“Alright, first order of business—” Captain Swift scans the crowd of pirates and slams his hand against a crudely-drawn map of the world on the wall. “—we need to go back to the place.”

Gathered in the captain’s room full of candles and stacks of books, a group of fifteen pirates around me nod and mumble amongst themselves.

Next to me, Joshua raises his hand.

The captain’s eyes lock onto his hand and he smiles. “Aren’t you polite, uh.” He tilts his head. “Josedeodo?”

“Close, but my name is Joshua.” He motions to the map on the wall. “Where is this place you’re talking about?”

“Ah, the place.” The captain nods to himself. “It’s a secret place.”

Vio jumps out of the crowd and pushes the captain aside, knocking his hat off his head. “Ignore this idiot, he loves being cryptic for no reason.” Her gaze bounces between me and Joshua. “He’s talking about the place we buried the map.”

  I raise my hand. “What map?”

“Vio, you’re slacking,” the captain says, picking his hat off the floor. “I thought I left you in charge of explaining things to her.”

“Well, I…” She turns away from the captain. “I got distracted and kind of forgot.”

“Guess I’ll have to pick up the slack.” The captain dusts off his hat and walks back to the front of the room. “It was a dark and stormy night. Each wave that crashed into the boat threatened to destroy it. A large mythical beast arose from the waters and descended upon us. I took up my sword to defend my crew, and we clashed. For three days and nights, we battled. In the end, neither I nor the beast could overtake the other. As a sign of respect for my strength, it gave me its treasure, a map only spoken of in legends.”

“Woah, that’s amazing,” I say, finally understanding why the captain has as high of a bounty as he does.

Vio pushes the captain aside, and his hat falls off again. “Yes, it’s an amazing story. Too bad it didn’t happen.”

The captain catches his hat before it reaches the ground and secures it back on his head. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were there when it happened.”

Her eye narrows. “I was there.”

The captain raises his finger and freezes for a moment before lowering it. “So you were.” He shrugs and wades through the crowd of pirates towards the door. “That’s perfect then. Since you were there, you can explain what’s going on to our new friends.” The door creaks open and he motions for the pirates to follow him. “Come on, boys, let’s get this ship sailing.”

They file out, shouting and laughing as they go. 

Vio lets out a deep breath and hangs her head in defeat. 

“I-I’m sorry,” I say, unsure of what to do.

She lifts her head and furrows her brow. “Would you stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault?”

“Oh, sor—” I shake my head to stop myself.

“It’s probably for the better anyway. You’d just end up confused if I left the captain to explain it.” She grabs a dirty shoe from the carpet that a pirate left behind and walks to the door. “Come on, follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Joshua asks. “Can’t you explain everything in here?”

“The kitchen. If I don’t make breakfast for those idiots, they just won’t eat. It’s okay for them to skip dinner, but as long as I live, I won’t let them skip the most important meal of the day.”

Before Joshua can respond, Vio leaves and motions for us to follow. We walk out of the room and onto the sun-bleached deck of the ship. The top of the sun pokes out over the horizon, dying the water in the alcove orange like Vio’s hair. Mallen birds scream to signal to the world that it’s morning, and pirates shout back at them as they work to unfurl the sails and raise the anchor. 

We pass a blonde pirate, and Vio throws the shoe at the back of his head. “I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose,” she says as he laughs.

At the back of the ship, Vio opens a crooked door and motions for us to enter a dimly lit room. A long wooden counter splits the room in half. Behind it, a large metal stove immediately catches my eye. A black pipe sticks out from the top of them and snakes around to the back wall. Pots and utensils hang from a rack on one side of the room, and on the other, boxes and barrels fill the corner, making the room look more like a storage area than a kitchen. 

“I’m surprised,” I say, my eyes on the pots. “It’s better than I expected. Almost as nice as the dorm’s.”

“You know your way around a kitchen?” Vio asks.

I nod. “I’ve had to cook for myself for years.”

“I may be asking for your help in the future, then.” She hops over the counter and retrieves a large pot from the wall. “Anyway, I have to start making breakfast, so go ahead and ask me what you want to know.”

 Hearing her words, my mind goes to one place. “Do you know how to make muffins?”

She sets the pot down on the stove and furrows her brow. “Muffin? What is that?”

Joshua groans. “You shouldn’t have said that.”

I jump to the counter, trying to get as close to Vio as possible. “You haven’t heard of muffins? They’re the most incredible food the Goddesses ever created. Nutritious, convenient, flexible. Muffins are everything you could ever want in a food and more.”

Vio’s eye widens. “How have I gone my entire life without knowing about something that incredible? I need to learn how to make this.” She leans onto the counter. “You can teach me, right?”

Her words warm my heart, so I reply without hesitation. “Of course.”

She smiles so brightly at me that I fear I may go blind, and I respond with my own smile, hoping to match her enthusiasm. 

“Ahem.” Joshua coughs. “I hate to ruin your moment, but don’t we have more important things to talk about?”

I whirl around and stare him in the face. “What could possibly be more important than muffins?”

“There are a lot of things, but why don’t we start with the obvious one.” He gazes at Vio. “What is the map we’re trying to retrieve?”

She grabs a potato from a barrel and begins to peel it. “We broke into some high and mighty noble’s mansion and found a huge safe but the only thing inside was a weird jewel-encrusted black box. We figured it had to be valuable to have a safe all to itself, so we left to sell it in the next town over. When we got there, wanted posters of the captain were hung all over with a bounty of 2,000,000 Ceros. There had to be something special with the box for the captain to get such a ridiculous bounty for stealing it, so he tinkered with it and managed to open it. A weird map was supposedly the only thing in it, though.”

“2,000,000 Ceros…” Joshua strokes his chin. “What in the Goddesses’ names could possibly be on that map?”

“Wish I could tell you, but the captain threw it back in the box and buried it before I could even get a glimpse of it.”

I tilt my head. “He buried it? Why?”

Vio tosses the peeled potato into the pot and picks up another one. “He said it wasn’t worth the trouble.”

“So, we’re going to retrieve this map that isn’t worth the trouble?” Joshua asks. “I don’t think I follow.”

 “That was a month ago. Last week he just changed his mind. Said it was against his pirate pride to give up, and that we'd need an aether to read the map.”

Joshua crosses his arm. “I get the feeling there’s more to it than him just changing his mind.”

“Probably, but he won’t tell me anything else.” Her eye narrows. “Stupid Dad just loves to be as annoying as possible.”

Hearing her call the captain ‘Dad’  makes my chest twist. I can’t imagine saying that word without fear, especially with ‘stupid’ in front of it. I envy her, even if he’s a little ridiculous, he clearly cares.

“The captain is your father?” Joshua asks. “But you look nothing alike.”

“That’s because he’s not my real dad.” She stops peeling for a moment before continuing. “I guess he’s more real than my actual parents, since I don’t even know who they are.”

I nod. “Of course you don’t. You don't have real parents. You were born into this world by the long-lost Great Aer along with the other four Goddesses.”

“No, I’m a completely normal human that was born by normal human parents.” Vio sighs and puts the potato in the pot. “When are you going to drop that stupid joke?”

“It’s not a joke!” I say, nearly jumping. “What kind of so-called ‘normal human’ has as captivating a smile as yours? Or a—”

“Stop! Don’t start this again.” Vio’s face reddens, and she points the peeler at Joshua. “You, take her and go look around the ship or something. She’s distracting me from my work.”

“Yes ma’am.” He slicks back his hair and grabs my hand. 

Seeing Vio’s flustered face, I can’t help but smile as Joshua drags me out of the kitchen. It’s strange to me that I can get away with talking to Vio the way I do. At the Krehn manor, this kind of behavior would have gotten me punished. It’s strange, but not in a bad way. 

The sun nearly blinds me as we step back out onto the deck. A cool breeze tickles my face and catches in the sails, propelling the ship away from the alcove. Pirates fill the deck, some playing cards, and others napping under the sun. 

My eyes scan the deck and lock onto the giant mast in the middle of the ship. I crane my neck and squint to try to make out the symbol on the flag. It sways back and forth with the wind, never staying still for long enough for me to get a good look.

“So, what are your thoughts on this crazy situation you’ve dragged us into?”

Joshua’s voice startles me and I snap out of my trance. “I, uh, well.” I tilt my head. “I’m uneasy. Pirates are supposed to be villains, and I don’t really want to help bad people, but these pirates don’t seem bad. Vio and the captain especially.”

“That’s not really what I was asking.” Joshua shakes his head. “I wanted your thoughts on this crazy map we’re looking for.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t even imagine something that’s worth 2,000,000 Ceros, so I kind of want to know where the map leads, but…”

The wind dies down and the flag stays still for a moment. I freeze and focus on the image, a white circle with a series of triangles intersecting it. From what I know, the flag isn’t even close to a traditional pirate flag.

“Do you want to go up there?” Joshua asks, following my gaze.

His words blindside me. I just wanted to see what was on the flag, but now that he’s put the thought in my mind, it won’t leave. There’s no reason to go up there now that I’ve seen the flag, but my body tells me to anyway. 

“No, I just…” I fidget with my hands, trying to think of an excuse.

“You’re not fooling anyone.” Joshua chuckles. “Go on, get up there. I’ll wait for you down here since I’m afraid of heights.”

I pause for a moment and smile. “Thank you.”

With the mast in front of me, I freeze. The only way up, a rope ladder that sways in the wind, hangs from the crow's nest. The thought of the ladder snapping as I climb won’t leave my head. Unable to take my eyes off the top, I reach down and touch the first crystal my fingers find. “Please give me the courage to climb.”

“Why the heck would you want to be so far away from the ground?” Eren’s voice shouts into my mind. “It’s way scary up there, so—”

I disconnect my mind from hers and try a different, hopefully more inspiring, crystal. “Please, be more helpful than Eren and give me the courage to climb.”

“You shouldn’t look to me for courage, for true courage is found within,” Wallace’s smooth voice says in my mind.

“Yes, that’s very inspiring, but if I could find the courage myself, I wouldn’t be asking, would I?”

“I see. In that case, the only advice I can give is to not look down.”

I disconnect from his crystal with a sigh. My aer mean well, but they aren’t being very helpful today. Even if Wallace is right, I wish he would have been more encouraging instead of realistic.

I take a deep breath and grab the first rung on the ladder. Without stopping to think, I reach up and grab the next one. I look straight up and begin climbing, hand over hand, foot over foot. A gust of wind blows the ladder away from the mast for a moment, and I shut my eyes and hold on for dear life. The ladder crashes back into the mast and I slowly continue to climb with my eyes closed. 

I reach up and grasp air. My eyes slowly peel open to the sight of the crow's nest. I scurry up the remainder of the way and sit with my back against the protective railing, breathing raggedly. Regretting my decision a little, I put my hands on the edge of the railing and pull myself up.

A strong breeze slaps me in the face, welcoming me to the world above. The beautiful blue water stretches without end and the clear sky above mirrors it. Birds soar by, seemingly to scream at me for invading their space in the skies. Wallace said not to look down, but I couldn’t even if I wanted to. My eyes remain glued to the vast blue expanse known as the Mallen Sea. It’s the best view I’ve ever seen.

“Breathtaking, right?” Captain Swift asks beside me. “This view is the reason I became a pirate.”

His sudden appearance makes me jump.

“Well,” he continues. “That and the fact that I got run out of town for being unable to pay off my crippling debt.” He bursts into laughter.

“Is that something you should be laughing about?” Still shaking, I turn to him. “And when did you get up here?”

He leans over the edge and stares down at the deck. “Your friend down there was worried you might hurt yourself, so I followed you up.”

“I didn’t even notice…”

Still holding onto the railing, he leans back and looks at me. “This is perfect for me, though. I needed to talk to you alone anyway.” Captain Swift lets go of the railing and his cheery demeanor disappears. His eyes sharpen and his smile vanishes. He becomes the image of a pirate captain with a 2,000,000 Ceros bounty. “Miss Krehn, should I turn this ship around?” he asks, crossing his arms.

His transformation sends a chill down my spine. My legs shake and I struggle to stay standing. “W-what do you mean by that?”

“You’re too important to be on this ship. There’s a very special job you must do in a few years, and if something were to happen to you before then, someone else would pay the price.”

My eyes widen and my jaw drops. “W-who are you? Only a few members of the Krehn family should know my role, so how do you?”

He turns his back to me. “So, it’s true, then. How awful.”

“What do you—”

“You never answered my question. Should I turn this ship around or not?”

“I-I… I promised to help you, so I will.”

“Very well.” He nods to me and begins to climb down the ladder. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone who you are.”

He disappears before I have a chance to respond. I peer down the ladder, but he’s already gone. My mind races but no answers come to me. The only thought in my mind is one simple question. 

Who is Captain Swift?