"This book changes everything," Captain Hawkins repeated as he looked down at the metal book in his hands.

This small outpost had been his prison for far too long. It had been three years since he had been stationed here, three years of nothing but minor outlaw attacks and escorts. Here, in this book, was his chance to turn that all around. He might even rise in rank. Major Hawkins. Colonel Hawkins. They both had a nice ring to them.

"Doc, Lieutenant, come with me." He nodded to Doctor Livesay and began to walk back to his cabin. "The rest of you get back to work!"

"Sir." Private Landson saluted before walking away.

Captain Hawkins led his two most trusted subordinates back to his cabin, dropping down in his chair with a huff and waiting for them to settle in. Doctor Livesay took a seat across from his desk while Lieutenant Tanis took a position leaning by the door, his hand on the hilt of his rapier.

Thump.

"This book," Captain Hawkins said, laying the metal book on the table. "This book is going to change everything for us."

"Yes, but what is it?" Doctor Livesay's fingers clattered together in front of his face, his palms touching.

"This book is a logbook of Roald's expedition," Captain Hawkins said.

"Who's that?" Lieutenant Tanis asked from where he rested on the wall, unmoved by the name.

"About thirty years ago, he went out to find the limits of the nightsea. He wanted to know if what we had was all we would ever see. He wasn't the first to try but the first to succeed. He came back and tried to spread what he had found, but the Military Police got to him before it got too far."

"That's not the story I remember hearing." Doctor Livesay shook his head. "I recall him being called a liar in the World Daily Press."

"The Military Police suppressed the information." Captain Hawkins put one finger on the cover, tapping it lightly. "He was given the choice to either die or live in obscurity. He chose his life."

"So, he actually made it," Tanis raised an eyebrow.

"He did," Captain Hawkins nodded. "And this book is a record of it if the title is right."

"Delicious." Doctor Livesay shuddered. "Forbidden knowledge."

"The New World." Captain Hawkins chuckled. "It has secrets about the New World inside."

"And how does that help us?" Lieutenant Tanis was like an unmoving statue.

"It's information that our superiors want to keep suppressed," Captain Hawkins said. "They'll give out ranks just for finding it and getting it to them. We'll finally get out of here."

"Rank is worthless, but knowledge is power," Doctor Livesay said. "Let me see the book; I want to look at its pages."

Captain Hawkins never understood the doctor. He was well-liked by the townsfolk and the smartest man the captain had ever met, but the fact that he didn't mind being stuck in Cragg Hollow told Hawkins all he needed to know. The man cared nothing of rank. However, even he was curious. There was no harm in the three of them knowing the secret.

"Here." He slid the book across the desk to the doctor.

"Such a strange device of a book," Doctor Livesay said as he picked the book up and examined it from all sides. "I suppose you just press this button to open it."

He did so.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Unauthorized user. Access denied.

The doctor yelped and tossed the book up and down in his hands before dropping it to the ground. He practically stood up on the back of his chair for a moment, a feat that Captain Hawkins would never have expected possible by the old man, before slowly climbing back down.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The book beeped three more times before it turned off. Doctor Livesay slowly reached down and picked it up before depositing it back on the desk and looking at it through his perpetually foggy glasses.

"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "Captain, would it be alright if I took this to my lab to examine it? I do not wish to break it or anything. I merely might be able to find a way to open it with the right tools at my disposal."

Captain Hawkins grunted and looked up to Lieutenant Tanis. The lieutenant looked back at him with his dark eyes, and they shared a knowing, silent thought. They had known each other for years, so they could communicate like that easily.

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"Lieutenant Tanis will accompany you," Captain Hawkins said. "To keep the logbook safe. We don't know who might be after it, and someone must have attacked the ship. Better we be safe than sorry."

It was a lie, at least in part. Yes, the ship had been attacked, and yes, the logbook was valuable. Doctor Livesay was also someone that Captain Hawkins couldn't completely trust. Men that didn't want rank or power weren't people he could predict. They were wild cards that might do something crazy if given the opportunity. Doctor Livesay was one of those men, and Lieutenant Tanis would make sure that nothing unpredictable happened while he was in possession of the logbook.

"See what you can find out, but don't go overboard, Doc," Captain Hawkins said. "Our superiors need that book in one piece if we're going to get our promotions. If it's broken, we can't prove it was more than a hunk of metal."

"Yes, yes," Doctor Livesay said as he carefully picked the book back up again this time and stood. "I will endeavor not to break anything. I am a man of science, after all. The secrets of this book are just as important as how the book itself works. Come on, Lieutenant."

"Captain." Tanis tipped his hat before he followed the doctor out of the room.

That left Hawkins alone. He needed to send out a communication to Rockford, and to do that, he needed to send out some orders. He knew that some of the units in the Military Police had faster ways to communicate, but he was just the captain of a small outpost. Unfortunately, that meant he was at the end of the line for any upgrades for his ship or his outpost. He settled into his desk and picked up his pen to write his orders.

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Erick walked away from the docks. The other guards were finishing their work on the ship, and they no longer needed his help. He wasn't in the right state of mind to begin with. Anger was like a hot iron in his gut, and he needed to cool it off.

He pointed himself down the docks and towards the tavern. What he really needed was a drink. That would cool off his head.

"Your anger will be the death of you," Agnes whispered in his ear. "You'll get gut rot from all the drinking."

He waved his thoughts away as he walked through the fog banks and into the light of the area around the tavern. Several of the townsfolk were out, all in their festive white masks. A man played a song on his horn as the rest of the people in the square danced. Erick ignored it and instead made his way immediately into the tavern.

Cragg Cove had been open longer than even the doctor had been stationed at the outpost. The bartender, Felix, was friendly with the guards and always made sure their cups were full and everyone was happy.

Which was why, when he walked in, the atmosphere seemed entirely off.

A townsperson was hauling off a woman by her shoulders, dragging her feet across the floor with every step. Erick held the door open out of habit as he took the woman outside. Part of him questioned it, but Felix just stood at the bar, cleaning it from an apparent spill. Something had clearly happened, and he shouldn't panic without context.

"Ah, Erick. Come over for a drink." Felix waved from his work before returning to it. "That young lady couldn't hold her liquor, so I had my friend take her home. Not before she made a mess of my counter."

"Oh, that makes sense," Erick said as he approached the bar and found a seat on a stool far away from the mess. "I'll have one of the usual then."

"A fine ale," the barkeep said, a smile in his voice and across his mask as he picked up a mug and filled it from one of his barrels. "What brings you in? Is the recovery at the docks done?"

"As done as it will be," Erick said as he looked down in his drink. "There weren't any survivors in this ship. Didn't seem like a big crew to begin with. All we did was recover the bodies and the cargo really."

"Oh, secrets to share then?" Felix asked as he polished his glass.

"Just a book," Erick said. "That's all. The Captain seemed interested in it, but he'll probably have Doc examine it."

"The good doctor has a good head on his shoulders." Felix chuckled to himself as he placed one glass down beneath the bar and picked up another. "He'll figure it out if anyone can. He's always been a blessing to this community."

"I guess," Erick said before taking a sip of his drink. "Any problems recently? I've been itching for some action, but all I ever get are those wolves in the fog sometimes."

"That's why you should wear a mask," Felix said, clicking his tongue. "Once you do, those pesky wolves will leave you alone."

"Sorry, but that just sounds like a superstition to me," Erick said. "How do those masks even keep anything away?"

Thump.

"Monsters hate happiness more than anything," Felix said, setting down his mug on the bar. "By wearing our masks, we trick them into thinking we are always happy. Monsters thrive where there is sadness and fear in the world, and our people have no fear or sadness so long as we wear these masks."

That sounded like a load of crap in Erick's mind, but he kept it to himself. Part of his training in the Military Police was to respect local cultures to a degree, especially outside of the Twelve Kingdoms. While they could just enforce their will out in the Fringes, it would cost resources and manpower to do so. It was much better to let those few fringe islands with outposts run under their own rule with Military Police protection.

At least, that's what his drill instructor had told him again and again.

"I might go out on a patrol then," Erick said, sliding his unfinished drink forward with a silver doler. "A good walk in the night will clear my head, and I'm not due to sleep until morning."

"You never seem to finish your drinks," Felix said as he took the drink himself and chugged it down.

Droplets of ale ran down his mask as he drank, but he got more in him than he wasted. Erick shook his head. He would never do something like that. It seemed so unclean.

"I suppose wasting a drink is blasphemy to a barkeep," Erick said. "Sorry to do that to you, Felix, but I want to think more so than I want not to tonight."

Clink. Thump.

"A fair desire." Felix burped as he sat down the mug. "I'll hold you to finish some of my ale someday. I think you'll find that it won't erase your problems but make them easier to deal with all the while."

Erick left the bar and its patrons behind and walked out into the cold night. His spear was gone, but he honestly didn't need it on patrol. He had dropped it in the rush to get back to the docks and would find it again while walking. Either that or a townsperson might return it to the Little February tomorrow.

He made his way past the hornblower, who seemed to be packing up for the night. The crowd outside had cleared out, and only a few people were dancing now in the street. Erick nodded at them as he walked past them, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked into the nearest fog bank and out into the night.