Idris ran.
He kept Lucien over his shoulder and moved as fast as the weight allowed, cutting through the back streets away from the port end of town. The town looked worse from ground level than it had from the clearing. Doors kicked in. Stalls overturned.
The northern road was still smoking where the market had been. A few locals were outside now, standing in doorways or picking through what was left of their things, looking at the damage with a vacant and devastated expression that was to be expected after the sudden events that occured.
Idris didn't stop.
The docks were mostly clear. The Marines had swept through earlier and moved on, leaving the pier end of the island quieter than the rest of it.
Idris found the shipyard at the far end and saw the ship.
It was big. Built for open water, clearly meant for something more serious than the relatively simpler North Blue. It was also not finished. The rigging wasn't fully done. Sections of the hull were still unpainted. Tools were laid out on the deck like the workers had stepped away mid-job and hadn't come back.
According to them, most of the outer parts were over, but still needed to work on the inner sections they requested and were waiting for the material to arrive.
He looked at it for a moment.
It didn't matter. They were leaving.
He carried Lucien up the gangway and set him down carefully against the main mast. He checked his breathing. Steady. He stood back up and looked at Law.
"Get it ready," he said.
Law was already moving.
Idris went back down to the dock and started on the lines. He had the first two untied and was working on the third when he heard someone shout from the yard behind him.
"Hey. What do you think you're doing."
Idris turned.
Coming down toward him was a man of about fifty, solidly built, hair more grey than not, hands large and calloused. He had the rolling walk of someone who had spent most of his life near water.
Idris looked at him. Most of the town had gone inside when the Marines landed and hadn't come back out since.
Milo Hendricks. His name was on the yard sign above the entrance.
"You didn't hide," Idris said.
"It's my yard," Hendricks said, and left it at that.
He stopped at the bottom of the gangway and looked at Idris. Then up at the ship. Then back at Idris.
"She's not ready," he said. "five days minimum. You sail her now, you're taking a risk I can't sign off on."
"We're taking the risk," Idris said.
Hendricks looked at him for a moment. Then he looked past him at the town. At the smoke still rising from the northern end. At the section of dock road that had been melted flat by something that was not a fire.
He exhaled through his nose.
"She'll make Reverse Mountain," he said. "Hull will hold the climb and the drop. After that she needs to work before you push her into anything serious. First proper yard you find in the Grand Line, you go there. Water 7 is your best option."
He looked at Idris.
"Come down here."
Idris looked at him for a moment, then came down the gangway. Every second they were still docked felt like a second too long. The town was quiet, but quiet didn't mean safe, and he had no interest in finding out the hard way that it wasn't.
Hendricks had already turned and was walking back toward the yard.
Idris followed him, jaw tight, eyes moving between the yard entrance and the town behind. Hendricks moved at the pace he always moved at, which was not a fast pace, and showed no sign of adjusting it on anyone's account.
He disappeared into the yard for a moment and came back out with one hand in his coat. He pulled out a small device and a sealed letter and held them in his palm.
"You know what this is?" He held the device up.
Idris looked at it. "No."
"Log pose," Hendricks said. "Normal compasses are useless in the Grand Line. This locks onto the magnetic field of each island in sequence. When the needle points straight, it's locked on. That's when you sail." He turned it over in his palm once. "This one points straight to Water 7."
Idris took it.
"The letter is for Tom," Hendricks said. "Tom's Workers. Best yard in Water 7, probably the best anywhere. I worked under him for six years before I came here. You show him that letter, he'll sort your ship out at a price worth paying." He held it out. "Tell him Milo sent you."
Idris took the letter and looked at him. "Why?"
Hendricks was quiet for a moment.
He looked at the town. At the smoke still rising from the northern end. At the melted section of the dock road. At the foundations where three houses had been standing that morning.
"I knew Marines might come when I took your job," he said. "That's the nature of the work. You take commissions from people they're looking for, eventually they show up." He looked back at Idris. "I didn't account for one who melts buildings because they're in the way."
He said it without heat. Just a fact he was still sitting with.
"So go," he said. "Before whatever's left of them gets reorganised."
Idris looked at him for a moment.
"Thank you," he said.
Hendricks waved it off and walked back into the yard without waiting for anything further.
Idris went back up the gangway. Law had the ship as ready as it was going to get, moving between the deck fittings with the quiet focus of someone who had spent time figuring out how everything worked.
Idris checked the lines one final time. He looked at the log pose in his hand. Then he looked at Lucien, still unconscious against the mast.
He tucked the log pose into his coat and got them out of the dock.
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1 Chapter For Every 50 Power Stones. Please Do Support.