Soul Bound

1            Soul Bound

1.1          Finding her Feet

1.1.5        An Inscrutable Mastermind

1.1.5.14     Stumpers

About 30 seconds away from the Dove’s side entrance were a set of wide steps leading down from the Plaza to the water edge, where gondolas lined up to ferry inebriated students, busy merchants and finely dressed nobles to their destinations. A pair of guards, one tall and bony, the other wide and red faced, were theoretically keeping an eye out for travellers from beyond the city. Instead they had their helmets off and were both gripping a long fishing rod excitedly, trying to haul it in. It looked rather like the fish was winning.

Tomsk strode over to them. Kafana was expecting him to be jovial and maybe help them haul it in, but instead his body posture and facial expression changed. She couldn’t quite pin down why, but she realised she was now in the presence of Captain Tomsk. The guards realised this too, gave a frantic glance from him, back to the rod and then back to him. Then they dropped the rod, jammed their helmets back on and stood rigidly at attention. Tomsk hadn’t had to say a word.

Kafana felt sorry for the fish. For some reason, she found herself walking over to kneel by the edge so she could look into the water. The fish was about twice the length of her arm, and was bleeding from where the hook was caught in its mouth. It was beautiful. She wanted to protect it. It reared out of the water, opening wide to reveal jagged teeth. She leaned right down, nearly toppling in and put her hand in its mouth.

“Kafana!” Alderney cried, rushing towards her.

“Oh, hey Alderney. Hold my feet.” she shoved herself half off, trusting Alderney to stop her sliding further, and reached deeper into the mouth. Her fingers found the hook. “Nearly got it.”

Her slide stopped and she felt several people lying on her legs. Good. She twisted the hook and it came free. Nasty thing. She pulled her hand back and patted the fish on the head. The fish thanked her with a flip of its tail as it swam away.

She felt herself pulled back onto the bank, and sat up. Everybody was looking at her, for some reason.

She stood up and walked over to the guards crossly, holding out the hook to them. “Hoi. You should be ashamed of yourselves, picking on a poor creature like that. Don’t do it again, you hear me!”

“Yes, Ma’am” said Ugo, the wider one.

“No, Ma’am” said Odo, the taller one, simultaneously.

They looked at each other, then back to her and again spoke together.

“Err, I mean No Ma’am” said Ugo.

“Err, I mean Yes Ma’am” said Odo.

Ugo punched Odo hard in the ribs.

Odo said “I mean, no we won’t pick on poor Stumpers. Ma’am.”

She snarled at them. “See you don’t, or I’ll throw you both in and suspend you from hooks in your mouths from the arch of the bridge.”

She turned to the party and smiled brightly. “Come on, we’ve got a boat to catch!”

She felt much better now, for some reason. The others weren’t saying a word. But that was fine. Perhaps they liked the pretty fish too.

It wasn’t until they were quite a way up the river, passing under the bridge between Mercato and Libri, that the boatman spoke up:

“Know why they call ‘em Stumpers?”

Bungo shook his head.

“‘'Cos around here people don’t put their hands near the water. Anys as does is like to find themselves wi' just a stump. Vicious they is, plain vicious an' no mistake.”

Kafana reviewed in her mind what he’d said for a minute. Nobody spoke, just watched her.

“Um, what I did wasn’t very normal, was it?”

The other five, and the boatman, all shook their heads in unison.

Wellington bravely spoke up. {Kafana, could you look at your character, please, and tell me if there are any status effects upon you, or if any of your items has changed.}

She checked. “No new status, but I can now see one the properties on my ring that was previously hidden.”

The Ring of Francis the Navigator (UNIQUE ITEM, HOLY ARTIFACT)

+50% attunement to the element of water

(Storm Magic, Reinforcement Magic, Necromantic Magic and Healing Magic)

Freedom of movement

???

+15 to the skill ‘Swimming’

Sea Friend - You like and can understand aquatic beings. They like and can understand you (+1500 reputation with beings that live in the water)

???

This ring was a gifted to Francis in person, by the deity Mor

Durability: INDESTRUCTIBLE

Bungo: “Whoa. That applies to venomous sea snakes? Kraken? Pirates?”

Kafana gave a sideways glance at the boatman, whose thick country accent was hard for her to understand. “Not pirates, I think. Beings that live in the water, not just on the water.”

Wellington: {Them not wanting to hurt you is a fair trade for you not wanting to hurt them. I think we can live with it.}

Tomsk: {Does that apply to cooked fish?}

She considered the idea, visualising a dead fish on the counter of the Dove, and Columbina asking her to fry it.

“No, the sea is very practical about such things. Letting a non-sentient fish that is already dead go to waste would be disrespectful of the sacrifice. But if someone is being needlessly cruel to dolphins or seals, I’m likely to treat it the same way a steppe nomad would treat a person who maimed horses for fun.”

They passed beyond Libri to their right, and the city’s wall on their left, as they approached the cold stone buildings of the area where the city sent its dead. Even though it was the middle of the day, mist clung to the ground. Bulgaria indicated the long funeral dock used by nobles sending coffins over from Alto, and that’s where the boatman dropped them off, refusing a tip in his haste to put some distance between himself and the weird group he’d just carried.