Killing a Pirate

Killing a Pirate

Treasure Hunt

Treasure Hunt

Ripple cracks her back, stands up from her desk in the monastery and paces through her chamber. At first, this place felt big to her - and compared to the cabin onboard The Misbegotten that she shared with 30 other 'sailors' it is - but lately the walls of Gefyra are creeping in on Ripple. Ever since the situation in the Capital has gotten worse, her senatorial duties have confined her to this chamber, to this desk and the letters and laws and reports on it. Paper, paper and nothing but paper! Ripple remembers how excited a single handwritten note used to make her: the wonders of the written word - especially letters that weren't meant for you, containing secrets that you could posess simply through reading or, even better, cracking a cipher! She remembers Lady Lue teaching her how to read, how to write, how to decode ciphers and how to create them. So much power in ink and paper. Out of habit Ripple checks the secret compartment under her floorboards: it still contains a single sheet of the automaton-sketches she forced Brash to translate; as well as a new dossier she started after the desastrous trip to Gilea - the secret that was supposed to bring her home and the secrets that will keep her new home safe ... A soft melody reaches Ripple's ears just as she gets back to her feet and she steps to the window. Reggie's voice is full of pain and regret - and Ripple feels an old familiar sensation sneak up on her. The breeze from the mountains north of Gefyra smells of rain, Ripple leans her head out of the window reflexively to catch the first droplets. She closes her eyes and - just for a moment - imagines the air to smell of ripe fruit and spices, imagines the stoney windowframe to be a wooden railing, imagines the rain to be spray splashing up to her from the waters below ...