The sun came up from the sea and found the port first.
It caught the water before anything else, turning the harbor a dull copper red while the town behind it still sat in shadow.
The rigged ships moored along the quay emerged slowly, one mast at a time, as the light climbed.
Then the cobblestones of the descending streets, worn smooth and wet from the night, each one holding its own small piece of the morning.
Then the house fronts along the descent: half-timbered buildings with whitewashed plaster bright between dark beams, and newer constructions of granite brick, gray and dark pink, each three stories with square windows looking out over the water.
Dark slate roofs last, chimneys rising here and there against a sky that was still making up its mind.
On the end of the wooden pier sat a man. He was ashen pale, with long dark hair tied in a bun.
"Aldric come on, get on the ship!" A tanned blonde man dressed in a yellowish cotton shirt and brown shorts yelled out of one of the rigged ships.
"Haa.." He got up from the wooden pier and moved back toward the ship "Coming!" on his way he picked up a thick wood board.
Now in front of the ship he placed the wood board vertically before letting it go.
THUNK!
"What are we moving today?" Aldric the pale one said in a slightly tired voice.
"Some hemp, wool and salt." The blonde man said while smiling "It's the easy stuff, maybe the two of us can finish it before night time."
"Well with Jack here we'd be done by midday" The two of them moved in the shadowy inside of the ship, there were tens of wooden crates and filled cloth bags, as well as a few nets over a few of the cargo.
"He hasn't been around for the past week.." The blonde man said quietly and before tensely asking "Have you heard anything? The church you go to is near his place."
"I asked Delma when I went to buy bread, but she didn't see him" Aldric said maintaining his tone.
"Do you think he's, you know.." Aldric didn't let him finish the sentence "Bren."
"Sorry."
The two men stopped talking for a while, they began lifting one of the crates. Each of the wooden planks on it were black and it was lighter than its size.
Bren broke the silence "The boss said to leave this one for last"
"Then why are we lifting it?" Aldric asked slightly annoyed, Bren answered "You began to lift it before I could tell you."
"Fine, let's set it to the side for now."
As they moved it toward the shadows along the wall, something shifted in the dark.
HISSS!
It was a black cat.
"Don't hiss at me!" Aldric shuffled his foot at it back and forth. "Shoo! Shoo!"
The cat shot out from the shadows and bolted up the steps onto the deck.
Bren watched it go. "Did the Captain have a cat?"
"I have no idea, Lets hope it was a stray." Aldric and Bren began setting the black crate down.
From the pier outside, voices were rising. Both angry voices rising back and forth.
"...not our problem, the Count's orders-"
"The Count isn't here-"
Picking a sack of salt Bren reacted "They are back at it again?"
Aldric picked up his own sack and moved toward the steps. "Just ignore them. They do their work, we do ours."
The voices were clearer on deck.
"For how long will you keep us anchored in this accursed town?"
"Do you think it's cheap to sit here for weeks?"
"Will the Count reimburse our losses?"
Sacks over their shoulders, they walked out of the hull and onto the pier without breaking stride.
At the far end, where the wood gave way to stone, a group of ship captains had gathered in front of the harbor guards.
The Guard Captain was a lean man in his mid thirties, short bearded and straight backed. A thick blue hooded cloak over a dark buttoned jacket, a long curved sword at his hip.
Beside him stood two guards in full steel sallet helmets, visors down, faces hidden below the chin. Dark blue studded leather over green gambeson, steel pauldrons, black gauntlets. They held halberds and said nothing.
The ship captains were a mixed lot with old men and young ones, most in loose shirts or heavy overcoats against the morning cold.
To the side, apart from the others, one man was simply watching.
Broad shouldered, somewhere in his forties. Dark hair pulled back and tied, loose strands across a face that had spent years in salt water.
He had a short kept beard with a thicker mustache.
His arms were crossed. His expression had the quality of someone who had already decided how this would end before it started.
He walked into the middle of it without raising his voice.
"Gentlemen."
That was enough. The captains nearest him stopped. The ones further back stopped when they noticed the ones nearest had.
The guard captain looked at him. "Captain Varen."
"Commander Aldis." A short nod. Respectful but not deferential.
Five minutes later it was over. Captain Varen had become the representative of the ship captains and pressured Aldis into granting him a meeting with the Count's representative.
. . .
Back at the red brick one room house, a dark haired man was looking around the room.
The door and window were both opened, the X on the door was still there, mostly. Someone tried to wipe it off.
That person was Jack.