As the ship was swinging through the waves, ideas and mistrust were in the heads of those Marked Ones. Everyone had opinions about what they should do and constantly clashed with each other.

The hours passed, and the trip became tenser as they debated what to do. On the one hand, Ranier and Yue were the ones who wanted to take action against those new sailors; they saw them too and noticed that there was something odd about them. Their appearance and bearing didn't look like the sailors on that ship. It was clear to them that they didn't come up as mariners.

On the other side, Fynn and Pollard remained more skeptical, for neither of them thought it wise to rush in by being carried away just by a strange feeling the marked warrior had.

The other two marked ones, a pair of young men making their journey indifferently, were trying to stay away from that whole incident; in their words, "If anything happens, we'll just hide."

"When they get here to kill you, you two won't say the same thing," Yue exclaimed, annoyed. However, she soon returned to the debate, watching her friend search for reason.

Fynn remained seated on the floor, his fingers interlocked and one of his feet twitching frantically at the stressful situation.

The boy was holding in his hands the magic paper that he had made with the help of Yue and Pollard days ago while practicing that messenger trick. If only it were as easy as sending a letter to Ronan and having him show up at the ship, everything would be better.

Yue was trying to talk some sense into his friend, "Come on, Fynn..."

"But, What are we supposed to do?" asked Fynn. "Are we going to kill them in front of the crew?"

"We're going to go to their cabin and get the answers we deserve," Ranier said with a determined temper.

"Do you plan to talk to them with your sword?" asked Fynn, pointing to the weapon on his belt. "It's been days since you've carried it with you..."

"I'd rather be prepared for anything that might happen," Ranier replied. Then

"Sounds like you really wish that would happen," Fynn replied. Once her words were out of his mouth, he lowered his head at the embarrassment of her words.

"At least I'm not a coward--"

Almost as if the scales had shifted, Yue suddenly pulled out her knife and brought the blade closer to that finely-clothed boy beside her.

"Don't ever call him that again," she threatened in a hostile voice.

Ranier straightened up and returned the aggressive look to the girl.

"Dare, come on..." exclaimed Ranier.

Fynn and Pollard quickly rose from their places.

"Ranier, come on..." exclaimed the marked wizard.

"It's okay, Yue, you don't have to do that," exclaimed Fynn with caution in her words at her friend's attitude.

The akajsi girl put her knife away again, and when tempers were so heated, Fynn tried to make her decision.

"I don't want to fight them, but I don't want to fight you either, Ranier."

"So what do you plan to do?" asked Ranier, demanding an answer from the boy.

"Hey, guys..."

Pollard caught the group's attention, and the trio of marked ones turned to the wizard.

"Is it my idea, or has it been a while since I've heard something from sailors?"

The trio looked at each other; Fynn and Yue soon noticed an unusual silence on the ship; there was always movement at these hours. Men could always be heard singing, shouting, or working.

Then, there was a muffled rumble of thunder.

Fynn raised her eyes to the cabin ceiling and turned his attention to his surroundings. The tide seemed to have become rough, and the wood creaking was becoming more habitual.

"Something's wrong," Ranier exclaimed, grabbing his belongings and the few pieces of armor he had with him.

Yue and Fynn didn't hesitate to mimic him, and with help from his friend and Pollard, he quickly put on his equipment. Fynn then tucked the paper inside the breastplate of his armor. But, unfortunately, it didn't have a message; he wished he knew how to write at that moment.

Leaving behind the other two Marked Ones who detachedly chose to remain in the cabin, those young men's familiar, fuzzy faces would be lost from their minds and relevance once they left that room.

The Marked group moved along the lower part of the ship's deck at a brisk pace. The darkness was almost total as the torches and lanterns were out, so Pollard picked one up and quickly lit it with a flick of his fingers.

"Where is everyone?" asked Yue.

Fynn flicked his gaze around as he tried to hear something around him.

"Maybe they're all on deck," Pollard added hesitantly.

"I don't hear anything around us," exclaimed Fynn. "What would they be all there?"

"We'll find out fast," exclaimed Ranier, who, without hesitation, went to the hatch they used to get out on deck.

Quickly Ranier and Fynn looked out on the deck, and what they saw made them nervous.

The dark-skinned boy saw how all the crew sailors were standing in different parts of the deck, but all looking towards where they were. They were all there, some carrying their cutlasses and others improvised weapons such as wooden planks and broken bottles.

"What's all this?" muttered Ranier between his teeth.

"What's going on?" asked Yue, unaware of the situation.

As Fynn climbed up the hatch along with Ranier, Yue tried to follow. However, the door slammed shut, knocking the girl on her head and round along with the Marked Mage down the stairs.

"Yue!" cried Fynn in desperation as he tried to lift the hatch. Nothing was happening; it looked like this one wasn't going to budge, so he started stomping on it to break it without hesitation.

The door seemed as hard as a stone, and even though it appeared to be made of metal, he must have been able to break the wood around it with his superhuman strength.

"Fynn, stop it," Ranier exclaimed. "We've got something worse here."

Ranier was right; half a dozen new crewmen waited for them from the entrance to the sailors' and passengers' cabins.

The men weren't dressed like the sailors, but neither were they dressed in a way Fynn had seen before.

Two of them moved among the sailors, wearing black armor with the symbols of Tisvar, the patron of the Council of Fives. Each wore their arms uncovered, and as if burning after being branded with a hot iron, various symbols adorned their arms. Their looks focused on the two, but soon, they set on Fynn.

"Is that him?" one of them asked in a guttural voice.

That long-haired man's slender, pale figure from between the two warriors made his presence known. The man wore loose black robes adorned with the same symbols in honor of Tisvar, and several chains seemed to encircle him.

Then, Fynn again felt the same sound and vibration as when they came aboard.

That man was a Tracker, a Marked One with the ability to detect others like his own.

"You've caused too much trouble, scum," that slender figure exclaimed contemptuously. "Because of you, hundreds have died..."

Fynn grabbed his head and gritted his teeth at that sound, which didn't cease. The boy felt his legs falter and fall to the ground with increasing intensity. The sound now covered everything he could hear. In turn, the boy noticed how he began to bleed from his nose, and for an instant, nothing he saw made sense. Then, the noise made him lose his mind.

Below Fynn, Yue was trying to open the hatch. She was trying to call for her friend to open the hatch.

"Fynn!" she shouted over and over again. "Break it open! Tear it open!"

Soon several voices could be heard below deck. The voices were reciting phrases that told them they were getting closer.

Without a second thought, Pollard turned off the lantern light, and just like that, darkness enveloped them.

"Where demons dwell, martyrs may redeem themselves."

"Those with the marks of demons will only receive the gods' punishment."

"Great spark of Tisvar, fulminate those who do not seek redemption at your hands!"

The yells were growing nearer and nearer. Chains were dragging on the ground, the path along where Martyrs of Tisvar were approaching illuminated by the gleam of those men's weapons.

Pollard and Yue were trapped under the deck.

The boy soon began to gasp for breath. He was terrified, trapped like prey in a corner.

Yue tried to remain calm, but the whole moment brought back memories of days ago, when that monster was advancing towards her like an almost unstoppable force. Then, as she heard the chains moving across the wooden floor, she also heard the sounds of heavy armor, and with that, she knew she wouldn't be able to use her bow against them again.

"What are we going to do?" the boy exclaimed, much louder than expected so the akajsi girl quickly silenced him by covering her mouth.

Fynn's gaze seemed lost, that vibrating sound he could not control absorbed him so that his reaction became sluggish.

The whispers in his head, his battle instinct, were now screams commanding him to get back on his feet.

"Get up!"

"Fight!"

"Survive!"

Fynn looked at the blood he had lost in front of him, and on an impulse, he tried to get back to his feet, just in time to dodge an axe aimed at his neck. The boy quickly slid around the deck when he had that huge fellow brandishing his weapon, with a choleric and fanatical expression on his scarred face, full of symbols.

"Demons who do not seek their redemption will be purged!" shouted that man.

Fynn soon swung his sword, but only as a way to deflect the man's clashes. The boy felt at that moment that he was in front of another marked warrior, for the way he fought and responded to his own blocks were like those he had seen in Lastrel.

Soon, the he felt one of the sailors rush at him, a burly man full of marks on his skin who charged at him. The man grabbed Fynn from behind, but the boy shook him off despite his large size, throwing him over his shoulders to the ground in the direction of the scarred warrior.

Fynn quickly took distance from him, and from the other side of the deck, watched in horror as the sailor rising from the ground was brutally sliced by the warrior who had attacked him. The sailor didn't even scream, his mind was long gone.

"Stop!" shouted Fynn, his shout accompanied by a flash of lightning from the storm that was forming above them.

"Heretics and demons will be purged!" shouted another of the marked warriors on the deck charging toward where Fynn stood.

A sword slid in front of Fynn, one that was again about to slice his head off. Soon he had two of those warriors in front of him, several sailors charging toward where he was, and a raging tide accompanying a fierce storm.

Ranier as soon as Fynn had fallen dazed, lunged for the Tracker. That wizard, who conjured the storm around him, was elusive and placed obstacles before him. Those obstacles were the sailors who, deprived of their will by the heresy of having helped the demons, even if it was involuntary, made them pieces on the wizard's board.

The warrior brandished his sword, and soon used the saber of one of the sailors. Unlike Fynn, who was agitated at the thought of killing an innocent, Ranier would do anything to survive.

The Tracker walked up the ship's stairs to where the helm was located, where the captain and boatswain were holding an unwieldy tiller.

"Let go the helm," the wizard exclaimed. "Let's shake up the event a bit"

Ranier watched as the captain and his second in command let go of the helm, the ship soon drifting amid the huge waves forming around.

Below deck, Yue and Pollard listened as a fight broke out above them, and a storm lashed the ship, driving water through the gun ports of the pair of cannons below deck.

Yue saw the warriors approaching, brandishing their gleaming weapons as they recited their chants and fanatical words. The situation was difficult with Pollard's scared to death, but she would not be put off by that.

Once the darkness turned to gloom, she knew she had to act as soon as possible, and she also had to get that boy out of his crying.

"React!" she muttered between her teeth, taking hold of the boy's face.

"I-I don't want to die, p-please" the boy exclaimed through his tears.

"You won't if you get up and fight," Yue exclaimed, grabbing him by the face to get him to notice her. "Can you do magic yet?"

The tearful boy nodded as he spasmed from crying.

Yue, in the gloom, watched the shadows around him and the direction from where the warriors were coming. She had to do something soon, she only had seconds.

The girl saw the cannons, crates and barrels in the place.

"Can you move those with magic?" she asked quickly. "Can you throw all that to them?"

The boy looked around, and understood what she wanted to do.

"B-But what are you going to do?" the boy exclaimed between sobs.

"Just throw everything you see at them," Yue ordered. "Now!"

Yue exclaimed loudly, encouraging that boy to do it or lose his life. Then, hopelessly, and scared to death as he watched the warriors begin to run towards where he was, he shouted and shook his hands in front of him.

The floor below deck shook, its wooden columns creaked, and as Pollard watched the barrels, crates, and cannons of the place bustled at them, barring their way or hitting them.

Yue had a very brief moment to think about what she was going to do; she visualized an escape from that place, a situation where she would flee from danger, only this time, she planned to move through another shadow. If she went through the shadows, she imagined herself behind the darkness of those warriors. She tried, she thought so hard in that split second that it hurt her head. If she didn't make it, at least she would be standing somewhere else, but she would leave Pollard at their mercy.

Finally, and imbued with courage, the shadows folded her in again; she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the akajsi girl was at the other end of the deck. Finally, she got what she wanted in a moment of dire need.

Yue saw how in the center of that room, the warriors were imprisoned by the objects. Seeing them like that and how they struggled to get out, Yue took the bow off her back and shot. The world around her began to slow down again as she readied her arrow, and with a certainty, the akajsi girl hit the neck of one of them.

The warrior screamed gutturally as he felt the impact. That surprise blow was something that his whispers hadn't foreseen for some strange reason.

The girl prepared another arrow, and when one of the warrior's companions turned in her direction, he received an impact in his helmet, piercing his eye.

Pollard took courage, and between screams before that unevenness of magic, he turned his hands while imagining the armors of those warriors compressing on their owners. The boy felt the magic burning him, but he tried to channel that pain to withstand that savage spell.

The black armor of those warriors began to creak before the magic, and spikes began to form. Surprise had played a part, and Yue and Pollard had to act fast.

The elven girl shot at the bare arms of those warriors, piercing the wrist of one of them to make him drop the hilt of his axe, and another had his hand pierced.

Yue and Pollard saw each other's faces at both ends. Pollard smiled at her as his face full of tears contrasted those people's screams.

"Run!" shouted Yue. "Come on! Now!

The boy, still channeling his spell, tried to evade the mess where those warriors were by skirting the mess he had made.

Suddenly, the cry of one of the martyred warriors was heard, a fierce and fanatical cry that made him regain his strength in adversity. Then, a cannon shattered the deck, and crates and barrels flew everywhere. Yue recoiled and dodged several of these, but when she rejoined, she heard the desperate cry of the boy wizard.

Yue watched in horror as that martyred warrior had grabbed the boy by his head with both hands.

The warrior was screaming gutturally, "Die! demon! die!"

The boy screamed in despair as the martyr compressed his head until it burst.

Yue watched the bloody scene in horror, and a desolate scream came from her.

The entire structure below deck had stopped shaking, and the prison of those warriors had dissolved. Now Yue, she had to fight alone.

Surrounded by enemies, Fynn watched as the sailors closed in on him, charging frantically at the attack.

The boy didn't know how to get out of that one, and then the ship's deck exploded and flew through the air, hitting several sailors.

Amid the confusion, and martys' guard down, Fynn unleashed a fierce punch against the face of one them, guiding his blow with a shout that to him the voice further ahead, and in that way, pushed him off the deck and off the ship.

The martyr tried to react when he saw that blow, but due the weight of his weapon and the confusion. The warrior was thrown out of the ship, and falled to the water.

Fynn didn't have time to mediate because his own whispers quickly set him to battle with the one that remained.

The martyr quickly hurled axes at him repeatedly as the sailors ran back to him.

The boy could now run across the deck again, evading blows and cuts, trying to ambush the martyr once more.

Soon he reached where Ranier was fighting, and into the hole.

"What are you doing!" cried Fynn as he watched in horror as the boy killed the sailors without hesitation.

"They're dead!" exclaimed the boy, "They're not reacting! They're dead!"

Fynn moved towards Ranier, avoiding killing the sailors, but striking them so that they fell to the ground wounded. True or not, Fynn's instinct made him not want to kill innocents.

"He's the one to kill!" Ranier pointed at the Tracker, who seemed to be drawing in the storm with his arms outstretched to the sky. Then, abruptly, a powerful rain fell upon them, and the situation, had only worsened.

Both boys made it to the edge of the hole in the middle of the deck. The battle against the sailors soon turned into a struggle not to fall in. It was then that Ranier turned to avoid a fall, and then, with horror, he saw the martyr standing over his friend. A look of horror and pain overcame him as he whispered the name of his traveling companion.

"Ranier!" cried Fynn, resisting the onslaught of several hardy sailors trying to bring him down.

An axe flew toward him. Ranier tried to deflect it, but the axe illuminated with an unusual glare buried itself in his chest as the martyr charged him.

Fynn saw how in a split second, that martyr knocked the warrior off the edge of his weapon with one blow, causing him to fall into the sea.

The situation had now changed; on one side, Yue was trapped below deck with three martyrs, one of whom had killed the mage accompanying them.

On deck, Fynn had to fight not only the Tracker and the last martyr but also the sailors and a storm that gave no respite.

None had time to think, for all those who were their enemies were again lashing out at them for what they were, the unholy demons that scourged the world, bringing chaos, destruction and death.

The martyr charged at superhuman speed against Yue, who even with her quick reflexes, was almost split in two by the man's ax that quickly cut one of the columns.

The girl, still horrified, was looking for another hatch to go on deck, but the two remaining badly wounded martyrs were ready to continue their fight for Tisvar's forgiveness.

Fynn beat the sailors off his back, and tried again to run away from that monster full of symbols and chains. There wasn't much place to go, and not many ideas either. The martyr wielded his weapon with fury, one so huge as to brutally slice people and objects. The martyr didn't have the luxury of losing the boy from sight, and if he had to cut off sailors' heads and limbs to get there he would do it. Soon, the deck became a sea of bodies and blood bouncing once the fierce drops of the mighty storm above them hit the deck.

Tracker watched as his companions had killed two of the marked ones there, but the one that held the most interest for them was still alive.

"The mast," Tracker whispered in his companion's head.

Holding his heavy axe, the warrior threw it at the smaller mast of the ship. Then, with the sailors blocking Fynn's way, Tracker decided to put an end to the situation when he pulled a bolt of lightning to his hand, and launched it against a part of the mast to burn it.

In that quick event, the axe struck, and the shattered wooden structure collapsed. Without looking, Fynn was beating off the few remaining sailors when the heavy structure fell on top of him. His ethics failed him.

Under his feet, Yue ran everywhere, trying to find a shadow to jump through. But, everytime she reached a wall, so did the warrior, and the glow of his weapon was strong enough to prevent her from doing so. His companions, wounded and with a fanatical anger upon them, joined in the efforts to catch this girl.

She couldn't stop and attack, she had to run. Yue jumped over barrels and crates, moving with great dexterity among the remains as she searched for a way to flee.

Amidst fanatical shouts and profanities, she saw as an option the gap that had formed and the debris from it with which he could jump.

Yue rushed toward her escape route with speed, leaping toward the gap. However, a searing pain caused all her muscles to contract as she felt how the edge of a sword that one of those warriors threw at her had pierced the side of her back. The girl fell abruptly to the ground, slamming near where Pollard lay dead.

The enormous weight of the structure had imprisoned Fynn. The boy was dazed again. His eyes could barely focus and at times he lost consciousness. He felt the cold water that the waves had left on the deck and the smell of blood and death all around him. Fynn watched as a fire spread across part of the boat. From moments, nothing seems to make sense.

The stormy night's chill made him shiver cold as he watched the pair of martyrs go through the ship as it rocked to and fro.

Quickly Fynn tried to reach for a thrown cutlass to defend himself, but the Tracker kicked it away from him.

"No more to do, demon" exclaimed the martyr, pulling all his wet hair back with a smug grin.

Fynn watched him, unable to comprehend all that was happening. Shaken, the boy was crying as he cried out in pain.

"What have we done to you, we did nothing wrong!"

The martyred warrior grabbed the boy by his head and quickly slammed him to the wooden floor, repeatedly plunging his face into the water. Fynn's crying was hidden as his face was smashed against the floor, and returned with greater intensity.

"Shut your mouth! your life is heresy! you are a demon who does not accept Tisvar!"

"Enough," exclaimed the Tracker.

In a moment of silence, where lightning and the storm could be heard, Yue's cry was heard not far away.

Fynn opened her eyes, and tried to shake the mast off as she heard her friend.

"Let her go! stop! please!" he screamed incessantly.

The Tracker turned to the hole.

"Go see what's going on," he ordered the Warrior Martyr. He was incredulous that there were any marked ones still there.

"Don't hurt her!" cried Fynn pleadingly.

The Tracker smiled, and bowed in front of Fynn.

"Don't worry, her death will be quickly. But yours, well, your death will be slow, boy," the pale, smiling guy exclaimed. "Perhaps with some pain and suffering, Tisvar will allow you to redeem without fulfilling some task for him..."

The Tracker's hand began to burst into flames. Fynn gasped at the sight of his hand, then released an agonized scream as he grabbed him from his neck.

Yue screamed as she felt the weapon go through her body, but even more so when that martyr pulled the weapon out.

"Those who come into the world as demons deserve to be purged," one of the warriors recited again. Then, he lifted Yue by her scalp.

Then, another warrior exclaimed, "And those who come into this world in the skin of the scum that scourge mankind are worse,"

"Aren't you finished yet?" asked the martyr warrior who dropped into the ship's hollow.

Yue heard his friend's agonized cry, and was soon startled.

"Fynn!" she cried out in despair as she tried to grab that warrior's face. She was trying to kick, even biting his gloved hand to let her go. She couldn't see his face, because the darkness and his helmet, she could only see clenched teeth that showed the hatred and contempt that man had for her.

Soon, the warrior threw her brutally against the ground and started choking her with both hands.

"The fate of the demons will only be decided by the one who forged the laws of humanity!" that warrior recited again.

Yue held on to that man's hands as she tried to scream in despair. She kicked him, tried to take him off, but the size and strength of that person was greater.

"Finish her off quickly, we already got what we needed," exclaimed one of the martyrs, "She doesn't deserve to even try to atone for it..."

Suffering was something both marked children had experienced since their arrival there. The marks they bore were a sin they had to suffer in a world that seemed to hate them and indicated their mere existence was an aberration.

Fynn and Yue thought in an instant of all they had done, all that had happened. They remembered those who made them suffer and those they had made suffer. They remembered those who made them laugh, and those who made them feel that it was not their destiny to be a monster.

The Tracker tortured Fynn, burning his neck at every scream he produced. Then, Fynn clamped his arm around the guy's arm as he tried to grab his neck or face.

"Fighting against your redemption! You scum!"

Fynn screamed and looked at him with determination, he wanted to get out of there, he wanted to keep fighting.

Yue wouldn't be defeated. She was short of breath but she would not stop fighting. Finally, with rough cries, she looked determinedly at the man she would get out of there.

"Finish her off at once!" exclaimed one of the martyrs.

Yue held on to that man's hands as her fury burst out.

"What's going on?" asked one of them.

All around them, shadows fell off the walls like a black cloud. The weapons that once glowed and illuminated the room were fading as that shadowy cloak fell over them.

Yue screamed hoarsely until she almost lost what little air she had left.

"Kill her!" shouted one as he brandished his weapon. He would take care of her if his partner didn't do it.

Fynn held that man by his neck with what little strength he had left. His agonized screams were becoming less and less as he felt his neck almost completely charred.

The boy watched him with his eyes filled with remarkable fury. But, then, its shone with a yellow glow that made the Tracker's face change for an instant; where before there was a smile, now there was confusion.

Finally, the Tracker sensed something was wrong, and when he turned around, a blinding light began forming in the sky amid the storm he had generated.

Fynn screamed louder and louder until his lungs had exhausted all his air.

The Tracker let go of the boy's neck, and was perplexed to see the clouds part. Then, a powerful, scorching spark fell upon him, the pain that only someone who has ever made a god enraged fell upon him as the martyrdom he was to suffer. The man screamed and took several steps backward as his clothes, hair, skin and bones disintegrated as he uttered a last scream of pain, and a large part of the ship exploded into pieces.

At the same time, the flashing explosion of light found a barrier below her. Yue's last cries on the lower deck caused the shadows to tear the life from those marked warriors. The martyrs felt the life drain from their bodies and were dragged into an abyss of torment and pain. That veil of shadows consumed the bodies until they turned to dust. Like a parasite, the darkness consumed the ship's wood, and together with the bright flash of light, broke the ship into pieces, causing it to begin to sink.

Barrels and planks soon began to float on the icy sea, and many of the wreckage floated in flames.

There was silence.

Then, Yue floated out, breathing heavily amidst the fierce waves.

"Fynn!" cried the girl again and again.

The marked boy clung to one of the planks as if this was his last will. The boy was trembling in agony on the wood when he felt a hand cling to his armor. The boy watched his friend, who seemed to be talking.

Fynn didn't understand what he was saying, his ears were bleeding after being subjected to that screeching sound for so long. She was crying and watching him, but he didn't understand what was happening.

He didn't understand anything so, what could he do?

Then he remembers Ronan and his words when they were going to Lastrel. During those days, he always said they could ask anything to him when he didn't understand something. With difficulty, Fynn tucked her bloodied one inside his breastplate, searching for that paper.

Yue was still talking to her, but Fynn couldn't hear, so her eyes were now on that wet, blood-stained paper bird.

Then, silently, he concentrated for a few moments; he remembered Ronan's face, his smile, his eyes, she remembered the last moment they saw him and his name.

Ronan.

The bird spread its wings, and soon furrowed through the raindrops, swiftly flying away into the darkness.

Yue watched his tired-eyed friend silently clinging to the plank. Then, finally, she looked down, and clung with him to the plank.

The wreckage of the ship and its crew floated or sank to the bottom of the sea, and both children watched silently as they were to blame for so many deaths.

They were guilty of all that, just because their crime was to exist.