Captain Buttonwillow and Zalan broke into a sprint to gather the body in the sea to the shore. Nold watched them in confusion. They bounded toward the edge of the beach and Nold shook his head.

“McKittrick! Use your Elemental Powers!” Nold reminded them.

Neither runner listened. Captain Buttonwillow was too distracted by the sighting and Zalan knew that his lightning wasn’t going to be of any use to anyone floating in water. Both of them dove in, swimming to their target. Zalan had to get close to figure out who it was. Rosemary. Her eyes were closed and her physical well-being was unclear. Captain Buttonwillow and Zalan reached out to grab her, but they were suddenly hoisted away by the waters.

“No!” Captain Buttonwillow exploded, reaching out as far as he could.

“Calm down, I am bringing you all to shore,” Nold said, using his Elemental Water to pull all three to the shallow sands.

Once pulled to dry land, Zalan and Captain Buttonwillow picked up Rosemary and placed her far from the water. They propped her head up on a pillow of sand Nold made in a moment. They gathered around her closely, waiting to see if she woke up.

“Do you want to zap her with lightning?” Nold asked suddenly.

“What? No! What are you talking about?” Zalan said, appalled.

“You said you could bring people back from the dead!” Nold said.

“I never said that!”

“You did! Rep said you brought someone back at the tournament!”

“That was different! I started a heart that temporarily stopped!” Zalan countered.

“That sounds exactly the same!”

“Enough!” Captain Buttonwillow screamed between the two. “Rosemary lives!”

Zalan and Nold looked her over, watching as she slowly breathed in and out. Captain Buttonwillow sighed in shaky relief. He collapsed to his knees as he looked over her. Zalan realized with growing discomfort that Captain Buttonwillow had tears in his eyes.

“Hey… You good?” Zalan asked awkwardly.

“I am the worst captain there ever was. My esteemed guests have been shipwrecked, one is missing. I cannot locate any of my other crew. Xavier is lost, consumed by a creature of the deep,” Captain Buttonwillow said, his voice hoarse.

Zalan sat down hard, the fact reinserting itself in his mind. Xavier had died. He saw it happen on the boat. Death was real in this realm and there was no way to tell who it would claim. He sometimes forgot that when he went through so many dangerous things and lived. Even more so when people could heal themselves by sleeping in any safe area. But Xavier was dead. And he had no idea where Rep was after a shipwreck. It was a very real possibility that he was also dead.

“One must wonder, what is a captain without a ship and loyal crew?” Captain Buttonwillow asked, his voice breaking.

“A good man?” Zalan offered.

“Precisely. Nothing but a mere man. You may no longer refer to me as Captain Buttonwillow McKittrick. For I am nothing more than… Buttonwillow McKittrick.”

The distant look in his eyes moved something in Zalan. Buttonwillow looked broken. Defeated by the world around him. It sent a great fear through Zalan, who worried that he might one day feel like that. He felt the dark sensations of isolation take hold over his mind when he was alone on the island. Was this the look of his future if he was left alone for too long? Would he forever rely on the company of others to feel sane? Would that be life if he returned back home to his world? Zalan tried to raise Buttonwillow’s spirits, feeling that it was a thread of hope for his own future if he could turn his emotions around.

“What about destiny? Shouldn’t you be okay with your destiny?” Zalan asked.

“I am satisfied with my own destiny, Zalan. I was destined to be stranded on this island. That has no bearing on my state of mind. But the loss of my crew… Good men and women… Xavier who saved my life just before he… I can not…”

Tears ended Buttonwillow’s sentence for him.

Zalan had to try and ignore the tears in Buttonwillow’s eyes. Even in this intense situation, Zalan couldn’t forget what Gorb had told him about tears being good for one’s heart. Rep was gone, the crew he had met might all be dead, he had no no evidence of where they might be, and his eyes were still dry. Zalan breathed deeply, pushing the thoughts aside.

“But Captain Buttonwillow—”

“Only Buttonwillow,” he corrected firmly.

“But… Buttonwillow…” Zalan hesitated a moment. It felt wrong for Zalan to address him without the title. “We could still find people inside the island. It could be that everyone’s okay.”

“I wish I had your optimism to believe all of us survived a shipwreck. We already know one of us was lost to the Leviathans. It is not a stretch to believe that others were consumed as well,” Buttonwillow said skeptically.

Zalan ran a hand through his hair. Zalan knew that Buttonwillow’s grief was only allowing him to think of the worst case scenarios. But even knowing it didn’t make it any less contagious. Rep could very well be one of the ones who was eaten. Zalan was horrified by the possibility. He was even more scared of the fact that he might never know exactly what happened to his friend.

“What a travesty,” Buttonwillow lamented. “Enzo feared the sea ever so much, and now he is lost within it. Magnolia was only supposed to join The Aeguesson on a single journey, and she happened to be a part of the worst expedition of my now-ended career.”

Buttonwillow’s words were starting to pull Zalan down to his terrible mood.

“Come on. Get up and help us look. I think it’ll make you feel better to be on your feet and keep searching. Don’t lose hope.” Zalan held out his hand. He was speaking more for himself than Buttonwillow. He couldn’t sit around and dwell in this state.

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“No,” Nold said suddenly, a thought coming to mind.

“No?” Zalan looked at him with eyebrows lowered, already fed up with Nold’s shenanigans.

“Someone needs to watch over Rosemary.”

“We could take her with us.”

“That could worsen her condition. She needs rest, not to be dragged through an island. Furthermore, we found someone out at sea. It could stand to reason that we should keep watch out on the beach to make sure that no one floats by unseen,” Nold explained.

“But what about the inside of the island! You were just saying that there might be people in there! What if they drifted in on the current?” Zalan argued.

“You misunderstand me. I suggest that some of us go inside and one of us stays outside with Rosemary to watch over her and others that might drift to the shore. To have the most eyes in most places, we need to split up,” Nold said.

Zalan knew immediately that he and Nold would be the ones to go to the island’s center. Buttonwillow looked completely out of it. He hardly looked like he could stand on his own anymore. As much as he disliked Nold chiming in, he agreed with his assessment of the situation. If they wanted to find everyone, they needed to split up. Zalan dreaded the thought of having to be with Nold alone again. But he was looking forward to escaping the doom-ridden vibe that was emanating from Buttonwillow.

“Couldn’t we wait until Rosemary wakes up?”

“Would you want to risk leaving someone drowning inside the island?”

Zalan sighed, taking his point. He looked down at Buttonwillow whose eyes were staring off into the sea, desperate to see more of his crew. He brushed a tear from one of them to keep his vision clear.

“Try not to move too far. We’ll meet you back here,” Zalan told him.

“With more survivors, I hope,” Buttonwillow said, not looking at him.

“You should start a fire for him,” Zalan said to Nold.

“I can do that. But if you wish to ensure that he does not become in need of fire while we are gone, you should give him the Flamethrower,” Nold suggested.

Zalan dug his hands into his pockets and offered Buttonwillow the Artifact. Buttonwillow didn’t look up. Zalan knelt down and placed it next to him. It almost hurt him to see the man so forlorn. He was always so chipper and highfalutin before, that seeing him at any level of stoicism brought a shiver to Zalan’s spine. Where he previously wondered what it might be like to meet Buttonwillow when he was quiet, he now wished he never knew.

“Tell you what,” Zalan said. “If you keep Rosemary safe, I’ll ask Ma to give you a new ship when we get back. She loves me. I think I could convince her to give you Lexador Wollcaster’s boat.”

Again, Zalan was trying to cheer himself up as much as he was trying to bring Buttonwillow to better spirits. The thought brought the crack of a smile to Buttonwillow’s face. His frown quickly returned and he shook his head.

“Lexington Winchester… That scoundrel was right. It was a miracle that we ended up shipwrecking on the island alive,” Buttonwillow seemed further distraught by the thought that Captain Lexington could be right about anything.

“At least you’ll have his boat when you get back,” Zalan offered, trying to sound in high spirits.

“A ship is nothing without a good crew. And mine was the best,” Buttonwillow said.

“Is the best,” Zalan corrected.

“You can not suggest to know their current state. We were up against Leviathans when we crashed. I do not even know what tore us apart. It felt more like a focused hurricane than a creature. As though the storm conspired so that I may not ever own a ship of my own. I am not willing to gamble my optimism to believe that everyone is alive and well. It does not bode well to stew in denial. You can not bargain with fate,” Buttonwillow said sincerely.

“Just wait here and I’ll get them,” Zalan said firmly.

With that, he spun away from Buttonwillow, not wanting to hear anything more. He was scared he might start believing him. He had to keep having hope, or else he would go mad.

He would find Rep. Rep wouldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. He said he would help Zalan until the very end. Zalan still felt so far from home. And being without Rep made him feel like he lost his anchor to this realm. There was no one he trusted nearly as much. Without him, there wasn’t anyone left that Zalan thought he would consider a friend.

Nold was at his side quickly, a suppressed smirk on his face. There was a fervor in his step as he led the way into the center of the island. He held a protective hand slightly ahead of him, ready to take on anyone that tried to challenge him and his student. Zalan had to walk at full speed to keep up with Nold, but he didn’t mind. He was glad Nold was taking the search and rescue as seriously as he was. Nold took a sharp turn, following a path that Zalan couldn’t understand. It looked like it was more crowded with flora than the area they were headed in earlier.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Zalan asked.

“I do.”

“You’re not taking me directly to see Morloch, are you?” Zalan asked.

“No, we are going to Rep,” Nold said.

“You know where he is?” Zalan asked, naively hopeful.

Nold cleared his throat as he realized he misspoke.

“Excuse me if some of my students’ optimism has rubbed off on me,” Nold said.

Zalan decided to take it as a compliment. He and Nold both thought they would be able to find Rep. Zalan took it as a small consolation. Especially when Nold wasn’t one for optimism.

Nold moved with a purpose, stepping over moist stones and brushing aside what little flora stood in his way. Zalan marveled at how confident Nold was in his movements forward when there was no footpath to be followed. Nold just instinctively knew where to go. Considering the fact that neither monsters nor pirates came onto their path to harass them, Zalan determined that Nold knew what he was doing. He wondered if there even were any monsters on the island.

Silence lingered most often between Nold and Zalan. Normally Zalan felt comfortable conversing with his previous companions, but felt like there was nothing he wanted to talk about with Nold. At best, he felt like he would be bothered at the end of the conversation with him. He always spoke so dismissively, like his thoughts were the only important ones. But Zalan couldn’t stand being in complete silence, just following along until they eventually made it to the mountain. The uneven terrain around them was already starting to feel familiar enough that it wasn’t interesting.

“What are we gonna do once we find Rep?” Zalan asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean we have no way back home. How are we gonna get back to Oriton once we finish the rescue?”

Nold stopped mid-step. He looked at the ground in thought then turned back to Zalan.

“I did not think about that. I do wish to return home after this. Do you still have a Homeseeker?” Nold asked.

“It fell into the sea,” Zalan shook his head.

“A shame.” Nold continued walking.

“Well, what are we gonna do?”

“The pirates mentioned having arrived here by way of a ship. They did not mention that ship being destroyed like ours. In fact, it sounded like they went through great pains to keep it in working condition, In the worst case scenario, you could always commandeer it to get back to Oriton,” Nold said.

“You want us to steal it from them?” Zalan asked.

“Or perhaps negotiate with them like you did the monsters guarding the flowers. Or figure out another way home,” Nold said, already disinterested in the topic.

Zalan felt a lump in his stomach. He knew he wouldn’t feel better about talking with Nold. He sighed to himself and continued to move through the brush and stone beneath his feet.

“Here we are,” Nold said.

They stood at a tiny mouth of a cave leading into a mountain. It looked more like a deep crack than a cavern to go into. The entrance was so narrow, they would have to slide in sideways. Zalan looked over it with skepticism.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Zalan asked.

“Indeed,” Nold said. “Be sure to follow me closely. You may perish to the traps strewn across the inside.”