Despite the calm winds of the night, the brigantine still flew across the water's surface. Jackson had the helm while Z fearlessly stood on the bowsprit, taking advantage of the ship's smooth ride to keep an eye on what was ahead of them. Blue had situated herself right in the middle of the ship, close to the controls for the fore-sail. From there, she could see just as well as Z did that they were now minutes away from their target. The sloop stopped at Cannon Cove had not responded whatsoever to their rapid approach.

When they had first started moving, they went over a rough plan and then again went over it; she and Z would board the other vessel while Jackson minded the ship. Why the two men thought it was a good idea for her to take this role, she couldn't fathom. It seemed to make them happy though, so she would oblige. Despite her reservations, Blue was curious to see how this would go.

Now very close to the little ship, the call to pull the front-sail went out and she was quick to respond. The main-sail went up most of the way, too. Relatively little of it was needed to keep the ship's momentum going, but its reefing greatly improved Jackson's control over the ship. Just as he was about to bring the ship around the stern of the smaller one, he motioned for her and Z to check it out.

Z was eager. He immediately leapt off the bowsprit and into the water. Blue took a moment to follow him, moving with more grace and making less noise as she entered the water. They were both quiet as they swam up to either of the sloop's ladders. Z waited for her to start going up first, then went up his side. Neither of them could do anything about the water noisily dripping off their forms and so they scrambled upward.

The upper decks of the sloop were unremarkable, nor were any crew or treasures to be seen. Z looked to her and she stared back, then he drew his sword and stepped lightly down the stairs until he reached the mid-deck. A pirate was found sitting in the chair beside the voting table and both of them froze until they realised that they were asleep. Behind them was all the treasure that they had gathered, loosely strewn about the aft.

Z looked back at her for no reason that Blue could discern; her best guess was that he was gauging her reaction. She gave him no outward expression. She wished she had when he simply slit the other pirate's throat open. There was a gurgle, then a thud when they fell out of their seat, momentarily frantic; then they were still and the Sea of the Damned claimed their body.

Blue wondered if he saw her expression.

Z dipped down to investigate the sloop's lowest deck. When he said nothing and she didn't hear his cutlass connect with anything, she assumed the ship was clear. Then he strode past her with purpose, apparently certain of the opposite. She watched him climb the ladder on the only mast all the way up to the crow's nest. From there, he vaulted over the railing and investigated the yard. This was clever, Blue decided, though she would never say. It seemed that he had found no one as he spun around the mast and slid down the rope ladder.

"There's no one else here, or they're on the island," he told her, ruining the quiet. He signalled the all-clear to their third. "There's a lot t' move here, so let's get started."

Moving their stolen goods was an easy enough task. They moved swiftly, placing every chest, crate, and few skulls on the map table so that Jackson could simply hook it with the harpoon to move it over to their own ship. Z looked over the sloop one more time as they were finishing up and once again found nothing of interest. A second crew member of the sloop had still not shown themselves, so he took his time stuffing an empty crate with worthwhile supplies before they swam back to the brigantine.

"Not a bad haul," Jackson commented.

Z shook his head. "Not at all. It's a lot for jus' one person, though. Didn't see any signs of another, though. Might be on the island somewhere. Of course…"

The two men looked at each other.

"One way to be sure."

Blue couldn't help her curiosity. When a single cannonball was shot through the sloop's hull, she understood, all questions but one answered.

"Are we done here?"

"When this sinks we are. Then we'll see if the merms start — what was it? — congregatin' 'round here."

"Hm." Blue stood there for a moment longer before declaring, "I am going to bed then. Wake me if you have need of me."

Neither of her shipmates made any move to stop her as she went downstairs. She trusted that they could handle an observational task. While she didn't expect them to conform to her sleeping habits, she was tired and needed to get to sleep hours ago. Despite the smell of metal permeating the entire bow section of the brigantine now thanks to their plundered treasure chests, Blue found that slipping out of her soaked clothes and into a nightgown was an easy task. Settling under a light blanket and falling asleep was even easier. Forgetting the sight of Z killing the sleeping pirate was more difficult.

Blue didn't sleep very much that night. She felt rested enough, though, with no one having disturbed her.

Curious about their current status, she made her way through the ship. She spotted Jackson crumpled in the bed at the ship's aft and let him be. From the stairs, she spotted Z sitting against the ship's wheel. He looked ridiculous, arms crossed and his form leaning back. Despite it appearing as though he may have intended to sleep there, he had not removed his pegleg. That was curious.

She stood beside him for a long moment before he opened his eyes and they stared at each other.

"Are you supposed to be keeping watch like that?"

"Somethin' like that. Y're up now so what's it matter?"

She looked him over. Then, decisively, Blue stepped on his whole leg, letting all her weight press down on him. She was disappointed when he didn't cry out.

The two of them exchanged looks. It seemed he thought better of speaking and being annoying and she was glad for that, seeing that she was understood as he bent his other knee to remove the prosthetic. Blue removed herself from his good leg.

"Do you not prefer to sleep in a hammock at the very least?"

He sighed. "I can sleep anywhere."

"That is not what I asked, and the sun is coming up."

"And yer dress is long. What's yer point?"

"Gown. It is a nightgown and jacket. My point is that you should go downstairs and get some proper rest."

"And sleep where? In yer hammock?"

His sleeping where she should have or had was becoming quite the habit. "Might as well, I am not using it anymore."

Just as she had said that Blue realised how poor of a lookout he was.

"I already took my leg off. What more do y' want from me?"

She wasn't inclined to respond to him right away, taking another moment to look at the clouds in the distance. She almost kicked him when he poked her leg through her gown.

"How much sleep do you need?"

"Uh, I dunno. I haven't slept in a day now. A few hours?"

"Will the time it takes your friend and I to get the ship to Hidden Spring be long enough?"

Finally, Z followed her line of sight. The clouds indicated the fort's activities had ramped up considerably. He grinned.

"More than enough."

Sailing with Jackson was not as unpleasant an experience as she had expected it to be. He was a bit brash but meant well as far as she could tell. Still, she didn't like that he didn't seem to trust her knowledge, letting her know every little thing that he needed from her. It was difficult to tolerate in comparison to Z's silent judging gaze.

They spotted a sloop in the distance. It, too, was angled towards the fort. Then, when they reefed the sails, the ship sharply turned off of the fort.

"They finally spotted us."

With the bright morning sun and the brigantine's lanterns doused, Blue thought it reasonable to assume that they were difficult to see. That was all that she could think of to explain the sloop's slow response to them.

"I will wake Z," Blue declared as she went downstairs.

She stopped next to the hammock. Z awoke with a start a moment later, sucking in a breath and shooting upright. Whatever that had been about, she wasn't sure. They both froze as their gazes met.

"What?"

"There is another ship nearby. A sloop. Jackson thinks they thought better of going to the stronghold when they spotted us."

"Ah." He shifted, sitting up more comfortably. "Alright, I'm up."

Or he mostly was. It took a moment for Z to collect himself and then roll out of the hammock, sitting on the map table so he could replace his prosthetic. Blue waited until he was done so that she could head back up to the main-deck with him.

The situation topside hadn't changed. The sloop was still nearby and had reefed its sail, patrolling the waters just outside of the fort's cannon range.

"Let's get 'em."

Z was decisive as ever. Jackson agreed, and Blue had no good argument in the sloop's favour. They were making a nuisance of themselves and she knew very well how to spot potential trouble.

"Check your pockets then," she suggested.

She headed back downstairs to take her own advice; a handful of cannonballs and a mango were collected. When she returned to the main-deck, Z ducked down in her stead and returned in a single breath, ready. Jackson nodded his head when she looked at him. With everyone ready now, they unfurled the sails and put them in the wind, speeding the brigantine towards the sloop.

The little ship had indeed spotted them. As soon as they started moving with purpose, it did as well, attempting to keep the brig's bow pointed at their starboard side. Z said something about this that she didn't pick up exactly, but Jackson responded. With a quick spin of the wheel, the brigantine turned hard, aiming behind the other ship now.

Sloops were far more manoeuvrable than larger ships. Had its crew wanted to, their ship could have easily turned and kept on them. Rather than doing that, it kept going the way it was angled. At Jackson's behest, she and Z shot a few cannonballs at it before it was totally out of range, just for good measure.

"Well, that was disappointin'."

Blue glanced at her shipmates. Both of them looked as though they had expected more.

Jackson nodded. "Yeah, it was. Let's head back to the fort. I don't think they'll come back."

"What is our plan for the fortress?" Blue asked, preemptively angling the fore-sail.

"I'll keep a look out," Jackson declared as he turned the brig around; "You two can clear the skellies out."

Blue nearly suggested that she take watch instead, habitually looking for some way to avoid any danger. Instead, she recognised that this was the best time for her to test out all the new knowledge she had been picking up. Shipmates also meant safety; should she fall, she would be avenged and they would mind the ship. Though her thoughts were both strange and comforting, she wondered if she was ever going to be able to form new habits around any of those ideas.

"We will take turns as needed?"

"Yeah, if we need to. Do we need to?"

"None of us have had a full rest."

Z tried to hide the expression that showed he knew he was most guilty of this. Jackson thought for a moment, then shrugged.

"Alright. Holler if you need to tag out."

Blue nodded back to him. Until they reached the island's cannon range, she made herself as comfortable as she could by the fore-sail's controls. When the first shots were fired, they all jumped to alertness.

One time, Blue had accidentally sailed too close to an active fortress far south in the Ancient Isles. To willingly sail at a volley…

"Heads up!"

On the bowsprit again, Z ducked. A cannonball had nearly given him a haircut. It took a very mad kind of person to put themselves in this sort of situation, Blue reasoned. Each of them had their own reasons for their madness.

"We'll head to the back of the island," Jackson shouted. "There's a blind spot back there we can stop the ship in."

Z and Blue both acknowledged him. Briefly, she wondered why they would avoid destroying the island's defences, then realised they could also use them. Neither turret tower had any cannons that faced the area he described. If they left the skellies that manned them alone, then they could potentially use those defences to keep any rival ships away. The skellies would be an early warning system should they manage to not notice a ship come close and aid in their destruction. This made sense in her head, so long as said skellies did not abandon their posts.

After what felt like forever, they were so close to the island that some of the cannons no longer had viable angles on them. One of the last cannonballs to be fired had torn through the deck near the stairs. She and Jackson had both looked at it for a moment after impact — patching that could wait. For now, they started furling the sails so that the brigantine could drift into the spot where it would sit while the island was cleared of its dread inhabitants.

"Alright, go you two."

Blue was already tired of being in the water. It had been unavoidable last night, but she wasn't sure that it would have been unreasonable for Jackson to drop them off at the tiny dock the island had. She didn't voice this thought, however, and wordlessly swam after Z around to the other side of the fort, climbing onto the rocks as soon as she could.

"Have you done this before?"

"No."

Z snickered. "This'll be fun then. Follow my lead."

Blue wanted to strike him but refrained. "I am sure I can handle myself," she sighed, adjusting her musket on her back so more water dripped off of it. She drew her sword and so did Z.

Nearly on the island proper now, the both of them scanned the area. Up the way, a horde of skeletons came pouring out of the room at the top of the landmass. It was far more than she had ever seen, far more aggressive. Strangely, none of them held any weapons.

"Here we go!"

Blue would swear that he sounded excited.

Cutlass in hand, Z was ready to meet the group. Doing as told, Blue stood nearby, ready as ever. She was eager to see this bite him in the ass. Instead, he raised his blade over his head and lunged forward, cutting through numerous skeletons in one move. She wasn't quite sure what she had witnessed nor was she allowed any time to consider it as a few of the remaining skellies came at her. She struck them down though had a few scratches to show for it.

"Hey." Blue looked at him as he spoke. "Try this."

Slowly, Z brought his cutlass before him, angling it diagonally as if to block an incoming strike. Blue mimicked him. Then he pulled his hand back, bringing the sword to his side. With a twist of the wrist, he smoothly transitioned his hand over his head, back just a smidge. Blue still did as he did, uncertain.

"And then…" He lunged forward with his cutlass. "Now do it again, quicker, and give it yer all."

She rose a brow at him. Apparently, her expression said enough and Z felt the need to demonstrate again. All of the movements he had shown her he did again in one fluid motion. He appeared to hesitate when he held his cutlass over his head. Then he hopped, dashing forward a considerable distance with the stabbing motion and taking a sizeable chunk out of the palm tree he hit.

"Ah." Now she understood. Before trying it herself, a horn rang out.

"Next wave's comin'," he explained. She grunted an affirmation.

Once again, skeletons flooded out of the entryway of the building up at the top of the island. This time most of them carried cutlasses and moved towards them with purpose, but a few others had blunderbusses or pistols. Before the congregation had reached them, a shot rang out and Blue was aware of a bullet that just barely missed her. She traced it back to a skeleton that was high up on the island and made no moves to come closer. Another was on the other side of the peak with it; both held muskets in their hands.

Z could handle the horde. Blue kept him between her and it as she swung her Eye of Reach into her grasp and readied to fire. Her shot landed on one of the skellies up high; it recoiled and backed out of her view. The other one leaned into its gun, ready to fire. She took refuge behind a palm tree and it blocked the shot for her just as she had hoped while she reloaded. The first one peeked over the edge of the upper area before she shot and Blue readjusted her aim, hitting it once more. It satisfyingly shattered into a pile of inanimate bones. The same procedure was executed for its partner.

With the musket-wielding skeletons taken care of, she glanced back to Z. She had heard plenty of shots come from the mass of skeletons, but he still moved fluidly, apparently spared of any significant harm. He had not gone totally unscathed like before and that made her worry slightly. Blue fired her remaining shot into a pistol-wielding skelly before making a dash for the ammo box she had previously scouted. From there, she fired her musket a few more times until what remained of the swarm dissipated, broken down into piles of dust like the rest of their comrades.

"You good?" she heard him call from below.

Blue finished reloading her gun before peering over the railing at him. Somehow, Z had looked both better and worse. She could spy no serious injuries upon him.

"I am fine. And you?"

"Could be worse. Need t' resupply at the ship?"

"No, there is a box of ammunition right here that I can use."

He blinked. "Alright then."

Blue looked to the side, gripping her musket. "How long does this go on for?"

"A while. We'll be here all day."

"Joy."

Z laughed at her. The horn blasted once more and they looked at each other.

"If y' don't wanna get yer hands dirty, keep backin' me up from there," he said as he passed by the turret platform and headed up the hill. "Y've got enough shot in that box for that, right?"

Blue eyed the ammunition. Her aim was true so while the box wasn't full, she was confident there was enough. And if she did run out, surely there was spare shot on the ground she could scavenge.

"Plenty. However, I can only shoot so fast, so—"

"That's fine, just take out the ones with the big guns for me."

"Of course."

The arrangement would work quite fine for Blue. She didn't favour either of her blades in a fight like this one. This would be a war of attrition, it seemed, and skellies had the edge with their numbers. An uncountable horde versus the two of them seemed a ridiculous task, but knowing what she did now, it was certainly feasible.

Just like the previous batch of skeletons, there was a mixture of weapons in use. Blue didn't spot any musket-wielders, however, and that made the task of figuring out which ones to prioritise difficult. Half a handful of them held pistols and they didn't want to get too close to Z, preferring to shoot at him from a sizeable distance away. She focused on them first. Just as before, one shot made them retreat, but this time she was able to see that as they did, they would eat a piece of fruit before returning to the fight. Why they did this, how they did it, and why they even had anything edible in the first place was terribly perplexing. Blue decided to stop thinking about the subject.

It became a cycle: the most aggressive skeletons with melee weapons would be handled by Z while she stayed afar, shooting the ones that refused to enter his sword's reach. They cleared another batch out and caught their breaths before the next one came, and the one after that and so on. There had been another wave of weaponless skeletons and Blue couldn't help wondering just what the point of that was. Were they unable to procure weapons, or was it intentional somehow? The more she thought about their enemy's tactics, the less she liked it.

Time passed. The day had gone from mid-morning to late afternoon. Fatigue laced both their beings.

"Does this ever end?" she asked while she broke open a coconut to sate her thirst.

"We're prob'ly halfway through this," he responded, sipping at the one she had given him.

"That's it?"

"Mhm. We're actually makin' good time."

Blue bit onto the edge of the coconut rather than grit her teeth. That was all the progress they had made? These skellies seemed relentless.

"Do you need t' tag out?"

"Are you not tired?" she rebuked.

He blinked and seemed to consider her words for a moment. Then: "Not really. You ever open one of these vaults? It's worth the effort."

"It had better be. You—"

The blasted horn rang out again. Blue had wanted a break, to stop and drink something more substantial than what a single coconut had. If she were fast, she still could. Then she saw that the entire horde of skellies running out of the building held swords in their hands. They moved with purpose towards the two of them and Z faltered, backing up and making a noise she hadn't heard from him before. She vaulted over the side of the turret to keep him between her and the skeletons. She took the shots that she could, reloading her gun more swiftly than she thought she ever could.

With the ammunition in her pockets depleted, Blue drew her sword and stepped forward. She caught the attention of many skeletons from the front of the pack, the group breaking apart as some went after her, though Z was still left to fend off the majority. She mimicked him, slashing and stepping backwards to avoid the many pointy things being jabbed at her, though she refrained from the great forward-piercing motion he had shown her.

Most of the skellies that she had encountered in previous times were felled in a swipe or two, maybe one more, but these ones stepped back and munched on fruit when that happened. She hated that they did that. They should not have felt the need to eat anything and yet they mocked her by doing so. A slash to her left arm angered her enough to draw her dagger into that hand, striking with both it and her cutlass.

The group of sword-wielding skeletons took the longest of any for them to clear. Blue wanted to scream. Z picked up on her frustration and approached her, a stupid grin on his face.

"Need t' tag out now?"

"I'm going to get a drink," Blue declared, making her way back to the ship. She made her way to the top of the island and climbed down the rocks, unwilling to swim again. The brigantine was an easy hop from there.

Up in the crow's nest, Jackson noticed and gave her a curious look. "Am I takin' your place?"

"For now."

He yelped in excitement and threw himself off the mast's top and into the water. Blue barely spared a second thought to his disembarking before heading downstairs to the food barrel. She drew a pomegranate that didn't feel too soft from the barrel and then poured herself a tankard of grog. It satisfied her thirst and calmed her; the fruit took care of her arm. The tear in the sleeve was still there, the black fabric stained even darker by blood, yet on her skin was nothing but the blemishes that had already existed. The extreme healing of this place was something she didn't think she would ever get used to.

Back on the island, Blue heard the horn sound and soon after it followed sounds of fighting. She hadn't planned to swap places with Jackson for long, maybe a wave or two, but now that she was allowed to relax, she realised that she was tired. Her body ached from the day of fighting, her arms sore down to the bone from the constant recoil of her rifle. It was no wonder why pirates would steal the treasures of these from others, she realised. Fighting an already fatigued crew would probably be easier than doing all of this. Of course, crews could always team up to make the load of work easier and split the loot… but that would be too easy, she supposed.

Refilling her tankard, Blue returned to the main-deck to browse the horizon. As expected, she spotted nothing save for the sloop they had chased off way in the distance and still going further, no longer interested in the fort. To be certain, she quickly finished her drink and made the climb to the crow's nest. The elevated vantage point only reconfirmed what she knew. The sound of battle on the island had been a constant and from up there she could see it. Z and Jackson made a very effective duo, savaging the skeletons with efficiency. Still, they lacked tact and grace, choosing to hack away at anything that got too close to them and their cutlasses. Z would occasionally shoot a skelly, but the number of times he fired his blunderbuss paled in comparison to how much use her musket had gotten.

Rather than stress over making herself useful, Blue stayed where she was. A lookout was important anyway. She reasoned that her shipmates would appreciate working with each other, too. A cushy role or not, Blue stayed where she was, resting against the tip of the mast and doing what she did best: being paranoid.

A blast of the horn broke the quietness of the late evening. This one sounded different, louder and lower in pitch. From the crow's nest, Blue could hear her shipmates on the island hollering something to each other that she couldn't quite make out. Her attention went to them, scanning the island for anything of interest that might be able to spy from her perch. Nothing stuck out to her as yet more skeletons ran down the hill at them. One of them was decorated in relatively nice clothing and let the horde run past, swarming Z and Jackson while it hung back and took shots at them with a pistol. Something felt different about this one.

Blue had seen nothing on the horizon. The sloop they had chased off earlier had disappeared. Now the most pressing matter seemed to be helping the crew. She swung her musket into her grasp, taking aim at the pistol carrying skelly and pulling the trigger. This one did not immediately recoil like the others; it certainly meant business. It would be a fight to take this one and its swarm down.

Four more bullets Blue had and four more shots she took. In the time it took her to do that, Jackson and Z had cleared away most of the lesser skeletons that harassed them. Blue had finally put a dent in the captain, forcing it to momentarily yield. Like all the others, it reflectively chewed at a piece of fruit while it took cover. She was beginning to think it might have actually done something for them if they all did it. Whether or not it had any effect on them did not matter as her shipmates stormed the skelly in question, finishing it off before she could get down the crow's nest's ladder to resupply her ammunition. She was only aware of this because of their whooping.

It felt like something on the island had changed. With nothing spotted on the horizon, Blue decided that this was as good a time as any to head back onto land and see what was going on. It felt like her clothing had only just dried out and now she was getting it soaked again, swimming the same path she had hours ago. Her shipmates acted as though they had expected this, excitedly calling her over to join them. When she stopped before them, Z held out a circular object.

"Here. This's yer first fort, isn't?" he asked. She rose a brow at him and he kept talking. "You get the privilege'a openin' the vault."

She wasn't certain about this, but he was insistent. "Very well."

It was the key to open the vault door, she realised; the whole point of a vault was to lock something away. The key had certainly been held by the last skeleton they had vanquished, the one that perhaps oversaw all operations on this island. So that had been the end.

As they went up the hill to the building, Blue wondered if the time it took them to clear this place had been a good use of their energy. Their timing was good, the fortress had little time to broadcast its challenge to the rest of the Sea of Thieves, but she was tired. She could see that her shipmates were, too, and Z had fought off the entirety of this place. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't shake the realisation of how much easier it would be to steal the spoils from others who had done the work. It just made too much sense.

Stealing only made more sense when she placed the key into the vault door and saw what was behind it. There was an assortment of loot: crates of goods, treasure chests that hid away piles of gold, and skulls of skeletons that had met their end at some other point. All of the Trading Companies would pay good money for everything here if it were brought to them, especially the Merchant Alliance. She spied one of those 'mega-kegs' and she knew it would be worth more than the rest of the gunpowder stockpiled in the room.

No wonder pirates fought over these strongholds.

A noise caught her attention. If she didn't know better, Blue would have guessed it was the sound of a firearm being roughly handled. She turned her head just in time to see the barrel of a gun before it was fired, igniting the gunpowder from a safe distance.

For a moment, it was bright and hot, and then there was nothing.