Chapter 119: Book 2: Chapter 20

(Author Note: There will be no chapter next week. I've had a health issue over the last month, nothing serious, but it has restricted my writing time and I'm beginning to run low on drafted content. I will try and avoid skipping weeks as much as possible but sometimes it can't be avoided.
Plus, I'm behind on my other project the Wolf King's Lair. I need to finish the sixth and final book and I want to get that completed by the end of the year.  When that is done 100% of my time will be focused on Corsairs and you might start seeing a bit more content each week.)

 

 

Chapter 20

Day 54

 

Marena’s Mercy slipped out of Lake Macatawa in the middle of the night. The orange haze of half the city ablaze flickered off her crystalline hull. The light was also projected from the other side concealing the profile of the ship from the southern shoreline. A nice little feature provided by the odd material the ship was composed of.

The optimistic description of the raid on Holland would be semi-successful.

The urban sprawl of the area, like Grand Haven, was split by a water feature. In this case, Lake Macatawa rather than the Grand River. Things didn’t start well once we landed, and we met much stiffer resistance than in Grand Haven.

The Lion’s Claw fighters here were more numerous, better equipped, and higher levelled. They also had a cadre of defenders wielding magic which was an obstacle we hadn’t yet been forced to overcome. My presence along with Anastasia, Shana, and the other high-graded crewmembers turned the tide in our favour, and we pushed them out of the northern half of the town.

The Lion’s Claw paid a heavy price for their spirited resistance. Including the destruction of that cadre of mages which I won’t deny was very satisfying and would definitely set Luca back.

But the cost to the Shattered Storm, though less than our opponents, remained considerable.

Seven crew and seventeen members of the militia perished outright in the heavy fighting. On top of that, at least half of those who survived had lost significant chunks of their health. We had not way of fixing that in the short term.

If the Lion’s Claw were reinforced or were simply ordered to go all out in an attempt to retake the half of the town we occupied, those carrying perma-damage would be incredibly vulnerable. I could keep them out of the firing line for the continuous light-skirmishing but would have to call upon them if another full-scale battle erupted.

This vulnerability was compounded by the Framework adjudging us to still be in combat as hostilities between the two factions in the town were ongoing. Most of my people had at least one piece of gear with the Aid enchantment on it but natural hit point regeneration would be achingly slow while we remained here.

An unspoken ceasefire had broken out between us as darkness fell. Not out of respect for one another but because of the incipient increase in monster activity.

I’d taken the opportunity the lull after dusk afforded to gather my command group and get their advice.

The consensus was that any attempt to conquer the southern half of the town tonight would be much too costly. I was confident we’d be successful if we made the attempt. We’d hurt the Lion’s Claw more than they hurt us, but it would be a pyrrhic victory.

Waiting wasn’t really an option either. Reinforcements were undoubtedly on their way from Grand Rapids. There were only fifteen miles between the two conurbations. Chances were good they may have arrived already, and they were merely waiting for the morning light to strike back.

This was an assessment even the bloodthirsty Quixbix agreed with.

So, instead of preparing to attack we gathered as many of the supplies we could get our hands on and loaded them onto the ship as fast as possible.

While the rest of the crew and the many collared Holland townsfolk we had now taken possession of did that, we let Sheamus, our resident pyromaniac, loose on the town.

By the time we were ready to leave around one in the morning he had finished setting incendiaries throughout the parts of the town we had captured. Jackson did the final honours and used his green flames to set fire to a distillery on the water’s edge from the safety of the ship.

The building went up in flames quickly with all the natural accelerants inside. The licking flames spread the fire to the nearby buildings and then to the flammable alchemical materials Sheamus had judiciously placed around the town. They went off with a serious of deafening explosions and the blaze spread through the town with frightening velocity.

Anastasia got the ship moving as the crew watched transfixed at the conflagration that lit up the sky. Drawing my eyes away from we’d wrought, I turned around and stared towards the opposite shore. I couldn’t make out the aghast expressions of my enemies there, but I could imagine them and smiled cruelly in response.

My fingers twitched as I stared and instinctively accessed my mana, preparing to unleash the only spell I had at my command. Summon Rift Beast.

My concentration was interrupted as a small person bumped up against my knee. It was a young girl, maybe eight years old. One of the children from Holland we had taken onboard. Unlike the adults who had been enslaved by the Lion’s Claw and had, for the most part, already been sent back to the pens in Stormblade Harbour, the two hundred-odd children were still with us.

The harmonic nodes attached to the cells in the Brig couldn’t be used to send them back which was a pain in the ass. There were upgrades we could purchase for the enormous plexus gateway, which spanned the harbour mouth like the Colossus of Rhodes that offered a solution. These upgrades would allow a dual connection to the harmonic nodes. However, they were currently unavailable until the gateway came online properly in a few months.

As the little girl looked up at me with big, frightened eyes it was a timely reminder of those with whom I had no quarrel that would be killed if I unleashed an uncontrollable beast in their midst.

I relaxed my will and let the mana subside.

As welcome as the distraction may have been, it ought not to have occurred. The children were supposed to be confined in the captain’s cabin or the mess hall. Half a dozen of them had braved coming out onto the deck to watch the fire in a mixture of excitement and fear.

“God damn it,” I muttered as the little girl backed away from me. “Charlie!” I yelled over the crackling and popping of the conflagration. “Damn it, Charlie. Where are you? You’re supposed to be keeping these kids inside where it’s safe.”

Although the Lion’s Claw hadn’t opened fire on our departing vessel, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t before we were out of range.

“I’ll round them up, Captain,” Kristoff volunteered from just behind me and he scooped up the fearful little girl and roused a few of the other crew members to do the same.

“Thank you, Kristoff,” I said to him. “Find out what the hell Charlie is up to instead of doing his job when you’ve got them squared away, will you?”

“Aye, Captain.”

The incident convinced me a slight change of plans would be necessary and I abandoned shore-watching and started weaving my way through crew members on my way to Navigation.

Before I could reach the room Quixbix piped up. <I know the last few hours haven’t gone as hoped but burning down half the city has resulted in some benefits.>

“Like?”

<Well razing an enemy’s captured territory is very Corsair-like and you get a nice XP bonus for doing so the first time. Enough that if you complete your binding quest for Fang Mei you will ding for level ten. And it was worth one hundred notoriety points. Although you will need to burn down somewhere significantly bigger to get any more from that source.>

“Thanks for letting me know, Quixbix.”

I hustled into Navigation and found Anastasia hanging out there as expected. Not being a big fan of screaming children, Navigation was the best place for her to effectively ignore them. She was able to focus all her concentration on examining the waters surrounding the ship and tune out what was going on inside.

“I heard the little demons got out of their cages. Have you changed your mind and decided to throw them overboard?” she asked in an exasperated tone.

“No,” I chuckled at her exaggerated dislike of the kids. “The next best thing. I want you to accelerate our journey back to Stormblade Harbour. Getting them out from under our feet has become a priority.”

“I thought you wanted to drop by Ludington first. Snatch up a few green-skinned monsters for the pens.”

“That can wait for another day. This will give the injured more respite and we can switch out the militia members for those who stayed behind. They ought to be less reluctant to participate when they know it’s spawned monsters and not other people we are going after.”

“I’m not going to complain. The sooner we get these snot-nosed brats off me the better. I hope we never find any others.”

“Yeah, about that,” I said slowly.

“What?” Ana hissed with a scowl.

“I think you may have forgotten many of the enslaved we appropriated from Holland were formerly official citizens of Michigan State. The terms of our deal dictate we must turf them over to the Governor. That means taking the children along for the ride too.”

“Bloody Nora! They’re his citizens. Can’t the Governor’s people come to pick them up,” she whined.

“They don’t have the ships, you know that. And they won’t for months, maybe years. We’d have to feed them all until he came and collected them, and the point of this expedition was to secure more food and resources, not find ways to deplete our stores quicker,” I explained.

“Fine,” she snapped. “How long have I got until you use me as a ferry service?”

“We’ll hold off until the ship upgrades to mark two. That way you can make as few trips as possible.”

Anastasia harrumphed in response, and I decided to leave her to it and made a hasty exit from Navigation and pleasantly bumped right into Shana who had been waiting for me in the corridor outside.

“She’s ready,” Shana squeaked excitedly.

“Who’s ready?” I asked rather dumbly, not giving her statement much thought before answering.

“Fang Mei, of course. She has decided she wants the bonding. I think rescuing all these children helped tip the scale. Convinced her that you aren’t a monster trying to take advantage of her. The kind of authority figures she is familiar with like Li Qiang would have left them behind.”

“Oh, right. Good. That is good,” I said and took a few steps up the corridor reaching for the cabin’s door.

I had expected it to take her a bit longer to come to this decision but sooner was better as far as I was concerned.

Shana took my outstretched arm and tugged me further down the corridor past the cabin door and towards the double stairwell that led down to the lower deck.

“It’s rather crowded in there, so I relocated Fang Mei to our quarters for some privacy.”

My eyebrow arched with suspicion at her admission.

“Don’t worry. I put all our fun toys away first and covered the pillories with a few artfully placed throws. Fang Mei won’t get the wrong impression. She is ready to become one of your fierce female warriors, not sleep with you…yet,” she added after a pause and naughty wink in my direction.

A few minutes later, we were walking into our quarters. Fang Mei was staring out the port window, watching the roaring fire in north Holland, though it was rapidly diminishing in size as the ship cut through the lake water on our way back to Stormblade Harbour.

She turned around as we entered and smiled bashfully.

“Shana tells me that you’ve decided to join us, Fang Mei.”

She gave me a hesitant nod. “What do I have to do?”

“Nothing really,” I said and crossed the small distance between us and took her small hand in mine. “Try and relax. This won’t hurt.”

“Honestly, it doesn’t,” Shana added. “It might feel a little strange at first, foreign even, but that passes very quickly and then it will be like the most natural thing in the world.”

Fang Mei nodded imperceptibly once again, and I extended my will towards her.

There was stiffer resistance than when I bonded Shana, but that was not unexpected. The leggy elf and I were practically made for one another. Very much mutual lust at first sight.

As was the case with Anastasia, Fang Mei would require more work and time to build that level of trust. Whether that would lead to greater intimacy, only time would tell. I certainly hoped so, she was very pretty in a vulnerable way that would either fire up your protective instincts or incite the darker possessive streak. In my case, it was a bit of both.

Regardless of her natural resistance, I was much stronger than I had been back then. My bonding didn’t force its way through, it was more like it stood firm and strong, which in turn encouraged Fang Mei to surrender and allow it entry. Once I was past her mental barrier, the path to her soul was unabated. The bond settled in place and we both felt a surge of bliss at the joining.

<Quest Path of the Soulbinder 2 completed successfully. 6,800 XP, Bracers of the Bound and two Chaos Dragon Daggers have been awarded.> Quixbix formally intoned as he always did with official notifications.

Fang Mei stumbled a little. A combination of the comedown from the bonding and surprise at hearing my imp, whom in all the excitement I’d forgotten to warn her about.

Shana stepped in and steadied her. “Welcome to the family, Fang Mei,” she whispered, rubbing her shoulders comfortingly and kissing her chastely on the cheek. The poor girl blushed even more crimson than her new red-tinted skin.

Shana guided Fang Mei to a small circular table we had put in the corner of the room. I wandered over to the drinks cabinet and poured us a round of whiskey and brought them back over.

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Fang Mei took a tentative sip of her bourbon and almost choked on it.

“First time,” I asked.

The young woman nodded back at me sheepishly. “It’s good, though,” she reassured me and gripped the glass tighter as if she were afraid it would be taken back.

Time to dispel any thoughts of that kind of nonsense.

“Let’s take a look at the rewards you’ve earned, shall we,” I said.

A quick check of my inventory confirmed that Quixbix had deposited the three items there directly.

I put the bracers on the table first. They were the same as the pair that Shana wore. Dark brown leather with golden thread stitching. The bracers already seemed to be attuned to Fang Mei, so the only difference between them was the stat and skill bumps. Whereas Shana’s bracers boosted her agility and archery skill, Fang Mei’s increased her speed and short blade skill.

Then I retrieved the two Chaos Dragon Daggers and set them down beside the bracers.

The blades of the daggers appeared to have been made from the tooth of a Chaos Dragon and were a shade of ivory white. The teeth blades had been shaved to give it an edge on the outer part of the blade. The inner length was carved to be serrated. The hilts were made of black Chaos Dragon scales that were edged with a faint red.

 

Chaos Dragon Dagger

Bladed Weapon

Damage: 10 + AGI stat (Piercing)

Stat: Short blade skill +10

Set: If a second dagger of the same specifications is wielded in the other hand all damage is doubled and bonuses become cumulative. If the dagger is wielded separately, the damage and bonuses are halved.

Item Description: Made from the discarded fangs of a juvenile Chaos Dragon. This set of daggers works best when used in tandem and can be improved if the appropriate materials can be sourced. If only one dagger is enhanced, or they are enhanced differently, then they will no longer be recognised as being of the same specification.

Durability: 1,000/1,000

 

The pair of daggers were awesome quest rewards. If I understood the description correctly, when Fang Mei dual-wielded the daggers the damage became twenty plus double her agility statistic. And she would get twenty points added to her short blade skill. When I wielded both my scimitars, the skill bonus from each blade only applied to attacks made with that particular scimitar, ten only.

Plus, the daggers were apparently upgradeable. Although if we didn’t upgrade them both at the same time and in the same manner then the chaotic nature of the set bonus would kick in.

I flicked the analysis over to both my bonded companions and pushed the weapons and bracers over to Fang Mei.

“These are for me?” she asked in a small unbelieving voice.

“Of course,” I answered, a little bit perturbed.

I could have kept the daggers for myself, but they were obviously meant for Fang Mei, and she would be much better suited to them.

It was only when I saw the reverence and the welling of tears in Fang Mei’s eyes that it occurred to me that maybe nobody had ever given her anything of value before. That she had lived the life of an unwanted street urchin, stealing, and scrapping for whatever meagre possessions she managed to secure.

This would merely be the first of many things I gave her and the next few would be less utility and more gift-like. I didn’t want her to feel any regret in her decision to be bonded to me.

“I’m a little jealous actually,” Shana trilled in a mock-pouty voice. “I only got a simple bow when Torin bonded me. Why is that, Quixbix? Weren’t they the same quest?”

She hugged her small companion quickly afterwards to show she wasn’t being serious.

<A couple of reasons, Shana. Torin was only level one at the time. He is level nine now, well, he’ll be ten once he goes for his visit with Dean. More importantly, he hadn’t dedicated himself to the Shattered Goddess when he bonded you. She has influenced the rewards offered this time around as should be obvious.>

Fang Mei donned the bracers and picked up the daggers. She got out from behind the table and tested the weight of the weapons and performed a few practice thrusts and slashes.

“More drinks, I think,” Shana announced suddenly and leapt into action, crossing the room with our tumblers and refilling them. “We need to vary up this drinks cabinet, Torin,” she commented over her shoulder. “You only have the hard liquor in here. Sometimes a lady likes a cocktail with a paper umbrella in it.”

“Not happening,” I told her sternly. “My drinks cabinet will not be defiled in such a manner. The good stuff, served as it was intended only.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and then put her arm around Fang Mei and whispered to her conspiratorially. “Don’t worry, Fang Mei. The palace has so many rooms he can’t keep track. Ana and I have set up a proper girly cocktail bar where Captain Spoilsport will never find it.”

“You…you live in a palace?” she stuttered in shock.

“As do you now,” I told her. “You probably didn’t spot it when you were sneaking through Stormblade Harbour. The walls around it are very high and tend to obscure the majesty of what is inside.”

Fang Mei just stood there in stunned silence for a few seconds until Shana encouraged her to drink up. “See, I told you hitching your horse to our wagon would be the right decision.”

 

***

 

After about half an hour I left the ladies to it in my chambers. Even with Framework-enhanced constitutions, they were halfway sloshed already. As appealing as the prospect of getting my buzz on with them was, there were captainly duties to perform.

I hadn’t even reached the stairwell before I caught sight of Kristoff and gestured for him to come and join me.

“Captain,” he said deferentially.

“Kristoff,” I nodded back. “Did you find Charlie?”

“I did,” he answered with a slight grimace and looked about us to make sure no other members of the crew were nearby.

I took him by the shoulder and guided him under the stairwell, by the entrance to the dungeon. The shimmering portal was locked out. Anastasia had wasted no time in loading the dungeon up with some Lion’s Claw volunteers we had captured. The entrance was conveniently out of the way and provided any needed privacy.

“What has he done?”

“Apart from his dereliction of duty in not keeping the kinder inside when he was supposed to, he hasn’t technically done anything wrong,” Kristoff replied, albeit a touch reluctantly.

I quirked my eyebrow. An unspoken prompt for him to continue.

Technically was the keyword in his sentence. Many things weren’t technically against the rules, but that didn’t mean they were okay to do in every situation. People abused the shit out of technically all the time.

Before he answered, Kristoff produced two items from his inventory. A pair of gloves and a cowl. Both were black and had been stitched with blue thread to make the material resemble blue-tinged scales at a casual glance. The kind of casual glance that someone unfamiliar with what my chaos dragon armour actually looked like might mistake these for.

I took the items and examined them closely, my anger growing as I did. Based on Charlie’s past and that he was the only fellow Acheronian currently in Stormblade Harbour, I already knew where this was going.

“He was still in the cabin when I ushered the kinder back inside. He had been chatting up one of the young mothers we didn’t send back to assist in taking care of them. He’d talked her into going with him into the restroom to continue their conversation without all the noise. Which is when the curious youngsters snuck out onto the deck.”

“He didn’t…” I started angrily.

Kristoff raised a hand to forestall me and shook his head.

“Nothing untoward happened. At least not by the time I discovered him. As I said he didn’t technically break any of your rules or orders. After interrupting them and confiscating these I dismissed Charlie and spoke with the young woman.

“She had assumed Charlie was you. Apparently, he never claimed that he was, but he didn’t correct her misconception either. Something his attire can only suggest was intentional. And he definitely suggested her life would be much easier in Stormblade Harbour if she were to be…involved…with him, without clarifying that he was not you. I believe he was trying to talk her into a down payment on their future relationship when I came upon them.”

“Once a scammer, always a scammer,” I muttered to myself.

Kristoff was correct.

Charlie hadn’t technically breached my orders on how those we captured were to be treated. He hadn’t used the collar or attempted to coerce her into sex, just let her believe something that wasn’t true and tried to take advantage of her misunderstanding. It would almost be the perfect scam as he wouldn’t have to keep up the pretence for long. The young woman and all the Holland collared would be handed over to the Governor very soon. Along with any potential complaints or witnesses about his deception.

The problem I had was that Charlie was a popular guy amongst the crew.

Which was not surprising. Scammers needed to be personable around other people to smooth the wheels for their cons.

And emulating my tailoring wasn’t exactly a crime, even if its intent was less than honourable. Technically, there was that word again, I didn’t need a good reason to punish him, but morale and goodwill with the crew would suffer if I did.

“Have you done anything yet?” I asked Kristoff.

“I’ve put him on punishment detail for a week for the dereliction of duty, sir.”

“Make it a month. I want someone you trust to keep an eye on him as well. Make sure Charlie knows I’m aware of this,” I said and shook the gloves and cowl. “That I’m not impressed, and the extended punishment comes directly from me. That should get the message across even if officially his punishment is for potentially endangering the children.”

“Yes, sir,” Kristoff answered and hurried off to find Charlie and inform him.

I climbed the stairs and walked out into the night brooding over the situation every step of the way. I’d meant to poke my head into Navigation and suggest Ana join her sister-bonded for drinks, but she’d be aware of what they were up to and would show up without my prompting if she was interested.

I was torn.

Part of me was incredibly angry at Charlie’s deliberate impersonation and wanted to exact a much harsher punishment. A cold logical part of me also pushed for more extreme measures to make a point. That this kind of behaviour had to be nipped in the bud before it became a problem.

The counterpoint that troubled me the most was that it would almost certainly be seen as an overreaction.

And there was his aforementioned popularity to consider.

A second chance following a proportional punishment was the sensible decision. Even if in the pit of my stomach there was a growing certainty that Charlie would not learn from this lesson and that I was merely delaying the inevitable.

That Charlie couldn’t help himself and would make me regret my mercy.

There are other ways to deal with a problematic crew member. Cleaner, permanent, seemingly blameless ways.

The dark thought flitted across my mind. I could have dismissed it instantly, but I let it linger as I watched the silver moon reflect off the still lake water as we sped home.

Plans were forming that could solve the tricky conundrum Charlie represented.

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