Down at the Docks – Kumara – Chapter 6 Part 3

With a few fish kebabs in claw, I sat down on one of the few benches at the docks. Thankfully, there were several food stalls around here, so I got myself and Thornfang some food. It was about time too.

Munching, I looked around. These looked so different from the docks at Rata Sum. Those were a model of efficiency and order, but here... chaos. Organized chaos, yea, but still. I'm sure it worked for them all, but I could not help but wonder how the asura managed to keep their harbor so organized.

Thinking about Rata Sum, I could not help but wonder how Kaya was doing. And Dumm. I supposed they were all right, working in their krewes. Although, I wonder how Kaya would respond if she found it I was now working for Amethyst, as those two never seemed to get along well. For a moment,I scanned the docks for the Serendipity, but alas. Having some input from an actual captain would have been useful.

As the sun climbed ever higher in the sky, I kept an eye on the flow of people. There was no visible danger, but there was a certain air of concern around the sailors. They all knew about the murders, then.

Still, nothing suspicious happened. The sailors, deckhands and dockworkers went about their business. From their movements, I could deduce that there were several people of importance around the docks. These helped regulate the flow of goods and people. Most of them were Lionguard, but one of them never moved away from its ship. It was a human, clad not in the garb of the Lionguard, but in fancy captain's clothing.

At noon I walked towards one of the non-human Lionguard.

"What?" it asked in a huff.

"Who's that?" I asked, pointing at the human captain.

"Who, what? Oh, that's Captain Song."

"She working for you?"

"She's working with us, thank Wolf. Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, just looking into things." The norn lionguard narrowed his eyes. "Is that so?" Rolling my eyes, I said, "Fine. I'm working on the murders."

"Why?" he said, his massive hand loosely on the pommel of his blade.

"I just moved into Lion's Arch, and rather not see it ruined."

"Seems fair," the norn said with a shrug. "Just don't get in the way."

"I'll try," I said with a toothy grin. The norn shook his head, then returned to bringing some order in the chaos. I walked off towards the ship where this Captain Song stood. Staying at a distance, I observed the comings and goings for a bit.

After about half an hour, seeing nothing untoward, one of the ship's deckhands came towards me. It wore a red tassel on its belt, like most members of that ship.

"The Captain wants to speak to you." It was a human.

"Does she now."

"Yes. Either that, or sod off." With a sigh, I gave a nod and beckoned Thornfang to follow. Upon nearing the captain, she spun around to face me and stared me down.

"What are you doing, loitering around my ship? I'm not hiring."

"Hello to you, too." For a second she stared at me, taking in my appearance.

"I'm Captain Song," she said. "And you're not a sailor."

"I've been a deckhand on a journey."

"That doesn't make you a sailor," she said with a sly smile, brushing aside her long, blond lock of hair.

"That's fair. So, what's a human captain doing here, doing a Lionguard's job? Do they pay you?"

"Pay me?" the Captain said. "No. That would be lovely, though."

"Then why? You don't strike me as the philanthropist kind."

"You do know who rules Lion's Arch, do you not?"

"Yea, the council of captains—oh. You want in on that."

"I do," she said with a grin. "Is that such a bad thing? You look all grouchy."

"I guess not..."

"Ah, new to Lion's Arch then, I guess. Not used to humans being in a higher position, hmm?" I just ground my teeth in response, at which she let out mirthful laughter.

"You'll get used to it, or become a captain," she said with a wink.

If becoming a captain meant I would not need to take commands from humans that might actually be worth the trouble. Still, looking around, I could not deny that the docks around her were far more organized than the rest. "You're doing a rather good job, I'll admit," I said begrudgingly.

"I am, yes. So, why are you here? I very much doubt you came for a social chat."

"I'm looking into the murders, and you seemed... an anomaly."

"An anomaly?" she said, eyebrows raised. "Have you been around asura lately. Never mind that; the murders, yes. Horrible business, that. Bad for trade."

"Bad for the city as a whole."

"Very true," she said with a nod.

"So, have you seen anything?"

"I have not, no," she said.

"Nothing?"

"I'm rather too busy to interrogate everyone, you know."

"That's fair," I nodded.

"Speaking of which, I do need to go back to work. Let me know if you find anything, and I'll keep an eye out for you."

"Thank you," I said through clenched teeth, loath to accept help from a human.She grinned briefly before heading back to her work, turning her back to me. I could not deny the urge to sink my claws into that weak skin, but I managed to hold back. With a snort, I walked away.

For a while, I sauntered around the docks, doing my best not to disrupt the work around me. I was here to help, after all. However, despite how much I looked around, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Lion's Arch was far more resilient than I gave it credit for. If it was not for the corpse I saw this morning, I would have said that the order was wrong, being paranoid—and that's coming from me. Then again, they mentioned an agent of the dragon, not anything else per se.

But come on, they had to be connected. How could they not be? The city just survived a raid, and now it was harassed by a murderer. I would bet my tail on the two of them being connected. Besides, finding a murderer sounded a lot easier than finding a minion of the dragon. If the murderer was not the spy, at least I caught a bad guy, right?

With a sigh I turned towards the city itself. Perhaps there were some clues there.

---

The sun was setting by the time I arrived back at the Silver Robe, dreading what I would find.

"Yes, yes, there you are! You look... contemplative."

"Don't I always," I grunted at Garron.

"More than usual, then," he said with a shrug.

With a sigh, I said, "I've started the investigation." After filling him in on all the things I had seen at the docks, I added, "Perhaps I should work on my attitude towards humans."

"If you are to work here, then, yes," a smooth voice drawled behind me. With a start I spun around. "Amethyst! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I thought you were a scout?" she purred.

With a frown, I said, "Well, I thought I was safe here."

"Do you?" she asked with such seriousness that it stopped me in my tracks.

"I..." I stammered. "I'm not sure yet..."

"That's fine," she said, keeping her eyes fixed on mine. "In the meanwhile, know that I'm here to talk about what you... showed me, anytime you want to. I won't push it. Ever."

"Thanks..." I mumbled.

"No, thank you. For sharing it with me."

"Yes, yes, you see, I would really like to know what this was about," Garron mumbled.

"You didn't show him?" I asked Amethyst.

"Of course not. What do you think of me? No, wait, don't answer that," she added, shaking her head with a smile. "So, what did you investigation turn up?"

"The docks of Lion's Arch are chaos."

"Hey now," she said, crossing her arms.

"Yes, yes, they are," Garron guffawed. "Quite the mess."

"They work fine."

"Only because there are supervisors there. Speaking of, one of the supervisors is a captain from a ship. Is that normal?" I said.

"No," Amethyst said. "Not normal, although it does happen more often. Usually done by the power hungry."

"That seems to fit, yes," I said.

"What about the rest of your day?" Garron asked.

"I've been walking around the city, hoping to find some more clues. But, no. Nothing. Whatever is going on, it's probably at the docks," I said, absentmindedly stroking Thornfang's fur.

"That does sound like it's the case, yes," Amethyst said.

"Hey now," I said, "don't you have a shop to tend to?"

"Yes, so?"

"Leave the investigation to us."

"Why would I do that?" she said, crossing her arms. Her tail thudding loudly against the wooden floorboards. Suddenly I was not so sure about my comment.

"Well, ehm," I said searching for words.

I cast a glance at Garron, but he put his claws up, showing that he would have no part in this.

"Fine," I said. "Just trying to keep you out of trouble."

"Keep me out of trouble?" she huffed. "Look who's talking!"

"Sorry," I muttered.

She snorted, and said, "You're making dinner tonight." With that she stormed back to the front of her store, leaving me and Garron behind, who started laughing.

"You see, that was dumb."

"Yea, yea," I said. "Shut it."

"You know her better than that," he said smirking.

"I was just worried," I said gruffly.

"Yes, yes, how cute," he said with a grin. "But really, if you want to lose any chance with her you currently have, you have to smother her like this."Rolling my eyes, I said, "Just a reflex."

"Yes, yes, an old one, or a new one?"

For a few seconds I stared at him, before I said, "A new one, I think. I certainly wasn't the protective one in my warband."

"You see, neither was I, if you believe it."

"Yea, I believe it all right."

Garron grinned at me. After a few seconds, he said, "Don't you have food to cook?"

"I'm not even that good at cooking," I said, standing up. Thornfang, who had nestled down into a corner, shot up and walked towards me.

"You're the best out of us three," Garron said. "My cooking is too charred, and Amethyst..."

"Yea..."

With a shiver I walked towards the kitchen, Thornfang following me expectantly.

---

List Of Recurring Entities:The following is a list of characters—apart from Kumara, Thornfang, Garron and Amethyst—who have made an appearance before this part, sorted by order of appearance. With all the different stories on CoT, I understand it is hard to keep track of all the characters.Kaya: a female asura Kumara met in the krewe and worked with on the Serendipity.Dumm: a male asura that Kumara worked with in the krewe.Serendipity: cargo ship belonging to the asuran captain Tot.