“Toli?” Orenda stood on the deck of the Burned Roc and looked out across the sea. The deck she was standing on was a little higher than the Recovery, and she saw him, still standing by the rails and looking over at her. A little ways off Bella was standing against the wall, and Orenda could see the place where the canon had blown a hole through the Recovery, but it was being patched as if someone was inside nailing up boards. She suspected those someones were Adamareyn and Stephendore, since they weren’t on the deck.

“Rendy!” He called back, “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

“He told me a great many things,” Orenda said, “Some of which may be true!”

“I can’t hear you!” he shouted, “I’m coming over there!”

“This’ll be good,” Bella smiled.

Orenda watched Tolith climb over the railing, spread his arms, and step onto the rope.

“Have you lost your mind!?” Orenda shrieked, and in response Stephendore and Adamareyn both poked their heads out, and then stepped out onto the deck.

“I got this!” Tolith assured her, standing with his hands outstretched and taking another careful step, “I totally got this!”

Interestingly enough, he seemed to be right. He was moving slowly, but he wasn’t teetering much. Orenda watched in amazement as he kept his upper body straight, using his core muscles and in a few minutes he was standing before her on the railing.

“Why did you do that?” She asked.

“Because no one stopped me,” He said, “I really thought they would. I didn’t think the werewolf would just let me do that. She’s… well, I suppose she’s not as big of a dick as she could have been.”

“Bella is the werewolf?” Orenda asked.

“Yes, she’s told us all about it. She’s from the Frozen North. Apparently even other humans don’t much care for shifters. Where’s Nochdifache? Did he hurt you?”

He hopped onto the deck and Orenda reached out to touch his damaged ear. It had been blown in half, and though he had healed it over, and washed it, it looked as mangled as it was.

“I’m sorry, Toli,” She said.

“Oh, it’s fine, just try to speak into this side,” he pointed to the undamaged ear, “I don’t know that this one will ever heal properly. But I’m alive, and that’s another good story.”

“Move,” Adamareyn shoved him out of the way and hopped onto the deck.

“Hey,” Stephendore called and they turned to look at him, still on the Recovery, “I ain’t doing that! I’m old!”

“Then don’t!” Adamareyn yelled back, “I wanna see the ghost ship!”

“There aren’t any ghosts!” Bella called, “You’ll be disappointed!”

“Adam, it looks less cool if a bunch of a people do it,” Tolith explained, “I was trying to look cool in front of a girl.”

“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” Adamareyn said, “But I feel like you aren’t supposed to just say it like that.”

“Damn it,” Toli whinned, and to Adam he added, “You don’t know what it’s like to try to impress someone?”

“No,” he explained, “I plan to get by on youth and attractiveness for most of my life.”

“That’s not a good plan,” Toli chided, “No one stays young and beautiful forever.”

“By the time it matters, my lover will be half blind with age,” Adam explained, “I’ve thought it through.”

“I don’t think you have,” Toli argued.

“Well, at the very least I’ve thought it through more than you have, burnsides,” he giggled.

“Orenda!” Bella called.

“Yes?” Orenda called back.

“Is Gary ok!?” Bella asked.

“I left him in a drunken stupor! Do you think… can you come over here? Is it safe? I’d like to ask you some things!”

“Why is everyone coming over here?” Tolith whined.

“The magic feels different over here,” Adam said as he wandered along the deck, “It feels… I don’t know, but it’s different.”

“Yes,” Orenda agreed, “I’m less ill here than I was on the Recovery. I think Gareth’s done something. I should like to ask him what.”

“I’m not getting my duel, then?” Tolith asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Orenda frowned. She hadn’t been prioritizing his feelings as high as perhaps she should. She knew that he had loved his father, but it seemed so small to her, in the grand scheme of things. She felt badly that she didn’t feel badly enough, and thought that perhaps it was because she had never had a father and therefore didn’t know how to compare his feelings to her own.

“Hello,” Adam said.

“Hello,” Mr Bilge said in what Orenda could only explain as ‘animal’ accent.

Tolith took an involuntary step back, and Orenda remembered that he had already seen him, that Bilge had thrown a mop bucket at him. She wondered how he had reacted when he had first seen him, shaking as he was now. Bilge, for his part, seemed to pay no particular attention to the newcomers.

“Attention, everyone!” Draco came bursting from the doorway and flew in circles over the ship, “RING RING RING, RING RING RING, DINNER BELL!”

“We already ate!” Bella yelled back.

“Orenda hasn’t!” he circled both ships as he cried, “RING RING RING, RING RING RING, DINNER BELL!”

“He’s not… he’s just saying ‘ring’,” Tolith huffed, “That isn’t how that works!”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I imagine he can do what he likes,” Orenda argued, “He’s a man trapped in dragon’s body who has to watch his chances of ever being human again decay in front of him.”

“What are you talking about?” Tolith asked.

“That’s as far as I got with that story,” Orenda shrugged, “I don’t really know the rest of it myself. But it might as well happen. It makes as much sense as anything else that’s happened today.”

“Yeah,” Toli turned to look up with her, and put a hand over hers on the rail.

“Rendy,” he said after some time had passed, “Is he… Nochdifache… is he your father?”

“No,” Orenda said matter-of-factly, “He’s my uncle, I think. If any of it is true. He’s a raving madman, Toli, I don’t know how much of his story I can trust.”

They both ducked as Stephendore came flying across the expanse between the ships, screaming with the force of it. He was holding a rope that he must have cut when they hadn’t been paying attention, from one of the Recovery’s sails, and as his swing reached its arch he can careening down, hard, to the deck, where he tucked, rolled, and stood with a bounce in his step and his arms thrown up.

“Yay!” Adam said. “See, Toli? That’s impressive!”

“I sure hope so,” Stephendore said, “Because I ain’t never doing it again. Are we… are all just politely ignoring the literal zombie? Why? Why are we doing that? Rendy, kill it with fire!”

“Not a zombie!” Bilge argued. “Not a zombie! A trap!”

Bella came flying over their heads as well, but she held no rope. She had ran and simply jumped, allowing the air to carry her. She landed on her feet and one hand, the other held her wand, which was glowing, and she alighted so softly she made no sound.

“Who cooked?” She asked.

“Impy,” Draco alighted on the rail.

“Oh, Draco, no,” She whined, “Why? He can’t see!”

“He’s worked over a hot stove!” Draco argued, “And you’re going to eat it! I helped!”

“I won’t,” She said, “And he doesn’t need to be around fire! He’s going to burn the ship down!”

“He’s not useless,” Draco was insulted, “Just old. We’re both old.”

“Yes, but we need to take care of him!” She insisted, and walked through the door to the kitchen, “Impy? Are you alright? Has it gotten too hot in here?”

“Seriously,” Stephendore said, “That killed my back. I regret it.”

“I’ll give you a massage,” Adamareyn laughed.

“We used to do things like that all the time,” Stephendore sighed as Adam, true to his word, began to rub his shoulders, “I used to be in good shape.”

“I believe you,” Adam hugged him from behind, then went back to work, “You’re still strong.”

“No I ain’t, you’re just too nice for your own good.”

“I hate them,” Toli said, “He knows he’s the strongest person on the ship. Why does he do that?”

“Because he was stronger once, perhaps,” Orenda said, “And now that he’s lost some of it, it feels important. People see more of what they lose than what they have.” She stared up at the stars and asked, “Toli… Gareth says my mother was an earth elf.”

“That’s impossible,” Tolith said.

“Is it?” Orenda asked, “Or is it just unlikely?”

“There’s never been anyone else like that,” Tolith said, skeptically, “And I don’t want to disappoint you, Rendy, but Nochdifache seems as if he’s… one banana short of a bunch.”

“It ain’t impossible,” Stephendore cut in.

“Yes, it is,” Tolith argued.

“No, it ain’t, it’s just real rare. And I don’t think most folks in that situation would report it. I went to school with a boy like that. He looked exactly like an earth elf, but he had the most beautiful blue eyes. Nobody wanted to really talk to him- not because of that, for… other… reasons…” He trailed off for a moment, but refocused his mind and continued, “But his eyes was so beautiful, and I tried to, you know, get to know him. He told me that his daddy had been an adventurer, and his mommy had been a water elf. But she had died in childbirth, so he had never met her.”

“How convenient,” Tolith rolled his eyes, “That he couldn’t produce this mother.”

“He wouldn’t the sort to tell tales,” Stephendore argued.

“But you are,” Tolith argued.

“I believe you, babe,” Adamareyn promised.

“Of course you do,” Tolith huffed, “You believe everything he says.”

“Because I’m not a cynical asshole,” Adamareyn said, “Rendy gets it.”

“I don’t care if you believe me,” Stephendore said, “Klin was half water-elf.”

“If it’s happened before,” Orenda considered, “Then it might be true.”

“Well a hundred years and a hundred more,” Gareth and Falsie burst from the door, and Gareth grabbed Orenda by the hand and began to spin, “Since I’ve seen that firy shore!”

He sang and she stared at him. He hadn’t put his mask back on, and he was very clearly drunk, but his feet were moving expertly through the steps as he swayed on them, and she fell into step easily.

Falsie began to clap, and Bella was the first to join in, then Adamareyn, and everyone, including Mr Bilge picked up the rhythm, except for Tolith, who leaned against the railing and scowled.

“Well it’s Gary gone forevermore,

But I knew him well upon the shore,” He paused for a moment, as if he had expected someone else to sing instead, but picked up when he realized that Orenda didn’t know what he expected from her.

“Well it’s Ronnie who’s the boy for me,

A buckle on shore and a storm at sea!

Well it’s been a long time, a very long time

Been a long time since I made this rhyme,

My darling mother, she called to me,

Come home, my boy, back from the sea!

It’s been a hundred years and a hundred more,

Since I’ve seen that firy shore!”

“That song isn’t true,” Orenda said breathlessly as she caught her footing when Gareth released her.

“I never said it was,” He shrugged. “Let’s have more music! Orenda is here!”

“Gareth!” Tolith barked, and Gareth’s expression faded.

“You killed my father!” He accused.

“Toli,” Orenda warned.

“He did!” Tolith said, “I’m supposed to just let that go!?”

“No,” Gareth said, “Absolutely not. Of course not. What do you want from me?”

“I want you to die!”

“Do you?” Gareth asked, “Because I’ll tell you, Glenlen, the only reason I haven’t done that is because I promised my brother that I would keep his child safe. I tried… I tried to find meaning. But the truth, the real truth?” He walked slowly towards Toli, “The real truth is that there are no gods, no afterlife, no one looking out for us, no meaning in life, no certainties. Nothing we are doing now matters. You don’t matter. In a few thousand years when we, and anyone who knew us, is dead, it will be exactly as if we had never existed at all. If you want me dead, boy, kill me. Do what the Emerald Knight could not, and put me out of my fucking misery.”

“Orenda needs you to guide her to the temple,” Tolith said, looking at the deck.

“That’s what I expected,” Gareth said.

“Don’t mind him,” Falsie said as Gareth turned his back and walked back towards Orenda, “He’s drunk.”

“I think I should like to eat,” Orenda told Gareth, “I.. appreciate it, but I don’t think I want to dance. It feels as if I’ve been ill for days and I think I do need to get some food in me.”

“Of course,” Gareth agreed. “First mate!”

“What, Gary?” Bella stuck her head out of the kitchen.

“Set a course for Makannar!” Gareth ordered.

“I can’t,” she said, “It’s the middle of the night, we’re tied to another ship, and it hasn’t existed for two centuries. You’re drunk, darling.”

“What is that?” Orenda asked, “What is Makannar?”

“The place,” Gareth explained, “Where we’re going.”

“The fire continent,” Bella explained, “Come and have some stew. Gary, eat something. You’re going to be ill.”

“What a fine idea,” Gareth agreed, “Then we set a course!”

“We’ll figure it out,” Bella promised.

“You’ll take me to the temple?” Orenda asked.

“Yes!” Gareth proclaimed, “I’m going home!”