Characters:RavenLogs/ERHA Thalia

The wind is cooler here, and the sea smells different. It's not Amber yet, but it's more like it than it was.

Thalia joins Raven on the deck. From somewhere, she has conjured a cloak. Perhaps through her magics she knew what would be required. "Are you pleased with your bargains, Captain?"

"We ain't home yet," Raven answers drily as she turns to look at Thalia, "but something's changed, and that's a start. Happy enough, I guess, as long as we allow that his part ain't done yet." She indicates Marius with a jerk of her head. "Your quarters all right, miss?"

"They'll do, thank you. I've travelled under less comfortable circumstances in the past."

Thalia surveys the crew moving on the deck. There's some murmuring and whispering by the men about whatever Marius just did--found a gate and passed through it, they suppose--but none of them approach the Captain and the witch.

"Am I the only woman on this vessel?"

Raven notes the talk, and nods just slightly to herself. A gate of some sort made sense - after all, Marius had said that the sea paths had changed, back before she decided he was a bloody looney. One point in his favor.

"Unless we got a stowaway nobody's bothered to tell me about, yes." She eyes Thalia, curious as to why she was asking that the question. "I didn't make a point of mentioning earlier that you're a woman just to hear myself talk, miss. We ain't equipped to carry around women on a regular basis, and a good thing, too. I got more decorum than some, but that don't mean I don't know what's what, and what's likely to happen with a couple of women on board in the middle of the ocean. Why?"

"I am unused to travelling with the Amber Navy, although you and Marius are by no means the first captains I have met from it. It's a matter of non-idle curiosity. Normally I take a Gateway diplomatic vessel if I travel by sea," Thalia explains. "Of course, since all our rutters failed us some years ago, we have all been somewhat limited in our travel, or at least in knowing how to find our desired destinations."

[for reference, since Raven would know exactly what a rutter is:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rutter

The Amber Navy's rutters showed shadow paths and gates and are traditionally considered something of a state secret.]

"So I've heard," Raven answers, glancing in Marius's direction briefly, "but we've been off the charts entirely, so I can't say for sure what's what in the sailing between Gateway and Amber. It's chance we wound up in your harbor at all." That's all she's really interested in saying on that subject to Thalia at the moment, and she moves on quickly. "If you're worried about your safety, miss, I got a suggestion of sorts."

"Pray tell," Thalia suggests, as they watch Marius.

Whatever Marius was doing before, he seems to be working on doing it again. He's concentrating, perhaps looking at something that Raven and Thalia can't see. Or perhaps he's looking at the stars, as if by sheer bloodymindedness he can force them into the correct configuration for Amber's skies.

"Well, seems to me that it couldn't hurt to make the point that you're not wearing that outfit just because it was convenient to get away." Raven smiles thinly. "I think our trip has fixed the truly stupid ones that might think that bothering a proven mage was a good idea. Don't know what to suggest in particular, miss, since I don't know what you might be able to do."

It wouldn't surprise Raven if Marius was being bloodyminded at the moment, but she halfway suspects he's just memorized more recent information than she has on board. Or something of that nature, anyway.

There's another moment of what seems like the stars twinkling in the sky extra-brightly, a change that Thalia hardly seems to take notice of, and then the sky has changed again, and the direction of the wind in the sails has changed.

It's very unlikely that there would be two gates so close together. It's almost unheard of.

Thalia nods to Raven's suggestion. "I'm sure I can come up with something that will make the appropriate impression. Do you prefer that I do it tonight, or should I wait until the daylight?"

She sounds reasonably indifferent about the whole thing.

"Daylight. Too easy to mistake things in the night."

Raven is staring at the back of Marius's head with a certain amount of puzzlement now. "Do you know him at all, miss?" she asks. "Marius, that is. Sounded like you did, back on shore."

"We're not well-acquainted, but we've crossed paths in our travels now and then," Thalia says easily. "I was aware when he arrived in Gateway, but I wasn't the one who brought him in."

"Ah." Raven debates how to phrase her question, and finally just shrugs to herself. There really isn't a tactful way to phrase it. "Is he always this... uh... questionable? Every time I think I've got him figured, I find out I'm not entirely right, and it don't inspire anything like confidence to be dealing with a man that's as slippery as an eel."

"But they're all like that." Thalia smiles.

Marius is still concentrating on whatever it is he's been doing this whole time. There's no change in the stars yet, but Raven can feel something, like a strange pressure in the air. It's like an oily sheen on the water that she'd have to poke to break through, except it's all around her somehow and there's nothing tangible to it.

"'They,' miss?"

Raven is eying her crew now rather than the back of Marius's head, watching their reactions. That - whatever it is that's going on - doesn't feel quite right to her, and she assumes she isn't the only one. Time to keep an eye out for trouble.

The crew, or at least those men on deck, have noticed that something is happening. They're wary and on guard. The spyglasses and other navigational equipment are reserved to the Captain and the Captain's designates, but some of them are looking at the stars and if they had the gear, they'd be trying to use it.

There's a sense of--something--again, and it's almost like a line of something sparkling passes over the ship. The rest of the people on deck don't seem to see it, although Thalia glances skyward at once as if to confirm something has happened. If she glances at Marius, Raven can see his shoulders slump and hear him gasping for breath, as if he's been running hard.

"The royals of Amber, of course," Thalia says. "What did you think he was?"

With a snort of amusement, Raven turns to regard the woman. "Go on, pull the other one," she says drily. "It's got bells on. Even if I read what the two of you were saying right, and he went through something that made him a bit crazy, that just makes him an over-arrogant boy that don't know when it's better to keep your head down than to swagger around like some rich idiot's equally stupid third son with a barely-respectable blade through a place what wants to put you back in a cell, if not worse. Begging your pardon, miss, but that - "

She stops there, very abruptly. That - unfortunately makes a lot of sense. And it would explain the weirdness with the suddenly produced papers, wouldn't it, and the weirdness with their current travels. And a number of other small things.

Raven, sounding rueful, says succinctly, "Shit."

If she looks up, Raven sees that the skies have changed again.

"Rumor has it that Oberon had 47 illegitimate children, but I'm told the story in the navy is that Marius is Caine's son. I don't know whether that's right, and I don't think he'd take well to being asked," Thalia says pleasantly.

Marius is coming down from the bow, and looks to be headed in their direction.

"No, miss," Raven answers dryly, "I don't imagine he would. Any other little things I ought to know about before I have to eat crow here?"

"Very many, no doubt. Unfortunately, we don't have time for a crash course."

---

2. ...And a Royal