Finn noted her deliberate choice of words but chose not to push. He instead let out a silent breath and shook his head.
"I’m not going to divulge my plans. You’re free to do whatever you want to help. I can’t stop you anyway. But I’d prefer to leave you both out of any danger that might arise out of this." He held Thalia’s gaze for so seconds, as if trying to convey his intentions beyond words. But all he saw in her eyes was firmness.
She wasn’t going to budge on this.
Tension thickened as they remained locked in a silent standoff, Finn urging her with his eyes and Thalia refusing to back down. The staring contest was finally broken by Silvana, who stepped out of her room at the sound of Finn’s voice.
Finn sighed, tearing his eyes away. He gave Silvana a slight nod of acknowledgnt before heading to his room and shutting the door behind him.
.
.
The next day Finn set out early, standing outside before the crack of dawn like usual. He hoped to intercept Jon when he was leaving. The young man had seen so inexplicable things last night, and while Jon didn’t strike Finn as soone who would reveal what he saw to his parents, one couldn’t be too sure.
Jon stepped out re minutes after Finn began waiting. He stood at the low wooden gate of his family’s house and stared at Finn silently.
Finn nodded at him and started to walk. Jon fell into stride. They walked far enough away from their hos before Finn spoke first.
"I guess you have questions."
"Actually, I don’t," Jon’s response took Finn slightly off guard. He tilted his head and waited for Jon to continue.
"Whatever happened last night is beyond . I don’t want to get tangled in such matters, so I’d rather not know more at all," he almost pleaded.
Finn cracked a smile, then after a silent beat, nodded. "Alright, Jon. You can pretend you never saw anything. It’s a smart choice. But if you change your mind... if you wish to know more about the greater world that lies beyond the mundane... just ask."
Finn left those words hanging as they continued the rest of their walk to the city in silence. They passed the check at the city gates — less thorough today, though still more stringent than before — headed into the city, and parted ways after reaching the docks.
But as Finn walked toward the oakum shed, passing by the Tidebreaker, he felt a gaze on him and looked up.
It was Boss Murdo’s daughter, Vara. She stared down at him as streams of dayti dock workers passed by on every side, heading to their various stations while the night shift workers returned to the dormitories to rest.
"You’re working on the deck today," she said to him. "et Slick Jones. Tell him I ordered it."
With those words, she turned and left the deck railings, heading sowhere else on the ship, disappearing from Finn’s view.
"Well that was fast," Finn muttered under his breath and rerouted, heading for one of the piers where he spotted the man called Slick Jones.
He repeated Miss Vara’s order, watching as Slick Jones’s face scrunched up in a frown. The man glanced toward the deck of the ship subconsciously, but didn’t see Miss Vara, though he didn’t doubt the veracity of Finn’s words. No one would be dumb enough to make up sothing that could be easily verified.
He begrudgingly motioned for Finn to follow one of the deck workers. This one was a woman, red haired and well built. She looked to be sowhere in her thirties. With a nod and a welcoming smile, she beckoned him to follow; only when they were a comfortable distance from Slick Jones did she finally speak.
"Don’t mind Slick Jones. He’s just so used to the ’order and sanctity of hierarchy.’ He believes everyone should follow a set level of experience before they can be allowed promotion to a higher position on the ship."
"Mistress Vara breaking that rule for you irks him to no end," she chuckled, before rembering she hadn’t introduced herself yet. "Oh. I’m Marylene, by the way."
Finn nodded. "Nice to et you. I’m—"
"—Arros, right?" Marylene cut in before Finn could introduce himself. "I’ve heard about you. The suave young man that made all the dockworkers his buddies in a day."
Finn raised a brow and smirked. "’All’ the dock workers is a stretch. Half, though... I think that’s about right."
Marylene laughed loudly as they ascended the gangway to the Tidebreaker’s deck. "I think I’m gonna like you, kid."
Her voice carried across the ship’s deck imdiately they reached the top, making a few workers glance at the new worker that Miss Vara had assigned to work alongside them.
Finn t their gazes, scanning all their faces confidently before his eyes locked onto Miss Vara’s figure at the helm. She was busy at work, observing the workers installing a new wheel.
Miss Vara paid Finn no mind as she was busy overseeing the installation. Finn was imdiately led by Marylene to work on patching the deck with oakum and tar, sealing every space between the wooden planks.
Marylene demonstrated the process first. She took a wad of the soft hemp fibers Finn had spent days extracting in the shed, then used a specialized tool to drive the oakum into the seams between deck planks. Once the fibers were packed tightly, she applied heated tar over them to create a waterproof seal.
"The key is getting the oakum packed tight enough that water can’t seep through, but not so tight you damage the wood," she explained, demonstrating the proper angle and force. "Too loose and you’ll be redoing this in a month. Too tight and you’ll split the planks."
Finn observed carefully, noting the rhythm of her strikes, the way she checked the seam for proper depth, how she worked the tar while it was still warm but not scalding.
Then he started his own section.
The work was thodical, almost ditative. Take the oakum. Pack it into the seam. Strike with the mallet. Check the depth. Apply the tar. Move to the next section. The deck stretched before him, each seam requiring the sa careful attention.
He continued diligently that way all day, only stopping at midday for a brief break where the crew gathered to eat simple als brought up from below deck. Then he resud, working through the afternoon as the sun moved across the sky and the temperature rose.
By the ti evening arrived, Finn was sweating buckets despite the cool breeze coming off the sea. His shoulders ached from the repetitive motion. His knees protested from hours of kneeling on the hard deck. His hands were black with tar — though he knew his passive use of [Invalid] as he worked would make it wash off easily enough.
The deck work was hard work, but he’d finished his assigned sections. Flawlessly too.
Those who had been sowhat disgruntled that Finn had been assigned the job were now more amicable. He received pats on the shoulder and nods of acknowledgnt from the deck workers. Unlike the oakum workers, these people were more reserved in their assessnt of him. They weren’t as boisterous or quick to celebrate. But they acknowledged the fact that Finn truly had deft hands like the rumors had said. He was smart and picked things up quite easily too.
Finn was about to leave the deck with the other workers, following them toward the gangway, when he looked to the side and saw Miss Vara standing by the door to the cabin on the deck. She motioned for him to co, a simple gesture that sohow carried absolute authority.
Finally...
It was ti to et the person he really wanted to.
And more importantly, it was ti to set the next phase of his plan into motion.
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