# **TRUE PIECE**
## **Chapter 10: The Height Tribe**
### **Center Sea Arc — Part 2 of 5**
Nothing happened on the mysterious island.
That was the first lie.
The second was that everyone agreed.
The white-clothed islanders surrounded the harbor without raising a single weapon.
Men stood beside women.
Children stood beside the elderly.
Bakers, dockworkers, shopkeepers, teachers, sailors, and people who appeared to have no profession beyond smiling patiently.
Hundreds of faces.
One expression.
Behind Eullian Hound, the **Civic Mercy** remained tied to the pier.
Captain Cube and former Marine Captain Vask stood freely upon its deck.
The six Brinehook fishermen remembered Eullian releasing them.
Eullian remembered doing no such thing.
Mira Cale's Open Ledger now claimed the crew had returned home at sunrise and agreed to remain forever.
The island clock continued moving backward.
Eleven fifty-six.
Eleven fifty-five.
Eleven fifty-four.
The baker took another bite from his bread.
"Nothing happens here at all."
Eullian looked at him.
"That sounds boring."
"It is peaceful."
"No. Peace has choices."
The baker smiled.
"You chose to come home."
"I arrived by being pulled down a hole in the sea."
"You followed the current."
"The current did not offer another direction."
"You still followed."
"That sounds like something Captain Garven would say."
The baker's smile remained steady.
"Garven Redd is not here."
"He is imprisoned on his own ship."
"No."
Eullian glanced toward the **Civic Mercy**.
Garven was not aboard it.
He remained on the captured Red Dog flagship, which had separated from them at Meridian.
The baker's statement was technically true.
That made Eullian dislike it more.
Mira stepped beside him.
"Who controls this island?"
"No one."
"Who changes written records?"
"No one."
"Who opened our prisoners' cells?"
"You did."
"I watched Eullian enter the city with us."
The baker looked at her.
"No."
Mira opened the Ledger and turned to the altered entry.
The words remained:
**Returned home at sunrise. Eullian released the prisoners willingly. The crew agreed to remain.**
"This book says something I did not write."
"You will write it."
"I already did not."
"You remember not writing it."
"That is the same thing."
"No."
Tallen Vey raised his long weapon.
The islanders did not flinch.
He aimed toward the clock tower.
"At noon, the clock began moving backward."
"It has always done that."
"No."
"Yes."
"I observed the hands at noon."
"You remember observing them."
Tallen's finger tightened against the trigger.
Hijo Albino placed one hand against the barrel.
"Do not shoot yet."
"The clock may be controlling the alteration."
"May."
"That is why I intend to test it."
"You cannot see what stands behind the clock face."
Tallen lowered the weapon by one inch.
The islanders watched the disagreement with pleasant expressions.
The baker looked toward Hijo.
"You should listen to him, Tallen."
Tallen's gray eyes narrowed.
"How do you know my name?"
"You told us."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
The clock moved backward another minute.
A little girl stepped out from the crowd.
She appeared seven years old.
Her white dress reached her ankles.
She held a wooden toy shaped like a red hand.
Eullian looked at it.
"That resembles our flag."
"It is your flag," she said.
"You made it quickly."
"You gave it to me when you stayed."
"I haven't stayed."
"You will."
She offered the toy to him.
Eullian did not take it.
The girl's smile weakened.
Only slightly.
Then widened again.
"You always take it."
Eullian stared at her.
"What happens if I don't?"
The crowd answered together.
"You do."
The sound moved through the harbor.
Hundreds of voices.
One certainty.
Captain Cube began laughing aboard the **Civic Mercy**.
He lifted his glass chamber against his chest.
"Consensus."
Hijo turned toward him.
"You remember something."
"No."
"You recognized the behavior."
"I recognize everyone pretending the room has one shape."
Mira looked at the black-silver Devil Liquid.
"Did the island create that substance?"
Captain Cube's face twitched.
"No."
"Did it study it?"
"No."
"Did you bring it here?"
"No."
Every answer came too quickly.
Calven Dorr surfaced behind Captain Cube's eyes for less than a second.
He whispered:
"Yes."
Captain Cube struck himself across the face.
"Silence."
Eullian moved toward the ship.
The baker stepped into his path.
He carried no weapon.
Neither did the people behind him.
"Please remain where you are."
"Move."
"You do not want to frighten the children."
The little girl still held the wooden flag.
Eullian looked around.
Children stood throughout the crowd.
Placed near the front.
Not hiding behind adults.
The island did not need shields if everyone remembered that no threat existed.
Eullian understood the arrangement.
The baker saw it in his face.
"No one is forcing them to stand here."
"No," Eullian said. "You just made sure everyone believes standing here is safe."
"It is safe."
"Because we won't hurt them."
"Yes."
"That means you're using us too."
The baker's smile stopped.
For less than one heartbeat.
Then the island bell rang.
**BOOOONG.**
The sound passed through stone.
Through timber.
Through bone.
Eullian felt it behind his eyes.
The harbor vanished.
Not physically.
His memory of the previous hour disappeared from its proper place.
He remembered sitting inside the bakery.
He remembered eating warm bread.
He remembered laughing while Mira complained about the island's charts.
He remembered Hijo placing his white book inside a cabinet and saying he no longer needed it.
He remembered Tallen lowering his rifle because there were no dangers left to warn anyone about.
The memories felt complete.
Warm.
Safe.
False.
Eullian grabbed his own head.
"No."
The baker stood before him holding an empty plate.
"You enjoyed the bread."
"No."
"You said it was the best meal since leaving Brinehook."
"I didn't eat it."
"You did."
Eullian could taste butter.
His stomach felt full.
He looked toward Mira.
She stood motionless with the Open Ledger in her hands.
Its pages were blank.
Her expression was peaceful.
"Hijo," she said.
Hijo looked toward her.
"Yes?"
"Why are we carrying empty paper?"
Hijo's white book was gone.
He touched the inside of his coat.
No pocket remained.
The coat had never possessed one.
Tallen lowered his weapon.
"What am I aiming at?"
His reinforced shoulder pad was missing.
His observation lens had become ordinary glass.
The long weapon seemed too heavy for him.
Unfamiliar.
The crowd relaxed.
Captain Cube stood beside the ship's railing, smiling.
His chamber was closed.
Vask wore a Marine coat again.
The six fishermen continued their work as though the prisoners had always been guests.
Eullian looked toward the mountain.
Something inside him resisted.
Not memory.
Emotion.
The false morning felt pleasant.
But Mira's peace was wrong.
She held blank paper without anger.
Hijo stood without guilt.
Tallen had no lie he was trying to strengthen.
Their pain had disappeared.
So had the choices built from it.
Eullian had wanted them to hurt less.
He had never wanted them reduced.
"Mira," he said.
She smiled toward him.
"Yes?"
"What's your dream?"
"My dream?"
"The Open Ledger."
"I don't know that name."
Eullian's chest tightened.
"Hijo."
"Yes?"
"How many people are in your book?"
"What book?"
"Tallen."
Tallen looked mildly annoyed.
"What?"
"Tell me a lie."
"I do not lie."
The islanders smiled wider.
Eullian's fear turned into rage.
The sound of the bell tried to make that rage gentle.
Tried to place it somewhere far behind him.
Tried to convince him that anger had never been necessary.
He grabbed the baker by the front of his white shirt.
The crowd gasped.
Children began crying.
Mira stepped forward.
"Eullian, release him."
The baker did not struggle.
"You are frightened," he said softly.
"Yes."
"You are confused."
"Yes."
"You are hurting an innocent person."
"Maybe."
The baker's eyes remained calm.
Eullian pulled him closer.
"What is my dream?"
"To remain home."
"Wrong."
"You have always lived here."
"Wrong."
"You are Eullian Hound."
"Yes."
"You protect this island."
"No."
The baker's certainty weakened.
Eullian saw it.
The island could rewrite events.
It could not easily invent feelings that matched them.
"You don't know me," Eullian said.
"We know everyone."
"Then say my dream."
The baker opened his mouth.
"Peace."
"What kind?"
"Perfect peace."
Eullian released him.
"Wrong."
He turned toward Mira.
Her expression remained calm.
But her fingers had tightened around the blank Ledger.
"Hijo," Eullian said, "you killed Aven Cale."
Mira's face changed.
Pain appeared.
The memory struck her.
Hijo stumbled backward.
His hand went toward a pocket that did not exist.
"I—"
"You killed one hundred and nine people."
The crowd began murmuring.
Hijo's pale eyes widened.
Three names returned first.
The innocent ones.
Then all the others.
His white book did not reappear.
The weight did.
"Mira wants to build a record no one can own," Eullian continued.
Ink appeared across the blank pages.
Not complete sentences.
Fragments.
Brinehook.
Base Eighteen.
Aven Cale.
Pendulum Point.
Captain Cube.
The four main seas.
Mira's calm expression broke.
"Tallen wants to become a great liar."
Tallen looked toward him sharply.
"To protect people," Eullian said. "And become strong enough to make his lies true."
The reinforced shoulder pad returned to Tallen's coat.
His lens fractured back into three pieces held by brass wire.
The long weapon felt familiar in his hands.
Tallen lifted it.
"I remember."
The bell rang again.
**BOOOONG.**
The recovered memories began slipping away.
Eullian shouted over the sound.
"I WANT TO KEEP PEACE UNTIL I DIE!"
The statement struck the harbor harder than the bell.
"I don't want perfect peace!"
The islanders covered their ears.
"I want people to argue!"
Mira grabbed the Ledger against her chest.
"To choose!"
Hijo's threads emerged from the scars across his fingers.
"To make mistakes!"
Tallen loaded a blunt round.
"To still have tomorrow!"
The little girl dropped the wooden flag.
It broke against the stone.
The island memory cracked.
Not completely.
Enough.
Hijo's white book reappeared inside his coat.
Mira's Ledger filled with ink.
Tallen's weapon regained its modifications.
The prisoners aboard the ship became prisoners again.
Captain Cube's chamber opened in his hands.
Vask's false Marine coat vanished.
He stood in prison clothes.
The six fishermen cried out in confusion.
The islanders' smiles disappeared.
Hundreds of different expressions emerged at once.
Fear.
Anger.
Grief.
Exhaustion.
Some looked around as though seeing the harbor for the first time in years.
Others screamed.
Several adults grabbed the children and tried to retreat.
The baker fell to his knees.
"What did you do?"
Eullian looked down at him.
"I reminded my friends who they are."
"You hurt them."
"Yes."
"You gave the pain back."
"Yes."
"That is cruelty."
"No."
Eullian glanced at Hijo.
He stood beneath the returned weight of one hundred and nine names.
Mira had begun crying over her uncle again.
Tallen's hands shook around the weapon because his promises could still fail.
Their pain was real.
So were the people they had chosen to become around it.
"Taking pain without permission isn't healing," Eullian said.
The clock tower stopped moving.
Eleven forty-eight.
The bell trembled.
Before it could ring again, a shadow crossed the harbor.
The white-clothed islanders looked upward.
Their fear changed.
Not toward the Peace Crew.
Toward the mountain.
Something descended through the open circle of sky.
At first, Eullian thought it was a falling tree.
Then it moved its arms.
A person dropped from the clouds.
A very large person.
They struck the clock tower feet-first.
Stone exploded.
The bell cracked.
The tower's upper half collapsed into the square.
The giant figure leaped from the wreckage before it fell.
They crossed the city in one stride.
Then landed between the Peace Crew and the islanders.
The harbor shook.
Eullian stared upward.
Far upward.
The newcomer stood nearly thirty feet tall.
Not long-legged.
Not stretched.
Every part of their body was proportionally enormous.
Broad feet.
Powerful legs.
A deep torso wrapped in layered gray cloth.
Arms thick enough to lift ship masts.
Their skin was dark brown, marked by pale lines running from the jaw down the neck and disappearing beneath the clothing.
Long black hair had been braided around a wooden frame behind their head, keeping it from falling across their face.
Their right shoulder carried an enormous hooked staff.
Its shaft had been carved with thousands of small notches.
A platform hung from their back.
Three more giants stood upon it.
Each was between twelve and sixteen feet tall.
Children.
The tallest giant looked down at the shattered clock.
"Bell low."
Her voice rolled through the harbor.
"Memory broken."
She looked toward Eullian.
"Ground people loud."
Eullian looked behind himself.
"Are we the ground people?"
Tallen answered without lowering his weapon.
"Relative to her, yes."
The giant woman bent until one knee touched the street.
Even kneeling, her face remained above Eullian's.
Her eyes were deep green.
A series of small metal rings pierced both eyebrows.
She studied him.
"You shouted true name against Still Bell."
"My name is Eullian."
"Not body name."
She tapped two fingers against her own chest.
"Inside name."
"Dream?"
"Yes."
Eullian smiled faintly.
"That worked."
"Temporarily."
The giant looked toward the mountain.
The open sky above it darkened.
Clouds began spiraling.
The broken bell tower rang without a bell.
A deep vibration traveled through the ground.
The white-clothed crowd recovered its shared smile.
The baker stood.
His fear disappeared.
"You should not be here, Vara."
The giant woman's expression hardened.
"You remember me low."
The baker's smile widened.
"You abandoned us."
"You forgot us."
"We chose peace."
"You chose nothing."
The street beneath Vara's feet cracked.
The children on her back platform climbed down using ropes attached to her clothing.
They landed around the Peace Crew.
The youngest was still taller than Hijo.
All carried hooked staffs.
All wore thick-soled sandals that lifted their feet several inches above the ground.
Mira noticed first.
"None of you are touching the street directly."
Vara looked toward her.
"Ground remembers."
She struck her staff against the stone.
The hook tore up a section of pavement.
Beneath it lay pale roots.
Not tree roots.
Thin translucent fibers spread through the island's soil like veins.
They pulsed with faint blue light.
"The entire city is connected," Mira said.
"Low web," Vara replied.
Tallen crouched near the exposed fibers without touching them.
"They carry vibration."
"And something else," Hijo said.
He held one white thread above the roots.
The thread began moving toward them.
Not pulled physically.
Responding to a pressure Hijo could feel through his fingers.
"Devil power?"
Captain Cube shouted from the ship.
"Not fruit!"
Vara looked toward him.
Her face changed.
"Calven Dorr."
Captain Cube screamed.
Vara stood.
The height of her body blocked the sun.
"Builder returned."
"I am Captain Cube!"
"You built first Still Room."
"No!"
"You shaped memory pipes."
"No!"
"You made island speak one answer."
"I made shelters!"
Vara's voice became quieter.
"The first shelter was kind."
Captain Cube froze.
"The storms came," Vara continued. "People feared every Hollow Tide. You built rooms where panic could be removed."
Calven appeared behind Captain Cube's expression.
"We helped them sleep."
"You removed one bad night."
"Yes."
"Then council removed grief."
Calven's eyes filled with tears.
"Grief made them hurt."
"Then anger."
"They fought."
"Then doubt."
"They refused instructions."
"Then names."
Captain Cube's face collapsed into overlapping shapes.
"I stopped."
"No."
"I left."
"You drank black water and cut the island out of your head."
Captain Cube threw his chamber to the deck.
It did not break.
"You're lying!"
Vara looked down at the crew.
"He cannot hear truth from low place."
Tallen raised his weapon toward her.
"You claim the island affects memory through the roots."
"Yes."
"You claim Captain Cube helped construct the system."
"Yes."
"You expect us to trust you because you are taller than the people lying to us."
"No."
Tallen's expression changed slightly.
Vara pointed toward the platform on her back.
"We carry children high because low voices enter first."
One of the giant children looked toward Tallen.
"We do not say trust."
Another tightened both hands around a staff.
"We say climb."
The island bell rang again from somewhere beneath the city.
**BOOOONG.**
The roots flashed.
The white-clothed crowd advanced.
Not running.
Walking calmly.
Hundreds moving as one.
Vara lowered her staff.
"Climb now."
Eullian looked toward the **Civic Mercy**.
The fishermen stood on deck beside Captain Cube and Vask.
Their expressions had begun smoothing again.
The roots extended beneath the harbor.
The ship was not safe.
Mira looked toward the mountain.
"How high does the influence reach?"
"Bellmist ends above Gray Line."
Vara pointed toward the mountain.
A ring of gray stone crossed it nearly two thousand feet above the city.
"How do we get there?" Hijo asked.
Vara crouched.
"On us."
Tallen stared at her.
"That answer has several tactical weaknesses."
The crowd came closer.
The baker held out both hands.
"Vara, come home."
"I am home."
"You are frightened."
"Yes."
"You are angry."
"Yes."
"You are in pain."
"Yes."
"We can remove all three."
"No."
Vara's voice shook the windows.
"They tell me where to stand."
She swept her enormous staff sideways.
Not into the people.
Across the street.
The hook caught three empty market carts and pushed them into a barrier.
The crowd walked around it.
No panic.
No hesitation.
Hijo's threads flew.
They crossed between buildings and formed a web above the street.
The first islanders reached it.
Hijo pulled.
Their white coats became pinned together.
He used clothing, belts, sleeves, and shoelaces.
No skin was cut.
Thirty people became tangled.
The crowd behind continued forward.
Some stepped over them.
Others fell.
No one cried out.
"They do not protect themselves," Hijo said.
"The island remembers they cannot be harmed," Mira answered.
Eullian's hands closed.
"That makes fighting dangerous."
"Yes."
The island had created people who could walk peacefully into death because everyone agreed death would not happen.
Perfect peace.
Population zero.
The map's warning returned.
Vara placed one hand flat upon the street.
"Last low moment."
Mira looked toward the ship.
"The evidence."
"I retrieve," Vara said.
"The prisoners."
"Carry."
"The fishermen."
"Carry."
"The Devil Liquid chamber."
Vara's expression hardened.
"Leave."
Captain Cube grabbed it.
"No!"
"We need it," Mira said. "It is evidence of Aldren's network."
Vara looked at her.
"Black water speaks with island."
"That explains the altered matter," Hijo said. "The Still system and Devil Liquid may share a source."
Captain Cube shook his head.
"No source."
Calven whispered through him:
"Same ocean."
Vara looked toward the advancing crowd.
"Choose."
Eullian did not like the choice.
Leave the chamber and lose evidence.
Take it and risk allowing the island greater control.
Garven's voice returned from memory.
Every crew sacrifices something.
Aldren's lesson too.
Mercy had weight.
Space ended.
Time ended.
Good choices disappeared.
Eullian looked at Mira.
"Your decision."
She stared at him.
"The chamber concerns the Open Ledger."
"Yes."
"It could endanger everyone."
"Yes."
"You aren't deciding?"
"No."
That mattered.
Mira looked toward the iron container.
Then toward Captain Cube.
"Separate them."
Hijo understood.
"Take the records and leave the Liquid."
Captain Cube clutched the chamber.
"You cannot!"
Mira pointed toward him.
"Calven's body contains enough residue for study."
"I need it!"
"You survived without direct contact during imprisonment."
"I weakened!"
"You remained alive."
Captain Cube's face shifted.
The chamber had become more than power.
It held the parts of himself he had cut away.
Leaving it felt like abandoning identity.
Eullian saw that.
"We'll seal it," he said.
Mira looked toward him.
"Where?"
"The ship's dry cell."
"The roots reach the harbor."
"Above the harbor."
Tallen followed Eullian's gaze.
The **Civic Mercy's** mast rose above most nearby roofs.
"Hoist the iron container to the masthead," he said.
"Above the strongest root effect," Hijo added.
"Not above the Gray Line," Vara warned.
"Enough to delay interaction?"
"Maybe."
Tallen loaded a rope bolt.
"Then we strengthen maybe."
He fired toward the ship.
The bolt crossed the harbor and embedded itself near the upper mast.
Hijo sent white thread along the rope.
The fishermen on deck looked toward it.
Their expressions were becoming blank.
Eullian cupped his hands around his mouth.
"YOU ARE FROM BRINEHOOK!"
They looked toward him.
"Daro Pell hid fish beneath his daughter's floor!"
One fisherman blinked.
"Captain Vask shot me!"
Vask looked offended.
"He did," the oldest fisherman said.
"CAPTAIN CUBE TRIED TO SEAL YOU INSIDE A BOAT!"
The fishermen's faces filled with fear.
Memory returned.
Hijo's thread reached the chamber.
It wrapped around the iron handles.
"Pull!" he shouted.
The fishermen helped.
Captain Cube resisted.
Vask joined the fishermen.
Everyone looked at him.
"I don't want the ship changed into cubes!"
A practical moral awakening.
They accepted it.
The chamber rose.
Captain Cube screamed as it left his hands.
Black-silver Liquid struck the glass from inside.
The iron container climbed above the sail.
The roots beneath the harbor flashed.
The ship's boards briefly softened.
Then stabilized as the chamber rose farther.
"Working," Mira said.
"Temporarily," Tallen corrected.
The islanders reached the harbor barricade.
Vara lowered herself.
"Climb."
Mira went first.
She stepped onto one of the giant woman's feet, grabbed a rope hanging from Vara's belt, and climbed toward the back platform.
Tallen followed while keeping his weapon aimed toward the crowd.
Hijo remained on the ground.
"Eullian."
"You go."
"Why?"
"I'll bring Captain Cube."
"He may liquefy."
"Then I'll carry the less liquid part."
"That is not a plan."
"It is enough of one."
Hijo stared at him.
Then climbed onto the platform.
The three giant children formed a defensive circle around Eullian.
The eldest child stood nearly seventeen feet tall.
Her name had not been given.
She lowered her hooked staff.
"Ship people climb other."
Three more members of the Height Tribe appeared on the roofs.
Eullian had not seen them arrive.
One stood twenty feet tall.
Another twenty-six.
The final giant was elderly and only fourteen feet tall, his body bent forward by age.
They carried platforms, ropes, and baskets large enough to hold several ordinary people.
The Height Tribe had not come as warriors.
They had come as evacuation.
Eullian ran toward the ship.
The islanders did not stop him.
They followed.
Their calm footsteps filled the harbor.
He crossed the gangplank.
"Everyone off!"
The fishermen moved toward the waiting giants.
Vask remained near the prison hatch.
"What about me?"
"You too."
"You're saving me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"You keep asking that."
Captain Cube stood beneath the raised chamber.
His face had lost shape.
His right arm reached upward as liquid.
"Give it back."
"No."
"It contains me."
"You're here."
"Not all."
Eullian stepped closer.
Captain Cube's liquid arm formed a blade.
Hijo's warning thread pulled tight around Eullian's wrist from Vara's platform.
Eullian stopped.
"Calven."
Captain Cube's eyes widened.
"Don't."
"You built shelters."
"I built perfection."
"You built shelters first."
Captain Cube's blade trembled.
"You wanted people safe during storms."
"Storms always returned."
"Yes."
"Fear returned."
"Yes."
"Grief returned."
"Yes."
"Everything returned!"
Eullian looked toward the white-clothed islanders entering the pier.
"Good."
Captain Cube's blade sharpened.
"Good?"
"Fear tells people to leave the bad route."
"Fear makes them weak."
"Grief says someone mattered."
"It hurts."
"Anger says something is wrong."
"It destroys."
"Sometimes."
Captain Cube's face twisted.
Eullian held out one hand.
"You tried to make a shelter where bad things couldn't enter."
"Yes."
"Then you started removing everyone who could call something bad."
Calven stared at him.
Behind the vessel, the islanders continued advancing.
The bell began building toward another note.
Eullian kept his hand extended.
"Come with us."
Captain Cube looked toward the raised chamber.
"You'll leave it."
"For now."
"You'll lose it."
"Maybe."
"Aldren will find it."
"Then we find him."
"The island will drink it."
"Then we stop the island."
"You cannot promise that."
"No."
Captain Cube's blade softened.
Eullian smiled.
"Tallen can."
From Vara's back, Tallen shouted:
"I PROMISE WE WILL RECOVER THE CHAMBER!"
Captain Cube looked toward him.
"That is a lie."
"Yes."
"You don't know."
"Yes."
"You are terrible."
"I am improving."
The bell rang.
**BOOOONG.**
Captain Cube's face emptied.
His liquid arm reformed into an ordinary hand.
He looked at Eullian.
"Welcome home."
Eullian grabbed him.
Captain Cube resisted with impossible flexibility.
His torso softened.
Eullian wrapped both arms around him.
The villain flowed between his grip.
Hijo's white threads arrived from the platform.
They circled Captain Cube without cutting.
Tallen fired a rope bolt through the prison hatch.
Mira shouted directions from above.
"Under his arms! Keep his head above the thread!"
The fishermen pulled from the Height Tribe's baskets.
Vask grabbed Captain Cube's ankle.
Captain Cube looked down at him.
"You're helping them?"
"I dislike you more when you're calm!"
Together, they lifted Captain Cube from the deck.
The baker stepped onto the gangplank.
"Eullian."
Eullian looked toward him.
"You have always protected us."
"No."
"You built this peace."
"No."
"You asked Calven to complete it."
Captain Cube stopped struggling.
Eullian felt the change.
The island had offered a preferred version.
Not to Captain Cube.
To Calven.
A version where he had not lost control.
Where the Still system had been requested.
Where his shelters had worked.
Where every violation became service.
Calven whispered:
"They wanted it."
The baker smiled.
"Yes."
"You asked me."
"Yes."
"I saved you."
"Yes."
Eullian tightened his arms.
"Calven."
The engineer looked toward him.
"What?"
"Maybe they asked for help."
The baker's smile widened.
Eullian continued.
"That doesn't mean they asked you to take everything."
Calven's face broke.
The memory could not hold both statements.
People might have asked for safety.
That did not make every later removal consensual.
The lie failed at the edge of responsibility.
Captain Cube screamed.
His body solidified.
The combined ropes pulled him from the ship.
Eullian jumped after him.
They landed inside an enormous basket carried by the twenty-six-foot giant.
Vask climbed into another.
The six fishermen were divided among the others.
The **Civic Mercy** remained at the dock.
Its red-hand flag still flew.
The Devil Liquid chamber hung near the masthead.
The white-clothed islanders surrounded the vessel.
They did not attack it.
They began unloading it.
Calmly.
Food.
Water.
Charts.
Medical supplies.
Evidence.
Mira saw them.
"They're taking everything!"
Vara stood.
The platform on her back rose above the roofs.
"High road!"
The Height Tribe ran.
Their size did not make them slow.
Each stride crossed half a street.
Their thick sandals struck only selected stones, avoiding the pale roots.
The city dropped beneath them.
Eullian held Captain Cube inside the basket while buildings passed on both sides.
Tallen fired backward.
Not at the islanders.
At ropes, awnings, carts, and signs.
Obstacles collapsed across streets.
The crowd climbed over them without emotion.
"Why aren't they stopping?" Eullian asked.
"They remember that we remain within reach," Mira said.
Tallen looked toward the mountain.
"The roots continue uphill."
Vara answered.
"Until Gray Line."
"How far?" Hijo asked.
"Six hundred high strides."
Eullian looked at her legs.
"How long is a high stride?"
Vara crossed an intersection in one step.
"That long."
"Useful."
The streets narrowed.
The Height Tribe climbed onto roofs.
Tiles shattered beneath their weight only when they landed directly.
Most buildings had reinforced beams hidden along specific paths.
"They built routes for giants," Mira said.
"We built city," Vara answered.
The baker's voice followed through every street horn.
"The Height Tribe are kidnappers."
Vara did not look back.
"They steal children."
One of the giant children flinched.
"They abandon the peaceful."
Another looked down.
"They live above everyone because they believe they are better."
The eldest child's hands tightened around her staff.
The words were not random.
The island knew their fears too.
Eullian looked toward Vara.
"Why are you called the Height Tribe?"
"Because low people named us."
"That sounds rude."
"They saw bodies first."
"What do you call yourselves?"
Vara climbed onto a stone bridge connecting two cliffs.
Her answer traveled through her body.
"Keepers Above."
The island horn spoke again.
"They call themselves Keepers because they believe ordinary people cannot be trusted with memory."
Mira looked toward Vara.
"Is that true?"
Vara did not answer quickly.
"Yes."
The honesty surprised them.
"We keep children above until inside names strong."
"You decide when they are strong?" Hijo asked.
"Elders decide."
"Can they refuse?"
"When grown."
"Before?"
"No."
Mira's expression hardened.
"That is control."
"Yes."
"You rescued them from one system and built another."
"Yes."
The giant children listened.
Vara did not hide the accusation.
The eldest child looked toward her.
"High Mother?"
Vara continued running.
"Truth later."
"Why later?"
"Ground close."
"That is convenient," Tallen said.
Vara looked over one shoulder.
"Convenience can still be true."
Tallen almost smiled.
The bridge climbed steeply.
The white-clothed islanders reached its lower end.
They walked upward.
The clock tower rang beneath the city.
No bell remained in it.
The ground itself produced the note.
**BOOOONG.**
Mira forgot why Vara's control troubled her.
Hijo forgot the question about children refusing.
Tallen forgot that he had noticed the delay.
Eullian forgot too.
The eldest giant child shouted:
"WHAT IS MY NAME?"
Vara answered immediately.
"RUNA ABOVE-STORM!"
The child struck her staff against the bridge.
"MY DREAM IS TO WALK LOW AND RETURN HIGH!"
Memory returned around the words.
Mira grabbed the platform rail.
"The children."
Hijo looked toward Vara.
"You keep them from the ground because the island changes them."
"Yes."
"You also prevent them from choosing the risk."
"Yes."
Runa looked toward the city.
"I choose now."
Vara's face tightened.
"No."
"You said grown choose."
"You are thirteen."
"I stand sixteen feet."
"Body height not inside height."
"Then who measures?"
Vara did not answer.
The island horn laughed with the baker's voice.
"The Keepers Above fear their own children."
Runa's eyes filled with anger.
Vara shouted:
"ANGER IS YOURS!"
Runa looked toward her.
"Not island?"
"Not island."
The child's grip relaxed slightly.
The Height Tribe had built a defense against false emotion.
They named feelings aloud.
Not to remove them.
To establish ownership.
Vara looked toward the Peace Crew.
"Say inside names when bell rings."
Tallen understood.
"Dreams."
"Dreams. guilt. promise. love. any shape island cannot choose first."
Hijo looked toward his white book.
"My names."
"Yes."
Mira held the Open Ledger.
"My record."
"Yes."
Tallen lifted his weapon.
"My lies."
"Yes."
Eullian looked toward the people around him.
"My crew."
Everyone became silent.
Mira stared at him.
Hijo's expression shifted.
Tallen lowered the weapon by a fraction.
Eullian blinked.
"What?"
"You said crew," Mira replied.
"Yes."
"Without being forced."
"Yes."
"You previously claimed not to be captain."
"I'm not."
"That was not the question."
The bridge shook.
The islanders climbed closer.
Eullian smiled.
"Can we discuss the emotional importance after escaping?"
Mira looked almost offended.
"That is usually my line."
The Height Tribe reached the Gray Line.
A band of pale stone circled the mountain.
Above it, the air changed.
Eullian felt pressure release from behind his eyes.
The false memories did not vanish.
They became visibly false.
He could still remember eating bread.
Now he also remembered refusing it.
Two versions remained.
Neither erased the other.
Mira opened the Ledger.
The altered entry remained on one page.
Her original entry had returned on the next.
Tallen looked toward the city.
The white-clothed islanders stopped below the Gray Line.
Not because of a wall.
They simply stood.
Smiling upward.
The baker stepped to the front.
"Come home."
Vara planted her staff above the line.
"No."
"You cannot remain high forever."
"No."
"Your children will descend."
"Yes."
"They will choose peace."
"Maybe."
The baker's smile weakened.
Uncertainty hurt the island.
Vara turned toward the Peace Crew.
"Above safe from full bell. Not from all."
"What else is above?" Mira asked.
Vara pointed toward the mountain peak.
A settlement appeared among the clouds.
Enormous homes had been carved into the stone.
Rope bridges crossed valleys.
Platforms circled trees large enough to support buildings.
Hundreds of giants watched from the heights.
Some stood forty feet tall.
Others only ten.
Old, young, injured, armed, frightened.
No shared expression.
Arguments had already begun among them.
Eullian heard shouting.
A door slammed hard enough to echo across the mountain.
Two children fought over a rope.
An elderly giant yelled at both.
Someone laughed.
Someone else cried.
It was the least peaceful place Eullian had seen since arriving.
He smiled.
Vara saw.
"Why teeth?"
"You're all terrible at perfect peace."
"Yes."
"Good."
Vara lifted the platform from her back and placed it on a stone landing.
The Peace Crew climbed down.
Captain Cube remained bound inside the basket.
Vask immediately moved as far from him as possible.
The fishermen searched one another's faces, checking names and injuries.
Runa descended beside Eullian.
At sixteen feet, she still towered over him.
"You are chief of low crew?"
"No."
"Captain?"
"No."
Mira stepped off the platform.
"He makes the largest decisions before anyone can stop him."
"That sounds captain," Runa said.
Hijo joined them.
"He also follows navigation orders."
"Sometimes," Mira added.
Tallen examined the Height settlement.
"He has no formal rank."
Runa looked down at Eullian.
"What are you?"
Eullian thought.
It showed.
"Myself."
Runa nodded.
"Strong title."
Vara approached.
Up close, pale scars covered her arms.
Not battle cuts.
Circular marks.
Burns from thick metal bands.
Hijo noticed.
"Collars."
Vara looked at him.
"Old."
"Garven?"
"No."
"Marine?"
"No."
"Center authority?"
Vara's expression hardened.
"Height Hunters."
Mira opened the Ledger.
"Who are they?"
"People who climb from four currents."
"Pirates?"
"Some."
"Marines?"
"Some."
"Merchants?"
"Some."
"Aldren?"
Vara's silence answered.
The island settlement quieted around the name.
The Mercy Ledger Company had reached even here.
"Why hunt your tribe?" Eullian asked.
Vara pointed toward the gray line.
"We remember two versions."
Mira understood.
"The island can alter you, but it cannot completely overwrite the original memory."
"Yes."
"That makes you witnesses."
"Yes."
Tallen looked toward the massive homes.
"And valuable test subjects."
Vara's green eyes became colder.
"Yes."
Captain Cube laughed weakly from the basket.
"Aldren likes durable containers."
Vara turned toward him.
"You brought hunters."
Captain Cube's laughter stopped.
"When?"
"Before you cut memory."
"How many?"
"Thirty-one."
"How many survived?"
Vara rested both hands on her staff.
"Seven left island."
Captain Cube smiled.
Then saw her expression.
"Ah."
Vara looked toward the **Civic Mercy** far below.
The islanders continued unloading it.
"They take ship before dark."
Mira's head snapped toward her.
"We need it back."
"Yes."
"The evidence is aboard."
"Some."
"The charts."
"Some."
"The food."
Eullian looked horrified.
"All."
Mira ignored him.
"How do we descend without losing ourselves?"
Vara pointed toward the Height Tribe.
"We carry above."
"Your people can enter the city safely?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"We remember two versions."
"That does not prevent control."
"No."
"What does?"
Vara looked toward a huge structure built into the mountain.
A tower constructed from bone-white wood.
At its top hung a bell.
Smaller than the Still Bell.
Higher than every root.
"Height Bell," she said.
"What does it do?" Tallen asked.
"Tells no truth."
Tallen became interested.
Vara continued.
"It rings different for every listener."
"A counter-signal," Mira said.
"It disrupts consensus," Hijo added.
"Why haven't you used it?" Eullian asked.
The giants around them looked away.
Vara's grip tightened around her staff.
"Bell broken."
"Then fix it."
"No craftsperson."
Eullian looked around at houses carved into mountains.
Rope bridges spanning hundreds of feet.
Platforms capable of carrying giants.
"You built all this."
"We build high."
"What's wrong with the bell?"
Vara pointed upward.
The Height Bell had no striker.
The inner metal tongue was missing.
"Stolen," she said.
"By whom?" Mira asked.
The clock beneath the city moved again.
Its hands jumped backward by an hour.
The Height Tribe settlement shook.
Every giant looked toward the highest ridge.
A person stood there.
Ordinary-sized.
A cream-colored coat moved in the wind.
An open hand holding a golden coin had been stitched across its back.
The figure carried the missing bell striker over one shoulder.
Even at the distance, Eullian recognized the shape of the smile.
Not Aldren Vane.
Someone trained by him.
Vara raised her staff.
"Height Hunter."
The figure lifted one hand.
Behind them, dozens of metal cables rose from the opposite side of the mountain.
Hooks caught the cliffs.
Armored climbers ascended from the clouds.
White Marine coats.
Pirate armor.
Merchant uniforms.
No shared flag except the golden coin attached to every harness.
Tallen counted.
"Forty-two."
Hijo watched additional cables rise.
"More below."
Mira looked toward the broken Height Bell.
"They waited for the Still system to draw us here."
Vara's face hardened.
"They waited for Cube."
Captain Cube looked toward the ridge.
The hunter holding the striker called across the settlement.
"Calven Dorr!"
Captain Cube's expression became empty.
"Your delivery is overdue."
Eullian stepped in front of the basket.
The hunter smiled.
"Peace Crew!"
The title echoed through the mountains.
"Welcome to the Center Sea."
Eullian's hands closed.
The hunter lifted the Height Bell's missing tongue.
"Aldren Vane offers a trade."
Mira held the Open Ledger tighter.
"What trade?"
The hunter pointed toward Captain Cube.
"The failed subject."
Then toward the Civic Mercy below.
"Your ship."
Then toward the children of the Height Tribe.
"The next generation of witnesses."
His smile widened.
"In exchange, we will restore everyone's happiest memory."
The giants erupted in anger.
Dozens reached for weapons.
Others looked toward their children.
Some looked tempted.
That was the most dangerous reaction.
The hunter saw it.
"So many burdens," he called. "So many dead. So many failures."
His eyes moved toward Hijo.
"One hundred and nine names."
Mira.
"One innocent uncle."
Tallen.
"Promises too large to guarantee."
Eullian.
"A sea you cannot save."
Then Vara.
"Children who will hate you for keeping them high."
Runa looked toward her mother.
Vara's grip shook.
The hunter rested the bell striker across his shoulders.
"Give us what Aldren owns."
He pointed toward the smiling city below.
"And you may forget why you ever resisted."
The Height Tribe stood above the reach of the island's perfect peace.
But they were not above wanting it.
Eullian finally understood why the settlement contained so much shouting.
They argued to remember that disagreement was possible.
They carried pain because pain proved someone had not yet rewritten them.
They raised children high because the ground could teach obedience before the children learned their own names.
They were enormous.
Strong.
Difficult to control.
And completely exhausted.
The hunter knew exhaustion could make any prison resemble rest.
Eullian stepped forward.
Vara lowered one hand in front of him.
"This is Height fight."
"No."
Her green eyes narrowed.
"You are low."
"Yes."
"You do not know tribe."
"No."
"You cannot choose for us."
"No."
That answer stopped her.
Eullian looked toward the giants.
"I'm not choosing for you."
Then toward the Height Hunters climbing over the ridge.
"I'm choosing against them."
Vara studied him.
"You may fall."
"Yes."
"Ground waits."
"Yes."
"Memory breaks."
"Yes."
"You still climb?"
Eullian smiled.
"I came here inside a refrigerator."
Runa looked confused.
Vara did not understand either.
Tallen loaded a steel bolt.
"It means yes."
Hijo opened the white book.
Mira began recording every visible hunter.
Captain Cube stared at the golden coin symbol.
Vask raised one hand from the basket.
"I would also prefer not to be sold."
No one acknowledged him.
The Height Hunter raised the stolen bell striker.
"Last offer!"
Vara planted her hooked staff into the mountain.
The entire Height Tribe did the same.
Hundreds of shafts struck stone.
Not together.
Each at a different rhythm.
Arguments made physical.
A vibration passed across the settlement.
Different.
Uneven.
Alive.
Vara looked down at Eullian.
"Peace Crew fights high?"
Eullian looked toward Mira.
She had already begun calculating bridge weight and evacuation routes.
Hijo's threads spread between the giant structures.
Tallen measured forty-two visible enemies and prepared to lie about how many he could stop.
Eullian looked back at Vara.
"Yes."
The hunter lowered the striker.
The first armored climbers crossed the ridge.
Vara exposed enormous teeth in a smile that contained no peace at all.
"Then try not fall, ground man."
The Height Tribe charged uphill.
The Peace Crew went with them.
Far below, the mysterious island continued smiling.
Above it, the mountain remembered how to fight.