Despite being forced back to Safe Haven to conduct repairs, the crew of the Gryphon was in a celebratory mood, as, it seemed, were the crews of the Stryker and Phoenix. Once safely at anchor, Captain Mond walked the length of the Gryphon's decks and assessed the damage done. He also counted the crew and noted those injured or missing. Most of the crew had endured the battle without serious injury, and the only missing member was Jozon, who had been forced overboard. They immediately set to work mending the damage to the ship, which was thankfully not significant.

"Why is everyone so excited?" Li asked Garstin as they tidied up the common area below deck.

"It's not often we fight the ships from Dyrai," Garstin replied, handing him a broom. "We try to avoid the necromancers as often as possible without one of the Asir to help us. To have helped sink one is quite the feat for us."

Li took the broom and nodded. "I know that, but I didn't expect so much excitement when there is no money to be had in sinking a ship. We didn't manage to take any cargo to sell."

Jayce, Garstin's partner, snorted but didn't say anything as he continued trying to put the door of a cabinet back on its hinges. Garstin smacked him with a broom.

"There is pay in sinking ships from Dyrai, or any of its colonies and allies," Garstin explained. "We will need to share the prize with the crews on the Stryker and Phoenix, but it will still be good pay for all of us. When we're next in Mahlon, Captain Mond will submit his statement on the fight to the courts, and the other two captains will do the same. Providing all statements agree, we will all be paid. What should be lessening the excitement is that we likely won't be returning to Mahlon for some time, considering we only just left. Mond may send his statement on with one of the other captains or another messenger to ensure we are paid immediately when next there, instead of waiting on the judgement. Everyone knows they will be getting paid, though, and they will be celebrating and enjoying the victory over Dyrai for days."

Li had been briefly excited to think they may return to Mahlon soon so he could fight his sentence as Captain Mond had suggested, but then wondered why he wanted that at all. Correcting the injustice would not restore Ash to him, and he would be left with nowhere to go. In remaining on the Gryphon he at least had somewhere to live and a job to perform, and he had something close to friends in Aricka and Garstin, even if the rest of the crew still thought of him as an unproven new cuffer.

Perhaps it was a good thing that they wouldn't be returning to Mahlon soon to report their victory.

That evening, the crews of all three ships gathered on the shore of Safe Haven for the funeral of eleven sailors who had died in the battle. Of them, only six had been killed on their vessels or had died from their injuries shortly after the battle. The others had been thrown overboard and their bodies lost to the sea. The six were each wrapped, some in blankets and some in old sails, and brought to a large pyre on the beach.

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The captain of the Stryker, a short man with long, graying brown hair and a short beard of the same, and who wore much less jewelry than Captain Mond, stepped up beside the pyre and addressed the somber assembly.

"Tonight we honor those who we lost this day in our continued war with the necromancers of Dyrai," he began, his voice deep and thunderous. "We pray that Quelin, mighty god of the sea, has protected their souls and brought them peace in his arms, and we thank him, and our Asirim friends who work through him, for protecting those of us standing here from meeting that fate."

Beside Li, Ardlac shifted uncomfortably. Li glanced at him, but saw no expression other than the same quiet sadness expressed by those around them.

"Tonight we honor our lost friends. Let us place them upon the fire and scatter their ashes across this island that has given us life and comfort for so long. Let us celebrate their lives and what they accomplished with us this night."

One by one, the bodies were placed on the pyre, with each sailor's captain naming them and announcing how long they had served their ship. Those lost to the sea were also named. When all the bodies had been placed on the fire, a group of sailors volunteered to oversee the burning, and the remaining crew were permitted to pay their respects at the pyre, but instructed to celebrate the lost lives in all the ways they saw fit.

Li was surprised to realize that meant drinking and gaming on the beach. Uninterested in such things, Li returned to the Gryphon with a group of other crew members. He settled down in his bunk and listened to the celebrations on the beach, and the lapping of the sea against the ship at anchor.

Eventually, Ardlac also returned, and settled down in the bunk with his back to Li, as he always did when they were both in the cabin. Not long after he returned, their neighbors in another cabin began making their much more carnal celebration very obvious to those anywhere near them.

"Must they be so loud?" Li muttered to himself in an effort to mask the sound just slightly.

Ardlac chuckled. "It's how many celebrate victory and life. We could celebrate the same way, if you were inclined."

Li was stunned - and appalled. Even with everything he had been told about partners routinely having sexual arrangements, he had never expected or wanted Ardlac to suggest such a thing. "Have you been drinking?" he demanded.

"Yes, but why does that matter?" Ardlac replied.

Li sat up and glared down at him. "Because you would have to be mad otherwise to make such a suggestion."

Ardlac turned to gaze up at him, his expression something bordering on anger, perhaps even offended. "Everyone does it. You only need to tell me you are not interested in men. You don't need to insult me."

"Me insulting you?" Li demanded. "You have made it perfectly clear since the day I joined this crew that you don't want me here. Why would I allow you to use my body for your own needs?"

"I expected it to be a mutual benefit," Adlac replied.

"Mutual?" Li snapped. "Nothing about our arrangement has been mutual. You've barely given me any space in this godsforsaken cabin. You hardly speak to me except where you are required to educate me on how things are done here. You don't know a thing about me. I don't know a thing about you - and I don't know that I want to, considering how unwelcoming you have been."

For a moment Ardlac looked hurt, then he slid out of the bunk and went to the door. "I won't ask again, then," he stated, and left, closing the door firmly behind him.

Li dropped back onto the bunk, feeling angry and frustrated to have been put in such a situation. And his neighbors seemed nowhere close to being finished.