Passing through the city, the group met very few problems, although they did draw eyes to themselves. It could have been that they were a crowd of slaves being led by an all-black attired highwayman and followed by a chaos elf clad in blood red leathers twirling a weaponized spine. Or maybe it was the fact that the slaves were uncollared, or possibly it was because when someone moved up to inquire about buying a slave, Kaeleth whipped the Spine of Turmoil into his spine and killed him.
“I told you there would be no trouble.”
“After you killed that man, I assumed the guard would find us; we aren’t exactly hiding.”
Kaeleth snorted at that.
“Slavery is not legal here.”
That caught Jaeger off guard. He gestured to the ragtag group that trailed them like ducks following their mother.
“Then what’s with them?”
“Slavery isn’t legal, but owning slaves is.” She side-eyed him, a thoughtful look on her face. “The Flesh Trader most likely hired bounty hunters.”
“Bounty Hunters take on contracts to supply people?”
“No, but people who want to disguise illegal slave trading might label themselves as bounty hunters. It was a classic tactic of the Profane Peddlers; they had multiple ‘bounty hunter’ fleets.”
“I’d heard the Profane Peddlers were dealt with, a big raid from multiple guilds.” Or at least that’s what Lisette had said. Then again, considering he’d ended up running into a former executive member who had been masquerading as an innkeeper, there was a chance more had evaded capture.
“That happened, but just because the group was shut down doesn’t mean their operations ceased. Word is that new pirate fleets were spotted around the western archipelagos months after the fall of the Peddlers. Called themselves the Sacrilegious Sailors.” She leaned close. “Ones unassociated with our club.”
The idea of whole fleets of slavers was concerning to Jaeger, but mostly in the abstract; he wasn’t planning on spending any more time at sea than necessary. His more concrete concern was that they would call themselves bounty hunters, which was a more pressing worry.
“So if they call themselves bounty hunters, what’s the feel on actual Bounty Hunters?”
Throwing a wiry smile his way, she shrugged.
“Depends on what guild they’re a part of, and if that’s their class or simply a name they use. No one’s met a Bounty Hunter who’s taken up the slave trader, yet.”
Jaeger bit back a fast response as he noticed the curious and close nature of the ex-slaves trailing them. Apparently, their conversation had been more interesting than simply following them.
“I can’t imagine we ever would, if a Bounty Hunter took slaves, word would get out fast. People tend to fight to the death when the other option is slavery.”
He waved at the slaves, motioning them forward. As they’d been chatting, they’d reached the port and were in sight of the Melodom.
“We’re near the end of our journey. Everyone, make your way to the ice-coated ship; Kaeleth, go ahead of us. Let whoever is on duty know that we’re back, and we brought guests.”
Rolling her eyes at him, Kaeleth hustles ahead of the group. Slowly, the slaves move onto the docks and towards the ship. As Jaeger fell in behind the last person, he spotted movement on the deck, and a gang plank was lowered.
“Up the gangplank and talk to the orc at the back; he’ll see about getting ya jobs and bunks. We ain’t gonna work ya hard, account of ya being just freed an all, but while yer on the ship ya ain’t gonna be lazing about.” A tall, barrel-chested bald man called out to the slaves, upon spying Jaeger, he thumbed behind him. “First mate wants a word.”
The bounty hunter waved his acknowledgment and moved up the gangplank, pushed through the folk, pirates, and slaves, on deck. Upon entering the captain’s quarters, he was met with the intense stare of a stalking tiger.
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“Why is my ship full of slaves?” A growl rippled out of her. “I did not take you for slavers.”
Jaeger ambled forward, shedding his crafted identity as he did, and slid into a chair.
“We aren’t slavers, and those are, now, freed slaves. They are potential witnesses and hold important information. So we brought them with us.”
“Why are they here?”
“We needed somewhere to keep them and transport them out of the city.” Jaeger tapped on the chair’s arm. “We could have killed them too, but more bodies mean more problems.”
Kaeleth emerged from the shadows to stand behind him in solidarity.
Tiga narrowed her eyes.
“Who did you kill?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does if it can be traced back here, and judging by the slaves on my deck, I think it can be.”
“That would require something to have been left to trace.”
Her head cocked in confusion, tinged with excitement.
“Go on.”
“If I tell you, you keep the slaves on board and drop them off at a neutral port.”
“I’m not captain of this ship.”
“Tiber doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to ignore the advice of his first mate.”
He watched as she had an intense internal battle over what to do; in the end, her excitement won out.
“If you tell me everything that happened, I’ll do what I can.”
Jaeger proceeded to describe their encounter with the Flesh Trader. Kaeleth filled in certain parts he couldn’t see and displayed the Spine of Turmoil. As they wrapped up the story, Tiga’s face was one of appreciation.
“A good hunt and a worthy foe indeed. Well done.”
Jaeger inclined his head.
“The former slaves?”
“Handled. What now? I do not expect that your mission was simply to assassinate a local slaver.”
“We’ll be taking one of the slaves and running some errands.”
Tiga smirked.
“Are these the kinds of errands that require a quick escape?”
Jaeger shrugged.
“If things go well? No, we should get what we need and be gone before anyone cares to notice.” Left unsaid was how poorly things could go.
“I’ll send a runner for the rest of the crew then.” She turned from him and called out. “Vito, Trinidad, Elena, Zuud!”
Three crewmen ran inside the room and waited as she gave them orders. At once, the four of them shot off from the ship. Jaeger watched from the room’s large window as they sprinted down the docks and out into the city. His attention was drawn back to Tiga when she reached under the desk and brought out an ostentatiously ornate lockbox. It was the kind of thing he’d seen some of the noble turned bandit kings in Beseria use; gold as the base metal, pearl-lined, studded with a rainbow of gems and jewels. The keyhole in the center was large, and the key Tiga pulled from her pocket, with a grimace on her face, was somehow even more gold and pearl than the box.
“Don’t react violently.” She said to me, her attention still locked on the box; her expression was akin to someone watching a horrible accident happen, unable to turn away.
As she inserted the key into the lock, she slowly turned it, seven soft clicks releasing. Right as she unlocked the eighth, she turned the box away from us and backed up. As the box opened, a black fog spilled forth from it, and from the shadows rose a figure.
“You expected treasure,” From the fog a familiar figure stepped forth, a cutlass in hand. “But instead it was me, Tiber.”
Jaeger guessed the speech landed better when the man was facing his audience. Instead, it landed flat, and it took a moment for the darkling man to turn around. When he did, his expression was unreadable as it swept over him, Kaeleth, and landed on Tiga.
“Why?”
“I needed to get in touch with you.”
“Send a runner.”
“You always disappear and make it impossible for anyone to find you.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you not recall New Zanthea? What about Tiran T’og?”
The expression on Tiber’s face had still not settled into anything recognizable, but he did take a slight step back.
“That still doesn’t excuse you from using my lockbox trap. Come to that, how did you know about that?”
“I was here when the Yingzhang pirates raided the ship and saw you pull this trick on them.”
His eyes narrowed on her.
“And you didn’t say anything until now? The crew still doesn’t believe I handled that; they insist that I called in someone like Investigator to handle them.”
“It was embarrassing to watch then, and it’s a little embarrassing now.”
“This was a very smart and deceptive trap that always works.”
“Yes, the trap is smart. Your intro is not.”
Jaeger could feel the situation falling further and further from his grasp, so he decided to break it up.
“Enough. Tiber, we need the ship and crew ready to leave in a hurry. Our job here is almost done.”
That got Tiber’s attention, and the darkling turned to him.
“It’s not even been a full day, and you’ve finished?”
“Almost. We need to pay a visit to an estate in town, and then we’ll be done.”
Tiber lifted his hat and rubbed his bald head.
“The crew’s not gonna love having their leave cut short.” He replaced his hat with a smile.
“Our next destination is not time sensitive, so regardless of when we finish our job, we will be there for a set amount of time,” Kaeleth said.
“Aye? That’ll mollify a bit of the crew, then. Eh, we’ll just raid a few ships after we’re done here. I know a few slaver ships, give the crew a bit of the black flag treat, and they’ll perk right up.” He smiled at them, a bloodthirsty thing. “It’s easy to keep pirates in line when you offer the right incentive.”
Jaeger and Kaeleth stood up and nodded.
“Good, we’re going to ready up and grab our guide.” As the pair left the room, he stopped at the entrance. “Thank you for taking on the ex-slaves for us.”
As he closed the door behind him, he could hear Tiber ask Tiga.
“What’s this about ex-slaves?”
