I groaned, losing another round. I handed over more coin to Anfang before taking a large swig from my bottle. The two of us had started drinking around the time of day it was socially acceptable. “I’ll win the next one for sure.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll try.” he smirked.

Pearl burst through the doors to the tavern to see Anfang and I sitting at a table covered in coin and Chinese dominoes and looking at her with startled faces.

“Have you been playing all day?” she asked.

Before either of us could answer, Pearl seemed to remember what she had come in for.

“Have you seen the captains?” she blurted out

“They went into town.” I said, “Why?”

“We need to go. Now.”

She explained the situation and we began to panic.

“Where is Abby now?” I asked.

“She’s on the ship, she felt safer there.” Pearl said, grabbing us both by the hand and dragging us out the door.

Not long after, we were running through the streets and not long after that, we were nearly crashing into the Captains.

“Shit, kids, where’s the fire?” asked Rose.

“Abigail’s husband is here trying to take her back!” I said.

“She’s safe on the ship for now, though.” said Anfang.

“AlsoIhavesomethingreallyimportanttotellyouafterwegetoutofherebutbeforeitalkmyselfoutofit!”said Pearl.

Rose and Darcy stood in silence for a moment as the barrage of information, plus whatever it was Pearl said sunk in.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Help us round up the crews.” said Rose.

When every last gunner, cartographer, and carpenter had been accounted for, we boarded the ship and prepared to set off. The inner circle filed into the Call’s captain’s quarters where Abigail was already curled up in a ball waiting for them.

“I’m sorry-“

“It’s alright, lass, ye don’t need to apologize for anything.” said Rose.

“But It’s my fault for us having to leave early. And what if Alexander tracks me to you and gets the navy to come after us?” she said “What will-“

“Abigail!” the captain cut her off sternly.

Rose sat beside her. “Ye don’t have to apologize for being in a shitty situation.”

“But what if I put you in danger?” she said.

Rose smiled “I think you’ve more than proven you aren’t more trouble than you’re worth.”

“There’s another thing.” said Pearl. “I think we need to have a talk.”

Pearl took a deep breath and began to tell her story, using my own journal as a visual aid no less!

“Holy shit.” I said slumping down in a seat by the desk.

Anfang and the captains all had their brows creased in thought.

“You're not all thinking on how we could use this, are you?” I questioned.

Abigail’s eyes snapped up to look around the faces in the room, suddenly on high alert.

“We may have some tough fights ahead of us if this man is as powerful as the lady says.” said Darcy.

Rose nodded “No one has to do anything they don’t want to, but we can’t just not consider the advantages.”

“Wait-“ said Abigail.

“I’ll do it.” said Pearl. “Any way I can protect Abby, I’ll try. And this fleet, I owe it that much.”

“I’m still concerned about this artifact.” said Anfang “If it’s still out there somewhere, not everyone affected will have a ‘knight in shining armor’ to snap them out of it. Or worse, they can control it, but are no less destructive.”

“If?” I asked.

“I have a theory.” said Anfang. He smiled. “No, ‘theory’s’ wrong, it’s a complete hunch. Miss Pearl, I know how you feel about it, but if you could let me examine you? You can bring whomever you wish. I’m not versed in things outside of concrete science, but if I’m right about this, it lessens our worries by a lot.”

Pearl nodded. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I exchanged glances with Abigail, who seemed even more stunned than I was at the sudden rallying.

Suddenly my resolve seemed to steel. “Well, I won’t just sit back and do nothing. Looks like we’ve got some training to do.”