He reached his gauntleted arm from the pressuring waters and grasped the wide-open remains of the bottom deck. His whole upper body ached as he lifted himself back into the wreckage. He desperately pulled his black and sapphire mask away and could finally breathe again. Hideo retched something that was more water than vomit and coughed until his chest felt reddened from the inside. Beyond the harbour’s horizon, across the illuminated jade waters, he could hear the faintest cries of City Watch bells dining. Thin clouds of smoke were still wafting around the flooding deck, and Hideo could still hear the occasional explosion from the iron spheres erupting from the decks above. He promptly donned his mask again and tried to shake out the horrific images Greyheart had burned into his mind as he ventured back into The Wailing Siren in search of her. He saw one of Greyheart’s assassins in a snarling oni mask buried under the ship’s debris. One of his arms was burnt through the skin and it smelt of rotting pork. Hideo felt ugly inside and walked on.

The ship had become abandoned, and he found little signs of life until he sighted Captain Hackett limping from the destroyed and burnt-away stairs. He waded through the rising flood and when he saw the Night Fang, his golden tooth glinted. “You,” he said hoarsely and with vehement malice. He trudged through the waters, unsheathing his rapier. Before he even covered the first few metres, he tripped and splashed into the flood. He thrashed about and when he attempted to stand, he splashed into the waters again, cursing repeatedly.

The Night Fang lifted the flailing pirate and laid him by the side of the deck.

Through the soaked tunic under Hackett’s dark jacket, Hideo sighted dampened red wounds. Blotches of scarlet were seeping through his clothes. “Damn her!” Hackett cried out to no one in particular. He pressed against one of the bloody wounds with his ringed hand. Red waters continued to seep through his fingers.

The Night Fang loomed over him. “The red-haired Arkovian woman?” he questioned sternly. “Where is she?”

Captain Hackett laughed nastily at him. From behind the Night Fang could still hear the ship falling apart as it succumbed to the flames and flood. Debris showered from above and the distant cacophony of explosions erupting from above became louder. “She fled!” Hackett informed him bitterly. “Once you blew the ship apart, she saw no further use of me.” He gesticulated to the wet and open wound by his lower abdomen. “Cutter was right. The moment we all shook that witch’s hand, we agreed to our own damnation.” He snarled at the Night Fang and spat into the rising waters. “She dragged us into your putrid war!” He threw his rapier into the flood in hopeless resignation. “She took over my ship, controlled my men, made me see things...” His eyes widened and he let out a wild scream. He pounded the murky waters with his fists in a strop, like some great big and bearded child having a tantrum.

The Night Fang knelt and spoke in Hideo’s voice. “You want revenge on her for all this?” he asked. “Tell me everything you know about them. What’s their next move? Which Royalist are they plotting to end next?”

The Captain made a chuckle that contorted into a violent wheezing cough. He spat blood into the rising waters and hissed in pain. “She thinks I am too dim-witted to listen, but I listen,” he said in a shrill laugh. “I eavesdrop on her conversations with that giant oaf of a Samurai. One time she caught me. I spent the night gazing into the eyes of a jawless hag with curved knives for teeth.” He began to laugh deliriously at his own fevered memories.

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The Night Fang leaned in closer. “That does not help me, Hackett. Did she say which Royalist they plan to kill next?” When the Pirate continued hysterically giggling to himself, the Night Fang slapped him hard around the side of his face. His voice broke out into an echo again. “By working with them, you have potentially damned this city! This is your chance for some redemption. Reynard Woodard is dead. Who’s next?”

The Pirate’s lingering eyes were no longer present for some time. As a chunk of detritus fell from behind and crashed into the flood, Captain Hackett’s eyes finally fell into their focus. “They mentioned a masquerade ball…”

Of course. The Countess has spent months preparing this bloody ball. It was all she talked about back in the gardens. She boasted about it all over the city. It would be a tantalising opportunity for the Velociraptor. She had even invited Hideo during their stroll. He doubted that he was still invited after his position had been terminated. Would the Countess be so obstinate to still attend despite her own father’s death? He already knew the answer and cursed behind his mask.

Above there was a sound of pattering footsteps. The Pirate continued to giggle to himself feverishly as he reached into his soaked coat pocket. He pulled out a handful of iron orbs. He proceeded to rub and jiggle them around his palm. The Night Fang backed away.

“I want you to kill them for me,” Hackett said through grinding and bloody teeth. His senses had returned to him, yet it was clear to Hideo that the Pirate was more crazed when in his normal frame of mind. “That demon witch,” he began to list, “her bootlicker Samurai, and the Velociraptor. I want you to kill them all!”

A dozen surviving Inferno assassins jumped down into the deck from the blown apart stairs and drew their katanas. They started to trudge through the waters. The Night Fang observed the Captain raise his arm high as his ringed fingers fumbled the iron around, almost flirtatiously.

The Night Fang ran and jumped back out into the harbour’s waters. He dived deep under and swam closer into the depths until he reached the gleaming jade crystals embedded into the underwater sands. The explosion from above water sounded muffled and faint. When he arose back into the open air, The Wailing Siren was nothing but a flaming wreckage. The siren’s clawed hand floated past him and the City Watch chimes in the distance rang hauntingly.

When the Night Fang had swum to the end of the platforms, the entire harbour was already crawling with watchmen. He dipped underwater and waded silently under and around the harbour’s wooden decks. Eventually, he found a more secluded platform that only held a small fisherman’s boat that bobbed above the rising tide. One survivor from the wreckage had climbed atop the edges of the cornered off platform. He flipped about on the wooden planks, gasping for air like a washed-up fish. The Night Fang was planning to wretch himself free from the harsh current, but when he saw two watchmen in the distance catching sight of Hackett’s crewman, he instead submerged himself back into the green-glowing sea. He reemerged underneath the platform, gazing through the slits above. He saw flashes of watchmen boots stomping towards the gasping survivor. He heard a kick, followed by wheezing.

“Help…” The wheezed word was pleading. From under the planks, Hideo saw the pirate falling onto one watchman’s boots, begging him as if he were an emperor. The watchman kicked him away. The planks creaked precariously as the pirate twisted about.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened, and we shall see what we can do,” came one of the voices. The Night Fang did not like the way he sounded. There was a calm confidence in the way the watchman spoke despite there being an entire ship exploding not but fifty metres away from them.

“Inferno… did this,” the pirate wheezed, choking up everything that he sucked in when he was underwater. “I… can help.” There was a mechanical din and the sound of a screeching string loosening. Blood began to seep down from the cracks and drip into the waters below the platform. One droplet fell and splattered on the sapphire side of the Night Fang’s mask.

“Shame that,” he heard one of the watchmen say from above.