"Finn?" Rory asked concerned when he didn't see recognition in his friend's eyes. "Don't you remember me?"

Scias scoffed mockingly. "Where should he have met a thug like you?"

Rory pressed the dagger closer to the man's back, so close to his spine that he could rip the nerves with one slice. "You were on our ship, Mouse. On the Imo Gen. With me, Lee... and North."

Even his lover's name didn't cause a glint in his eyes. Rory cursed. What had that asshole done to him? He couldn't have removed them from his memory just like that, right?

"What did you give him?" Rory grunted. 

"Nothing, boy," Scias answered laconically. "You're drunk."

He rather dies than admit to Finn that he screwed with his mind.

How could he take Finn away from this place when his friend believed that he was the enemy? The boy still clutched the vase in his hands. Rory didn't consider him a violent person, but he had shown before that he wasn't someone that should be underestimated. 

"If you come with me, I won't hurt him," Rory tried. "I just want you to talk to someone. Someone who moved heaven and earth to find you."

Finn seemed to hesitate. He'd always been one to follow the path of reason. "Then why isn't that person here?"

"Because that asshole over here," he nodded to Scias, "doesn't want you to talk to him."

"They are pirates," Scias answered in a haughty tone. "All they do is spread lies. Where could you possibly have met them, Finn?"

It was a question Rory couldn't answer, for they found him in the water and the boy had been without memories. 

Just like now. 

It couldn't be a coincidence; Scias must have been the reason for his memory loss all along. It made everything harder, for Rory didn't know anything about Finn's life before they found them. There was nothing with which he could prove their friendship. 

"Do you really think I'd risk my life for someone I don't know?" Rory asked. Despair seeped into his voice, but he didn't care. Perhaps he would even gain in conviction. 

"Isn't recklessness something pirates love? You all live to feel the thrill," Scias remarked. "You never serve a goal other than lust and greed."

"You know nothing about us," Rory angrily replied. "Camaraderie and loyalty, that's what brought us here. And a love that never gives up."

Scias huffed contemptuously. It took all Rory's willpower not to bury his knife deep into Scias' flesh. 

"One conversation," Rory tried once again. "That's all I ask for. Then, you can come and go as you please."

"Will you let him go then?" Finn threw Scias a glance that made Rory feel sick. 

With a sulky face, Rory nodded. Although he was usually true to his words, he considered making an exception this time. For Finn's own good. 

The boy put the vase back on the nightstand. Rory turned Scias around and pushed him towards the door. Glancing over his shoulder, he made sure his friend followed.

The three of them moved through the place. It was remarkably quiet; it took a while before they ran into someone. They were close to the hall where Rory had said goodbye to Rogier when a guard ran towards them. Rory poked the point of the dagger in Scias' back as a warning. 

"The greenhouses!" the guard called out, not realizing his master was under threat. "The greenhouses are on fire!"

Scias' shoulders tensed. Rory's lips curled into a grin; he couldn't think of a better distraction. 

"To the port!" he said merrily.