Madeline, now capped with Ixion, thought to ask the men with the cards by a table east of Kestrel Lab’s arch.

But these gamblers had practically ignored Madeline and Ixion’s existence altogether, as if lost to a storm in the corner of a pool, threatening to draw all else with it… except one made of hot enthusiasm instead of the elements.

Coins were being lobbed upon losses with clinks, and the winners were gaining much, far too much, at least when she compared with her meager six coins resting on the small and limited floor inside her shell.

Some crowded them to celebrate the fortunes of the latter and mock the misfortune of the former.

On the other hand, some of the miners whose shifts hadn’t presumably started yet were chatting among themselves some paces away to their left.

Ixion could see how some of the pillars which she palmed over before, had their doors open now. From a peek, she could tell they had at least a room inside, though the interiors were too dark to see through. Maybe if we ask…

It seemed Madeline was thinking the same thing, so she left the gamblers to their misery, coming to the closest pillar with the least busy residents, ending up at the pillar just before the lab’s arch. “Excuse me.” She drew nearer. “Could you please tell me which pillar was given to the ferry Captain?”

Ixion leaned closer from her perch atop her shelled comrade. “Yeah! Wanna help him get better!”

Two of the men who were discussing about the “Bengalis” took a good step back at the sight of the hulking blue!

One let out a, “Woah… huge!”

And the other thought over the shell’s query, but didn’t answer.

Madeline kept her posture tall and proud, her submarine propped up by her tendrils. “Yes I am! As I said, looking for the ferry Captain!” She shifted her shell to keep a clear view of the men through her portholes, but made sure her shell towered over them. “Would you know where he is?”

The two men stepped back again.

“U-Uh… h-he’s over there!” one pointed at a similarly big pillar like theirs behind Madeline, past the lab’s arch.

“Anyway, gotta go!” the other one said.

Then they ran off.

Madeline blinked. “Huh? …Did they think I was gonna hurt them or something?”

“Dunno.” Ixion shrugged. “Maybe they have somewhere to be?”

“I guess…” Madeline turned to the pillar behind them. Probably not, but no need to worry Ixion about it.

This pillar had an open door. There were curtains on it, blocking the view. As far as she was concerned, though, she was too darn tall for this! Rather, how could people go in and out? Isn’t this too small?!

Ixion slid down from Madeline’s top steadily, eyeing the doorway slowly before glancing back at her shelled friend. “I don’t think you can fit… but I can go in!”

“Uh, yeah,” Madeline rolled her eyes inside her shell, “okay.”

Ixion hopped cheerfully. “I’ll be right back!”

There was a candle inside, and a man who sat in his bed, leaning against a pillow.

“Hello, Mr. Captain!” the gray head called out. “Are you here?!”

It was a simple but spacious room inside, with several bunk beds and a few necessities tucked in the corners from what it seemed.

“Hm? Who’re you?” the man asked.

He seemed to be in his mid-20s.

“Oh, Ixion here! Here with my friend, Madeline, to come check up on you, since we kept hearing you had a bad cold.”

“Bad… cold?” The man curled a brow. “What’re ya on ‘bout, girl? I’m on a break today.”

Another seemed to peek over from another bed, this one perched closer to the ceiling. “Captain? The ferry one?”

“Yeah! I’m looking for the Captain?” Ixion bowed to the first one, but then as she was rising back up… “Is he not the Captain? Are you the Captain?”

“Uh, no—not here.” He waved her off. “He’s in the biggest place with the manager.” He pointed at the wall to their left. “It’s that weirdly long wall, they dug a room inside. The Captain don’t want no visitors though, just so you know.”

“Okay, thank you, Sir! Stay well!”

Ixion grinned, then turned and headed back out—then bumped against Madeline!

She fell on her bum on the floor, blinked, and looked up to find Madeline not even an inch past the curtain of the doorway.

Madeline pulled back from the opening. “Oh, uh…”

“Come on, this hurts…” Ixion rubbed her nose… and felt fractures. She froze, eyes widening. Oh no… Proteus will be disappointed…

“Sorry…”

“Anyway, Captain’s at the wall, biggest room with the manager…” Ixion pulled herself back up, then pointed at the direction referred by the man just now. “Doesn’t want visitors apparently, but he’s sick so we should still go check up on him, right?”

“Yeah! He probably just doesn’t want people demanding money or whatever while he’s resting.”

Ixion nodded and clambered back up atop the blue shell, Madeline’s tendrils easing the process.

The shell then turned to the next step of their somewhat silly journey.

Now perched properly, gray head pointed. “Now onwards! We have a Captain to meet!”

The long rock wall was certainly not styled like a column. There was a door and a pair of men standing before it, seeming to be talking with one another.

“Hm,” Ixion tilted her head, “think those guys will be friends, Madeline?”

“Uh, if we’re friendly enough, maybe…?” I might be kinda naive, but even I’m starting to get why Trenton wanted someone around Ixion…

She strode out to them as casually as she could manage…

Ixion swayed over her head, clearly enjoying the ride, but no matter how hard Madeline tried…

The men turned to them with apprehensive looks, but unlike the first two they’d dealt with, these men didn’t step back.

“Ah, the new Marionettes…” the left one said.

The right one frowned. “What’s your business ‘ere? Or are you just looking for the mining site?”

“We’re looking for the Captain of the ferry!” Ixion said. “Heard he ain’t feeling well, so we came to check and cheer him up!”

“Yeah.” Madeline waved a tendril. “We’re hoping to speak to the Captain.”

She tried not to make a show of her big shell this time.

The right one raised a brow. “Since when did the Captain have his own comfort girls?”

Madeline frowned behind her porthole.

“Answer’s no,” the left one said.

Ixion tilted her head. “Why not?”

A round of laughter echoed from behind the Marionettes, someone winning big on the gambling table… or perhaps it was over someone’s defeat? The right one seemed rather curious about it, taking a peek beside the two girls as black robed figures passed.

“Captain’s not seeing anyone, haven’t you heard?”

“We know he’s sick! But surely we won’t catch anything from him…”

“What? Who cares about that? The Captain said no to any visitors unless he wants to meet them. Besides, it’s rainin’ hard. No one wants to board the ferry now. What the hell do you want from the old man?”

Madeline brought her shell lower to level her window with them. “Just wanted to ask him about how I got here. We don’t wanna be a bother.”

“Aren’t… you a classified Marionette? Surely Dr. Trenton knows better than some ferry Captain. Marionettes don’t get transported by commercial vessels anyway.”

The right one shrugged. “Not before you wake up, anyway.”

“I wasn’t up at the time.” Madeline frowned. “I won’t cause trouble or anything, I promise.”

The left one frowned. “Talking is troubling enough to the Captain; why else would he ban visitors?”

The right one rubbed the back of his head. “I’m thirsty… Maybe if I had a good liquor, we could just, you know…? Take a break.”

“Oh, okay. I see.” The shell rose back up, tone cheerful. “Maybe you’ll find some soon.”

She tried locomoting away, more genuinely casual now… “Uhhh…” Then stopped and looked back, coming back down to eye level with the men. “Where do I get those again?”

The left one laughed.

The right one poked a finger into one of his ears, then used that same finger to point further southeast of the lab.

“They have a pub right before the mine entrance. It’s a ‘house’ like this one, just a touch smaller,” he said. “As for the mine… Uhh, might be a bit tough for you to get in there. Hopefully you won’t have to. What was your name, again?”

“I’m Madeline! I don’t really know anything about liquor… What should I be getting?”

“The man in charge there knows me! Say Colt sent ya. He knows just the thing I love.”

“Okay!” She raised a tendril, but it was difficult to tell if she’d managed to make it look like a thumbs up.

Ixion tilted her head all the while. Why doesn’t Madeline know liquor…?

Moving further southeast of Trenton Lab, it didn’t take long for the Marionette pair to find the slightly smaller, flatter looking rock wall, standing ajar along the ground. There was a pillar opposite to it, where a few folks had some trinkets laid out. A miner seemed to be arguing about something.

“What do you mean it’s 7 pounds?! This junk? No way!”

“Yes way, my good man! This price is final!”

“Bloody hell. If only we could sell our haul already…”

Madeline found the so-called pub open. She could barely make her way inside by twisting and rotating her body, Ixion having to slide down from her, but it was doable unlike that other pillar’s small entrance.

There were rock seats positioned before the rocky counter. A man was cleaning the bottles with a rag. He eyed the girls pointedly.

“Hello, ladies.” He placed a pair of clay mugs on the counter. “Here for an early drink? Didn’t take you new ones for drinkers.”

“Not for us; Colt sent us!” Madeline gave a side glance from her left porthole, shell facing up once she swooped in. Don’t wanna knock anything over…

The candle illuminated the place with an orange sheen. Madeline could see the sparkling bottles sideways, as well as some rock tables and chairs. Then there was…

“Hm, Colt, eh?” The bartender pulled on his mustache, a rather finely-kept one at that. “What is that lackey up to?”

Ixion’s eyes sparkled beside Madeline. It’s a rock pub…

Madeline shrugged her actual shoulders. “Think he wants a drink?”

“Hm? Well, I have a good selection here… That being: the poor man’s rum, the good man’s rum, and… Actually, did he ask for anything specific?”

“No,” Madeline rotated slowly as she thought about it, “he said you knew what he’d want.”

She carefully eyed the tables and chairs as she—

“Wait!” Ixion raised a hand towards Madeline.

—Then it happened.

The gray head’s hand fell. “Ah.”

A rock banged against her kyanite just as she was surveying. That didn’t hurt whatsoever, but now she had to wonder if her shell was okay, or if the rock was cracked. I can worry about that later. My shell should be pretty tough; if not, it’d be too silly to stick me in—

“That’s my table there.” The bartender nodded. “You will gladly donate a pound to my establishment for repairs. Thank you.”

The shelled girl blinked, then rotated again to turn to him, this time faster than she’d intended… then again to find a table that had a bit of a chip on it. This… isn’t too bad…?

Then, he produced a bottle from the back and placed it beside a clay mug. “This’ll be 5 pounds.”

One of the green tendrils gently reached the chip on the rock table, while another massaged the spot of the shell where she felt the impact vaguely.

Certainly, there was… a slight crack on her shell. It was notable enough to be felt on her tentacle. As for the table, it too had a similarly-sized crack.

Ixion rubbed on the table’s crack as the shelled girl released it, as if the damage could be whisked away with a gentle nudge.

“Hmm…” Madeline narrowed her eyes at the barkeeper.

“It’s 5 pounds by itself but now 6 due to your generosity.” The man nodded. “Or poor Colt would be lacking his drink. The decision is yours to make.”

One tendril took the battle and brought it close enough for her to possibly read the label, while another drew closer to the counter where the barkeep could see the coins balanced painstakingly on it… but she didn’t place them on the counter.

“Oh, oh!” The barkeep’s eyes widened on the raised botttle. “Do be careful now, that thing isn’t cheap!”

“You said it’s 6 pounds.” Madeline blinked. Is 6 pounds really that much?

“The full bottle? No no no.” The man shook his head, tone full of laughter. “The mug of drink is 5 pounds. The fine for my damaged table is 1 pound. So, 6 coins it is.”

He twirled his mustache. “The bottle… if you break it, it could take a few month’s labor to pay it off.”

Madeline blinked, glancing at the bottle and then at the barkeep. “He said he wanted a good liquor…” I… think this might not be what he wants?

“Ah, liquor, you say?” The mustached man then produced a different bottle. “That’d be this absinthe, then. Hm, he did say he favored this wine that other day during his drunken rant, though.”

The bottle had sickly green liquid sloshing within.

An image of someone drinking from this flashed through her, but it didn’t last as the barkeeper hummed.

“A mug of this is 4 pounds,” he said. “So it’d be a total of 5 instead, young lady. What shall we do?”

“I’ll get him what he asked for.” She returned the wine bottle to the counter, then deposited 5 coins on it.

“Alright, thank you for the business.” The barkeeper poured the green drink. “Here you go. Tell Colt that he can have his drink here if he wishes.”

Ixion held her heart and sighed, taking the mug. “Thanks, Mister.” She then stared back down at the damaged rock seat before joining her friend’s side. But this feels wrong.

“Any time, young lady.”

Madeline gazed down at the green liquid… That image didn’t return to her.

As she spun gingerly to face the exit, she ensured she didn’t bump against anything this time, but before she rotated, she stopped… That thing on the corner above the shelf—a stuffed doll.

That image of something shattering from that other time flashed through her mind.

Yes, that doll, it fell that time. No, someone threw it?

Who…?

She stared at the doll. This one looked different, a bit more fashionable with its dress’ layers of petticoats, but that one…

It was a doll of straw, its nice white dress caked in grime in the end when it splattered on the worn wooden floor. What was he talking about at that time…?

“…Ruin…!”

Yeah, something about something being ruined. Ruined. What was ruined? Why did my doll have to bend like that?

“ …’ll be… taking… estine.”

Another voice echoed; it was deeper, but cooler, in some way.

Then a thunder.

She shuddered within her shell.

A gunshot.

Her vision swam back then, then it fell on that dreaded man she called Father.

There was a musket on his hands—

“Young lady?” the bartender called out. “Is there anything else you need?”

The blue kyanite body rotated to show brows creased, eyes misty behind the portholes…

“Oh dear!” He looked alarmed like before. “What happened?”

Ixion hurried back to her. “Are you okay?!”

Madeline shook her head and not her shell. “S-Sorry. The doll there just… made me remember something and…”

“Ooo, so it’s true that things can trigger memories, after all…” The mustached man gave a small, fatherly nod. “Take your time, young lady.”

Ixion turned to the doll quietly.

Madeline did the same, then shook her head again. “I’m alright. Thanks.”

Then awkwardly rotated, slinking out of the pub now that she couldn’t remember more of the incident. There were… what happened? He shot his musket again…

In the end, it was Ixion who held the mug of absinthe, walking with Madeline as they returned to the guards before the “house” where the Captain was.

Colt beamed at the sight of the mug. “Well, what do you know? You actually got it!” He glanced at his friend. “I win!”

The other guy tore his gaze away from the mug and the smaller girl. “Blast it all.” And paid Colt a coin.

“Unless you pulled some magic, this wasn’t cheap.” Colt received the mug from the gray head.

“It wasn’t.” All the more with my size… Madeline then forced a smile. “But you’ll be busy drinking now, right?”

“Aye, girlie, it’s drinkin’ time!” Colt paid a nod to his friend, his tone lowered to a whisper now. He took a step towards the pub but then stopped. “And hey, listen: ya need some kinda help, ya come find me, ‘kay? Long as it ain’t too crazy or too late, I’ll be thar.”

Ixion waved. He’s kind of nice. She thought back to the miners they’d met initially. Compared to them…

“Thank you, Mr. Colt!” Madeline’s smile then turned genuine, making sure to respond in half a whisper, watching the man go.

She then turned to the door of the big rock wall alongside Ixion.

Now…