Chương 16: Chapter 93: A night for romance

And so William rose from the very water in the manner of the goddess of life herself to bless their union… Jason Salazar There were a couple places they had in mind to check for dark secrets: Abandoned docks, like Reese had suggested And the church of Granesh, because they had such a fine time breaking in the last time they went for a walk, and if there was a secret demi-human plot against The Flotilla, the church of Granesh would be the ones who would be most interested in finding out. Aside from…

everyone else who liked a juicy conspiracy.

"Not a lot to go on," Will mused as they walked down the floating piers that linked the ships of The Flotilla together a bit like a honeycomb. The night air was beginning to creep through the crowded together ships as the sun went down, adding an omnipresent cold draft to the smell of seawater and faint rot. Will and Loth could see just fine, though. The handful of ship lamps that spilled light into the city 'streets' were more than enough for Will and Loth to navigate by.

"Still, a fine way to spend an evening," Loth said with a shrug. If you like creeping up on people at night. To be fair, Will did like being sneaky and flitting from shadow to shadow when the mood struck, so he really didn't have much reason to refute Loth's statement. So far in the night, they'd checked a dilapidated dock that no one used because it was treacherously unsafe. That had been a wash, with Loth almost falling into the ocean after a board that had held Will up collapsing beneath the kobold's weight.

Their next stop was a pleasure vessel that seemed to facilitate a bit of smuggling on the side. They spent nearly half an hour watching level 30 sailors with bodies scarred from years of navigating treacherous seas, and fancy hats to denote their respective pecking order, running bushels of green seaweed back and forth.

Will and Loth were surprised to discover that the drug-running operation wasn't even illegal, it was simply a mix of habit, peak demand hours and cool night-time temperatures preventing spoilage that saw teams of sailors hauling packages of meldweed into the floating brothel by the bushel.

"What's meldweed do anyway?" Will asked as they left.

"If chewed recreationally, It temporarily depresses parts of the brain responsible for individuality and sense of self, making it difficult to determine where you end and your partner begins." Loth said.

"…Why would you want to do that?" Will asked frowning.

"Sometimes something you say reminds me how young you are," Loth said. looking up at him with mock pity.

"Ah. It's a sex thing," Will said, nodding more confidently than he felt.

"Anyway, if refined, it can be used offensively to make some rather interesting poisons. Ever since I learned of it, I've entertained the idea of lacing a cocktail of it and a few other things on blackmail letters to make the reader unable to think critically as the substance absorbs through their fingers while they read."

"That's monstrous."

"Thank you. Can we get some?" Loth asked looking up at him with pleading eyes.

"Sure, on the condition that you don't use it on any Party members without their knowledge or permission. We can swing by and grab some after we're done looking around."

"Nice." Loth clenched her fists.

"My first mind-effecting poison." She rubbed her chin.

"I wonder if I can breed my wasps to replicate the compound? Anyway, meldweed might be illegal outside the tower, but it's on the list of approved substances here." As if to emphasize her point, Will spotted a guardsman, to all appearances another sailor, with only the Flotilla's oversized 'guardsman' hat to denote his station, waving at the crew carrying massive baskets of seaweed into the oversized cruise ship.

Together, Will and Loth crept off into the night, looking for any other sign of fish-people secretly undermining the flotilla. Their third stop of the night was when Loth tugged at his sleeve and motioned to an oversized ship on the edge of the water, with gentle swaves lapping up against it's side.

"Something's telling me that is a trap," Loth whispered as the two of them hunkered down.

"What about it?" She cocked her head, seemingly considering.

"It's too far away from other light sources, the rear of the ship is unlit, unguarded, facing a clear swath of ocean with poor visibility, the panelling on the rear is oddly shaped, with an oversized rim around it." Now that she pointed it out, Will could imagine a small vessel easily rowing up to the back of the oversized ship, without anyone spotting it.

There weren't very many places for them to sit and watch, eventually they found a section of dock that hung a bit higher above the water, and Loth created a sling to suspend the two of them from it. As the evening gave way to night, lamp after lamp gradually went out as the city went to sleep.

"There." Loth said, pointing. Even with Will's Acuity as high as it was, it was difficult to make out. The ripples of water that reflected the barest hint of starlight were being masked by something in the vague shape of a small boat gradually drifting towards the back of the ship that Loth had marked as suspicious. Will nodded silently, replacing Amulet of the Homefield Advantage with the Dimensional Assassin's Amulet.

Between it and the Wand of the Trespasser, Will's audiovisual effects were dampened by 55% while he tried to hide. In broad daylight, that would make him somewhat transparent, but in the nighttime, he basically became a ghost. Will didn't assume that meant he'd be completely unseen. The dampening effect really only leveled the playing field, given that nearly everyone had at least some Acuity. His best bet would be to employ the age-old stealth technique of approaching from a direction they wouldn't think to look.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Loth pointed off to the left as the boat approached and Will nodded, slipping out of the sling Loth had made for them and dropping to the water without even a splash to announce his presence as the water solidified underneath him. Will kept low and scuttled to the left until he saw an opportunity.

A swell of water, maybe two feet tall concealed him as he darted away from the dock and crawled silently across the rolling waves on his hand and feet until he was right behind the incoming ship. Close enough to hear their quiet breathing. From what Will could see, there were at least three of them, cloaks concealing their features. The one in the front peered up at the ship they headed towards, watching a tiny slight flickering rhythmically, like a candle with someone waving their hand in front of it.

Matter of fact, I think that's exactly what it is. From Loth's perspective, she wouldn't be able to see the person signaling to the boat, but Will could see them. And by default, they could see him, crawling along the water, out in the open. If not now, then soon. Will swiftly crawled forward and clung to the back of the boat, using it to hide himself from the watcher above while making himself as small as possible.

One of the passengers must've felt his weight shift the boat, because their hooded face glanced over the edge, scanning the surrounding water. Will didn't move a muscle. They didn't raise the alarm, merely leaning back into their seat with a grunt of displaced air from an obese body. A minute later, Will risked peeking around the side of the boat to see where they were going. Ahead of them, the back of the ship began to open.

Loth's suspicions were proven correct as faint light spilled into the surrounding water, forcing Will to pull his head back and narrow his eyes against the glare. It was the faintest candlelight, but now that his eyes were accustomed to the dark of night, it glared like the sun. The rear of the ship opened like an inverted drawbridge, revealing that the guts of the ship had been hollowed out, leaving only a façade of a functional ship.

The secret smuggler's dock was held aloft by hidden pontoons, because it lacked a bottom. Will took a silent, deep breath as they approached the entrance, where sailors were pacing the sides of the dock, flickering lamps lighting the interior. Will would surely be spotted. Unless. Will took a deep breath and climbed down into the water, clinging to the bottom of the boat.

He held his breath until the boat came to a complete stop, then another minute, his Resistance allowing him to hold his breath far longer than he ever had before he became a Climber. He heard some conversation muffled by a yard of water, followed by the boat shifting as the occupants began unloading it. Once everything went still, Will dove down deep until he hit the bottom of the fake ship, then swam towards a pool of darkness in the corner of the hidden dock.

Will rose quietly, allowing his breath out silently once he was above the waterline, before taking another quiet lungful of air. While he recovered from holding his breath for an extended period, he studied his surroundings. He was in the corner of the hollowed out ship, submerged in the water beneath a raised platform that held crate and equipment for taller vessels that might dock inside the massive fake ship. Diagonally from him was the little boat that had just docked.

It was standing silent and empty, but the wooden platform just beside it was bustling with activity as a young man and woman embraced while two fat, sweaty, harried-looking older men in fancy garb hustled to move an enormous amount of luggage.

"At last we can be together, Harold," The woman said breathily, taking a moment to regain her composure after the enthusiasm they'd just shown.

"We can escape our families and The Tower, and live happily forever after on the Seventh Floor, where they'll never find us!"

"I would gladly eke out a life in the jungles of the seventh Floor, eating berries and wearing leaves if it was with you!"

'Harold' replied.

"Oh, Harold!" What the…? Will wondered. Where are the fish-people? Where are the illicit drugs or the secret plot to sink The Flotilla? Will waited as patiently as he could, but as the couple talked, the details of their conversation revealed a saccharine-sweet story of forbidden love that Will suspected had been concocted by their parents to make them think running away together was their own rebellious idea. Eventually, Will reached a tipping point.

"Oh come ON!" Will shouted, grasping the surface of the water and pulling himself up and out of it, causing everyone's attention to snap to him.

"Why on earth would your parents forbid you from seeing each other, then every summer, go to adjacent hunting lodges at the same time, with easily climbable fences? Same winter dorms, spring camps? Riding lessons? Hawking? They've been shoving you together longer than you can remember! Right now, your families are just waiting for you to get tired of living without creature comforts and come crawling back to their money. Am I right!?" Will glanced at the two sweaty fat men, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

Or maybe that was just their default look.

"This has been a tremendous waste of time," Will grumbled into the stunned silence, wringing out his clothes as he stomped across the water towards the doorway leading to the outside. Riiiip. A false panel on the inside of the ship ripped aside as Loth cut her way out of it, no less than fifteen feet away from the happy couple.

"…Congratulations, to both of you." Loth said, hastily bowing at the stunned onlookers before hustling to catch up with Will.

"What's next?" Will asked as they walked back outside into the cold night air. Upon it hitting his recently soaked clothes, a bone-deep chill caught up with him.

"I would say the floating church of Granesh, but I think you need a change of clothes, first."

"I'll dry," Will said, waving it off. Loth shrugged, making a relaxed gesture that seemed to say 'if you say so.'

"Three places, three misses." Will mused.

"I'm not saying that the fishpeople, if they are real, would be so easy to uncover that we could find them on the first night, only visiting three places, but still, it feels strange we didn't find anything out of the ordinary. I mean, aside from a poorly conceived elopement."

"Well, that's not the only way to verify Reese's story." Will's eye twitched.

"You trapped his room didn't you?"

"Nooo…." Loth glanced up at him.

"Well, I didn't trigger it yet."

"I really rather wouldn't murder a man who's lost his mind to check if he's actually seen the rise and fall of entire civilizations.

"Think about it this way, if he's actually lost his mind, aren't we putting him out of his misery?" Loth asked. Will drew his hand down his face and groaned before shaking a finger at her.

"Quick and painless."

"Quick and painless," Loth said with a nod.

"So…we've got some time to kill before your clothes are dry…"

"Yes, we can go buy some meldweed." Loth silently pumped her fist in celebration as they walked back across the floating piers, Together the two of them headed to the Last Chance Inn, which had a carving of a busty mermaid hanging above the entrance. Unlike most other places in the Flotilla, the Last Chance Inn came alive at night. Noise and light engulfed them as they entered the brothel.

Will waited against a pole in the main room while Loth went to the front desk to negotiate with the proprieter, a madame wearing a rather low-hanging dress and outrageous hat. Will watched as the conversation seemed to turn heated, extending far beyond the duration he'd expected it to go. A few minutes later, Loth returned, looking miffed.

"They won't sell meldweed in bulk to non-vendors. Only recreational amounts." She presented a tiny baggy of the dried seaweed." What am I supposed to do with this? I need a bushel at least to make it strong enough to incapacitate on skin contact."

"Did you tell them they're unlikely to get their usual transporters in for a while because of the chaos on the Fifth Floor?"

"Yeah, but the way she spoke it was like she didn't care." Will glanced over at the madame who was speaking to a prospective client. The woman idly scratched under her hat as she spoke to the client, giving a tittering laugh at something the man had said.

"Maybe they don't care." Will mused. The rules on the Sixth Floor were more… loosy-goosy than not. The madame should be aware that they had more meldweed than the brothel could possibly use in a year, and their transporters were likely going to be days or even weeks delayed, causing a huge portion of their stock to rot. It was a plant, after all. And here was someone willing to pay a good price to take several bushels of the stuff off her hands, saving her a large net loss.

Regardless of if it was against the rules or not, she should definitely be interested in finding a way to get some off her hands. The only explanation that made sense to Will was that they didn't care about getting the bushels of perishable product moved out of their ship was because they never intended to sell it anyway. Loth was following Will's unspoken thoughts.

He could see her eyes light up with understanding as she scanned the building, mentally calculating how much meldweed was actually being used by patrons against the huge amounts they'd seen loaded into the ship earlier in the day. They could be eating meldweed for sustenance and it still wouldn't use it all up.

"Do you think they're refining it themselves?" Loth asked.

"No idea, but this has got me intrigued enough to take a deeper look. Hopefully it's better than the elopement," Will said, heading for the door.

"I thought it was nice," Loth said as she caught up.

"A damn waste of a sweet infiltration, is what it was!" Will said, shaking his fist while Loth chuckled beside him.