WHO: Yseult, Darras, Derrica & Flint WHAT: Gathering intel on the blockade failure and the state of Val Chevin's harbor defenses; an unexpected dinner party. WHEN: Early Wintermarch WHERE: Val Chevin, the Waking Sea NOTES: N/A, will add if necessary.
"No," she says quietly, eyes on the scorched wood. She can feel the misery of this place clinging to her skin. Forcibly, she pulls her gaze away to scan along the water. A faint ripple of sound comes across. Voices, the bob of a torch too far to make out.
"Not yet," she amends. "I can hear something, but I can't tell if they plan on getting into a boat or just watching from where they are."
Easy enough to evade someone who plans to stay rooted to the dock. There's no urgency in the distorted murmurs that make their way to them across the distance.
"Ask if they can see anything with the glass," she says, and then, a little softer, "I want to take those soundings. We might not get another chance."
Darras nods, and raises his crystal to speak into it. He's marked that torchlight as well, moments after Derrica. He's watching it now, distant though it is.
"We're on the wreckage," he says to Yseult, careful to keep his voice low. "Don't want to turn back until we've done what we came out here for. There's some light off to the east of us. Far off from us. Can you see what they're about with the glass?"
"Looks like a fisherman," Yseult reports, lowering the glass.
She speaks more directly into the crystal. "You ought to be fine. We'll let you know if they start moving closer. And you send word the moment you turn back to us."
The crystal's message is for Derrica to hear as well, and Darras nods to her once Yseult's response has come through. "We'll be quick," he says in response, then tucks the crystal back into his pocket. They'll hear any warning Flint and Yseult might send.
He trusts Yseult's assessment of the other ship. That doesn't mean he has to feel entirely at ease, and his gaze flicks back to the torchlight as he takes up the oars again.
"I'll keep us in place. Take the soundings, I'll break and write 'em down as they come. Fair?"
Derrica follows the movement of the torchlight uneasily before she looks back to Darras and nods.
There's no sense fleeing at the sight of a single fishing boat. But Derrica is thinking about how quickly guards would come scrambling at the sound of a shout as she reluctantly shoulders her staff. She can't work and clutch it, and there's no way shes going to give up on getting this particular piece of information so—
She takes the soundings, potentially with weighted ropes, who knows. And the entire time she's murmuring back to Darras she's straining to keep track of the fisherman or to anticipate the crackle of warning from Darras' crystal.
Darras does as he'd said he would, dutifully scratching out everything Derrica says. This sort of notation is simple enough to manage, the sort of thing he's learned to get by. And he stays calm, easy--watching the torchlight, ears pricked for the distant sounds of the fishermen that come over the water, that occasional splash of an oar, or slap of a wave against the distant bow.
They get no word of warning as they work, and Derrica is winding her potential weighted rope back up, he picks up the crystal again.
"Finished with the one. We'll get another. Those fishermen stayed fishermen?"
The conversation comes in muted, distorted waves across the water. As Darras speaks, Derrica plunks back into the boat. The weights drops to the floor, resting against the sodden roap, as she strains to get a glimpse of the fishermen and try to chart their trajectory from where they are. Yes, Derrica wants one more measurement. But she doesn't want to have to kill two fishermen for the crime of floating too close to them while going about their business.
Yseult, still keeping a careful eye on the fishermen and the docks both, replies quietly through the crystal: "Yes, still clear. One more, then come back." She flicks a glance sideways at Flint to see if he'll disagree.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
"Not yet," she amends. "I can hear something, but I can't tell if they plan on getting into a boat or just watching from where they are."
Easy enough to evade someone who plans to stay rooted to the dock. There's no urgency in the distorted murmurs that make their way to them across the distance.
"Ask if they can see anything with the glass," she says, and then, a little softer, "I want to take those soundings. We might not get another chance."
no subject
"We're on the wreckage," he says to Yseult, careful to keep his voice low. "Don't want to turn back until we've done what we came out here for. There's some light off to the east of us. Far off from us. Can you see what they're about with the glass?"
no subject
no subject
"Have them send word the moment they turn back."
They'll slip the anchor cable and be free of this place the moment the boat is swayed in.
no subject
She speaks more directly into the crystal. "You ought to be fine. We'll let you know if they start moving closer. And you send word the moment you turn back to us."
no subject
He trusts Yseult's assessment of the other ship. That doesn't mean he has to feel entirely at ease, and his gaze flicks back to the torchlight as he takes up the oars again.
"I'll keep us in place. Take the soundings, I'll break and write 'em down as they come. Fair?"
https://i.imgur.com/gWxwPbn.jpg
There's no sense fleeing at the sight of a single fishing boat. But Derrica is thinking about how quickly guards would come scrambling at the sound of a shout as she reluctantly shoulders her staff. She can't work and clutch it, and there's no way shes going to give up on getting this particular piece of information so—
She takes the soundings, potentially with weighted ropes, who knows. And the entire time she's murmuring back to Darras she's straining to keep track of the fisherman or to anticipate the crackle of warning from Darras' crystal.
https://i.imgur.com/5avaxe7.jpg
They get no word of warning as they work, and Derrica is winding her potential weighted rope back up, he picks up the crystal again.
"Finished with the one. We'll get another. Those fishermen stayed fishermen?"
no subject
Hopefully, their pathway has remained clear.
no subject