Battle on the Ironbell

By the time the sun was fully up on day 7, the chalk number had been updated, and it read '71'.

And if that wasn't enough, there was also another chalk number now, counting the number of candidates who got on a lifeboat and away from the Ironbell. The number was 45, meaning a third lifeboat has been used at some point.

The people on that lifeboat surely decided that they'd rather take their chances with the open sea than wait to see what number the wall would read by morning.

And as if that wasn't enough, the mist hadn't thinned. If anything it sat even heavier today, wrapped around the Ironbell like something that had decided to stay.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I almost miss the yelling and panic." Percy muttered, rubbing his arms against the chill clinging to the deck.

The ship felt quiet, but not peaceful, more like prey holding its breath.

Sera nodded, but didn't say anything. She turned her gaze towards the twins, who were also here with them. The four of them gathered here, early in the morning, to discuss what it is they must do. The air between them felt tight with the particular tension of people who all already knew what needed to happen and were dreading being the one to say it first.

It was Mika who said it first.

"I'm going to find Drav." He said. "Today. Now, before anyone else falls asleep. I'm gonna put a stop to him." His spear was in his hand, and his grip was tight.

"Mika—" Maya started.

"I know what you're going to say." He didn't look at her. He was checking his spear, running his thumb along the shaft the way he did when he was nervous and didn't want anyone to notice. "And I'm doing it anyway."

"I wasn't going to tell you not to..." Maya said, which surprised him enough that he looked up. "I was going to ask you to be careful. You never fought against a mage before, right?"

Mika's jaw worked for a second. "I will be fine."

"You and I both know that's not a real answer!" Maya spoke, her voice sharp.

The truth is, she would really rather Mika not fight at all, but she has come to the resignation that her brother had made up his mind the moment she'd told him Drav's name, and nothing she said now was going to change that.

"Maya, if you're so worried about that loud brother, of yours, then have no fear! I'll go with him." Percy flashed a grin, causing both Mika and Sera to roll their eyes.

"Percy, if you think playing the harp will help, think again." Mika muttered, adjusting his grip on the spear.

It's not that Mika didn't want the extra help dealing with Drav, but he had real doubts he can find it in this little group of his. He knew his sister was talented in many ways, but fighting wasn't one of them, Sera, while he didn't know well, looked like the type that was more suited for praying than throwing punches, and Percy... Percy was Percy.

"Hey, I can fight." Percy said, simply, and something in his tone had shifted entirely away from the easy, performed lightness he usually carried. "Properly. With a rapier, not just a harp and a smile. I haven't exactly advertised it because it's never come up, but it's coming up now." He met Mika's eyes. "You're not doing this alone. If something happened to you, sweet Maya would cry, and I'd hate to see a cute girl cry."

Mika studied him for a moment. Could he really trust the boy who flirts with everything that moved? Could he trust him to watch his back? Mika wasn't the type which easily gave his trust to others, but even he knew he can't be too picky here.

"Fine, fine. You come along." Mika said. He then turned to Maya and Sera. "You girls stay here."

"...You want me to say behind?" Sera's voice was quiet, but it cut through the damp air. "I can understand Maya, but why me? I can handle myself." She grabbed her cross necklace as she spoke.

"Well, it'll be very dangerous. I can't let girls to come along to what I know will be a dangerous fight." Mika said, already turning away. "I don't want either of you near him." Perhaps it was due to Soro's influence, but Mika had always been taught that girls were to be protected. The idea that he would bring one to a risky fight with him was unthinkable.

"And what if something went wrong?" Sera's fingers tightened around her cross necklace. "I can't help but feel you'll need more than two weapons and misplaced bravado to stop a mage capable of this." Her green eyes flickered toward the heavy mist clinging to the ship.

Mika opened his mouth, and then closed it.

"I'm not arguing with you over this." He said finally. "We don't have time. Just... Just stay here. Please."

He didn't wait for her to agree. He turned to Maya instead, and something in his expression softened entirely, as if he returned to being 12 years old again instead of whatever he'd been trying to be a moment ago.

Maya stepped close and put her hand against his cheek, the way she'd done a hundred times before, and then she kissed him there, quick and warm.

"Be careful..." Maya whispered against his skin. "Please."

"I will!" Mika nodded.

"I know you will." Maya said, and meant something slightly different by it than he probably understood, some old, half-buried memory flashing in her mind from somewhere she didn't let herself look at very often.

The memory was that of a fire from six years ago, a boy with soot on his hands who had never, not once in his life, let anything happen to her without trying to stop it first, no matter the cost to himself.

"I know my brother is ready to kill for me." She thought, watching him sling his spear over his shoulder. "He already did it once before."

While the twins were having their moment, Percy slowly walked towards Sera.

"What about me? Don't I get a good luck kiss?" He whispered, leaning in just close enough towards the older girl.

"You don't." Sera pressed the spine of her bible against Percy's forehead and pushed him back.

And so, the boys were on their way, leaving Sera and Maya behind.

Maya turned to look at the other girl, feeling like something was on her mind. "Sera? Is something wrong?"

Sera didn't respond right away, but then, finally enough, she spoke. "Maya, could you hide somewhere?"

Mika and Percy found Drav in the cargo hold, deep in the belly of the ship, where mist hung thickest and the air felt wrong in a way that had nothing to do with smell or temperature. He was standing there, as if he was waiting for them.

He wasn't hiding, nor was he startled, not even interested in pretending otherwise. He stood near the center of the hold, surrounded by crates and coiled rope, the mist curling around his ankles like something alive, and he looked at the two boys descending the ladder with an expression of mild, almost pleasant curiosity.

"Took you long enough." He said. "I was starting to think you were planning on escaping.

"So you knew we were coming." Mika responded back, dropping the last few feet to the floor, spear already in hand.

"I knew your sister figured it out yesterday." Drav spoke, his voice calm. "I felt her notice me. It's rather hard to miss, when someone with her sensitivity finally looks in the right direction." He tilted his head slightly. "I'm only a little disappointed it took her this long. Such a shame for someone with so much knowing so little about how to use what they have."

The realization that Drav could feel Maya's magical power hit Mika like a punch to the gut. He couldn't help but curse himself. "Of course it wouldn't be just Raiko who could feel it!" He thought to himself as he tightened his grip on his spear.

Percy landed beside Mika, rapier already drawn and ready for battle.

"And I see you brought one of our roommates with you." Drav's fingers twitched, mist coiling between them. "I was hoping your sister will also show up. Where is she?"

"As if I'd bring her along! You're not getting near her!" Mika spat, shifting his stance, spear angled forward, boots grinding against the damp wood, as mist curled unnaturally around Drav's wrists.

"We'll see." Drav smiled, and the next thing the two boys knew, the The around Drav's feet surged.

It happened faster than Mika expected. The mist didn't simply rise, it struck, lashing forward like a living thing with intent, and he barely got his spear up in time to cut through the leading edge of it.

Where the blade passed through, the mist hissed and parted and reformed almost immediately, undisturbed, the way water does.

"You can't cut what isn't solid." Drav said, almost conversationally, as more of the mist gathered and lunged. "Maybe if you could use magic yourself, it would had been a different story, but too bad." His voice was almost mocking.

Percy moved, darting in low and fast while the mist was occupied with Mika, his rapier finding Drav's side in a clean, precise strike that should have ended things immediately.

It however failed to connect.

Drav stepped aside at the exact moment the blade would have struck, unhurried, almost lazy, and the mist around him surged again in retaliation, catching Percy across the arm.

"Gah!" He gasped, stumbling back, his sleeve already damp and strangely heavy where the mist had touched it.

"Percy!" Mika shouted, actually worried about Percy for once.

"I'm fine—" Percy's voice came out rougher than usual. "It's just— Cold. Very cold—"

Drav watched them both with the same unhurried interest he'd shown the entire voyage, hands loose at his sides, not even bothering to draw a weapon, because the mist was doing all the work he needed it to.

He let out a sigh. "Ah, if only your sister was here. I wonder how she'd react to seeing her brave, yet stupid, brother of hers struggling against me." Drav murmured, fingers twitching as more mist coiled between them. "I bet her little face would twist into such lovely fear. Maybe I'll drag her down here later, make her watch as I peel your skin off inch by inch!"

Mika's vision narrowed. He drove forward, spear leading, faster and angrier than he should have, and the mist met him head on, wrapping around the shaft of his weapon, heavy and cold and wrong in a way that made his arms ache the moment it touched him.

He was losing. He understood that, distantly, the way you understand things while they're happening to you rather than after.

"Still, I can't give up! I won't give up!" He thought to himself as he pushed forward, the mist clinging to his spear, making it feel all the heavier.

Percy tried to circle around again, but his movements were sluggish now, his arm hanging limp where the mist had touched it, fingers barely able to grip his rapier. He felt as if the cold biting deep into him.

Mika attacked again, spear flashing silver as it carved through the mist, only for Drav to flick his wrist, the fog twisting like around the shaft before slamming Mika against a stack of crates. The wood splintered beneath him, and for a moment, all he could taste was blood.

Not only was this mist slowing them down, but it was also able to hurt them, all while making for a nice cover for Drav to hide in.

"If only something could be done about this fucking mist!" Mika spat blood onto the damp floorboards.

And then, out of nowhere, the cargo hold was filled with fire.

It came from above, a sudden burning arc of flame that cut through the mist. Wherever it passed, the mist recoiled with a sharp hiss, shrinking back from the heat. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the flames peeled away and vanished, revealing the true source at their center: A fan-shaped weapon spinning rapidly through the air.

Sera caught it in her right hand as she dropped down from the ladder in a single fluid motion, her fan, which was known as a tessen, was already open and burning at its edges, her rose-pink hair lit orange-red in the firelight, the cross at her neck catching the glow.

"Sera?! I told you to stay behind!" Mika spoke out, half furious, half something closer to relief.

"You told me that, yes. " Sera said, snapping her fan shut and then open again, fire gathering along its edge in a controlled motion. "I never agreed, did I?"

Drav's expression, for the first time since the fight began, shifted into something less pleasant.

"Fire..." He said, almost to himself. "How inconvenient. I knew I didn't like you from the start. No wonder my mist couldn't put you to sleep."

"Water doesn't enjoy being boiled." Sera said. "Funny how that works."

She moved before he could respond, closing the distance fast, her fan slashing in a controlled arc that sent a wave of flame directly into the densest part of the mist surrounding him.

It screamed , or something close to a scream, a hissing, furious sound that didn't belong to any animal Mika had ever heard, and recoiled violently, the mist thinning and scattering where the fire touched it.

Drav staggered back, his composure cracking for just a moment, genuine surprise flashing across his face before he smoothed it back into something calmer.

"Clever girl, but you better think again if you think you can beat me with a fan alone!" Drav sneered, pressing his palms together, and the mist coalesced into jagged spikes that shot forward like thrown knives.

Sera barely twisted aside in time, the frozen tips grazing her cheek and leaving trails of frostbite in their wake.

"Who said I'm alone?" Sera spoke in a soft voice, and in that moment, Percy and Mika jumped back on the fight.

Percy lunged while Drav was distracted, rapier flashing, but the mist twisted to intercept, only for Mika's spear to slam through it like a battering ram, scattering the tendrils long enough for Percy's blade to draw first blood across Drav's forearm.

"Oh, enough of this!" Drav suddenly twisted his bleeding arm.

The mist exploded outward all at once, a violent pulse that threw all three of them backward, knocked Mika's spear from his hands and sent Sera skidding into Percy's arms as they struck a stack of crates.

By the time the mist settled, thinner now, exhausted from the effort, Drav was already moving toward the ladder.

"This was fun!" He said, glancing back at them. "We'll finish it properly later. Preferably." His brown eyes flicked briefly toward the deck above, toward where Maya presumably still waited, "With the right audience."

He climbed the ladder and was gone before any of them could get back to their feet.

"M-Maya! Maya is in danger!" Mika scrambled to his feet, his fingers numb from the cold mist still clinging to his skin.

"Calm down, I told Maya to hide. I know where to find her before Drav can." Sera spoke as her breath came unevenly.

Percy coughed wetly beside her, rubbing his frost-reddened knuckles. The three of them looked like shipwreck survivors washed ashore, trembling and half-frozen.

They found their way to the Starboard few minutes later, bruised, soaked through with mist-damp clothing, Percy's arm wrapped hastily in a strip of cloth torn from his shirt, Sera's hands still faintly trembling with the aftereffects of the magic she'd used. She had used too much too fast.

Maya was waiting exactly where Sera told her to wait, inside an empty room on Starboard side. The minute they opened the door, and she saw the state of them, she was moving before any of them could explain.

"What happened?! Are you-" She started, already reaching for Percy's arm, her staff in hand.

But suddenly, before she could finish speaking, the ship lurched.

It wasn't subtle. It wasn't the gentle, constant rolling motion of a ship moving through water that everyone aboard had long since stopped noticing. This was violent, sudden, a single massive impact that sent half the deck stumbling and knocked crates loose from their lashings somewhere below.

"What was that?!" Mika asked, pulling Maya against him on instinct.

The Ironbell groaned, a deep, awful sound from somewhere far beneath the waterline.

Something vast moved beneath the surface of the water, just visible as a shadow far larger than anything normal. The ship was struck again. The impact made the entire Ironbell shake violently, nearly knocking the four of them off their feet. At the same time, the iron bell at the front of the ship began ringing uncontrollably.

They were about to soon learn the mist was never the real threat to begin with.