Vincent and Nathaniel made their path through the port, leaving past the usual bustle of the cove further behind, and arriving at the fringes that marked the start of the lower districts. The incongruity between the two quarters was all too evident for the mere eyes to perceive with just a passing sight. The streets were narrow, and the houses were crammed together with no proper arrangements whatsoever. Inconspicuous men roamed the walkways, and drunkards were sprawled among the alleyways. Taverns were propped up at almost every major junction, and women in provocative clothing lingered around the vicinity, waiting to latch onto their patrons if they were ever seen roaming before them. No guards were posted on the corners nor were they out on patrols, which was quite a disparity from the guise the rest of this celebrated city seemed to uphold to the eyes of the outside world.
The laws were absent from these quarters, and so was the basic human decency that one might expect from their fellows. Vincent lost count on how many times he caught pick-pocketers trying to snatch his pouch. He had no other choice than to smack their heads and knock them out cold. But they were the least of his problems. Brutes and scoundrels approached the duo at every devious corner and tried to rob the two in broad daylight. Not that it mattered much, for they too shared the same fate as their fellow pick-pocketers, by lying face flat on the mud-ridden streets and being snickered on by the nearby onlookers.
And then came the women with amorous vestments, surrounding the two and pulling at their arms to take them somewhere less inclined to the public eyes. Vincent tried to push them away but they were quite persistent in their crafts as they held onto him tight. He looked over to his side and saw Nathaniel facing the same predicament as him, though the only difference was there right on his face, which was now drowned in a deep shade of red. An embarrassment quite usual for a man such as Nathaniel, who willingly never felt the touch of a woman, only in the hopes of securing the heart of a dear maiden he had known since his childhood. But alas, fate did not allow for such, as his dear maiden was destined for another.
“Ladies, go over to him, I am sure he needs your honest services much more than me,” Vincent said.
“Vincent! What are you doing?!” Nathaniel shouted.
“Have fun now,” Vincent laughed and pushed them all towards him.
Nathaniel was swarmed from all sides, and then, seeing Vincent slowly walking away from him, he had no choice but to throw out what remaining gold coins he had left in his pockets into the ground. The plan worked. While the misguided harlots were too busy picking them all up, Nathaniel slipped away and ran towards Vincent. And thus, they both broke into a sprint out from the enclave, one chuckling at the absurdity of the events while the other spewing complaints all along the way. And before long, they reached a rundown dockage that was on the verge of being swallowed into the endless waters.
“Vincent! Why did you do that? Push them all over to me!” Nathaniel said.
“Think nothing more of it other than I was just trying to help you,” Vincent smirked.
“I understand what you mean… but this is not how I want to proceed when concerning these things!”
“Oh? Then how long are you going to remain maidenless?”
“What? Huh? Does that even matter? I am still young and I just need to find… the right person for it,” Nathaniel said and sighed.
“Waiting for the right person? We all know how that ended up, haha.”
“Do you always have to bring this up?”
“Hmm, you are right,” Vincent said and nodded. “I have no obligation to force you if you want to remain maidenless out of your own free will.”
“That’s not what I meant… as I thought, it’s useless to argue with you,” Nathaniel shook his head and looked around him. “And… where are we anyway?”
Fishing boats were docked next to the half-submerged piers, alongside the flagless ships that swarmed the coastline, some of which almost dared to sink their hulls amidst the sands. A makeshift bazaar was also set up next to the coast, but the mismatched items put on display looked rather to be plucked from stolen origins than through honest trades. A large crowd, much bigger than the one from the central port was present on the scene, from miscreants, thieves, lawbreakers and deviants, this place had it all. The undercurrents that flowed through the scenes bared their fangs to anyone gullible enough to fall under their insidious net, either through deception or by the edge of their blades.
“Why are we here at a place like this? We were besieged at every step of our path,” Nathaniel said.
“We were besieged only because we looked like rich fools who could easily be swindled off for their money,” Vincent laughed.
“More reason we should not have come here.”
“Relax, I have a plan.”
“You keep saying that… but do we actually need to steal a ship? I think we have enough resources to straight off buy an entire ship for ourselves.”
“Nathaniel, it appears just being around a bunch of women earlier has muddled your mind. Of course, we can buy a ship, but it would take days to go through with the deal. I refused to wait that long. I need a vessel that can sail out as soon as tonight.”
“I… understand that but… I don’t think any of the ships here can survive the deep waters for much long. They are barely maintained as it is.”
“You have not looked far enough,” Vincent smiled and pointed at a separate pier, far removed from the rest.
A lone vessel was anchored on the wharf, quite unlike the rest of its timbered kin that was straddled together on the shoreline. A flag was hoisted at the highest point near the stern of the ship, depicting countless sea serpents weaved together in an eternal crusade. Three large masts loomed atop the deck, holding the folded sails in their grasp like the resting wings of a leviathan. Rectangular openings were fitted across the ship’s hull, where sturdy cannons could be seen peeking out, ready to spew out an inexhaustible barrage of abyssal flames at anyone who dared to doubt its reign among the seas. The heads of a hydra were carved at the foremost bow of the vessel, which looked like a slumbering colossus ready to devour any oblivious prey at a moment’s notice. The entire ship was coated entirely in a shade of ash, blending right in with the pallid seas it would soon depart upon. And with just the right angle and with a bit of imagination, one would get the eerie feeling of looking at the skeletal remains of a sea serpent from which the harrowing vessel was structured around.
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“There, I am already fond of that one, I hereby declare it mine from now on,” Vincent said.
“Vincent… that’s not how things work, and from the looks of it, no ordinary person could possibly be the captain of that vessel.”
“So? We are no ordinary people ourselves. Why it is bothering you this much.”
“I don’t know, it’s just that I am not too inclined to cause unnecessary bloodshed when we are actually the aggressors.”
“What bloodshed? Just use your fists to knock them all out, we can’t have them dirty my ship with their own blood.”
“Easier said than done, judging from the looks of it, there should be around at least twenty crew members. How can we can subdue them all without being noticed.”
“That may be true,” Vincent placed a hand on his chin and contemplated. “Hmm, well then, let’s go over and capture their captain first, and from then on, we can negotiate with the rest if all fails.”
“Won’t this make them even more agitated?”
“Nathaniel, my friend, you talk too much, just do what I say or just stay here.”
“I am coming.”
“Let me understand why are you still so hesitant.? Is it because we might stir up even more attention? No one will ever care what happens in this lawless place, so everything goes here,” Vincent said with a devilish smile.
“I sure hope that is the case,” Nathaniel said.
“Put on your hood and try to blend in with the crowd as much as you can. Follow my lead as we approach the ship and do whatever I say. Is that understood?”
“Understood.”
They hid their visage underneath their cowls and slipped within the crowd without further delay. The people nearby looked at them with suspicion as the duo brushed past them in haste, but they ignored the two and continued on their way, for they had other serious concerns to attend to, rather than linger on the thoughts about two grown men playing hide and seek in broad daylight and utterly failing at that. Nathaniel stopped in his tracks, clearly embarrassed about their own failures, but he was pushed on from the back by Vincent, who still had a confident expression clinging to his face. If Selena was here, she would soon realise that all this was just a facade of his. Only she knew her man was thick-skinned enough to rarely admit his own blunders. She would smile like a love-bound maiden and call this as his complete conviction upon himself, but any sane person would term it as blatant overconfidence that does more harm than good.
Vincent pulled down his cowl and so did Nathaniel, after finally realising that no number of cloaks could ever conceal their imposing frames. Fortunately, the attempt delivered the opposite outcome that they did not quite expect. None looked their way as they strolled through the crowd in a careless manner without any disguise, as if they blended right in upon plain sight, without a ripple disrupting the rhythm of the masses. A smirk was curved upon Vincent’s face, seemingly pleased with his own skills in the acts of secrecy, while Nathaniel just shrugged his shoulders and stayed silent along the way, probably too embarrassed to bring up the matter even for himself.
The crowd thinned down when they reached the throat of the lone rundown wharf. A gathering was formed in the middle where men circled around small tables and stacked cards on the top, while others counted their silver coins on their palms with a grin. A slight glance would make anyone believe that these men were just the usual brutes and drunkards roaming the streets, but the ink-laden mark of a hydra carved on their arms would prove otherwise. Further out in the back, where large panels connected the wharf and the ship, crewmen were posted on each entryway. Their hands were rested atop the curved swords strapped within their sheathes, and their eyes inspected the waters as well as the lands to deter any troublemakers from barging inside their vessel. Coincidentally, one of them frowned and looked to his side for he felt a tinge of suspicion from the corner of his eyes. He tightened the grip of his blade and his gaze narrowed upon the crates and barrels laying at the corners of the wharf. But he found nothing, except for the ballad of the inquisitive winds that escaped the seas. As such, the startled man shook his head and returned back to his routine.
Behind the crates and barrels, Vincent and Nathaniel crouched down and slightly peeked their heads out from each corner.
“That was close. Hmm, it appears sneaking into the ship will prove a bit more difficult than I first assumed,” Vincent said.
“I still have no grasp on your actual plan. What are we trying to do again?” Nathaniel asked.
“Sneak in and seize the captain.”
“Then what? Negotiate? I am not sure the crew members would stand still after their captain gets attacked.”
“We can all come to an understanding and if not, we can always turn to force.”
“Let’s just say we did get rid of them all, then what? There is no way for just the two of us to sail a vessel of this scale.”
“You are overthinking again.”
“I am just being practical.”
“Sprouting nonsense yet again, just do as I say and see for yourself where it leads.”
“Are you implying… that you actually don’t have a solid plan?”
“Nonsense, I always have a plan.”
“Can you shed some light on it and at least help me put my mind at ease?”
“Of course I will, since you are the main actor that will pull the curtains for my grand plan.”
“What?”
“Now listen well, your first task is to walk towards them and create a distraction,” Vincent said and passed him back his pouch filled with gold. “Use them all if necessary.”
“Just that? And what will you do?” Nathaniel took the pouch and asked.
“I will take the chance to sneak into the ship.”
“How exactly? That’s a long way from here to the ship.”
“Patience my friend, that’s none of your concern, so just do as I ask.”
“For how long will I try to keep them distracted?”
“As long as you can, now go,” Vincent said and pushed him from behind the crates.
Nathaniel sighed and shook his head, lamenting his fate of being a lackey to the person who stole the maiden of his life. He took deep breaths and washed away the needling thoughts that stained his mind. Then putting his hand on the hilt of his trusted blade and puffing up his chest, he marched forward with steady steps towards the nest of scoundrels, even though the act he was a part of was no different from the likes of scoundrels themselves.
The gentlemen surrounding the tables quieted down and narrowed their eyes. They threw away the cards and the half bottles of mead as they watched Nathaniel approaching them in a dauntless gait. The vigilant men who were posted at the edges of the wharf took notice of the sudden intruder and unsheathed their swords in unison. Then standing side by side with one another, they formed a blockade of their own and barred anyone from taking a single step into their domain.
“Halt! What business do you have here?!” one of the men pointed a sword and demanded.
Nathaniel just smirked and kept on walking, paying no heed to the path that was blocked in front of him.
“Stop! Unless you want to be struck down like a helpless lamb!” the men continued on with their warnings.
“Are you people bold enough to strike those of noble blood?” Nathaniel said and pulled out his family emblem, which donned the image of a silver hawk seizing the sun.
“What? The Blackburne family is here?!” the men exclaimed.
“Hmm? So you do know of the Blackburne? It looks like I underestimated you people,” Nathaniel said and furrowed his brows.
“Speak, what do you want from us?” the men asked once again but this time, their ingrained hostility was no longer prevalent as before.
“Let me have a seat first,” Nathaniel said and pushed them away from his path. He walked next to a table stacked with cards and mead before pulling out a chair from underneath. Dusting off the nonexistent dirt from his clothes, he sat down at a leisurely pace and placed his foot atop the table. The surface creaked and was slightly tilted to one side, spilling out leftover tankards and bottles rattling towards the floor down below. The men at the table gritted their teeth and their eyes turned bloodshot, but they still held onto their fits of anger and kept quiet.
“Why are you here?” one of the men asked again.
“To talk business,” Nathaniel replied and gulped half a bottle of mead in one swoop.
“Our captain is a bit preoccupied right now.”
“I can wait,” Nathaniel picked up a deck of cards and placed a pouch atop the table. “Now, who wants to play? I am betting my all into this.”
Greed filled the men’s eyes as they saw gold peering out from the pouch. They looked at each other and pulled out their own wages from their pockets as they all gathered around his table. Nathaniel chuckled and his gaze slightly drifted to the image of the seas. And there he saw it, saw a figure speeding through the air and hovering above the churning seas of the deep, with wings stitched from the bones seething in the abyss. And just then he realised that the first stage of the plan was a success.