Morgra grinned, her fingers curling around the vial like a spider wrapping its prey. "Oh, but this is no trick, dear Captain. This is old magic—older than the sea itself.”
Alaric didn’t so much as glance at the vial. His shoulders squared. "What is it? Magic like that comes at a price. What do you want?"
Morgra’s grin widened. "A relic from the old world. A simple thing, really. Stolen from me long ago."
She lifted her hand with a languid motion, like a queen summoning her court. The air around her rippled—reality itself bowing to her will. A shimmer coalesced between us, swirling and reforming until it resolved into a shape: a black stone, smooth as glass, cradled in the palm of a hand.
"The Eye of Nareth," she intoned, her voice thick with something like reverence.
The illusion hovered between us, its inky surface devouring the flickering light. Flecks of eerie blue shimmered just beneath, pulsing like the slow heartbeat of something that had died long ago but refused to rest. Shadows writhed at its edges—not cast by it, but born from it—clawing at the air like they longed to be free.
"It was taken from me—stolen—and sold to the highest bidder in Shadeau. And now it rests in the hands of a fool who neither respects nor understands the power it holds."
Morgra watched with a hunger that made my stomach twist, her attention fixed on the swirling image. The image shimmered, pulsed. A chill slithered down my spine.
"And you expect us to just walk into the most dangerous market in the world and take it back?"
Morgra chuckled, tucking the vial away slowly. She already knew I would agree.
"Yes, because if you fail," she added, her grin widening, "as payment for the potion, I will no longer provide the BlackMarrow with what it needs to stay afloat. No more supplies. No more magic. And we both know what happens to a ship like yours when it runs dry."
A long pause stretched.
Alaric’s lips thinned, wrestling with the weight of it all.
I hesitated, the pressure building in my chest. My mind raced—images of the Celestial Choir, of Meris’s lies, of the way the ocean had grown quieter each day like it was waiting for me to choose. I could still feel Alaric’s words, sharp as coral, lodged deep.
But louder than all of it was the whisper of something I couldn’t ignore. Shadeau was a death sentence… and yet something in me stirred. That same curiosity that has always gotten me in trouble before. There could be answers for me there. Truths buried too long. A thread pulled tight beneath my skin, urging me forward. Not toward safety.
Toward truth.
"We'll do it," I said before Alaric could get a word out.
His head snapped toward me, disbelief flashing across his face. "Nerina—"
His expression darkened, fury flashing in his eyes like a storm barely held at bay. "You do not get to make bargains with my ship!"
"If there's even a chance that this place holds answers, I need to take it. And if you refuse to go, I’ll go alone." My voice was firm, but my pulse thundered in my ears.
I turned back to Morgra, lifting my chin. "We’ll get your relic."
Morgra’s grin widened, but before she could speak, Alaric turned to me, his expression dark with frustration. His jaw clenched, and he stepped closer, lowering his voice but unable to hide the fury burning behind it.
The air between us went taut, charged with something I couldn’t name—fear, anger, something else entirely.
"The Isle of Shadeau is the most dangerous place in the world, Nerina. One whiff of what you are, and you will never be seen again."
I met his glare, my heart pounding, anger flaring to match his. Beneath the fury, beneath the fear, I knew I had no choice. I had to do this. There was no other choice. If the Black Marrow fell, we would all be lost—adrift and easy prey for whatever hunted me.
And if I had to throw myself into the belly of Shadeau’s darkness to find the relic and find myself, then so be it.
I will not let fear decide my fate.
"If I let fear keep me from trying, then I may as well be dead already."
Alaric shook his head. "There are worse things that they can do to you than kill you."
"You have no idea what you’ve just done," he growled, stepping closer. "You’ve been sheltered your whole life, Nerina. You don’t know what it means to be truly hunted, to have no safe place to run. You don’t know what horrors await in Shadeau, what monsters thrive there. And now, thanks to your reckless bargain, you’ve put my ship and every soul on it in danger for a gamble that wasn’t yours to make!"
