“Sheffield.” The priest tripped over himself as a quartz stake planted itself between him and the captain. “The Crag Witch is your friend, is she not? These people slew her.”

  “Well actually—” The captain coughed up blood, “She is only taking a nap.”

  His carefree attitude really rubbed me the wrong way. He was on the verge of death and still seemed to be playing games with me.

  “Madam Shale is on her way to confirm as we speak,” Overpriest Sheffield of Prophet’s Peak stood up straight in an effort to talk me down as daggers danced around the pirates’ necks. “I have known Captain Shores for a long time. He is a good man.”

  I wondered where she ran off to, but that was just as well. I didn’t exactly need her help here.

  “The pirate’s name or background means little to me. He is acting on his master’s orders.” The only woman potentially more mysterious than the Hidden Witch. In the span of a week she cured a plague, reshaped an island to stop the floods and eventual crumbling of Fount Salt, then even sated the rampaging local fauna. If that doesn’t make a saint, I don’t know what does. But I can’t just trust the legends which trickle up the Boreal.

  “Reverend, do you truly work for the Saint herself?” It seemed Sheffield found some kind of revelation in my words.

  “Hah.” By now the captain was fully healed, twiddling around the bloody quartz knife extracated from his torso. “Work for her? I do much more than that, buddy.”

  The priest’s eyes went wide, and I had to admit, the image of the Saint I had in my mind started to blur with that comment.

  “You… You wouldn’t.” Petrified, the believer was.

  Gasp. “The hell are you thinking about, old man?!” Captain Shores appeared revolted now and I was officially lost. Any bloodlust I thought I had mustered blew away on the breeze. “I work with her. Among her closest confidants. Don’t get it twisted. I also sit at the peak of our faith. In fact, you may as well just start calling me Cardinal. All who wield her blessed light are under my command and guidance.”

  I don’t recall hitting him in the head, but it must have been too hard.

  “Enough nonsense, Shores. This island is under my protection in this moment, and you have yet to answer the single question I posed.” I moved Shefield out of the way and leveled a cold glare Shores’ way. A forest of quartz pikes blacked out the sun, “Any more stalling and I be forced to capture you. Resist and it may end worse.”

  “You asked me something?” There was genuine confusion in the man’s eyes before he laughed, “Sorry, I just get so caught up sometimes thinking about her eminence.”

  You can’t be serious… he’s stalling, right? I think I’ve had enough.

  “C’mon, Rev.” A scrawny boy by his side spoke up, “She definitely asked you something. How could you forget?”

  “Well then, Skip. If you’re so diligent, then what did she ask?” Shores double-took between us as if he expected me to repeat myself.

  They’re messing with me, right? They can’t be this stupid. Or is it blind faith at work?

  “I don’t know,” The apparent ‘Skip’ replied, “I was too busy condensing my domain. How’s it look?”

  I cannot—

  Cracks formed in the brick and continued over the staircase as pirates and priest alike stared at me aghast. I couldn’t help but channel my aggravated exasperation through the shroud of quartz dust around the island, “What is the Saint’s relationship to the Hidden Witch? I will not ask again.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Whoa, she did the thing—“ Shores was silenced as his feet sunk in, “Oh man, I mean… That’s a difficult question, you see. To answer it we must ask ourselves: Who is the Saint, really? For that matter, who is the Hidden Witch?” His gaze left mine and drifted somewhere distant with an incomprehensible chuckle, “Tell me, little witch of ruin. Have you ever met the Hidden Witch?”

  I sighed, “Yeah… A couple weeks ago, I guess?”

  “Wait… really?” He turned around in poorly-veiled shock and a short commotion ensued among his crew. “Was it like, two weeks ago…? Or closer to twenty days? Maybe more? just curious, I mean.”

  “It was closer to twenty days.” I pressed as many quartz points as would fit against his throat, “Now seriously, Shores. I have grown weary of this game. Speak.”

  “Th-the Hidden Witch! Yes, ah… practically a big sister to me. I mean, no. More like an aunt, mentor, and so on… We’re practically family,” He must have felt a couple poke through the skin because I sure did, “Gah! Uh, the Hidden Witch is practically a big sister to the Saint! Or maybe a little one. Hard to say. They, uh, you could say they teach each other. They’re very close, you see. It would not surprise me to find out they even sleep in the same bed more often than not.”

  There were a few tense moments which passed—though it was clear Shores thought he provided valuable enough testimony to convince me. Instead, he made it more obvious than ever that he had never met either figure.

  “Don’t make me laugh. The Hidden Witch would not let you tarnish this land any longer, so neither shall I. Prepare to face a liar’s fate.”

  The earth below swallowed him up and a fraught voice cut in as stone reached his face, “Madam Quartz, stop!” Shale…?

  I watched my apprentice appear through the destroyed gateway with what appeared to be a flying pile of bodies in her wake.

  “What is the meaning of this?” I demanded.

  “Stop this, please… Crag is okay. These men had healed her before I even arrived. We don’t need anymore bloodshed today.” Four pirates appeared behind her sheepishly. “Please, just hear them out.”

  I looked at the Crag Witch. She was a good person with strong conviction who I actually looked up to when I was younger. Now though, she looked like any regular girl. The peaceful slumber apparent on her face betrayed a state of mind I couldn’t help but envy. I watched her chest heave in and out with gentle breaths.

  “They left her alive. I am relieved, but so what? Have you already discerned their purpose here? Because all I have witnessed is a pirate invasion and blatant lies.” Shale was young and na?ve, so I wouldn’t hold it against her if she was duped. Regardless, I could not take her word for it either.

  “Silly, silly little witch. Tsk tsk…” Their captain was really starting to get on my nerves too. His head was hardly poking out of the ground. “If you wish to understand—”

  Smack!

  “Allow me to apologize for my captain.” The largest man whose muscular build rivaled the Gandeux’s own Peugolo reeled his hand back from the dazed captain, “While he is widely considered the Speaker of the Saint among the most devout of our clergy, he is not so eloquent with outsiders. Let me talk plainly. We know not the Saint’s origin, nor the Hidden Witch’s. But they could not be further apart in nature. Regardless, they joined hands for a common goal, did they not? As the Far Prophet once said, ‘Be not divided by the cruel slaughter of circumstance, but united in thy barest will.’ My friends and I have come to free Prophet’s Peak of Earth Vein’s tyrannical grasp. Now all you must do is tell me your will.”

  The man lifted fists that could punch holes in a barge. Somehow everything in sight, my quartz included, shimmered with a pleasant golden glow that reminded me of simpler times both past and future.

  I am not even certain of my own will, but I think I’ve figured it out. What would the Hidden Witch do here and now? Surely, seek the most effective way to achieve the most good—likely with as little effort as possible. She struck me as a very efficient person. Such… efficiency is in part the makings of a legendary witch. Never settle for good enough.

  “I see now. Your captain is indeed very poor with words.” Much of his crew nodded in agreement and an air of relief washed over them as I relaxed my quartz weapons. They fell like heavy rain. “And just as Sheffield says, you are indeed no enemy to Prophet’s Peak. Crag’s current state is at least acceptable as a gesture of good faith. And I see now that three of your men are dead.”

  “That’s right. Three good men who pledged their entire lives to surviving the night. Three young men who abandoned a life of comfort in search of brighter shores. Three souls who can only hope to wash up upon them in the next life.” The large man’s expression turned hard like stone, “And I spared your witch’s life with my very own hands. In good faith.”

  “My will, you ask...” I had been trying to figure this out for weeks. As hard as I tried to do right today, I apparently have blood on my hands. Even though I didn’t spill it, there it was. Right before my eyes. Maybe Shale was right—there was no need for further bloodshed. In this moment, I felt the first thing off the top of my head would be the right answer, “I have spent too many years sitting idly by as a blight festers in these skies. The time has come to remove it.”