—

That night, they spotted a smudge that looked like an island on the horizon. By midmorning, the smudge hadn’t grown nearly as much as it should have. In fact, it almost looked even smaller. Marco adjusted their heading twice, convinced currents were pushing them off course, but the island continued to hang there on the horizon like it was keeping its distance on purpose.

“That’s not right,” Elisa muttered. “It’s as if it’s moving away from us.”

“Islands don’t move,” Riv said flatly. "Right?"

“Most don’t. But there are things that look like islands. Some of them can move.”

"Like?" Riv raised an eyebrow. "I don't know of any."

"In lore? Big turtles, mostly. Really big turtles. In the records, sometimes people would see islands they couldn't get to. Or they'd find islands that they couldn't find again. I don't know which this is, if it's either. It could be a mirage. It could be something else. Hopefully whatever it is gives us some warning."

No one seemed eager to see the surprises she was saying might happen, which made it worse when they finally started to show. The tension was thick when the party began. A sudden shadow overhead made everyone jump. They raised their heads to find a massive insect drifting lazily above the mast, its long, narrow wings beating so quickly they blurred. The thing’s body was delicate-looking but far too large for comfort. Elisa's face went pale just seeing it.

“Mosquito hawk,” she said automatically. “Or it looks like one. I hate those things.”

“It’s just a bug,” Aethe said, watching it wheel away over the sea. "And it's leaving."

“They give me the willies,” Elisa said, rubbing her arms. “I had one land on me when I was a kid. It felt like it weighed a pound.” She shuddered visibly. "I did not handle it well."

"She started screaming during a ceremony and wouldn’t stop. It was kind of funny," Marco recounted wistfully.

"For you, maybe. Most people were mad. And I stayed inside for a week."

That tension snapped in a more extreme way an hour later. Riv was standing near the rail, staring out at the water when a pale hand shot up from below the waves. Marco heard Riv scream and turned to fight as the waterlogged man grabbed the wood with rotting fingers and hauled its own moving corpse onto the deck in one sickeningly smooth motion.

“Undead!” Riv’s voice cracked as he stumbled back, club half-raised and eyes wide open. "Undead again!”

The thing lurched toward Riv, seawater streaming from its bloated frame. Marco lunged forward, rapier flashing, and drove the point through its chest. The undead staggered, hissed, and tried to claw towards him, inching up the sword closer and closer as Marco let it have shot after shot from the magic pistol. Elisa and Aethe got in on the game shortly after, flooding it with elemental energy and arrows until it collapsed in a wet heap that dissolved into foul-smelling mist.

“Not that tough of an undead. Why are you acting like that? We've seen undead before,” Marco asked.

Riv was breathing hard, knuckles white around his club. He hadn't swung it the whole time.

"I had a dream when I was a kid just like that. A man burst out of the water and grabbed me, dragging me down with him. I remember how his hand felt around my ankle. I held my breath as long as I could, but…" He shook violently and leaned his club on the deck. "Sorry. I just wasn't ready for that at all. It was just like I was back in it."

"What are the chances of that, though?" Elisa said. "Two of our fears in a few hours? My mosquito and his undead. Just like that?"

Marco glanced at the horizon again. The island, if that’s what it was, still hovered out there, unchanged, as if it were watching them. He didn’t like the feeling that was crawling up his spine.

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“Everyone keep your eyes open,” he said. “Something’s playing with us, and I don’t think it’s done yet.”

Aethe’s fear surfaced a bit later. She was belowdecks when Marco heard her scream. He forgot every bit of what he was supposed to be doing regarding steering the ship and was nearly to her before he finished his initial flinch at the sound. He found her huddled in a corner of the hold trying desperately to figure out how to fire her bow from a seated position in the cramped space, blocked from escape from her threat.

“A rat?” Marco said. “It’s just a normal rat?”

“GET IT AWAY!” Aethe’s voice was louder than Marco had ever heard it. “Now, Marco! Please!”

He reached down and picked up the animal by the tail and took it above to the deck, tossing it into the water with a plop. The ship was moving fast enough that it wouldn’t catch up. He almost felt bad doing so, but the only alternative was shooting the thing or letting it go on terrorizing Aethe while it ruined their supplies. He comforted himself that the rat probably wasn’t what it seemed in the first place.

“That’s three,” Elisa said. “Marco, I’m beginning to get the feeling we’ve found what’s been causing the problems.”

“What about Marco? It hasn’t gotten him yet. What are you afraid of, Marco? We can probably get ready for whatever it is.”

“I…” Marco thought hard. “I honestly don’t know. It’s not bugs or rats, at least.”

“Come on.”

“He’s not being difficult, Riv.” Elisa’s eyes were pointed down at the deck. “I don’t remember him ever being scared like that. He is cautious around threats, sure. You’ve seen that. But nothing more than that.”

“Well, good.” Aethe followed to the deck, trembling and standing very close to Marco as if seeking shelter from him. “At least one of us should be immune.”

They sailed on for hours until something finally changed.

“The island got bigger,” Aethe said. “All at once. Look.”

Marco had been paying more attention to possibilities. “It should have at least changed in the spyglass, but…”

Something yanked her over the side.

“Elisa!”

Marco ran to the side of the ship in a dead panic. Whatever had pulled her into the water had done it fast and hard. Elisa was a lot of things, but strong was not one of them. If it was something she could shock with her lightning and she was in a position to do that, she might get free. If it wasn’t, she had no chance at all down there by herself.

Marco dove into the ocean, clothes and all, with his weapons securely sheathed. He swam down into the darkness, looking for any sign of Elisa and whatever had caught her. He saw nothing and pulled harder on the water in front of him as he sank deeper, deeper, and deeper into the depths.

The dark was thicker and stronger the further he went, to the point where he would have almost had to bump into her physically to have found her, but he didn’t see himself giving up. She needed him. She was defenseless without him. Even as the burning in his lungs got stronger and he started to feel weak from the lack of oxygen, he never considered turning around.

It was then that the rope looped over his arms. It had caught him at the end of a swimming stroke, closing tight as only wet rope could and leaving him defenseless as a strong force hauled him up and out of the water.

Moments later, he was gasping for air on the deck with a soaked Aethe beside him and a panicked looking Riv above him. Riv was still holding onto the end of the rope like a leash, as if he was afraid Marco might try to escape again.

As soon as Marco had any air in his lungs at all, he started screaming at his crew.

“How could you?” Marco gasped. “She’s still down there! She’s going to side! She’s…”

“Marco!” Elisa yelled. “I’m right here! I was never in the water! You jumped in all by yourself!”

The shock and relief that washed over Marco was too much to handle. He passed out.

—

“It was real,” Marco said. “It was completely real. You were you, you were talking, and then you were gone.” Aethe had made him a cup of something warm, and Marco was sitting on the deck drinking it, his back against the rail for stability. “I had no idea it could be that bad.”

“We do know what you were afraid of now.” Elisa leaned her head on his shoulder a bit. “Although it’s a little awkward it wasn’t Aethe.”

“I don’t want it to have been me,” Aethe said. “He’s known you his whole life, Elisa. I’ll catch up, but I don’t need it now.”

Marco was immensely thankful for that.

“Maybe it could have been any of us, anyway. It probably picked the weakest, the person in the most danger from the situation,” Riv said.

“Maybe. Doesn’t matter,” Elisa said. “Whatever is going on here, the island got closer when we beat Marco’s scenario. And now it’s getting closer normally. Whatever it is that fuels that thing, it’s getting better at this.”

“And that’s what got the others? Just fear?” Marco asked.

“Probably,” Riv said. “You’d be dead right now from just fear if it came down to it.”

“How do we beat that?”

“We keep going. I was about to suggest we turn around, but now that we know it can control what we see, that’s not safe. It could lead us anywhere. Into anything,” Elisa said.

“What if it keeps going?” Aethe said. “Keeps scaring us. And if it keeps getting better.”

“Nobody does anything without Marco’s orders. Marco, you don’t do anything without mine. None of us have the same fears, right?” Elisa said. “And if it does find something we all fear, we decide now that we are going to respond with violence. As soon as we give each other clearance.”

“No questions asked violence?” Riv nodded appreciatively. “Fine, but I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I didn’t, until I saw it almost get Marco.” Elisa’s face hardened. “We are going to get to the center of whatever this is, find whatever’s causing this, and I’m going to torch it to ash.” Her hand lit up with fire. “You have my word.”

Marco took only a few more minutes to recover before he went back to the till. Whatever was happening, he wanted it done as soon as possible. If that meant absolutely juicing the boat with everything he had until they got there, he wasn’t holding anything back.

What worried him was how bad things might get. He had given Elisa as much authority as she’d take to make judgments for him, but he worried about how bad it could get. For a few hours, nothing happened at all, which almost made it worse. He was hunched up around the ship’s wheel, waiting for the next shoe to drop, stress permeating every part of his body.

Maybe, he thought. Maybe we’ve seen the worst. Maybe we are through the bad part.

He should have known better than to think that around a magic island of fear. Like it had heard him, those thoughts almost acted like a trigger for what was to come. From that moment on, it showed them horrors.