Camellia sat to one side of Meladee’s narrow infirmary bed. Eva occupied the other, and Meladee reclined, awake and in good spirits. Benham sat at the foot, and Sten stood by the door.

Outside Meladee’s private room, Alim bustled about, assisting with casualties of their short battle: a few injured crew members but mostly damaged medical equipment and supplies.

Camellia couldn’t remember when the ship had a chance to get damaged. She supposed that she missed those reports amid her concerns for their superliminal path, Commander Rooks’ trust, and Meladee.

After the battle, Benham had carried a barely conscious Meladee to the infirmary, and one four-hour nap later, their grumpy mage awoke.

Meladee ate, and then, once she learned her private room had changeable lights, she insisted on trying every setting. Meladee had kept Eva at the switch, asking her to flip through the schemes as she gave each a name. It had been a hard choice between evening at a castle and beachside cottage, but Meladee had settled on beachside cottage.

“Have you ever been to a beachside cottage?” Benham asked, glancing around at the odd, grey quality of the light.

“Yeah, once.”

“Where?” Benham frowned.

“Up in Northern Tagtrum, where the nights get pretty long. It was right before the start of the long night...lasts a few weeks. Anyway, the Rime Breaker dropped anchor, and we went ashore. Checked out the cottage, but it was abandoned.”

Camellia knit her brow. “So...this is a scary lighting scheme?”

Meladee nodded with gusto. “Yeah. Yup. That’s what I was going for. Same with the castle one.”

Eva smiled and rolled her eyes. “I might have known. The light is reminiscent of the days before Lurren’s polar night.”

Sten stroked his chin. “I hadn’t really considered how far north Lurren is. It will be an interesting place to live.”

“Not all of Lurren experiences polar night. To start, I imagine we’ll settle in the southeast,” Eva said.

“No talk of unfun things,” Meladee whined. “This is my sick room, and I say – only fun!”

Benham smiled. “Do you declare it?”

“Nay. Nay. I decree it. I decree that we shall talk of nothing but fun.”

Alim poked his head into the room. “Is everything all right? I heard you raise your voice.” Alim looked around the room but saved his longest stares for Meladee and Camellia.

“Meladee seems a bit loopy. I think she’s still tired,” Camellia said.

Alim came to Meladee’s beside. “I can take another look at her.”

“Ugh. No! No!” Meladee swiped at him. “No more of that. I’m fine. Go bug someone else.” She swooshed her hand at him. “Shoo shoo.”

Alim frowned slightly and turned to leave. “Alright, I heard you.” He bent his head towards Camellia and asked, “Are you okay?”

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Camellia’s eyes widened, and her heart quickened. “I wasn’t injured.”

“Right.” Alim left the room.

Sten stowed his com. “It seems I will have to leave as well. Commander Rooks wants me on the bridge.” Sten nodded his farewell.

“Yes, go,” Meladee called. “And when you return, I hope you will have learned a bit about fun. Fun words. Fun activities. Board games, vintage toys...all that goodness.”

“Are you drunk?” Benham smiled.

“No, but I do require a sandwich. If you would be so kind, my funnest subject?”

Benham sighed. “Yes, I can get you a sandwich. It’s a long walk to the cafeteria, but I might as well, seeing as the doctors and nurses are short-handed. Glad to hear I’m the funnest. Though the competition is pretty...abysmal.” Benham looked at Eva and Camellia. He stifled his smile. “Sorry, ladies.”

“Don’t be,” Camellia said. “We are fun challenged.” She couldn’t remember her last bit of fun. She’d probably been five. Or, maybe with Cernunnos. She missed Cernunnos.

Benham left.

Meladee turned serious. “Hey, close the door.”

Eva and Camellia exchanged a glance, but Eva rose and closed the door.

“I’m really fine. I hate how I have to be stuck here,” Meladee said. “Hey, so what are you going to do about Alim? Who are you going to choose?”

“What do you mean?” Camellia played dumb, but she knew what Meladee meant. Camellia already chose. She respected Alim, but she never felt anything for him. The interest was all his. She wanted Adalhard.

“Alim or Adalhard?”

Camellia put her head in her hands. “You know that I choose Adalhard.”

“Then, why is Alim still into you?” Meladee prodded.

Camellia sighed. “Alim said he wasn’t ready to give up. I feel so rotten. Alim is a good man…” Camellia shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“It’s a bad situation,” Eva agreed. “But, there are many women on Iruedim – and Rooks’ ships – to distract his attentions.”

“Yeah, let’s hope he meets a hot nurse or a healer or...hey, maybe Beatrix Castles?” Meladee grinned.

Camellia huffed. “Meladee, no. Life does not work that way. You can’t just match people up.” She held up a hand. “For now, I am taking no action. Not until we figure out this creature problem.”

Camellia raised her eyes to Meladee’s. She studied Meladee, and Meladee studied her back.

Camellia frowned. “That decay magic… That is very powerful magic. That’s exactly what Ah’nee’thit wants from us. That’s how we can destroy Ul’thetos.”

Meladee nodded. “Yeah, it sure is. Problem is...how do we do that to our monster friends? It decays everything it touches. That’s going to include the flowers, trees, grass, ground...even us if we’re too close. I’m not gonna have a clear barrier to hide from the decay…unless we fly a ship in.”

Eva shook her head. “We’re not flying in there. You remember last time.”

“We’ll need to work on that,” Camellia said. “Maybe, a magical item? Something we can leave behind.”

“A gun? Or something like the egg?” Eva mused.

“That would be immediate death.” Meladee slashed the air. “No time for us to get away.”

Eva nodded slowly. “That’s true. Well, what about our other problem? The creature is the size of a continent, and Meladee almost had a stroke covering the fleet.”

“What if we use it on the creature’s brain?” Camellia broke in.

The others paused and considered Camellia’s point.

“We have no idea where the brain is hiding in that sea of flesh,” Eva said.

“I might have some idea.” Camellia recalled the creature’s memory of its first prison: the metal box.

Eva and Meladee stared at Camellia, waiting for a response.

A flash of orange light crossed the room.

Camellia and Eva stood up.

“Sit down.” Meladee waved them into their seats. “That was the spell about...god, I can’t say it now. It was the one to prevent people from talking about…” Meladee paused again, struggling to find the words. “God, this is one thorough spell. What the hell was I thinking?”

“Why did it take so long to go off?” Eva asked. “I thought you set it to go off once the computer initiated the course for…” Eva growled. “We shouldn’t have let it affect us.”

“Yeah, we decided to ride on Fauchard. Too late now.” Meladee shot a look at Camellia. “Must have been that long course you made. You know the tangled yarn one. I opted to make the spell trigger for when we got close. Guess we finally crossed that point.”

Camellia thought the name of their homeworld: Iruedim. But, she could not bring herself to speak it.

“I hope no one notices till we get there,” she worried. She kept to herself that Rooks knew. She’d had enough drama for now.