Much thought went into how I'd split the groups and approach this chapter. Much thought, because now that I've settled into my new job I have plenty of time to think during slow hours when I'm not arguing with the cash register. I considered everyone's input and added it to my own thoughts on how Yuri would select a team for exploring the ghost ship. I'm rather pleased with the overall chapter, though a few people may be disappointed by my choices.

I find myself doubting that any of you have read The Picture of Dorian Gray (though if you have, awesome! I loved it actually). And most likely none of you will read it except maybe for a class. But I still feel I should put a spoiler warning here: I AM GIVING AWAY THE BIGGEST TWIST ABOUT THE ENDING! SPOILERRRR!1!1!

Angelic:

I hope you'll approve of how I arranged the teams. I tried to make sure it would be interesting for everyone~ And I don't know about Judith shipping YurixLetha, but I honestly can see her supporting nearly any fandom you could think of. Though the more cracked up ones would most likely be just for the sake of a laugh and to tease the involved parties. I can even imagine her getting good entertainment value out of anyone paired with herself (even if she wasn't interested romantically), if that makes sense.

x x x

Chapter 31: I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

x x x

Yuri narrowed his eyes as he looked thoughtfully at our group gathered on the Fiertia's deck. "Okay. So Repede and I'll go," he settled on first. Before he could voice his next choice Rita broke in with her voice about an octave higher, making Repede whimper a bit.

"I'm not going. No way!" Her voice cracked a bit with her declaration, and she dropped to the deck to sit with her arms crossed. She looked the very image of a stubborn child refusing to budge an inch unless getting her way.

Yuri rolled his eyes a bit but maintained his neutral tone and expression. "Alright then, you stay here and help guard the Fiertia." Once again he scanned the rest of us, and I thought that maybe this second assessment meant he had originally planned on the bringing her along for magical support.

When his look reached Karol, the small guild boss tried to make himself unnoticeable behind me without being too obvious about it. Raven widened his eyes, shook his head slightly, and mouthed the words "No waaaay" when under silent consideration, making Yuri roll his eyes again.

"Repede and I will bring Estelle and Judy with us," he announced. Judith had a satisfied look that would have made me worry for any canaries in the vicinity, and Estelle was surprised but didn't seem overly bothered. Karol, Rita, and Raven all let out sighs of relief, which I had to shake my head at. "We'll go just as soon as you girls have everything you need."

Princess and krytian nodded at him, and went back to our shared room to get their small pouches for carrying gels into battle. Everyone else wandered off to all corners of the ship. I stayed by the railing and considered the ominous ship that seemed to be waiting patiently for us to make the next move. No matter how I stood on my toes or tried to lean closer, I couldn't spy any monsters waiting on the deck. Were they all below?

"Do you really want to check it out that bad?" came Yuri's voice from behind me. I looked at him askance and lifted an eyebrow.

"Do I really look that eager? Then why didn't you pick me?" I turned to look at him directly. "Never mind, I can guess."

"Oh?" He grinned a bit. "So why do you think I picked Estelle and Judy?"

"Estelle's the healer," I told him reasonably. With standard RPG logic, you always always always keep the main healer in you party when forced to divide the group. And leave secondary healers in the other for when they're inevitably required to fight without your main fighters. Which games always do to trip up the less experienced gamers who didn't make sure both parties were balanced (Not that I'd explain that bit of reasoning to Yuri). "You don't know what could be on that ship, so keeping our main healer with you is a no brainer.

"Plus," I continued, "Estelle's no slouch with her sword. She may be the Empire's treasured princess and getting her hurt would equal a death sentence on top of all your other crimes-"

"Hey, I was pardoned," the criminal swordsman protested.

"I'm sure spiriting her away yet again has given them new reasons to maintain your wanted status," I said with a snort. "But anyway, that's not likely to happen since not only can she take care of herself, but she also has you, Repede, and Judith to protect her. Which leads into why I think you picked Judy," I nodded sagely.

"Judith is both an incredibly strong fighter, and almost obscenely calm about this whole situation. Which means she won't be as much as a potential liability as," I waved a hand vaguely over at Karol, Rita, and Raven, "the scaredy cat faction of our group." Yuri laughed softly at my assessment of the other members.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, though you have a weird way of putting it." Well of course, it was a bastardized blend of gaming logic, writing logic, and maybe a dash of sound strategic sense. "That's also why I want you to stay here with the others."

"Come again?"

Yuri shrugged slightly, "Karol's the boss now, but he won't be able to make calm decisions under pressure if he's scared. And I can't count on Rita or the old man to do that either. You seem the least effected by this sort of thing," and I could almost hear the 'besides Judith' omitted from that line, "and you think things through. Most of the time," he amended with a smirk, and I winced a bit at the reminder of all the times when I'd been a reckless 'trouble magnet'.

"Also," Yuri glanced around briefly to make sure no one could overhear, "I want you to keep an eye on the old man for me."

"So you don't trust him," I concluded. Then it occurred to me that Yuri asking me to watch Raven also meant that he considered me trustworthy. Well, he already knows the gist of Judith's biggest secret even if he doesn't know why she destroys blastia. And I've told him what is supposedly my life's story. Raven's the only one who hasn't thrown him a bone to gnaw on.

"The old man is up to something," Yuri frowned, folding his arms across his chest while looking back over at the archer. "He says Whitehorse sent him and even has that letter, but that doesn't mean he's told us everything. Besides," he returned his attention to me, "weren't you the one who said 'Humans are deceitful, and letters don't have problems with lying' back when Flynn was framed?"

"So I did," I mused, surprised that Yuri had remembered that. I didn't clearly remember the conversation, but it definitely sounded like something I'd say. "But if you're worried about what he might do, why don't you bring him on the Atherum where you can watch him?"

"I have my reasons." And that was all he would say on the matter. Moments later Estelle and Judith approached us with weapons in hand, and then the four of them boarded the ghost ship for their expedition.

x x x

"-And to his shock, now the painting showed him standing in a pool of blood, a still dripping knife clutched tightly in his withered hand."

"I told you to stop already!" Rita wailed, frustrated by her powerlessness to stop my compressed and somewhat edited recounting of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Earlier when I began describing the first changes to Dorian's portrait, she'd threatened to punch me. When I continued she tried to follow up but found I kept sidestepping her with ease. Fed up with me staying out of her reach, she'd been about to throw a fireball at me when Tokunaga, Biggs, and Wedge all stopped her with a warning that if the ship burned we'd have no where to run except the Atherum.

So she and Karol were both pressing their hands to their ears in an attempt to block out the increasingly disturbing nature of the gothic horror story. I felt a bit guilty at intentionally trying to scare them before we had to investigate the mysterious ship, but they'd asked for a story and without Estelle I couldn't continue The Hobbit. I didn't think Dorian Gray was that bad, I was even giving them a shorter version that skipped over all the philosophical talk and extensive descriptions.

"Aw, but it gets even better!" I turned to Raven. "You want to hear how it ends, don't you Raven?" The archer jumped a bit as I put him on the spot.

"S-sure I do," he stammered, pretending that the story hadn't bothered him. "But maybe ya could tell it some other-" But I launched back into the story, telling about how Dorian disposed of the body and left to spend some time in the country. While there, he resolved to abandon his hedonistic ways, but upon returning to his mansion the portrait reflected his soul as even more twisted and vile than before.

"Seeing this made him question if his repentance wasn't wholly sincere. Was it simply his selfish desire to be free of his sins and not honest intent to become a good person? It was the final push needed to drive him into madness. Dorian took the knife still in the room, that same knife he'd murdered his own good friend with," I paused dramatically, one of my own daggers in my hand. My audience of three leaned forward expectantly despite themselves. "And with it he slashed the cursed painting!" I cut the air in front of me viciously, and they jumped slightly at the sudden movement.

"Throughout the house the servants all heard a terrible scream. They rushed to the room their master always kept locked and inside they found a very old and deformed man lying dead upon the floor. Upon inspection of his clothes and rings they realized it was their master, Dorian Gray himself, though no longer the angelically beautiful and forever youthful looking man they'd known. On the wall was a painting of him, as handsome as anyone had ever known him in life.

"And that's the end!" I chirped cheerfully.

"Damn Letha, ya really do know some weird stories," Raven said with a shaky laugh.

"I-it was ridiculous," Rita protested, "Something like that could never happen. It just isn't possible for a normal painting to suddenly start changing like that, or for someone to never grow older!"

"Well they say to be careful what you wish for," I said with an airy wave of my hand. "Isn't that right Ace? ...Ace?"

"I think you broke the kid," Raven commented, poking at the shivering boy who was clutching his knees close.

"Oh wow...I really didn't think he'd take it that bad," I said with some remorse. Feeling obligated to try and make up for it, I crouched down to be on eye level with Karol. "Umm, Ace? You know it wasn't real, right?"

"I-it isn't?" He looked up at me with a pitiful expression.

"O-of course it isn't!" Rita said a bit louder than necessary. "Only an idiot would believe that was real even for a second!"

"Uh yeah, sure. Don't worry, I made it all up," I lied. A nice little white lie, in another world where there'd be no one to bash me for copyright and plagiarism. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah! I'm just fine." He raised his head a bit higher, and then his eyes widened so much I could see a clear ring of white around the irises. "Look at that...!" From behind me there was a splintering crack. I twisted around on my heels in time to see the mast of the Atherum had broken at it's midpoint, the top coming down to land point first on top of the layered levels of cabins with a deafening crash.

"Oh my...what happened?" Kaufman had come bursting out of the Fiertia's cabin at the noise. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the state of the ship, her nameless lackey bumping into her from behind. "I can't believe the mast would suddenly collapse like that..."

"Are you all okay?" asked Tokunaga, who had come from the back of the ship to make sure we were unharmed up in the bow (sporadic knowledge of boat terms...).

"We're fine, but..." Karol turned to flash a worried look at the larger ship. "I hope Yuri and the others are okay..."

"I'd be surprised if they came out of an impact like that without a few scratches," Kaufman pointed out, sounding more matter of fact about it than was tactful.

I chewed on my lower lip while considering the broken mast. Game plot aside, considering the situation realistically it wouldn't be surprising if the shock from the massive piece of wood falling had caused something inside the ship to break and even collapse on our friends. And ghostly curses aside, such an old ship was literally falling apart on the water. On Earth such a structure would be off limits and probably demolished to prevent accidents.

It was potentially a floating death trap. And now that I'd started thinking about that, I was deathly afraid for my friends inside.

"Let's go check on them." Everyone stared at me and I rushed to defend my proposal, "If anything bad happened they have no way of letting us know they need help. They could be trapped inside and waiting for us to come save them." Or hurt badly and unable to help themselves. The others were probably having similar thoughts, though none of us wanted to say it out loud. Karol and Rita looked downright sick at the prospect of boarding, but nodded in grim support.

"Now, hold on just a second," Kaufman walked right up to speak to me face to face. She was a few inches taller than me, so this gave her a bit of an advantage in a direct confrontation. "Who'll protect the ship while you're gone?"

"It is Brave Vesperia's job..." Karol admitted, sounding torn between relief at the argument to stay on the Fiertia and the need to check on his friends. Hmm, dialogue is definitely different from the game.

According to the game Karol would argue that there weren't enough people to protect the ship properly. A load of bull. A team of three is barely a handicap in a game, and I made it four. And with that argument then why hadn't the whole group boarded the Atherum together to begin with? Neither did it make sense how they all essentially abandoned their client midway through the job. Or how easily she just let them go do their own thing.

Though I suddenly no longer cared about the logical points I'd griped about when it was all just pixels and electricity.

"How about this then," I tried, thinking fast on my feet. "We've already established that the most likely reason the ceres blastia isn't working is because this," I indicated the ship looming behind us, "showed up and won't stop hanging around us. Now we have no way of being sure the others are in any condition to do something about it, so unless we send someone else to check on them there's no telling how long we could be stranded here."

Kaufman's lips pressed together and her brown eyes narrowed as she considered my argument. Not wanting to give her an opening for a counter argument I barreled on ahead. "And the president of a merchant guild like yours would never pass up such a golden opportunity so easily."

"Opportunity?" she said sceptically, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, such an old ship is bound to have something valuable on it. Some authentic, one of a kind antique or other lost treasure. It happens all the time, doesn't it? Ship goes missing, and people write off its cargo as lost to the sea?"

"So you're saying you'll find one of these treasures and bring it back." I had her. "I guess we can do without bodyguards for a short period..." She planted her hands on her hips and gave us a commanding look, "But you all be sure to come back quick. And," her voice and eyes actually softened a bit, "everyone, be careful."

So I led the second boarding team up the gangplank, hearing her admonishment to Tokunaga to talk about something fun as the Atherum's deck creaked under my foot.

x x x

I'll Save Them

Karol: I'm pretty nervous, but I'd feel awful if anything happened to the others. We have to go save them. A-all right, let's do this!

Oooh, When I Find Them...

Rita: They insisted on going to go play on the creepy boat, so here I am stuck going after them. When I find them, ooh, they're gonna wish they had died.

Better To Be Safe

Letha: Nothing bad was supposed to happen yet, right? I-I'm sure I'm worried over nothing. They're all perfectly capable of looking after themselves. But...it's better to check on them anyway, just in case.

What a Pain

Raven: Oh man, what a pain. I don't wanna do this... I mean, they'll come out on their own eventually, right? Whoa, what was that? Man, there's somethin' spooky in the air around here.

x x x

It was with bitter amusement that I noted all three of them tried to stay behind me. Raven at least wasn't obvious about it, putting on a brave front for his macho man image. The one that existed only in his head. I was reminded that if you put him on Yuri's team there's supposed to be a skit where he tells the swordsman that you're supposed to bring a girl to spooky places and be all, "Never fear kitten, daddy's right here~"

Just remembering that made me laugh a bit, the others jumping at the sudden sound. I rolled my eyes a bit, "Oh come on you guys, I haven't even been making idle banter about crazy axe murderers or people making s'mores out of particular male body parts."

"Wh-at?" Rita shrieked in my ear, making me wince. And Raven was definitely wincing, though not because of Rita.

"Umm, pretend I didn't say that?" The mage just glared at me. Despite her disgust with my attitude, she and Karol continued to stay practically glued to my back. If I'd been alone, I'd probably have been scaring myself silly with my own what-if imaginings. If I'd been with someone totally unafraid, I'd have emotionally (but not physically at least, I have that much pride) latched onto them for reassurance.

But finding myself leading around a bunch of big scaredy cats with the role of leader dumped on me kept me too busy to get properly scared.

I led them around the deck, trying each of the doors in an attempt to get inside the ship. Each one was locked. This discovery made me frown as I considered the implications. I don't remember exactly how exploring the ship is supposed to go, but I'm positive Yuri and the others went through one of these doors. So at least one should be unlocked. Them locking it would be pointless so...

I looked up at the fallen half of the mast, where it was propped up against its lower half and the roofs of the cabins. So maybe that thing did cause some structural damage inside when it fell, warping the wood or damaging the frame or something. The hypothetical thought of poltergeists and curses brushed through my mind, but I stubbornly shoved it away.

"H-hey. There's a ladder over there, maybe we could use that?" Karol pointed out the ladder attached to a platform midway up the mast. It had been broken off about four feet from the deck. Raven knelt down and formed a stirrup with his cupped hands. "Huh? Why are you doing that?"

"He's gonna give you guys a boost," I explained, figuring it out from something similar that flickered briefly in my memories. Something to do with...washing our trailer?

I shook the thought from my head as unrelated while Raven said, "You better go first Rita since yer the lightest."

"What? Why can't you make the runt go first?"

"Because," I sighed, "he'll be weighed down by his bag and mace. If you go up and think that the ladder doesn't seem like it will hold your weight at any point, you can just come back down. If he goes up and it isn't safe, he probably won't figure that out until he's halfway back down."

"W-what?" Karol squeaked. I seem to be hearing that word a lot today.

After a bit more coaxing, we managed to convince Rita to climb the ladder. She went slowly, carefully testing each rung to make sure it would hold her weight. Once she reached the platform the mage waved at us to show it was clear. Meaning Raven and I had to convince Karol to climb. That was even harder, and I'm not sure he opened his eyes at any point before he reached the top.

"Yer turn Letha. But how's old Raven gonna get up?"

"Umm..." I looked around but didn't see anything he could use as a stepping stool. So I shrugged at him, "I hope you have good upper body strength?"

"Would ya like ta find how good some time?" he waggled his eyebrows at me.

"Being a perv isn't going to get you out of doing pull ups."

"Drat." He boosted me up and while climbing I thought drily, This is solid good proof of why a woman shouldn't wear a skirt when she goes adventuring. I considered dropping one of my boots on Raven's face to wipe off that lopsided grin.

And oh how fun it was to walk along the broken upper half of the mast like a weathered balance beam. I was grateful that there was very little of a breeze at that height, so I didn't have to fear any sudden gusts knocking me off. Caaareful...just like walking on dead trees behind the house back home...except those dead trees were only two or three feet off the ground at most.

Honestly, I didn't get far before I had to crawl backwards down the slanted mast like some squirrel on reverse. Who cares how retarded that looked, I'd rather be a squirrel than a pancake! We reached the roofs of the top level of cabins, and jumped down to the doors that had been out of our reach on the main deck.

I still had not seen a single monster on the ship. That was actually spookier to me than the thought of ghosts, though I tried to tell myself it made sense. Of course monsters wouldn't actually live on a ship...the only monsters out here would have to be of aquatic nature, and they'd have a better advantage hunting in the water. And why make a nest on a ship if there's nothing living left- I abruptly cut of that thread, not wanting to make the jump from living to undead.

Dammit, too late.

I grit my teeth and tried the door knob. At first it wouldn't turn, but then if felt like there was a soft click and it turned in my hand easily. I hesitated, then practically threw the door open, immediately dropping my hands to my daggers. The door flew inward and banged hard against the inside wall of the cabin, shuddering from the force.

But there was nothing on the other side.

I stuck my head through, looking left and right (and then up as an afterthought) but didn't see anything other than rotting furniture and gaping holes in the floor boards. Entering completely, I frowned at my lack of discovery. Had I imagined the door unlocking in my hand? Maybe it was just a trick of the door jamb, or...

Hypothetical what-ifs aren't important. Let's find the others, find the clear ciel crystal, and get the hell out of here. I didn't really plan to look for any present for Kaufman too hard. I was sure she'd be just as satisfied with leaving the S.S. Spooky behind.

I found myself leading the others around again like a mother duck and her ducklings. Or like Final Fantasy VIII, where no matter what you did your teammates would follow your movements down to the smallest step, including running in random zig zags and circles.

Grinning a bit, I pulled open another door and found myself staring into a much toothier grin.

"Meep!" I meeped as I reflexively slammed the door in the grinner's face.

"What was that?" I wasn't sure who it was that spoke, and didn't much care since I was suddenly very interested in leaning all my weight against that door to keep it shut!

"I saw a skull!" I squawked as the door shuddered under my hands. "I didn't wait to see anything else!" The door shuddered again, and then Raven was beside me adding his own weight.

"Any ideas?" he asked me urgently.

"Some, but they involve letting it in here."

"I don't like those ideas."

I ignored him. "Rita, we're going to open the door at your signal and get the hell out of your way. I don't care what spell you use, as long as it doesn't set things on fire!" I heard a rustling that may have been her preparing her scroll.

"O frozen blade, fly sharply across the heavens!" Raven and I jumped to either side of the door, letting the grinning whatever force its way through. "Freeze Lancer!" The skeleton and two more that had queued up behind it stumbled right into Rita's spell, all three getting skewered on the massive icicle that suddenly shot through the door at them. They grabbed and scratched futilely at the ice for a few seconds before several more frozen spears followed the first. By the time the spell had finished, they were nothing more than a pile of splintered bones and moldering rags covered with melting chips of ice.

"Are they any more?" Karol squeaked, spiked mace gripped tightly in his hands. I cautiously peeked through the door again.

"I don't see any." Just as I let myself relax, something gripped my ankle and yanked my foot out from under me. Crashing to the floor hard, a whoosh of air flew out from my lungs, and for a moment all I could do was gasp as something started dragging me backwards. I looked back to see another skeleton had climbed up through one of the holes in the floor. He was half up, and grinned mockingly at me while his bony grasp tightened painfully enough for me to feel through my boot. I could see more skeletons pulling themselves up through the other holes in the floor, and others were swarming through the door from the room that I could have sworn was empty.

"Hey! Let go!" I tried to kick off the one holding my foot, and to my horrified fascination succeeded in breaking its arm off. The severed arm continued to cling to my ankle, and even shifted its grip a bit completely independent of its body. Without thinking I ripped it off and flung it across the room. There was a clatter followed by a scratching and clicking sound, and a moment later I saw it dragging itself back out from the shadows by its fingers.

Meanwhile Karol had gone berserk with his mace, smashing everything in his reach. Some of the broken off pieces kept moving and others just lay motionless. But most got powdered enough that any skeleton he bashed was staying down one way or another.

Raven and Rita weren't having as much luck. The restricted space inside the ship's cabin rendered both his arrows and many of his artes useless or dangerous to friend and foe alike. The archer had to rely solely on using his odd bow's bladed ends and a small dagger to defend himself.

The problem of friendly fire went double for Rita, though she barely had any time for casting anyway. Certainly nothing powerful, she had to settle for a few weak Stone Blast and Stalagmite spells if she wanted to cause damage. Most of the time she just used Champagne and Splash. The water would flow right through the skeletons' bones, but at least the spells served to push them back and keep the undead monsters from overwhelming her.

I was fighting with my dao rather than my daggers, though I was using it more like a club as I bashed at the one armed skeleton trying to jump me again. Stabbing and slashing at a skeleton is pretty pointless after all. One wild swing knocked its head off and sent the skull flying to ricochet off another approaching skeleton. I took advantage of this as both skeletons were forced back a step, sweeping my dao up to throw a Star Stroke at them.

The one armed headless skeleton was reduced to a pile of bones, but the other one wasn't struck as hard and only stumbled back again. I jumped forward and brought my dao down on it in an especially heavy Afterimage attack, the blade biting into the floor and getting stuck but at least the skeleton finally fell apart.

"Dammit, come on!" I growled as I tried to yank my dao out of the floor with both hands. Thanks to the aer infused with the attack the blade was well buried in the wood. "Come on alrea-ow!" I stomped down hard on the skull I'd knocked off a minute ago, smashing it into small chunks and white powder. "Damn ankle-biter!"

Then the bones still scattered around me from the last skeleton I fought decided they weren't done yet. And the severed arm had rejoined the fight. I discovered this when three disembodied arms started clawing at my legs and hands (that were in their reach thanks to still being occupied with pulling a sword out of the floor). Those finger bones were sharp! They left nasty scratches and gouges up the length of my arms and even tore through the thin leather of my gloves.

"Punishing Aid Smash!" A bag whizzed by, sweeping two of the arms off and then smashing into the floor next to me. A golden light spread out from the bag, and I felt the pain from the bones' assault fade again. Finally yanking the dao out of the floor, I shook off the last arm as I stood up and then ground it into the floor with my heel. I nodded my thanks to Karol, who fortunately had managed to work off some of his initial fear and was thinking strategically.

His weapon and artes were the best suited to the fight at hand, and he was taking the lion's share of the work. Though his pale face was an indicator that he didn't much like the role. Fortunately there were only two left, and 'lion's share' became a literal description as he finished them off with Punishing Beast Flash. As I took the chance for a breather I wondered why the aer took the shape of a lion's head for that attack.

Surveying the room, it was hard to say how many skeletons we defeated. Once 'dead' their bones all got mixed together so we couldn't count the bodies. I grimaced at the mess, then looked at them a bit more thoughtfully. "Hey, guys? Would any of you find it disturbing if I were to keep one of these skulls?" My query was met with silence which prompted me to look back and see if they'd even heard me.

The looks on their faces said that yes they had, and yes they found it disturbing. "Why would you even think of something like that?" Rita asked in disgust.

"Ya have some pretty weird hobbies," Raven agreed.

"What?" I became defensive. "It's to help me practice anatomy in painting!" One of my favorite things to challenge myself with back home was painting skulls and skeletons. The results were always neat and popular among my friends, and also served to help with painting flesh and blood people.

"Whatever you say..." That seemed to be an unspoken decision to drop it, and we probably would have just moved on and continued our search for Yuri's group if Raven hadn't noticed something.

"Hey Letha, what's wrong with yer hand?"

"Huh?" I held out both of my hands and looked them over. "They seem fine to me."

"Your hand is glowing!" ...There is something seriously wrong when a person actually gets used to and forgets the warm glowing spot on their hand. As Karol had brought to my attention, the Nevi's mark was still glowing thanks to the heirloom piece I'd picked up in Torim. In hindsight, I probably should have left that back on the Fiertia, but I was rather nervous about leaving it anywhere I couldn't keep an eye on it. For the time being I had even tucked the piece into my right boot for safe keeping.

But during the fight my gloves had been well ripped so the orange-red light spilled through freely. Deciding trying to hide it would be pointless, I pulled the glove off so they could see clearly that the light came from the tattoo.

"What in the..." Raven stared at my hand. He seemed further confused when Rita and Karol made understanding noises.

"That's right, you told us about this once," the mage recalled.

"She did? Mind fillin' old Raven in?"

"Maybe later," I stalled while slipping the tattered glove back on. It wasn't much help any more, but it did block some of the light. "Right now we should concentrate on what we came here for."

"Right," Karol said decisively, "we still have a job to do." I couldn't help giving the boy a quick once over, almost expecting to see some external sign of the backbone he'd started growing. I guess being guild boss is doing him some good after all. He's starting to mature nicely. Then I realized all three of them were looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to go through the door first so that they could follow my lead.

"Oh, for the love of..." I huffed and stormed through the door, refusing to look at the group sheepishly tagging along behind.

The next room was virtually empty excepting a few stray boxes and tall mirrors lining one of the walls (odd thing on a ship...were the skeletons a ballet troop or something?). Again I wondered how I could have possibly missed the skeletons when I'd looked in before. Seeing no reason to linger we ascended the stairs at the other end of the room.

At the top of the stairs was another door. Before opening it I pressed my ear up against the wood, careful not to rattle the door and give us away to anything on the other side. All I could hear was the familiar creaking of the ship, but that didn't entirely reassure me. With a look at the others, wordlessly telling them to be ready, I pushed the door open slowly and peeked through. Still nothing.

More reassured, I let the door swing open fully to reveal a room much like the last, and utterly skeleton free. Raven was actually the first to go in. Perhaps it had occurred to him that having me in point position was hurting his manly lady killer image, and was taking advantage of the familiar layout to act more confidently. Not minding who they followed as long as they weren't in the lead, Karol and Rita went in next.

But I lingered at the door, looking back down the stairs. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had overlooked something...

"Hey!" Rita's shout was the only warning I had before the door slammed shut. I grabbed at the handle, but it only rattled uselessly in my hand and refused to turn. Finally I had to give up and face it: I was locked out of the room and alone.

"Are you okay?" Karol called through the door.

"Yeah, but I don't think we're going to get this door open any time soon."

"Why don't we just bust it down?"

I shook my head even though they couldn't see me. "Probably not safe. If we damage the door or the frame it might ruin the support and make the ceiling come down on us. This place isn't sound enough to risk it."

"I guess ya'll have to find another way, or jes' wait fer us back on the Fiertia."

"I..." a pause to think about it, "I guess I'll go back to the Fiertia. I want to check on the others, but having three groups wandering around isn't a good idea. Especially if I'm on my own." Otherwise we'll keep splintering into smaller and smaller groups trying to find each other, and that'll put us all in more danger.

"Alright, we'll see ya back on the ship."

"Be careful going back, okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

I trooped back down the stairs and through the room we'd just been in. Part of me was disappointed, but I wasn't at all adverse to getting off the creepy ship. It was ten times worse without the others around. Little sounds I would have dismissed before took on sinister meaning, and sounds I would have explained away as being caused by one of the others poking around behind me became mysterious. I found my head whipping around from side to side trying to see everything at once.

Trying to calm myself with deep breaths, I passed through the mirror room back into the one with holes in the floor and bones lying everywhere. Except not all the bones were lying around anymore.

Too my horror, the skeletons were reassembling themselves before my eyes, some already complete and standing. Several couldn't put themselves back together entirely since their bones were no more than extra dust in the room, but a missing ribcage or shoulder wasn't going to deter them. Slowly, they all turned towards me.

"Oh God..." Behind me was a dead end, and they were between me and the door that led outside onto the decks. And there were far too many for me to take on myself. As the first lurched towards me I took the only alternative route I could think of.

I jumped down one of the rotting holes in the floor.

x x x

Sooo, I made a few changes. Yup. Because I think it's more fun this way, and makes a bit more sense. You know, I thought this would only take one chapter, but I guess I was having too much fun with it!

Kept going back to tweak the beginning of the fight. If there are any choppy parts, that might be why. I really wish I owned the game, jumping around sites and youtube clips just aren't the same when trying to really understand how a game's fighting system works...