Mack knew he was in trouble by the sensation of nothing that crept up his limbs. A numb, blank space gaining ground inside; his awareness fuzzed at the edges. He'd overextended himself in the worst way, pulling on reserves he hadn't given proper time to replenish. Drained since the moment he'd siphoned the violent chaotic energy overflowing from his apprentice before all this madness properly kicked off.

"Calponia," he murmured her name, twisting uneasily against the giving surface at his back. His sense of gravity was skewed, unable to pin down concepts of up versus down. He held his breath as his head swam, unsuccessfully trying to establish an equilibrium.

Fingers closed around his. A flood of golden warmth coursed through him from that gentle point of contact. Energy poured into him, revitalizing him in such an abrupt fashion it sent his head spinning anew in the opposite direction. He opened his eyes, trying to focus through the lazily turning world on the concerned face hovering over him. Grey green eyes above worry nibbled lips, a face achingly familiar and utterly wrong. He inhaled, squeezing the hand that held his as the world settled into place. Mack studied his apprentice in silence, wary to speak for what might escape his mouth. Through his wavering vision, he could still see the threads of the Edgewise trailing off her like shimmering water vapor. He might have shut the tavern out but it clearly hadn't done the same to him, offering him its energy through the living conduit of Cal.

Mack let his head loll to the side, covering his eyes with his free arm. He didn't let go of Calponia's hand and she didn't let go of him, but he couldn't look at her just now, ashamed he'd let his fears and doubts eat at him until it put everything in danger. He was still silently berating himself when he heard the quiet, muffled sniff, peeking out from under his arm to find his apprentice covering her own face.

"This isn't your fault, Cal," he said, answering the unspoken question that sang in the tension between her shaking shoulders. So quick to blame herself; so willing to take the burden of his stupidity onto herself. He reached up to tug on a hanging curl, pausing as he noticed shots of silver in her dark hair. A consequence of her temporary death, or maybe the fear she'd felt countless times since entering the multiverse of the Edgewise. He sighed, tucking it behind her ear. Calponia lifted her head to look at him, baring wounds deeper than he could truly or fully understand.

"Are you sure? You told me the bête noire weakened the Edgewise," she whispered. The suggestion was there, in how she wouldn't meet his gaze. She thought she was a burden to him.

Mack swallowed, prickled by guilt, and forced himself to sit up. "Listen here," he said, noting his location in the medical bay of the Aurai's Breath. He gestured to himself. "What happened up there? That's on me. I've been an idiot. Your curse might 'weaken' the Edgewise but not the way you think. A poor choice of words, again my fault." He took both her hands, pulling her focus even as he felt the Edgewise test his senses. He slowly allowed the tavern into his mind, a golden spool of energy that felt, somehow, relieved. There were still unanswered questions between the tavern master and his charge, but first there was Cal. He was terrible at this whole apprentice thing.

"Not weakened so much as diverting resources," he explained, though the words felt inadequate and clunky as he spoke. He rubbed his face, shocked by the whiskery growth. When was the last time he shaved? Or looked in a mirror? He secretly dreaded what he would see in his reflection, not ready to face the exhaustion he felt dragging on his bones. "Look, every patron who frequents the tavern brings the potential for disaster. Be it refugees from the Blood Empire infantry, or a Lady Knight hiding herself from the wrath of Inquisitors, the Edgewise is a Sanctuary of the realms. It expends considerable energy to protect those within, and upholds unspoken contract: if danger should ever breach that sanctum, the patrons shall defend it."

He ran the pad of his thumb over her knuckles. "Even if you stayed, and our mystery aggressor broke in, the tavern would protect you, and the patrons would protect the tavern."

Cal sniffed. "Like a symbiotic relationship?"

"Something to that effect yes," Mack grinned. 

She offered him a tremulous smile that broke on the crest of a thousand other worries still churning behind her eyes. "What happened to you up there?"

He debated what to tell her, not to keep things from her so much as an inability to explain. She read the struggle in his expression and retrieved the now familiar and damnable root of the whole issue from the depths of her sweater sleeve.

"Does it have to do with him?"

His breath left him in a gush, shoulders sagging under the weight of questions and unknowns. "Yes. No. Maybe. It has something to do with him, but I'd be hard pressed to tell why." He didn't reach to take the picture from her, frowning at the young man beside him in the picture. "I don't remember who he is."

Her fingers curled at the admittance. He could feel her unease. "He looks just like me." She withdrew her hand from his, a chill flushing against his skin to fill the void of her warmth. "Mr. Henderson said my uncle died before I was born, that he passed the bête noire on to me. Could this be him? Standing next to you?"

It would be a simple explanation, one that clarified the strong resemblance between them. But  there was still the void in his memory. He'd found the picture in a destroyed hidden room of the tavern. There was more, frustratingly out of reach. He scratched at the mystery like a scab that wouldn't completely heal though the wound was long closed over.

"Possibly," said Mack. He folded his arms, trying to force the answers into being, to claw them from his head.... "Huh."

"What?"

"I think I know where we can get answers," he said, glancing at the view from medbay window. 

There were stars rushing by on the port side, bursts of effervescent white blue light that streaked through the sky. They were nearing the cross-point of Oceanus, where the gravitational forces neutralized each other. "If we survive this little adventure."

Cal snorted. "Little. Have you seen those Krakens?"

"You think they're bad here, you should see their homeworld," said Mack.

His apprentice blanched. "Yeah, I'm good thanks. Are you okay, now?"

He flexed his hands, feeling the strength of the tavern burgeoning under his own. "I am. When this is over, we'll both get answers," he promised, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. The ship rocked. Mack caught himself on bed rail as Cal tumbled backwards. She landed hard and curled into a ball, arms protecting her head. The rocking paused.

Cal glanced up between her cradled arms. "Spoke too soon?"

Something large and sinuous glided past the medbay window, blocking out the glow of streaking stars with a long dreadful darkness.

"We need to get on deck," said Mack, pulling Cal to her feet. She tucked the photo back into her sleeve as he led her up through the Aurai's Breath, making use of the emergency ladders rather than the faster but power reliant thru ways.

He felt the press of panic before they reached the top deck, and there, oily slick and tasting of bitter ash, the Kraken brushed against his mind, sensing him as he sensed it.

"Bugger," he hissed through his teeth. Far too close for comfort. Cal shrank against his side, feeling the Fear. He wrapped an arm around her as they came topside, caught in the eerie silence of a crew under the iron press of Kraken Fear.

Eleni's men hugged the deck, reduced to quivering piles of flesh. He caught the reek of urine and other putrid emissions, pitying the poor bastards unprepared for the psychological toll of undiluted evil. Eleni herself fared slightly better, clinging to the ship's steering panel. She must have kept the ship from capsizing as the Kraken nudged them. The woman was white as a sheet, her iron curls plastered flat by sweat. He could see the whites of her eyes from across the deck but she held firm, the set of her jaw grim and determined as the Kraken came in for another pass.

Mack squinted. "Where's that bloody vampire?"

He heard a grunt above him. He glanced up to find Eugene clinging to the rigging of the fore-first mast, hefting one of the ships cannon length spears with one hand. His blazing red eyes trained on the approaching monster.

"Least he's making himself useful," said Mack.

"What?" Calponia's teeth were chattering. She gave a tiny squeak as she looked up, though whether that was due to the vampire or the Kraken he couldn't decide. Instead he squeezed the back of her neck.

"Don't listen to it," he told her. She looked up at him, wide eyed and confused. A flash of understanding crossed her features. She nodded, curling her shaking hands into fists as she braced her feet apart. "There's my apprentice."

The Kraken brushed against the ship. Eleni fought to compensate while Eugene launched the spear with lethal grace. The spear hit home, but glanced along the Kraken's armored skin, barely leaving a scratch.

"Your aim is shite, vampire," called Mack.

Eugene actually snarled at him. "Want to give it a shot, Macklemore?"

He ignored the fusspot and moved to Eleni, carefully clamping a hand on the back of the woman's rock solid neck. "Try to shut it out, my lovely," he said. "Why aren't you using the cannons?"

She managed to unclench her jaw enough to answer. "Bloody beast knocked out the guns first. It knows where to hit us, Mack. It's playing with us."

He knew that. Krakens had a penchant for cruelty. Their assailant was swinging back now for another teasing pass. He licked his lips. "Are they damaged beyond repair? Or can I manually operate one?"

Eleni shot him a look, a flicker of hope warring with her panic. "The far starboard one is still functional under a pair of steady hands."

"Then I'll--" He froze, that oily slick evil crackling against his awareness but there was a new note there, the ancient curiosity of a careless god peering down at them.

"Mack!" He turned at the spike of fear in the vampire's voice, turned to eyes upon eyes upon eyes. Rows of swollen orange orbs, alien oblong irises tilted down with intense focus at the lone female standing on deck, feet braced apart, shaking fists tucked into the sleeves of her overlarge sweater.

Cal stood locked in place, her gaze level with the Kraken's. A wind that was not a wind pulled at her clothes and hair, whipping strands into a frenzy. In the long pause between blinks, he watched her grey green eyes fill with the same oily darkness as the bête noire rose to the fore.

Time stretched, thinner and thinner until it recoiled with snap. Mack tasted burnt copper in his mouth, a warning from his senses as he ran toward Cal, reaching for her. His fingertips blackened when he was still three feet from her. The vampire called her name, lost in a soundless roar that pressed down on them as the Kraken loomed closer.

It was fascinated.

A whistling split the silence. A grin split Mack's face with maniacal, relieved glee. An incisor buried itself in one of the Kraken's eyes with an explosion of foul thick fluids. The Kraken reared back with a roar that made his ears bleed, cut short as another explosive shot took out a second eye.

Another ship roared overhead, dwarfing Eleni's vessel. The signature of laser fire seared against Mack's vision, but the scent of smoking Kraken flesh broke the spell of Fear on the crew. They rose on watery knees, cheering the new vessel as it continued its assault under the Kraken fled to lick its wounds.

Mack ignored the newcomers, concentrating on Cal as the bête noire slowly receded. He could still feel it, far closer to the surface than it had been before but when she began to shiver he wrapped her in a fierce hug.

"Are you okay?"

Her laugh was strained and scared. "Wasn't that my question?"

Eugene hovered beside him, irises still blazing but his anxiety was palpable. He didn't reach for her but the longing was so clear, Mack raised a brow at him. "Why don't we greet our valiant rescuers?"

The vampire made a face. "I can smell that booze soaked pirate from here."

"Ravelock?" Calponia perked up. The vampire's shoulders stiffened. Mack bit his lip to keep from laughing.

The Captain himself was visible at the helm as his ship drew parallel to Eleni's. With a flourish, he swept his plumed hat from his head and bowed low as he called across to her. "You have my permission to come aboard, Captain Eleni!"

Despite her recent fright, the older woman scowled at him. "Oh do I now? Well, aren't you bold as brass?"

Ravelock's smile shifted to something sharper. "Bolder, my lady, though I suggest you take me up on my offer before the beast returns with reinforcements."

Eleni swallowed, visibly shaken. "Round up your gear, gents," she told the crew. They didn't need to be told twice, bursting into action, eager to be off the crippled Aurai's Breath.

 Ravelock's gaze shifted off the bustling crew to Mack. His eyes widened slightly but the grin remained. "Why, Mack, I didn't know you cared."

"I don't," said Mack. "You have a massive tab."