The Hunt for Diana
Mathew’s gut had been twisted in a nervous knot the entire voyage over the Blood Sea. He felt naked being around so few people; he enjoyed the omnipresent tug the presence of other consciousnesses provided. Being around only one ship’s worth of people had unnerved him, and the churning, bloody waters had done nothing to help him. He couldn’t blame his anxiety solely on that, however. A small kernel of stress has been building in him since he had heard where they would be headed.
The Free Holds, he had thought to himself, why couldn’t they just stay away? He had not lived so for east as Southblood before he had joined the Queen’s Guard, but that brought him no peace of mind. He had spent his entire life in the Free Holds as a slave, and had only recently began learning how to be “free”; now he was heading back, where he had been felt like little more than cattle. Mathew had tried convincing and reasoning with himself that his worrying was pointless, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of anxiety.
As the ship pulled in to port, the familiar sounds, smells and sights flooded his senses, bringing back memories both bad and good. Mathew forced himself to adopt his façade as the sailors worked on the moorings; the whore’s mask came easily to him as he felt the faint pinpricks of foreign consciousness on the surface of his mind. The comfort the city’s denizen’s presence brought him enough resolve to go on without complaint.
Leaving the ship and traversing the city’s docks and winding streets, Mathew noticed his surroundings; ale and whore houses peaked between seaside merchants’ stalls. He spied a vulgarly garbed girl leading a drunken sailor down an alley, leading him either to her room or to some armed friends. I guess I’m home, he thought, forcing his stress down into his subconscious.
“I know my way around, I can take us to the inn if you life”, Nadira said, leading them down the winding streets. Mathew simply nodded. Off to his side, he heard Trom, “Sure, that seems best. Lead on, oh beauteous guide.” Mathew took stock of the three companions; all had nearly a decade’s experience on him. The mage, the con, and the pirate. And the whore. Mathew smiled. We’re a curious group if ever there were one.
Just then, the blood mage produced a note of some sort from a pocket. Mathew couldn’t think of who the note was from - would this be a trap? Both the con and the pirate spoke their intentions to follow Nadira. Unless he was willing to go off on his own (he wasn’t), he had no choice. “To the weaver’s shop, then! The clothes they provided are a size too large on me, in any case.” he said, forcing gaiety into his tone, moving in behind them as they went east towards this mysterious weaver.