‘What could possibly go wrong’ Gerald had said. Climbing up to the main deck, every glance sent my way was a reminder of what could go wrong. Thankfully either their fear of me or their desire to be home without any further incident had pushed them to go along with Billing’s promise not to fight.

Not because I was particularly worried about losing. The best fighters on this ship were already dead. No, I didn’t want to risk any more faces in my nightmares than were already there.

The first mate – now Captain – had removed my father’s body from the quarterdeck, wrapping it and placing it in storage below. I walked into the broken remains of my father’s cabin, a dozen sets of eyes following my entry but no one daring to get in my way.

This was the room where my father and had had spent most of our time together. Fitting, I suppose, that it should be broken too. Still, seeing it in the light of the destructive explosion my father had caused was saddening – even if my father had hated this assignment he’d still carried mementos of his career with him here. They were no broken or scattered.

I suppose I would never know what my father had been thinking when he’d thrown that alchemical bomb – I assumed that’s what it was, anyway – did he have a means of protection from it that hadn’t worked as intended, leaving him more damaged than he’d been prepared for? Had he simply thought he could tank the damage, and Dom couldn’t? Had he meant not to survive the blast at all?

That was a sad consideration indeed: that a father would try a murder/suicide on his own son.

Toeing through the broken kindling and nudging the shattered glass aside, I glanced at the remains of my father’s liquor supply. There hadn’t seemed like much was left, but it had certainly made a pungent mess. Looking in the corner of his cabinet, some books I’d seen before caught my eye. I pulled them down and brushed the glass off before reading the covers.

One was a manual on naval tradition. It had the look of a very old, favorite copy. Another was a codified list of regulations and punishments for infractions. I was sure my father knew this one well, however little use it had seen over our voyage.

Two others were skill books: The Principles of Sound as Applied to Air Magic and Unlocking and Refining Efficient Communication Spells. My father’s specialization …

Steps approaching from outside the cabin had me dropping my ruminations on father’s learning even as I dropped the books into my adventurer’s bag, making them disappear. I claimed them as my inheritance.

“Mr. Seaborn,” Billings – Captain Billings – said from the doorway. “Is there something I can do for you?”

As first mate the man had ignored everything he possibly could, and now he chose to butt in? “I was just looking through my father’s effects. No need to trouble yourself.”

“I’m afraid these effects are under my custody until they can be claimed by the late Captain’s house or remanded to the navy.” Billings said, showing the most spine I’d ever seen out of him. “I’ll ask that you leave them be.”

I could push the issue, but I hadn’t really come for any loot. Even the books I’d taken hadn’t been something I’d expected, though now that I had them I wasn’t going to give them up.

“Very well, Captain. I suppose I should mention that I have taken both the Tarish cook and the orc prisoner under my protection.”

“The prisoner is the property of the royal court …”

“Billings,” I said, moving closer to the man. To his credit he didn’t flinch. “His majesty declared war on me after I’d saved his daughter. I’ve since sunken a dozen of his ships, and the only reason the Isa hasn’t been added to that count is because of my mercy. Now, you can tell his majesty in person that I’m the one who took his former prisoner. See what a difference it makes.” Billings looked away. For some reason I had the urge to lighten his burden and attempted a jest. “If you’d like, you can say I told you to pass along all kinds of nasty things. It could be your one chance in your life to cuss out a king!”

By the look he gave me, my attempt at humor hadn’t worked on him. Ah well, I for one wouldn’t pass up the chance to have a few choice words with the man in charge.

Before I exited, Billings asked a question I couldn’t quite hear.

“What was that?”

“I said, was he really your father?”

My face tightened, my unbalanced features turning into something truly unpleasant before I forcibly relaxed. “He disowned me. I don’t expect this to be believed, but I forgave him for everything before the end. The end was at his insistence, not mine.”

I didn’t know if he just didn’t believe me or if my Patricide title was at play, but I didn’t like the look in Billings’ eye when I turned away. I resolved not to underestimate him the way I had Lockwood.

It would be a tricky thing, getting near enough to Antarus to get a ship I needed without letting the Isa sail straight to the nearest port and spreading the alert about me. I didn’t intend to just let the ship do that, but if I left them to their own devices I had to assume they’d be clever enough to get the word out faster than I wanted them to. I could renege on our agreement, but my reasons for not killing everyone still stood, and I would feel even worse about doing it after having made a bargain with them.

The moons were high, and close to touching each other in the night sky. Uropa would start eclipsing Callis soon. As I often did when things were on my mind, I pondered the heavenly bodies while musing over my own thoughts.

Callis and Uropa – each pushing and pulling the tides their own way. Like my father and I. Like Jones and I.

Jones and I weren’t quite through. I had broken away from him, but I wasn’t entirely free. That would be something that would have to be rectified. First though, I had obligations and promises to keep.

The first being to Hali. She’d offered me hope when I was at my lowest, I couldn’t refuse helping her when she was the one in need.

My crew was still out there too. Apparently they were going undetected from any pursuit, but they were still cursed and tied to the Death’s Consort. I’d promised them freedom, once, and I intended to learn how to give it back to them. Even though they had all turned on me, I owed that to them.

Burdette … now for at least one of my mutinous crew freedom wouldn’t mean much. I intended to make that conniving, subversive eel pay for his role in the ship’s downfall.

“Mr. Seaborn?” said one of the crew from a respectful distance behind me. I turned to find Travis, the sailor with such a heavy accent. The man knuckled his brow. “Beggin’ yer pardon, sir. I was picked to talk with ya. See, a few things come up in awkward spaces like this; an’ we need to know iffin there’s any rules you have or spaces ya want set all off-limits like, see?”

“I understand, Travis. I will be moving with the orc to the forward artillery deck. I do not expect anyone to need to use the ballistae, and that should open up the other spaces to be used. I think it best that the crew doesn’t try to interact with the three of us, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yessir, that does sound like a good idea. We all kinda figured that; and as I was picked fer it, I’ll be the bloke acting as a middle-man for ya.”

“I’m sure that will do, pass along our arrangement to the Captain. Please note that he understands if anything of importance occurs, I will be going to him. You understand me?”

“Eh … yessir. I think I follow where yer towing. If you’ll, uh … excuse me …”

The man scampered off directly to Billing’s cabin, apparently to give his report immediately. I took one last look at the stars before going below and helping Jorgagu move the items he was enchanting to the artillery deck. The orc was taking advantage of his semi-free position to enchant things that he wanted to enchant, and as much as I wanted to ask him about it I instead fell asleep while Gerald stood watch.

We made it three days without trouble. For three days I kept a tab on what was happening in the ship through my domain, and if there were any sneaky things going on I couldn’t sense them that way.

What tipped my hat to trouble wasn’t any clandestine meetings or stealthily arming the crew, it was the lack of response to something new. Through my domain, I sensed the lookout in the crows nest from where I reclined in a nest near the prow on the artillery deck. The lookout was waving, and once he got the attention he was looking for began signaling.

They were avoiding making any shouts. They had spotted ships on the horizon, and rather than call out that information or running to me about the protection I’d promised them from the Madu, they were trying to keep it under wraps.

“Gerald,” I said, nudging the dozing Tarish. Jorgagu had deliberately worked while I slept and slept while I kept watch, but the Tarish it seemed had a previously undiscovered skill – the ability to lightly doze nearly around the clock when he had nothing better to do. (I’d forbidden him from working in the kitchen because it was too easy to be cornered, and he hadn’t objected – likely because of what had happened when he was last in there.)

“Hmm?” He asked, awake nearly instantly.

“Get him up,” I said, nodding my head to the orc. “Expect trouble.”

Gerald didn’t second guess me. I cast my movement buffs and checked the blades I still had concealed on me, but didn’t draw a weapon or make any other overt move. I took a deep breath and stolled onto the main deck.

Immediately, the man in the crow’s nest stopped his signaling and went back to scanning the horizon – quickly turning about so he was scanning the opposite horizon instead. Everyone on deck was on their toes and watching me, for all that they acted casual. Ignoring them, I strolled to the prow.

Far in the distance were sails. With my theory confirmed, I paid close attention to what the crew was doing. They were all looking at me, apart from the one who went to Billings’ cabin to pass the news.

Something was happening, and I knew about it.

This charade couldn’t last. I strolled to the hatch I’d come from and called for my companions to come up. They did, just as Billings appeared on deck.

On one hand I was glad the man was coming out himself. I wanted to hear from him what he had to say. On the other hand, I wished he’d remained the spineless man he’d been the first few weeks. We might have avoided trouble that way.

“Captain,” I said diplomatically. “Would you are to explain the situation?”

“We’ve spotted a ship on the horizon, Mr. Seaborn.”

I exploded with curses, none of which made the man even blink. “What have you done, Billings? I’m trying to turn over a new chapter and be merciful but you seem intent on reinforcing my life lesson that mercy only brings me trouble!”

“The late Captain Darius had secretly learned of your identity,” Billings said calmly. “He had reached out to the fleet days before you confronted him. You demanded we sail for Antarus … I simply said nothing when I discovered there were ships heading our way looking for you.”

I growled, but the man hadn’t broken the terms of our agreement – technically. “Captain, you will take the crew below decks and stay there until you are released.”

“Mr. Seaborn, now is the time I think …”

“GET BELOW, STORMS TAKE YOU!” I bellowed, making the man finally flinch. He hesitated, glancing at the ship on the horizon, before looking defiantly at me once more and ordering his men below. For their part, they didn’t hesitate more than a moment. They knew that even if I didn’t target them, a battle was brewing with the incoming ship and they wanted to be inside the skin of the ship. I oversaw their descent with my domain, and didn’t do more than grumble when I saw Billings order the ballistae loaded and turned towards the entrances. I guess I wasn’t the only one to have thought of that before.

All the crew scurried below except one. One remained hidden, and not through any stealth abilities either. I quickly marched towards the ruins of the Captain’s cabin where he’d ducked into and found Travis there. “Didn’t you hear me say get below?” I asked in a menacing voice.

“I want to go with you!” He replied, stopping my next ready intimidating phrase on my tongue and making my mouth fall open.

“Go with …” I started to argue, then threw up my hands. “I don’t have time for this!” Storming out of the cabin, I pulled a spyglass out of my bag even as I directed Gerald and Jorgagu to make sure all the hatches below were well secured so no one could surprise us from below.

My spyglass found not one but two ships on the horizon. They were distant to each other – apparently spread out in a wide net. You could see for miles on a flat ocean, and while that let me see the incoming ships long in advance, it also let them cast a wide net.

“What are we doing?” Gerald called, shifting a heavy crate to cover a hatch.

“Something I was going to wind up doing anyway,” I said. I went into my list of professional abilities and picked the one I knew I’d have to get sooner or later.

Summon crew

,000

Spend mana to create a temporary magical construct to fill crew positions.