Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

36. Sins of the Dread Captain

"And with this our alliance is sealed." Cal winked.

Steinman and Ten'lo sat before Cal's desk.

The only thing on the desk was a couple documents they had just signed for formal purposes, but the actual binding part of the contract was the blood of the chief smeared with Cal's handprint on Cal's wooden mask.

To mark an article of armor with the blood of a Dravenkin means that Cal once held the life of that elf in his hands. It was very symbolic and held many meanings within the Dravenkin culture, ultimately Cal figured it would equal one "favor" just like the raid but it turned out even better. Not only did he pull out an alliance but Ten'lo and a couple others agreed to become adventurers and help build up the budding guild.

Cal smiled and began hanging the mask on the wall behind his desk, the first of many "trophies."

WHAM!

Shayley burst in the door her eyes spotted Cal hanging the mask.

"CAL! Why the Hell are there Draven- Ten'lo? Dad. Daddy!" Shayley jumped Steinman.

** ** **

"An alliance huh?" Shayley gave Cal a pointed looked.

When Shayley finally settled down they sat around Cal's office with her father, and her brother.

"Yes, I've taken the liberty to contact the Dravenkin since you contacted the rest. While we can't rely on our levels anymore, we need to bind together our numbers." Cal spoke seriously.

Shayley sighed. "I don't know what your impression of us is, Cal, but we aren't exactly popular among the other elf nations, only five of the seventeen responded to our summons and three merely came to turn us down."

"Why not?" Cal asked.

"Next to the Dravenkin who are pretty much self-exiled, the City of Perils is only resentfully respected and is only above the Dravenkin in means of popularity."

"Why, I thought we were doing great."

"We are doing great, and that is part of the issue. Shortly, after the great migration the other elves banded together to get rid of us. The results were inevitable and we wounded a lot of those nations pride's. While they were rebuilding we spiked in growth, and it's been that way ever since."

"Even the Western Shore?"

"Seriously, I don't know how much you need to get caught up but contact with the western shore has been cut off since shortly after the migration."

"No wonder that guard looked at me funny when I said I was from the western shore."

"What guard?"

"Never mind. What cut off our connection with the western shore?"

"The sea between our coast and the Western Shore is inescapably littered with ghost ships. Our own vessels can only go so far out to sea or off the coast to fish or trade."

Cal's face paled. "Ghost ships?" he reached into his jacket and pulled out a red flag, the very same one he wore as a scarf earlier. "Did their flags resemble this at all?" It was a skull and crossed swords. The artwork was flourished and frightening.

"Where did you get that?" Shayley gaped.

"I made it when I started this game as a dread pirate. This is my flag, and any who fly under it are mine, dead and alive. The Dread Pirate, the curse and scourge of the sea. Damn, I never could have imagined that it would cause this kind of damage." Cal covered his face.

"All this time it... it was you. All those people..." Shayley slumped in her chair.

"First, it's one thing, and then it's another. I didn't just create and leave my mark with a single city did I?" Cal stood up.

"Cal..."

"I won't ask your forgiveness, since I don't fully understand the damage I have caused yet. But I know my next quest."

[Investigate the Ghost ships]

Yes/no

"Verdant Oathkeepers is going to exorcise the undead sea. It won't be pretty, but a navy of undead can't hurt our chances too much, can it?" Cal opened his menu and started scrolling through lists. "That's odd..."

"Cal, stop with the surprises, I don't know if I could handle any more today." Shayley sighed.

"Ophelia is actually a triplet and her sisters predict when even worse travesties strike."

"WHAT?"

"Kidding."

"Cal!" she warned but Cal didn't look up from his menu's.

"There are hardly any deactivated Elementals anymore."

"Deactivated Elements? You're not making a lick of sense."

"When you're a summoner you can store unused elementals to conserve mana. I ended up summoning and creating an extensive list elementals. I even created a whole crew for one last raid where I conquered Segaro sea between here and the Western Shore. I went all out to finish the raids and then when I was done I stored away the crew I made for the journey. But it seems like there was so much excess power they were activated to control the flood of magic." Cal scrolled down the list.

"I have noticed new elementals pop up from time to time surprised to be here. So that's what that was."

"I don't want to think about all the things that it could mean, but as of right now at least all the dangerous one I locked haven't seen the light of day yet."

"Dangerous ones?"

"Think of the council of elementals evil counterparts and some experiments gone wrong. When you summon an elemental, the higher your level the more customization options you get but there is always the chance of getting a rare savant. The council is made of savants, ultrapowerful specialists, the stable ones anyway. There is a lot of math, but when it comes to making the best you need the most. Needless to say if you are gambling with the forces-that-be, you get as many demons as angels."

"And we're fortunate enough to have never seen any of the sealed demons."

"For now, but there are still elementals and we may end up calling on them before this adventure is over. Damn I forgot how many there were... Well, let's find out where my crew is."

Cal opened the map and searched for the names of his crew of elementals.