"Ah, hello, Kas." Captain Madigan grinned like a shark, showing off far too much of his perfect white teeth. "Miss me? You've become quite the pirate, I see."

Elodie reached for his hand—he was shaking, so slightly that she could not detect it with her eyes, but she could feel it. Still, he stood strong, resolute, drawing himself to his full height.

"Fuck off," he snarled.

Captain Madigan laughed. "Oh, what spunk! I think we could have some fun together again, once all this temple business is completed!"

Captain Jennings crossed her arms. "If you're quite done here, I'd prefer you stop threatening my marksman and tell me why exactly we shouldn't claim your bounty for the Crown of Albion."

"Ah-ah, Captain Jennings." Captain Madigan wagged a finger. "I think you are underestimating my crew. There are quite a lot of us here—nearly as many as your soldiers on your navy ship. In such tight quarters—such bloodshed would be costly."

Captain Jennings raised an eyebrow, a reluctance passing over her face. "What is it you want, Caradoc?"

"You've already done a great job clearing some of the pesky curses and traps set by those ancient Manoans, truly," Captain Madigan drawled. "To ensure everyone's survival—to the key's acquisition, that is—I simply propose that we continue that line of attack."

"So you want us to do all of your dirty work." Ventus reached for his sword.

Captain Jennings put out a hand, a silent warning to stop. "I can see the pragmatism of such a proposal. Fine, Caradoc."

Kas's eyes widened. "Captain, you cannot be serious—"

"I don't say this often, so don't take it personally, but please shut up Kaspar."

Kas's face burned red, and Captain Madigan's shark-like grin widened.

Elodie squeezed his hand gently, the only thing she could think to do. Something, anything to show that he wasn't alone.

When he looked to her, she could only hope he could see it in her eyes—I'll protect you, I promise.

He nodded, something softening in his face, if only for a moment.

But when his gaze fell across Captain Madigan of the Morgenstern once more, he stiffened, his eyes as cold as the sea at night.

"Well, then, how are we proceeding?"

Carina bit her lip, turning to the next set of doors. "There should be some sort of challenge or obstacle in there—and we should then see the next key."

She glanced at Captain Jennings, uncertainty flickering over her features.

"Go on, Carina, we don't have all day." Captain Jennings's voice had taken on a hard edge. Fear, Elodie realized.

Carina reluctantly raised her hands—within moments, the door was open.

There was no light, other than scattered dim crystal lanterns that cast pale aquamarine light onto murals on the walls. Long dragons like leviathans, with fin-like wings and a whipping tail soared across clouds and tides alike in the mural, and with each step in that long, dark hallway to the final door, Elodie's chest tightened.

She'd been lent a sword of her own, for this raid. She reached for its hilt now, not daring to draw it in such close quarters, with men she could not trust, the worst of pirates. As she had a growing idea of what lay behind that final door. . .

Carina opened it, and so they entered a far more open room—one with a pitifully small skylight, with the golden rays of sunlight streaming through to illuminate the great pearly white bones that dominated the great chamber.

Elodie gasped, she could not help herself.

This had been a leviathan or dragon of some sort, far greater in size than any she'd seen depicted in paintings and by the gazette illustrators. The bones were larger than the ship, cast with a strange glimmer by the crystal lanterns on the wall and the dying golden sun alike. And the bones of the great leviathan that once was curled around a podium, in its center another teal crystalline key.

Carina walked towards it, the rest of them arrested in a trance of sorts, held by the awe of what once had been trapped there.

It wasn't right, Elodie decided. Such a great dragon didn't deserve to die in such solitude. Why had it even been left here? How had it come to live here, to protect the key?

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Such thoughts churned her stomach.

The trance vanished as Carina's hands closed around the crystal.

"Give it here, lass." Captain Madigan grinned as he swaggered towards Carina, through the bones of the fallen leviathan. "You won't like what happens if I—"

Captain Madigan froze—only to clutch at his chest, then his throat as an aura of blood-red appeared around him. He staggered forward, sinking to his knees, a gurgling sound emitting from his throat.

Kas continued toward him, a hand outstretched, the other holding the tome he had stolen from Galen Mirandola. Only to make a throwing gesture, as if he were letting go of something invisible in his grip.

Captain Madigan slammed into the ground, letting out a horrible cry. He continued to claw the ground toward Carina, only for Kas to stop him, by placing a boot on his back. He then kicked the fallen pirate, rolling him over before planting his boot back on his chest.

Kas leaned forward.

"You're not going to touch her, or anyone ever again." With that, he conjured a dagger into his hand and stabbed Captain Madigan. He withdrew his blade as quickly as he'd wielded it, and looked down on his former captor with that same coldness Elodie recognized from earlier.

Captain Madigan could only stare up at him with agonized blue eyes before they went dull completely, and his body went limp.

Kas stood over him now, shuddering with every breath, as if with each one he took he stole from the now-still corpse of Captain Madigan.

The crew of the Morgenstern started towards him.

"Kas!" Elodie cried, as she drew her blade.

His eyes began to blaze in their golden wheels, actually shining like the sun through the boards of the sun in the ship's walls. He flipped the pages in his book, and with an outburst that sounded like a mix between a cry of triumph and a snarl of effort, he wrenched his free hand up, surrounded by a sickly-glowing green.

That same sickly green appeared in an aura like the halo around the moon around all of the crew of the Morgenstern.

Before they could advance on any of them, the sailors of the Morgenstern were stopped in their tracks. Their eyes began to glow that same green in totality, the whites and all of their eyes gone as they were forced to drop to their knees, to kneel before Kas.

"Good work, Kas." There was an uncertain note to Captain Jennings's voice. "We'd better leave, before that wears off."

She started to move, the other sailors and Carina joining her. But she only had to take three steps before she realized that Kas hadn't moved.

"Kas, come on."

"No." He spoke softly. "I don't think I will."

"Kaspar—"

It broke his concentration enough, that the green disappeared, that the eyes of the pirates returned to normal.

The first mate in particular looked up at Kas with a burning hatred.

"Ah-ah." Kas snapped his fingers, and the green glow returned. The first mate was slammed into the ground, into a kow-tow. A smirk unlike any Elodie had seen before spread across Kas's face.

No, that wasn't quite right. Captain Caradoc Madigan had smiled that way.

"The Morgenstern has a new captain now," Kas announced as he overlooked the pirates. "And you will obey."

Elodie felt her stomach curdle. It was unnatural. She could see it in these horrible men's eyes—something about what Kas had just done to them scared them. And worse than that, she as a young woman knew better than any man what violent men would do when frightened, when pushed into a corner.

How Kas didn't realize this, as a young man who had been frightened and pushed in a corner, to do this, she didn't know.

But she couldn't let him make this mistake. She had to try.

"Kas, don't do this." Elodie reached for his sleeve, turned him towards her. But there was something glazed over in his eyes, similar to that sickly green glow that had surrounded the crew of the Morgenstern as they'd all been forced to kneel to the boy they once tormented. "This is such a bad idea—"

"I have to." His voice took on a desperate fervor. "You don't understand— it's not enough—"

"I don't blame you, I know how they all hurt you, but this is so much worse than what they did to you." Elodie grabbed his other shoulder too. She could feel him slipping away, but she tried to hold onto him like fistfuls of sand. "You can see that, can't you?"

His eyes were cold. "That's rather the point, yes."

"You already killed Madigan, he deserved that, no one would fault you that—" The words were spilling out of Elodie's mouth, faster and faster as she tried to find something, anything, just the right words that would make him stay. "And besides—even if they do deserve it, what if you can't keep a hold of the spell? If they didn't hate you before Kas, they do now. They'll kill you the second your hold wavers."

"We'll get there when we get there." He gently pried her fingers off of his shoulders, and instead held them between his hands. "You could come with me, if you're so concerned about me. We'd make a good team, you and I. And you would make a lovely pirate empress of the world."

Elodie shook her head and pulled away. "I can't do that, Kas. I never wanted the world."

"I'll have to change your mind about that, someday." Kas smiled sadly as he stepped back. "I'll give you a head start."

"Kid, this really is a bad idea," Captain Jennings cautioned. "I don't want to have to hunt you down when the Empire of Albion eventually gets word of what you're doing."

"It was really only a matter of time with this anyway." He held up his gloved hand. "I might as well have earned it."

The sad smile disappeared from his face, something ruthless and cold taking its place. "I'm only giving you the chance to escape because of my respect for you and the years that you have helped me, Captain Jennings. I suggest you take it, before you change my mind."

Captain Jennings frowned sternly, and opened her mouth to speak when Carina grabbed her shoulder.

"We need to go, while we still have the crystal. While he lets us leave with that."

"You should listen to her." Kas smirked, folding his arms over his chest. "I always knew you were clever, my lady."

Elodie wanted to shout, to drag him away, but she knew she couldn't. For all the storm rising in her chest, something stronger than her had its hold on him now.

"Come on, Elodie, let's go." Ventus took her hand, and she let him pull her away, toward the exit, back to the Albatross.

But she could only look back to Kas, as he turned his back to her, and instead to the accursed crew of the Morgenstern.