Chapter XLIII (43)

  Mitsuko waited patiently for Sett to head to his hammock before she put her plan into action. She recalled him as a heavy sleeper and her memory did not disappoint. All sleeping quarters on The Terror were required to be as quiet as possible to allow the crew decent sleep regardless of the time. According to the schedule, no other crew had their sleeping shift in this particular sleeping quarter for another hour. Only Sett.

  When she snuck into Set’s little area, he was already snoring softly. A cloth blanket covered most of him, but his large, callused and hairy feet stuck out from his fabric cocoon.

  Kneeling down at the foot of his hammock, she quietly got to work. A quick cast of Mend on his lockbox clicked it open. Inside, she found an ornate knife with an onyx pommel, a healing potion, a pouch full of gold and silver doubloons, and half a dozen parchment maps of varying degrees of legibility.

  She removed the majority of the enchanted objects she’d stolen from the secret room’s crate from her pockets and dumped them in. Then she removed the final two items.

  “Ah,” Sterling said from her pocket. “You are framing him as a thief to lose his station and credit with the other crew. I understand the merit. It will allow the captain to punish him for his transgressions as she sees fit. However, he could simply state his innocence while under the effects of a truth potion or while examined by a diviner. Surely you have considered such things? Otherwise, this is quite a silly plan.”

  Mitsuko said nothing, not wanting to disturb the sleeping man. She ignored Sterling’s yapping as she commenced with the next step.

  First, she carefully emptied the contents of a sleeping potion on her gloved hand. It was thick enough to the point of being gelatinous. Then she carefully smeared it onto Sett’s ankle and calloused foot like a lotion. Potions weren’t as potent when absorbed by the skin, but it was easier for her to do this than force feed him the stuff.

  Sett shifted in his hammock, but otherwise didn’t react. The narcotic potion should keep him dozing for a bit.

  Next, Mitsuko took out the final piece of her plan. A circular metal disk. Not an especially remarkable slab of metal to look at, but she appraised it as easily the most valuable object in the captain’s smuggled goods. When activated, it could be used as a stove to cook without a fire.

  She slid her hand across the smooth surface and immediately started feeling the heat emanating from the enchanted object. It warmed up steadily and would reach its maximum temperature in about five minutes.

  Then she tucked it under Sett’s arm and replaced the blanket over him. She made certain the fabric pressed up against the warm metal. Then she fled from the sight.

  It took only a few minutes before the smoke plumed up to where she was scrubbing a bit of mossy plant out from between two floorboards. Other crew members rushed past her.

  “Wes,” she called out to the boy when she spotted him hovering off to the side. “What’s happening?”

  “I-I don’t know,” the boy stuttered. Then he licked his lips and glanced to either side of him, as if expecting to be ordered away. “There’s a fire. It’s bad, I think.”

  At the word ‘fire,’ Mitsuko perked up and did her best to appear alert and alarmed.

  “Is there anything we need to do? We’re on a wooden boat right now! We need to grab buckets or something!”

  “The ship is enchanted for fire. They said it should be…okay. But nobody knows how big it is or how it started up.”

  “Enchantments can break though!” Mitsuko made a show of looking around herself desperately.

  “Your acting truly astonishes,” Sterling said from her pocket. “Even the best storytellers in history would never be able to match your unbelievable performance.”

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  Mitsuko resisted rolling her eyes at the rat. That would completely ruin her current panicked image. Unless…she made them roll up and then fainted. She’d fainted plenty of times as a kid, she bet she could give a really convincing show of it right now.

  But that wasn’t necessary. Captain Alina appeared on deck a few seconds later and began ordering people out of the area as she went down alongside her elementalist to investigate. As she dismissed them, her eyes lingered on Mitsuko for just a fraction of a second.

  Once out on the deck with the other sailors, Mitsuko noticed just how many of them were hovering close to the lifeboats, despite reassuring one another about The Terror’s lack of flammability.

  The sea was calm. A very slight current churned, but otherwise the water was nearly glass-like in its stillness. Mitsuko leaned up against the gunwales and looked down below. She spotted a sea turtle swimming by. She was admiring its lovely shell and how it navigated through the water with its reptilian fins, when something below it caught her eye. It was obscured, but she thought she spotted two big eyes looking up at her. She blinked and they were gone. Mitsuko frowned. A pair of jellyfish maybe?

  “Fire’s gone now,” Captain Alina boomed. She stepped onto the deck. Her elementalist behind her worked on funneling the smoke out from below with eaves of air. It gave the captain a particularly dark menacing appearance to match her cold voice.

  Everyone on deck fixed their posture and stood in attention. As Captain Alina dumped out a lockbox. Enchanted knicknacks spewed out all across the deck. An iron coin enchanted to always land heads rolled over and knocked into Mitsuko’s boot. The little face engraved in the metal smiled up at her.

  Captain Alina coldly began explaining her findings and the crew fidgetted as Sett was revealed as a traitor and thief. Several of them who’d been extremely quick to take Sett’s commands in her first loop now appeared particularly uneasy about the one-armed cook’s betrayal.

  “What will happen to him?” one of them asked awkwardly. “I mean, we’ve still got to eat, right?”

  “He’s dead,” the captain announced without cadence.

  “E-executed?”

  “Burned alive by his own greed.”

  That sent a murmur through the crowd. Several of them look ill. While Captain Alina looked unconcerned as she announced Sett’s fate, Mitsuko still noticed the captain’s eyes picking out each of the crew who looked queasy.

  “He attempted to steal not only from me, but from the entire crew. Do not weep for sniveling, backstabbing cowards. He died cozied up to the enchanted spoils. A fool whose punishment was delivered by fate. The Terror is stronger for the loss.”

  “What about his body?” one of the crew asked.

  “That charred mess? It deserves no burial at sea. I will sell it to a necromancer in Verdant. Though I doubt a one armed corpse made of charcoal will be profitable, the entire crew will split the sale evenly. At least then Sett might be marginally useful to us all.”

  That got a nervous cheer from a few of the crew. Money was good. Even if the ethics were dubious, this group wasn’t one to question free coin. Eventually, the crowd dispersed back to their normal duties. Though many were clearly shaken from the experience.

  A few hours later, the captain summoned Misuko to her cabin. As she entered, her eyes roamed back up to the curved blade hanging on the wall. The one she used to kill Sterling’s guardian.

  With her ring under the custody of Mauve’s city guards, she was currently weaponless. Mitsuko missed her ring dearly. Giving up her foot like in the last loop would almost be preferable to lacking her trusty blade. Almost.

  “Cigar?” Captain Alina held out a wooden case with a score of thick rolled up tobacco.

  Mitsuko hesitated. This was the first time the captain offered her anything in either of the two loops. That was a good sign, and she was tempted to take it just out of politeness. But she didn’t know if addiction passed between loops. Would getting hooked on cigars now damn her for the rest of her life? Or would the craving cease as soon as the next loop began? Better to not take that risk.

  “I’m fine, thank you,” she said.

  “Don’t smoke?”

  “Not cigars. I once accidentally joined a Kemon religious service that involved smoking out a tent with hallucinogens. The event stuck with me.”

  The captain shrugged and snapped the lid back over the box.

  “You risked my merchandise in your little performance,” she commented. “But you did complete the task you said you would.”

  Mitsuko’s eyes drifted over to the cutlass hanging on the wall.

  “Well, if you wanted to thank me….”

  Captain Alina snorted. “Thank you? You stowed away on my ship and attempted to assassinate me. The only ‘thanks’ you’re getting from me is walking away with your life.”

  Mitsuko decided not to push her luck. She was already getting a trip over to Verdant Island out of this. The cutlass would be nice, but she wouldn’t be used to wielding such a thick blade anyways. Her ice swords were slender with a slight curve. She felt naked without her ring. But she’d been naked in far worse situations before.

  15 more chapters on my !!