A hand fell on Eluvie's shoulder. She gasped and spun around, but it was only Amu. He eyed her with a concerned expression.

She straightened and dusted off her clothing, but the action felt awkward to her. Before she could explain her odd behavior, he spoke.

"Stay away from the edge," he said. "The guards are growing anxious."

Eluvie looked past him to the watching crowd. Every eye was watching her.

How odd was I acting?

She straightened her back, put her head up, and began walking toward the crowd. The eyes followed her as she went. She walked straight through the middle of the ship, found the staircase, and took it downstairs. Only when she was out of sight did she allow herself to cringe at the situation.

Thankfully, Mirab, the other rulers, and the dignitaries had been absent. But they would hear the tale soon enough.

Footsteps followed her down the staircase: Amu's footsteps.

She turned around to face the stairs and waited until his descent was complete. In the narrow, dimly lit corridor, he filled the space like a giant.

"There are two guards coming behind me," he said. "I know they make you anxious, but there's no way they'll allow you unguarded below deck."

Eluvie squelched the urge to snap at him and turned around, intending to walk to her room. But she had never learned where it was.

"I'll lead," Amu said, amusement in his voice.

She ended up in a procession with Amu leading and two guards behind her. She did not ask what they intended to protect her from on the ship; she could not afford more mistakes.

Her bedroom was tiny and windowless, owing to its location in the central portion of the ship. Counterintuitively, she felt grateful for that. It meant that the guards had to wait outside. She lay on the hard mattress, stared at the ceiling, and wondered what to do next.

The ship rocked gently while the voice continued its chant. Now that she understood it, she could not help but hear the words. They intruded upon her thoughts, making formulating even the most basic of plans a difficult prospect.

No thought would stick in her mind more powerful than that one question: "What was that sound?"

She longed to send out an exploring tendril, but fear held her back. The ship was small and unfamiliar. One wrong move would expose her powers and her memories. Given a choice between ignorance and a return to the torturous days, ignorance was vastly preferable.

So, she did her best to calm her worries and went to sleep.

She awoke on the ground. She had a moment to wonder how she had gotten there before the boat tilted and violently threw her against the door. She tried to scramble up, but the boat tilted in the other direction and threw her against her bed. It took four more attempts for her to scramble to her feet while holding onto one of the bedposts for support.

The strange voice was now much louder, but nearly unintelligible. Its previous chant of "die, die, die" had morphed into one long rage-filled growl.

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Against that background, Amu's voice stood out from outside the door. "I don't care what inane orders you received. Let her out, right now!"

Someone replied in a much lower, but intractable voice. "You do not have the authority to give that order."

"And do you have the authority to kill her?" Amu asked.

The guard gave an annoyed grunt. "We don't have to listen to this. If you're so worried, come back with one of the Rulers' permission. Otherwise, I'll knock you unconscious and throw you in with her."

"This is insane," Amu raised his voice. "Eluvie! Eluvie, wake up!"

Maneuvering in the rocking boat was a chore, but Eluvie managed it. She threw herself at the door, grabbed its handle to steady herself, and tried to open it. It was locked.

"Eluvie!" Amu called again. "Can you hear me?!"

"I'm awake," she called back. "What's going on?"

"It's a storm, and these two idiots have listening problems."

"It sounds like they were ordered to keep me in."

"That was before it grew this bad," Amu said. "I'll go back up for help. If you see a way out, take it and try to get onto the deck."

Eluvie frowned. "Isn't it safer down here?"

His pause was long. "We might have to evacuate," he said.

That was even more confusing. "Evacuate to where?"

"Don't worry about that," he said. "I'll be back."

His footsteps were faint compared to the rest of the cacophony, but she heard him leave. The guards at the door said nothing.

She could transform into a form that allowed her to slip through the door, but that would give away her secrets. Instead, she scanned the room for a tool. There was little to see. The bed was a simple mattress on a wooden frame. The only other furnishings were a plain brown rug and a lamp.

Her gaze stopped on the lamp. It was a normal one: a glass enclosure housing a cloth wick encased in wax. The glass enclosure was too thick to break from normal use, and its only opening was too tiny for her purposes. But she didn't really need the flame.

She slid over to one side of the door and positioned herself so that its opening would not restrain her.

Then, she screamed. "Fire! Help! It's on fire!"

The guards hesitated for a while. One questioned whether they should seek instructions. The other reasoned that they could hardly be rewarded for letting her burn to death. Finally, they opened the door.

Eluvie forced herself to wait until the door was fully open. Then, she slipped through and sprinted down the corridor. She had gained several feet on the guards before they realized that there was no fire. And when they finally began chasing her, she was already climbing up the staircase.