Maria led Zoe out of the pool hall and along a wooden boardwalk. Palm trees swayed overhead — the frayed leaves glowing like burnished metal under the convulsing sky.
“I wouldn’t expect a tropical island to have a pool,” Zoe said.
“I think the system transported it here,” Maria replied after a moment’s thought. “There’s a lot about these islands that makes little sense.”
Zoe listened to Maria’s heart.
“You’re afraid of me,” she said.
Maria didn’t skip a beat.
“Of course I am. Big Bob was the scariest person we ever encountered! He was predictably unpredictable and horribly powerful. The night he and the others from the tutorial arrived, we fought back, but they killed everyone who raised a fist against them. We didn’t stand a chance.”
Zoe raised an eyebrow. That man was powerful?
“What level are you, Maria?” she asked.
“Thirteen,” Maria said proudly. “I received my body path two weeks ago. The Smith…”
“He’s something else.”
“The smith appeared to me as a woman,” Maria said.
“Interesting.”
They discussed the Smith and the tribulations of choosing a body path as though it were a show on streaming. The new ice breaker of the apocalypse as they spoke of their experiences with the Crimson Armada’s Trinity while skirting the exact details of their abilities and their build. Gaining trust while keeping secrets, but the lack of threat Zoe felt from Maria or anyone on the island was refreshing. Palm trees swayed and crabs scuttled underneath the boardwalk as Maria led Zoe toward the beach. It felt like a tropical paradise.
The boardwalk ended in a dock that extended out from the sandy dunes and across an empty expanse of sky. Had water lapped at the shore, the dock would have extended out for a few hundred feet, as it was the structure jutted out amidst the swirling colors. Boats hung from long tethered ropes. Sails were furled, and motors raised, but Zoe noticed blue crystalline apparatuses attached to each vessel.
“What are those?” she asked.
“The Polyp called them Earth Engines,” Maria said, and she gave Zoe a sidelong glance. “Are you sure you don’t want to see our Polyp? That was the first thing Big Bob wanted to see after he took over.”
“I’m not him,” Zoe said. “Not interested in the same things, not at all.”
“Whatever you say,” Maria said, though her tone was a little unbelieving.
“Would Big Bob let you talk to him like that?”
Maria paled.
“No… No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean —”
Zoe dismissed the woman’s fear with a wave of her hand and a subtle flex of [Our Hearts Toll as One] to stabilize her heart rate.
“You’re fine. My point was that I’m not him. I’m here to make you safe, not serve.”
“But you don’t want to rule?”
“I don’t want to stay.”
Maria nodded, and though she clearly had some thoughts, she kept them to herself.
“Very well,” she said. “If you’ll follow me, your chariot awaits.”
Other people hurried along the dock, heading toward the boats, pulling in ropes, and preparing supplies. According to Maria, they readied five boats to bring the survivors, Mathias and his men, and any other supplies they could get from the island.
Zoe would go ahead of the other boats in Big Bob’s chariot. It was kept a good fifty feet away from the other boats that hung beneath the boardwalk. Zoe climbed down a ladder of woven vines before she jumped into the chariot itself. The chariot’s body was a two-seater speedboat. Someone had strung blue crystals along the exterior to provide the lift that stopped it from plummeting into the sky below. Zoe trusted the crystals but still resolved not to look over the edge.
The angular, cherry red body pointed forward, and attached to the front by long chains were two sleeping hammerhead shark ghosts. The monsters inflated before the boat, translucent, and trancelike, awaiting commands.
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Maria gestured to the reins, and Zoe picked them up gingerly.
“How does this work?”
“Big Bob said you just think through the chains. He always bragged about them, but he never let anybody else use them.”
An odd smile tugged at Zoe’s lips as she examined the chains. Just think through them… The pang in her heart remained, but it felt more distant now.
Go, she thought, and the sharks squirmed at her command. She half expected a thought to echo back. That little ding like a crystal bell…
But there was no sound, only acceleration as the sharks swam forward. Zoe leaned forward as her hair whipped about her face. She yelled out with sheer bubbling joy and Maria whooped beside her.
They raced across the sky, lighter than air, faster than the wind, and the other boats followed as they flew toward the island.
###
Zoe’s friends waited for her outside of the shack on the beach. Arrows remained stuck in the rickety wooden walls, and the archers themselves were tied up and sitting on the roof. Black bands of energy glued them there, still crackling from Bella’s body path technique.
“Why are they on the roof?” Zoe asked.
“Skidmark bet me I couldn’t throw them up there,” Bella said.
“They’re hurt,” Zoe said with a frown. “You shouldn’t be throwing injured people.”
“Yeah, alright.”
“I’m serious, you know I was a doctor?”
“Was,” Bella said with a cheeky smile. “Something changed, didn’t it?”
A wave of irritation swept over Zoe, but it passed and left a strange emptiness. She nodded at Bella’s words. Something did change, the world, and her place in it.
“Point,” she said. “But help me get them down.”
“Skidmark?” Bella said aloud.
The Scottish woman was fishing through the bottles stacked on the sand.
“One second,” Skidmark said.
A minute later she produced a half-empty bottle of cheap scotch and held it reverentially up to the sky’s swirling colors.
“Finally,” she said in a whisper closer to the breath. “A taste of god damned, god blessed Scotland.”
“You going to share?” Anton asked from where he sat on the ground, in a lotus position as his eyes danced about the island.
“Get your own swill,” Skidmark said. “Some bourbon or whatever you Americans call whiskey.”
“You know all Scotch is aged in bourbon barrels,” Anton said without opening his eyes.
“You shut your mouth.”
“Skidmark!” Zoe said.
“Yes, boss?”
“Get those men off the roof.”
“Aye, aye.”
Skidmark saluted before she pointed at the shack. Lightning flashed from her fingers and in moments all the archers were resting on the sand. Some of them stirred, groggy in the aftermath of their beating and teleportation, others remained unconscious.
Smoke billowed up from the shack where Skidmark’s lightning had set a few spots to smoldering. Fire flickered and grew and the survivors from the frozen island hurried out shrieking.
“So,” Zoe said. “They’re the same?”
“Yeah,” Bella nodded. “Someone really needs to toughen them up.”
The survivors wandered out on the sand. Their faces wore a uniform expression of numb shock as they gazed at their environment.
“Would you look at that,” Anton said as he pointed up.
Five boats floated through the air toward them and slowly settled on the sand like butterflies of wood and sail. Keels groaned as they shifted onto the sand. The people on board disembarked and hurried across the beach toward the archers.
Maria led them over, and she stopped before Zoe. Her voice was halting as she spoke.
“What are your plans with these men?” she asked.
“They’re free,” Zoe said. “I understand why they attacked.”
“Are you sure?”
“You want me to change my mind?”
Maria shook her head, tears in her eyes, as she charged past Zoe toward the hulking body of Mathias who sat amongst his men. The lovers reunited in hurried whispers as Zoe motioned to her friends.
“Can I speak to you three in private?”
Bella nodded and followed Zoe instantly. Anton hopped up off the ground, dusted the sand from his clothes, and placed a hand on Skidmark to guide her along. The Scottish woman continued drinking from the bottle as she let Anton lead her.
A cheer went up from the archers as Zoe and her friends wandered toward the edge of the shore.
“Big Bob is dead!” Mathias shouted.
Another cheer went up.
Anton raised an eyebrow.
“You solved that problem quickly, boss,” he said.
“He wasn’t that powerful,” she said.
“More like you’re a freak,” Skidmark said with a smile. “I mean that as a compliment, of course.”
“Of course,” Zoe said. ‘Give me that bottle.”
Skidmark handed it over, and Zoe took a swig. The alcohol rushed down her throat like air. Her Vitality was too high to feel the burn, but the taste remained.
“Strange,” she said.
“Nothing’s the same,” Skidmark said with a nod.
“Give it here,” Bella said.
The bottle passed around the circle twice in silence. Zoe remembered the thick silence around that first campfire in the Mirrorbell Dungeon. It had been awkward, and she felt a need to fill it, to take on the leadership of not just the group but the moment. She still felt that, but now it was like a worn leather shoe, no longer squeaking, and she smiled as she drank the last drops of amber fire.
“I don’t know if any of you will say it, or if you want to say it or hear it said, but… good job, all of you. I’m proud of what we accomplished, even despite the loss, despite the horror and the hardship, we pulled through, and I’m glad I had you with me the whole way.”
“Splendid speech,” Skidmark said as she eyed the bottle.
“Gracious,” Bella added. “Moments like this make the apocalypse worth the trouble.”
“I love you guys,” Anton said.
“What was that?” Skidmark said with a look of sheer disbelief.
“Did I stutter?”
“Oi, say it again, mate!”
Zoe smiled as her friends bickered. She let the moment roll on as the survivors loaded onto the boats on the beach. At last, the sniping and japing died and Zoe coughed.
“I called you here for a reason,” she said. “There’s something we need to discuss.”
“And what’s that?” Skidmark, clearly drunk, asked.
“I thought it was obvious,” said Anton, poker-faced as ever.
“Yeah…” Bella said.
Zoe let out a long breath as her friends turned to her. She felt the light on her skin and slowly unclenched her fists of Mirror. Peace settled in her heart and resonated out through the hearts of all those wrapped up in her technique. She smiled.
“What do we do next?”