Teleportation was a great way to get around, but it was not without its side-effects. Most bloodline traits had certain flaws. The Magia children had inherited this bloodline gift from their mother, Valerie Magia. The first time Cain Magia ever attempted this form of transportation he vomited, mostly bile. He still felt dizzy when he opted to travel long distances and he took a second to compose himself. To the untrained eye, he looked like a drunk who had been spun around on a swivel chair. His gait a little clumsy as he swayed to and fro.
He was in Kork, northeast of Emirulore, near the harbour. The putrid stench of fish guts mingled with the fresh salty sea breeze. He went to a block of flats where one of his girls lived, he only hoped she had not moved, he sensed she had not. The newly erected apartment block was made up of red bricks, its wide windows offering a great view across the harbour. He looked at the buzzer and tried to remember her number, he thought it was number four and so he pressed the silvery doorbell and waited for an answer.
A young full-figured lady looked out the window and smiled blissfully down at him. After a few seconds, the electronic door buzzed opened. Cain entered. Inside the apartment block it was rather dark, until he turned on the lights. Inside, it was the opposite of the rustic look from the outside. It was very modern indeed. The smell of fresh paint still lingered on the walls; the tiles had a pinkish hue.
As he walked up the stairs to the second floor, he was greeted by another Seasonal he knew, Electra "The Belle" Lavelle. Cain glanced towards her unique big head of hair, it looked like a small racoon had attacked her head and got stuck there. She had the biggest rack he had ever seen which was accentuated by the corset she wore. In truth, she was dressed to go to the fetish club in a short frilly skirt, stockings and suspenders and not a late-night dander to the docks. Cain was surprised she was in and even more surprised she was not drunk. Electra was a sociable creature by nature. She loved her alcohol and would drink just about anything put in front of her, red wine mixed with white - Cain had seen it all before.
"I need ya," Cain informed her sternly, but not in the way the blithely Electra hoped. Again, she had misread the signals. She gaped into his eyes and went to grope him, but he snubbed her approach by taking a step back and putting his hand between hers.
"I need your power." He paid her a stern look. Her rare bloodline trait was being able to tamper with electrical currents. In other words, she was a berating EMP bomb.
"Anything," she said seductively.
"Have you still got the briefcases?" he asked.
"Yeah." She nodded her head.
"Get them for me, would you," he commanded her.
Like an obedient slave, she went back into her abode. Cain peeked into her flat, he was not nosy, he just wanted to know if Electra was settled. He noticed that there were many boxes that she had yet to unpack. The hallway light flickered on and off, the bulb needed to be changed or was that her? In any case, Cain patiently waited for Electra to return and eventually she came back with two black leather briefcases. These cases had a security lock on them and a dinky handle.
"Good," Cain said. He observed them closely whilst she still had a hold of them. They had not been meddled with, but he already sensed that. This only cemented his dependence in her.
"Want to come in?" she said sweetly still trying her best to seduce him. "I don't have any liquor left but eh—"
"No, we have to go," he insisted not even giving her a moment to finish her sentence. He led the way back out onto the street, it was quiet bar the odd peace officer out on patrol. Electra had enough time to grab a long coat and lock the door and she promptly joined him outside. Cain took the briefcases from her, and with haste, they made their way to the harbour.
"Come on, Ella, keep up," Cain unsympathetically ordered her around. She lumbered onward but trailed behind the exceedingly fit, Cain Magia. He was in peak physical condition, he had to be, fighting in the flamboyant amphitheatre of N'Karath demanded it, if he was not fit, he would have died long ago. His days of being an entertainer were all but over.
Electra panted, sucking up all the oxygen she could inhale. She tutted as she jogged on to keep up. "I'm trying, but you are walking too fast, slow down would you?" she asked.
Cain showed he cared by decelerating. "I have to get to the docks before all the ferrymen leave, you know that." He sensed he still had time, but he also sensed tedious obstacles.
"You left it late," she remarked in a snide way.
"Don't you think I know that!" He snapped, "Jeez girl." He was now becoming unimpressed with her insolence. "Just come along would you."
"Why do you need my power?" she finally asked him. Cain was somewhat equivocal about why he wanted her this night. Electra would do just about anything for Cain, he knew it, but she desired to be kept in the loop.
"Nearly everything operates on electricity, Ella, you can manipulate electrical currents, that is a useful gift. Would you not say?" Cain stated. "I also trust you more than others. Believe me, there will be a place for you by my side when I rise to power."
Brimming with joy Electra replied, "Really!?" His positive statement seemingly gave her the will to continue without further complaint.
"I promise you," Cain reaffirmed his statement. When Cain Magia made a promise, he stuck to it. Even if it meant life or death.
"Are you sure you don't need any further assistance?" she asked him seductively.
She was persistent, Cain gave her that.
The last time that he'd had intercourse was nearly a year ago to the very day when he mingled with a lady three times his age called Miss Cruella Singrave. Cain was as far from a slut as one could be. "I'll be fine," he assured her. "I don't want you in trouble, what I'm going to do is dangerous."
"Dangerous?" she repeated wonderingly.
"I'll be fine," he echoed.
"What's in the briefcases anyway?" she asked him. "I have been curious ever since you left them with me."
"Patience, Ella. You will soon find out."
Finally, after taking an array of shortcuts through the unusually quiet town of Kork, the pair reached the harbour. As expected, there were many ships docked for the night. A fog had crept in from the North Sea making it hard to see. Though it looked deserted, there was a dim light toward the front of the harbour.
"Right," Cain said softly as the pair lurked in the shadows. "He appears to be our only hope this night." He hid one of the briefcases in a barge under a blue tarpaulin. Cain was sure it would be safe. Too few were about.
"Now what?" Electra queried.
"You wait here, with the briefcase." He held it up and she took it from his clutches. "When I give the signal, you come forward, got it?"
"Got it."
"Right then," Cain said as he walked out from the shadows following the light.
Electra stayed quiet as a dormouse and awaited his next instruction.
Cain could only hope that this sole sailor would help him out this chilly spring night.
Cain saw an old sea captain, he looked well into his sixties, he figured. He weighed a few extra pounds and had a full thick white bushy beard with whiskers. He also wore a navy-blue yachtsman cap. He walked with a limp dragging his foot along the wharf. The sea captain had a lazy eye which was virtually shut.
"Ahoy." Cain waved, but the old sea captain did not respond, he was either being ignorant or was virtually deaf. Cain thought the latter. He was busy though, tying ropes to anchor his vessel ashore. Ropes Cain hoped he would have to untie in due time. Cain walked right up behind him and tapped him on the back.
"Woah!" The old sea captain jumped up quickly. "Ya startled me, boy'o!" The sea captain talked very quickly, and it was hard to understand him with his thick Kork accent.
"Are you open to hiring?" Cain asked him casually, getting straight to the point.
"Aye boy'o," the captain replied, "for the right price." The sea captain played him a tune on a small invisible violin. "For what purpose, boy'o? Might I ask."
"I need you to take me to Incarkeraz."
"Bit late for visiting hours is it not boy'o," the sea captain figured. "Besides, I'll not be able to help ya until the morrow like, I'm done for the night, an awful storm is a brewing ya'c." The sea captain pointed out to sea, it did look rough Cain noted, but he was not a man to take no for an answer.
"I need to get there, tonight!" Cain insisted as he stomped his foot like a spoilt brat.
"Only a madman would take you to the Island, I say, and as you can see, everyone has packed up for the night." Cain looked around to be sure that there was indeed no one else who could assist him this night, Cain already knew there wasn't. "Just to indulge my curiosity, what business have you got at Incarkeraz?"
"I am plotting a prison break," Cain casually told him the truth, no point sugar coating anything now, was there?
"You're serious, boy'o?" The old-timer stifled a laugh, for Cain looked tremendously serious.
"Deadly," Cain replied, examining the old vessel with a keen eye, feigning a smile of hope.
"Only a madman would assist you, I say! A madman," the old-timer affirmed.
"A rich madman," Cain replied instantly with a nod of his head. Cain could see that the mention of money had caught this weary old sea captain's attention. The right amount of Kroaling can usually buy anybody.
"Look, boy'o. I-I-I don't want to be getting embroiled in some daring prison break attempt like something ya'c in them old flicks. I-I'm an old man after all. I-I-I doubt you'll find anyone willing to take you across. I'm sorry, I-I can't help you. You are mad for even suggesting the idea, why, it begs belief what you ask." The sea captain seemed to have put his good foot down on the matter once and for all.
"What if I were to pay you fifty thousand Kroaling for merely sailing your boat up to the Island?" Cain mentioned a ridiculous sum of money. "What do you say about that?"
"I'd say show me the money, boy'o."
"Ella!" Cain called out.
The sea captain peered into the shadows, squinting his good eye. Electra stepped forth carrying the conspicuous briefcase.
"Open it," Cain told her with a nod of his head. She did as he asked. The sea captain looked on with anticipation rubbing his hands by his crotch with excitement, tapping his good foot also.
"This is fifty thousand Kroaling," Cain pointed out. "I will pay you this to take me to the island, and to sweeten the deal, I will pay you a further fifty should you return here along with those I liberate."
This offer had to be enticing. The Sea Captain would be lucky to see that amount of money in a good month let alone a day. "A hundred thousand, you say," the sea captain muttered unto himself rather taken back. "And eh, fifty up front you say?"
"Fifty up front," Cain assured him of this. At that moment, Cain nodded his head and Electra closed the briefcase with a snap.
"But I could get into serious trouble," the sea captain pointed out shaking his head left then right. He appeared to be debating this ludicrous offer to himself. He was weighing up the pros and cons as it were. Money was the key factor.
Cain played Devil's advocate, "I'm paying you the extra fifty to take the risk, my friend," he informed him. Again, the sea captain pondered the proposition. Now, the captain began stroking his beard, he turned around and looked out to sea, his second home in some respect. "There will be no one alive to report the incident," Cain informed him. "No witnesses."
"Now wait for just one-second boy'o, you intend on committing murder on this daring escapade?"
"Only those who get in my way shall be dealt with," Cain informed him. "Besides, I have a feeling the incarcerated will murder the guards if I don't. It's best if they have a quick clean death, don't you think? Hmm?"
"I - I don't know if I can endorse this," the sea captain added. "I-I mean I'll be sort of responsible. Won't I? I-I don't want blood on my hand's now, do I, boy'o?"
"Would it make you feel better to know that your hands will be clean of the blood spilt this night?" Cain calmly added. He could tell the old sea captain was struggling to come to terms with the proposition no matter how tempting it was.
Again, the old timer came up with faltering excuses, "I seriously doubt you will succeed," he informed Cain more than a couple of times with a disapproving shake of his head. "I doubt you'll make it past the docks. The guards will shoot first, you know."
"Persuasion is it." Cain raised a brow. He then produced an orange flame that hovered above his palm. This act vehemently shocked the old sea captain. He now knew what Cain was.
"You're a Seasonal," the sea captain correctly guessed. Cain merely nodded his head and pushed out his lower lip. The orb of fire he produced was flickered smaller until it vanished into nothing.
"How do I know you won't renegade out of our deal?" the sea captain wisely asked.
"You don't," Cain retorted. "I'm a man of my word. I will keep my end of the bargain, but I need you to agree to take me to the island."
"And I'm supposed to take your word, boy'o?"
"Listen here, old git," Electra rudely interrupted. "Cain might be a Seasonal, but he is as honest a man as you will ever meet. You loathly Norm."
"She has a big mouth," the sea captain noted curling his upper lip.
Cain had to calm down the bickering pair. "Yes, thank you, Ella, now let the grownups talk," Cain said in a rather pejorative manner.
"Meh!" she replied doing as she was told.
She may have been full of youthful exuberance, but she raised a valid point. "My word is my bond," Cain stoutly said with a puff of his chest. He highly valued integrity a noble trait he felt. "I swear by it." He placed his right hand on his heart.
The offer seemed to have been accepted by the sea captain, but he still had reservations. "I need a moment, boy'o. To, eh, process this."
"Of course," Cain understood. He took a step back and watched the old sea captain debate the promising offer to himself. "Greed," Cain whispered into Electra's ear. "Man's greatest weakness."
She smiled knowing the deal was virtually complete. "A hundred thousand would go a long way to get you a fine new vessel," Electra pointed out. "A deposit at least. I mean look at this thing, it's shit," she quipped.
Both Cain and Electra knew this fishing vessel was ready to be scrapped, it was battered compared to the yachts around the harbour.
Reluctantly the sea captain patted the side of his old vessel. "Aye," he said now willing to accept Cain's offer. "What did ye say yer names were?"
"I didn't," Cain replied stoutly, "and I won't!" He also spoke on behalf of Electra.
"Right boy'o," the sea captain said untying the ropes he had just tied, this was a good indication that he had accepted the proposal. "I suppose we don't need to be on a first name basis. Just, eh, business, after all, am I-I, right?" He looked at Electra and then Cain who simply nodded.
"Right," Cain replied.
"The briefcase?" the wily old sea captain asked before he would even begin to take off.
"Of course," said Cain as Electra handed him the briefcase. Then without hesitation, the sea captain went up to the bridge to store his newly found fortune away. He had a skip in his step, Cain noted.
Cain and Electra had now boarded the vessel and stood at the bow of the ship. "Are you really going to give him the other briefcase?"
"I said I would," Cain informed her. "Didn't I."
"Well, yeah, you did, but that is ten gra—"
"And what is your point?" He cut off her words.
"Jeez! Sorry, I asked," she huffed.
"I am a man of my word aren't I," Cain announced holding his head high. "You said that yourself, or were my ears deceived?" He placed a hand on the hilt of his blade.
"Well yeah," she said, "you are a man of your word."
"The greedy old fool will get what is coming to him," Cain said, "and I'll hear nothing else."
"How are you going to go about this?" Electra asked him, but Cain did not reply. Instead, Cain began to visualize exactly how he was going to infiltrate the prison then liberate the inmates from within. "Cain?"
"It will be over in an hour," Cain said reassuringly. "Less, I sense."
The sea captain had completed his final checks to make sure everything was ready to set sail. when he was satisfied, he walked over to Cain and Electra. "Right," he clapped his hands. "We're all set," he announced. "It's going to be a bumpy ride, hope you two don't suffer from seasickness," he rhetorically asked the pair as he made his way back up to the bridge. "Untie the final noose if you please," the sea captain called out pointing at a rope near Cain's feet.
Cain hunkered down and untied the last rope that kept the vessel in place. It was tough to untie, but he managed just fine. When he was down, he raised his thumb and the sea captain started the engine that made a lot of noise it would boom and bang occasionally. Then the lights were turned on. They were off to Incarkeraz.
Before the night is through, I will have my own private army of those that are afflicted.