When Ash had walked through these halls before, it had been a plain but neat corridor, with a few paintings and creatively tied ropes decorating the walls. Red splashes smeared the landscapes the art depicted, and a few unmoving bodies splayed scattered nearby. Most of the ropes dangled free, something having sliced them free. One door hung half off its hinge. It looked as if it would crash with the barest nudge.

How had she been so ignorant of what was happening right outside her own prison?

A sudden spurt of curses and the banging of a body down the steps startled her out of her thoughts. Someone rolled across the floor from the staircase, leaving streaks of blood behind them. One of Sabin's mercenaries, by the look of him, a large cut running the length of his chest.

He spat a crimson glob off to the side. "He ain't paying us enough for this." He scanned the area, his eyes pausing on each door before falling on Ash.

Their gazes locked for a split second. She unfroze first, bolting in the opposite direction of the exit, as the man currently blocked it. Another staircase led further down the ship, away from the mercenary, away from whatever madness occurred above deck, away from the howl that still haunted her thoughts.

The man yelled as he scurried after her, but he came to an abrupt stop with a grunt. She didn't look back to find out why. As soon as she reached the stairs, she pounded down them. Her feet tangled as the lower level neared. She hopped off with a third of them remaining. Pain blossomed at the jarring landing, but she didn't have time to stop. She pushed on, one hand braced against the wall for support.

Her legs would hold. They didn't have any other choice.

The clattering above moved quicker than she did. Another staircase on the opposite end of the hall led further downward. Feminine voices, dulled by the separating floor, cried from below. The stolen girls, if she had to guess. Would the chaos make its way to them? Perhaps she could get lost in their group.

Shouts and clambering sounded right above the stairwell she'd just descended. Far too close. Someone would follow her down soon. She didn't have time to make it down to another level.

She sprinted to the nearest door. The first one she tried was locked, but the second opened. Just in time, because footsteps thundered down the stairs onto her level of the ship. She slipped into the room and shut the door behind her.

Weak light stones cast a dim glow over the space, revealing a storage room. Crates and barrels took up almost every free spot on the floor. A few chests protected by large locks sat in a corner. Not the most promising of rooms for hiding with how little open space it had, but it would have to do.

"Find lunisium! There must be some somewhere down here! Check all the rooms," a frantic voice cried.

Doors burst open on the other side, and Ash's skin went cold despite the sweat rolling down her neck. She wiggled her way around the containers, crawling over top of them where needed, until she finally found a space big enough for her to squeeze between. It wasn't as far back as she wanted to get, but she feared risking searching for too long.

She hid herself just in time. Even expecting it, Ash had to throw her hands over her mouth to stifle a cry when the door to her room slammed open. She curled into a tighter ball between the crates. Her chest pressed so close to her knees that she could feel her racing heart against them.

"Come on, come on." The man in the room with her threw open barrels and crates, muttering all the while. When he didn't find what he wanted, he threw the wooden containers off to the side.

Layer by layer, she lost the walls that hid her away from the newest threat.

The closer he came to her hiding spot, the worse her tremors became. She didn't realize she was crying until tears tickled her fingers. Another howl, this one much closer, pierced through the pounding in her ears. The man cursed, thankfully drowning out the little gasp that Ash failed to catch. He threw another barrel aside, drawing ever closer.

She couldn't just sit here and cling to the hope that the man would find what he needed before no more containers hid her away. What was she to do, though? She had no chairs to beat him with, no pillows to shove in his face. A single thing offered her aid, a possible promise of saving her. The very thing that had scared Sabin away.

Her magic pulsed. Warm, comforting.

The man tossed the lid off a barrel almost directly in front of the one hiding her. She bit her lip, tentatively reaching toward the magic.

As if the choice to try had summoned him, Roan appeared in her mind. The magic flickered out without her consciously shoving it away. Fear had forced her to reach toward it, but fear also erected a barrier, keeping her from the magic.

Grunting, the man yanked the barrel out of his way. His shadow fell over her. Her mind raced, grasping for anything. She would have to pounce the moment he saw her, claw at his face, fight her way out of this somehow.

"I found some!" a voice shouted from the hall. "Over here, I found a few lunisium—"

The speaker cut off with a shriek.

"Great gales, Garman, you know better than to eat people!"

The new voice was a shocking slap to her face. Another man had spoken, perhaps younger than all the others she had met on the ship, but the youthfulness of his voice could have come from his chipper tone. Chipper, amidst what seemed to be a battle and while speaking of eating people.

A low growl answered the new man.

"Yes, yes, I know the man doesn't need his leg, but you don't need a diet of human flesh, either. Especially since I believe the poor man has soiled himself. Not very appetizing, if I do say so myself."

"Monster!" someone exclaimed.

"You see, that might hurt my feelings if I didn't know you had multiple women stashed on this boat. Speaking of which—"

"What?"

A much closer voice startled Ash out of her ball. She jerked her head up, and the happenings in the hallway became miles away.

The mercenary stared straight down at her. His fellow mercenary cried from the hallway, and his face went pale.

"Come here," he demanded.

Ash flinched back, colliding with the crate behind her. Before she could attempt to scramble between the containers, the man wrapped a hand around her forearm with bruising force. She clawed at his hand and tried to yank herself free, but he didn't falter as he dragged her over the only layer of crates remaining between them. Its edges bit into her, and her knee banged painfully against the wood.

She stumbled as the man pulled her to an unsteady stop in front of him. The angle made it impossible to go for his eyes with her free arm as she had with the Scion. Before she could adjust, he yanked her again, this time backwards. Her back crashed into his chest. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pinning her there.

"Let go of me." What was meant to be an order came out as a strangled sob. She needed to think, to find a way out of this, but panic formed a thick cloud over her mind, refusing to let her formulate any clear plans.

"I would suggest listening to the young lady there."

The overly cheerful voice had returned, except the light tone had been replaced with a cold, daring one, and it came from right in front of her.

Ash raised her head.

The panic stilled, only to be replaced by a numb blankness. Seeing the nightwrath convinced her she was nearing death; what she saw now revealed what would be the bringer of her end.

Like the great spirits, she had only heard of these in stories, but she couldn't mistake what crouched in the doorway. The Terror was as high as her waist, and it would likely be to her chest if it wasn't crouched. It resembled a wolf, but sharp horns jutted from its temples. Its legs had more joints than a normal beast, giving it the appearance that it would stand on its hind legs at any moments, and its paws looked more like clawed hands. Crimson streaks painted paths through the creature's thick black fur and radiated an eerie light.

The red on its jaw, though, wasn't the same color. Blood dripped from its large fangs as it snarled, and a twitch of its claws brought attention to the blood there as well.

A lysian, a wolf-creature said to be a terror controlled by the nightwraths and unleashed on most wicked individuals. This entire ship was going to fall.

"Stay away!"

Something cold and sharp bit into Ash's neck. With her eyes trained on the lysian's teeth, she took a moment to realize what it was. The mercenary had his sword out and pressed against her skin.

"I heard you lot asking about the girls. Well, if you take one step closer, by the gods, I swear I'll kill this one."

"I wouldn't recommend that." The voice finally drew Ash's gaze away from the lysian, and she saw the young man who had been accompanying the creature this entire time.

He didn't look like he could be much older than her, but the dark smile that twisted his face and the dim lighting made it hard to tell. Like the nightwrath, he wore a shaggy shirt, but he donned a brown vest with his outfit. Messy locks of hair fell over his face and to his shoulders, either a light brown or dark blond. He wore a dangling earring. Ash wouldn't have noticed if not for the slight gleam that it caught from the light stone.

"You see, if you harm that young lady, Nightwrath has given me permission to release Garman. So far, I've been holding him back, but he is awfully eager to have some fun," the young man went on, the cheeriness slowly seeping back into his voice.

The mercenary's chest fluctuated against Ash's back, and she couldn't blame him, not when her eyes drifted back to the lysian and she struggled to breathe. The young man referred to the woman upstairs as Nightwrath, but he had to be one as well or some other kind of greater spirit with his own part in this. How else could he have any sort of hold on a Terror? They were foul beasts that did as they pleased.

Great spirits of vengeance and wild Terrors. They were going to die.

The thought hit her like the crash of a wave, and the magic surged with the overwhelming fear. It hit suddenly, not giving her time to prepare, and ripped its way out. The mercenary screamed and shoved her away as blue particles erupted from her skin. She hit the wood hard, and the pain reverberated through her entire body. It jolted her enough that it caused the magic's control to lapse.

Ash clamped down on it, knowing that being a screaming mess would only get her killed faster.

"Well, would you look at that," the young man mused. "It seems our friend here found the young lady we came to find."

Wait, find her? Why would they be looking for her? She raised her gaze, forcing herself to ignore the lysian, to search the young man's face, as if that would give her the answers she wanted.

Both the lysian and the young man stared down at her, the creature's expression unreadable and the man's bemused.

Neither one noticed the mercenary sneaking through the hall, a metal pole clasped between his hands.

Ash opened her mouth, a wordless sound escaping her throat, too unsure of who these people were to offer any protection. Instead, she could only watch as the mercenary brought the pole plunging down, straight at the young man's back.

*****

Just casually tagging allrenwrote for reasons... xD But anyway!  More new characters!  The ship is getting a bit full, huh?  *stares at all the dead bodies* At least we don't have to feed all of them!  And a certain wolf may have more snacks :D

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!