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“That hideous hat rather suits you, I’d say! Rumor has it that you call yourself captain these days, is that even true?”  

“Hello to you too, Count. I see you are doing well.” Lann curtly nodded. No need to bother with more courtesy with this Count. Lann had got better at hiding his distaste for aristocrats these days, but one could only ask oneself this much. 

“Of course I’m doing remarkably fine! Otherwise you won’t be here, seeking my audience, begging me to shower you with fortune and opportunities. But just for the purpose of entertaining me, what made you even dare to dream of me funding you an expedition to the other side of Golarion?”

“I see you are overjoyed to see me as well.” Lann kept his voice as flat as possible, trying not to give the Count the satisfaction, not yet. “It must be good to see a couple of old faces, since the eyes from Nerosyan were ceaselessly watching you these days.”

Darean’s perfect face did not betray anything, but Lann knew that he was not in good terms with Nerosyanian inquisitors, especially after Taran’s … after he lost the protection from the Commander. 

“I must say it’s always much more fun when there are someone watching.” The Count smirked, apparently recalling his past escapades. “But enlighten me, Captain Scalyface, what my situation got to do with you?”

“I thought you could do with a bit extra exotic delight to fight off boredom in this rather simple life imposed by Iomeade inquisitors.” Well, truth was almost always a relative thing, he did not lie. 

“Hear, hear! Now what happened to our little tin soldier? Is life on sea truly as hard as they said? Smuggling people, now, aren’t you? Abyss didn’t even manage to corrupt you this bad.”

“You still have to seek elsewhere if you are looking for a pimp. Or a slave trader.” Lann found it getting harder and harder to keep his voice level. “What we talking here are strictly limited to goods.” 

Darean shook his radiant head dramatically. “Even you by now should grasp that I did not lack means or resources to get what my whim desired at any moment. With or without you, probably better without. And Wojif would die out of embarrassment if he heard your sale pitch.”

“Not even the spring of immortality?”

“Aha, I thought you were above nanny’s stories. Generous as I am, I tend to spend my fortune on something more fun and preferably real.” 

“It is real.” Lann said flatly. “I found its location in an old manuscript. It’s in the Forest of Spirits.”

“‘It is real.’”Darean mocked his tone, “Maybe this is a quite new experience for you, but not everything ‘written’ or ‘old’” He air-quoted, “is true.”

“Yet you are still keeping me here. The boredom level these days must well approach fatal for you.” Lann let out a humorless laugh. “Had it came from other sources, I would not bother at all. But it came from our mutual acquaintance. The mutual acquaintance.” 

Darean raised his eyebrows. For the first time in this conversation, he seemed genuinely interested. 

“Go on, then?”

“Tea’s ready, captain.” Lann turned and saw the young sailor from the previous  watch holding a steaming mug. With the dim blue light before the dawn, she looked even younger with her pale face and little hands. Lann had saw enough kids running in battlefields, not many as ship rats those days. 

Lann nodded and took the mug. “What was your name again?”

The young sailor visibly hesitated for a moment. “They call me Chalk, captain.”

Lann took a sip, close his hand around the mug, feeling the comfortable numbness radiating from fingers to palms, then he shrugged. “Really? Where is Cheese then? Bet they call you a new name every time you sneak up on a new ship. What happened to the real Chalk?”

Suddenly, the young girl’s face slightly shifted to a more vulpine shape. A pair of fluffy white ears became visible under her cape. Lann saw her pointy canine teeth flashed and then she hesitated. Still not sure whether to fight or flight. Rookies. Hesitation. He thought, this is what kill you. No decision was worse than bad decision.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t run. And please, for your own safety, put those little bottles back in my bag.” Lann said calmly, still holding the mug. “It is easy to mistake a moving target as dinner in the forest.” He kept the eye contact without casting a glance at his longbow. She did, though. Then she took out a brown leather bag under her cape, and put it on the ground. Soft clinks. 

“Be careful. You might just blow us into bits.”

“That dumb one ran away when you were in Cheliax.” She hissed, “No one seemed to notice or care back then. How did you see through my disguise?”

“I knew enough Kitsunes to tell when I see one.” Well, that’s not true. The Commander never bothered with putting up a human face, and Nenio did not exactly know she was a one most of times.

“Real Chalk made very sensible decision, actually. Can’t say I blame her.” Lann casually finished his tea. “May I ask, miss Not-Chalk, for what do I own the pleasure? Is it bit too late or too early for assassinating? Waves almost did your job yesterday.”

“Rumors said you are after something. They said Count Arendae personally funded you this trip.”

“Count Arendae did a lot of other wilder things. And, as you see, he was not entirely famous for his keen business mind.” 

Not-Chalk gave Lann a dirty look, but she continued, with a much smaller voice this time. “There is something that well worth it no matter how much you pay.”

“And pray tell, what is that?” 

“What else? The sacred spring. The spring of life. The spring of immortality.” Not-Chalk sniggered. 

“I may just as well come here for the trade and tea.” Technically that was not a lie.  

“You are not so good at playing dumb as you believe, Captain.” The way she looked at Lann was eerily familiar. Greedy, sharp, also full of life. 

“Well, suppose Count Arendae is really willing to squander his enormous wealth on a piper’s dream, what do you want to do with immortality?” 

“Because who does not want immortality?” Not-Chalk rolled her eyes. “Getting old and weak is no fun.”

Kids. Such a brave face you put on. Lann thought. I had almost believed that I was dealing with someone more dangerous. Darean or his people could really use more discretion – if an urchin on the street could get news, who wouldn’t? But then again, maybe Darean spread news himself, just to spice things up. 

“But you are a Kitsune, so you are from this area. Didn’t locals always laugh at foreigners who believed weirdest things?”

That pair of ears dropped. “Never came here before. Old man’s died before I was born. Mum’s ill and dead a while ago, too.”

“Still it was quite reckless to sneak on a ship. Surely there are must be some priests can perform resurrection.” Lann remembered his young tribesmen wondering in the maze, those run away kids at Commander’s Court, and countless skinny ones who could barely hold a spike straight in the fifth crusade. I got a ship because I wanted to see the world I saved from Abyss. It seemed that things did not change much after the closing of World wound. 

Not-Chalk gave him another dirty look. “Won’t be here if I’ve got money. “She suddenly looked embarrassed. “And mum told me about this undead thingy before.  She said that where peach flowers bloom, no one will starve or freeze or die miserably. It must be somewhere near her home.”

Then why she left her home with your dad? Lann was quite surprised how she could still hold on to it after wandering in real life like that, but maybe exactly because she had it rough. What would children do for their bed time stories.  

“First, immortality does not work like undead. Had it you raised your mum undead, she would not be herself anymore. And would never forgive you.” Lann stood up. Not-Chalk flinched, but checked herself. The mongrel just stretched and put on his ridiculous captain hat. He could really use a bit more cover now. 

“As for you, as long as you do not desert and keep doing you job, Chalk or Not-Chalk, you are still part of my crew and I am still your captain. You are still under my protection.“ 

She wrinkled her nose. “Ain’t got other choice, am I?”

“Am I understood?”

An almost imperceptible nod. Lann raised his eyebrows.

“Aye, Captain.” 

“Chalk you are then. Now, go put the kettle on. Good. So, care to share a few bedtime stories from your mum before everyone else got up?”

“Pursuing immortality was quite old news these days.” Darean sighed dramatically. “You really should try to get a grip on the trend. Or at least catch up on your history. There were had been numerous attempted on elixir of life, or philosopher’s stones depends on which approaches you take. The whole Mendev had to pay dearly for my dear cousin, just to sustain her youth for a few more decades. As for your spring of immortality, I believe there are also a lot of tales in Tian Xia. One of them involving an alchemist quack tricking a tyrant into funding him several trips to find a little paradise island across the sea. Mind you, that quack never came back from his last trip.”

“Sounds disturbingly familiar, huh?” Lann smirked, “But don’t worry, I have no intent to run away from you, Count, not yet. If the search for immortality failed, I could always get you those Tian Xia tea as souvenirs. Best ones are worth more than its weight in gold here.”

Darean laughed but his eyes were icy. “My, my, not run away from me! I am almost bursting into tears! Captain, didn’t you know that sailors are always heart breakers in folk songs! It was fun to exchange insults just like good old days, but I am getting tired and bored, shall we skip the pleasantries and show me what exactly the Commander had left with you?”

Well, so much went for his communication skills. Lann had hoped that he did not have to show it to Darean (it was, after all, personal), but Darean was not stupid. Anticipating this, Lann produced a battered notebook. He carefully turned a few pages, and push it a bit across the table.

“Don’t touch it.” He warned. 

“Can’t read through your claw.” 

Lann hesitated a moment, then moved his hand away a bit. 

“This was from the Commander’s diary before she joined in the crusade. When she was on a job, she found something strange …”He pointed to a hastily drawn sketch. Half of it showed overgrown trees and bushes while in the other half there were only bare branches . “It was winter and that part of forest had suffered from wildfire the year before, so no greens at all. But once she passed a running creek, everything changed. As if the forest had came back to life.”

“Well, if that was the sacred spring why didn’t she drink that stuff already?”

“You have met those three hags in Chilly Creek. Good things in bad area usually demands a high price.”

“You just want my intelligence. Fine. The story about peach blossom spring.” Chalk said, “It started with a fisherman, he tried to get more catch, so he went down the creek. It was a long way down, and by the time he realized, the fisherman could not recognized his way back. And suddenly, he saw a beautiful peach orchard ahead. The fisherman rowed his boat, wanting to reach the other side of the orchard. He could smell crisp scent of the growing grass ashore. Peach blossoms were dancing in the winds. Falling pink petals covered his shoulder and head.  When he reached the end of the creek, he saw a hill. There was a chasm on that hill. His boat could not get through, so he went in by foot. It was dark and narrow. He could barely move at first, but then he saw light. It was dim and tiny first, but as he continued, he came to the other side of the hill.”

“He saw beautiful lands. He saw well-cared farms. He saw small villages and people living in them. Kids and elders, men and women, all were well-fed, well-dressed, happy and content. Of course, people there were very surprised to see an outsider. They were kind and friendly though. They gave the fisherman food and drink, and asked where did he come from. The fisherman told them. They were surprised – because, as they told the fisherman: we came to this place a few hundred years ago, to escape from war and famine ravaging on our ancestors’ land. So the cruel emperor in our grand-grandmothers’ nightmares was truly dead? He burnt all the books and melt all the blades. His army spared no one and his taxer plundered even worse than soldiers. He declared his empire would last a thousand years and more. She had believed he was a demigod. Is he truly dead?”

“What? What was that name again? The fisherman puzzled. It took him a while, but then he remembered, he heard that name of the cruel emperor on the market. Not a name to be venerated or avoided. Just a name in a puppet play. So he said, yes, he was dead a long time ago. Kings and queens, he said, they come and go.”

Lann smiled as if remembered something, but he did not say anything. Puzzled, Chalk still continued: 

“But they did not dwell on the past. Every households were curious about this fisherman, they wanted to know the present. So they invited him in their home, showed him around, held a feast for him everyday. The fisherman enjoyed it very much, but then he started to miss his own home. So these kind people packed his food and showed him the way back. Before the fisherman departed, they said, ‘We’re not worth mentioning for outsiders.’”

“So the fisherman went home. Sometime he missed these kind people and their beautiful lands, so he searched and searched, but no matter how far he traveled down the creek, he never saw the peach blossom orchard again. Others tried to find that place too, but no one had succeed so far.”

“I’m afraid it didn’t help much location wise.” Lann carefully picked up that leather bag and tucked it under his belt. “You are a pretty good story teller, though.” The dawn was approaching. They should wake the rest of crews up and try to find a route to nearest settlement. 

“Wait, there were also a few more … scary speculations around it.” Chalk shivered. “My cousin told me those people were long dead from war and hunger. That beautiful orchard were grew from their flesh, blood and bones. He said all that fisherman saw were just ghosts who refused to believe they met their tragic end. All of it was just a wishful dream.”

“Is that so?” Lann did not look at her. “Some wars did fertilize land by a margin, but the one I fought just corrupted everything. But what would we be if not just for a wishful dream?”

“I hate to interrupt our treasured memory together,” Darean’s face suggested otherwise, “but what the Commander was up to in that part of Forest? Her home was closer to Sapphire Sound – yes, you are not the only one who learnt geography and cared.” He smirked. 

“She was on a job to hunt down an onidoshi. Some kind of local deity turning evil thing.” Lann looked puzzled, not sure why Darean brought this up. 

“Well, how was that going for her?”

Lann turned, and saw Chalk’s ears flattening and baring her teeth. Not to him. 

To the sky above.

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