with a gingerly step she entered the hut, and immediately recognized the Captain. Rialti were a strange people, and an even stranger race. As long as they could eat a proportional amount of food, they would grow bigger.

Captain modest was not even a full head shorter than she was, while the rest of his crew barely rose above her belly. His skin was pink in colour, with large dim green eyes. Small yellowed fangs escaped his grinning lips, and a fowl odour escaped every part of his sweated body. His short black hair was unkempt and looked as if it was made of charcoal. He wore short baggy pants, and a thick unbuttoned leather coat. His belly was uncovered, with violate belly stripes, a sign of all the stretching his skin went through.

Apricot knew that, while He did not look it, he was strong with thick mussels hidden underneath all that fat. But more than a sign of his strength it was a sign of his wealth. Rialty valued size, perhaps even, a bit to much. But it made sense, to them, it was something they could achieve with a stupendous amount of food. And that of course took wealth and prestige.

Unfortunately for her, it made entering the hut, certainly an experience, loud and smelly for one and two. Her secret opinion on the matter was that rialti had worse senses, either that or the sailors in particular, have had their brains rot through with all that Liurem they kept inhaling. That being said there was never much to either prove, or disprove her little theory.

glancing at the faces seated around the table, it was immediately clear that there were some new people on the crew. This was the first time she was seeing at least four of the man, and one women. That was odd, not only because crews like these could grow as thick as thieves and rarely changed members, but because generally speaking rialti thought women to be bad luck at sea. Why that rule didn't extend to Tall women was a mystery, she did not particularly care to explore.

She sat across the captain. They both allowed the other a moment of reprieve as they scanned the other. Surrounded by the noise of his crew the proud sailor sat on his chair like a throne spreading his legs out sideways. The big rialti man, had a wide grin, with greed shinning in his eyes. That was not good, she recognized it, that was the look some merchants showed when they had some advantage the other party didn't know about.

She though back to what she knew about the man. Despite being a highly experienced sailor of Thirteen years, he was certified as a Marveri junior merchant. The laughable reason why, was that the kingdoms bureaucracy made it easier to eliminate two ranks of merchant, than to maintain the high requirement for each position. This left low requirement positions to close to their managers, and effectively created a backlog. This meant that many experienced people like Modest ended up stuck on less reputable routes. It was the kind of bureaucracy, that made the eyes of wise men glaze over, and ambitious people give up on their dreams.

Yes Modest was overqualified. She had no doubt in her mind, that every time they agreed on a deal he was practically skinning her and the rest of Itar alive. What else was there. Apparently the man had a wife on a small island called Vara, and perhaps he may have spent some years working in the kingdoms fleet as a soldier, but that might have been some other merchant. Then of course was the mans personality, Modest had a calm personality and an outgoing demenour. It was strange seeing the mans orgone, drift lazily around. His feeling were as inert as at the moment a baby would fall asleep, seemingly free of all the struggles of life. Yet all the while he would joke and drink himself silly. She was of course exaggerating a bit, however it was true that there was never anything else but utter confidence in his abilities and this strange serenity.

This time was no different. Actually scratch that, it was worse, his orgone was dancing, expanding and flowing of him in waves, he was happy. He thought he had already won. Even when he trampled her in their debates, his orgone stayed inert. Feeling worried about the near future she attempted to cover herself in her orgone. in her head it was meant to be a comfort, no different from a blanket in winter, however unlike his joy, her orgone was as thick as tar with her stress, and the attempt made her feel small and suffocated with the situation.

The moment she sat down, the negotiation started. That is of course not literal, but true nonetheless. It was moments like these, that she hated most. starting conversations, there of course were many things she needed to say, and even more thing she needed Modest to listen to, however how to get there was a question she never quite had anyone answer.

It wasn't that she was shy, at least she thought she wasn't. Given time and opportunity she could see herself giving a speech or some such. Rather it was that conversations made her feel lost. Or rather she did not feel she did a good job in them. It was something about the way people jumped from topics. To her it seemed interconnect, obvious in some grand way she could not quite put to words. She knew how to make an argument, how to make a statement and how to put her thought into words, but there was something, that was fundamentally different when she participated from when she was simply observing. Then of course, was also the fact, that given the choice she often chose to simply not talk.

The Irony in the fact that she was the speaker despite her disposition to not speak, was not lost on her.

And of course, all that damn noise was not helping her focus in the slightest. She supposed all conversations started with a hello of sort. Just when she was about to initiate the conversation, Modest, with an inviting swing of his hand started.

"well i suppose i will start by explaining a few things."

This was strange, everything. The people were happy, yet this was the only ship from their fleet to arrive. And now he wanted to postpone business.

i tilted my head and made my face contort into a frown. this was another thing i thought i did wrong, i loved facial mimicry, however as of now i have not encountered another who would use it instead of a verbal response.

with a loud lough Modest responded to her unasked question "i suppose you would be surprised. I know, i know, i don't recognize myself either."

"Api, can i call you that? i would like you to meet Avari, my daughter"

with another swing of his hand he pointed at the only women in the room. When the Small and young rialti stepped towards her, the sailors laughed in good humour, wishing her luck, evidently not carrying about them she got close and extended her hand.

Stolen story; please report.

Her head was swarming with questions, like why is she here? why are you acting so friendly and of course, all that other stuff that was off, and or did not make sense.

for now she decided to look towards Avari. She supposed they did share a resemblance, their eyes were the same, down to that greedy glint, and with tied up black hair it was easy to see that their faces were similar. The women didn't seem discouraged when she did not immediately grab her hand which she supposed was a plus. But nothing made her think that they were related, more than her orgone. just like her fathers it was calm and lazily drifted around her body in small clumps.

"It is good i can make your acquaintance miss Apricot, my father told me much about you, and the other speakers he had the chance to meet."

"yes, i suppose it is, nice to meet you" she grabbed Avari's hand and shook lightly, than turned to Modest with question in her eyes.

"well you see, me and the other old coots are finally getting promoted to senior merchants, as of now i will be taking a hands off approach, and thought I'd make my daughter here, captain of the small Farrell in my absence."

at her fathers words Avari frowned, perhaps she was dissatisfied with her fathers informal speech.

ok, ok, Modest is retyring, this at least made some sense, or actually it did not. She supposed, that what he was implying was that in the realm of some right of passage he accompanied his daughter on her first voyage to Itar, to show her the ropes and such.

"Than i suppose this will be our last negotiation."

with another loud lough Modest replied "Actually, i thought it would be better if my daughter handled this one."

Avari went around the table and set next to the Captain.

this was suspicious, Modest would never let his daughter handle this if he does not trust in her capabilities, however she supposed she had no choice. Denying him, would probably just make him angry, and an angry captain senior merchant Modest was not something she wanted to see today. With a small internal sigh she decided to start.

"Than, if that is all you wanted to say, i and Avari will start. You are not the only sailors who arrived on Itar in this month"

Avari and Modest nodded. Than the girl started "in this month the Doriel merchant company through Me and my crew brought with us twenty barrels filled to the brim with salted vry fish and a couple dozen crates of vry butter."

she knitted her brows and asked "that is, less than usual, and what of the other ships will they also be bringing less food, how much can we expect in total, and when."

Avari looked at modest with apparent confusion. Modest for that matter also looked confused. After a moment of trading questioning gazes that indicated some hidden secret mental communication Modest finally answered "There won't be other ships. since i and the lads got promoted they decided that they had enough of playing, spot what mite kill me from beneath the blood red waves on the sea. for the time being they decided to suspend their trades with Itar."

my head is numb, or is it. i cant say because of all this damn noise. Lies, he is lying right. powerful intense dread overtook me. He wasn't was he, why would he lie, he was telling the truth, and that was killing me, truth is killing me. my thought are becoming chaotic, lost in context, or perhaps they aren't, but simply grew beyond my ability to understand them.

"your lying" i sounded unsure, terrified is a better word. I wasn't any good at making the words sound like anything but even to my ears, i sounded scared.

perhaps even my faced showed it because Modest and his daughter dropped their cheer. i was blowing the negotiations, but what was the point, they did not bring enough. The privateers ships brought food so i might be capable of getting enough for this month, but what about the next one, and the one after that. I am dead, more than dead, i scared and when i am scared i quickly become angry.

every time i get angry their is this overwhelming feeling that overtakes me. all the sounds, all the winds everything seems to spite me, relish in my frustration, feasting on my calm and ripping my propriety to pieces. But not now, or rather the same feeling is there, but i don't let the fear turned rage out on the captain and his daughter, it is not their fault. life is, well life is life. It is a part of the word, a cruel and beautiful thing. Than again that does not matter anymore, as i will not have much time to experience it.

My hair just fell onto my forehead for all the world begging me to rip it of. with another trembling voice i repeat my self. " your lying"

"no. We are the only ship that will be arriving on Itar regularly from now on"

his cruel words push me they prod me, for all the world in my head they seem like a taunt, an attack, something cruel created and used to test me, annoy me. and then it goes beyond that. I knew playing with my emotions was dumb, it made me unstable, and now i was stuck in my head, paying for every little tweak, unable to sea the world in any other way but, through the lens of anger.

"can i quickly step outside" Modest and his daughter were fine, they stayed silent, eying me cautiously, but the crew was something else. They pretended not to pay attention. I was used to this, all the rialti ignored me, pretended not to see, but i could tell. Their orgone was like a window into reality, it told me of their feeling of absolute superiority. seeing my face turn pale provided some sick pleasure to these people. my death sentence was just announced and they, were, happy.

without waiting for a response i got up and stepped outside. Now more than ever the hot weather tormented me as my head boiled with fear and rage.

Itar was short on pretty much everything, it was Itar after all, the city of Tall’s and criminals, but they did expect more ships. merchants willing to travel here have always been sparse but never have they been absent entirely. There is no end to poor people willing to travel the red sea to sell dirt cheap rations at an exorbitant price to those who couldn’t leave this island. The words of her teacher have always remained in her head, it was a statement filled with hope.

with angered jerky moves she gripped her medallion. it was made of warm varnished wood, it was both a gift from her teacher and her creation at the same time. Even at this moment the complex magic crackled through her body. It itched and hurt but she was to stubborn to stop, not now after all the changes and improvement she implemented. that is was to Stubborn, she could not take it right now, she needed to calm down and the medallion was more irritating than anything in her surroundings. she wanted to rip it of and be done with it, except for some reason she didn't. i need to calm down. she started pressing one her face to wipe of the sweat before it even appeared. With one heavy breath after another she finnaly got herself to calm down. Alright no more playing with the way i feel.

Though Modest was a stern man he was amicable enough. while could not be certain his daughter seemed to share his docile nature. The other man it was clear that they were not as accepting of her presence, but that made sense. They probably got used to much better than either Itar or she had to offer, instead they were now stuck on an ungodly warm island surrounded by people who they can’t talk with. Quite frankly even the cheapest food they could have brought with them will have tasted better than the metal covered crustacean available in the metal city or the luminous fish sometimes found underneath the red waves. though she was Shure they were only about to find that one out.

now that she calmed down she needed to come back in get everything they have, no matter the price and oh gods of the sea that have brought these brave men here onto our island I might be killed by my own people but if you don’t help me now you will find that there are as many thieves and killers on this small island as there are hungry mouths to feed. Lest your work be for nothing you will get either the pirate, or the greedy merchant to sell us food, preferably both.

before she could finish the rather rude thought Avar and Modest stepped out of the small hut and onto the metal street. They had stern faces and clearly came to her with a similar conviction in mind.