Waves lap at the ship's hull as it steadily journeys towards the distant shores of Unova. The tranquil waters are a deep navy, reflecting the perpetually dark sky above them.

The S.S. Cactus, after much revamping, is now fully autonomous and programmed to carry the twelve Arcana on board to Unova. Their worries have been groundless as their experience thus far has been more than enjoyable.

"I think I can live here forever," May says happily as she munches on a churro.

From where she's standing at the deck, she has a bird's eye view of the surroundings… which dampens her mood.

The sky is just so eerie.

Drew drums his fingers on the railing.

"It's not too shabby here," he admits.

In fact, if he closes his eyes and just listens to May's voice, he can trick himself into ignoring the current crisis and just pretend they're on a luxury cruise liner together –

"Hey guys, y'all wanna play a game?" Iris's voice pretty much destroys their moment.

May spins around. "What game?" she asks excitedly.

Drew flicks his hair, stifling his annoyance at having been interrupted.

"Dunno, but meet us at the top deck!" Iris gestures, and darts away.

May swallows the last of her churro. "C'mon, let's go!"

"Be careful," Drew cautions as they make their way to the others.

While the most essential parts of the ship have been repaired, there are still miscellaneous segments of the ship missing or tattered. Holes showing a glimpse of the level below and jutting wood are common occurrences in the ship, and the two gingerly sidestep the hazards, not wanting to lose a foot and then some.

"So what game are we playing?" May barrels past Gary, who swears colorfully as he stumbles into Drew.

"Get out of my face." Drew snaps, shoving him away.

"Trust me, I don't want to get anywhere near your face." Gary sneers. Despite his callous words, his tone contains no bite as he is currently combating his seasickness. His face has a greenish hue and sweat damps his forehead.

Watching their interaction, Alain grumbles, "That stupid truth or dare…"

"What was that?" Mairin pops up beside him. "Do you want to play truth or dare?"

Alain begins shaking his head, but it's too late.

"Let's play truth or dare!" Mairin proposes loudly.

The guys recall the disaster that happened the last time they played the game, and try to dissuade Mairin, to no avail – as the rest of the girls have already hopped on board.

"That sounds fun!" Iris beams. Then she tilts her head. "But how do you play it?"

Drew forgets about arguing with the others as he glances at Iris with incredulity. "Seriously? You've never played it before?"

She shrugs. "There weren't really children my age at the Village of Dragons…"

Who would play with me is what Iris omits.

Except for Shannon, the other kids all thought Iris was strange for not wanting to leave the Village of Dragons for the more exciting (to them) urban city life. They couldn't comprehend why Iris preferred forests to cities, trees to buildings, wildlife to humans.

And after a while, they collectively decided that Iris wasn't someone they wanted or needed to know.

Mairin's heart reaches out to Iris. She knows how the game works, of course – Payton instigated it often enough with the other orphans and her dares always involved targeting Mairin in some way – but she never had the chance to partake in it, other than at the receiving end of the others' dares.

Dawn is shaking her head. "It's a tragedy that you haven't played it before." She takes Iris's hands, baffling the girl who wonders whether it's really such a big deal.

(It's not; Dawn just loves blowing things out of proportion.)

She babbles away about the rules of the game, and Iris listens, albeit confusedly. When Iris has gotten the hang of the rules, Dawn snaps her fingers to get the others' attention.

"Gather in a circle, everyone, because we're about to start!"

Drew lets out a loud and very prominent sigh, but there's a thrill of excitement running just beneath his skin. He has been thinking long and hard since the last time they played the game, and now is his shot at revenge.

Despite some of them expressing reluctance, they all cluster in one large circle per Dawn's order.

Drew pushes himself in between Iris and Gary, the latter thankfully paying him no heed. He does feel bad for leaving May behind, though she looks pretty comfortable chatting with Dawn so that eases some of his guilt.

Ash moves to sit beside Misty like usual, but suddenly her words flash in his mind.

You don't understand, Ash. You never do.

He hesitates. He's not sure why, but for the first time in literally forever, the rift between them is too large even for him to overcome.

So he backpedals and ends up sitting next to Mairin, a safe distance away from Misty.

Misty's perceptive gaze notices his avoidance of her, and unbidden hurt cuts through her. But fine. If he's going to give her the cold shoulder, she'll return the favor.

She stalks purposefully towards Gary and plants herself down beside him, directly opposite Ash. She makes a point of not looking at Ash… which is how she finds herself staring at a wary Gary.

Ha, that rhymes, she thinks sardonically. Just like Gary Stanley.

Gary frowns at her. "Did you have a fight with Ash?"

"What? We did not!" she says too quickly for it to be true. "And it's none of your business."

Gary snorts. "Suuure you did not. Usually you guys are attached at the hips, and now you're suddenly sitting far apart and avoiding eye contact?"

Misty mulls over Gary's words. Has she really been that close to Ash? The answer comes quickly.

Yes.

Well, starting from right now, it's a no.

"You're wrong," Misty replies hotly.

Gary holds up his hands. "Hey, I was just stating an observation. No need to lash out at me," he says dryly.

"If you're expecting an apology from me, then prepare for disappointment."

"I know. It's you we're talking about, after all."

Before Misty can grill him on what he means, Dawn raises her voice to be heard over their conversations.

"Okay, let's start from…" She scrutinizes them.

"How about Cilan? You didn't have a go the last time we played," Drew proposes. His eyes are shrewdly planted on Cilan, sitting two places beside him. "And then we can go clockwise? Anti-clockwise?"

Please let it be clockwise, he begs. Otherwise he would have just shot himself in the foot.

"Hmm, then Cilan will start. Clockwise direction, everyone," Dawn declares. Her expression grows pensive as she mutters, "But why do I not remember playing truth or dare with you all…"

Ash takes pity on her and finally reveals, "We played in the guys' room."

"Oh! You have to tell me how it went sometime."

"It went horribly," Paul states flatly.

Coming from him, Dawn believes his words.

"Tragic." She shakes her head. "And I don't want to know about it anymore."

Alain nods his head, recalling the disaster that arose when they last played the game. "Good call."

They got into a brawl and were reprimanded by Wallace, for heaven's sake. It's not exactly a memory they want to relive.

"Okay, so the person before Cilan – Serena – will ask him, then when Cilan's done, he'll ask Iris, then Iris asks Drew and so forth. Capeesh?" Dawn announces.

Paul rolls his eyes. The brief moment of authority she had during the voting for which region to head to next has gone into her head – her latest hobby is now bossing them around.

"Whenever you're ready." Serena offers Cilan a smile.

He snaps his fingers. "Dare," he says adventurously.

A chorus of oohs ensue.

"I bet you only did that because it's Serena giving you a dare," Misty deduces.

Cilan smiles. "Precisely. If it were Gary or Drew…" He lets his words hang meaningfully in the air.

Before the two mentioned can have a chance to grow indignant, Serena hastily says, "So here's your dare: drink a vial of Iris's nutritious concoction." Her grin is razor-sharp with wickedness.

Cilan pales. "S-Serena…" His tone is full of wounded betrayal.

Iris has already dashed to her backpack and is hauling out a small bottle of what she dubs as her "ultra nutritious concoction", made out of a blend of berries that when mixed creates a godforsaken drink.

It's supposed to be healthy.

It sure doesn't taste like it.

In fact, it tastes like the sort of brew that may dissolve one's intestines and melt right through the skin. It tastes like what a virus probably would if it were ingested – acidic, bitter and acrid all at once. There's also a burning aftertaste that makes your breath stink.

And this dare is especially torturous for Cilan, a connoisseur whose taste buds are delicately refined.

But he is a gentleman.

He downs the mixture in one shot, somehow forcing his expression not to crumble as he forces out, "The flavor… the flavor is uniquely delectable, intensified by its dominating tang of charred bitterness."

"Would you like one more?" Serena asks, failing to keep a serious face.

"Uh, good things are meant to be shared with others. Perhaps I'll pass…" He notices how Iris deflates. "… is obviously not what I was going to say. Ahahaha!"

And that's how he finds himself inhaling another one of those nasty drinks.

On the plus side, Iris is beaming at him happily.

Serena mentally pats herself on the back. So all's good in the end.

"Now it's my turn." Iris extends her legs, stretching them as she peers up at the sky, missing its usual blueness and fluffy clouds. "I choose truth."

Cilan covertly gulps down some water while Iris is preoccupied gazing at the sky.

"For your truth…" He wavers. But they can't accomplish anything without trust. "What is the reason behind why you fear the cold?"

A gentle breeze waltzes by, dancing along the tune of silence.

"Um… Cilan, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Serena begins apprehensively.

Iris closes her eyes, her head still tilted backwards.

"No, it's fine. I'll share." She brushes off Serena's concern. Beneath her eyelids, she can still see the horrors of that day, imprinted onto her mind. But she's fine. She's alright.

Because she isn't alone anymore.

"I was young back then. Six years old." She traces empty circles on the ground. "My parents and I were flying out of Unova on a helicopter. My father could pilot one, you see. He was very dexterous, a master of all trades, my mother would always say." Iris can feel tears welling up, but she swallows them away.

Could. Was.

The others note the use of the past tense, and have a bad feeling.

"Well, we were flying through a particularly heavy hailstorm when… when we crashed." Iris breathes, a note of fear creeping into her voice.

Cilan holds her hand, squeezing it.

She calms down.

"I didn't know what happened or how it happened. All my six-year-old self could comprehend was that we were falling, Dad was cursing and Mom was crying. He managed to maneuver the helicopter such that our fall was cushioned by the snow, but Mom was heavily injured."

Iris's voice catches. "We must have spent hours or days in the hailstorm, Dad using whatever was left of our rations to sustain me. It was so cold. The sheer coldness was unbearable. It sank into my skin, made my teeth chatter until it was all I could hear, covered me like a second oppressive layer…" Iris pauses, struggling to continue the next part.

"And somewhere along the way…" There's no stopping the tears flowing down her cheeks. "Somewhere along the way, my parents stopped responding."

Looks of horror are directed at Iris.

"They were… They were already…"

"It's fine, we understand." Cilan says gently.

Iris burrows her face in her hands and weeps.

"They were already dead," she forces herself to finish.

The others flinch a bit. Iris had… Iris had been sandwiched within their frozen corpses for Arceus knew how long.

Her eyes snap open, the fuzzy images of her parents fading away.

"I can barely remember what Mom and Dad look like anymore…" she confesses sadly. "But I do remember their warmth, which was strange as they were freezing, and how much they had wanted me to live."

"And you did survive." Dawn gives her a forlorn, tentative smile.

Iris nods, wiping away her tears. "Someone from the Village of Dragons found me, and the Elder decided to take me in. And now… we're here." She shrugs helplessly.

There's a moment where all of them just let Iris's past sink in.

"I'm glad you lived, Iris," Cilan says sincerely.

Iris smiles at him wobbly. "I'm glad too."

She wasn't, at one point. She hated the fact that she lived and her parents died. She hated herself for that. But that point is in the very distant past.

She composes herself. "Okay, next person? Drew?" she prompts, and the others respect her decision to move on from her life.

"Dare," he says without hesitation.

"I knew you would say that. I dare you to do the Combusken Dance."

Drew groans.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh I am. Very. What's wrong? Are you… chickening out?" Iris waggles her eyebrows as the others roar with laughter.

Drew grits his teeth and stands, running through the steps of the utterly humiliating and unfathomably popular dance. When he shakes his butt, he hears hoots and catcalls, with Gary's piercing voice being the loudest.

His desire to take revenge has never been stronger.

When Iris, out of breath from laughing, finally says, "Okay, you can stop now", Drew plops down on the ground immediately.

"Are you all done laughing?" he growls.

May shakes her head. "N-nope!"

"January."

"B-buttshaker. That's what I'll call you from now on. Grasshead who? I only know Buttshaker." She dissolves into peals of laughter.

To add insult to injury, he sees Serena mouthing at him, "Cute nicknames."

Ugh, he's never going to live this down.

"Gary. Truth. Or. Dare."

Gary stops laughing, debating. But the one asking him is Drew. Regardless of what he chooses, he has no doubt that it'll be horrendous. But won't truth be better? Drew doesn't know him enough to ask personal questions –

"C'mon, stop dawdling. You're gonna choose truth because it's me, aren't you?" Drew yawns. "How predictably boring."

Gary's eyes flash. "Dare. Wrong again, huh?"

Misty's eyes narrow. It sounds to her like Drew was goading Gary to pick dare, and he probably has some grand scheme in mind –

"Do ten elephant spins."

"Huh?" May blurts out confusedly, having expected something bolder from Drew.

None of them notice the minute change in Gary's expression, except for Drew, who grins to himself. Oh yes, he has chosen the perfect dare.

"Simple, right? Or maybe you can't do it?" he taunts.

"Shut up," Gary mutters, forcing himself to stand.

Goddamn it, how the fuck does he know? Gary takes deep breaths, but the scent of the sea assaulting him doesn't exactly help.

"Anytime now," Drew drawls. "We're all waiting."

Gary leans down, ignoring the way his stomach starts doing flip-flops, pinches his nose with one hand and slips his other hand through the nook. Closing his eyes, he begins to spin, counting silently.

One, two…

The queasy sensation intensifies.

Three, four…

His throat tightens.

Five, six…

He can do this, he can do this.

Seven, eight –

He can't do this.

He lurches and empties his stomach onto Misty's pants.

"Ew, Gary!" she screams, leaping to her feet. "GROSS!"

The others cringe when her shoes make a squelching sound.

"GARY FUCKING OAK!" Misty roars.

He shakily stands up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "That's a nice middle name."

Misty glares at him.

"I'll buy you new shoes," he offers.

"We're stuck in the middle of the ocean."

"Too bad?"

Misty takes one threatening step towards him, but the others recoil as Gary's puke moves with her too.

Dawn hands Gary tissues silently, grateful that she took a lot of them from Sunyshore City. She can't believe that they're being put to the same use as before – cleaning up someone's vomit.

"We're kinda a disgusting group." May holds her nose.

"Kinda?" Drew lifts a brow.

"Okay, very."

They watch as Misty takes off her shoes and stalks towards the ship's toilet, Gary trailing behind, one hand clutching his stomach.

May turns to Drew.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Drew laughs. "What do you think?"

"You're evil."

"Thanks."

"Technically, it was your own fault."

Gary's words earn him Misty's ire. They've just finished changing out of their soiled clothes – or shoes in Misty's case, and thank Arceus that Dawn brought extra shoes.

"I mean, if you had just sat next to Ash like normal, I would be throwing up on May instead of you. Which isn't any better," he adds hastily seeing how her murderous look only worsens.

"Would it have killed you to admit that you were seasick instead of falling into Drew's trap?" she snaps.

"Back at you. What's going on with you and Ash?"

"Don't change the topic. We're not talking about me and Ash. We're talking about you and your stupid inflated ego!"

"Well, I want to talk about you and Ash. Look, we may not be that close and honestly I don't really give two shits about any of you guys, but this whole journey thing has thrown us together and I've changed my mind. Maybe I want to get to know you all better," he admits.

"Gee, I'm sooo flattered," Misty says.

Gary gives her a pointed look.

She sighs. "Fine. Look, it's just –"

"Don't tell me it's complicated. That's so overused."

"I wasn't about to say that. I guess…" Misty gives the issue some consideration. "I guess it's like, it's always been me, Ash and – and Brock, you know?"

Gary mercifully doesn't comment on her stutter.

"I'm close to Ash, but he's not a Gym Leader. He doesn't understand me the way Brock did – no wait, that's not what this is about." Misty huffs in frustration. "I mean, I thought he cared. Ash, that is. I'm not saying that he wasn't affected by Brock's death, but… but… ugh, it's just, Ash essentially told me to give up on finding Brock's killer! He said it was too dangerous!"

Gary is slightly surprised by that. For Ash to be the rational one instead of Misty? It's rare. So rare that he has never seen that happen before.

"But how could he? How could he?" Misty's voice breaks. "When the whole reason I went on this journey was to find the truth!"

Ah, there it is.

Misty stops walking. And Gary stops, too.

"I'm not an altruistic person, Gary," Misty says sadly. "I wouldn't even have agreed to come if Brock hadn't died. I would have been the one persuading Ash not to go, you would have been egging him on just to ruffle me, and Brock… Brock would have been himself, chasing after Cynthia or Diantha or some other beautiful lady."

A soft smile graces her features. "And then I would have grabbed him by his ear and dragged him away, and you would have been making fun of him for being a lady's man despite being one yourself."

"Sounds about right." Gary nods his head. He's not ashamed to admit that he's popular with girls. He boasts about it. Too often, in everyone's opinions.

Her smile dims. "Tell me, Gary." She looks him in the eye. "What would you have done if it were you? If the person closest to you had just been murdered, without explanation or reason, and you had a chance to find out the truth? Even if it meant you might be next?"

Gary doesn't even need to think.

"I would take it."

"Really?" Her lips curve upwards. "So you're like me, then."

"You're not wrong."

"Huh, I thought you would be more averse to being compared to me –"

"You're not wrong in your decision," Gary clarifies. "Ash may think otherwise, but your opinion is still valid. You're your own person. Don't let someone else influence your actions. You will regret it one day."

"Sounds like you've had experience with that?" Misty probes.

Gary lits his head to the ceiling, his head tilted back. "Not me. Just… some people I used to know."

Misty is about to press him for more details when the ship rocks suddenly, throwing her into Gary. The ship jerks again, and this time, the floor beneath them starts to vibrate.

"Again?" Gary grumbles, taking off in a sprint.

"Just be glad that we aren't attacked in our sleep," Misty replies, also running. Her melancholic mood from earlier has disappeared.

"Race you there!"

"No fair, you had a head start!

As Misty's footsteps behind him become louder, Gary supposes he ought to thank Drew for making the two grow closer in the rather awkward heart-to-heart.

The teen may just have an aneurysm when he hears how badly his plan has backfired.

"If I had a nickel every time we've been caught unaware and attacked, I would have –" Iris counts quickly " – three nickels? Four? Does that time in Mt. Coronet count?"

No one answers her.

Above their heads, four portals have ripped open, churning with malicious energy.

"Um, Dawn, if you can do your magical thingamajig now, that would be awesome!" May squeaks as a skull wearing a black cloth materializes from one of the portals. "Oh my Arceus, is that the Grim Reaper? Are we dead?"

"Death may be preferable to that thing," Dawn moans, one trembling finger pointed at the ocean.

Several colorful fish appear – hideously colorful fish with revoltingly thick lips, two rows of sharp teeth and intelligent, piercing eyes. The main body is splotches of pink, blue and yellow, contrasting horribly against each other, painting a grotesque creation.

One of them leaps out of the water, causing Dawn to shriek, and as it plunges back into the sea, dark, stormy clouds begin to gather, unnaturally fast. Within moments, torrential rain is pouring down on them.

"How is this possible?" Mairin yelps as she loses her footing, skidding on the wet floor.

"Because it's us," Drew deadpans. "Remember when I said that anything that can happen to us, will happen to us? This is living proof of that."

"When we see Steven again, I'm going to kill him," Paul mutters as he slips, narrowly avoiding falling into a hole. The ship they're on has holes in it, why? To make their life more difficult.

"You mean if we see him," Dawn wails.

"Dawn, do your thing!" May screams as the skull creature's single eye turns incandescent and it fires a black beam at her.

"I can't! I don't know how to!" Dawn yells back hysterically.

"At least fucking try!" Paul shouts.

"I am! It's just not working!"

Dawn tries to recall how that day went – she saw golden threads which she bound around May and herself to save them. She visualizes those golden threads in her mind.

Nothing happens.

"Arceus, what the hell is happening?" Gary emerges with Misty in tow, his eyes darting around as he takes in the scene before him.

Cilan ducks to avoid another one of those black beams. Their ship flounders from side to side due to the continuous attacks of their new, much unsolicited company.

"We're reaching Unova soon! We just need to reach Castelia City!" Cilan screams for his voice to be heard. "Hang on a bit more, everyone!"

"It's not that easy," Drew grits out, finding himself wrestling with a vicious doll-like creature made out of a gray cloth and two teardrop-shaped eyes that are glaring at him malevolently. The cloth it's wearing feels cold and wispy and rough at once, and he shoves it away from him, sending the creature spiraling back into the portal it came from.

The sea starts to bubble, and as the current begins to swirl in a rotary fashion, jagged lines of navy and black run through the rapidly forming whirlpool, growing larger and larger.

When its diameter is about five feet, a mighty roar shakes the very core of the ship as a new creature begins to surface.

First comes its head – a gigantic mouth stretched wide open with fangs, narrowed red eyes boiling with fury and the rest of its long, serpentine body flies out of the sea. With many ridges along the main body, which is a clear blue cerulean that reminds Misty of the ocean on a sunny day, the new creature resembles a cross between a snake and a dragon.

In short, it looks downright terrifying.

Even more than the hand thing. Or the octopus. Or the crazy fish.

"Oh Arceus, oh Arceus, oh Arceus… Cast your glorious light upon us, bestow the strength for this to pass…" Mairin begins praying, the only prayer she knows. Her orphanage wasn't exactly very religious.

"We are not going to die," Gary cuts her off, though his voice trembles.

The draconic creature roars again, and its mouth gapes open wider, as if that were possible.

An immense force gushes out from its mouth, causing the air before it to billow fiercely as a strong gust kicks up.

"Ahhh!" Screams are heard as some of them fight to stay grounded.

"WHAT WERE YOU SAYING ABOUT HOW WE AREN'T GOING TO DIE?" Mairin shrieks accusingly.

"Okay, I take it back!" Gary coughs as the wind swirls faster and faster around them.

"We're going to get trapped at this rate!" Cilan's voice can barely be heard over the rush of the wind, which whips around them viciously, encircling them.

Dawn clasps her hands together, squeezing them tightly enough to hurt.

PLEASE let this work, she begs.

The golden threads have to come from somewhere. And this time, she imagines that it originates from her. Threads that flow out of her hand, threads to bind, threads to make and unmake, forge and reforge the world.

Slowly, two strands emerge from her hands.

"Yes!" she cheers.

A strong breeze sends her stumbling, and she screams. There's no time to hesitate; she needs to follow her instincts.

So she doesn't even care anymore as she slings out thread after thread, casting her hands wildly about for where the others are at.

The wind lashes at her mercilessly, breaking her concentration and making it painful for her eyes to be opened, but from where she's squinting at the others, she can see that chunks of the wooden floor are getting dislodged and flying haphazardly through the air.

One of them is heading straight for Serena, who is crawling on her knees.

She has no time to alert the girl to a warning. No time to react.

Dawn throws out both her hands, begging for all the gods she knows – which is only one – to hear her pleas, and so the threads unfurl from her hands, flung out in all directions, grabbing, snagging, wrapping around any living soul in sight.

Safety.

She pleads.

Please take us to safety.

Resplendent light assaults her vision, so blinding and pure in its potency, and she lets it swallow her up.

As the ship is tossed and jostled about unceremoniously, May clings onto the railing, the churning sea beneath her blocked out by the unstoppable tempest that has surrounded them.

She has screamed until her voice is hoarse, and the wind whips at her, causing tears to spring up.

"May! May!"

Hope flares inside her.

"Drew! I'm here!" she croaks back.

She sees his familiar figure stumbling towards her, and she has never been so glad for it. She lets go of the railing impulsively and dashes towards him, her legs feeling like jelly and quivering like one too.

He grabs her by the hand and tugs her towards the center of the ship where the gale isn't as powerful, and she makes out the shapes of a few of the others.

As she glances around frenziedly, she sees an ejected piece of wood flying towards Serena, who is oblivious to it.

May opens her mouth to scream at the girl, even though she knows it'll be too late.

Golden light pulses through the ship, enveloping them in warmth and radiance, canceling out the cacophony and making them feel safe. The light grasps and flutters about, as though trying to hold onto them, but before May can react, the light begins to wane and flickers weakly, dissipating all together by the time she has enough sense to try and latch onto it.

"Oof." Drew grunts as the ship abruptly comes to a jarring stop, tipping over slightly and sending them crashing onto the wet floor. He slides a few inches before catching himself.

May shakes her head, water droplets flying everywhere.

The others are similarly disoriented as they catch their breaths. But…

"Hey." Her raspy voice catches their attention. "Aren't we missing some people?"

Paul curses. "Not just some; half of us are gone."

"And where are we?" Iris's voice is small.

"Wherever this is, it isn't Castelia City, for sure." Gary frowns, blinking the water out of his eyes.

Iris blinks, and a ball of dread curls in her stomach. She has gotten used to Cilan answering her every question, but now, she realizes that she's been separated from him. And five of the others.

Misty groans. "Is this what I think this is?"

"Yep." Drew squeezes out the water in his hair. "Guess we're shipwrecked."

His tone may be nonchalant, though inwardly he is anything but.

Worry for where the other half of their group has gone and for their own predicament is like an insistent, throbbing pain in his mind.

The sea swishes softly behind them, filling in the excruciating silence that ensues.

A/N:

Original title was "Shipwrecked" but that was too much of a giveaway. And yes, our Arcana have now been separated! It was actually done to speed up the card finding process, but there's a reason behind it. Kind of? I really wanted to update the story at least once a week, but it seems like I may only be able to do it once/twice a month. I'll still try my best T~T

In return for that, here's an update a day early (since I usually update on Saturdays) ~

Thank you for all your support! Your reviews/comments/kudos always make my day