Leaving Xander coughing in a cloud of smoke, spawned by the last bomb, Joe crouched behind a bunch of wooden crates nearby. He prayed to Kon’jar, hoping that neither of the angry cats would find him.

It was a good spot to spy on them too.

Xander emerged from the gray cloud. His eyes were filled with fire.

Not in the most merciful of moods, Joe guessed.

Iliana appeared, gun in hand. She shouted something, but the hiding place for this peace-loving personality (that was shaking in its boots while still staring at the pair from the gap between crates) stood too far for Joe to pick anything up.

The quartermaster waved his hand. Gun went down, but Iliana radiated so much furious energy, the Sun itself would be jealous.

Fittingly, they were both orange.

She stepped towards the crates. Joe prepared to shuffle away, when Xander put his hand on her shoulder.

Such simple action caused her to turn one-eighty in an instant. Even better, after a couple of seconds of hesitation, the black dragoncat reached his palm out to her.

Iliana scratched her head, smiling sheepishly.

Well, it was the best Joe could do there. He didn’t stay for the ending. There was no need for that.

He would rather bombard Xander with questions back at the Morning Star.

Satisfied, Joe scurried away from the hiding spot.

The watch revealed that an entire hour passed since midnight. And the night did not want to quiet down. Joe heard the distant singing of the crowd.

Kon’jar, Mad Festival… the important pieces of world history. If only he had more time…

Why does one day has 24 hours only?! Make it 48! Why does this world has to have 24 too?! Ridiculous!

It would be a good moment to go back to the ship, he realized. What else was there to do in Ghastly Wail? Join the party?

The possible damage to his health would cost him more than five thousand Zinks, for sure.

He decided to take one last detour around the place.

*****

“Scree-e-e-e! Scree-e-e-e!”

The sudden sounds drilled into his brain.

“Scree-e-e-e-e-e!!”

Behind a small door made from solid iron bars, locked by a bar, Joseph saw a group of white four-legged creatures. Straw covered the floor the animals(?) stood on. All four of them aimed their short black horns at the intruder. Their stout bodies tensed. One creature waddled closer to the door and sniffed Joe with its black snout.

Joseph took a step back. The animal lost interest and lied down on the straw floor.

“I wish I had that attitude, mate…” Joe chuckled.

The door, separating mysterious animals from people outside, had no lock on it. Only the bar that even a ten-year-old could wrestle away with moderate difficulty.

Pirates…

A lead pipe led from the brick building nearby into the shed, filling the water basin inside. For all intents and purposes, this place had the appearance of a small barn.

Not much of a mystery there.

Joe shook his head and continued on.

The narrow passage went silent. Even noises from outside the alleyway had a hard time forcing their way down here, despite being on the eastern side, closer to the rowdy areas of the settlement.

His steps bounced off stone walls and added crunch into the stillness of the night. That was the exact right moment for some ancient demon to appear in the middle of the street and offer riches and power in exchange for little something…

Joe laughed. That would be too ridiculous, even for this place.

Would it, brother?

Understanding, shush!

Joe felt like his foot touched something, and looked down. The random bottle rolled in front of his boot.

“Lost your way, friend?”

The heavy tone carried notes of precaution, but didn’t sound particularly threatening. Joe raised his eyes up.

The group of heavily armed people in black appeared in his vision. Or rather, he just noticed them in front of the stone building by his left hand, slightly ahead.

Two of them placed themselves on the porch; one (a rhevalian with gray fur) of these two sat on a handrail, chewing on a piece of blue cheese. Another one, who was unambitiously human, stood tall, leaning on the post of the porch.

Joe heard shuffling on the balcony above the porch. An arid there was devouring him with his eyes. When the man realised that Joe gave him some attention, the arid grinned, demonstrating the innocent smile. Innocent, compared to the obvious maniacal grin another thug greeted Joseph with.

That guy slouched on top of the crate labelled ‘Danger!’, inhaling smoke from a pipe in his hand. Joe did not see a single strand of hair on his bald head.

And finally, the one who greeted him was sitting on a drum barrel with a bottle in hand.

Seems like a friendly bunch.

“Kind of. I got sidetracked.”

Not the best conversation starter, but Joe couldn’t come up with anything better at the moment. But he had to break the ice - and quickly, because the longer he stared at them, the more familiar their faces appeared…

The guy on the barrel shrugged.

“Awww, not having fun today? I get it, I get it. Sometimes you just wanna be all alone, without some drunk dummies behind your back, whispering…”

The rhevalian on the handrail snorted, visibly trying to keep himself from laughing.

“Say, friend, what do you think about Sumeilien?”

“...Excuse me?”

Now that came right from the Far Far Away Kingdom.

The person on the crate picked himself up and sat upright.

“That was a simple question. What’s so hard to understand?”

“Yeah, right?” the barrel man chuckled. “Friend, were my words too complicated for one such as yourself?”

“It just came out of nowhere,” Joe smiled sheepishly.

“Just humour him, man,” the arid on the balcony nodded. “He was asking stupid questions all day long. Shouldn’t have given him Grutch for the breakfast.”

The entire group broke into hysterical laughter, including the guy in question. Joe’s face froze with an awkward expression.

After letting the emotions out, the man with a bottle winked at Joe.

“Well?”

Joseph rubbed his chin. What did he think about the Empire, really?

“...It’s a country, I guess?…” his voice trailed off. “It seems fine?…”

That was clearly not the answer they were looking for, if the grim expression from the crate guy was any indication.

“You don’t know what Sumeilien is, or what? Mate, that’s Empire for you, not some small country somewhere in at the edge of Threshold.”

“Lay off the guy, M-” the barrel guy jammed his lips together, coughed, and continued. “Our friend here is a bit confused, clearly. You are not scared of us, are you?”

Joe shrugged.

“I don’t know you well enough, but you seem like an alright bunch.”

Well, that was a load of bullshit. Hope they didn’t catch that.

The chirping of local crickets accentuated the lingering trails of weird tension. The friendly guy and the crate guy exchanged glances. The gray rhevalian furrowed his face, but made no attempt to move. The human on the porch and the arid on the balcony remained stoic.

The windows of the house had no hints of people within. Until now.

The flare of light passed by on the second floor. A face appeared for a split second - and it was gone before Joe could even react to it.

The barrel guy slid off his throne. His thoughtful gaze wandered around, not focusing on anything in particular. Then he pointed his index finger at the sky and muttered ‘Ah!’.

“Apologies, friend! It seems we misunderstood each other. See, the generous folk of Ghastly Wail often have very interesting reactions if you ask them the question, but you seem to be an upstanding guy… maybe.”

Joe didn’t like the tone that went together with that ‘maybe’.

“...So, what brings you here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

He did mind him asking. The polite and genuinely curious tone was not going to salvage his arising suspicions either.

“Pirates brought me here. I have no idea what I myself doing in here, even.”

The guy on the crate grinned.

“What are you, a hostage? Where are your kidnappers, then?”

“I got volunteered… I guess.”

The barrel thug and the crate thug made an ‘Oh!’ sound together.

“I see…” this time, the main ‘negotiator’ sounded completely sincere. “Tough luck, friend. I would offer you a ride from this hole to the nearest town, but this is not up to me, sorry. Well, try not to catch a stray bullet. Maybe you’ll get a way out.”

That was a nice gesture, Joe wasn’t going to deny it. He hesitated for a second and nodded slowly.

“Thanks… I’ll try.”

The words came out genuine, without any input from his side.

He noticed that the man on the crate was looking at him with a mischievous expression. He would take it. Better than appearing suspicious in front of well-armed, wary people.

The door of the house creaked. It slowly moved away to reveal a very familiar person behind it.

Joe lost his breath.

The long and flowing black hair. The red cape.

The venomous green eyes. Well, that was new.

But the rest he recognized right away. The royal beauty of this woman pulled his attention and nailed it shut, scrambling his thoughts and desires.

It was the same person he saw back in the ‘Rattlebones’.

The woman smiled. Joe closed his eyes, gathering together shattered pieces of his Mind.

He heard faint laughter on the edge of his consciousness. It helped. He could think clearly now.

“It seems that this poor guy got captured by you at the first glance, Eve!”

That was the barrel man’s voice. Joe opened his eyes.

Only to find the deep green eyes inspecting him.

“Second. We met before, in the tavern.”

Her sweet voice flowed into Joe’s ears like the river of honey.

“But I didn’t expect his arrival at my doorstep. We didn’t even exchange our names, truth be told. Time to correct that, don’t you think?”

Joe gritted his teeth.

Focus, damn you!

“Yeah, I… I guess… so. Joseph… I mean, Joseph is my name.”

He stumbled over his words the same way Pat was stumbling in the forest back on Black Island. Horribly.

The woman smiled. Joe felt himself drowning again.

“I like that name, Joseph. I am Evalyn Hansen. You're part of the Morning Star crew, correct?”

How does she know that?

But then again, she saw him at the tavern…

“Kinda…”

He forced himself to look away. His gaze landed on the barrel man. The thug sneered and said nothing.

“’Kinda’?” Joe heard the disappointed voice of Evalyn. “Did they not accept you? The standards these days are too high even among pirates, I see. What did they not like about you?”

He turned back to her. Evalyn’s inquisitive gaze gave him shivers, and he was not sure whether he was delighted by such attention or not.

But he had to answer something. Damn you Mind, work!

“They… forced me to become part of the crew…”

But why am I telling you this?…

The bright smile soothed his ruptured soul.

“I understand. Do or die. The pirates’ way of recruiting is barbaric and cruel - as it has always been. The ‘Freedom’ is the word they put on their flags and wave it around, demonstrating their supposed superiority. But when it comes to offering this privilege to someone else, they give you only two options - slavery, or death. Not a fair choice, is it?”

Joe found himself nodding at her words. But something in the back of his headspace kept nagging at him. Something about her words…

“You… are not pirates?…”

Evalyn furrowed her brows. Her steel gaze drilled Joe through.

“What did you say?”