Luminous looked up at the man the boots belonged to. He had fox ears that sat at top of his straight white hair. He reached out his hand with long sharp fingernails. His pink eyes smiling down at her.

"Why hello. My name is Sly. Puppetmaster Sly." The man smiled, flashing his sharp jagged teeth.

"I'm Luminous..." She said not taking her eyes off of the poor snake underneath the halflings boot.

"Sly...Ughh, Sly is crushing Janus, get off of Janus!" Gaged the snake.

"I think that snake has had enough." Said Luminous.

"Oh don't mind Janus. He always gets what he deserves." Sly smirk, he continued to stomp and kick the snake beneath his boot. "Isn't that right Janus!" He began to laugh.

The snake contorted and yelped in pain.

"Stop it!" Cried Luminous.

Sly frowned for a split second. Before his wide tooth smile returned to his face as if nothing happened.

"What? You're seriously worried about a snake who just tried to eat you and your friends not a chapter ago? Did he not hurt you?"

"Yes, but you don't need to go that far."

"Oh, he's fine. Right, Janus?" Said Sly lifting up his boot.

The snake slithered out from underneath it as soon as he could.

"Oh, yes Janus is fine. Right as rain Janus is." Said the snake as if he hadn't just been brutally stomped on. "It was all Janus's fault after all."

Luminous winced when Janus said that.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Well, there is something you could do for me." Answered Sly putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Short stuff no. Don't trust halflings." Said the Dawn of Fate.

"Well, suit yourself." Shrugged Sly turning around to leave. "I just thought you would want to know about the red prince is all..." He added twirling his umbrella with the odd-looking hook.

"You know where they took the red prince?!" Exscalmed Luminous. "How is he? where is he? Tell me!"

Sly held out his finger in front of her.

"Patience, my little duckling. My information isn't free, I want something in exchange."

Sly's pink eyes stared into Luminous, and she could have sworn they glowed as they did so.

"Suck the sharp tip of my blade!" Shouted the Dawn of Fate, before Luminous could agree to anything.

"Ohh, is that an offer?" Sly smirked.

"....Choke on it!"

"Then let me offer you another alternative." Sly twirled his umbrella, walking in a circle around Luminous. "How about we place bets instead? You see that over there?"

Sly pointed his umbrella somewhere off in the distance towards a huge tower with a big clock on it. Luminous had never seen anything like it before. In fact, she could have sworn it wasn't there before. But because of the fog, maybe it had and she didn't notice it.

"If you can get over to that big tower over there with this." Sly handed Luminous a pocket watch. "Before the little hand of this clock meets the big hand up at the top, I'll tell you about the red prince and where he's being kept. If you lose, you have to give me your heart. Do we have ourselves a deal?" Sly bent over whispering in Luminous' ear.

"Short stuff don't-"

"Don't do it!" Vainglorious interrupted the Dawn of Fate.

Sly turned to the boy as if noticing him for the first time.

"Ohh? And you care about what happens to her?"

Vainglorious' face turned bright pink under the fox halflings gaze.

"I..it's just that she, she promised to take me to meet the wizard who enchanted her sword went that's all. This whole thing would have been a waste otherwise."

"Oh, she told you that did she?" Sly said more to himself than to anyone else. "Well then, all you have to do is get that clock to the clock tower, then I can tell you about your red prince. I'll have Janus keep an eye on you of course."

"What!?" Shrilled the snake. "But, Sly..."

Sly lifted his umbrella over his head as if to hit the snake. Janus slithered back shutting up immediately.

"Are we in agreement?" Sly said to Luminous.

"I do!" Shouted Luminous before anyone could interrupt. "I mean, we are!"

Sly smirked spinning his umbrella while moving towards her until they were only inches apart.

"You know, a lie can grow, a cursed flow. That is until it topples, showing as plain as a spot on your nose." He chimed brushing a long index finger over her little button nose.

Sly turned around, but before he could disappear into the fog he turned back to her and said.

"And I hate liars."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Luminous ran over to where Sly was.

"Watch out!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous skitted to a stop when she felt something wet hit her sock. She looked down at a sea of water that expanded as far as the eye can see. The fog had finally faded. But she was no longer in a forest. But on a huge wooden raft with shops and houses, and boats docked around it.

"Where are we?" Asked Luminous taking a few steps away from the edge of the raft.

"Well, snobs?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.

Luminous turned around to Vainglorious.

"What?" Asked Vainglorious. "It's not my fault you decided to go off the path into. Well, who knows where you got us Luminous?" He said throwing up his hands.

"Well, you still have the map right?" Asked Luminous.

"The map!?" Yelled Vainglorious digging the crinkled map out of his pocket. "This place isn't even on the map!"

"The place on the map isn't there and you don't know why? My wouldn't you be surprised."

Luminous followed the sound of the sweet voice above her. She saw a dark blue-eyed nun sitting on the metal roof of a bate shop.

"Abyss! You're here!" She smiled. "I'm happy to see you again."

"Why hello Luminous." Abyss smiled back.

Janus' yellow eyes went towards Abyss for a split second. But as soon as she locked eyes with him, he turned his little green head away.

"Okay, so what in the dang nab world is happening here?" Asked the Dawn of Fate. "We were in a forest a moment ago and now-"

"Now we're stuck on a rafting town in the middle of the ocean!" Interrupted Vainglorious.

"A little birdy told me you needed to get to the big clock tower over yonder. If you want to get there quicker without drowning in a watery abyss, I suggest catching a ride with my good old captain, Jaeger Egregsst." Said Abyss hoping down from on top of the roof, her feet touching gracefully onto the ground.

"Thanks so much, Abyss-"

"But no thanks." Vainglorious Interrupted Luminous. "We don't need your captain Jaeger  Egregsst. We're doing fine on our own."

Vainglorious looked across the vast ocean towards the far away tower. It seemed to sit upon nothing in the middle of the ocean, but surely something had to be there. Could it possibly be close enough to skate across with his ice magic without running out of magical energy...

He looked towards his collarbone with the cursed snake tattoo on it.

"Are you certain?" Smirked Abyss. "It's a wide ocean, you're certainly not planning on ice skating your way across are you?"

"I was not!" Sheathed Vainglorious crossing his arms. "We have other plans. Let's go Luminous!"

Vainglorious pulled Luminous away by the hand. She looked back at Abyss who only smiled and waved at her.

"You know I didn't think Abyssess's idea was a bad one...." She said scratching the back of her head. "Why couldn't we go with captain Jaeger ?"

"Ya, you know snobs, I've always wanted to know what was up with you and Abyss. Something you know that we don't?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.

"Janus thinks young nun looks like a sweat lady Janus dose." Added the snake.

"Of course, you haven't noticed." Said Vainglorious rolling his eyes.

"Noticed what?" Asked Luminous.

"It's obvious. She's the one behind all of our failings. She's a traitor."

"Whoa, that's a statement. Got anything to back that up, snobs?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.

"Think about it. When we got our weapons back from her they were covered in dark magic." Said Vainglorious.

"But that doesn't prove anything, the corrupt raccoons were the ones who stole them. Maybe they were like that before she found them." Said Luminous.

"I don't know short stuff, snobs has a point. Corrupt aren't really smart enough to do magic. It is kind of weird how all our stuff came back corrupted." Said the Dawn of Fate.

"But she had you and you didn't corrupt." Said Luminous. "Why is that?"

"I can't corrupt, did you forget that?"

"But then why not just keep our weapons if she wanted us to fail?"

"There is also the fact that she sent us in the garden of Forget-Me-Nots." Added Vainglorious.

"And?" Shrugged Luminous.

"I've been reading about them in Zealous' book. Luminous, Forget-Me-Nots are not supposed to be walked across. They could have activated on us at any moment. Also if a mage could control them they could use them to spy on people. Meaning Nightdread knew we were there as soon as we step into his garden."

"Maybe she didn't know? I mean it was the quickest way to the castle. She was right about that...." Luminous bit her lip, her eyes shifting to the ground.

"But then when she showed up and cast that light spell how did all thoughts corrupt find us?" Asked Vainglorious.

"But Vainglorious, Abyss cast that spell to defeat the giant Fe- Fi- Fo. We wouldn't have gotten away without her."

"There's also something Fe-Fi-Fo was trying to say before he died. She conveniently shut him up before he could say another word."

"Like what?" Asked Luminous her eyebrows crossed.

"Just, something like. Morgana princesses of darkness..."

"And what does that mean?"

"I don't know! But I know it means something!"

"Janus thinks the little one has cracked, Janus dose." Said Janus.

"And who asked you! It's not like we asked you to come with us anyways! I can find a boat on my own!" Vainglorious yelled at the snake.

He stomped away from the group until he found a nice ship tied up to the little raft village.

"Excuse me!" He called out.

A frog with a little sailor's hat popped out from the captain's seat to look over the railing at him.

"Me and my....uh," Vainglorious paused, he didn't know what to call Luminous. An acquaintance? Friend? A person he decided to strike a deal with? "Uh, Luminous and I, need a ride to that tower over there."

The frog turned his head to the clock tower that was off in the distance over the ocean. He blinked his buggy eyes as if he had just noticed the thing for the first time.

The frog shook his head straightening up his face.

"I couldn't help you even if I wanted to sonny. It be storming soon."

Vainglorious looked up at the bright blue cloudless sky.

"No, it's not. Look, I don't have time for this. I have to go now."

"Well sorry I'm not going now, it be storming soon." Shrugged the frog.

"Fine. Be lazy, I'll pay someone else to help me!"

Vainglorious turned towards the frog to see if he would react. But the only thing the frog did was mumble.

"It's been a while since I've seen a human. Haven't been around since the great flood."

Vainglorious went all over the little raft town asking ship caption after ship captain. But they all turned him down because of the storm approaching.

"Getting to a clock tower huh?"

Vainglorious turned around to see an old toad with a black pirate hat on.

"Ya, and who are you?"

"Egregsst,  Jaeger Egregsst ."