Despite having lived in a port town for ten years, Lucius knew little about ships. He'd set foot on one or two of them in the past, and back during his Shallow Reapers days he'd paid close attention to cargo being loaded or unloaded, but his knowledge remained limited.

Still, he knew where to turn in case he'd want a ship to turn around immediately, should that ever become relevant.

Which it did.

He ran as fast as his wobbly legs and disoriented eyes would allow, ignoring the multitude of crew members currently at work and aimed towards the other end of the quarterdeck. His heart squeezed in his chest. They couldn't force him to leave. Not after everything that had happened. He had to find Anthony and apologise, and no matter what deal he'd made with Damien, there was no way that man would just obediently back off.

Then there was Mabel.

Lucius couldn't believe it. Had he been hallucinating while the dark veins on his chest were spreading and weighing him down? Why would she be with Seth of all people? Why would she be alive in the first place? If the state she'd been in even counted as alive. Those bluish, sunken-in features, not to mention the smell, did not belong to the living no matter how much someone could neglect their hygiene.

"Hey!" he yelled as soon as he spotted the helm, fixing his burning glare on the man behind it. "You need to turn around now!"

The helmsman blinked at him, but quickly switched his focus back on his task without replying.

"Didn't you hear me?" Lucius grabbed the man's arm as soon as he'd reached him. "We need to go back to South Kerilia!"

The broad-shouldered man, though seemingly attempting to be gentle about it, pulled himself free while still fixing his gaze forward.

"Those are not my orders," was the reply, but it was not good enough for Lucius.

"I don't care what your orders are! I never agreed to be on this ship," he hissed and grabbed the ship's wheel, to the helmsman's obvious dismay. "I need to get back. I can't leave things like that!"

"Stop it," the helmsman snapped back, trying to keep the helm steady while fending Lucius' hands off. "Whichever way you want it, you can't interfere here. Go bother someone else."

A small part of Lucius wanted to give up. If Tom and the others were right he'd need to find a way to get those veins out of his chest quickly before they consumed him completely. The problem was another, larger part of Lucius refused to be bossed around, and his concerns were directed at South Kerilia.

"You don't understand," he tried, leaning against the binnacle for stability as his balance and the ship's movements didn't quite agree yet. "I could lose everything. The man I love, the town I've sacrificed my life for, the— the people there... And it's being left in the hands of a deranged, villainously rich, murderer.

"I...," The helmsman's pale eyes flickered between Lucius and his initial focal point, and to Lucius' triumph and surprise, he looked genuinely conflicted. "... I'm sorry about that, but even if it had been that easy, it's not up to—"

His words choked as Lucius' grabbed his cravat. He was sturdy enough to make pulling him closer a difficult task with Lucius' lacking physique and still fairly incapacitated left arm, but he still looked deeply troubled while trying to pull away again.

"Do it," Lucius hissed. Rage was building up, and he would not accept someone talking back to him at the moment. "Or I'll take that precious wheel of yours and bring it hard over, see if we'll get back that way instead."

"Hey, what are you doing?" Another crew member with blonde, bushy hair had noticed them and was on her way up. "Don't bother Silvio, he needs to focus."

"Yes, he does," Lucius agreed, not without sending the woman a scowl of contempt. "Focus on turning this ship around."

Despite his best effort to look intimidating, the woman looked amused before attempting to drag him away from the helm.

"I take it you don't know much about ships," she said. Whether or not she meant to sound condescending or it being Lucius reading into things didn't matter, his gaze was murderous anyway. "But we don't disturb the helmsmen. It takes a lot to stay on course."

Lucius struggled against her grip.

"Then stop ignoring what I say and listen instead!"

"I'm—" The woman gasped as a kick to the stomach from Lucius pushed the air out of her, and the helmsman called out.

"Stop that! What do you think you're doing!?"

Lucius ducked away from another attempt at grabbing him, kicking the nearby crewmember's shins to make her fall down.

"Getting my way!" Lucius growled. "One way or another!"

"Lucius!" a familiar voice called out before Lucius was grabbed from behind by strong arms, and he glared back to notice it was Eliza holding him.

"Eliza?" He stared, too worked up to be relieved by the sudden presence of his friend. "You're in on this too!? I thought we were friends!"

"That's why I'm in on it!" She forcefully pulled him away from the helm, giving an apologetic smile to the helmsman and his fellow crew member before looking at Lucius reproachfully. "That's why we all are."

Lucius turned his head to see Tom and Richard, staying at an appropriate distance to not be kicked, and he drew a furious breath.

"Some friends you are! You abducted me!"

"I told you we needed to go," Tom said quietly, almost hiding behind Richard. "And you didn't protest then."

"Well things sure fucking changed, didn't they!?" Lucius tried yanking his arms loose, wincing as the injured one protested. "Let go of me! You need— They need to take me back!"

"But you know we can't go back." Eliza still held an iron grip around him. "Your life is in danger, and no one at home can help you."

Lucius still struggled to little avail.

"You don't know that. I'm— I'm sure Tom could find a way. Somehow, if we just give him time."

"We don't have that kind of time. Staying idle was too dangerous, you have to understand that."

"And you can't keep depending on Tom to fix all supernatural problems you encounter." Richard folded his arms, pointing to Tom who now looked another way as if not hearing the conversation.

"Well what else does he got going on?" Lucius finally managed to squirm through Eliza's grip and turned to head back to the helm. "Apparently he's got time to waste on this—"

A grip around his neck made Lucius flinch, and before he could finish his sentence he'd been lifted from the deck by his collar.

"What—" he croaked, grabbing his collar as well to free his throat. At first he thought it was Richard, but then he was lifted even higher, and Lucius doubted Richard could reach that high unless he'd somehow reverted to his original form within five seconds.

He was slowly turned around, ending up face to face with someone who was definitely not Richard.

"You need to lower your voice."

The man responsible for Lucius losing touch with the ground was indeed of an impressive size, but what Lucius stared at first were his eyes, immediately having noticed the vivid amber colour, not entirely unlike Richard's, and scrunched up his face before lowering his gaze to the man's mouth.

Specifically his teeth.

"The crew needs to focus on their jobs, and we can't have someone running about to intentionally distract them," the man continued, and Lucius pressed his lips together as the fangs were exposed again. "You are our guest though, so I'd hate to have you tied up."

Lucius' mind ran through the possibilities. Eye colour aside, Richard did not possess the same kind of longer fangs as this man did. The latter's were definitely more similar to Ethan's, but the sun rays currently hitting his deep umber skin suggested that was not the case either.

A vague memory crept forward, and Lucius squinted as images of the beast-like vampire Derek had trapped him with returned. The one who'd suffered cold burns from the moonlight.

"Let me guess," he whispered as he recalled previous mentions of shifters. "Ethan's friend?"

"And the captain of this ship." The man placed him down, surprisingly gently, and Lucius was made even more aware of his height as he stared him up and down, willing to believe the man's title just by considering his perfectly tailored clothes of blue and golden colours. "So I'd appreciate it if this whole panic tantrum could reach its end now."

Lucius didn't want it to. He had more things to yell and more kicks to aim, but with the presence of so many who could clearly overpower him, what was the point?

"... Fine," he muttered while averting his eyes.

"Abram, you're not scaring him, are you?" Ethan carefully opened the doors to below the quarterdeck, area conveniently shielded from the sun. "He's panicking big time so we need to call it off."

"I mean, I was going to." Abram shook his head at his friend. "I saw it was a bad time for jokes but then he went out of control so I had to scare him a little anyway."

"I wasn't scared," Lucius quietly protested, sending Ethan a glare to advise against future potential attempts to mess with him. "I've met shifters before."

"Well with the element of surprise and vampires generally being intimidating to mortals, it could have..." Abram began with an amused smile, but trailed off as he noticed Lucius' less than pleased look. "... But I suppose not."

He cleared his throat.

"Let's start over then, shall we?" He held out his hand, each finger bedazzled with gold and jewel clad rings. "Captain Abram Vandelay."

Lucius' eyes were still burning with discontentedness, but he slowly took Abram's hand.

"Lucius Cromwell." He sent Ethan another reprimanding glance without turning his head. "I see you and Ethan have the same affinity towards pranking people."

"Well it was supposed to be a lighthearted first impression, but I fear it went sideways." Abram smiled sheepishly as he let Lucius' hand go. "We just thought you'd need something to take your mind off... All that."

"That's going to be difficult," Lucius said coldly. "Especially since I have no intention to stop thinking about it. You have no idea what's on the line, not to mention what responsibilities you're tearing me away from."

"Let's... Let's talk some more about that." Ethan waved for Lucius to follow him, and before the latter could make more hostile remarks Eliza hooked his arm to force him towards the stairs leading below deck.

"You're not going to convince me this was a good idea," Lucius still said as he was placed down to join the others at a table. "These veins are not as important as me staying in South Kerilia."

"There's probably not gonna be a whole lot left of you if we let that happen," Ethan argued. "Hard to run a town or take revenge or whatever if you're dead."

While Lucius knew deep down he was right, the crawling sensation along his ribs insisted otherwise.

"Also gonna be hard to run a town if a certain monster of a father takes it away from me."

"I told you, he made a deal with Anthony." Ethan turned his eyes away in discomfort while twirling a lock of hair. "He's going to leave you alone."

"See, for some reason I have a hard time trusting any promise he makes." Lucius folded his arms. "Don't know why, could be that he tried to kill me and forced Anthony away and actively, outright tried to take the town back from me."

"For what it's worth, we've tried to take precautions regarding that," Tom joined in, though seemingly reluctant to. "Finding ways to maintain Lucia's position and all."

A small wave of relief soothed Lucius, but just barely. At least they'd given it some thought before leaving. How well they'd managed was doubtful though.

"Mr. Featherstone and Judge Crossfire have both agreed to keep things the way you were running them, and with that intending to stop Lord Hargreaves from getting in the way should it come to that," Tom continued, not looking too convinced that Damien wouldn't run them over if he put his mind to it. "And while Mr. Faal sadly couldn't leave the orphanage unattended to come along, he told us he'd keep an extra eye on the other two, should they not behave..."

Tom sent Eliza a glance.

"... And he also sent Miss Garlic to keep an eye on us," he mumbled, barely so Lucius could hear.

"I can be of assistance too." Eliza returned the look, though offended. "I don't want to sit around and roll my thumbs when my friend is in danger."

"As long as you don't put yourself in danger," Richard retorted, to Eliza's further offence.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that whatever Lucius is in for could be dangerous, and you're a mortal human." Richard shrugged, and Eliza looked as though she was about to punch his nose.

"Tom is a mortal human, and you sure didn't have a problem with bringing a mortal, human child into all of this."

Lucius blinked at that.

"Child?"

Tom pursed his lips, suddenly looking more awkward than ever before while drawing a breath.

"So... Hrimrike isn't that big of a country. Finding someone in South Kerilia who knows the language and can translate it into Wyperan is near impossible in an urgent situation like this, but..."

Lucius narrowed his eyes.

"... But what?"

"There's one family," Tom said, barely a whisper. "One family in Kerilia that stems from Hrimrike, and knows that language."

Tom had barely finished the last sentence before Lucius put the pieces together, letting out a groan of severe exasperation and dread accordingly.

"No," he almost pleaded. "Tell me you didn't."

"As always, your disregard for my help confuses me greatly, Mr. Cromwell," a painfully familiar and eerily cheerful voice said behind Lucius. "After all, my assistance has proven valuable many times."

"Young lord Clausson." Lucius gritted his teeth as he turned around to look at Frey, who'd just exited a room near the stairs with a bundle of papers in his hands. "And here I was, thinking things couldn't get worse."

"How fortunate for you to be right, then." Frey joined the group with a smile bright enough to hurt someone's eyes and genuine enough to fool anyone who didn't know the real him. He released the charming spell for less than a split second though as he gave the worn, possibly wobbly chair left by the table a look of disdain before deciding to stand instead. "Me being here can only improve your chances of whatever you're planning on doing in Hrimrike succeeding."

Lucius didn't reply, instead turning back to Tom.

"How could you do this to me?" he hissed. "As if I wasn't distressed enough."

"I was against it as well." Tom held his hands up in defence. "I know how you feel about him."

"I didn't think it would be that bad," Ethan protested, revealing his part in it all. "You even had me save him from the explosion."

"So just because I didn't let a brat die I have to like him?"

"He also was going to leave me at first," Frey chimed in, beaming attitude not faltering one bit and Lucius felt like it was a terribly misplaced expression at the time.

"You what!?" Eliza looked aghast, and Lucius gritted his teeth with a glare at Frey.

"But I didn't, and I risked a lot by getting you out."

"See?" Ethan gestured to him. "How was I supposed to know you don't like him with those priorities?"

"Though I have to say I'm surprised you agreed to come," Lucius said to Frey, whose endearing facade only strengthened as his smile widened enough to crinkle his eyes.

"I didn't."

Lucius blinked.

"What?"

"Yeah, we kind of... Brought him along without permission." Ethan tried to grin as if that made anything better, and Lucius gawked.

"You kidnapped him!?"

"Well, we're giving him back later."

"By Dyris—"

"His family would never have agreed," Ethan defended himself. "Especially after the BBT incident. Better to get it over with and apologise later."

"Better for you, maybe." Lucius wanted to strangle the man. "You're not the one needing to explain why Lord Clausson's precious son has been taken on a most likely dangerous journey without his knowledge. Imagine the consequences of that between two town chiefs."

"Helping another town chief would be one of few reasons that wouldn't make my father furious in this case." Frey absentmindedly rocked back and forth on his feet, and Lucius could have sworn he saw his smile wavering. "My concern however is how you could ever make this worth my while."

Lucius gave the adolescent horror a tired look while another groan escaped his mouth.

"Would it hurt you to just help someone out of compassion?"

"It's possible." Frey's voice turned surprisingly sombre in a way that was no doubt practised to tug at heartstrings. "At least if I'm owed something the other person can't win completely. Even if they fool me somehow they'll still lose something they value so I prefer to make the favours as equal in worth as possible to avoid that."

Lucius didn't blink as he spared the child a moment of silence.

"You know what? I think we'll buy a toy for you to play with so you can experience childhood, even if it's just for a little while."

"That's so thoughtful of you, Mr. Cromwell, but I'm afraid you'll have to keep that fear of growing up to yourself." Despite Frey having gone back to his sunshine state he'd finally let some cold sweep over his eyes, and everyone around the table except Lucius and Ethan awkwardly moved away from what was likely to become a clash of two fiery, immature souls. "Unlike you, some actually don't get to be children forever."

Normally it would have hit Lucius hard. If anyone could afford to have a proper childhood it was rich, ungrateful brats like Frey, but he was too occupied with everything else going on and if they had to rely on Frey's help and also escape his father's wrath he had to play nice.

"Anyway," Frey continued with a singsong voice Lucius wished to never hear again, placing the neatly stacked bundle of papers down on the table while turning to Ethan; who still hadn't retreated from there. "I finished the Idrali questions. Also I made a Verlandic translation of the chapters before just in case."

"That's so impressive, young Lord Clausson." Ethan grinned back, with Lucius cringing at the delight in his voice. He'd never heard him that cheery. "To think you finished it so quickly! And you even went out of your way to translate the ones you already had into yet another language too!"

If Lucius wasn't mistaken Frey was lightly bouncing on his toes at the compliments while clenching his hands behind his back.

"I'll hand these to Abram when he's got the time." Ethan patted the pages in front of him, expression turning towards one of warm concern though. "Perhaps now that you've done all this work you could relax and enjoy yourself? Perhaps take a look around the ship or at least get some fresh air up on deck?"

"That's not necessary." Frey didn't have to consider it for a second. "I will rest for a bit though."

"Of course." Ethan nodded, and as Frey walked away Lucius gave him a look of disapproval.

"Don't tell me he's fooling you as well."

"I don't have to be fooled in order to like him." Ethan met the disapproval with a reproachful look of his own. "It just occurs to me that no one around him understands the kind of person he is."

Lucius frowned, just about to ask for elaboration when Abram emerged from the stairs.

"So..." He looked around, eyebrows arching at the absence of everyone except Ethan and Lucius before joining them by the table, safely avoiding the wobbly chair while turning to Lucius. "... Feeling ready to do this again?"

He held his hand forward.

"Abram Vandelay. Ethan's told me a lot about you, and while he's tried to fill me in on most of your dilemma I must admit it still baffles me."

"No one is more baffled than me." Lucius shook his ring-clad hand for a second time, mind wandering back to the real, yet only slightly more troubling problem than Frey being around. "But while I appreciate you all going out of your way like this for me, I wish you would turn back. My condition may be cause for concern but so is leaving South Kerilia in the state it is. As nice of a sentiment as it is, the people back there trying to help me won't stand a chance should certain monsters put their mind to it."

"I'm well aware of Lord Hargreaves' deranged mind," Abram assured him, proceeding to glance over to Ethan. "... As well as Mr. Kilgrave's."

"So you get it." Lucius nodded in appreciation. "And I don't expect you to stick around and help with sorting all that out, but if you could just—"

"But despite all the confusion Ethan has made it very clear that the state of your body is more urgent than all that, so we will still follow the initial plan."

Lucius gritted his teeth, he wasn't fond of bringing it up, especially since he wasn't sure himself what he'd seen before passing out back then, but it seemed he was left with no choice.

"It's about more than Damien and Anthony," he mumbled, gaze falling to the table and he clenched his fists. "Before I blacked out I saw something terrifying, and I... I need to go back and see for myself if it's as bad as I think."

Both vampires stared at him in silence, expecting him to continue without being prompted.

"My..." Lucius scrunched up his nose into a grimace. "... One of my friends who— who was executed a couple of years ago... She disappeared from her grave, and I was looking for her and tried to figure out what could have happened before the whole Damien mess but didn't find anything."

He swallowed as a lump formed in his throat.

"But then as the veins began taking over I— I saw her. I saw her corpse, wandering around and talking to me and— And she wasn't alone. For some unhallowed, cruel reason she seemed to be accompanying my brother."

"Well... We're perhaps not the best duo to suggest that dead people stay dead," Ethan began with a supportive nod from Abram. "But isn't it possible that when the veins made you faint, probably from blocking your breathing, that they also made you see things? It sounds like your mind could have conjured things before you that weren't actually there, like a dream?"

"But I could hear her voice so clearly, and I could... Smell her rotting corpse." Lucius placed a hand over his mouth as he recalled it. Though he'd sure enough seen a lot of Seth in his nightmares before and that the two of them were unlikely to even know of each other, he couldn't believe what he'd experienced was the same as a dream. "Something horrible is going on, and I... Can't just leave her like that. If not for the town, then for her... I need to help her."

Chances were the vampires were as good at acting as Frey, seeing how they both seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, but they both did look genuinely sympathetic.

"But you need to understand that you're in danger," Ethan empathised. "Again, you're no good to South Kerilia— Or your friend, if you're dead."

"And if what you saw was real, at least she's not alone," Abram suggested. "Your brother is with her."

Lucius was aware no one around him knew about his relationship with Seth, but a searing wrath blooming at the mere thought of Mabel being near his brother still made him want to scream loudly at the people in front of him.

"That's worse," he managed to settle on instead, eyes still locked on the table. "Much worse."

Once again the vampires waited for him to explain, but Lucius had no intention to do so.

"Well since you can't actually go back..." Abram began, only pausing to acknowledge Lucius' glare with a frown. "... Why not do something on the ship to take your mind off things?"

Lucius still wouldn't give him the pleasure of accepting defeat, but he glanced around the unfamiliar space around him.

"I don't know the first thing about ships."

"But you do know about humans," Ethan pointed out, to Lucius' unfaltering confusion. "You should ask Mr. Harmon if he needs any help. He's the mortal crew's overseer."

Lucius' face twisted into one of concern.

"The... Mortal?"

"Why yes, almost half the crew is mortal after all, and Mr. Harmon makes sure they're healthy and are being treated well."

"Half the crew is... Mortal?" Lucius looked between the two of them as it dawned on him. "So the rest are..."

"Well, not that." Abram threw Ethan a confused, somewhat reproachful look. "Which I assumed a certain someone would have explained long ago."

Ethan smiled sheepishly while twirling a lock of hair around his finger.

"Ah right, so..." He gestured up and down to other decks. "... They're vampires."

Lucius blinked.

"They— There are... More vampires?"

Abram let out a sharp, loud 'ha' that made Lucius jump.

"Of course there are." He shook his head at Ethan before facing Lucius again. "More than half the crew are vampires."

***

Author's note:

So the squad has assembled (some more appreciated than others)! What do you all think? First impression of Abram? Some Frey frustration (Freystration?)? How's Lucius' condition gonna go over with more than half the crew? And what are your predictions on the Seth and Mabel mystery?