Sineater

It was a nice day.

The morning breeze held the promise of excitement as we neared the Golden City. We’d been out on a month-long voyage, delivering and collecting goods and now we were back and ready to off load our cargo to our employer and get paid. Then we could enjoy some well-earned relaxation.

“Sectum!” Storbek, the brown Minotaur first mate, barked my name. “Go tell that lazy brother of yours that we need help securing the cargo before we reach port.”

“Yes sir!” Being the captain’s sons, even if we were both adopted, didn't exclude us from work on the ship. I was nineteen years old and hadn’t been able to hide behind the veil of being a child for a while.

I climbed up the rigging to the crows nest. It was important that we had all the cargo lined up properly. It was a certainty that we were going to get inspected. If we didn’t have things out where the Golden Guard could inspect it, then they’d throw it on the floor to do so. I didn’t want to be the one who had to clean up that mess once they were gone.

“Vin!” I slapped the eighteen-year-old Camadt on the upper right shoulder. “We’ve got to help arrange the cargo!”

Most beings wouldn’t have gotten this close to a Camadt, let alone smacked one. The four-armed, feline-faced, six-and-a-half foot magical voids were one of the most renowned boogeymen of the universe. Or so I’d been told. I’d never been off-world because Tefira was a prison planet. Plenty of people came, but no one ever left. I’d been born here and I doubted that I’d ever be able to leave.

“Leave me alone!” My adopted brother lazily swatted at me. “I was at the wheel all night. That exempts me from chores.”

“Storbek’s orders.” I looked over at the dock. The golden armored Elves were lined up on the dock with a pair of hounds. They were going to do a thorough inspection.

“They’ve got hounds!” I called down to my crewmates. I tapped my brother again. “We’re probably going to need you to do that scary thing.”

My brother mumbled something, but I wasn’t paying attention because I was climbing down to the deck.

“By the ore!” Garm Irongut swore as he looked through a spyglass at the dock. The Dwarven captain of the ship and my adoptive father put the instrument away as he turned to me.

“What do you want me to do?” I looked at the door heading below deck, anticipating the order.

“Stay up here.” Garm nodded at Wizz, our Goblin navigator, who was currently at the wheel. “Bring us in nice and steady Wizz.” He looked at me. “Sectum! Where is that fool brother of yours?”

“Waiting to make a dramatic entrance.” I shook my head. Vin knew exactly what he was doing and loved scaring government workers any chance he got.

“Bah, Galaden is here. We should probably warn him off from his usual antics.” My father looked up at the crows nest. “Nah, we’ve not had some fun in a while.”

I wasn’t sure why Lord Galaden Aryx had a grudge against my father. I knew the bad blood went back to before I was born, while my father had been a part of the royal guard. Other than that, I had no idea why the pompously dressed Elf had it out for my father.

“Here they come!” The high pitched voice of our navigator announced the boarding party.

We hadn’t even docked yet, and the guards were already jumping on board, their armor enchanted with something to extend how far they could jump. One of them kept running across the deck and rammed into me, knocking me over the railing and into the ice-cold water below.