Twilight Arrivals

The city was like most port cities, appealing to the constant flow of visitors. Brothels, gambling houses, and call houses littered the immediate vicinity of the dock. His backpack jogged softly side to side as he hurried past the loud and rowdy customers of all sorts. He looked down at his watch, it was a watery silver color that seemed to be moving though it was still. His smirk broadened into a smile. "Could you be running late just once?" Gripping both straps he dropped into a jog and moved adeptly through the streets staying away from any of the lamp lights out of habit. The scarier things in life have just as much trouble finding you in the dark as you do seeing them while standing in the light.

About 15 minutes of road surfing around he saw the large gray spattered pillars of his destination. He slowed and started up the steps. Large stone manes surrounded open mouths and sharp grey teeth of the two sentinels on each side of the doors. He pet one of them before heaving on the tan doors. Probably oak. Orange-ish yellow light spewed out and he had to blink to adjust before strolling in and letting the door slide closed behind him. He looked around at the rich array of knowledge perfectly ordered and organized by Dr. Dewey himself. The long walls of books led to a small reading area with hard chairs and rectangular tables. The library was fairly empty but one large blond man was seated with three books in front of him, all strewn open as he wrote frantically in a notepad.

"Let me guess, Einstein, someone crazy, and a romance novel for fun?" He threw out.

The man looked up distractedly. "No, I don't like romance novels but the other two are pretty spot on. This third one is about weapon's from different cultures. I thought maybe I could get some ideas in a pinch to construct if I needed," He responded

"Not even a smile for that one. I'm gonna think you aren't excited to see me Norgunn," He wryly piped out.

Shrugging, "To each his own I guess. Though this crazy book might be right up your alley," Norgunn said with a touch of humor in his eyes. He tossed the book over and sat back as the title was read, "Soul Enscribed."

The man hadn’t moved from his position under the tree since he had sat down nearly half an hour before. Seth knew this, since he had been watching the small courtyard behind the inn carefully for nearly two hours. He had found a flat shadowed space between two chimneys a block-and-a-half away where he could easily see the back door of the inn (which was the only way into the courtyard), and the bench under the tree where the man sat. Away in the distance, the last sliver of sunlight could be seen stretching across the waves like fire made liquid.

The man seemed to be deep in thought, staring at the small, flickering light in the shuttered lantern that sat next to him, but Seth had seen him shift slightly with each small noise. His head tilted a hair this way and then a hair that way. The man was listening, and listening carefully. He wasn’t twitchy or tightly-wound, quite the opposite. He seemed relaxed and even grinned to himself once or twice, as if he had thought of something humorous. Despite all that, he was paying close attention to his surroundings. Seth approved of this. A man should always be vigilant. Seth knew he was a few minutes late for his meeting with the man, but only a fool would walk into a meeting without getting to know his counterpart.

It wasn’t that people couldn’t be good and honest. It was just that they weren’t. At least to his kind. People, as a general rule, wouldn’t walk across the street to piss on him if he were on fire. That was just the world of the Edema Ruh, and he was that and more. It was always better to be careful.

After a few more minutes of intense scrutiny, Seth decided that he had learned all he could about the man. He ticked the items off in his mind: slight build, short, sailor (probably an officer of some type), right-handed, extremely confident, careful, and slightly impatient. He would be too if he had been waiting for a half hour, but it was the man’s own fault for showing up early. He frowned. This wasn’t as much as he normally would have learned from watching for this length of time. This man didn’t let much slip out.

Seth carefully threaded his way along the shadowed rooftops, carefully shifting his rucksack back and forth to keep it from snagging on protrusions. His cloak swirled slightly around his legs, but was kept in close to his body by the straps wrapped around his arms, waist, and legs. He edged along a window-ledge and slid down the clay tiles of a roof, careful (as always) to avoid loose tiles. He moved until he reached the drainpipe in the alley that allowed him to shimmy his way down from the second story. He gave a man passed out in the alley a wide berth and made his way across the empty street. He nimbly made his way up the grooves the crumbling mortar made in the wall and swiftly scaled it. He silently dropped into the cover of the bushes and shrubs in the garden and made his way to within a few yards of the stranger. He didn’t want to startle the man, so when he saw a stick on the ground he purposefully stepped on it. It made a soft crack under his boot. The stranger turned and Seth saw that he had drawn his knife. Seth raised his hands and tried his very best to look non-threatening. This wasn’t so hard as his face looked younger than he was, and twenty wasn’t very old in the first place. He waited for the man to speak.

Wing walked rushed with his hands in his pocket, agitatedly muttering each step. Norgunn walked adjacent to Seth and calmly looked at his surroundings as they moved. It was second nature for him to manipulate the elements so he pushed ever so tiny ice particles formed in the rain to simple slide off to the side like personal shingles. It was almost second nature though he did consciously allow the portion directly over wings head to funnel the rain in rather than away. Norgunn was in a very good mood today. 

Seth was similar in his observations of the terrain, however he seemed to almost slide forward in such a way that he did not bring any attention even when 2 feet away from Norgunn. Seth stopped abruptly and Norgunn took 4 more full steps before he noticed the lack of motion next to him. Turning around Seth stood stiff. He seemed bestial and aggressive and Norgunn's eyes widened but he stayed silent.  Wing kept walking too lost in his thoughts to notice their absence.  Seth quietly began speaking very clearly,

"Stop probing me wizard. I know you are just trying to be safe, but I have no patience for your wonderment."

Norgunn's eyes began to relax and he nodded. "I was merely stopping the rain from hitting us, my apologies."

Norgunn let the rain drop onto Seth and he relaxed as well but did not say any more as they pressed on to the diner. He didn't seem hostile in the least now but Norgunn did not like making ill feeling from someone he had yet to speak more than a sentence to. It was a touch worrisome that Seth could sense his manipulation of the elements. Who was this man?

As Wing got to the door he turned and could make them out about 20 paces back. "What's wrong with you two hurry up!" He walked in dripping and removing his bag as he dropped into a chair near the corner. A puddle began to appear on his chair so he moved over a seat grabbing napkins. He pulled out his watch again and unhinged it from his arm. He swirled the innards and had a slight grin as his companions finally came in and walked over. Seth slightly damp and Norgunn dry as a bone. Wing squeezed his hair dropping water like a sponge and just stared at Norgunn "I hate you. Don't say anything, I just hate you."

Norgunn looked over at Seth and chuckled, "Now wasn't that worth it?" Seth sat down and looked at them both without emotion then began calmly observing the layout of the diner. It was a medium sized diner, 12 stools at the off-white counter. Each stool was identical with red seats and metal bases. 6 dark wood tables with 4 chairs apiece. Square in shape and seemingly heavy and sturdy. Small circular windows every few feet of the walls which were light brown. 2 other customers were already inside when they arrived. A medium build man with a balding head and a dress shirt with suspenders was reading the paper with a coffee and a tired posture. His navy suit jacket and matching hat were on the seat next to him. The other was a heavyset woman eating a set of flapjacks and staring out the window. Her dress was white with white pearl earrings and a white pearl necklace. Her skin seemed almost tan against all the lack of color as her hair also was as white as snow. Typical cooks were in the back and one waitress was manning the three "tables."



As Seth surveyed the room Wing pulled out the book and set it in front of Seth with 2 bookmarks in it. "Seth check these out. The first one I think you might have noticed I currently own, the second is why we asked you to meet with us."

Seth lifted the book open to the first page with a picture of a watch. Silver with blue flowing through it. "The watch of the forgotten." Wing said softly, leaned in, and placed it on the table. "Tells me the state of whomever I'm about to meet with. Happy, sad, aggressive, pained, whatever. It also tells me if they have arrived as long as it is a planned meeting by each party. I called it my datekeeper but noticed it did much more in a pinch. Known as the forgotten because if the keeper ever loses their way the watch will pull them back to the path they used to get wherever they came from. Works through incantations, mazes, walls, even through blindfolds and once through the ocean. It's real and right here. One of the only items I ever risked to get and didn't end up selling. This was the reason I kept reading this book rather than thinking it was a load of rubbish" Seth listened quietly then looked down and turned to the second bookmark.

"The great part is it's on the way to where we initially asked you out to meet us about." Wing added in.

Seth continued to stare and wonder about the possibilities of this 3 stone set. "So why do you so willingly want to bring me in to lose a third of the bounty off this mancala set" he inquired with a very faint suspicion.

Wing looked at Norgunn and Norgunn sighed. "It's a bribe really. I only have interest in the Cini stone myself. It's the one that looks like a black opal of sorts and allows for detection of things that aren't supposed to be here in "our" world. Wing will sell whatever he can get his hands on so he'd be willing to give you either of the others." Wing shrugged the intentional dig off; somewhat serious but nodding with agreement. "But from what I understand the mossy rock in the middle, the falmir stone. I understand it could be used to aleviate your... condition. It can impart vitality, or perhaps energy is the better term, from the holder to another speciman. I understand that it might give direction to uncursifying your self." Norgunn glanced back at Wing. "How do you even say that?"

Seth did not show any emotion to the new information but looked back to Wing who continued, "The last one has no name, people figure it must do something cool since the other two are pretty awesome but I think it must do something in regards to assault//"

The waitress piped in "Do you fella's need anything sweet or refills on your drinks?"

Wing jerked his gaze over and quickly answered. "Full pie please."

"Alright and what kind can we get for you?"

"Do you have a key lime?"

"Little far north for that hon. We have a banana cream, apple cinnamon, and a house special called how the cookie crumbles."

Wing grinned at that, "Crumbling cookies it is thank you and a top off for my friend here." Gesturing to Seth.

Norgunn shook his head that he didn't need anything and the waitress walked away oddly victorious. But late night workers often had interesting personalities. The diner had filled up a little since they first arrived so there was a soft rustle of voices around the room.  Wing began again quieter, "Anyway what I'm saying is I think it must do something cool even if no one really knows what it does yet. I've got a knack for this stuff and everyone seems to want something that helps them in a fight so what do you think?"

Seth stared for a while before wording firmly, "What's the other goal beyond these toys Wing?"

"Oh hell. Haha the whole point about us meeting. Well//" Norgunn placed his hand on Wings. A moment later a large pie was placed in the center of the table with three spoons. "Enjoy boys, call for Vic if you need anything else." She walked away this time less jovially. "Strange" said Seth to himself.

Wing already had a large bite of the pie in his mouth. "mmm okay, you guys gotta try this. Norgunn you tell him the mission I'm eating." As he took a second bite. Norgunn put the spoon he had picked up back on the table "Ok, where to start?" Chuckling again.

"I want to start this by pointing out that this was mostly Wing's idea. -" Wing cut Norgunn off.

"Which means that I get all the glory and bragging rights for this." He pointed out, causing everyone at the table to wince.  Wing blinked and then realized his mouth had still been full.  Trying to be casual he wiped his mouth with a napkin and quieted back down.  There was a bit of pie on the table.  Subtly he tried to wipe at that too.

Norgunn rolled his eyes a little and continued.  "It also means that you will get all the blame and ridicule in the overwhelming likelihood that this turns out to be a wild goose chase."  Wing glared at the man and Norgunn raised his hands in a surrendering gesture "But Wing has done some extensive.. Ah.. Research, on the topic and is very confident that this will turn out to be a big haul.  Have you ever heard about Zheng He Seth?"  The big man shook his head while Wing continued to stuff himself with pie.

"Zheng He was a Chinese admiral in the early 1400s.  He had these huge treasure ships that he sailed all over.  He wrote about Sri Lanka and the islands around China.  Most historians and schientists say he even got as far as Eastern Africa, all in boats over 120 meters long with nine masts and space for tons and tons of treasure.  Well Wing here is convinced that this fleet made it much farther than that.  He is 'dead certain'" Norgunn made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "Anyway, the point of this whole expedition is that Wing thinks one of these treasure ships had to be left behind somewhere in South America after the natives killed a bunch of the crew." 

"So what is the reason you need us?" Seth asked Wing.

Wing finished the last bite of pie carefully this time before responding.

"Well....  The site may or may not be a little deep in Maricoxi territory."  He mumbled towards his napkin.  Seth swore quietly under his breath.

"You know there is no reasoning with Maricoxi.  They are basically Yeti that have learned how to use some tools and weapons.  They eat people for crying out loud!  I have never heard of anyone trading successfully with them except Ogres and I think the only reason for that is that the Maricoxi are more scared the Ogres will eat them."  Seth was trying to keep his voice down, but he was obviously getting a little worked up.

"Which brings me to the reason why we needed to all meet in Copperton.  About three hundred leagues from here is an Ogre fishing Settlement that will trade with Maricoxi sometimes.  I'm hoping we can get something from them that will let us pass."  Wing said, avoiding looking Seth in the eyes.

As they started their walk to the Deputy, Seth found himself instinctively walking in whatever shadows were available and rubbernecking around at every corner. Seth knew better than to ignore his instincts. Something had happened. He had missed something. He leaned forward and whispered, “Keep moving and acting natural. I’ll meet you there.” His companions looked at him strangely for a moment, but they nodded and kept conversing. Seth then waited until they had rounded another corner, then slipped silently into the next alley and hit behind a trash bin. He crouched, thinking to himself. Something had happened at the diner. He felt his eyes glaze over as he concentrated…

He thought of the diner and its squeaky door and comfy seats. He thought of the dim light fixtures and the slightly scratched tables that filled the room. He filled his conscious mind until he could almost smell the smells that had filled the place. Once he had the image firmly fixed, he allowed his mind to fill in the other details. Seats were filled with people, food appeared on the tables, soft music played in the background, and people chatted with their friends.

The brain couldn’t keep every little detail firmly in the conscious mind during daily life; There simply wasn’t enough concentration to go around. But the subconscious was a different story and was much more capable of noticing detail than the conscious mind. A man who had learned to “read” his subconscious could dredge up more information than seemed natural to those who hadn’t. He had used this reading ability to create a mindscape of the diner. The conscious mind created the scape, and the subconscious filled it, kind of like those children’s coloring books. The amount of information was impressive, and the quality of the scape was good. There were limitations, however. He could only see what he had been looking at at the time. If he moved around in the scape, there would be sections of objects and people that would be missing completely because he had never seen that side of them them. If he focused, his mind could usually make a guess of what should be there and fill it in, but it would usually be a copy of the opposite side because other details were unknown.

However, the mind could deduce some very interesting details without using eyes. His other senses allowed him to know that, for example, somebody had set down their mug rather harder than was necessary at the table behind him. His mind could fill in the details of the man that he had seen when walking into the diner, and the motion of his arm would be filled in as well. The man had been wearing a dress shirt with suspenders, reading the paper, and drinking a coffee. He must have read something that put him in a foul mood… It would basically look like what he would see in real life, but there would be a blank space for the side of the man that he had never seen, and the motion might not have been the exact one made by the man, just one that his mind filled in. The mind was very good at this, however, and the motion would be close. All the missing sections of tables, chairs, and people made for a surreal facsimile of the diner, but very serviceable. This training had been necessary in order to control his “condition, since shape changing required intense imagination and control of visual shapes in the mind. Learning this had been painful. Bad transformations could destroy a man, if he wasn’t careful… He shivered and turned his mind back to the problem at hand: Somebody had been spying on them at the diner. He decided to focus on the time near when they had been about to leave and moved the time flow to that point.

He watched as people walked into his mindscape diner, sat down, ordered food. He watched as a couple sat down together, the man idly stroking the woman’s hand. He saw the chicken and dumplings that the fat man across the restaurant ordered. He watched as… there. There it was. The woman in white had glanced up at them. He quickly reversed the time flow and watched the woman’s actions during the time they had been there. Luckily, she had been just off to his left and had been in his peripheral for most of the time they were there. Peripheral vision doesn’t have color, but his mind compensated by filling in the colors he gathered when looking directly at her. Whenever he had turned away from her she disappeared from his view except for the details that could be filled in from sound and touch, such as when she scooted her chair back a few inches at one point and the floor shook. He watched her all the back until the time that he had first entered the restaurant. She calmly ate her flapjacks and looked out the window. As far as he could tell, she had only looked at them the once. That didn’t mean that she didn’t look when he wasn’t looking in her direction, however. Hmm…

He quickly repeated the procedure for the fat man at the table. He had shown up partway through their conversation. He ordered his chicken and dumplings since it was a quick meal. The conversation was faint from so far away, but by reading the man’s lips he could tell what he had said. The waitress had her back to them, so he missed that part of the conversation. After going back and forth in the timeline, he never saw anything out of the ordinary from the man. He wiped his sweaty face with him handkerchief and drank his water. Not him.

Seth wished that they had stayed out in the rain to discuss this. Rain would have muffled their conversation from eavesdroppers, and it was much easier to find culprits when there were less people around. He gave a mental sigh and continued.

As he was watching the couple enjoying their toast and sausage, he saw the waitress come over and refill the man’s orange juice. He stopped the time flow. The waitress was looking at them out of the corner of her eye! He then focused on the waitress and moved through the time flow. She often disappeared completely when she walked into the back room and she had often been far enough out of view that his mind couldn’t guess at her gestures. She moved jerkily around, semi-random motions being filled in where his mind had no idea. Whenever her motions smoothed out, however, he paid close attention to her. She had often looked their direction, even while helping other customers. She had paused to listen carefully during interesting parts of their conversation, and when he had said “Let’s go to the Deputy,” she had mouthed the word to herself. He allowed himself a small smile and let the mindscape dissolve. This didn’t mean that she was the only one listening, and she could easily have just been listening for gossip. She would have heard enough to know that they had not been talking about a police officer. Could she have known that it was the name of a ship? He shook his head. A man had to be careful that he didn’t latch on to the wrong information. This exercise had been good and the thought he knew who to watch out for, but he would keep an open mind.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and his body seemed to become a colorful cloud, full of oranges, yellows, browns, golds, among other autumn colors. There was no light show and no sound; Just a subtle blurring of his body followed by arrival of the colors. His gear, specially enchanted for this purpose, melted away into his body. He kept his original man-shape at first, then all at once his form shifted into a sleekly powerful cat-like shape. It would take a person well acquainted with cats to tell the differences, but he was definitely no cat they would recognize. He was now a malk, a fey creature. He had chosen the smallest malk form he had at his disposal so that he wouldn’t stick out much from among the other cats, but his build was too powerful, his shoulders and paws too large to be a regular cat. He weighed upwards of thirty pounds and wasn’t going to be bothered by anything smaller than a large dog.

He quickly made his way down to the docks and perched himself on a pile of crates a couple of hundred yards from the Deputy, hiding in a dry spot between crates. It had been a very long sprint and he had grime on him. Acting as any other cat would who had been out in the rainy streets, he cleaned himself with his tongue. He had moved quickly and had seen Wing and Norgunn boarding the ship when he came around the corner. He could now watch for pursuit. He made himself comfortable, since he would be there for a while. He knew that Wing would be fuming due to the delay, but he also knew that the man would not leave without him. If cat faces could grin, he would have been grinning. It was a joy to infuriate that man! He shook his head and his mental grin faded away as he focused. He licked his paw once more then watched the night, his cat eyes scanning carefully for any movement in the late hour.

She moved as quickly as she could to after seeing the 2 enter the boat, a few things were gonna be necessary for this trip and she was confident that she could get to her house and back to the docks before the other stranger rejoined the group. She hadn't traveled much but as spontaneous as this was, being prepared doesn't hurt right? She ran into her room, grabbed a side bag and a backpack and grabbed what she needed before hurdling back through the door. Placing her coat on last it shrunk everything down so that she looked normal size though she was in all black now and briskly moving toward the docks. "Wish this would decrease the weight too." She thought aloud.

As she came to the last hill she sighed with relief as the boat was still in the docks and the ramp was still down. She shifted down the hill a few steps at a time and stepped across the dock. She took 3 steps up the ramp and it squeaked and she stopped looking in all directions while hunched forward. No one was in sight and she moved aboard and back to the stern. She took off her coat, dropped the backpack in the center of a large pile of rope and put the coat back on.

"Perfect."

Looking around the side she started to explore the top of the boat.