Immediately to the south of the gate they were exiting was some sort of island. It was a few hundred feet from the city wall, and had what looked like a ruined fortress sitting on it. Another, smaller, island lay off to the northeast a short bit. This second island had a round tower occupying most of it. Ahead lay the sea, no land in sight on the other side.
As they came on deck, sailors were scurrying around, up and down the deck. Climbing and descending ropes to the sails. Edwyrd had never actually been on a sailing ship before, nor any ship for that matter. His only water experience was with small motor boats.
Rupert pointed forward to where Gastropé was standing near the rail on top of the forecastle. He had apparently found someone to talk to. Edwyrd and Rupert carefully made their way to join Gastropé’, Edwyrd eyeing the stair-ladder with a little perspective uncertainty. He’d gotten so used to his demon form and size that the tiny ladder looked a bit tricky. It proved, however, to be no problem for Edwyrd’s little body.
As he came up the ladder, Edwyrd got his first glance at Gastropé’s companion. The individual was of medium height, wearing a loose brown robe with baggy brown pants and a vest, with some sort of sweater-shirt underneath. A wide black belt, with a dagger, surrounded his waist inside the robe. The man’s skin was tanned dark by the sun. His hair, done in a crew cut, appeared pure white, and he had something a bit more than a five o’clock shadow. He appeared to be in his early sixties.
As he saw the man, Edwyrd’s first thought was, Obi-wan-Kanobi! The guy did look startlingly like the old Jedi master from Star Wars. The resemblance wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough to make Edwyrd smile.
“Talk about your coincidences, Edwyrd!” Gastropé exclaimed as Edwyrd stopped beside him.
“What?” Edwyrd asked.
“Well, first you running into your cousin Rupert and all, but now here this. Maelen here,” he gestured to Obi-wan-Kanobi, “is an animage, just like you.”
Edwyrd’s smile faded slightly as the man nodded to him politely. He was even able to feel a sick feeling in his midsection over the otherwise distracting annoyance of keeping himself from exploding. Edwyrd nodded politely back.
“I mean, can you imagine that? I’d never even met one animage before today, and here I meet two in one day. Remarkable.” Gastropé seemed immensely pleased. Edwyrd certainly wasn’t.
“So, Edwyrd,” Maelen said in a deep, strong voice, not completely out of keeping with the Obi-wan-Kenobi image, “Gastropé here tells me that you’re one of my colleagues.”
“Um, yes.” Edwyrd tried to think of a way to lie gracefully. “Unfortunately, not one of the better, but I try.”
“Yes,” Maelen said appraisingly. “But isn’t that what is really important? Trying?” He smiled slightly. As he did so he squinted his eyes slightly as if to get a better look at Edwyrd, then his eyes popped wider and he tilted his head and looked at Edwyrd even more intently. It was as if he was trying to get a better look at him. Maelen shook his head as if to clear it, then smiled again, rather less certainly this time. He stuck out his hand. “Nonetheless it is a real pleasure to meet you.”
Edwyrd shook the proffered hand. “What exactly is your specialization?” Maelen asked conversationally as he shook Edwyrd’s hand.
“Um, I like to take a more liberal view of things. Study a bit of this, a bit of that.” Edwyrd hedged as best he could. The man didn’t seem to notice too much. He seemed to be concentrating on the handshake. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Edwyrd, but was probably only a moment, Maelen released Edwyrd’s hand. Maelen closed his eyes for a second and tilted his head as if looking at something on the ground through his eyelids. His eyes opened again, and this time he smiled more genuinely.
“Yes, very nice to meet you. I’m always interested in meeting new people in the profession. Liberal studies, hmm?” Maelen shifted his gaze to Rupert. Again he tilted his head, this time he arched an eyebrow and looked back and forth a couple times between Rupert and Edwyrd. “As you know, not many of our profession have the patience anymore for a liberal education. Everyone wants to specialize immediately. I myself am more liberal in my background than most. Even so, I mainly stick to healing and a bit of Clairomastery now and then.”
Maelen pursed his lips, tilted his head and looked from Rupert to Edwyrd again. “So, Gastropé didn’t say much about our young friend here. Is he your student?” Maelen inquired.
“My student?” Edwyrd repeated, surprised. That was not at all the question he’d been expecting. “Uh, no, he’s my cousin.”
