What’s worse than travelling somewhere only to find it isn’t the place it was the last time you were there?

-Excerpt from ‘Silversea Saga’ by Norris Howell

She rose early the next day, before the sun. The girl was nowhere to be seen when she entered the reception but the chef was in the dining room.

“Morning lass, breakfast today is doori sausage, eggs, and potatoes. Extra potatoes?” he asked with a laugh. “You seemed to enjoy the bread, so I figure you like the carbs.”

Patting her stomach as she sat down, Rose chuckled at his joke. “Not today thank you, those three loaves will keep me going for a week at least.”

He cooked fast and after eating the herby sausage and peppery eggs, Rose thanked him and made her way out into the streets of Greengate after leaving a silver coin beside her plate and another on the desk.

Her first stop was going to be the markets. As the sun rose, those hard workers would already be well under way, setting up their stalls.

She would find her aunt there, selling fresh fish delivered from Fairwater Bay as well as doori hides and fur. Her aunt and uncle were the main connection for the people of her home village to sell their goods to the capital.

It had made them very wealthy, but they always gave back to the people who made that possible. Plus, her uncle’s actual job was an even bigger part of their influence on Emerlan Isle.

He was Governor of Commerce. Holding a governor’s title on Emerlan Isle as a commoner put him on the same level as the lesser nobles—and that was just when it came to status. His decree was law if gold was changing hands, even for the king himself.

She liked the system the way it had been set up. It meant that there wasn’t too much power in the hands of the inherited rulers. Which was more than could be said for most of the other places they’d been.

Though she knew four countries wasn’t much of an information pool, it still told her a lot. Walking through the streets, she was amazed how busy it was despite the sun only just peeking up over the horizon.

This wasn’t new to her. Fisherfolk got up even earlier than this and she’d grown up around them, but the rest of the world didn’t follow suit. Pirates seemed to enjoy late nights hugging bottles of rum.

She’d enjoyed that too, but hadn’t had as much time to relax as she’d hoped for when setting out to sea. Piracy was a busy job.

It didn’t take long to reach the markets. She got lost just once, retracing the directions from memory.

There were only a few customers there, the majority of people rushing about being sellers and those delivering produce. She made her way to the section for fresh fish and meat, but couldn’t find her aunt even after looking through the whole place.

Eventually she decided to just ask one of the fishmongers. “Morning, do you perhaps know where I could find Felicity Claydon?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want with Miss Claydon, girl?” he asked suspiciously.

Interesting reaction… so much has changed, though I suppose I haven’t seen Aunt Felicity or Uncle Travis in years, she mused.

“She’s my aunt,” Rose replied, chuckling inwardly as the man’s demeanour instantly shifted from suspicion to eagerness. “To tell the truth I was actually looking for my uncle, but it seemed like it would be easier to find Aunt Felicity first, but perhaps that isn’t the case?”

He snorted, then clamped a hand over his mouth before exclaiming, “Why didn’t you start by telling me you’re the salt queen’s niece! Making me look like a damn fool,” he added in a whisper.

The salt queen? Now that’s new… I didn’t realise I was related to royalty! she couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“You’re probably right. Your aunt and uncle are damn hard to get a hold of and time was you’d find Miss Claydon here at the markets every day,” he said, taking off his gloves and stepping out from behind the stall.

“These days she might be even tougher to find than the governor. I’d suggest starting at the chambers of governance. He could be there and if not someone there should know,” he told her, pointing over the houses towards a towering stone building that poked over the roofs.

***

Rose slipped into an alleyway, a cloak pulled over her head as she did her best to avoid the gazes of the guards and residents of the noble quarter.

There were far more guards wandering around here compared to the rest of the city. She wasn’t sure whether that was to protect the residents from criminals or each other…

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Nobles were famous for their constant bickering and more than one family had minor squabbles erupt into bloodshed over the years. It had been distant for her as a child—a story told to remind her that it was often the hard work of commoners that kept the world running and not the lives of those above them.

Though she now knew that the value of a good leader was priceless. Partly because they improved the capabilities of everyone under them, but mostly because they were so damn hard to find among all the crap ones.

She’d visited the chambers of governance and a clerk there had told her that her uncle wasn’t in the office, but at his home. In the noble quarter.

Of all the new developments that was perhaps the most surprising. It wasn’t like only nobles could live there, but the commoners who did were among the wealthiest and most influential on the Emerlan Isle.

Then again, even if you only counted her uncle’s title and job, he probably fit snugly into that category. Given everything she’d been hearing about her aunt today as well, it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise.

She was more surprised about the fact her parents had never told her any of this. They had to have known, since this wasn’t something that had happened in just the few short months since she’d left.

Rose would ask them when she reached Fairwater Bay. She planned to leave that afternoon after she’d spoken with her uncle.

She reached a drainpipe and looked up, seeing an open window. She smiled and grabbed hold of the pipe, preparing to haul herself up the wall.

Halfway up she heard a splash and froze, thinking she’d been discovered. But it was just an unexpected whorl.

Skill up!

Climbing 5 > 6

It was still quite low level. She wondered why, given how much time she spent clambering up and down the rigging of ships, but she suspected that overlapping skills didn’t grow at the same time.

Reaching the windowsill, she grabbed it with both hands and pulled herself up just enough to peek inside the room. When she saw a man sitting at a desk, facing away from the window, she knew she’d found the right house.

Bookshelves ran along one side of the office, a mix of dusty old tomes and freshly bound books. The other wall had a few oil paintings hanging up and there was a shaggy doori carpet on the floor.

She hauled herself onto the windowsill as quietly as possible, freezing when the wind made the wooden frame creak. But the man didn’t seem to notice her presence.

Even when she dropped onto the floorboards, praying they didn’t creak, she was silent as a mouse. Mice are actually pretty loud. That’s a crappy idiom, she realised.

Stopping about ten paces away from the chair so as not to scare her uncle too badly, Rose coughed twice to get his attention. “Ahem.”

“Who!?” he exclaimed, leaping from his seat so fast it fell over. He reached for his drawer and ripped it open, pulling out a pistol and whirling to face Rose.

She smiled down the wooden barrel of her uncle’s gun, unfazed. “That’s no way to greet your niece, Uncle Travis,” she quipped, pushing the pistol to the side with a single finger.

“Wha- Rose?” he said, shoulders visibly relaxing as his shaking hand lowered the pistol. Though she noticed he kept a firm grip on it, which made her frown.

“I never knew you were so jumpy, uncle. It seems things here are far worse than they seem. Which given the talk I’ve been hearing is rather worrying,” she said, walking towards him.

“Well what do you expect?” he chuckled. “You climb in through my window, scare the living daylights out of me and I turn to see someone dressed like a damn pirate inside my office! My position is rather precarious, you know?”

“I can imagine, Governor Claydon,” she teased. “It’s nice to see you again, but I do wish it was under better circumstances.”

“You’re telling me,” he said, picking up his chair and smoothing his shirt. After that he walked past her and closed the window. “It seems I must up the security again. Have a seat.”

He pointed at a chair opposite his and she reclined in the comfortable doori leather. “I had heard something about… this,” he said, raising an eyebrow and waving a hand up and down at her, “From your parents. I just wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not. But your eyes… You’re a woman now. Why have you come here and not home?”

“Well, I landed at Albumott. Couldn’t sail so I had to come here with a caravan. Some bandits attacked us along the way, but they seemed more like farmers to me-”

He held up a hand to silence her, placing a finger on his lips and looking around. “Careful. The walls have ears. It seems you’ve realised something is going on, too,” he sighed.

She raised an eyebrow at his antics. “Well, don’t say anything you shouldn’t. I would like some answers though. I plan to stay home for a short while but if there’s trouble I’d like to know what’s going on.”

“Trouble, she says,” he chuckled, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. “Well, I’m only in charge of the money, but gold whispers profound truths if you know how to listen.”

He leaned forward, picking up a coin from his desk and spinning it between his fingers.

“What it’s telling me right now is that the Emerlan Isle is well and truly doomed. I am happy to see you well, Rose, but you shouldn’t have come home.”

Just then, the door burst open and a smartly dressed butler rushed into the room. He did a double take when he saw Rose, but didn’t question her presence.

Turning back to her uncle, he offered a shallow bow. “Master Claydon, I have urgent news. For your ears only,” he added, glancing at her.

“Don’t worry, Jarvis. Anything you wish to say to me, my niece can hear,” he replied with a wave.

“Niece? Ah, of course sir. Apologies for my rudeness, Miss,” he nodded towards her. “Grave news from the north, Sir. Minenblum has made good on their threat.”

Her uncle leapt from his seat, eyes wide and hands trembling. “How bad is it?”

“They weren’t sure of the specifics. But all you need to do is look out the window… The flames can be seen from here. Perhaps Fairwater Bay has already fallen,” he answered solemnly.

Rose’s stomach dropped. She rushed to the window and looked outside, barely able to see anything beyond the walls of the neighbouring house. She felt icy dread gripping her and she broke out in a clammy sweat when she saw a column of black smoke rising in the north.

In the direction of home.