Taking the Librarian to the docks was easier than he thought it would be. Camaz thought every person they hurried past would stop to demand the identity of the hooded person at his side. In his paranoia, he was starting to wonder if the outfit he had her wear was drawing more attention.
Was the Librarian allowed to leave the island? He wasn’t about to stay and find out. He had to take her over the Aortic Strait to the Heart, where he believed Aris would be. In truth, he hoped that the ominous dark line that appeared over the capitol had nothing to do with what his ward was doing over there but of course, there was little chance of that. Aris, daughter of moon, and her brother, son of suns were the keys to ending this nightmare.
It suddenly occurred to Camaz when they finally saw the boats that getting there wasn’t the hard part. They had to convince one of the boats to carry them across. If he was correct about the emperor giving orders to stop transportation between the capital and the island, it would be more than difficult to convince one of them to defy orders. He’ll have to pay an eye-watering amount of money to convince one of them. If there were more than one, it would be easier - although the boatswains were all friends, none of them liked the idea of missing out on a good deal. However as they drew closer, Camaz saw that there was only a singular boat docked there, the boatswain lounging within it idly swigging from a bottle while staring over the Strait at the dark line of fire stretched over the Heart.
He scanned the waters and saw the emperor’s boats floating at a distance off on the Blood Ocean, their blood red flags flying in the breeze in stark contrast to the bright blue sky.
Camaz looked back to silently beckon the Librarian and approached the singular boat. “Drinking on the job?” he asked in greeting.
The boatswain barely acknowledged his presence. “What job?” the man laughed without humor.
“You got a boat. I have coin. I say you still have a job,” Camaz said.
“Have you seen that thing over our glorious Heart?” the boatswain said incredulously. “I may not be an academic but I know the end of the world when I see it. Your gold ain’t going to mean anything. Even the emperor is running from it. Had his fleet bring over everything just last night.”
“What if I can help stop it?” Camaz pressed impatiently. “The gold would mean so much more. Your actions would mean so much more.”
His words did not have the intended effect. The boatswain snorted and took another deep drink of what Camaz could only imagine as strong liquor. He thought he could smell it at three to four paces away. “You academic types always think you can fix everything. Make everything better, faster, more convenient for everyone and everything. Not once do you all stop and think if what we had originally was better. We were fine living the way we were. Now someone’s made a mess of something and this is happening.” The man took another swig of his bottle.
“You think we’re responsible for that?” Camaz asked.
“Somebody is, and it ain’t us uneducated, honest to Part workers,” the boatswain spat back. “We’re just living in a world run by meddling idiots like you. And we’re the ones paying the consequences.”
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The man had gone too far into the bottle to be reasoned with. It would have been the perfect time to squeeze the solute to force the man to do what was needed - Camaz wouldn’t have even felt guilty about it. Although he was naturally pessimistic, he had never quite slid completely into nihilism like this man has. He could imagine Aris waiting for him on the other side of the Strait, hoping that what the Librarian had in her memory would be the key to… something that will make everything right again.
He had the hope that the future still held something for his ward and her brother. He looked at the drunken boatswain and realized they were different and he wasn’t as pessimistic as he once prided himself to be. No, he had hope.
But no amount of hope was going to change this man’s mind. Camaz needed his abilities to force that to happen. Frustrated, he turned back towards the Librarian. He didn’t bother conferring with her - she had been stone silent the entire time. If she did speak, it might reveal immediately who she was as her strange cadence in speaking would give it away. Besides, he doubted the woman stepped outside the Library more than a handful of times during her tenure there, it wouldn’t be hard to believe she barely knew how to hold a normal conversation.
While he was mulling over what to do (mostly thoughts like ‘was it that hard to navigate a boat?’) Camaz spotted movement in the corner of his eye and he moved on instinct, leading the Librarian away from the docks into a narrow alley between buildings in the adjacent area. Unfortunately the buildings were meant for temporary storage for items like produce or stationary ferried to and from the Heart and so they were little more than well built shacks with wooden plank walls that had huge gaps between each piece. They weren’t able to hide completely.
From between the planks, Camaz could see a whole retinue of people arriving from Market Square. Most of them were dressed as the emperor’s guards with dark red armor and armed to the teeth. The handful that weren’t followed Professor Yepla.
The manus professor had a grim look on his face. Camaz desperately tried to hide in the shadows as he saw them all look around but when the group dispersed at the docks, he knew for sure they were looking for him.
“Run while I distract them,” he hissed to the Librarian. He felt her hand grip his arm like a vise.
“No,” she intoned. “There is nowhere to run.”
He opened his mouth to argue but he knew she was right. They were on an island after all, and their one way off of it flat out refused to let them leave. There was nowhere she could go, nowhere they could run.
Parts damn it, he really wished he still had his abilities. Then he could… then he would…
A couple of the emperor’s guards found them. Camaz didn’t need them to drag him out to present himself to Yepla, whose expression grew grimmer at the sight of him.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he greeted Professor Yepla who didn’t answer back. There was an awkward silence. “Are you going to explain why you’re looking like you’re hankering to arrest me for something?”
“Travel to and from the Heart is forbidden,” Yepla finally said. “This is under the emperor’s direct orders.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Camaz crossed his arms. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s a strange mark in the sky right above the Heart. Don’t you think it’s in the Academy’s best interest to go study it? I am simply - ”
“I think we can do without the double speak and subterfuge,” a voice said from behind Yepla. The crowd of guards quickly parted and the emperor stepped out. “Because it’s much too late for any of that.”