The ocean was big and dreary, and I hated it.

We had been floating on top of the dang thing for weeks, endlessly searching for something that perhaps did not exist. Even Joseph grew doubtful, and his cheerful demeanor had waned considerably with every passing day. The clues were as scarce as the ocean was vast. We were looking for a place where it was always three days at the same time, somewhere in the ocean. That was pretty much it, all we had to go on.

The Tower of Three Days.

It made no sense to me, and I had never felt so completely useless, without any hope whatsoever. How in the world could you take that one clue, and then go and have a look-see throughout the entire ocean? It bordered on insanity to even try.

It was almost evening on the thirty-third day when we had our first breakthrough.

The day was beautiful, cloudless and bright. I woke up that morning feeling better physically than I had in quite some time. The first couple of weeks on the ocean had been absolute misery, with nausea my constant companion, and barfing a regular activity. Tanaka stayed well clear of me after meals. He'd had more than one run-in with the Jimmy Fincher puke brigade, and he told us that if he only accomplished one more thing in life, it would be to avoid being spewed on by me ever again.

Our yacht was extremely luxurious and comfortable, with plenty of food. Our captain told us we could last for months if we had to. The boat was nowhere near full capacity, but had been stocked as if we would have a full load. The mystery of how it had all been paid for was still up in the air. Joseph had either robbed a bank or sweet-talked a rich old Japanese widow into giving her husband's fortune away. He answered most of our questions, but not that one. We didn't need to worry about that, not yet, he had said. We didn't argue, because there were plenty of other things to grill him about.

Joseph's experience after being taken by the Shadow Ka on that scary day when I blocked the Black Curtain was very similar to Rayna's story. He'd been flown for many miles through the shifting mists of the Blackness, until finally he had seen a massive black object looming before him. It was made of the same black gooey substance that Rayna had plunged into when she was younger and had been abducted by a Ka.

A black carving of a face. Hers. Joseph's experience was only different in one respect. The face had been his.

The pack of Ka tore into the eye of that face, and Joseph was suddenly thrown through a terrifying maze of nightmares and visions. Then, just before a slumber from which he would have never awakened, the girl had appeared, and saved his life. The girl who I first saw so many weeks ago, waiting for me under the door in the woods. The Giver who wore jeans and sneakers.

She saved his life, releasing him from the living nightmare of the face.

Her words at that time had chilled Joseph. She said she would die for him, just before he was ripped away, out of the darkness. Very strange. And very creepy.

After the ordeal, Joseph had spent several days with the Givers, learning much about many things. Some he had since shared with us, some he had promised for a future time. I was thinking about all of this on the morning of the thirty-third day, standing in my favorite spot at the highest point of the entire ship, looking out into the endless horizon where the blues of ocean and sky met in a distinct line.

That's when I saw something strange floating in the distance.

It was white and sparkly, bobbing in the waters like the last lonely Cheerio in a Sunday morning breakfast bowl. I watched it float there for a while, wondering what object could end up out here in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it was a dead fish. I was just about to lose interest and search out everyone else on the boat to see what was in store for the day, when it got close enough that I could see that it was definitely not a dead fish.

It was something straight out of the storybooks.