"Be warned."
The jeweled Lantern was the most beautiful thing Jessica Hoshi had ever seen. But the voice she heard from inside it made her shiver.
"If you have found this treasure you are in grave danger."
She peered through the Lantern's ornate deep green lens: one of eight, each a different color, that formed a shining shell around the flickering light at its center. The etchings and facets of the lens distorted the shadowy figure visible inside. The smoky aroma of old wood and dried mildew drifted through the dim ship's hold.
The hazy mystifying image of a robed woman wearing a cowl and carrying a skull-capped staff gradually formed. Jessica's friends gathered around the open wooden trunk. Shannon Ka Yoru noticed an elaborately decorated jewelry box inside. She picked it up and tried to open it, but the lid was stuck.
"Who are you?" Jessica asked. Her blue eyes were wide with wonder. She could not see the woman's face. The image was too indistinct under the shadow of her cowl.
"Time is short," the woman replied. Her voice sounded ghostly, fading in and out as if she were speaking into a strong windstorm. "Are you aboard a ship? Have you found a jewelry box there?"
"How can you know that?" Shannon Ka Yoru asked, brushing her long hair back over her shoulder before kneeling down to get a better look. She peered through the Lantern's yellow lens.
"Yeah! We're on the museum ship at the Lakeshore Promenade!" Jessica replied cheerfully.
Ranko Yorozu crouched and put her hand on Jessica's shoulder, shaking her head urgently and frowning. The huge wooden vessel leaned slightly causing a low creaking followed by the sound of water splashing against the hull.
Jessica silently mouthed the words 'what should I say?' in reply.
"Bring the jewelry box to Vuran's Wharf at once. Speak to no one." The woman's voice was calm but there was a tone of urgency in her words. Her image faded and the Lantern's light brightened.
"Vuran's Wharf? Where is that?" Ranko asked, looking up at the others. All five of Jessica's friends were gathered around the trunk they had found in the berth deck of the tall ship. Shannon noticed it had become considerably darker outside in the few moments since they found the Lantern.
Talitha Hayashi straightened her glasses. "Is that on the lake?"
"Nope. Nope. Uh-uh. No such place on the lake, Talitha-chan," Jessica said, shaking her head and making her light blond hair sway back and forth.
"What's with the '-chan' stuff, Goofy?" Ranko asked, scrunching up her face.
"It's because of my Japanese class!" Jessica replied with an enthusiastic look. "They're honorifics, and there's lots of them. Let's see... you can call your friends '-chan' after their name. It means they're familiar to you. If you use '-san' it's the same but sorta more polite, and if you use '-sama' it means they're really super important..."
Ranko stared. She hadn't bargained on getting a complete language class in response to her question.
"Maybe Vuran's Wharf is where that lady is," Cecilia Daichi said, holding the Lantern up by its circular handle and trying to look inside it. "Maybe there's like a video screen or something."
"Guys, it's already dark outside," Alanna Kawa said, taking advantage of her height to reach the open hatch to the main deck. She used one hand to steady herself as she looked up the wooden steps towards the sky. "We've got to go. The tour group is probably gone."
"What do we do about all this stuff?" Ranko asked, picking through the elaborately decorated finery stored in the heavy wooden trunk. "Do we just leave all these expensive things here? These plates and cups look pretty valuable."
