Corgan moved slowly to the hidden chamber, taking his time as his handler walked a few steps behind him. He had an inkling of why he was called, he had been expecting it after all.

  He wasn't really worried about what was coming, if anything he was a bit happy. After all, if he was called for the reason he thought he was called for, it would mean that Captain Dan and his crew took his advice and reached out to the black market, which in itself meant that they hadn't already lost every chance to win them over yet.

  As he was led into the Emitter and watched it being activated, he wondered who it would be. The higher the position of the one he saw, the worse it would be for him.

  "Well," he said when he saw the person projected in front of him, "I can't really say that I expected this."

  "Hello to you too, Corgan," said Tosig, the head of the Dynasty's Intelligence Agency, "Also, it should be me who should say that, I didn't expect what just got dropped into my desk."

  "I'm glad it did though." Corgan smiled lightly. "Let me guess, your little puppies didn't consider what I had said to be important enough for you? I guess my word doesn't carry as much weight as I thought it did."

  "What you did was too risky, no matter what you meant with it." Tosig massaged his forehead. "You should have reported that you've shared the location of the black market with the unknown party that you've met."

  "I forgot," Corgan said lightly. Which honestly, he only said because he wanted to mess with Tosig.

  "Corgan," Tosig's voice turned serious as he looked at him deeply, "There are two reasons you're not being treated as some manner of traitor. The first is because of what you've done for the Dynasty. And the second is-"

  "Because you realise I was right in my report," Corgan finished for him.

  "That," Tosig said flatly, "You were right, your report should have been on my desk as soon as you finished giving it. That wasn't the case and it took us getting another report by two extremely reputable sources for yours to be sent to me. The world outside is a huge mess so your report was thrown to the side, I admit that. Now, you need to tell me why you left the fact that you told them about the black market out of your report. That might have even made it a top priority report that would have been sent to me straight away, so why didn't you?"

  Corgan looked at the man, he was one of them, one of his generation, people who were active while the relationship between the Dynasty and the Empire was one step away from a full-blown war. There were few people he would admit to respecting amongst the current Heads, and Tosig was certainly one of them.

  "Because you wouldn't have had the final say over the matter." Corgan was finally honest with his thoughts. "And I feared what some of those idiots in the Council would do. What was in the report that you got? I'm sure that it must have spooked you well if you're talking to me here. Now, imagine what would have happened if some idiot in the Council thought it best to prepare a trap for them in the black market? This was our last chance to get some trust from them and I didn't want to waste it. Forgive me if my trust in the Council isn't that high."

  Corgan said all that in one breath. It might not have been too smart to say all that about the Council, but if there was someone he could say that to and not worry, it was Tosig. If the head of the Intelligence Agency didn't want something to be known, no one would know it.

  "Kain lost the Title," Tosig finally said. The words coming from his mouth made Corgan freeze, he even wondered if he had heard wrong, it felt almost impossible.

  "The Title?" he pushed. It was unbelievable.

  "Yes, that's why your report wasn't brought to my attention." Corgan almost rolled his eyes, that wasn't why and both of them knew it.

  The Agency was too bureaucratic, for a body that needed to be fast in processing and filing reports, it was too bloated, everyone in the Council had a representative or two looking over the reports before sending them up. That didn't mean that they could interfere with the reports or change them, but they wanted to be the first to know everything happening outside, and it slowed things down.

  "The Empire is keeping the matter under wraps, we had to sacrifice some of our deepest spies to get the news. It's verified and proven."

  "And you think..." Corgan caught up to why Tosig brought up that matter at this time, it was an obvious conclusion really.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "It's our new friends." Tosig nodded. "It's almost proven at this point. All the clues point towards them; an unknown crew, an impossibly big ship, and the timing. I gotta say, your professional instincts are as sharp as ever. You might just have put us on the right path to have a relationship with quite the power."

  Despite the clear praise, Corgan couldn't bring himself to feel happy. Things were about to turn messy.

  ***

  "Vice Admiral!" A crewman saluted. "We've got new information on the target."

  "Continue," Quinn said as he returned the salute.

  He looked over the sun peeking over the horizon. The Calm had one of the best sunrises and sunsets, at least on the side of the Empire; the Dynasty's weather was much more unstable during the Calm.

  "An informant spoke about a group of people arriving around Rosereef, the boats they used were like the ones that dropped our people ashore. They are most likely them," the crewman answered.

  "The informant was a pirate wasn't he?" Quinn asked gently, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air, "What else did he say?"

  "Nothing much, sir." The crewman shook his head. "We can't really push them to tell us what they don't want to, you know how the rules are."

  Quinn just nodded lightly, their informants weren't going to do everything for the Navy, expecting something like that was idiotic. Getting pieces of info like this from time to time was the best they could hope for.

  "There was another report from that area though," the crewman added, "It might be related. The Dark Lady, the flagship of the infamous pirate Howl, and one other of his ships were destroyed around those parts at the same time. No known survivors, and the ships were nothing more than drifting wood."

  Now that was something. Quinn raised an eyebrow at the news.

  "If it is them," he spoke slowly and lightly, "Then that would be the second pirate ship they interfered with in what? A week? Quite interesting."

  He couldn't put a finger on what these people were aiming for, they had no proof that they were going after pirates, but it had happened two times in such a short period, it might have something to it.

  "Rosereef..." he murmured.

  That port wasn't that far away, just three or four days of sailing at most, might be pushed to a week if they made a detour to Highpoint to restock; they had been sailing for a long time before taking this mission after all, they needed to hit land soon.

  It wasn't much of a problem though, if they were truly their target, the ones Admiral Kain sent him after, they wouldn't run. Quinn and his ships weren't just sent to catch them, he was sent to make sure that they wouldn't be going to the capital. Rosereef was further south, as long as he and his ships blocked the way North, making sure that the new holders of the Title wouldn't pass by them, half of their mission would be complete already.

  ***

  "You already came to me with only half a shipment last time," Rufus grumbled as he stood at the side of his ship, "And now you tell me that one of the pirates your group gathered had just been killed, his ships destroyed, just like that?"

  His ship was docked right next to something much bigger, a ship that dwarfed it. The wood at the section facing him had opened up as if the mouth of a great beast, a deep darkness on the other side, and as if part of it, a pale figure stood, wearing an old captain's uniform and holding a bright red cane, so eye-catching that it was almost impossible to ignore.

  The thing on the other side looked at him passively, Rufus felt deep disgust at being stared at by such an abomination, and even at being in such proximity to it. He almost exploded at it and let it know what he felt about all of this, but he held himself.

  "We don't work for you, boy," the thing finally spoke, its airy voice as hair-raising as ever, "You asked for this collaboration, do you think your betters are going to let you be if you were the reason why it broke?"

  Rufus felt his anger reach new heights, he couldn't believe he was being threatened by such a creature. He had to bring it all under control though, he hated to admit it, but he couldn't let a rift grow between them yet.

  "You still need to keep to your side of the deal," he managed to say, "You need to deliver us the cargo we agreed on, you know how important that is?"

  "It shall be done," the thing said, "There is no need to worry about any of it."

  "It better be," Rufus grumbled, "The Emperor is close to completion, our schedule can't be pushed back because of you."

  "If you're that worried about it." The thing smiled eerily, the harrowing sound of its chuckle filling the place. "Why don't you come in and let us talk about it some more?"

  Rufus unconsciously took a step back, his face paling. On the other side, the shape disappeared into the inky darkness of the ship, the sound of its laughter echoing around.

  "Damned monster," Rufus cursed as he put his hand on his heart.

  His mind went back to the thing's words as he shivered, he couldn't even imagine the kinds of horrors that would await him on that other side. After all, only an idiot would enter a Ghost Pirate's ship.

  ALSO!! IMPORTANT!! We finally completed all the chapters I owed you for reaching the top 10 in RS, which means that Friday and Saturday are going to be rest days my first in two monthsss ;-; XD