"This is outrageous," Nulara watched as Baron Hickens, the minor noble who seemed to be unsatisfied with everything, shouted for the umpteenth time as he paced around the hall. Patience clearly wasn't something the Baron had much interest in.

  The night before, after being dropped off by Marcus and the other guards, they walked in darkness towards where they were told the village was. And made it there way later than the assumed 20 minutes by Marcus. All of it which was spent enduring the annoying grumbling and cursing of the Baron.

  Once they made it to the village, they had to do their best to calm the town's guards down. A group of their size walking to a settlement in the dead of night wasn't exactly something any village would appreciate. Finally, with all that trouble behind them, they were able to rest. There was some trouble with finding accommodations for all of them, given how small the village was, which brought them to the current events.

  The chief wasn't there when they got into the village; he had been in a nearby town and a runner had to be sent to get him the night before when they arrived. At the moment, they were in the chief's house, waiting for the man to arrive, and it would be an understatement to say that the Baron was displeased.

  Finally, just a bit after midday the door leading to the big hall where they were kept was pushed open as a tired looking old white haired man, with what seemed to be a group of knights behind him entered.

  "Are you the village chief?" The old man hadn't even taken a few steps in when the Baron shouted as he ran, or what could be considered running for the rotund noble, Nulara guessed, towards him.

  He didn't get that close to the old man though, as one of the knights behind him advanced and brandished his sword, stopping him in place.

  Nulara almost laughed at how fast the Baron stopped once he saw the sword, it was surprising that he could stop dead in his place at the mere sight of a sword.

  "Wh-what is the meaning of this," The Baron stumbled over his words, "Do you know who I am?"

  "No," the guard said, his tone flat as he gave the man an even flatter gaze, "I don't know who you are, no one does, that's why we are here. You appeared in the middle of the night with no proof for your story but your words. We need to understand what happened to you and verify it before anything else is done. So please calm down and let us do our work."

  "Everyone calm down," the village chief said once he saw that the Baron had been put under control, "These men are Knights of the Empire and they are here with your safety as their priority. We just need to ask you a few questions to understand what happened to you."

  The chief's words calmed the people down. Even though a few, like the Baron still seemed to be displeased about their treatment, fewer even would dare to go against the Empire's Knights, so they swallowed their dissatisfaction and got in line.

  As the knights took control over the situation, Nulara found out that the one who spoke first was their captain, whom they referred to as Captain Lyndsay. He seemed to be a no-nonsense man and he was the one who led the interrogation. Nulara noticed how the more he spoke with the people there, the more serious his expression got. She also noticed that while talking to them, many times he would give her and the boy who seemed close to Marcus a look. She didn't know what that was about, but she doubted it was anything good.

  It didn't take long before it was her turn. She found herself facing Captain Lyndsay at the table they had pulled from somewhere. The man didn't speak straight away, he just gave her that same flat look that seemed to be frozen on his face. Just as she was wondering if she should say something to break the awkward silence, he asked,

  "Your name is Nulara, right?"

  "Y-yes."

  "Any last name?" he pushed, while keeping an eye on her every reaction.

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  "No, there isn't," she lied. Well, in a sense, she wasn't really lying, she did lose her family name.

  "Hmm," he said, writing something on the paper in front of him. Nulara swallowed, straining to see what he was writing without anything to show for it, "It's said here that you were the first to get into the ship that saved you, is that right?"

  "Yes," she nodded, "I managed to slip by the pirates and jumped into the waters, fortunately, I was rescued by Captain Dan and his crew soon after."

  "And then they went and saved the others? Just like that?" he continued with his questioning.

  "N-no," she hesitated. She felt that there were some things she shouldn't say about what happened. Like how they argued about how they should deal with the pirates and all that. The crew of the Voyager saved her life and probably the lives of many from those slavers, she didn't want to implicate them, so she simplified what had happened a lot. "At first they didn't seem to be that interested in engaging the pirates and they decided on just leaving them be, but the pirates started following them and that's when they hit back. Saving everyone almost seemed to be an afterthought."

  Nulara wasn't an idiot, even though she didn't spend much time on the Voyager, what she saw made her question the fact that she was on a ship. It felt more like a floating city. She doubted even the King of the Oceans would come close to how big and magnificent it was. She didn't want to bring Captain Dan and the others any trouble, so she was trying to keep a few things to herself. Hell, even the boat that had been used to send them to the shore was unbelievable, it was so fast and didn't have any sails nor was it powered by oars.

  "Most of the passengers said that you had a close relationship with the crew of the ship you found yourselves in, is that true?" Captain Lyndsay's question dragged her from her deep thoughts.

  "I-I don't know about that," she answered, "I was just the first one who got rescued by them, I think that's why the others mistook my closeness."

  The captain just hmed at that, and she remained silent. She was asked a few more questions before she was finally let go. Moving to the side where those who got questioned already were, she watched as the young man the captain was eyeing was brought before him after her. She guessed then that the reason they were given that much attention was because many of the other passengers must have mentioned their close relationship to the crew.

  It didn't take long before the young man stood up and left and the Baron sat in his place. Nulara watched with interest as the man sat all self-importantly before he seemed to get a bit agitated and shouted,

  "I'm telling you, those bastards aren't normal. We should go out there and search for them, doing our best to bring them to justice!"

  "And as I told you, Baron Hickens." Captain Lyndsay stood up as he said in a louder voice than his usual, "The ocean is big, and who knows where they could be. Searching for them aimlessly would just be a waste of resources and time."

  Nulara shook her head at the Baron's outburst. She started wondering how someone could be this stupid. But then her heart skipped a beat as she saw a sinister smile appear on his face as he proudly said,

  "That's not a problem. They are a few tens of miles away from the shores of the Windy Cliffs Village!"

  Nulara could feel the hall freeze as everyone turned their heads towards the rotund noble. Their eyes filled with astonishment.

  "What did you say?" Captain Lyndsay asked slowly.

  "Before leaving I left a tracking spell on the ship," Baron Hickens said proudly, "Those idiots didn't suspect a th-"

  The man didn't have the time to finish his words, Captain Lyndsay grabbing him by the shoulder and cutting him off. It seemed that only then did the captain realise how bad letting everyone learn about this was.

  "Keep everyone here till I get back," he said to his remaining subordinate as he dragged the Baron upstairs.

  Nulara could feel her heart skip a beat. She didn't know what to do. As her mind wandered, she reached the conclusion she felt everyone there must have reached if they considered things for a bit. Seeing how they were dropped off, she was almost sure that the crew of that ship was going to visit the shore of that village. And with Captain Lyndsay knowing about that, she didn't want to think about what would be awaiting them when they did.

  Before she could even realise what she was doing, she found herself heading to a secluded part of the hall, hidden from the eyes of most people there. As her hand moved to the necklace she always wore, she finally had some time to look at what she was doing, she was putting herself in a lot of danger for people she barely knew for a day. But she also knew that she would never feel peace if she had the chance to help and didn't take it.

  Just as she was about to activate the artefact passed on through her family, she heard a voice ask,

  "What are you doing?"

  Her heart skipping a beat, she turned around to find the confused face of the boy who seemed to be close to Marcus.

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