I couldn't but feel that along with Colt that I was somehow to blame for the risk to so many lives that having unearthed the scroll had resulted in. What my brother had said about everyone having a share in the guilt had helped, but it had been Colt and I that had released the threat of the dark natured message of the scroll back into this sunken realm.
The Captain, I'm not sure how, seemed to sense my guilt over the situation. In heavily accented English he spoke, "You have not been the first to succumb to the wiles of the dark words and threaten to unleash their unholy offspring. Over thirty years ago a junior Captain of a destroyer in our fleet found the scroll washed up on a beach not far from here. He read the words of the scroll and bonded himself with a manifestation of sheer evil. An evil that I wished to never have to face again. The inhabiting manifestation of evil offered his knowledge of a sunken city filled with the means by which we could use to win our war with the Americans overnight if we would but allow possession of ourselves by the dark forces. My Admiral did not see why we should stoop to such dark paths in the pursuit of victory. We were winning the war against the Americans anyway. The Admiral was a man of honor, as am I. Most of the fleet agreed with the Admiral, and the manifestation of evil was denied access to our souls. In retaliation the possessed young Captain stole on board the capital battleship and killed the Admiral in his sleep. He then tried to gain control of the battleship, but the crew resisted and would not take orders from him. In the fighting between the crew of the old Admiral's and that of the upstart Captain's crew a fire got started, it touched off a powder magazine and our battleship, which was the pride of our fleet went up in flames taking with it the lives of over eight hundred sailors. The rebel Captain's ship was also destroyed. The loss of those sailors and those two ships has been a costly one. Ever since that day we have been at a disadvantage to the Americans and forced to flee every fight we have encountered with them. The ancient scroll is poison of the worst kind and must be destroyed!" The Captain finished passionately as he turned to look at Koke pointedly.
Koke nodded affirmatively, "The scroll will be destroyed this time Captain. I have the pledge of the Sea People to that end. Now on to the pressing matter at hand. You've come to evacuate the island I take it?"