One decade is a very long time,

Goodbye, fare-ye-well,

One decade is a very long time,

Goodbye, fare-ye-well.

You'll say sorry and wonder why

Goodbye, fare-ye-well,

I will forgive you when I die.

Goodbye, fare-ye-well,

You can lose yourself on the seas

Goodbye, fare-ye-well,

You can do what you please.

Goodbye, fare-ye-well.

- as sung by sailors in Yichan

Robaus shrugged, "That's for me to know." But when Jori leveled him with an irate look said, "I gave doctoring to someone whose husband didn't appreciate it, alright?"

"How does that even work?" Ellis said bewildered, and he kept on asking even as Jori shouted for everyone set sail. It was rather foolish of him to sail off now but the amount of money that was on the poster was enough to have every man on the other ships docked here interested.

"He wanted her dead," said Robaus. "Now get down below before you get swept overboard. Your father's going to do something stupid, I swear."

"I am not," Jori said, taking out his spyglass to look over the ships and then in the vast seas ahead of the safe port. Robaus was probably right, he was going to take the Plucky right into the storm that was brewing in the horizon.

"Jori," said Aly, and when Jori did not respond, pulled on his sleeve. He turned away from the dark skies to where Aly was pointing. "Is that what I think it is?"

There was a ship docked some distance away and he followed Aly's finger to where he pointed at ship's figurehead. It was a woman with a corset made of feathers and a crown of seaweed in her hair. She sported two pairs of carved wooden wings.

"A harpy," said Jori, "isn't that what Llynne said? A harpy would chase us?"

"He's a seer," Jori said, even as he signaled for his crew to hurry up. "They say a lot of things."

He gripped Aly's shoulder to brace the two of them as the Plucky pulled away from harbor. His eye was still on the other ship, the one with the harpy and to his dismay he spotted the ship's captain who was also looking back at him.

"We're going, we're going," Jori said, and he jogged over to where the wheel stood, Aly close behind his heels.

It was rare that Jori ever manned the helm, and the crew took this seriously. The ones that were not on the ropes or the sails got out of his way, he handed his spyglass to Aly, his full attention straight ahead. Some captains claimed a special connection to their ship, said that the ship would go wherever they wanted her to go, and in return they would go down with her. He was not one of those captains. The Plucky was not his ship, and he was only returning it to its rightful love. So he grasped the wheel in his hand and whispered the words under his breath to her.

"Bring us to a safe port. Bring us to a safe port," he chanted.

Before it had been a plea to go where Captain Amard had gone, but that had not resulted in anything except false hope and leads. For the first five years he had sailed the five seas to exactly where his father had gone, and no traces of his father could be found. Then he had changed it to a request, a plea for the Plucky to guide him to how to find Captain Amard. This was how it had all started, him taking the wheel into his hand and somehow ending up where Olysa's stolen treasures were. He told no one of this, because who would believe him when he told them that a ship guided him? It was best they thought he had some latent instinct that came to life at sea. When he had found that map it had made all the difference. Maybe Aly could see some convoluted sense in Amard's notebooks but Jori had not, it did not tell him where to sail, just bits and pieces of what the artifacts were. The map did, but he did not have the time to pull it out and consult numbers to see where was best to go.

Now was the time for action. In his ear he could hear Aly shouting that there was someone chasing them, and if in response the Plucky picked up speed, sailing on a wind that Jori could feel was unnatural.

"What is he doing?" Giersa yelled, and Jori turned to tell them that now was not the time. But when he glanced back Giersa was pointing at the harpy ship.

"He's got something in his hand," Aly responded. "A... a fan?"

"Why don't we just shoot—" Perre said. "We can shoot, I never miss!"

"We are not shooting into a village," Jori said flatly, and urged the Plucky onwards.

"It's gaining on us," Giersa said suddenly. "Jori, I'm with Perre, we've got to fire."

Stolen story; please report.

He dared a look back to see what it was they were all panicking about, and yes, there was a man with a fan not unlike that of the ladies at court. It was bigger yes, but so what if he maybe had an Olysa blessed fan that could make his ship sail faster? Jori cursed at his predicament, and decided he would look at the map to see where this harpy ship would be after his visit to Yichan.

But that was a task for later, "No firing! I am once again telling you that I refuse to shoot at a village!" Jori shot back.

"You shot at Port Regate!" Aly exclaimed.

"That was because the governor was a conniving bastard and deserved the demotion and whatever he had coming for him!"

The wheel was spinning wildly in his hands, even as he knew it was possible to do so. Then came the sounds of booming, cannon fire, and Perre shouting for the crew to man their station. He thought the Plucky would take them straight to sea, into the storm, but it veered around the island, right towards the cliffs and the towering rock pillars that jutted out of the sea.

"What in the blazes are you doing?" Aly screamed. "The ship's going to crash!"

Aly had not experienced the Plucky at her best, and he was not in a mood to explain what it was he trusted the ship to do. He kept both hands on the wheel, and veered the ship away from potential collision after collision. The waves crashed against the ship, and he tasted brine and blinked away the salt that clung to his eyelashes. But she was not done, the Plucky was sailing directly into a cliff side arch. Jori did not even have to do the numbers to know she could not fit, and he had a moment of both panic and anger that he trusted a ship with their lives before the ship swayed so violently that everyone on board fell backwards. There was a blinding light, and what sounded like a thousand cannons exploding all around him. He clapped his hands to his ears, forgetting for a moment, that he ought to keep his hands on the wheel. For a moment, all was quiet, then he heard the sounds of gulls and shouting in a language he was relieved to recognize.

"You know," Aly said pleasantly, helping Jori up to his feet. "I don't think you can sail to Yichan by going through an arch."

"No," Jori agreed, and glanced behind them to see if the ships that gave chase had also followed the Plucky.

Behind them was the sea, but in front of them, and soon to be circling them was the green sails of Madam Zhao's fleet. There was no mistaking the banners of an albatross in flight, nor of the faces of the men that surrounded them. The Yichanese sailed on much smaller boats, but their ships were faster, and the men on them much more limber and fast than the sailors from their fellow countries. Not to mention they had more of them, Jori thought, because they sailed with men and women both.

"How much Yichanese do you remember?" Giersa whispered in his ear. "You sure you remember the difference between I am sorry and I am extremely not sorry when they drag you back to she-who-must-not-be-named?"

Aly surprised them both by saying, "What do you want me to tell them?"

"Tell them that it is Captain Jori from the Plucky and he wants to speak to Madam Zhao about an important event that she should not miss," Jori said.

Perre, who looked dismayed at the missed opportunity to man the gun groused, "How do you even know Yichanese?" To Jori, he said, "We could've taken them and saved you from her clutches. Whatever happens next is on you."

"There's plenty of interesting mathematicians in Yichan," said Jori. "I wanted to read their work in person."

He had heard Aly shout before, but that was more of a panic and not of a declaration. This was definitely one, as Aly motioned for Jori to walk with him to where they could both meet the eyes of the Yichan sailors.

«Captain Jori of the Plucky would like an audience with the honored Madam Zhao» said Aly, back straight and unwavering. «He would like to tell her of something of great importance.»

From the gathered sailors Jori could make out their leader. He had a cutlass on his hip that hung on a red leather belt no doubt embossed with Madam Zhao's personal insignia. She had offered the same to Jori the night he decided he could no longer stay in Yichan. A part of him regretted leaving behind such a fine gift, but again, it came with a price he wasn't willing to pay.

There was a long pause from the other end, then laughter, before the leader of the fleet said, in words that made Jori bristle. «What would the little doiphao want me to tell the Madam? That she will ever be so disappointed that Jori can no longer be snared?»

To Jori's surprise the tenseness around Aly's shoulders relaxed, «Perhaps Jori would like to tell that particular matter to the Madam himself. But I must again insist that he has an important thing to tell her.»

The other captain motioned that they would like to board, and his crew hastened to lower their flag and replace it with a white slashed with a red line, a universal sign of a truce. While the crew on the Plucky also made way for the second in command of the other ship to board, they did not look too pleased about it. Perre seemed to be gearing to finish his battle and it took several threats from Ralphye for order before everyone put their weapons away.

The Yichan man that boarded was not as tall as Jori, he might be the same height as Aly, but there was a look to him that reminded Jori of a coiled snake. Not that the other man couldn't be trusted mind, he knew snakes were considered something else altogether in Yichan. You could drink them in wine and draw wisdom from the snakes preserved in it. In the case of this man though, it was probably wise to not attack him, there was a sinuous tension to his body that spoke of practiced movements and ambush.

«My Captain would like to know what business Captain Jori has with the Madam.» The man was all politeness, even as his eyes gauge Aly's competence.

Aly was unfazed, «Your Captain will have to trust our word. Captain Jori has visited before, surely he has proven himself to be a honest man.»

«Captain Jori whispers sweet words to you, no doubt,» said the man, and his brown eyes now Jori up and down. Then he straightened and addressed Aly with a shrug, «But the Madam does not trust people these days. There have been rumors and betrayals. How can we be sure that your Captain is not the same as all the others that came seeking wealth in Yichan?»

«If she does not want to see him then perhaps she would like to see me,» said Aly, and he sounded as calm as the restless men behind him and Jori. «There is something the honored Liu Shao was working on before he died. Your Madam Zhao would find it most interesting. If she does not trust Captain Jori, then,» he reached into his bag, pulled out his notebook and, flipping through it tore out two pages. «Bring this to your Captain and tell him to show it to Madam Zhao. It should be of interest to her.»

The sailor seemed unconvinced of Aly's words, and he took the parchment as if the thing was cursed or on fire. He left as he came, and when the gangplank was pulled back after him Jori turned to Aly, the questions he was dying to ask flying from his mouth.

"What was it you showed him? And who is Liu Shao?"

"He's not a paramour of Madam Zhao if you're asking," said Aly calmly and Giersa looked away with a sigh of disappointment. "He was a mathematician, and one of his last works was to calculate the tide flows. It's how you dock ships safely. You know, for Captains without selkie instincts."

"Is that what you were working on?" said Robaus brightly.

"Yes," Aly puffed his chest up and there was a blush on his cheeks.

He could not help the grin that came to his face. Clapping Aly on the shoulder, he said, "I'm sure it'll impress her."

"It better," said Giersa. "The last thing we want is plucking—" here they laughed, "—plucking you out of her loving embrace."

The assembled men that knew of the story, which was most of them, laughed, Hari the loudest among them. Aly simply raised an amused eyebrow. Ellis who had helped Hari up the stairs and no doubt only did so to take a look at what all the fuss was about, gagged. Jori was inclined to do the same, no matter how childish it made him feel.