"Get everyone to the kitchen," Alex said before leaving Erin behind.

Erin watched him stagger down the hall and toward the back of the ship, making sure he made it out of sight, at least without any help, before she started through the living quarters, knocking on each door until she finally reached the bridge and got the person on duty. It should have been Wen; at least, she was pretty sure.

"Meeting in the mess hall," Erin said as she knocked on Jean's door.

"As it is fated to be."

Jean came to the door immediately, his tall frame towering over Erin as he opened the door. He was a dark-skinned bald man with bright purple eyes, and that would be all there was to him, except his entire body below the neck was made of exposed white bones. He was Jean Baptiste, 'the Reanimator,' and he hurried down the hall in his blue robe after his short statement.

"Meeting in the mess hall," Erin said as she knocked on Sayed's door next.

"An emergency? What does our brother need?"

Sayed sheathed his sword as he came out of his room, and Erin could see the implements he had been using to sharpen his blade, which was still lying on the table next to his bed. Sayed was a large, burly man with a quick smile and an oily black beard. His sword was an oddly curved blade that he called a khopesh, and before their fight on the last island, he had two of them. He was 'Sword Saint' Sayed, and he practically pounced down the hall once Erin pointed the way.

"Meeting in the mess hall," Erin said as she knocked on Artur's door last.

"A meeting, a call to arms. I hope no one has come to harm."

Artur stepped out from his room, already dressed in his chain mail and strapping his shield to his back. The silver-haired prince had an almost androgynous face and calm blue eyes. He was Prince Artur Lopold of Grim Aegis, and he was their key to entering the Twelve Kingdoms. Erin pointed him down the hall and ignored his rhyme. She still needed Wen to get there on time.

Finally, she made her way down the long tubular hallway, past the stairs that led to the top of the ship and onto the bridge. The bridge of the Nighthawk had five seats: a central seat that acted as the main chair to pilot the ship with two orbs on long arms that allowed direct interface and four surrounding seats, each with their own panels attached to an arm of the chair. Wen sat on one of the chairs, her hands running across the green screen in front of her as she held her post to keep Mari company.

On the viewport that stretched the front of the ship was a view of the nightsea. In the distance, globules of light marked the empty darkness. Those were islands out in the nightsea, and beyond the occasional massive rocks and clouds of dust, they were the primary objects that dotted the area.

The Nighthawk was how they traveled between islands in the nightsea. Each island was a world onto itself, unlike Erys, where Erin was from. The nightsea made life on Erth possible for the people who lived on those islands. It allowed them to reach between the worlds and meet each other, so long as they could build ships to cross the space between them.

"I heard you from the hall," Wen said, looking up from the screen. "What's going on?"

The bounty hunter, Li 'Cold Shot' Wen, was smaller than her reputation would imply. Like Alex, she was from Earth, a resident of a country called 'England,' though she specified her parents were from a place called 'China.' She wore her heavy brown coat even though the bridge was relatively warm.

"Alex collapsed in his room," Erin said, not completely meeting Wen's dark eyes. "When he got up, he just said we needed to meet."

Thump.

"That's not all I heard," Wen said as she stood up. "But that's also much to go on. Will you be alright alone for a while, Mari?"

"I appreciate your concern," a voice chimed over the bridge's speakers as Erin's face burned. "But I will be fine. I am a machine."

Mari was the ship's navigation system, but she was also something else entirely. Beneath the hatch in the raised section behind the bridge, an automaton rested in a dark crevice. Mari was a small, pale child when she wasn't navigating the ship. Every one of them took a shift on the bridge to keep her company during travel, per Alex's request. Erin understood why. She didn't like the idea of leaving Mari alone either.

"You keep saying that." Wen smiled, shaking her head. "I don't know who you're trying to convince."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It was just a quirk of Mari, and Erin wasn't sure why she kept doing it either. Every time they tried to treat her like a human, sometimes like a child, Mari insisted she wasn't human. She was a Magical Artificial Recombinant Intelligence, or M.A.R.I. for short. However, none of the crew would look at her and say she was just that. Mari might have been an automaton, but she was also a person. Her odd appearance wasn't enough to stop them.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," Erin said. "Let us know if you see anything."

"The closest island is still a day's flight away," Mari said. "I will inform you if there is a problem."

Erin shared a look with Wen before they started down the hallway. Together, they made their way back down the hall to the mess hall, which rested at the back of the ship after the living quarters. The only thing beyond the mess hall was the engine room, which none of the crew were experts in. Alex, Jean, Sayed, and Artur sat waiting on them at the table in the middle of the room. Erin and Wen sat down across from each other at the table. With a nod, Alex leaned forward. He had been the one to call the meeting, so he would be the one to get things started.

"Someone just reached out and slapped me in the face," Alex said, his voice low. "I have no idea how they did it, but they knew who I was and where we are."

"What?" Erin blurted out, her eyebrows practically jumping before anyone else could react.

Was that why he had collapsed on the floor? Her mind raced with the possibilities. Whatever had contacted him had to be a curse of some kind. A curse capable of reaching across the nightsea and contacting him. That was a power Erin couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Mari, what's the closest island?" Alex asked, looking at the ceiling.

"Records indicate Aherlow," Mari's voice chimed in over the speakers. "Also, the location of an outpost labeled 'Tartarus.'"

"That's the problem," Alex said. "Whoever or whatever reached out to me basically said it could send that entire base after us if we didn't do what it asked.

"A threat." Sayed nodded, crossing his arms.

"Or a cry for help," Jean said, narrowing his eyes. "The threat could be an act of desperation. A cry out to the dark to alter its fate."

"And what did it ask?" Wen leaned forward in her chair.

"She said she wanted me to come and free her from the base," Alex said, nodding to Jean. "I wonder if you're more right about it being a cry for help than a threat. The power she used drew me into a vision of sorts. It was made to scare me, but I was more worried that she could tell where we were."

"You keep saying 'she,'" Erin said. "But do you know who she is?"

Alex paused, shaking his head, leaned back in his seat, and let out a long sigh. "I have no idea, but the list of people who know me that well isn't very long."

Erin wanted to ask what he meant, but Artur interrupted her thoughts.

Thunk.

"A daring challenge from the dark." Artur slammed his hand on the table. "Surely we will follow in on this lark."

"That's why we're talking here," Alex said, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "We need to decide what to do."

"It sounds very simple," Sayed said. "We either take this base in a glorious fight or bravely find a way to escape. I would take the fight, but I do not know if we would survive the attempt."

"There is an outpost close to each of the four key islands that allow access to the Core," Jean said. "There is a chance they would have a similar obstacle or worse. I can't help but feel it is our fate to take this confrontation. There is such a mystery as to how this woman knows we are here."

"Can we even run?" Wen asked. "If she knows where we're at, sending some ships our way won't take much. We'd have to go back and try a different way into the Core. Then, as Jean's saying, we'd face a different obstacle. They would also know to be ready for us. It sounds to me like there are no good choices."

"It sounds like a trap," Erin said. "We shouldn't go there."

Whether or not there was a person in that base who knew exactly where they were and whether or not they could send the base at them, Erin liked their odds better if they ran. She would rather try to outrun a fleet of ships than go right into the heart of a base. The entire situation gave her a bad feeling.

"What if they call ahead and block us out of Grim Aegis?" Alex asked, raising a finger. "Or how long can she keep tracking us? We don't know if we just happened to come in a range or if she just happened to notice the ship for the first time with a wider range. Either one could lead to a lot more problems for us."

Erin didn't like his line of thinking. It sounded like they had a choice between walking into a trap or walking into a wall. The trap was at least a known quantity. The possibilities of what might happen if they rejected the offer were a lot more variable. A lot worse things could happen if they refused.

"It sounds like we are caught in a valley." Sayed shook his head. "Hard choices on both sides and enemies above."

"So what should we do?" Alex asked, leaning forward and bringing his fingers together. "We either fall into the trap or reject it."

"I say we go forward." Sayed smiled. A better tale is forged ahead than behind."

"Fate is obviously directing us toward the island." Jean shrugged. "We go forward."

That much would have been obvious. Erin wouldn't expect Sayed or Jean to ever back down from a challenge. Both of them were practically addicts when it came to excitement. They would choose whatever sounded the most difficult, even when they had an easier option to pick.

"I don't like it," Wen said. "But at the same time, it's better than the unknown. We can always run if things go wrong."

That left Erin and Alex, though if it was by vote, whatever they said would be overridden. However, Erin knew Alex wasn't actually deciding things by vote. He just wanted to use them to think through the possibilities. He wanted to know if they saw something he didn't.

"What about you?" Erin asked. "What do you think we should do?"

"I would say run." Alex frowned. "But she told me something she shouldn't have known. That's pulling me toward going to the island."

"And it doesn't help that she needs help." Erin sighed. "We all know how you get when there's someone in trouble."

"Hey." Alex raised an eyebrow. "That's not why I want to go there."

"This time." Erin shook her head.

"A path to save a woman alone." Artur scratched at his chin. "A tangled web might catch those who rove."

"With that, let's say we're decided," Alex said. "Now we just need a plan.