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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4830140" data-attributes="member: 3285">Naoke: Part 9 – The PrisonerA huge force rocked the Nǎoké.  Without warning, the entire vessel shuddered violently, as if struck by a great obstacle.  Vlad peered over the edge of the ship. “I don’t see anything.”Whatever the ship had rammed into, it wasn’t visible.  The vessel’s bowsprit, caved into the likeness of an angel of death, had been smashed to splinters.  Judging from the cries of the sailors, it was apparent that the bow had taken damage.  Though the sails were still filled with wind, the ship had stopped dead in the water, obviously because it had run directly into something. Yet nothing appeared beyond the ship but open sea and black night sky.  “Shh” said Ilmarė.  “I hear something.”Shouting sailors rushed back and forth between the bow and the storage lockers, quickly mending the fractured portions of the hull. “I don’t hear anything either,” said Kham. “Besides the crew, that is.”Suddenly the elorii hopped down off of the bow of the ship, disappearing from sight.Vlad gasped. “Ilmarė?” “There’s someone down here!” shouted the elorii from seemingly nowhere.  The source of her voice was down below the ship’s keel.“Magic,” said Beldin.  “An invisible island.”Kham hopped down and, much to his surprise, found himself on terra firma.  No more than a tiny islet, the piece of rock wasn’t more than fifty feet in diameter.  A hut, made of stone, sat in the middle.  A wretch of a man was babbling excitedly at Ilmarė.The elorii wrinkled her nose when she saw Kham approach.  “Good, you can speak to him.  He smells like fish.”“Please!” The man nearly clutched at Ilmarė’s arm, but her icy gaze warned him off.  “Please, don’t abandon me here!”“Easy old fella, we won’t leave you here,” Kham said reassuringly. “Calm down. What’s your name?”“My name,” the man tried to catch his breath, “is Estaboth.”“What are you doing on this little rock, Estaboth?”The words came out in a torrent.  “I was a bookkeeper by trade.  I once worked for a shipping company in Freeport.  But I made a mistake.”“I’d say this is a pretty big mistake, yeah.”Estaboth shook his head.  “I tried to embezzle money from a company. The owner discovered my embezzling and....”“Oooh, now I get it.  You must have been too valuable to just kill, so he punished you this way instead, huh?”Estaboth nodded vigorously. “He posed a riddle to me, with death being the outcome if I failed to answer it correctly.  Since I gave the proper answer, he sentenced me to twenty years of gulag.”“How did you stay alive all this time?” asked Ilmarė. “They left me with an enchanted decanter and several fishing nets.  But that was seven years ago, and I don’t think I can stomach any more fish and seaweed!  You’ve got to take me with you!”Kham looked him up and down.  “Fine, fine.  You can come with us.”They began walking back towards the Nǎoké. “I didn’t catch the name of the man who imprisoned you here.”Estaboth was so happy that tears were streaming down his face.  “Finn.  Finn’s Syndicate.”Kham froze in mid-climb.  Ilmarė easily passed him on the ropes, despite being pregnant.“You can always throw him back,” she said over her shoulder.</blockquote>

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