Cutting The Painter
83rd Ashan 717, Andaris, Rynmere
The harbor outside Andaris was like most other ports. Ships were moored along the quays and crews and harbor laborers were loading or unloading goods they transported between the storehouses in the harbor area and the boats. The activity was intense. Trade never rested. There were time schedules to keep to and deadlines that must be met at all cost. Work started early and ended late. There were always some who continued to work, into the evenings and the nights, in the light of lanterns. Men shouted and seagulls shrieked, the air smelled of salt and seaweed but also of spices and food. There were always sellers of cheap food around, working in small stalls, or from wagons or even by walking around on foot selling foodstuffs from baskets and backpacks.
Officially Yrmellyn had brought Rudi there in order to let him observe her at work and learn from her. Her real reason to be in the harbor was that she was secretly looking for a ship to skip city on. It was a good thing that she was able to do this under cover of her work and with an apprentice in tow. It was also an excellent opportunity to speak with Rudi about her plans and motivate him to agree with her and follow her instructions.
Rudi was however already making troubles. He was tired. He didn’t want to work right now, he wanted to go and play with some other children he had spotted.
Leadership ... a skill the painter hadn’t given particularly much thought to in her past, had recently become more important. While she and Rudi walked into the harbor area she pondered her options. How would it be best to go about this? It occurred to her that she had once heard someone joke about how it was important to keep people in a good mood if you wanted to lead them and one if the best ways to do it was to give them good food and keep them well fed. It would perhaps be smart to buy Rudi something nice to eat once in a while, to cheer him up and make him feel like he ought to be nice to her as she was nice to him. Perhaps it would be easier to take lead if she soften the boy up. It could be worth a try. Yrmellyn decided to test the idea at once. She stopped at a stall where a cheery girl was selling pasties. As expected Rudi immediately asked for a pasty. Yrmellyn bought one for him. It was filled with vegetables and cheese and judging from the pleased expression on Rudi’s face it tasted good, although he was eating so eagerly that he couldn’t speak.
“Was the pasty good?” she asked in a friendly tone when he had swallowed the last piece of it and licked the crumbles off his fingers.
Rudi nodded and smiled. “Tasty!”
“Good to know. As soon as we have done the first part of the work we are here to do we can have more pasties. And other nice food too. Come on!”
The boy followed her without complaining. Yrmellyn made a mental note that good treatment in combination with promises of future benefits could be useful for successful leadership. She intended to keep the promise of course. Rudi would get the food she had told him he would get.
They walked along the quays and Yrmellyn watched ships and made small talk with laborers about loads and destinations, weather and wind. Rudi went impatient after a not too long time and asked what they were doing and what work she had meant. Were they just going to stroll around and chat instead of getting things done so they could go and eat? Why did this take so long time?
“We’re looking for motifs. The preparations are important. I need to find the right ship ... before we do anything more I need to find the right ship.”
“How long time will that take?”
“As long as it takes. “ Yrmellyn glanced at the boy and tried another angle of leadership. “I you keep nagging like this I may change my mind about giving you more pasties!”
The boy mumbled something beneath his breath and looked daggers at her, but he stopped nagging. Obviously it also worked to threaten him with losing the pasties he was looking forward to. Yet ... she had a feeling that threats about taking away a reward was a double edged and shortsighted method of leadership. It wasn’t a particularly positive way to go about it and it built on said reward being interesting enough. Not all people would let themselves be lorded over for a few pasties more. Rudi would, but he was a child.
Not smart Cole, no smart. But she decided to not say that she had just been kidding. If she recalled it right it was important for good leadership to not change your decisions back and forth. It was Mariuz who had said it, or at least she thought so. It could also have been someone else. As the arcs passed by she forgot details. Anyways. It wasn’t important who it was who had said it. The important thing was that Yrmellyn recalled the advice and that she applied it.
Finally she felt that she had found a ship which might be ... it. It was named Grey Gull and it would leave Rynmere at dawn next day and sail to Ne’haer via Rharne. The departure time was important to Yrmellyn. Once she had spoken with Rudi and told him that she would need to travel away for a period of time there would be a risk for him telling other people about her plans, in particular if he didn’t like the new arrangements she had tried to make for him. It could ruin her chances to sneak out of Rynmere without drawing any attention. Once she had brought Rudi back to the city proper she would take her things and go back to the harbor and go onboard ... she just needed to get a job on the ship first. Stowaways weren’t popular and it was a bad way to start a collaboration. Yrmellyn aimed at an honest deal instead.
The ship’s captain was biquaj, a flamboyant man with long dark hair. Yrmellyn found it easy to speak with him. His love for the ship was apparent. Yrmellyn admired the boat to no end and after a while she managed to get invited to come onboard and have a closer look at it.
She praised everything the captain pointed out, but she also noticed small needs of maintenance and repair. She pointed out details she said she could improve as she was a skilled painter and crafter ... she was mostly skilled at painting, but she felt it sounded better to say crafter too, so she did. The important thing right now was to get a job. She could always learn on the job if it would become necessary, couldn’t she? She kept speaking about all the small things she could do, but most of all she spoke about how she wanted to make a painting of the ship. Rudi had fallen behind, playing with a ship’s cat, a good thing as Yrmellyn felt it was time to come down to business. It was perfect that Rudi couldn’t hear her propose a deal: she could work onboard with all those small repairs and work at the painting of the ship when it was anchored in the harbors they would go to. Then, if the captain found the picture worth buying, he would get it for a decent price.
She suspected that the man realized that there was more to her offer than met the eye, because he drove a hard bargain and Yrmellyn got no wages, just food and a sleeping place on the deck. If he liked the painting he might buy it. He mentioned a quite low price. It was a bad deal, a lousy deal for the painter, but both of them pretended that it was okay. She hadn’t expected anything else. People in need of a fast escape couldn’t be too picky.
They shook hands and the captain winked at her. "I feel pretty sure I will want to buy that painting" he said.
Yrmellyn felt cheered up.
So ... now when she had secured a job on a ship it was time to give Rudi instructions. They went ashore and walked back to the pasty stand. Yrmellyn bought several pasties and made sure that Rudi was feeling very well fed before she told him that she would need to be away for a few trials and meanwhile she wanted him to stay at the orphanage of Andaris. It would have been a lie to say that they boy liked the news, but he had eaten too much to be able to complain with full energy. Yrmellyn spoke with all the way back home, and finally he agreed to trying to live in the orphanage. That was as far as her relentless nagging made him go. He would try go there ... Yrmellyn knew that she couldn’t be sure that he really would go there, but as her friend Laurits Verran had promised to keep an eye on Rudi she felt sure that Laurits would take care of it if Rudi tried to cheat.
Later in the evening, when Rudi had went to his grandmother’s place, Yrmellyn took her things, stealthed out and returned to the harbor. Some people were still working there in the light of lanterns, also the crew of Grey Gull. Yrmellyn stepped onboard. She and was immediately put to work, assisting the crew with simple tasks.
Dawn came.
The ship Grey Gull left Rynmere.
Officially Yrmellyn had brought Rudi there in order to let him observe her at work and learn from her. Her real reason to be in the harbor was that she was secretly looking for a ship to skip city on. It was a good thing that she was able to do this under cover of her work and with an apprentice in tow. It was also an excellent opportunity to speak with Rudi about her plans and motivate him to agree with her and follow her instructions.
Rudi was however already making troubles. He was tired. He didn’t want to work right now, he wanted to go and play with some other children he had spotted.
Leadership ... a skill the painter hadn’t given particularly much thought to in her past, had recently become more important. While she and Rudi walked into the harbor area she pondered her options. How would it be best to go about this? It occurred to her that she had once heard someone joke about how it was important to keep people in a good mood if you wanted to lead them and one if the best ways to do it was to give them good food and keep them well fed. It would perhaps be smart to buy Rudi something nice to eat once in a while, to cheer him up and make him feel like he ought to be nice to her as she was nice to him. Perhaps it would be easier to take lead if she soften the boy up. It could be worth a try. Yrmellyn decided to test the idea at once. She stopped at a stall where a cheery girl was selling pasties. As expected Rudi immediately asked for a pasty. Yrmellyn bought one for him. It was filled with vegetables and cheese and judging from the pleased expression on Rudi’s face it tasted good, although he was eating so eagerly that he couldn’t speak.
“Was the pasty good?” she asked in a friendly tone when he had swallowed the last piece of it and licked the crumbles off his fingers.
Rudi nodded and smiled. “Tasty!”
“Good to know. As soon as we have done the first part of the work we are here to do we can have more pasties. And other nice food too. Come on!”
The boy followed her without complaining. Yrmellyn made a mental note that good treatment in combination with promises of future benefits could be useful for successful leadership. She intended to keep the promise of course. Rudi would get the food she had told him he would get.
They walked along the quays and Yrmellyn watched ships and made small talk with laborers about loads and destinations, weather and wind. Rudi went impatient after a not too long time and asked what they were doing and what work she had meant. Were they just going to stroll around and chat instead of getting things done so they could go and eat? Why did this take so long time?
“We’re looking for motifs. The preparations are important. I need to find the right ship ... before we do anything more I need to find the right ship.”
“How long time will that take?”
“As long as it takes. “ Yrmellyn glanced at the boy and tried another angle of leadership. “I you keep nagging like this I may change my mind about giving you more pasties!”
The boy mumbled something beneath his breath and looked daggers at her, but he stopped nagging. Obviously it also worked to threaten him with losing the pasties he was looking forward to. Yet ... she had a feeling that threats about taking away a reward was a double edged and shortsighted method of leadership. It wasn’t a particularly positive way to go about it and it built on said reward being interesting enough. Not all people would let themselves be lorded over for a few pasties more. Rudi would, but he was a child.
Not smart Cole, no smart. But she decided to not say that she had just been kidding. If she recalled it right it was important for good leadership to not change your decisions back and forth. It was Mariuz who had said it, or at least she thought so. It could also have been someone else. As the arcs passed by she forgot details. Anyways. It wasn’t important who it was who had said it. The important thing was that Yrmellyn recalled the advice and that she applied it.
Finally she felt that she had found a ship which might be ... it. It was named Grey Gull and it would leave Rynmere at dawn next day and sail to Ne’haer via Rharne. The departure time was important to Yrmellyn. Once she had spoken with Rudi and told him that she would need to travel away for a period of time there would be a risk for him telling other people about her plans, in particular if he didn’t like the new arrangements she had tried to make for him. It could ruin her chances to sneak out of Rynmere without drawing any attention. Once she had brought Rudi back to the city proper she would take her things and go back to the harbor and go onboard ... she just needed to get a job on the ship first. Stowaways weren’t popular and it was a bad way to start a collaboration. Yrmellyn aimed at an honest deal instead.
The ship’s captain was biquaj, a flamboyant man with long dark hair. Yrmellyn found it easy to speak with him. His love for the ship was apparent. Yrmellyn admired the boat to no end and after a while she managed to get invited to come onboard and have a closer look at it.
She praised everything the captain pointed out, but she also noticed small needs of maintenance and repair. She pointed out details she said she could improve as she was a skilled painter and crafter ... she was mostly skilled at painting, but she felt it sounded better to say crafter too, so she did. The important thing right now was to get a job. She could always learn on the job if it would become necessary, couldn’t she? She kept speaking about all the small things she could do, but most of all she spoke about how she wanted to make a painting of the ship. Rudi had fallen behind, playing with a ship’s cat, a good thing as Yrmellyn felt it was time to come down to business. It was perfect that Rudi couldn’t hear her propose a deal: she could work onboard with all those small repairs and work at the painting of the ship when it was anchored in the harbors they would go to. Then, if the captain found the picture worth buying, he would get it for a decent price.
She suspected that the man realized that there was more to her offer than met the eye, because he drove a hard bargain and Yrmellyn got no wages, just food and a sleeping place on the deck. If he liked the painting he might buy it. He mentioned a quite low price. It was a bad deal, a lousy deal for the painter, but both of them pretended that it was okay. She hadn’t expected anything else. People in need of a fast escape couldn’t be too picky.
They shook hands and the captain winked at her. "I feel pretty sure I will want to buy that painting" he said.
Yrmellyn felt cheered up.
So ... now when she had secured a job on a ship it was time to give Rudi instructions. They went ashore and walked back to the pasty stand. Yrmellyn bought several pasties and made sure that Rudi was feeling very well fed before she told him that she would need to be away for a few trials and meanwhile she wanted him to stay at the orphanage of Andaris. It would have been a lie to say that they boy liked the news, but he had eaten too much to be able to complain with full energy. Yrmellyn spoke with all the way back home, and finally he agreed to trying to live in the orphanage. That was as far as her relentless nagging made him go. He would try go there ... Yrmellyn knew that she couldn’t be sure that he really would go there, but as her friend Laurits Verran had promised to keep an eye on Rudi she felt sure that Laurits would take care of it if Rudi tried to cheat.
Later in the evening, when Rudi had went to his grandmother’s place, Yrmellyn took her things, stealthed out and returned to the harbor. Some people were still working there in the light of lanterns, also the crew of Grey Gull. Yrmellyn stepped onboard. She and was immediately put to work, assisting the crew with simple tasks.
Dawn came.
The ship Grey Gull left Rynmere.
