AWildSquirtle

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Aubri Silverblade

At Sea, Nearing South Pearl Harbor, Present Day

@HereComesTheSnow@Estylwen

The ship was not Aubri's or Amerigo's to command. Even the authority of a Brother could only get them so far. Aubri was listed as a passenger alongside the cargo stuffed with silks, dyes, and linens from a dozen other ports across the known world. Even though the ship had safely arrived at its destination, something told Aubri that the prices on those goods wouldn't hold up for long.

Captain Manuel therefore ordered them into the safest port, far away from the chaos. It was here that Aubri first took stock of the situation.

No crowds of nobles waited for them at the docks, throwing coin and baubles their way to buy passage out of the city. That ruled out a battle or a pending sack by another army. No harbormaster challenged them for docking and port taxes either. So the fire was definitely an unexpected development and not some accident out of hand from a festival.

As the gangplank dropped in the narrows, Aubri gave Amerigo a sly look. His diplomat's face slipped into a fox-like grin.

"Brother, I think our impending arrival at the palace might divert resources from where they are most needed in our hosts' time of trial. Will you humor me and join me for a walk about the city?"

Less a question, more of a Let's be a bit sneaky while no one knows we're here.

Aubri managed to stumble his way down the gangplank and reveled in the moment when his boots touched the stone pier. The earth beneath his feet was solid, firm, stable. Unmoving. For a brief moment, he felt he had a fixed point from which all this wretched kingdom unrolled before him. A silly thought.

He left the little amount of baggage he'd brought in the hold of the ship. It'd be a week before they were provisioned to depart and time could be spared. For the moment, Aubri entered the square with nothing more than himself, a bulky and unwieldy sword, his very foreign clothes, and a letter that weighed as much as a kingdom, sealed inside his shirt.

The executioner's platform caught his eye first. Every city had some form of public justice. The Republic had the drownings for their own- debtors and murderers weighed down by the valued wealth of their victims in iron coins, then forced to walk from one end of the canal to the other. Not a foolproof method of fair justice. The wealthy bought their way out by getting walks scheduled at low tide. Just like his father had when his first loan went bad.

The smashing of glass and overturning of market stalls by looters was enough to set Aubri on edge, but his old sword lessons from Auron kicked in. Be alert, not alarmed. One hand gripped the hilt of his blade, but otherwise Aubri maintained the air of a tourist on a stroll, giving looters a wide berth as they engaged in the universal pastime of smash and grab while no one's looking.

He was beginning to wonder who would be best to interrogate as to the current state of things when turned a corner from the market district into the Castle Gardens and found not the chaos of looting or fire- but a childish tug of war over a necklace.

The whole city is one gust of wind away from turning to cinders, and these two are fighting over a gold bauble. Sentimental. Dumb. Predictable children.

In other words, just who he was looking to talk to!

"Children, children! What seems to be the trouble here?" Aubri tried his best to hide his accent as he approached and let his hand slip from his sword. The lilting e's in his words would definitely mark him as an out-of-towner, as sure as these two were more than human from their appearances. But he could at least appear like a friendly tourist while talking.

"Surely there is better plunder than this to be found. I have seen good friendships ended for far more."

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

oh boy, a crossroads moment. how will we maintain our convenient neutrality, boss?

@HereComesTheSnow

Easy. We sell tickets to the tug of war and collect money on bets.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

@HereComesTheSnow Aubri and Amerigo pull up.

PizzaFire.gif

"Wanna sail to someplace tropical instead?"

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Aubri Silverblade

At Sea, Nearing Hathforth's Harbor, Present Day

@HereComesTheSnow

When one rode the waves as passenger, there were generally one of two responses to the movement of the ship. The body surrendered to an old feeling of maternal love nestled in the subconscious, being rocked back and forth by the endless shift of the hull, as a child in a crib. Or the feeling of unsteady earth beneath one’s feet, as the ground itself rose in revolt and shook the stones of the land, tearing foundations down and throwing all manner of people to the dirt. Aubri only felt the first a few times on this voyage, always when taking a tumble with a sailor in the hold of the ship. All other days, he was not far from the aft of the vessel, surrendering the morning’s porridge and evening's hardtack to the sea.

Much as Ameri might rib him about this in good humor, the reaction wasn’t normal for him. Aubri’s first time at sea had been at the age of eight. Standing beside his father near the helm while his eldest brother Mayel captained a ship for the first time under Pater’s watchful gaze. Even then, Aubri had kept his food down and merely wondered at the endless expanse of water over the railing. The cresting of dolphin pods, the occasional shark fin- these things had been described to him by his tutors but never seen in person before on the high seas. Only one time during that first voyage was there any semblance of danger as a kraken tentacle brushed the surface of the water. Even then the ship’s sworn Brother Bretan Mirthless had merely kept an eye on the beast. Never drawing that fabled sword of coral at his hip the whole voyage through the shallow sea.

Well, unless we are wildly off course, today is the day, Aubri thought before surrendering another biscuit to the sea. And now I am to risk life and limb for father’s dreams. If I succeed, father and Mayel’s stars will rise in the Assembly. If I fail, it means I am dead, and their stars will continue to rise.

Any other year, any other day, if Pater had come with the mission and demanded his son obey, Aubri would have told the old man to go choke on a seagull’s beak. Then give up his inheritance and start life anew on the docks as a common sea-hand. Maybe even become a true courtesa, just to cause scandal and make Pater’s ambitions to climb that much more difficult.

The Golden Gale is missing. Lost in Arrowfell with all hands gone.

Just the right words to get Aubri’s attention. And just the right twist of the knife at the end to ensure the hook had landed firmly.

“Arrowfell can burn for all I care,” he grumbled, wiping bile from his lips on his sleeve. “But I will find you, Auron. And if you live no longer, I will drown whoever did thus to you.”

Which was a timely statement to make, all things considered.

Aubri took care to gather his loose hair into something resembling a ponytail, tied with a silk band to keep the dyed strands out of his vision. His wide face was usually expressive and jovial, but he took care to narrow his eyelids and purse his full lips. A look that had long been practiced in the mirror before and throughought their voyage- his best attempt at a passive diplomat’s expression. Unreadable, perhaps friendly, perhaps skeptical.

As he walked unsteadily toward the forecastle he took care to give wide berth to the busy sailors preparing to make port. Aubri took his place beside Amerigo. A splash of cold water struck him as the ship broke a wave and he tried not to flinch. He failed, but whether from the water or the sight before him was anyone's guess. The city was awash in flames. The size of the catastrophe made all the more apparent by their distance from the formerly safe harbor. For all he knew, the Queen might well be overthrown already. It seemed too close a coincidence to the fall of the old king years ago. A sudden disaster in the city. Chaos. Ruin. Change.

If only it were so simple.

“Brother Amerigo,” Aubri said. He hated when Ameri used his formal title. It irked Aubri's sense of inferiority to no end, being given a title without having to earn it. Unlike the Brother beside him. “It is too much to hope that this… unfortunate tragedy is something other than a cow kicking a bucket into a candle. Do you scent anything else on the wind? Gunpowder?”

Ban the User Above You

Banned for anti-treasure hunting activities.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

xD

I'll have a response for Snow after Squirtle posts. No rush. :>

@Estylwen

Should have something posted up by mid-day today!

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Sounds to me like the katana might be a more ceremonial holdover from earlier in the Republic's history— maybe kenjutsu still survives as a martial art, but the very maritime Brothers that Imre would have devoured years of fencing under now prefer the single-handed, swept-hilt Bilbao/Spada da lato/Espada Ropera genre since it's easier to use when you're keeping ahold of the rigging or something. Maybe a transition that came in when the Keepers of Light started shaping swords out of anti-magic coral instead of the tamahagane method for steel? That'd make sense since we're kind of in an archipelago situation by my read of things

@HereComesTheSnow

He'sSpeakingEnglishIKnowIt.mp3

Yes. Let's go with that.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Anyway, more seriously on the cultural matter, would you say Aubri's katana would be particularly commonplace compared to the cut-and-thrust style I originally had Amerigo carrying? We might want him to keep that to better convey the blend— and actually start the annoying "hey lemme try out your sword" thing right away, as well, especially if the weeb factor might be indicative of station of intra-republic regionality. I've been running the bit but this is on me for not asking ahead of time or sleeping enough since it's new years

@HereComesTheSnow

I think Aubri wasn't trained with this sword, but a more practical fencing weapon. It's a "gift" from his father, a show of power and prestige, but also a means of getting his son killed if a fight breaks out and earning the family "woe is them, they have lost a son for the glory of the Republic" pity points in the Assembly.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Here is the anti-paradox Hathforth collab sheet! docs.google.com/document/d/1kfm0vYU5z…

You are welcome to add in the sheet, or we can have foreign powers spy your ship's approach. Whatever you decide, just let me know!

@Estylwen

I'm down for foreign powers? It'll help me get an idea of how everyone else would react to their arrival. If that's okay. @HereComesTheSnow can feel free to unleash their character first, as penance for me not properly conveying how I viewed the Republic's culture...

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

While you're reforging a katana, I'm going to try and figure out where exactly we'll enter. During or post fire. I noticed reading the last month of posts there appears to be a split timeline, I'd rather not accidentally create any time paradoxes if I can help it!