Chapter 2: In Triplicate

Captain Jos Blackfyre stood with her eyes closed and her hand on the brass latch. Her stomach didn’t so much flutter as twist into a knot. On the other side of that door... inside of her own cabin... on her own ship, a member of the asuran Arcane Council awaited. Jos hated working with the council. It wasn’t just their arrogance, or their pushiness, or their constant use of five-copper words. No, what she found most irritating about them was their incessant need to prove everyone else wrong.

A shrill, grating voice echoed from inside her cabin. “Well, are you going to come in or just stand out there like a lump of ooze? That’s assuming you can get the door open and we both fit in here with all the piles of refuse and filth.”

Jos ground her teeth and pulled the lever. As much as she knew she was going to hate the next several minutes, she wiped the frown from her lips and pushed on. She knew she wouldn’t be able to maintain a happy face for more than three seconds, so she settled for the next best thing: an expression of contentedness. “Councillor Grint, how pleasant to see you again.”

The councilor stood in the center of the room, the only spot not spoiled with dirty clothes, plates, or other mess. Beside his rotund frame, a small black case sat on the floor. He kept his short arms folded across his chest. His gaze flicked around the room then locked on her face. One eyebrow arched on his purple-grey face as he studied her. “I am skeptical as to whether this is pleasant for you. It surely is not for me.”

Jos grit her teeth and let the comment slide right by. Of course, the situation was not pleasant for her. The last time she’d seen him, they were screaming at each other over her “shoddy” work in shipping his personal belongings from Rata Sum to Lion’s Arch. It wasn’t her fault that his people hadn’t packed things right or that the monsoon storm decided to appear right on top of them. 

Grint scanned the room again and his upper lip curled in a snarl of disgust. When he looked her in the eyes again his brow furrowed. “In fact, I believe the last thing you said to me was something about shoving my big, floppy ears into a rather uncomfortable, unlit location on my own body.”

“Yes, well.” She smoothed her doublet and cleared her throat. “I was angry. But I seem to remember you equating my mother to a pile of quagan excrement, so... Why don’t we let bygones be bygones?”

He scoffed. “Very well.”

She thought about clearing a spot for the councilor to sit down, but realized she rather enjoyed the idea of watching him stand there awkwardly. Instead, Jost stepped over a pile of maps and plopped down on another pile of clothes hiding her sitting couch. “How may the crew of Hiraeth be of assistance to the Arcane Council?” 

Councillor Grint’s legs twitched as he started to move but stopped. He leveled his gaze at her and gave a dry smirk. The look in his eyes said he didn’t miss the slight. “This is something of an urgent mission that we’d like to keep rather, um, inconspicuous. One of our outposts has acquired a disabled Inquest golem, and we’d like to have it brought to Rata Sum.”

“Why?”

“Dear me.” He rolled his eyes. “So we can study it?!”

Jos shook her head. “No, I mean why me? You have your own ships, why not one of them?” Jos leaned forward, not giving him a second to speak. “More importantly, why me specifically? You don’t trust me, and I’m not particularly fond of you. There are plenty of other freight haulers in the bay. So why me?”

Grint’s face relaxed. He sucked in a breath and let it out as a loud sigh. “Because you’re the devil I know. And for everything else you and I have at odds, I know you can keep a secret.”

She held her hands up. “Okay, but that doesn’t really answer my question. Surely you can find someone at that giant floating cube you can trust.”

“One would think. However,”—he shifted his stance, like he was considering telling her more then gave himself a small nod—“what I am about to tell you is classified. Only three people outside of the Council know. This must remain a secret. At all costs.”

 Captain Jos looked him over for a second. His body language, worry lines at the corners of his eyes, his twitching ears... all of these things told her he was nervous. That meant that whatever he had to say must be good. “Alright.”

He nodded again. “We believe this golem is some kind of new weapon, that it somehow makes a continent-sized leap forward in capabilities. I can’t for the life of me understand how those fools at the Inquest could have come across this technology, but apparently they did. And we have to know what it is. For the good of all of Tyria.”

“For the good of all of Tyria?” From the corner of her eye, Jos spotted the familiar tan ceramic jug. She shifted in her seat and snatched the container from the side table. Latching onto the cork with her teeth, she pulled the stopper and spit it across the room. “That’s quite ominous. Sounds like the start of a bad adventure story told to little asuran progeny around the campfire.”

Jos lifted the jug to her lips and took a deep swig. She savored the dark burn on her tongue.

He scoffed at her, his disdain for her day-drinking clear on his face. “If you do this right, there should not be any adventures. Just a one-way trip from Stormbluff Beacon to Rata Sum.”

“How soon?”

“Immediately.”

Jos pursed her lips. “Fee?”

The councilor pulled a coin purse from his belt and tossed it over. The small bag clanked heavily when it landed in Jos’s lap. She hefted the purse and struggled not to smile. 

Grint angled his chin at her. “I believe the proper arrangement is half prior and half when the task is completed, is that correct?”

Bouncing the pouch in her palm, she guessed it held at least seventy-five gold. The small knot in her stomach tightened. Jos knew this job would certainly not be as easy as Grint was saying, but with a payday like this she could cover some badly needed repairs to the ship and get payroll caught up. 

Jos set the jug down on the deck and shoved herself up out of the couch. “Sounds good. I’ll just check with Shipment Broker’s office for any other runs along the route and—”

“No.” The councilor stepped forward and held his hand out for the purse. “There must not be any other missions. It’s only this mission or no deal.” 

Mission? Odd choice of words. The captain didn’t hesitate to pull the bag back. As much as it pained her, she’d still be making plenty on this run without any side deliveries. “Fine. We’ll run single.”

Doing her best to look as casual as possible, Jos poked her way over to the lockbox near her desk. Grint’s eyes felt like tiny needles on her back as she wordlessly locked away the deposit. When she was finished, Jos whipped around and clapped her hands. “All right then!”

She plucked a half-full bottle of wine out of the rack and grabbed a couple crystal goblets from the cupboard. Blowing the collected dust from the two glasses, she held them out. “Shall we have a drink to celebrate our new business venture?”

Councillor Grint’s back stiffened. “Highly improper. No. Why don’t we celebrate with you signing the contract?” He pulled three rolled up sheets of paper from the case on the floor. “In triplicate.”

“Oh yeah.” She’d forgotten about Arcane Council contracts. This was just another thing she dreaded about working with them. Jos carefully shifted a few dirty dishes out of the way and made room for the contracts. 

The document was full of tiny, dense print. Just skimming the little letters made her dizzy. Even so, she did her best to wade through the “party of the first part”s and “forthwiths” and over-explained indemnities. Once Jos reached the bottom of the page, she leaned back and shook her head. 

Grint held out a quill.

The knot in Jos’s stomach tightened. She knew she was probably making a mistake, proverbially getting into bed with the Arcane Council again. And even though it went against every fiber of her being, she signed the contract.

All three of them.