KING OF SCARS

✦       HIS NERVES, PERENNIALLY ON EDGE   for the whole rotten sum of his life, are once again alight with suspicion.  nothing about the man's posture or gestures thus far have implied the presence of this tolya, be he a creature lurking in the shadows like a watch dog or a local mobster to be wary of, but teddy casts a sly glance around just in case.  nobody will look their way.  no — nobody will meet the man's gaze.

“an easy wager,”  he says,  “but not one i intend to indulge.”

hmn . . . sturmhond.  sturmhond?  it rings a distant and discordant bell:  he thinks of os alta, gleaming marble and swathes of red, blue, purple — he thinks of cannon smoke, gunfire, bodies trodden underfoot — and his expression goes very carefully blank.

he not been a young grisha soldier all those years ago, and too preoccupied with his own schemes to trifle much with gossip that floated ashore from the true sea.  when he'd crossed the shadowy tempest himself for the first time, stationed on a sandskiff as the resident squaller, the name had come to him through his fellow shadow travellers;  he could no longer remember what tawdry fairytale had been constructed out of sturmhond, but he came to understand the infamy of the name, his ship, its crew.  what a pity he is a ravkan daydream, then.  teddy's impression of the roguish stranger begins to curdle.

“i've heard of you,”  he turns back to his own drink without so much as a glance at the outstretched hand;  a gesture that makes the barkeeper's brows quirk, but remains unnoticed by him.  “they say the ravkan king has a taste for your boot heels, and its why you'll never face ravkan gallows.”

sturmhond the infamous, sturmhond the wolf of the sea, sturmhond the royal pet — it doesn't matter what part of his reputation found teddy before this day:  he had witnessed an act of the small science that could be profitable, or deadly, here in kerch.

He watches the man over the rim of his glass, trying not to smile smugly as it appears his current situation begins to click. That glance around the pub surely yielded similar results to his own. Though it seems this one's skull is damn thick and getting him to act any less smugly will be a difficult task.

The slight on the captain goes unnoticed by no one. The room becomes eerily quiet, dispelling any lingering doubt about whether or not their conversation was being eavesdropped upon.

All those eyes who had glanced away are suddenly fixed on the two of them, eager to see what sort of justice the privateer will serve for the slight. The silence stretches uncomfortably.

Until Sturmhond laughs.

It's a booming laugh, a knee-slapping laugh. He laughs so hard that he can feel the alcohol making its way up to nasal cavity and threating to come out his nose. He leans forward and braces himself on the stranger's shoulder to prevent himself from laughing so hard he falls onto the floor.

"Is that what they say?" he asks as he wipes away the tears in his eyes. "I had no idea he was that fond of me. I do have a very pretty neck. It would be a shame to break it."

"I myself am fond of the tsar's money and, seeing as he's often the highest bidder for my services and his seal is on my letter of marque, I have to agree with you that it is nice to have friends in high places."

Freya Marske’s The Last Binding - Part 2

a collection of rp prompts from the first two books in the series ; change pronouns as necessary ; contains references to dysfunctional relationships . 

“ Let’s at least be civil. ”

“ Who are you related to that I’d know? ”

“ What’s he done now? ”

“ There are still plenty of things we can sell. ”

“ Come in, close the door. Oh, wait, no—it doesn’t do that anymore. ”

“ I haven’t found anything with the slightest whiff of a legal flavour to it. ”

“ Not one word of this is making a single bloody ounce of sense ”

“ I . . . would not characterise us as friends. ”

“ You’re a damned traitor, NAME. ”

“ You could have been done helping us in the time it’s taken you to explain exactly how unhelpful you delight in being. ”

“ Strong. Is that what I am? ” 

“ Don’t give my regards to your family. I never liked any of them. ”

“ Remind me not to make an enemy of you, NAME. ”

“ You’re trying to get rid of me. ”

“ Some people were born without a social bone in their body. ”

“ It’s most likely a coincidence. This is just a story. ”

“ Got sick of facing up to his own uselessness, did he? ”

“ I think you should leave. I cannot help you. ”

“ You’re far too dressed for this. ”

“ Five pounds says they didn’t even notice we were gone. ”

“ Do remember, won’t you, that you’re one of us? ”

“ I am—trying very hard not to speak ill of the dead. ”

“ Do you think I would just—accept something like that? Go blindly along? ”

“ I certainly went along with it when you kissed me. ”

“ Do you even like me at all?” / “If I ever did, I can’t remember why. ”

“ It’s kinder than the alternative. You know it is. ”

“ Another use I could be to you— his replacement because you couldn’t have him. ”

“ How many of the others knew? ”

“ Oh. Would it help if I raised my voice? ”

“ Please believe I would feel very bad about burning it all to the ground. ”

“ You always were a paranoid creature, NAME. ”

“ You must think me awfully callous. ”

“ This children’s story has killed several people already. ”

“ I don’t respond well to blackmail. ”

“ Why do you insist on being so outrageous? ”

“ Hello, shut up. ”

“ Have I hurt your pride? I thought you were here because you had none.”

“ Flatter, if they’d respond to it, and lie if they wouldn’t. ”

“ You’re completely lovely and someone should have taught you it’s rude to fish for compliments. ”

“ They probably died happy. They didn’t deserve to. ”

“ And you couldn’t think of a single good lie? ”

“ No need to get bloodthirsty over a bit of fun, is there? ”

“ I’m going to introduce you to some Americans. ”

“ I suppose I really should sleep in the same room as you. For safety. ”

“ You knew that would hurt me, what you said. You didn’t care. ”

“ Do you know who keeps telling you that you can trust them, over and over again? People who are going to screw you over. ”

“ Quite the radical you’ve recruited here. ”

“ You’re an heiress, provide your own bribes. ”

“ I do a lot of things because my mother would have hated them. ”

✦      GHEZEN HAS NO NEED FOR SEA MONSTERS  when he is already in total possession of human greed;  the whole stinking pit of kerch sits in the true sea like an open, gluttonous maw, snatching bits of anything that pass it by;  its rot spreads all around, consuming, feeding the avarice, never fucking ending.  wherever teddy looks he sees suli faces, zemeni faces, shu faces — and he sees how ghezen has settled in their souls.  its the same sort of hunger that drags slavers in with the tides, and beaches them on the shores.  

he takes a long, long look at the stranger.  nobody on the crew of the sunk slaver ship had such a horrific shock of orange hair, and for that alone, the man is invited to sit next to him;  teddy pushes a chair out for him a little with his foot.

the expensive alcohol had nothing to do with it, of course.  he tolerates the hand to his back for a second longer than he normally might:  all this pomp must be leading somewhere, if not a glass full of that rosy amber.

amused now, but no less severe, he says,  “you look kaelish.  you speak ravkan.  you keep kerch friends.  i suppose your next trick will be to recite shu poetry?”  

its a question, if one listens closely.  spoken in fluent un-socialised insurgent, but a question nonetheless.  kerch attracts hopeful individuals on a regular basis, and almost everyone who filters through its harbours hungers for some form of fortune that only a kerch banker could satisfy.  a man who blends and blurs his allegiances is a dangerous or rich man.  which is he?

Little does this fellow know, but he may have done the crew of the ship he sunk a favor. Had he not sent the vessel to the depths, surely the Volkvolny would have caught up to it soon enough. Though the object of their mission was to intercept cargo of the inanimate variety, their fate may have been much more gruesome once the truth of their trade was revealed.

So, no, the captain and his perfectly acceptable and arguably good-looking orange hair was not present aboard the slaver.

"You can't fault a man for wanting to be well-rounded," he returns, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. "I could possibly read Shu poetry, but Saints know I cannot write it. I can't even write Ravkan poetry." A loud snort comes from the table nearest them. "Tolya will tell you! He won't let me live it down."

He takes a seat in the proffered chair and lifts his glass to toast the bartender before tipping it back, hissing as it burns down his throat. His glass is immediately refilled as soon as it touches the bar.

"I have not. How observant of you." He turns to look around the bar at the clientele left remaining that aren't part of his crew. Most catch his gaze and immediately glance away. Well... "I would wager you're the only one here who doesn't already know who I am."

Spoilers for Ruin and Rising - Nikolai Lantsov had no family left. His brother was gone, the queen and king in exile. He didn’t exactly want a portrait of just himself, seeing as never once in his life had he been alone. 

Nikolai Lantsov’s first official family portrait as King of Ravka has him seated upon his throne and around him stands his found family: Tolya, Tamar, Zoya, Genya, and David. The portrait hangs proudly outside of the entrance to the throne room. 

Though, he is painfully aware that two people who make up his family are missing from the portrait. He sends the Royal Portraitist to Keramzin with instructions to paint the orphanage’s two new caretakers and provide them with the finished portrait to hang above their fireplace. He includes the following note: 

Scourge of the True Sea (or vexing at the very least)

King of Scars duology Sturmhond under the cut