Well, one problem solved itself. Just…not in the way Essek had planned.

“If you have seen him on the ship, then you have hardly seen him at the height of his flash,” he said. He could understand the confusion: Caleb was the exact opposite of that visaget, and Essek preferred someone more subdued, controlled in most avenues. Mollymauk did not fit his customary mold.

“He is kind and trustworthy and unapologetically himself, as complicated as that is.” Things that Verin were at times. “It is a complicated story. Are you sure you wish to hear it?”