- Chapter 4: Revenge, Served Lukewarm -

The look on Isaac's face was priceless. Not the one when we realized that he had a length of sharpened steel going into his chest, through his heart, and out his backside(though that one was certainly most precious as well). Rather, the look that came when she stepped out from behind the crate, when he saw her face. The one where he realized that she was responsible. That look was one Karst made an effort to permanently engrave on her memory.

Then she planted her boot on Isaac's chest and used it as leverage to pull her scythe free. With that support lost, the murderous Venus adept collapsed onto the floor like a puppet with his strings cut. Dead.

She felt a hollow sensation inside herself at that, but she stifled it. Menardi... You are avenged.

A voice from the next room broke in on her thoughts. "Hey Isaac! Where are you? I just saw -"

Garet popped into the room. Isaac's lantern had fallen to the floor along with its owner, but it still shed enough light for him to notice Karst, and it certainly highlighted Isaac's corpse. Garet took a step backwards, hand reaching for a weapon that was of course not there, mouth opening in a cry for aid.

He was halfway through the cry when Agatio appeared behind him and brought a heavy crate crashing down on his head. Garet fell senseless to the floor.

"Done and done!" Agatio declared, dumping the crate aside.

Karst nodded. "Perfect. Didn't I tell you playing dead was a good plan?"

"Yeah? If it was such a good plan, how come we don't have that aqua bitch and the pint size one?"

"We'll get to them. You weren't honestly thinking of tackling all four of them at once?" She squatted down to pick up the lantern from the floor. "Lucky this didn't break. We could have stamped out the fire, of course, but -"

"Hey, that's not a bad idea. Burn them down with their ship."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "It's like you actually work at being stupid." Suddenly noticing a bit of movement, she looked more closely at Isaac. "Well, look at that. He's still alive, barely. He must have used curative psynergy on himself as a knee-jerk reaction, just enough to close off the wound to his heart. Too bad he can't finish the job now that he's unconscious."

"You want to finish them now?"

"No. Since it worked out this way, I'd like to take my time with them..." She looked around. "There's some rope over there. Help me tie them to those ladders."

If nothing else, Agatio was helpful, at least. He got right to work on binding Garet's wrists and ankles to a ladder while she did the same for Isaac. She was finishing with his left wrist when...

"Isaac? Garet?" It was Felix's sister. The unexpected disappearance of Isaac and Garet's psynergy from the power driving the ship must have alerted her. Just as we anticipated, Karst noted with satisfaction. "Are you guys down here? Answer me!"

Her voice was growing more frantic, but Karst couldn't answer her just yet. She wasn't close enough to see what was going on, and there was no telling what she might do if she disoriented her.

Karst was already thinking of what she might do to Isaac. She'd have to make it good, enough to do Menardi proud. It feels like I've been reaching for this hour for so long... For the end of the emptiness I've felt ever since Menardi left. Maybe, once Isaac's dead, I'll finally be able to cry for her. I know tears are a weakness, but I've felt them burning inside me ever since that wretched maggot hanging to Felix's coattails told me that my sister was dead.

"This isn't funny, you guys! Answer - Oh no."

She could imagine Jenna's dismay at seeing her and Agatio, especially with half the ship's crew taken out. "Hello, Jenna," she said, hefting her scythe. "We've been waiting for you to join us."

The girl was speechless.

"I know what you must be thinking," Karst went on, keeping her voice calm so as not to frighten Jenna into doing anything rash. "You're thinking of running to get Piers to help you fight us. But think for a moment, and you'll see that idea doesn't even qualify as a last desperate chance. Aside from the fact that you could barely defeat us even with Felix leading you, if the two of you use your psynergy to fight us, then what will keep this ship airborne, hmm? And if the ship falls in shallow waters like these, the hull will shatter into splinters, leaving us all with no choice but to swim through some of the most freezing waters in all of Weyard. As members of the Fire Clan, Agatio and me might survive. You and your friends, on the other hand..."

"I get it, damn you!" Jenna snapped.

"Karst, why are you wasting time with talking?" Agatio interrupted. "Let's just kill her, then Piers. Our psynergy should be enough to fly the ship without these four rats."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Karst sighed with exasperation. "We're not going to shed even one drop of blood from any of Felix's group. They saved Prox where we failed to. Honestly, where's your gratitude?"

"They betrayed us!"

"No, Felix betrayed us. Jenna and the others never made any promises to Menardi. Besides, trust isn't an issue anymore. Felix has already more than proved that we were wrong to stop trusting him."

"So you forgive him for saving Isaac?"

"I... haven't decided yet." Whenever she thought about Felix, she felt all confused. She still remembered how tenderly he had held her at Mars Lighthouse, even after she'd tried to kill him and his friends. And she could never, ever forget that he was the one who had saved all of Prox. The very fact that he'd tried to save Prox was enough for her to forgive him for saving Isaac. But what about Menardi? He'd been with her, and she had died. At best, he was guilty of being too weak to save her. At worst, he had helped murder her.

"We'll worry about Felix later," she said. "After we've finished Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia."

"You really think I'll let you do that?" Jenna challenged.

"You don't have a choice," Karst reminded her, picking up another length of rope. "I'm going to tie you up now. Remember, if you try using your psynergy, you'll kill yourself and Piers. You can still try a futile physical struggle with me, but the more cooperative you are, the more inclined I'll be to forgive your brother."

"He saved your life, you... you..."

Karst shook her head. "I never said I believed in being fair."

Jenna looked resigned to the situation, so Karst stepped forward to tie her up. That was when the floor lurched, and the harsh groans of wood tearing and splintering against an irresistible force sounded throughout the ship. She and Agatio were thrown off their feet. "What the blazes!" she cursed.

"The ship is crashing!" Agatio cried out.

Jenna, however, was nimble enough and lucky enough to stay on her feet, and she took immediate advantage of the situation, darting past the two Proxians to reach for Garet's bonds.

"Dammit, Jenna," Karst muttered, grasping her scythe and forcing herself to her feet. "You're leaving me no choice."

Jenna was still focused on untying the rope around Garet's wrist. She never saw the blade of Karst's weapon coming. It tore through her flesh, and she fell to the floor, clutching at the blood flowing from her side.