Talia stared at Kehai's smirking face through the bars. "How did you get that key?"

"[Life Cloak]," he said, twirling the key between his fingers. "Makes stealing from guards quite easy when they can't see or sense you."

"Why are you helping me?" Talia asked, narrowing her eyes. She hadn't forgotten that he'd snuck onto their boat uninvited.

"Because this place is fascinating," Kehai said, unlocking the door with practiced ease. "And I want to see what's in that Forbidden Vessel they keep talking about."

Talia stepped out of the cell, rubbing her wrists where the manacles had been.

"You were eavesdropping.”

“Was I, now?” Keahi winked at her. “Perhaps.”

She glanced down the corridor. "Where's the guard?"

"Taking a nap. He'll wake up with a headache, but he'll live." Kehai's expression grew serious. "Look, I know you don't trust me. But right now, we both want the same thing—power. I think there might be a lot for me into following you and giving you a hand. Plus, without my Skill, you would have to fight your way to the Forbidden Vessel. And even with how weak these people are, some of them must be high-level enough that you couldn’t take them on.”

Talia considered her options. She could call Professor Iakopo with the seashell, but that would likely end in bloodshed. She could try to find Keanu, but he might be torn between helping her and loyalty to his people. And while Kehai was far from trustworthy, he had just freed her.

"Fine," she said.

It was also true that there was nothing of importance in the Forbidden Vesser for Keahi. If it was really the resting place of those who had learned the Cursed Form from the Kraken, Talia would benefit much more than the young man in front of her.

"Agreed." Kehai's smile returned. "I tracked the patrol patterns while invisible. We have about ten minutes before the next guard rotation."

They moved silently through the stone corridors, Kehai leading the way. The luminescent water that lit the passages cast everything in an eerie blue glow.

They froze as footsteps echoed down the corridor. Kehai quickly pushed Talia against the wall and pressed her there with his body, trying to make their figures as small as possible. His hand took her wrist and she felt Blood Water Attuned Mana enveloping them both.

“What are you—”

But Kehai muffled her protests by pulling her head into his firm, muscled chest.

The young man turned and saw two guards slowly making their way through the corridor.

They were yet to actually get out of the barracks and the two, probably just getting off, were chatting about Talia.

“Do you think the Ko’a will let her go?”

“Not if she doesn’t agree to her terms. The Ko’a is not known to be flexible.”

“True,” the guard sighed. “I feel bad though. Her mother was a hero.”

“She was, but…”

“But we can’t defy the Ko’a’s orders.”

The guards passed by them and Keahi held his breath. His Skill made him invisible, but contact with anyone would immediately dispel it. Also, if he used any other Skill or Mana during this state, [Life Cloak] would be immediately deactivated.

It was a supremely powerful Skill when it came to sneak around, but it had obvious drawbacks.

Thankfully, the two didn’t brush the young man’s clothes and simply made their way beyond them.

When the guards' footsteps faded down the corridor, Kehai finally released Talia. She immediately stepped away from him, giving him a cold look.

"Never do that again!” She said, flustered.

“Saving you in plain daylight and breaking you out of prison?” Keahi asked, mockingly confused.

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

“You know what I mean,” Talia said with a stiff jaw.

“I really don’t,” he replied innocently. “Are you afraid of a little hug?”

“Next time,” Talia said coldly, “just hold my hand and stay beside me. If you do this again, I will kill you.”

What Talia had just said made sense and it would also give them both a small volume that would make it harder for guards to bump into them. In the heat of the moment, however, Keahi hadn’t thought about it. Plus, he had not not enjoyed his approach to the problem.

“I will hold your hand, sure,” the young man said with a sneaky smile.

“Stop it,” Talia snapped.

“I need to stop being nice to you—”

This time, before Keahi could realize it, Talia had punched him right in the guts.

He folded in two, breathing heavily.

“Oh, that hurts,” he wheezed.

Talia probably had less Agility Attributes than him, which maybe made her less dexterous in a real fight unless she used her Cursed Form. But she clearly had a heaps of Strength and that made her incredibly fast.

“The next time,” she said, crouching closer to his face, “I’m punching you where it will really hurt, do you understand?”

“Sure, milady,” Keahi coughed from the pain.

* * *

They made their way out of the barracks and away from the city. Somehow, Keahi had gotten a rough location of the Forbidden Vessel, which was north of the city inside the forest surrounding Aneanui.

The flying city, in fact, would have been better called the flying island. The city proper was only a small part of the floating landmass. Dense vegetation covered most of the remaining terrain.

There were a lot of very ancient ruins superimposed with the relatively more recent buildings.

“These are from a different era than the rest,” Talia said, approaching some broken off columns in the middle of the forest.

“I’m not a scholar,” Keahi shrugged, observing the columns. “But yes? Maybe? I don’t know.”

“I should have asked more about the city before getting tossed in a cell.”

“You really should have,” the young man nodded wisely.

Talia incinerated him with her gaze, which prompted him to raise his hands defensively.

"The Forbidden Vessel should be about half a mile ahead," Kehai commented, looking around.

Talia nodded, activating [Eyes of the Abyss] to scan for any threats. The Mana patterns in Aneanui were strange—everything seemed to flow toward the center of the city where Mo'ira's temple stood. But there was another concentration of power ahead that had to be their destination.

"Wait," Talia grabbed Kehai's arm, pulling him behind a large tree.

A patrol of three guards passed by on a nearby path.

“Apparently the girl escaped,” one of the guards said, disgruntled. “I was just having lunch and we got called. The Ko’a thinks she might try to get out of the city.”

“That’s impossible,” another one sighed. “How? The barracks are full of people. I bet she’s still trying to get out of there. She’s not a rogue from what I hear. How would she even get out?”

Indeed, without Keahi, there would have been no way for her to make it this far.

Once the patrol was gone, they continued north. The vegetation grew denser, and ruins became more frequent.

Maybe these are the Ao constructions. The city was built by the Kaimoro ancestors, but the ones who created the flying city were the Ao.

“I haven’t heard the exact reason you ended up in jail,” Keahi suddenly said.

Talia regarded the dark and handsome young man walking by her side and for a second wondered whether she should give him more information or not. However, since they had made it this far and he had heard so much already, she couldn't find a good reason not to explain a few more details about this misadventure.

"The Kaimoro are persecuted by the Great Families, and they wanted my help in fighting the Great Families," Talia explained, omitting the fact that the exact wording had been to exterminate the Great Families.

"Not a bad endeavor, if I have to be honest," Kehai said pensively.

"What do you mean? Aren't you a member of a Great Family?"

"The Kahala family is barely the shadow of what it used to be," Kehai replied.

"And that means you're not an opportunistic noble?" Talia eyed the man.

"No. It just means I'm a very poor, destitute, opportunistic noble," Kehai replied.

Talia was thrown off by the response, but their time to keep arguing ended because they'd finally arrived in front of the Forbidden Vessel. It was unlike anything Talia had seen before. The Siren Song, Professor Iakopo's galleon, was enormous, but the Forbidden Vessel was perhaps the size of an enormous castle—so big, it could have probably housed thousands of sailors. There was a hole in the bottom of the hull close to the keel. Talia saw Marine-attuned Mana there, a meal entrance to what lay beyond.

"That's the entrance to the mental dungeon," Talia said.

Kehai just nodded back.

"Are you sure you want to enter with me?" Talia said. "They said that only those with part Kaimoro blood and part Honua blood should enter."

"I'm sure one of us having the requirements will be enough," Kehai said.

Talia was confused by the apparent disregard that the young man had for his own life, but she didn't question it any further. They just walked up to the hole, climbed through it, and found themselves in a completely new space.

* * *

Meanwhile, an auburn haired man and a woman softly landed upon a desolated part of the flying city.

“Master Maui,” the woman said. “Where to?”

“I’d like to meet my mother,” he said. “It’s been a while since I last saw her. After that, it’s time my daughter and I talk.”