Morn stood calmly in the clearing, his figure framed against the slowly dying fire. He stared into the night sky, many thoughts running through his mind. The most prominent of all being:
'Whenever I use my Vaihn, I feel like I'm losing something. It feels like I am lacking something I once had– Something important, something vital… What is it?'
Yet no matter how hard he tried to find it, the answer eluded him.
With no answer in sight, Morn gave up and began contemplating his performance in the assassination. He'd done quite well for himself, only requiring the planting of two hallucination seeds to complete his plan. The results were far better than his last attempt, and his victim had been a fellow Leviathan. Though he had to give most of the credit to luck.
If the Florist had stayed to fight or had sensed the oddity of his subordinates, or if the first mate hadn't been so trigger happy, his plan would have failed. In the future, he would have to rely less on luck. He also still doubted his abilities in close combat against another Leviathan, especially if they weren't fooled by his hallucinations.
Eventually, when the flames had almost completely run their course, Morn pulled himself from his thoughts and approached the cabin.
As he stepped into the burned remains of the building, he used his drill to spray a gas on the remaining fires. The gas, known as Freida, could create temperatures far below freezing and lacked flammability, perfect for extinguishing flames. Using the gas, Morn easily dealt with the remaining fire.
As he finished clearing away the fire, a large square object caught his attention.
'The Florist's safe!" Morn smiled widely beneath his mask.
He rushed through the debris, nearly falling over in his haste. Upon reaching the safe, he began to observe it carefully. A moment later, he pointed his hand towards a cluster of reinforced hinges on the safe's door and began to fire his Folia Lance. After several bursts of Folia, the hinges completely gave way. The safe's door fell to the ground with a thud, revealing the contents of the safe.
Inside, several statues and pieces of jewellery caught his attention, but even moreso, a small but bulging leather pouch drew his eye. He quickly snatched the pouch, loosening its drawstrings to peer inside.
Morn stopped himself from letting out an excited shout as the contents of the pouch came into view. It was full to the brim with dowel! Though he wouldn't have time to collect the Florist's head for the bounty, nor time to collect his Vaihn heart, this certainly made up for it! Morn stuffed the pouch into his bag, followed by the jewellery. Unfortunately, his pack didn't have enough room for the larger objects, but what he obtained was enough!
With the money tucked away, Morn went about slowly clearing the debris in a particular area. After several minutes, he finally found what he was looking for, a small metal door fitted into the stone floor. This was the entrance to the cellar, where the people the pirates had enslaved were being kept.
Morn looked for the latch on the trapdoor, wiping away a thick layer of ash as he ran his hands over the metal. After a moment, he located a latch secured by a heavy lock. Thankfully, he was prepared. Morn sprayed the lock with more of the Frieda gas until it eventually froze solid. After putting his drill away, he smashed his sturdy prosthetic hand into the lock, easily shattering it.
With the lock out of the way, Morn opened the trapdoor, sending a wave of ash from the lid. A set of stone stairs led downward out of sight, kept in complete darkness. Morn had been relying on the moonlight to see, not using a lantern- in fact, he'd left his lantern on his ship.
'Well… it's too late to go back now." Morn sighed and removed a small thumb sized tube of pyral gas.
He opened the valve very slightly so that only a small amount of the gas leaked at a time, then struck a match and lit the gas, creating a small candle-like flame.
'Not much, but it will have to do."
With light in hand, Morn slowly walked down the steps, careful not to trip. He didn't want Rain's image to be ruined the very first time he saved someone! Eventually, with measured steps, Morn reached the bottom of the stairs.
He arrived in a small room with a large grated pipe coming out of the wall. This pipe extended into the middle of the clearing, though its end was much smaller. It provided air to the room, something his plan had relied on- otherwise the fire would have smothered the captives before he had a chance to save them.
On the left and right side of the room, massive cages were bolted to the walls, filled with people. Many sat on the floor, likely terrified from the noises of fire and explosions above their heads. Morn apologised inwardly as the many captives looked up at him from their spots on the ground.
As Morn prepared to speak, a voice echoed through the stone chamber.
"Are you the one who made all that noise?"
Morn turned to face the back left cage where the brave woman who had insulted the Florist on the slave cart on his first day here was standing. She stared at Morn impatiently:
"From the sound of it, you're not on good terms with the baldy. Are you gonna get us out of here or what!?"
Morn smiled behind his mask, glad that the days in the cellar hadn't broken her spirit. After a brief moment to consider how Rain would respond, Morn replied to the woman.
"The Florist is dead, I've come to free you."
At Morn's words, many of the sullen captives' faces seemed to brighten, though it could have been his imagination. Without wasting any more time, Morn quickly began to break apart the locks using Freida and his prosthetic. After de-locking the cages, Morn quickly ascended the stairs halfway, then paused briefly to speak:
"I will be sailing to Nauv immediately. Those who seek freedom, come with me."
Morn continued up the stairs, not looking back. Although he wanted to wait for the captives and care for any wounds they may have first, he didn't think it would fit Rain's persona, so he decided to wait until reaching the ship to deal with it. For now, they just needed to leave the area before anyone came, drawn by the smoke.
After ascending the stairs and reaching the former entrance to the cabin, Morn removed a small wooden token from his pocket and placed it on the front step. The token was in the shape of a raindrop and was the size of his palm. Since he didn't have time to go to the bounty office, he could only hope that someone would attribute the bounty to him.
By the time he finished placing the token, the brave woman arrived at the top of the stairs, followed by the captives. Morn counted the people as they emerged from the cellar. The number of former captives totalled 29.
Morn made a mental note to restock in Nauv after dropping off the rescuees. He would likely go through almost all of his supplies feeding them on the journey. Thankfully, he now had access to a lot of money thanks to the Florist's generous donation!
Seeing that all of the former captives were present, Morn marched off into the night, down the hidden path and onto the main road. Though the Florist's crew was still alive, somewhere out there, he didn't bother dealing with them. Maybe he would return eventually, but for now he needed to focus on getting to Nauv.
As the group walked down the path, the brave woman jogged to the front of the group, walking by Morn's side. Though she remained silent at first, she quickly became talkative.
"So… did you have a grudge against that bastard or something? Did you take him and his crew on alone? Haha, you must have some guts!"
"..." Morn chose not to reply to her questions, as much as he wanted to.
"The silent type, I see. Well whatever, thanks for rescuing us! My name is Si- uh, L… Lily? My name is Lily! It's nice to meet you."
'Lily' stuck out a hand, as if hoping for a handshake. Feeling too awkward ignoring her, Morn relented and shook her hand.
"I am Rain." Morn finally answered her, inwardly questioning her.
'So Lily isn't her real name… interesting. I wonder what she's hiding.'
Happy to finally get a response, Lily smiled. As the group continued walking, Lily continued pestering Morn with questions, to which he very infrequently responded– and when he did, it was as quickly and vaguely as possible. Eventually, the group arrived at a low area in the cliffside, quite far from where Morn had originally landed.
He had to change locations after realising the captives wouldn't have a way down, as none of them had climbing claws like he did. Thankfully, the cliffs lowered to only several metres above the sea only half an hour away.
When Morn stopped at the low cliffs, Lily looked at the empty water curiously.
"So uh… you do have a boat, right?" Lily stared at him as if he were a fool.
Lily continued to indirectly mock him, saying things like 'Oh how I love long distance swims, especially across several regions! My favourite!' or 'I wonder if we'll be able to tame a Levjottun on the way, hopefully then we won't have to swim the whole way' much to Morn's chagrin.
Ignoring her, Morn released his Vaihniir through the mask, sending the fog down onto the water. His ship rapidly formed and a gangplank dropped down right in front of Morn. Secretly, Morn snuck a peek at Lily's expression, taking great pleasure in her shocked face.
Without waiting any longer, Morn boarded the ship. The rest of the group quickly followed, with Lily boarding the ship last after finally shaking off her shock. To Morn's delight, Lily remained quiet as he went to the captain's cabin, setting the destination for Nauv. He then returned to the deck to address the group as the anchor raised.
"Welcome to my ship, the Sea of Clouds. You may call me Captain Rain, a pirate hunter. We will be setting off now on course to Nauv, with any luck, we should be there within three days' time. In the meantime, feel free to explore the ship, and help yourself to food and water, but do not attempt to enter my quarters. That will be all."
With that, Morn returned to the captain's cabin and locked the door, then sat down in his chair and let out a deep sigh. Maintaining his persona had been far more exhausting than expected. Just as he removed his mask and pack and began preparing a plan to recruit Lily, a knock sounded at the door…