After my speech, everyone departed in high spirits. But I watched as Hugo turned and flew back down below deck without a word. That’s when I knew we still needed to talk.

Unsurprisingly, I found him in the kitchen. His squat goblin spirit summon Norris was going through the bottom cupboards while his taller Archer summon took the high ones.

“Come on. There’s gotta be something here,” Hugo said to himself. “Keep looking. Oh, this is a nightmare,” he whined.

“Yeah, I checked everywhere,” I said, entering. “It’s like they put a modern kitchen in these ships just to taunt us. It’s just cruel.”

Hugo didn’t respond.

“Come on, you know those shrines are a one passenger only deal,” I said. “It’s not like I had any other options.”

He finally turned and looked at me. “And did it help?” he asked.

I nodded. Even though I came away with more questions than I went in with, I did get some helpful advice.

“Good for you,” he muttered.

“Come on. Don’t be like that. I wasn’t having fun. The whole thing became a bit of a nightmare, actually.”

“Really? What happened?”

I grimaced. “I’m not really supposed to talk about it.”

“Of course,” he snapped, turning back to the empty cupboards as if perusing their invisible contents.

I felt bad. I wanted to tell him, but Yakeshi had warned me of those that might overhear. I suppressed a shiver. Sometimes it was easy to forget that I was being watched twenty-four seven. Yakeshi had also mentioned that if I pledged my service to him, then I would be able to mentally communicate with him privately, almost like a different party chat channel. I wondered if the regular party chat was the same way. I’d never thought to ask him.

If I used it thought it would mean the others listening in, but that didn’t bother me. I decided to recount what had happened on the other planet in party chat. I made him dismiss his spirit summons and pay attention. I left no details out and for the entire time, Hugo didn’t interrupt me once.

When I was finished, hopped up on the table in front of me. “Why the hell did you tell me that?” he demanded.

I was shocked. “Because you asked.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know what the stakes were. Am I in danger now?”

“I don’t know. The details weren’t made clear to me. You know as much as I do.”

“Well, that’s just great.”

There was a long stretch of silence until I thought of an idea. “You know, Elise might have some food in her inventory.”

The bird’s eyes lit up. “You’re right. She packs loads of things in there. Let’s ask her.”

Our troubles instantly forgotten; he flew past me down the hall. I followed and watched as he pecked at Elise’s door. The pecking was a little quiet and wasn’t really having the effect that he wanted it to.

“Maybe you should have Norris knock?” I suggested.

Hugo huffed. “I’m not bringing him out for every little thing.”

I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying that that’s exactly what you do.

Hugo tapped a couple of times and when he realized that wasn’t cutting it, he loudly cleared his throat and said, “knock knock.”

Elise opened the door, looking confused. Hugo explained the dire situation that he was in and how he was tired of drinking sips of health potions to stave off hunger. Elise told us she’d check her inventory. Her eyes stared off into the distance as she searched.

And searched some more.

Hugo started hopping around, getting restless.

“Okay, I’ve found a few things. But if we’re doing this, then we’re doing it right.”

Elise devised a plan that would involve using the kitchen to prepare a whole meal for the group. Hugo was put off at first at the idea of waiting longer for food, but when she explained the recipes in detail, Hugo got excited. For someone that had only ever eaten chips or food out of a dumpster, a home cooked meal was new territory for him and he was excited for it.

The joy was short-lived. He glanced out of the small window and gasped. “There’s a ship out there!” He pointed with his wing.

Sure enough, we could just make out the bow of a ship poking out of a patch of fog ahead of us. The window was a little dirty though, so we alerted the others and went topside for a better look.

“Did Jason catch us up?” I asked.

“No, not unless the Officiator decided to give him a speedboat,” Elise said.

“I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Everyone except for Hemi, who was still stuck in some magical restorative slumber, came on to the deck. Nobody had a telescope, but I had put the most points into Perception and so I could see the furthest.

The ship appeared to have been in a battle and was heavily damaged. It had lost its sails and was just floating there, dead in the water. There were no signs of life on board and no debris nearby.

One thing was clear. Whoever had attacked this ship was not one of the tower climbers. We’d been sailing in one direction this entire time and the Officiator had made it clear that we would have a head start. No, someone else had done this. Perhaps pirates acting as residents? The map did suggest we were in rougher seas now. But leaving a ship floating there felt off.

Fake ocean or not, this was still a pretty big place to just run into another ship out here.

“What do we think? Trap?” I asked the others.

“We could prep cannons and use it for a bit of target practice,” suggested Sebastian.

“That would alert anyone hiding out in that fog,” said Elise. “We should avoid it and go around them. We can slip past them in this fog without being detected.”

“That seems wise if it’s a trap,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “I thought that was your idea.”

I shrugged. “It might be. It might also be worth exploring.”

Pete stepped forward to give his take. “Anything valuable on board was likely taken by the attackers. Plus, the sailors would’ve died quickly without supplies. I think we should go with Elise’s idea, especially since we’re now in more dangerous territory.”

In the end, I agreed with them. Searching a wrecked ship didn’t seem worth the risk or the time expenditure. We all had Rare E-rank loot to look forward to anyway with the silver quests. There was no reason to go digging for scraps.

I was about to order Pete to move the ship when I caught a flicker of movement. On the wrecked ship, a hooded figure limped into view and waved a white handkerchief over their head.

“Looks like the trap theory is back on the table,” said Sebastian under his breath.

“We can’t just leave them,” Pete said. “Maritime law says we have to help a ship in distress.”

“I think we’re a little outside of that jurisdiction,” drawled Sebastian.

Arguing further about this was pointless. The figure on the boat had seen us. If they had a party chat feature, then they’d already signaled their friends to prepare the ambush. The sneaking past quietly option was gone. Plus, Pete did have a point. This could be an innocent person trapped over there, but I didn’t feel confident risking our lives on a what if.

I told Hugo to send one of his crows to check it out.  

“aye aye captain,” Hugo saluted.

Earlier in the tower, Hugo had claimed the spirits of several crows that he’d dubbed the Corvus Commando’s. On top of looking identical to him and making for a good distraction, they were also excellent for scouting.

Two spectral crows climbed out of the deck and turned solid before flying off towards the ship. One flew past it into the fog while the other circled the ship. Hugo reported that he couldn’t see any other ships hiding in the fog.

He sent the other crow lower down to try and talk to the hooded figure. As soon as he got a good look at the figure’s face, Hugo recoiled and started panicking.

“Oh crap! We gotta go!” he said. “Get this tub moving!”

“Why? What is it?” I asked.

“This is definitely a trap.”

“What about the guy?”

“Forget about him. Half his face is missing. He’s some weird corpse puppet thing,” snapped Hugo.

My mind went back to that warehouse. Was there another Blood Reaver in the tower? Someone that had lost their mind like that alien had would be a threat to everyone in the tower.

I didn’t have time to think about it. Pete started giving orders for us to increase our speed when we heard a wet thump.

Something had climbed on board.

We turned, but there was nothing but a fresh trail of seawater leading below deck.

[Lucas Hudson: Sebastian and Hugo, you’re with me. Everyone else, keep this boat moving.]

I moved slowly towards the steps, careful not to make too much sound on the wooden floorboards.

[Elise Evans: You need to hurry. Hemi’s still down there!]

Oh god, she’s right. I pictured some hideous sea monster feasting on his sleeping body and took off running. He’d survived so much and when he passed out from magical exhaustion, he trusted that his friends would look after him.

I will not let him die like that.