Willa giggled. “Maybe not, but there’s so much more room down here! Please?”
Rosh sighed and shrugged. He stepped onto the plank and walked back to her.
“Why’d you leave the party?”
Rosh shrugged, “Didn’t want no trouble. Not with Jenna winning that contest and all.”
“Wow, can you believe that?” Willa asked, the alcohol making her easily distracted and a little flighty. Rosh could not help but chuckle and find her cute because of it.
“Yeah, looks like the ‘Hawk’ll be needing a new mate,” he said.
Willa made a strange face, but let the comment drop. After a few moments of silence while they walked to nowhere in particular she asked, “Who was that man, Rosh?”
The Arms Master shrugged. “I ain’t for knowing.”
“What about the man he mentioned… Jaspar Highsail? Do you know him?”
Rosh paused, coming to a stop. He turned to look at her and she did the same, a smile on her face. “You’re drunk,” he accused her.
She giggled a little and nodded. She held up her arm, bringing the stump into the dim light from the nearby town’s lanterns. “You played a part in saving my life twice,” she said softly. “First time you held me and cut my hand off. It was ruined and poisoning me, killing me slow.”
She reached up with her other hand and gently caressed his cheek, feeling the stubble that had grown over the course of the day. “The second time was when you kept me from falling off the Voidhawk. I’ve been wanting to thank you, wanting to show you how much I appreciate you, but I’ve been afraid.”
“’Fraid of what?” he asked, his voice deep but also soft and drawn.
“Afraid of rejection, maybe,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes.
“You’re right, I’m drunk,” she admitted. “So I don’t know better than to tell you all this. You’re my lifeline — you keep me going, Rosh. I felt worthless losing my hand, but then you saved me anyhow. You don’t care that I only got one hand. You still treat me special.”
“I’m afraid if you don’t have the feelings for me I got for you… well, I’m afraid that’ll mean I don’t matter.”
She opened her mouth to say more but Rosh had heard enough. She was a wisp of a thing compared to him and picking her up was easy. His mouth closed on hers and she moaned breathlessly as he crushed her to him.
With the new Lord chosen The festival ended. Logan, Jodyne, and Bailynn returned to the Voidhawk much as the town’s folk made their way back to their homes. As soon as they arrived an agitated Bekka asked for them to stay and keep an eye on things, then she slipped into the darkness of the night with nary an explanation. The others, tired from their recreation and also with strange thoughts in their heads, put little mind to her behavior.
Bekka slipped through the town, finding it strangely quiet, even for such a late hour. She moved on and came across Keshira, who stood silent watch like a sentinel. She pulled up short, surprised at the pleasure golem’s presence, then nodded to her.
“Keshira, do you know where Dexter is?” she asked. “And Jenna?”
Keshira looked at her and smiled, which further set Bekka back. “The Captain searches for Jenna at the tower.”
Bekka nodded and started towards it. She stopped and looked back at Keshira oddly. “Why do you stand there?”
“The Captain asked me to,” she responded. “He told me it was okay to smile.”
Bekka had to admit the woman had a beautiful smile, no matter how confusing her statement was. She nodded and mumbled something about that being good, then hurried away.
Arriving at the base of the tower she found Dexter sitting on a rock and staring at it morosely. She walked quietly beside him and stood there silently for several long moments before he glanced up at her. He looked angry and unhappy, perhaps even miserable.
Bekka opened her mouth, then closed it. She had meant to berate him, but thought better of it upon seeing him. “Tell me about it,” she said, dropping to her knees beside him.
Dexter looked at her and cracked a humorless smile. “Too much to tell,” he said. “Besides, there’d be no mystery about me then.”
Bekka smiled. “Then tell me why you’re sitting on a rock outside of a tower?”
“Long story,” Dexter said. “And I’m hoping I won’t have time to tell it all.”
“Why not?”
“I reckon if a door don’t open soon in that tower, I’ll go find Rosh and have him make me one,” Dexter explained.
Bekka glanced at it and, true enough, she saw nothing but smooth stone about the base. She did not walk around it, as Dexter surely had, but she took his word for it. “Powerful magic,” she whispered.
Dexter shrugged.
“Why did you deny her?” Bekka asked him.
“Deny her?” Dexter asked, confused and panicked at the same time.
“You showed her love and then took it from her.”
Dexter looked at Bekka for a long moment, realizing that somehow she knew. Odds are they all did — he wondered how long they had known. The Captain just sighed and shook his head.
“Been a long night, Bekka,” he said by way of begging off any explanations. “We all do the wrong thing at times; I’m here to fix that.”
Bekka nodded, accepting that she would get nothing else from him. Truly, it was not her place to demand more. She cared for him though, as a friend and a brother — neither of which she had truly had. Likewise she cared for Jenna and the others of his crew, though it seemed in peril of being sundered.
“Keshira told me something,” she mentioned a moment later. “She said you told her it was okay to smile.”
Dexter found himself smiling at the words, and tried to feel for the connection to the pleasure golem. He could not make it, whether it was the distance or perhaps because he was too tired and distraught to concentrate properly he was not sure. “Aye, there’s never a day that can’t be made better with a smile.”
“Especially from a beauty like her,” Bekka offered.
Dexter laughed and looked at her, surprised. “First you tell me you’re interested in Jenna, now Keshira? Got no love in you for a strong man?”
Bekka shrugged and smiled. “I never said that,” she answered noncommittally.
“Captain,” she continued a moment later, before he would explore her sexuality any further. “Something Rosh said earlier when he returned to the ship — and how the others acted. I paid it no heed at the time, but now I’m wondering.”
“What’d Rosh say?” Dexter asked, assuming the worse.
“He said the others were looking like they were thinking of staying,” replied Bekka.
Dexter sighed. “It’s a beautiful little rock, I’ll admit,” he said. “I’ll not stop anyone that wants to. We’ve flown shorthanded before.”
“It is nice here,” Bekka admitted, looking around. “And now I hear Jenna’s in charge.”
Dexter nodded but said nothing. “Think you could pick up some fresh deckhands here?”
“Rosh say he wanted to stay too?” Dexter asked.
Bekka shook her head. “No… but Willa might be changing his mind.”
Dexter’s eyes went up in mild surprise. “I won’t stand in their way,” he said. “Didn’t figure him for the settling down type though. Funny things a woman can do to a man.”
He looked at Bekka and smiled. “Or a woman.”
Bekka’s eyes narrowed slightly at the jibe, but she otherwise ignored it.
“Well, I’d best hurry about getting some help to poke a hole in this tower then, while Rosh still listens to what I tell him.”
Bekka nodded and rose to follow Dexter as he walked with a purpose down the hill the tower sat upon back towards the Voidhawk.
Jenna watched from inside the tower, staring passively at the vision upon the walls around her. She could see everywhere on the small rock with merely a thought, though at the present she could not help but be dismayed that Dexter and Bekka left her behind.
That part was a small part hidden within herself; the rest of her watched silently from her chair. She watched and she learned, listening to the persistent voice of the former Lord of Deepingdale. He was old and resting upon a cushioned bed some distance away. His skin wrinkled and mottled with age, his chest had been barely moving for several hours. Now all that remained was the voice that she heard within her head, whispering to her promises of rewards and luxuries she had never dreamt of.