Lisa smiled meekly and tried to calm down the pirate. "She’s just… an odd one."
I drew my lips into a thin line at their casual remarks about me in front of me. I’m completely normal! I wanted to argue, but then I remembered the time I tried to convince a rapist to stop what he was doing. Yeah… they’re probably right.
"Listen," I said, speaking over everyone else. "I don’t care about this Elise, and I don’t care about what they’re doing. I just want to get to the Taw Kingdom like I paid Lisa and Jack to do."
Ginah snorted. "Good luck with that. If you haven’t noticed, their ship is gone and their crew is dead."
"But I paid them!" I protested.
"Tough luck. But that’s not happening anymore."
I glanced over at Lisa and Jack and got an apologetic smile and a grunt in response. I turned to Ginah.
"You guys have a working ship— Gennady and I can pay you what we offered them to bring us to Taw. Or at least to a port outside of Luke."
"Not happening," she said simply.
"Why?" I asked, annoyed at this development.
"Because we came back to Luke for a reason, girl. We don’t like how the Elise is exploiting the people of the city. We tried to oppose them, but they chased us out. But we aren’t going to run anymore. We are pirates, but we aren’t evil. The way they do things— we can’t allow it."
I felt my irritation rising, but Gennady placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me. "Let me talk for a moment," he said, and I allowed him.
Jack glared at the Dwarf as he stepped forward, but did not say anything otherwise.
"So, you lot are trying to oppose this group… how?"
"We disrupt their business. Hit key locations to cut off their supply or drugs. Especially the enuim. That will ruin them for quite a bit and get their allies to leave them."
"The enuim." Gennady furrowed his brows. "They sell it?"
"Yes," Jack answered the Dwarf almost begrudgingly. "They don’t just sell it— that’s their main product which they’ve gotten every other person in the city addicted to in less than a year."
"That’s… terrible."
I eyed the look on everyone’s faces, then slowly raised a hand.
"What’s this ‘enuim’?" I asked.
Ginah faced me, and cocked a brow. "You don’t even know what that is? Are you actually a little girl and not a Goblin or something?"
I ignored that comment, and looked at Gennady as he tried to explain.
"The enuim is a terrible drug that doesn’t just get you addicted to it, it also makes anyone on it more… amenable. If you get someone high on the enuim before trying to get them to sign a deal or do… something for them… they’ll be more inclined to do it." His brows arched darkly over his forehead as his implication sank in.
"That’s… not good," I pointed out the obvious.
"It isn’t. And the worst part is? It’s not natural," he said. "It was developed in the Holy Xan Empire by a group of corrupt Alchemists. They prescribed it as a medicine to the Noxeus to some noble families for their own advantage— to scam them of their gold. This went on for almost a year before they were caught. They were all executed for their crimes, of course. But at that point, the recipe had already been shared with criminal groups throughout the continent. It’s a problem in Soli, and hadn’t been an issue here in Vitae… until now."
"You know, I don’t—" Ginah started, but Gennady quickly cut her off and held my gaze.
"Melas," he said my real name once again, and this time, Lisa and Jack heard it. "I know you think money solves everything. That gold is enough to persuade someone to help you."
"I don’t think that. I think it just increases your chances."
"Same difference." He shook his head. "However, there’s something else that works even better than that, and that’s favors. Giving people a reason to trust you, so they would help you back. I have seen what you can do— what you’re capable of doing for others— and I trust you, that’s why I offered to accompany you to Taw. But these people barely know you. They have no reason to bring you to Jahar’taw, even if you pay them."
"What are you suggesting?" I asked, although I already knew what he was going to say.
"We help them out," he answered simply. He turned to the pirate Captain and two smugglers, and nodded. "If we help you guys out, will ya bring us to Taw?"
"You’re offering to help us?" Ginah asked.
"Well, it entirely depends on what my friend here has to say."
All eyes turned to me and awaited my response. I answered without hesitation.
"We’ll help you."
Ginah blinked. "That was a quick reply."
I walked forward, and met the look of everyone standing there.
"If I had known about this enuim drug, I would’ve offered this in the first place. I didn’t, so I saw no reason to get involved. But if innocent people are getting hurt and I know about it and can do something about it— I’ll help where I can. I can’t save everyone, but I definitely can contribute something, can’t I?"
Plus, I had something to gain from this deal; it was practical as well as good for my conscience. I was not a hero, but even an average person would jump in to help if they saw another man choking in the streets.
"Huh." Ginah studied my face for a moment. "Perhaps I misjudged you."
"But"— I raised a finger— "we won’t do anything beyond stopping the diffusion of these drugs. If you try to make us get involved in some petty underground politics unrelated to that, we
