The entrance to Penzamen was breathtaking, but as the party got into the Blessing of Love the party was able to see the true beauty of Penzamen. For most of their journey down the river they had been in a thick forest that had vast canopies. There was not much to be seen past the trees that hung to the sides of the river and overhead. But around the boundary to the Blessing of Love, coming out of the Blessing of Harmony, The flora changed to be much more colorful. Beautiful pink blossom trees of all shades hung over head raining pedals down upon them. The sweet smell of flowers permeated the air, and the trees held soft glowing lights that illuminated the river in a soft glow. Most of the remainder of the journey was held in silence, the environment enamored Qrow; it felt otherworldly to him.
As they came around the bend of the river, the area opened up into a large lake filled with boats from all different parts of the world. The boat slowly came into the dock. The pace had slowed considerably since they first entered the river and it gave the party a chance to enjoy the change in scenery. Boats from all different parts of the world were here for the festival of love. Flower petals sprinkled the water and the beautiful glow of the sun's setting cast a golden pinkish light over the mountains. The soft sound of music could be heard coming from each of the ships as revelry was everywhere. Qrow had seen many travelers come to Fearsh even with the unrest between countries, many merchants and traders or even common folk could gain passes from the government to come and go, but unlike Fearsh there were people from every corner of Hize here. Many Xerxean's, Niepeans, and Midoken's would come; but here there were Pavest, Nyvind, smaller druidic tribes. There even were a few Limgren ships which surprised Qrow the most.
"Dwarves are here?" Qrow said out loud as they past a small stonelike ship with dwarves singing and drinking on board, they sang loudly to what Qrow recognized as one of Un Direct's songs.
Garus nodded, "Of course! The people of Limgren can come and go, just as long as they have enough money or skills to make it past the swamp…and can get a boat…and as long as they do not leave the country for too long…" Garus's face dropped a little. Qrow could tell this hit a nerve for Garus. Garus shook it off quickly and regained his jovial demeanor, "But a dwarf never misses a good party. The Dwarves in Limgren always put on the best showing when it comes to festivals, the rest of us are very fortunate to live with them in the mountain."
Something might have needed to be said, something to clear the air, but Qrow felt too awkward so he decided to simply change the subject. "So where do we dock?" He asked.
"Anywhere," Fuju answered. He waved his hand towards the side of the ship and the anchor began to drop into the water below. The ship had already been going at a slower pace and finally came to a stop near the middle of the lake. Around them were a collection of different ships but none of them matched the height or the size of the Desert Winds.
"You know usually the captain is the one to give the drop anchor call…and usually the sailors drop the anchor." Prometheus said annoyed.
"Well when I find the captain I will let him know," Fuju said. Everyone except Prometheus chuckled. "I have a gift for each of you," Fuju reached into the pocket on his robe and pulled out a collection of six stones. On one side was black and on the other side was white. Fuju handed one to each of the party members as well as kept one for himself. "These are my own trademark, ramble rocks!" Fuju said excitedly. No one else seemed to understand the enthusiasm, mainly because they did not know what they were. "We can use these to talk to each other even when we are far away from one another. Just hold the black side up to your mouth and it will send whatever you say to the other members of the party. Remember to talk into the black side, if you talk into the white side the spell will not work," Fuju explained.
"It only works on the black side? Then what is the point of the white side?" Varithorn asked.
"It is a…receiver…for the arcana from other ramble rocks," Fuju said. His response was suspicious, Fuju looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable with the question.
"Really…" Qrow said, "...I have used a lot of magical devices and I have never heard…"
"Well it's a new one so don't worry…" Fuju said cutting Qrow off. At this point everyone was suspicious of Fuju. Prometheus looked the most intently at the magical device, Qrow watched as he turned it in his hand over and over. A sense of anxiety started to rise up in Qrow's stomach, a thought gnawed at him in the back of his head saying Fuju cannot be trusted which meant that Lia could not be trusted either.
Prometheus held up the rock and looked at Fuju, "the white side is just for design isn't it," he asked. Fuju would not make eye contact with Prometheus, the anxiety began to decrease.
"Fuju?" Lia said, looking at him. Fuju would not meet anyone's eyes, finally he let out a loud sigh.
"Do you know how lame it would look to just have a full black rock!" Fuju said in an exacerbated manner, think about it! People see you talking into an all black rock. It looks so dumb, the two colors make it look…"
"Normal? Talking into a rock?" Qrow said. Lia started to laugh, then Prometheus, then Varithorn and Rijin. A tension had been over the party for a while now and this nice moment of reprieve alleviated it a little bit. Qrow found himself laughing as well, despite everything he could not help but let out a laugh. Everyone except for Fuju who kept trying to explain the importance of Aesthetics.
A sailor walked over to Fuju and whispered something in his ear. Prometheus nodded and spoke to the group, "I have been informed that the boats are ready for us to depart. Let us depart in our groups. If you hear anything, be sure to let the others know as soon as you can." Prometheus nodded towards Qrow.
Qrow took out his dagger and threw it into the deck beneath him making a vibrant thud. He looked at the members of the party, "may we return to grab these once more," Qrow said. All the party members stared at him with confusion.
"Do we need to throw daggers into the ground as well?" Lia asked sincerely.
"Well it is just something I used to do with crews back in the day," Qrow replied. Lia smiled and took out a knife and threw it into the deck as well. Surprisingly, Rijin took out a large Kukri and threw it into the deck as well.
"We do not have time for this," Varithorn started to head towards his dingy, Prometheus followed behind him.
Garus began to look for a dagger on him and then pulled out a small wooden lute pick and put it with the knives. "Sorry it is all I have, the other dagger can't really be left behind." Garus patted the dagger at his side and then headed towards his dingy as well. Not exactly the response Qrow had hoped for but he went ahead and left as well. The memories of camaraderie and with his fellow thieves as the laid their daggers down came to Qrow's mind increasing his nostalgia, with them came memories of when the daggers were never picked up again; memories he did not want to keep.
Qrow got into his dinghy, sitting adjacent to Prometheus, and the sailor began to lower it into the water below. The pair tread through the water, their dingy slowly getting farther and farther away from the main boat. Qrow and Prometheus did not talk much during their journey, of all the members of the party they had spent some of the least time together so their boat was filled with silence and pretending to be captivated by the new world around them. It truly was unlike anything Qrow had seen before, the rolling plains and the floating islands of Fearsh had always been something that Qrow found beautiful but the Blessing of Love was like something else entirely. The colors were so vibrant that they hurt Qrow's eyes a little to look at. The glowing lights above reflecting upon the water made the sky look like it was filled with hundreds of lanterns.The trees and flowers all swayed in the same motion and each had their own brilliance to them. There seemed to be soft music that came over the entire area even though he did not see a band or any musicians playing the music. Although the area was vast it seemed like each part of it was treated with love and care, Penzamen was known as the land of the gods and despite Qrow's skepticism he started to understand what they meant.
The boat began to shudder, swaying back and forth, causing Qrow to grab the sides of the ship. Prometheus had stood up quickly enough that it caused the boat to rock back and forth.
"Prometheus what are you…" Qrow started to say.
Prometheus had his back to Qrow, staring out across the water towards the dock that led to the Blessing of Love. "Look at that," Prometheus said. Towering above Prometheus in the distance was the tree of this Blessing. A massive structure similar to the other ones they had seen but there was one clear difference; the entire tree was covered in beautiful pink flowers of all shades and hues as well as petals that swept through the area. It made the entire blessing look like it was experiencing a rainfall of endless flowers. At the base, rose a palace that led up to about halfway up the tree, a large white structure with stone walls that surrounded the entire building up to the trunk of the tree where the backside of the palace was embedded into the tree. The palace had deep shades of pink that accented the entire structure. The castles in Fearsh are bland stone structures that mainly were built for defense against large magical beasts that roamed the plains; this palace was made for beauty rather than defense. Even from the lake Qrow could tell how ornate the whole building was. It was not a stretch to say it was a work of art in itself.
"That is…incredible…" Qrow said.
Prometheus nodded, "I have never seen anything like it. Everything in Xerxes is sandy and dry…I have never seen anything so ornate in my entire life."
The dinghy got closer to the dock, a large archway marked the entrance to the Blessing and had people flowing in and out heading to and fro from the dock. A man in a robe stood at the edge of one of the docks and looked towards Prometheus and Qrow. He held a strong stance and put out both of his hands then pulled them back towards his body. He did this motion over and over again, Qrow noticed that the boat started to drift as small waves on the side of the ship started to steer them into the dock towards the man.
"He is directing the water so that we head towards him," Prometheus said.
"He must be a druid," Qrow responded. Prometheus looked confused. "I had a friend who was a druid, he could do similar things."
"I guess there are many druids in Fearsh," Prometheus responded. Qrow shook his head to shake off the memories that began to come. As the boat settled into the dock, the robed man held the boat so the pair could get off. The man handed Prometheus a gold coin with a small pink flower imprinted on it.
"Umm, thank you?" Prometheus said confusedly. The man simply nodded. He pushed his hands up towards the sky then in a flowing motion brought them back down to the ground. The water began to swirl around the Dinghy creating a bubble that surrounded it. The robed man pushed his hands into the dock and the boat began to sink into the depths below.
"Hey wait!" Prometheus said he grabbed the robed man's arm and the man looked shocked as Prometheus tried to get answers out of him. Qrow looked around confused and noticed that other robed men along the dock were doing similar things to this man. One group of people brought the gold coin to the robed men, he crushed it and blew into his hand. Flower petals came flying out and went into the water below. A few seconds later a large bubble rose from the water encompassing a small boat. The bubble popped and the group got into it.
Qrow quickly pulled Prometheus off of the man, "it's ok he is just storing the boat," Qrow gestured towards the dock around him.
Prometheus quickly straightened up, "ah, well, thank you for your good work," Prometheus said. They walked towards the stairs that led to the Blessing of Love, there were a couple of other people on the dock but the space they had to themselves continued to get smaller as they got closer to the stairs. The staircase was large by any standard you look at but it was clearly not made to handle hundreds of people compacting themselves in order to get up the only entrance. Whatever this festival is it had to be huge, a gathering of this many people from so many different nations was unheard of anywhere else. Qrow found himself bumping elbows with Elves, Pavest, Nyvind, Dwarves, even Halflings and Dragonfolk. Not just seeing them at the festival, but rubbing elbows with them uncomfortably as they moved upward towards their end goal. The uncomfortability was natural in this situation, but to Qrow it was an opportunity. Where else was this diverse of people going to be in such close proximity? The amount he could take and be unnoticed was immense, but unfortunately Qrow recognized his eyes were bigger than his stomach. Even if he did have the means to take whatever he wanted, that did not mean he had a way to keep what he took. Qrow sighed and picked a few pockets around him discreetly, but none of them brought him any joy or fulfillment. Some gold, a few trinkets, some different contraceptives, but he knew that the bigger prizes were just out of his reach from lack of storage. He turned towards Prometheus, hoping to strike up a conversation to pass the time as they waited for their turn to step forward, but Prometheus was tinkering with something himself. He had a few pieces of metal and a small gem with a rune on it in his hands. To Qrow, it looked like he was playing a game of some sort. He moved his hands swiftly mixing and matching the different pieces of metal while simultaneously activating some sort of spell from the gem that helped bind things together. Every once in a while he would reach into a small patchwork pouch at his side and pull out a new piece of metal or something to add to the device he was working on.
Over the past few days Qrow had seen Prometheus place many different things inside that pouch, he had thought about taking a thing or two from it, but the more he watched, the more confused he got. Many things go in the bag, but not much comes out; or Prometheus would put something in that shouldn't be able to fit and pull something else out that should not fit with the other item that was put in it. It had to be magical. It looked like a gold mine. A bag that could hold whatever is put into it regardless of whatever else is put in, a thief could steal anything they want and not have to worry about finding a place to store it.
Qrow smiled and leaned in close to Prometheus to make sure he could hear, "What is that pouch you have?"
Prometheus startled at Qrow's voice. He looked around as if he was surprised to see people, he had become so lost in his little world that he had actually had the nerve to forget the cacophony of people that surrounded them, even forgetting Qrow's existence. "It is just a bag," Prometheus answered, then he went back to his tinkering.
"Right but it's magical isn't it?" Qrow asked unsatisfied with Prometheus's answer.
Prometheus did not look up, "it has some enchantments but for all purposes it is simply a bag, there is nothing special about it."
"What kind of enchantments?" Qrow prodded. He could tell that Prometheus was so absorbed in his work that he was not aware of the things around him. Qrow covered his arm in shadow and reached around Prometheus towards the pouch. No indication from Prometheus that he could tell what Qrow was doing.
"None really of note. I did add a new enchantment though, I thought it would be necessary," Prometheus said. Qrow put his hand around the bag and began to lift it from Prometheus's waist. A rune began to glow on the side of the bag and Qrow's arm became fully visible once again. Somehow his magic had been dispelled. Before Qrow could question it, another rune lit up and a surge of electricity ran through Qrow's arm. He jolted backwards quickly stumbling over one of the steps and fell onto the ground at the top of the stairs. Flower petals fell on his face from above and Qrow found himself looking at the sky once again.
Prometheus leaned over him with a smile, his long white hair tickling Qrow's nose, "I think they were good enchantments to add would you agree?"
"Handy," Qrow said, still jolting a little from the electricity, "very good to protect yourself especially in a crowd like this." Prometheus put away his tinkering tools and turned towards the now prone Qrow. Hopefully, he reached out his hand to be helped by his blue comrade, but instead Prometheus took one step over his body and carried on. Qrow laid there for a second in shock before finally arising to his feet swiftly and dusting himself off.
He pulled out the small gold gone with a flower on it and smiled, "Your safeguards don't exactly stop me from getting in the bag," Qrow said chuckling to himself before running to catch up with Prometheus.
As far as they could tell from the maps they received, the Blessing of Love is broken up into three sections: The entertainment district, the residential district, and the commercial district. Each of these areas displays a different part of the festival but the most popular by far is the entertainment; for obvious reasons. The district is actually on a separate island that juts out from the main part of the Blessing of Love, Qrow thought this was to maintain deniablity should anything unbecoming occur. The entire district set itself up like a large strip, with different levels of entertainment existing on a spectrum from one end of the island to the other. On the far western side were the more shoddy affairs; quick made wooden prefabs, tents with patchwork designs, an overall sense of disgust that reminded Qrow of the less welcoming districts of Fearsh but evenso they still had a jovialness to them that was uncommon. The other side was the more glamorous affairs, the festivities there were more civilized and grand. The pinnacle of it all is a large six story pagoda with arcane fireworks and illusions surrounding the building to advertise the place. Qrow and Prometheus found themselves at the mid way point of the island, where the gate let them into the district from the docks.
Prometheus looked at his map intently while Qrow tried to recompose himself after his shock, "We should probably head towards the largest of the Brothels, according to this it says that this brothel is called…" Prometheus squinted as he read the name, "Le Emis Surad…Must be in another language, the locals call it LES."
"I am guessing that is the pagoda with all the fireworks?" Qrow said, pointing towards the building.
Prometheus looked where Qrow pointed and made a face of surprise to see the building, "Oh wow it was not too hard to find, good work Qrow you make a fine scout," Prometheus patted him on the shoulder and began to walk towards LES. The most frustrating part of it all is that Qrow knew Prometheus was completely serious, the man was just that oblivious. Qrow followed a few paces behind, getting used to the flow of the crowd. In case he needed to disappear he wanted to adapt to their movements so he could as adequately as possible. The opposite could be said for Prometheus, he walked through the crowd with reckless abandon, he had little care for who was in his way. However, instead of it being a fight or a struggle for Prometheus to do so, people would simply move out of his way. In fact, many were aware of where he was walking before he came so they had already made themselves ready to move. Qrow had not been so fortunate, it was like a rock in a river bed, it would split for Prometheus but then collapse around Qrow. Qrow could not make heads or tails of it until, given his astute observation skills, something unthinkable came to be apparent. Most of the people looking at him were females, could it be possible that Prometheus was alluring to these people? He had heard tales of one of the members of the royal family of Xerxes being the most sought after attraction by many women but to think it was Prometheus was unbelievable. They had only known each other a short time but in that time Qrow had seen Prometheus be fickle, absent-minded, brash, and very blunt in his manner of speaking. Not only that, the man often would be covered in oil or dirt from working with machine parts and would leave his hair completely unkempt. The man had always seemed like a mess to Qrow but now he was forced to confront the reality that he may have seen him wrong.
He continued to follow behind but closed his eyes for a second to reframe his mind. Objectively look at Prometheus, he thought to himself. When Qrow opened his eyes once more he observed Prometheus once again. He is rather tall, and has a very natural toned build to him, he has a strong but also very soft eyes at the same time and his white hair does flow very well. His light blue skin does have a certain pleasantness to it, like a clear sky. While Qrow himself did not understand the appeal, it was clear that many around Prometheus did. It was impossible to deny it; from an objective standpoint (and without knowing his personality) Prometheus was…hot.
This revelation astonished Qrow, so much so that he totally got lost in the walk and did not even realize the two had stopped in front of LES. "Qrow," Prometheus said rather loudly, raising Qrow from his stupor.
"What?" Qrow said angrily, he could not help but feel the warm tinge of anger rising within him even though he knew it was unreasonable.
Prometheus noticed Qrow scowling at him and took a step back in confusion, "is something wrong? You are standing a few feet away from me and yet it seems that you could not hear me."
Qrow narrowed his eyes, "Your chin looks like a butt."
"Excuse me?" Prometheus said bewildered.
"Let's go," Qrow said, and he immediately started up the stairs towards the entrance to the brothel.
"But it might be good for us to have a plan rather than just trouncing into a brothel," Prometheus said yelling after Qrow. He did not turn around, instead he continued inside leaving Prometheus to fend for himself.
While it did not seem like anything would be able to shake Qrow from his revelation, the pagoda surprisingly did. It was a massive green, red, and gold structure with large columns that depicted ornate designs and images, larger than Qrow had expected even when looking at it from the outside. It was not a building composed of many rooms and floors but instead one massive room that's ceiling reached all the way to the top and had many balconies that lead to adjacent rooms from each balcony that were only separated by rice walls. The structure had an almost illusory element to it, the 13 different wrap-around balconies leading to the top seemed innumerable, making the whole thing seem that much bigger. In the main lobby was a desk in the center of the floor with a large enchanted waterfall behind it that showed images of revelry and beautiful women and men. An elvish man handed out keys and other items to people who came up to the desk before sending them off to rooms via lifts on each side of the pagoda. The lifts would ascend and descend by druids who would conjure vines from the earth to either raise or lower a large platform. Qrow expected there to be many courtesans, which were moving to and fro throughout the room trying to entice visitors to rent a room for them or buy them a drink, but he did not expect the level of class. Everything seemed to happen behind closed doors, the different male and female courtesans were dressed more elegantly than scandalously. It was as if they wanted to give the idea of seduction without compromising themselves. What was also surprising was that many of the people in the building were not looking for companionship; many of the patrons were simply drinking, gambling, laughing and sharing revelrous behavior rather than trying to take the members of the brothel off somewhere in private. Qrow continued to observe and notice that many of the courtesans were encouraging the patrons to spend money on expensive wines and ales or bet higher on a round of dice. It was not merely an operation to entice sex, it was a money making scheme through and through; and Qrow loved it.
"Genius," he said to himself with a smile. Around that time Prometheus finally caught up to him.
"It is not helpful for one of us to leave the other," Prometheus said, Qrow felt a tinge of annoyance as he had just been left behind by Prometheus not but 10 minutes before. "Besides we do not have a plan!"
Qrow examined the room with a rejuvenated sense of understanding. Originally he thought going to the brothel was a waste of time, everything about these places was steeped in secrecy and trying to withhold information, but he now realized that this was the hotbed of information about the world around them. This was the place people went to talk and show off, it left them more loose lipped as well as more loose with their coin. If there was going to be information to be obtained it would be here and Qrow would be the one to get it. He smiled even brighter than before.
"But there is a plan for Prometheus," Qrow said.
Prometheus gave him a side eye, "there is? I do not remember us discussing one…"
"Of course there is," Qrow said putting his arm around Prometheus, "this place is a hotbed of information for what is going on around here, all it is going to take is some very clever performances to get that information."
"Performances? Did you and Garus come up with an idea without me?" Prometheus wondered.
"Prometheus this is one of those times you are just going to have to go with the flow," Qrow said. He began to push Prometheus towards one of the tables where a few rich noblemen were playing a game with dice.
"Qro…" Prometheus started to say but Qrow was able to quickly sit him down to stop his hesitation. The people at the table looked at the pair with confusion.
"This is Prometheus, the future Dauntless of Xerxes, and he is looking forward to spending an unreasonable amount of money tonight," Qrow said loud enough for people in a 20 foot radius to hear. All eyes, patron and courtesan alike, immediately focused on Prometheus.
"What are you doing!" Prometheus said wide-eyed and frantic, "we are supposed to be keeping things a secret!"
"I am getting us information," Qrow said slyly, "you are just footing the bill."