Alex looked up at the mass of vines as it formed into a humanoid shape. Alex held Benbeck in one arm still, but he faced a problem. He could let Benbeck go to fight the mass of coiling vines, or he could throw him away. He didn't have time for much else. Alex looked up at the vines.

"You're in charge then?" he asked, holding up Benbeck with his metal arm. "And here I thought he was the leader of this entire fiasco."

The vines continued to coil and mash together on the roof until a feminine form stood there, her body lithe and her head a massive red spiked flower. A black head rested at the center of the red petals, with two glowing green eyes. Whatever it was, it had no mouth, so Alex was unsure about what exactly it was speaking.

"'In charge' is such a loose term," the plant woman said. "However, you could say that my superiors have financed these ruffians to come after you and your crew."

"And why would you do that?" Alex side-eyed Benbeck as he continued to watch the strange woman. "I already have a high bounty. You shouldn't need extra incentive if you're dumb enough to come after me."

She clearly had a curse, which allowed her to be a sort of plant, but he couldn't tell much beyond that and the vines that composed her body. Was there a human body hidden in all of that, or was she just an amalgamation of vines? There were far too many options when it came to curses across the nightsea.

"A high bounty can be both a curse and a blessing," the woman said, and from the darkness, her vines drew up several shadowed forms wrapped tightly. "A high bounty keeps people away just as much as it brings people in. If someone is so dangerous to be worth a million dolers, there might need to be extra incentive to push the foolish to try."

It took a moment, but Alex counted three in total. As he finished counting, the vines raised up into the sky, lighting their forms. Benbeck gasped in his hands as the moonlight shone down. Alex recognized two of them. He smirked. He had already known the fight's outcomes, so seeing those three in particular just confirmed he was right.

"Unfortunately, money doesn't always buy quality." The plant woman shook her bulbous head.

"What did you do to them?" Benbeck sputtered, jumping against Alex's steel grip. "Let go of my crew!"

"Why?" the plant woman asked, tossing a frozen statue of a half-bird half-woman into the air with one vine before catching it. "Only one of your crew seemed to win her fight, and she had to be frozen to get it done. Your entire crew was too weak in the end."

"Li Wen." Alex narrowed his eyes as he put it together. "If that's true, you'll pay for it in blood Benbeck."

Alex tightened his grip on Benbeck's collar, but the man didn't care. His arms cartwheeled through the air as he tried to escape Alex's grip and get to his crew. Alex tried to hold that anger against him, but it was hard. Benbeck, for all his negative qualities, was ready to rip out of Alex's grip to fight the plant woman.

"So, what are you going to do?" Alex asked, holding up Benbeck. "It's not like you took hostages I care about. Are you going to hold them up and tell me to give up, or you'll kill them?"

"Nothing of the sort," the woman said, reaching out a hand. "I'm here to take out the trash first—Pop Wrap."

Whip-crack.

From all around the shadows, vines shot out and lashed around Benbeck. A sudden tug, a force as strong as a truck pulling on a chain, ripped at Alex's arm, pulling Benbeck away. Alex didn't even have a chance to pull back, though if he was honest, his heart wasn't in it. Whatever he had planned for Benbeck, he knew the plant woman would give him worse.

"A textbook betrayal." Alex shook his head as Benbeck joined the rest of his crew in their entwined levitation. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Simple, I'll get rid of them."

Whip-crack.

She flung the entire crew up and into the sky, sending them flying out of sight and into the night. Alex might have felt bad for them, but the reality of what had just happened still restrained any empathy. Whether Benbeck cared for his friends or not didn't change what had happened to Ikal and the village, and it didn't change what might have happened to Li Wen.

"That leaves just the two of us," Alex said, flexing his metal fingers as he watched the woman. "Just who are you, and why are you after my crew?"

Rustle.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Haven't you guessed already?" the woman asked, her body welling up and her legs stretching as she stepped down from the roof. "So far, you've met three of us."

Alex had suspicions, but that was confirmation. He and his crew had run into three powerful individuals in the last month. There was Mister Deadman, a man who could control bones, and that had turned into a giant bone scorpion. There was Mister Foley, a wiry bald man who controlled wind and turned into a massive flying weasel. Lastly, there had been Miss Brooke, a woman made out of water who tried to crack his ship in half after turning into a serpent made of water.

Now, there was a woman made out of vines.

"Man, we just have all the worst luck," Alex said, holding out his arm and focusing on his curse. "Junk Arm."

Blue electric lights burst around his arm, and bits of jagged metal replaced them as the lights disappeared. Alex let his arm down as the woman approached, her body again just a mass of vines beside her bulbous head. One thing he was sure of was that the head would be the very first thing he hit.

"Yes, you rolled into a bit of bad luck with your most recent acquisition," The woman smiled. "You may call me Miss Glory. I am the third Finger to our hand, Miss Malone, and I come to bring you an offer."

That was a surprise. Alex raised an eyebrow at her. So far, his interactions with the people who called themselves Fingers had been, at best, violent, at worst, deadly. The fact that she was approaching him with an offer instead was different. However, he wasn't about to let his guard down. He raised one metal hand, holding the palm wide to signal her to stop.

"Smart," she said, stopping short and holding her arms wide.

Her entire body reminded him of the trunk of an old try. It was like twisting branches that banded together to form solid limbs. Alex kept his senses open to the world as he took her in. He was sure that she was setting up a trap behind him. Did he see something move in the blue lights that made up his electric senses? Even with the second level of his curse, it was hard to tell.

"Tell me what you want," Alex said. "I'll consider it."

"The only reason we're so interested in your crew is one of your crew members." Miss Glory leaned forward, her green eyes jumping left and right. "While your interference with our operation on Nowhere did catch our attention, we would all be willing to forgive it if you're willing to turn over that crew member."

They had found Mari on Nowhere, but Alex didn't think she was talking about Mari. From what Bargen had told him, Mister Deadman didn't know what they were looking for on Nowhere, just that it might have something valuable. He had a second guess, but he would need her to say it to confirm it.

"You're beating around the bush," Alex said, raising his eyebrow up at the tall plant. "Just say who you're talking about, or I'll lose my patience."

"Artur," she said. "Prince Artur Lopold of Grim Aegis is who we want."

They had found Artur as a slave, captured by two slavers on Dry Turtle. Alex didn't know much about him besides his rhyming habit and that he was their ticket into the Twelve Kingdoms. The question was why this group wanted him. Alex had a lot of questions, and he would have to navigate the next few moments carefully if he wanted some answers.

"You're picking a fight with a noble family," Alex said. "That's never a good idea."

"Hah," the vines shook as she laughed. "You're one to say that. Didn't your 'Thorn Queen' kill a noble on Diamond Peak?"

That sank a weight into Alex's stomach. He didn't think Mister Foley would have time to contact his organization, so there was a real possibility that rumors were circulating on the islands that Erin had killed a noble. That would create complications when they made it to Grim Aegis.

"There's a difference between doing something out of necessity and picking a fight," Alex said. "Why do you want him?"

Rustle.

"Our Hand merely wants to return him home." Miss Glory's twisting approximation of hands raised. "There are plans older than you that need to fall into place. I'm allowing you and your crew to live long enough to see the new world."

Alex smiled. While it was true that he didn't have a lot of attachments to Artur yet, that didn't mean he was willing to sell the man out to keep out of a fight. He reached up one metal finger, tapping his chin as if thinking about the offer. As he did that, he kept his eyes and his senses roving around him. Two things stuck out in the magnetic field made him smile.

They were both just about the right shape.

"So, you want me to turn him over, but I don't know what's going to happen to him," Alex said, frowning as he locked eyes with the plant. "That's a problem. Artur is our key to getting into the Twelve Kingdoms. If I turn him over to you, that leaves us with the short end of the stick out in the Fringes."

Crack.

"You would rather have a fight right here and now instead?" Miss Glory flexed a long vine until it cracked and dried, forming into a long claw. "I know your power, 'Tin Man.' You're not nearly strong enough to take me on alone. Turn over the Prince and give up the fight, and I'll let you and your crew live."

"Hah, you said it." Alex chuckled, shaking his head. "I can't believe you actually said it."

Rustle.

"What are you laughing about?"

Vines moved behind Alex, one she would have put into place while they chatted. Alex didn't worry about him. He welcomed them, in fact. The two figures he had sensed vaguely in his field were on the move. They jumped for the rooftops, coming down like two asteroids to land on the vines.

"Demon's Divide!"

"Spirit Pirouette."

"That's the funny thing," Alex said as Jean and Sayed joined him, both of them already cutting through the vines that had come behind him. "I'm not alone."

Alex wasn't sure how a plant woman without a face could express fear, but as he watched Miss Glory stand there, she seemed to shrink. If he was honest with himself, despite what may have happened to Li Wen, it felt a little good to be on the overpowering side of a fight for once. Way too much of what he dealt with across the nightsea were close fights with near peers.

Which was why he regretted what he had to do next.

"Jean, go find Li Wen while we deal with her," Alex said, not taking his eyes off Miss Glory. "This plant thing said that she lost her fight. Get her to Erin if you can."

"Understood," Jean said. "Spirit Step."

"Now, let's continue our conversation." Alex stepped forward. "You ready, Sayed?"

"Yes, brother!" Sayed's khopesh burned bright as he stood beside Alex.