### Chapter 6: m*rder Most Foul
After a few grumbles, the traveler and I stood at the bow of the ship, gazing down as more knights gathered below, their attitudes hardening by the minute. They began herding everyone back, and while the Sailmaster shouted loudly in the crowd, it had all the impact of a leaf blower in a hurricane. The traveler, brimming with concern about an impending scuffle and preferring not to stir the pot, decided to retreat to the cabin for updates.
Not long after, a few of the ship’s guards, looking very much like they were in charge, descended to the pier. Meanwhile, most travelers had made it back to the deck, a cacophony of complaints and sighs echoing around.
“Oh great, looks like we’re stuck…”
“This ship is unbelievable! Are they really not paying docking fees? And they’re arguing with the knights? If they don’t end up in chains, it’ll be a miracle… I feel like I’ve boarded a pirate ship, and it’s just my luck…”
“What are we going to do next?”
“They’re still negotiating with the knights. Guess we just have to sit tight…”
“What if this delays our trip?”
“Honestly, nothing urgent on your plate anyway…”
“But I do have…”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a brawl…”
As the crowd on the pier thinned out, the real negotiations seemed to just kick off. The Captain, the First Mate, the Navigator, and a few leading guards were forced to swallow their anger and frustrations to engage in a rapid-fire exchange with the knights. It looked intense, but they probably wouldn’t come to blows… right?
Both sides seemed pretty entrenched in their positions, and it looked like this back-and-forth would drag on like a snail trying to climb a mountainside. After some time, I noticed one of the knights was making his way onto the ship, so I did the only sensible thing: I shuffled off, head down, hurriedly skedaddling away from the bow.
Back in the cabin, not wanting to run into any church folks, I locked myself in my cramped little hovel, dug out some stale bread and water, and commenced my slow feast while listening to the commotion outside.
There seemed to be a lot of people outside the cabin—travellers, merchants, and a fair share of sailors—all in a grouchy mood. The crew felt it was totally unfair that the East Continent’s merchant ship had to bear the brunt of the West Continent’s taxation, claiming it was extortion at its finest. Who knew where the tax money was ultimately going to end up!
On the other hand, the travelers and merchants didn’t seem to care much for the principles involved—they just thought this delay was a serious drag on their day. If the losses due to the delay would go uncompensated, they pushed for the merchant ship to pay the taxes already; whatever amount, just pay it so the knights would let them off the ship to tackle their own responsibilities.
As time ticked away, frustrations boiled over, and soon, I heard a scuffle erupt outside—“Crash!” Something had toppled over, probably a table. Luckily, the brief chaos was quickly quelled by someone yelling to calm down: “Ship Doctor! Ship Doctor!” Someone must have been unfortunate enough to get their nose rearranged.
After that little debacle, everyone seemed to exhale a bit, the tension lifting like a sunrise after a long night. Many people appeared to make their way to the deck to check on the situation.
After a while, some of the deck visitors returned, stomping back with enough noise to awaken a sleeping giant. I finished my last piece of stale bread—appropriately my second in this unfortunate supply—and took a sip of water, listening intently to snippets of conversation filtering in.
“They went with the knights to the council…”
“Who? The Captain?”
“Yeah…”
“Is there even a council? How long are we stuck on this boat?”
“Do you know how much gold this delay is costing me?! Can you cover that!? What are you going to do about it?!”
“Why are you screaming? Like you’re the only one losing money! We’re trapped here, too! Instead of yelling at us, go argue with the church knights!”
“The knights on the dock have got the place locked tight… I checked, no one’s getting off this ship.”
“I suggest we all calm down a bit…”
“Calm down? Do you see all the cargo packed in here? If things don’t go smoothly, we could be here for weeks! How do you expect me to relax?”
“The council has been meeting since before we even arrived. They should have results soon… no point in raising a ruckus; we might as well wait it out…”
The crew was doing their best to soothe the merchant’s rambunctious spirits, hoping to quell the crisis before it erupted. Among the chaotic voices, a couple of footfalls approached me, creeping closer outside my poorly-proportioned hidey-hole. They must have thought I was alone because they lowered their voices, and I could catch bits of their conversation.
“…It really feels like they want them to stir up trouble, just to put pressure on the Captain… those knights are cunning…”
“I heard… not sure who sniffed it out, but the leader of the Sixth Knights Order is in port city, and way before we even got here, several merchant ships and folks from the Merchant Association gathered to raise a ruckus for days now… all over this tax hike…”
“They’re not letting anyone into the city… just keeping them in the tower at the camp outside… Those who paid their taxes and those who don’t are all stuck there… our ship’s arrival was perfectly timed for this merchant council…”
“Right, talking for hours and getting nowhere. A knight showed up and dragged the Captain and the others into the council to listen in… I bet a lot of Merchant Association heads are over there…”
“Calling it a council probably just means they’ll regale us with some formal announcement about predetermined decisions from the Holy Department… no arguing about it…”
“Who’s to say if it came from the Holy Department? We can’t even get through the gates of the Holy City… whatever they say goes…”
“Suddenly trying to collect all those funds means our shipment’s a total loss, and then we still end up compensating for previous ones… Who runs a business like that?!”
“Driving us to our doom…”
“Someday, that greedy Rodris should have his head blown off for this… d*mn…”
Soon, their conversations drifted away.
…
As night deepened, the “Kalivel” merchant ship lay silently at the port. Muffled noise from the deck punctuated the dim haze around. Beyond the dock, the port city glowed with lights like a galaxy, but inside the tower outside of town, the merchant council meetings seemed to drag on without end.
Since the Sailmaster had joined the Captain and the others in the meeting, at least an hour had passed, and those left lingering on the ship hadn’t heard a peep about what was happening.
I had already finished my last piece of stale bread and dozed off in my cramped cabin, but now, with hunger gnawing at my insides once more, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer.
If I wanted to leave, it was easy enough—the church knights guarding the harbor looked more like a paper wall to me.
But the Sailmaster…
Forget it.
It was just a few words to say.
I could leave a note—just slip it in somewhere, right?
Decided, I donned my hood, straightened my attire, and made my way up to the deck. Not too far along the way, I ran into a friendly-enough sailor. I thought I’d ask him for some paper and a pen, but when I opened my mouth, he looked perplexed and confessed he couldn’t even read, let alone offer me writing supplies, bafflingly amazed that I actually could read. We fumbled around for a while, the poor guy scratching his head, wondering who to borrow from, when suddenly a ruckus erupted from the front of the ship.
“What’s happening…?”
The sailor and I turned to see a throng of people rushing to the ship’s edge, peering over the side. Meanwhile, the pier below seemed to erupt into chaos, with shouts of knights drawing swords and hollering.
In the midst of the noise, one voice cut through, hoarse and frantic: “m*rder! The church has committed m*rder! They… the Captain! Help us—!”
