"What's going on?"
Seeing the glowing invitation, Anderson blinked in surprise. Instinctively, he reached into the drawer and pulled it out.
That was when he realized something was wrong.
When it had first arrived, this black cardstock had borne only a single asymmetrical, strange emblem, the noble crest Nast had inherited as the "Earl of White Maple."
Beyond that, there had been neither a location nor a date for the pirates' assembly.
So everyone had assumed it was merely a preliminary invitation, with more specific details to follow later, and the captain had tossed it carelessly into a drawer and forgotten about it.
By the time the captain had left the Doe alone on some errand, no one had thought to check it again.
But at some point, without anyone noticing, a new line of text had appeared on the invitation:
[This year's pirates' assembly will be held on March 25th, on Black Lake Island in the Sonia Sea.
For the safety of all attendees and to prevent bloodshed, please keep your escort fleet as small as possible.
As a guest specially invited by the Count, you need not undertake the long voyage to reach the destination. On the 25th, this invitation will transport you and your ship to the target waters on its own.
Special notice: this invitation will activate automatically. If you decline to attend, please burn it before it takes effect.]
At that moment, the crest was glowing.
Glowing!
As the light spread, the black letter began to change.
It no longer held its former crisp, flat rigidity but softened rapidly, transforming from a sheet of stiff paper into a swath of black cloth.
It was a tough, black fabric, saturated with a kind of spiritual presence, as though it had been cut from something far larger.
"This..."
Anderson stared, dumbstruck.
Instinctively, he glanced at the wall of the captain's cabin, where a calendar hung.
Wasn't... today the 25th?
"Damn it!"
Anderson snatched up the black cloth the invitation had become and made to rush out of the cabin to fling it overboard, but it was already too late.
The spiritual presence of the black cloth began to spill outward, silently warping the space around it, and he immediately felt everything nearby growing hazy, colors thickening and overlapping, bleeding together as though dissolving into one another.
The real world was falling away from him, rapidly.
He had entered the spirit world!
And traveling through the spirit world alongside him was the Doe itself, beneath his feet.
"What's happening?"
"It's so strange out there!"
"Captain! First Mate! Come out and look!"
Cries of alarm rose one after another.
The sailors on deck had never witnessed anything like this.
Though Silas had taken them on a "journey" once before, during the raid on Byam, that time they had sunk into Silas's shadow and never actually glimpsed the spirit world's true landscape.
Thin mist. Seven strands of clear, luminous light. Directions and markers that defied definition. Strange creatures beyond description...
"We're finished..."
Gazing out at the scene beyond the window, a bitter smile crossed Anderson's face.
The captain had told him to look after the fleet, and here he was, one careless moment, and he had dragged the whole fleet into danger.
This was the pirates' assembly, attended by the kings of the seas themselves. Could he, a mere Sequence 5, along with a flesh-and-blood puppet the captain had left behind, really hold his own here?
For one fleeting moment, Anderson genuinely considered crushing the talisman the captain had left him, to call him back.
No. This wasn't the most dangerous moment yet. If the captain had slipped away so secretively, it had to be for something important. He couldn't summon him back so lightly, not over this.
Anderson drew a deep breath.
"Everyone, stay calm! Everything is going according to plan!"
He shouted from the captain's cabin. "Hold your footing, don't fall overboard, or you'll die a very ugly death!"
The transfer had not yet ended, and he didn't dare venture out rashly, for fear of tumbling into some corner of the spirit world and never finding his way back.
The sailors settled somewhat at his words, though a trace of fear still lingered.
They glanced around nervously, murmuring to one another. The creatures of the spirit world merely cast an indifferent glance their way before looking elsewhere.
Fortunately, the Doe did not linger long in the spirit world.
A second or two by Anderson's own reckoning, and the colors around them separated and faded once more, bright sunlight and seawater replacing the mist as the Doe returned to reality.
An island appeared ahead of Anderson's line of sight. It wasn't large, but its harbor was thick with ships. And more still, new vessels kept arriving from the surrounding waters even as he watched.
The ships came in every conceivable shape.
Some were the common three-masted sailing ships; others were hybrid vessels fitted with both sails and steam funnels; still others were single-masted ships of a far older era. Judging by their designs alone, it was practically a living history of humanity's age of seafaring.
But whatever their shapes, without exception, every single ship flew a black flag atop its mast. It was the flag that symbolized death and plunder, the nightmare of every soul who ever sailed the seas.
These were all pirate ships.
Anderson gazed at the island in the distance.
According to legend, this island had risen from the seabed itself, magma from some undersea volcano cooling and solidifying in the water, gradually building up into an island.
Even now, at the island's center, there remained a round lake, said to be the volcano's dormant crater.
The lake was filled entirely with black stone, giving the whole body of water a pitch-black appearance, and it was from this that the island took its name.
Black Lake Island. So many pirate ships... he really had stumbled into the pirates' assembly.
He had no choice but to accept it.
The pirates nearby noticed the ship at once and turned their eyes toward it. Anderson knew full well that pulling the fleet away now would draw far too much attention.
The captain had told him to keep things quiet before leaving, and though he had no idea what the captain was up to, if his own behavior aroused suspicion, it might put the captain at risk.
Whether he liked it or not, he would have to play the part through.
Anderson told himself.
As a former adventurer with nerves of steel, he composed himself quickly.
Moments later, he strode out of the cabin with a light, easy step, came out onto the deck, glanced around, and said to the sailors with a smile, "Good news, everyone, the captain's just agreed to let us attend the pirates' assembly. Things were urgent, so there wasn't time to let you all know beforehand. He just transported us straight here."
"The pirates' assembly?"
"Excellent! Here I thought the captain wasn't going to bring us along!"
Listening to Anderson's explanation and taking in the sights around them, the sailors quickly grasped the situation, most of them lighting up with delight. Only a few of the more clear-headed among them raised doubts.
"First Mate, why didn't the captain give us advance notice so we could prepare?"
someone asked. "And why did he only bring the flagship? The rest of the fleet's still out at sea..."
The black cloth's range had been limited. Only the Doe and the ironclad warship closest to it had made the crossing through the spirit world.
Though the crews of those two ships made up the majority of the fleet, the other vessels still carried a portion of the crew.
"All right, all right, what can you do, the captain decided this on short notice."
Anderson felt a flicker of unease inside, but he kept up his forced smile and said to the crowd, "Those men aren't children, they won't go wandering off and get lost. We finally get the chance to attend the pirates' assembly, so why not think about how you're going to spend it instead?"
At that, the crowd let their worries go and fell into conversation.
Some planned to catch a glimpse of the legendary pirates in the flesh, others meant to browse the market the pirates had organized among themselves, and before long the deck buzzed with lively chatter.