"It seems as if Pele...or Horus has seen fit to send my people's aid. Still you have the look of one who hates bloodshed. Your...guide sees another way out of this without bloodshed." He looks unconvinced of this, but is willing to listen. "What say you?"
Nefertiti's heart pounds, realizing that she holds the lives of everyone in this boat in her hands. She looks at the man, and says, "Brother, I do not shrink from battle. However, I have spilled blood only as a last resort, when all other options are gone." She closes her eyes, thinking of the execution of Filthy Jack, and regretting its necessity. "If we spill blood now, much of it will be of our own people. I've flown over your ship, counting the numbers. We're too evenly matched. Blood will soak the decks, and I refuse to lose even one of you if I can help it."
"As for bloodshed by treachery -- no. Word of this will get back to Port Shaw. I want the story to be of foolish slavers who lost their cargo and their ship without a drop of blood being spilled. I want them to be laughing stocks who no one will invest in, not martyrs!" She takes a deep breath. "I want people to think of the Tulita who pulled this off as clever and daring -- not as bloodthirsty animals. I want slavers to think twice before taking our people."
Her big brown eyes look into his. "Jacinth has bought us time with her story of contutis morbus, but I need more details. What did she say of this alleged illness?"
She listens to the summaries of Zem and Ko'oku'wa, and gets up and paces, as she processes the details. "Carried by Tulitans? But not affecting them?" She paces some more. "I prefer to deal in truth rather than deception. But I do know how to tell a story. This story needs urgency and a few more convincing details if we're to get the slavers to abandon their own ship rather than callously toss its cargo overboard."
"We may need a couple more cases with scary symptoms -- perhaps me or Rata?" She turns to Ke'ahilani and grins. "Can you help us with this? We also need a 'disease vector'* infesting the ship itself. Something convincing and frightening. Got any bugs on you, Lani? Or dead rats?"
Then she says softly, "We also need a backup plan in case the ruse falls through... Tell me, would taking your Captain sixty feet in the air and threatening to drop him if they don't surrender serve our purpose?" She glances at Zem. "I wouldn't drop him... but they don't need to know that."
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Ke' grinned at Nef and pulled out from varous pouches: a hairy spider, curled up but still twitching as if alive; a dead mouse infested by maggots; a pale glowing green mushroom that appeared to be breathing...
Nef stares in fascination at the items that come from Ke'ahilani's pouches. "Those are vile," she says, awed. "And absolutely perfect."
Without hesitation, she points to the mouse. "If you say you found evidence of this all over the ship, they'll believe you. As much as I love that mushroom, there's no way the slavers will believe that they missed an infestation of that on their ship."
Nef pauses and asks Lani, "How spectacularly sick can you make me and still have me able to function?"
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Aikane does not take much notice or shape up at all, despite Jacinth's orderly attitude. He Slips around behind the mates of the ship.
And then he pulls out his deck of cards, offering one face up to the mates.
"Bad stuff, if you ask me. Best we try and take our minds off it, no?"
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Ke' frowned.
"Meh. Boring. Basic emetic, have you projectile vomiting for a minute tops."
He grinned suddenly.
"If you want spectacular, I have a little something that will have you firing out of both ends, and in living color!"
"Why does it not surprise me that you have something like that?" It was a testament to how much she wanted freedom for her people that she even considered Ke'ahilani's second offer, but finally she shook her head.
"I'll just take the plain, boring emitic, thank you. I wouldn't be able to ride Wedjat for our backup plan of taking the Captain for a little ride if I was firing out of both ends."
Besides, we can tell his crew that the Captain is vomiting and they'll likely believe it if I'm vomiting. If I'm firing out both ends, they might actually want to check to see what the Captain's doing.
"How long before the emitic takes effect? I want to time this just right."
She turns to Ko'oku'wa. "Here's the plan. I run up, hysterical, about how sick the Captain is, and how Ke'ahilani has found dead mice all through belowdecks... the whole ship's infested. I vomit. Lani runs and yells, 'I've found another one!" waving his mouse. Zem, you nod and look serious. I vomit some more. And we let Jacinth lie her head off to chase them to the lifeboats. We don't give them time to think, get their stuff, anything..."
She takes a deep breath. This is a STORY. Now's the time for the dramatic moment. Consider the details. Creating water, she splashes it all over herself, as if the result of a hasty cleanup job.
She looks at the rest of them. "Ready?"
She takes the emitic, takes a deep breath, runs up the stairs. She runs up to Rata, soaked, scarf askew from her face. She slips, grabbing on to him for support, and she starts to tell him her story. She is speaking to Rata alone, but allows her voice to carry and echo all over the ship.
"I've heard tales of Consutis Morbus, but nothing prepared... The Captain... He started vomiting and then Lani found dead mice! All over the inside of the ship! We're too late! The whole ship's infest..."
Before she can get the rest of the words out, Nefertiti feels an overwhelming need to vomit and so she runs from Rata, as if running to the edge of the ship, but doesn't make it. Instead she vomits right next to where the three Mates are standing in their card game with Aikane.
Ke' screws his face up, thinking.
"Ah, about a heartbeat." He said, absently handing her a small vial of turgid greenish liquid.
"If you want the effect delayed to say, twelve heartbeats, just take an equal amount of pigs milk." He hauled out a small bottle of white liquid.
Not quite clear on the play here, Aikane (the character Aikane) put a look on his face of uncertainty. He looks to the others with the question plain from his pose. Uhhh, do I stab them now?
Ke' screws his face up, thinking.
"Ah, about a heartbeat." He said, absently handing her a small vial of turgid greenish liquid.
"If you want the effect delayed to say, twelve heartbeats, just take an equal amount of pigs milk." He hauled out a small bottle of white liquid.
Nef quaffs the pig's milk to get the timing right.
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Ke' pretended to look around, then stooped suddenly.
He reached under a rowing bench and pulled out the dead mouse with maggots triumphantly.
"Kalee-FAA!" He exclaimed, waiving it under the noses of everyone around him while grinning like a lunatic.
Rata turns sheet white as Nef clings to him before spilling her guts out over the deck. He quickly jumps back as Ke' reveals the maggot-infested rat. He draws his daggers and looks around wild-eyed as if preparing to defend himself from some unseen foe.
Nef takes another stumbling step towards Aikane and Jacinth. "No! Don't leave me! I'll be al--"
But her cramping guts won't let her finish the sentence. She vomits, spectacularly, helplessly, next to the next group of slavers on the deck, doubling over with the pain of her guts trying, once again, to turn themselves inside out.
Zemwaar moves up top after Nef and Ke'ahilani with a grave face on.
His look is most likely one of incredulity than fear, or genuine concern however, and he is unable to contribute to the ruse.
It does not prevent him from keeping an attentive eye on the surrounding crew members however.
Aikane draws his small mithril dagger and waves it around menacingly.
The words of the elf woman, tinged with just the right amount of feigned panic draw the First mate's attention and at first the look on his face shows his doubt of her assessment. Nefertiti's loosing of her recently digested breakfast, mixed with the stomach bile, causes him to involuntarily take a step backwards away from the doubled-over priestess.
"Aye...perhaps we should t'ink about what ye said..." Guillard's words trail off as some of the others watch the spectacle with a growing sense of alarm. Several words you catch in bits over and over again coming from them .."Plague...cursed vessel...Captain is doomed...we are ALL doomed!"
Soon you can see looks of panic start spreading on the faces of the slaver crew...and also some of the Tulitan warriors as well. As you watch with a sense of fascination, you see the beginning signs of panic spreading on the ship as chaos start to engulf the slaver crew and some of the Tulitan slaves as they move to the lifeboats hanging on the side of the Bastion...
Oh Horus, no! The children will be trampled!
Looking up with horror at the stampede, Nef tries to breathe deeply and try to hold off the next round of puking to get words out to stop the slaves from panicking.
Letting her voice carry in Tulita, Nef says, "Only Haole* fall to this sickness. You're safe! Let them go!"
Literally: White Man
Used as a perjorative to describe all Colonials.
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Nimbly, Zemwaar moves atop a crate pile, shouting in Tulitan above the commotion - "Stand fast brothers. Those of 'The People' are not affected by this disease - we are SAFE. Do not run. Stand with me!"
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Rata stands firm, ready to react as the words of his companions beg the Tulitians to stay. He silently wills them to remain on the ship.
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As her minute of projectile vomiting is not up, Nef doubles over once more. Finally, with her stomach mostly emptied, but still cramping, Nef collapses to the deck in dry heaves, gasping.
I am NEVER taking an emitic from Ke'ahilani AGAIN.
He silently wills them to remain on the ship.
As the waves of panic start to build on the Bastion the slavers, led by the First Mate in a dubious display of leadership head over to the longboats, shoving the Tulitan slaves out of the way without mercy. Fortunately the slavers are less concerned with hurting the slaves and more concerned with escaping a potential death trap.
Some of the Tulitan warrior hear the calls from their fellow tribesmen and stay their advance towards the longboats. The fact the slavers are still armed, albeit with clubs, makes the decision an easier one.
As Nefertiti wipes away the bitter taste of her vomit from her mouth, she stands to her feet a bit unsteadily. She sees now the slaver crew has congregated around the lifeboats and are now in the process of disembarking from the Iron Bastion. Most of the warrior slaves are either tending to the slaves wounded earlier, or assisting the Tulitan warrior in spreading the word.
As you all watch the scene unfold, she sees Ko'oku'wa emerge from below decks. Moving quickly toward Jacinth, he says "Captain, I see the slavers are fleeing the ship. What should I do with the Captain?"
Trembling, Nefertiti gets up and slowly splashes herself, and the deck below her, clean.
When she is done, she is soaked, head to toe, and dripping. Fortunately, the morning is warm, and she feels a little better, if slightly hollow and shaky still. She walks up to Jacinth just as Ko'oku'wa approaches.
In a low voice, she says, "Captain, I have a possible solution for this, if I may explain..."
She pauses for Jacinth's answer, then says to Ko'oku'wa in Tulitan, "How much longer can you hold him?"
"Once the crew has gone, I can deliver him back to them on Wedjat. They won't take him now because he's 'infected'. But I can drop him, literally, right over their lifeboat. I can even do it without hurting him." She pauses. "It would be far easier to do this with him still... incapacitated, but if he's not, I think I can talk him into going with his mates. After all, his only other choice would be to stay below decks in the quarters he formerly reserved for you."
Nefertiti gestures gracefully at the hatch leading to the chained slave quarters in the hold. "Being as familiar as he is with accommodating others there, I think he'll decline the offer."
She pauses and adds, "Can you ask him to disarm first? Maybe strip him down to his skivvies since the day is hot? I don't want to be knifed if he recovers suddenly."
She then bows her head to Jacinth and Ko'oku'wa, and switches back to common. "Would this solution work for both of you?"
Ko'oku'wa is quiet for a moment as he looks over to where the other slavers have nearly finished lowering the longboat down to the ocean surface. He then looks over to where a small child is being tended to by one of the Tulitan elderly woman, after having been sent to the deck by a careless swipe of one of their clubs.
He moves over to the former Captain and whispers briefly in his ear. The other man nods quickly and heads back down below decks. He then turns to look at the petite priestess in her eyes. "I have asked him to do as you have suggested, Priestess."
The look in his own eyes is flat, yet you can see a brief flash of anger in his eyes. His voice also betrays his anger at seeing those who harmed his people being let go without so much as being harmed in any way. "So that is it? No punishment for them? You are going to let them go...let the Captain go?" He asks bitterly in the Tulitan tongue. "What of MY people? What of their need?"
Nefertiti stumbles, barely managing to grasp the railing. She's still not steady on her feet after Ke'ahilani's drugs, and this flash of anger from Ko'oku'wa cuts her to the quick. And then she looks at his face again, and sees a man crying out in pain.
"It doesn't seem right, does it? To see them let off after all your suffering?" She meets his gaze, full on, her own expression softening. "I know the cry your heart is making. I know it to the depths of my soul, because my own heart made that cry the day my father killed my mother -- his slave." She waits, patiently, for Ko'oku'wa to process her words.
"How my heart howled for his blood! But murdering him would not bring my mother back, and it would not heal the hole she left behind. Instead, I left and devoted my life to building a new future for myself and the people of my heart."
"You are my people. I have no other." She reaches out and offers her hands to him, if he will take them. "Today your daring bought your freedom. Every man, woman and child of you is alive -- and without the stain of their foul blood upon your hands."
And someday, friend, you will see this for the blessing it is.
"If we're to end the slave raids and create a new, bolder future for ourselves, we need to start here. Today. We need to show Port Shaw that we are not savages, but a clever daring people who will reach for our own liberty and take it!"
But when she pulls away from Ko'oku'wa, her expression becomes troubled again and uncertain. She looks to each of her friends in turn, ending on Zemwaar. "Am I doing the right thing here in planning to escort the Captain off this ship? Am I denying our people their justice?"
No Aka, you are doing the right thing" - Zemwaar offers an assenting nod, then turns to Ko'oku'wa - "You already know my thoughts on this matter" - he adds calmly.
At Zem's words, her face clears, and she nods.
"Shall we go see the Captain now and get this over with?"
"Agreed" - the man follows Nef down below.
Ko'oku'wa's hands engulf the smaller woman's hands in his own. He is quiet for a moment before he finally nods slightly. "Your story is...touching and my heart bleeds for you." He replies softly. "As for your other words...Know this, our people have heard such promises before. Still, we are...that is, I am willing to give you a chance to prove yourself to our people." He finishes as he releases her hands.
Ko'oku'wa returns Zemwaar's gaze about to voice an objection to the warrior's words yet as he studies the warrior's demeanor further something in his manner causes the objection to die, unsaid. Ko'oku'wa simply nods in agreement briefly before he follows the rest of you below decks.
When you enter the Captain's room, you all see the ex-Captain still in the process of removing his clothes down to his skivvies. He looks up as you enter, a concerned look on his face. "Is everything OK now? Is my crew safe? Will I be OK?"
"I don't like loose ends. Captain, I'm worried something might happen to you, and you might get back to port shaw ... In a hurry."
"I don't like loose ends. Captain, I'm worried something might happen to you, and you might get back to port shaw ... In a hurry."
Aikane's twisty turns of phrase often baffled her. He was clever, funny, creative... but rarely straightforward. Intensely private, he often scribbled notes to himself that he never shared. Perhaps he was creating cyphers, encoding his writing like he encoded his speech.
Like Zem's silences, this was a personality tic which she accepted as part of warp and weft of their friendship. He weaved mysterious intrigues into the fabric of their lives, and most of the time, this amused her. She liked puzzles; she liked him.
However, hearing the phrase "loose ends" spoken about a captive chilled her. When her father had used the term, it was a prelude to hiring freelance assassins to do his dirty work.
No, this is Aikane. He wouldn't do that.
"Aikane, I'm wiped. Could you repeat that, maybe using different words?"
When you enter the Captain's room, you all see the ex-Captain still in the process of removing his clothes down to his skivvies. He looks up as you enter, a concerned look on his face. "Is everything OK now? Is my crew safe? Will I be OK?"
"How and why would Captain Hazeltree find himself back in Port Shaw in a hurry?"
At Jacinth's words, Nef hears Hazeltree's name for the first time and raises her eyebrow.
Such a lovely name for someone in such a brutal, ugly profession. Why couldn't he have been named Captain Scum?
Leaving Jacinth and Aikane to discuss further Aikane's cryptic utterance, Nef turns back to Hazeltree and prepares to answer his questions.
"Yes, Captain Hazeltree. Your men reached the lifeboats in safety, and without a bruise on them. I cannot say the same for some of the children they clubbed out of their way as they exited. Had we chosen to treat you the way that your people had treated mine, the story would have been a different one."
She calmly meets his gaze, with her wide brown eyes. "Speaking of stories, I wonder which one you will tell when you reach Port Shaw? I see two stories here, each equally compelling."
"The first story is what actually happened. That through their own daring and cleverness, a group of Tulita chased slavers off their ship without a single act of violence, claiming back the freedom that is their native birthright. And when they had the Captain in their hands -- the man at whose orders they had been kidnapped from their homes, chained, beaten and likely raped -- they let him go. They gave him the opportunity he never gave them. They gave him a second precious chance for life. A chance perhaps to reflect, and choose another path."
She smiles. "Or you could tell a simpler story. There was a storm at sea. A storm that caused you to lose your ship and your cargo, with you and your men barely escaping with your lives and your lifeboats. With that tale you can live your life, claim your maritime insurance from whatever coffee shop* serves as a broker house here, and move on with your life."
"The second story isn't even fully a lie." She gets up, pacing for a moment before turning back to him. "There is a storm coming, blown by the winds of change. The Tulita are not cattle to be driven to market. They are a people coming into their own, a people who can protect and defend themselves. They will be slaves no longer."
She stands next to Hazeltree, looking up at him. "I don't care what story you tell when you go back. We've been chosen by the elite of Port Shaw to rescue their children. I have a dinner date with Gregory Bonedeuce upon our return."
"Don't mess with us. It's more trouble than it's worth."
"Enjoy your freedom. Enjoy your precious life, and find something better to do with it. Do you understand me?"
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Rata stands firmly behind Nef, shoulder to shoulder with Zemwaar, watching the wordsmith present an ultimatum to the outmatched and outwitted captain. His passionate nature gets the better of him, and his efforts to hold his tongue fail him.
Tactlessly, he says with cold certainty, "Make your choice quickly, Captain, for unlike my companions, my patience has run short and you should be thanking whatever gods you make your peace with that we are letting you off of this ship with your entrails entact." His fingers twitch, yearning for Hazeltree to make one false move so that he may draw his blades and make quick work of the despicable man. "Maybe in the future you will think twice about enslaving those who happen to be less fortunate than yourself?" His eyes glint like arrowheads.
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Captain Hazeltree stares at the petite, fiery priestess with a look of relief on his face at first, but as she continues her diatribe his face changes to a stricken look. Then as she finishes up with her not-so-veiled threat, backed up by the looming presence of Rata Fenn, his face grows darker as if a thundercloud passed over his face. Rata Fenn's blunt words seem to strike the former Captain as physical blows. As he finishes up his own threat, the Captain shudders briefly and turns to stare at Ko'oku'wa with a look of murderous rage on his face. As you all watch in fascination, Hazeltree realizes he is currently surrounded and unarmed. He tries to mask his feelings here but it is plain to see whatever hold Ko'oku'wa had on the Captain is gone.
His gaze travels over each of you, calculating his chances but seeing his weapons on the other side of his cabin, the approach blocked off by Zemwaar and Ke'ahilani. He crosses his arms in defiance at the priestess. "So ye gots me 'n me ship. It t'will avail you naught. Are ye gonna kill me fer yer petty revenge now?" He spits his words at you venomously.
Aikane removes his rapier from its scabbard with a schwing
The mates will spend the rest of their days believing the lie if they want to. Not you,
No, captain. You believe in profitting by your indifference. You are not a slaver by cause. Not malice nor your pride... You are worse than that.
I am not standing here for revenge, or justice. Your mates, they may well die out in that boat without provisions, but you, you cannot return to the port of shame. ... I could leave you with these people, those you would enslave. Surely, they have no qualms in killing you.
But I am no coward. Either you sail with us on the Rita, or you die on the deck of your own ship.
Your indifference, you may come to learn, is but a fleeting curse, as any dark heart. For evil cuts through the hearts of all you Men. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
But if you like the easy option, you are in luck.
We are not all of us of man, like you.
He looks over to Jacinth.
"He is a prisoner" - Zemwaar adds in calm tones from his position guarding the exit - "He must be restrained, and returned to his crew as suggested"
"Your mates, they may well die out in that boat without provisions."
At these words, Nef's eyes widen with alarm and she turns to Captain Hazeltree. In common she asks, "Were your lifeboats really unprovisioned?"
"Either you sail with us on the Rita, or you die on the deck of your own ship."
Nef tries to wrap her mind around why Aikane wants this Hazeltree on the Rita with them. Finally, she switches to Tulita, "I'm confused. If you had this man on the Rita, what would you do with him? Is your intent to redeem him somehow, or to make him serve as a slave? I will not make a slave of anyone, even him. If what you are seeking however is his redemption..."
...then Aikane and I have similar end goals, just different manners of reaching them.
Nef lets her sentence trail off, meeting Aikane's gaze, a question mark in her eyes.
What do you want, Aikane?
Ke' sneered.
"Bah!" he spat. "Make him walk the plank and have done! We have places to be!"