Sarah's Writing: Chapter Four

As always, in progress and definitely subject to changes. Please let me know if I'm misrepresenting your character egregiously (some changes and exaggerations are intentional, but I want to stay mostly true to what happened)

Mordecai flies over the town, circling above Miri, Maude and Deimos as they leave the bar. He flies lower and lands on Maude's shoulder.

"That guy you bumped into earlier --" Deimos is saying.

"He bumped into ME!" Miri interrupts.

D:"…and probably stole your coin purse. He's a pickpocket.

D: This town exists because of travelers passing through -- thieves like that probably make a killing on folks like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Miri rages.

"No offense, Agent," Deimos raises his hands innocently. "I only meant that you're new to this side of the world."

"How do we find him?" Maude asks.

"We can always ask around," Deimos says. "Folk on the street might be persuaded to be helpful."

They walk up to an old halfling man in an apron, sweeping next to a roadside food stand. Deimos approaches confidently. "Excuse me, sir!"

The old man squints at him. "Eh?"

D: "We're looking for a friend of ours -- I wonder if you might have seen him walk by?"

They talk about the ship and the town in the background. Miri grumps, arms crossed, while Maude waits nervously. "I don't have time for this." Miri mutters "Should be hunting that bastard down."

Maude is looking around, watching a child in ragged clothes play with a skinny dog.

"So you're a friend of Hassan's?" the old man asks Deimos.

"More of an acquaintance. Thought I'd say hello while we're docked here," Deimos answers with a winning smile.

"Hmph. Well, when you find him, tell him to get that gang of his to stop stealing from my stand, will ya?" the old man grouses.

They're always hangin' around one of the old warehouses by the shipyards. Buncha street rats…" he grumbles, and goes back to sweeping.

Deimos returns to the girls. "Let's head to the docks. Sounds like our thief might be there."

Miri strides ahead of the other two. Maude tugs on Deimos' sleeve.

"Deimos… when we find him… you don't think she'll shoot him, do you?"

Deimos is silent.

"The people here are really poor," Maude continues. "I've never met a real guild agent, but… they don't just shoot criminals, right?"

"Of course not," Deimos says. He smiles, but then looks away, unsure. The look is not lost on Maude, who only looks more concerned than before.

The three reach a row of abandoned warehouses near the docks. Miri and Deimos begin looking sneakily in through open doors, while Maude looks up at the buildings.

Mordecai flutters to land on a railing on the second floor of one of the buildings. He caws once.

Maude looks around beneath him at the base of the building, seeing that some of the dirt has been recently disturbed.

She finds a ladder hidden behind some decaying crates.

She taps Deimos on the shoulder, pointing first to the ladder, then to where Mordecai sits. He nods once, waving Miri over.

Miri draws her gun as she approaches.

"Wait." Deimos whispers, hand on her shoulder. She shrugs him off. "You're not planning on using that, are you?"

"Not unless they don't give me a choice," Miri answers.

"Are they up there?" she asks Maude.

"I…" Maude won't meet her eyes.

"Fine, if you won't help me," Miri says, shoving Maude aside and setting the ladder up against the building, "then get out of my way."

She climbs the ladder, Deimos close behind. Maude follows.

As Miri approaches the top of the ladder, there's a commotion out of sight: caws and pained yelping.

As Miri vaults up over the edge of the balcony, gun drawn, Mordecai lets go of Hassan's hair and flies back down to Maude.

Hassan has dropped a small knife on the ground at his feet. Behind him is an open room with several sleeping mats, and three children ranging in age from around eight to near adulthood huddle in the corner, eyes wide and fixed on Miri. Hassan raises his hands: "Please don't shoot us!"

"You stole from me." Miri says. Deimos hauls himself up, huffing.

"It was just me! I'm the one you want, not them," Hassan pleads, stepping in front of the other kids.

Deimos raises his hands: "we're not going to hurt you."

Hassan eyes the gun. "Yeah right. Pavlos sent you, didn't he?"

Miri's eyes narrow. "No one sent me. I just want my money." Behind her, Maude climbs up, face pale at the scene in front of her.

The kids look at one another. "He didn't send you?"

"Who's Pavlos?" Maude asks.

"The other guild agent," says a girl, about eleven years old and sporting a black eye. "He's always looking for us. Likes to beat us up."

Miri lowers her gun slightly. "I've never met him. Just give me back my purse and I'll leave you alone."

The smallest kid scrambles over to a mat, lifts it up, and slides Miri's bulging coin purse along the floor. She snatches it up and holsters her firearm.

"We saw your ship dock and thought… well… that you'd be easy targets," Hassan says sheepishly.

"Ilias, Polina, and Noori are all orphans. I help them out when I can."

Maude is examining Polina's black eye. Noori is looking intently at Maude's ears while she digs in her bag and removes a salve for the bruise.

H: Please don't tell Pavlos we live here…"

"We won't," Deimos says, locking eyes with Miri.

"Here." He flicks Hassan a gold coin. "It's not exactly her life savings, but it should get you all something to eat."

"Th-thank you," Hassan says.

D: "I'll send you kids more when we land on Leerain."

"You can send things to my mother's house," Hassan says, writing down the address for Deimos.

As the three turn to leave, Miri stops. "Take this, too." She presses ten gold coins into Hassans hands as he looks at her, bewildered.

"And stop stealing from travelers." She opens the chamber of her gun to show that it wasn't loaded.

"Next one could be dangerous."

Maude smiles at Deimos on the ladder.

Morning comes to the Spitfire Isles, and the ship disembarks.

The ship makes progress, and soon they are surrounded by open water.

Maude is standing on deck, once again leaning over the rail. The captain approaches and lays a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll be passing Thunderpeak Island in the night. You should sleep while you can -- there're bad storms near the island this time of year."

Maude and the captain look out over the ocean as clouds form in the distance.

Maude awakens in the middle of the night to footsteps running past her cabin and shouting -- she isn't able to hear much other than "pirates."

She gets up with difficulty, as the ship is pitching and rolling -- a storm is building.

She climbs the ladder to the deck, following another crew member.

On the main deck, the scene is tense. Burly orcs and humans, with and without hoods, are moving boxes from a stack over to another ship, tied to the side of the Bright Passage. Captain Fela is holding an arm out to prevent the Bright Passage's crew from intervening. Maude ducks behind a mast to stay hidden.

A huge hooded man shouts to the "pirates": "Move it. We don't have long."

Miri and Deimos climb out of the hold and shoulder their way to the front of the crowd.

"Hey!" Deimos shouts. He pushes a passing pirate, causing the man to drop his box.

The pirate snarls, rearing back and punching Deimos in the face. Captain Fela pulls Deimos back, and things are looking ugly, when there's a gunshot.

Miri is standing apart from the crew, guns in hand. One is smoking and pointed at the sky.

"Everyone, stay where you are," she yells.

The hooded man holds his hand out to his crew and steps forward.

Miri strides forward to speak with the leader of the other crew.

"I don't know who you think you are," Miri says, "but this ship is under my protection."

The man looks down at her, grim face half shadowed by his hood. He leans in to whisper.

"I'm with the Guild too." He produces a symbol of Bathar, and Miri's eyes widen. "The higher-ups don't want too many people to know of our movements.

We're paying your captain fairly for this, I promise. Ask her."

Miri looks back at Fela. The captain's face is tight, but she nods slightly.

The man continues. "We don't want to alarm the public more than we need to. Pirates are simpler than the truth."

There's a long silence and Miri thinks it over. Then she steps back.

"Everyone get belowdecks!" she yells. "We can't fight them all. They'll let us go if we don't interfere, and this storm is getting worse!"

Deimos bristles, but the rest of the crew shuffle below.

From behind the mast, Maude watches the tall man.

Her eyes narrow, then glow.

She points at him and whispers, "*Fear."*

Indistinct purple energy swirls around his head. He stiffens.

He shakes his head, and the mist dissipates.

"STOP," he shouts.

Miri, Deimos, Fela and Maude all freeze, the last of the Bright Passage crew still above decks.

The man pulls his hood back to reveal a goliath with a large burn scar across his scalp and face.

"Where. Is. The. Arcanist."