A/N: First things first, I can't really express how embarrassed I am at accidentally saying that a shark could have a skeleton of bones. Thing is, I probably read in the second grade that sharks have cartilage instead of bone. Not only that, but I've been studying for an exam intensively (hence my absence) and the differences between Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes with examples was on there, so I knew that sharks have cartilaginous skeletons. Thing was that I thought that the books mentioned it was made out of shark's bone, so I wrote it without thinking.
Also, Otter Seastar, thanks again for the review. As for the treasure box, I never mentioned it, but basically the idea was that his treasure was inside a wooden box, so she could pick up the box. In the original book though, I remember the buoy (or whatever the floating thing was) was originally marked red, but I thought you could also put a spell like that inside a box as well, and perhaps Feverfew had done so with some of his treasure. As for how she got it without triggering any alarms, what's Scamandros for? Though I guess I should have maybe made that clearer originally.
And I suppose if you mention that the First Part of the Will is diligence, that does make sense that it would act first, before prudence (who would wait), faith (who would also wait), justice (who seemed to be bent on punishing Thursday), moderation (who was imprisoned), and charity and hope were probably trapped too well to do anything. And I think Saturday had to let it collect in some places, otherwise how would she recycle it for the rain? I guess the important thing was to never let it all collect in one place. It makes me wonder though if she could have somehow made a huge sun instead, and trapped the Will in its photons, then allow it to reflect back to the sun eventually.
Aquarius kills FOZ, thanks for the review, and I'm a bit confused. It was Wednesday's Dawn in the books who was free, and I didn't understand the last line about the paragraphs. Could you be a bit more clearer or maybe PM me?
Arthur's first instinct was to grab the Minute Key.
It was his second instinct too. A lot of things went through his mind at the moment, including the fact that he couldn't breathe underwater, though he was sure that the Minute Key's sorcerous powers would keep him alive long enough to reach the Shiver.
The second thing that struck him was the lightning. It was storming overhead, and he was quickly left wondering if lightning would strike them underwater, and whether or not the key would save him from it.
The water was unbelievably cold, but at the very least Wednesday's Dawn's skin didn't feel like sandpaper against his. He didn't feel the First Part of the Will at his side, but he guessed it was either clutching to his collar or swimming besides them.
Arthur suddenly remembered that frogs were amphibians, and no amphibians lived in salt water. And here the Will was, in the middle of a sea.
For some reason, that fact seemed extremely amusing to him.
They surfaced almost as instantly as they had dived. Arthur didn't have any time to get a bearing on his surroundings, but he did see one thing clearly, and that was Wednesday's Dawn unleashing her whip at someone.
One thing that had always struck Arthur about the House was how rank seemed to be everything. It dictated how tall one was, how one looked, and it seemed even one's intelligence (instead of the other way around.) And the officers, or the higher ranking denizens, were always easy to spot out. That seemed like a bit of a weakness to him if someone was going to try and take down the head of an operation.
The pirates probably followed the same code. The pirate that Wednesday's Dawn had attacked was easily dressed the most magnificently. He looked like how the ideal pirate captain of movies would look like. He was dressed in a scarlet overcoat with several weapons placed haphazardly here and there, though they didn't seem out of place, but rather they seemed to suit him that way.
Arthur didn't get a look at his face though as Wednesday's Dawn's whip decapitated him.
For a moment, Arthur had thought that they'd one, and was about to breath a sigh of relief when the head flew back and reattached itself. Feverfew then turned around like this was something that happened all the time, and Arthur saw his face, and his golden teeth for but an instant before Wednesday Dawn attacked again and sent the head flying once more.
This time though, the First Part of the Will, which appeared to have still been under Arthur's collar, leaped and landed on the decapitated neck, and remained there. The head flew back again to meet the body, but seemed to be unable to reattach itself around the Will. Feverfew snarled, and the body took out a rifle and pointed it at the Will.
The Will hopped off and back to Arthur as the rifle fired.
"Nothing-laced bullets and sorcery, otherwise I would never have been forced to move," the Will said. "Such things, oh, illegal, if the Architect knew were being done, she would have taken down this Nithling as soon as possible. That Duchess Wednesday allowed-"
"He does not rule by her consent!" Wednesday's Dawn screamed. Arthur groaned, here they were on the enemy's ship, and they were probably going to get surrounded if they didn't do something soon, and all these two could argue about was who was responsible for this like two toddlers.
"That does not matter now," the Will said. "Though I will of course, make a note of this when we try her for her crimes. Lord Arthur, use the Key and kill him. His sorcery shall not protect him from that."
Arthur knew the words to say, 'From Nothing, To Nothing,' but found that he couldn't say them. True, Feverfew was a criminal, and he didn't doubt that any court would have sentenced him to death on the spot, but that was also true for the other Trustees, and he didn't want to kill them either. Plus, Feverfew had once been human, like Arthur and Suzy, and all the Piper's Children and for all he knew was trying to make the best out of finding himself in the House.
But, as Arthur looked at Feverfew's so human face, his eyes watered, and the illusion shifted, and Arthur saw Feverfew for what he was. He looked like a shriveled up carcass, whose skin was as black as charcoal, eyes were sunken, and teeth had fallen out. Hundreds of pieces of paper with writing on them adored his body, all sorcerous notes to protect him and such. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
"I'm afraid you won't be wanting to do that," Feverfew said, noticing the Minute Key. "If you do so, the ship is rigged so that in event of my death it will dissolve in Nothing. You'll never get clear fast enough, not to mention that if you want to do such at a safe distance, you won't be able to kill me at that distance. Rather than that, let's have a compromise. I was thinking of a contest-"
Arthur had heard enough. True, he wasn't going to kill Feverfew, but he couldn't exactly let him wander around the House. He wasn't sure what Feverfew was supposed to be, but it was clear that he was no longer human. And Arthur couldn't let a Nithling like that roam around.
Instead, Arthur took a deep breath, and pointed the Minute Key at Feverfew. "Key, make him corporeal," Arthur said.
A stream of bright blue jetted out of the Minute Key and struck Feverfew. The pieces of paper withered up and burned to ashes, and were then carried away by the wind. The body then began to chip away, and finally there was nothing left except for something in the center, something that gave out a sky blue light.
For a few seconds, there was crying- the crying of a small child. It then flew away into the clouds.
"We have to leave immediately," the Will croaked. "The ship will collapse soon under Nothing-"
"No it won't," Arthur said. "It would, but only if Feverfew was killed. He wasn't. He was made corporeal. Or at least, that's what I think I did. I'm not sure where he went."
"Sorcery," Wednesday's Dawn snorted derisively. "Always has its loopholes."
Arthur paused and looked around. The pirates on board had stopped firing and were looking at them.
"Um, I'm Lord Arthur, Rightful Heir, and also soon-to-be ruler of the Border Sea," Arthur said. "Also, your commander is now gone. Put down arms and surrender, and we'll, uh, lessen your punishments."
It had a lot lacking, but the pirates did leave their weapons. Wednesday's Dawn then went ahead and began giving orders, and her voice was far more authoritative than Arthur's.
The storm subsided, but the clouds remained. The two ships, the Shiver and the Moth came close together, so close that Arthur was able to leap from one to the other, something that he wouldn't have been able to do outside the House.
Thankfully, there weren't many injuries. At least, not severe ones, though they would have almost certainly killed a human. Arthur felt obliged to heal the Nothing-based wounds, since they wouldn't heal at all without sorcery. The sailors seemed really relieved, showing they hadn't had much confidence that they would succeed. They nearly all died because of me, Arthur thought.
After that, Doctor Scamandros and Arthur spent over three hours searching the Shiver and looking for Feverfew's puzzle. They found a large amount of traps, and on seven different occasions Arthur had to use the Minute Key to nullify traps that Doctor Scamandros had no idea on how to circumvent.
They found a lot of things which, though interesting, were useless to them. Apparently, Feverfew had been the one to actually sink the Titanic (his reaction to its name as 'The Unsinkable Ship' appeared to be something along the lines of 'Challenge Accepted') and had installed its doors on his own cabin.
Also, he had the Mona Lisa in his cabin. It had been stolen in around 1877 by him, and the one back on earth was a sorcerous fake. There were also other treasures, mostly from earth, probably because Feverfew had been from earth. After becoming an immortal sorcerer for some reason he had still wanted to go back to earth, and steal and do what no mortal could.
Aside from these tokens, there were lots of notes and papers detailing sorcery, as well as his own sorcerous experiments.
"Oh," Dr. Scamandros said as he rifled through the notes. He had the look of a teenage girl who had discovered a yaoi manga and was dying to read it, but was thinking about what everyone would say if she was caught. "These experiments… they're brilliant. Crude, but brilliant. Expressly forbidden in the Original Law, but I doubt even Lady Saturday would know these. Reading this would be illegal yet…"
"I authorize you to do it," Arthur said. "We'll need every bit of help we can get against the Morrow Days, and if it turns out that there's something in there that can help us like some sorcery they don't know or won't use, we'll use it."
Dr. Scamandros pocketed the notes.
"But where's the puzzle?" Arthur asked. He sighed, and knew that the answer was obvious. Or at least, the place where the answer lay was obvious. He took out the Atlas and asked, "Where is the puzzle to Feverfew's worldlet?" The Atlas as always, took time in opening up and reaching the page, and even more in writing out a single line:
Feverfew's puzzle to his worldlet is located behind the painting of the XXXXXXXX, located two spaces away from the piece known as the Mona Lisa.
Arthur couldn't even read the name of the painting, which he guessed meant that it was from someplace other than earth. The painting was almost instantly apparent, it was the one that made the least sense to Arthur (though with 'Abstract Art' gaining traction back on earth, that wasn't much of a guarantee) and Dr. Scamandros noticed there was a trap behind it, which was quickly nullified and the puzzle taken.
The Augurie puzzle pieces seemed to make a pirate's skull. It felt odd to the touch to Arthur, like it had something on it, though Scamandros swore it didn't have anything he could detect.
There was also Feverfew's own personal ledger, containing various locations in the Border Sea where he had hidden treasure.
"This must be worth…" Scamandros said as coins rained down his cheeks and numbers clashed on his chin, "…. I can't even begin to fathom."
"That doesn't matter," Arthur said. "We need to go get the Third Part of the Will immediately. Let's just hope it's better than the First Part."
A/N: So that ends this chapter. Yes, I know hiding something behind a painting is cliché, but everything in the House is pretty much cliché (and usually on purpose too) so I guess it is all right.
Also, for those of you who may not remember, being made corporeal was mentioned in the prologue of Mister Monday and consisted of having your memories wiped and sent as a living, breathing baby to a new world. (Though that is sort of like rebirth if you think about it, which is what happens after dying in some religions, so that sort of does feel like killing?) Arthur knows this thanks to the Atlas. It's never mentioned again though.
Also, I have to say that in the first book, the Key was pretty good at protecting Arthur, but then later on several times it was mentioned that Nothing-based sorcery was able to circumvent the wards around it, though this pretty much never actually happened and sort of felt like the author was trying to wriggle around a tough spot.
