Private Down Time

[Sae Walsang]

The Drifting Lotus was as close to a home that Sae had. The house that formerly ran the Lotus had been the one that had taken her in off the streets, given her a purpose. Then the D'Acard family had come in and cleaned house, but something about the diminutive woman had given them pause enough that they'd let her live and join under the family's wing. Sae had, of course, been grateful and given the siblings her loyalty that day. She didn't hold any desire for revenge. The stronger houses taking down the weak was just part of the life here in Cindersend. With little power of her own, survival was about the power that she could align with and the D'Acard family had power within the Golden House of Talonrune.

Laughter echoed around the large open room of the main hall of the Lotus, members of the Cranefisher and patrons of the pleasure of the house lounged in various places. Games of chance, drink, shroudweed, and other debauchery went on about the room and no one rightly cared about what another got up to. If one wanted privacy, well there were rooms on the upper floors for that. Sae just liked a goblet of honeyed wine, a roll of something strong, and maybe a game here or there when she had a few spare coins to gamble, which didn't happen too often.

Her large golden eyes moved about the room as her fingers rolled up a bit of shroudweed into some paper. A strange dried plant that came in a variety of strains, each infused with a different bit of shroud. They were harmless, the amount of shroud infused into the plant just enough to give a little spark while smoking. Ice for a cool chill feel, Fire for a pleasant burn, Lightning for that sharp zap of focus, there were many options. Sae favored the pleasant burn of fire infused strain. Pulling out a punt lighter from a nearby ashtray, the woman pulled on the paper with her lips. The end glowing sharply before she removed the stick from her mouth, letting the smoke puff into the air around her as she leaned back on her stool at the end of the bar.

 

[Dyvir D'Acard]

The Drifting Lotus spun.

The original owner had put up a clever bit of machinery, a large golden lotus bloom that opened and closed as it slowly spiraled up and down. Even more clever, someone else had eventually attached rings to the base of the lotus, and silks stretching out to the upper ceiling to that, so as the lotus spun, it gathered up undulating spools of cloth, and then slowly let them drape free again. The effect was mesmerizing and distracting to newcomers, giving the impression that the gambling den itself was gently breathing.

It would not be entirely incorrect, as the patrons of the Drifting Lotus flowed in and out of it like lifeblood, but it was not the Lotus that was fed, but the spider lurking at its heart. The D’Acard family; growing very, very comfortable in its golden petals.

They’d done everything above board, or what passed for it in the Cindersend, received permission from the Golden House before moving on the previous owners, the Serels, in a day of tremendously abrupt violence. Since that day, the D’Acard fortunes had continuously improved, their family star rising far from the backrooms and alleyways they’d lurked in, ranks bolstered by several of the Serel’s previous staff judged trustworthy.

~~~

“Waste not, want not” was Tressenia’s latest personal motto, and for an upstart little family, wasting a single competent hand would not do for their aspirations. The right people knew the eldest D’Acard could oft be found flitting behind the bar, or, with some effort, haunting the upper wings, where the spiraling silks muffled conversations and allowed naught but glimpses of the occupants, all the while wearing a smile that never reached her eyes. She had people for that now.

~~~

Dyvir sauntered into the dim atmosphere of the Drifting Lotus with the confidence befitting someone who truly owned the place, darkly mischievous eyes skimming over the afternoon crowd. He was in a good mood after working on the Cranefisher for most of the morning, had a solid line on the latest job from Feynrith, and now, he just needed to kill some time until Jhrun was back with the latest batch of ne'er do wells. He spotted a familiar, messy bun of dark hair, and a steady stream of shroudweed blowing up to the ceiling, and knew that meant Sae.

He charted his course through the other patrons to the circular bar of the main room, and barely had a chance to lean forward before he had a shot of dark, spiced liquor silently slid his way by the bartender, a Devahni he hadn't met before.

“Arranis get to you first then?” Dyvir asked, trying to catch their attention, but they simply let their thin-pupiled gaze skim off him like the bottles the youngest, half D’Acard sibling had made off with last week. He left his words hanging in the air another moment before rapping the bar with a knuckle, “Good talk.”

The scoundrel picked up his glass and made his way over to where the little Orkin was sitting, settling into the seat next to her with a contented sigh.

“You don’t hate me, do you Sae?” Dyvir chuckled before sipping at his drink, letting the spice linger on his tongue, side-eyeing at the quartermaster of the Cranefisher.

Above them, the Lotus spun on...

 

[Sae Walsang]

The golden eyes turned to the man who slid onto the seat next to her. She blew a slow puff of smoke from the drag she just took on the firestick, before holding it out to her Captain. "You're frustratingly stubborn, have no concept of when to say no, and are a reckless pilot taking too many risks for your own health...and ours." She paused taking a sip from her mug. "But no. I don't hate you." She flashed him a grin. Which she didn't. Sae was loyal to the D'Acard siblings. Now the question came down to which sibling held her loyalty the most. Likely the eldest, if she was smart, but working with Dyvir on the Cranefisher had made the man grow on her.

"Been busy today? Haven't seen you around the Lotus much. I went out to the markets today, fresh supplies will be delivered to the hanger on the 'morrow." Part of her duties for the privateer ship was to make sure everything was ready for the next time they went out. Technically she should make sure the ship was in top repairs too, but the Cranefisher was Dyvir's pride and he took care of the mechanics way better than she would have. She could get him any parts he might need, but doing the actual work, not in her skills. Sae was good at finding things, good using her knives, and half way decent with Blood Magic.

 

[Dyvir D'Acard]

“Guilty on all counts, as always...” Dyvir quipped, reaching out to take the roll of burning shroudweed from her. He puffed lightly, felt the heat course pleasantly into his chest, roiling around in his lungs, until he blew a steady stream out of both nostrils. “Probably my fault, did hire you for the counting.”

“Ahhh y’know I can’t sit still, and if I wait here too long, one of my siblings will be hounding me to wait tables or somesuch.” The pirate shrugged with a rustle of cloth and leather, and nodded at Sae’s report, passing the firestick back to her. There was a time for cantankerousness, but people, much like drinks, should strike a fine balance to be palatable. He’d been spinning tales all day, it was time for an honest touch. “You’re an utter gem, Sae.”

“S’been a good day besides, one of our lines even has a few Miradi on ‘em to hear the Feynrith tell of it,” Dyvir twisted in his chair as he remembered something, tapped his head with a finger knowingly while a cheshire smile spread across his features. “Did I ever tell you about your predecessor, the One-Fanged Viper?”

 

[Sae Walsang]

The half-Orkin took back the firestick, holding it loosely between her fingers as the burn from her draw earlier still moved through her veins. She nodded. He did try to avoid his siblings as much as possible. There was some kind of ... bad blood didn't quite explain the feelings of the siblings toward the youngest, but Sae got the feeling that if they felt Dyvir was no longer useful they wouldn't hesitate to cut him loose. One might have considered it a strange dynamic if they weren't from Cindersend, here that was almost normal.

She waved her hand dismissively, the smoke from the firestick wafting through the air between them. "Don't need none of that now." The conversation shifted quickly and Sae grinned brightly. Even if she'd just been teasing him about never saying no to a job, she certainly favored staying busy. So a new job as quickly after the last was good.

"I don't think you have." She said, more than fine to hear a story that she's heard before. Sae wasn't anything if not generous, especially with the D'Acard Family.

 

[Dyvir D'Acard]

“Alright so, our first run, our ‘real’ first run not the first run I tell people about, understand, and I’m swearing you to silence here.” Dyvir paused to let Sae know he was serious, leaning in conspiratorially over the bar. “I’d just snatched the Cranefisher out from under that fuck Adello with a deft hand of cards, and we find out, hey flying’s great, but then me and Jhrun, we come to talking about how we make some money since those engines don’t exactly hum just cause I want em too.”

“So Jhrun says, ‘give me 3 days’” Dyvir mimicked Jhrun’s gruff voice and walked his fingers along the bar. “And off he goes.”

“I, for my part, get absolutely plastered with nothing to do, and Jhrun being all sneaky, but good as his word, he comes back with the strangest bunch of strikers I’ve ever seen. He tells me I gotta wait, I gotta see them in action, and some of Feynrith’s scouts know there’s a little caravan along the way, just enough to make it worthwhile, not enough to be heavily guarded.”

“Off we go.” Dyvir’s hand took off from the bar, “soon as we get in the air I’ve got this guy getting in my face, saying he wants a position, he wants a title.”

“So I tell him he’s the new quartermaster and that shuts him up till we hit the caravan, fine, right?”

“We go hopping out, limber as you please, and this guy has a cloak completely made out of snakeskin on now. Don’t know where it came from, don’t know how we didn’t notice him put it on, but he is out there, front and center, between us and a half dozen caravan guards with crossbows.”

“It’s a standoff but I figure we can do a couple threats, get everyone to go home, the spiel.” Dyvir is losing the battle between his memory and the retelling, a suppressed smirk wrinkling his face now. “No, he pulls out a giant knife, wedges it in his mouth, and starts wriggling on the ground towards them.”

“No one knew what to do, and fuck me he was actually a lot faster than we all thought, so he lunges up and knifes one of the guards, he’s twisting his neck back and forth to stab him over and over,” the pirate’s voice spills into laughter, his pace increasing, “there’s blood everywhere, he’s yelling ‘I AM THE ONE-FANGED VIPER’ but it’s coming out all funny cause he’s, he’s got a whole dagger in there.”

“Then,” Dyvir sighs, wiping a tear from his eye, “the viper gets shot in the ass, drops like a rock, it’s absolute chaos, the guards are all yelling, the horses take off with the caravan of loot, we’re horrified, I kick up a little sand to cover our retreat with a touch of magic, and we fly back with our tail tucked.”

Dyvir rapped on the bar and received another glass from the frosty Devahni without a word.

“You’re significantly better at your job so far.” He toasted towards Sae, before throwing the liquor back.

 

[Sae Walsang]

Dyvir started his story and Sae leaned in playing the part of the attentive audience as he speaks. She would never admit to the Captain that he was good at turning a good tell, but he was. He knew just when to inflect the right way, hand motions, all the pieces to really put the story together. That by the time he was done the half-orkin had one hand holding her side as she laughed so hard it hurt and the second holding the bar in order to make sure she didn't fall out of her seat. The story bordered on the ridiculous and if she didn't know the Captain better, she might have thought it as tall a tale as a spire in Miradj'Dah.

This hadn't been a story that she'd heard before. "I hope you never let Jhrun live that crew down." She wiped away the tears from her eyes as she struggled to take a breath. It was a minute or two before she could speak without the laughter. While they had certainly had some duds in terms of jobs before, at least there had been nothing like that. "Frankly I'm surprised you didn't change the Cranefisher's name after a crash like that." They were luck word of the crazy crew attempting caravan robbery hadn't spread making the new ship a laughing stock. It was hard to come back from something like that. Fear was often such a driving factor in raids going well. A good bit of fear could be enough to have the fight stop before it even started.

"What every happened with the One-Fanged Viper? Did y'all leave him there?" She asked suddenly curious as to how that ended. Either the snaked skinned idiot got left behind to die on the sands or his friends managed to drag him back to Cindersend, which could end up being as much of a death sentence as the desert when one became a liability.

 

[Dyvir D'Acard]

"No, you cannot tell him I've told you about this, we swore we'd never talk about that day ever again." Dyvir was cackling, barely able to steady his voice for the pronouncement, "We never heard anything about it afterwards, we think no one wanted to be associated with that whole thing, especially the guy who died."

"Oh we absolutely left him there, he was out of his godsdamned mind, he killed a man with a knife he was holding in his mouth, and after we watched him get shot we were pretty sure it was over." The pirate looked up at the winding silks above them, contemplative.

"But you never know with a man like that, it's always the ones with more sand than sense up there that make it out of being shot in the back by five crossbow bolts..."

 

[Sae Walsang]

Sae wiped the tears as they streamed down her face from the laughter. "I promise to never tell him while I'm sober. If I'm not sober, then I hold no promises to you." She was knew herself well enough. Enough drinks and she would just talk and talk. It was why she didn't drink often, a glass or two at most as she mostly indulged in the herb. The smoke buffed as she pulled on the roll again.

"You're going to regret that you didn't make sure he was dead." She said with a toothy grin. The half-orkin knew that those things came back to haunt one later and some how Cindersend tended to have the worse luck of all those involved. She believed it was because of the lack of shroud. The natural order already thrown off, just encouraged bad luck. Or perhaps the bad luck was just hers.

"He sounds tenacious enough to have survived out there in the sands." Sand snakes were great at finding water where there was none. If this man thought he was a viper, then he might have the ability to find what he would need to survive. Yet over a year later if he hadn't shown back up, then perhaps he was well and truly dead.