Stepping off the wagon, I groaned a bit as I felt and saw the slush of mud beneath me.

Great. I just got these shoes.

“Aye, muddy and wet. Sea city after all,” Gresso said, laughing at me as he too stepped off the wagon.

“I’d hardly call this a city,” I complained. What were there, a hundred buildings at most? And most were made of wood. Some mere huts.

I had been told this was the fastest growing city in the whole northern region. That it was a merchant’s paradise. It looked more like a typical hamlet, where pirates and downtrodden gathered more than merchants and nobles.

“Come, come. Gresso and the rest can deal with the wagons, come meet Gerald!” my friend grabbed me by the shoulder, tugging me away from the wagon and the dreary sight of the poor conditions around me.

Sighing at Sofia, I wondered if I had been led astray. I had left Telmik for this…? I mean sure, I had been given authority here for this location, but if this was all it was…

Putting the thoughts away for now I allowed Sofia to take me to one of the only nicer looking buildings here. A two storied inn-looking place.

The muddy road ended at the building’s stone foundation, but even the wooden and stone foundation was caked in the stuff. We made noisy footprints all the way to the door, and I breathed a small sigh of relief upon opening the door and finding a clean wooden floor within. And then, before my relief could really wash through me, Sofia walked right on in without taking her muddy boots off.

Pausing at the door as she headed into the building, humming lightly as she did, I groaned at the muddy footprints left in her wake.

“Sofia…”

She paused, turned to look at me… and then smiled. “Come on! He’s in here!”

Shaking my head at her I went ahead and took my own shoes off. There ended up being a little section for shoes and boots near the door, a small shelf that was partly full. There was even a place to hang coats and jackets.

I’ll have to remind Sofia that this was, or at least going to become, a proper residence. A place where one didn’t bring in mud without just cause.

At least, hopefully I could do so. She, like her older sister, were such odd people. I loved the girl, and was glad she was going to be working for me, but by the gods she was still lacking in so many ways.

Entering the building, I followed Sofia’s footprints to a larger room behind a staircase. I found a younger man, who I assumed was Gerald, and a younger girl. One who was drawing on a large pad of paper near a fireplace.

“What’cha drawing Magda?” Sofia asked the girl as I stepped into the room.

“Sofia! Welcome back!” the young girl, Magda, completely abandoned her drawing upon noticing who had greeted her. I smiled as I watched the girl jump out of her seat to give Sofia a big hug, giggling happily as she did. Based off the way she happily giggled and hugged Sofia, I felt confident that she was in fact a young girl and not one of the ones who aged real slowly.

“Yes. Welcome back. I take it you’re Brandy? You look like a Brandy,” the man said as he too stood from his chair.

I looked like a Brandy…? “How so?” I asked as I stepped over to shake his hand.

“You took your shoes off. Sofia didn’t. Plus your clothes look nice, clean, as if you’re about to step into very serious meeting to negotiate something important,” the man said as we shook hands.

Unable to contain the amused smile that wormed its way on my face, I wondered if I’d come to like this man after all. “Funny. You’re Gerald then?” I asked, noting the feel of soft hands.

I’d think he had never worked hard in his whole life, based off how soft his hand was, but I knew the truth.

He was a bird. And his handsome face wasn’t the only proof of it.

“Indeed. Regretfully so,” Gerald said with a small nod.

“I’m Magdalena!” the young girl hurried over to shake my hand too. I happily took it, and as we shook hands I was a little saddened I hadn’t gotten a hug too.

“It’s nice to meet you, Magda,” I said, using Sofia’s shortening of her name.

She grinned up at me, and I noted her flat teeth. Maybe some kind of forest creature? They were far too flat and big to be any kind of predator, that was for sure. At the very least I doubted the girl was a bird, she already had calluses on her hands. Plus she didn’t look much like Gerald.

“Is it really!?” Magdalena stepped closer, her eyes going wide in excitement… as I realized she had no just make some silly joke, but had been serious.

Nodding seriously, I smiled and reached out to pat her on the head. “It is! Any friend of Sofia is a friend of mine,” I said.

As I patted her on the head, I noted the feel of something hard. On both sides of her head, hidden by her hair. Horns maybe?

“Oh! Sofia, come see! I got a puppy!” Magdalena then remembered, spinning on a heel and gesturing for Sofia to follow.

“Nuh-uh,” Sofia teased her, but followed the girl out of the room without any hesitation.

Watching the two go, I sighed a little and turned back to face the man I’d come here to meet.

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“Was your trip easy, Brandy?” Gerald asked as he gestured for me to join him in sitting down.

I took a seat across from him, not far from where Magdalena had been sitting, and watched the way he sat down. He did so with a straight back, as if about to eat or write in a journal. But all we were doing was having a conversation.

Come to think of it, he had been sitting up all prim and proper earlier too when I had entered the room…

I liked that in a person. It told me quite a bit about him, usually those who didn’t allow themselves to become slovenly or lazy also had good work ethic. Maybe we’d be able to get along after all. Especially since he had noticed something similar about me earlier, what with him commenting about my lack of shoes.

“It was long, but easy. We had to wait a few weeks for the mountain passes to clear up enough, as I’m sure you figured, but other than that nothing eventful happened,” I said.

He nodded, glad to hear it. “Well we do get snow here, but it never lasts very long. What we get mostly is rain. And regrettably the cold kind, occasionally. Thus the mud,” he said with a light gesture to the ground nearby, where what little remnants of mud that had fallen from Sofia’s shoes remained.

“I’ll… clean up for her. She doesn’t mean any ill-will about it,” I said gently.

“Ah, I know. She’s like most of our people, simply not very aware about certain things. It makes me wonder if the stories about the huge nations and kingdoms our ancestors used to belong to had been real or not. Though maybe they had been, but had just been… dirty,” Gerald said with a frown.

I smirked at that. “I’ve been told on good authority that some were primitive but others were even more advanced than we are today. Though to what point, who knows,” I said.

“Hm… I’d like to hear more about that, someday. If you’d be willing to share,” Gerald asked.

“Sure. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time, after all,” I said.

He nodded as he clasped his hands on his lap, studying me as he did. “Yes… a new location. A proper one too, not just some hamlet or small home. I’m glad you’ve decided to join me in this venture, Brandy, since so many others had turned me down,” he said.

“Brail has her own designs to worry about. And if you must know the reason I accepted was because I’ll be getting authority. To be perfectly honest I might have passed on the opportunity had I not been given any,” I told him honestly.

He chuckled at that. “If you can help me make this work, you can have all the authority you want, Brandy.”

“Careful. Don’t make such promises before you know what I really plan to do,” I warned him.

Gerald frowned but nodded. “Yes… you’re probably right… Though that being said, I’m told you’re a member of the Singing Sisters?” he asked.

“And the Church of Saints, and a upper member of the Church of Songs,” I told him.

His frown deepened. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know the difference in them,” he said.

“Because there really isn’t. They’re all part of the same church, the same religion… they’re just different groups within the church. One focuses on spreading the faith, the Church of Songs, another focuses on the saints and their prophecies, the one aptly named Saints, and then the Singing Sisters is just a group that follow and obey the saintly sisters,” I explained.

“That just made it more confusion for me… can we instead simply confirm you’re willingness to not demand faith to join this location?” Gerlad asked.

“Of course…? I’m here to create a business, Gerald, not a church. I’ll not hide my faith or my duties to it, but I have no plans to spread the doctrine here. In fact I hope to be too busy to even try,” I said.

He nodded, seemingly a little happy to hear such a thing. “Good. Very good. Several of the members here, and a few planning to arrive in time, would leave if this became another Telmik,” he said.

“I only hope we can become large enough to have that problem, and justify that comparison,” I said with a smile.

“Ah, that I don’t have any doubt over, Brandy. Especially considering who runs this town,” he said.

“Who?” I asked. Was it someone I knew? A member of the Society, maybe?

“A pirate lord,” he said with a smirk.

My eyes narrowed at him. “Wait… what? Really?” He had to be joking!

“Not at all. It’s a pirate family, a rather strong one too. They’re Vim’s friends,” he said.

Although still utterly confused and shocked, I still found myself calming down a little. “His friends…? Really?” I asked, why hadn’t anyone told me about this until now?

“Most don’t know. But yes. He’s known their family for generations. They basically see him as a guardian deity. And under the condition that we abide a few of their rules… they are willing to completely hand over all authority of this city to us, and help us transition into running it,” Gerald said.

Oh my. “That would make things rather easy at first, wouldn’t it?” I admitted. If this town really was run by pirates, particularly Vim’s friends, then odds are that meant if we had them on our side… we could practically do anything.

He nodded. “Plus, I have it on good authority that this city will become monumental. A city of stone, white stone and gold coins,” Gerald said as he stood. I watched him step away and over to a shelf, he opened a small lockbox upon it, and pulled out a small scroll.

One I recognized. Or well, not the scroll itself, but the parchment.

A prophecy.

He handed it to me, and I opened it carefully. I didn’t make the normal prayer we sisters were normally expected to make before opening and reading the divine statement, but I did think of it in my mind.

Reading the prophecy, I felt a small smile worm its way on my face.

“Lumen shall grow and grow, and the nearby mountain will shrink because of it. Gold will flow into the sea from its streets, and even when disaster strikes all that will follow is more wealth spewing from within,” I read.

“I’ve not read or heard many prophecies, are they all so…” Gerald asked as I finished.

“Odd? Yes. But this one is rather clear. And even better it’s saying we will face disaster and overcome it for the better. Yes… this is basically the best we could ask for,” I said.

I wonder who had written this prophecy. It didn’t look like Light’s writing, or Celine’s, but I knew better than to think that meant it wasn’t theirs. This could have simply been written by one of their servants or helpers. Or one of the singing sisters, such as the Chronicler.

Rolling the prophecy back up, I handed it back to Gerald. He took it, smiling happily as he went to put it back into the lockbox.

Yes… this would work just fine.

It only took me a hundred years, but I was finally on the right track, I think.

I’ve sailed the seas. I’ve worked at banks. I’ve climbed the ranks in faith, and learned more than I could ever comprehend. About people, religion, and the wealth we so easily create and spend.

Now it was time to make my own mark. To build my own location, not just work at one that has excited for centuries already.

“So… how should we start?” I asked Gerald, to hear his insight and his plans.

“If you’re willing, we shall start at the top. Tomorrow let’s go introduce ourselves to the pirate lord, shall we?” Gerald asked.

I nodded. Yes. “So we shall.”

“For the Society,” Gerald said as he turned to nod at me.

“For the Society.”

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