nodded and mumbled something about that being good, then hurried away.
Arriving at the base of the tower she found Dexter sitting on a rock and staring at it morosely. She walked quietly beside him and stood there silently for several long moments before he glanced up at her. He looked angry and unhappy, perhaps even miserable.
Bekka opened her mouth, then closed it. She had meant to berate him, but thought better of it upon seeing him. “Tell me about it,” she said, dropping to her knees beside him.
Dexter looked at her and cracked a humorless smile. “Too much to tell,” he said. “Besides, there’d be no mystery about me then.”
Bekka smiled. “Then tell me why you’re sitting on a rock outside of a tower?”
“Long story,” Dexter said. “And I’m hoping I won’t have time to tell it all.”
“Why not?”
“I reckon if a door don’t open soon in that tower, I’ll go find Rosh and have him make me one,” Dexter explained.
Bekka glanced at it and, true enough, she saw nothing but smooth stone about the base. She did not walk around it, as Dexter surely had, but she took his word for it. “Powerful magic,” she whispered.
Dexter shrugged.
“Why did you deny her?” Bekka asked him.
“Deny her?” Dexter asked, confused and panicked at the same time.
“You showed her love and then took it from her.”
Dexter looked at Bekka for a long moment, realizing that somehow she knew. Odds are they all did — he wondered how long they had known. The Captain just sighed and shook his head.
“Been a long night, Bekka,” he said by way of begging off any explanations. “We all do the wrong thing at times; I’m here to fix that.”
Bekka nodded, accepting that she would get nothing else from him. Truly, it was not her place to demand more. She cared for him though, as a friend and a brother — neither of which she had truly had. Likewise she cared for Jenna and the others of his crew, though it seemed in peril of being sundered.
“Keshira told me something,” she mentioned a moment later. “She said you told her it was okay to smile.”
Dexter found himself smiling at the words, and tried to feel for the connection to the pleasure golem. He could not make it, whether it was the distance or perhaps because he was too tired and distraught to concentrate properly he was not sure. “Aye, there’s never a day that can’t be made better with a smile.”
“Especially from a beauty like her,” Bekka offered.
Dexter laughed and looked at her, surprised. “First you tell me you’re interested in Jenna, now Keshira? Got no love in you for a strong man?”
Bekka shrugged and smiled. “I never said that,” she answered noncommittally.
“Captain,” she continued a moment later, before he would explore her sexuality any further. “Something Rosh said earlier when he returned to the ship — and how the others acted. I paid it no heed at the time, but now I’m wondering.”
“What’d Rosh say?” Dexter asked, assuming the worse.
“He said the others were looking like they were thinking of staying,” replied Bekka.
Dexter sighed. “It’s a beautiful little rock, I’ll admit,” he said. “I’ll not stop anyone that wants to. We’ve flown shorthanded before.”
“It is nice here,” Bekka admitted, looking around. “And now I hear Jenna’s in charge.”
Dexter nodded but said nothing. “Think you could pick up some fresh deckhands here?”
“Rosh say he wanted to stay too?” Dexter asked.
Bekka shook her head. “No… but Willa might be changing his mind.”
Dexter’s eyes went up in mild surprise. “I won’t stand in their way,” he said. “Didn’t figure him for the settling down type though. Funny things a woman can do to a man.”
He looked at Bekka and smiled. “Or a woman.”
Bekka’s eyes narrowed slightly at the jibe, but she otherwise ignored it.
“Well, I’d best hurry about getting some help to poke a hole in this tower then, while Rosh still listens to what I tell him.”
Bekka nodded and rose to follow Dexter as he walked with a purpose down the hill the tower sat upon back towards the Voidhawk.
Jenna watched from inside the tower, staring passively at the vision upon the walls around her. She could see everywhere on the small rock with merely a thought, though at the present she could not help but be dismayed that Dexter and Bekka left her behind.
That part was a small part hidden within herself; the rest of her watched silently from her chair. She watched and she learned, listening to the persistent voice of the former Lord of Deepingdale. He was old and resting upon a cushioned bed some distance away. His skin wrinkled and mottled with age, his chest had been barely moving for several hours. Now all that remained was the voice that she heard within her head, whispering to her promises of rewards and luxuries she had never dreamt of.
She would be accepted and have people of her own — people that would call her friend for who she was, not who they wanted her to be. She could have the love of any man she wanted, simply with a gesture and a look. All of Deepingdale was to be hers for the taking, all she had to do was to give in to the voices and let them teach her the things only it could teach her.
Watching Dexter leave she had felt another piece of her heart crumble. A tear slid down her cheek. Jenna turned inward, listening more earnestly to the voice.
“Where’s Rosh?” Dexter asked as he strode up the deck. Keshira and Bekka were behind him, following closely.
Logan shrugged from where he was writing something in a journal he had taken to keeping. “Haven’t seen him,” he said. “Willa neither, for what it’s worth.”
Dexter frowned. After a moment he shrugged and headed below deck, barging into Rosh’s quarters without bothering to knock. The man was not there, as expected, but the spare weapons were. He grabbed several bags of fire powder and handed them to Bekka and Keshira. Logan had followed them downstairs, and given the ruckus he was making outside of the crew quarters, Bailynn soon joined them.
By the time he had started back up the stairs, Jodyne had emerged as well. She looked on, confused, at the heavily armed profession that passed her by. Dexter called down to her to mind the ship while they were out, and she could only nod and roll her eyes at what she expected to be more trouble. She thought to wake Xander, but decided to let the wizard rest; he was a bit peculiar for her tastes.
It made her sigh with longing for her lost husband. She had no doubt Kragor would have been right at Dexter’s side for whatever mischief he had planned. Unknown behind her, the ghost of her partner watched with a smile and a nod as the crew departed.
They trooped back to the tower, the hour growing so late the sky was lightening though the sun was distant. More proof of the magic of the Lord of the tower.
Dexter laid out his plans when they got there. Still no portal allowed them entrance, so he stacked sacks of powder about it, intent upon making one. It was only after he finished with it that he poured a line of the powder to where they hid; some dozens of feet away and behind a swell in the ground.
Bekka used a touch of her magic and they all watched expectantly. The flame leapt from her finger to the powder, but it did not ignite. She looked up to Dexter, surprised, and tried again. The second and third time it continued to fail to light.
Eye’s wide, Dexter drew his pistol and pointed it at the makeshift fuse. He pulled the trigger and was left stunned by the lack of a report from the weapon. It stayed silent and still in his hand.
“More magic,” Bekka wagered. “The powder won’t light.”
“Captain, why are we here?” Logan asked, his curiosity reaching the breaking point. “I thought Jenna went of her own will.”
“Aye, she did,” Dexter said offhandedly. “I mean to have her back.”
