Penny — Roleplayer Guild

Emmaline had been somewhat distracted by the various eldritch texts and items which littered the late and unlamented Zhar Tan Zhou’s inner sanctum. Many of them were obviously abominable works of chaos, unclean things bound in human skin, more innocuous volumes that seemed harmless but whispered silent promises of power and immortality. Somewhat reluctantly Emmaline opened her wizards sight to survey the library, feeling greasy and unclean at the magical imprints on some of the items. A few of them appeared untainted, though all but one was written in a strange script that looked to Emmaline like pick up sticks randomly cast on the ground. Her eyes fell upon one that stood out from the rest, a simple scroll of papyrus with a red silk tie. She reached out for it feeling it tingle against her skin as she picked it up. The ridiculous white silk gown she had been dressed in had nothing so useful as a pocket of course and her own. There was a satchel of fine leather laying over an ornately carved chair which served well enough, she picked up another book, the only one so far as she could tell that was written in the Classic Arcane she had been taught and stuffed it in after the scroll.

Emmaline. Emmaline frowned at the whisper of her name. Her attention was drawn to a piece of dark glass that looked like it might be a lens. It was an inocuous enough thing, not grotesque or awful the way that the brass eye or the bloody dagger beside it were. Obviously it was a quizzing glass, it would let her read all these spell books safely. All that reading sounded terribly dull and her attention began to wander. Emmaline. The whisper had a hint of exasperation in it as her attention returned to the quizzing glass. Just pick it up and all the arcane secret in this room could be hers. Eternal youth, immortality, the ability to turn objects to gold with the merest touch. Her hand lifted towards the glass. Charmon roared in her mage sight and snapped her head around so fast that her hair flew out and the hem of her kimono lifted. Emmaline! But the glass and its seductive whispering was lost as her eye filled with the horde of gold beyond the portal. Her jaw dropped open and her mind seemed to slip it's gears for a moment as all she could do was stare. In hindsight she probably should have heeded Zwili’s warning and at least prepared herself for the powerful surge of gold lust that momentarily blotted out conscious thought. Without memory of cross thing the intervening distance she found herself laying atop a pile of coins, hugging it, running the metal through her fingers and rubbing herself against the clinking currency, its metallic scent filling her nostril, the smooth cool feel of it on her hands and spilling down into the kimono, the clink of it filling her ears.

"I wonder if he was Fifth Bureau," Sabatine pondered aloud. There were bruises beneath her suit from the collision with the deck, but nothing worse than a hard shift on the hull. It certainly trumped being shot all hollow. It was common knowledge that Guarantor Pora's secret police maintained a presence within the fleet, and the communications officer would be a logical choice. Feet were clattering down the companion way.

"Shit," Sabbatine muttered, slamming the door shut behind them. Trigger discipline among spacers was never the best and she didn't fancy getting wasted by her own side moments after an enemy round.

"Sir?!" Danzetti's voice called from the hallway.

"We are all good spacer," start getting the prisoners out of her," Kaiden ordered.

"Sir!" Danzetti responded and then began clamping back up the companionway. Sabatine knelt down beside the communications terminal. She took a wrench from the toolbelt on her suit and fitted it to the rachet that held the communications console in place, laying down so she could observe the wiring. There didn't appear to be any booby traps or fail safes.

"I have called you much worse," Sabatine agreed with a grin. She thought back to the night she learned he had cheated on her. The old fury wasn't as hot as it had been with the passage of time. It hadn't been as though there were any chance that a Calawarden would ever end up with a penniless minor noble on the verge of ruin. Still it had burned, burned deep. She cranked the first bolt around. It gave easily, doubtless the communications consoles were changed out often as Fleet codes were updated. She paused for a moment as the first bolt came free.

"You know, assuming we get back to Herculaneum safely, I'm due one tenth the cost of a destroyer in prize money." Kaiden himself, as captain, would get a fifth. That was a staggering amount of money to Sabatine, and even to Kaiden would probably nudge a balance sheet.

"Assuming they don't hang us for mutiny of course," Kaiden put in. Sabatine snorted as she freed the second bolt.

"Still the eternal optimist I see," she snickered.

"I can't see them hanging a highly placed noble with a victory like this one to back it up." The final bolt came free and she pulled the remaining connectors, freeing the console.

"Micha dosen't have the political pull to make it stick and the Admiral..." she thought back to his words to her before they set off on this cruise.

"Well I think he had his doubts too." She pulled herself to her feet and grabbed the console with both hands, lifting it with some effort.

"Can you get the door?"

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