Ninnette searched her memory for stories she'd heard about demons. In most, they came from underground, forged in fire. In all, they were cunning tricksters, bringing nothing but suffering.

What had she gotten herself into?

The pistol in her hand was still raised at the boy--the demon. For a long moment, they stared at each other. Too long that it even felt intimate.

She looked up at his sharp face. Despite being young, there was maturity in his features, the way his square jaw set, his thick brows rose with amusement, and his lips curved up to one side.

"Demon," she said as she lowered the pistol. She wasn't sure whether to believe him or not, but she knew he was more than what he appeared to be.

"You can call me Kazi." The demon bowed in the most gentlemanly way.

"Kazi?" she repeated. "I didn't know demons had names."

"I'm one of a kind." Kazi tilted his chin high, lengthening his neck. He was about a foot taller than her. "And what's your name?"

She pressed her lips together. She knew better than to give her name to a demon, but something about the moment made her daring. "Ninnette," she said.

"Ninnette," Kazi drawled, clicking his tongue at the tees. "Very good to meet my new curse breaker. A little drifter." His dark eyes swept over her, gazing at every curve.

She was suddenly aware of her current state, in nothing but her swimming garments that could almost already be underwear. The full length of her legs, the graceful arch of her shoulders, and--though too young to have a proper chest--the delicate skin below her clavicle were exposed.

She was used to swimming this way in public. The sea drifter community wasn't an enthusiast of the aristocratic attire. They were, after all, living at sea. Tailcoats and dresses weren't meant for the salty waters.

But with Kazi leering at her, a manner that told her he wanted to possess her, she was urged to cover all of herself, to hide from his devouring gaze.

She blinked, breaking their locked stare, and turned to the small cot beside the navigation table to grab a knitted blanket. Throwing it over her shoulders, she gave Kazi a sideways glance. "Tell me how to get this thing off."

"I already told you--" Kazi started, but Ninnette cut him off.

"Yes. Yes. Break the curse. But how?" she snapped, impatient.

Kazi set his lips in a straight line as if he was contemplating.

"Don't tell me your tongue is bound by the magical curse," she said, turning back to him.

"No," he answered. "I could tell you, but after centuries of trying to break this curse, I find that it's more likely to give if I don't share the solution."

"If that's true, then you wouldn't be here now."

Kazi raised a brow at her. "Then I'll change that with the next one."

Next one. How many had tried to break the curse before her anyway?

His words rang in her ears. In three days, you'll die.

A part of her didn't believe her life was expiring. It was surreal, like it was only a jest.

She clicked her tongue, dropped the rusty pistol on the floor, and pushed past Kazi through the doorway of the cabin, determined to do something about the situation.

After a long moment of staring down at each other, she figured the stranger wasn't going to harm her. She gained back her confidence to move about her boat. Still, she glanced over her shoulder, making sure the threat wouldn't do anything suspicious.

"Where are you going?" Kazi asked, following her.

As soon as Ninnette was out the door, she gazed out in all directions and saw nothing but the sea. No vessel had come near her boat, no way for Kazi to get on board. Yet somehow, she still doubted all of what he had told her.

Without answering him, she moved to the steam engine at the rear, where she kept her tool case. She fished out pliers and started working on the bangle, trying to pry it off her wrist.

Kazi chuckled behind her.

"What, demon?" She whipped around, pliers almost flying from her hand, but she knew Kazi would simply evade it. And she couldn't afford to lose such a handy device.

"Some of the greatest blacksmiths I've met could never break the damned thing." Kazi grinned. "I doubt you can with your silly tools."

Ninnette raised a proud chin, insulted by the word silly. She was a master at tinkering. That was how she made her living. Dredging treasure, sure. But most of the time, she'd find junk, and the only way to make money from them was to fix and sell them.

She switched her pliers with tweezers from her tool case and began poking into the hatch, trying to stop the gears from moving. The demon behind her hummed and chuckled again, his offensive noise making her more determined.

"Give up, little drifter. That's not how you get it off. Unless you figure out the right way, you are bound to me now," Kazi said.

Ninnette stopped, chucking the tweezers back into the tool case. "Alright, demon. How do I figure out how to break the curse?" She turned to face him.

He squinted, alluring. "Stare into my dark eyes."

She pursed her lips. Great. A demon who knows how to tease.

But she accepted the challenge and stared.

Kazi blinked, his smile fading as if for the first time in all his years he had met someone who could surprise him. Defy him.

He tilted his head sideways and stared back. The dark of his eyes wasn't so dark after all. They were deep brown, like the shade of rich soil. Ninnette rarely went to the mainland, but she'd seen the contrast between real land and sand, and Kazi's eyes resembled the charming tan of the dry world.

She expected their gazing match to be so awkward that one of them would turn away soon, and she was making sure she wouldn't be the first. But Kazi's eyes settled into a pleasant manner that she could watch him all day as if he were the sea that greeted her every morning when she woke up and every night before she went to sleep.

But then the devious smile returned on his face. "You know, if you have one of those camera obscura standing around, you can capture a photograph of my handsome face."

Finally, the trance broke. Ninnette averted her eyes.

Kazi gave a delighted laugh. "They still make those, don't they?" he asked.

"What?" She dared to look back at him.

"The cameras. The boxes with holes that take photographs. They capture images onto paper. Are they still manufactured today?" he asked again.

"Yes," she answered. "They've been around since I was born."

"Ah." Kazi nodded with apprehension. "So, it's been a while since I was last out." He looked at her from top to bottom. "How old are you? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

Like her name, Ninnette should have hesitated to share her age with the demon, but she didn't. "Seventeen."

Kazi humphed with a single nod. "Younger than my last curse breaker." He pressed his lips together. "Well, almost curse breaker."

Her mind went back to the skeleton of the woman at the bottom of the ocean, lying within the shipwreck. "How old are you?" she asked, but what she truly wanted to know was how long he'd been alive.

"I'm frozen at seventeen," he answered.

"You're my age." Her brows shot up.

"Yes, little drifter. Is that so hard to believe?"

She shook her head. She had guessed he was young, but she didn't expect him to be that young.

"Well, since it has been a while, is my attire still fashionable?" Kazi gestured at himself.

Ninnette studied him, her eyes moving from the high collar of his shirt to the hem of his trousers. "Last time I was inland, noblemen still wore the same types of clothing, though I wouldn't call it fashionable."

"And you think your attire is?" Kazi asked, scanning what of her skin was left exposed, mostly her legs.

Ninnette pulled the blanket over her shoulders tighter, but there was no hiding from him.

"Though I guess I can't say you aren't pleasing to look at," he smiled, but it had none of the deceitful smirk he had been giving her since he appeared on her boat. And his tone was almost complimenting.

She swallowed. For a while, the demon was making decent conversation until he tried for flattery, which she was not used to. Most men who told her she was pretty had ill intent, and she had been smart to fend them off. Now, she didn't know what to do with his praise.

"You look like you're about to squirm," he teased.

And then she did.

A searing pain shot up her arm as if the bangle had tightened over her wrist ten times.

"Sea devils!" she cursed, doubling over and clutching her arm to her chest. "What's--happen--ning?" She could barely say the words.

Kazi was beside her in a heartbeat, holding her by her shoulders. "Steady," he said as he kept her on her feet when she almost fell to her knees. "Breathe. It'll pass," she heard him say.

She saw the floor of the boat sway, but not in the familiar way she had always known. This sway twisted her vision back into her head, making her want to vomit.

"Steady, little drifter," she heard Kazi say, but she no longer felt his touch. She no longer saw the floor. Her sight dimmed. She heard something drop.

Cold crept up her arm like needles on her skin, carrying something deadly over her body and pressing the air out of her lungs.

She gasped.

She felt like dying.

She was dying.

But the lethal sensation receded, and she felt Kazi's warm hands again, strong as if they were her lifeline in a sea surged by a storm.

She blinked the darkness from her eyes and saw bright blue, not the iron plates of her boat's deck, but the sky. The sound of something dropping had been her.

She blinked again. A face loomed over her. Kazi frowned. Something dark flashed in his eyes.

"You feel it, don't you?" He was holding her tight.

"What happened?" Her voice came as a whisper.

For a long moment, Kazi didn't answer, giving her a pitying look. When he opened his mouth, his words were grim. "An hour of your life has ended. You don't have many left."

And Ninnette knew it to be true.

🐚

The Order of the Chain had been around for centuries. Though they were a secret organization, new members were being enlisted to join every week, converting from different faiths and coming to worship the Sea Mother.

Despite not being the only body to revere the Sea Mother, they were the only ones that believed strinjerie to be unnatural. And those with the ability were possessed by evil. Strinjers were unorthodox. The concresi, ones with the ability to control physical objects. The somasi, ones with the ability to control living bodies. The psychesi, ones with the ability to control emotions. And especially the hydrosi, ones with the ability to control water.

Only the Sea Mother should be the one to hold power over the ocean. Those with hydrostrinjerie magic needed to be annihilated. All strinjers should be annihilated.

Aleja was taught everything about the faith from when she was a child. So when her pearl ring started glowing, she knew exactly where she needed to go.

Her red robe fluttered behind her as she rushed through the halls of the chapel, lined by gaslights.

"Priestess, please slow down," her subordinate, Matias, called to her.

She ignored the plea and went straight to a private room, a sacred space with vaulted ceilings of stone and wrought iron support beams. At the center was a box made of elaborate brass filigree, sitting on a pedestal.

Matias followed her into the room, his breath heaving. Years had not been kind to the old man, taking away his youth and strength so he could no longer pace as fast as he used to.

"Priestess," he called again.

Still, Aleja did not turn to him. She focused on the box in front of her. She'd never expected the day would come for her to open it. The ring wearer before her had unlocked it, but the attempt to retrieve the map had been a failure.

The faith could not predict when the map would activate again. Curse breakers did not come in every generation. There had been instances when no curse breaker had appeared for a century, but now the ring was calling to her.

On the top side of the box, a small round dent was engraved. Aleja pressed the pearl into it like a key.

Gears within the box turned, clicking like a clock. The lid hissed and unbolted. White light glowed from within. She removed the cover, letting the brightness wash into the room.

Within the light, an image appeared, a map of the Kingdom of the Draga Isles. In the Oestern Ocean, a dot blinked.

"Is that--?" Matias didn't finish the question, entranced by the mechanism in front of them.

Aleja nodded. "The cursed bangle," she answered. "The map to the Beginning."

The blinking dot moved in the ocean.

"Looks like it's heading to Cadrid." Matias turned to her. "The floating market, perhaps?"

"I need to retrieve some files from the archives." Aleja glanced at him sideways. "Send a message to the Honorable Priest, and ready the men of the Order. Bring weapons."