Cira’s treasure barge moored against the grassy shore and three captains convened once again. Kuja sat against the least mossy side of a rock, ardently reading Gazen’s research papers. She had nothing to do with the Dreadheart Armada’s internal affairs anyway.

Their fearless leader had deliberated on how to deal with the crew on the way over here and it was ready to shed some weight, “To begin, tell me about this treasure hunt.”

“Of course!” Normally she’d expect some weird prayer or something, but the one known as Shores saluted. Is Reverand his name? I was certain it was a Final Sky thing. “It’s off island. A little place called the Green Pit. You’ll find it just a few leagues up before you leave the storm.”

“Well, I won’t be the one finding it.” Cira instantly regretted patting him on the shoulder as he gazed at her hand reverently, “We need to get the treasure barge asomewhere else, so off island is perfect. How many men do you have stationed there?”

“We set up a base there for now, so all of them, except the ones on their way to Porta Bora.” He didn’t continue until Cira raised her brow expectantly, “Oh, um… They’re more like Jimbo’s, but I have five more ships under my command. Maybe four or five hundred guys…? It’s hard to keep track these days.”

“That is… a lot of guys.” Why did I become a leader again? Ah, that’s right. It’s because I’m a reckless fool.

“Oh, they’re not all guys. We got women too.” He shrugged, “A few kids. You know how it goes.”

“Of course…” She inwardly groaned. “Any mages? What about holy magic? You’re some of those Final Sky people, right?”

“We… are indeed.” Shores was hung up on the phrasing and looked at her curiously, “No mages that would impress you, Captain, but we have a few among the primary elements and a handful of, well, we still call them paladins.”

“Alright, then… You will lead the treasure barge back to this Green Pit you mentioned. If you can spare any mages, send them back with a small crew of anyone else you can spare that’s good at fighting beasts.” She thought her plan was sound, but Shores looked devastated.

“B-but I wish to serve you, Lady S—Captain!” He almost made the slip, “Please, I’m strong! I can be your sword!”

“Ah, well, no need to get worked up about it…” He seemed like a good guy but made her really uncomfortable. It was the saint thing. “I just figured you were busy with the treasure hunt or something. Come back if you like, but keep in mind Wick will be crawling around these hills when you return.”

“Aye, aye!” He jumped up with a dauntless smile on his face, “I promise I will return by morning!”

With a spring in his step, Shores ran back to the ship and started shouting orders in the name of his beloved captain.

“What about me, Lady Captain?” Jimbo asked dryly.

“More talk like that and I’ll have to stick you.” Cira jabbed at him with her peg leg, and he parried it with his own. Soon the clacking of wood sounded across the shore like two training swords as they each hopped around the thin grass.

“Can you idiots stay on track for even a moment?” James stepped between them and broke up the wooden leg-fight that had ensued. “Or are you waiting for Kuja to finish that book?”

“Right. Well, Jimbo. You’re a real wiley one, so you should either stay here or return in case that spider wasn’t lying.” He looked uncertain, but Cira already moved on, “The rest of the guys from last night may as well stay, but we need to get everyone from the hideout up to Green Pit. James, I think you’ll be helpful in the presumed soul hunt so you should stay too.”

Now he and Jimbo shared the same ominous look, “What the hell’s a soul hunt?”

“And why would I be able to help you with it?”

“All in time, my friends.” Cira walked away while they stood dumbfounded for a few moments before James gave up and left to rally Shirtless Joe and the others. The book wasn’t entirely on the subject of reforging, but Kuja deigned to read it from the front. There was a lot of good stuff about the soul’s composition in there. “Are you understanding all of that?”

Kuja looked up from the book with a grin on her face. She was coming on in the years but wore a childlike smile. “Some of the words are strange, but I can figure out most of it. This… this is really incredible. I doubt even my ancestor’s understanding was this complete. The depths of the Archaean people’s knowledge must have paled in comparison to this man.”

“Yeah, he was pretty great.” They shared a smile about it, which was nice. “So, you can help me, right? Setting up the soul forge is our biggest hurdle.”

“I… I can try.” The woman’s eyes softened, and she clenched the book tight against her chest. “It’s the least I can do after you’ve shared this with me.”

“No sweat. Now where do you think I can moor my ship?” Cira pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

“You mean… That island?” Kuja still struggled to process it. “It should be fine right there.”

“Oh.” Now Cira started to look uneasy as she broke the news, “Captain Wick is sort of hunting us down…”

Kuja’s eyes went wide, “You stupid girl! Did you not wake up yesterday?!”

“Yes, yes, it’s entirely my fault. I don’t want to bring you trouble, so I’d like to put it somewhere they won’t see from the air.” Breeze Haven was not easily hidden. While many ships were larger than it, hers was quite wide as well. Cira needed a sizable chunk of land to set it down on.

Surprisingly, Kuja only sighed, “There is one place… but that is where the shadows dwell. I have not been there in years, so it may be more dangerous than I remember.”

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“Shadows shouldn’t be a problem.” Shades aren’t very dangerous, but there is such a thing as the shadow wraith. That’s assuming we’re going the spirit route. She could also mean stray shadows. “Can you take me there?”

James had finished sorting out the crew, and it seemed the pair of goons would be sent up the Noose along with Tom to take charge of everyone. Cira thought it curious that she hadn’t seen the mage Tawny since the battle, but the easy guess would be she was out cold.

Cira handed Kuja pendant and she cautiously put it around her neck after a little convincing. Without it she’d never be allowed within Breeze Haven’s barrier. The repeated stairs were really starting to wear on Cira and she regretted battling Jimbo with her bad leg. It took a while to reach the top as Kuja kept gawking at everything. Unlike most passengers, she at least got a warning that they were about to lift off.

After calming down, the Archaean woman guided Cira up to the mountain peak and beyond. It formed a ridge with the rest of the land in a ring and a depression in the center, entirely enclosed. Cira couldn’t tell how deep it went because the entire bowl was blanketed in a dark shroud, almost like the fog turned black in that area and clung to the land—or that it couldn’t escape the mountains which imprisoned it.

“What in the world is that?” Cira had no way of inspecting it without her aura, but a few things came to mind. “Some kind of dark mana well?”

Even without an aura, the mana would be palpable once they got close enough. Kuja just chuckled, “My people call it Shadow Spring, but ask Wick and he’ll tell you it’s the Valley of Curses.”

“What an idiot.” Cira scrunched up her face, “It’s neither a valley nor cursed.”

A valley would imply it were open on both sides, which this was not, or the darkness would constantly spill out, surely to dissipate under the misty sky by day. Does it overflow at night? I’ll have to see.

“So, you can tell that much?”

“Well, yeah. It’s basic geography.” Cira replied bluntly. “I couldn’t ask for a better place to land.”

Kuja looked at her funny for a few moments as they broke through the sea of darkness and were enveloped in shadows. Breeze Haven’s barrier held it back just like the mist, but inside they were completely blind.

“Do you… not have torches?” Came Kuja’s nervous voice.

“I’ll do you one better.” I’ve been waiting for this. But wait. Oh, no!

Cira couldn’t see the glyphs on the console to her side, and they wouldn’t light up until she touched them. A massive oversight that she would lambast her father for if she could, but now wasn’t the time to dwell.

“I think it was… this one?” Cira knew where they were at least and bravely reached out her palm. Two glyphs lit up—her trusty cerulean and bright crimson. “Uh oh—Cover your ears!”

They could see again, but the world was bathed in red. Rather, they flew through the dark in a crimson bubble as flames surged outwards into the darkness. A hissing noise filled the air until it became a piercing screech when suddenly there was a flash of white for only a brief moment as the deafening explosion shook the whole island before everything went black again.

Cira was on the ground huddling inside her coat and groaned as her ears rang, “That was my bad. Sorry, Kuja…”

“What was that?!” Her panicked shout came from right next to Cira, but again, they could not see.

“An incredible waste of mana.”

“…” In perfect darkness, Cira could feel that her answer was not sufficient as Kuja’s glare surely bore into her.

I may have caused a steam explosion.” That’s an interesting one. I never thought of conjuring two types of mana into the same space to force a reaction. This requires further research. “On accident.”

“Can you… please not do that again?” The poor woman was on the adventure of a lifetime—it had only been five or ten minutes since they took off.

“I’ll do my best.”

Cira caught a glimpse of where the glyph she wanted sat, and after reorienting herself on the reliable orichalcum wheel, she reached out and a simple white glyph lit up. She let out a sigh of relief as Kuja came into view. She was crouching on the ground and looked up at Cira with a troubled frown before her gaze wandered to the spectacle outside the window.

They stood at the very top of Breeze Haven, so the shadows hung ten feet above their heads. Looking out, light blanched the darkness as if they were navigating a fog in the dead of night. It was worse than when they traveled beneath the island.

“If we can see this well… There should be a summit within the shadows to the west.” Kuja noticed the compass and pointed Cira in the right direction. “This way we can return to the village without climbing.”

Did I really look like I was ready to climb a mountain? In retrospect, she should have realized by the terrain that this dark hole in the earth would be a long walk to, well, anywhere, so she welcomed a better solution.

There was no danger of Wick seeing them from above, as they could not see the sky through the darkness as far as Breeze Haven reached. The summit Kuja mentioned came into view after just a couple minutes and Cira slowed down to pull out her spyglass. She could not see far and everything was through a dense, black shroud, but buildings apparently surrounded a flat mountain top, ruined by time.

“Did this place used to be inhabited?” Did the wraiths eat them?

“No, no…” Kuja shook her head and gazed into the darkness wistfully. “This place is known as Archaeum. It is where my people rest, and it is where I shall one day rest.”

“Ah, I see.” So those are mausoleums I’m seeing. And more stairs. Always love those. The summit ran into the side of one of the taller mountains and there were two large stone doorways which led to its interior. “Are you sure I can land here?”

“Just land in the open.”

Hm? That’s strange. Now I feel a great deal of mana. Cira started to get goosebumps and her body tingled under its weight. She couldn’t discern its source, but it felt like they were getting closer as Cira brought Breeze Haven in to land. Streams of darkness less affected by the light now swirled around its barrier like fish, trailing along its surface before disappearing into the darkness again.

“Those are not shades…” Cira knew now that they were the source of mana she felt. Each and every one was bursting with it.

“Those are my ancestors.” Kuja replied softly.

“They just… You’re willing to just let your soul linger here until it fades away?” She almost felt stupid saying that, as these spirits looked far from withered.

“We return to the mana. It is said our souls rest in the Shadow Spring until one day being reborn among the Archaeans, but those days will never come now.” Her voice was sullen, so Cira decided not to press for information. Though she planned to ask about it, this was hardly the place.

They descended the spire and found Cira’s crew pushing themselves against the lawn with their eyelids fully receded, staring up at the barrier in horror. Jimbo looked at her with a tough expression, “Why are we in the Valley of Curses, Captain?”

“It’s neither a valley nor cursed.” She wagged her finger, “It’s just dark.”

“And what was that explosion?!” James fumed, “And—and ghosts?!”

“Relax. This is a good time to break for lunch. You got food, right Skipper?”

“O-of course, Captain!” He stood up and handed Cira the pouch from earlier, which she did not accept.

“I trust you bought plenty, so whip something up for everyone. There are herbs in the garden if you want to get fancy.” She looked at Kuja who stood next to her in the yard, “Tea? We can go over some basics while we rest.”

With how quickly Kuja appeared when they arrived from below, she probably wasn’t doing anything special, but Cira and her crew could use a breather. Once the tea was brewed, they sat at the garden table against a veil of shadows. Cira sipped on her tea and found her bookmark in the book from earlier. “Okay, so I’d like to go over some of the equipment we’ll need.”

“First…” Kuja wore the same face as when they first met. Like she was going to say Cira had even less time to live. “Are you aware that your soul bears a terrible curse?”

Cira clasped both hands over her chest as if to cover up her soul and stared at Kuja askance. “I’ve always been cursed.”