Young Writers Society

A vision took him- suddenly he was in the midst of a deadly fight- Alliance leader Furia and was that a skeleton? adorned with king's clothing, pearls and rubies and a crown made of solid gold exchanged a flurry of blows, locked in combat that would bring any ordinary fighter to their knees and then the grave. Meridian's attention was drawn away, to a map case hanging on a dusty, cobweb-covered throne... It was ancient, cracked and weathered by salt and sea. Meridian felt a powerful tug on his very soul- that map meant something was changing.

Another flash, and suddenly Meridian was standing at the bottom of the sea. This vision was different though. He could feel the bone-crushing pressure of hundreds of thousands of gallons of seawater above him, feel the flesh-ripping bite of extreme cold, feel his life's breath robbed from his lungs as icy seawater filled them in. From deep within the ocean gloom, something was glowing and pulsing. Tiny vibrations, like that of a faraway song, floated through the depths. A voice echoed in his mind, twisting through his bones, ancient and alien.

"The tides are changing again... The Sea watches all, Little Ghost."

And just like that, the pressure dissipated and Meri was back in the council room. His heart pounded in his ears, drowning out any noise around him. That second vision. It had been different. Horribly different. Never had a vision felt so real, so like he was going to die. Never had anything spoken to him like that. The map both scared him and drew him in. Curiosity won out over fear, and Meridian unrolled the map onto the table. It was beautiful.

The map was old, older than anything Meri had worked with, and that was saying something; he'd tracked down the Treasure of Tentra Mortath, and those maps he had used had been newer than this. It was written in a strange script, not quite numbered code, not quite language. The artistry itself was impressive, otherworldly even. The ink was vibrant, despite its age, and it wasn't bleeding. The painting strokes were steady and clean, and every lettering was clear and legible.

The actual contents of it, however, were puzzling. The map depicted lots of open water, with no reference to large land masses. There was simply an island with a long river running through it. Meri could make out each individual tree, rock, and tiny bird on it. A mountain rose in the center of the island, and there the river split, forming a sort of moat. Meri traced his fingers around the masterful drawing, fascinated by the detail of the piece.

His gaze wandered to the script again. It was simple, structured sort of like a ballad; five verses with four lines each. Meri squinted at it, frowning, and to his amazement, he could make out what it read. It was almost as if the shapes and symbols had rearranged themselves to Meri's sight;



He sat down in awe for a moment, stuck between confusion and excitement. How had he solved it so quickly? Meri phased back into reality for a moment, still processing the breakthrough he had just made.

He looked up to Furia to announce his accomplishment when a huge, explosive sound echoed across the room and everything went black.

A giant crack thundered through the air, and for a moment Rodrin could only see black. Then, everything mixed into colors and shadows. Flashes of oranges, reds, warm colors. Maybe blood? Rodrin couldn't find any pain, or any feelings. Numbness?

His mind was running too fast to process anything. But the colors faded out and into reality once again. The very ground underneath him buckled, and he along with it. The room they were eavesdropping on crumbled apart, large boulders and magma crashing down around them. Rodrin felt his feet no longer touch ground and his vision veered below him, to the darkness underneath. For a split fraction of a moment, he thought about the people below this room, the room that was falling on them.

He saw fire first, which meant that the floor was coming soon. Rodrin focused what energy he had at the moment into his Sand Shift. He wasn't truly sure of where to go, but he knew he had to stop his momentum otherwise he wouldn't be stopping anything anytime soon. However, he also didn't want to shift into the fire and set himself on fire.

He heard a shift in the air around him, and swerved his head to look wildly around him. That was when he saw the abnormally large boulder around him, above him, he couldn't tell, but it was approaching him rapidly. Rodrin didn't think, he just acted, and shifted away from the boulder.

Rodrin felt himself shift in and out of the Endless Sands and rigfht into a wall. It knocked the wind out of his lungs and his vision became blurry. He could see flickering lights next to him. The rancid smell of burning flesh seared the inside of his nostrils. He couldn't make out if the flesh burning was his or someone else's. He could barely lift his head. Now the pain had decided to make itself known. Thankfully, he didn't feel any searing pain, just soreness. It took him a long time to differentiate the types of pain in his career.

Something was stabbing into his back. He attempted to roll over, but the searing pain splintered and shot out up through his shoulders and into his neck. He gasped out in pain, and his lungs protested. His hands, shaking, reached around his back. He found the source of pain: a broken plank of wood. It had imbedded itself into the small of his back, just off of his spine. He gingerly felt around the wound. It was puffy, but not bleeding. However, the plank itself was still stuck in the ground. Rodrin gritted his teeth and punched the base of the wood. Waves of pain shocked his system. The wood didn't budge, and Rodrin felt a lot worse. That wasn't going to work. He gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to get this wood broken on his own. He would have to shift out of the wood.

There was motion in the corner of his eye, someone getting up from the floor. It was Callista, who had been shielding Lisa, looking much less confident than before. One of her sleeves was torn open, revealing a long cut on her bicep. She too was grimacing as she staggered across the room, shaking her head at him. She might have said something, because her lips moved. He didn't know. There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears that drowned out all other noise. He blinked soot out of his eyes, trying to make sure that they were actually there, or if it wasn't one of their fancy illusions again.

Callista motioned to him. He could only see her partially. Perhaps there was something in one of his eyes. Rodrin tried to talk to her, but all he could focus on was the wood stuck stubbornly in his back.

Her eyes went to it, widening slightly. "I guess it's good I didn't stab you, or you'd be done for," she said. Or did she? Her words were muffled still, like she was speaking underwater.

Rodrin said "I can't hear you." --or at least he thought he did, but he couldn't really tell he was saying.

She probably let out a huff, from the way her shoulders moved. Now she was behind him, and he didn't know what she was doing until he felt the plank being yanked at. He seethed at the shock that reverberated through his body. "Careful!" He snapped. Then, a bit lighter, he added, "don't pull it out. I'll bleed out. Break it off."

Callista said something muffled, possibly that he was stuffy even in dire situations, then he felt her reposition and stomped the branch, breaking it off from his back. Rodrin let out a short, surprised sound of pain that he quickly stifled. Maybe her ears hadn't caught it and he'd be spared the embarrassment.

Hopefully she wouldn't expect him to thank her.

He slowly got to his feet, the room tilting before his eyes. There wasn't anything standing to pull himself up on, and Callista had already moved away, giving Lisa a hand up. Meridian was on his back, staring wide-eyed at the caved-in ceiling, not having the will to get up yet. Rodrin took a step forward aimlessly, and nearly slipped on something.

He had just enough control to bend down and examine it. It was a glass sphere painted as a globe with deep blue seas and golden land masses. He didn't know why, but it occured to him to pick it up. Rodrin turned it over in his hands. Part of the globe was glowing, and he couldn't figure out why, until he noticed the paint had been scraped off. The light, whatever it was, was on the inside and shining through the glass.

"Take a look at this," he mumbled, holding it out to Callista. She frowned but accepted it.

And then something he'd been forgetting dawned on him. The guild leaders. Guilless.

His head snapped around to the other room. The wall between it and him was broken apart, the remnants scattered on the floor or sizzling away in flames. Rodrin stepped through a gap. The floor had collapsed in some parts, and the table was dangling partly over a hole, threatening to fall through. Guilless had been sitting on the far side, hadn't she? He walked around a badly burned leader that he didn't recognize, scanning the floor for her.

"Rodrin," a weak voice called.

He saw her then, slumped against a wall that miraculously hadn't fallen over in the blast, her legs stuck under a fallen pillar. He hurried to her side, panic rushing through him even though he tried to stay calm. "I'm here," he heard himself say, and then found himself deciding to repeat it. "I'm here, Guilless."

Rodrin scanned her body, checking for any injuries on her. When he was younger, that was his job: assess her for any injuries she herself missed. She would come back with them often.

The first obvious problem: both of her legs were under a pillar that was once supporting the room above them. The dark stone of the volcano and the dim, flicking light from the flames behind them made it difficult to see any blood, but he knew it was there. He could smell it. He pushed aside a boulder to get more vision on the condition of Guiless' legs, and she hissed in pain. She could still feel them, which was a good sign. That might mean they could be saved.

Rodrin's attention veered upwards. Guilless was clutching her side. Rodrin gingerly lifted up her hand, and she squinted. A metal rod was sticking into her stomach. He glanced behind her. He could only guess, but it looked like it was stuck in the wall. That... was a bit more difficult of a situation.

Rodrin avoided that and went on to inspect the rest of Guilless. Aside from some cuts on her head and arms, she seemed more just battered than anything. No real damage done, besides the rod and the pillars.

No real damage, besides two things that could easily get her killed. But... they had been through worse, right? Guilless had been dragged out of the brink of death more times than Rodrin could count; this wasn't any different.

"We'll get you out of here." Rodrin assured her, or perhaps he was assuring himself; he couldn't quite tell.

"Rodrin--"

"What's going on here?" Callista interrupted, coming up behind him.

"We'll get you out of here," Rodrin repeated, louder this time. His brain didn't have time to process things, so he hid. He shoved his feelings down underneath a mask of simple tasks. We need to get her legs free. Simple task. "Callista. Help me lift this." He ordered.

She was good enough not to argue as she put her hands on the pillar, sliding her shoulder underneath so it would take some of the weight. Rodrin and Callista looked at each other, and nodded in understanding. They both heaved, grunting from the effort.

Guilless screamed out in pain as they lifted the pillar just a bit. "Stop, stop!" She managed out. Rodrin immediately obliged and Callista followed his suit. He kneeled back to Guilless' side. "Guilless, we need to--"

"--Rodrin--"

"--lift the pillar. It'll hurt like hell, but--"

"--Rodrin, stop it." Guilless added a hiss to her words, but it was mostly just pure exhaustion. "Think, not with your heart... but with your head."

Rodrin opened his mouth to protest, but she lifted a shaking hand to his own. So, he did what he was told and re-assessed the situation.

First, he went back to her legs. He could see where they moved the pillar a bit from her legs. They were about half the size of the upper half of her thigh, like someone just took a chunk of it as if it were a cake. There was no blood, but judging from the shape of her legs, Rodrin didn't even know how she could still feel them. There was no saving those legs, and they didn't have the supplies here to cut them off to get her out of here.

Then his eyes veered to the second injury: the metal rod. Her hand had not reached back to the wound, and Rodrin suspected she was covering it up earlier. Blood stained her clothes, a crimson teardrop that stained its way to the ground. He could make out some discoloration around the site of the wound. Infection.

All signs his heart was more than willing to ignore. All signs to pointing out the same horrifying conclusion.

Rodrin locked eyes with Guilless, and he realized she had come to the same conclusion the he was forcing himself to grasp. She gasped. "Rodrin, the Pirate Code--"

"Rodrin!" Callista shouted. "We have company."

A few seconds after everything exploded, Lisa died.

Not literally, of course. But, for a brief moment of pain and darkness, she thought maybe she had. Something - someone - was on top of her, simultaneously protecting her from falling debris and crushing her, and her head rang with the sound of cracking stone and violent explosions.

Just as she felt as though she would faint from lack of air, the pressure on her chest released and she blinked at the sudden light as Callista pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. The woman's dark hair had fallen half out of her ponytail and into Lisa's face and, out of instinct, Lisa brushed it behind Callista's ear. Their eyes met, gazes charged with the implicit question of are you alright? and the answer of yes, I am, before Callista scrambled to her feet, helped Lisa to stand up, and crossed the room to help Rodrin.

Over the static in her mind, she could hear Callista and Rodrin talking, their voices nothing more than murmurs that she barely recognized. They could've been speaking another language for all she knew. She watched dully as Callista attempted to pull a large chunk of wood out of Rodrin's back, blood running down her bicep from a long cut as she flexed her muscles and tugged on the wood. Rodrin shouted something at her, and Callista changed tactics, snapping the wood off instead, sweat from the heat of the fires sparking to life around her and from exertion making her skin shimmer.

That wasn't important right now. Lisa needed to make sure everything was in working order before she could help anyone else.

She was standing, so her spine hadn't been damaged. Her body ached, but that meant she could still feel everything. Her head wasn't in physical pain- somehow, she must've avoided hitting it on the floor as she fell. Maybe Callista had shielded her from that?

Well, whatever the case, not being in physical pain didn't help with the explosive sound playing on repeat in her head, clashing with the shshshshshshshshshsh of her mind doing that again.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, shshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh...

With every repeat, she flinched a little, the sound too horribly close to another sound she was afraid of, too close to a bad memory that she couldn't let herself remember and yet had started to creep into her conciousness.

The most-likely-dead bodies in the other room definitely didn't help. She knew they were there even without looking; the smell of burning flesh was slowly filtering from one room to the next.

She pressed her palms to her forehead, working her fingers into her hair, as if somehow she could physically push back the wave of panic threatening to make her shut down.

Deep breath in- Smoke filled her lungs and she choked, coughing so hard she almost fell over again.

Shallow breath in, then. Breathe in, breathe out. I can freak out later. I've been in worse situations, I've survived worse situations, so I'm going to get out of this.

Slowly, she removed her hands from her face and - ignoring the way the release of pressure against her head gave her the unsettling feeling of letting go of what was left of her sanity - picked up her cane and made her way into the other room. Rodrin was on the other side of the room, crouched over what Lisa assumed was a dead body until she heard it cry out in pain. The static in her head threatened to overwhelm her again for a moment, but she clenched her teeth and forced herself to stop shaking.

Panic later, Lisa. Panic later.

"Here, take this," Callista ordered Lisa, shoving a slightly-glowing globe into Lisa's hands before crossing the room to stand beside Rodrin. No explanation was offered. It was Lisa's shiny globe now, for better or for worse.


Cradling the globe under one arm, Lisa picked her way through the room to where Meridian was lying, motionless, on the ground. The rise and fall of his chest let her know he was alive, and his gaze shifted from the ceiling to Lisa as she approached.


She reached out a hand to try and help him up. His eyes widened, and he shook his head, wincing at the vigorous movement, "My- my gloves," he whispered, cutting himself off with a bout of coughing. "Don't touch me without my gloves."


Lisa glanced around, but she didn't see them anywhere. "Here, I'll just grab your sleeve," she offered quietly. "Does that work?"


Meridian hesitated, then nodded, coughing again. Lisa wrapped her fingers around his arm, careful not to touch his bare skin, then hauled him to his feet. Once he was up, he leaned heavily on her, still careful not to touch her with his bare skin.


"Here," Lisa said, passing him her cane. "You need that more than I do right now." He transferred his weight to it, thanking her softly, then looked at the globe she carried.


"What's that...?"


"No idea, but it looked important."


"Important..." Meridian's eyes widened. "No, no, no! The map-" He glanced desperately at the ground, searching for something. "It's gone!"


Lisa glanced behind her, at the table threatening to fall into the abyss, and caught sight of a piece of paper stuck to the table, miraculously unburnt and still there. "That?"


Meridian followed her gaze and inhaled sharply. "Yes! I have to get it-" He broke off, coughing again.


Lisa hesitated, looking at the broken floor and the flimsy boards holding the table away from destruction, then made her decision. "It's really that important?"


Meridian nodded emphatically. "That map is more important than any of our lives." Well, he was clearly a dedicated cartographer.


"Then let me get it." Before Meridian could protest, she shoved the globe into his hands and was off, lightly dancing over broken furniture and holes in the floor and a few guild leader bodies. She made it to the table and snatched up the map - and Meridian's gloves, which she found caught on a splintered chair laying overturned nearby - and made her way back; not a moment too soon, because as soon as she stepped away from the table, it tipped into the hole as a few more floorboards cracked and fell away.


Wordlessly, she handed Meridian the gloves and the map. Immediately, he pulled the gloves on before accepting the map.


"Thank you-"


"Rodrin!" Callista shouted. "We have company!"


Lisa and Meridian turned to follow Callista's gaze to where a band of large, tough, leather-armoured pirates stood in the now-ruined doorway. Their leader, a large man that Lisa recognized as the leader of Guild Enforcer, scanned the room, taking in the various states of the Guild Leaders.


For a brief moment, Lisa felt a flicker of relief - another Guild leader, someone in charge who wasn't injured and/or dead - right up until the Guild Enforcer leader glared directly at Meridian and shouted, "Kill them all and get that globe!"


The globe? They shouldn't be able to see the globe, they shouldn't be able to see us!


Lisa looked around the room, then down at her hands. The familiar prickle in her fingers that meant she was using her Affinity had faded.


"Oh, gods above," she breathed.


She'd dropped their invisibility illusion.


They were perfectly visible.


"That's our cue to leave!" Callista shouted, rising up to her feet and putting a hand on her sword. Her words suggested a speedy flight, but her stance indicated she was going to attack them all.


"No! I'm not leaving her," Rodrin argued, still by the dying woman's side.


Callista groaned. "Well, you've got the choice between escaping or a direct trip to whatever afterlife there might be." She took out her sword, glaring down the guild leader.


Lisa heard the guild leader Rodrin was hovering over say something, but it sounded more like a death rattle than actual words to her. He pulled out his cutlass. 


"As much as I love a fight..." Callista said. But Rodrin ignored all of them, his attention still focused on the dying lady. Suddenly the blade whistled, slicing through the air in a blur. The woman's head fell back limply, and Lisa regretted she was paying attention to that situation immediately. She heard him say something, but everything was out of focus, until someone tugged at her hand. It was Meridian, looking mildly terrified as he pulled her away.


"Come on," he said urgently, dragging her towards the others. "It's too late to run off now. We need to fight or else no one's going to make it."


Callista's jaw had dropped in what looked like true, undisguised surprise as she stared at Rodrin and the dead woman. Her hand clenched around her sword, the tip wobbling ever so slightly. Then her shock was suddenly gone, like a door had just closed. She abruptly spun around, the blade flashing like lightning, streaking towards an attacker that had approached them. The point caught her opponent in the chest, and she staggered to the ground.


"Meridian, I know I offered you my cane, but I'm gonna need that back now," Lisa muttered. Meridian handed it back, grimacing. She pressed down on one of the amethysts embedded in the hilt to unlock the secret compartment as her eyes stayed focused on the scene. She pulled out the sword and attached the cane to her side. She'd have to fight, but who was she doing it for? Her gaze went to Rodrin. He must have known that woman, and although she would never have made it... The sound in her head was getting louder again, and she quickly closed her eyes to block it out before opening them again, and getting into a defensive stance, ready along with the rest of them.


Rodrin heaved himself off the floor and turned towards them, bloody cutlass in hand, grim determination painted across his face. "Anyone got a ship?"

"First things first," Callista muttered, swinging again viciously at another member of Guild Enforcer. "Does this look like a harbor to you?"

Rodrin parried a blade as they were forced back. "People arrived here on ships, no?"

"We are fighting for our lives deep underground. We can worry about that later."

She had a lot of things to worry about right now, but she felt herself sorting them away, into little barrels in the back of her mind that she could put a cloth over and unpack them all later. Her arms hurt, from the cut and bruises and soreness, but she couldn't afford to focus on that, just like she couldn't think about her instinctive decision to protect Lisa, or that Rodrin must've just killed his friend. Those would go in the storage room, to be processed afterwards. Or not. She didn't go back there often.

There were a lot of things left there in the dark, sealed and unopened, for a reason.

The Guild Enforcer leader shouted something in their general direction, and Callista saw several more burly looking pirates pop out of the ruins in several different areas. They were quickly getting out-numbered. Rodrin shoved a half-crumbling pillar and it tumbled in front of them, sending debris and dust everywhere. He turned to Meridian. "We need to get this globe out of here. Now."

"And get us out of here," Callista added. "Mostly us." Just because these people were just as interested in killing them as getting the globe didn't mean that she considered a weird glass sphere to be worth an equal amount as her life. Meridian, still the passionate geographer, let out a frustrated sigh.

She wasn't sure if that was looking good for them. They were starting to become fully surrounded, and she was tiring herself out by keeping an eye on all of them in her blind spots. It really was a shame that Lisa's illusion had worn off. Even if she made them all invisible to Guild Enforcer, there wouldn't be any convincing them that they were no longer here. The person stepping forward, who must have been in charge of them, had a look that said they wouldn't be keen on letting them go.

Callista had no intention of dying, of course. Not when things had just gotten so exciting for them.

"Why are you here?" she snapped at the leader.

"I think you're the ones out of place," he said in a low, rumbling voice.

Guild Enforcer had the job of making sure the other guilds and pirates didn't step out of line. If it weren't for them, Guild Rogue would be getting away with much worse than what they normally did. Callista hadn't ever feared them, even though many of her fellow pirates had, but she still knew better than to get in their way. If they'd staged this explosion, then they clearly had greater goals than policing the Pirate Code. What secret scheme had they gotten themselves into?

That question went into another barrel in the back of her head. She gritted her teeth and swung at one of the attackers, breaking the circle of enemies around them.

She saw Rodrin slice at the arm of one of the pirates, causing it to go limp. He kicked another away, and winced in pain, most likely from the wood still embedded in his back. Callista saw a side of him here that she could have seen during their public fight earlier, and a part of her was extremely glad she didn't see this side. Although, they might have made more money that way. People loved the unhinged, dramatic shows.

Okay, now she was sounding like Lisa. Lisa...

Out of nowhere, Lisa had a sword and no cane, and had joined them in the fighting. It took Callista a moment to realize that the sword had been hidden in the cane all along. Now she had to wonder whether the cane actually had a purpose to Lisa, or if it had always served as a sneaky sheath. In any case, it meant there was another person among them who could fight, and that was more important right now than why Lisa had a secret sword.

Meridian was the only one with a weapon other than a blade. He'd pulled out a pair of silver pistols, which were turning out to be very effective against enemies with swords. Callista had a pistol on her too, but she had to admit it wasn't nearly as fun, and she did almost everything for the challenge.

It was easy to forget that she had been fighting this whole time. She'd been trying to block out her thoughts to concentrate on the battle, but here she was doing it the other way around, her mind going wild while her body seemed to move on instinct. The enemy line of people was starting to thin, and although Guild Enforcer had outnumbered them greatly, their numbers were being wasted by the limited space where they couldn't reach the fight until everyone in front of them had been cut down.

And then, after what felt like so long, there was a gap left empty by the fighters they'd defeated.

"Let's go!" Meridian hollered, darting forward and firing a few more bullets behind him for good measure. Callista didn't waste a second in following him. Lisa shoved Rodrin after them and brought up the rear, covering their escape with a blinding cloud of illusory gold glitter.

Callista wasn't entirely sure now was the time for glitter, but she wasn't about to judge Lisa's panic-glittering if it meant they got away unharmed.

The hallway they'd taken before had a ceiling that was threatening to collapse at any moment, and they ran through it, out the doorway. Right away, they got stuck in the crowd of terrified pirates fleeing the explosion. Callista noticed bright lights above them and looked up. The ceiling that had been laced with veins of lava tunnels was cracking, causing the lava to drip down to the ground, which seemed to be what people were most worried about. She groaned inwardly. It's fun architectural design until the place blows up.

"Okay, now we can worry about that ship," she told the others as they pushed their way to the harbor. She wished they could move faster. The pirates from Guild Enforcer were already out of the hallway and looking for them.

"I vote we make our way to one of the smaller side harbors, rather than the main one," Lisa suggested. "Fewer people will be going there, and it's more out-of-the-way."

"Objections?" Callista demanded. "No? Wonderful."

A panting Rodrin had his hands on his knees, and he raised one to give a feeble thumbs up.

"I didn't get a chance to speak-" Meridian started quietly, but Callista shut him up the same way she'd silenced Rodrin earlier: with her middle finger and a death stare.

Meridian had been in front of her, but she now shoved him out of the way to better make her way through the crowd. Meridian was far too small to properly shove his way through a panicked mass of pirates, and right now, the area was like a bar fight, if bar fights were caused by explosions and had lava pouring down from the ceiling threatening to roast them all.

Come to think of it, that seemed like a fun bar fight.

Without being roasted by lava or killed by Enforcers, they managed to make their way down to one of Virakis' many side harbors and away from the general chaos of inside the volcano.

"Which ship do we take?" Meridian asked anxiously, scanning the few small ships docked here.

"Not that one," Callista said, waving dismissively at a ship. "It looks boring."

"Seriously?" Rodrin snapped. "Is that what matters to you right now?"

"Excuse you, I don't want to sour a glorious escape with a lame getaway ride." Callista peered down the dock. "There are plenty of other options anyway--"

Her gaze landed on a particular ship with green sails that she'd have recognized anywhere, and slowly, her face split into a grin. Just to confirm it, she read the ship's name on the side of the hull: Calypso's Revenge.

"I know what we're taking." Callista set off running towards it.

"That one? Why?" Lisa asked.

"Because I know the owner and I tried to get him to hire me. He took forever about it though and he just wasted my time. Also, he's a jerk and so is the rest of his crew. Is that good enough?"

"Fair enough. That ship it is."

The four of them dashed up the ramp and boarded the ship. Callista got to work right away on the sails while Meridian untied the ropes attaching it to the dock. She looked up from her task to see that the pirates from Guild Enforcer were on the far end of the harbor, talking to Avrir and his captain. They were pointing at their ship. Even from a distance, she could tell they were angry from their body language.

"Come and get us," Callista grumbled, as the sails filled with wind.

Rodrin was at the wheel, leaning on it for support as he steered them out of the port. The Enforcers, who had been pursuing them, had to stop running when they reached the end of the pier and watched them sail off with frustration. Lisa whooped and waved at them as they got further and further away.

"There we go." Meridian let out a sigh of relief and slid down to the deck of the ship, cradling the somehow still undamaged map and globe. He looked down at his gloved hands, frowning and muttering to himself.

Rodrin was silent and stone-faced as he steered them further away. Callista hesitated a long moment before going over to him. "Was that woman your friend?"

He didn't answer, just looked out at the waves and clenched his jaw a little tighter.

She nodded, biting her lip slightly. And then almost unwillingly, two words slipped out, words that tasted unfamiliar on her tongue. "I'm sorry."

Callista was surprised to find that she meant it.

Leaving him to the navigating, she turned around and walked down the stairs to the main deck, where she did nothing but find a spot to sit down against the mast and stay there for a while.

Lisa, when stressed, liked to think of herself as a shark.

If she stopped moving, she died.

While Rodrin stood silently at the wheel and Callista silently sat near the mast and Meridian muttered to himself - breaking the pattern of silence, Lisa noted - over his precious map, Lisa had gone below decks to map out the general layout of the ship and take stock of what was aboard said ship.

The ship was outfitted for a larger crew than the four of them, with five separate bedrooms on the lower deck - presumably for high ranking crew members - not including the captain's quarters, which were on the main deck, or the general barracks, which were also on the main deck. Lisa claimed one of the bedrooms for herself by placing her bag - she'd almost forgotten she was carrying it through all of this - on the bed before continuing to explore. The kitchen - galley, to use proper terminology, although she wasn't entirely concerned with being correct right now - was on the other end of the lower deck from the bedrooms, with a large open space containing the stairs up to the main deck and down to the hold in between the two areas.

After exploring the entire lower deck, she dug her notebook out of her bag and descended to the hold to take inventory of supplies.

She had a sneaking suspicion that they'd need them.

Guild Enforcer's leader's command of "kill them!" probably wasn't cancelled out by their leaving. They wanted that globe, and Lisa was sure they'd do anything to get it.

Most likely, Enforcers would kill any witnesses, then attempt to pin the blame somewhere else. On Lisa and her new friends? Maybe. It would certainly make getting the globe easier if Enforcer had everyone else helping to hunt them down.

She only realized her hands were shaking when she dropped her quill.

Alright. Don't think about Guild Enforcer and possibly getting hunted down, then.

She picked up her quill, flipped to a fresh page in her notebook, and began writing things down, taking inventory of essential supplies such as food and extra medical supplies, then moving on to any cargo the ship might've had.

She didn't expect to find much cargo. The ship had been docked at Virakis, not heading for a larger city to sell things in.

Again, the ship was stocked for a larger crew than four people. Even though some supplies had evidently been used on the journey from wherever this ship had come from to Virakis, there was still plenty left for Lisa and her companions.

The endless columns of numbers were soothing. Numbers made sense. Numbers did not explode things and try to kill you- in Lisa's experience, at least. Perhaps there were murderous numbers out there somewhere.

'Murderous numbers' conjured up unpleasant memories of what had just happened, so she pushed away those thoughts and went back to non-murderous numbers.

In one dark corner, she found several large chests with Guild Arcane's seal on them. Curious, she opened one, and found it was full of fresh fruit. No ice or anything to keep it fresh, just- fruit.

Well, scurvy wouldn't be a problem. If Guild Enforcer had the satisfaction of tracking them down and attacking their ship, at least they wouldn't be weakened with disease when it happened.

These chests were Guild Arcane's specialty; magically enhanced in various ways. The blue of the seal meant that someone had used an ice Affinity on them to keep whatever was inside cool, and someone else had used a permanence Affinity to make sure it wouldn't wear off. These specialty chests - and crates and barrels, although Lisa hadn't come across any of those on this ship - were Guild Arcane's second-best source of income- the first being robbing people, obviously. They were still pirates, despite their reputation as useless, lazy people who exploited their Affinities for money.

Apparently other pirates were perfectly fine with Arcane exploiting their Affinities for money if it helped them out.

She noted down how much of each type of fruit they had and closed the chest, going through the rest of them in turn. If she was calculating right, there was certainly enough food for a few months if they didn't throw any lavish feasts.

She didn't get the sense that any of her companions were really lavish feast people. Callista would probably stab the host of a fancy party if they looked at her wrong - which really wasn't conducive to a party atmosphere - Rodrin didn't like wearing shirts, and Meridian seemed like he'd get bored fairly quickly and go back to looking at maps.

Of course, that was if she connected 'lavish feast' with 'fancy party'. Maybe feasts on board a stolen ship with a few almost total strangers would be more their style.

She wrote down another column of numbers.

Speaking of her companions, she wanted to check up on all of them, Meridian particularly. He'd been closest to the explosion out of all of them and considering that everyone else that had been in the room with him was now dead, she was willing to bet that he needed a bit of attention. Rodrin also needed some attention; it had been much too chaotic to tell at the time and her memories of the event were already blurring, but she was pretty sure he had a large chunk of wood stuck in his back. Once the adrenaline wore off, that would hurt.

Had Callista been injured? Lisa couldn't remember. The only scene her mind would replay was Callista shielding her and then crouching over her, pausing just long enough for Lisa to take in the way the fires burning in the room glinted off her eyes before getting to her feet and pulling Lisa with her.

Callista had the deepest amber eyes Lisa had ever seen.

She paused, then took a deep breath.

Explosions and Callista's eyes were entirely irrelevant to taking inventory, which is what she was doing. Just writing down numbers and making sure they had everything they needed.

After cataloguing several barrels of wine - seriously, who needed that much wine? - and the various other junk sitting in the hold, she circled back around to the crate of medical supplies she'd found and set aside earlier, pulled out what she needed, and returned above deck to suggest to Rodrin that perhaps, he should get that piece of wood out of his back.

It was time for damage control.

Callista was wiping the blood off her arm with a handkerchief. The cut was directly over the tattoo of vines winding around her left bicep, and the smears of red made it look like it was blooming. Hopefully it wouldn't scar and change the look. At least there didn't seem to be any shrapnel stuck in the wound.

Rodrin would not be able to say the same for himself.

She glanced over in his direction, where he stood at the wheel, grim as ever. The plank, still in his back, was casting a shadow on the deck behind him. That's quite the splinter. Callista couldn't help the dark humor popping into her head, but she wasn't going to laugh. Nothing felt very funny right now.

She needed something to focus on.

It was pure instinct to reach for the glass bottle, but she had to stop herself before she took a sip. She'd refilled it just this morning, but she didn't know when they'd get to stop at a port again. With a sigh, she put it back on her belt so she wouldn't be tempted.

The sky is clear. Callista said the calming mantra in her head, mouthing the words to herself, needing that constant reminder. The sky is clear.

She'd been looking up at the blue above her without really realizing it. Good thing I'm not lying to myself, she thought, seeing that there wasn't a cloud in sight. It was getting too bright for her eyes, so she looked down again.

Callista hadn't noticed before, but Lisa had gone belowdecks at some point. Maybe to avoid sunburn, but she doubted it. The gambler was wearing enough sparkles that she could probably redirect the sun's rays. Callista remembered practically being blinded when she'd first seen her at the card table. She'd thought Lisa was trying to mess with her head. And Lisa was doing just that, not even with the help of illusions. It was happening on its own, just from being around her.

She'd blocked her from the explosion, hadn't she? Callista would have liked to pretend that she couldn't remember the events in the chaos, but she knew that she'd done it on purpose. That kind of choice wasn't like her at all. But for now, that was too confusing to think about.

Forget damage control. Forget the thoughts she didn't understand yet. This focusing exercise was going poorly.

She watched Meridian fiddle with the map, eventually pulling out a larger map-- did he just carry those around?-- and mumble thoughts to himself that hadn't quite translated into functional sentences by the time they left his mouth. Every once in a while, the glass sphere would start to roll away and he'd have to grab it before it got too far and return it to the deck by his side. The cycle of him glancing up just long enough and then going back to staring at the parchment started to get boring to her after a few repeats.

At least he was dedicated to his job as a cartographer, no matter how dull it seemed to her. She wouldn't accuse him of being irresponsible.

It dawned on her that Rodrin had already slipped into the role of the navigator. Rodrin, who barely talked except to grumble something at her, was at the command of them right now. Callista wouldn't have expected that. If he was going to boss her around, there would be serious trouble.

Even though she'd just apologized to him-- which hardly made sense to begin with that she'd done that-- she wasn't going to manage being nice to him. Maybe slightly less harsh. For a couple hours, tops.

No one had ever been kind to her whenever she'd lost someone.

She sighed and resorted to blankly glaring at the wooden boards of the deck.

Callista had to admit it: this wasn't a bad ship. They'd made a few pirates very angry when they'd gotten it, but that was the best part. It was fun to do things out of pure spite, and since they were already in serious trouble with the law-- the pirate law, which was apparently just as strict as normal law-- it wasn't like it would make things worse for them.

The Calypso's Revenge. She'd gotten her revenge for sure. Stealing an entire ship was much better than plucking a coin off some annoying first mate.

A thought struck her, and she stood up from her spot at the mast. She winced at the newfound soreness from stretching. It seemed that her adrenaline was wearing off, and she was starting to feel the effects of all the events that had taken place today.

Callista paced over the deck, checking out the cannons. They had three on each side, which wasn't as much as she'd like to see normally, but it would do for a crew of four people. She'd just have to make sure they all worked.

From her time serving as various ships' master gunners, she knew where they kept the gunpowder and cannonballs. They would be belowdecks, in a storage room reserved for them. Callista didn't see Lisa when she went down into the dark hold of the ship to get some. She must have been looking at other supplies.

The sun seemed brighter than ever when she came back to the deck with a cannonball tucked under her arm and a barrel of gunpowder rolled up the stairs. Her eyes had had just long enough to adjust to the darkness, and now she was squinting as she took a look at one of the cannons on the starboard side. Callista imagined a ship larger than theirs in front of her, and adjusted the angle as if she was aiming for it. After checking its position a little further, she loaded the cannon, struck a match, and set it off before taking a step back.

It fired with a powerful, ear-splitting bang that ripped through the calm sounds of the ocean, and the cannonball landed harmlessly a good distance away in the open water. Rodrin and Meridian, who had both been paying little attention to anything outside their tasks, jumped in surprise, looking at her with frowns that said would a little warning have killed you? as well as why did you even do that anyway?.

"Oh, come on," she snapped at them. "I'm just testing these out. Don't tell me that you're both so out of it that you wouldn't have noticed if this was an enemy ship firing at you."

Meridian sighed and muttered something that sounded like he'd never be able to focus now, but he went back to working on his map. Rodrin just rolled his eyes at her and kept steering.

This cannon was functional, so they wouldn't be defenseless at least. Callista went back downstairs for more cannonballs as needed, testing out all the other ones in turn. Rodrin and Meridian had both caught on, and now they were plugging their ears whenever they she noticed she was about to fire.

When she was done, she took some notes on a used pad that must have belonged to the crew before. All of the cannons could fire, though the second one on the port side was hardest to aim and the angle wouldn't adjust easily. They were doing well on their armory supplies, even when she noticed there was more gunpowder than cannonballs. The caravel's weapons would work.

Callista noticed that her shoulders had been tense, and now they were lower and relaxed from her relief. They weren't helpless. She hated having that feeling, that she might not be as strong as she thought she was-- or as everyone else thought she was. Vulnerability wasn't a comfortable position for her. She was supposed to stand tall, not lie and cower on the ground.

But the lightning strikes the tallest ones first.

The thought had crept up on her, souring her mood again. She glanced out at the waves, once again feeling the urge to reach for her bottle, but she didn't do it. Even though it helped her anxiety to know they could prepare for a fight, she still stayed frozen there for a while. Callista didn't know how long it was for, but finally the heat of the sun and the crashing of the water against the boat became too disturbing, and she retreated into the shade of the sails again.

Meridian scowled as he poured over the mystery map, referencing and cross-referencing all of the tiny islands currently documented on his world map. It was his prize possession- surprisingly, world maps were increasingly rare, and this one had cost him a pretty penny.

First, he thought he might have some luck in the Venefican Archipelago; it was famous for magical disappearing islands that no one seemed to be able to locate but the one time. But, upon further study, Meridian found that his mystery map was so detailed that he could make out the colorful coral reef surrounding it. After an initial burst of admiration for the artist, he noticed the coral's vibrant purple hue, a color native only to one or two tiny islands to the south of the Lawless Lands. He squinted at his world map, trying to push through the intensifying throbbing of his head, to no avail.

Meridian grimaced, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the rough wood of the caravel's side. Had his ribs been hurting like that earlier? Damn it, I'm coming out of shock.
Breathing sent tiny jabs of pain up his side, and he could feel a patch of wetness on his head where a bit of the ceiling had knocked him prone. Best case scenario, he had some internal bruising and a very minor concussion. Worst case...

Let's just focus on the positives for now, shall we? What positives? That was the real question. At least the cannons on this ship work. He chuckled, wincing as Callista tested the last one.

He glanced at the globe again, and a really awful idea popped into his head. He cocked an eyebrow, picking up the globe. It was indeed a work of art- deep blues you could make only from crushed up indigo- a substance becoming harder and harder to find nowadays. The land was gilded, not just painted. He ran his gloved hand over the raised land masses, pondering his terrible idea. A gentle glow caught his attention; some of the paint was chipped near the south end of the globe. He squinted, lifting it up to his eyes. The chip was in the shape of an island. Meridian inhaled- this could very well be their island. How much of a coincedence would that be?

He glanced around the ship. Rodrin was still up at the wheel, navigating, although Meridian wasn't sure where the man was taking them, since he currently had no coordinates. Callista was leaning against the mast of the ship, and Lisa was just coming out of the hold.

He pulled off his right glove, attempting to be subtle, and held his breath, placing one finger on the globe's (slightly warm?) surface. A single image flashed into his mind; an island, matching the shape of the paint chip and the mystery map, wreathed with purple coral and split down the center by a river.

His eyes shot open, and he stood up, head spinning. "I think you should all see this. Ah, and I believe I've figured out somewhere we can go."

"I've been doing some thinking while we, er, drift. And I might have some sort of explanation for all this madness." Meridan called to his three companions, scattered as they were across the deck. He crossed to the main mast, pulling his right glove back on as he went. Meri plopped down next to Callista, who was glaring daggers at the sky like she was looking for a weak spot to stab. 


 As he flattened the map, Meri pulled various odds and ends from his pockets, placing them in each corner of it, to keep it flat. He hesitated, glancing at the encoded prophecy. That line about a ghost with gloves; there was no way that was a coincedence. Before he could make a decision about whether to include that in his translation, Callista sank to the floor next to him.


"Brilliant. I happen not to like drifting very much." Callista pointed at the map. "What's all this?"


His mind shot away from the prophecy, fixating again on the wonderful mystery of it all, "Well, you see, it's an ancient map- older than anything I've come across before! Older than the Zephyr Trifecta's treasure map, older than the Temple of Tentra Mortath, older even than-" 


"Yeah, yeah, I bet it's older than even sandboy over there. Is there anything actually special about it?"


Meridian shot her a withering glare, "Yes, actually. It's accompanied by a very, mm, relevant bit of poetry." He pointed to the strange script the prophecy was written in. "Fascinating." He mumbled, eyes unfocusing as if he was looking far away. 


Callista coughed, taking in the unreadable text. Lisa had come over from belowdecks, and it looked like Rodrin was bored enough to lend them his attention. "Okay. And for those of us who can't read what looks like a toddler's first attempt at Aryllico calligraphy?"


Meridian blinked, "Ah, my apologies. The first bit reads; 


The Fates pull death from the depths of their deck of cards:

An age-old alliance smashed to flaming shards,

A masked and gilded snake lying hidden in fire's heart,

An ancient goddess's secret held within a star chart."


He paused, allowing the implication to sink in for a moment. "Now what does that sound like?"


"Like the most lovely and enjoyable time we just had at the meeting," Lisa suggested. "I don't remember any snakes though. That doesn't sound so fun."


"That's not even the most concerning part." Meridian pulled a small leatherbound book from his coat pocket, hesitating for just a second- but, no, in these trying circumstances, secrets were bound to slip away eventually. Better to take control of when they got loose than have them picking the worst time to slither out. He finished copying down the prophecy and set it on the deck. "Take a look."


The Fates pull death from the depths of their deck of cards:

An age-old alliance smashed to flaming shards,

A masked and gilded snake lying hidden in fire's heart,

An ancient goddess's secret held within a star chart.


To protect the way of the pirate's existence,

A misfit crew, numbered four, must set sail into the distance

To a fractured island of a backward tide

Where desire and the compass of morality collide:


Beware the one who is not what she might seem,

For only three beating hearts shall be discovered on the team;

Take care of the one walking away in disgrace

With a storm trailing behind her and a thirst for vicious chase;


Keep thy secrets close and thy hands away,

from the ghost with the gloves and someone to save;

Steer clear of the lone rock, 'fore the sands of time sweep thou in,

a beacon of pain and lonliness, wearing and weathering thou thin.


When flames flood over land and ghosts wander over waters,

When songs echo over oceans from the Siren's daughters,

False traitors must do what has never been done before:

Break the avenging angel's chains, or bring the world to war. 


The three others leaned in and Meridian watched a soup of emotions appear on each of their faces. He cleared his throat nervously, waiting for the inevitable moment that they reached the third and fourth stanzas. He had his own suspicions about which lines belonged to each of his companions. He could no longer deny that any of this was a coincedence. Not when his own darkest secret was spelled out there on the page. 

The silence got heavier, like a raincloud gaining water, before it finally burst into a downpour.

"Are you saying--?" Lisa started.

"Hang on," Callista said slowly.

"That all sounds familiar," Rodrin grumbled.

The three of them began talking over each other, their individual voices and ideas lost in the chatter.

"It's us. There's no other explanation." Meridian spoke softly, gravely, but somehow they all shut up. He wasn't one to make quick assumptions, but what the hell else could be going on here? Unless Furia was playing some sick, elaborate prank on them. Although, due to her apparent lack of humor and likely deadness, that was improbable.

They shifted uncomfortably, eyes darting from the page to one another, try to puzzle it out.

"As in, we're the misfit crew?" Lisa asked.

"It's not terribly inaccurate," Callista said. "Full offense to the rest of you."

Meridian chuckled halfheartedly, his smile shrinking til it was nothing again, "What really worries me, however, is the goddess and this war thing. Not to mention the whole... one of us is dead or is going to die bit..." Not sure how to follow that up gracefully, he let the silence grow big again.

"...I missed that part." Rodrin had stepped away from the steering wheel, frowning as he folded his arms over his chest. "It sounds pretty crucial."

"For only three beating hearts shall be discovered on the team," Lisa repeated slowly. "That's ominous."

"But these lines are for us. That's where it is in the prophecy--" Callista paused, realizing the implication. "Oh. Well, that's just wonderful."

"... it doesn't have to mean death?" Lisa suggested weakly. "I don't know, maybe it's just cryptic prophecy speak for 'someone is going to leave'. Maybe our 'ghost with someone to save' goes off to look for his someone to save."

"Are you stupid?" Rodrin asked bluntly.

"I prefer optimistic."

"It's one of our lines," Callista cut in, looking at Lisa. "I mean, it has to be. Meridian is obviously the 'ghost'-- the prophecy thinks you're suspicious too, by the way-- and Sandboy is the line that mentions the very happy sand. 'Someone who is not what she might seem' has to be one of us."

"Well, are you planning to murder anyone?" Lisa asked. "Because I certainly am not, and I don't intend to die, either."

"Maybe one of us is a vampire." Meridian snorted, aware that he was not being at all helpful.

"We're all sitting in the sun," Callista pointed out, a little unkindly.

His face fell a little, "Oh. I suppose so. Would've made for an interesting turn of events, though."

"I think if there was a vampire on board, we'd be dealing with more than one non-beating heart," Lisa said thoughtfully. "I mean, vampires are well known for killing people, and eventually, we'd be on board long enough that they'd get hungry, so-"

"Are you actually humouring him right now?" Rodrin snapped. "Can we get back to what really matters?"

Callista chimed in, a sly grin on her face, "Lone rock, huh? Funny, I had you pegged as a real social butterfly."

"You aren't exactly a walk in the park yourself." He snapped back.

"Fight me, Sandboy-"

"Hey!" Lisa tapped her cane forcefully against the deck. "Callista, no fighting Rodrin without an audience and a betting pool. Rodrin, our apologies. We'll get back on topic now."

"Don't speak for me-" Callista started, but Lisa poked her - none too gently - with her cane. "Hey, be careful! There's a sword in there!"

"Look, darling, as long as the sword isn't unsheathed, I'm not going to kill you-" Lisa winced. "You know what? I'm not going to make jokes about that just yet."

"So who is that about?" Rodrin asked. "You or Callista?"

Lisa and Callista glanced at each other for a moment before their hands moved-- Lisa pointing at Callista, Callista pointing at herself.

"Right." Rodrin sighed. "My money was on that as well."

"I was going to say no offense, darling, but it looks like you weren't going to take any anyway," Lisa said to Callista. "It just- makes sense, honestly."

"Mmh-hmm." Callista nodded, as if this was very reasonable. "No, I'm most definitely going to kill someone."

"...Who?" Meridian asked, in the awkward pause that followed.

"Me, probably," Rodrin muttered.

"I haven't decided yet," Callista said breezily, talking over him.

"Please don't kill me?" Lisa asked sweetly, giving Callista a look that Meridian couldn't quite read.

"No promises." Callista cleared her throat. "It will probably not be you, though, so these two better watch out."

Meridian's eyes widened while Rodrin huffed and looked away.

"I'd like to see you try," he muttered.

"I practically pulled it off earlier, sandboy, don't you remember?"

"I wouldn't like to see that!" Meridian protested. "Callista, you- you can't be serious, don't- joke about that."

Callista rolled her eyes. "Well, what else am I going to say? 'Just kidding, I'm actually at risk for heart attacks'? It's not like I'm especially trustworthy."

"Maybe you aren't at risk of heart attacks, but you are at risk of being stabbed by someone else," Lisa pointed out. "Since you keep getting into fights. You're a great fighter, darling, but there are other good fighters out there as well."

"See, isn't that better? Maybe it means I die and you all go on with your merry little adventure. But honestly, I'm offended that you think I can be killed."

For a brief moment, Lisa's knuckles went white against the handle of her cane, but just as quickly, she laughed and relaxed; Meridian wasn't sure anyone other than himself had noticed. "I'm sorry, darling."

"Okay," Meridian said, jumping in. He didn't want this to keep taking darker turns. "Lisa, can you confirm the line about storms is yours then?"

Callista was glancing at Lisa out of the corner of her eyes as she fiddled with the bottle on her belt, obviously trying to subtle about it and clearly failing.

Lisa shrugged. "Yeah. I really messed up something in the past, and I'm guessing the 'storm trailing after her' is consequences catching up to me."

"Is that so?" Rodrin asked, with a trace of doubt.

"Darling, do you honestly think I can't tell which line of a prophecy is my own? I've definitely walked away in disgrace from more than a few situations, and I've left quite the storm behind me. That's my line."

"Makes sense to me," Callista said, rather quickly. "It's got to be Lisa."

"Now that we've got that settled- Meridian, continue. What else did you want to talk about?" Lisa asked.

Meridian glanced towards the islands behind them, now no larger than pebbles. "Well, I think I've found the island the prophecy is referring to. Whether we want to go there or not, is something we should consider soon. Assuming those Enforcers are serious about thinking we orchestrated the explosion, it's best we put as much distance between them and us as possible. Preferably towards some sort of haven. Personally, what better haven is there than an island not on any map?" He paused, "Except for this one, I suppose. Which, presumably, we are the only ones in possession of." Meridian held up the gently glowing globe, showcasing the pinprick of light that matched the islands' outline.

"Why wouldn't any other map have this island?" Rodrin asked.

"Maybe these modern cartographers aren't so good," Callista suggested.

Meridian winced. "Hey."

"I'm just saying."

"It's magic, obviously," Lisa pointed out. "Glowing globes usually indicate magic."

"Really?" Rodrin asked. "And here I was thinking it was perfectly normal."

"Understandable," Lisa replied. "Things can glow on their own sometimes, too, so perhaps it was an over-generalization on my part to say 'usually'."

"From the sound of it, this prophecy doesn't describe this island as a haven for us though," Callista pointed out. "Unless a fractured island of a backward tide sounds like a vacation destination to you guys."

"It sounds like it'd be interesting, at least," Lisa mused.

"I have no idea about what a backward tide means, since there are usually high tides and low tides, but it doesn't sound friendly to ships trying to reach shore," Meridian said.

Rodrin shook his head. "Lucky me for getting that job."

"Well, are you in charge?" Callista asked.

"I didn't say that."

"Seems like you decided on it already."

"Well- is anyone else really going to be good at being in charge?" Meridian asked, a little nervously. "I mean, I'm certainly more of a behind the scenes fellow, and Lisa just doesn't strike me as the type- no offense."

"None taken, darling."

"And Callista... you're, ah, how do I say this..."

"Hot-headed?" Lisa suggested. "Not incredibly good at taking stock of a situation without trying to stab someone?"

"Hey, sometimes leaders have to stab people and that's that," Callista argued.

"Oh, of course, darling, and I'd certainly follow you anywhere - stabbing or not - but Rodrin has that certain..." She waved her hand. "... Je ne sais quoi required to be a leader."

"An insufferable attitude?"

Rodrin just rolled his eyes.

"We can go with that, sure. Point is, I believe Rodrin, as the oldest and most experienced of us, should be in charge."

"How do you know I'm the oldest?" Rodrin protested, looking a little injured.

"Look at you, you're already balding," Callista told him.

Rodrin glared at her, running a hand over his smooth and hairless head.

"I'm assuming," Lisa assured him. "Meridian is obviously quite young, Callista seems to be around my own age, and you look wise and experienced."

"Wait, you and Callista are around the same age?" Meridian asked dubiously. "You can't be more than about nineteen."

"You're about ten years off, darling," Lisa replied with a smile. "But thank you for the compliment."

"Nine?" Meridian asked, trying to look entirely innocent, while Callista laughed.

"Ten years in the other direction," Lisa corrected. "I know I look younger than I am, but come on, darling."

Well, that made Meridian the youngest. He'd been holding onto the fact that Lisa was younger than him, but now... He really didn't know why that annoyed him so, but it did.

"Meridian's the little child," Callista teased.

Ah. That would be why.

"I'm twenty-one, so shut up."

"Watch your mouth," Rodrin said. "Those foul words aren't suitable for youngsters."

Meridian felt his cheeks heat up, but it was probably more from embarrassment than anger.

"Stop mocking the poor child," Lisa said sternly. "Bullying is highly harmful to the developing mind of a young boy."

Meridian wondered if it was too late to jump overboard. But the hands of Fate might stop him and just drop him back on the deck to fulfill his part of the prophecy with a crew of pirates who were older and more frustrating than he'd thought.

"We're getting off topic again," he muttered.

"I thought it was a delightful tangent," Callista said innocently.

"Islands!" Meridian shouted loudly, startling a seagull that had been perched on the mast. "Back to islands."

"What if it turns out to be the wrong one?" Rodrin asked.

"I don't know," Meridian admitted. "But this is the best place to start. And besides, where the hell else are we supposed to go? Its not like any guild islands will be waiting with open arms for the assumed perpetrators of multiple Alliance leader assassinations. Also, I highly doubt this 'ancient goddess' is going to let us to sail off into the sunset without 'fulfilling our destinies' or some nonsense like that." He glanced down at the forgotten globe, fidgeting with his gloves.

"Right. And if it's the wrong spot, maybe we'll make a vacation out of it after all," Callista said.

I certainly wouldn't mind a vacation. "So, we're going to the fractured isle with the Sirens and the goddess and the hopefully worth it treasure." Meridian paused, waiting for any objections. When none arose, he made his way to the the wheel and set the ship due south.

"Lovely!" Lisa said cheerfully. "Now that that's all wrapped up, Rodrin- about that plank in your back..."

Wordcount: 2767/2500

"Rodrin- about that plank in your back..."

Rodrin blinked, almost as if he'd forgotten about that, then nodded. "Get on with it."

Lisa, who'd dropped her medical supplies in a neat little bundle at her feet when Meridian called them all to look at the map, crouched down to sort through them. "Are you comfortable just lying down here on the deck while I work, darling? The lighting is best out here."

Rodrin shrugged, then winced. "Whatever you need to do."

Lisa unrolled a black tablecloth with a flourish. "Then lay down on that for me."

Rodrin obliged, wincing as he lowered himself to the deck.

"We really should've taken care of this earlier, darling," Lisa fussed as she set out her tools along the edge of the black cloth. She'd taken the time to retrieve her own from her bag before coming above decks; she had found surgeon's tools among the medical supplies, but they were, frankly, in horrible condition. "With all the moving you've been doing, you've probably broken off quite a few splinters inside that I'm going to need to dig out."

"This whole thing is a splinter," Callista added. "Maybe the largest in medical history."

"Please don't say 'dig' in that tone of voice," Meridian said nervously from the upper deck where he was laying in their new course. "You know what you're doing, right?"

"Darling," Lisa said, almost genuinely offended. "If I didn't know what I was doing, I would not be doing it."

"That's reassuring," Rodrin said neutrally.

"I spent several years as a surgeon's assistant and I've served in that capacity aboard more than a few ships, does that make you feel better?" Lisa asked. "Now hold still. I'm going to numb the area around the wound."

"How do you get from surgeon's assistant to gambler?" Meridian asked curiously as she began spreading a sticky green salve across Rodrin's back. Him being shirtless helped this time. "Those are two very different careers."

"Why can't I be both?" Lisa replied. "It's always useful to pick up as many skills as you can. I consider myself a sort of jack-of-all-trades, and you have no idea how helpful that's been along the way. This is going to take a few minutes to set in," she added to Rodrin. "Let me know when you can't feel that area anymore."

"Haha, a jack," Callista joked. "Like the playing card."

They all turned to give her a blank look-- even Rodrin, who had to twist his head at an awkward angle.

"Wow, okay, I didn't know you were all so dead inside."

"No distractions," Lisa said in an authoritative voice.

"What happens if this goes wrong?" Meridian asked.

"Then we find a beach to bury him on and we let sandboy be at peace in his natural habitat," Callista answered without missing a beat.

Rodrin let out a huff. "That sounds better than your company."

"See? I knew you'd like it."

"Meridian," Lisa said reassuringly. "Nothing is going to go wrong. Considering how well Rodrin's been doing things this entire time, nothing vital got hit, and it'll be a simple matter of taking the board out and stitching him up again. I've dealt with worse injuries, and the people involved healed up just fine."

"I can't feel my back," Rodrin noted quietly.

"Lovely! That was faster than expected. Now, let me take that out."

With one quick yank, she pulled the board from Rodrin's back and jammed a handful of bandages into the jagged hole left behind, carefully setting the bloody wood on the black cloth beside her. "Someone toss that overboard for me?"

Callista picked it up and flung it out into the ocean. "Bye-bye, splinter."

"Excellent flinging, darling," Lisa complimented as she applied a little more pressure to Rodrin's wound. It wasn't bleeding excessively, which was a good sign. Once she stopped most of the bleeding, she could more thoroughly examine the cut for any leftover splinters
and see exactly what had been damaged in there. "You're alright, Rodrin?"

"Still can't feel anything."