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Karnacas nights out on the sea were often bright and beautiful. No lights or dust storms obscuring the stars in the night sky. No smell of rotting whale carcasses or bloodfly infested corpses. The evenings were cooler, the humidity more bearable. The silence of the nights comforted her, the reclusiveness kept her safe. It was also a perfect place to hide, to forget about her past and try become a different person, a better person.
Meagan sighed and rolled her neck before peering down onto the deck from her cabin. There lay her latest crew member Emily Kaldwin, former Empress of the Isles, gazing up at the stars. She had changed out of her fine clothes into some of Meagan’s old clothes, a simple white blouse too tight around the shoulders and black trousers that cut off below her knees. In her hands, she was strumming a lazy tune on the Serkonan guitar she found lying around in storage.
She thought to herself for a moment before deciding to join Emily for the evening. Meagan pulled open the door to the deck and strolled downstairs towards her. As she approached her from behind, Emily paused the music and angled her head to look up at her.
“See anything interesting?” Meagan asked, crossing her left arm over her chest.
Emily glanced back at the sky “You can see the Great Bear out here,”
Meagan’s eyes followed hers and spotted the constellation easily above them “I see it,” she walked around to Emily’s right side and laid herself beside her. She pointed up tracing next set of stars “and there’s the Little Bear above on the right,”
Emily shifted closer, humming in affirmation. A comfortable silence passes over them and Emily returns to playing her guitar.
Sighing contently though her nose, Meagan drops her arm back to her side and thinks about the young woman next to her.
Every day she feels herself drawing closer to her, feeling an unexpected familiarity around her that reminds her of Deirdre occasionally. She could easily imagine traipsing the rooftops with her if she born in the same life as her.
There was a playfulness in her that was usually unbefitting of an Empress. Putting her dusty boots on the table and smirking every time Meagan told her off for it. Stealing a hookah from one of the noble’s apartments and placing it by the bed in her room. But there was also some pensiveness in her that comes out like tonight. She’s taking everything in, viewing the world with a new set of lenses.
“Karnaca is supposed to be the best location to see the Wolfhound,” Emily’s voice cut through Meagan’s thoughts and brought her out of her reverie.
The music had stopped and the guitar had been set aside on Emily’s left.
Meagan turned her head and watched Emily narrow her eyes as she searched for the constellation. Gazing back at the sky she focused her eye on tracing the familiar patterns in the sky.
“There, on your left dipping low. Looks like a stick figure,”
Emily raises her right arm to point at it “That one,”
“Yeah that one,”
Her arm drops, her hand brushing against Meagan’s hooking her pinkie over hers. Emily’s hands are slightly bigger than her, skin calloused from pulling herself up on roofs. The touch is warm and pleasant.
It’s been a while since she had this kind of companionship and intimacy. Sokolov had kept her company but she always saw him more like a father figure. She would look at Emily and think how her lips would feel against hers, what her tongue would taste like. She thought about untying her hair and running her hand through her locks. Wondering if Emily was the type to take charge or just let her lovers set the pace.
Thoughts she really shouldn’t be thinking about considering who she used run with and what they did to Emily and her family (and indirectly what they did to Dunwall). If Emily knew she doubt she’d be this friendly with her. She wants to tell her but the words never make it out of her mouth. Maybe later.
Shaking her head Meagan pulls her hand away and pushes herself upright, rubbing the back of her neck.
“It’s getting late, we both should get some sleep for tomorrow’s mission,”
Emily sits up alongside her and tugs her hair out from her bun, letting it spill down past her shoulders. It’s the first-time Meagan has seen her let down her hair. It’s all dirty and slightly greasy but she still looks lovely.
Emily turns and smiles at her “Alright, goodnight Meagan” and squeezes Meagan’s thigh gently. She picks up her guitar and begins to make her way down to her room.
“Goodnight Emily,”
Meagan sighs wearily, rubbing her face. She stands, stretching her muscles before heading back up to her cabin. Sleeps comes quickly to her tonight and for once her nightmares don’t come. Her dreams are vague, of soft touches and smiles that she forgets when she wakes the following morning.