Conquest of Avalon

Florette VI: The Amateur

“It’s a tough situation.” Magnifico took a sip from his glass of single malt. “And honestly, a big part of me agrees with you. If I were in his shoes? I wouldn’t rest easy until that fucking spirit was dead.”

“You can’t kill a spirit.” Florette narrowed her eyes.

The bard shook his head. “Binders can. That’s the source of… of their power. Cultists and sages have to borrow and bargain for slivers, but a skilled binder can harvest artifacts from spirits they slay, to wield the spirits’ own power against them.”

“Unless they’re taken away, or knocked out of their hands, or stolen…” She held up her fingers one by one.

“It’s not foolproof, but it was sufficient to ensure that few of them plague our lands anymore, and most that remain have been sufficiently cowed to leave humanity alone.” He shrugged. “That’s all beside the point. Mara is Fernan’s to seek vengeance against or forgive, and he’s chosen the latter. It’s out of your hands.”

She’s probably killed people from my village too. Florette sighed. “I know. I’m just worried.”

He nodded. “He reminds me of my youngest son. Always eager to take responsibility, to seek the path of the least strife. I’m sure they’ll both find their footing eventually, even if it takes a bit of a push.”

Florette blinked. “You have children? Being a bard doesn’t seem like a very parental job.” And being a spy is even less of one.

“I’m not a parental person, in all honesty.” He took another sip of brandy, wobbling his head slightly as he did. “My advice? Don’t. They overcomplicate everything. There are these rare moments of pure joy, far outweighed by the extreme disappointment. The last time I talked to my oldest practically killed me, and I couldn’t say what happened to him since then.”

“He ran away?”

“Not exactly. It’s—” He massaged his temples as he sipped with the other. “I’m to blame for much of it, of course. People tell you that you ought to have children, that it’s your duty. And you love your wife, and it’s expected of you, so you go along with it. But it was never really the right fit. You don’t feel like a parent, so you don’t act like one, or you try and lose yourself without even succeeding, and then one day you wake up and realize that you can’t even recognize them.” He scratched the back of his neck. “There’s a reason I’m away as often as I am, when I could so easily be doing enough good back home. Easier for everyone, this way.”

“I see.” Florette held her glass up to her lips without opening them, miming a sip.

“If it’s really what you want from life, it’s probably fine. Just don’t let yourself get pushed into anything, or it’ll be a disaster for everyone involved.” He stood from his chair, gripping the bannister to steady himself. “I should probably head in. Let me know if anything comes up with Fernan. Lord Lumiere is a friend.”

“I will. And thank you.” She clenched her fist under the table as she prepared the next lie. “Sorry again, about the attitude before.”

Magnifico shrugged as he stumbled into the hallway, waving her away behind him.

Florette made her own exit as soon as he passed out of sight, not eager to be stuck with the now-considerable tab. She nodded to the guard at the base of the staircase as she passed him, the thumping music growing louder as she passed by the box. The Singer’s Lounge only really seemed to close in the morning, from a few hours before sunrise until they opened again for lunch, although the atmosphere varied wildly depending on the time of day.

“Well?” Eloise was leaning against the wall a little ways outside the door, her arms folded against her chest.

“Nothing major.” Florette lifted her view to look her in the eyes. “I think any rough feelings are mended, at any rate. He was going on about his children, drinking a lot. They definitely keep the pulsebox out in the front even after he goes to bed though.”

“Well that’s hardly nothing.” She pushed off the wall, starting to walk south. “See? That’s what you get by being a bit friendlier”

Florette snorted, walking after her. “You’re one to talk, there. Seems to me it’s a lesson you haven’t exactly internalized.”

“No need.” Her thin lips curled into a smile. “I have people for that.”

“Me, you mean.”

Eloise shrugged. “At the moment. Other times it’ll be someone else from the crew, or Captain Verrou. Sometimes a random dupe, but then you have to be nice enough to entice them, and it’s a whole different hassle.”

“Lots of experience enticing random dupes?” Florette exaggeratedly raised her eyebrows.

“You’re here, aren’t you?” Her tone was flat, an affect that Florette had come to recognize was used for deadpan humor. Probably.

“Still, seems like I’d be the worst choice. Anyone else and you wouldn’t have had to replace the brandy, or hope they’d accept my apology.”

“No one else had the in with Magnifico. That’s worth far more than a bottle of brandy, especially one I grabbed back in Cambria for a fraction of the price here.” She flicked her eyes over to Florette. “I’m telling you this in the hopes that you can avoid another ridiculous situation entirely of your own making.”

“Oh, come on! The Leclaire thing again? I didn’t want to mess things up for Fernan.”

Eloise chuckled, shaking her head back and forth. “Six thousand… You might as well have bent over to kiss her feet if you were so devoted to the idea of making a fool of yourself. And you said you were the servant but did all the talking?” Her body shook. “I mean, not running from the guards was bad enough, but how the fuck did you expect that to work?”

“We have been over this.” Florette stared at her with narrowed eyes.

Inhaling as she settled down, Eloise pointed to the right when they walked through the south gate. “Clearly, you need the reminder. I, for instance, never once made a mistake even when I was new as you are.”

“Would you stop?”

“If you stop acting like you know how all of this works because you swiped a single bottle of brandy in a fit of pique.” As they passed around the tower, a thin strip of land led back up the coast on the other side of the wall, water lapping over it with every wave.

Florette hesitated, turning back to look at the beach they were leaving behind.

“You’re right to be worried; giant sea serpents kill forty people here every month.” Eloise rolled her eyes, grabbing Florette by the wrist and marching her along the path. “Look, it’ll be fine. You know how to swim, right? And I’ll be there if anything goes wrong, to laugh at your misfortune. ”

Following behind as her palm grew clammy, Florette supplied a nervous chuckle. “Just never dived this deep before. Even in Spring, the streams were only dangerous because of the current.”

“It’s just like the rest of life: all you have to do is follow me.” Eloise slipped her notebook between the rocks of the wall a few feet above the ground, deep enough that it was out of sight. After a deep breath, she took a running jump into the ocean.

Florette jumped after her, the spray of the waves hitting her face as the scent of salt filled her nostrils. There was no room for conversation above the roaring of the wind and waves, only the methodical progress towards the destination that would make all of this worth it.

“Here!” Eloise shouted at last, loud enough to be heard.

Florette sank underneath the water for a moment, cracking her eyes open despite the slight stinging feeling. The ship looked deeper than she might have hoped, though the pocket of air around it stretched all the way up to encompass the mast. She took a deep breath and held it, then nodded.

Eloise grabbed her hand again, pulling her down beside her as the two of them sank below. Once the ship was in front of them, she released the grip and began paddling forward.

Florette’s arms and legs began to ache as she got closer, burning all the harder as Eloise swam farther and farther ahead. It wasn’t long before her lungs joined in on the fun, screaming at her to open her mouth, but by that point the mast was close enough to fill her with a final burst of energy.

Reaching the barrier, Eloise flipped back upright and flapped her arms up, pushing herself down, until her legs breached it. Once her slim waist met the air, gravity was sufficient to pull her the rest of the way through.

Florette nearly swallowed her tongue once she reached the bubble, every second spent orienting herself all the more agonizing for how close sweet release was. She felt a tug on her foot, then a hard yank as she fell down onto the damp wooden platform at the top of the mast.

Air filled her lungs as she lifted her head.

“See? Nothing to worry about.” Breathing hard, Eloise extended a hand to Florette, pulling her back up to her feet. “We could take a second, but I think going straight down the ladder makes more sense. Why rest, when we could make things harder on ourselves?”

“Yeah,” Florette panted, leaning back against the mast.

Eloise sat on the guardrail facing her, catching her breath.

“Are all crew meetings this welcoming?”

“Of course.” The corner of her mouth turned up slightly. “Wouldn’t want to make it easy for people to find us.”

“I guess walking twenty minutes out of town didn’t occur to anyone.”

“Not really what this is about.” Eloise shrugged. “Anyway, I’m ready. Feel free to follow me down.”

“I’ll go first.” Florette placed her foot on the third rung on the ladder, her hand on the first. One after another, she climbed down, until she was aboard the deck of the Seaward Folly.

With the walls of water flowing above them, the spectacle was amazing — real — without any of the unease from Fernan or Mara’s fire. The deck was narrower than she’d expected, but with plenty of space nonetheless, and large ornate doors to the cabins below.

At the base of the mast was a cluster of flags, a jumble of red and orange and white in more of a pile than a stack, none of them particularly intelligible individually. She was tempted to dig through until she could find Verrou’s famous black sword on an orange sea, but Eloise pointed to the doors, and so Florette abandoned them there.

A bustle of conversation erupted from the door as it opened, candlelight flickering across the walls. It grew louder as they passed through the hall, deeper into the ship, then silent again as they pushed through the last door.

The room was surprisingly large, hammocks hanging from the ceilings with three or four pirates crammed onto each. Perhaps thirty in the room, though it was hard to get a good count with everyone staring at them.

“Eloise, I’m happy you’re back to enjoying your shore leave, but this meeting was to be for crew only.” One of the men crowded onto a hammock stood up and walked towards them, the rope bouncing under those who had sat next to him. He looked to be in his late forties or early fifties, with crinkled lines around his brow and mouth. His light brown hair was cut close to his head, matching an unassuming leather doublet and trousers.

“Oh fuck off, Captain.” Eloise crossed her arms.

Captain? Florette’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she turned to stare at Eloise, mouth agape. How could she talk to him like that?

The man who must have been Robin Verrou smiled, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I can see that our quartermaster has charmed you already.”

“You’re Robin Verrou!” Florette blinked. “I mean, I’m sure you know that already. I just…” Wow. He wasn’t wearing his Coat of Nocturne, or his insignia, or even the tricorn hat he’d always be illustrated under.

He turned to Eloise, then looked back at the assembled pirates still watching silently. “Is this the sort of thing you’d rather explain in private?”

Eloise shook her head. “Oh yes, it’s terribly personal. That’s why I brought her to this public crew meeting, so we could speak in private.”

Florette elbowed her, glaring, but Eloise returned it with only an amused shake of the head.

“I’ll explain things when we get to new business. In the meantime, just trust me. She’s fine. I caught her nicking a bottle of brandy from the Singer’s Lounge, so we can be sure her loyalty to the law comes above all else. Plus she’s a big fan of yours, which is all the more reason to sell us out. I think it could be the start of something very promising.” She smiled. “If it becomes an issue, we’re already at the bottom of the water.”

Verrou nodded, stepping back to return to his seat.

“Don’t say anything until I give you the signal. Easier if I introduce you,” Eloise whispered as she pulled Florette down onto one of the few remaining empty spaces on a hammock, which had a young-looking pair already occupying one end of it.

“What’s the signal?” Florette hissed back.

Eloise ignored her, turning back to face Robin Verrou.

“Right, that means everyone is here, then.” He clasped his hands together. “I now call to order this meeting of the crew, with all members in attendance. Let’s open with ongoing business.”

Eloise held up a single finger.

“The captain recognizes the quartermaster, Eloise.” What the fuck is going on here?

WIth a nod, Eloise leaned forward. “I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but our ship is currently on the seafloor.”

Florette hid a smile with her hand.

“It was put here by Lady Camille Leclaire, a humble water sage from Malin,” she continued. “Recently she made the understandable and wise decision to challenge Lord Lumière to a duel to the death. The working keeping the Folly safe will survive her, I believe, but—as far as I know—it cannot fly back to the surface on its own. The thought occurs to me that we might want to do something about that.”

A pirate on the other end of the room, a gruff, bearded man in his thirties, raised his hand up.

“The captain recognizes the carpenter, Blaise,” Verrou spoke again.

Blaise stood up, tilting his head up from its prior slump. “Has anyone tried moving it? If the barrier keeping the air in is tied to the ship, rather than the location, and we manage to get it up on our own, everything would be safe from the water.”

Eloise raised her hand again, which Verrou simply waved his hand at in acknowledgement. “I saw it go down, and the bubble formed first, before it even made it all the way under.”

After the same ritual with the hands, the carpenter responded. “It’s not enough to be sure about, but it’s a good sign. I move that some of us stay after the meeting to try jostling the ship, to see if the barrier moves with it. Once we know, there are all sorts of things I could try to get it floating back up.”

“Seconded,” Eloise added.

Was this some kind of inscrutable pirate tongue?

“All in favor?” Verrou asked to the room. Everyone put their hand up, including him, as a chorus of “aye” filled the air. “The motion carries unanimously.”

The woman on the same hammock as Florette and Eloise raised her own hand.

“The captain recognizes the crewmate, Elizabeth.”

Short and lean, she let go of her partner’s hand to stand up. “What about the airship plans? They’re here, aren’t they? How the fuck are we supposed to get them to your buyer intact, Captain?”

“I believe our shipmaster is already working on a solution to that.” Across the room, an older woman nodded back. “And on that subject,” Verrou continued, “my meeting with the Duke was successful. He’s prepared to offer us the asking price, with an additional thousand florin bonus per crewmate if his is the final offer we hear. I move we accept, in the interest of bringing a close to things promptly.”

“Seconded,” added the shipmaster woman.

This is it. They’re a crazy cult and they’re going to sacrifice me to some dark spirit. Florette shot Eloise as concerned a look as she could muster, but the quartermaster simply grinned back, emphasizing her thin lips.

“I bet we could get more out of Condillac. They’re the ones pouring all their money into ships; wouldn’t airships be a good next step?” The carpenter stood again when the captain recognized him, as if they didn’t all obviously recognize each other by this point.

“Pain in the ass,” said the shipmaster, Cordelia, according to the captain’s chant. “Their little duke is in the city anyway. He wouldn’t agree while he’s Fouchand’s guest. So that means waiting until after the tournament, at least, all while they burn a hole in our pockets, and for no guarantee they’ll give us any more. Can’t beat money in hand, I say.”

“I move we put it to a vote,” said the carpenter.

“Seconded,” responded Cordelia.

This time it wasn’t unanimous, with almost a third of the room voting for the chance of more money later. Probably. It was hard to tell if she was really following things correctly here. Still, the vote passed, so it seemed they would be selling to the duke.

“On to new business, then.” Verrou looked directly at Eloise as he said it.

This time, she actually stood to speak, as the others had been doing. “Right. I’ve spent the last week or so casing out the Singer’s Lounge. There’s an Avalon bard staying there, with an expensive piece of music equipment. Florette here has an in with him, and wants to help us out, in exchange for membership.”

Verrou blinked. “The captain recognizes the guest, Florette.”

That had to be the signal.

She stood up, since it seemed to be the thing to do, and began to speak quickly, trying to ignore the eyes of the entire room upon her. “Um. It’s called a pulsebox. The bard mentioned that there were only like ten in the entire world, and it sounds like no instrument I’ve ever heard before, so probably really valuable. One of those fancy techno things from the Cambrian College, he said. Uh, it also seems to be able to play itself somehow by feeding sheets of paper into it. They leave it out on the stage even in the morning, once they close.”

She kept her eyes locked with Robin Verrou, trying to read his expression for some sign of approval. “But Magnifico also knows me. I’ve spent some time getting closer to him, and I’m sure I could distract him if the moment were right. He’s got a performance coming up during the Festival, if anyone thinks it would be easier to steal in transit, but I’m open to your expertise on that.”

“She came to me with that,” Eloise added. “No infiltrating the Tower, or Crescent Isle, no worming your way into the heart of some floor manager at a factory, or robbing a train. It’s Cambrian tech, right here in Guerron. Easiest way we could possibly make this much money, and all she wants in return is to join us.” She turned her head across the room. “I know all you louts like it easy! I move we accept her offer and begin plans for the theft.”

Robin Verrou smiled warmly. “Well done, Eloise. But I think we should table this, for the moment. A music box is worth much to the right buyer, but it’s more of a speciality item than schematics or trade goods. Magnifico works directly for the royal family. We’ll want to know this venture is worthwhile before we commit.”

“Fine.” Eloise shrugged.

The rest of the meeting got so deep into the logistics that it flew completely over Florette’s head, but at least no one seemed ready to sacrifice her or anything. By the time the captain said “meeting adjourned,” she was struggling to stay awake.

“Nicely done,” Eloise said as they stepped out onto the deck. “Little rambly, sure, but the legwork impressed them. Not many people trying to join us bring in a job at the same time, and none of them like this.”

“Why did everyone talk like that?” Florette narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I thought it would be funny. And it was.” As they talked, some pirates split off to form around the carpenter, in preparation for the experiment, while others climbed the crow’s nest to swim back. “It’s parliamentary rules. Captain took a book on them from Avalon when he turned his coat. Makes it easy to keep things organized when everyone’s got just as much a right to talk as anyone else and there’s thirty people in a room. Plus, they’re not exactly a group inclined to keep order by nature.”

“But he’s the captain, right? The leader. His voice is worth more. He tells you where to go, and what to steal, and—”

“Yeah, we all became pirates to listen to some jackass order us around. That makes sense.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s the first among equals. If we thought he were doing a shit job as captain, we’d call for a vote and get someone else to do it. We don’t, because he knows his shit and no one’s had cause to complain, but the rule here is that everyone’s worth just as much as anyone else.”

Her lips tilted up at the side. “Of course, the captain and the quartermaster get slightly higher shares of the loot.”

“I ought to too then, for this, for bringing the job in.”

Eloise smiled. “Now you’re learning to value yourself better. But we need to find a buyer first. Someone local, ideally. Transporting that thing looks like a horrendous task and I’d rather be rid of it sooner.”

“I think I have an idea: the singer, Edith Costeau. Hardly a guarantee, but she was the most famous musician in Guerron until Magnifico came in and upstaged her with that box of his. She has the money for it, I’m sure, and a possible motive for it to want it. Or maybe destroy it.”

“As long as we get our money.” Eloise shrugged. “Bit of a stretch, maybe, but it’s worth looking into. She’s a friend of yours?”

“Ah, no. If she remembers me enough to feel anything at all, it’s contempt.” She’d practically run out of the Lounge, the night they had been introduced.

“Marvelous.” She began climbing the ladder, now clear of the ones who had already left. “Well, let’s get on with it then. Magnifico’s not going to rob himself.”