Rhys was escorted to his cabin, and the door was firmly shut behind him, leaving him alone for the moment. Rhys winced as he looked around the room, taking in the chaos that Actus had left behind. The pirate had certainly been thorough in the short time he’d been here.

Rhys started to tidy his cabin, trying to keep himself busy to give his mind time to catch up. He felt the Endeavour tremble as Giannis pushed their thrusters to full power and braced himself against the wall as they came around to a new heading.

Part of Rhys wished that all of this was just some sick dream, some nightmare that he would wake up from. How he wished that were the case, rather than having to face what came next.

Logically speaking, if the pirates wanted him dead, he’d be dead. That was cold comfort when they were kidnapping him and his crew, not to mention stealing his ship.

‘Rhys, I can provide your pistol with a full charge if required.’ Zaxx spoke into Rhys’s mind.

‘Not now. That would achieve nothing in this situation. Wait, what about Lucy’s pistol?’ Rhys whispered, oddly relieved to hear Zaxx’s voice. This was at least one advantage he had over the pirates.

‘I can not load her pistol, but I could provide it and the ammunition. Unfortunately, she keeps it unloaded when working on it.’

‘Okay, okay, well, that’s something,’ Rhys said, taking a deep breath as he tried to plan out how this could work. The pistol was wasted on him, but he could get it to Tom and give Lucy her pistol as well. The problem then was it was a dozen pirates versus two of them. Just over half the pirates were armed from what Rhys had seen. It could work, but they'd need a healthy dose of luck, surprise, and some damn good shooting.

The next problem would be what came after that; the other pirate ship was likely still nearby. Even if they won, they would just be caught again, and Rhys would have risked all their lives for no reason.

No, there were just too many risks and no surety of anything working. The best approach he could think of was to play along. The pistols were always there if he needed them.

Mind made up, Rhys settled down to wait. Who knew how long this journey would be.

-**-

A few hours passed in relative discomfort; Rhys was unable to settle despite being in his own cabin. He’d spent long hours here by himself in the past, but it wasn’t the same now. He lacked the feeling of security he’d always felt here.

Eventually, Giannis opened the door and came inside, perching himself opposite Rhys and folding his arms.

‘So, I’m sure you are curious as to where we’re taking you. We are heading for our local base of operations, one that you were conveniently close to. Now, when we arrive, Kassandra will want to speak with you.’ Giannis paused and cocked his head to one side, seemingly choosing his words with care. ‘If I were you, I would tell her everything you know, don’t leave anything out. If you do, she may well take what you say into account. I don’t know what you’ve done or who you’ve pissed off, but if I were you, I’d consider how to make myself useful.’

Giannis paused and waited to see if Rhys was going to say anything, nodding after a few moments and standing up once more.

‘Well, we will be arriving within the hour. I suggest you think on what I’ve said, dear Captain,’ Giannis said, waving goodbye as he strolled back out of Rhys’s cabin.

Thinking over what Giannis had said, Rhys shivered as he considered the mixture of warning and threat. He could imagine the potential fate that lay in store for him if he didn’t make himself useful somehow. Exactly how he would go about making himself useful was another question entirely.

Unable to do anything else, Rhys leant back against the wall and closed his eyes, doing his best to quiet his mind. He needed to be in good shape when he met this Kassandra.

-**-

A shift in the Endeavour’s motion caught Rhys’s attention. They were slowing down and starting to descend. It had been some time since Giannis came to see him. A descent like this likely meant that they were at their destination.

Their descent continued for another minute or two before coming to a halt. The distinctive thud of the Endeavour settling into a docking cradle echoed through the ship. Wherever they were going, they were there.

Actus opened the door as the Endeavour’s thrusters fell silent and the ship powered down.

‘Come with me,’ Actus croaked, motioning to the door with one hand while keeping the pistol in his other trained on Rhys.

Nodding and standing up, Rhys swallowed nervously and walked past the burly pirate. As he got halfway down the corridor, Rhys heard sounds behind him and glanced back to see Tom being brought out of his room. Rhys started to say something, but Acrus frowned and pushed him forward toward the stairs.

Two pirates with rifles waited at the stairwell, weapons at hand, as Rhys and Tom were escorted down the hall. Oddly, Rhys could see wisps of fog coming down the stairs as they approached.

Tom was taken over to the boarding hatch, but Actus ushered Rhys up the stairs, shoving him forward when Rhys stopped at the top and stared at their surroundings.

‘Ah, thank you, Actus. Welcome to our home, dear Captain, welcome to Kolis,’ Giannis called out, looking over in their direction from where he stood at the helm.

Rhys walked forward absently, guided by a meaty hand that Actus placed on his shoulder. His attention, however, was completely on their surroundings.

The Endeavour was one of five ships nestled within docking cradles in the centre of what was essentially a huge cavern. Exactly how large the cavern was, Rhys had no idea. The whole area was illuminated by a series of light-emitting poles that bathed everything with a reddish glow, but there was also an ever-present level of mist.

Looking up, Rhys could see a large hole where they had descended into the cavern. It was big enough to accommodate several ships the size of the Endeavour at the same time, giving him an idea of the scale of all of this.

Outside, the hole was obscured by a thick layer of grey cloud, just the right colour for the lower depths of the cloud sea, right before it became the misting. Somehow, those clouds were being kept out of the cavern.

Whatever was being used wasn’t keeping it all out. The fog that hung over the whole of the cavern showed that much. Still, it was a remarkable effect, and Rhys wondered just what was being used to do it.

‘Impressive, isn’t it?’ Giannis said from next to him, the pirate’s sudden presence making Rhys start in surprise.

‘How are the clouds kept out?’ Rhys asked, the question slipping out as he struggled to get his bearing.

‘The clouds? Now that’s an interesting question; not many people go straight to that. Most of them are interested in the buildings first,’ Giannis said, waving his hand off to one side.

Frowning, Rhys looked in that direction and stared with wide eyes at the buildings illuminated by the red glow of the poles. Rhys had spent hours working with ironwood and quartz, he knew what they looked like, and those buildings were something else entirely.

Some spires used brick and clay for buildings primarily, with other types of wood here and there, but nothing like this. It almost looked like they were made out of metal, but that would be an incredibly wasteful use of expensive material.

‘I see the question in your eyes. They are made of some form of metal that is beyond our own steel. They are from Before.’ Giannis’s words were hushed, but that in no way lessened the impact they had on Rhys. If it wasn’t for the stress of being a pirate captive and the knot of nausea that was festering in his gut, this would have been a momentous occasion.

There was so little that belonged to the Before, to the time when the world was whole. Rhys had heard stories of strange buildings and tools, but he’d never imagined seeing any himself.

‘Now, it's time to leave. Your crew have been taken to a holding area and will stay there while you speak with Kassandra,’ Giannis said amiably, motioning for Rhys to head back down the stairs.

Rhys led the way out of the Endeavour, surrendering his captain’s medallion to Giannis once they were outside. The rest of the pirates disembarked while Rhys handed over the medallion, Giannis sealing the Endeavour’s hatch before leading the way down from the docking cradle.

The medallion was designed to complete an artificed rune network, either locking or unlocking the door depending on the way it was turned and which part of the network the energy was sent to. As Zaxx could add energy directly, Rhys didn’t doubt that the eldritch entity could open the ship for him if needed.

As far as Giannis was concerned, the Endeavour was safe and secure, and Rhys would need the medallion to get into it. Add in the pistols that Rhys could access, and he had a few hidden cards he could play.

However, none of that helped right now, and Rhys felt a weight on his shoulders as he stepped off the boarding ladder. Even getting back to the Endeavour was going to be difficult from this point on; everywhere he looked, Rhys could see pirates moving through the red-tinged fog.

‘This way,’ Giannis said, walking past Rhys without a second glance.

Rhys followed after the odd pirate, his eyes roving their surroundings as he drank in the strange sights of Kolis. One of the first things he noticed was that the other pirates Rhys could see were armed, despite being in their home. The ratio of those who had firearms to those who didn’t was about the same, but everyone carried a weapon of some sort.

Rhys’s observations trailed off as they passed next to one of the light-emitting poles that he had seen from the Endeavour. The pole stood around a dozen feet in height and was made from the same strange metallic material as the other buildings. At the apex of the pole sat a globe of some sort, burning a bright red, bathing its surroundings in crimson.

Rhys tore his eyes away from the odd light source and hurried after Gianni. The last thing he wanted was for them to think he was trying to slip away and shoot him.

Giannis led Rhys deeper into the area of buildings that he’d seen earlier, though there were far more than Rhys had expected. Small, medium and large buildings were laid out in what was clearly some kind of organised manner, though Rhys could only see a small portion of it all.

A particularly large building loomed up before them, its entrance flanked by a pair of the light poles and by two tough-looking pirates with rifles. The men nodded to Giannis as he approached, their gaze lingering on Rhys for a moment before moving on.

Giannis opened the large door and stepped inside, gesturing for Rhys to shut it behind him as he came in. Mist swept into the building as the two of them entered, but it faded away quickly.

‘This way,’ Giannis said, moving further into the building. The interior was lit by soft red lighting, but the actual colour of the walls must have been a light grey from how it looked bathed in red.

The room they’d entered seemed almost like a reception area, but Giannis swept by it without pause, heading down a corridor and into a stairwell that branched off from it.

Rhys hurried to keep up with the pirate, wishing he could have been here under better circumstances. The ring of their boots on the stairs was slightly metallic, but not entirely so. What other material could form a freestanding spiral staircase?

The stairs led to a large, open-plan space that doubled as a meeting area. Several pirates were present, lounging in chairs while a second group was clustered around a large table.

‘Archon Kassandra, you won’t believe who I have with me,’ Giannis called out as he approached the group around the table. A bronzed woman straightened from where she had been leaning over the table and cocked a brow in Giannis’s direction.

‘Ah, Giannis, what have you brought me?’ Kassandra asked, folding her arms and turning her gaze to Rhys. Kassandra was a tall woman with shoulder-length braided brown hair and hazel eyes. A pair of pistols hung at her hips, and a trio of runes were branded onto her right cheek.

‘This is Captain Rhys Hunt of the Endeavour,’ Giannis said, stepping to one side with a flourish as he gestured to Rhys.

‘Who?’ One of the other people table questioned with a frown, but Kassandra raised a hand to interrupt them.

‘Everyone out, now.’ Kassandra stated evenly, but her words cut through the room and stopped any conversation immediately. The dozen or more people present, including Giannis, turned on their heels and left without question.

In mere moments Rhys was left alone with the indomitable woman, who had come around to the near-side of the table and leaned back against it, arms folded once more.

Rhys gulped and suppressed the urge to fidget as he returned Kassandra’s piercing gaze. Perhaps he’d finally find out what all this was about.