"Well, Miss Asan, is there anything you'd be willing to relate to us?"

Levvy looked around the room, then took a glance down over the loft.

"Yeah. It isn't much, and my boss usually doesn't like me talking about it; he says it'll 'hurt business'..." She trailed off. "...but, you could probably do more with the insight than me."

"When you put it that way, I feel like we're bad guys." Kyoya returned.

"Oh, lighten up. It's no big deal," insisted the mariner. Another reassuring nod left the trio without any qualms—a silent decision was reached to afford her their audience.

By now, they'd all finished eating. Levvy collected their plates and sat them in a rack beneath the table. After sitting back down, a deepened breath preluded her account.

"Take it as you will, but I used to be a big name on the water. Your girl Ryder and I go way back... Wouldn't call it an exaggeration to say we even grew up together. Some time passes, and we set our sights on sailing—that being of the not-so-reputable pirate variety, anyway."

"Can't say I'm surprised," noted Lyric.

"Yeah, we were a dirty duo, no doubt. But things got a little... weird—after we took up a particular job. Our instructions were simple: hunt down some big, pissed-off fish that had been stirring up trouble out and around the straits. Those ones that lead into Takera's open ocean."

The tension that had enveloped them seeped out into the room's atmosphere as a whole. It seemed they'd all been silently readying themselves for talk that wasn't quite so cheery.

With it, Solitaire gained intrigue.

"About when was this? I recall hearing of similar reports, but that was long before—"

Levvy shushed her, slouching back in her chair ever so slightly.

"That's because this one is what leads into what you know." She continued, "Allison and I both jumped at a bounty like that. Just off some minnow and make out like bandits? We thought it was a complete steal. So, we set out the next day and camped in the straits where most of the reports took place..."

Words escaped her as an odd mixture of regret and confusion crept in. "...It wasn't long before we found our target. We never actually saw anything other than its shadow under the water, but Alley's got smarts like nobody's ever seen. She lined up the nose of our boat to give herself a shot with her multi-tool, but before she pulls the trigger, we hear this wicked moan shoot up from under us... Hell, I thought she'd shot a Dragon."

The Princess shifted in her seat. It was minute, but still an indicator of something. Kyoya wasn't given time to comment.

Levvy carried on, "Whatever it was knew we were there, but before any measures could be taken, it up and rammed us from below. The damn thing threw us outta the water, ship and all—then it just kept circling us. For hours. We were lucky the boat landed upright, or I might not even be here..."

She let off a heavy breath. "Needless to say, her and I both were rattled."

Lyric receded into her chair.

The Miscreant nudged her below the table, to which she leaned slightly to whisper.

Stolen story; please report.

"It just freaks me out a little, faces like theirs being shaken up like that... Don't sweat it."

After giving his attention back to Levvy, the account continued.

"We just kinda stared at each other for a minute, then Allison got this look about her—I'd never seen the poor girl spooked so bad. She wouldn't tell me what was wrong, only that it was best we headed home. And then..."

"And then?" Solitaire echoed.

"...And then the rest was history: just as fast as it stalked around us for the hundredth time, it was gone. Once we pulled back into port, we combed the bottom of our boat and found some wicked hide had been scraped off, including a shard of a scale lodged between a few planks. It was huge; even just that piece was plenty big enough to cover an entire shield..."

She picked that statement back up. "...Or, an empty spot on a wall, for that matter."

Levvy gestured quietly to a table tucked away at the edge of the room, set before a stained glass window. Inscribed on the aperture was a tale of tranquil waters among the high seas, color and shine having faded across years of watching over the Galleon.

Above that window was a plated scale easily taller than any of those in attendance: a pitch-black scute fashioned of rigid, chitinous gluttony. It snuffed away any light daring to reach its surface, and yet shone brilliantly amongst its own darkness. "That little relic's half the reason folks don't ever eat up here; it's supposed to be some sort of bad omen."

The scale was held up by a pair of chains laced through its sides. They ultimately suspended it a head or two above where a person would normally stand. Just looking at it made Kyoya flinch.

"That's a serious chunk, alright... And that's just a piece of a scale?"

"Sure is. It wasn't 'till three years back that I got to learn what any of it meant, though: goodie-two-shoes here should know the rest of it."

Finally, Levvy took a generous swig of an unknown beverage she'd retrieved from a hidden cupboard, then looked to the Adventurer-Princess.

Solitaire's expression remained cold, calculative, but something new was introduced. A nervous glint had arisen, given reinforcement by the tapping of her greaves on the wood.

"Looking back, I couldn't figure for the life of me why it would have kept coming like that..."

The partners exchanged glances before Kyoya followed her trail.

"A reminder that we're still in the dark on this."

"...No," Lyric interjected after a moment of thought, "we're not."

The Miscreant watched as she began piecing together parts of a puzzle he couldn't even see. Her calculation was visible; that precision and intent made itself plenty known to those in the audience. "They're talking about Leviathan."

A searing jolt nearly threw the boy out of his chair. The only thing keeping that from happening was Lyric's instant reaction to his sudden jerk. "No, wait! Hey! Stay with me, Blue!"

She scrambled to hold him upright while what remained of the affliction quickly melted away—though not before leaving him dazed to hell. It had all happened before Solitaire and Levvy were even able to process it.

The Seraph winced as Kyoya finally came back around.

"Jeez... And here I thought that was the last of it," he groaned. A small, persistent headache remained, though. Even if he'd mostly learned to ignore them, by now, it was clear they still packed a punch.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking—!"

Rather than let the ache get to him, Kyoya simply laughed her off, offering a thumbs-up.

"C'mon, cut yourself some slack, Seraphim. We're still kickin'—but more on this bit. Leviathan?"

"It's a bit of an earful," Solitaire noted, "but certainly one worth listening to, especially in your case... Although, given what just transpired, I'm admittedly a tad uninclined to risk misspeaking."

"I dunno, Princess—I'm past my headache phase, and exposure therapy never did anybody wrong. Looks to me like he just can't wait to hear more, anyway."

Somehow, Levvy picked up on the one thought he'd harbored in the wake of his deja vu. He'd never been one to let a few prickles keep him from something sweet, and certainly wouldn't start now.

Lyric sighed.

"I hate that I agree with you."

With this reinforcement, Solitaire gave him a cautious address.

"Are you sure?"

"Something tells me the worst of it's good and gone. Let's hear it."