Seaborn

I’d been ordered to get the domain ability, and not to invest in the Death’s Consorts’ upgrades. That did leave me a window through which I could invest in my profession: skills and abilities that were tied directly to me.

Improving the speed and maneuverability of my carrack were out of the question, as was directly investing in things like ship weapons or defenses. For the right price, the ship could be stocked with simple weapons that dealt cursed damage. For a heftier price, those weapons could be truly special. I couldn’t get any of them.

Why? I’d thought Jones was just angry with me, but now I wondered if there was more to it than a simple trial-by-fire. Had he intended to supply me with a better starting ship once I’d gotten my professional skills upgraded? The thousands of XP I could sink upgrading a carrack into something decent would be wasted if I could just get a better ship, even with some of the XP transferring over.

Whatever Jones’ plans had been, I had fulfilled his first order and could circumnavigate the second. I took a look at what I’d accumulated since emptying out my XP on my last ability.

I’d accumulated 142,803 XP – a significant chunk of which had been earned during this last battle. Now for the things I could spend it on.

Cutting away all the ship’s options to just the things that could develop my profession was both relieving and frustrating. Relieving because it cut out the hundreds of tiny options tied to the ship. Frustrating because these abilities were so bloody expensive!

I could gather more information about some, such as the first and most expensive: the second level of Raise Ship. There were both hidden bonuses and strings attached. I could get a measure of XP for missions I tasked my second ship with. However, I needed to have a capable professional in charge of one of my ships, and I had to have at least a loyal relationship with that person.

I’d spent a lot of time looking at that one and trying to figure out if it could be a way around being stuck with the Death’s Consort, but besides the half-million boost to the initial ability price, I didn’t have anyone with the criteria to take over the Consort for me. Not to mention Jones might have a say in how I conducted such business.

Other abilities were essentially useless to me. While Uproot and Hide True Nature had been among the first abilities I’d picked up, I rarely went ashore these days and everyone knew my real name, so having my true nature hidden didn’t matter much. True, I had the Necklace of Persona that I’d picked up on Gildra while my crew was deserting me and it functioned well with my ability. The thing was, I wasn’t trying to hide from anybody right now. The level of obscurity I had was enough to fool most.

After sorting through my options like a tight-fisted matron at a fish market, I decided to invest in stealth. Why do that when it only offered a low-level cloaking field and most our victims never saw us beneath the waves? Simple; there were still mages using magic to track us. It took time and they were usually a step behind, but they could still follow. I hoped that this ability would interfere with that tracking. If not, maybe the upgraded versions could. They didn’t have a read on Davy Jones, after all.

I spent the 100,000 points and immediately activated it. I could toggle it on or off at will. The field extended to the edge of my ships’ sphere of influence, and I wondered whether trying to hide other things inside the area of effect would weaken the magic. Maybe it wouldn’t; while the ability centered around hiding my ship, it was tied to me after all. Other effects like a Fearful Mists spell were produced by the ship and fed of ambient mana, and so were off the table of options thanks to my inability to invest in my ship.

I decided that my new ability required testing. What better way to test than go into a high-traffic area and see if we were spotted?

We picked a port called Dumai, and arrived in late afternoon. We drifted offshore, and though I was interested to test the failure limitations on my new ability I didn’t move straight into the busy shipping lanes. We kept the ship ready to run at the slightest sign of trouble – since we were definitely in a much better position to create ambushes than survive similar attacks.

We sat and watched as ships passed a couple miles by us and just … chilled. Our only excitement was when ships got close enough that they might see through our cloak and analyze us. If they did see through us, however, they didn’t realize what we were since there was no panic or manned defenses. Since no harbor patrol or cutter came to investigate, I gradually assumed that no one saw through our cloaking field, either. Merchant ships and transports might not react to discovering a cloaked ship, but they would report it and the local authorities or navy would investigate.

The sun set, and we ate our evening meal of hardtack and dried meat. This evening each man got some dried fruit as well, since we’d liberated it from the stores of the warship before it had been ruined. Food aboard our ship didn’t go bad in saltwater, but it would be bad if it got dunked before we claimed it.

When night fell, I was still up keeping watch at the helm with the other designated crew. It took 45 seconds for the ship to submerge, in not much more time the crew could be up and swarming the lines. However, as the only one who could control the depth of the ship I saw it as a responsibility to be present at the first hint of trouble. The time it took for a watchstander to decide something was worth waking the Captain over might be the difference between a clean escape and dead crewmen.

The night was clear, with perfect views of both Callis and Uropa. The reddish surface of Uropa and the white of Callis played with the shadows. The stars were bright enough to entrance even the non-elvish. The watch was as boring as it was peaceful.

So suddenly being aware of an intruder on the quarterdeck was startling. Not only their sudden appearance, but my complete certainty that they hadn’t been there before they suddenly were.

I spun on the intruder, ready to draw blades and cast spells, and was again startled by what I found.

“Thereyou are!” Came the girlish voice. “You are so hard to pin down!”

A wisp of a girl stood on my quarterdeck. She was wearing a blousy white shirt and dark pants with a rapier at her side. She wore a too-big tricorne hat and had blonde shoulder length hair blowing loose about her face. She looked like a city girl dressing up as a pirate and had a grin like she’d trapped her beau into admitting his crush on her.

I glanced around for a flanking attack while the girl distracted me, but there was no one. How did this girl get here, though? How did she suddenly appear?

She dipped in a short bow. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Seaborn! You can call me Meg.”

“Is that your real name?” I asked, still suspicious. Taking a closer look at her, I saw that she had some sort of armor beneath her blouse and her pants had the woven-in studs of cheap light armor. The pouch tied to her waist … was that small bag of holding?

She grinned wider when I asked her name. “If you can’t read my stats, you’ll have to trust me!”

Her stats were indeed held tightly away from my analyze skill. Remembering some advice from the administrator, I used analyze together with observation. The more I knew about the girl, the less analyze had to fill in and the better chances I had. Donovan had done something similar back in Tulisang, taking a guess at what I was that allowed him to see through my protection.

This girl … she was an adventurer. Not just any adventurer, though. She’d used a powerful magic or ability to surprise me. The costume she was wearing wasn’t just a disguise – her balance told me she truly had never been on a ship before – but it was a blend of functionality and immaturity. She was young, but full of vinegar and spirit. Not a local, she looked like she’d been pampered in her early life but lacked any regal-ness of nobility. She seemed like she was playing a game or having a fun adventure.

And with that, my analyze skill suddenly penetrated her hidden stats.

Good grief, what kind of adventurer was this girl? At 17 years old, she had a higher level than me and more XP. She also had a profession that I’d never even heard of (what kind of profession was jumping?). What boggled my mind the most though were her stats. I couldn’t read her exact allocation, but it looked like she had 43 intelligence, 38 constitution, and only 12 endurance! Ignoring that there was no way she should have had those kind of attributes at her level – no matter what kind of training she got as an adventurer – she should be massively imbalanced. I looked like a corpse and most people took a bad liking to me immediately because of my imbalanced charisma. She … she just shouldn’t exist!

“You’re full of surprises, Meagan.” I managed to say simply.

“No fair,” she muttered, her smile slipping.

A few of my crew had approached, hearing our exchange. I motioned them back but Will Thorpe slicked back his hair and stepped forward with a smile. “Good evening miss, what’s an adventurer like you doing on a moonlit vessel like this?”

“She’s not here for your charm, Will.” I said drily. “Everyone, search the rest of the deck. No one else surprises us.”

The crew obeyed, Will giving just a disgruntled glare at me interrupting his flirtations. Interestingly enough, Meagan smiled back at him as he left.

“The lad raises a good point, Meagan,” I said when we had space again. “Just what are you doing here? What’s more, how’d you get here?”

“I’ve got professional abilities that helped me get here,” she said.

“You jumped?” I said, an incredulous note in my voice.

She smirked. “Yep. Probably not what you’re imagining, though. As for why I’m here … well, my team has been looking for you.”

“If you’re hoping to collect a bounty,” I said. “Your stealthed friends had better be sure to get me the first try.”

“Ooooh, quite the mini-boss, aren’t you?”

Mini-boss? What? Maybe she was imbalanced and not quite right in the head. “You’re not one to talk, short stuff.”

Her cheeks flushed and she seemed distinctly annoyed. “That was uncalled for.”

“And this conversation is nonsensical,” I said. “Why shouldn’t I submerge right now? Can you breathe underwater?” Why hadn’t I already submerged?

“Please don’t ruin my luck – I spend so many points there,” she had even more points in luck? Who did that? “And it only seems to help occasionally! Like running into you tonight. We’re here to help, not hunt you!”

She blurted out the last sentence as the ship had started to sink on my command. I stopped. “Help me?”

“My team was hired by a Count in Antarus who thinks that you might be key to who rules the seas in the next century,” she said quickly. “He’s a proponent of the legislation to not chase you.”

“Me?” I said. “Rule over the seas? I’m confused and intrigued. Keep going.”

“There was always talk of whether or not you were actually a villain,” Meagan explained. “So many conflicting stories, from your old Captain and the hydra hunters, that administrator that lost his job …”

“Lost his job?” I interrupted.

“Oh, maybe a bad choice of words. He was removed from his position for his opinions and his testimony about you, but he found a new position on the Count’s team quickly enough.”

I was relieved to hear that. My interactions with the man had been rather mercenary, but I couldn’t help but like him.

“So anyway, on top of all those stories, there’s all those journals you had published. Wow! Depressing read, honestly. Bold of you to let the world know how much your crew hates you.” Ouch. “But the Count says they show a good man being forced into doing evil. So I have to ask, are you?”

Hmph. “What, you want a ‘yes’? If I was a good man I’d have died on the bottom when Lawless Jack put me there rather than take Jones’ deal. If I was a good man I’d have owned up to my mistake and served Jones on the Perdition rather than kill. A good man? No, I’m not one now, and I’m not sure if I was. Neutral is the best I can hope for. As impartial as the sea but just as merciful.”

She stayed quiet for several moments, chewing her lip. “Honestly, that scares me more than a villain saying he’s going to conquer the world.”

“If the administrator is on your team, you should have a better picture than most of what’s happening.” And why my hands are tied. “What do you want from me? Why this interest in what I can do?” What kind of help might my efforts have produced? And how long could this conversation last before Davy Jones took an interest …

Speak of the devil.

Jones’ presence filled my mind as he sat behind my eyes and watched what was going on. He wasn’t just focused on this adventurer, though. He was focused on me. Was I being a good little lieutenant or was I making traitorous, underhanded dealings?

Meagan didn’t know this. She jabbered on.

“The histories the Count has show that Davy Jones actually played a decisive role in breaking the naval monopoly of the last world war – or the human/non-human war – but with the news of this war’s battles there’s an opposite trend. He’s …”

Jones roar filled my head and made me drop to my knees, my hands rushed to either clap my ears or pull my hair out, I wasn’t sure which. All I knew was that Jones didn’t want me hearing what this adventurer had to say.

“So freedom is the one thing you know you want? Then freedom is what’s on the line here. Get rid of this instigator, or I swear you’ll be scrubbing the decks of the Perdition before the sun rises!”

“… you have to fight!” Meagan was saying. She’d backed away from me. “You have to fight his influence, Domenic! There’s ways to free you, but you have to resist him!”

“You came at the wrong time,” I said. There were things I could do, and things I couldn’t. I wouldn’t jeopardize my freedom any more than it was. A knife slipped into my hand and flicked through the air towards her. Despite having 130 more HP than me, she blanched at the thrown blade.

Then she disappeared.

My knife sailed through the air where she’d been and over the side of the ship. Using my domain ability, I sensed that she was suddenly on the main deck, behind the rush of sailors running towards the quarterdeck at my initial cry.

I cast water whip as I leaped onto the main deck, brushing past my startled crew. Jones was looking to see how I handled this. If I did anything but try my hardest, if I had any mercy, he’d have none.

My boots thudded against the deck and the arms of my whip lashed out, knocking aside the coiled rope and barrels Meagan was hiding behind. She was so startled she splurted out the mana potion she’d been drinking. Her eyes flickered up though and she disappeared again.

I turned, not needing my domain to follow where she’d vanished to – right where she’d been looking, three-quarters up the rigging to the crow’s nest.

“Kill her!” I shouted to my confused crew. While they hesitated or drew their weapons, I reached into my bag for a short bow. A moment later I had an arrow nocked to the string and was sighting in on the small figure struggling to move up the rigging, lacking any skill in climbing. The string slipped from my fingers, fractions of a second later the arrow slipped from my bow, my aim unerring …

And Meg had slipped, falling with her legs in the rigging. My arrow sailed where she’d just been. I knocked another arrow as she pulled herself back up. Sight in, release … she looked down and then frantically wriggled as vertigo, wobbly legs and the jouncing rigging from my crew clambering up from below all threatened to undo her. My arrow split the air by her cheek and pierced the brim of her tricorne, knocking it off her head. Her hand shot out blindly to retrieve her hat, and my attack seemed to be the impetus she needed to keep pushing. She clapped the tricorne back on her head and scrambled upwards.

“Imp!” I yelled, adding a few choice curses to her ridiculous luck attribute. My archery skills were good, but there were too many variables still involved in my shots. I could empty a whole quiver and she might dodge each one completely unintentionally.

My water whip was still summoned, the cost of maintaining my half-dozen water arms around me manageable with my mana regen alone. I’d refined my skill with it to use it to grab and pull objects towards me, but I had a sudden inspiration for a new technique.

With one arm I reached towards the rigging and pulled, lifting myself off the deck. I quickly used another to balance myself out, then two more in tandem to lash myself to the rigging further up and pull. I leaped past the startled cries of my crew who’d followed my orders in pursuit of the girl. I practically flew up the rigging towards the crow’s nest, where the girl had just disappeared.

I pulled myself up and swung around the rigging, grabbing the edge of the crow’s nest and forcing myself into the air above it. My domain told me she was still there.

While my momentum carried me into the air above the crow’s nest, Meg dropped the vial that had been filled with a mana regen potion. Then she leaped off the crow’s nest, looking towards the distant port. I lashed at her with my whips. Just before the tip of a watery coil lightened around her ankle she vanished, my whip latched onto nothing.

She’d ‘jumped’ or portaled away. This time domain told me she wasn’t on board my ship anymore … or anywhere within my sphere of influence.

I’d failed.

That realization hit me about the same time the impetus from my momentum into the air above the crow’s nest ran out, and I realized there was a flaw to my use of multiple water whips as transportation: I could only lash and pull with them. I couldn’t firm them up to gently lower myself down with them.

With a curse I wind milled into the crow’s nest, earning a collection of bruises. I gathered myself and looked out over the water between my ship and the port where the adventurer had run, no doubt back to her waiting team.

I’d failed.

Jones had set the mandate: kill the adventurer or lose my freedom. My entire gambit; the deal with Jones, the training, the sacrifice for my future crew, saving my crew, condemning my crew, killing so many people to placate Jones … it was all over. I would become just another soul trapped aboard the Perdition, a footnote in history about the lieutenant the world couldn’t kill, but which couldn’t measure up to Davy Jones’ standards.

I’d lost the last bit of my freedom.

As the numbing thought threatened to overwhelm me, I became aware again that Jones was still monitoring me. I thought I heard him murmur something about ‘non-native meddlers’ before turning his attention back to me. He considered me harshly, and I waited for him to pass judgment, strip me of my attributes and profession, and drag me below.

“It seems you really do fight like the dickens to preserve your freedom. You caused this whole mess with your bleeding heart. You have until the sun sets tomorrow to prove to me that you’re worthy of the profession I gifted you.”

He was gone. I scarcely breathed – I had another chance! He’d seen my desperate effort to follow his command and given me a second chance!

“All hands!” I bellowed, loud enough to rouse anyone who might still be sleeping. “Man your stations!”