Xavier looked around the home the trio had escaped into. A workbench was shoved into the corner and there seemed to be tools and metals all around them.

The room was cramped and forced to share a bed, kitchen, and the workbench in one tiny wooden square.

"Sorry about the lack of space, I'm not the richest in the world." Their rescuer explained as he pushed some objects aside. The boy had a thick Carosite accent that put extra emphasis on consonants.

The Caros native seemed to be around their age and was dressed like a blacksmith. He had bright fluffy hair that was almost white atop his head and a sword at his side.

"It's no problem at all," Rose replied. She flipped her hood over her head and tried to cover her face a bit. "Thanks for saving us!"

The boy grinned. "Of course! Any enemy of Kingston is a friend of mine! Within reason, that is. You guys aren't murderers, yeah?" Though he spoke like he was joking, Xavier noticed one of his hands drift to his sword.

Atlas rolled their eyes. "Not without good reason." They answered sarcastically.

"At ease lad, they're being truthful," Xavier added. "What's your reason for saving random criminals exactly?"

The boy chuckled. "Well Mr. Pirate, I happen to be a member of the Caros Independence Force!" Xavier wasn't too surprised to be recognized as a pirate, but he was surprised to be in the presence of a CIF member.

Caros's independence was wildly unpopular as far as Xavier understood things, but the recent brutal Kingston occupation had made it much more appealing.

Xavier had done business for many CIF members, but it was rare to see one proudly announce it due to their designation as a terrorist group by Kingston.

CIF members had a reputation for radical action to get radical results. Xavier heard Rose audibly gulp but she forced a smile. "Woah! Th-that's pretty cool! As you said, we're pirates."

The rebel eyed up Rose and Atlas. "Really? Never seen a pirate from Kingston or... made of darkness?"

"I dislike you," Atlas mumbled. They seemed entirely unaware of the forming tension between Rose and their rescuer that Xavier didn't want to let escalate.

"Look lad, I appreciate you saving us but we ought to get going before they find us." Xavier cut in. "We're wanted for a bit more than piracy. Would you happen to know where the CIF members that salvaged Solanja are? I've worked with them before and we need their help. If my name helps reassure you, I'm a friend, I'm Captain Xavier."

The boy did a bit of a double-take. Xavier was one of few pirates to figure out the holes in Caros's security system and to be willing to do work for the rebel group.

"Well Captain Xavier, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done to help the army." The boy began. "But I think the people you're looking for are my aunt and uncle and well... they died in an operation gone wrong a while back." He admitted.

Xavier was a bit taken aback and frowned. "Sorry to hear that lad. I didn't even know they had any family but they were good people."

"Yeah, they wanted to keep me out of all the danger best they could." He explained. "I'm Jacob, by the way. Jacob Sparks." The two shook hands. "What did you need them for anyway? You haven't been seen in what feels like forever."

Xavier looked at Rose and Atlas and the three of them came to the silent conclusion to explain what was going on. They tried to keep things vague but Jacob asked several questions and they ended up telling him almost the entire story except that Rose was the daughter of the High Mage.

Jacob sat down and took it all in. "That's a lot to process... But it makes too much sense. The Kingston Guard has been way more strict recently and why else would they raid my shop?"

Rose tilted her head. "Raided your shop? Why would the Guardians want to do that?"

Jacob gestured to his workbench. "I took over my aunt and uncle's shop and salvaging work, but recently the Kingston Guard occupied and stole everything from my shop. I had tons of Solanjan weapons and material there that's all gone now."

Atlas groaned. "Of course it is. Well then, I'm going salvaging." Atlas was about to teleport away again when Xavier shook their shoulder.

"Atlas have you gone mad? If they thought to raid some random shop then they're bound to be guarding Solanja!" He pointed out, which made the Guardian stop in their tracks. Atlas didn't admit that Xavier was right, but they looked off to the side and didn't say anything else.

"No worries! I have a solution!" Jacob grinned and gestured to his sword. The blacksmith pulled the weapon from its sheath and revealed a beautiful golden blade that curved slightly and had gorgeous engravings. "I brought this one back with me to work on at home and it's in amazing condition!"

Atlas immediately sprung out of their funk and analyzed the blade. "That's the Solanjan weapon of legends, Lumis. The Solanjans said that it was their most powerful sword and would fall into the hands of their greatest warrior." Atlas showed a surprising amount of emotion as they recounted the legend.

"How do you know th-oh wait." Jacob smiled sheepishly and remembered that Atlas had supposedly been around for thousands of years. "Well if it's of any help, I'd be happy to lend a hand. Only problem is it doesn't seem that strong. It slices stuff plenty good, but even when I fill it with Fire Magic it doesn't do much better than a regular enchanted blade."

Atlas groaned. "That's right, you aren't a Light Mage. Girl, use some light magic on the sword." They ordered.

Rose wanted to protest, but Atlas snapped their fingers and Rose just decided to cast the spell. Light Magic flooded into the sword and it started to glow brightly.

The light died down after a second and Jacob put the sword away. Xavier put his hands on his hips. "Well, I think that might do the trick against Astraeus. What do you say, Jacob, want to help us out?"

Jacob nodded. "For sure! Saving the archipelago and sticking it to Kingston's my kind of gig!" Rose shifted uncomfortably but didn't say anything else.

"Not so fast." Atlas cut in. "This isn't some glory mission against Kingston. Our goal is to avoid making a bigger mess for me to clean up."

"That's all well and good," Jacob agreed. "But if we're going to get to Kingston undetected we need to stage a big distraction. They've got ships lining their coast right now. Plus, I can't just drop everything to help you guys out on some super dangerous mission."

Xavier sighed. "Well lad, what did you have in mind? We can't just go and liberate Caros."

Jacob nodded. "We can't, yes. But Clamerates would be more than willing to fight to rid Kingston of Caros. From there we can negotiate a strong alliance but in the end, independence."

"Why would Clamerates go for that? Sounds costly without much gain." Xavier stated.

"At first, it seems stupid." The rebel admitted. "But word is, Kingston's planning another invasion anyway. And with the resources of Caros and its proximity to Clamerates, on top of now having the Scalliers to attack Clamerates from the other side, they're in trouble as long as Caros belongs to Kingston. And we can make it a sure-fire win for Clamerates if they battle Kingston for Caros."

"How exactly?" Rose asked. "Clamerates doesn't exactly have the best win streak against Kingston." Atlas stared at the ceiling in boredom as the island politics talk began to pick up.

"You would know," Jacob commented before continuing. "We've got a pirate captain here. Get some of your pirate friends on board and it'll be a blowout!"

Xavier winced. "Well, lad I'm not sure how many pirates would be on board fighting a dangerous battle without much to gain."

Jacob shook his head. "If the CIF is in control, Caros would become a sanctuary for pirates just like Marok!"

Xavier had to admit, it was an impressive plan that just might work. "Well then team, we ought to get to Clamerates then. You have a ship?" Jacob nodded and turned for the door.

The group hurried down the sloped street, and followed Jacob as he weaved between alleyways and made his way through the city of Alport.

The team was nearing their destination when a group of Kingston soldiers moved in to block their path. An entire legion seemed to be surrounding the group in no time flat.

"There are the intruders! And they're with one of the rebels!" A guard shouted from the crowd. "Surrender!"

Nobody needed to say anything to know they all immediately were going to spring into action. Xavier began freezing as many in the legion as he could while Atlas teleported behind their lines and Rose unleashed her fire magic.

Jacob whipped out his sword and filled it with magic which made it ignite with flames. He eagerly slashed away at soldiers and cut them down. "Die! Kingston scum!"

Rose, meanwhile, didn't aim any of her magic directly at the soldiers and instead had it scare them away. "Jacob, cool it on the carnage! Rose, power up his sword!" Xavier called to the two of them to try and organize the group.

Atlas erupted from somewhere in the sea of soldiers and began relentlessly slicing them to pieces. They flew into the sky and fired down magic to seal the deal. "Atlas! Get down here and help us push to the port!" Xavier called.

The pirate fired several shots from his gun and created an ice wall to slow the approach of soldiers. He had been in charge of plenty of tricky situations but usually, his crew would listen to him.

Xavier looked over at Rose and Jacob with relief as Jacob's sword was shining with light and generated a massive explosion when he brought it down on the attacking soldiers. That thing is bloody powerful! Xavier mused.

"Now's our chance! Let's move!" Xavier called to the group. He turned and ran for the port with Jacob and Rose not far behind. Atlas reluctantly followed behind the group.

Jacob pointed to his ship and the team piled onto it before sailing away. Xavier glanced back as the ship pulled out of port and saw smoke rising from the destruction they'd been able to create in a brief amount of time.

"Maybe we stand a chance," Xavier mused before turning his attention back to navigating the ship.