The War of Transition

Chapter One (Mereissa)

     In the black of night, the fog wrapped it's ethereal talons around the city of Tiannima.

     Mereissa's feet thumped against the docks as she struggled to carry the barrel against her chest.

     "Ya drop it, you'll be sleepin' under te' waves, ya?" Albyn shouldered by, heading to the ship at the end of the pier. The gray sigil of a silver fish with blue eyes was stitched into his leather cuirass. A brown hood covered the back of his head, and chains dangling from his pockets chimed in the windless night.

     Mereissa had joined the Orange Myriass Smugglers only three days past to discover the stories whispered in taverns and brothels were largely tired myths. Some said the Orange in their name dictated the smugglers only recruited Oppalics, and the Myriass meant only fishermen were amongst their ranks. Mereissa was neither Oppalic nor a fisherwoman, and she scarcely thought of Albyn as capable of doing anything other than loading ships full of illegal cargo.

     By the time Mereissa had stepped onto the deck of the Tattered Morning, her fingers screamed for respite.

     "Just over here, love." Albyn gestured vaguely at a round-bellied man standing by the cabin door. "Styg's gonna take it off those pretty hands o' yours." He smiled and spat off the side of the ship.

     Merissa was used to seeing much of the same and worse. She had played the part of a cook once, posing as a woman of forty five years with hair as brittle as an egg shell. For the past three nights, she had found herself amongst men of low birth and little intelligence. They wouldn't suspect what was coming for them tonight.

     Styg held his burly arms open as Mereissa dumped the barrel into his grasp. She felt his warm breath caress her face, and when he smiled, the stench of rotting meat made her stomach turn. He kcoked the door open with his shoulder and proceeded down beneath the deck.

     "Well, I tink' t'at's it, love." She felt Albyn step up behind her, one finger tracing a circle on her waist. "What say you go below wit' me? We ain't gonna leave for an hour."

     To her left, the fog shielded the city beyond the docks. She could only see the faint glow of swaying lanterns in the distance. The ship rocked gently beneath her feet. Waves lapped against the hull of the Tattered Morning. "Let's not spoil the night, Albyn." She stepped away from him, but he snatched her wrist and slammed her chest against his. His other hand grabbed the small of her back.

     "Ah, but tis' makes you a full member of te' smugglers, love." He forced a kiss on her lips. He tasted of bitter salt and hard labour.

     The contract she had recevied a week ago stated that all members of the Tattered Morning must be killed and burned along with their precious cargo. While Albyn has shown much affection for Mereissa within her short time as a Myriass Smuggler, she hated him. Despised his greasy hair and thin lips, and the way his eyes narrowed like half moons when he smiled. She would not miss him.

     Her hand swept up to his throat before she broke the kiss. The knife that had been concealed in her sleeve slipped out into her grasp and traced a line across Albyn's neck. He coughed into her mouth and staggered back in a daze, his eyes never leaving hers. They shot open in panic when he felt the blood seeping through his neck. He clasped the wound with both hands and tried to speak, but only a lovesick gurgle and a bubble of blood broke through his lips.

     Mereissa managed to catch Albyn as his knees gave in and fell forward. His hands grabbed her shoulders in a final desperation, a fit of revenge perhaps. She dragged his limp figure across the deck, a trail of dark red staining the ship, and rolled him overboard, holding her breath until she heard the splash.

     The sensation of death took her by surprise that night. She hadn't received an assassination contract for three years, and her knife hadn't touched flesh for the same amount of time. She could not claim to miss it, though. Her tasks often brought her across the sea, out of her home in Jiannimar to Emmurise, where someone always wanted something else taken care of.

     Mareissa checked her knife. Not a single drop of Albyn's blood had met steel. She clasped it in her hand and made her way below deck.

     The interior of the ship was darkly lit, and the halls were too narrow for Styg to navigate with a cask of illegal wines with ease. A lantern sat on a crate to her left, casting her shadow against a far wall. She heard a cough. Styg's scent was unmistakeable down below. The entire interior smelt of him, like a bear and its cave.

     She found the large man drowning himself in a bottle of red wine. He leaned back in his chair and splattered his face with the liquid, drenching his sweat sodden shirt. She stood in the doorway, unnoticed, and almost feeling sorry to interrupt a man during his moment of solace. He hummed gleefully to himself, hanging his back back and staring at the ceiling. He didn't even see her coming, nor the blade that opened his throat.

     The other six members of the Tattered Morning were asleep in their cabins, sneaking in whatever brief moment of rest they could before the journey before dawn. The sigil of the Orange Myriass stared accusingly at her from the backs of the leather cuirass' hanging beside their cots. She couldn't bring herself to let them sleep while the ship burned all around them, so she ended their lives as quickly as she did the other two.

     Mereissa smashed the lantern where Styg had sat and drank only moments ago, and watched the room catch fire before making her way abovedeck and leleaving the Tattered Morning, crossing the pier and back into the city. Turning back, she could see the once famed smuggler ship in a sea of fire. Tongues of red flame caressed the hull and licked the mast, filling ther air with smoke and sending the fog rolling across the breadth of the sea in fear of the weapon that consumes all.

     Mereissa swept a hood across her head and disappeared into the narrow alleys of Tiannima.