Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The tools are placed on the platform. Nothing happens, except for a slight creaking. "Okay, uh, let's go down." The pair climb down another rusty ladder into what appears to be a metal foundry. Molds for parts are stacked in haphazard piles throughout the room, and a huge forging machine next to a pile of coal dominates one side. All the accoutrements for working with hot metal are here, tongs, buckets, gloves, aprons. It's Selekhael's turn to look excited. "Oh! I wonder if this foundry still works!?" June might notice another hidden panel in the same place as the first was on this floor.

[Recaiden]

Don't feel bad: the alley has enough people. It won't get lonely.

The dog listens and appears to understand, and goes with her. There isn't reallyall that much the dog can do, though, with the psychic suppressor on it.

She arrives at the tiny souvenir shop.
The shop owner is a guy. Pretty short. Got a black mustache and a long, pointy beard.

"Ah! Peace and good evening to you, worthy friend," he says. "Please, please come in and look around."
Even though the shop is pretty small, it has a great variety. A bunch of rocks - some more valuable than others, but mixed together with similar-looking ones. Little wooden statues and other things like that. Keychains, too. Tags. Lots of things.

Anchor tells Briar that they're being a "Good dog." as they go in.

She glances around the little shop, but, you know, if you've seen one tiny souvenir shop, you've seen most of them already.
"I'm actually here about the hiring sign. And interesting work, here?"

The ghost isn't really confident in his ability to do this. He's never tried anything like it, of course. Only recently became a ghost.

The protesting man doesn't really seem to notice a shadow on the wall.
After all, it's a shadow and he has other important things to pay attention to. For example, like trying to stop the mermaids from doing their job.

While this goes on, the ghost tries to use his spooky ghost powers.
It's hard.
He manages to make the keys jingle, though.
After a little more work, they move a little. Almost come off the hook they're attached to!

It's okay ghost, there's a first time for everything.
And there's no hurry. Probably.

So the shadow just tries to encourage him. He almost got it there, bringing them off the hook. Just take things slowly and keep at it, and as long as that guy keeps shouting at the mermaids, being so very distracting to them, you'll get away with it!

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

Briar comes along with Anchor into the shop.
It's okay, pets are probably allowed. Besides, Anchor's got sunglasses, right? Maybe it's a seeing-eye dog.

The shop owner says, "I see."
He walks around the counter. He skips right to the interview and asks a question that is very clearly important for working in a souvenir shop. "I presume you already have experience. What sort of skills do you have? I need someone who can start right away - first shift starting in two hours."


The ghost, being encouraged, doesn't give up.
He keeps on trying,
and!
Manages to get the keys off the ring! They're a little heavy for a ghost, though, and he's not really used to it yet, so he almost drops them, but luckily instead catches them and lowers them to the ground. He's pretty sure that he can lift them up alright, and that he can drag them around decently, but carrying them around seems a little above his skill ceiling at the moment.

The merpeople are still distracted.
After all, it's very important that this guy gets kissed. They don't want him to drown, after all.


[Lost Beach]

"Maybe?" she says, looking at the forging machine.
Apron!
June immediately goes towards the aprons to grab one and check if they have pockets. If they do, she grabs one...and a pair of gloves, for good measure, and then puts it on - and the gloves and the three tools she grabbed into the pockets. If they do have pockets, that'd be so much more comfortable.

"I haven't seen any power devices yet," she says, "but it might have a generator. Maybe you could check if any are working?" While talking, she goes over to the panel, and examines it. It's got to connect to upstairs, right? She checks around it to see if she can confirm that, even though she's pretty sure she won't get any use out of it.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The apron is made of leather held together by metal rivets, and has many sturdy pockets. It's ideal for holding June's tools.

June opens up the second panel. Behind is the same shaft, the same rusty chain, the same crank. Cranking the chain down far enough will bring the platform that June had loaded with stuff down to this level.
So it's a dumbwaiter. But for tools.

Selekhael picks up a rusted steel ingot and weighs it in her hands. She scratches a patch of rust so it flakes off. "This is good quality steel. If we scrape the rust off, it could be useful."

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten Pirate Cove]

The swordsman does his best to commit all this to memory. "Hmmm... thank you. That's all. You must be anxious to leave this world, so I'll be going now." He's about to say something more, but nothing fitting comes to his mind. "See you" and "farewell" certainly don't feel right.

So, he puts the knapsack away, picks up his sack of bones, walks past the ghost and begins the final ascent to surface. When his bag starts getting heavier, he stops, wondering what is happening beneath the cloth. But the stairwell is narrow and steep, so he decides against opening it and soldiers on. The added weight is not a problem, as long as his haori doesn't tear because of it. He's more worried about the contents spilling and rolling down the stairs.

[Recaiden]

Briar comes along with Anchor into the shop.
It's okay, pets are probably allowed. Besides, Anchor's got sunglasses, right? Maybe it's a seeing-eye dog.

The shop owner says, "I see."
He walks around the counter. He skips right to the interview and asks a question that is very clearly important for working in a souvenir shop. "I presume you already have experience. What sort of skills do you have? I need someone who can start right away - first shift starting in two hours."


The ghost, being encouraged, doesn't give up.
He keeps on trying,
and!
Manages to get the keys off the ring! They're a little heavy for a ghost, though, and he's not really used to it yet, so he almost drops them, but luckily instead catches them and lowers them to the ground. He's pretty sure that he can lift them up alright, and that he can drag them around decently, but carrying them around seems a little above his skill ceiling at the moment.

The merpeople are still distracted.
After all, it's very important that this guy gets kissed. They don't want him to drown, after all.

Well, two hours is definitely longer than she has at the moment. But maybe she can look around, meet with Zophiel, and come back for the shift. Or delay the meeting or something.
"Absolutely. I mean, tons of experience. Stocking, accounting, sales, fighting, magic, everything you need to do in a little shop."
"Starting today, well, that's good news, actually."
There's no way this place actually has a shift starting at that hour, right? Where would it get customers? Not from any legitimate place, surely.
"How much do you pay?"

---

The shadow congratulates the ghost on a job well done. Now they just need to wait for the merfolk to finish their kissing so there's fewer of them around. Then they can drag a key over to the prisoners and start setting them free.

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Pirate Cove

When the swordsman reaches the top of the stairs and squeezes out into sunshine, his haori is no longer filled with bones. Instead, there's a young lady curled up inside it, the tumi having disappeared. It's just her; she has no clothes. Her eyes are cornflower blue, and her hair is short and pale white-blonde. Her skin is pale too, though dotted with freckles. She looks to be about nineteen, and if the haori is put down, she stretches her limbs and looks at her body with a great smile. "I... was not expecting this. Thank you, sir. I... don't know why, or how, but... It would appear I am no longer dead."

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

Yes! The apron is perfect.
That way she doesn't have to feel weird about where she was keeping the tools before.

And,
actually,
she probably should have just put the tools on that dumbwaiter and then explored down here first. She was pretty sure she could tell where it was going, and of course she'd find some kind of tool holster or apron or cargo pants or something down here. If only she had thought first, then maybe she could have figured this out.

She doesn't bother to pulling the chain to make it come down the whole way.

She moves away, and goes towards Selekhael. "Oh, yeah?" she says. "That's pretty neat. I have pockets now, so I could carry...maybe three or four of them?"

She looks closer at the ingot that Selekhael's holding. "Is there anything in particular you want to make with them? Or should we just take them with us so you can handle with it later?"


[Coast Crawling]

The shopkeeper looks up and down at Anchor. Fighting? Magic? He turns around and jots down a few notes. Then he tears off a small slip of yellow paper, and turns back to Anchor. "Hourly wages are low, but as a bonus you get a fair cut of all commissions. Plus, the best employees get a little extra. I heard there'll be a lot of buyers coming."

He holds the yellow slip out (it just has some random symbols and checkmarks on it) towards her, but keeps a tight grip on it still and looks down at the dog. "Trained, right? You can bring it too."
Then he adds, "If you find that fair, bring this out back; the owner will check to make sure you're a good fit for our work culture."

---

The shadow congratulates the ghost on a job well done. Now they just need to wait for the merfolk to finish their kissing so there's fewer of them around. Then they can drag a key over to the prisoners and start setting them free.[/QUOTE]

After an indeterminate amount of time,
the mermaids appear to have been successful.
Once they all ensure that all prisoners are properly locked up (the mermaids also have their own keys, so the merman doesn't have to check for his keys), everyone except two mermaids leave the room so that they can go rest between now and the next time all the prisoners have to be kissed.

Rather fortunately, news of there being an 'irregularity' spotted around here somewhere arrives while the key is being dragged across the floor.
One of the two mermaids leaves the room to go watch the hallway, so that she can see anybody approaching and prepare before they get here. This just leaves one mermaid left in here...and it's the one that the ghost and the two shadows followed to get here.

That mermaid looks around to make sure nobody's watching.
Then, she enters one of the cells and lays down next to one of the prisoners, and starts flirting with and teasing him.

And, at this point, some of the captives have noticed the moving keys and the odd shadows. They keep quiet, curious about what's going on. Even the one that was making a fuss has calmed down.
The ghost continues dragging the keys, and then looks over at Anchor's shadow, for instructions on how to approach this. He'll follow what she tells him to do.

[Recaiden]

You know, in case of unruly customers or selling a line of magical knickknacks.
"Yeah, that should be good enough. I mean, the commissions." That confirms it completely.
"Oh yes, very well trained." She glances at the slip while reaching out to get it. Presumably the owner will understand it?

"I'll do that."
And then it's off to the back of the shop!

---

Perfect timing! The shadow doesn't know that they were the irregularity, but news of it arrived at the ideal time.
And the final mermaid guard is busy having fun with her job rather than properly securing the prisoners.

Anchor's shadow suggests taking the keys to the cell furthest from/behind the one with the mermaid. That way they can get the most prisoners out before anyone could catch on.
Then, noticing some attention, tries to turn and signal to the humans to keep quiet, bring a raised finger to their lips in profile, then bringing a hand to the keys and the cell they plan to have opened.
The final thing would be for the human who's being flirted with to try to distract the mermaid. But how to get that across?

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"No, leave them here. Uh, I was just noticing. Maybe if we get the forge working, I can, uh, make something." Selekhael puts down the ingot where she found it. "I don't have a forge of my own, so, uh, taking them home is, uh, pointless."

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten Pirate Cove]

"I was expecting you to be more monstrous" , the swordsman says flatly as he picks up his haori off the ground, after letting the woman out. "I felt a lot of resentment and rage in that silver blade when I picked it up. All that bad spiritual energy had to go somewhere, and I didn't notice it rolling off the bag when I let you out. I figure it's all inside you now."

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

That's true, dealing with unruly customers is a pretty important part of the job.

Anchor will have to walk past the loiterers to get to the back of the shop. They glance at her and the slip that she's holding, and...go back to talking about whatever.

As she goes down the alley, she gets to the back door. It opens up for her when she gets close, and she's allowed inside.
It's some kind of reception room.
There's a guy - behind the desk - who looks like the brother of the man who was out front. He gestures for Anchor to come to him and hand him the slip of paper.
There's also two other people in this room, and they both look pretty beefy. There's a female orc, and also a human guy in a suit with sunglasses. (He thinks it makes him look cooler and more imposing. Also, he doesn't like the way his eyes look.)

"So," the guy behind the desk says. "We prefer people who are willing to do anything for money and who don't ask questions. Do you feel like this describes you?"
And, one more question: "What do you think of Skyside?"

---

Don't worry, all the prisoners are locked up anyway. There's no need to bother with 'properly securing' them; they're already properly secured.

The ghost obeys and starts to unlock the farthest prisoner. That prisoner notices Anchor's shadow's instructions, and nods. Once freed, he actually takes the keys from the ghost and - as quietly as possible - swims to the others and starts to unlock them.

The human who's being flirted with notices the other prisoners getting freed, and after a glance from one of the other prisoners, catches on what he needs to do. So, he starts flirting back with the mermaid, to keep her fully distracted.



[Lost Beach]

It's too bad that June doesn't have any 'inventory space' or whatever; that would be really convenient. Then she could just carry all of them without having to worry about how to carry them.
But, no,
she pretty much just has an apron to carry things in, and things have actual weight.
"Oh."
She looks over the whole thing again.
"That's too bad."

She moves away from the forge and looks elsewhere, to see if there's anything else she missed seeing. "The boat'll take probably two or maybe three more days to fix, right? So if it's operable, you'll definitely have time to do that." Though, June kind-of still wants to check out if there's anything in the middle of the island, first.

[Recaiden]

Anchor strolls past the loiterers without much of a reaction, just reminding Briar to stay close.
She gives the beefy guy a nod. "Nice glasses."

Then she hands over the slip just as expected.
"If I wanted to make money doing normal everyday stuff I wouldn't be here. I mean, right?"
"Done a few jobs in Skyside before. It's gotten worse since the royal guard started showing up more. Lots of wannabe heroes."

---

Okay, this is going great! Good job, ghost!
The shadow tries to signal to the escaping prisoners the last step of the plan. Everyone needs to grasp hands, and then one of them grab hold of the last guy who's distracting the mermaid.
And she asks the mermaid shadow - since it's about time to get the prisoners out of here, does she want to come along, or swim back to her mermaid?

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Pirate Cove

"That was justice, you felt. The tumi that claimed my heart now is my heart. I am filled with justice." She's lying; it's not justice, or even righteous judgement that the tumi was emanating. It was anger, fear and hate.

Frigate is visible in the shallow water, dragging a bronze cannon ashore. He's already pulled a stone anchor, a very large and cracked mirror, two barrels and a chest out of the wreck. Most of it has been colonised; the wood by shipworm, but all of it by barnacles, limpets and anemones.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"Plenty of time, I guess." Selekhael gives the forge a wistful look before turning towards the ladder. "Shall we go down again?" It doesn't look like there's anything else of importance in this room.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

"Yup," June says. She goes to the ladder. "I'll go down first this time."

She gets on the ladder and starts her descent. "And, who knows! Maybe we'll find the 'on' switch or whatever to this place."


[Coast Crawling]

The beefy guy nods, but actually looks pleased that someone else appreciates his look.

The owner guy glances at the muscle-woman to get her opinion. She nods.
The owner guy looks satisfied, and then says to the one with the glasses: "See, more people should be like this. Smart, efficient, straight-to-the-point. Unlike you." The guy with sunglasses doesn't seem to care.

He walks around the desk. "Normally, we'd spend more time verifying your skills, but recently we've been having trouble finding effective workers and we have merchandise that we need to offload quickly." And, as is customary of trading quests, he hands a shiny pin to her in exchange for the yellow paper. "North gate. We leave at 2 sharp."

---

The prisoner that's the best at charades understands the plan. Not really sure what's going on or why a shadow is talking to them or even helping them. But he ends up showing the others what they're supposed to do. They obey the instructions, and...

Finally, they get into the cell with the flirtatious mermaid, and one of them grabs the prisoner in there
The others are all nervous, in case the mermaid starts shouting because they have no idea if this'll work or even what's supposed to happen.


The mermaid's shadow says she probably should get back, and should be fine on her own.

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten Pirate Cove]

The swordsman put his haori back on while shaking his head in sadness. "I've seen your kind of a monster before. I remember it now. Exorcising your lot was my duty. You didn't come to life. You are just as dead as you were before I found you, held back by unfinished things that've long since ceased to matter." Without further ado, he draws his longer sword, trying to cut the woman down in one fast motion.

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Pirate Cove

The sword passes through the woman, and she shrieks. It's a horrendously loud sound; this close, it could knock the swordsman out, or burst his eardrums and leave him temporarily deaf.

The sword blow seems to have worked, however; her flesh dissipates rapidly, and the bones- and the tumi- clatter to the ground. The ghost he met earlier is left standing there, and reaches out to try and clamp her hands around his throat and squeeze, screaming all the while. Her fingers don't have any mass, so the squeezing won't do anything, although the scream might. Her touch is very cold.

[Recaiden]

Anchor reaches out to take the pin. "Two. I'll be there."
"..."
"No questions." That is what they asked for, right? Anything she needs to know, she'll learn at the north gate. Or by poking around before then.
And that should be enough time to meet with Zophiel, discuss things, and then make it to the gate before anyone leaves.

She places the pin in a pocket, in case it means things to the rest of this town that shouldn't be on display yet, and tries to head out.

---

Okay. It's been nice working together, mermaid shadow!
What happens is there is a slight delay, in which things might go wrong.
And then the shadow reaches out, and she and the ghost and all the prisoners (and anyone else who happens to be touching them) should disappear out of the fort and appear in the alleyway where Anchor is.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The third floor of the tower is a living area. There's a simple stove, a bed, a table, etc. There are two more interesting things. One is a heavy metal chest with a sturdy lock, sitting on the table. The other is a corpse of an old man. He clutches a dark green fragment of crystal that pulses slowly with an eerie light, and there's a key on a string hanging around his neck.
There's another ladder down as well.

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten Pirate Cove]

The scream stuns the swordsman, his sword clattering to the ground while his hands shoot up to cover his ears - not that it makes much of a difference. He stumbles and grits his teeth, the scream having ruined his sense of balance. For a moment, the ghost gets to claw at him unopposed, the cold of the grave passing through his body and numbing his senses, his vision dimming....

But then, his training takes over. He's been in this very situation before. He doesn't remember how it turned out, but what he does remember is this: the ghost's immaterial hands may not be able to touch the material flesh of his body, and vice versa, but somewhere in his body is his ghost, his spirit.

And so, he focuses and his spirit leaps out of his body and tackles the woman's. Bright blue, ghostly flames surround him and spread through the air. "My name is Star of Hope Shines Eternal in the Pitch-Black Universe! " , his spirit shouts as it pries the woman's finger away from his physical self, then tries to wrestle her into a chokehold of his own. "And I've come to release you from your earthly bonds! One way or another!"

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

Luckily, thanks to the green light, June doesn't need Selekhael to get down enough for June to look around. She moves away from the ladder to give space.

First, she notices the chest. Ooh, neat. That looks like it'd be fun to open.

Then, she notices the corpse.
She almost jumps from surprise, thinking he's still alive. "H-hello?" she says.
She approaches and notices he's actually dead. "Oh." Must've died recently, considering the climate...wait, no, this building has been sealed pretty well, which could have preserved him more. Not to mention, everything here looks so old, so...probably preservation. It does feel cooler and drier in here, after all.

Well...he has the key. . .
but, more importantly, if she grabs that light then she won't need to wait for Selekhael's sword-light.
She goes up to the corpse and looks at him for several minutes. She gives a very slight bow, and tells the corpse, "I'm sorry you had to die alone."
And then, "E-excuse me." She tries to take the pulsing crystal.


[Coast Crawling]

The door shuts behind Anchor after she leaves.

Suddenly,
all the prisoners appear in the alleyway with Anchor.
There's also a mermaid with them.

Evidently, the mermaid panicked when she realized all the prisoners were both escaping and were coming into the cell with her possibly to overpower her, so she grabbed the nearest one both to stop him from getting away and to protect herself.

So, they're all in the alleyway.
Nobody knows what's going on,
and that includes the loiterers at the mouth of the alley. One of them notices the sudden throng of people and brings it up to attention with the others, so they can help him decide what the heck just happened and what they should do.

[Recaiden]

The shadow is right where it should be, perfectly mimicking Anchor's movements. It doesn't have the energy to do anything else, after snapping so many people back along with it.

Anchor is briefly confused herself. They brought a mermaid along too?!
But she's gotta do something.
"And so, you've all been rescued from the bottom of the ocean! Thank you for working together so well, please follow me." And she waves a hand towards the exit of the alley, back towards the street.

""Don't worry." she tries to tell the panicked mermaid, making herself dazzling and captivating to hear, as she did at the docks. And then she tries to pick up the mermaid who came along. Which is a bit ridiculous, there's no way she'd be able to carry a mermaid all the way back. But perhaps, with great effort, she can carry the mermaid at least out of this alleyway. Assuming that the mermaid cooperates for one reason or another.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The crystal is pried free from the man's cold, dead hands. It's clearly a broken part of a whole. Disturbing the corpse also reveals that the key, while it has an elaborately worked handle, is broken. The teeth are missing.
Selekhael climbs down the stairs. She focuses on the corpse first. "Oh no! Poor man!"

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

The mermaid is terrified and confused and helpless and fascinated, so of course she's going to cooperate. After letting go of the prisoner she was flirting with, she puts an arm around Anchor's shoulder to make herself easier to carry.
She finds it rather lucky that there is someone right here, willing to carry her, because -- wherever she is -- she doesn't want to be stranded here.
Some of the rescued prisoners, however, are able to notice that the architecture and skyline around here seems familiar. And, luckily, most of them actually live here too. The one who was the most agitated looks pretty anxious to get out of here and get moving.

They go with Anchor out of the alley.


Meanwhile, with the loiterers.
They back up and stare at the group.
On the one hand, this is weird. And there's suddenly a group of people.
On the other hand, Anchor did just come from the back door there and they don't really want to interfere in that totally-legit business. . .
They let Anchor and the group walk out, but one of the loiterers asks her, "Hey, what's going on?"


[Lost Beach]

June steps aside so that her companion can get a better look.
"Yeah, looks like he died alone," she says. "Not really sure how long ago, either, since this place was sealed pretty well." So, presumably, a long time ago judging by the rust and grime and dust. "We might be the first to visit him in a while, so I'm sure he's glad."

For now, she holds the glowing gem in her closed palm, to not distract Selekhael from whatever she wants to focus on first.

She steps away, and towards the chest, and tries to open it just in case it wasn't locked somehow. "Hey, you know how to open locked chests?" she asks. June kneels to get a better look at the lock, to see if it's a simple kind that she could probably open with a screwdriver, or maybe that pry-bar that she left upstairs.

[Recaiden]

Oh, that does help. Maybe she can carry the mermaid further than originally estimated.
Anchor pauses to turn and answer the loiterer. "Just taking these people where they belong before the shipment moves out. I mean, do you really think you want to know the details?"

And then she keeps walking away.
And once back on the street, addresses the people.
"So you all got kidnapped by merfolk two days ago, right? I came across your dock and it was totally empty except for one kid. Is there anyone else who got taken who's not here?
"And does anyone know about some sort of screeching-singing water creature around here?"

[5a Violista]

The loiterer supposes that makes sense.
He shakes his head.
It's not his place to question it, after all. Leave that to the people who are getting paid to question things.


For now, the people are walking with her until they get out of this area, but it feels likely that most of them are going to split up when they get closer to their home area.
For now, though, they all look at each other. "Nnnnno," one says after a lot of thinking about it to make sure. "We're all locals, from either here or the outlying rural areas."
The one who was making a fuss underwater is actually pretty relieved upon hearing there's a kid there. "Is he alright? Is the kid alright?" We'll call him Greg for simplicity.

Regarding the screeching-singing, there's more quiet and thinking. But, this time, it's because most of them actually have no idea what even happened, and it's their first time hearing about it. Most of them were captured before, after all: only two were captured afterwards.
Of those two, one of them is Greg. "I...I heard it," he says. "Not sure how to describe what it sounded like. Saw it, too. Was an unearthly white creature, seemed to glow a little, too. Well...not quite white-colored, but more of a...white feeling? A white taste?" Really sounds hard to describe.

The mermaid is outnumbered and doesn't want to speak up while she's in such a helpless position. Just ignore her, please, she prays.
She glances up as Greg starts to describe what he saw and felt, listening more intently, but then lowers her head again, trying to be invisible.

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Pirate Cove

The ghost lets go as soon as the swordsman's spirit jumps from his body, and steps away from the fiery soul before her. She shrieks again, this time aiming for a mystic frequency that might hamper the swordsman more, as she's shrieking soundlessly to mortal ears, on a wavelength that should- if she's got it right- interfere with the connection between Star of Hope's soul and body. Hopefully this distracts him from grappling her, as she tries to flow around him and get to the body he so helpfully vacated. If it doesn't distract him, though, or he works through it, he can put her in a headlock. She's never been a very skilled fighter, and relied on the help of the spectre lodged in the tumi when she sought her own vengeance.

[Recaiden]

That's alright. People going back home after being rescued is probably the ideal.
"Gregson? He was fine. So was the cat."
Hopefully they stayed that way while Anchor was gone.

"Yeah, that's the one. Was it a sort of blank feeling?"
Anchor looks to the mermaid that she's carrying. "How about you? Do you -huh- know of anything like that? Or were you at the fort the whole time?"
Sure, most of the rescuees may treat her as invisible, but Anchor could hardly forget about her.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

Selekhael somberly approaches the dead man. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." She touches him, and his corpse withers and crumbles to nothing, leaving his clothes and the key behind. Selekhael picks up the broken key. "Normally, I, uh, just use a key." The lock is very elaborate, probably made by the same mechanical genius who designed the machinery of this place. "Why is your hand glowing?"