The Burning Sun flies upon the sky

To who that comes searching for me,

And from the eastern mountain shone

Olysa's silver light on moon and sea;

Ah, friend, behold your eyes

We soon shall meet upon that shore

Where ships glide upon the air

And you and I shall part no more!

-from the journals of Captain Amard

He had been known to throw tantrums, deserved ones, really, considering how when he first stepped foot on the Plucky no one cared for the sanctity of the galley. Jori thought was above storming off in a huff and screaming his frustrations but as Llynne rushed to help Olkvardr up from the bed he could not help but spin on his heels to walk out. Why should he care what happened to all sailors, he was only looking for the one. The one man who just happened to be lying to him all these years, if Llynne's words were to believed.

Llynne was lying through his teeth, Jori thought furiously. It was the Plucky, it was his father's ship and his father's skills not him. In the distance he could hear the sounds of laughter, and fires were being lit from the houses around him as their inhabitants woke just as their leader did. He looked back, just to be sure no one was following him. He had taken to the sea to find his human father from wherever he had fallen into. But if Amard had been a selkie all along and Olysa had called him back then this wasn't Jori's problem. Good riddance, he wasted a near decade playing the world's worst game of hide-and-seek only to be now told that, no actually, his father was one of the Goddess's creations all along.

He pushed himself up the hill that Olkvardr's house was built on. From all the way up, and in the dark the houses below could be the houses in his village. Then he could close his eyes and imagine that he was back home, just opening up the window in his newly built tavern. If he tried harder he could hear his mother's voice in his ear. They had both been eager to open the place. While Mina was not as extravagant in fulfilling Jori's dreams as Amard had been but all the recipes he knew had been hers. His mother might be alive, Jori thought, and took in a deep steadying breath. She might be alive, he might see her again, and while he was mad at both of them he could not bring himself to stay angry at his mother. It wasn't her fault that his father was a lying selkie.

"Jori, wait!"

Their positions were reversed from before, Jori picking up speed while Aly ran behind him. He should stop, Jori thought, it was rude to force Aly to run to him. Not when Jori was headed up a mountain and Aly was unfamiliar with the route. The other man could slip and fall and who would be there to read out Amard's delusional words from his journals then?

His arm was being grabbed forcefully as Aly caught up to him. "Jori," Aly was panting, "Why— are long legs a selkie thing as well?"

"I'm not a selkie!" What an absurd observation, the only selkie that was on board the Plucky was the figure head his father carved. Before he could open his mouth to voice that particular thought Aly beat him to it.

"I boarded the Plucky because it had a seal on it," said Aly, and as Jori stared incredulously said. "I thought it was a seal. Anyway, a selkie does make sense now, and I don't plan to leave it any time soon. Even if it is captained by a selkie's son."Jori made to pull his arm away from Aly's iron grip but the other man only clung tighter. "Why are you running away now when you're so close to getting one piece of the puzzle?"

"I don't care for whatever this Ragnarök is!" Jori snapped.

Aly did not shy away as he would have done months ago but met his eyes steadily and said, "If you'd stayed you would've gotten at least one sentence's explanation—" he scowled when Jori tried to squirm away and took Jori's other arm as well. "I thought you liked freedom. You told me to make my choice as a freeman in my sister's house, does this mean nothing to you now?"

"I don't know what point you're trying to make but I don't care for it—" Aly was trying to reach him and Jori did not want his hands or his reassurances. He jerked away and tried to duck to the side but all the time they spent together in the kitche had given Aly a leverage in calculating which direction Jori tended to favor when trying to avoid a collision with someone.

"You want others to be free, Jori, free to make their own choices as you were... bound to take this journey. If this Ragnarök goes through then there will be no more free sailing. The kings will control the seas with whatever artifact of Olysa they have in their possession. That is what's written on the horn, all the captains of the world must call a moot to decide if this is what they want."

"They are free to do what they want. They're free to fight the kings and take the seas for themselves," Jori said coolly.

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"But they can't find the royal navies if the kings have artifacts of their own. You didn't think you were the only one looking for Olysa—" Aly blinked, "Oh, no, did you?"

He refused to look at Aly because that was actually an observation and line of thought he had never considered. Amard had been special, his father had known things other people didn't. "I thought... I thought my father was the only one with an insane journal," and a connection to Olysa that he now realized might just be more than a simple seduction.

"Statistically it is rather unfeasible," Aly offered. "You have so many people all thinking of the same thing, eventually you'll find two or three who had come to the right conclusion. And the kings have so much more people they can consult. Why would it be impossible for them to understand that having Olysa's artefacts offer them power they would not otherwise have over the seas?"

Jori huffed, of course, that was how Aly would comfort someone. To be fair, he might be onto something, Jori did not care for the kind of math that seemed to fascinate Aly. But he wasn't going back to talk to Olkvardr and his seer. He had enough of surprises strung upon him for the night. Though he did not shake both of Aly's grip off him, just the one so he could led the other man up the mountain.

"Where are we going?"

"Stargazing," Jori said, even though he didn't care for stars. He had not relied on them much to navigate, instead he had Olysa's map and his own instincts. The latter of which he was growing more and more uncertain as he climbed with Aly.

There was snow on the ground and their boots made crunching noises in the snow as they ascended. They reminded him of pie crusts baking, and the thought did not bring him joy but a bitter taste lingered in his mouth. Did he really spend ten years trying to rescue a man who was perfectly content with where he was and had sent for his wife to join him? Did he really just waste his best years on a worthless venture?

"I think we should stop here," Aly dug his feet in and refused to move. "I don't want you to fall over."

"I'll have you know I am very steady on my feet."

"Not when you're angry." Aly paused, "Not when you're drunk either."

"You're right, I am angry," Jori strolled over to where he could best look over the houses underneath them both. "Why wouldn't I be? I wasted ten years thinking I'm rescuing a man that clearly didn't need anyone's help. He even told my mother to join him and she didn't even leave a note!" His voice hitched at the last words, and he decided, yes, he was also angry at his mother for not telling him that she was going off to find Amard.

But she did warn him, she told him that it was a fool's quest. So he had left her with no choice had he? She would have been perfectly happy running the tavern with him if he had decided to do so. Now she was a selkie somewhere and what if she wasn't able to turn back.

"I also wasted years fulfilling someone else's dream," said Aly. "But yours was a nobler one, was it not? You were giving the Goddess back things that shouldn't have been taken from her in the first place."

"I wanted to run a tavern." There was a fallen tree and he made his way to it before sitting down, then getting up and cursing the snow that clung to him. He wiped it away with his ungloved hand and sat back down again.

Beneath them he could see torches being carried to the meeting square, more and more torches coming from all sides. It was like watching a living river flow. It must be nice to wake up from a two year nap, he very much wanted one right now after the several bricks that were dropped on him.

"I could've been running one for the past decade instead of—" he waved his hand in the Plucky's general direction.

"I think if you ask her nicely when you meet her, she'll give you one." Aly sat down next to Jori and his next words were said with complete seriousness. "Everyone on the Plucky wants something granted from Olysa... haven't you noticed?"

He thought of the crew mates and to his shame, could not think of exactly what they would ask Olysa. All this time he thought they were on the ship to help him out of loyalty to Amard, but maybe... maybe Amard was not the one they "No?"

A soft laugh from Aly, "I see."

"My father is clearly happy where he is," said Jori. "He's a selkie, he's in Olysa's domain where he actually belongs. I don't see why I need to go about helping him anymore."

"But you are helping her," Aly said, with an infuriating sort of patience that Jori recognized from Aly's own attempts at explaining mathematical concepts to Jori and Jori in explanation of recipes to Aly. "I know this isn't what you wanted to do but you've always wanted people to be free. If you can't bring yourself to help a Goddess then who can?"

"She has plenty of people to help her, I don't see why it had to be me. Even Llynne, doesn't he have selkie blood, he can go and help her."

"Llynne's selkie skin is buried on this island," said Aly. "It's why no one's invaded it in years. The minute he digs it up the protection is gone."

He stood up, jostling the log. Aly "Why are you so insistent on this journey then? What do you gain from this?"

"Everything," said Aly and he stood up to his full height, which was still shorter than Jori but the steel in his voice was enough to declare his belief. There was no stammer in his voice as he said, "Jori, I gain everything I lost when I boarded the Plucky. That is enough. I don't need to ask Olysa for more."

"You didn't have much then," Jori said softly, and he reached for Aly's hand to give it a soft squeeze.

"No, I didn't."

It must have been a profoundly lonely thing to realize that you didn't want anything in a ship full of people who wanted something from the Goddess. Or maybe it was the opposite, maybe Aly found his peace with the entire thing.

Aly took his other hand and they stood facing each other. It was like when they were running away from Marget's house and the disastrous dinner party, but this time, he thought, they had an understanding. And they were not being eavesdropped upon. This close he swore he could count every freckle on Aly's nose and the breaths Aly exhaled were warm on his own skin. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, and what came out was, "Did you tell Ellis of this?"

"No," Aly gave a soft laugh. "Why would I? He would ask for the most ridiculous thing. Perhaps she can grant a wish belatedly."

"You think too highly of Goddesses."

"But will you help her?"

He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Should he? He had no loyalty to Olysa, excepting for wanting her to return his father to him. The fleeting moments of reprieve the sea gave him was not a blessing, nor a thank you. It could very well be just luck. But he would leave her a slave to the wills of other men who would hack at her and reduce her to whatever they wish. There would be masters at sea and all would bow to those who sailed under them. Could he just sit by and let it happen? It was not his fight, he was there for his father, not for some grand war. He stared at Aly's earnest face, then at the fires that burned below and the celebratory voices of the people. If the kings had their way there would be no Viribyr.

"Fine. I'll help her."