Really need coffee. First the prompt. Fifteen minutes on the timer and lets see what we get.
I like the character but need to think about what he is researching and why.
Tuesday, May 13th: Clouds scudded by overhead.
Clouds scudded by overhead. He looked over the ships railing as they blue past. ‘Or we sail past, Marcus thought. He couldn’t decide. With water all around and no land in sight he had the curious feeling that they were standing still and the rest of the world was moving around them.
He knew better than to voice his comments aloud. The captain was already somewhat annoyed by his presence as it was. He promised to stay quietly out of the way for the duration. The captain accepted, more because the request for passage came from someone he dare not refuse than anything else. Since then the Captain seemed to relent, his displeasure turning from outright hostility to general grumpiness.
Marcus did his best to remain silent, and to stay out of the way. He was behaving like cargo that could shift itself out of the way. He packed his own rations and took up as little space as possible. The Captain was pleased. The Windsong was not a ship accustomed to carrying passengers. It sailed from the port of Gariton in the Frozian Empire to the port of Derol in the Yavenian Kingdom and back again. They took cargo from one port, exchanged it with cargo from the other port with only a night or two in between.
A passenger was something new for them and not exactly welcome. As he watched the clouds skim by Marcus could see where the problems lay. He had been on many sea travels prior and he knew passengers, especially well heeled ones, could be demanding. If you were prepared for the demands if it was one thing. If you were accustomed to bales of wool and loads of olive oil and wine, it was an entirely different matter.
‘Soon be over and the captain will be rid of me,’ Marcus thought.
Even if he did head back to the Empire it would be at a much later date and on a no doubt different ship. At this point he doubted he would be making the return trip. He suspected once he disembarked he would be heading inland and far from the sea. He also suspected he would not remain in the kingdom of Yavenia long.
‘There is the possibility,’ he conceded to himself. ‘He could find what he was looking for in the palace and then be returned to the empire after only a small amount of research. He doubted it, but it was possible. He suspected what little information he found would send him further inland. The research he conducted previously hinted at it. He viewed the trip to the library here as a way to confirm his suspicious before moving on.
He was, if he searched his inner most feelings, not sad to go. He knew it wouldn’t be an easy mission. There would be hardship and deprivation along the way, it wasn’t simply a hop from one research center to another. But beside the possible adventure of it, he was feeling relief at being out of the empire. He had always been watched, he knew that. From the first breath he drew attention was paid. Lately that attention was growing heavier, weighted as though someone expected something of him.
Ten til Midnight 