The captain swings open the door to his quarters. "Sweet. Danger is my favorite." He strides across the deck and stands next to Ian. "Where is it?"

At Ian's call, the pirates on the deck gather around. Joshua forces his way through the crowd dragging me with him.

Ian hands him a telescope. "Look," he says and points to a black speck in the distance.

Captain Swift holds the telescope to his eye and his grin fades. The scary captain I talked to that day reappears. "The Third," he says in a chilly voice. "That might make things difficult."

The murmurs of the pirates cease. The weight of the captain's words silence everything, except for the waves crashing into the side of the ship.

My mind wanders to rumors I’ve heard of The Third; the dismantling of criminal rings, and other exploits that would make them heralded as heroes if others knew about them. With Captain Swift’s face plastered all over wanted posters, I can’t imagine they will let us get away if we get involved with them.

"The third who?" Joshua asks, the only one unaffected by what the captain said.

Captain Swift gives the telescope back to Ian. "The Third Division of the Noble Aether Navy. A small but elite group that works directly for the High Council. If a job is deemed too dangerous for the rest of the military, they're the ones who take it on."

Joshua’s brow furrows. “The navy only has two divisions. And if a third does exist, why haven’t I heard about it?”

Captain Swift pats Joshua on the shoulder. “Because that’s what the High Council wants.”

“What? Now it sounds like a conspiracy.”

“It does, doesn’t it,” Captain Swift says with a scoff. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go steer the ship. Meeting up with the Third is as close to a death sentence as we’ll get, so I’d like to avoid them.” He pushes through the crowd and disappears.

If Captain Swift were a normal pirate captain, he wouldn’t know about the Third. The only reason I know about them is because Leorio shared the rumors with me, and he was only told about them because he’s the heir to the Krehn family and their seat on the High Council. Their existence is a highly kept secret that only the members of the High Council are aware of. With this, my curiosity grows. I desperately need to ask Vio who the captain really is.

The gathered pirates disperse across the deck, and Vio appears near the edge of where the crowd was. Determined to not get distracted by my desire to tease her, I approach, but before I can say a word, she walks away and heads below deck.

While I wonder if I should follow her, Joshua puts his hand on my shoulder and shakes his head. “How about you leave her alone for once? The quartermaster probably has a lot to do before going on land.”

His non-joking tone stuns me for a moment. “Right…”

He scratches his head. “Well anyway, I also need to prepare to land, so I’ll talk to you later.” Joshua walks to the stairs and disappears under the deck just like Vio.

All alone, I sit down and stare out at the sea. I would prepare to land like the others, but there’s nothing else for me to prepare. I have my belt and that’s all I need. 

The green blob on the horizon comes into focus as the ship gets nearer. I’m not knowledgeable enough about geography to identify where we are just based on the land we can see, but it appears to be a peninsula. 

The ship gets closer to the shore and the crew furls the sails and drops the anchor. Captain Swift throws a rope over the side of the ship and, one by one, the crew climbs down into the shallow water. My body shivers as I step into the water, and I quickly splash my way onto dry land. A vast swath of sand stretches out before me and a large hill looms on the horizon. 

Captain Swift signals for everyone to gather around. “Alright, boys—” His eyes lock onto me. “—and girl.” He scans the crowd and spots Vio. “Girls.” He coughs. “Anyway, our first and only order of business is finding where I buried that weird box.”

“Are you serious, captain?” Vio asks. “You forgot where you buried it?”

The captain whistles and glances away.

“Captain…”

“It was a long time ago, and I wasn’t that interested in the stupid thing back then. I at least know the general area, so it’ll be fine.” He turns around and points towards the hill in the distance. “Now, let’s go.”

The pirates march after Captain Swift, but Vio remains still for a moment. Sensing an opportunity to finally ask her about the captain, I rush over to her. “Vio, can we talk?”

“Sorry, Aliyah. I need to—” She glances around, as if looking for a way to finish her sentence. “—help guide the captain to where he buried the treasure. We can talk later.”

“But—”

She rushes off after the captain.

This has happened to me before. There was a maid at the Krehn manor that used to talk to me, but one day she started acting like Vio is now.

“She’s avoiding me,” I say, mostly to myself.

Joshua puts his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine.”

“But why would she be avoiding me? Does she hate me?”

Hearing the words come out of my mouth, my heart plummets. My legs collapse and I fall to my knees. An invisible heavy chain wraps around my limbs and ties me to the ground. The thought that a Goddess might hate me sends my mind into a panic. If a Goddess hates me, the aer might forsake me. I might lose my best friends, my family.

“She doesn’t hate you,” Joshua says.

I lift my eyes. “How do you know?”

“Uh… well… I mean… it’s obvious, right?”

“If it were so obvious, I wouldn’t be feeling like this,” I try to say, but the words won’t leave my throat.

He sighs. “Okay, fine. She told me not to tell you, or she’d throw my belt into the water. But she definitely doesn’t hate you. If you don’t believe me, just ask her yourself.”

Joshua’s uncharacteristic kindness warms my heart and melts the chains keeping me down. I force myself to stand. “But how am I supposed to do that if she keeps running away?” I ask, my breathing still ragged.

“Maybe, don’t let her run? I don’t know, it’s up to you to figure it out.” He shrugs. “By the way, we kind of need to get moving if we don’t want to get left behind.”

I nod and we rush to catch up with the rest of the crew. We find them quickly, standing around where the beach slopes up and sand becomes dirt. Grass that stands a head above me sprouts from the dirt. 

Captain Swift scans the crew. “All I remember is that I buried the box somewhere in this tall grass. Pretty sure I buried it under a rock in an opening, so look out for that. We should split into groups of two to cover as much ground as possible while still being safe. Vio, you’re with me.” He points to me and Joshua. “Miss Krehn and Jebediah should stick together.”

Joshua raises his hand. “It’s Joshua. And I don’t think we should keep both aethers together. We can dig much faster than a normal person so it would be more efficient to spread us out.”

The captain strokes his chin. “Alright, then Miss Krehn is with Vio, and Johnathan is with me.”

“It’s Joshua.”

The pirates split off into pairs and disappear into the tall grass. The captain jumps in, and Joshua struggles to follow him. Vio nods to me and we push into the grass as well. Thin strands of the grass brush against my legs and tickle me. I try to find an opportunity to talk to Vio, but my courage fails me. The thought of what she might say scares me too much.

 We push through a particularly thick wall of grass and into a small clearing. Vio points to a rock on the other side of the clearing, and we move over to it. I reach down, connect my mind to Eren’s, and ask her to help me dig up the ground around the rock. She complains, but a quick promise of putting her crystal on my pillow at night quiets her down.

The borrowed power from Eren flows down my arms, through my hands, and into the dirt. With her help, the dirt parts and creates a hole. We hit stone before giving up, deciding that it’s impossible for the captain to have buried the box below that.

Vio scratches her head and sighs. “It’s amazing how fast you can do something like that. Too bad you didn’t find anything.”

Hearing her speak to me for the first time since we started, something surges in me. A small voice whispers in my head saying, “Do it. Ask her.”

Still kneeling on the ground, I take a deep breath and glance up at Vio. “I need to talk to you.”

She turns away. “Now isn’t really the time for that. We have to find this box quickly.”

“Don’t listen to her, you need to talk!” Eren shouts in my mind.

I nod to myself. “I’m sorry, Vio, but this is important. Why are you avoiding me?”

Vio glances down at me and turns away again. “Because you’re annoying.”

I sink further into the ground and hang my head. “Oh, is that all…”

“Or, it’s probably better to say that your existence is annoying.”

“Is that supposed to be better or worse?”

“Ah, well…” She sighs. “Let me explain. I’ve been a pirate for many years now, and being the only woman on this ship, I’m used to people hitting on me. Or so I thought, but then you came along. You say the same things I’ve heard many times, but when you do it, it actually affects me. My heart gets tight, and my face gets hot, and I don’t know what to say or do. That’s why I’ve been trying to stay away from you. I wasn’t trying to hurt you or anything.”

I lift my head to meet her gaze. “Then, if I stop teasing you, you won’t avoid me anymore?”

“You don’t have to stop,” she mumbles.

“But I thought you didn’t like it.”

Her cheeks redden. “I never said that.” 

The grass rustles behind us.

Vio twirls around and puts her hand on the sword on her belt. “Who’s there?”

“That should be my question,” a boisterous voice shouts back at her. “What are people even doing out here?” A head of spiky orange hair pokes out of the grass on the other side of the clearing. Familiar sharp eyes scan the area and lock onto me. “Wait, how did the younger Krehn get out here?”

I want to ask him the same question.

“Another one of your friends, Aliyah?” Vio asks.

“Not exactly.”

He jumps out into the clearing and nearly trips. “I’m not her friend, I’m her rival.” 

“You are?” I ask.

“I am!” He dusts off his white uniform and points at me. “And I’m here to challenge—” He curls his hand into a fist. “No, I’m not. I’m here for something else, but I can’t say what it is, or I’ll get yelled at. Again. Anyway—” He ducks to the ground like he’s about to start running. “—Gotta go. See ya later.” And just as quickly as he appeared, he vanishes into the wall of tall grass.

I wonder why he’s out here and what he’s doing but realize that wondering won’t get me any answers.

Vio and I sit in silence for a moment. “Why are all the people around you such weirdos?” she asks.

“Doesn’t that include you?”

She smirks and offers me her hand. “I guess so, but let's finish our conversation later. We need to find the box first.”

I nod and she helps me to my feet. I resist the urge to talk about how much of an honor it is to hold a Goddess’ hand as we exit the clearing. Despite our best efforts, our search yields no results other than lots of dirt.

A loud shout echoes through the fields of grass. Vio sighs and tells me that’s the captain’s way of letting us know to come to him. 

We’re the last group to arrive at the large clearing. Captain Swift and Joshua stand underneath a small, crooked tree. The captain holds a black box with red symbols covering the outside. “Turns out I remembered wrong. It was under a tree, not a rock. My bad.”

A few of the pirates laugh at the captain’s poor memory and gather around to get a better look at the box.

“Real nice of you find it for us, old friend,” a raspy voice says from behind us. A large man with a patchy white beard emerges from the wall of grass. He stands nearly as tall as the grass around him. The outfit he wears, anyone would recognize it. It’s the official uniform of the Noble Aether Navy: black sleek clothes with red lines across the chest and an insignia of the High Council over the left breast, a diamond surrounded by a flame, droplet of water, swirl of wind, and a boulder.

Captain Swift takes a deep breath and tries to hide the box behind him. “Long time no see, Admiral Motin.”