Be brave Kaz, they won’t eat you…

In truth, she reminded herself this every time she entered a new room with the random chatter of strangers. But this was different, this was her way off this cursed island. And there was a high chance someone might, actually eat her…

---

The sun rose on the only town on the isle of Whenutoo, nestled in the Blue Sea, only a few hours sail from Ghenu. It was a green and mountainous land, with white sand beaches, palm trees, small monkeys and would – perhaps in a few hundred years – become one of those places where wealthy tourists relaxed. But for now, the only visitors to Whenutoo were the traders, the curious, the adventurous and those who wanted to lay low from the Queen’s Guard.

Kaz fell into the ‘curious’ and ‘adventurous’ categories – although she had begun her life in Veraku as a high-profile member of the Queen’s court, overseeing the new academies that began to appear. As she rose in rank, she attracted the attention of the shadow group where one Captain Emilie du Brat was a founding member. This was the same group first encountered by Balder Grimm in his desire to leave the Tavern du Amanshi following a murderous disagreement between the Vikings.

Kaz and the Captain became friends, and so when Emilie du Brat resigned her commission and purchased passage enroute to the mysterious isle of Whenutoo, Kaz contacted the same traders and set off to find her.

Whenutoo was much smaller than Veraku, perhaps smaller than Ghenu. It was far from the cultured society Kaz had become accustomed to, made worse by the fact that Emilie du Brat had never actually arrived, no thanks to damn pirates, so the rumour ran. The island was a paradise, but became known as ‘this cursed island’ three days ago when in the middle of a hike to see an ancient temple high above the port, the captain of the trade ship had seen fit to raise the anchor and set sail for Ghenu. Made worse, in the context that Kaz maintained a berth on the ship and most of her possessions and gold were there too.

Kaz rarely swore, but when she realised her bed had gone… Well, even the gulls took flight. Kaz needed to find some way to make fast money. And that’s where genius stepped it.

---

Genius takes many forms such as when, after his expulsion from the Cult of the Green warriors after still resisting when he was told it was futile, Jeremy awoke on the isle of Whenutoo alone with nothing more than a bag of seeds and a bloated dead animal with curious pipes of bamboo protruding from it. He found a small shelter, planted the seeds, did some odd jobs for the townsfolk, watched his seeds become saplings, then small shrubs with spiky leaves which inexplicable caught fire in the midst of a warm night, creating fumes that made him oh so relaxed and he got this wild idea to blow into one of the tubes protruding from the dead animal and a crazy sound came out, so he blew some more and different sounds came and people came to listen to the noise he was making and they liked the smell of his little farm and gave him money to buy some of the weeds he was growing, and he was so happy – like all the time, so he took the money and planted more seeds but then like some people came and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, but he had a history of refusing, so he refused and they chased him out of town, but he like found a nice ship and they treated him very well and he looked after everything at night and he loved it there and he still had his dead animal and, yeah man.

---

And maybe there was the genius of the Aragorn who lived in Veraku, frequented the Cider House tavern in the evenings, but created custom chain mail armour for discerning members of the Queen’s Guard by day. His moment of genius was to add copper wires into his weaves for decorative reasons. Those were quite popular and earned him plenty of gold coins – until one night during a severe storm, with thunderbolts lighting up the sky. He noticed they landed often in his yard, witch huge arcing sparks and explosions, seemingly attracted by the rolls of copper wire. Some wires glowed, and that moment of genius struct Aragorn that this was heat and he wrote the word ‘Elektronicity’ in his journal and described the new phenomenon.

Sadly, that moment of genius was lost to time when members of the Queen’s Guard were showing off their new chain mail armour with decorative strands of a brownish metal in the same moment that the thunderbolts came from the sky. All were vaporised in the searing heat, resulting in an arrest warrant for Aragorn for deliberate crimes against the state. In the ensuing confusion, his workshop was set ablaze, his notes destroyed, and after a severe beating, his ears echoed with, “You’ll hang for this…”

When a chance to escape came, he fled down the alleys. His summer was one of rushing to the port, finding a ship – any ship that would take him. And the Behemoth was the only ship in port…

---

And so, we return the genius of Kaz, broke and alone on the isle of Whenutoo.

In the Queen’s court, one often heard stories. There was one that enchanted her enough to research it thoroughly. It was a tale that seemed to begin in Ekrinaya where a watchmaker was found dead. The Queen’s guard had taken over the investigation which showed the man had been murdered. The most likely suspect was a farmer who, according to the only witness – a small boy whom the farmer gave a whole silver coin – was to meet the watchmaker about the time of his death.

A search of his house found some notes relating to an artifact and, depending on who told you the story, that artifact offered untold wealth, the absurd power to fly like a bird, the chance to live a thousand years, or to travel instantly to another city.

Discreet questions then began emerging in Veraku: people asking about an artifact. None appeared to be from a farmer, but the Queen’s Guard had taken an interest in one Mr. Mearaithe, a drunkard turned petty thief who acquired enormous wealth from who knows where, purchased a private club frequented by all manners of unsavoury persons and, more recently, became a part-owner in a very ominous looking trade ship. Some suspected piracy.

Mr. Mearaithe often disappeared from the city – he appeared to be searching for something and while the Queen’s Guard had less time for rumours, Kaz found this a fascinating pursuit of knowledge. And so, while no one was looking, she borrowed some parchment, a quill and some ink from a local shoppe, for which she would pay for when the coin arrived in the coming days. To the mind of the keeper of the shoppe, he understood this was thievery and vowed to cut off her fingers if he ever saw her again.

---

Kaz found an old barn from where to begin writing notes about Mr. Mearaithe, his movements across the known world, and every story she’d heard about the artifact. She drew pictures, described scenes of death, the rise of his wealth and she included some carefully drawn maps. Satisfied, she laced the parchments together and upon the top sheet of parchment she wrote ‘Ye Journal of Mearaithe - Pirate Lord and ye Greatest Treasure known’.

This was her genius.

A fake journal, filled with facts, written on thieved parchment paper with stolen ink, that someone in Whenutoo was going to pay her a lot of money to leave this cursed island…

---

“Be brave Kaz, they won’t eat you…”

The random chatter of strangers in the private room in the tavern sets the scene for an auction. In Whenutoo, the name Mearaithe is well-known. As is his quest for an artifact. So, when the lady in her fine looking clothes begins telling stories about his secret journal and how she’d be happy to sell it to the highest bidder, well word gets around. People talk, some are fearful, others are suspicious but there’s also a lot of rum and people soon forget their fears and suspicions and they start offering her money. Small fights break out, coarse language is heard and now in this private tavern room a raucous auction of sorts is underway. And there’s a lot of money on the table. Worryingly for Kaz the highest bid so far comes from a pirate king from the nearby isle of Bwhamutoo, known for eating his enemies. It’s 4000 gold coins – more than enough to get Kaz back to civilization but it comes with an invite back to his camp which, in Kaz’s mind is code for ‘he wants to eat me’. And few people want to bid higher than the 4000 gold coins now on the table, but for some reason, they don’t. Why make an enemy of someone who just wants to eat people?

She looked imploringly at the auction-master (who was also the chef of the Whenutoo tavern). He nervously shook his head, but offered in his loudest voice: “Are there any more bids?” The room was quiet for a moment, all eyes were on the pirate king of Bwhamutoo. Few noticed the hooded figure that slowly stood at the back of the room, but all heard the shouted “40,000” in response. Astonished gasps from the other brigands and a fierce roar erupted from the pirate king of Bwhamutoo as he stood, turned and reached for his cutlass. Those who were sober enough to remember heard a whooshing sound, and a crossbow bolt that suddenly appeared lodged in the pirate king’s forehead. The room fell silent for a brief moment as a trickle of blood began to run down his nose and he crumpled to the floor. The chef banged his fist on the table, shouted “SOLD!” and made a hasty retreat to the kitchens. The other patrons now found this an ideal time to leave the room.

The hooded figure approached Kaz, accompanied by several other figures, one reloading his crossbow, which was then aimed at her face. A gloved hand reached out from the robe, in a sign for Kaz to hand over the journal. She did, hesitantly. The figure considered the collection of parchments carefully and handed it to a man dressed in green.

He opened the journal, read some words, and glanced at Kaz with questions in his eyes. This continued for several pages. Sometimes he smiled, others he nodded and finally he closed it.

“Pay her,” he sighed, his unflinching gaze now fixed upon Kaz.

“It’s fake…” she was consumed with guilt and shock and fear and dread. “I wrote it.” The tears were coming now, “I mean, it’s probably accurate, but…. I just need to get off this cursed island…”

The hooded figure looked directly at Kaz. One gloved hand wiped away a few tears and, through blurred vision, Kaz added confusion to her ever-growing collection of emotions. “Brat?”

A smile emerged from beneath the hood, “Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Mearaithe.”

“We’ve been looking for you, my dear,” added the man.

“Oh crap,” Kaz managed in a sad voice before she fainted.