Crickle-crackle.


    Alex stood in a warm, cozy room that reminded him of his grandmother''s house on Earth. Aside from the area around the fireplace, books lay stacked across the entire room. Most of the spines didn''t bear titles, and they weren''t like the mass-market hardcover and paperbacks he was used to. No, these were either hand copies of books or originals, complete with little pieces of additional paper sticking out of a few of them where someone had added notes.


    He didn''t know why, but his fingers itched to grab one and take a look.


    He might have if it wasn''t for the old woman glaring at them. Runa sat upright in her bed, wrapped in quilts as she occasionally shivered. Firril was working with a large black pot over the fire, warming up a soup of some kind if Alex could guess from the sweet and savory smell wafting from it. Gary had chosen to stay outside, which was fortunate because he was pushing it when it came to space.


    They were all out of their heavy coats and down to more or less their normal clothes. Alex still had his coat on because he had to leave his normal black duster back on the ship. Sayed was down to his leather armor over his usual shirt and pants. Jean still wore his coat and gloves, but Alex assumed that was to hide his skeletal nature. Erin wore her green cloak over her regular black clothes, which she had managed to fit underneath her heavy winter coat. Mari was out of her many layers and was back to her new red cloak with the hood down.


    She stood beside Alex, her arms wrapped around his leg as she looked at the old woman. Erin knelt beside Runa, doing some basic checkups on the woman''s health, from measuring her heartbeat to having her cough to check her breathing.


    "You''ve got a cold, I think," Erin said as she stood from beside Runa''s bed. "If you take it easy for a few days, you''ll be alright again."


    Cough. Cough.


    "Thank you, dear, but I assumed as much," Runa said as she recovered from her cough. "The real problem is I''m getting old. I don''t have much time left on Erth, and spending it on this freezing island isn''t helping."


    "And why are you on this island?" Alex asked as he leaned against a bookshelf and crossed his arms. "You know Mari, and you''re on the island she led us to. You can''t really pretend this isn''t all connected."


    "I''m not going to." Runa laughed.


    Cough.


    She looked between the four of them as the soup continued to simmer in the fireplace. Alex kept his eyes on her and noticed that she was assessing each of them. She was trying to figure out as much as she could about the strangers in front of her before she revealed what she wanted to say.


    "First, who are all of you, and how did you find M.A.R.I.?" Runa asked.


    "We call her Mari." Alex sighed. "It''s a lot easier to say."


    Runa looked down at Mari, who moved further behind Alex''s leg. She smiled, shaking her head.


    "I can do that," Runa said. "The last time I met Mari, she was still with the ship. She hadn''t really been born yet. In this form, she''s something different than what she used to be."


    "Wait," Alex said, closing his eyes and touching his forehead with his thumb. "First, let''s get this part over with. I feel like you''re about to reveal something complicated."


    He waved across his friends before pointing at himself.


    "I''m Alex. We found Mari on an island called Nowhere on Death''s Yard."


    "I''m Erin."


    "I am Sayed."


    "Call me Jean."


    "Welcome to Diamond Peak then," Runa said. "You know who I am now, as well as Firril and Gary."


    Alex nodded.


    "Then, let''s get this over with," Runa said. "You found Mari where Roald hid her, and Mari led you here."


    "We did," Alex said.


    "Which means you''re here to see Roald."


    "Yes," Erin gasped but stopped as Runa favored her with a smile.


    "I''m sorry to tell you this, then." Runa frowned, shaking her head as she looked down at the bed. "Roald is long gone. He would have been over sixty years old today if he were still here."


    "For how long?" Erin asked, her eyes going wide in shock.


    "About ten years now, I think," Runa said, sighing. "You stop keeping track of time the older you get. Every day just becomes the same after a while."


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    This made Alex question why Erin had shown up on Glory Plateau. How did she have information that Roald had been there if he had already been dead for so long? Mari gripped his pant leg tightly, and he looked down at her. She may have been an android, but she had just heard the man who she saw as her father was dead.


    "Are you okay?" Alex whispered, placing a hand down on the top of her white hair.


    "I don''t know," Mari whispered, frozen on the spot as Runa continued talking.


    "It was all his plan in the end, though he wasn''t sure how long it would take. He wanted Mari back here, and he wanted it to happen at the right time. However, it might be too late."


    "All very cryptic," Jean whispered, shaking his head. "Why won''t you just be clear?"


    "Don''t begrudge an old woman her time," Runa growled as she pulled her blankets up tight around her. "If you push me too far, I''ll stop telling you anything. There isn''t anything left that you could do to me that would make me tell you what I don''t want to tell you. You can''t threaten the elderly. We''ve seen everything."


    Alex glanced at Jean, and they both shrugged. Alex didn''t see the need to force the old woman to talk. Whatever Roald had planned, Mari was key to finding his ship.


    "We''ll listen," Erin said. "We just don''t understand what''s going on."


    "Roald had a plan, and he roped us all in on it," Runa said, shaking her head. "He thought he was the smartest guy around, and you help your friends. But over the last ten years, I just wonder if it will work."


    "So what was the plan?" Sayed asked. "Surely, it must be something grand for you to be so secretive!"


    "Hm." Runa frowned and looked into the distance. "You know the problem with getting old, young man? You forget all the details that don''t matter in your life. I know his plan, but I''m not sure I remember the details."


    Alex sighed. It wasn''t like everything they wanted to know was tied behind this old woman''s words. Mari could sense the ship. They could find the ship without the information. However, he still really wanted to know what was going on.


    "What about his ship?" Alex asked. "Do you know where it is?"


    "His ship," Runa''s eyes snapped wide, and she locked her gaze on Alex. "You''re looking for his ship!"


    "Yeah," Alex said. "That''s where all this seems to be leading. Even if you don''t remember everything, surely you remember that his ship is on the island."


    "Where did he leave that thing," Runa whispered, looking down again.


    At first, Alex thought she was putting on an act, but he was more sure now. She had some form of dementia. He wasn''t an expert on those things, but pretty much everyone across Earth had heard of the disease. A byproduct of a long life was that the human body and mind weren''t ready for. Eventually, everyone who lived long enough would develop some form of dementia as the connections in the brain became harder. She wasn''t trying to stall them. She just couldn''t remember.


    "I see the problem," Alex said, stepping away from the bookshelves and Mari.


    Mari scampered after him, staying behind him as he approached the bed and kneeled to be at eye level with Runa. Her eyes seemed to be vacant as she looked past him. He would have been better able to recognize it before if he had taken the time.


    "Thank you for everything you''ve told us so far," Alex said. "We''ll find the ship on our own."


    "Oh, you''re welcome," Runa said, a light crossing her face with her smile. "I don''t think I got your name, though."


    "It''s Alex." Alex nodded, heading toward the door. "Come on guys, we need to talk, and she needs to rest."


    He exited the room and out into the chilly corridors of the keep. Outside, Gary held their clothes in his arms, his sword strapped on his back, as he stood like a tower next to the door. Alex took his gloves and goggles off the top of the stack and fiddled with them as he walked over to the far side of the hallway. Mari stayed beside him, her blue eyes still searching every nook and cranny. She was still nervous, even if she didn''t recognize it.


    He waited for everyone to get out and for the door to close.


    "She isn''t going to remember," Alex said. "We could be here all day running in circles with her, or we can find the ship. I''d rather let her rest."


    "Are you sure?" Sayed looked back over his shoulder. "She seems crystal clear in one moment and hazy in the next."


    "I''m sure."


    "Can Mari sense the ship still? We might be able to get answers there." Erin crossed her arms over her chest as she looked down on Mari.


    "I can," Mari said, her voice shaking. "I can feel it below the mountain."


    Thump.


    Firril opened the door behind them, stepping outside before letting it close again. Alex wasn''t sure how a machine could look concerned, but from her hands clacking together in front of her and how slowly she walked, Firril was nervous. She bowed to them all before she spoke.


    "Thank you for not pushing Runa," she said. "She''s doing her best, but with humans, their minds fade in old age. She truly wanted to help you, but she couldn''t put it in words."


    "But you can." Alex narrowed his eyes as he watched her. "That''s why you came out to thank us."


    "You can''t go directly to the ship." Firril nodded. "You can try, but you cannot access it without first unlocking the seals."


    "And what locks this ship away?" Sayed asked.


    "There are three towers on the island," Firril said. "North, southeast, and southwest. I''m certain you saw them when you first approached."


    "We did," Alex nodded. "I wasn''t sure what they were for."


    "They gather power from the aetherstorm to fuel the barrier around the ship. Come with me."


    She walked them down the hallway and out of the keep, though everyone had to take a moment to regear up in their winter clothes. Gary stayed behind, acting like a guard for Runa''s door. A cold wind blew across the mountaintop as they stepped out onto the flat plateau. There was a light layer of snow across the area, but it didn''t seem as deep as out at the port. Above them, Alex could see a clear hole in the clouds that stretched exactly as wide as the flat top of the mountain.


    There were definitely some island core shenanigans going around.


    Ahead of them on the snowy field was a lake. As they approached it on foot, Alex noticed it was crystal clear and unmoving. He realized it wasn''t a lake but a transparent barrier covering a hollowed-out area below it. As Firril led them to the edge and pointed down, he saw what they had been looking for.


    A dark-blue ship shaped like a submarine with two long tubes sticking out of its side rested at the bottom of the dried-out lake. It floated at the bottom of the area, but that wasn''t what caught Alex''s eye.


    A large cable ran from it to a metal structure in the center of a black lake nearby. Alex took in a breath. It was an island core. The ship was connected directly to an island core. He had no idea why, but that was more than enough for him to want to jump down at that moment to examine it all.


    "That''s Roald''s ship," Firril said. "If you want to know more about it, you must deactivate the barrier. Turn off the three beacons, and you can go inside and find the answers you''re looking for."