After about an hour of working on his books Keizeron felt the boat slow and come to a halt. Sola must have found a good place for them to stop for the night. While he thought they could stand to be further away from Eldence, Keiz knew it wasn’t feasible for his crew to sail all night. He set his journal down and put the lid on his ink when he heard a knock at his door.

  He opened the door to find Aka, the rod in their hand. As they entered he looked out at the deck, seeing Sola and Zero getting the ship tied down for the night. He nodded to them before following Aka. His navigator had made a bee line for the desk, taking down the map which didn’t surprise him in the least. However they did take a moment to look at the new wanted poster before looking at him with a raised eye brow.

  “What?” Keiz asked, a little defensively.

  “Nothing,” Aka shrugged, laying the map flat on his desk and smoothing the corners out. They set the rod on the map, carefully marking where it was pointing to. It wasn’t leading them to Solversay anymore, but was sort of going through empty wilderness between them and the edge of the continent. Either the monster had not made it’s way back to it’s nest, or was already out hunting again. Aka frowned. “How long do you think it’ll take for it to recover? We won’t be able to just sit in Chilside forever if it doesn’t come to find us.”

  “No, we certainly can’t,” Keizeron agreed. Especially now that the law was after him. “We can discuss it tomorrow when everyone is awake again.”

  “Why wait? The crew is still up and most of them wanted to talk tonight,” Aka responded, pointing back out the door.

  “What?” Keiz balked at them. “You all are waiting to talk to me? Why did no one tell me?”

  “Is that not what I’m doing right now?” Aka rolled their eyes, and grabbed the rod to shove back in their pocket. They walked back out onto the deck, their perplexed captain in tow.

  As they said, the rest of the crew was waiting for him on the lower deck. Willow and Zero were finishing up with tying off the ropes while Sola directed them. Mea was sitting on the railing, looking out over the icy landscape around them. She was quite, but was rubbing her neck. It was late now, well past midnight. At least the weather was clear at the moment, the moon and stars shining brightly in the sky above them.

  Even with his enchanted gear Keiz could tell it was cold, and he stepped towards his crew hoping to wrap this up quickly. Once he was out of his room Mea snapped to attention and hopped off the railing, joining the rest of them in the center of the deck.

  ((“What is this? An intervention?” Caine laughed a bit tensely, “Did Aka really just hit me with the ‘we need to talk’?” They were smiling, but they felt a very real anxiety. When they started college Caine had very bad social anxiety. The condition faded over the years, but even now certain phrases made their chest feel tight and painful. It was just a game, they know it wasn’t real, but Keizeron wasn’t going to be in top form for this conversation.))

  “What are we going to do about this?” Sola asked seriously once everyone was present. “Our captain is now wanted with a hefty price on his head, that’s going to make moving around way more difficult.”

  “It’s not as bad as it seems,” Keizeron assured them quickly. “Since there’s no bounties on any of you or the ship I don’t think this is going to hinder our ability to get around. At least not any more since we first left Reglilis.”

  “Why don’t any of us have bounties?” Aka asked. They had their hand in their pocket, gripped firmly around the rod. “We were all at the temple, I was the one who stole the rod. But Aster only reported your name to the queen?”

  “I suspect that this was Lady Adelaide’s doing.” Keizeron admitted. “I was hired by her anonymously. I originally suspected she didn’t think I would work with someone with her track record, but now I’m thinking she did it for a different purpose. Other than Master Brankovic, who brought me to the ship for the first time, no one from the guild saw the Fortune’s Favor or any of you. With how few people were involved in the process it would be easy enough to conceal any of your identities. But I went to the royal sailing academy, my name getting out was inevitable.”

  “So the convoluted way we were all hired was on purpose?” Aka sighed. Then they shook their head. “But we’ve been to several ports since then, and interacted with a number of dock workers. Surely they could have found our names in our paperwork.”

  “I may not have been signing us in properly. Or been writing the right ship name. At any of the ports we’ve been to,” Keizeron clasped his hands together.

  Aka stared at him, mouth agape. “You have been doing our paperwork wrong?!” They asked in abject horror.

  Fortunately Sola came to his captain’s rescue. “Aka we have bigger problems to worry about right now. We can fix your papers later,” The first mate said, trying to wave off his friend’s fury. “Yes, it’s good none of us are wanted, but do you plan on just staying on the ship every time we stop in a city?”

  “No, I have something for that actually,” Keizeron pulled a small golden pin out of his pocket and held it out to his first mate. It was a small butterfly, with a simple pattern on its wings. As the crew watched he affixed it to his collar and with a flourish of golden magic his appearance changed. He became the opposite of his usual looks, with pale skin and long blond hair. His ear became longer and sharper, the tall tale sign of an elf. Even his outfit changed, from his long purple jacket to a simple green tunic and longer boots. He smiled at them, which was a bit strange given the circumstances.

  “It’s not perfect, and can be seen through by people with magical sight or just high intuition. But it doesn't take very much mana to maintain and can last hours if I need it to, so it’ll do in a pinch,” Keizeron explained. In all honesty he should have used this when they went to visit the sister, he just didn’t think the queen would catch on so quickly.

  This seemed to satisfy the rest of the crew. Or at least, it was enough for them to want to head in for the night. It was late now, and they had had a hectic evening. As the crew decided who would take shifts that night, Keizeron noticed that Mea was staring at him with an intense gaze.

  ((Ren sat back thoughtfully as the rest of the players finished saying their pieces. He could see that Caine looked nervous, but he couldn’t tell why. Once the rest of the conversation pittered out he addressed the party, “Should we ask Keizeron about his weird magic?” Ren crossed his arms with a grim expression.

  Zenith gave a sly smile, looking at the other players, which only made Ren more convinced he was on the right track so he continued, “we know at this point his magic doesn’t follow the same rules as the rest of us, but have we communicated that to each other at all? Man, would we even know what to ask, or did the last time he did the weird glowy gold thing Mea just said ‘how odd’ and completely forgot about it? Would I know what might have caused that?”

  “I can’t tell you how your characters would react to what you’ve seen, nor can I say whether Mea would want to confront him about it right now. I will tell you that she knows enough about magic to tell something is off about the spells Keizeron casts, but not enough to say with certainty what it is." Caine shrugged.

  “I don’t know, I don’t think I would confront him here,” Lucky said slowly. “I don’t think we know enough yet to talk to him about it.”

  The rest of the group mumbled in agreement. Ren narrowed his eyes at Zenith, who was pointedly staying out of the conversation. “What does Sola know about this?” He asked.

  “I don’t know, ask Sola,” Zee replied with a smile. He pretended to look down at his notes, knowing his answer wasn’t going to satisfy Ren.

  “Look, if none of you want to ask Keizeron about how his magic works, then we’ll need to go ahead and wrap up for the night. We’ve been playing for three hours now,” Caine sighed.

  The table looked at each other, quietly deliberating what they wanted to do. Finally Ren shook his head. Lucky patted his arm, “don’t worry, we’ll get the evidence we need to figure it out.”

  So Caine continued the story.))

  After a moment Mea let out a huff and crossed her arms before following most of the crew below deck. Aka was picked for first shift, and they stayed with Keizeron watching their friends (("coworkers.)) leave one by one. It was a cold night, but made easier to manage by their new equipment. They waved to their captain as he headed back to his room, and after a few moments the lights shut off leaving Aka on their own.

  "Wait, I forgot to ask what we were going to do about Chilside," Aka let out a short huff. the lamb faun stretched their legs out and got ready for a long shift.

  They spent the first hour of their watch on the top deck, surveying the nearby scenery. The crew had fled from Eldence with speed in mind, andas a result they were a bit off course. The Fortune's Favor ended up in a small valley along the base of the Oakcier heights mountain range, with tall fir trees and a small frozen river below them. A sizable family of deer wandered by, taking no note of the ship or the navigator that watched them with a bored interest.

  After they left there was nothing else of note to pay attention to and Aka found themselves leaning against the railing of the upper deck. they twirled a loose strand of hair in their hands, trying to keep it out of their face. After they had accidentally blown themself up their hair was badly singed on the edges. Willow's healing magic either didn't extend to hair, or she hadn't had enough to spare on Aka's looks. Aka was fine with that, they were happier the cleric used the last of her magic to heal their badly wounded leg, they didn't need their hair to be long. The morning after Mea had offered to cut the damaged ends, possibly as a peace offering after the teasing she had done the night before.

  The resulting hair cut was a bit choppy, but their hair was so unruly it really didn’t look that different than how it had been before the trim. Aka didn’t care how they looked, but it probably hadn’t been the smartest idea to accept a hair cut from one of the only two members of the crew that didn’t have hair. Regardless, the gesture meant more to Aka than Mea realized.

  Growing up in the Lularoon household was a rather challenging experience. Aka’s parents were strict, from their schooling and career to the way they could look or act. Everything had to be a certain way, all the way down to Aka having a similar hair style to their siblings. They already stood out too much for their parents taste.

  Aka had albinism, causing them to have pale skin and white fur while the rest of their family had black fur and darker skin tones. It made things challenging for them growing up, in ways that their siblings didn’t understand. They had a sunlight sensitivity that kept them indoors most of their youth, and sufficiently bright lights could hurt their eyes if they weren't careful.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  but even then bright lights could still hurt their eyes. Their parents treated them as an inconvenience, and their problems as weaknesses that needed to be fixed. But being well regarded merchants they had money to throw at the problem, and Aka received high quality care that made them able to withstand more sunlight and improve their vision. They were still far sighted, but with care they received their vision was sharp enough for them to be a skilled mark smith.

  While Aka appreciated the help, they hated feeling like a burden. It was as if they constantly had to fight to prove they deserved to exist, and had to be helpful to make up for what they had cost on their family. They learned to keep complaints to themselves, lest their parents remind them of how much money they spent improving Aka’s quality of life. And while they couldn’t do anything about Aka’s pallid skin tone, their mother tried to dye their hair black once when they were young. Unfortunately the dye reacted badly to their sensitive skin, and their mother gave up instead of trying to find a different method. Still, had been treated like it was somehow their fault the dye didn't work, and they were grounded for a month.

  They plucked at their loose curls, wondering why burning themselves brought up such old memories.

  The rest of their shift passed in an uncomfortable reflective silence, and after another hour they woke up Willow to take the next one.

  The next morning the crew awoke to relative silence, coming and going through the galley for a breakfast of warm honey toast and sliced sweet sugar snap fruit. As Keizeron took the helm for the first shift of the day the rest of them fell into a routine that was starting to feel familiar.

  Aka slept in a little later than normal to offset how late they went to sleep. Sola did his regular exercise routine on the deck before joining Keizeron at the helm. Willow also spent some time stretching and doing a small work out before she joined Mea in the galley to do some cleaning and get inventory done for the day. And then there was Zero. The automaton typically started his day by going to Aka for any repairs he needed or to help with whatever project they were currently working on, but with his friend being asleep right now he couldn’t do that. Instead he opted to inspect the cannon hold, which was his one of the few things he was singularly responsible for on the ship.

  So far on their trip he had only had the chance to use it once, but it had been possible because he kept it ready to use at a moments notice. They had four cannons in total, settled in small rooms around the galley. They were relatively compact, compared to the much larger ones that could be found on unity ships or galleons. The cannon balls they used were also pretty light at only six pounds, but they had enough kick to get the job done. Both were stored in the same room, the cannons kept under a protective tarp unless in use, and the cannon balls kept in designated barrels nearby. The gun powder used to fire them was kept in a specialized compartment on the other hand. Mea had enchanted it to keep the chamber at a certain level of humidity. Enough to prevent sparks, but not damage the powder itself. The enchantment only worked in the chamber, so when Zero had pulled out the powder to use when fighting the parafin it didn’t need to dry off before he could use it.

  After making sure each of the cannons was in working order and that the one he had used in the fight was undamaged, Zero made his way back above deck. As it reached the ladder Zero grabbed a hold of it like he always did and felt something. His vision was tinged yellow for a moment and he felt an incredible sadness come from inside him. Zero shuttered his eyes several times, trying to force the feeling down, and when it faded he realized he was on the top deck already. He didn’t remember climbing the ladder, how did he get here?

  Zero looked up to see Aka was up and at the helm, talking to Willow of all people. He thought Sola and Keiz were on the helm, how long had he been below deck? Zero glanced up, and noticed with alarm that it was slightly past midday now, meaning he had been below deck for hours. Why had no one come to get him?

  He took a step towards the helm. Neither Aka nor Willow had noticed him yet, or the strange thing that was happening to him. Though, he also found it weird that the cleric was up at the helm. Willow almost never came above deck unless she needed to be, let alone the upper deck where she was now. Zero wondered if she needed something to be fixed, since that was something Aka was good at. He briefly recalled the time that Mea threatened to drag him to Aka to get his brain fixed, and he wondered if they even could.

  They noticed him as he approached the bottom of the stairs, and Zero waved pleasantly. “Good to see you up Aka!”

  “Hello Zero, I’ve been up for a bit now,” Aka responded. They seemed slightly confused but had a light pleasant tone. They had only been sailing together for about three weeks now, but Zero could tell their demeanor had softened a bit.

  “Hey Zero?” Willow interrupted, taking the excuse to leave the top deck. “What type of weapons do you usually use?” She asked, making her way towards the stairs. Zero finally noticed that she was holding a staff in her hands, which he had never seen her with before. It was made a dark knotted wood and looked pretty sturdy.

  “I typically only use my gauntlets when I fight, I’m afraid I don’t really have the coordination for other types of weapons,” Zero replied. He held up his hands and with a short twisting motion he activated his gears. The gauntlets sprang out of their compartments on his forearms and snapped over his fists. He quickly adopted a fighting stance, only to realize he didn’t need to. It was just sort of what he did after he summoned his weapons. However Willow gave a clap in appreciation for the display, and even Aka nodded.

  Aka had seen his gauntlets before, and had even repaired the set when Zero cracked one while fighting the cloud chasers on their first night. Willow on the other hand had never had a reason to, as he was usually already disengaged when he went to her for healing.

  “Where did you get them?” Willow asked curiously.

  “I’m more interested in the fact that our cannon guy just said he can’t aim,” Aka pointed out.

  Zero just shrugged. “There is only so much aiming I can do with a cannon. The ship does most of the work.” It turned to Willow. “I’m not sure where they came from if I’m going to be honest. I’ve had them as long as I can remember, which is not that long.”

  “Have you ever thought of upgrading them?” Aka asked, a spark of creativity in their eyes.

  Zero pulled his arms back instinctively, before unclipping the weapon and letting it fold back into it’s slot. “I have not, but I was wondering if I could add other features to my arsenal. Like that flame thrower chief Meridia had.”

  “That could be really helpful for our next fight,” Willow pointed out.

  “I bet I could make that,” Aka said confidently. “If I can convince Keizeron to let me bring more combustible materials on board the ship that is. I mean, we have all the gun powder for the cannons but he gets upset with me for making one tiny bomb!”

  “I do believe it was the not telling anyone part that he was upset with, but that is none of my business. We should talk to him about it before we fight the warden, since with my fighting style I'm not sure how helpful I could be. From what you were saying I do not think I’ll just be able to go up and punch it,” Zero sighed, a sound that resembled an overheated computer fan.

  ((“How would any of them know what a computer fan sounds like?” Blair laughed.

  “That was clearly just for us,” Zenith shrugged.

  “Besides, Zero is a fully functioning-” Caine paused a moment. “-a mostly functioning robot man. Who’s to say that a computer doesn’t exist in this world to some capacity?”

  “Oh my god,” Zenith gasped suddenly. “You mean we’ve been in a pirate sci-fi instead of a high fantasy this whole time?! I thought we were doing lord of the rings but it turns out we were doing treasure planet?”

  “We are not doing either of those, this is a totally original story. Now let Zero figure out his flame thrower situation.”))

  Aka clearly looked like they wanted to get started right away, even taking their eyes off the skies ahead of them to start sizing up Zero. He could see them doing mental calculations on how long his fore arms were, and where they could store the fuel tank.

  Their train of thought was interrupted by Sola making his way above deck, his jacket off and folded over his shoulder. This was apparently what Willow was waiting for, as soon as he waved to them she jumped up to attention. The cleric quickly made her way to the lower deck and held her staff out to him. “Can we train now?”

  Sola looked surprised by her sudden request, and glanced up to where Aka was standing. “I was going to take a shift,” the first mate said hesitantly.

  “It’s fine, I can keep watch for a bit longer,” Aka shouted down to him. They had slept in that morning, they weren’t too tired that they couldn’t keep watch for an extra hour or so.

  Sola nodded in appreciation. “In that case, sure!”

  With a snap of his fingers Sola summoned his shield and tossed his jacket onto the deck near the mast. Once he had Willow’s attention he launched into an explanation of how to use a staff compared to a one handed weapon. She listened with rapt attention, twirling her staff absently as he talked.

  Zero wondered what else it wanted to do with it’s day. With their shift extended Aka wouldn’t be able to get his measurements, or draw up blue prints for his flame thrower. He had already checked on the cannons for the day, which left helping Mea with inventory or helping Sola and Willow with their training. No wait, Willow had mentioned earlier that she had already helped Mea with her chores. Or he could always find the captain, to see what he thought about Zero trying to modify himself before they fought the warden. Though, as he looked down and saw Willow hold her staff at the ready, he wondered if she wanted a target she wouldn’t feel bad about hitting. Zero didn’t feel pain; at least, not in the same way Sola did.

  He saw a flicker of sadness cross Aka’s face as he turned to leave, but it couldn’t be helped. There wasn’t anything else he could do up here. But as he grabbed the railing and stepped onto the first step his vision went yellow again. The same way it had when he was climbing the ladder that morning. That afternoon?

  This time Zero saw something. He was sitting in a dark and dusty room, if he had a nose he would have been sneezing already. Zero had the feeling that he had been here for a very long time, which he confirmed by noticing a thick layer of dust on his exterior. It had been asleep the whole time, turned off for who knows how many years.

  Despite how long it had been, a tiny noise woke him up. While he did his best to survey his surroundings and reboot his systems he heard the noise again. The room was almost completely pitch black, he could just barely make out the outlines of various crates, vaguely humanoid shapes draped in cloth, and beside him on a bench were several more shut off automatons. Something about them felt hollow in a way he couldn’t explain, and in a way that made him deeply uncomfortable.

  The dust shook loose as Zero shifted ever so slightly to glance around the room, spotting the thin source of light. There was a door on the other side of the boxes, just barely letting in a strip of illumination. Though, now that he had activated his eyes they were casting a faint yellow glow around his immediate vicinity.

  Then came the noise for a third time, but Zero found it to hard to move properly to find the source of the noise. He had been able to shudder, but true movement was beyond him at the moment. Of course it wouldn't, even if he had become conscious because of the noise he wasn't actually awake. Not like he was now.

  What?

  It was conscious enough to know the thought it just had made no sense, but it had no time to wonder what was going on before the door was opened fully.

  From where he was sitting Zero could see two people in the door frame, their silhouettes illuminated from behind. One of the figures was much significantly than the other, though Zero quickly realized they were just on their knees, and were holding up a lock picking set which they must have used to open the door. No wait, the figure stood up and remained much shorter than their companion, probably a dwarf or one of the halfoot races. The taller woman was standing behind him, her arms crossed over her chest in annoyance.

  They were both wearing long dark robes to obscure their figures, and had white masks over their faces. The ovular masks were completely blank aside for two small black dots for the eyes, giving them a sinister aura. If Zero could have moved he would have tried to get away from them. The bad vibes the pair gave off were even worse than the feeling he got from seeing his unmoving brethren.

  “Finally, took you long enough.” The woman hissed. She shoved past her companion into the room as he scurried to get his tools put away. Zero watched as the tall woman made her way around the room, lifting up the dusty tarps and opening crates to see what was inside.

  “Let’s just hurry up and find it, this places gives me the crepes,” The short man shuttered, following her in. He jumped when he noticed one of the automatons sitting in the dark.

  “It’s said like ‘creeps’ like you,” The woman sneered. She shut the lid of the crate she was looking into and wiped her dusty hands off on her robe. She surveyed the row of dead automatons, until her eyes locked with Zero’s. He could almost see her smile under her mask. “Bingo.”

  The man squeaked in surprise as she shoved the box out of her way, almost right on top of him. He stared angrily at her as he moved around the boxes to get to the automatons. “Look at all these old models,” he looked at Zero and took a nervous gulp of air.

  “It doesn’t matter how old it is, as long as we can convince the buyer it still works. Look, this one’s eyes can still turn on, we’ll be able to sell it for a gorgeous gold coin.” She explained, reaching under her robes and pulling out a plain leather bag. She started shuffling around in while the man tapped Zero’s chest.

  Zero wanted to pull away but he found he couldn’t. Of course not, that’s not how it happened.

  “We- we-” The man started to say something else, but apparently the dust had finally gotten to him and he sneeze violently. ((“Under the mask?” Caine nodded. “Ewwwww!”)) He sniffled miserably. “We should make sure to scuff out it’s serial number so they can’t trace it.”

  “You do that, you have the- thing,” The woman responded angrily as she couldn’t find what she was looking for in her bag.

  The man let out a loud sigh, only to cover his mouth when his partner glared at him. He took out a small glass vial and shook it violently. Zero heard something inside of it break, and suddenly the vial started to glow with a dim blue light. It barely illuminated the area, which meant that these two were trying to avoid alerting some sort of security. The man moved the vial around Zero’s chest, and made a confused noise. “Why, it doesn’t have a number! How old is this thing?”

  “Ah!” The woman made a happy noise as she pulled a strange looking metal device from her pack. “Come off it Agni, it doesn’t matter. Maybe they already scrubbed it, this isn’t exactly a ‘reputable’ factory. But it’s the one with the least security.” She clicked down on the object and it hummed to life. Zero had never seen anything like it, he couldn’t even imagine what it did but it gave him an uneasy feeling.

  It seemed the man, Agni, felt the same. “Why did you bring that? It could damage the product!”

  “It doesn’t matter, its already broken. Why do you think it’s locked up in the backrooms?” The woman hissed back at him. She held up the device.

  “We’re not supposed to use it on living things,” the man hesitated.

  “Does this thing look alive to you?” She snapped, touching the device to Zero’s forehead. He felt an excruciating pain surge through him and tried to scream. Instead, he woke up.