After Island was, quite frankly, a letdown. As Penny stepped off the Muntjac's gangplank, he looked around at the sparse, windswept coastline with a look of deep skepticism. He had expected a hidden paradise or at least a village with a decent tavern; instead, he got a collection of weather-beaten shacks and people who looked like they hadn't seen a sandwich in a fiscal year.
"Scanty," Penny muttered, adjusting his jacket. "This isn't an island, it's more of a geological mistake."
They were met at the shoreline by a couple who looked weary down to their very bones. The woman didn't bow; she didn't even acknowledge the crown on Eliot's head. She just looked at them with hollow eyes.
"Our priest is in prayer," she said, her voice like dry parchment. "He prays for the souls taken by the Shadow Bat. It is a beast made of nothing but darkness, and it has been feeding on us since the light went out."
The news hit the group like a physical blow. They had come for taxes and keys, not a monster hunt. But the part that actually broke the tension was when the couple turned to Eliot.
"And you are?" the man asked.
Eliot stood tall, smoothing his royal coat. "I am High King Eliot the Spectacular, Ruler of Fillory, and—"
"Never heard of you," the man interrupted, turning back to Penny. "Do you have any grain?"
Kady let out a sharp, genuine bark of a laugh. "Oh, 'The Spectacular,' huh? They seem really impressed, El."
"Everyone's a critic," Eliot sighed, though his eyes remained wary.
Suddenly, the doors of a small, stone chapel creaked open. A man stepped out, the priest. He was covered in a white robe, but the moment he appeared, a low-frequency hum resonated through the air. It was a cold, heavy vibration that set Penny's teeth on edge.
Kady stiffened, her hand moving instinctively toward her hip. "Uh... Penny?"
"Yeah," Penny whispered, his eyes narrowed. "I feel it too. There is something weird about that guy."
Eliot stepped forward, launching into a pitch, "Listen, good people of After Island! I realize the crown hasn't checked in for a few... decades. But the stable prosperity of the realm requires a certain... communal contribution. We are here for the back taxes, which will go toward the defense of the kingdom and, naturally, the upkeep of my very expensive ship."
Penny shook his head. "He really should've considered a career in used car sales instead of magic. The bullshit is almost poetic."
"Taxes?" one of the villagers spat, stepping forward. "We have lived on the edge for years. We survive because of the Priest's protection and nothing else! Fillory gave us nothing!"
"He's right," another added, gesturing to the sky. "The Shadow Bat comes for us all, and you want gold?"
Penny glanced at the man who spoke, but his eyes caught something in the peripheral. His face paled. "Oh, shit. That is nasty."
Fen, clutching Freya tightly to her chest, whispered, "What is it?"
"The shadow," Penny pointed at a creeping, oily darkness sliding across the sand, defying the direction of the sun. "There really is a beast."
A piercing, soul-shredding screech tore through the air. The sky turned a sickly shade of violet as a massive, flickering silhouette dropped from the clouds.
"Get to safety!" the priest shouted, his voice booming with a power that didn't match his frail frame. "Inside Now!"
The villagers scrambled, a chaotic tide of panic. But Kady didn't run. She stood her ground as she felt the blue core behind her ribs flare to life, "I've got this," Kady snarled.
She thrust her hands forward, her eyes igniting with a brilliant, steady blue light. She didn't use the convoluted, finger-breaking movements of standard battle magic. She went straight for the source.
"Phasmatos Incendia!"
The sapphire pillar of flame roared upward, a blinding torrent of heat that should have incinerated anything in its path. But as the fire collided with the massive, winged silhouette, it didn't bloom or explode. It passed right through the darkness like light through a cloud of smoke.
Kady's eyes widened, the blue glow in her pupils flickering and dying out. "Oh, shit," she muttered, bracing herself as the creature continued its dive.
"Move!" Penny yelled, shoving her aside. He didn't have time to think; he just reached deep into the humming core in his chest and pulled. He formed a sphere of condensed, brilliant white light between his palms, a pure offensive burst designed to vanish shadows. He hurled it with everything he had.
The ball of light streaked through the air, illuminating the terrified faces of the villagers, but it sailed right through the beast's chest. The Shadow Bat didn't even flinch; it simply let out a mocking, soul-shredding screech and accelerated.
"Holy shi—" Penny started, his heart hammering. But then, he stopped.
He wasn't looking at the beast anymore. He was looking at the priest. Amidst the chaos, the priest wasn't praying. He was standing perfectly still, his eyes looking at him and Kady, and his hand was clenched tightly around something hidden in the folds of his robe. Penny noticed the way the "beast" moved in perfect synchronization with the slight tremors in the man's knuckles.
Penny rolled his eyes as he entered the man's mind, a look of pure, annoyed realization crossing his face. "Of course it is. It's always some pathetic, small-town power trip."
Penny vanished. He reappeared directly behind the priest. Before the man could even gasp, Penny reached into the priest's robes, yanked out whatever he was holding, and delivered a brutal, short-range punch to the man's jaw.
The priest crumpled to the sand, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The moment the object left the priest's hand, the Shadow Bat which was inches away from diving into the crowd simply evaporated. The terrifying screech cut off mid-note, replaced by the sudden, eerie whistle of the wind.
The villagers slowly crept out from behind their shacks, staring at the empty sky in stunned silence.
"What the hell was that?" Kady asked, her hands still smoking from the spell.
Eliot stepped forward, his eyes darting between the fallen priest and Penny. "Yeah, Penny. What the hell? Did you just punch a holy man in the middle of a divine intervention?"
"This douchebag wasn't intervening in anything," Penny snapped, walking toward them. He held up the object he had snatched. It wasn't a crucifix or a relic. It was a heavy, cold piece of forged metal that hummed with a resonance so deep it made the air around it shimmer.
Kady's breath hitched. "Holy shit. Is that...?"
"A key," Eliot whispered, his royal facade slipping into genuine awe.
"Yeah," Penny said, turning the object over in his hand. "And apparently, our 'holy' friend here has been using it to pull a long con. It's an illusion. He's been the one killing your people," Penny said, looking at the horrified couple who had welcomed them. "He used the key to create a monster, made a plausible scenario where you were all terrified, and then 'protected' you so you'd stay on this island under his thumb forever. Total dictator moves, 101."
Fen, still holding Freya tightly, looked at the unconscious man on the ground with a mix of rage and disgust. "He murdered his own flock... for a chance at power?"
"Power is a hell of a drug, Fen," Penny said, pocketing the first key. "And we just took his stash."
Kady stepped over the unconscious priest, she looked down at him with pure, unadulterated loathing. "You sick son of a—"
"Ahem!" Eliot cleared his throat loudly, making a sharp, frantic gesture toward Freya. The little girl was held by Fen with her left hand, her eyes wide and attentive, soaking up every word "Aunty Kady" was about to spit out.
Kady caught herself, took a sharp breath, and pivoted with a jagged scowl. "You sick... piece of sentient garbage! You are an absolute waste of skin!"
Eliot gave a small, approving nod, then turned his attention to the shell-shocked villagers. He stepped onto a weathered boulder, his royal presence suddenly filling the small, dusty square. He pointed a dramatic finger at the crumpled figure on the sand.
"People of After Island!" Eliot's voice carried across the shoreline, regal and resonant. "This man has been using you. He has been slaughtering your families and stealing your peace, all for his own sick, twisted gain. He created a monster to make himself a savior."
The crowd began to murmur, a low, dangerous growl rising from the collective. One of Eliot's palace guards, a stern man with a heavy broadsword, stepped forward and gripped the hilt of his blade, looking to Eliot for the order to end it then and there.
"No," Eliot said, raising a hand. He looked down at the priest, who was just beginning to stir, then back at the villagers. "This is not my judgment to pass. This man didn't steal from the crown today; he stole from you. I leave his fate in your hands. Do with him as your hearts and your grief demand."
The silence that followed lasted only a heartbeat. Then, the villagers descended. They grabbed the screaming priest by his robes, hauling him away toward the jagged cliffs on the far side of the island. God only knew what they had planned for the man who had turned their lives into a horror story, but the screams fading into the distance suggested it wouldn't be a quick conversation.
Eliot turned back to the group, his posture slumping slightly as the adrenaline faded. He looked at the heavy, pulsing metal in Penny's hand. "So. What exactly do we have here?"
Penny was turning the key over and he furrowed his brow. "I'm not entirely sure."
"Whatever it does," Eliot remarked, reaching out to hover a hand near the metal, "I can feel the magic rolling off of it in waves. It's like standing next to a furnace."
"Yeah," Penny agreed, "The second I touched it, it was like a jump-start. It filled my core back up instantly. I caught a glimpse of the priest's last thoughts before I knocked him out, he was using it to conjure that shadow bat, but the key wasn't just making an illusion. It was bending the light and the air to create something that felt real."
Fen adjusted Freya in her arms, looking at the key with a mixture of awe and trepidation. "Well, at least one aim has been achieved. We have the first piece." She then turned her gaze to Eliot, her eyebrows arched. "Now... How do we install a functional system to actually collect the taxes? We can't exactly leave them with no leadership and a bill to pay."
Kady immediately held up her hands, backing away toward the Muntjac. "Oh, don't look at me. I'm the muscle, not the IRS."
They all turned their gaze toward Eliot. The High King looked at the impoverished village, then at the empty treasury chest they'd brought along, and then back at his friends.
"Ah," Eliot sighed, leaning heavily on his cane. "Right. The actual 'King' part of the job. Lovely."