Chapter 128 - Ill Tides Roll In

"To begin, let us discuss the purpose of this meeting. As most of you are aware, we are dealing with a variety of incidents that have been threatening to destabilize the equilibrium of the Free Waters. For those unaware, let me give you a quick rundown." Artemisia steepled her fingers.

Her quick rundown was anything but. Strange weather patterns in the deeper parts of the Free Waters had been causing difficulties with shipments, and while this was a boon to raiding unwelcome ships, it also made protecting vessels that had paid protection to the Pirate Fleet.

Tarkota had also been hiring Privateers to threaten any vessels under Free Water flags, which was causing difficulties there. Since the Free Waters were not part of the Mortal Kingdoms Alliance, there was nothing to be done there.

The Shau-gan and the Sahagin, another group of shark-folk that dwelled at the bottom of the ocean and in various island strongholds, had been showing up outside their own territories and seemed to be investigating something involving the old Endless Empire ruins for some unknown purpose.

The surf cults, which were usually harmless, peace-loving fans of the pastime of surfing and beach parties, even when it came to conflicts between the two main factions, had begun to become increasingly violent.

On top of this, rogue elements of both factions had begun joining together, forming a bizarre cult to the red star hanging in the sky. It seemed to coincide with that star getting brighter, which had happened several times historically, but why this seemed to be inspiring such action was unknown.

And to top all of this off, Deep Grave seemed to glow more intensely and more frequently than it used to. Multiple kraken had been spotted in the depths, and it was making the merchant and smuggler fleets increasingly nervous.

All of the incidents were mapped out on a large navigating chart that had been wheeled in. They marked attacks on ships, islands, and various other locations. I couldn't be sure, but there seemed to be a pattern that felt painfully familiar. It bothered me to no end that I couldn't seem to connect it in my brain.

"In short, there is a lot of unease in these waters, and it's affecting morale and our revenue. Neither of these things is ideal, and the fact that this shite has reached the shores of my little sanctuary has me feeling a bit upset." She said those final words with such venom that it became utterly clear that she was vastly understating her emotions.

"And why are the tridents here? They have no place amongst the Free Waters, and their kind have shed too much pirate blood to ever be welcome." A dwarven woman practically spat in rage.

"Angrid, I don't remember giving you leave to speak, but I shall ignore it. I have invited them here. And to be transparent, it's because we don't have enough manpower to cover all the areas under duress. Our coffers aren't deep enough to hire enough mercenaries, and there are painfully few that will even work with Pirates, much less operate in the ocean. The only organization with enough infrastructure to deal with this is the Silver Tridents." The pirate queen explained.

"This is ridiculous, my lady. I mean no disrespect, but how bad could this possibly be? It seems like a bit more activity against us than normal, but it doesn't seem to be something we can't handle." Another of the captains spoke up, a drakekin, who, despite their small size, still managed to look intimidating.

Artemisia sighed and rubbed her temples. "Have none of you noticed how few of your fellow captains are here? They're not missing because they're busy. They're missing because they are dead, or they've defected."

The silence that followed spoke volumes.

"This is it, my lady? Have you pulled the whole fleet back to this island? Have we lost so much?" The orc spoke up, clearly distressed.

"It isn't lost, not by a long shot, but whatever force is guiding the traitors, the cults, the shark-folk, and the privateers seems to be focusing on this resort, and we will stop them by any means necessary. We haven't protected and controlled the Free Waters this long to just surrender to a bunch of greedy bastards and religious madmen." She said, dropping much of her dignified air, her face darkening in a near snarl. She reminded me so much of Eira in that expression.

"May I speak?" A woman, human, from the Silver Trident Knights raised her hand. The pirate queen nodded to her.

She stood up straight. She had short hair, dyed a vibrant blue, likely some tradition I knew nothing about. She also had some kind of markings under her eyes. Ornate ones at that. The Silver Trident were a complete unknown to me, as they never interacted with the rest of the Mortal Kingdoms outside Hastera and Tarkota. They were sea-bound warriors, and both Burgotova and Revenstahd were far from the great waters.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Knight-Captain Gwynn Nierath, First Fleet of the Silver Trident. I would like to explain our involvement personally." She bowed to the assemblage. "I understand your reticence with working with us, as we are in every sense of the word your sworn enemies. However, the Lord Commander of my order has determined that, despite our differences, you do serve a vital role protecting the waters of the coast of The Principality of Hastera."

"You're damn right we do." One of the captains muttered under their breath loud enough to be heard by everyone. There were low mutters of agreement.

She cleared her throat and continued.

"As such, we recognize that if you completely lose power over the Free Waters, there is every possibility that smaller groups may seize the opportunity to raid our coasts, not to mention possible opponents across the sea. And to add to this...and this is hard for me to admit, we need the pirates to enforce the borders between Tarkota and Hastera, as you have indirectly been doing. Tarkota has been itching for a conflict, and might use this as an excuse if we do not get this roped off as soon as possible."

The room was quiet for a long moment.

Nene leaned in and whispered to me. "I have absolutely no idea what is going on. I am so confused r-r-r-r-right now."

"You're not alone in that. This is very much over my head. I'm not entirely sure why they called us here." I whispered back. This meeting seemed important, but as for why the family, Nene, and I were involved, I was incredibly lost to any reason for it.

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"That concludes this portion of the meeting. Afterwards, Gerno, my first consort, will liaise with the captains and the silver trident to discuss battle plans. I wish to now hear about this incident this very evening. Stand before me, Nene the Harpy, and Alta Alba Marchesi. I have heard the reports from Osian, and through him the accounting from Eira. I need an outsider's perspective." Artemisia announced.

Nene tensed immediately, and she began to shake. I squeezed her hand.

"It'll be ok. I'm right here. You're my junior, a fellow dungeoneer, and I'm not going to let them hurt you, okay?" I said calmly.

"I'm not a student yet, though." She said, her lip quivering a bit, her eyes threatening to tear up again.

"Doesn't matter. I've saved your life once; you're stuck with me." I grinned at her, and that seemed to cheer her up some.

Two of the pirate attendants came to us and guided us to the table. A section of it lifted, and we were both walked into the center.

I was surrounded. Familiar faces, strangers, a gaggle of dangerous individuals arrayed all around us. The captains looked at us with disinterest, as did the knights, save their captain. Her expression was unreadable. Mostly. There was a strange expression there, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"I will hear your accounting." The pirate queen stared down at us, her eyes hard as cold frosty glass.

Nene started to speak first, but her words devolved into a flurry of stuttering.

"If you may, your ladyship, I wish to speak on her behalf. This poor child of the harpy peoples has been dealt a traumatic experience, and her words fail her. She has given me her tale, and I shall speak it on her behalf." I said with a slight bow, mustering every bit of etiquette I could pull out of my sleep- and food-deprived head. I wanted to eat something so bad right now. Better to deal with this as efficiently as possible so I could make this happen.

I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Eira's face showing a mixture of trepidation at my words and something like pride.

"Very well." Artemisia nodded her head at me. Gads, I wished half the nobles in Burgotova acted with this kind of grace. The country might have been a decent place to grow up. But then, I would likely not be where I am in my life if that had happened.

I straightened my back and began to retell the events of the evening previous, leaving out Osian and me drinking on the rocks, and us deciding to dive into the jungle on a whim.

I told of how Nene had gotten involved, and how we had stepped in when it looked like she was in danger.

I then prepared to reveal something I had realized I hadn't told Eira, due to the hurried nature of our flight to the main building. I hadn't wanted to surprise her with this, especially after leaving out important information during the whole dryad incident, but I figured this was as good a time as any.

"If I may, there was something particularly strange about the whole incident I wish to have brought to the attention of both the Pirate Fleet assemblage and the Silver Trident," I added.

"Which is?" The queen cocked an eyebrow at me.

"This pale one, the one leading the cult proceedings, and the one attended by the Sahagin, was somewhat known to me. During mine and Eira's travels here, we had a fellow caravan member who had gone missing during a monster attack just before we reached the border. I am one hundred percent sure they are the one leading this incident." I said firmly. I heard Eira gasp to the side, and I resisted the urge to look towards her.

"Are you certain?" Renard asked, very seriously.

I took a deep breath before answering. This was going to be a lot of information in a hurry.

"Yes. I am very sure. They claimed to be a scholar from Hastera, who was researching ruins. They were very skilled in the magical arts, more so than anyone I had encountered before. They also seemed to have information about certain things about my person, I do not wish to discuss here. They seemed to also be using an alias. They called themselves Caru Gavyn."

The knight captain stood suddenly, her face turning pale. "I need to clarify something, apologies, my lady."

She bowed towards Artemisia, who waved dismissively at her contrition.

She turned towards me again.

"They were pale, with white hair, sometimes silver-blue, pink colored eyes, and very tall? And they called themselves Caru Gavyn? Is that correct?"

"That is correct. After their disappearance, it was found that they didn't match their travel documents. The papers themselves seemed to have been altered magically in some way. Which is a spell I can't even fathom how to do." I nodded to her.

"Is this someone known to you, Knight Captain?" Roshia asked, suddenly curious.

The Knight-Captain sat down with a thump and a sigh. "This individual has been sought after for some time. They've been a known collaborator with rogue elements of several disgraced Knightly Orders, was known to be involved in illegal magical experiments, unauthorized monster hunting and harvesting, illegal slave trade, trafficking of mortals and monsters alike, political maneuvering to cause unrest in the Mortal Kingdoms, connections to rebel factions amongst nobles in every part of the alliance, and threatening to lead the conclave of mages and the mage academies into open revolt, and most recently is suspected of being involved in a recent outbreak of mutated dryads in Revenstahd. Their list of crimes is impressive, to say the least."

"If they're here, this definitely is a big problem." Osian piped up.

"Exactly. That means all these incidents in the Free Waters are part of another one of their schemes, though we still have no idea what in all the hells above and below they're trying to pull off." Captain Gwynn rubbed her temples in clear irritation.

I was beginning to feel some kind of picture coming together in my mind. I didn't like what I was seeing there.

"Do you have their identity?" Artemisia asked plainly.

"They have a lot of aliases, so we're not entirely sure what to call them. Caru, The Star Summoner, the Fallen Star, the Prophet of the Starless Wisdom, the White Witch, The Pale Death, The Dungeon Born. The most common title they have is The Magister."

My head and heart lurched at the revelation of that name. It connected to so many things I had gotten pulled into, and their shadow had cast an unknown shadow over my life.

And they were here. I had them in my grasp, and I let them go. On top of that, they were planning something else.

"I think we've covered enough ground for tonight in this meeting. We shall adjourn for the rest of the evening. It is late; sunrise is mere hours away now. Gerno will give information to the captains for the next steps. But first, I wish to speak to Eira and Alta alone. Someone will take you to your rooms, Nene." Artemisia said, directing the various parties here.

"I-I-I-If I may m-m-m-milady, may I wait for Alta and Eira outside? I'd like to talk to them after they are done with you." Nene said, quite bravely, I might add. I was proud of the little seabird girl.

The Pirate Queen stared at her for a long moment.

"Very well. You may sit outside. The rest of you are dismissed. I want just myself, my daughter, and her paramour to be the only ones in this room within the next three minutes." She said finally.

Everyone got into a flurry of movement, and in a seeming blink of an eye, it was just Eira, still in her seat, myself standing all alone in the center of the room, and Artemisia, the most powerful pirate in the known world, looking down her nose at me.

There wasn't a sound in the room save the thudding of my heart.

I then realized I'd been holding my breath.

"So." I jumped when she spoke.

"Yes, ma'am?" I said, forcing my sudden wave of nervousness to stay away from my voice.

"You're the little minx who has seduced my daughter? I'm not sure if I should be enraged or impressed." She stood from her seat, stepped down, and towards me, sashaying in a way that was at once attractive and terrifying.

"Let's you and I have a little chat." She said as she held my chin in her hands and stared right into my eyes, her gaze feeling like it pierced into my very soul.

I swallowed my fear, refusing to let anyone threaten my relationship with Eira, even if it was her mother, and even if said mother could likely destroy me with little effort. I mustered every bit of defiance I had in me, and then coated it in decorum.

No reason to be impolite to possible future in-laws.

"Yes. Let's."