Brotherhood Bar-Talks

[Lucend]

"Not all illness has a route cause."

Juan had seen Miguel slip into the Boozer's Lounge, surprising him a bit. The Lounge had fallen on hard times; the silence had been deafening, emanating out of the establishment like a morose fog.

"We are more administrative now, more diplomatic. We seek control because we believe that will provide the power needed to crush our enemies and finally gain real power. Real power to crush other enemies and so on..."

Lucendez looked over the table, Pedro hadn't noticed anyone at the bar yet, as he was still in back shuffling boxes around. Juan looked different, normally he wore the usual fashion of Crete, a leather and metal flight-suit, comfortable yet useful. Now he had on a jet-black suit, tarnished a bit, but still looking more regal than most of the Corsairs in the room.

"I remember this place. I had once pissed off Ares here, challenging him right in front of Elder Montoya. It was a wonderful display of vigilantism. Right at the height of tension between the TBH and the SCRA, this young and obtuse looking brother bites his thumb at a Coalition Captain!

Hah, those were the days in which surviving was the goal. If I could do that, I'd drink till dawn."

Juan looked back at Miguel, slightly lost in thought.

"That was until that bastard had to die and leave me with his place in the Council. Things would have been simple, I fight. If I live, I live to fight another day, if I die my secrets go with me.

Ah, but sickness is a troubling thing. We have enemies at every direction, and yet we bicker about who can cross the street on Wednesdays. We have more ships and brothers than before, yet we languish in our own pride. We may even be too prideful of walking in here, this dirty place."

Juan looked at Miguel in self-pity.

---

"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."

Osaika Moto, the Fall and Rise of a Kusari Farmer

Juan Lucendez, √ Corsair