Turn 136

"Can I ask where you're planning on taking me?"
    "Back to the capital, I guess," he says, looking toward Yestin for any overt disagreement. "Why don't I show you to your room, and you can think about what to tell the local clergy about how your company's helping displace their gods, not to mention abetting presumptive treason and things like that." Ibn Fadil has had enough of this man.
    Murphen gives him a look of world-weary cynicism in return. He doesn't put up a fuss as he is placed in a hastily-cleared cabin, but he does try to take the bottle.
    Returning, ibn Fadil sits down with a disgusted expression. "I guess we can trust his ignorance, Captain. Acting Captain," he tells Yestin. "I know that type - if his favorite tavern was on fire, he'd complain about how slow the service was getting." He pours himself a little more brandy. "But we know a few more details, at least. I wonder how they're getting on with that priest?"
    At which point Emmett saunters in, rubbing a polishing cloth over his hook. "Well, that went pretty well, I think." He looks around. "Where's the twerp?"
    As the ship cruises through the sky, the group confers on the bridge so their pilot can take part as well, sharing the results of their actions in and around Highfort and the two ensuing interrogations, and contemplating the picture that emerges. Any distinction between the crew and the two locals has been lost by this point.
    To sum up, assuming the prisoners were telling the truth: Some five years previously, a V&S ship that happened to employ a Hextorian priest in some capacity made contact with the planet. Said Hextorian disappeared and was presumed dead by his crewmates, but apparently survived his time alone on the surface, found a town to settle in and begin spreading his religion. Meanwhile, V&S made a lucrative deal with the first lord they ran across (Durrell), supplying him with steel in return for various local goods, and sealed it by marrying one of his too-numerous daughters to friend Samuel on Bral. Since then, Victor ships have come annually and the Hextorians have grown steadily more powerful locally and extended their network at least as far as Myrr, aided by the existing network of the guild and by their artifacts, which they may be producing under the direction of some kind of holy vision.
    Emmett puts forth the plan that the Hextorian should be left to local justice, which will no doubt be satisfyingly final (Lynden can vouch for that), but that Murphen be taken off-planet to provide substantiation for the story he would like the crew to tell to 3 Trees, the Navy, and anyone else who might influence the situation.
    An enthused Alais then gives a preliminary assessment of the wolf. "Not only far advanced of anything else we've seen on this world, but entirely different from anything I've seen or heard tell of anywhere else. Even the mundane components are highly original, and I haven't touched the thing's 'heart' yet."
    
    

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