The inside of the room was illuminated by the same soft glow that lit the rest of the below deck rooms, light filling the air from unseen sources that provided just enough to see by. And what there was to see!

The cabin was luxuriously decorated with the popular fashion of some two or three centuries past. The walls were lined with walnut book cases whose delicate looking but sturdy construction matched the massive desk in the center of the room. A great deal of time and effort had gone into making the furniture. The surfaces were all covered in an artistic design of carvings, wood and mother of pearl inlays, and bas relief that gave the impression the wood was not only somehow alive but actually flowering with vines that twisted and turned along the legs and the edges. All of the shelves were filled with books. A nook in the rear of the cabin revealed a raised platform nestled between the shelves, a small loft that looked as though it once served as a small but cozy bed.

Dust covered the room, making the once lush carpet beneath their feet all the thicker. This compartment had not been flooded, that much was obvious! Even the books looked in fair condition for all their supposed age! Better at least than the man who sat behind the desk. Or rather, what was left of him.

Dressed in the elegant fashions of times long past, the corpse was seated in a high leather chair behind the desk. The beard on his face made it evident that it was most likely a “he.” More mummy than skeleton, a wineglass rested in one cupped hand while the other hand rested casually upon the top of the bare desk. Small spectacles rested on his forehead. It was as though he had pushed them up there away from his eyes, taken a drink, and calmly died. The sight of him just sitting three and seemingly looking right at Ivy and Jötz gave the room a creepy, haunted feeling that made even the Jaeger take a step back. Jötz had seen plenty of dead people in his time. He’d even created a few! But there were some scenes that even a howling, furry monster of destruction simply had to shake his head at and walk away.

Only he already knew the chances of Ivy walking away as well were slim to none.

Jötz raised his eyes to scan the rest of the room, frowning as he wondered where all of the gold and weapons and crazy-crazy death fun he had expected were. “Dey say he vas buried mit his treasure,” the furry monsterman whispered to the Spark. “So vhere ist all da shiny shtuff?”

Ivy felt her belly fill with a cold and slimy dread, and took a step forward anyway, green eyes wide in wonder and disbelief. The mechanical spider on her shoulder took one look and scuttled further back under a fall of thick black curls. Ivy took no notice of her arachnid friend, nor her Jaeger friend, either as she inched forward with more reverence than caution. If she'd seen the books, the carvings, or any of the small, dusty room's other antiquated knick-knacks, she didn't show it, and in fact had yet to comment on the strange condition of the room itself. Her gaze, growing more and more awe struck by the moment, was for the noble skeletal figure before her.

"Is that him?" she almost whispered to no one in particular. Her still-bare toes had reached the heavy feet of the desk by the point, though she didn't appear to take notice of that either. Instead, with a grace that had thus far proved to be far from the norm, she braced herself against the desk, leaving fingerprints in the quarter inch of dust as she settled on her knees to get a closer look. A globe sitting on one corner of the desk teetered perilously. Without looking away from the mummy corpse, Ivy calmly extended a hand. Petris hurried down her arm, extended one of it's eight legs, and righted the thing before perching atop the globe itself -- and apparently going to work.

Ivy, for her part, hadn't yet taken her eyes from the ancient man before her, though they now flitted here and there as if taking in something otherwise unapparent to the average looker.

Finally, quietly, calmly, she said, "I want to figure out how he locked the room. There was a reason he trapped himself in here. If we can figure that out, maybe he can find his treasure, too."

She turned back to Jötz and beamed, her eyes nearly glowing. "I bet a man like this had Sparky toys everywhere."

“Dun know who else it could be,” Jötz sniffed, “Dun see no shiny schtuff or toys or gold anyvhere, really. Chust books. A lot of… books.” The Jaeger had been temporarily distracted by the sight of Ivy climbing up onto the desk, her rump in the air and then with her looking back over her shoulder at him as she was. He had a hard time believing any man alive who wouldn’t have been distracted at the sight! And maybe a few dead ones at that!

But his Jaeger senses told him that there was still some danger here abouts. “Ist like a tomb or crypt in here.” He looked around trying to see anything out of the ordinary but all he could see were the damned-

He frowned. It couldn’t be that simple could it? Really? Although it made sense in a strange sort of way, he had to admit. What else would a Spark truly value after all? Not saying a word, Jötz purposefully moved his bulk across the room to examine the books closer. He could read. Only he had the grasp of only a few modern languages, and whatever the words were upon the spines of the collected works, they were alien to him. Roman alphabet, yes, but that was all that was familiar. Or was it perhaps a code? Snorting, he realized it might even be both.

Reaching out carefully with one talon, he snagged the top of one book’s spine and tugged ever so slightly on it. There was resistance. Nodding thoughtfully, he turned back to his companion.

“Vell, Hy gots good news und bad news.” He gestured to the wall of the book cases, filled completely with their wide assortments of texts, books, tombs, and manuscripts. “Hy tink da treasure ist right here in front oft us. Only is booby-trapped. See?”

Jötz tugged further on the spine in hand until the book was half toppled from its place. Behind the walls there came a clicking sound, and the door swung shut again. Lacking a lock thanks to Petris, it immediately rebounded off of the frame and swung back open. The trap seemed to have been already disarmed accidentally thanks to Ivy’s latest creation. Shrugging, he released the book. “It looks like he vanted to take it mit him. Like one oft dem der ancient kings, ja? Only mit out all da wrappings und dead slaves to guard his grave.”

Ivy felt a violent shudder rocket down her spine, felt the hairs on her arms and neck stand up at the thought of being trapped in one place for an eternity -- let alone a place occupied by a Jaeger and a corpse, even a well preserved one. Adventure and mystery were all good and well. A slow suffocation seemed much less enticing, inevitable boredom aside.

But her curiosity was quick in beating out her fear, if it could be called as such. Ivy had always lacked a healthy sense of caution, but the last few days in particular had been...strange. Certainly she would not have been here if it hadn't been for some of her more daring moments. But then she'd probably also still have two functioning arms.

"It's just the books?" Ivy repeated slowly as she carefully maneuvered off the desk and toward the nearest shelving unit, an unmistakable note of disappointment in her voice. But as soon as her fingers brushed the spine of the first book she found -- a thick red tome with a spine the color of wine and pages delicate as butterfly wings -- her face brightened again. "All of these are ours now?"

She pulled the heavy book into the awkward cradle of her arm then abruptly sat when she saw that wasn't going to work. Pursing her lips, she took a breath and blew a thick cloud of dust from the cover, which immediate set her to cough, eyes watering. Unperturbed, she squinted through the dusty haze to try and read the symbols on the front of the book. She recognized the letters themselves, but the script and the language made the words almost indecipherable.

Almost.

Without even realizing it, Ivy began to mutter to herself, and endless chain of numbers, her brow furrowed, hardly daring to breathe as she began to make sense of the archaic code.

"What?" she said, distracted first by the layer of dust on her fingertips, then by whatever the books themselves said.

"Th-thehun...theunt...thunt? No...no...The...The...Hunt...The Hunter's...Bun...Bu...Boun...Bounty! The Hunter's Bounty! A...A Gu..Guild...A Guide t-to...L...Life...A...after...After D...Dea -- "

The barge lurched so suddenly and fiercely that the heavy book flew from Ivy's lap as the young Spark tumbled backwards into the desk. Petris, who had managed to break down the globe into two large bowls and a copper stand, immediately abandoned its work to join her as she rubbed her head, frowning.

"Ow!" she grumbled, too shocked to be truly angry. "What's wrong with this stupid thing, we got the engine running, why -- "

She was cut off by a horrendous screeching that soon forced her to put her hands -- or rather, her hand -- to her ears. It was the unmistakable noise of metal tearing metal and it served only to frustrate Ivy further. Hauling herself to her feet, she glared at Jötz accusingly, shouting over the ruckus to be heard.

"What is that?" she demanded. "I was reading that book, and now -- "

Ivy stopped. The screeching had stopped, and everything had fallen quiet. Very quiet.

The Spark made a face, now less angry and more curious. "Hey...why'd the engines stop?"

Her question was answered by an unmistakable, if vaguely mechanic, roar.

Ivy brightened abruptly. "Hey, are there s'posed to be clanks down here?"

Jötz grimaced when she mentioned clanks, forcing himself to close his eyes and count to ten mentally before sighing and sauntering over to the door. Almost casually, he pushed it open to stare down the corridor back towards the engine room. His green lips pursed around his fangs. Nodding judiciously, he closed the door and leaned against it to look at Ivy.

“Vell, vetter der ist s’posed ta be clanks or not, der’s some der,” he calmly announced. Jötz decided to skip that they were on all fours and vaguely doglike but with much bigger fangs. He doubted they actually needed to eat, which meant the huge teeth had some other purpose than dining. Ripping and tearing meat probably still come into play somewhere along the line. The three clanks he had seen looked old, their brass and bronze heavily coated in a green patina and their joints moving stiffly. Water was still dripping off of them; they must have pulled themselves up from the bottom of the canal, he reasoned. Jötz couldn’t recall seeing anything quite like them before, which was slightly concerning. Still, they had joints! Joints were weaknesses to be exploited, or so he had been taught by both fellow Jaegers and by experience. If there were only three, he was pretty sure he could take them.

Pulling out his four barreled gun, he checked the magazine. Jötz clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Not too many rounds left,” he mused professionally, “Might have ta go hand ta hand mit dem, und stretch da old muskles.” The Jaeger flexed his biceps unconsciously, a wicked grin playing about his fangs at just the thought of it. It had been a while since he had truly cut loose. He had avoided taking on the toads head to head for Ivy’s sake, a good decision in hindsight now that they knew what one of those poison teeth could do to someone! Wrestling clanks was dangerous, but it was also a challenge!

Jötz glanced at the young Ivy. Would she be impressed? That was the real concern. Because if there was anything better than a death-defying challenge, it was a death-defying challenge to impress a pretty young maiden!

“Chou stay here und get some read-ink done, hokay?” He set the gun on the desk besides her with a smirk. Flexing his talons, the smirk became an outright evil grin. “I go handle dis, den ve get on mit stuff. Shouldn’t take too long, Hy tink.”

“No. No, it won’t, actually.” The voice was thin and reedy, more a whisper than anything else. A skeletal hand reached across and neatly plucked the pistol off the desk to cover both Ivy and the Jaeger. The mummified corpse in the chair moved as stiffly as the clank-hounds outside, but move it did. Hollow eye sockets seemed to still see them both clearly, a faint orange glow showing in their depths now. “I might just be skin and bones, but my mother always said that looks aren’t everything.”

Turning slightly in the chair to face Ivy, a ghastly chuckle hissed passed the rotted teeth. “I’m glad you’re able to read my code, my dear. I’ve been waiting for someone who could for an awfully long time!”

The door swung open slowly to reveal the three large clank-hounds. They had crept up closer to the room as the corpse of the pirate captain leaved the Jaeger’s pistol at his new captives. Jötz slowly backed up until he was right in front of Ivy, half shielding her from any attack that might come from either corner. He felt like a right chump.

The dead pirate continued chatting pleasantly to Ivy, ignoring the Jaeger. “That you’re young and comely is a plus,” he was commenting. “Shame about the arm, but, well, there’s a precedent for pirates having hooks for hands.”

Ivy might have yelped her surprise, but she was having trouble breathing, and she knew from a scary experience with her then-four-year-old sister Dahlia, you couldn't make a sound when you were choking.

Was she choking? It was hard to tell. She couldn't feel anything wrapped around her neck, but there was definitely a weight centered somewhere over her chest, even as she scrambled to her feet and away from the talking skeleton. The talking skeleton of a dead pirate whose name she didn't recognize, but made her shiver anyway. The thing before her was the stuff of literal nightmares, and that was without the mini-cannon she'd made. She knew precisely what it could do to her, and yet not enough at all.

But somehow, Ivy could only feel a muted sense of fascination and awe. Her eyes widened at the sight even as Jötz sidled in front of her. She hadn't so much as glanced toward the clank dogs yet. She was sure she could dismantle them, figure out who they'd been kept working after generations underwater. There would be time for that later, assuming she wasn't reduced to a pile of gory, boneless Ivy insides.

The real mystery stood not three feet away, her pistol held even in one skeletal fist, an eerie, lipless smile that might have been charming if it weren't also terrifying.

"Th-th-thank -- " she started, then stopped, because her voice had come out all husky, almost unrecognizable. She wasn't shaking, not yet, but that might have been just because she felt like she couldn't move. Even despite the fact her legs were like water.

"Thank you," she tried again, and was pleased when she sounded almost polite the second time around. "But I'm not really a pirate. The arm thing is kinda new, actually. And it was an accident. Sort of." She glanced nervously at Jötz, and then, very, very briefly, at something else, before turning her wide-eyed gaze back to Mr. Jacob Ludd. "That gun," she lifted her good hand slowly, deliberately, and pointed. "That's my friend's. I made it for him, and you took it. So...if you could give it back, or at least stop pointing it at us, we could probably discuss things like civilized people. Mama Petra would say even pirates are s'posed to have manners." She chewed her lip, thought for a moment. Wondered briefly if her heart sounded as loud to the others as it did to her.

"I can read your code," she said. "So...maybe we could make a trade."

The mummy reached up with his other hand to rub his chin thoughtfully. Shreds of mummified flesh fell away in the gesture, but he seemed to feel no pain as his fingers flayed his own decayed skin. “You mother must be an interesting woman,” he commented dryly, “to think that pirates can be civilized and should have manners. I can only assume she married into the family. That or times have changed more than I thought they might. Either way, I assure you, such assumptions are not only false but are so far from the truth to as to be scarcely be related to it. We can, however, be reasonable when the situation calls for it.”

The muzzle of the hand cannon did not waver once. “I doubt many people lose their hands on purpose. Well, there are always those few looking to improve themselves, I doubt that has changed in the past several hundred years! You don’t look the type though. The eyes aren’t quite wild enough.”

Dropping his free hand to his lap, and stirring up a small cloud of dust in the process, the dead man continued. “But… trade…” The words came clearly through his lipless mouth and desiccated tongue. “It sounds so…. honest… so wholesome. I’m not sure my crew would stand for it.”

The mechanical hounds by the door growled threateningly, conveying that they were the crew and that they had their own opinions as to the habits of pirates.

“Still, it would be unreasonable to at least hear your offer,” he remarked genially. The animated corpse waved a hand in her direction. “After all, a scion of the House of Heterodyne must have something worthwhile to exchange for her life. Oh, we could battle but I think it would be a pretty close thing between my crew and your Jaeger bodyguard.”

Jötz managed to keep the look of surprise off of his face, instead forcing his eyes to narrow as if in suspicion as he eyed both the corpse and the clanks warily. “Her ladyship ist under my protection,” he lied smoothly, “und hy vill fight to da death to protect her!”

The pirate’s dead body stood then, slowly and stiffly and with a great creak of long disused and leathery muscles. Sections of skin along the joins tore as he rose to his full height. He had been a tall man in life, and death had did very little to shorten him. His balding head with its few remaining strands of brown hair nearly brushed the ceiling. Still, the gun was kept pointed towards the pair.

“I thought as much,” came the cultured reply. Ghastly as his voice was, it remained urbane. “Even I’m not foolish enough to directly cross the Heterodynes. But you have trespassed, and I can not ignore that. I do have a reputation to maintain. Or rather I did. And I would like to keep it that way. So what is it that the Lady Heterodyne offers the great Captain Jacob Ludd?"

It was by some miracle Ivy managed to keep her composure when at last Jötz words reached her conscious mind. Well. Miracle, or distraction. She had been watching bits of mummified flesh pile just under Jacob Ludd's decaying shin, caught somewhere between faint nausea and wonder. For some reason, she could not remove from her mind the image, texture, or taste of the jerky the Jaeger had given her a few hours prior.

"Um..." she said, swallowing convulsively. She was still staring, wide-eyed, pale-faced, at the pirate's hand and chin and took another step back until she felt her shoulder's hit the bookshelf. Another heavy tome toppled to her feet, coughing up a cloud of dust. She jumped at the sound and turned her attention back to Ludd. And the gun. She found it felt rather like staring into eternity, peering down the relatively short muzzle she had refashioned only days -- or was it hours? -- ago.

"Treasure," she blurted suddenly, her gaze flicking briefly between the pistol and the empty eye sockets that were somehow still trained on her. "Treasure. Gold and silver and...and all the riches you could ever carry." She gestured around the ornate room. "That's what pirates want, isn't it? Gold? Gold and...and other nice things?" She felt her resolve tremble for a second and quickly reasserted herself.

"Castle Heterodyne!" she said, and once she had spoken, there was no going back. Her plan would work, or it would not. The half a hundred possibilities that lay in between had vanished. Idly, she wondered what it would be like to die, and how soon she would be doing it.

"I can offer you Castle Heterodyne. Th-the whole...erm...the whole thing. Every hand at your service, and...and..." she trailed off and remembered the offer.

"I could take you there now. But you have to promise to let me and my friend go."

Jötz’s expression did not change in the least. His entire body was too shocked for that! Of its own accord, he felt his head slowly turn in glacial speed towards her with a look in his eyes that said everything. What did you just offer him? The Jaeger had been hoping that Ivy was swift enough to bluff or lie or even just do the sane thing and let the construct handle it on her behalf. A Heterodyne did not compromise or surrender or talks terms of surrender! Not willingly at any rate, and even when they did it was usually through minions. But to offer the lich the source of much of the Heterodyne’s power and authority?

There was also the matter of the Castle currently being mad and murderous. It had always been the latter, but the former had not improved its disposition.

The skeletal pirate furrowed its brown, flakes of skin falling away from its forehead to expose its raw skull. “You are young, aren’t you?” he finally intoned. Ludd gestured to the bookcases that lined the walls of his cabin, barely a millimeter of the shelves clear of books. “This is my treasure, child. These are the riches I plundered from the great cities and libraries of Europa and the reasons the Storm King desired my head upon an electroplated platter. Gold and silver had their uses, yes. My crew needed paying, after all, although I managed to fix that problem well enough before my demise.”

The clank hounds behind them growled almost in unison at that, flashing eyes and steel teeth still faced towards the two intruders. Jötz still thought he could take them on his own, although it would be challenging if he couldn’t find their power source quickly enough. The trouble with clanks was that unless their energizing batteries were removed, they would just keep going and going and going… They were a little like bunnies that way.

“But to offer me the whole of your domain?” The pirate tried to smile, dried skin cracking and peeling in the process. “I hope you do not take me for a fool! I can not believe one as you is the current Heterodyne in charge, if you would forgive me to say so, for you are simply too young. To tempt me with so obvious a trap?” He shook his head like a school master scolding a pupil. “Do your parents even know you are out here, young lady?”

Jötz’s head whipped back around and snarled at the captain. “She made chou an offer, the word of a Heterodyne!” One that is going to get me killed. “Accept eet or don’t!”

Again that too dry chuckle. “While… tempting… The Castle Heterodyne and its environs is hardly on my list of desires. I am a pirate, after all. Tying myself down for too long in my new incarnation is not ideal. But if you should have the authority and power to offer me so much, Lady Heterodyne, then you should have little problem acquiring what I truly desire.”

The muzzle of the gun lowered ever so slightly. “I need a new body. A functioning, live one. I prefer that of a young, healthy male over any other, but a woman will do just as well. I am rather liberal about such things, after all.”

“They think me long dead, and they were right. Which means none of the towns or cities are expecting or prepared for my return after so many centuries. I dare say many have forgotten about me all together! So it is the perfect time for a comeback.”

Lidless eye sockets glowed very faintly with a sickly green light from deep within his skull. “Imagine the amount of knowledge that mankind must have gained in over the years! In combination with the lost lore I have in my collection? I shall hold the very secrets of the universe in living hands!”

Jötz tried not to sigh in exasperation. Alive? Dead? Some things about Sparks simply did not change. “A liv-ink body? Easy-peasy? Vhat color hair chou vant?”

If she had to guess, Ivy thought Jötz might kill her, or lecture her later at the very least. But had it been worth it to see the expression of muted bewilderment cross his face? Most definitely.

And would it be worth it to maybe shut up this rotting pirate king?

Well. That was much harder to say. But that was also future-Ivy's problem. Right-now-Ivy hadn't blown up a missing barge just to be stopped by a pile of bolts, screws, bones, and fancy silks.

Besides, Jötz had been keeping up well enough so far. This would just be another in a long and frustrating line of fun challenges for both of them.

Of course, as Ivy strode forward, the flush on her face quickly fading under a set jaw and green eyes cold and hard as ice, she was thinking about none of that. The only thought in her head was that this dead guy was in her way, and being extraordinarily rude to boot.

"That's enough."

Baffled Jaeger, growling monster dogs, evil undead pirate. In an instant, all shifted from 'threat' to 'mere annoyance', and then Ivy was pushing right past Jötz, pushing the pistol, her pistol, aside, and glaring up the almost two feet into that putrid glow of green.

"Listen here, you molding pile of twigs," she growled, jabbing one finger into an area she roughly assumed to be Ludd's sternum, for once not unnerved by the continued sloughing of decaying flesh from his body, "I don't care who you were in life, you've never been a Heterodyne. I could be a fly on the wall of the outhouse belonging to the lowliest Heterodyne servant, and my life, my name would still be thrice the legend you could sum up in yours. And if you want to leave this dusty excuse for a library any more than another layer of silt, you'll show some respect.

"For starters, you don't make the deals. I do. If you really think a handful of clanks -- " Ivy waved a hand in the general direction of Ludd's dogs; at once, Petris sprang from its most recent hiding space crouched beneath the nearest of the small pack, extending one spindly leg to wrap around the joint between shoulder and forearm. There was a whirring sound, and then the clatter of metal as the foreleg fell away. The hound began to tip forward, growling its displeasure as Petris scuttled away again, now tucking itself away into the crevice of a bookshelf where the hounds would be forced to hack away at their master's 'treasure' to reach their new prey.

" -- and a gun I made," Ivy went on, no small amount of smugness in her voice, "a gun with no rounds left are going to scare me into doing anything for you, your brain is more rotted than you think, old man. How long have you been gone, to believe anyone even knows who you are? You are a story to frighten children, at best, and even those children are the dull-witted sort in backwater towns. In the city, you'll be nothing, less than nothing, and that only with the word of a Heterodyne at your back." Ivy smirked and turned away, very deliberately putting her back to the former pirate.

"Now. The matter of this body -- assuming I decide to help you at all -- Don't you think your dogs would have turned up anything down here? We'll have to go into the next town one way or another." There would be problems of their own sort there, of that she had no doubt. But that was a bridge to be crossed -- or burned -- when it came.

The Jaeger raised both eyebrows, clearly impressed and… proud? Ivy may not have been a Heterodyne but some kindred spark deep within seemed to have lit up when pressed against the wall. He couldn't help but grin widely at her verbal assault upon the undead pirate. Even the clank hounds seemed less inclined to growl at her, and that was before her little spider clank had neatly sliced off the one dog’s foreleg! For the first time in a while, Jötz began to feel as though he was on familiar ground.

The sickly green glow in Ludd’s eyes tracked Ivy as advanced upon him. Briefly, the sockets flashed red as though in warning or in anger as the girl ranted in the way that only a true Spark might, issuing threats and blustering her own self-importance over his own. When she turned her back on the lich, he lowered the hand with the gun. And then, when Ivy hinted that she might yet be willing to help, the gun was gently placed upon the desk.

“The current Heterodyne or not,” he murmured clinically, “you seem to have the general thrust. Although you remind me far more of… someone else.” The captain paused as though lost in thought and memory before continuing the conversation.

Ludd gestured with a skeletal hand towards the remainder hounds, which slunk off down the corridor until only their glowing yellow eyes could be seen lurking about the engine room. “You are… quite right, Lady Heterodyne,” he declared louder, “The hounds have a limited range. As my crew and guardians, they can not operate beyond a set perimeter without me and I? I can not leave this room. Physically, at any rate. I do have other methods of flexing my will albeit to a limited extent. Forgive me if I do not give you the particulars regarding those ranges and limits? Suffice to say that they would be great enough to cause you and your Jaeger considerable inconvenience should you be less than inclined to be helpful. And thank you for confirming that I am not remembered upon the surface! “

That same dry chuckle filled the stale air of the cabin again. “Oh, the libraries that I will loot! The repositories that I shall raid! Universities and schools to plunder! My treasure will be increased ten fold by the time I am ready to die again!”

Sitting back into his chair, he rested one hand upon the desk. “With a few additional repairs to my barge, I can take you to nearly any town or city of note so long as the canals are not blocked or drained. Even if the engines are in less than optimal condition the clank hounds can serve to tow us along.”

“Now you could refuse this deal, yes,” Ludd conceded willingly as though in casual debate, “although anything less than a swift agreement will lead to your joining me in a watery grave.”

The barge shuddered suddenly as the air was filled with the sounds of pressure hatches blaming shut throughout the boat, sealing them into the lower deck. “You see, if you don’t agree I will simply sink my boat. I’m dead already anyway, and since I am in no condition to make use of my treasure it is worthless to me. Not unless I get a new body. So I have nothing to lose really.”

“But! I will sweeten the deal. If you help me get a live human body to my specifications and bring me back to true life once more, you may take as many tomes from my shelves as you can carry by yourself. I assure you many of them are…. one of a kind… and most likely contain secrets that died with their authors.” Ludd hesitated and then honestly adding, “I might have had something to do with their deaths, admittedly.”

“But I will swear to you, on the heart of my lost love, that so long as you do not betray me, I will not betray you. I swear it on the name of Agnes St. Mayhew.”

For a time, Ivy had been nearly consumed by a sort smug pride -- and then even moreso by a grotesque excitement (the search for a live body could mean many things to a Spark, especially when that Spark was already missing some important limbs herself) -- but all of that, along with the deeper levels of thought, with the mild concern over her livelihood, and her frustrations with how the situation seemed to have progressed beyond 'fun and exciting' and into 'too long and taxing' at the very least; all of it was soon outshone entirely by Ludd's last words.

There was no keeping the shock and confusion from Ivy's face as she fell from the Madness place just as quickly as she'd entered it. Ivy the Spark was gone, replaced by Ivy, the utterly baffled girl.

"Did you say...St. Mayhew?" she repeated dumbly before she could stop herself. "Agnes...?" The given name wasn't familiar, but the surname...the same one emblazoned on a thin silver disk with a strange symbol beneath...the surname she'd been found with when the Bartch's had adopted her, taken her home squalling to wake the dead, covered in a thick layer of inexplicably green mud...the surname she knew. She'd kept it, at Mama Petra's insistence, though she'd not been so keen in her early days. Her name, like her dark hair and gray-green eyes, so different from the blonde-haired, blue-eyed siblings she'd adopted as her own, was one of several things to separate her from her new family, a fact made all the more painful by the fact that she could not remember the one that had abandoned her.

"Uh..." said Ivy, now finally turning to Jötz, her expression somewhere between Did you hear that? and HELP ME!. She was vaguely aware she was losing whatever tenuous hold on the situation she'd managed, but she wasn't quite sure how to stop that. Her mind was still in a whir, only this time, there were no far-fetched solutions, no water-powered light cannons, or steam-driven wolf clanks. There were only questions. Where, when, how, who?

Why?

"Um..." Ivy said again, slowly turning back to Ludd as she struggled to come up with at least a temporary solution. She needed answers from him, yes, but they would amount to nothing without the right questions. And if her name gave her the leverage she thought it might -- and that leverage could prove beyond valuable -- she couldn't afford to show her hand just yet.

But what a hand to hide!

"I...will consult with my body guard," Ivy stammered eventually. "The plan is...agreeable," she added, trying to sound reluctant, and succeeding only in sounding a little congested. "But we...erm...we are going to sort out the...uh...details. Yes. Details. Come, minion!"

“Excellent,” the lich declared in satisfaction. “There is a room three doors down on the left that you may take as your own. It has an ante-chamber for your Jaeger. My apologies for the decor, Lady Heterodyne. Clank hounds, while making an excellent crew and guard, are the not the best of housekeepers. I will be here when you have finalized your plans.” Ludd sniffed through his rotted nose cavity. “Not that I can physically be much of anywhere else at the moment.”

Jötz kept his expression bland even as his own mind raced. There had been no missing the look of confusion upon Ivy’s face when she had turned to the Jaeger, however much she might have tried to mask it when addressing the pirate captain. He followed her out, snatching up the firearm on the way and holstering it neatly with a barely concealed look of dislike at Ludd. There was no point in further hostilities. That did not mean he had to like the current situation or their adversary any better. Enemies acting nice usually meant more trouble later on down the line.

Escorting Ivy to their assigned quarters, he made sure the door was firmly shut and locked behind him before continuing. The suite had been luxurious once. A large canopied bed was tucked against the one side, it sheets moth-eaten and dusty, but dry. The other side contained an elegant writing desk with matching bookcase besides it, and then a doorway what looked like some sort of bathing chamber. Like much of the rest of the barge’s rooms, the wooden floor was somewhat warped from generations of moisture, and the golden flocked wallpaper was peeling in long strips. The smell of mildew was strong.

“Not bad,” Jötz annoucned blandly as he looked about judiciously. “Hy’s been in worse. A few pillows, a few t’row rugs, maybes ve gets an iron maiden fur da corner? Be right at home!”

“Zo. Vhat ist next? Chou gonna build a death ray, melt his bones like so much puddink?” Without looking at Ivy, Jötz set his pack and several other bits of gear onto the bed. Despite the age, the mattress did not sag with the weight of it all, and Jötz trusted to take his weight as he sat and started to reload his pistol with the few rounds left. “Chou did some gut bluffink back der, chou know dat? Only vhat vas dat bit at da end? Chou looked like someone valked over chou grave!”

Looking up then, his monster’s eyes took in the sight of a small picture frame upon the desk. Frowning, he gestured to it. “Und how come he’s got a painting oft chou over der? S’not a gut likeness. Chou ist prettier dan dat! Not as pretty ast me, but vhat chou gonna do?”

Ivy didn't say a word as she led their small party down the hall and to their quarters. She hadn't really heard what Ludd had said (or what Jötz was saying now), but she managed to find the somewhat antiquated room anyway, as if her feet had already known the way. And the truly upsetting part, of course, was that they might have.

Still quietly oblivious, Ivy walked into her room, straight to the desk, pulled out the chair and sat, only to hop back up a second later, her arms (or what remained of them) wrapped around her middle, her fingers chafing at the gooseflesh there. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, but she couldn't make herself stoping shivering, and the whole time, Ludd's last words kept playing in her mind: I swear it on the name of Agnes St. Mayhew.

Muttering, Ivy began to pace even as Jötz sat to reload his weapon. It wasn't until he said "gut likeness" that she remembered him, looking over sharply her expression that of a sleepwalker who'd just been rudely woken.

"We're not killing him," she snapped distractedly. She stopped pacing to face him, though she was still rubbing her arms and hadn't actually looked at him yet. "He...he has stuff we need. Books and...and stuff." Answers, she thought, but she didn't say it.

It was then she caught sight of the portrait Jötz mentioned and, frowning, moved toward it until she was standing just before the desk again. She took a breath and made herself stop shaking for just long enough to take the picture frame up without sending it crashing to the floor. Immediately, she could see what the Jaeger meant. The picture was not of her, she knew that. It was far too old, the landscape in the background -- a field of stars behind a moon that seemed too close; billowing sails to either side -- was nothing she'd ever seen before. But she could see the likeness, too. Unruly midnight curls, wide-set green eyes. Freckles on high cheeks bones, and an expression that said "I'm only still here because I love you and I'm daydreaming anyway".

It was at once haunting and wonderful.

"We're not killing him," Ivy said again, calmer now as she set down the picture and turned back to Jötz, her eyes alight with the beginning of a manic grin. "We need him. I need him." She paused, considered, then shrugged. "That picture isn't me. I think it's...my grandmother. My great-great-great-great grandmother. Give or take a couple greats."

Jötz grimaced and raised an eyebrow. Here was a turn of events he was not expecting, to say the least. “Vait, vait, vait,” he pleaded as he sat down on the desk’s rickety chair. To his surprise, it held his weight. “So chou ist tellink me dat dis guy had da hots fur chou great grandma-maa? Und because of dat, ve can’t kill him?! Not to mention he ist already dead, so I gots to figure out how to make him deader dan he ist now! Oooh, boy.”

Reaching up with one clawed hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Vhy ist nuttink easy mit chou?” After a moment, the Jaeger was on his feet and gesticulating towards the door. “So he had a ting fur her?! So vhat?! Chou ist not her, und he knows nuttink ‘bout chou, Ivy! Not to mention dat he tinks chou ist a Heterodyne now! How to explain dat?! Und vhat vas dat about offerink him de Kestle Heterodyne?! De Kestle might have someting to say about dhat! Not to mention Baron Wulfenbach und de rest of de Jaegerkin! Ve should chust get him a body und go somevhere vhere ve gets chou arm fixed up good, ja? After all, like my own vatter said to me vonce -“

A sudden disturbing thought struck Jötz then, and before he quite knew what he was saying he drawled out, “Ivy, if dhat picture ist oft chou great-great-great-great-great-und-den-some grandma-ma… und if dhat picture ist here on his boat… und ift she vere his sveetheart…”

He looked at the young Spark full in the eye. “Vhat if he ist chou great-great-great-great-great-und-den-some grandpa-pa?! Not all Sparks have great relations mit der relations! Not like da Heterodynes! If Ludd ist like de ancestors oft any oft da Fifty Families, chou could be in fur a vorld of disappointment come da next family reunion!”

Ivy had been trying very hard not to come to precisely that same conclusion herself, but once her Jäger companion had spoken the words, there was only so much wishful ignoring she could do. She froze midstep, and held his gaze even, so many questions rushing through her head, even she was sure what exactly she was thinking. Embarrassment (and subsequent, fiery, defensive rage) at having been caught in a blatant Heterodyne lie aside...what if he was right? What if she was right?

It was clear from Ludd's musings he had been, at the very least, familiar with a woman -- and a Spark -- who looked, and apparently acted quite a bit like Ivy. And if Ludd was supposed to have been dead long enough for children to tell ghost stories, where was this phantom woman? Who was she that she could capture the heart of a feared dread pirate? And how had Ivy ended up so far from house and home?

Ivy realized suddenly she was staring without quite seeing anyway and turned away abruptly somewhere between dismay and shame. Her eyes fell just briefly on the dusty bed with its dusty coverlet in the corner, and she thought, for an instant, how nice it could be to sleep forever. She all at once felt as thought she had been walking her whole life, that she and Jötz had fallen into the canals not the night before, but centuries earlier, when her great grandmother was still sailing the skies with whatever had been before the skeleton in the next room.

"All the more reason to get some answers before he realizes who I am," Ivy said abruptly, tracing star-shaped patterns in the dust on a low shelf with her remaining fingers. "We can't kill him yet. Not if we don't have to. We're going to...we're going to head to the next town. We're going to play his game, for now."

At her hip, Petris poked one spindly leg from the pocket of her apron, prodding the air like a curious dog sniffing for meat. Ivy didn't notice.

"And in the meantime," she began slowly, chewing her lip as an idea began to form in her head, "I want you to tell me everything you know about Jacob Lubb."

The Jaeger’s eyebrows rose impressively, the darker green of the bushy hair peaking as though to express his doubts on the matter. Killing things was the way to go! It’s what Jaegers did best! It was what he did best! Especially if said killing involved a great deal of mess and screaming. Only now, she wanted a story instead, a story that he only half remembered himself from his grandmother’s knee long before he even dreamed about becoming a Jaeger. The loyalty to House Heterodyne had always been there, of course. Those who didn’t put their faith in the masters of Castle Heterodyne usually didn’t live in Mechanicburg for very long, one way or another. The townsfolk of that key city were fanatically loyal to the Heterodynes, and becoming a Jaeger had only increased that loyalty.

“Jake O’Blood,” he drawled eventually. Jötz paused again to dig at something caught in his one tooth, the singe talon neatly pulling clear a bit of gristle he had missed after his last meal. “He vas from someplace called Thule, but vas raised Englisch, hy knows dat much. Only he didn’t stay der. Ludd vast exiled, I tink, some scandal or sometink like dat. My granny mentioned that Ludd didn’t like de new leaving machines dat vere all da rage, vas convinced dat dey vas part of some plot to take over da vorld. Or at least England. Zo? He goes around mit a bunch oft other peoples und makes dem all go bang! De local big men didn’t like dat so much, so dey goes after him, only den it turns out dat he vast right all along, de schmart guy! But de Guilds, dey gots to save face. So he gets taken to de Queen und she ist told, ‘Hey, dis ist one baddy ve gots here, look at that he’s done!’ But de Queen isn’t schtupid. She knew vhat Ludd had done. Only she need them big bosses in der Guilds for her plans, zo she sends Ludd off with lots and lots of money.”
As the more he spoke and the more he thought on it, the more curious Jötz became himself. It had been several decades since he had heard any of the stories at all, and what details as weren’t lost over time were just as easily twisted by a five year old boy’s perceptions as he listened to his elders by the hearth. Jötz found himself scanning ahead mentally as he told Ivy what he knew. He became wrapped up in both the telling and the recollection of it all to the point where his sharp eyes became slightly distant; they were focused not on the room they shared now, but instead upon the images the yarns had spun in his head as a boy.

Unknown to him, distracted by his own thoughts, his thick accent began to slip into something softer and less harsh.

“Vhen Ludd gets to Europa, he uses all dat money to build a library. Greatest library ever, he wanted, somevhere in Belgium. Not only dat, but he wanted to have a Grand Index! So that if der was a book you wanted, and if he didn’t have it, you could look uo who might have it. He vanted to share knowledge mit everyone so dat everyone could prosper, or something like dat. The canals were built by him to do just dat, make it easier for folks to find stuff out und do research und to share ideas; the canals vere supposed to go to every major city dat had a library.

“The canals also allowed for better trade between cities. No trains yet, chou see? So de Bargefolks and Canallers were people hired by Ludd to transport goods and, more importantly, books. Big trade, lots of money for everyone, everyone happy, yes?

Jötz shook his head sadly. “Only de other schmart guys, they didn’t want to share. Dey hoarded der books and libraries like gold, und books dat Ludd’s libraries lent out didn’t come back to him most of de time. In fact, a bunch of dem gets ideas in der heads, and dey attack and sack Ludd’s library while he’s away doing something or other. When he gets back, he vast hopping mad. Ludd says something like, ‘If they don’t want to share, then I’ll have to steal.’ Und dat’s when Jacob Ludd became dis pirate guy, Jake O’Blood. He used the canals to raid cities and steal whatever wasn’t nailed down, killing anyone who got in his way until even de Heterodynes say, ‘Whoa, dat is too much!’ So de Storm King comes along und tries to stomp on Ludd. Only Ludd disappeared before the army de Strorm Kind sent could find him! They say dat Ludd made off with half the books of Europa, never to be seen again, not even at his library! Den again, dey say dat the Mongfishes got der first und looted whatever was left before burning it to de ground. So there’s no knowing how much of his treasure he took with him and how much the other families stole away.”

“Und dat’s it,” he finished apologetically. “Ludd vast a good guy mit great ideas on helpink everyone out, but in de end? Eh. He killed und stole und unleashed crazy, Spark mad ting on innocent pipples, same as any other Spark.”

The Jaeger brought his narrative to a close, looking at Ivy critically. “Ist you okay? Chou look like chou ist ready for sleepy-sleep.” He coughed as delicately as a constructed death-dealing monster could. “Und, ah, der is only de one bed. Dis floor? I don’t tink is so good for taking a nap on.”