When Ren comes to, he’s kneeling on the ground, something sharp biting into his wrists. He opens his eyes, vision blurred for just a second. He’s in a dark and damp place, bugs crawling through the crevices in the floor of this featureless room. A gentle rocking brings about another wave of nausea, and Ren resists the urge to puke.

One other thing that he notices, when he attempts to rub his eyes, is that he is unable to move. Chains clink as he attempts to free his hands, only then realizing that he’s cuffed to the wall. What the hell?

He glances at the door—made of a light-coloured wood—and notices a pair of eyes peeking through a narrow slit. The pair of eyes then disappear, and Ren hears a pattering of footsteps as whoever that was runs off. Great. Now he feels like those kinds of prisoners in role-playing games. Unable to act, unable to move, totally helpless.

What happened before this? What does he remember? There was heat, though it did not harm him. There was a lot of shouting, a lot of screaming, a lot of singing blades and squeaks of boots on damp wood. A shot of pain rips through Ren’s temple, and Ren grimaces, ducking his head and trying to contain the ache.

He looks up at the creak of hinges. Stepping into the room is a familiar woman, violet robes wrapped loosely around her thin frame, revealing a tight-fitting blouse and shorts underneath. She folds her arms, sizing him up like a hungry predator. Like a cat playing with a mouse before gobbling it up.

“How are you feeling?” the woman asks, her voice soft like silk. Rather high-pitched too. It sounds like it belongs to a young girl if he’s being honest. However, from under the shade of her hood, curtained by dark, curly locks, Ren can see the deep wrinkles upon her weathered face. Skin stretched thin over cheeks, sallow where it dips into the cavity of her mouth.

“I’m…not doing too hot,” Ren says, jerking his chin at the chains. “It hurts.”

“As it should,” the woman says. Ren furrows his brows; her name is at the tip of his tongue, though he cannot quite remember. Captain Percival did talk about her, didn’t he? His first wife…Lissa, was it? “You got off lightly, and you should thank your lucky stars you are the Luminary.”

“Where’s Penny?” Ren asks, tugging against the cuffs, ignoring the way it digs into his flesh. “You took her, didn’t you? Where is she right now?”

“Concerned?” Lissa squats, such that she’s at his eye level. She grabs his face, forcing him to look into her eyes. Swirling with brown and flecks of green, holding an emotion so intense that Ren can only describe it as “loathing”. “You think I can’t see through your lies? You don’t care about her. You just want to get with her, don’t you? Men only think with the lower half of their bodies.”

“No, I don’t!” Ren cries, words coming out muffled at the way she pinches his cheeks, flushing at the mere idea. He doesn’t even swing that way! “Please, Penny’s my friend! Is she safe?”

“Safer than if she was back on that ship. Safer than if she’s with you.”

“How can I trust that? How do I know you don’t have her locked up—”

“Whether or not to believe me, it’s your choice.” Lissa stands and turns her back on him. Ren watches hopelessly as she makes for the door. Struggling against these restraints won’t help; it’ll only serve to injure him if he pulls hard enough. Without another word, Lissa shuts the door on him with a deafening bang, leaving Ren alone once more.

Frustration bubbles up in his chest, and Ren feels the sudden urge to stomp his foot, punch something, like a child who didn’t get what they wanted. Ren bites back a sigh, but he cannot quite stop the worry gnawing at him from the inside, turning his stomach into a gooey mess.

Will he ever get to see his friends again? Are they going to leave him here to die, alone? Or will they make him walk the plank? Looking at Lissa’s misandry, the chance that he’s going to be released is slim at best. Unless Penny can pull a few strings and…

What about Vane, Gridel and Clemon? Are they coming to save them? Will Captain Percival choose to seek out his worst enemy to rescue the Luminaries? The Luminary. That title saved him, and Ren has never been gladder to be the “Chosen One” in his life.

However, that title does him no good in a situation like this. Even if he is the Luminary, Lissa doesn’t seem quite ready to welcome him into her ranks with open arms. It doesn’t sound like he can reason with her either. What can he do? What else is there to do?

Ren inspects his cuffs, as much as he is able to see, anyhow. They appear to be made of thick metal, with hints of brown scattered along its edges. Rust, so probably iron. Ren’s gaze trails across its surface, looking for anything that could help him at all. Then, he spots it—a small keyhole carved into one of the cuffs. He doesn’t have its key, though perhaps the guards outside do.

“Hey!” Ren shouts. A set of eyes appears in the slit once more, and hope flickers in Ren’s chest. “Hey, I’m, uh…I’m a little hungry here!”

He isn’t sure what he was expecting, honestly. The pair of eyes vanishes as suddenly and as quickly as it had appeared. Ren sighs, dropping his head. Well, it was worth a shot. He definitely needs another plan…but what? If only he had Ifrit with him—he’d make short work of these handcuffs. But the fact remains that he doesn’t have Ifrit with him. For now, at least, he’d have to think of something else…

*

Ren isn’t quite sure how long he’s spent cooped up in there. He tried standing, but the handcuffs are too low, and the chains are too short. He can only sit, stomach growling, as he leans against the wooden wall. His throat is as dry as a desert—forcing any sound through it only invites pain.

Then, he hears the rhythmic thumping of footsteps. Familiar voices echo down the corridors—Ren recognizes that voice. In fact, it’s probably the only other voice he would recognize on this ship other than Lissa’s.

“Let him go right now! He’s not a bad guy!” Penny half-screams, and Ren shudders. His friend can be scary if she’s mad. The other voice tries to placate her, but Penny ignores it, raised voice thundering, reaching even Ren’s ears. Ren bites back the urge to chuckle, for laughter would quite possibly tear his larynx or something.

The door then swings open, revealing Penny and Lissa on the other end. Penny’s jaw drops and within seconds, she’s running over to him. She drops to a knee beside him, laying her cold fingers on his cheeks. Ren flinches at the touch but stares into Penny’s worried gaze.

“Oh God. Fuck, Ren. I’m sorry, I should have come earlier. I swear…” She turns to Lissa, who stands by the doorway. “Oi! I could use a little help getting these cuffs off him!”

“Letting a man loose on our ship?” Lissa hisses. “Have you lost your mind?”

Penny stares at her incredulously. “This is inhumane!”

“Inhumane? You want to talk inhumane with me?” Lissa strides over, arms folded. “You have no idea how many years we’ve lived in fear for our lives under the rule of men!”

“Ren isn’t like that!” Penny huffs. “Besides, aren’t you judging him a little too quickly? You’ve only just met.” She stands, holding out her wrist. “Chain me to him if you must, but you have to let him go.”

Lissa barks out a laugh. “We’re pirates, little Luminary. Not a charity. We don’t do things for free.”

Penny clenches her fists. “In return for letting him go, I’m keeping him by my side. How’s that unfair?”

“Keeping him bound to you is your personal responsibility for asking him to be let loose in the first place. We could easily chop his head off or throw him to the Sirens. You’re not exactly doing us a favour, little Luminary.”

“Penny, it’s—” Ren starts, but is interrupted with a boot stomped in front of him, heel digging into the wood. He shuts up immediately under Lissa’s steely glare.

“Fine. Name your price.” Penny puts her hands on her hips, staring her down, and for a moment, Ren can almost see the budding mayoress that she is. “What do you want in return?”

“What do I want?” Lissa’s lips curl upwards. Ren does not like the look of that at all. “Dear girl, there’s only one thing I want in this whole wide world.”

“And what’s that?”

“To sink the ship of Cascasia,” Lissa says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“To…sink the ship,” Penny repeats.

Lissa licks her lips, nodding. “That’s right. Cascasia has been a plague upon the seas for too long. It’s time for them to learn their place. The world has no need for their brutality. Besides, I have a friend who…” Lissa trails off, and neither Ren nor Penny question it.

Brutality. What a heavy word. Ren can hardly imagine what she must have gone through. Drastic enough for Lissa to have escaped her husband, gotten a ship of her own and raised an army of mages to strike down his vessel.

“I will…do that,” Penny says, after a moment of deliberation, “but you must release him. Now.”

Lissa’s smile widens into a grin, sending shivers down Ren’s spine. She motions to the guard standing outside, who approaches them warily, keeping her gaze on Ren. Lissa holds out a hand, and the woman hands her a silver key.

“Try anything funny,” Lissa says, turning the key in the lock, “and I will take you out myself. Understand?”

Ren gulps. “Yes, ma’am.”

“That’s Captain to you,” Lissa says. Upon her instruction, the guard chains Ren’s wrist to Penny’s. Well, at least one of his hands are free, no longer held captive by that ring of metal. Ren wonders whether it’s a good time to ask for sustenance now. Food, water. Something that can quell his hunger and quench his thirst.

Although he’s free of those cuffs now, though he can’t imagine what the bathroom situation would be like. Then again, it’s not like Penny’s never seen him naked, but that was when they were children.

“If we’re going to fell their ship, Captain, we need your help,” Penny says. “We don’t know where they are, we don’t know how to get to them, and for that, we need your assistance.”

Lissa nods. “Of course. Right, then. Follow me.”

With that, she strides out of the room. Penny and Ren exchange glances, then take off after her. What in the world did they agree to, and what are they going to do now?

*

Lissa’s quarters is smaller than Captain Percival’s, though Ren can easily attribute that to the numerous bookcases, each shelf bursting with tomes both thick and thin, pristine or fraying at the edges. Lissa sidesteps a small stack of books on the ground, bypasses a mace leaning against her cupboard and sits on her desk, one leg over the other.

“Eager to do the siege. I’m impressed,” Lissa says. “Before we begin the attack, though, we’ve got to go stock up on supplies.”

“Where?” Penny asks.

“The port town of Calysso,” Lissa says. “We’d be docking there for a bit. Grab some medicines, food, that sort of thing.”

Ren doesn’t remember the last time he’s seen land. What is it like to stand on a piece of ground that does not sway under his feet? It’s at times like these that he misses Gravelle.

“And of course, we’re going to pray to Aquarius for Her protection,” Lissa says. Her protection? Ren was certain that Aquarius was a male spirit, last he heard. “Now, I’ve already told Belle to set sail for Calysso, and it’ll be some time till we get there. So, there’s something I think you should know.”

“Some questions? What about?” Penny asks.

“You are the Luminaries, aren’t you?” Lissa says. “Wouldn’t you want to know the location of the Horseman’s palace?”

The Horseman’s palace, where it keeps its heart. Ren nods eagerly.

“Tell us,” Penny says. “Where is it?”

“Better yet, I’ll sweeten the deal for you,” Lissa says. “Higher risks, higher rewards, yeah?”

Ren doesn’t like the sound of that. What does she mean by “sweetening” the deal? If she’s asking for their lives, then…

“I’ll bring you there myself, if you’ll help me in sinking another ship.”

“Another ship?”

“Aye. Heard of the Devil’s Coffin? Captain of the Cascasia spoke about it, surely.”

“The Devil’s Coffin?” Penny tilts her head in confusion.

“It’s…one of his enemy ships, right?” Ren coughs. Lissa nods.

“That’s right. It’s our enemy too. The Devil’s Coffin is a ghost ship. Pretty spooky, too.”

“A ghost ship?” Penny asks.

“The Terror of Ilecthia. Existed long before the apocalypse, really,” Lissa says. “Takes everything, gives nothing back. No one’s ever seen its captain before.”

“But the captain’s a…a ghost, right?” Penny’s voice trembles. “I mean, the whole ship’s a ghost ship, so all their sailors are…”

“Ghosts, yeah. Them’s the rumours,” Lissa says. She turns to Ren. “I’ve seen what you can do. That dragon’s a mighty fine specimen, yeah? You at full strength would be more than a match for those nasty ghosts.”

If that’s praise, then Ren gladly accepts it. “Yeah. But I…I need Ifrit to cast it.”

“Sure, you do. No mage can do without their weapon” Lissa hums. “But that thing’s a wreck, I’ll have you know. Barely any catalytic abilities at all. Quite a contradiction.”

“A contradiction?” Ren furrows his brows.

“The weapon chooses the warrior. Ever heard that before?” Lissa smirks. She picks herself off her desk and strides over to her mace. She heaves it onto her shoulders, the mace’s shaft resting on them, its spiked ball looking like it can smash a few heads in. “The thing is, weapons like people who resemble them, you see.”

“Resemble them? But they’re weapons, right? Not people?” Ren asks. Lissa barks out a laugh.

“Men are always so dim.” Lissa harrumphs. “Living in your weapons are souls. And each soul has got their own personality, their own memories. They’re basically people at this point.” She smiles. “But you don’t have to be the same species to really connect now, do you?”

Neither Ren nor Penny speaks. Lissa takes it as a sign to continue. “What I’m trying to say is that your strength is determined by your weapon. That poor excuse of a staff chose you, which, by right, means to say that you’re lacking in strength. By a long shot.”

“But Ren’s always been able to make shields and dragons,” Penny protests. “I think he’s always been the strongest of our lot.”

“And that’s why I said it’s a damn contradiction,” Lissa growls. She stabs her mace into the ground, water splashing where it struck the plank. Ren is surprised that her floor hasn’t so much as splintered yet. “A weak weapon choosing a strong warrior. I’m pretty impressed that it hasn’t broken yet.”

“You say the weapon resembles the warrior, so that could mean that Ren is similar to Ifrit some other way, right?” Penny asks.

“Maybe.” Lissa pins Ren with a penetrating gaze, as if she can see straight into his soul. “That’s something I don’t have a stake in, so I’m not going to spend my precious energy mulling about it. You’re gonna have to figure that out on your own.”

Similar to Ifrit in some way, huh? It’s not like Ren can just speak to Ifrit’s soul. Well, this has certainly gotten him intrigued. Perhaps he can ask Vane about this whole speaking-to-spirits-or-souls thing. Speaking of which…

“Where’s Ifrit?” Ren asks. “You took it, didn’t you?”

“Of course, we did. What do you take me for?” Lissa sighs. “But I’d be a fool if I gave it back just because you asked.”

“Then when can I get it back?”

“When the time comes for war.” Lissa places her mace back where it was leaning against the cupboard. “Right then. You can kick back and relax till we see the shore, and I’m telling you, you’re gonna need it.”

Rest and relax? With this thing around their wrists?

“Mind sparing some food?” Penny asks. “I’m famished. Hadn’t had much to eat since I was back on the Cascasia.”

Lissa nods. “I’ll get Anne to make you some. I’m sure we’ve still got enough for a sandwich or two.”

“And, um, some water, please?” Ren asks. Lissa frowns.

“Ale’ll have to do. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Ren supposes that’s true. He’s not sure what to think about consuming so much alcohol in a day. They’re minors, after all. Penny tugs at him, the chains jangling as Ren follows her.

*

“Are you going to actually do it?” Ren asks, wiping his hands of crumbs.

Penny bites into her sandwich as she stares out at the sea, standing at the deck and leaning out, taking Ren’s arm with her. She hums, nibbling on the crunchy lettuce. “Maybe. I mean, it’s not like I like Cascasia very much.”

“Yeah, but our friends are on that ship, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I didn’t forget,” Penny bites out. “I’m just thinking that we’ve got to play this smartly.”

“Smartly? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“As much as I hate those guys on Cascasia, we can’t sink their ship and leave them to die. But I don’t think we can entirely avoid killing either.”

Ren licks at his lips. He’s not quite ready to shoot a fireball at another human. Bats, shambling corpses and creepy Horsemen? That’s fine, but to kill another living, breathing human being? Another of his kind?

“Our best bet right now,” Penny says, “is to try to stay near coastlines. Doesn’t matter if it’s a peninsula or archipelago or whatever. We just need to make sure that when the ship goes down, the sailors have somewhere safe to flee to, at least. If need be, we can note down the coordinates and have someone from this…this Calysso go to the island and ferry the men back to the town.”

Coordinates. Do they even have those in this world? But it’s not like Ren has a better idea. “Sounds like a plan.”

Penny stuffs the last of her bread into her mouth, chewing listlessly as she looks out to the sea. It’s rare to see Penny so serious, not when she’s the merrymaker of their team. This conflict must be roiling about in her head, nagging at her. It’s a matter of life and death, and to know that she is the one who holds the ultimate power…

“We’re reaching Calysso!” the woman at the wheel shouts, her voice shrill in the salty breeze of the sea. “About another five minutes! We will reach in another five minutes!”

Already, Ren can see the settlement coming into view. Houses lined up along the seafront, by an extensive set of jetties surrounded by boats of all shapes and sizes. All women on deck rush to perform their duties, pulling at ropes, manning the sails, doing all sorts of things with a sort of busy air to them.

“Let’s deal with Cascasia first,” Penny says, “before thinking about the Devil’s Coffin.”

Gulls call overhead, wings spread and riding the waves of the wind. The boat rushes forward, sails picking up the gales that whistle in Ren’s ears. Soon, they will be gathering supplies, discovering a settlement away from Gravelle, in a land so far from home.

Caught in a war between pirates.