The Oppufurikku festival was slowly getting underway in the streets around the trading post. Neighbors were cheerfully greeting tourists and each other, running from stall to stall, finding the delicacies on offer or playing the local games.

Rei had wandered off to the evening’s festivities by herself, bought a sugared cocoon from a seller and put it in her mouth, let it melt and waited for the familiar feeling of the butterfly flapping in her mouth, looking to escape. She opened her mouth and as always smiled when lucky egg’s ‘surprise’ took the sky.

“Orange and blue,” she said dejectedly, “I wanted pink.”

She turned away, on to find the next adventure, not noticing the butterfly flap past the shadow crouching on the roof nearest the trading post.

The shadow’s name was Kagami and they had, unbeknownst to Rei, been hired by Nana to infiltrate the ship moored in the harbor.

Kagami was a member of a class of assassins-for-hire that were generally known as Spiders. Like the Dragonflies, they existed outside society proper, making their way in the cracks as their masters weaved their webs, collecting information for the highest bidders and executing nobles, sometimes for payment, sometimes to further their own plans.

Unlike Dragonflies though, who worked exclusively for the Gunari, Spiders were available to anyone with the marubu to pay their exorbitant fees… and the connections to find them.

Kagami had been offered a decent amount of money to claim the nautical charts from the foreigners ship, by somebody they were sure was some sort of government official, though unsure what kind.

What Kagami did know was that only the government, or very skillful criminals, had the sort of marubu that had been offered on hand.

They let their thoughts wander as they watched the guards of the trading post laze in front of the gate, enviously watching the revelers ahead of them.

One suddenly sprang up when they saw their replacements march into the streets.

Kagami also sprang up, ran over the roof, jumped and with an incredible display of aerial acrobatics, landed among the flowers inside the trading post.

Almost nobody was out and out about there. Most of the servants had gone into the city, the one time a year they were allowed to and the officials and staff were having a party in the headman’s house.

A terrible racket came from the wooden structure. A harmonica they called it Kagami recalled. They hated the noise, but it was welcome enough.

They snaked through the flowers, barely touching the foliage as they did.

Creeping to the shoreline, they spotted a group of lizard-like humanoids. Haga or Padda, Kagami wasn’t sure which was which. These were brightly colored and had pointed faces from which a row of sharp teeth protruded. Teeth that had been disarmed by tying their mouths with leather straps.

It didn’t stop them from communicating, hissing and clicking at each other as they lay in the sun.

One of them seemed to spot Kagami, as far as they could tell.

The purple demihuman blinked its eye, a slow movement and for some reason Kagami imagined it would sound slimy if they were close enough.

It rolled its orange tongue, slurped it back in, then continued its hissed conversation.

Kagami sighed in relief, quickly belly crawled to the water and quietly sank under the waves. As they did, they took a small bamboo straw out, put it in their mouth and pushed it above the water to breathe.

Clutching themselves to the boat waiting for its passengers, Kagami waited, glad for the dozens of times they had infiltrated the trading post, disguised as a kechi. Their unique skill set would net her handlers a great profit.

Had they not been underwater, Kagami would have smiled.

Inside the headman’s dwelling, all the trappings of a party were underway. People were dancing on the table, singing songs or digging into one of the many luxurious dishes, both native and from their own country.

The local dishes, made with insects that had been sugared, roasted or fried, were avoided carefully by the foreigners, who preferred to eat the slow cooked lizard meat that was their own local delicacy.

Captain Kaba wasn’t eating at all. She was leading a chant, that had been picked up by both her countrymen and the locals so ended in unintelligible gibberish. The essence was clear though. The man that was dancing on the table in nothing but a towel had to take it off.

He shyly wiggled his hips at Kaba, who roared in delighted laughter.

“We’ve all seen it!” she yelled at him and tugged at the towel.

On the other side of the room, cloaking himself in gloom and scowls, was Pannkuch. He sat at the head of his own table, sullenly watching the party he was the nominal host of. Shirosato sat on his lap and he was absently playing with her breasts, though he had seen how she watched Kaba. The disappointment at the black woman’s departure obvious.

“You still have me,” he murmured, pulling her closer.

She did not respond.

“Kaba,” he said to the captain, who was just about to rip the towel off the kechi, “Isn’t it high time you leave? I’m sure a strict woman like yourself wants to make sure her ship is in shape for the journey tomorrow.”

Kaba stopped tugging at the towel and gave him a teasing smile.

“Tjerre,” she laughed, “I’d almost get the impression you do not like me.”

Pannkuch offered a smile in return, one lacking both mirth and warmth.

Kaba returned to pulling the kechi’s towel off, succeeding this time and took the man’s member in hand.

She laughed, “No wonder you were hiding. He’s shy.”

She let go when the interpreters, listeners and other kechi had their laughs at his expense, wiped her hand on the tablecloth, then picked up her hat from the floor.

“I’m afraid to say you’re right for once in your life, mister Pannkuch. I should be leaving and with that, I hope your mood will improve.”

She put her hat on, cocked it slightly, then bared her teeth in a mocking smile, “Though without me here, your party definitely won’t.”

“I’ll drink to your journey,” Pannkuch retorted scornfully, picked up his half empty drink and raised it to the ceiling, “Safe travels.”

He set the goblet to his lips before mumbling the rest, “Hope you drown, bitch.”

“I heard that,” Kaba laughed, “And I won’t. I’m an excellent swimmer.”

She turned on the heel of her knee highs, clapped her hands to announce she was leaving, bowed to the two listeners that were drinking outside the door, then strode towards her boat.

The one soldier that had the misfortune of guarding the Haga saluted neatly when he saw the tipsy captain approach, then rushed to put the gangplank onto the shore for her.

She politely inclined her head to the man, stepped onto her boat and headed for the stern, where she folded her arms behind her and smiled to herself.

“Home,” she said softly.

“Home,” the soldier agreed, whistling on his fingers for his comrades to return.

They manhandled the Haga back onto the boat and Kaba glanced at the burned and tanned faces behind, then back towards her the dreadnought, the Chrysalis, shaking her head.

“I hope you have it in you, poor girl,” she mumbled to herself.

One of the lizards hissed at its companions and her head immediately snapped around.

“

What was that?” she demanded.

“ I was saying,” the demihuman lisped her language, the words still unfamiliar to its mouth, “ That you are heavier than expected, captain.”

For a moment Kaba considered punishing the creature to make it hold its tongue, then shook her head at the thought.

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” she said calmly, “That a simple Haga can’t do something as simple as estimates.”

She snapped her finger and turned back to look at her ship, “ As you were.”

Had she been able to read the Haga’s expression, she would have noticed the flare of anger on its face.

Kagami let go off the boat when they felt it being pulled out of the water onto the ship proper. They looked above the waterline until the shadows was gone. They popped up and swam around the ship’s hull to find anchor’s chain.

Silently they crept up, marveling at the strange feeling of iron under their feet and hands, then found their way into the anchor room…