About halfway into the third day Tara seemed to decide that staying above deck was better than being below—so long as Matteo was up there, at least, because she half-followed him. He appreciated Hannah’s efforts to actually keep Tara from worrying, from assuring her the ship would sail and helpfully giving estimates of when they’ll reach Sólstaður.

He still felt bad for Tara, though. She never let her guard down—if the sky got even a little cloudy she whimpered. On the bright side, once they were in Sólstaður there probably wouldn’t be any weather-related fears—not specific to her past memories, at least. He was more concerned about any snow preventing progress, so hopefully they wouldn’t have to stay outside or travel too much.

On the fourth day he found a good spot to sit outside and read, actually enjoying the experience. He wouldn’t mind doing this a little more often in less severe circumstances, or in smaller portions. Tara, on the other hand, would probably never leave Dakari once they got back; she wasn’t even here completely voluntarily now.

He looked up when he noticed Hannah coming over and offered a nod of greeting.

“Luckily for you kids,” Hannah said, “We’re moving a bit quicker than usual—weather’s been nice—so we should be in Sólstaður by tomorrow night.”

Matteo nodded and murmured some thanks in Tara’s stead, who still didn’t really do much more than drawing. She had a piece of paper to write stuff down on now, at least; he didn’t see that as often nowadays, but he could still faintly remember when she first needed to use it. Even with some progress made with her fear of rain, she still wasn’t comfortable with—or entirely capable of—talking to people she didn’t know well or those she didn’t like.

Hannah continued on mostly by looking at Matteo; at some point, she must’ve figured out that Tara wouldn’t say much to her on her own.

“I haven’t had the chance to ask,” she said, readjusting her jacket a bit, “But do you know where you need to go? Do you have a specific town in mind, or someone you need to talk to?”

Matteo glanced at Tara for any input, and she just shook her head.

“Looks like a ‘no,’” he reported, looking back at Hannah again. “We’re kind of going into this blind.”

“Don’t understand why you’re going at all then, but I guess it’s not my business,” Hannah muttered. After a second she tried to give Tara a friendly smile. “It’s something for your family, right? I’ve never gone extremely far past the ports, but I know a few people who can help if you know what your family name was.”

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Tara let out a slight whimper, setting aside her drawing things so she could write her response down on the blank piece of paper. Hannah, having been subjected to that particular form of communication a few times over the past few days, waited with considerable patience.

I don’t know what my last name was.

Hannah frowned a bit. “That…might be an issue. Do you have any other information about them?”

“They were from the first island,” Matteo explained. “And somehow, it involves both Sólstaður and old legends. We don’t have much more clues than that.”

Hannah considered it for a little bit, then sighed.

“I don’t think I, personally, can help,” she said. She seemed…actually genuinely apologetic. Maybe them being Rene’s kids helped with that. “I can help you ask around, but you might not get far.”

She took a bit more time to consider it. Tara wrote something else down and showed it to Hannah.

Do you know anyone who has been to the first island? Or knows about stories involving it?

A weird request, maybe; not a lot of people actually went back. There was a reason Dakari had a group of people who wanted to see it resurrected, after all—the place might as well not exist considering how inhospitable the creatures there tended to be towards humans.

Still, Hannah’s response surprised him because of that.

“I’ve actually been over there once or twice.”

Matteo cast her a look that he knew was more unbelieving than curious. “Really?”

Hannah laughed a bit—maybe she was used to it.

“Yeah,” she said. “Granted, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be killed if you go too far in, but there’s a few really old ports that people still want to visit every now and then.”

Huh. He underestimated the bravery of some people; for Dakari it just seemed like a death sentence, but there weren’t as many people with close relations to the first island. Even people in Sólstaður with no blood ties to the first island might have had family that died when the island fell.

“That being said,” Hannah continued, resuming an apologetic look, “I can’t say I remember a whole lot of stories. I’ll definitely help you look, though.”

“You don’t have any other work?” Matteo asked.

“Not anything pressing,” Hannah replied with a shrug. “My crew needs a break from sailing and your mom might kill me if I let you wander off on your own. I won’t let you freeze to death, at least.”

Tara gave a little smile, with a quick note to match: Thank you.

Hannah returned the look. “No problem, kid. Might as well make sure you get home safe and successful.”

She stayed to entertain a bit more conversation before one of the crew members called for her. After she left, the siblings continued as they had before.