“So what is the plan?”

The wardrobe was cramped and dark, and smelled slightly of mildew. Berry had the grim realisation that wardrobes were basically coffins that stood up. Was this how this life would end? Wedged in an upright coffin all on his own? Well, technically, not quite all on his own.

“My plan mainly involves not dying,” Berry replied in a whisper. He had run into the lower cabin the moment he had heard the gunshot and the ensuing sounds of a battle. It felt like he had only taken his eye of Aisa for a few seconds, and somehow she had managed to instantly scale the Mobius' mast and get into a fight with... something.

“So you would rather hide in a wardrobe forever? It might get boring,” Metna lilted. “Besides, you can’t avoid dying forever.”

“I’m going to try my best,” said Berry. “Perhaps this is a good time for you to tell me what actually happens if I die.”

Although Berry pretty much filled the space of the wardrobe, Metna was, of course, inside the wardrobe with him, watching from inside his mind.

“But you already know what will happen,” said Metna, in her typical strange sing-song. “Death. Decomposition. Decay. The broken parts of you will crumble back into red earth…”

Berry could see the shape of her in his mind’s eye, even when she wasn’t manifesting in front of him. She had wide dark eyes that looked anywhere but straight ahead, and long black hair that floated and flicked as she moved, as if she were underwater. She often danced gently to her own words as if she was giving a theatrical performance. Right now she was mimicking raindrops with her fingertips.

“The unbroken parts may continue to function for a time, muscles spasming in a grotesque reflection of life. But, inevitably, they will break and decay as well. Then -” She clapped her hands together. “You recur! Your mind in a brand new body but… well you already know what’s going to happen when you come back. It will probably be quite painful. I expect they will -.”

“Yes, ok thank you, I know all that,” said Berry. He always found it hard to tell whether Metna was winding him up or not. For someone who lived in his head, she seemed inclined to misunderstand him a lot.

“Well that is what’s going to happen,” said Metna.

“Thanks,” Berry whispered into the darkness. “That’s very helpful. But I was more asking about what will happen to you if I die.”

“Hmm. What will happen to me? Well it doesn’t matter, since it’s not going to happen,” Metna replied.

“What’s not going to happen? Are you saying I’m not going to die? Or -?”

“Either? Both!” she replied cheerfully. “Well it is coming down here, whatever it is. Might be best you stop talking.”

The sound of footsteps grew louder as the whatever-it-was came down the stairs to the lower deck. Berry held his breath. A door opened with a loud creak.

So this was how it would end. Wedged into an upright coffin.

——

Inside Berry’s mind, Metna had one eye on the world outside, and one eye on the fearwigs that kept crawling out from between the floorboards. They were fat, furry, wriggly things, shifting colour between black, gold, and green. They appeared and disappeared depending on how afraid Berry was. Berry was scared of almost everything, so there were always a few scurrying around. Metna knelt down and began to pet one of particularly engorged ones.

They looked ominous but Metna had long since discovered they were pretty harmless. The spiky looking fur was soft and downy to the touch, and they made little squeaks and glowed softly as Metna scratched them. The one she was petting began to shrink as she stroked it. It scurried away and out of sight.

“Try and relax, as well,” Metna said to Berry, watching as another wave of fearwigs squeezed out of the floor cracks. If there were enough of them, they would meld together into something larger - not something she wanted to deal with right now. “If you want my help, whatever it is, make eye contact with it. Hold its gaze.”

“You want me to have a staring contest with a monster?” thought Berry.

“Yes,” said Metna. “A staring contest. And no blinking.”

—

The footsteps paced across the room. They stopped. They paced again. Berry already knew from the sound of them that it wasn’t Aisa or Thimble. it was something… else. A demon? Berry felt certain: it had killed Aisa and Thimble, and now it had come to kill him too. He could feel his heart beating in his throat.

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“You’re very scared right now,” observed Metna, unhelpfully. “Perhaps you could calm down?”

As Berry saw it, he had two options once the thing found him. He could try to fight it, or he could push past it and run. He knew which option he preferred. As long as Metna did her thing, he had a chance.

The whatever-it-was opened the wardrobe, and Berry forced himself to look at it in the eye. “Woops,” said Metna in his mind, and suddenly his head felt like it had been smashed with a brick.

“Rragggh!” Berry groaned, still trying to maintain eye contact despite the pain.

The whatever-it-was shrieked and fell back to the floor. This, if anything, was the moment to run, but Berry was frozen stiff. Fortunately, the creature didn’t look like anything the monster Berry had expected. Instead of an enormous hulking demon or hellbeast, it was a small figure, a primal, only about half his size. The boy looked terrified.

“Queen’s Fire!” the boy gasped.

The gargol and primal stared at each other for a long while, until they both realised they weren’t in imminent danger. If this boy was here to kill Berry, he wasn’t doing a very good job.

“Sorry,” said Berry.

“That’s - that’s alright,” panted the boy, catching his breath. “You scared the life out of me. They said someone might be in here, but I didn’t realise it would be a demon.”

Berry wasn’t used to being called a demon, though it was technically true. Gargols, or grey demons, didn’t hail from Pandaemonia, but they were still considered cousins to the demonic natives of Hell. Berry realised that in the low light, the boy could probably only see a set of eyes and teeth gleaming in the darkness.

“Hey, you want to blink or look somewhere else for a bit?” said the boy. “You’re kind of freaking me out.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Berry, looking away. “Why didn’t you do anything?” he muttered, rubbing his aching head.

“I did,” said Metna. “It didn’t work for some reason. It sort of bounced back.”

“What? Did you say something?” said the boy, looking confused.

“Oh, I was just,” said Berry. “Talking to myself.”

“Ok… well sorry if I disturbed you,” said the boy. “Do you sleep in there or something? Do you want me to shut this?” He pointed at the wardrobe doors.

“Uhh,” said Berry.

“I guess you should probably get out of here now,” said Metna. He could hear her suppressing a giggle.

“Excuse me,” said Berry, awkwardly wading out of the wardrobe. It took him a moment to untangle his wings from the garments he had squeezed himself between.

“Don’t leave just yet,” said Metna, manifesting outside of Berry mind. “I want to see who this is.”

The boy was clearly looking for something, looking around the room curiously. Metna stepped into the his path and exploded into colourful smoke as he passed through her manifested form, her body reforming on the other side.

“Oh, here they are,” said the boy with relief, opening the door to the bunk room. “I just need to lie down for a bit. For a second, I thought I was about to get beat up all over again. Twice is enough for one day, I think.”

The primal collapsed onto one of the bunks, an arm across his head. Metna put a finger to her lips as she looked down at him, deep in thought.

“What is it?” said Berry, stepping towards her quietly.

The primal peered up at him from under his arm, confused.

“What’s what?”

“I don’t know,” said Metna. “I might know him. I think. I can’t remember. Could you ask him his name?”

Berry frowned.

“Uh, were you talking to me?” said the primal.

“Oh, sorry. I just think out loud sometimes,” said Berry. “What’s your name?”

“Jayson,” said the primal. “I fell on to your ship. It’s a long story.” He paused. “Actually, it’s not a long story. I was almost killed about five times in the last hour, so I thought I might have a little rest and recover. You must be Berry, right? Thimble mentioned you were down here somewhere.”

Berry nodded. “So you’re not here to kill us all?”

Jayson laughed. “Kill you? No, not at all. I mean, I doubt I even could if I wanted to. I’m really not good at it.”

“Oh,” said Berry, sighing. “That’s a relief. You didn’t kill the others then?”

“No. I just… well your pirate friend nearly killed me if anything. But she’s fine now. Still very scary, but she stopped trying to kill me at least.”

The boy rolled over in the bunk, as if to end the conversation.

“So do you know him?” Berry asked, under his breath. Metna’s manifested form looked back at him and shrugged.

“I… I don’t know,” she said. “Now I’m wondering if I confused him for someone else.”

—

Berry left the boy in the cabin to rest, and headed up to the deck. When he arrived there, Aisa and Thimble were talking.

"Tha means he weren't hidin' it from me?" Aisa said, looking rather disappointed.

“No. Trust me, he doesn't know anything about any... treasure. Ah, Berry,” said Thimble, seeming happy for the interruption. ”I was wondering where you’d gotten to. I take it you met our new guest?”

“Who is he?” Berry asked.

“A friend of a friend. He fell out of Hell. Some luck landing right on our sail like that. We’re going to take him to port, and then I’m going to drop you both off with him.”

“Again? I thought we were going to -”

“Plan’s changed. I have some errands I need to run. Alone. Meanwhile you can -”

“Hold,” said Aisa, cutting Thimble off with a wave of her hand. She stood stock still, then paced to the larside of the ship, staring up into the cloud layer.

Thimble joined her, looking up into the marbled sky. Berry followed their gaze to see a huge black ship, some ten times the size of the Mobius tear through the clouds above them. White wisps of white and green condensation rippled passed the hull of the gigantic vessel as it tilted itself along the windway to the Pandaemonia port.

"Bright stars," said Berry, mouth agape. The ship was one of the largest he’d ever seen on TreArkh. Every part of the ship was black save for a flash of silver on the largest sail, a stylised emblem of a slender dagger, point down.

"Drau," said Thimble. "The mothership. They must be here for the contest. Better we don't cross paths. Let's wait for them to moor before we head back up there."