Now, Bastian did not know what exactly was about to happen.
He knew that he was supposed to draw a certain symbol and then let that piece of paper be burned by the flame of the last candle. And he would then have to blow out the candle. Then he would be able to use the frog mirror.
He had recognized the item while seemingly being occupied with other things. At first, the actual description had escaped him, but then certain memories of what he had read earlier had slipped into the right cracks in his mind.
This was a scrying mirror for a very specific purpose, for revealing traitors in a group. Called the Frog of Hidden Devils. What a pretentious name…but then again, this situation didn't lack drama in any aspects!
"Are we to be silent during…"
Amanda gestured in an unclear direction.
"This?"
Bastian thought about it for a moment, flipping through the internal pages of his memories.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "What matters is that we stay attentive. We need to see whatever goes on in the scrying mirror as we blow out the candle."
"But then we will be in complete darkness," said Sammy, sounding like she was afraid of something.
A thirty-something old lady, afraid of the dark? Bastian turned towards her, but withheld the smile he wanted to give to her. He didn't want to be condescending.
"I will be here," he said, using his most convincing tone of voice. "You have nothing to worry about. I will not summon any forces that could do us any real damage. It might be scary, but scary doesn't kill you."
He tried to memorize the scrying symbol that he had seen in the comments of that online novel that this world was based on.
He drew a squiggle that was hopefully a clear replication. If not…well, then he might summon Santa Claus or something, but he certainly did not think that it would be so easy to summon anything truly dangerous. What he was trying to accomplish here was a session with a divinatory spirit, nothing high-key, nothing difficult. Fortune tellers did this all the time. It would be alright.
He ripped off the piece of paper with the symbol on it and let the flame swallow it as the two women watched him in awe with an intensity that made his blackened heart swell with pride and joy.
As he took out the Frog of Hidden Devils, he blew out the candle with one steady breath.
They were now in almost complete darkness, except for the faint light of stars pushing through the window.
He breathed in…
…He looked into the mirror.
Nothing there.
"Show me the traitor," he said calmly. "That is my wish."
He stared into the dark nothingness of the small scrying mirror.
Breathing as evenly as he possibly could, he stared into it harder and harder until he felt like the pressure in his eyeballs matched a pressure that the presence of those two women was causing somewhere else in his body.
He could not see a single thing in the mirror.
"I feel cold," Sammy said. "It's getting cold here."
At first, Bastian didn't notice anything, as he was feeling excitement rushing through his veins, but then he calmed his body for a moment and felt it.
Even though they were in the most tropical zone imaginable, he felt awfully cold, too, once he stopped to think about how the temperature in the cabin had changed.
"Is it bad?" Amanda asked.
She sounded calm, more so than Sammy, and for that, Captain Black was grateful. At least Sammy had her fellow first mate to lean on if she was truly afraid of the dark, and this in turn would serve to make the women like each other a lot more.
"No," Bastian said as serenely as he could. "It is good. We are onto someth-"
He stopped. Something was moving in the scrying mirror.
He only caught a glimpse of black hair and a sullen face, but it was such an unclear image that it could have been himself for all he knew.
Then the temperature began to rise.
He could only hear the waves of the ocean faintly by now, the most prominent sound in the cabin was the heavy breathing of the two first mates, the younger woman still remaining calmer than her companion.
The candle lit up, the flame surging upwards on its own.
A vicious flash of blue light came from the mirror with a sound of thunder. Bastian very nearly dropped the frog. Then the scrying mirror went black again.
Sammy had her mouth wide open. Obviously she had wanted to scream, but something had stopped her.
It was Amanda's hand, squeezing Sammy's right hand tightly, so hard that both their knuckles were white, and then Amanda brought Sammy's fingers to her lips and kissed them lightly. It was by no means a lustful gesture, but a display of friendliness and affection instead. Bastian could barely keep himself from smiling openly despite their precarious situation, to which Gorgo was probably contributing somehow. Bastian Black had managed to make these two like each other.
"I…I have never experienced anything like this before," Sammy said slowly.
"I don't exactly do this all the time, either," Bastian said. He wiped the cold sweat off his brow.
He felt the need to light up the rest of the candles, and then he blew out the one that had lit its own flame on its own and proceeded to toss that candle out of the window and into the waves of the ocean below them.
"Whoa," Amanda said. Slowly, her awed expression turned into a sly grin.
He kind of knew what she was thinking about.
Maybe.
Hopefully he knew.
It would perhaps seem later like it had been a bad idea to dispose of the magical candle so lightly, but for now, all Bastian could think about was the wedding night. They still had a couple of these dark hours to spare and Bastian Black, the newlywed husband, did not plan to sleep at all tonight.