Bram throws his shoulder into the cabin door, bracing it as another impact rattles the latch. In the corridor beyond, boots scrape and someone curses through clenched breath.
Bram
Captain! He’s loose again, and he’s still shouting about Merek!
The door shudders. Bram plants his feet wider, one hand gripping the frame, the other raised to warn off the rushing shape beyond the threshold.
The Mutinous First Mate
Merelia, listen. I have one last secret about Merek. If you want the truth, you need to hear it now, before it’s too late!
Merelia
He is trying to reach the cabin before the guards can pin him down.
Inside, the lantern light trembles over the sleeping bunks. The children stay still, while the corridor outside grows louder with the strain of struggling bodies and Bram’s hard breathing.
Bram keeps the door sealed for one more heartbeat, holding the mutineer at bay with sheer stubborn force.
“I demand Merek speak through the door”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Merelia answers with calm authority, and the corridor seems to listen with her. Bram eases only enough to keep the door sealed, while the shouting outside falls into a rough, waiting silence.
Merelia
Speak through the door, Merek. One voice, plainly, and no tricks.
The Mutinous First Mate
...I can do that. I’m not Merek. I’m Bram, and I was his runner on the south shore.
The name lands hard in the hush. Bram at the door turns his head a fraction, but keeps his shoulder set against the wood. The first mate’s breathing steadies, as if the truth is finally out in the open.
Bram
So that’s your secret. Who is Merek, then, and why does his name still shake you?
Bram
He knows something real. Enough to matter, if he’s willing to keep talking.
The Mutinous First Mate
He marked the charter with a brass gull ring, and he said Tortulan remembers every debt. I never saw his face without the ring.
Through the crack at the latch, a glint of metal flashes from the corridor floor, as if something small has fallen free in the struggle. The first mate falls quiet, waiting for Merelia’s next question.
“I ask what Merek is owing”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Merelia
What is Merek owing?
The Mutinous First Mate
A favor paid in advance, and interest on fear. He ran messages, fixed a sail, found a quiet berth when questions started. Then Merek said the debt was bigger than coin.
The first mate swallows, then keeps talking because the silence is kinder than the door. Bram lowers his head a little, listening hard, while the little metal object on the floor catches the lantern light with a gull-wing glimmer.
The Mutinous First Mate
He owed the broker three nights, three names, and one sealed route to Tortulan. That brass gull ring was the broker’s mark, not a prize.
Merelia
Three nights, three names, one route. Not a sailor’s debt.
Bram’s eyes flick to the glinting object outside, then back to Merelia, as if the corridor itself has started answering her. The first mate’s shoulders ease by a breath, relieved to have confessed what he knows.
The Mutinous First Mate
If you want the rest, I can tell you where he took the last payment. Right now, before I lose my nerve.
“I ask where Merek took the last payment”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Merelia lets the silence do the work. Bram keeps the door pinned with his shoulder, and the corridor seems to lean in with him.
Merelia
Where did Merek take the last payment?
The Mutinous First Mate
Down to the south shore, to a counting house half-buried in salt rock. He liked doors with only one way out.
The Mutinous First Mate
I brought him the coin myself. Saw the brass gull on the ledger box, and a black ribbon tied to the latch.
Bram’s expression tightens at the memory, then softens again when the first mate keeps talking instead of running.
The Mutinous First Mate
If you go there, take the rear stairs. He never watched them. He watched the sea, like it owed him manners.
The Mutinous First Mate
And... if you reach his books, burn the page with the gull mark. That is where he keeps the names.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the counting house on the south shore
✓ Quest Accepted
Burn the page with the gull mark
“I go to the counting house”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)