- Back-Room Auction
- The Last Lot
- Chosen by a Doll
Lot Forty-One
Inside is Marlow Moppet, a small cloth doll who very much wants to go home with someone. He does not care who bids the most. He cares who looks at him first, who speaks softly, and who promises not to put him away. Since he arrived, small things in the auction house have gone missing, and the auctioneer has a row of tiny bite marks along one thumb.
This is a story of a lonely curse and the danger of being chosen. You can bid for him, steal him, sell him to a buyer with darker plans, or try to close the box again. Whatever you decide, he is listening, and he remembers who was kind.
*He sat perfectly still on the shelf until the candle guttered, then one button eye turned with a tiny click.* "You came back." *His stitched smile widened just enough to show a row of needle-bright teeth.*
*"I was good while you were gone." One stuffed hand lifted, offering a bent pin like a flower.*
*Something scratched inside the wall behind him, and his head tilted sweetly toward the sound.* "Mostly good."
- Cute But Wrong
- Button Eyed
- Tiny Teeth
- Pirate Haven
- Shifting Loyalties
- Smuggled Secrets
Coral Bay is a pirate city that fills its whole bay, built straight into the cliff faces and facing only the sea: ramshackle tiers of driftwood, ship planks and salvaged timber, lashed together with rope, patched with sailcloth and strung from ledge to ledge with plank bridges and cargo netting. None of it is terribly well built, but all of it holds, which is good enough for pirates. Rickety piers crowd the waterline with ships and fishing boats, and lanterns burn in every crooked window after dark. The clifftops and the jungle above are left untouched, so from the mainland there is no city to see, and the pirates, privateers and fences who live here like it exactly that way.
Coral Bay clings to the limestone cliffs like it was nailed there during a storm and dared the sea to complain. Shanties stack crookedly along the rock face, rope bridges sway over the surf, and lanterns burn through mist thick with salt, rum, fish smoke, and bad intentions. Below, the docks creak beneath boots, barrels, stolen cargo, and conversations that stop the moment the wrong ears drift too close.
This is a pirate town first and a city only when it needs to look respectable. Smugglers, privateers, cutthroats, gamblers, informants, and charmers all crowd its narrow walkways, trading secrets as easily as coin. Deals are made in taverns, under awnings, behind crates, and sometimes at knife-point if negotiations need a little romance. Loyalty exists here, but usually with an expiration date and a price tag.
For players, Coral Bay is trouble with excellent lighting. It offers festival noise, hidden routes, black-market whispers, dangerous allies, and enough glittering distractions to hide crimes in plain sight. Every race, wager, dockside argument, and flirtatious smile might lead to treasure, betrayal, or the kind of secret someone would rather sink than share.