(2024-08-03) A New Map

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Author:	inkie
Summary:	Costentyn Shine returns from his foray into Stratholme with Cobalt Company, and shares a drink with Siamus Fallon and Brother Eli.
Rating:	T for Teen

The other two men were settled on one of the blue couches near the hearth when Shine let himself quietly into the office. There was a decanter on the table, two glasses poured and one glass empty, but neither of them yet had a drink in hand. Fallon was hunched forward like a man carrying an ox-weight on his shoulders, his elbows on his knees, gazing down at his own laced hands; Brother Eli had a grip on his arm and was speaking low and gravely to him.

Shine paused, his hand on the door he hadn’t yet closed. “Shall I come back?” he asked.

They both looked up. Fallon straightened, uncurling from his slouch, and dredged up a smile from somewhere. “Tin. No, no, of course not. We’ve been waiting on ye.” He reached forward to pick up the decanter and pour the third drink. Beside him, Eli patted his arm gently, leaned to murmur something in his ear, then got to his feet.

“Costentyn,” the tidesage rasped, and came forward with his arms out. He was thinner than Shine recalled, and greyer, but his malachite-green eyes were as sharp as ever. He took Shine by the shoulders and looked him over, fondly avuncular. Shine bent toward him and the sage kissed him on each cheek and then let him go. “Ye look well. And I hear you’re back in the fight, where ye belong.”

“Aye, that’s right. With Cobalt Company.”

“Mercenaries,” Eli said with mock astonishment, and shook his head. “And to think he’d ever let ye.”

“I don’t answer to him anymore, do I? So not as though he could stop me.” Shine flashed a smile over at Fallon, and Fallon good-naturedly returned a gesture he wouldn’t have made in the presence of a lady.

“Tch,” said Eli. “The pair of ye lads.”

“Well, and how was it?” Fallon asked, and held up the third glass toward Shine.

Shine went over to him and took the drink with one hand; with the other, he offered over in trade the tight-rolled parchment he was carrying. “Brought ye a souvenir, didn’t I?”

Fallon blinked and then laughed. “Did ye now?” He took the parchment, slid his own drink and Eli’s aside, and unrolled the thing carefully to spread it on the table.

It was a map, hand-inked, and Fallon was transported wholehearted into it at once. You could practically see him leave the room as he leaned over the lines and letters, numbers and notations that spread before him the entire marvel of a place he’d never seen before. His fingers moved a careful tracery over the page.

“What's that, then?” Brother Eli asked, and went to take his place on the couch again. He leaned over Fallon's arm to peer at a crabbed script note in the corner. “‘The Port of Stratholme,’” he read aloud. “‘Circa 510.’” He looked up at Shine. “King's calendar? Tides ha'mercy, that's better than a century old. Where'd ye come by it?”

Shine and his drink settled into the couch opposite. “In Stratholme,” he said. “Archive room we went in. The man who seemed in charge of it's not going to miss it now.” He lowered his voice, watching Fallon as he spoke. “And most of the city's afire without end. Shame to leave all its history to burn.”

Brother Eli looked at Fallon too, but the man was lost utterly in his map and didn't seem to have heard. “That's where ye were, then? Stratholme? Wi'Cobalt?”

“Aye.” Shine had a sip of his drink and felt it warm him from the inside out. “Clearing out a warren of undead Scarlets, and killing a dreadlord.”

“A dreadlord, ye don't say?” Eli was astonished in earnest this time.

“Aye,” Shine agreed again, and watched Fallon, who still hadn’t looked up. He raised his voice. “Little purple fellow called Moobly. Gave us all stargazy pie and invited us to dance the fling.”

Fallon still made no reaction; he was off wandering the Port of Stratholme circa 510 KC.

Eli looked across at Shine and they traded a grin.

“Bloody great bastard called Balnazzar,” Shine told the sage. “The one that led the Scarlets awry in the first place. Never saw the like. Big as a house, great black wings and horns. When we killed him, he turned into bats and shadow.”

Eli touched the knotted-rope ward at his belt reflexively. “A rough fight?”

Shine nodded grimly. “It was nine of us, and four of us paladins. He mind-controlled one of them. Put me to sleep for a moment. Hell of a battle, for a single demon.”

“Mother’s mercy.” Eli shook his head.

“Did ye not fight the one up in Icecrown wi’the fleet?” Shine asked. “Mal’ganis. Admiral Westwind.”

“I was wi’the ships to mind the fogs, not wi’the force ashore. I heard all of it afterward, but didn’t see it myself.” The tidesage glanced at Fallon. “I can’t say I feel sorry to have missed it. I’ll go happily to the depths without having met a dreadlord, I think.”

Shine raised his glass in salute, and then had a drink. When he lowered the glass, he asked, “When’s the immersion to be, then?”

“Sunrise, third day,” Eli said. “The tides will be right and the weather looks fair.”

Shine nods. “And you’ve met the Lady Ery by now, I expect?”

At the sound of his daughter’s name, the spell on Fallon broke and he looked up from his map. “Ery,” he repeated, and looked at Eli. “Oh, aye. This afternoon, he did.”

Eli nodded and smiled back at him. “A ferocious little creature. And with a gift like ye describe, a blessing like we’ve not seen for generations, I expect.”

“Have ye not seen it yet?” Shine asked. “Her gift?”

Eli shook his head. “Only met the child. I’ve just come in this afternoon wi’the tide.”

“The Lady Blanche has come home. She’s moored at the Harbor,” Fallon told Shine, and reached for his own drink. He sat back on the couch and draped an arm along its back. “I’m bringing her to the search and rescue.”

“Going personally, then?” Shine asked mildly, even as a bolt of bright relief pierced him. Going back to sea? he’d nearly asked, but caught himself in time. Best not to call attention; best not to suggest you’d been fretting over it. “When will that be?”

“The day after the immersion, I expect,” Fallon said. “I’ll be taking Eli and Miss Coit with me.”

That was a different prickle of reaction. “Miss Coit, too?” Shine took a sip of his drink, still casual.

“Aye. She was able to summon Lysander back from… tides know where. I’ll not be taking a rescue ship out there without her.”

Shine nodded thoughtfully. He peered into his glass. “Have ye told her of the ceremony? When it’s to be?”

Fallon lowered his own drink. “No. Should I have?”

“She’d mentioned she’d like to come,” Shine said. He shrugged.

Fallon was looking at him very hard, a smile tugging the corner of his mouth. “Did she, now? Mentioned it to you, did she? When was that, then?”

Shine cast him a narrow, warning look back. “I took her to see the shrine, didn’t I? Mentioned it then.”

Fallon nodded gravely and turned to Brother Eli. “He took her to see the shrine,” he explained very seriously. “Evening a few weeks back.”

Brother Eli took the insinuation at once, and turned a gleaming look on Shine. “Oh, aye? An evening walk with a lovely young lady on the strand.” He nodded at Fallon. “For her spiritual edification.”

Shine dropped his head back on the couch and blew out a breath. “You’re both a pair of bastards, aren’t ye? It was no such thing, and even were, we’re none of us bloody sixteen about it.” He sat up, tipped back the rest of his drink, and set the glass down on the table. “But if you’ll excuse me, I ought to be off to bed. It makes for a long bloody day, killing a dreadlord. You're welcome for your map.”

Fallon blinked. He looked from Shine to Eli and back again. “Ye killed a dreadlord? Tides below, why’d ye never mention it, man?”

Beside him, Eli started to laugh.