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🕑 Added 2024-05-14 12:58:53 +0000 UTC2k words
***
“Greetings, captain,” Roderick replied, and although he’d not had to address a superior in years, his arm snapped up in a prim salute all the same. Old habits die hard, he supposed. “I hope my delay did not cause too much idleness for you and your crew.”
“I was looking for an excuse to give the boys some shore leave,” Von Kessel replied, returning the salute after a moment. In Roderick’s peripheral, he could see Skyseeker tilting her head, watching the whole ritual with a bewildered expression. “The trip around Brettonia was long, but not as boring as I’d hoped,” Von Kessel continued. “More than a few pirates accosted us on our journey, and there’ll be many more to come the closer we get to the Vampire Coast. I pray to Sigmar this diversion will be worth the effort.”
“If you truly doubted our intentions, you would never have taken whatever offer Wilfred gave you,” Roderick surmised. “I don’t know how much he’s told you, but rest assured that once our task is complete, the strength of the Empire, and its safety, will be secured. You have my word.”
“An exile’s word holds less sway than you think,” Von Kessel replied. “Yes, I’m aware of your recent exploits, Erdmann. Even in the Imperial Navy, your reputation proceeds you. I’m not sure what it is the master druid sees in you,” he muttered, glancing over at Wilfred. “but, with the Emperor’s blessing, I’ll forgive a little deviancy if it means the betterment of Riekland.”
“A sentiment I’ve come to appreciate as of late,” Roderick replied, giving Skyseeker a pointed look. That seemed to bring the Skaven more attention from the captain, Von Kessel’s eyes turning to her next.
“I was not aware you were traveling with company,” he muttered. “Who are you?”
“I’m-!” Skyseeker began, but Roderick cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“Let me,” he whispered, then raising his voice, said: “Captain, you’re aware of the Skaven invasion, yes?”
“Obviously. If the rumours weren’t enough, we spotted rodent ships just off the coast the day before we docked. Our spotter counted twenty vessels.”
“The situation on land is even worse,” Roderick continued. “Tens of thousands of them plague the countryside, and coming in from the north was no easy task. I saw entire companies being wiped out to a man,” he added, looking away grimly.
“I see where this is going. This stranger assisted you?” Von Kessel asked, preempting him.
“In more ways than one,” Roderick replied with a nod. “She knew what routes the vermintides were taking, how to avoid them, catch the rodents off-guard. Put simply, I wouldn’t be here without her.”
“And this answers my question, how?”
“She knows every move the Skaven will make, because she’s one of them. But far different in many ways,” he quickly added when the captain’s eyes blazed open. “She’s an outcast, in that she follows in Sigmar’s teachings.”
“It does?!” Von Kessel asked.
“I do?!” Skyseeker asked.
“Yes and yes,” Roderick answered. “She’s sympathetic to our cause. I’ve taught her all I can in the short time since we met, and her faith is strong for a non-human.”
“I do not care if it’s memorized every scripture,” Von Kessel snapped. “You’ve brought a rodent into the city, and you dare to imply you wish to bring it aboard my ship? This is outrageous! To ally with the forces of Chaos is treason beyond measure.”
The two guards gripped the hafts of their spears, their blank helmets turned in Skyseeker’s direction, the Skaven’s arms darting beneath her disguise in search of her blades. If the captain gave the order to seize her, Roderick wasn’t sure which side he’d pick.
Wilfred, who’d been stood off to one side in silence until now, clicked the end of his staff against the cobbles, all eyes turning to him. “Captain, calm yourself. The general has spent waking moment in service to the Emperor, only a fool would think he’s stopped doing so now.”
“Fool?” Von Kessel repeated. “I’m the only one who’s not short a few marbles! To take in an exile was one thing, but a Skaven as well? The Emperor would never agree to this… collusion with the enemy.”
“But the Conclave does,” Wilfred countered. “Think think of the opportunities this brings us, imagine what we can learn from a Skaven informant. Their resources, weapons, strategies. We would have far less to fear from the Skaven with the kind of knowledge miss Skyseeker here possesses.”
Roderick was certain Von Kessel would order his men to take Skyseeker’s head, but the captain backed down after a tense few moments, shaking his head adamantly.
“I’d be a traitor myself if I went against the Conclave’s wishes,” the captain grumbled. “Very well, it can sail with us, but on one condition.”
Von Kessel walked up, stopping a few paces away from Skyseeker, holding out his palm. She gave his hand an experimental sniff, shrugged, then tried to high-five him, her paw missing as the captain flinched away.
“Don’t touch me, filthspawn,” the captain grumbled. “Your weapons, hand them over.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Roderick butted in. “She’s quite harmless.”
“Sure, and I’m Sigmar reborn,” Von Kessel replied curtly. “this thing isn’t boarding my ship while it’s armed. If it decides to forget its so-called sympathies and stab us in the back, I want it as far away from its weapons as possible.”
Roderick went to complain, but this time Skyseeker cut him off.
“I agree-gree!” she chittered, Roderick blinking in surprise. “As Horned Ra- Uh, Sigmar says: always in best-best interest to obey slavers. Will give Kessel-man weapons, yes-yes…”
She threw back her hood, the captain and his guards tensing as they saw the Skaven for what she was, Skyseeker reaching into her cloak. What followed was like a gag from something out of a theatre play, Skyseeker pulling an obscene number of weapons and devices out of her cloak, more than should be physically possible to fit inside her sparse clothing. She placed enough daggers to equip a squad into Von Kessel’s hand, along with two pouches of warp-stars, and a crystal orb that looked suspiciously like the ones the globadier had used to nearly poison Roderick. She must have swiped it when he wasn’t looking.
“Take that off,” Von Kessel ordered, physically struggling to alance her armament. “I want to see what else are you hiding under… whatever that is.”
Rolling her eyes, she pulled her disguise off, the fabric sliding up her angled legs, then her torso. She threw it aside, where it landed on the cobbles with a thump, now standing there with just her signature cloak and undergarments.
Her body was mummified in all sorts of pouches and slings, and she began to take them off one by one, the captain opening them to insecpt their contents. Some were filled with disassembled dagger parts, as though Skyseeker expected to be switching out her hilts and blades on the fly, while others contained what looked like powders. She even had a spool of rope in one pocket, as well as a few tiny bundles of a familiar fruit.
“I thought you said you ran out of olives,” Roderick noted.
“May have… exaggerated for pity points,” Skyseeker admitted, smirking up at him.
“No, really? That’s unlike you, lass,” he said mockingly, Skyseeker giggling at him.
“Your hood, pass it over,” Von Kessel said, shooting Roderick an annoyed look. He must not appreciate him being so flippant with a rodent.
Since the captain’s arms were so overloaded with her gear, he had to bring one of his guards in to help, the man patting down Skyseeker’s cloak while she stood there, her dark coat roiling in the wind. When he concluded the cloak was empty of weapons, Von Kessel gestured at her waistband next.
Here was where Skyseeker stored her prized weeping blades, Roderick reading her hesitation like words off a book as she placed a paw on one. She looked to him for reassurance, and when he nodded back, she unclipped the sheaths, handing them over.
“Watch paw-fingers, Kessel-man,” she warned, reaching down to her waist. “Blades are as sharp as my wit! Cut arm clean off.”
Next, Skyseeker produced a full-blown handcannon, the weapon having been tucked into the back of her loincloth. Confused, Roderick placed a hand on his holster, thinking she might have nabbed it at some point, but his pistol was still there on his belt.
She held the handcannon out grip-first, surprisingly attentive for once as she offered it. Roderick stepped forward before the stunned captain could take it, gesturing for it.
“Hang on. Where in Sigmar’s name did you get a gun?” he asked, more surprised than anything. She thrust it into his hands, and he turned it over, admiring the golden etchings lining the top of the barrel, the polished sandalwood grip feeling smooth and glossy beneath his fingers. It was of decent craftsmanship, if a little on the decorative side.
He could see the conflict in her eyes, but after a few moments, Skyseeker relented.
“Bought-purchased last night,” she explained. “Forgot to get ammunition, though. Apologising…”
“You bought this?” he asked. Perhaps that man in the market square, the one who’d been hauled away by the guard, was the gunsmith she’d taken it from. “But how? This thing must have cost a small fortune.”
“Oh! Meant to say steal,” she corrected. “You like-like it? Meant to be man-thing’s surprise…”
“Surprise?” he echoed. “How do you mean?”
“It’s gift, stupid!” she growled. “Know that Rick-rod likes guns, so took-stole gun, to give to Rick-rod when least expected! Not surprise anymore,” she added, glaring over at Von Kessel.
“Oh,” Roderick stammered. “Well… thank you, lass. That’s very thoughtful.”
Skyseeker rubbed her head like a woman might stroke their hair after being flattered, looking away with her muzzle split in a grin.
“I suppose it would be fine if you kept the gun,” Von Kessel muttered. “Turn around, rat.”
Skyseeker did a full spin, the guard crouching down to look her over for any contraband. “What’s this?” he asked, gesturing at her goggles, which dangled around her neck.
“They’re for seeing!” she explained. “sunshine too bright out here.”
“It’s clean,” the guard announced after a second, Von Kessel nodding his head.
“Fine. Give it back its cloak, I don’t want to see its hideous face any more than I have to.”
“Least Skaven doesn’t have red pubes growing out of its head,” she muttered, snatching her cloak from the guard, the grass and sticks threaded to the outer lining rustling as she donned it.
The captain glared down at her. “What did you just say?”
“Uh, ah, hmm… Said, ‘Out of my head’! Can’t get intrusive thoughts out of head, needs lots of focus!” she added, tapping her skull with a finger.
Von Kessel bit his lip, turning to jab a finger at Roderick’s chest. “You keep that thing on a short leash, you hear me? If it lays a finger on any of my men, speaks out of line, even looks at someone the wrong way, I’ll hold you responsible. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Roderick replied.
“I hope you know what you’re doing. Both of you,” Von Kessel added with a pointed look at Wilfred. He motioned for them to follow, turning to walk up the plank, Skyseeker bounding after them once she’d picked her disguise back up.
A short walk up the precarious gangway, and they were on the ship, Roderick leaning a hand on the railing as he stepped off the lip. A few sailors had taken an interest in their little meeting with the captain, at least a dozen burly men in sleeveless shirts gathered round to see what all the commotion was.
Roughly fifteen meters across was the far side of the ship, the deck laden with barrels and winch posts, the spools of rope trailing from the railings to the towering sails forming grids against the blue backdrop. A grated hatchway that led to the hold sat in the middle of the space, and to the sides were staircases leading to the fore and aft sections.
“Ahoy-hoy, maties!” Skyseeker called, leaping on to the deck, turning to address the gathered men. “Move tails and set sails!”
“Silence,” Von Kessel snapped. “You are not to address any of my men. That’s my second stipulation.”
“Aw, was just breaking ice,” Skyseeker whined, looking genuinely saddened by being shut down.
“What are you all gawking at?” Von Kessel growled, the men switching their focus from Skyseeker to him. “You’re not being paid to stand around! Report for rolecall and then get to your posts, we sail for Arabia immediately.”
The sailors hurried off with a chorus of yes captain’s, the order to depart already being shouted down the length of the ship.
“Since I have a ship to run, I’ll let you show the late general and his… companion, to their quarters, master druid,” Von Kessel said, turning to Roderick. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to give me a wide berth and ask someone else. Good day.”
With that, the surly captain departed, shouting orders to his underlings as he made his way up to the forecastle, leaving Roderick and Skyseeker alone with Wilfred.
“That went well,” Skyseeker chirped.
“But he clearly hates you,” Roderick replied.
“Exactly!”
Comments
Northvanguy
Skyseeker is frien
