Captain Elisabeth Wolf stalked through the alleys of the warehouse district, finding the landmarks she’d noted on their way through the maze of little streets. Her thoughts churned, turning over the problem of the token. She heard it in the shadows, felt its malign presence pressing against her shields. Containment was the first priority. Left unchecked, the construct was too dangerous. She needed to limit its knowledge of the ship, and to control its influence on the crew. The malicious aura was meant to disrupt the unity of the women on board the Silence, and to sow dissent. Even with her shields in place, Elisabeth felt the curse’s prodding.

  The cracks in the community of pirates weren’t healed after a few days of sharing the toil of the ship with their captain. Bringing the mummy onto the ship was a stressor that could push them over the edge into mutiny. She chewed on her lip as a plan began to form. Each step brought her closer to at least a temporary solution to the problem. When she reached the threshold of the shipyards, Cressia signaled her from a dark recess of a building, letting her know that she was still following her charge, but staying out of sight. The earlier ambush left them both on alert. The bodyguard’s hidden presence let Elisabeth relax her shoulders a fraction as she stepped onto the wooden slats of the shipyard’s alleys. They were almost back to the security of the Silence. Not even the rat’s claws scratching against the jetty was able to rob Elisabeth of the relief she felt at setting eyes on the longboat that waited to take her home.

  She paused before stepping foot onto the quay, and turned back to look at the lights of the warehouse district. Henry was still in there, left in the revenant’s clutches. Her feelings on the situation were complex: dread, regret, anger. A part of her wanted to run back to the derelict building and rescue him. The impulse was a mistake, she knew that deep in her bones. Sharing a bed with Mortimer clouded her judgement. Trusting him was dangerous, and this situation was a reminder that she took to heart. With a frustrated shake of her head, she turned back to the quay and the longboat that waited at its end.

  The sailor on watch raised a hand in greeting, and pulled on the rope that held the boat against the jetty to steady it. Elisabeth jumped across with ease.

  “Cressia will join us,” she told the woman, and sat down with her back to the town. The mummified rat scrambled into the vessel, scratching at the wood of the boat with its claws. It sat at her feet, heedless of the water pooled at the bottom of the boat. Its beady eyes stared at her, hatred clear in its gaze, the reflected orange light of the torch that burned behind Elisabeth adding to the sense of malice in the creature’s face.

  The jolt of Cressia jumping from the quay startled Elisabeth and drew her focus away from the mummy.

  “What is that?” Cressia whispered, blade in her hand and ready to stab the thing that sat in the vessel with her captain. The sailor hesitated on the dock.

  “A token of our king’s appreciation,” Elisabeth muttered, not taking her eyes off it. “We can’t kill it.” She glanced at Cressia.

  “I see.” The bodyguard sheathed the weapon, displeasure clear in her tense posture, and the way she kept a wary eye on the creature. Elisabeth gestured for the woman on the quay to join them. She wanted to get to her ship.

  “Take us home, sailor,” she ordered and then turned her attention back to Cressia. She dropped a silencing spell over them to keep their conversation from the woman rowing them toward the Silence. “Were you listening at the warehouse?”

  “Intermittently. Two guards were walking the perimeter. I had to adjust my position a few times to avoid them. Looks like I missed a few details.”

  “Interesting that they were so cautious,” Elisabeth observed, then turned the conversation back to their new additions. “We are…blessed…with this gift from our esteemed ruler. He wishes to oversee our progress.” Elisabeth chose her words with care. Without the chance to study the thing and the magic that flowed through it, she didn’t know how much information it was able to understand or pass on to its master. Cressia nodded.

  “Captain Mortimer?” She moved the conversation to an equally tricky topic. Elisabeth needed to give the bodyguard information, but also needed to ensure she didn’t accidentally betray the other captain, regardless of her current misgivings about his loyalty.

  “He was detained for further discussion.” Elisabeth shrugged, and kept her tone neutral.

  “I can retrieve him if you wish.” The bodyguard offered, and it was a difficult choice for Elisabeth to deny his rescue.

  “No, it’s best we leave him to his own devices. He is the king’s man at the end of the day. Our escort, yes, and a spy. We need to remember that.” The rat twitched its nose at the words, and Elisabeth made a note of the movement. It showed that it was interested in her opinion of Mortimer. In truth, the words were more for her own ears than for her companion’s, or the mummy’s. Cressia already knew that Mortimer wasn’t trustworthy. Both the bodyguard and the quartermaster were clear in their disdain for the man, and she knew they questioned her judgement in sharing his bed. Their concerns held a touch of validity. She forgot who and what he was in the temporary comfort of his embrace. At the end of the day, the truth was that they were all pirates, and they all worked with their own agendas.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  The boat bumped against the hull of the Silence, ending the conversation. As soon as the vessel scraped against the ship, the mummy twitched its ears and looked around. Without hesitation, it scrambled away, quick on its small feet despite its desiccated state, and scrambled up the side of the ship. Elisabeth reached for it, her reaction too slow.

  “Fuck,” she cursed her lack of foresight. She rushed to the rope ladder and climbed as quickly as possible, limbs tangling in the rope in her careless pursuit. She was trying to keep the creature in sight.

  “Don’t let it hide away somewhere,” she called over her shoulder to Cressia and felt the bodyguard’s weight on the ladder beneath her shift. A moment later, the former royal assassin was climbing the hull of the ship with the use of two small knives. Elisabeth concentrated and was able to disentangle herself from the ladder. She took one slow deep breath and continued the climb, focused on her goal: capturing the mummified rat. Knowing where the thing was at all times was imperative.

  The next step, after ensuring that it wasn’t squirrelled away in the ship, was to contain the mummy. Letting it loose among the crew was out of the question. The women were under enough pressure with their quest to retrieve the Atlas Stone from Rowan’s Shroud. Worrying about an uncontrolled cursebound rodent would damage morale, and the tension among the women of the Silence was already too high. Even contained, the thing’s presence was going to impact the crew. The magic that emanated from it was potent and malicious.

  Elisabeth leapt over the rail a moment after Cressia. Their boots thudding softly on the wood. Both women fell into matching crouches and scanned the ship. Elisabeth threw a couple of small witch orbs into the air, giving them more light than the watch lamps that hung intermittently along the deck. All was stillness on the ship. The rigging creaked and jingled in the breeze. Nothing scurried or scratched.

  “Do you see it?” Elisabeth hissed to her companion, unable to spot the creature in the near dark.

  “No.”

  “Keep looking,” she instructed. “I’ll see if I can track it.”

  Elisabeth stopped her frantic search and dropped into a light trance. She let her awareness spread and searched for a trace of the mummy’s magic. A flicker of green caught her attention---the rat was hidden inside a coil of rope. She dropped the trance and motioned to Cressia. The two women snuck up to the creature’s hiding place. Elisabeth wished for gloves, but she didn’t have the luxury of delaying to find a pair. Snarling, she grabbed the thing with a quick dart of her hand. It made an awful noise, squeaking angrily at the treatment. Elisabeth ignored the noise, and its attempts to bite and claw at her hand. Now that she was in the moment, she moved without hesitation. She dropped the shield that held her necromancy and used her power to bind the construct to her, giving it a magical leash. See how the Skeleton King likes that, she thought as the lines of the spell sunk into the mummy’s desiccated hide.

  With the magic complete, she dropped the thing onto the deck and wiped her hand against her coat. It squeaked again when it fell onto its back, but Elisabeth didn’t care. It was an abomination and a burden.

  “I’m ready to retire for the night,” she told Cressia who hovered at her shoulder.

  “Aye, captain.” The bodyguard sheathed the two blades that were in her hands and began to walk away across the deck. Elisabeth followed without another glance at the rat. A small smile tugged at her lips when the binding spell dragged the thing in her wake. Angry squeals filled the otherwise quiet night. The first step in containing this problem was complete. The only uncertainty that remained was Henry and his nightlong meeting with the Skeleton King’s emissary. After the initial shock of the binding, the rat caught up with her and kept pace. It was clear that it didn’t want to be dragged by the spell. She ignored the creature, and allowed her worries about Henry’s loyalty to fill her thoughts. She hoped that he wasn’t betraying her. And if he was, well, then she’d have to kill him alongside his patron. The thought bothered her, but she knew that if it came to that, she could, and would do it. A knife through the heart had cured her of her romantic follies in the past, it would do the trick again if need be.

  At least the final portion of a plan for the mummy came to her as she made her way below and into her cabin. The sound of its scrabbling feet was a constant irritant as she walked. When the door finally closed behind her with Cressia in her customary post on the other side, she glared at the creature and tightened the leash, holding it in place on the floor. The rat squeaked and screamed in protest at being restrained. She picked it up by the scruff of its neck and held it at eye level. Its malice ran through her flesh at the contact.

  “Oh, you are nasty work,” she growled and pushed power into a shield. The painful tingle of its curse faded from her hand and the mummy thrashed. It knew that its power was thwarted. With the thing tightly gripped in her left hand, she rummaged through the chest at the foot of her bunk with the right until she found an empty leather bag. The creature fought her, scrabbling at her hand with its teeth and claws. Elisabeth hissed at the small pain of the cuts inflicted on her flesh, but forced the mummy into the bag and drew the strings closed. The thing screeched and flailed, but Elisabeth remained focused, tightening the leash she’d placed on it earlier until it was bound to the satchel. The mummy stopped moving, unable to fight past the reinforced spell and Elisabeth tossed the bag onto the table. At least that problem was dealt with for the moment.

  She stripped off her coat and boots, and curled into her bunk, allowing herself the luxury of a few hours of sleep.

  ? Overpowers: Magical Girl Crossover [Grimlight Progression Urban Fantasy/Genre based Power System] ?

  by Moawar

  He, Life, had a simple job.

  His responsibility as an Overpower was to make sure that fiction stories and the characters in them follow their dictated path. He always did his job well enough, not more or less than was needed.

  His latest assignment, however, would, in retrospect, prove to be his most challenging one of all.

  He would find himself in a unfamiliar world. There he'll have to quickly adapt to guide Nozomi.

  The strongest magical girl with the potential to accidentally destroy those she seeks to protect in her fight against evil.

  What to Expect:

  -If you like the psychological aspects of Madoka Magica and the mixing of different genres a crossover story brings then this story is for you