The evening brought little relief to the humid and windless day in Port Royal, but the docks were busy as ever. The jumbled sounds of people talking, men shouting, gulls crying and cargo being tended to filled the air as the sun slowly sunk towards the west, and showed no signs of stopping.

Towards the merchant's end of the port, a peculiar ship bobbed gently with slow waves, her white sails half unfurled to show their high-quality canvas, unique scalloped edges and golden-brown bamboo battens. She was obviously a fine ship, her hull was lacquered a deep red color, brass shone in the dimming light and her name was painted in gold in both English and Chinese. She seemed like a the ship of a rich merchant from the east and in some respect (and on her papers) she was.

What was more peculiar than her looks was her lack of visible crew, there seemed to be barely a body on board. A wide gangplank lay in place but no cargo was being moved to or from the ship, only a small woman and what looked like a deckhand stood at it's base. Most would call it daft to leave the ship unattended, but then again, most would assume it was...

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The ship's silence was welcoming, but the hum of noise from the docks were nearly unbearable to Heiro's sensitive ears and certainly not something he wanted to wake up to. It reminded him of how much he hated going to port cities, but he knew it was crucial for their new plan. On the upside they gave him more choices for breakfast.

After tossing and turning for a while and putting a pillow on his head, he gave up on going back to sleep, it was close enough to twilight anyway. Muttering to himself in his native tongue, he sat up, stretched and stared longingly at his pillow. After a few more minutes he got up and dressed, clothing himself in loose black cotton pants, a white silk uwagi one of his few fine silks, a light-weight robe of varying blues and golds that he draped over his shoulders. After pulling on his shined black boots, he picked up a teardrop-shaped sapphire pendant and put it on, tucking it under his shirt.

He then went to one of the windows and carefully drew back a corner of the thick drapes, allowing a bit of light to spill into the room. After his eyes adjusted he slipped his hand into the light to make sure the enchanted necklace was doing it's job properly. Feeling not even a tingle, he opened the drapes completely and looked out onto the docks, scanning the crowds for a few moments. Once he had found what he thought would be a good target, he made his way to the door and went out onto the deck, dark eyes squinting a bit in the orange light of the setting sun.

((This took me much longer than intended so I shall stop there. Feel free to post! ))