Captain Blackwell slowly folded the parchment into a neat half page and gently slipped the letter back inside the envelope. He reached for his sealing wax and carefully held the wick of the small red stick over the flickering flame of his desk light.
As he waited, he listened to the woody creaks of the ship, as it flexed and stretched out its great length along the waves like a beast awaking from slumber. The Walrus was a good vessel, sleek and fast, they should make Vicetina by the third day. He wondered if he would rather the journey took a bit longer.
The letter of introduction left him ill at ease. It wasn’t like Dominic to dispatch the Iron Stars without a proper briefing.
Worse again, these were barely Iron Stars. A good group, some had proven themselves in a brawl already back in Fairharbour, but his hold ship hands had done most of the actual sailing.
These recruits were a green and motley group ( He chuckled to himself at his inadvertent cleverness… at least two were literally green… )and he worried he wouldn’t have enough time to train them properly before their first proper fight. He reflected that a few looked like they had seen their fair share of violence, but fighting battles does not a soldier make. He didn’t want a repeat of last time. Dammit Dominic, what the hell was going on? He was much more comfortable with straight forward objectives. Drive away the bandits from here, clear out the ancient cathedral there. Simple and clean, in and out. But the world was going to shit these days and he was being thrown into the middle of it. He was arriving to Vicetina blind. He felt his heart begin to quicken and he suddenly felt very small indeed. The oppressive vastness of the ocean around him made itself known to him and Luca was becoming increasingly aware of his own breathing, sounding laboured and brittle in his ears. He was a speck now, nameless, and he wondered if the vast unknown oceans around him could somehow suffocate him simply with the pressure of too much space, just crush him like an ant through the greatness of it size and his powerless.
The wisps of smoke caught in his nostrils and brought him back to his senses. Shaking slightly, Luca slid his hand on the underside of the mahogany desk until he felt a familiar indentation. He pushed gently and caught the brass seal as it rolled from its hidden compartment. Dripping the wax over the now closed envelope he waited until the shimmering globs formed into a tiny blood red hillock, before plunging the seal down hard into the body of the wax, enjoying the squelch it made as it billowed, swelled and hardened around the seal. He removed the seal and looked down proudly at his handiwork. Wouldn’t have be able to tell the difference himself.
Well, he was none the wiser after his foray into amateur espionage. He knew that Lorenzo Ordelaffi was expecting them, and recruited them for an unknown reason, and for some reason Dominic hadn’t wanted to include any further details in the letter. He wondered who else would read this letter. Perhaps it was the omissions that were most significant. Perhaps Dominic knew he would read the letter. Perhaps he wanted him to.
Staring thoughtfully at the closed envelope, Luca stood up slowly and reached for his pistols lying next to the stack of yellowed maps and parchments. Sliding the ancient weapons into their leather holsters, he tightened his belt and straightened his jerkin. He began to stride towards the door.
The sunlight illuminated the tall, lean shape of the half orc at the prow, propped against the foremast and staring and the cliffs as the slowly passed by. He had stood silently like that for many hours today. Luca sighed. He was easily the strangest orc Luca had ever met, and that was saying something.
He walked slowly to the half-orcs side , as the breeze picked up and ran its salty fingers through his beard and hair, cool and refreshing and awakening his weary mind. Throkk tipped his head slightly to acknowledge the captain but otherwise remained motionless. Luca wondered why a gesture of borderline insubordination in a regular crewman felt strangely respectful from the half orc.
Luca said nothing and stared into that same distance alongside his companion. He stared unseeing at remains of the rocky , gorse topped highlands gave way to the richer, softer pastures and croplands of the northern meadows of Vicetina.
He felt the letter sit heavily in his pocket, and wondered what lay ahead.