The sound of chatter woke me up. Is it morning?. I couldn’t tell, there was no window down here. Fayette and Alberto are speaking to each other in the corner of the room. Fayette. Our…recruitment of her was not exactly planned. I thought that we could trust her because she was also seeking her freedom, and I hoped to the Gods that she does not betray us, and I also needed her to turn my ax back to normal. I stood up from the cold ground of the prison cell and walked to them.

“Good morning!” Fayette said to me, showing her bright white teeth as she smiles.

How is she so carefree. We could die if things don’t go to plan.

“We should be arriving at Crescent Moon harbor soon. Fayette, turn the ax smaller” Alberto said.

I did not like that idea, but we had to do it. We couldn’t let them see the ax when they load us into cargos. Fayette flew over to my back and touched the ax, as it began to shrink, by the time the spell completed, it was no bigger than a mouse.

“Pixie magic certainly is something, isn’t it,” Alberto said in a complimenting tone.

Fayette tapped her chest with a smug smile on her face. She then flew to Alberto and asked:

“Where do they bring the slave cargos to? What if it’s someplace we can’t escape from?”

“Usually, auction houses. We will be put inside a storage area to wait for the owner of the auction house to come to get us. I thought of going invisible when they going the cargo, but now we don’t have to. When they load us into the storage from the carriages, you can make the ax larger and he could break out of the cargo by force. There will be a few guards, but from what I heard about his fighting abilities, they shouldn’t be a problem, right Ivo?” He looked at me after finishing his speech.

“Yes”

He was putting heavy faith in me, and it sounded like a risky plan. But it is the fastest way and the least risky way. If we were to go invisible when they open the cargo, It would be hard to escape out of an unfamiliar place. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong. Fayette landed on my shoulder and sat down there. They reminded me of Vesper and Chelsea. Hopefully, it wasn’t long until I could see them again. But, I found it strange that Alberto knew so much about slavery.

“How come you know so much about slavery, Alberto?” I asked him.

“I used to be a slave, then I escaped, and was captured again by the captain here.” He said to me, after staring at me with his green eyes.

I wondered if that was the truth, but I decided to not pry into it any longer.

“Stratford said that the offer still stands, for both of us. Did he want you to work for him as well?”

“It doesn’t matter, what matters now is what happens next.” He started to raise his tone.

Fayette pinched my shoulder. I probably shouldn’t ask him much. All we had to do then was wait until we get to the Crescent Moon harbor. I felt anxious again. All I could hope for was for the plan to work. I wondered how Fayette became a slave. But I did not want to upset her like how I did with Alberto. It was never a fun memory to share, so I just sat there, waiting.

Before long, we heard bells. We heard someone on deck yelling out that we have arrived. It’s time, I thought to myself. About 30 minutes later, I could hear the footsteps of the guard.

“Follow me ya dim wits,” The guard told me.

None of us said anything. Fayette had flown into my shirt, making sure no one could see her. We followed him. The hallway suddenly felt so long, the walking felt like an eternity. When we got to the part where we were supposed to turn to the deck. We never did. The guard kept on walking. I turned to Alberto with a confused look, and he did the same to me.

“The captain wants to see you” The guard finally said.

Has he figured out our plans? What does he want with us? These thoughts that haunted my mind were replaced by the feeling of danger when we arrived at his door. I instantly knew that Stratford was angry, and I could feel blood lust pouring out behind that door. Dreadful. That was my thought as this feeling overpowered me. I looked back to the guard. I realized that this was the same guard that we tricked last night. I knew why he wants us. I looked at Alberto. He didn’t have any weapon, if it does come to a fight, he would be in trouble. I wondered if Fayette’s magic would work, or if she had any combat magic because as far as I know, the spell Minima does not work on living creatures.

“Come in” A deep voice calls from inside the room.

The guard opened the door and led us in. Stratford was facing the window behind his desk. The guard walked out of the room and closed the door. Through the window, I could see the beautiful harbor Crescent Moon and the city Lunae Lumen. Seagulls filled the sky and the people outside looked lively. I could see tons and tons of cargos being brought in and out of ships, but my enjoyment was short-lived when Stratford turned around. He looked red, his eyes squinted, his left hand holding tight on his glass of whiskey.

“Do you know why I called you two here?” He said with a deep town.

I stared at his eyes. Then I shook my head, and Alberto did the same thing. Alberto looked very tense like he was afraid that Stratford might slit his throat if he does anything at all. For some reason, I was not afraid, even though I knew Stratford was a very strong fighter. The pain in my abdomen is still there, but despite that, I was ready to fight if I wanted to.

“The reason why you are here” He paused for a moment. “Is because a certain pixie is missing. Do you guys have anything to do with this?” He asked in a stern voice.

We shook our heads again. This time, I could hear Alberto breathing heavily, but he did not look so afraid anymore. Rather, he looked angry, like something has offended him somehow. Stratford then walked slowly to us and looked up and down at our bodies. . He then walked back to his desk, I could hear him whispering something under his breath. He then opened up the secret drawer on his desk, turned around with his rapier out, and finished chanting his spell.

The Ray of Fire shot at us. Fayette flew out of my shirt to the ceiling to dodge that with my ax with her. She flew on top of Stratford’s head and made the ax big again. The heavy ax dropped down, but Stratford was able to dodge it, causing the ax to break the floor. Alberto then lunged at him while dodging the fire, trying to hold him down. But Stratford was able to dodge that as well, causing Alberto to run into the desk instead. I dodged the ray of fire, then ran to pick up the ax. As soon as I touched that ax, Stratford lunged at me. But before his blade could reach my body, he let out a painful groan. Alberto threw a pen at his legs. He got down on his knees, trying to get the pen out. I brought my ax up down, aiming at his neck, but he put his rapier up to block it, with one arm. What monstrous strength. He took the pen out and got up on his feet again. Alberto lunged at him with a different pen, but again, he dodged it. But I anticipated that, and I charged him. Blood came out as I barely sliced him with a horizontal slash. He groaned out a bit and then started to chant another spell. Alberto and I charged him at the same time, but he was faster. He landed a clean hit on both of us with the blast spell, as we got knocked out of the window, breaking it, and fell to the ocean.