Chapter 81: Guildmaster’s Gathering
The same night that Nyrielle gently tended to her exhausted and battered lover’s needs, the crescent moon danced on the waters of the deep harbor in Blackwell City. Gulls squawked in the night, fighting over scraps of fish that slipped from nets or were discarded by fishmongers for being too foul to sell.
Bells rang across the harbor on different ships, signaling the changes in watch or releasing gleeful sailors from their duties aboard the ship, freeing them to enjoy the delights of the bustling city beyond the harbor district.
In one towering building that occupied half a block, a constant stream of people from ship’s masters to traders, pilots, and navigators, and even a small number of wealthy merchants, jostled against each other as they tried to complete their business before the various clerks closed for the day.
Three floors above the common offices, however, the scene was much quieter and more composed in a grand dining room that currently played host to a small group of distinguished individuals.
There had been a fierce argument between the Carter’s Guild and the Fellowship of Wayfinders to host this evening’s gathering. In the end, it had been settled by a coin toss, much to the delight of the evening’s host.
Master Sebastian of the Fellowship of Wayfinders wore a wide smile beneath his bushy white mustache, his gray eyes twinkling as the other masters found their way to their seats. His days as the captain of a ship were long behind him, but moments like this brought back memories of days spent with his officers on the vast seas where the word of a captain was second only to the laws of the Holy Lord of Light.
"Master Sebastian, you look like you’ve got a belly full of brandy and we haven’t even eaten yet," a gruff voice said as a burly man with a shaved head took his seat. "What’s got you so happy?"
"Just an old master being nostalgic for his days on the sea," Sebastian said lightly. While the Wayfinders rarely did much business with the Iron Mongers, he was at least well acquainted with Master Tiernan and the two were cordial enough with each other to make meetings like this easy.
The same couldn’t be said for the scarecrow-thin man with straw-colored hair who sat opposite the Iron Monger. Master Ruadhan had only recently taken over leadership of the Carter’s Guild and he seemed to have made it his personal mission to either drag the Wayfinders down to his level or haul the Carters up to an equal status by trimming the fees they paid to the Wayfinders whenever they took over responsibility for seeing cargo to its final destination inland.