The trip back to the Endeavour was quiet, with both Rhys and Tom lost in thought. Their remaining escort had left them at the exit of the Daedalus, heading back in to help arrange the work party that Aeolus had requested.

'Wait for a second, Tom,' Rhys said as they came to the Endeavour's entrance.

'Yes, Captain,' Tom said with an unhappy expression, looking anywhere but at Rhys's face.

'Look, if there are some parts of your history that you want to keep private, that's fine. I don't need to know it right now. What I do need to know, however, is what other information you might know about these people. You called them Haelaran?' Rhys said, forcing himself to focus on something productive.

Tom visibly relaxed when he realised what Rhys was asking and nodded in response. 'Yes, Captain. They're from the Haelaran Union, which is a group of clans from deep in the Expanse. They specialise in harvesting operations, just like this, where the crew might be deployed for months at a time.' Tom paused and seemed to struggle for the right words for a moment. 'I've had some experience with them in the past. They're good people, but they're bound by tradition far more than we are in the Alliance.'

'Right, I did think this looked particularly organised and practised,' Rhys said with a slow nod, looking over their surroundings once more. 'Anything else?'

'The earrings are a sign of adulthood within the Union. Everyone over sixteen wears them. They also have their life's accomplishments tattooed onto their left arm, which is why it's exposed for all to see. Any ship captains wear a ring on their left hand as well. As a Senior Captain, Captain Aeolus had an inlaid silver one, which would also make him a clan elder.' Tom's gaze was distant as he rattled off the information, clearly remembering something from his past. A slight smile edged onto Tom's face, but it was bittersweet at best.

'You certainly know quite a bit about them,' Rhys said, his eyebrows climbing up as Tom spoke.

'Yes, Captain,' Tom said, pausing again indecisively. Rhys started to reassure him that he didn't need to explain, but Tom held up a hand and continued. 'It's a painful subject for me, which is why I don't like to talk about it, but my past history won't cause any issues for you.'

'Thank you, Tom, I can see how hard that was for you,' Rhys said, resting a comforting hand on the big man's shoulder. He could see the pain in Tom's eyes and knew that whatever had happened, it hadn't been pleasant for him.

Not wanting to pressure Tom further, Rhys opened the hatch, and they headed inside. Tom went for the cargo hold to prepare the supplies for pickup, while Rhys went to his cabin.

As soon as he shut the door behind him, Rhys took a breath and looked up at the ceiling. 'Zaxx, we need to talk.'

'Yes, Rhys. What do you need?' Zaxx said, a slight prickling running down Rhys's spine as he felt the eldritch entity's attention focus on him.

'I want to talk about the kurador. About what happened at the end,' Rhys said, walking across his cabin to sit in an empty chair.

'I can feel that you are upset, but I'm unsure why. Please explain.'

'I want to know why you lied to me,' Rhys said, struggling to keep his anger under control. He hated being lied to at the best of times, and somehow the pact he had with Zaxx made it worse.

'I haven't lied to you, Rhys.' Zaxx said, a hint of confusion coming through in his whispered voice.

'You did. At no point have you ever said that you could take over parts of my body. In fact, you specifically said that you couldn't do that when I first met you. Yet, somehow, when you wanted to see the kurador you were able to look through my eyes. How convenient.' Rhys snapped off the words with a bite, his frustration over being ordered about by Captain Aeolus feeding into his sense of betrayal from Zaxx's lies.

'I was only able to do so because you permitted me to. Now that our pact is solidifying, we are becoming more closely bound. The act of allowing me to share your senses has only deepened the strength of the pact.'

'Why would that strengthen the pact, and how do I know you're not lying to me now?' Rhys said, demanding his answers from the ceiling of his cabin.

'Any action to hold up our parts of the pact strengthen it. I have done as much as I can through running the ship and assisting you in day to day activities. By allowing me to experience vision for the first time and see such a unique type of creature, you have held up your side of the pact to the same degree. I do not understand why you are upset about something you gave permission for.'

'I feel like you hid this from me, that's why. What else can you do now? What else will you be able to do in the future?' Rhys demanded, standing back up to start pacing back and forth.

'There are only a few minor abilities that I have not specifically mentioned, such as the area around you where I can not act growing smaller. With regard to the future, that will depend on what we do and how we develop the pact. It is not a set thing. You can not quantify it with measurements.'

'Okay, I'm willing to accept that,' Rhys said, starting to calm down and think about it all more logically. As far as he knew, Zaxx had never lied to him, so he'd take Zaxx's statements at face value for the moment. 'When you do develop new abilities, however, please inform me before pulling them out at the last minute. Okay?'

To be fair, what Zaxx was saying made sense as well. It had all just come as a shock to Rhys. He didn't like surprises like that.

'If that will aid in pacifying your doubts, then I will do so.'

'Thank you. I do appreciate that,' Rhys said, sighing heavily as he sat back down and sagged against the back of the chair. Sometimes it was just so frustrating dealing with Zaxx.

'Mr Morgan is approaching your cabin, Rhys.'

'Thank you, Zaxx,' Rhys said, sighing once more before rising and going over to open his door.

Tom was at the door and had his hand raised to knock when Rhys opened it. 'Ah, Tom, I was just heading out,' Rhys said, mentally kicking himself for opening the door. He'd just acted automatically to Zaxx's words, like an idiot.

'No problem, Captain. I was coming to let you know that the Daedalus's crew has picked up the shipment.' Tom stepped to one side to clear space for Rhys to leave as he spoke.

'Good, good. Well, all that's left is to get ready for dinner with their captain later,' Rhys said, coughing into his hand as he stepped into the corridor and shut the door to his cabin behind him. 'In fact, that's where I'm off now, to tell the others about it.' Rhys nodded firmly in response to his own statement, cringing internally with every word.

'Of course, Captain. I'll leave you to it,' Tom said, bracing to attention and heading back toward the crew quarters at the front of the ship.

Rhys rubbed his face and took a moment to gather his thoughts before heading off to find the other two as he said he would. That had been a particularly stupid mistake to make on his part. Tom was no idiot. If Rhys started doing things like opening doors before he got there, he'd realise that something was going on.

Lucy's cabin was the closest, but Rhys wanted a few extra moments to clear his head, so he went for Oliver's first.

Rhys knocked on the door and stepped back, but there was no answer. Giving it a moment, Rhys knocked again, but still nothing.

Glancing up and down the corridor, Rhys made sure he was alone before whispering under his breath. 'Zaxx, where is Oliver?'

'Mr Brown is not onboard. He left not long before you returned.'

'Oh, okay,' Rhys said, rubbing the back of his neck with a slight frown. He was a little surprised by that and couldn't help but wonder what Oliver was up to.

'Ms Val Drack is in her cabin, however.' Zaxx added a few moments later, anticipating Rhys's next question.

'Good, thanks,' Rhys said, heading back down the corridor to the last cabin before his own. Taking a deep breath, he rapped smartly on the door, Lucy pulling it open before he could step back.

'Rhys, good, I need you,' Lucy said, flashing him a brilliant smile that he couldn't help but return. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him into the cabin and shut the door before dragging him over to her bed in the corner.

Rhys flushed and started to say something before realising that she was actually bringing him to the small table next to her bed. As Lucy had an officer's cabin, there was enough room inside for some basic furniture, most of which was already cluttered with her things.

'Here, take a look at this, what do you think,' Lucy said, letting go of his arm to pick up a small, squat contraption from the table and hand it to him.

Trying to ignore the warm spot on his arm from where her hand had been, Rhys looked at the box-like device. It was around seven inches long and several inches deep, with an opening at the top where two pieces of cloud quartz poked through, each in a pointed shape and an inch or two apart. Rotating it, he saw a series of numbers carved into the side, but he didn't recognise the sequence.

'What is this?' Rhys asked, frowning as he tried to work out what it was.

'It's what they're calling rune modules. It's part of a heater I bought back on Arn Dukatt, but it contains all the runework needed for the device. All the big artificer guilds are doing this now to protect their rune knowledge. There is a vial of acid inside that will destroy the runes if it's broken into. No more experimenting with rune combinations to figure them out,' Lucy said, grimacing a little as she waved a hand at the box Rhys held.

Rhys frowned as he looked at the device again. This was precisely the sort of closed-minded thinking that Lucy had warned him about before. He still couldn't get his head around the reasons behind doing something like this. It just didn't make sense to him.

The usual way that artificers protected their knowledge was to obfuscate the correct runes with additional carvings on and around them. Hiding the runes amid several other possibilities made it incredibly difficult to work out which was correct and then replicate them. Apparently, that wasn't enough anymore.

'What are you going to do with it?' Rhys asked, extending the module back to her.

'Honestly, I was going to try and break in and see what I could figure out, but I wanted to see if you had any ideas first,' Lucy said, waving for him to keep it as she flopped down on the bed behind her and leaned up against the wall. 'Keep it, see if you can figure it out. I'm out of ideas, bar breaking it open.'

'Okay, I'll see what I can do,' Rhys said, cheeks flushing as he backed away to the door.

'Good, let me know!' Lucy called out as he left and shut the door behind him.

Rhys got halfway back to his cabin before he realised he hadn't mentioned dinner with Captain Aeolus. Turning back, he pushed open the door of Lucy's cabin and walked straight in.

Lucy was still sitting on her bed, a thin sheet of wood in her lap and stylus in hand. She looked up as he entered and raised an eyebrow with a slight smile, 'back so soon?'

'Ah, yes, I just wanted to update you on the situation. So, the Daedalus is the ship next to us, and its captain, Aeolus, has asked us to remain here for two days as a preventative measure against the korador. He's also invited us all to dinner this evening.'

'That makes sense, and dinner out does sound nice. The galley here can be a bit cramped if we're all in it. Not to say it's not well designed and put together, just that a change would be nice,' Lucy said with a half-shrug and a wave of a hand.

'Good, well, he'll send over someone when it's time to head over. That was all,' Rhys said, clearing his throat and waving goodbye as he backed out of her room. He hated how awkward he was with his crew interactions. He needed to sort that out.

Shaking his head at himself, Rhys headed back down the corridor and into his cabin once more. Closing the door, Rhys set the rune module down on a nearby table and cocked his head to one side in thought.

'I'm surprised you didn't take offence at her issue with the galley, Zaxx,' Rhys muttered, thinking back on how quick Zaxx had been to take offence in the past.

'She presented a reasoned argument couched in a compliment, I chose to chalk that up to mortal fallibility. On a more specific matter, would you like me to open that "module" for you?'

'You can do that?' Rhys asked, his eyes widening as he looked back at the sealed module on the table. 'Without damaging the runes, I mean.'

'Of course,' Zaxx said, his whispers taking on a bridled tone.

Rhys considered it for a moment before shrugging. There wasn't much to lose here and a lot to gain. 'Go for it.'

'Very well, please do not pick it up or move any closer,' Zaxx said, a prickling sensation running down Rhys's spine a moment later.

Rhys watched as the sap that sealed the module slowly melted away, leaving two pieces of ironwood pressed around the cloud quartz connectors.

'The sap and the trap on the interior have been absorbed as raw materials. You can now pick it up.'

'Fantastic work, Zaxx,' Rhys said, pulling open the module to reveal the inner workings. The left-hand piece of ironwood held the runes that connected to the cloud quartz rods that ran out of the box. The right-hand piece had several smooth points, likely remnants from where Zaxx had altered whatever had been inside. In fact, Rhys could see a few additional smooth points within the runework itself, likely the acid trap that Lucy had mentioned.

Examining the runework more closely, Rhys saw the Weak rune, followed by one he didn't recognise. The first rod linked to the Weak rune, and the second to the one he didn't recognise.

Logically speaking, that meant that one rod provided the input energy and the other the output effect of the formation. If there was no connector at the end of the rune and nothing else to specify how it should be applied, the effect would be on the wood itself. In this case, however, the rod acted as a channel for the action of the formation, drawing it elsewhere.

Cloud quartz, like all quartz, was a terrible heat conductor, so it would make sense for the output rod to attach to something like a strip of metal. The metal would be the endpoint of the formation, so it would be the heated part of it all.

Following all that logic through, the unknown rune was likely one to do with heating. Rhys would have to experiment with it later and work out exactly what it was and its properties.

Grinning happily, Rhys stored the module away. He'd come back to that when he had more time later. He still had a few things to do, after all.