Without waiting, Dande set off and headed towards the stairs that would take him back to the ground floor. Tolas followed suit but stopped just before the first step and turned around.

Raphaëlle hadn't budged an inch, a stern scowl on her face. Even after all this time, she could never forget where she came from, and even though it had been a long time now, thinking about her makeshift family still tore at her heart.

But before Tolas could ask if she was okay, the she-wolf hastily got up and, with confident steps, started walking towards the stairs. The bosco, preferring not to ask her more questions, followed in her wake.

Dande quickly found the entrance to the old ruffian tunnels hidden behind the freezers in the HQ's cafeteria. Raphaëlle grabbed her flashlight and turned it on, illuminating the tunnel that hadn't been used in many years. Dande closed his eyes and reached out his hand.

“Good news,” he said as he opened his eyes, “this tunnel is still viable, I can feel a slight breeze and the air isn’t stale.”

“Alright great. How can we be sure it will take us to the roof of the fourth warehouse, thought?” Tolas wondered aloud.

“We can't,” Dande shrugged, “so let’s just hope your lucky star is working overtime.”

Raphaëlle turned around, pointing the flashlight directly at Dande to blind him.

“Ladies and gentleman, the King of Half-Baked Plans!.”

“Oh, lower that thing down, damnit…”

“Hey, did you guys see that?” Tolas interrupted while staring into the tunnel.

Raphaëlle and Dande widened their eyes in astonishment when they saw what Tolas was looking at. Small bluish lights emanated from all the walls of the tunnel, from floor to ceiling, illuminating it from end to end.

Thanks to the light, they could all notice the slope downwards about thirty meters ahead. The pirate almost threw himself against one of the walls to examine it and tapped his forehead with his fingertips.

“Delsol crystals! Of course!” he exclaimed, placing his hands against the walls. “I had theorized they had a way of lighting their ways without fire since they had so little recorded cave-ins but I never even imagined they could have delsol crystals naturally occurring in their soil! Or maybe they had a mine somewhere and managed to manually…”

“Dande!” Raphaëlle exclaimed. “We’re gonna leave you behind, man!”

“Huh?” the pirate said, snapping back to reality.

He furrowed his brows, no longer seeing Raphaëlle and Tolas behind him. The two young sailors had quite the headstart on him.

“Wait for me!”

Shortly after, they reached the end of the tunnel, which was marked by a large wooden panel. Dande approached it and began to feel it from bottom to top. Then suddenly, his finger seemed to sink into the panel, and with a click, it slowly began to rise, to the wide-eyed surprise of Raphaëlle and Tolas.

They entered a dilapidated circular antechamber with an old damaged telephone hanging on the wall and a wooden desk topped with a large green button in the middle of the room. It was just big enough to fit a fourth person with them but no more.

The pirate walked to the center of the room and pressed the green button. Suddenly, the entire space shook and began to rise very slowly. The incredulous expressions on the faces of the two sailors seemed to satisfy the tall brunet.

“There’s the gasp I wanted.”

They quickly reached a first landing. Their small platform stopped in front of another wooden panel with a lever in the middle.

“We should be around the foreman's office level,” Dande explained to them. “Next stop, the warehouse roof.”

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The elevator started up again, and in a few moments, they reached the last landing in the warehouse chimney.

The pirate only had to pull down the lever sticking out of the panel for it to start lifting, revealing the warehouse roof slowly being illuminated by the first rays of the rising sun.

Raphaëlle, Tolas, and Dande only stuck their heads out of their hiding place at the same time, scanning all around to see where the Kemper might be in relation to them.

They circled the chimney and could thus see the first and second mast of the Kemper protruding from the roof in front of them.

Without consulting each other, they all crouched down and slowly approached the edge.

When they were about two meters from it, they all laid down on the tin and began to crawl until they could see directly onto the galleon's deck.

There were now about ten people standing between the first and second mast, the majority of them forming a circle around two people bloodily fighting amid the excited shouts of their spectators.

Raphaëlle's eyes bulged as a burning anger rose in her chest. Scornwallis's pirates were making two Ermythians fight each other, an old man in rags against a young woman with clothes half burned and a face already clearly swollen.

The pirates were laughing heartily, patting each other on the back while shouting insults at the two Ermythians who looked like they could barely stand. Some of them punched or kicked them whenever they saw that their two victims were reluctant to hit each other.

“Those numbnuts...”Dande sighed, sounding barely disillusioned.

Tolas shot him a dark look.

“Is that all you have to say?” the boatswain exclaimed. “Seriously? Instead of knocking down your friends, we should have slitted their throats...

“What? You want to blame me for their fuck-up? I can’t do anything about it! ” the pirate defended himself.

“You don’t seem that bothered though. Raph'? Say something! ...Raph'?

Tolas turned to Raphaëlle and widened his eyes. The young woman was motionless in her observation of the Kemper. But it was the expression on her face that had caught the boatswain's attention.

The wolf was completely silent, barely even breathing. Yet, just moments ago, her hatred was still boiling in her veins, her heart was racing, and her hands were trembling with rage, but her body refused to move. Seeing the state of the Ermythians on the deck had revived her worst memories.

The shadow of Dokland had infiltrated her mind, darkening all her thoughts. She couldn't help but put herself in their place, completely helpless in a hostile environment, surrounded by men who only wanted to harm her.

And then suddenly, without even realizing it, she grabbed the handle of her dagger. The cold touch of the worn metal against her palm was like an electric shock.

Dokland was dead. She had killed him herself. With her own hands, she had ended her nightmare. It was like a realization, a silent epiphany. She held her solution in her hands. As long as she had a blade, she could never fall under anyone's control again. Never again would she feel like those Ermythians.

It was like someone had turned on a light in her mind. She observed the mizzen mast of the Kemper and then the distance between the roof and the sterncastle of the ship. Finally, she looked up at the horizon, squinting a little in the half-risen sun. What had started as an abstract thought was now becoming a very concrete idea. She grounded herself in reality and turned her head towards Tolas.

"Tolas, do you trust me?"

"Always." the bosco replied without hesitation.

"Then follow me."

"Wait, wait wait, what are you doing?" Dande asked.

Without answering him, Raphaëlle stood up and walked back towards the middle of the roof, looking alternately straight ahead and then at the horizon. Tolas joined her, standing next to her, unsure of what was about to happen. Raphaëlle's muscles tensed, and she cracked her neck.

"What's the plan?" Tolas asked, while Dande came to stand next to them, not really understanding what was happening.

"We take advantage of the sunrise to jump onto the Kemper. We land in the sail and then... we slaughter them all." the young woman concluded unequivocally.

"What? Are you crazy? And you call my plans half-baked? We'll just get ourselves killed!" Dande exclaimed in panic.

Tolas didn't even try to reason with Raphaëlle. He knew her too well. But even he felt that something in her tone was very different.

The slightly wild atmosphere she usually exuded was much more sinister. It was as if Raphaëlle's silhouette was darkening the glow of the rising sun.

Tolas couldn't help but feel a small pang of jealousy towards his friend. She had something he lacked, but he couldn't say what.

"Let's go!" Raphaëlle shouted, starting to run with all her might.

Tolas followed her directly and began to run as well, followed by a panicked Dande. The sun was finally rising from the sea, illuminating the ruins of Ermythie and the bay of Vyx with its blinding rays. Raphaëlle launched herself with all her might from the top of the warehouse roof, her fingers clutching her weapon tightly.

It was as if the scene was playing out in slow motion for her.

Just four meters before impact.

The pirates were too focused on their improvised arena to look up.

Just two meters left.

She could see the white canvas of the sail getting closer and closer.

What would matter would be her reaction speed. There was no doubt in her mind.

All the pirates had to die.