The trip from the Voyager to the island was quiet, passing in comfortable silence. Neither Dan nor Fleta said much, and even Arnold who was their pilot didn't talk, seeming to be in deep thoughts. Soon, they made it to the makeshift harbour the island had, Dan thanking Arnold as they left, the Nautical Archivist waving them off as he returned to continue his job as a relay between the island and Voyager.

  Dan greeted Old Raily who had been waiting for them, before asking as they walked:

  "Where are the ill among the rescued slaves kept?"

  "There is this huge warehouse where anyone who turned ill used to be dropped off at." Old Raily shook his head. "The situation there is horrible. We will have to move those whom Fleta could heal to another, cleaner location. Those who are too ill or injured for her to heal quickly will be sent back to Voyager, once she's sure that it's nothing contagious or the like. I'm sure that the situation there would be way better for them."

  Dan nodded, he was about to continue with the conversation when he noticed something from the corner of his eye. Looking over, he saw a group of teens who didn't even seem to be 16 or 17 looking at the tender as it sailed away.

  The group then focused on them as they closed in on the shore from the pier. Dan smiled and waved at them, the teens returning the wave hesitantly, while only a few appeared to smile. Dan noted how quite a few seemed uneasy and even took a few steps back when Old Raily looked their way.

  "They will need time to open up," Old Raily said, their previous conversation forgotten, "It won't be easy for them to heal, but hopefully they will manage it, eventually."

  "We can only hope." Dan glanced back at them again.

  "Did they have a healer here?" Fleta asked after they had walked for a while.

  "The guards had one," Old Raily said with a frown, "He only went to the warehouse where they kept the ill slaves when he felt like it, doing the bare minimum before leaving for who knows how long. They mainly tried to do the best they could on their own, taking care of each other with whatever they had on hand."

  "Are there any of the injured guards still around?" Dan asked something that came to mind.

  "No." Old Raily just shook his head. "The Healer had been focusing on them, so they would be in operational condition when the Harvesters came. That did mean that all the slaves were thrown to the side, some of those injured by the bugs were left to suffer and many of them died before we took control over the island."

  After that heavy news, they fell into silence as they walked, and soon, they made it to an old-looking warehouse.

  "It's here," Old Raily said, a weird tone to his voice, "Be prepared."

  Taking a deep breath, Dan followed after Fleta who went in without hesitation. The first thing he noticed once inside was the heavy, stuffy air. It was so thick that he unconsciously wanted to turn around and leave. Going in, he was met by quite the sight.

  The place didn't even have beds, just clothes laid on the ground next to each other, and on them lay people who were so thin that it was surprising that they were still alive. A few here and there had yellowed clothes covering their wounds, and some of the wounded ones seemed to be almost dead, barely breathing while sweat covered them.

  Further in, he could see some women who had clear signs of being abused, with bruises covering their faces and bodies. Dan just stood at the door as he watched Fleta move to the ones who had the worst wounds and start working on them. She would first look at them with her eyes shining green before using her healing skill.

  Dan watched for a while, his expression unreadable before turning around and leaving. He wanted to stay and help, but he saw the number of other natives there, all of them helping as they could, some of them even came and joined Fleta, asking her what they could do to help.

  Old Raily hadn't joined them, he remained outside saying that he was worried about scaring the ones inside with his getup. The old man just patted him as he got out, not saying anything.

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  Dan's mind reminded him of the reason Fleta brought him there with her in the first place, and he sighed as he turned around to leave.

  "What are we going to do now?" Old Raily asked after they had moved for a while, "We don't need to wait for the Deepdark anymore, we can leave whenever we want."

  "Let's continue with what we had decided on before," Dan said after thinking about it for a bit, "Use those bastards to clean the island, and let's give our people a week or so of rest, we will leave after that."

  He meant those of the slaves who turned against their own, joining the guards and being even worse than them sometimes.

  "I will also lock them down after," Old Raily said, "There are a few cells here, I doubt they can run from there. We will decide what to do with them after that."

  "Sounds like a good idea." Dan nodded.

  Old Raily paused for a moment, looked around then said:

  "Follow me, I have something to show you."

  "Do you think that the Navy would come this deep into the ocean?" Dan suddenly asked as he walked next to the old man, not really caring about where they were going.

  He had already told the old veteran about what had happened with the Deepdark and what they had found from questioning them.

  "I doubt it," Old Raily shook his head. "I doubt they would push this far into the ocean without concrete evidence."

  They continued with their conversation as they made their way to some of the warehouses to the east of the island. As they passed by a group of rescued natives just sitting around under the sun and looking at the open ocean, Dan turned to Old Raily as he asked him:

  "How are they doing?"

  "As good as could be, really," Old Raily said as he looked at them, "After what they had been through, it's hard to go back to normal, if they ever manage to. It's going to take a long time either way."

  Dan just nodded absentmindedly. His mind also went to another matter that he had realised after Old Raily sent him the list of people joining them; the fact that only 27 of them were from the Dynasty, while the others were either from the Empire or the Alliance.

  With their next destination being the Dynasty, Dan wondered what they were going to do about them once they made it there. Shaking his head, he decided to deal with it when the time comes.

  "And we are here," Old Raily said as they stood in front of one of the warehouses that filled the area.

  "Is this..?" Dan asked as he looked at the huge warehouse and the others next to it.

  "Yes." Old Raily nodded. "This is where the mana crystals are kept, all of these warehouses are full of them."

  "I doubt we can take all of them," Dan said as he looked at the warehouses extending into the distance, there were at least 30.

  "I realised that too, and guess what? The metal is on the other side of the island, there is even more of it than here. We literally have more money than we can take."

  Dan frowned as he looked at the treasures they had in front of them. He guessed that even one of those warehouses had enough to fill a Deepdark four times.

  It had to be said, the Deepdark took around a month to reach the mainland and return to the island, which meant that in a whole year, it would be able to get what was essentially only three of those warehouses to the mainland. And the noble, an Archduke -the title one rank below princes and the monarchs from what they had realised- was willing to suffer through that risk for just that. Dan looked at the more than 30 warehouses and realised just how much of a fortune they were sitting on.

  The Voyager didn't have enough room for that, she was a cruise ship, most of the space was filled with rooms for the passengers or stores and spaces for them to enjoy their trips, not much was left for cargo.

  "I will talk to Nik and see what we can do," he said.

  After taking a look inside the warehouse -noting how the mana crystals were crated in 2x2-meter wooden boxes- Dan and Old Raily made their way back to the shore.

  As he looked at the places that weren't touched by the people on the island, Dan marvelled at the scenery and the exotic plants. He couldn't help a smile as he thought about the people on Voyager getting down and finally enjoying a bit of peace on land.