User blog:Leea/The Tale of Voronwe, Chapter 94

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4th Era 171, 7th of Second Seed, Abecean Sea
He had her sailing straight into the storm, as per the Maormer's request. The sun had just set, making the lightning flashes all the more bright in the darkening evening. The closer they got, the more the breeze kicked up, even from this far out.

Although he had not been told, he knew they were going to save someone important from Summerset, though he hoped that it wasn't a Dominion official. He had some...not exactly legal cargo below deck in the cargo hold, and would prefer if no one else other than himself, his crew, and the Khajiiti merchant who he had "bought" it from knew about it.

"Depends on how legal Moon Sugar is is in Summerset," came a voice behind him.

He spun around. It was the Maormer. "How did you know that?" he frowned. "Did you go below deck?"

The man smiled. Though he looked out-of-place, with his white skin and blank eyes, his smile was...well, it made him seem less of a stranger, and more like someone you could trust. He didn't know where these thoughts came from; if they came from his gut or his head or..."No. I didn't," the man said, still smiling a little. "I could smell it when I came here."

There was a brief pause as Kael thought that statement over. He wanted to trust him - he felt he should trust him, his gut fairly shouted it - but what if he invited a Moon Sugar addict aboard? He could ruin the profit of what he was going to sell. But...was he actually an addict - or previous addict - or was he simply a sailor cut from the same cloth, like himself? He asked about this.

"Previously I was a sailor much like you," came the answer. "Then I came into Auriel's light after a...particular incident. It turned my life around, suffice to say."

"And how did that happen?" he asked, in spite of himself. Normally, he asked few to no questions to those that boarded his ship, but it seemed different with this man. Somehow...for a reason that he couldn't explain (even gut-wise)...he felt compelled to know more about this passenger. He didn't know if it was because he was such an unusual stranger - a Maormer, no less - or if it was because he was someone similar to himself. Or even if it was because it was because this man was a messenger of the gods, who had already exibited rather convincing abilities of his professed new station in life.

There was a beat before he replied. "I had to give up the life. I could no longer do it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it; I did. Immensely. I enjoyed the adventures I'd had and the...souvenirs I'd gather, but...it was time. This way, I still see the world, but its all for a good cause."

* * *

Of course he couldn't smell the Moon Sugar; he was a ghost. That sense died with his body a long time ago. However, it would do no good to go telling anyone and everyone that he was such. Only Liberators needed to know what he was.

He'd known it was Moon Sugar in those innocent-looking sacks below deck, however. He'd encountered plenty of it in his own day, after all. He'd pierced the deck planks and subesquent fabric with his supernatural sight and seen the substance. Orthendar knew that the crew - well, most of them - didn't partake of the substance. All this stuff was for sale...likely to the highest bidder, no doubt. Only a couple of the crew members - and unkempt ones at that - appeared to have "tasted" Sugar in the past. He wondered if they'd gotten into it recently. And if the captain knew about it, if they had.

As the Sea Vipers were more or less glorified pirates, and having been one himself for most of his adult life, he knew by looking at Captain Kael that he was not one. Dangerous, adventure-loving, and an "importer and exporter" - to use an innocent title - of various goods, but not a pirate. Orthendar mused that he could be called a "gentleman's pirate," for lack of a better term. He had been shown that this man had helped Curwe in the past - just as the other man he was supposed to go and save - so he must be a better person than most, right? He pondered on why he might have been enlisted to procure Kael's ship. Why? Somewhere to put the other Altmer until the storm abated? Probably. He couldn't take everyone to Pyandonea, after all, especially more Altmer. He gazed out on the ocean as the ship floated closer and closer to Summerset, and the furious mass of clouds above it. Still, he wondered if Auriel would ever give answers to these questions, rather than what he himself thought "might" be the answers. Perhaps he'd get them when this was all over.