A chill ran down Roth’s spine as he heard Lia’s words.

Human and God Regards can cause people to go crazy quickly… and we were the only people on that island. Bindon was with our group the entire time.

Eliminating that it could’ve been a Human Regard, the only remaining option was that it was a God one. Roth didn’t know much about this supernatural stuff, but just the term ‘God’ made him uneasy.

Could one really be killed, or even delayed, with just some common revolvers?

This thing in me… this Regard. Is it the God one? Is it going to make me go crazy?

“Out here on the Fractured Sea, the worst you’ll run into are Legend level lost. All of the red zones you see are from people who were higher-tiered than that.”

Holl looked up at Lia.

“All of the higher ones go crazy out on the water?”

“No. Deity Regards aren’t… they aren’t impossible to overcome. Every red zone is from someone who tried to expand the safe routes. If someone that strong sets out and never returns… I’m sure you can see why there are warnings not to travel in their footsteps.”

Lia kept her hands folded on her lap as she spoke. The faint fire in her sapphire eyes sparkled as she spoke, but she controlled her posture to be as prim and proper as possible.

Only when she started to get excited did she break out of the act.

“The amount of Mist you’ve gathered affects your strength greatly too, but I’m sure you already know the basics of that.”

Holl shook his head with an exaggerated downcast expression, making Lia lean forward as she chuckled, breaking her perfect posture.

“Oh my. My little wandering ghosts really don’t know much.”

She turned to face Roth.

“Do you know the Fris Empire? Catals or Yanks? Or even the Quian or Sio?”

“Uhm-”

Roth looked over at Holl for advice, and the captain discreetly held up four fingers.

“We’re Quian.”

“Mm. Definitely. I could tell just by looking at you.”

Lia let out a cute little laugh, but it wasn’t tugging at Roth’s heart anymore. Something was telling him that the girl before him wasn’t simple.

Lia raised her hand and pointed at her own face, then spoke with her accent more exaggerated than usual.

“The ones you need to watch out for are Fris. People who look and talk like me. There will be a lot more Fris coming this way soon. If you meet one, run away.”

Lia grinned as she looked over the trio, but none of them had the shocked reactions she was hoping for. Brushing it off, she tried to imitate a French accent.

“If you hear people who sound like this, run away too. They are Catals.”

She halted the accent as she continued explaining.

“Many groups within the Quian and Sio hate each other- or hate members within their own groups- but they are generally safer. As for Yanks like Mr. Wilson and this crew, they’re somewhere in the middle.”

Lia reached back down to the map and pointed at a few locations. The Quian lived up where the Great Lakes were previously- right where their ship was coming from currently. The Sio were further southwest, while the Yanks held the eastern coast.

Lia noted that the Fris and Catals were from over the “Vast”, but added once again that there might be more on this continent soon.

“Do you understand, young ghosts? It wouldn’t be pleasant to hear that you ran into someone you couldn’t handle and didn’t know how to react.”

“Thank you.”

Just as Holl nodded his head to the girl, there was another knock on the door. Lia steadily got up from her seat, straightened her long skirt, then pulled the door open.

“Miss Liadan, why- what can I do for you?”

“I was aching for something to distract me from this ship, so I came to chat with these newcomers. I will be returning to my quarters now.”

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“Ehm, Captain Wilson-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll go talk to him first.”

The crewmember nodded, then stepped to the side of the hallway and gave Lia a wide berth to pass by.

Her flowing flame-colored hair disappeared down the hallway, and one of the Algo’s crew members stepped into the doorway. It was a man in his late thirties, with rough stubble that had gone days without a shave and a slight sheen of grease on the hair poking out under his hat. There was a black cloth apron tied over his chest, revealing the position of the cook before them.

He had a tray, similar to the one Lia had brought, this one also laden with porridge.

“Did that girl do or say anything strange while she was in here?”

The cook frowned as he spoke, seeing that everyone already had received food.

Roth glanced between Cundy and Holl before responding.

“No, she was quite nice.”

The cook’s gaze lingered on Roth’s face for a moment before he spoke again.

“Don’t let yourself be lured in by her pretty face, kid. She’s a Fris. All of ‘em are crazies, and she’s a special breed of ‘em. Walking around in the territory of your mortal enemies, even asking them for help…”

“Then why is she on the ship?”

The cook shrugged.

“Captain Wilson’s orders. ‘ Said she was a turncoat or something. I trust that the Captain can handle her if she tries anything.”

-

Down the hallway, Lia paused for a moment after knocking on the door of the captain’s quarters, then pushed through the door.

“Liadan. What do you think of those folks we picked up?”

Lia’s eyebrows raised as she set the map back down on a small desk.

“I’m surprised you noticed. I didn’t think you saw when I swiped this map.”

“It is my ship, after all.”

“I suppose.”

Lia kept her hands clasped together in front of her as she walked over to the captain, then bobbed a small curtsy.

“Those rescued men are just what you presumed. They are likely traders who got lost while looking for another lost trade vessel. I didn’t notice anything strange about them.”

“Hm. They are insanely lucky then, to have survived being stranded in a red zone. How strong are their Regards?”

“Nothing you would need to worry about.”

Wilson let out a sigh, but it didn’t quite sound like it was in relief.

“Thank you for the information. We will reach Marie Island soon, how long do you plan to rest there?”

“Hm? You are asking me? I thought you wanted to rush to the coast?”

The faint flame in Lia’s eyes flickered as she waited for an answer, but she didn’t receive one. Eventually, she let out a sigh.

“Just a day. You should drop off the newcomers on the island before we go, they aren’t cut out for the coast yet.”

Lia bobbed another small curtsy before excusing herself back to her own quarters. The ship rocked back and forth slightly as she stepped into her room, and her expression instantly fell. She quickly took a seat on her bed that had been deconstructed from a bunk-bed to give her more space, a hand over her mouth as she fought back sea sickness.

“One more month… One more month, and I’m never going on a ship again. I wish I could just stay on Marie Island…”

A dull gray light shone faintly beneath the clothes on her back, and she sat up, her sea-sickness suddenly gone. For a moment, she looked like a perfectly manner-trained noble girl.

It was broken a moment later when her face only darkened, and she scowled as she lay down on the bed to try and get some rest.

-

For Roth and the crew, the next few hours were spent discussing their current standings. Clearly, the world around them wasn’t the same one they knew and remembered. If the ship they were in and the clothing worn by the sailors and Lia were anything to go by, they might not even be in the same time frame.

Everything around them looked like it was from the 1750s-1850s. They couldn’t be sure until they reached an actual settlement, but the crew heavily suspected that they weren’t in the same time period as before. It was only another worry to add to the list.

“The three of us should stick together. It sounds like we’ll be stopping at Marie Island soon, we can make more solid plans once we know what kind of stuff goes on there.

Holl looked over at Cundy and Roth.

“From what that girl said, this new Fractured Sea sounds very dangerous.”

Holl’s hand fiddled with his captain’s badge.

“The lakes were plenty dangerous, too. Ships could go missing without warning there, it’s no different. Let’s try to get a ship as quickly as we can.”

Cundy nodded, but Roth was much less enthusiastic at the idea of heading out to venture through the clearly-haunted sea.

“Kid, you still love making maps, right? Don’t you want to discover all that this sea has to offer?”

“No. I don’t want to die.”

Roth glanced over at the door to the room they were in.

“From what Lia said, this sea means death, even for people who are way stronger than us. Why would we throw ourselves at death like that?”

Holl and Cundy stayed silent, but neither of them backed down from their idea of getting their own ship and exploring.

“I’ll stay back on this island and make a living creating maps there. I’m not going back out on the water once we get to land.”

Holl continued trying to talk Roth into staying with the crew, but the young man was insistent. He’d already experienced enough of ‘The Fractured Sea’ back on the island, and he didn’t want to see any more of it. As long as he could make a steady living peacefully on land, he would take that over venturing into the dangerous waves.

The crew discussed for hours, and eventually decided to get some rest. They laid out blankets on the benches to get some rest, and when they awoke, the ship was approaching Marie Island’s harbor. The water around it was void of ships, though there were a few smaller ones that had been pulled up out of the water and stored in sheds on land.

The Algo sailed smoothly up to the dock, and while the crew started to tie it down, two figures moved to depart as quickly as they could.

“Finally! Dry land!”

Roth felt like crying tears of joy at being back in civilization instead of being on a ship or haunted island, and Lia looked similarly happy. Her composed demeanor and expression didn’t show off her excitement, but there were still small flames burning within her pupils as she stepped onto the sturdy docks.