I started to get up to follow Jon, but Dani grabbed my arm before I could get very far.

"Relax. You'll get a better explanation than you ever dreamed." He let go, and I had to rub my arm to warm it back up; his hand had been freezing.

I heard a growl and looked up in surprise. TS glared in the direction that Jon and Thomas had gone and was literally growling softly. He got up, and Dani stood and blocked his way.

"He's fine. Let Jon talk," Dani said. He didn't seem at all concerned that TS could probably have crushed him. I noticed for the first time that he was actually just a bit taller than TS was. He sighed. "You know, I agree with what he's probably saying to Thomas."

TS bit his lip and hung his head. "I do too," he whispered, like it was almost painful to admit. "Tom's really getting..." He hesitated, glanced at me, and switched to Japanese.

Dani looked concerned and answered. Strangely enough, as they spoke, TS sounded like he was using Japanese, and Dani seemed to be speaking Greek.

"Are you both speaking different languages?" I finally demanded.

They exchanged one last worried look and laughed. "My Japanese listening comprehension is a lot better than my speaking skills are," Dani said.

"Same with my Greek," TS said. "I'm sure it sounds insane, but it works."

"How many languages do you two speak?"

"I speak seven," TS said. "But my Greek is sort of shaky."

"Four," Dani said. "Japanese is my weakest, but that's just because I'm lazy. English was harder to learn."

"English is your second language?" I was pleased that I had guessed that.

"Third. Panth was my first."

I frowned, I had never heard of that one. "What is that?"

Dani and TS glanced at each other. "Panthalassish," Dani said. "I'll explain later."

More secrets. I was intrigued, but annoyed at yet another promise of ‘later.’ I noticed they were both looking past me and turned to see Thomas was back, without Jon.

"Right," he said. "I'm going out. Shouldn't take more than an hour, Jon found some, er..." He glanced at me and said something in Japanese. Oh, this was getting very frustrating. "I'll meet you back on the boat."

"Ship," Dani said. Thomas tried to punch him, and Dani snapped up his hand, caught Thomas’ wrist, and twisted it away. His smug look faded instantly, and he frowned. He looked concerned.

Thomas yanked his hand free and looked away, like he was almost embarrassed. He cleared his throat and turned to me. "Come to my room on the ship in an hour. We'll explain everything."

Wait, he was putting it off again? "That's what you've been saying! How do I know you'll really explain things this time?"

"Trust me," he said. He looked off to the side and sighed. "I better go. See you in an hour." He turned and left the restaurant.

Dani called his name, but Thomas ignored him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Don't worry, I'm going to go with him," TS said. "Jen, we're in room 3120." He and Thomas were roommates? I sighed. Things just keep getting more and more interesting.

"Tethys," Dani called. "Make sure he gets enough, I'm worried about him."

"You know I will, Danio," TS said.

"Back to the ship?" Dani asked me when TS jogged off.

"I suppose."

We walked down to the dock in silence and stood to wait for the lifeboat. It was just leaving the ship and would probably take ten minutes to get to us.

"Are you really going to explain things?" I asked after a moment.

"We will, I promise," Dani said. He looked around. "You know what, I'm going to go see if I can bother Charlie. I'm regretting not signing up for that sunset canal transit trip."

I looked around; the sun was already going down. "His trip has probably already left."

"Well, with any luck, it's not in a lock yet." Dani paused in thought. "I could always... Hmm, no, Charlie would kill me if I tried to swim the canal."

"Swim the canal?" I asked skeptically. "As in, swim through the locks?"

"Yeah. But I won't. I am going to try and catch up with that trip though. Maybe I can sneak on. I'll see you in an hour in Thomas' room."

Dani glanced around, then dove right off the dock and into the water. Even though I knew that he had swum here from somewhere out in the ocean, my jaw dropped in shock. I looked around, waiting for him to surface, but he didn't. It almost made me panic, but I had a feeling that he could probably hold his breath for a long time. For an insane second, I wondered if he even needed to breathe at all, but quickly discarded the idea. As cool as it would be if there really were something supernatural going on, I knew it wouldn't be anything that neat.

I still hadn't seen any sign of Dani when the lifeboat arrived, and I accepted that he really had been serious about going to find the boat Charlie was on. After getting back on the ship, I went back to my room and tried to pass the hour with a textbook, but just couldn't concentrate. I ended up going out on deck to where Dani had first gone overboard. I had a great view of the port and could see the lights from the canal in the distance.

"Pretty, huh?"

I turned to see Dani had joined me.

"Yeah," I said. "What happened to finding Charlie?"

"Too late. The boat was already in the lock." He shrugged. "Probably better that I stay here, anyway."

"To explain things?"

He nodded. "Actually, I'm going to go wait for Thomas. See you in..." He trailed off and looked for a clock. "Well, I'll see you there."

Dani left, and I resisted the urge to follow and demand he start explaining. I spent the rest of the hour with all the questions that had been building up just running through my head. The one that kept coming back was ‘were they actually going to explain everything?’ Dani obviously hurried off before I could ask him anything.

When the hour was up, I headed down to 3120 and knocked. Thomas opened the door, and I followed him in. TS and Dani were there too. A part of me that had been expecting Jon to be smuggled onto the ship to explain things was disappointed to see he wasn't with them. Dani and TS sat on the same bed, and Thomas sat down with them. I nervously sat down on the other bed across from them. I felt sort of like I was about to be interrogated or something. There were butterflies in my stomach from a mix of curiosity and concern. They were obviously going to tell me. I could tell from their expressions. But, they all looked very serious. I had an odd feeling in my gut that something huge was about to happen.

"I'd like to wait for Char and Mariana," Thomas said. "But, I think you'll go nuts if we don't explain now."

Thomas paused and looked at me for a moment, then glanced at Dani and TS. What was up with all this melodrama? Thankfully, he spoke before my patience ran out.

"We work for MES," he said.

"Mez?" I asked.

"MES," Thomas repeated. "It stands for Magical Enforcement and Secrecy."

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. Magical? They weren't still stalling, were they? As much as I would have loved it if something magical really were going on, I couldn't believe it. Magic wasn't real.

Thomas continued. "Jon, by the way, is the head of the Northeast branch. MES, well as the name implies, enforces magical secrecy. Sort of. Our agency is responsible for all sorts of things. Keeping the existence of magics a secret being the biggest. So, it makes and enforces a lot of laws regarding that."

"Back up," I said, "the existence of magics?"

"Magical beings," Thomas said.

"Like elves and fairies?" This couldn't possibly be happening. He had to be making things up.

"There's no such thing as elves," Thomas said seriously.

"Fairies are such a pain," TS groaned. "I swear, half of my fieldwork is for those bloody things."

"And they're always so happy, even when they're attacking you," Dani said. "It's weird."

"It's well creepy," TS agreed.

"Fairies and magical beings," I said. "Do you expect me to believe this?"