Alessari's Memories, Daydreams, and Duties

Alessari greets the monastic sister as she steps aboard her new, albeit temporary, home once more. “Sister Hilan,” she says with a hug, “Everything went well?”

The pious woman nods. “I learned some about the ship, it is fascinating to be sure. Of the hull and the mechanisms of steering. Are you aware there is a cramped passageway that takes you around the entirety of the ship?”

Alessari nods. “I did. Many ships have that. I believe it is to help mutinous crews hide their intents.” She then gestures towards the odd decaying flesh floating around the boat. “You guys have any problems?”

Sister Hilan shakes her head. “Not really. Our captain just found fit to borrow some extra hands from beyond the grave for loading our food and water into the hold. Though the dwarf man who worked the transport seemed to both be expecting and take umbrage with it.” The large human woman releases the elf’s embrace.

The huntress nods. It does make sense, most people think that necromancy in some way perverts the spirits of the deceased. She’s not so sure, as it does happen in the wild and when it occurs, it is caused by an outside organism taking up residence in a corpse. Unrelated to the souls or their long nap times. “Unfortunate, but not unexpected. Are we ready to set out?” she asks.

Hilan shrugs. “Felazo went to his room to do mathematics for the currents and the details. You guys get everything as expected?”

Alessari shrugs in response. “Other than Ren having his private meetings with the circus man, it went to plan. The brewmaster, Iscorrim, did have a habit of trying to oversell us on his goods, but it was nothing a brief sniff and assessment couldn’t bring down.”

Den comes aboard, carrying some crates. “Hilan, Ren needs help,” the Elfi’ika says as he hefts the crate to the front of the ship. It’s the cannonballs for the cannon the ork had convinced their musician to buy. Though admittedly at a fairly steep discount. Den is probably asking for Hilan’s help with the cannon itself. Hilan nods in acceptance of the killer’s request and heads down to the dock to meet with Renalt. Alessari continues down into the hold. Knocking on the captain’s door, she waits for a moment. From the other side, Felazo says, minorly frustrated but mostly just focused on another task. “We shouldn’t set out for another ten minutes. I’ll be ready in six.”

“Just here to inform you we have returned with useless goods and some potions,” Sari says.

“The sister already said such to me, scion. Keep up.”

Alessari shakes her head and heads back above decks. “Den?” she says.

“Yeah?” Den replies as Sister Hilan and Renalt walk up the plank with the small cannon.

“Take over for the bard,” she states.

Denlo and Alessari stare at one another for a moment, before the massive man relents, heading over to relieve their clearly struggling compatriot. Ren heads back down to the cart, and Alessari follows. “How be our captivating captain this fine noontime, helpful huntress?” he asks.

“Busy,” she replies, picking up the box of potions, while Ren grabs the remaining miscellanea.

“A useful thing for a captain to be while in port, is it not, oh gregarious guardian of greenery?”

Sari sighs. “I suppose,” she says, “Still, sometimes it is sort of frustrating. Felazo spends more time in his cabin and lab than with his crew.”

As they walk back onto the ship, Renalt shakes his head. “Give the kid some time,” the musician explains, “It seems to me as though it has been quite some time since he did last travel with any others about the fair Ekzokia to keep him company. This may just be mine humble perspective, but mayhaps for our esteemed captain, it be a state of being that requires much effort to complete the adaptation.”

Sari groans. She understands, and even sort of gets it, but even in her most wild days, when she’d spend weeks at a time in the wilds of Ressyta, she still was perfectly cordial and polite when she returned to the manor-castle. Then again, it was not as though she was ever really alone on those excursions. Not back in her youth, surrounded by the Nature of her home isle.

Unfortunately, this sends her back into her memories of her departure, of everything she left behind. Of the stuff yet undone. For the first time since her flight began, outside of some nightmares, she thought about it. And realized how long it had been. By now, her house was just a memory. If that. She suspected that, much like the once-famed House Lirran’al of Ressyta before them, house Tise’el’s fall is just another disputed piece of history between the sides of the conflict. Those of House Dessin’ari are most likely blaming the Betrayers, to garner more power and support in the war. Meanwhile whichever of Yolryta’s houses is currently leading the Betrayer forces is blaming infighting among the Kingdom, to inspire better morale in the eternal conflict that plagues that island. She suspects this because she’s read about both of those before. In the history books. They are exactly the sorts of things that her own ancestors had done to take power and control over the other houses on Ressyta after the disappearance of House Lirran’al. Blaming the other side, and the aligned neutral houses, to force action that her own ancestors could exploit to drive a wedge between the close knit houses that were not allied under them and increase flow of supplies and troops from the Kingdom. She thinks only a moment about a return, but she knows better. She is not near ready to fight an island of seasoned warriors, and if she returns now she will have to fight them all. Betrayers, for being a member of a loyal house, and the loyal houses for being a deserter, as well as assassins from those fearing she is trying to wrest control of the situation back from House Dessin’ari. Or, more accurately, back from whichever Great House is backing House Dessin’ari. As they are far too well-versed politically to believe they could get a full seating without some greater backing in court as young as they are.

Denlo shakes her out of her thoughts. “Sari, this a good vantage for the cannon?” he asks loudly.

Sari shakes her head, looking over to the prow, where they have positioned the gun at the bow of the ship, aimed along a small cutout portion of the rail. “Should work fine, as long as you guys feel comfortable moving it across the bow when we need to aim at something on the other side.” Then, she does feel the need to add a gesture towards the cabin, “But you might want to check with the captain or Kalzia, to make sure it isn’t going to mess up the Ekzokia’s sailing.”

Ren comes up from below decks. “Our calculating captain did inform me that the added weight shall mean our vessel does need to leave this port just as soon as our captain heads atop these fine decks. Therefore let us step to the duties of untying and readying the Ekzokia for departure from this strange port city.”

Sari turns towards the ropes, and coincidentally the docks, and sees their rented cart. Which is property of the dock office, at the other side of the place. “I’ll be back,” she says, realizing that she really doesn’t want these dock workers to be any more irritated or upset with them than Sister Hilan seemed to indicate they already were due to Felazo’s habits. She rushes down to the cart. She can tell that Ren realizes what she’s doing, as she feels a rush of energy and power as Ren plays a quick series of chords and she manages to get to the cart in no time at all. With a quiet word in the ears of the horses, they rush back down the pier towards the stabling house. Not worrying about anything in the back falling out makes the trip take much less time than the trip down the pier, though she does get a couple of complaints from sailors as she maneuvers the cart around everyone without slowing down. As she reaches the stabling house, she quickly stops the horses with a pat, and hops off the cart, meeting up with the person manning the stables. The short human woman nods, and says, “Thanks for returning them,” before noting the ship with a bit of a surprise, “Ekzokia?”

“It was no trouble,” she says before rushing off to show it was a bit of trouble. She begins her run back. When she’s in the wild, it is no trouble catching up with people. But in civilization, dodging and weaving through people, it can be. Taking a deep breath, she leaps off the pier into the sea. Into something closer to nature.

She tears through the water, swimming even faster than she’d been able to run down the street before. Just as soon as she makes it within sight of the ship, she can see the last of the ropes brought in. With a final push, she grabs onto the hull as the ship begins to move out into the harbor. Slowly, she climbs up to the deck. It takes more effort than it should, but she admittedly was more ready for the water than climbing today. As she flops herself back onto the deck. Felazo looks over at her. “Thanks for returning those, the dockworkers never used to appreciate it that much when I used to while I was leaving,” he says.

Sari chuckles, realizing that he was fully confident she’d make it back in time. “Was that because you would have a skeleton return them?” she jokingly asks him.

“Almost never,” Felazo says equally jokingly, for his part in the joke feigning offence, “Normally it was a zombie.”

Denlo walks past her towards holds. “Wake me if anything happens,” he says, before disappearing below decks. Back to the usual schedules, she supposes. Slowly she gets up, and she says, “By the way, everyone, I just swam the length of the pier in a couple minutes, I’m not going to be doing anything but lounging for at least a few hours.”

“Very well,” Felazo says, “But that does mean the oh so attentive Ren or the very focused Sister are in charge of keeping watch.” The way he phrases it, it almost feels like a threat.

“We be near the harbor and the port,” Ren replies, “What is the worst that could be to happen?”

As though on cue, some cannonfire flares by the shore on the outer edge of the bay. Ren shakes his head. “Very well, I suppose fate would have me pay heed to our present surroundings this fine eve. Do enjoy a fruitful and relaxing repose, rebellious regent, whilst I temporarily take thine post as mine own.”

Alessari sighs. If these people don’t get her killed in this quest for the boxes, she’ll certainly be strong enough to return home safely. But every time she thinks about the concept of the future, she does have to reckon with the fact that if is doing a lot of heavy lifting. And every time any of her companions talk about anything that isn’t their focus, she can’t help but feel like the chance of survival shrinks ever so slightly. Especially with this particular mission being one that no one could possibly be prepared for.

Closing her eyes, she lets herself drift into rest, focusing on the positives. Like the fact that they evidently had maps of the pace they were headed. And they were likely not going to have to deal with any pirates on the way there, unless it was in the next couple hours. And if they ended up having to fight in the next couple hours, well, that wasn’t going to be her fault. And hey, maybe they could just use the cannon to launch Den at any pirate ships, let him kill them all. It was his specialty after all.