It was late at night when Minnette entered her tent. A dozen white doves slept on their wooden perch by her table on the other side of the tall tent. They watched her as she came inside and set her torch on the stand at the tent’s center. The light of the torch was warm and cast shadows across the beige tent walls.

“I’m sorry I was gone so long,” she told the birds.

They cooed softly in response.

“It was a long day…” she said with a sigh.

“That’s quite the sigh.”

Minnette jumped and turned around to see Gann standing in the doorway.

“Gann!” she said, placing a hand over her heart. “You scared me! I didn’t hear you come in.”

The right corner of his mouth quirked up. “Sorry,” he said and dangled a bag from his left hand. “I brought food though. Knowing you, you still haven’t eaten. Am I right?”

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. She placed a hand over it as if to muffle the sound. “You know me well,” she said, amused, and walked over to him.

He grinned. “A hundred and eighty years of friendship makes it hard not to,” he said, handing her the food.

She gave him a look as she sat down on her small, fur-lined cot. “You and I both know that you couldn’t stand me the first fifty years,” she said as she opened the bag. It was a loaf of bread, still warm.

He laughed, crossing his arms. “In my defense, you were a pretty obnoxious kid,” he teased.

“I was not!” she said, tone light.

He quirked a brow and chuckled. “Is that so?” he asked. “You don’t consider constantly making me hunt you down in the wilderness to be the slightest bit obnoxious?”

“Perhaps, a little…” she conceded. “But if I remember correctly, you started to enjoy those little adventures too.”

“Perhaps, a little,” he said, using her words as he looked down at her with warmth in his eyes.

Minnette took the bread out of the bag and tore it, holding a chunk out to Gann. “Stay and eat with me?” she asked before taking a bite of bread.

Gann took the bread and sat backwards on the chair at her table.

“So what was that sigh about earlier?” Gann asked and then started eating.

Minnette shrugged. “Just tired, I suppose.”

Gann nodded. “Any particular reason? Or are your two-hundred years finally starting to slow you down?”

Minnette rolled her eyes. “You’re the one pushing two-hundred-sixty,” she pointed out. “But no. It’s just been a long time since I had to use my powers like I did today.”

“To tame the animals?” Gann pressed. “Father told me you were going to help the Guild with that.”

Minnette shook her head. “Well, I mean, there’s that too, but no. I had to stop their guard dogs from attacking me.”

“What?!” Gann leaped up from the seat. His arms burst into flames from his hands to his elbows, turning what was left of his chunk of bread into charcoal that crumbled in his grasp.

The doves startled, chirruping loudly and flapping their wings.

“Gann, please calm down, I’m fine,” Minnette started. She hated it when he got worked up like this.

He paced around the tent. “It should have never been an issue! You were there to help and–”

She shot up from her cot. “It was my own fault, Gann!”

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“What did you do that could have possibly warranted–”

“I was snooping around, okay?! I was snooping around and the dogs found me. I used my animal bonding and I’m fine, now will you just cool it before you set my tent on fire?”

Gann closed his eyes, still frowning, and let out a breath. Slowly the flames died down.

“I’m sorry,” he said through clenched teeth, his head hung. “I shouldn’t get so angry.”

She walked over and touched his shoulder. “It’s okay, Gann.”

He shook his head. “It’s really not, I…” he trailed off and sighed.

For a moment there was silence between them and then Gann broke it by asking, “What were you snooping around, anyway?”

“Remember the big crate we were looking at earlier? The one that was under the tarp?”

He nodded.

“I was looking for a woman named Geyna and I saw it just sitting there…” she said. “I didn’t see anyone around so I took a peek and…”

“And…? What was in it?”

“Honestly?” Minnette started. “I’m not entirely sure.”

Gann quirked a brow, urging her to continue.

“It was a tank full of water but… I think I saw a face.”

“A face?”

She nodded.

“In the water?” he asked with a frown.

She nodded. “At least I think so… Maybe I was just seeing things or… I don’t know. It just seems too strange to be real.”

Gann rubbed his chin, as he considered her words. “I mean… it sounds like an Aquaeth…” he finally said.

“An awk-what?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“An Aqua-eth,” he said again, slower, enunciating the word. “They’re sea creatures that come from the Western Sea.”

“Sea creatures? What I saw looked like an elf, not an animal,” Minnette said.

“They have the appearance of elves but that is where the similarities end,” he said with his nose scrunched up in disgust. “They are more akin to goblins than to us. A blight to any ship unlucky enough to cross course with them. They are vandals, murderers, and thieves.”

His words dripped with venom so potent that it took Minnette aback. Though he’d always had a temper, she’d never heard him speak with so much raw hatred. Even when speaking of actual goblins he only ever referred to them as pests.

“How come you’ve never told me about them before?” she asked, finding it odd that her friend would keep knowledge like this to himself.

“I try not to think about them,” he said, his expression pained. “And it’s been so long since–” he looked away from her.

“Since what…?” she asked tentatively.

Gann shook his head. “It doesn’t matter right now.” There was a moment of silence between them as Gann seemed to stare into the past.

Eventually, he continued. “If the Guild is holding one of them captive in our camp, my father will need to know about it. This can’t be going on. It’s sick!”

Minnette nodded in agreement. Something about the entire situation didn’t seem right.

“I will go speak to my father,” he said and started for the exit.

“I’ll go with you,” Minnette offered.

“No. If the conversation goes how I imagine it will, we will be talking for hours and you’ve had a long day as it is,” he said, amber eyes softening as he looked at her. “You should rest.”

He wasn’t wrong. Minnette’s body ached with tiredness and she longed for the embrace of sleep.

“Alright…” Minnette said, hesitation in her tone. “But if he needs to speak with me, do not hesitate to come get me .”

He nodded. “Goodnight, Minnette.”

“Goodnight,” she said as he ducked out of her tent.

Finally alone; she sighed, changing into her nightclothes before extinguishing the torch and laying down for the night. As she laid there, she couldn’t stop thinking about the man in the tank–the Aquaeth.

She felt conflicted and couldn’t, for the life of her, understand why the Guild was keeping him prisoner, even if he had attacked their ship. If the Aquaeth were like the goblins, then they couldn’t be reasoned with and imprisonment would serve no purpose. Death or release would be the only humane options.

And if they were not like goblins and could, in fact, be reasoned with. Why haul him across Elvenon? Minnette thought of the men trying to lift the tank. With the amount of water inside, it had to weigh close to four tons. Why burden themselves more than they had to? They could have left him with the authorities in Temenrin.

Something wasn’t right.

With all that was on her mind, she started to doubt she’d even be able to sleep tonight. Her tiredness won out in the end, however, and eventually, she managed to drift off into dreamland.