Chapter 93: A night for romance

And so William rose from the very water in the manner of the goddess of life herself to bless their union…

• Jason Salazar

There were a couple places they had in mind to check for dark secrets: Abandoned docks, like Reese had suggested And the church of Granesh, because they had such a fine time breaking in the last time they went for a walk, and if there was a secret demi-human plot against The Flotilla, the church of Granesh would be the ones who would be most interested in finding out.

Aside from…everyone else who liked a juicy conspiracy.

“Not a lot to go on,” Will mused as they walked down the floating piers that linked the ships of The Flotilla together a bit like a honeycomb.

The night air was beginning to creep through the crowded together ships as the sun went down, adding an omnipresent cold draft to the smell of seawater and faint rot.

Will and Loth could see just fine, though. The handful of ship lamps that spilled light into the city ‘streets’ were more than enough for Will and Loth to navigate by.

“Still, a fine way to spend an evening,” Loth said with a shrug.

If you like creeping up on people at night.

To be fair, Will did like being sneaky and flitting from shadow to shadow when the mood struck, so he really didn’t have much reason to refute Loth’s statement.

So far in the night, they’d checked a dilapidated dock that no one used because it was treacherously unsafe. That had been a wash, with Loth almost falling into the ocean after a board that had held Will up collapsing beneath the kobold’s weight.

Their next stop was a pleasure vessel that seemed to facilitate a bit of smuggling on the side.

They spent nearly half an hour watching level 30 sailors with bodies scarred from years of navigating treacherous seas, and fancy hats to denote their respective pecking order, running bushels of green seaweed back and forth.

Will and Loth were surprised to discover that the drug-running operation wasn’t even illegal, it was simply a mix of habit, peak demand hours and cool night-time temperatures preventing spoilage that saw teams of sailors hauling packages of meldweed into the floating brothel by the bushel.

“What’s meldweed do anyway?” Will asked as they left.

“If chewed recreationally, It temporarily depresses parts of the brain responsible for individuality and sense of self, making it difficult to determine where you end and your partner begins.” Loth said.

“…Why would you want to do that?” Will asked frowning.

“Sometimes something you say reminds me how young you are,” Loth said. looking up at him with mock pity.

“Ah. It’s a sex thing,” Will said, nodding more confidently than he felt.

“Anyway, if refined, it can be used offensively to make some rather interesting poisons. Ever since I learned of it, I’ve entertained the idea of lacing a cocktail of it and a few other things on blackmail letters to make the reader unable to think critically as the substance absorbs through their fingers while they read.”

“That’s monstrous.”

“Thank you. Can we get some?” Loth asked looking up at him with pleading eyes.

“Sure, on the condition that you don’t use it on any Party members without their knowledge or permission. We can swing by and grab some after we’re done looking around.”

“Nice.” Loth clenched her fists. “My first mind-effecting poison.”

She rubbed her chin. “I wonder if I can breed my wasps to replicate the compound? Anyway, meldweed might be illegal outside the tower, but it’s on the list of approved substances here.”

As if to emphasize her point, Will spotted a guardsman, to all appearances another sailor, with only the Flotilla’s oversized ‘guardsman’ hat to denote his station, waving at the crew carrying massive baskets of seaweed into the oversized cruise ship.

Together, Will and Loth crept off into the night, looking for any other sign of fish-people secretly undermining the flotilla.

Their third stop of the night was when Loth tugged at his sleeve and motioned to an oversized ship on the edge of the water, with gentle swaves lapping up against it’s side.

“Something’s telling me that is a trap,” Loth whispered as the two of them hunkered down.

“What about it?”

She cocked her head, seemingly considering.

“It’s too far away from other light sources, the rear of the ship is unlit, unguarded, facing a clear swath of ocean with poor visibility, the panelling on the rear is oddly shaped, with an oversized rim around it.”

Now that she pointed it out, Will could imagine a small vessel easily rowing up to the back of the oversized ship, without anyone spotting it.

There weren’t very many places for them to sit and watch, eventually they found a section of dock that hung a bit higher above the water, and Loth created a sling to suspend the two of them from it.

As the evening gave way to night, lamp after lamp gradually went out as the city went to sleep.

“There.” Loth said, pointing.

Even with Will’s Acuity as high as it was, it was difficult to make out.

The ripples of water that reflected the barest hint of starlight were being masked by something in the vague shape of a small boat gradually drifting towards the back of the ship that Loth had marked as suspicious.

Will nodded silently, replacing Amulet of the Homefield Advantage with the Dimensional Assassin’s Amulet.

Between it and the Wand of the Trespasser, Will’s audiovisual effects were dampened by 55% while he tried to hide.

In broad daylight, that would make him somewhat transparent, but in the nighttime, he basically became a ghost.

Will didn’t assume that meant he’d be completely unseen. The dampening effect really only leveled the playing field, given that nearly everyone had at least some Acuity.

His best bet would be to employ the age-old stealth technique of approaching from a direction they wouldn’t think to look.

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Loth pointed off to the left as the boat approached and Will nodded, slipping out of the sling Loth had made for them and dropping to the water without even a splash to announce his presence as the water solidified underneath him.

Will kept low and scuttled to the left until he saw an opportunity. A swell of water, maybe two feet tall concealed him as he darted away from the dock and crawled silently across the rolling waves on his hand and feet until he was right behind the incoming ship.

Close enough to hear their quiet breathing.

From what Will could see, there were at least three of them, cloaks concealing their features.

The one in the front peered up at the ship they headed towards, watching a tiny slight flickering rhythmically, like a candle with someone waving their hand in front of it.

Matter of fact, I think that’s exactly what it is.

From Loth’s perspective, she wouldn’t be able to see the person signaling to the boat, but Will could see them. And by default, they could see him, crawling along the water, out in the open.

If not now, then soon.

Will swiftly crawled forward and clung to the back of the boat, using it to hide himself from the watcher above while making himself as small as possible.

One of the passengers must’ve felt his weight shift the boat, because their hooded face glanced over the edge, scanning the surrounding water.

Will didn’t move a muscle.

They didn’t raise the alarm, merely leaning back into their seat with a grunt of displaced air from an obese body.

A minute later, Will risked peeking around the side of the boat to see where they were going.

Ahead of them, the back of the ship began to open.

Loth’s suspicions were proven correct as faint light spilled into the surrounding water, forcing Will to pull his head back and narrow his eyes against the glare.

It was the faintest candlelight, but now that his eyes were accustomed to the dark of night, it glared like the sun.