“Boriss, where are we going?” Cy asks with a whisper. He follows Boris and mimics the rger man's gait with knees bent and steps soft. It was difficult to walk as he did at first, but Cy quickly got the hang of it. For the st half hour, they stalked through the retively silent port until they arrived at another, even rger port. This one is far better lit with five ships docked and ected to one-another.

  “We go punish. Is only right.”

  “Punish?”

  “Da. They send weak men to kill rades. Now I need give Russian vengeance.”

  “They came to kill us?” Cy asks. “You killed them all?”

  “Da. I stab four and use KGB interrogation teique on st o work fast. He squeal like pig on fire.”

  “S-should I be here?” Cy asks nervously.

  “Is fine.” Boriss grins, “I show you how KGB fight, theart training tomorrow. Now, extra sneaky time. Follow.”

  Though there is light, much of that light is dispersed in a sea of darkness. And in that sea, Boriss is a master of the enviro. He leads Cy from shadow to shadoast zy [Sailors] who are doing everything but keeping watch. They have grown pt, and that pcy is making it far too easy.

  As the duo nears the tral ship, they are forced to stop behind several crates. Past the crates is a lit mp and a [Sailuarding the entrance. Boriss reads the ship's name as Seden’s Orbit.

  “What now?” Cy asks.

  Boriss tinues watg the [Sailor] he entrance as well as the [Sailors] aboard the ship. He also takes stock of any other [Sailors] in the viity. So far, the [Sailuarding the entrance is only visible by two other [Sailors] leaning on the ship's rail. The moment Boriss ehe light, he would be seen.

  “Pn.”

  Boriss reaches into his pocket arieves a handful of perfectly round stones. “Here.” He hands the stoo Cy. “You see metal pole there? I want you throw sto it.”

  “Y-you sure?”

  “Da. You distract, I finish. Stay behind boxes.”

  “Wait…” Cy whispers warily, but the Russian is already moving through the darkness.

  Cy swallows. Slowly, he lifts a stone…

  ____________________________________________________________

  “Shen, there's a rumoing around that the [Captai a bunch ues] to kill aire crew.” A leaning [Sailor] ents.

  “Ben, you really shouldn’t listen to rumors.” Shen, also leaning on the rail, ents quietly.

  “But they’re true, right?” Ben urges.

  Shen shakes his head. “Uhe [Captain] or the [First Mate] tell us otherwise, it's not true.”

  “Yea, but hypothetically, if it were true, you think there would be problems?”

  “Of course there would be problems. Breston’s [Lord] does not accept ship to ship flict while at port. The st time something like this happened, [Lord] Richard sughtered the instigating [Captain] in single bat, disbahe crew, and then aued off the deceased [Captains] ship.”

  “Oh? Single bat? Do you think Calvaran beat the [Lord]?”

  Shen frowns at the question. “Normally, I would say our [Captain] would undeniably win. But, the [Lord] is an Expert css [Duelist]. I think the full ame is [Duelist Of The Instinctual Bde].”

  “You think our [Captain] ’t kill an Expert css? I mean, what even is his level? Is he 74 or something?” Ben asks.

  Shen leans away from the rail and stretches his arm upward. “Nobody really knows, but probably not 74. Some rumors say te fifties, others early sixties. Regardless, our [Captain] indeed kill an expert, but I doubt fighting a [Duelist] is going to be anything but easy. [Duelists] Specialize in single bat, and an expert [Duelist] is probably not something our [Captain] wants to tah without adequate preparation.”

  Ben pouts at the expnation, which gets an eye roll from Shen. “I know you’re o the crew and all, but don’t get hellbent on levels and csses too much. A [Captain’s] most prized possession isn’t levels, but, “Shen taps his head, “This.”

  Ben's eyes wander away from Shen and back to the ship's entraheices something. “What's with him? Did he notiething?” Ben points at the [Sailor] positio the entrance.

  Ihe [Sailor] is standing up and staring in the darkness.

  “Hmm?” Shen watches as the [Sailor] takes a step forward.

  “Oh, Thresh is probably hearing a rat or something. Happens often enough.”

  Ben frowns when he looks in the dire where Thresh is staring.

  After a moment, Thresh walks into the darkness.

  The two wait for a mihen two.

  “He’s taking a bit long to return.” Ben ents.

  As Shen opens his mouth to answer, a ding is heard nearby followed by a crash and the breaking of gss. They both turn towards the sound, shen faster thao find that the Lantern fell off the rail.

  “Shit.” Shen curses. He rushes to the ntern followed by Ben a moment after. They slowly pick up the lightsource. The ntern is still w, but the gss g is shattered.

  “Damn, the wind must have pushed it over.” Shen says. He takes a step back towards the rail and almost trips.”

  “What?”

  He looks down and notices a stone.

  “The hell is a stone doing here.” He leans down and throws the stone overboard. Then he pces the ntern ba the ledge and looks down.

  “Is he still not back yet?” Shen grumbles.

  “Should we rouse the others?” Ben asks.

  Shen shakes his head. “If we rouse the ship and the fucker was just taking a long ass shit, we’re going to get a good ten shes.”

  “But what if we’re getting attacked?”

  Shen groans. “Why is it all what ifs with you? We’ve got five [Sailors] on watch up here and plenty of lights to see any idiots willing ot board. Hell, we’ve got vision of the orao the ship.” Shen points at the singur wood ramp. “Nothing is going to sneak up on us.”

  “Ahh, but. I think I heard the ramp creaking while we were handling the mp.” Ben adds.

  The clearly more experienced [Sailor] sighs loudly. “Do you holy think someone snuck aboard the ship in the half minute we were fiddling with the ntern?”

  “It’s possible.” Ben adds.

  “You’re being paranoid.” Shen growls. “We’re not in any dan- oh what now!”

  Both turn to the sight of a flickering light behind some stacked boxed tainers.

  “It’s flickering.”

  “Cause it's low on oil.” Shen grumbles. “One of the others probably fot to refuel it. e o's go fix it.” He starts walking.

  “Uhhh, maybe I should stay here and watch the entrance?”

  Shen shakes his head at Ben. “You must have some amazing skill if they’d let a coward like you join the crew. Fihen, stay there. I’ll fix the ntern myself.”

  Shen, aggravated, heads towards the flickering light. “Of all the crew on watch, why is it me that has to train someone? Why ’t it be Ferdinand, or Albert?”

  When Shes very he ntern, the light pletely shuts off leaving him in plete darkness.

  “Of course it runs out when I arrive.” He whines. Instead of waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he tinues around the er where he remembers the o be. “I’m going tle the idiot whot to refuel th-”

  An arm quickly s around his throat with crushing strength. Shen’s hand reaches for the arm and futilely tries to remove the appendage. He attempts to scream for help, but no breath escape.

  “rade Cy, you see grip here.” A voice behind him whispers.

  “K-kinda.”

  “Is called Stranglehold. You use arm to block air here. Dis vhey they not scream.”

  “O-ok.”

  “Is good move, but is slow. Is faster break neck. Vatch.”

  Another arm s around Shen’s head.

  Crack

  ___________________________________________________________________

  Cy heard the crack. It was quite slight and muffled. But he heard it. And the moment he did, the man's body went limp. He watches Boris carefully pce the corpse on the ground.

  “Four more. Then we go inside.”

  Boriss silently gnces around the er towards the man named Ben. But, Ben is missing. Only a damaged ntern is left where the man had been standing.

  “What's wrong?” Cy asks.

  Boriss frowns. He reaches to his side and arms himself with a knife. “Follow like mouse.”

  Boriss looks around warily as he walks towards the ntern. As he gets closer, his eyes dart around rapidly. But no body is found, nor is there any yelling or sound of rapid movement to dictate an arm.

  With a silent dash, Boriss turns the ntern off before stepping away.

  “Boriss?”

  “Is fine, rade Cy. Is fine.”

  Boriss tinues gng everywhere for movement, but finds nothing.

  “e, we hunt other three.”

  Cy silently trails Boriss around the ship and watches with morbid curiosity as the KGB trained Russian easily dismahe rest of the wat the deck. One he shanks in the ned expins where the best artery to strike is. Another he bads with an elbow strike that shatters the man's vocal cords. Finally, the third is shahrough the stomach, up the ribs and into the heart while his other hand covers the [Sailors] mouth to muffle any noise.

  Each kill is quick, lethal, and undeniably silent.

  “One missing.” Boriss says softly. “But is no arm. Vhat you think rade Cy?”

  “Maybe he went to poop? Grampa takes a long time to poop whes cheese.” swers.

  Boriss opens his mouth to refute the cim, and then stops. “Maybe,” he finally says after a sed thought. Then nods.

  “Is fihen. If poop, then vhe search toilet.” Boriss stretches his neck. “rade Cy, extra sneaky now.”

  ods and then follows the Russian into the ship.

  _______________________________________________________________

  Though the Immi Huntress and Seden’s Orbit are of the same css of ship. Seden’s Orbit is actually a rger vessel by a good thirty pert. Granted, such a rger hull es at the cost of speed and effiot that it matters, for the Seden’s Orbit is a ship built for bat against others of its css and not for trade. It is a destroyer built for war.

  As the two ehe ship's interior, Boriss 't help but grimace at the magical runic light illuminating the interior from the ten foot tall ceiling. It's not much light, more like a dlelight-, but it is enough to make walking in the open difficult.

  “Vhe move slow.” Boriss tihrough the ship with most of the ship beiy. Eventually, he arrives at the sleeping quarters. To his delight, the quarters are separated by twenty tiny rooms with a single bed i the end of the twenty rooms is the [First Mates] Quarters and then the [Captains].”

  “Shhhh.” He whispers to Cy.

  Slowly, he opens the first room ever so softly and sneaks inside. Cy follows and then the door is closed just as silently.

  A muted struggle follows, and then more silehe door opens and both Boriss and Cy exit.

  Then they ehe , and the , and the . By the time the st of the [Sailors] rooms have beeered. Cy’s nervousness has been repced with curiosity. Each [Sailor] died in a unique way using a different move. All silent, or modified to be silent.

  With the smaller rooms pleted, the stop is the [First Mate] and sed in and.

  Whery to enter his room, they find it to be locked. Having expected this, Boriss takes out two pieetal and is it into the lock. After a moment, he hears a click. With a grin and nods towards Cy, Boriss opens the door aers into the more spacious room. Slowly, the two walk towards the bed where a man sleeps soundly. The man is skinny, middle aged, and wears a rather nigraved ruby neckce. On the nightstand near him are gsses, and leanio the nightstand is what looks like a staff with a gem and two ru the top.

  Wary of the staff, Boriss readies his dagger and aims for the throat. He raises the on and thrusts forward. The neckstantly glows brightly, followed by a barrier blog the daggers thrust.

  The man's eyes burst open and instantly focus on the dagger half an inch from pierg his throat. Reflexes honed from the ages, the maends a palm towards Boriss. In an instant, he forms and releases a spell. But Boriss’s reflexes are faster as he retracts his dagger and shifts his body away. A bst of air loudly explodes from the man's palm as the wooden wall.

  Before the man even realizes he missed, Boriss’s hand s around the man's head. Thewists and the body goes limp.

  “rade Cy, are you well?”

  “Y-yes.” swers.

  “Good. We move fast now.” Boriss runs past cy, rushes out the room, and theers the [Captains] Quarters.

  In the rge quarters, the [Fleet Captain] is awake. He stands at niall with bulging muscles, red skin, and several horn protrusions from his joints and skull.

  The Buxon leans doicks up a battleax with disible ease. Then he grins angrily towards the intruder.