As soon as he stepped off the ship, he noticed something was wrong. There were no ships being unloaded, and the three moored in the harbor were not swarming with sailors. In fact, he couldn't see anyone near the docks. No merchants, no sailors, no whores, nothing, the docks felt abandoned.<br/><br/>It took nearly a minute to show why the captain of the Mermaid's Tear had fled rather than risk staying near the land, and why a female royal messenger had been sent to find him.<br/><br/>The pain hit him like a wave crashing over the break water, his chest and hips suddenly aflame with waves of pain. He was near a warehouse, and managed to collapse against it, panting in pain as he writhed. It likely only lasted a minute, but it felt like a lifetime, before the pain passed. It wasn't until he stood up that he realized his center of balance was now significantly far higher and more forward.