The sun had set, and the lamps were lit, but Iswixel’s solitary path was crowded.

A smaller airship had moored outside the crevice, seawater dripping from its hull and mast. Its engines idled as it hovered near the cantilevered wooden houses. The smell of fish and saltwater filled the air. Twila stopped to watch as a man carried a barrel down the ramp. Her stomach growled - the barrel was stuffed full of slimy green seaweed! All thoughts of the skipper’s finances were forgotten. “Hey Rosie, gimme some coins. I see veggies!”

“No time, ship rats,” Carter said. “The Walshes have guard duty for a bit longer. We can sneak by.”

“I haven’t had seaweed in weeks, though,” Rosie complained. “Salty, salty seaweed.”

The three pressed on. Carter snuck across a garden and scooped up a soot-covered [Myst Lantern] from its hook on a stone house. “That’ll do for light.”

The trio worked their way past the fisher and down the path until Rosie grabbed Twila’s hand. “That sounds like Connor and the skipper. Are they…singing?”

“Connor sang on Hourglass. Shanties, with the crew,” Twila said. “If it’s not that, they’re drunk.”

Around the corner, a handful of crewmates sat outside a door, chins in their hands. “Damn barkeep, who does he think he is?” A thirteen-year-old that Twila recognized as Gregor muttered. Twila thought Gregor would be the next to be cut loose. Probably soon, too. A sign hung over his head - Twila couldn’t read it in the flickering light, but it featured an octopus with eight tankards.

“I’m goin’ in there and getting my drink!”

“No, lads, the skipper’s in there. He’ll cut us loose here if we cause too much trouble. We’ll be fishing and wishing we were on a proper crew.”

“Well, I’m thirsting and cursing that I can’t have a proper few,” Gregor responded. The other boys laughed as he swung the door open. Skipper Anton’s and Connor’s slurred, vulgar lyrics filled the air. The rest of the crew boys followed, some hesitating at the door. Finally, the door creaked shut and muffled the song, and the three children sneaked past the tavern.

Homes carved into the tuff lined the street; windows, carved through the stone to let in a little sunlight, stood shuttered against the night, and most families were already in their homes.

Carter banged on a door. “Hey, Beth? Grace? Mum’s not home, right?”

“Nah. Fresh seaweed tonight. Please stay, Carter,” a girl of four, or perhaps five, poked her head out the door. A second one grabbed the boy around the leg and started trying to drag him inside.

“Can’t, Grace. But, uh, my friends…” Carter extended the word out, looking pointedly at the two ship rats.

“Twila and Rosie,” Twila supplied. He hadn’t even figured out their names?

“Yeah, Twila and Rosie, they need to get down to the old farmhouse, so we need another lantern. Any around here?”

“Check the cupboard,” Grace said, her eyes quivering and tearing up.

“Don’t you start that! You know I’m ‘prenticed out, and I see you when I can!” Carter gently removed Beth from his leg, reached the cupboard, and pulled out an old, beat-up [Myst Lantern]. Then he gently removed Beth from his leg again and walked to the door.

“Bye, girls. Tell Mum I said hi!” Carter said. He gently removed Beth from his leg a third time and closed the door before she could latch on again.

“You’re so mean to your sisters,” Rosie said. “You can’t just leave them by themselves. Sell us the part here and have dinner with your family!”

“You’re just trying to not go see the monster cliffs!” Carter said. “Besides, the girls see me every week.”

“Still…”

Carter led Twila and Rosie away from his house and to the wall. The wall had seen better days. Ramshackle bricks and thin, cobbled-together bits of tuff loomed over the pathway. A brass door blocked the way, though it sat slightly ajar.

Grabbing the lanterns, Rosie and Twila tiptoed to catch up with Carter. They crept though the door. As they did, Twila breathed a sigh of relief. The path dove down, moss-covered steps next to a precipitous drop to the stones and sea to the left, crumbling cliffside to the right.

“Okay, are we at the monster cliffs yet?” Rosie asked. The [Ship Rat Deckhand] looked back toward the wall. “We need to be back at the Hourglass before Skipper Anton decides to take her out.”

“We need to go down for a while. There’s a wide spot where actual grass can grow. The farmhouse is there,” Carter said.

“Oh...”

“Besides,” Twila said, “Hourglass ain’t going anywhere without the condenser.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rosie looked down dejectedly.

“Okay, girls, from here, we always need a powered [Myst Lantern]. It’s a long drop, and if you fall, I’m not telling anyone what happened to you. Besides -”

“What do you mean you’re not telling?” Rosie whirled and tried to glare through her shaking at Carter, who smirked.

“I mean, I’m not getting in trouble. Like I was saying, the lights also keep the Sable Tide at bay, and they may be out before we get back. Light it up, and let’s go.”

Twila pulled out her [Firestarter] and flicked until she got a flame.“Thing’s about busted,” Twila said as she plugged the [Myst Lantern] into her battery and lit it. Mirrors amplified the flame as it caught inside the device, bathing the path and the children in purple light.

Carter grabbed the lantern and set off. Twila and Rosie jogged to keep up as he picked his way down the path. The myst battery on his chest ticked. The trail ducked through a small tuff cutout here and climbed down a ladder there, always moving downward.

“Girls, let’s go!” Carter yelled. “The farmhouse is just around the corner - that’s where the monster cliffs start!”

“Let’s hurry up and get back to Hourglass,” Rosie said.

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One more set of stairs dropped down into an alcove. It wasn’t flat - except where retaining walls had been built from stone - but all three children breathed a sigh of relief as the sheer cliffs on either side of them gave way to a rolling hill. Grass grew here and there between rotten raised beds and flattened parts of the alcove floor.

“The farm’s only a been abandoned a decade or two. Some folks tried to settle down here, but the Sable Tide got ‘em. Or something else,” Carter said. The myst battery on his chest ticked again. “Mum says it was pirates, sometimes, or worse.”

“W-worse?!” Rosie shivered. Twila held her own shiver off for a moment, but it overpowered her, a crawling sensation down her neck; the sooner they had their parts and were back at the Hourglass, the better.

The farmhouse perched on the alcove’s edge, tucked between the pillar’s wall above and the open air below. The wooden sections had rotted, but the part carved from tuff had survived the decades of abandonment. Carter pushed through a rotten door, which squealed as its hinges pulled away from their settings, then crashed to the ground. The odor of mold and must rolled out to surround Twila and Rosie.

“Okay, up to the second floor. You’ll be able to see it there,” Carter whispered.

“See what?” Rosie asked.

Twila crossed her arms. “We need the parts. We’re here. You promised. Now hand them over so we can get back.”

Carter said nothing. Instead, he started climbing the steep stone steps to the second floor. His battery ticked.

Twila shrugged at Rosie. “Not much choice. He acts up, though, bonk him with your wrench.” She followed the boy up the stairs. Rosie followed with the [Engine Wrench] in her hands.

A bedroom had been here once. The soft stone had been carved away to make a bed for two; the bedding was long since eaten, but the bed remained. A small door further into the cliffside was somehow still intact, though warped with age.

Carter sat on the bed, feet barely touching the ground. The brass myst condenser and pipes, a handful of bolt-and-nut pairs, and a coil of rune-covered leather laid out next to him. “Alright, I admit, you girls are braver than I thought. Here’s your stuff. Seven crowns are what we agreed on, right?”

“Five crowns, four masts,” Twila said.

“Six and eight.” Carter’s myst battery ticked again. Twila tried to think about how many ticked she’d heard. Five? Six?

“Rosie, bonk him.”

“Alright, five crowns and four masts. Take the stuff, and then come look!” The boy held out his hand, and Rosie shifted the wrench into her left hand to dig through her coin purse with her right. Coins traded hands, and Twila shoveled up the airship parts before Carter could change his mind.

As she finished stowing the bolts and tossed the old condenser toward Carter, Twila heard something outside. She and Rosie raced to the window, stomachs falling. Fear filled Twila’s mind; the moon was out, and the Sable Tide was rising.

Even in the moonlight, the swarm of beating wings was a tear in the ocean’s fabric. First dozens, then hundreds, and finally, thousands of winged monsters erupted from the harbor. More and more came, more than could possibly have fit in the few broken buildings below.

Carter crept through the room, stood behind the girls, and put a hand on their shoulders. Both jumped, and he laughed nervously. “It’s fine. I’ve done this loads of times. The Sable Tide can’t fit through the windows. Besides, we’ve got the lantern.”

Rosie’s body relaxed slightly, and Twila watched as more and more jet-black wings beat the air. An endless, ear-piercing shriek filled the night air, and both girls tensed again. Twila gulped her nerves back down her throat. She’d seen the Sable Tide before, from the airship. The Hourglass ran so well-lit at night that even the girls’ closet cabin wasn’t fully dark.

But this was different. Closer, somehow.

Twila watched a huge swarm fly up toward Iswixel. Hopefully, the lanterns and lights there would keep the cloud of monsters at bay. Or at least, people would be inside. Otherwise–

Carter’s myst battery ticked again, a bell rang once, and the light went out.

Rosie shrieked and swung her [Engine Wrench]. Her battery ticked as the wrench hit something, something that thudded to the ground like a sack of wet seaweed.

Twila dove for the [Myst Lantern].

She plugged it in and flicked the [Firestarter]. Sparks and a tick.

A second later, something thumped through the broken door and started thrashing around downstairs.

She flicked it again with another tick. A faint flame! The lantern burst back to life, and both girls shrieked almost as loudly as the swarm outside.

Carter lay on the floor, unmoving. A wide red mark across the side of his head attested to Rosie’s wrench blow. His chest moved slightly. She hadn’t killed him.

But the thing crawling up the stairs would, Twila was sure. Its yellow eyes fixated on the boy, and its broad, black-furred head opened to reveal a quartet of long, needle-sharp teeth. It shrieked and dragged itself forward with its two claws - one each at the end of two black, membranous wings.

Twila grabbed the boy’s shirt and started pulling. “Rosie, the door!”

The monster’s claws scrabbled on the stone floor. It pulled itself forward, and Twila pulled Carter out of its reach. It dragged itself up again. She pulled him into the open doorway.

Two more pulls. One. Rosie slammed the door as the creature’s claws raked against it.

Twila’s myst battery ticked.

The two girls sat, breathing heavily in the dank, mold-ridden closet.

It ticked again as the monstrous bat slammed itself against the door over and over.

“This [Myst Lantern] is terrible. Doubt his mum’s is better. Next tick is my last.”

Rosie nodded in the purple light. “I’ll take the light.” She reached out to grab it, but Twila pulled it away.

“No. We’re safe here. We’ll need the light later. Can’t use all our myst. We have to let it die.”

“But if that thing gets in here, we have nothing!” Rosie breathed faster and faster. “I don’t wanna…die…here, Twi!”

“You won’t. We’ll get back to Hourglass. Just not right now.” Twila put the [Myst Lantern] down, turned a knob, and it went out. The darkness pressed in on Twila, and she shook. If it was this bad here, how bad would it be if the village’s light failed?

Rosie reached out until she felt Twila’s hand, and in the pitch-black closet, they held each other close and waited for the scrabbling to stop. How had their supply run gone this wrong?

[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .54 (Myst 1/10, Hit Points 1/1)]

[Head - Empty]

[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]

[Chest - Ship Rat’s Harness (lvl. 0)]

[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]

[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]

[Gizmo #1 - Basic Myst Tools (lvl 1) Skill - Tinkering]

[Gizmo #2 - Empty]

[Gizmo #3 - Firestarter (lvl. 1) Mystfire (active, 50% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - produce a small flame; Skill - None]

[Gizmo (Belt) - [Myst Lantern] (lvl. 1) Lesser Light Aura (sustained, 1 myst/tick) - light a small area; Skill - Perception]

[Myst Battery - Basic Myst Battery (lvl. 1) Small Storage (passive) - 10 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill]

[Weapon/Pair - Empty]

[Skill #1 - Tinkering 1]

[Skill #2 - Perception 1]

[Skill #3 - Empty]

[Skill #4 - Empty]

[Skill #5 - Empty]