Characters:RavenLogs/ERHA PlusMarius

As Marius joins them, Thalia turns up the wattage of her smile. "Well done, Captain. How far out from Amber are we now?"

"A couple of days, if the good weather holds," Marius says. From the looks of the sky here, Raven doesn't think that's true, but if Marius can shift them directly, it might be. "I'm done for tonight, though. Sometime after dawn, when I've had a chance to rest, I'll do another few shifts. After we've all had our morning rations." He gives that smirky smile he has to Raven; clearly he's noticed some of the little laxities from proper Naval procedure and that's his roundabout way of saying something about it.

"We ran out of Navy rations a long time ago," Raven answers matter-of-factly, though she crosses her arms and regards him narrowly as she says it. "Don't know what's on the menu for breakfast offhand, but our cook ain't inclined to let us starve. Shall I have one of the men take you to your berth?"

And then, belatedly, her voice a shade of blandness somewhere between inoffensive and insubordinate, "Sir."

Marius' smile morphs into an absolute beam of pleasure for a moment. "There's no need to be so formal, Captain. After all, this is your ship."

Thalia seems to be inspecting the new constellations in this shadow and paying no attention whatsoever to the conversation between Raven and Marius.

"Aye, it is," Raven agrees. "But as it was just pointed out to me that you're a Royal, despite the fact that I ain't never heard your name before today, you get a certain respect whether you want it or not. Sir."

Marius presses his lips together slightly and stares hard enough at Thalia that she stops pretending she's not well aware of the conversation. She shrugs unrepentantly, but doesn't say anything.

Turning his attention back to Raven, Marius says, "I don't trade on my ancestry in the service, just my abilities and my skills. But I am what I am."

"Aye, you are what you are. And what you are means I got to show you the respect due your station." There's a certain mulishness creeping into Raven's voice. "Whether you mean to trade on it or not. That's the way the world works - I ain't nobody special, and I ain't got a title above Captain; you are and you do; I got to call you 'sir,' whether either of us likes it or not."

Marius' lip curls upwards. "The only title I bear above Captain by anything more than sheerest courtesy is that of knighthood, and I earned it in blood and fire at the far end of the universe. Be glad you know nothing of how I did so and what it cost." He seems almost angry now, if not at Raven and Thalia, at something: perhaps the stars, or the situation they find him in. "Don't set me in charge of this voyage, more than I am by the virtue of my blood. You may not like what I do with it."

Thalia is listening with ill-concealed fascination to this part of the conversation.

Raven snorts, briefly amused by the idea of him leading the trip. "Did I miss the part where I said I was? You came on board a passenger, with a fare agreed-on, and that's what you are. Still don't change the fact that I got to mind my manners. Don't matter much to me how many titles you got or how many you care about - you got them, I don't. Better for me to call you 'sir' than forget in front of some idiot lordling or another and pay prices I don't mean to pay." She shrugs. "Sorry if it annoys you. Sir." Her voice is far too bland to actually be apologetic about that.

Marius sniffs. "Do you truly believe the world's so simple, _Captain_?"

Raven isn't the only one capable of making a title into a mild insult.

"If your world's so small that rank's the only thing in it, you got bigger problems than I thought," Raven answers shortly. She's starting to get very annoyed with him again, although she is trying (mostly) to not be completely insubordinate. "Sir. Mine ain't, and the only reason I'm arguing with you is that you seem to be having trouble grasping the reality of certain things. Sir."

The word 'reality' gets a snort from Marius. "My universe isn't so small that rank is the only thing that matters. My universe is so large that rank hardly signifies. And if you understand my _rank_," and his tone expresses his doubt that Raven really does, "you should also know that a Prince of Amber may commandeer any Naval vessel at need. It's a good thing that my path takes you where you already want to go."

Thalia seems to be edging away from the possible blast radius.

Raven snorts again. "So first I should be glad you ain't taking charge, and now you're claiming you been in charge all along? You argue like my mother." There's a trace of dark amusement in her voice, but that definitely wasn't lighthearted - or a compliment. "Fine. You don't want to stand on ceremony, and you can't seem to get why I might feel the need to. I'll play your little game. But if you ain't figured it out by now, I don't like it."

"Let me ask you the same thing I asked her. Anything _else_ I should know?"

"Probably quite a few things, but none that should impede you getting to Amber." It's a dismissal, since he turns his attention back to Thalia, who doesn't look delighted to be the focus of.

Dismissal it may have been, but he's going to have to do more than ignore Raven to get her to go away. At least on _her_ ship. Stubborn pride and the potential for shameless eavesdropping that will probably annoy him aside, she's still not entirely sure she should leave these two alone together.

The attention is followed by the complete turn of Marius' form and a footstep or two in Thalia's direction. "Now, Thalia, I seem to recall hearing some speculation about the late King's children..."

Thalia blinks innocently at Marius. "The number of the late King's children was a subject of common gossip in Amber, as I understand things. I merely repeated it, although I expect it's nothing the Captain hasn't heard before."

"I haven't heard that exact number before," Marius says. "The late King married five or six times, depending how you count his marriages, and dallied with several other women. I have heard of perhaps twenty children. I was wondering how you accounted for the rest."

Something that Raven thinks might be relief flashes momentarily across Thalia's face, and then it's gone. "I don't" she replies simply. "It's just a rumor."

"The number, though." Marius' eyes narrow a little. "Who gave you that number? Someone had to come up with it. I want to know who that was."

"I don't remember." Thalia makes an offhand gesture. "I just heard it somewhere and it stuck in my mind. Forty-seven's an odd number. Probably someone made it up. Since, as you say, the known total is closer to twenty."

"I'm sure." From his tone, Marius is mostly sure that Thalia is lying. "Good night, Lady." He turns and throws a perfectly crisp Naval salute to Raven before heading down to his bunk to get that rest he mentioned earlier.