“But pulling us away from the Spark Ceremony. It’s such a bother, don’t you think?” Sven said. His voice always made it seem like he was midway between exhaustion and amusement.

“Aye. It is a shame, but the captain’s right. It’s a perfect time to test the machinery. Everyone’s distracted, and the smell of burning is already in the air. Not to mention, we have a descent coming up in the next couple days. Practice would be good for all of us,” Charlie said. His voice, while not overly deep, contained a strength that placed him as the squad’s leader.

“No need to convince me. I’ve been dying to practice all day,” Duke said. Something about his tone had always reminded James of Zeke. As a result, James had always elected to avoid the man.

James heard the group approaching his location. The metal shelving jolted, creaked, and shook as the three shifted and removed equipment from the shelves. He waited patiently as he heard further shuffling accompanied by several grunts of effort. James’s thoughts warred in his head.

Can I risk a peek? No, it’s too risky. But this might be the only time I get to see their equipment in action… Yeah, and it will definitely be the last if I get caught.

Then, a sound erupted in the room that took the decision from him. It was like being in the kitchen with the blazing fires, except tenfold. No, James thought. Perhaps an even greater magnitude larger and more ferocious. He couldn’t resist. Making sure not to expose too much of himself, he peeked an eye out from behind the shelving. Sven was aiming the barrel at the far wall. James hadn’t noticed before, but the wall was painted with the same soot that occupied the roof of the kitchen. Sven fidgeted with the barrel and a large stream of fire filled the room. James could feel the heat from where he stood.

“Tone it down a bit, will you?” Charlie said to Sven.

“Yeah. You nearly took my eyebrows off,” Duke said. James could hear the subtle annoyance in his tone. He briefly wondered if Charlie and Sven had heard the same thing.

“My humblest apologies,” Sven said, not trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. He then reached up to the end of the barrel, turned something, and directed the barrel at the wall again. This time when the flame poured out, it wasn’t in the form of a large ball but rather a tiny stream the width of James’s arm. James could still feel the heat, but he could tell that most of it was being preserved and directed at the wall.

“Alright. You’ve had your fun. Step aside and let me show you how it’s done,” Duke said. James could make out the sides of a deep grin as he walked over to where Sven had been standing. It unsettled him.

Charlie glanced over to the metal shelving, causing James to jolt back behind it. He had been so preoccupied with what he was seeing that he had forgotten the precarious position that he was in.

“Wait a minute,” Charlie said.

James held his breath, or rather he lost his ability to breath. It clenched in his chest as his muscles tightened up in fear. He heard Charlie take a step closer to the shelving, sending his heart pounding against his chest. He was sure that alone was going to give him away. More footsteps, then the sound of Charlie fumbling with something on the shelf.

“You forgot one of the canisters, Duke. Be more cautious. The only thing ensuring it’s the wall on fire and not us is making sure we properly assemble all the parts,” Charlie said.

James could almost feel Duke’s eye roll from behind the shelving. More footsteps indicated that Charlie had walked away. James took back control of his breath, letting it out in shaky bursts. Even while he was shaking from nervousness, James debated trying to catch another glimpse of the Diver equipment in action. Celeste always chastised him over his inability to learn lessons. But if he did learn lessons, then he wouldn’t have sneaked onto the ship in the first place. Peeking just his eye out, he could see Charlie fastening the canister to Duke’s back.

“Alright! Now I’ll show you how it’s done,” Duke declared.

“Right, right. I’m sure you will,” Sven said, sharing a skeptical look with Charlie.

James watched Duke walk into position. He fidgeted with the nozzle at the end of the barrel just like Sven and sent out a stream of fire onto the wall.

“Incredible,” Sven said in a sarcastic tone. He had to nearly yell to be heard over the roar of the blaze.

“That ain’t nothing!” Duke hollered back at him. He then proceeded to twist the nozzle, slowly increasing the stream until it was a blazing fireball the size of his body. At the same time, he started to walk towards the wall. James found himself leaning further out from behind the shelving to watch him walk. Duke reached the wall and directed the flame at it in a way that it blanketed the entire wall and nothing else. James stared awestruck at the wall of flames. He was so mesmerized that he didn’t realize he was leaning heavily on the shelving to see around its corner. He felt a loss of balance and quickly realized it wasn’t him losing balance but rather the shelving unit falling over. It crashed to the ground with a loud series of clangs. James was still recovering from the fall when a firm hand grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. He was greeted by Charlie’s scowling face.

“Come here to spy on us, did you?” Charlie asked. His tone was so harsh that James didn’t know whether to answer the question or remain silent. He chose the former.

“No! I swear by the winds! I was trying to leave the ship when you guys started walking down the corridor. I panicked and ran in here.”

“And you didn’t come out sooner because…?!” Charlie pressed.

“Because I would get in trouble,” James said, as if it were obvious. It was obvious to him, at least. His heart pounded away in his chest, leaving him surprised that he was even able to form words with Charlie’s glaring eyes staring down on him.

“He’s not wrong,” Sven said. James looked to him. His hopes lifted slightly when he found that the man was not scowling but smiling. It seemed like this whole event was rather humorous to him. Duke, however, seemed rather indifferent to the whole ordeal.

“Hmm. We could always just burn him to a crisp and throw him overboard,” Duke said, as if he were simply offering a suggestion.

James froze. They wouldn’t…Would they? He was relieved when he saw Charlie shoot Duke a seething glare.

“Why are you here? I thought you gave up on being a Diver,” Charlie said, finally putting James on his own two feet. James looked up at him. His fear still boiled within him, but something else crept up beside it. Conviction.

“Give up being a Diver? Why would I do that? I only told Captain Shamran that I would stop pestering him until I was seventeen, the age of adulthood. I never said anything about giving up!” James said. His heart was still beating, but for an entirely different reason. His desire to be a Diver flowed through each of his words, sending jolts of eagerness and excitement through every inch of his body. Charlie looked at him for a few moments before kneeling down and grabbing the front of his jacket.

“Give it up, son,” Charlie said. “You aren’t cut out to be a Diver.”

James felt a sense of stunned shock, his hopes and dreams falling from his body like a Jenga tower crumbling to the ground. Then, at the last moment, he caught them. They were his dreams, and if they were to be disregarded, it would be because he chose to disregard them, not because someone told him to. Though tears threatened to run down his cheeks, he stared firmly back into Charlie’s eyes. There was a darkness to them that James couldn’t understand. He held his gaze for a long time and barely realized when Sven walked over and put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder.

“Well, aren’t you a downer.” Sven said to Charlie. Without waiting for a reply, he turned to James. “Alright, kid. What do you say to a mutually beneficial deal between the two of us? You don’t tell a single sole about what you saw here today, and we don’t tell the Captain that you were on the ship. Win-win. Yeah?”

James looked from Sven to Charlie, who didn’t object to Sven’s offer. Instead, he stood up and began standing the metal shelving back into its place. It was as if James had already left. James slowly looked up at Sven and gave him several nods.

“Deal,” James said in a somber tone. He went to the doorway and slid the doorway open. However, instead of walking through, he turned around and faced Charlie’s back. “I will become a Diver, and I will find my father.” James didn’t wait for a response before closing the door.

It was then that the tears started to fall. It was one thing to be discouraged. James had experienced plenty of that in his lifetime. But it was another thing entirely to be discouraged by the ones you looked up to. To be told to give up by the very people that had always served as his motivation. It hurt. Plain and simple. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and pushed his tears away for another time. He was still on a guarded ship that he needed to escape from, and he knew the Spark Ceremony was either over or ending soon.

He rushed up the stair sets and down the corridors, making sure not to look too conspicuous. Breathing deeply, he finally made it to the bottom of the last set of stairs that led to the hatch. He took one step onto the stairs and heard the sound of the hatch being unlocked from above. He groaned and turned around, darting into the first room he saw. Luckily for him, it was the engine room, which had plenty of nooks and crannies to hide in. He slipped behind some of the larger machinery. He heard footsteps, laughter, and discussion reverberate into the room from the corridor. The Spark Ceremony was over, he figured. Everyone was returning to the interior of their ships. He tensed as he heard Captain Shamran’s voice in the fray of discussion, but relaxed when it continued down the hall. A group of men and women entered the engine room, causing James to press himself further behind the machinery.

“Back to work, I suppose,” a woman’s voice said.

“Mm. I guess so. Only a few more hours until the shift is done, though,” a man’s voice added. By the tone of his voice, James could tell that the man was stretching.

James waited a few moments for them to get to work. Luckily for him, the cranks faced the wall away from the door. He slowly poked his head out from behind the machinery. He watched them for a moment. Despite their presence on nearly every ship, James had only seen them working a handful of times. On most occasions, the door was shut, and you weren’t allowed in until you were seventeen. The group of men and women were slowly rotating the cranks in a circle, and they would keep doing that until their shift ended. James was not looking forward to having to do this when he grew up. Bron had always tried to talk it up, but James didn’t buy it.

“It’s a part of who we are. A part of what makes us Vinci citizens,” he had said. Even seeing it firsthand, James didn’t get it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to get it.

After making sure that none of them were looking his way, he slipped out the door and into the corridor. He looked both ways and found no prying eyes staring back at him. He breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. An act that was becoming too common to him, he noted. With stealthy footsteps, he climbed his way up the stairs, unlatching the hatch and climbing out. The wind hit his face, blowing his hair into unnatural positions. He had expected wind, but not at the power of what now pummeled his body. The ships had started moving again. It wasn’t completely unsafe to be on deck, just a little more unsafe than it had been an hour ago.

A gust rose over the railing, racing across the deck and catching the hatch as it went. It was ripped from James’s grasp just as he was beginning to lower it. It clanged shut. The loudness of it sent a jolt of panic through his body. Whirling about, he spotted the two regulators. One had perked up and was beginning to turn to investigate the noise. James lunged for the pile of boxes. They had clearly been shuffled about in the time he had been below deck because his crevice of a hiding spot was no longer there. He was forced to press his body up against the pile and pray to the winds that the regulator didn’t conduct a thorough search. Due to the roaring of the wind, James could hear practically nothing and was blindsided when the regulator appeared at the hatch beside him. James leaned back against the pile, trying to conceal himself and accidentally knocking one of the crates to the side in the process. The regulator jumped. It seemed that James wasn’t the only one to be jarred by the boxes crash. The regulator turned about, spotting James next to the boxes. He narrowed his eyes, covering his own embarrassment with anger towards the boy. He took a step towards him, a finger waging in his direction.

“Thought you could sneak on, boy? Thought I wouldn’t find you—” the regulator began but was cut off by a drawling voice that came from behind James.

“There you are, Jameson. You won’t escape work that easily.” James turned to see Jarl standing right behind him. Their eyes met, and Jarl seemed to point with his eyes towards the crate at James’s side. “Yes, that is the one. Now, you shall carry it back to the ship and place it in the kitchen. Hopefully that will teach you to avoid fights with other kids.” Jarl swiveled his eyes onto the regulator. “May I help you, sir? Was this child bothering you? If you’d like I could add another box to his punishment.”

The regulator eyed Jarl, and then looked down at James. He seemed to consider Jarl’s offer but decided against it. He waved his hand in a dismissive way.

“Nah. He was just being clumsy with the boxes. The noise pulled me from my post.” He looked back over to the bridge. “A post that I must be returning to. Make sure he doesn’t drop a box over the railing. It’s precious cargo, that is.”

Jarl gave a nod and the regulator made his way back to the bridge. James nearly collapsed in relief.

“Thank you, Jarl,” James said. It was only now that he realized how out of breath he was.

“Do not thank me,” Jarl said, reaching down and picking up one of the crates. “You will grab that crate and you will take it to the kitchen. I’d say it’s a punishment much lighter than what the captain would have given you.”

James gave no complaint and reached down to pick up the crate. Jarl was right. As punishments went, this wasn’t much of one. He was returning to the ship anyway, and the kitchen was more or less on the way to his room. James grunted under the weight of the crate. He hadn’t expected it to be so heavy.

“What’s in these?” James asked as he and Jarl walked on the bridge. It shifted ever so slightly in the wind, causing the metal plates beneath to expand and contract.

“Supplies,” Jarl responded.

“What kinds of supplies?”

“Many kinds of supplies.”

“Where did they come from?” James pressed.

“I think I’ll add no questions to your punishment,” Jarl said with mild annoyance.

James frowned but asked no more questions. He wanted to pry deeper, but Jarl had saved him from a punishment that he could only assume would have been severe. If he wanted no questions to be asked, then James would allow him that much, at least for the walk back to Vessel Nine.

He and Jarl stepped off the second bridge and onto their ship. He could see Celeste waiting by the hatch. She wasted no time walking up to him. James stopped in his tracks, not sure of what to expect. Jarl kept walking, passing Celeste and entering the hatch. It was clear that he didn’t want to be a part of this discussion. The first thing Celeste did when she reached him was punch him in the arm. James nearly dropped the crate.

“What was that for?” he protested.

“For being stupid. I gave you one request and it was to not be stupid, and then what do you do? You go off and be stupid.”

“How do you know I was being stupid?” he asked.

“Uh, I’m your sister.” She brought a finger up and prodded it against the side of her head. “I just know. Besides, you came back with Jarl. That can’t be a good sign.” She checked over her shoulder to make sure he was gone.

“He actually saved me. I think your wrong about him. I’ll admit, he has a downer of a personality, but he always seems to be helping us out.” James shifted the crate into a more comfortable position. Celeste frowned.

“I never said that he didn’t help us out. Just that it feels like he’s hiding something,” she said, more defensive than intended. James rolled his eyes.

“Get the hatch for me, will you?”