Although we knew now that our ship was the focus of Kieran agents, we had no choice other than to continue in our quest, and we decided to leave port quickly, lest the situation escalate further. The Captain plotted a search route along the Gray Isles, and after about a day of travel, we indeed encountered another ship, but it was not the one we - or anybody at all - sought.
We saw a large rowboat, of rather antique construction, and horrifyingly, there were bodies displayed on crucifixed displayed along the railing. This was the flagship of the dreaded Inquisition, trailed in the distance by two heavy galleons, and it pursued us. Since our quarry was a fire mage, the Captain reckoned that if we claimed we were enemies of his, the Inquisitors might be willing to share information they might have about him. I, on the other hand, was wary; In my childhood, I had been raised a proper Catholic, and to people from my age, the methods of this Inquisition felt crude and monstrous. I made a point to brief everyone, especially Carlton, not to mention that anyone aboard had any knowledge of magic.
So we hailed them, went alongside, and the Inquisitors came aboard. It was not Torquemada himself, but another native Spaniard, and indeed his prime objective was to ascertain if there were any mages on board, or if anyone had seen any display of magic. We answered as we had rehearsed, and even if Carlton overdid it a little, the Inquisitor seemed satisfied. The Captain then took the opportunity to ask his own questions, but we did not get any new leads from them. However, the keen Inquisitor noticed that in bright daylight, the Captain was missing both his shadow and a good explanation for that.
Warily, he left our ship for now, and we cast off. It appeared as if they were shadowing us after that, and when we sailed away, our ship, augmented as it was with magical implements and Master Krastus' zephyr, exhibited a clearly supernatural performance, and they turned once more to chase us. The same magic, of course, allowed us to escape easily, at least until we would meet them again.
We continued our patrol, and while sailing around the Isla de Dios, spotted a small settlement which we approached. This was rumoured to be the Inquisitors' home port, but they were away, at any rate. In light of its proximity to Kiera, the village itself appeared rather struggling and not very welcoming, but as we kept a low profile, we could replenish our supplies here. Meanwhile, the others had found an old man, a local official of sorts, who had news about our quarry, but he demanded a sizable amount of money for it. I managed to haggle him down a little, and in the end, we bought some very detailed, and hopefully correct information: The ship we were looking for was called the Valiant, and it was currently docked at Peltos, a port to the north.
We immediately set a course, and after but two days of very fast sailing, reached the port. We sought out a local tavern, and there we found some of the Valiant's crew, who reported that our man had been arrested in town and was about to be turned over to the Inquisitors, whose arrival was expected shortly. His crewmates had opted for the safe course of action, and not attempted a rescue, and this prompted our Captain, who, as we had learned many times, would never shy away from adversity to save any of us, to name them cowards. This was taken as an insult, and nearly resulted in a tavern brawl, but the Captain suggested a fair fistfight between him and their leader. As desasters in taverns go, this felt like a marked improvement to me.
Our Captain took some heavy punches, but finally he prevailed, and impressed the other group. They were still unwilling to risk themselves in a rescue attempt, but shared any information they had with us. Tomas was apparently held in a prison complex on top of a cliff overseeing the coastline, and it was up to us to conceive a good plan. I remarked that I'd prefer the most stealthy approach, arguing that if we were able to succeed while evading detection at large, the rescue would probably be blamed on the Valiant's crew at first, giving us time to escape. Meanwhile Master Krastus went on to find a suitable space aboard our ship to install a small hidden compartment; We'd be able to hide Tomas, or anyone else, there if the local authorities decided to search the ship.
Still, all this required we succeeded in our rescue, and with the Inquisitors about to arrive any day, we had to make haste with our plans.
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