Mayhap we’ll meet on the seas again someday.”

He shouted over the side. “Get those lines untied, Tariq, and stop fraternising!”

Anton and Kelsey couldn’t get off the Pride fast enough to suit them.

“I can’t believe that worked!” Anton said as they watched the warship sail off.

“Meh, I’m a little disappointed,” Kelsey said.

“Why?”

“He didn’t say anything about your hat!”