What the hell was she doing here?

The last I had heard from Bella, she was sailing away from the docks at Sancthaven all those months ago. She had told me she was making for the blockade on the other side of the continent in order to link up with the Uprising fleet. There, she would be joining as what was essentially a privateer under the employ of Grey specifically.

I had never heard anything else about her in that time, not even from Grey. I didn’t have any experience in particular with the Naval portion of the Uprising, and my impression was that they mostly functioned autonomously due to the blockade.

How had she ended up in Elderwyck? Was she here under orders or something?

Hmm.

Well, only one way to find out.

“C’mon,” I murmured to Sylvia. “Let’s see if we can find anyone we know.”

Sylvia nodded faintly at my words, eyes still narrowed in the direction of the unexpected ship. Her arm clutched in mine, we casually strolled our way down towards the docks.

Nothing suspicious to see here, just a young couple out on a date.

We made our way onto an empty dock not far from the ship, doing our best to scope it out while pretending as if we were simply gazing at the ocean. Now that we had a closer look at the ship, I was sure it was the Reef. It had been disguised to a degree to more closely resemble a merchant’s vessel, but I would recognize those sails anywhere.

And…

The crew that was unloading crates from its hold. I didn’t see Bella yet, but I did see some familiar faces.

Wait, shit.

Yeah, that was Laryn alright. The jolly pirate looked a little different, wearing cleaner clothes and with longer hair. But for some reason, he was still missing an eye. Last he’d told me, he was intending to get it grown back. He still had the same eyepatch on.

My gaze met Sylvia’s in mutual recognition.

Now, what to do with this?

“Contact?” I whispered to Sylvia as quietly as I could, my lips barely moving.

The disguised Sculpted woman considered the question for a moment, before nodding ever so slightly. “Risk minimal,” She breathed in answer.

Alright then. It was up to me, as I wasn’t pretending to be an entirely different species like Sylvia was. Laryn might be able to recognize me.

The next time he tromped down the ramp carrying a crate larger than himself, I sauntered up to him, leaving Sylvia behind on the pier. I approached him just as he was setting down the box.

“Well, I’ll be!” I said in a fake surprised tone. “I haven’t seen you in ages! What brings you to these waters?”

Laryn straightened up in surprise at being directly addressed, turning to look at me. He stared at me blankly for a moment before his one good eye visibly widened in shocked recognition. “Na-!” He started to exclaim, before catching himself at the last moment. “Nice ta see ya, uh, man!” He corrected himself awkwardly. Nevertheless, he reached out and grabbed my hand, shaking it with very real enthusiasm. I gripped it in return, my smile taking on a genuine edge.

Despite everything, it was nice to see him.

“I hadn’t heard anything about you or your Captain sailing in these waters,” I said, carefully trying to convey a message. “Is she here with you?”

Laryn nodded at my question, one eye darting about suspiciously. I nearly winced at how overt he was being. “Aye, she is,” He said carefully. “Ah, she’s in the harbormaster’s office right now, settlin’ up wit’ him. She should be along soon. We…can wait fer her, if ye’d like?” He asked, before his gaze drifted over to the form of the disguised Sylvia waiting faux demurely at the other pier. “Uh…she with you?”

I met his eyes, smiling evenly. “Oh, she is. I’m not surprised you don’t recognize her, considering how young she was last you met,” I said, making shit up on the spot. “That’s Cynthia, the daughter of our former employer.”

Laryn’s face lit up in recognition before he started nodding vigorously. “Oh, that’s little Cynthia!” He fake laughed. “Don’t even recognize the gel! C’mere, you!” He said, waving Sylvia closer.

When she had joined us, he pulled both Sylvia and I into a group hug that brought his mouth close to my ear. “Name?” He muttered urgently.

“Hans,” I murmured back quickly.

“Gruber,” He returned. I resisted the urge to make a face at the fake name. That was the best he could come up with?

“Captain?” Sylvia whispered on his other side.

“Nicollette,” ‘Gruber’ said, before separating from us with a fake smile on his sea-weathered features.

The entire exchange had taken only moments, so I don’t think it had looked suspicious.

Laryn spotted something over my shoulder, causing his eye to light up again. “And there she is!” He said in a relieved tone. “Captain must be done wit’ the negotiations. I’m sure she’ll be happy ta see ya.”

I turned around, expecting to see the same blue-coated rough and tumble pirate Captain I was so familiar with. But I paused when I did see her.

Bella looked…different.

Clearly in disguise herself, Captain ‘Nicollette’ looked far more…respectable than I remember her being. Instead of her coat and pirate leathers, she wore what looked like a sharp white and red naval outfit with a long coat waving in the sea breeze. She even had a clean tricorne hat on her head, complete with a bright white feather poking from the brim. The brass buttons on her outfit gleamed in the sunlight, while the cutlass at her side looked more presentable than I ever remembered it being.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She was striding in the direction of her ship, deep in apparent conversation with a portly-looking official. However, when her deep blue eyes looked up briefly, they settled first on Sylvia, and then stopped on me.

She stopped in her tracks, blinking in open shock.

I couldn’t help but smile at the sight, no matter where we were.

Hello, Bella.

Oh, excuse me.

‘Nicollette.’

……………………………..

Thirty minutes of careful and nonchalant maneuvering later, Bella, Sylvia, and I managed to make our way to a familiar meeting room at the heart of the ship. Meanwhile, a woeful Laryn had been shooed away back to work by the disguised pirate Captain, while the three of us settled in on the Thorny Reef.

Or rather, the ‘Coral Squall’.

“I think I like the old name better,” I said to Bella, accepting a glass of amber liquor from her. Taking a sip of it, I found it to be of remarkably better quality than the ‘grog’ they’d tried to ply me with the last time I’d been aboard.

This actually tasted like something a living mortal should be drinking, for one.

The four of us were sitting around a small side table in the room, catching up as best as we could in the limited time we had. Sylvia and I had somewhere to be, after all.

“Old name me skinny arse,” Bella said lightly, not taking any offense. “It’s just the name I’m running the old girl under. Something the Bluebacks came up with. I’m putting up with it fer now, but I ain’t forgotten this ship's roots.”

“Bluebacks…” I muttered, trying to remember if I’d ever heard the name before. I think so? If I had, it had only been in passing.

Sylvia made an amused noise after thanking Bella for her own cup of booze. “A Naval Intelligence office that broke away from the Kingdom at the beginning of the war. They’re…entirely separate from the Order, but allied with the Uprising.”

Oh, I see. So, they weren’t with us lowly Nocturnes then.

“An’ there ain’t many of them left,” Bella piped in. “They’ve pretty much hung up the ol’ cloak and dagger in favor of the Admiral's stripes, after sufferin’ too many losses. They’re runnin’ the show down south when it comes ta Naval affairs these days, as most of the Royal Navy leadership stuck’ wit’ the Loyalists.” She laughed, throwing back her own glass of liquor and pouring another. “I gotta say, it’s damn strange ta be linkin’ up with them. Time was, the Bluebacks were the ones huntin’ pirates all up and down the coasts. Now, they’ve been puttin’ out a call of amnesty fer anyone that comes in and raises the flag of the Uprising, with promises of real positions after the war. And it’s workin’. I’ve seen more than one familiar crew decide that they want ta go straight. Even some ships from Marrowmist.”

“Huh,” I said thoughtfully before something else occurred to me. “Ah…what about McGill? Is he keeping to his promise and hitting the Loyalists too?”

At that, Bella’s mirth faded and her face affected a sour note. “Aye,” She still affirmed. “That dog kept ta his word. He even set up his own pirate port and stuck ta his damn fool name of ‘Freefief’. But he and his boys are raidin’, I’ll say that. I’d almost say they’re pissin’ off the Loyalists more than the rest of us are, wit’ the way he pretty much stole a major island from ‘em. Bluebacks are happy about it, though. He’s takin’ plenty of pressure off of them, wit’ his antics.”

Sylvia set down her glass, drawing the attention of Bella. “This is interesting news, Isabella,” Sylvia said, causing Bella to roll her eyes and mutter something about Grey. “But…what are you doing here? I had no idea the ‘Bluebacks’ were operating in this area.”

“Well, I can’t say the same, girlie,” Bella surprisingly said, face painted with a smirk. My eyebrows rose at that, causing Bella to amend her statement. “Well, not you specifically. I mean the Order. The Bluebacks heard from someone up north that yer doin’ somethin’ here in Orc country, and wanted to show their support. What with how pleased they are that Whitegull set up a convenient pawn ta take attention away from them.”

Is that how the Uprising Navy saw our actions at Caer Drarrow? As some kind of calculated plan to create a puppet force of pirates to assault the Loyalists?

That was only, like, half true at best.

“So, they forged some false merchant's papers, prettied up our ships, and sent a number of us out west ta see if we can support ya,” Bella said with a smile. “I was meant ta see if I could scout this port out, and make contact wit’ the Order forces on the ground. And…well, looky here,” She toasted the two of us. “I seem ta have found two genu-wine members o’ the Order.”

Sylvia and I exchanged a look at that, before simultaneous smiles stole across our faces. “You or me?” I asked my partner in more ways than one.

“You do it,” Sylvia said cheekily, relaxing into her chair. “Let Isabella and I catch up, hm?” As Bella eyed the two of us curiously, I stood up from my chair and walked over to a nearby changing screen in the other corner of the room.

I needed to try and maintain some of the Nocturne Division’s secrets.

Once out of sight I took out my communication coin and started flipping in sequences. With Headquarters finding out about the unexpected boon we’d gotten from a far-flung branch of the Uprsing, they would let Hook know right away.

And then he could scheme up a way for this to benefit our operations in the city.

Speaking of…

I stepped out from around the changing screen to find Bella and Sylvia almost huddled together on one side of the table. As I drew closer, for some reason Bella took one look at me and burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Sylvia had an almost embarrassed look on her still illusioned features.

I blinked slowly at the odd interaction.

I’m…not sure I wanted to know.

I cleared my throat. “Ah…we should get going,” I said apologetically, to the both of them. “The relevant parties have been informed of your offer, and you’ll be contacted soon. In the meanwhile, the two of us have a prior engagement.”

Sylvia nodded, standing up from her chair and composing herself. “Isabella, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you soon,” She told the Captain with a smile.

Bella just raised her glass at us in a salute. “Count on it. I ain’t gonna miss any o’ this fer the world.”

………………………..

A few hours later, Sylvia and I were somewhere entirely different.

That being on a rooftop of a warehouse some distance into the harbor district of Elderwyck. We had changed out of our civilian cover clothes and, quite conspicuously and deliberately, into Nocturne Division Order armor. Our respective masks were donning our faces, while concealing hoods had been drawn up over our heads. Sylvia’s familiar black and white one was concealing her once again Mithril features, while my previously blank mask had finally been painted for this operation.

I had settled on a dulled porcelain white surface with a crimson impression of a noose on the front. The long end of it started at my forehead, with the open portion of the stylized rope falling vertically through the eye holes of the mask. The bottom portion of it curled around in front of where my mouth should be, almost giving the impression of a bloody grin.

Without a word, a similarly garbed Dusk melted out of the shadows to our left, coming to stand with us.

We stood there silently for a moment, letting the now night air blow across our cloaked forms as we gazed out at dockyards. Below us, we could see the graveyard shift of the dockworkers hustling and bustling about their business, illuminated by lamplight.

Dusk broke the silence. “Ready?” She said shortly, to our accompanying nods. The Gnoll Agent stepped past us, dropping out of sight to the darkened alleyway below in an instant. Sylvia followed her, but I paused for a moment.

A shift in the wind had caught my attention.

Holding out an open hand, I stared at my palm as a single white snowflake settled into the leather of my gloves. Looking up, I beheld countless others drifting downwards to settle onto any flat surface they could find.

Ah.

I see.

Winter really had come to Vereden.

I shook off the odd feeling and stepped forward off the rooftop, falling to join the others.

Time to get to work.