BECMI Chapter 394 – Other Trade Routes

“This also means that somehow Thatallix has managed to supply and arm an invasion fleet, and the pirate clans are inordinately ready for a large invasion, too. Tell me, how much word of that has passed, and how did it get done so quietly that other nations haven’t learned of it? Almost magically, as it were,” I mused aloud.Their faces turned down even further. “So, we’re caught in the middle of an Immortal play, is it?” Captain Palgermas asked, cheerful manner gone, if not his cheerfully colorful garb. “And what is supposed to be done here, then?”

“I’m afraid they are looking to see what I and my fleet do. Are we going to invade the Remnants of Delpha’s past and sack them as proper warlike conquerors? Will we negotiate for peaceful passage? Play one power against another to our benefit?

“Let me be quite frank. The world we come from is the same world that the Followers of Air and the Followers of Fire have both settled upon after centuries of bandying about multiple worlds. Sending us here, to their homeworld, is yet one more way the Immortals wish to start some exciting wars.”

It took a great deal of control for Captain Manswor not to stare at me in shock, but Captain Palgermas spoke up for him. “The ancient wizards?! The ones whose war split the world itself?!” His expression said he had only half-believed they were real.

“Aye, the Delphans, and all their Overmagi, rule an empire upon my homeworld, while the remnants of the Followers of Fire occupy a small nation on a different continent. It is not so magical a place as the skyworld of Meandral here, but it has magic enough that they are still forces to be reckoned with.

“I trust you know the name of Delphax XXII.” To my lack of surprise, a remarkably coordinated bout of spitting off to the side occurred at mention of that name. “He is the Immortal most interested in sinking us, and likely the hand pushing for this invasion of Omicra. The Fool Emperor considers all peoples of Delpha traitors to Him.

“He would destroy all of you as readily as your ancestors who drove Him forth in disgrace and fear.

“Do you still care to invade Omicra in His name?”

I finished my wine, and dropped the glass over onto the silver landing beneath us. It shattered into fine, sparkling dust… which fell through the landing into the sea below.

The pirate captain and first mate watched it fall, then quickly finished theirs off to do the same. All watched the sparkling powder fall into the glass-smooth waters beneath us.

The disguised captain and false manservant Manswor went to work with shot glasses and an amber liquid next, watched closely by all present.

“I’ll, I’ll not have my lads be doing the work of the Fool Emperor,” Captain Palgermas declared, although voice and tone indicated he was rather unwilling to even say that much. “I’d be seen as a traitor by almost every soul of the Remnants… although Thatallix might not care all that much,” he mentioned to himself more than anyone else.

I tossed the shot back, the two pirates matched me, and immediately wheezed and coughed and clutched at their noses as the very, very good whiskey did its thing.

“Oh, that has… something of a fire to it!” Captain Palgermas agreed a bit hoarsely. He watched me drop the shot glass, still totally composed, and hurriedly did the same.

“I have a counter proposal.”

The glass this time was a somber, deep red, smooth and thoughtful to the palate, sliding down with a gentle slowness and heat reminiscent of chilled brandy.

“What’s this, now?” The pirate leaned forward in interest.

“What do you imagine the market for liquor of this type is in the Remnants?” I inquired of him.

He blinked, looking at the four bottles which had been re-capped alertly. “Well, if my lads can hold themselves back from drinking them all, I’d say they’d fetch a very fine price, indeed!” he said with a smile.

“The Mists of Infinity are not limited in who they take. They will send my entire armada back to its homeworld. If you choose to come along, you may do so. Then it only remains to find a cargo of off-world products, and return home.” I swirled my ruby wine tellingly, the hue the same color as my lips and my dress. “This is something the Merchant’s Guild here does, as I’m sure you know, and they don’t want others doing likewise. I’m sure that is not going to bother you, although you might want to be careful on your return trip as they return the favor for so many helpful interceptions in the past.”

His eyes were wide and he was chewing his lip as he considered the potential of returning with a hold full of off-world goods never seen before here. Especially the booze.

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Booze always sold well. And off-world stuff? Premium mark-up over the premium for this fine stuff!

“Well, then,” he cleared his throat, his thoughts somewhere else entirely. “What, ah, would you like us to do, m’Lady Edge?” he inquired eagerly.

“Lie.”

He blinked. “What?” he asked uncertainly.

“That Thatallix fleet is already at sea, is it not? Expecting to swoop down on an Omicran fleet already engaged desperately with some invading outsiders?”

“Er, yes. With a small number of, ah, free souls there to watch and observe, yes,” he added diplomatically.

“If you really want to be a dastardly little shit, you could tell the Thatallix that we agreed to help, and when the time comes, you execute a tactical withdrawal. Indeed, with their main fleet on the attack and about to get crunched, they might even be open to a little judicious property redistribution, but that’s beyond my concerns.” I waved it off airily.

He was seriously considering the point, and I could tell it was looking better and better to him as he did.

“And if I don’t capitalize on these unique circumstances?” he wondered aloud.

“Meet us when we head for the Mists of Infinity. I’m fairly certain the Merchant’s Guild will try to stop us, and will attempt to rope Iotar into helping them, especially when news of us coming from the world where the Followers of Air and Fire now live reaches them. Why, they could attempt to return and dominate you all again!” I managed with a breathless dry voice not a one of them believed in the slightest.

“Why wouldn’t they?” the first mate blurted out, swirling the last of her own wine. “They’ve still got the power, don’t they?”

“They are exiled by their own Immortals. Let’s just say that they are still held to blame for what happened to their homeworld here, and if they attempt to return from exodus, they are doing so in the face of the will of the Immortals. I expect they’d all accidentally open a Portal into the deep void and be sucked into the darkness of space to drift forever in the cold, uncaring silence.

“They cannot come back without dooming themselves, and, well, they were kicked out of here for the same reasons. This is your time now. You are making a crappy job of it, it is true, but it’s still yours.”

“Well, ah,” the captain stammered at my blunt assessment of the situation. “You don’t appear to have much fondness for the merry throat-cutters of Thatallix.”

“They are worse for the well-being of the people of the Delphan Remnant than your clans are, and that is before considering they vastly outnumber you. I’m sure you can appreciate what a low bar that is to dance under, and yet they’ve managed it with enthusiasm and energy.”

His smile looked a bit forced. “You seem to be putting a lot of faith into an impromptu alliance here…”

“I can sink your ship by blinking too quickly,” I informed him bluntly, which made him stiffen in shock. “I’m not afraid of you or your clans. If you cross me, I’ll just hunt down every ship in your fleet, send them and their crews to the bottom, and that will be that.”

My smile was not something most people wanted to see. I distinctly saw him shiver as I did so.

“I’ve given you the chance to do two wonderfully beneficial things for yourself. You can set up the Thatallixi for a wonderfully appropriate backstab, crippling their fleet and then looting their main port to kick them while they are down, and you can accompany us to another world with great trading opportunities, learn how to get back here, and open up a bright new world for your families while kicking the Merchant’s Guild in the teeth while you do. You’ll have to keep your nose clean while you do it, but your people are good at false smiles, especially when you can be idly blown out of the water, so I don’t think that will inconvenience you.

“Whether you take these opportunities is very much up to you, and it will cost me nothing either way. I don’t intend to conquer any kingdom here, I don’t intend to attack anyone unless we are attacked first, and I intend to get my people home.

“No more. No less.

“If you want to profit off that, I have given you the means to do so. Is there anymore else you would like to hear from me?”

He looked both impressed and intimidated, but he stood up easily enough, so I did likewise. “Well, uh, if we do decide to give the Thatallixi a proper thrashing, do I need to contact you, Lady Edge?” he asked me warily.

“Not at all. Either tell them we won’t help them, in which case their fleet won’t dare attack, or tell them we will, and they will attack, only to find out you’re a properly lying and opportunistic scoundrel they trusted too much. If you actually decide to attack us…” My smile was very small, very cold, very hard, “I will make it a point for your ship to be the first one I sink, and that is if it is on the other side of the ocean.”

He looked past me at the utterly unconcerned sailors behind me, chatting it up and lazing around a bit, then at his own brightly-clad and rather barbaric-looking crew, who were definitely ready for a fight if one were to start, and indeed looked fairly confident of taking on a ship half their size with maybe a quarter of the crew.

The utter lack of concern had him licking his lips as he realized where all the danger of the actually resided.

“Take your wines and go.” I waved Captain Manswor to give him the half-empty bottles, which the captain accepted eagerly enough, one by one. “Fair seas, Captain Pelgermas,” I waved him off politely.

He even manage a sort of rakish bow after hurriedly offloading some of the bottles to his first mate. “And a following wind and clear skies to you, Lady Edge!” he managed flamboyantly, before hurriedly striding back to his ship there.

I glided back to the as the landing holding our ships together shattered with a delicate glass-like tinkle, disintegrating into sparks of glittery powder that didn’t make it to the waters.

A second later the winds returned, the waves surged through and between us, and I indicated to Captain Sigmal to take the up and around and back to the armada, now not all that far away.

Captain Manswor had a mixed expression on his face as the spun about in place, to the watching envy of the pirates, and then picked up speed, cross-cutting the wind and rapidly moving fast enough that it was causing a wake even though it was above the waves. “Charming devil,” he admitted, keeping his borrowed jacket on until we were well out of sight. “He’s probably taken more merchant ships in the last three years than any other three pirates alive. Are you expecting him to take up your offer?”