“Hello~ I am the rook Lorely and I will be your guide for this tour. Follow me!”
The pirate survivors followed her outside the medical ward. But they remained apprehensive towards her and didn’t let their guard down despite her casual and friendly manners.
“What’s the matter? Why did you suddenly get tense?” Slade whispered to the captain.
The captain leaned to his ear and spoke as softly as he could to avoid Lorely’s attention.
To them, otherworldly heroes were akin to military occupiers and were completely unhinged. They were untouchable both socially and in combat, so the only people able to stop their whims were their sovereign.
Knights, the native heroes of this world, were much more reasonable.
The captain concluded his explanation. “That’s why I’m telling this for your sake, buddy… Even a local lord like you might not be safe if you anger a rook.”
Slade chuckled. “Thanks for speaking out, cap’, but she’s alright. Watch me.”
'Watch me' sounded ominously like his last words. The pirates looked incredulously, fully expecting him to get beaten to death for whatever crap he was about to do.
He pulled Lorely’s waist for a kiss on the cheek. “Love you.”
She batted her eyes in a startle, and then grinned widely. “Aww, me too, my little blobby hun’.” The harpy hag hugged his mermaid pawn in front of everyone.
“See? She’s my lover, so you don’t have to worry.” Slade winked to the crew.
The onlookers snapped out of their torpor and the captain just broke into laughter. "You got me. You're an amazing one, my friend."
The audience relaxed, but Slade noticed Elianad’s face disintegrating in disappointment without a hint of subtlety. Many other non-verbal cues hinted that she held interest towards him, but the time to comfort the sad mermaid hadn’t come yet.
Lorely leisurely led them through the corridor of Holloweye’s palace, occasionally showing available bedrooms and forbidden chambers.
The pirates discovered with surprise that they stood in the funeral replica of an ancient palace. The throne room hid the remains of the only male gnoll king of an old civilization. This knowledge was welcomed with the thrill of treasure-seekers and the righteous fervor to cleanse this place.
“You can count on us if you need to get rid of the undeads!” Elianad exclaimed.
The people of the Cove were familiar with death-filled locations. While they competed with the Tower faction for air superiority, they fought fiercely the armies of the Necropolis faction in the abysses.
“Haha sure… Wait, undeads?” Slade sweated a little bit, he had never heard of undead here. The Gnoll king tomb was already occupied by a beholder colony when he arrived. It never occurred to him that ghosts and zombies could appear.
His concerns were interrupted by Lorely’s exposition.
“This part of the roof is under repair, but we can get a good view of the town. Make sure you grab the railing because you don’t want to fall at that height.”
In the middle of the broken corridor, a random beholder swung a hammer on a plank to act as if it was working hard on reconstruction. However, there was no nail to hammer, since there was no iron to waste. The temporary worker stole glances at the public and sweated from embarrassment for his blatant performance, but he couldn’t refuse Lorely’s request.
Lorely maintained a polite business smile that would make the pirate crews second guessing their judgment. Thoughts like ’oh, maybe I just don’t understand their building method,’ or ’it must be a silly apprentice and the rest of the construction team must be on a break,’ and even ’it’s under repair, but she never said when it will actually start or finish’ would fill in the gaps between her words and reality to create excuses to not call out her lies.
The group was perched on top of the eastern-style palace. They saw the main cave that encompassed the town. The ceiling formed a dome with a hole at the center that let light through. On the ground, they could see a small river, rubbles of a collapsed bridge, and few buildings.
Their ship lay broken in half near the magic tower. The pirate looked at it wistfully, as they realized the severity of their situation. They had no doubt that their fleet was already gone. Left without a ship, the pirates were on an arduous journey to return home.
“Why are people gathering in that empty space?” A pirate pointed down.
“Yesterday, our sovereign summoned a harpy loft, and today she has announced she will summon another building, so people got curious. We might witness it if we hurry. How about it?” Slade asked.
