"So, you are saying that it would be best if we watched after the ship." Sayed pursed his lips as Alex stood before him."Instead of reprising my role as a sneak thief in the night, you would rather that I stay here and do nothing."

  Alex stood before him, shaking his head as he tried again to explain it to Sayed. Sayed understood, of course. He was not stupid. However, he did not see how the three of them, Jean, Artur, and himself, staying behind with Mari would best make for a compelling adventure to add to his grand story.

  "Sayed," Alex said. "You know as well as I do that the moment you saw an opportunity, you would find something to make the situation more…extreme. This needs to be a quick in-and-out job. We can't afford to have some big fight. The fewer people we send in, the more likely that we'll be able to get out in one piece."

  Sayed sighed, looking over the bridge to where Artur and Jean stood. Artur was already dressed in his chain mail and looked ready to go on his own adventure. Jean, however, only had his normal blue robes as he leaned against the wall. Neither of them seemed ready to argue with Alex.

  "What about you two? Are you so willing to accept this without a fight?" Sayed pointed to them.

  "I am a guest on this ship," Artur said. "So, I will do as asked without a quip."

  "I don't mind the fate," Jean said, raising one skeletal finger. "The fact of the matter is, I would stand out if I went in with you all. My bones are bared to the world, as it were."

  "Fine." Sayed shook his head. "You have those two, but mark my words. You will need us in the end."

  "That may happen," Alex said, pointing up to Sayed. "And that's precisely why I need you all on the ship. If things go wrong, you can help get us out. By being here, you're our lifeline to the outside. That's a better role than getting caught, don't you agree?"

  Sayed flashed Alex a smile. "Now, that is a way to sell the offer. You should have opened with that."

  He slammed down hard on Alex's shoulder with an open palm in thanks, nearly knocking Alex to the ground without even thinking about it. Alex recovered quickly, though, catching himself on one foot before he stood up straight again. He smiled back at Sayed, shaking his head as he turned to Artur and Jean.

  "What we really need is a way to communicate while we're down there. I'm hoping Mari can help us out with that."

  "What do you need?" Mari asked over the speakers, still trapped within the control room of the Nighthawk below the bridge.

  "A way to talk back and forth easily," Alex said. "I've looked over the ship schematics to try and find an equivalent to a radio, but I couldn't find it."

  "You wish to talk across great distances?" Sayed furrowed his brow. "I do not know if yelling across the entire island is a good idea. That might get us all caught."

  "I've seen some devices that can talk across long distances," Jean said. "They use fluctuations in the aether attenuated through a pattern between sources to carry a person's voice without being heard."

  "That's it," Alex said. "Aether instead of radio waves, but the principle is the same."

  "There might be a way," Mari's voice crackled over the speakers. "Give me a few moments."

  "At the back of the bridge, a red light turned on. Sayed turned to it as the box began to sputter out a series of noises. It cracked, slammed, and cranked, and after a few runs through the noises, the light turned from red to green. A small silver panel lowered, and two objects rested in the small area behind the panel.

  They were square grey boxes with dotted rectangles at their top and bottom. In the center of each box rested a clear crystal that shone in the white light of the bridge. Sayed's smile spread from just a small grin to a wide smile as he saw his reflection in that crystal. He had no idea what it was, but the strange device was beautiful.

  "These follow the design that you asked for," Mari said. "The schematics were part of the ship's database, though they are usually much larger. These should allow you to communicate through Tartarus's walls back to the ship with no issues."

  Alex stepped over, grabbing both of the devices before handing one to Sayed."We need to try this out."

  "Hello!" Sayed yelled into the device immediately upon picking it up, and his voice echoed through the bridge. Can you hear me, Alex?"

  Alex winced before raising up one hand. "Let me get down the hall first, and don't yell."

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  Sayed pursed his lips but nodded, letting Alex retreat from the bridge and out of sight. A few moments later, the device in his hands sparked to life, letting out a series of noises. Sayed nearly threw it from his hands in surprise, barely catching it as it careened through the air.

  "Testing," Alex's voice came out of the device. "Can you hear me, Sayed?"

  "I can hear you, brother!" Sayed yelled into the device.

  Alex yelled from the hallway, but Sayed could not make it out. He looked to Jean, who had a wide smile plastered across his face and began shaking his head. Even Artur seemed to be holding back a laugh.

  "He said, push the button in the center," Jean said. "And don't yell."

  "Ah." Sayed frowned, looking down at the device before pressing into the crystal.

  It lit up green beneath his finger, and Sayed had the distinct impression that it was activated now. He leaned in close to the device before whispering into it.

  "I can hear you, brother," Sayed repeated himself.

  "It works," Alex crackled back after Sayed let go of the button. "That's step one. Now we just have to figure out the rest!"

  Down the hallway, Wen shook her head as she heard Alex yell. Sure, they had the plan and a method of communicating, but that didn't change the doubt that ate away at her. She picked up the cylinder that held her bullets from the table, the weight of the black object heavy in her hands as she rolled it back and forth.

  Twice now, her curse had failed her. On Dry Turtle, she had lost her weapon and had to resort to forcing her curse through her hands into a solid orb of cold to freeze a cursed water woman, Miss Brooke. On the last island, a small one with a temple gilded in gold, she had faced off with an owl-woman and, after being disarmed again, had only managed to win by holding onto her opponent until they were almost both dead of frostbite.

  Now, Alex asked her to go out and risk it all again, despite everything.

  "What if he was right all this time?" she thought back to the vision she had experienced during the fight with the owl-woman. What if I am useless, even after all this?"

  Thunk. Crnnk. Thump.

  "The cylinder fell from her fingers onto the hard table before rolling across the table and finally landing on her bed. Wen gripped her fist tight as she let it go. She stood at a crossroads and didn't know what to do. She couldn't just give up on her guns. They were the only way she had found to make her slow curse useful. However, she also couldn't keep growing with them.

  She might have been better off with bullets, completely giving up on her curse, but she knew better. Time and time again, she had seen strong bounties shrug off shots from other bounty hunters. Bullets didn't carry aether the same way swords and other weapons could. Because of that, they only worked in limited ways.

  Arrows could be better, but she had never taken the time to learn how to use a bow. The fact that she had had the help to make the gun and bullets work with her cold curse had overshadowed any need to learn about that kind of thing. Guns just seemed to suit her.

  She needed to grow, but her path forward stunted her growth.

  "A tragedy," she whispered, recalling her life before she came to the Erth and the stories she had studied for her undergrad. "Not too different from the Greeks."

  She picked the cylinder up from her bed, sat down, and opened it to retrieve the cold ammo inside. She couldn't dwell on the problem right now. She needed to get ready to move out with Alex and Erin. She couldn't bring her rifle with her. It was too large to hide, but her revolvers would do.

  Click. Whir. Click. Whir.

  As she loaded her guns, a shadow crossed her open door and lingered.

  Wen didn't bother at first, but the shadow didn't leave in the end. When she looked up, Erin stood at the door, dressed in her long green cloak with her dark black clothing hidden beneath it. Erin's green eyes shone in the light from the room as she watched Wen work. Wen grimaced, but she recognized the liens of worry across Erin's face. She wasn't going to escape the lecture that was c

  "Are you going to be okay with this?" Erin asked. "If you're still feeling off from what happened, I can talk to Alex about it. I can make him listen."

  Click. Whir.

  "I don't think anyone can make him listen once he has an idea in his head."

  That wasn't entirely true, but splitting up into a smaller group could make things a lot worse if they needed to escape the base once they were in. There was a balancing game going on for who to keep out and who to send in. If they brought in too few people to infiltrate, it would be harder to get out if things went wrong. If they brought in too many, it would be much more likely that they would all get caught.

  "You pushed yourself a lot last time, though," Erin said. "If they hadn't gotten you to me, you would have lost at least six fingers."

  Wen stopped loading her gun, already knowing why Erin was worried. They hadn't known each other for long, but Erin had the personality of a caring doctor. She had an affinity for healing thanks to her own curse, and she brought a healer's attitude to everything in life. Wen could appreciate that, but at the same time, she wasn't some child that needed to be taken care of.

  It was bad enough that Wen worried about her own abilities. She didn't need Erin adding more doubt to Dale's voice in the back of her mind. Wen shook her head, loading one last bullet into her revolver before putting it back in the belt from her waist. She stood up and smiled at Erin.

  "I understand why you're worried," Wen said. "But I can't pull my weight if I sit here playing it safe. If we're going to get through this and into the Core, we're going to need everyone.

  Erin pursed her lips but nodded, and Wen hoped that would be the end of it. She still wasn't sure of her path forward, but she could at least count on her revolvers for a bit longer. She stepped up to Erin and waited for the path to clear, but Erin didn't move aside.

  "I know you're trying to think of ways to use your curse, but that isn't how you normally use it," Erin said. "One thing that I found when I first worked my way through my own was that it didn't have to be used on me. I could use it to change the fight around me—grow plants to change the battlefield."

  She nodded and walked away, leaving Wen with only those words. Wen narrowed her eyes as she gave it some thought. It wasn't the first time she had received some advice from one of the crew—Jean had been the last one to offer—but she wouldn't take it as an insult. At least it gave her something to think about to calm the sea of doubt roiling inside of her."