Chapter Twenty-Three: The Magistrate's Deal with the Devil

"Two weeks we crisscross the North Sea and got nothing." I commented to Audrey as she worked on one of the sub pods, "No squids, no jellyfish, and no lobster from Atlantis."

"We have to be sure, Vinny." Milo said. I didn't fully disagree, but I didn't see a point in continuing if we already knew there was something going on somewhere else. We've had no signs of any sea monsters, it was like we were wasting our time.

"What if raising the crystal brought this leviathan to life?" Kida suggested, "This could all be the fault of Atlantis."

"I'd worry more about who to fight it than who's to blame." Audrey responded, hitting the missiles with the wrench as she spoke, "Last time we shot at the leviathan these things didn't even tickle it."

"Audrey, if you keep hitting that we're going to be tickled all over these walls." I warned her.

"Yeah, yeah, like I don't know that." She retorted, hitting them again with the wrench.

"Well, careful, now that Sweet's not here to glue us back together." I told her, before telling her about the blend in the missiles that I had been given the opportunity to put together. "Let the lobster chew on that." I added.

"You know I don't think it is a leviathan." Milo commented, "The survivors called it the Kraken: a legendary Norwegian sea monster with arms a quarter mile long. Nothing like we saw in Atlantis."

"But Atlantean inventors always based their designs on real animals, like the giant squid." Kida responded, "It may not be a leviathan, but it still may be an Atlantean war machine."

'Or it may not have anything to do with Atlantis at all.' I thought, knowing it would be best to keep quiet about that opinion.

"She's right." Mole agreed, which had been slightly surprising given his work as of late. He had seen more than any of us, from the few things I've gathered of what I've heard, about the mysterious things that are in this world. "No creature of flesh and blood can bring down a steel cargo ship." He added and then the ship started to rock.

"Something's got the ship!" Audrey exclaimed.

"It's ripping open the launch doors!" Milo added.

It wasn't too long before one of the kraken's arms reached inside.

"Get to the sub pods!" Milo exclaimed, before adding to me, "Vinny, we're going to need that thing out of the way."

"Coming up, extra oregano." I threw a grenade at the monster before heading into a sub pod.

Unsurprisingly, the sub pod that Audrey had been working on, which she had kept hitting malfunctioned with Milo, Kida, and their pet inside.

As we pulled their pod up, I could hear Kida say over their intercom, "At least it wasn't Atlantean."

When we got to the surface, Milo let the captain know we were fine and to take care of the ship before getting out of his sub pod. After he, Kida, and their pet were out the pod sunk.

"That's your sub pod, that's not coming out of my paycheck." Audrey commented.

"Okay, let's get to shore as soon as we can." I told them.

"What's the matter, Vinny?" Audrey questioned, "Afraid to play patty cake with the sea monster?"

I shook my head, "No, I don't mind a little patty cake, but I don't really want to be here when the bombs on that sub pod hit bottom." I told them as I closed the door to my sub pod.

Tia's POV

'This is hopeless.' I thought as I questioned my decision to continue to walk around the town looking for clues about what was going on. It wasn't like I could ask anyone about the strange happenings here. The only one who would talk to me was the magistrate, who would only tell me to leave.

"Not real friendly are they…" I heard someone say in the distance.

'That sounds like Milo.' I thought before laughing off the idea, that wasn't possible. I sighed not wanting to contemplate the potential that this place was driving me crazy to the point I was hearing things. And then I heard another voice, one of disgust, "What is that smell? It's like rotting fish." It had been Audrey.

And then another, "Why do you accuse such a thing?! I have bathed! Recently…"

It had been Mole.

"Oh good, I'm not going crazy." I sighed in relief, before following the voices. Eventually I found myself behind them.

"Milo, we've got company." Vinny signaled to Milo as the magistrate came up to them.

"I am Edgar Volgud, the magistrate of this town." He introduced himself, "What is your business here?"

Milo tried to greet him, but Edgar cut him off. He didn't care what they had been here for. He already had been dealing with me refusing to leave, I doubt he wanted more people poking their heads around here. Kida tried to question him, but refused to answer her outside of telling her to go to the next town over, Trondheim. Milo insisted they'd stay to enjoy the scenery, which was also met with a response to go to Trondheim.

"You might as well hold your breath, Mr. Volgud." I spoke up, getting bored with the back and forth, "You have as much as a chance getting them to leave as you've had me."

Edgar looked past Milo, Kida, and the others towards me, narrowing his eyes at the sight of me. I smirked lightly, "What? Did you miss me? I mean it's been a day since you told me to leave town. Here's the thing, I'm still here. I doubt you're going to be able to convince them, if you can't convince me."

"You all would be better suited in Trondheim." He seethed.

"All the same, we'll stay." Milo replied.

"Ms. Eliassen is the innkeeper here, she'll give you rooms for the night." He gestured to the inn before turning, "A driver will take you to Trondheim tomorrow." He then walked away.

"I've seen that fella before some place." Vinny commented as we all headed inside, "I believe under a rock, reminds me of a leech, a worm, kind of a salamander-ish."

"He's something to say the least." I agreed with him as a purple thing ran past us, knocking Mole down, "What was that?" I asked, helping Mole up.

"That's Mole and Kida's pet." Vinny answered as we watched it snuggle up in the fire, he then changed the subject, "How have you been?"

"Alright." I responded after a moment, he raised an eyebrow. "It's been a very peculiar past several weeks."

"I'm not surprised," Vinny replied, "There's something off about that Volgud guy."

"Wasn't Volgud that statue guy?" Audrey asked.

"That would mean he's even older than he looks." Milo responded, "And I'd say he's pretty darn old."

"They say he made a deal with the devil to live forever, but forgot to ask for eternal youth." Inger commented, "This will drive the fog from your bones."

"Thank you, Ms. Eliassen." Milo told her, taking a cup. The others took theirs.

"Thank you, Inger." I thanked her for the tea.

"There is a darkness around, Edgar Volgud." Inger continued, "And that shadow has dimmed all that was happy here. We would leave, but this inn is all we have. It is no place for me to raise my little one."

I looked at Vinny, "Speaking of little ones, where's Olivia?"

"At the Whitmore estate with Branson." He answered, "Your grandfather left it up to me whether she was coming or not and I told her no."

"I'm sure she was thrilled." I replied sarcastically.

"If I remember correctly, her exact words were 'Mother would have let me come.'"

"That's not true." I responded.

"To a point." Mole corrected, "We've had to bring her with us for a few."

"I will prepare rooms for you." Inger told them, heading up the stairs, "But do not cross Edgar Volgud and leave as soon as you can."

"They gotta work on their tourism industry." Vinny commented.

"It could be worse." I responded, and then added, "I wouldn't hold my breath for that driver by the way, Volgud told me that when I first arrived here. Still no driver."

"Well that gives us time to figure out what's going on." Milo said.

"I wouldn't count on that."

"What do you mean?" Audrey asked, "That's the whole reason you've been here."

"That's a little difficult when no one will talk to you." I retorted.

"So what have you been doing this whole time?" She questioned.

"Not much." I replied honestly, "Trying to figure out things on my own, but mostly reading. Been catching up on Greek and Norwegian mythology."

"I understand reading through Norwegian mythology given the monster we're up against, "Milo responded, "But why Greek?"

"It's entertaining." I answered.

"Good to see you haven't changed." Milo smiled softly.

"Not in that regard, no."

"So, let me get this straight," Audrey interjected, still annoyed "this whole time, you've been here reading?"

"It's called research." I responded, "And no, I tried talking to people, no one would and the ones who did were helpful until they started disappearing."

"What'd you find out?" Vinny asked.

"Basically what Inger just told us."