We entered the first port town without anyone batting an eye. Apparently, it wasn’t all that strange to see two humans and a Jerboa walking about together.

At first glance I estimated the city to be about the size of Saint June. And while that held true for the size it wasn’t even comparable when it came to the sheer density of people.

The city was crowded, making it difficult to even move through the streets with the press of bodies moving one way and the other. I mentally thanked my high stats as the three of us pushed through the crowd to get to the market.

We had other locations to search but the market here was the first stop.

The market was full of covered stalls and the noise of merchants trying to draw in customers. Surprisingly, it was laid out in a neat grid pattern as opposed to most of the city’s wandering paths. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the Bazaars but more crowded. While the Bazaars were massive in scope, they were so large that overcrowding wasn’t much of an issue.

I was confused as to why they packed this city into such a tight space instead of letting it grow outward. It wasn’t like this island lacked real estate.

But then again there could be all sorts of nasty monsters outside the walls. Or maybe creatures that lived in the mist and only came out when the mist was around. I would have to ask Barcos or Khikall about it later.

The three of us split up almost immediately upon getting to the market entrance. We went from merchant to merchant asking for week-old silicene root.

I felt like a complete idiot asking about it and I got my fair share of dirty glares and uncomprehending looks.

This went on for two weeks in the first town due to the sheer press of people we had to push through to get to our next merchant and all that effort was wasted as we did not find the woman.

So unless you wanted a lifetime supply of week-old silicene root, that I had been suckered into buying by one particularly persistent merchant, we came up empty. I blamed my purchase on the man having a skill. As for the root, it was apparently good for marital issues. Although, I would have preferred a small blue pill to the pungent wet-dog-odor of the hairy root. I didn’t bother telling the others as I stashed it away…just in case.

I was glad to be done with this location and hoped the next town was a bit less crowded.

It turned out to be a small rural town, surrounded by gently rolling hills and small farms. Each farm was surrounded by low walls and reminded me of the European towns from old war movies.

It was a nice town, idyllic even, but the people were not very welcoming. Or maybe they were just distrustful of outsiders. It wasn’t like pirates couldn’t raid interior settlements. Airships made attacking them just as easy as attacking a coastal port. The only risk, being caught by a patrol and having fewer options to escape.

Heck, if I were these people, I would be suspicious as well. Who goes to some out-of-the-way farming village looking for a merchant to buy a specific item from. We didn’t have to stick around long though. There were only two merchants within the village and they both had permanent stores. I was glad for that as I was sick of getting the stink eye from everyone we passed.

Neither of them turned out to be this elusive Em’ah so we scratched the second town off our list and headed onto the third one.

This one was slightly larger than the last village but lacked the surrounding farmland. Instead, it was situated around a quite frankly enormous inland lake. Making freshwater fishing their main commodity.

They also seemed to grow a type of lakeweed that had properties similar to tobacco, only stronger and with a slight bit of magic to it. Barcos seemed to light up at that news and purchased a supply of the dried weed and a pipe.

“You’re not smoking that shit inside the ship,” I said bluntly.

“What, why not?” he moaned.

“Because it’ll stink up the entire ship. Smoke it on the top deck if you want, but I’ll toss your entire supply overboard and you along with it if I catch you smoking it inside.”

He grumbled but agreed not to smoke it inside the ship. I took that as a small win since the chance of me being able to follow through with my threat was small to non-existent.

This town was also a bust, they sold fish and the weed and not much else. Everything else they had, came in via caravan from other cities.

I groaned at hearing this. It meant we may have to track down these caravans if we couldn’t find our target in one of the cities.

The other two small interior towns were a bust as well. Both were farming settlements, mainly raising livestock.

It had been over a month since we started our search and I was getting increasingly annoyed at how hard it was to locate one stupid person.

The next port we visited had steep natural cliffs protecting the inland side that formed a V shape as they extended out to the edge of the island.

Walls had been erected at the top opening of these cliffs, making the city below impossible to assault from inland without major expenditure. The walls were dotted with large circular towers evenly spaced along the length. I could see cannons poking over the sides of these towers and occasionally I could see people walking along the tops as they patrolled.

“What's with the security,” I muttered.

“There’s a naval base in the city,” Barcos replied after overhearing my muttering. “Pirates love to attack naval bases, usually to try and steal another ship.”

“Why not just make it separate from a regular town then?” I asked, but I suspected I already knew the answer and was proven right.

“It gives the crew a place to unwind after a long time aboard ship. Otherwise, they would just mutiny, and more than one pirate was once a former Legionary.”

I grunted in reply. I could understand the appeal. No more following idiotic rules to please some bureaucrat halfwit halfway around the world. Just freedom and the chance to make a shit ton of money. Although, that meant treason, seizing the ship through mutiny if you weren’t the captain, and sentencing the loyal crew to death. But I suppose if you were willing to turn pirate in the first place, those things weren’t much of a hindrance to you.

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***

It was the third day in this port and I was going over my rote opener to merchants when I finally got the desired reply.

I stopped and gaped for a moment before I remembered the counter-reply.

The Fox-Kin woman stared at me for a moment before grunting. “Well, follow me.”

I was so elated at finally finding this damn woman that I didn’t question following her into a dark alley.

As soon as we were out of sight of the street, she turned on me. In a blur of movement that would have astounded me if I hadn’t been training with Barcos, she changed.

Her actions still caught me off guard though as I had been expecting her to be friendly with someone that answered her stupid code phrase. Before I could act, her appendages turned into thick whips and wrapped around my arms, securing them with more strength than I thought possible.

I also learned something important that day. If someone or something was blocking where my armor normally went, I couldn’t make it appear over my body. There was a large clang as my entire chest piece rattle onto the ground.

The woman, who I assumed was Em’ah froze as she glanced at the armor.

“That’s not Legion standard. Who are you and who sent you?”

I didn’t want to negotiate with her while being pinned but it seemed she was using another ability to suppress mine. It made sense, given her profession. I struggled but was unable to break free from her grip.

“I don’t work for anyone. I was looking for another crew member. Barcos and Khikall recommended you.”

She shoved me against the wall, eliciting a grunt from me. “Sounds like bullshit to me. Last I heard Khikall was dead and Barcos was trapped on Hylatty. So the next words that come out of your mouth better be the truth or I’m not going to play nice,” she hissed.

There was a throaty chuckle from deeper in the alley as Barcos stepped out of the shadows. “If he wasn’t telling the truth, you’d already been dead, Em’ah,” an easy smile on the man's face but his hand resting lightly on the only dagger he wore openly.

She didn’t take her eye off me but her head sort of split and part of it rotated to look at Barcos sort of how a snail can move its eyes independently.

“Bah,” she spat, finally releasing me and taking yet another form. This time of a slightly older human woman. “They finally let your drunk ass off Hylatty?”

Barcos grumbled under his breath, “I only drank because there was nothing else to do.”

She laughed, “Serves you right for going off the deep end. Now, what's this nonsense about joining a crew. I was kind of in the middle of something here and it's all tits up now thanks to your friend here.”

I was rubbing the sore spots on my arm as I retrieved my armor. Barcos was explaining our goal and why we needed her while I did the tedious job of reattaching my armor.

It could only go onto my body the way it came off or so I had thought. I guess if it was blocked and I still summoned the armor it had to go somewhere but that meant I had to manually put it back on before storing it again. I finished putting it on and restoring it into my ring as Barcos finished explaining.

“So that’s the gist of it, hunting pirates.”

“And you didn’t stop to think that what I was doing was important?” she glared at Barcos who had the decency to look sheepish. “Well, you're right, this job fucking sucks, lets get the hell out of here.”

“…Um, ok. What were you doing here anyway?” Barcos asked as we trailed behind the woman.

I took the opportunity to Identify her and shouldn’t have been surprised at what I found.

Julia | Seamstress | Level 14

She wouldn’t have made much of a spy if she couldn’t hide her identity. I saw her turn to look at me after I used Identify. So she had some way to tell I was using a skill to Identify her even with my upgrade, good to know.

I didn’t know where she was leading us to as she didn’t know where we agreed to meet but after only a few minutes, we unerringly found Khikall.

“You knew we were here, didn’t you?” I asked.

She snorted. “Hard not to when you three blundered about like a herd of Braci. Not a lick of common sense or stealth amongst the lot of you. Three idiots bumbling about the island asking the same inane question to every merchant. Rumors fly faster than an airship.”

“Who needs stealth when you can overwhelm your opponent with skill,” Barcos argued.

The three bickered back and forth as we left town, leaving me feeling a bit left out since I didn’t know the woman or have much knowledge of what they had gone through.

“So, what's your deal, Captain? Can’t say I see what these two fools are so enamored about.”

I was surprised to be pulled from my thoughts by her question so I answered as eloquently as possible. “Huh?”

I saw her roll her eyes at me. “Why are you doing this? I understand why these two numbskulls are,” She stated, jerking her thumb towards Barcos and Khikall.”

Both complained about her statement, with Barcos being more vocal about it than Khikall who only gave a half-hearted angry chitter. Em’ah seemed unimpressed by their anger and continued to look at me, waiting for my answer.

“You want to know why I’m here in the isles or here for you?”

“Let's start with why you came here for me.”

I shrugged, “I don’t know anyone around here and Barcos and Khikall recommended you.”

“So you just take them at their word, awfully trusting aren’t you?”

“No, I have ways to deal with you if I had to.”

She chuckled, “didn’t look that way to me.”

Her attitude and abrasiveness were beginning to piss me off. Since we were far enough outside of town I decided to show her a small demonstration. This time surprising her.

My armor and weapon appeared and before she could react, I hit her with three back-to-back Stunning Gusts. It was overkill as the second one delivered the stun effect I was looking for but better safe than sorry. The damage was minimal because I just tapped her with the end of my staff but I think I got her attention.

I stood there, ready for a fight as she lay on the ground.

“Well… I can see you aren’t as useless as I thought.”

Our little display got chuckles out of Barcos and Khikall who had watched the whole thing go down without stepping in.

“I permit a lot of leniency among my crew but second-guessing my capabilities isn’t one I’m willing to put up with lightly. You may have skills that surprised me and are good for keeping you alive in certain situations but I doubt you are a front-line fighter like me. Is this little arrangement going to be a problem for you? If it is, you might as well walk away right now.”

I waited for her response.

She smiled. “No, not a problem, Captain, I just needed to make sure I wasn’t signing up with some spineless idiot. Not that I thought you were, considering you have these two as crew members but it's always better to get a measure of someone yourself. So, Captain, what is my role amongst this crew?”

While I was still angry with her, I had to admit she played me rather well to get me to explode. I thought about her question and already had an idea of how to fit her in based on her skills.

“You will have two main roles. Backup for Barcos and me while we board enemy ships and help to sniff out our next target while we are in ports. It would also be nice to know if people are after us given our chosen profession.”

“So more of the same really. I guess it beats waiting around for months to uncover some made-up BS about a military coup. I’m in as long as everything is on the level. If you start turning pirate, I’m out.”

I nodded, giving her a hand to help her up, “let's go, we have pirates to catch.”

“On that note, I have just the one in mind. The information came through a day ago about a courier ship being taken out. I can provide the location of the incident and it shouldn’t be hard to find the pirate from there.”

“Why hasn’t the Legion gone after them?”

She shrugged, “somebody probably greased the right hands to keep them off their tail for a week. By then the trail wouldn’t be possible to follow.”

“Trail?” I asked in confusion.

She glared at Barcos and Khikall, “have you two not taught him anything?”

“It never came up,” Khikall replied.

Em’ah sighed as she rubbed her temples.

Did Ilixian’s get headaches or was she just good at mimicking human ticks?

“Ships leave detectable trails in the mana-rich air.”

“Wait, is this why we had to hide from that flotilla?” I asked Khikall, omitting the part about the ship having the ability to cloak.

He nodded.

“Anyway,” Em’ah continued, “these trails are weak at the best of times. And they quickly fade over time. Luckily the mist just went out so the trail should be fairly easy to follow as long as we’re quick about it.”

“Fine, and how are we supposed to see these trails?”

“A passive Mana Sight skill will allow you to see them. But it only works for very recent trails. You need an active skill to spot them if they are older.”

“And you have this skill?” I asked as our walk had turned into a fast jog.

“Yes, but those two idiots should have the passive version at least.”

“Hey,” Barcos complained, “I just joined the crew, I didn’t know the Captain didn’t have Mana Sight.”

“It wouldn’t make a difference if he did, the skill is blocked by his hull,” Khikall added.

“Ok, let's figure this issue out when we return to the ship,” I stated, deciding to end this discussion until later.