It was the fifth day since they arrived at Black Lagoon, and the time was ticking for the permission pass. Marcel still did not find out where to get it, but he was sure that he would find out at the Night's Vow. After they finished eating they headed out towards the town. The town was as lively as ever and even more people seemed to be around. Greg got pushed around by someone running towards the center. "Where are your manners" yelled Greg at him. "Sorry, but the ship with slaves came earlier this year," he said while running. They were looking at each other and decided without a single word that they would also take a look at this ship with slaves. The center of the town was more crowded than usual, everyone was trying to find a slave for themselves, others were looking for cheap people to buy for their crew, and there were all kinds of people. The captain of the ship was on the stage presenting the slaves one by one. Each and every one of them was from another part of the world. But something caught Marcel's attention. There was someone pale and slim in a corner with chains around his neck and bruises all over his body that were visible through the torn clothes. Marcel approached the person and crawled further into the corner. He was very scared that Marcel would hurt him more, but instead, he extended his arm toward him as a sign of friendship. The person slowly approached his hand and right before he touched it one of the crew members came from behind Marcel and scared the person. "Isn't he nice?" the crew member said grabbing Marcel's hand, "My name is Trop, nice to meet you!" shaking his hand forcefully. Marcel was speechless. "This one is a rare breed, but he is not listening to anything we say which is why there are a couple of bruises. You know... slaves have to be disciplined before they are sold" Trop continued. "So, have you decided? Would you buy him or not? Staring too much will do no good", "How much?" Greg came from behind relieving Marcel of the pressure. "Ten thousand coins, not more, not less!" Trop told Greg with a smug face rubbing his hands. "Ten thousand? You must be joking, it will take ten thousand coins to make him normal again, not to mention medicine for his bruises. He is scared of a fly, what good would he do in our crew?" Greg said revolted. Tron was looking around, checking if there was someone else from his crew nearby. "Okay, okay, fine, it is yours for free then, just take it, he is no good to us either," Tron said waving his hand. The person understood their conversation and inside he felt a bit warmer and happy, but on the outside, he was still weak, scared, and bruised. Tron approached the person and he crawled deeper into the corner. Marcel grabbed Tron's shoulder and said, "Leave him to us from now, thank you" Once again he extended his hand, and this time the person reached for it and grabbed it. It felt so weak and powerless, yet friendly. They went back and regrouped with the others who were also looking around.

"Who is he?" Hulio asked while analyzing the person in the rags. "We found him, and we freed him from his abusive owners" answered Greg. The person was slowly nodding in agreement. "You found anything interesting?" Marcel asked. "No, or not for us at least, they are expensive, we only saw a couple of captains purchasing them," Rob said. "What are we going to do with him?" Fred stared into his eyes. "We did not think that far, but for now let us see if there is anything we can do for him," Marcel said while looking at a stall with clothes. "We need to find some medicine for his bruises," said Hulio worried about the person's weakened state. "I will go with him back to the tavern, maybe Jose knows better than us what to do," Greg said and turned towards him, "Will you come with me?" he asked and the person nodded. After they left back to tavern Marcel and the others went to Night's Vow. This tavern was like no other, it was perhaps the biggest from the Black Lagoon. Inside there were a lot of people, it was crowded by wealthy pirates and their crews. And as told in one of the corners there was an old man with a small stall. As they approached the old man one of the captains bumped into Marcel and spilled his drinks on the ground. "Oh, sorry, I did not see you" the captain apologized. From behind the captain, another one started swearing in another language. "Calm down, it is just a drink, I will get you another," the captain said to the other. "Excuse us" and they both went back to the bar. Marcel was slightly surprised at how it turned out and thought what would have happened if the nice captain wouldn't have been there. The old man has been following Marcel and his crew's movements ever since they entered the tavern. When they arrived at his table he pulled out a map slamming it on the table. "Take it or leave it," the old man said. "How did you..." Rob was interrupted by the old man's crane hitting him gently in the head. "Because I do, now, take it or leave it," he said once again. Marcel took the map and it was only a riddle on it, he said nothing and pulled some coins from his pocket. "No... keep it" The old man grabbed his and continued, "This is the courtesy of Captain Frown" and waved his hand towards the door indicating them to leave. When they heard the name they accepted the map and left. "What is it on that map?" Fred asked while leaning over the map. "It is only a riddle it seems, maybe we got tricked?" Hulio said a bit disappointed. "There has to be something more, there always is when it comes to him. Remember that the legends told became true just a night ago?" Marcel whispered. "What now?" Fred asked confused. "First let us find some new clothes for the slave and head back to the tavern, we can discuss it there" Marcel proposed to them and left towards the tavern.

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Greg was waiting outside of the tavern biting his nails. "What happened?" they asked him when they arrived. "Ehm... How do I tell you this? It is bad..." he said while looking down. "What do you mean?" Marcel turned pale. "His bruises are more severe than we thought, Jose went to get some medicine, but he said it would be costly," Greg said while looking down. "More the reason why we need to find this" and Marcel pulled out the map. "You found something at the Night's Vow?", "Yes, but we need to find out what it is," Hulio said. "Ah... Another riddle" Greg let out a sigh. "We can do it!" Marcel tried to raise their spirits a bit. From behind them came Jose patting Marcel on the head. "Leave the other one to me, I will bring him on his feet as fast as I can, you go on your adventure," said Jose. "One last thing before we go," said Fred to Jose. "What is it?" he turned around. "The permission pass, how do we get it if we will be gone more than a couple of days?", "Do not worry about it" Jose said and went inside the tavern. "You heard him, let us go back to our ship and see about this map" Marcel grabbed Fred's shoulder and Greg's and went back to their ship. On the docks, they met again with the person who asked them for the permission pass. "I apologize for the inconvenience. I had no idea that you were with them" he said while kneeling. "With whom?" Rob asked clueless. "It does not matter, take this back" and he gave Marcel back his purse with coins. "You are free to come and go as you please" and then he left. "What just happened?" Greg was looking at Marcel. "This is Jose's hand, I am sure of it," said Marcel, and then he smiled. They boarded the ship and gathered around the map. There was nothing more than the riddle. "Yet to come the night and the whirling sea, look beneath the sky to see your path to it" was the riddle that they tried to decipher. "Where to now?" asked Fred. "Obviously somewhere on the sea but there is no hint other than this" Greg added. They set sail as the night was setting hoping something will reveal more about this map.

"Ah..." Greg yelled panicking, "We forgot to get more supplies" he continued while running downstairs. "We will manage somehow, we will hopefully not be long on this journey" Marcel tried comforting him. He started counting the supplies and when he finished he turned pale. "We only have enough supplies for two days, three if we try to use less" Greg came back on the deck and told everyone. Marcel was reading the riddle over and over again but there was nothing that he could think of. He passed the map with the riddle to others but no luck either. Everyone started to worry, "It is just the first night, we have two more to figure it out" Marcel broke the silence giving everyone a bit of hope. The smooth sail took them far enough from the Black Lagoon. They all took shifts through the night to find the treasure hidden in the riddle, but with no luck. The night passed quickly and the sun was rising from the sea like a celestial being illuminating their way. Fred was still trying to decipher the riddle and then Hulio came and said, "Why are we not considering what is written there word by word?". "What do you mean?" said Fred while holding the map. "It says something about the whirling sea, this has to happen before anything else". "And how are we going to find out when this happens? Especially if it will happen during the night," said Fred while looking around. "Why not use the empty barrels we have downstairs?" Marcel came hearing them discussing. "That is a great idea, let us tie them around the ship and they will make noise when it happens," Hulio said with a sparkle in his eye. And they started tying the barrels around the ship. When they finished a ship was passing by. It was a very large ship, with a distinct flag and a lot of people on the deck. They were a bit scared at first knowing that captains were plundering other ships for their pleasure and potential treasure, but Marcel's ship was too small for them to bother with it in the first place. After the ship passed not many events happened until the night. When the dusk was laying down the blanket over the sea, the weather slowly started to change, giving them false hope. Some drops of rain and a gust of wind and the sea calmed down once again. Hulio and Rob lost every piece of hope they had after the second night. But Marcel kept going, he felt that something was going to happen. Their supplies were running low and he and Greg were leaving their ratio to the others. Since Greg was second in command after Marcel he was also acting accordingly, even if not asked to. The second day on the sea was harsh, the sun was strong and offered a lot of heat and light, but that also meant their water dried quickly. Fred was watching the sun hoping to perhaps see some clouds, but nothing, the sea was calm, no waves or anything indicating something related to the riddle. "Maybe we should find some port, and resupply before we continue," said Tim while looking at Hulio and Rob. "How are we on supplies?" asked Marcel wiping off the sweat on his forehead. "Water almost empty, food enough until tomorrow morning," said Greg. "We will head tomorrow in the morning if nothing happens tonight if everyone agrees on it," said Marcel looking at everyone's faces. "Aye captain!" they all said despite being down with their morale and hungry.