Erol’s Story

Erol had been disappointed but not terribly surprised when the captains of both Arushali trading ships had refused him a berth… merchants weren’t terribly generous at the best of times, and with the Tritani failing to show for the annual Spring Sea Fair they looked to be losing a great deal of money. And it wasn’t like he was an Able Bodied Seaman, of course – he’d picked up plenty of practical skills in his months with the pirates, but that meant little to an honest captain.

The atmosphere in the small town had turned worried when the Merfolk didn’t appear, and after the ships departed it turned positively dark and sullen – overnight it seemed. Indeed, it was the same day that he’d noticed the sudden lack of children playing in the streets that he began to get dark stares and angry looks from townspeople who had previously been friendly enough, if not gregarious.

Paying for another night at the Mermaid’s Arms, the only inn in the village, the proprietor had been distinctly frosty again yesterday– Erol got the impression, as he had for the last several days, that the man would have liked to turn him out, but couldn’t for some reason. Of course tonight was likely to be another story, since those had been his last coppers. This place was too small to turn to thievery, at least successfully…

It was with great relief that Erol saw the purple and gold sail of a new ship round Stingray Point and turn into the harbor in the early afternoon. One way or another, he needed to be on that ship when it sailed! But even as he began turning over the arguments he might use to talk his way to a berth, he noticed that the few townspeople who were on the streets seemed more worried and anxious than excited by the new arrival…

As he watched the ship (Fortune’s Favor it said on the bow in flowing gold letters) made fast by the oddly reluctant longshoremen, Erol also noted the creepy fellow he’d been seeing around town for the last half tenday. He was lounging against the corner of a warehouse and watching the disembarkation of the ship’s captain and… passengers?… with intense, if veiled, interest.

The man, whose name Erol had never heard spoken, seemed to be everywhere recently, always grinning a disturbingly wide and toothy grin. He wore dark blue and yellow clothes in the style of the southern kingdom of Tolus, including a (ridiculous, to Erol’s eye) floppy hat with two great plumes. He seldom seemed to speak, and if the townsfolk gave Erol suspicious looks and hard glares, they gave the grinning stranger worse – when they would look at him at all. Most people avoided his mocking gaze altogether. Every fighting instinct he possessed screamed that this man was dangerous…

Now the fellow peered slit eyed and unsmiling from beneath his shadowing hat at the group who stood talking to Port Master Edigar, a portly man of middle years who seemed nervous and ill at ease. The captain of the ship was obviously the older, one-armed man in black, but the leader of the group seemed to be the tall, handsome young cantor (of Kasira if the garish magenta and purple clothes he wore meant anything). The short, wiry fellow next to the cantor seemed to be a fighting man of some sort, but it was the redheaded woman in green who first seemed to notice the gaze of the lounging stranger. When she turned to speak to her shorter companion about it, the beplumed man pushed himself off the wall and, giving her his creepy wide grin, sauntered off down the street into town.

The Port Master soon led the group to his office/home, a four story stone building directly back of the Trading Pool. Erol wandered for a few minutes between the marble pillars that supported the Pool’s great coral dome, but soon realized it wouldn’t do to ambush these people the second they reappeared. If they intended to spend the night in Kethim, or even take a meal, they would have to go to the Mermaid’s Arms. He would “run into them” there…

♦

There were few people in the common room of the inn that evening when the group, minus the captain, came in and called for a hot meal. Of course the grinning stranger in his floppy hat was one of the few, settled in a dark corner near the door where he could see the entire room. Erol was also there, near the door to the kitchen, also a good place from which to survey the room.

From what he’d been able to piece together during the day, these three were friends and co-owners of the ship tied up at the quay, the one-armed captain their employee. Which meant they were the ones to get in good with… he considered what he’d learned, and decided in this case the truth, or at least most of it, might serve him best…

When he overheard the cantor, whose name was apparently Vulk, ask the innkeeper about his children, Erol saw his opportunity. As the nervous ‘keep hurriedly excused himself to pressing business in the kitchen, Erol stood and approached the group’s table.

“Ah, you’ve noticed the lack of children in town,” he said, raising his mug of cider in greeting. “And that no one wants to talk about it!”

The obvious tension in the town had made the group wary, but their desire for information quickly outweighed their caution. They invited him to join them, and after brief introductions they began questioning him about all he knew of recent events in Port Kethim.

“I’ve been her for a couple of tendays, after, um, leaving my previous ship rather… abruptly.” Actually, he’d jumped overboard that last night when it was obvious the captain had learned of his attempt to foment mutiny amongst the crew. Better to risk the swim to the unknown shore than certain death at dawn! It had taken him three wet, miserable days of slogging through the southern marshes of Oessa to reach Port Kethim, but he felt he’d chosen wisely.

“This place seemed pretty nice, when I arrived. The people were friendly and there was a lot of excitement over the upcoming Sea Fair. Even after the Merfolk failed to arrive the people only seemed concerned, nothing more.

“It was after the trading ships from Arushal left (pissed off and empty, I can tell you), that things got strange. On the day the ships set sail, there were the usual number of children playing along the Great Quay and in the streets. The next day there were none to be seen… I didn’t notice right off, but I did notice a lot of tense, angry townsfolk.

“Being a stranger, I wasn’t invited to the town meeting the Port Master called that day, but it was after that meeting that I began to get angy glares and hostile words from everyone in town, even the people I’d come to know a bit. But the hostility was only in looks and a few words; no one actually physical, though it felt like they anted to… they all seem afraid, if not of me, then certainly of him.” He nodded in the direction of the grinning stranger.

Erol then explained what he knew of the man, and his new companions debated what they should do. Gradually a plan evolved to confront the man – they seemed to think they could get the truth out him, which seemed unlikely to Erol, but it wasn’t his call. Unfortunately, it almost seemed as if the stranger knew what they were planning, because just as Vulk and Drake prepared to stand, he gave Erol (the only one looking directly at him) his toothy grin and slipped quickly out the door.

Drake followed quickly behind, but the man was gone by the time he stepped into the dark street. The friends seemed greatly annoyed at this lost opportunity, but at least they didn’t blame Erol – they agreed to provide him a berth when they sailed. The warned it might be a day or two, but he didn’t care, as long as they took him with them!

They escorted him back to their ship, where Vulk had a short private conversation with the captain, who seemed more bemused than upset at having a new crewman thrust upon him. After introducing them, the companions declared they were going to see the Port Master again, and set off down the quay. Before they left, as he was stashing his meager possessions, Erol overheard Mariala asking Captain Levtor to have the crew keep their eyes and ears open during their shore leave in town.

There was certainly something very odd going on in this town, Erol thought, and he was glad to be getting out of it. But his new benefactors seemed curiously intent on discovering what the story was, and his own curiosity had always been over-strong… he should just accept his luck, leave his new acquaintances to their own business, and mind his own… yes, that’s what he’d do this time…

As he slipped off the ship Erol noticed a darker shadow moving between the warehouses that lined the Great Quay – a shadow that revealed itself in the flickering light of the Great Beacon atop the coral dome of the Trading Pool to be the grinning stranger, floppy hat and all. As he moved across the open space towards the Port Master’s home, Erol slipped into shadow himself, and followed at a discreet distance.

It was obvious the Grinning Stranger (Erol had begun to think of him in capital letters by this time) was trying to overhear what was going on in the Port Master’s house, and equally obviously was failing to do so. He paced in frustration around the building, peering into windows, as Erol watched from a distance. In his impatience the man almost missed it when the Port Master and his guests slipped out the back and furtively made their way towards the north edge of town.

The Grinning Stranger followed the group, and Erol followed the Grinning Stranger. Both moons were still new, and it was hard to keep their quarry in sight until a dim glow flared from Vulk’s hand, to light their way along the rocky shoreline cliffs. About half a mile beyond the northern arm of the Great Quay, where the rising land began to level out, the group suddenly vanished from sight.

Erol soon realized they had descended into a cut in the cliffs, following a path down into some secluded sea grotto. The Grinning Stranger perched on the rocks above the grotto, peering down, but Erol couldn’t get close enough to see or hear what was going on, not without risking detection.

After several turns of the glass, just as Erol was beginning to nod off, despite the cool sea air, the Grinning Stranger suddenly darted from his hiding place, disappearing amongst the rocks. Erol soon saw why, as Vulk, Drake, Mariala and the Port Master rose again from the rocky crevice and headed back towards town, their way again lit by the cantor’s spirit light.

Erol ducked down as they passed, and once his own quarry had also passed in pursuit, he stealthily brought up the rear of this strange parade. They slowly made their way back to town, but not back to the Port Master’s house. Instead they slipped between the pillars surrounding the Trading Pool, to stand staring down into its depths.

The Grinning Stranger slipped around the Port Master’s house, and Erol was torn – should he follow him, or stay to see what transpired at the Pool? His dilemma was soon resolved, however, when he saw the distinctive dark form appear again in the shadows on the far side of the Pool.

And so both watched as the Port Master opened secret panels in two of the pillars and pulled out mysterious piles of some type of clothing. It was a dark blue-green, and seemed made of fine scales, and when the three companions began to don it, it was skin-tight. Erol, like the other men, looked away as Mariala shed her gown and slipped into the new outfit, but he noticed the Grinning Stranger leaned forward a bit and ogled her.

Once they were fully clad in the scaly costumes each of the three friends took a clay jar from the satchels they carried and opened them. They then proceeded to nick their thumbs with knives and let several drops of blood drip into each jar. A few minutes later they tossed back the jars and swallowed the contents in a gulp. From the looks on their faces it didn’t taste too good…

At that moment the Grinning Stranger stepped out from the shadows.

“So, you little busybodies just couldn’t mind your own business” he said, his voice harsh and grating, like two wet stones grinding together. “And now it seems you propose to go for swim… well, let me help you on your way!”

As he spoke his body had begun to change… the hat fell from his head, his clothes slid off or tore apart, as he grew… his head shifted grotesquely, becoming wide and bullet-shaped, as his mouth grew wider and wider, revealing rows of jagged, sharp teeth… his back bulged and stretched, flowing away behind him, becoming a fluked tail… his skin turned gray and rough… in a matter of seconds he had become a hideous mixture of man and shark!

Like those within the circle of the pillars Erol stood frozen in shock as this transformation occurred. Before he could think or even move, events exploded. The creature launched itself at Mariala, its mouth closing on her left shoulder, the force of the leap carrying them both backwards and into the dark waters of the Pool.

As Drake and Vulk both cried out in shock, the Port Master yelled a word and slapped the base of the pillar he stood near. Sudden light flared within the Pool, not terribly bright, but enough to dimly reveal Mariala kicking frantically away as her attacker finished his transformation into a very large shark. Erol noted two other dark shapes suddenly appear, moving up from the still-dark depths.

Drake dove into the water, but he immediately resurfaced, sputtering and thrashing, as if drowning. One of the dark shapes moved towards him, even as Vulk leaped into the water on top of his friend, bearing them both down. It almost seemed to Erol that he was trying to drown the smaller man!

After that, things got confusing… the water roiled and churned, refracting and breaking up the dark shapes moving within the pool. Suddenly a great wave of water leapt up, bearing the shark and two strange creatures onto the stones – Erol was drenched by the wave even as he stumbled behind a pillar.

The shark quickly thrashed and flipped itself back into the water, and the other two (who appeared to possess the tails and heads of sharks, but the torsos and arms of men) were not far behind, wielding flukes and tridents to dive again into the fray. For a moment it seemed to Erol that the water took the form of a shining, translucent woman, then all was swirling chaos once more.

The water turned dark with blood as a third figure hurtled up from the depths, a silvery flash in the underwater lights glinting off skin and trident. But this figure attacked the shark-men… a few moments of churning chaos, and suddenly the shark flew up on a great spout of water, slamming down with tremendous force on the stone paving, clearly quite dead. It was followed a few seconds later by the two shark-men, equally dead.

After a moment of silence, as the waters slowly calmed to relative stillness, a silver-haired head broke the surface, calling to the Port Master, who stood stunned amidst the dead bodies.

“We go now to Sha Hesima my friend! Tell Captain Levtor what has transpired, and that his friends will return as soon as they can… I hope…”

With that he turned and dove deep, a long tail of silvery scales flashing out of the water behind him. Erol realized he must be one of the fabled Tritani, the Merfolk. But if that was a true merman, then what were those shark-men? He’d thought for a few minutes that they were mermen…

Port Master Edigar jumped nearly out of his skin when Erol stepped out from behind a pillar to survey the carnage, and his hand flew to his dagger.

“Peace,” called Erol, holding out his empty hands. “I’m a friend.”

It took him a few minutes to convince the Port Master that he was now a member of the Fortune’s Favor’s crew, and not a minion of the Arcutha (as he learned the shark men were called), but once he did the man seemed greatly relieved to have company. And help.

“Come,” he said. “If you are truly a friend then help me get these bodies hidden and this blood removed – if the Arcutha have other spies amongst us, they must not learn what went forward tonight!”

As he spoke he turned towards the body of the great shark, only to gasp as he saw that it was gone – replaced by the bleeding, torn body of the no-longer Grinning Stranger. He exchanged a look and a disbelieving shake of the head with Erol before they both reluctantly bent to grab the body.

They both nearly jumped out of their skins when a deep, harsh voice boomed out behind them.

“What in the Eternal Void is going on here!?”

Devrik’s Story

For hours after the Fortune’s Favor sailed Raven stormed about their room, furious that Devrik had stayed behind because of her. “I am a warrior of the Rethmani! I do not need your constant guardianship! You dishonor us both by abandoning our friends in their hour of need!”

“It’s always their hour of need,” Devrik pointed out, then ducked as she hurled a boot at his head. He then carefully didn’t point out that he’d rescued her twice already from certain death, but she seemed to sense the thought anyway.

“Oh, you lop off a cow’s head and think you’re a hero! And I wouldn’t have been in danger with that crazy Korönian if not for you to begin with!”

Sensing the time for a strategic retreat, Devrik mumbled something about checking on his horse, and made a quick exit. He collected Brann from the inn’s kitchen, where the fast-growing puppy had been gnawing on an old soup bone the scullery girl had given him, and they headed down towards the docks.

Along the way he saw three finches on a rooftop and a black gull suddenly stooping on them, only to be driven off by two falcons… the finches darted to safety. On the docks he noted three kittens frolicking amongst the fishheads, as a mongrel dog slowly crept up on them. But even as the dog pounced on his prey two scarred tomcats leapt from the shadows, and in a whirling chaos of yowls, fur, and blood drove it off.

He restrained Brann from trying to play with the kittens himself, as he doubted the older cats would appreciate the difference in intent, and turned away from the dock. As he headed thru an ally towards the inn, he saw three rats cornered by a terrier…

“Yes, yes,” he grumbled in annoyance, hurrying past. “I get the message already!”

Back in his room Raven was calmer, but no less adamant that he must help their friends. She handed him the case that held his Tarot deck.

“if you don’t believe me, at least see what the cards say.”

“I’ve had enough with the portents today,” Devrik growled, but a reading was, in fact, why he had come back so quickly.

While Raven curled up on the bed, he sat down at the small table near the fireplace and began to lay out the cards… five minutes later he was out the door again, with just time to grab his weapons, heft his pack, and plant a lingering kiss on Raven’s lips.

Half an hour later he was pounding on Magister Vetaris’ door. When the mage finally appeared Devrik dropped his pack with a thump, frowning.

“I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake,” he said. “And i need your help…”

♦

The sun had set several hours later, as Devrik fianlly looked up from the scroll he’d been reading. His head hurt, but he thought he had finally grasped the concept of folded space-time. He turned to explain it to Vetaris, who sat reading a book by the fire.

“Yes, I think you have the essence of it now my boy,” the older man said, smiling. “But let us put it to the test.”

He got up and Devrik followed him out of the house and into town, his pack on his back once again. Passing through the town they climbed the seaward hill east of the Great Temple, called Chalkman’s Hill. There, overlooking the bay, was a circle of ten stones, each of them three meters long, one meter wide , and half a meter deep, and almost hidden in the grass.

“This is not a secret circle of course.” Vetaris spoke for the first time since leaving his house. “But only a few in town know it’s here. It is an open Nitaran Vortex, and if you have properly memorized the location I gave you, as well as mastered the mental shape of control, you should be able to open a gate into the basement of the Port Master’s house in Port Kethim.”

“Can’t you just open the vortex for me?” Devrik asked, not for the first time. “We don’t have time for this, especially if I fail and end up on the Greater Moon!”

“I could, but where would the lesson be in that for you?” Vetaris smiled in reply. “No , I’m quite certain you’ll do just fine, Devrik.

“Oh, but I wouldn’t try this with any other portal… you still have a lot to learn before you’re ready for free-form Gate control!”

At his gesture Devrik reluctantly stepped into the stone circle… yes, he could sense the power here now. How had he missed it before, back in the caves with Hanol? It seemed so obvious now… but could he control it?

He framed the structure in his mind, saw it all from start to finish – where he was, where he wanted to be, and how to get there. Then he opened his mind and let the Principle pour in…

There was a blinding flash of non-color that he was pretty sure was only in his own mind, a moment of vertigo, and suddenly everything was pitch black. He wasn’t on the hilltop in Devok, overlooking the bay, certainly… but was he where he was supposed to be?

After several minutes of stumbling about in the dark, bumping painfully into heavy objects, some with sharp corners, he finally steadied his nerves and summoned the will to call up a small flame. By its flickering light he saw that he appeared to be in a cellar, one crammed with barrels and old furniture. And over there were the stairs…

He carefully made his way through what was obviously someone’s home, but there seemed to be no one around to stop him or question his presence. Stepping out what he took to be the front door he saw a circle of white pillars surrounding a pool of dark water. Yes, this was exactly as Magister Vetaris had described! He’d made it!

With a fierce grin he drew his sword and headed towards the two figures he could see standing within the circle of pillars, dimly lit by a greenish glow from the water. What he saw when he stepped into the circle made his draw drop momentarily… what had been the body of a rather large shark suddenly shifted and seemed to flow, and in its place lay the bloody body of a naked man!

As the two living men bent to lift the body Devrik suddnely boomed out “What in the Eternal Void is going on here!?”

Joining Forces

The two men jumped like they’d been struck by lightning, and dropped the body. The smaller of the two, and the youger, reached down and grabbed up a trident that lay on the stones near his feet. The older, portly man reached for his dagger.

“If you are in league with these monsters,” the older man cried, “you’ll not get the chance to your master!”

“Hold, hold!” replied Devrik. “I know nothing of these creatures, though it’s obvious something uncanny is going on. I suspect my friends are thick in this business – I come seeking them.”

“And who might these friends be?” asked the younger man, keeping the trident level and steady. It was obvious to Devrik that he was a trained fighter, and no stranger to the weapon he held.

“I seek Vulk Elida, Mariala Teryne, and Drake Bartoff,” he answered. “I am Devrik Askalan.”

The older man seemed unsure, but the younger one lowered his weapon fractionally. “It’s possible.” he said to the older man. “This afternoon, in the inn, they did mention a companion who was not with them, a man named Devrik. Of course, anyone in the common room might have overheard that…”

“It’s easily resolved,” the older man said. “If he is who he says, then Captain Levtor will be able to identify him.”

“Of course Levtor knows me! Yes, let us seek him out and resolve this matter… I fear my friends may have need of me, and I mistrust this delay!”

Captain Levtor was surprised to see Devrik, but confirmed to the Port Master that he was, indeed, who and what he claimed. He also told Devrik that the others had asked him to make a berth on the ship for the younger man, whose name was Erol.

Once identities had been established the four men retired to the captain’s cabin to discuss the night’s events. The others knew only pieces of the story, but Devrik was able to piece enough of it together to realize that he must follow his friends under the waves.

“Captain, do your charts show the location of Sha Hesima? Could we find it from the surface?”

“Only in a genreral way, I’m afraid,” the captain replied. “The merfolk are wary of letting us surface dwellers know precisely where their cities lie.”

“If only I had the water breathing potions I’d been given, this would be easier,” Devrik brooded. “But I gave mine to Mariala…”

Erol brightened at this, as he pulled around a satchel he’d been carrying. “Mariala had set this down while she changed, and she never had time to pick it up. Maybe…”

Devrik snatched the bag from him and started to rummage around. With a pleased grunt he pulled forth two white jars, sealed in blue-green wax and marked with a trident sigil.

“Billiant! Get me near the city Captain Levtor and I’ll find the others now, dropping in from above!”

“We’ll find them,” corrected Erol. “There’s no chance on or under the waves that I’m going to miss this! Besides, I owe your friends for their kindness to me…”

Devrik eyed him briefly, then nodded.

“Captain, gather the crew! How long until we can sail?”