Reborn From the Cosmos

Miniarc-Bad Tidings 01

The old sea hags that read fortunes in fish bones taught the children of Graywatch that people could be born beneath bad stars, poor bastards so despised by the world that it conspired to ruin them at every turn. They were those shunned by the light, born in darkness and cursed to stumble through it all their lives, crashing headfirst into every obstacle hidden within.

But misfortune always traveled with opportunity. If they could overcome their trials, they were always better than those pampered by life. A hot forge was needed to make a proper blade, after all.

The hags would smile as they finished their explanation, point at whatever children they’d managed to get their claws on for the day, and inform them with great glee that they were one of the unloved and could expect many storms in their lives. Why? Because they had the dubious fortune of being born in a cursed land. It wasn’t just people that could be born under bad signs. Places could attract bad fortune too and Graywatch was a prime example. Bad had seeped into every rock, every tree, and every grain of sand. It was inevitable that it’d seep into the people too.

However, that didn’t mean they were irredeemable.

Or so Maxine hoped. She’d bet quite a lot on the people of Graywatch.

“Mornin’, boss.”

As usual, Briar waited outside her room, leaning against the wall with crossed arms and drooping eyes. She was a large woman, two heads taller than Maxine and twice as wide. Her dark brown hair was shaved on both sides, the right side of her head marred by an angry burn that spoke of her experience.

While the Guiness name could do many things, she wasn’t naive enough to think it was foolproof protection. Especially in a city full of ruffians with a convenient ocean nearby that would happily swallow any unwanted corpses. There wasn’t enough gold in the world to pacify Graywatch and no mercenaries with functioning brains would ever take contracts against the vengeful pirates. Beyond that, she wasn’t here on her father’s behalf. The marquis was not the doting type that would sweep in to clean up his children’s messes, particularly if it endangered his business in anyway. She was on her on and as such had taken precautions.

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“Good morning. Is—"

“The boys are downstairs messing about with Dunder.”

“Ah.” Her time in the city had been educational above all else. She had been taught that there were groups in the kingdom that had radically different ways than the civilized methods that pervaded noble society, but it was entirely different to experience as much. One of the most jarring practices were the way they handed business meetings.

Incredibly, those who wanted to do business, usually the captains of larger vessels, rarely conducted their business face to face. Instead, lackeys were sent to carry their words back and forth. The messenger would sometimes have to run through the whole city to track down their target without a set meeting time. Then, they were forced to wait to be seen. And they would, as they didn’t dare fail in their orders, whether it took one hour or days.

Maxine was taught that punctuality was a way to show respect to a business partner. It was also more practical, as more got done with good scheduling. However, it was the opposite in Graywatch. Their strange practice had led to meetings being delayed so often that messengers expected to wait. Someone showing up to a meeting promptly was seen as weakness, taken that they were scared of offending the other party.

The best method was to have food and drink waiting for any messengers and to send another lackey to entertain them. Said lackey was expected to boast about their boss’ many accomplishments, usually exaggerated until they had slain a kraken with one hand tied behind their back and the other one holding a mug or beautiful woman.

Thom had been the one to enlighten her about the strange practice, saving her from embarrassment. The first thing she did after arriving in the city was to find a local “expert”. Or rather, she’d left as much to the Guiness knights that she’d brought with her. Maxine had many complaints about her sister, but one good trait that Marcella had was that she wasn’t petty. In the grand competition to impress their father, most of her siblings had turned on one another. Their shared blood wouldn’t stop them from tearing each other apart.

Marcella could have used her position to crush Maxine but she did nothing to hinder Maxine’s efforts. She was curious when her meandering sister suddenly declared that she wanted to leave on business, but she hadn’t hounded her for details and didn’t name a ridiculous price when Maxine said she wanted to borrow two of the knights assigned to Quest’s branch of the Golden Feathers. Maxine was convinced that the good temper was rooted in arrogance rather than any kind of positive emotion, Marcella being so convinced of her superiority she didn’t need to resort to methods she considered “dirty”, but it was admirable.

After Thom, Maxine had hired two local fighters, Blaine and Briar. A brother and sister that used to work on a hauler, what they called the largest ships and their crews that hauled up treasures from the sea, whether that was food or monsters, one of the few moral jobs on the sea. They were perfect because they were both knowledgeable about local threats and had connections without any bad blood that would taint Maxine’s image. A small but effective team.

Graywatch didn’t have hotels, as in no establishment meant to offer travelers comfort away from their homes. There were plenty of taverns that had extra rooms on their second floors but there was nothing comfortable about them. Maxine had splurged for a room in one of the finer establishments but all that bought was a cleanish room and a bar that closed at a respectable hour of rather than pouring drinks all night, fueling a ruckus that was impossible to sleep through.

At least she liked fish. She imagined anyone who didn’t would find Graywatch more hellish than most, as the people had something from the sea in every meal. As she stepped down the stairs that led to the main floor of the tavern, the sound of booming laughter drew her attention to a table of three men enjoying an enormous plate of shrimp. She’d taken a particular liking to them and snatched one off the plate once she reached the table.

Another strange way things worked. Leaders, especially captains, were expected to be greedy bastards. If they didn’t take small liberties, people began to wonder if they were taking bigger ones. Petty theft actually improved her reputation.

“Boss.” Blaine, not Thom, stood so she could take his seat. The man was bigger than his sister, with limbs as thick as logs. He was naturally intimidating and him deferring to her was a statement. Graywatch cared for strength above all else. A captain was nothing without a crew behind them.

“Miss Guiness!” The coastal people also weren’t big on etiquette. She hadn’t heard a lord or lady since the smell of the sea first entered her nose. Being addressed with miss instead of some crude misnomer was about as much as the men she’d been dealing with were capable of. “Mornin’!”

“Good morning, Dunder. I assume it you’re here so early because you’ve brought me good news?” It was a struggle to mix the local derogatory and brusque way of negotiation into the more formal style she knew but Maxine thought she was getting better at it.

The big man sitting across from her grinned and she exercised control not to show her disgust at the evidence of poor hygiene. “Ye. Captain says he’ll take as many barrels of that burny stuff as you got. He wants some of our boys in your learning place too.”

“Excellent.” Maxine came to the dangerous city prompted by one thought; she would get nowhere while constantly acting in the shadows of her betters: her father, Marcella, even Lou to an extent. Lou told her to make an offer she couldn’t resist. The challenge made the young merchant realize something; she had nothing to offer. Nothing that she could point to and declare she had dreamed it, built it, and nurtured it until it was a thing she could be proud of. Who was she to offer anything?

Somewhere in the midst of wallowing in disappointment after being told off, Maxine came to a harsh realization. The Guiness family fortune was a big prize…and maybe too big for her. Like a child choking on a dessert after eating too hastily, she’d let her fixation on winning her father’s approval blind her to rest of life. That dedication would be her downfall. Whatever the marquis was looking for in his next heir, it wasn’t someone that would follow him and do his bidding. His disinterest in her and the favor he showed Marcella should have made that clear long ago. Maxine had tried her best to emulate him but, despite his enormous ego, he didn’t want a copy to succeed him.

If she wanted to stand out, to have a chance of impressing people like him and Lou, then she had to do something beyond the cold calculation of profit. She had to show that she could do the incredible. Perhaps the impossible.

Like creating a new, legitimate market in a place not even her father could get a foothold.

“But captain said he ain’t paying three silvers a head. Eight coppers is as high as he’ll go.”

Maxine did her best impression at the shark-like smile the merchants of the city used. It made even the most hardened sailors uncomfortable. Truly, the peddlers of Graywatch made bandits look like upstanding individuals. The criminals would at least leave their victims with the clothes on their backs. Extraneous thoughts faded to the back of her mind as she found herself in familiar territory. Whatever other strange things she experienced in the city, the language of money would always be the same.