After a month at sea with no sign of civilization, the viability of our expedition was called into question and serious thought was given to abandoning it. We didn't want for food because the ocean provided us with what we needed, and water wasn't a concern because the condensation from the steam engines was free of salt and drinkable. The problem was low spirits among the crew. Having discovered nothing but more ocean our expedition was starting to feel like a fool's errand. I never lost faith that our journey would result in us finding whatever it was that the dragon rider wanted me to seek out, and my determination to keep going remained undiminished.

"Are you sure you saw this dragon?" Uraia came over to me and asked one morning while we were waiting for the fog to clear. The fog was so thick you could barely see your hand in front of your face, making it impossible for us to sail, "Maybe it was a hallucination you experienced as a result of the thin air at high altitude."

"They're out there, waiting for us, I can feel it. I'll take the first flight, you and Brumli can decide between the two of you who goes next."

Every morning when the fog cleared and we were able to resume sailing one of us would fly out on our phoenix in search of land. We had found a few small islands but none of them showed any signs of life. I took flight with Myra that morning wondering if I had lost Uraia as well, if I was now alone in continuing to believe in this expedition, and if the crew's morale was so low that I had lost Uraia then perhaps it was wrong of me to insist on us continuing. Part of me was also worried about what was going on in Aseron. My faith in Ferland was absolute but having become comfortable in the role of queen the time that I was spending away from the throne was causing me to experience separation anxiety. Driving me forward was not only my curiosity about the existence of an unknown world. Our journey thus far had revealed the extraordinary amount of risk that the dragon rider had taken in coming south. Given the lack of land mass this wasn't a journey that you would make by flying on the back of a beast that needed to be fed and that needed rest. To make the journey that they had made the dragon rider must have been desperate to have decided to risk her dragon going down in the ocean from exhaustion. I owed it to them to find them and find out from them why they chose to make such a dangerous journey.

"Find anything?" Uraia asked me when I returned to the ship.

"Just breakfast," I responded.

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On our way back to the ship Myra and I had managed to catch a giant eel which would be our food for the rest of the day.

"Cut some pieces for the turtles," I said to Edmond, one of the crewmates.

"Yes my queen."

"I'll go out next," Brumli said.

"Thank you Brumli."

Brumli took off with Ajax on his patrol, leaving me and Uraia alone to talk.

"I'm starting to wish for something else to eat besides seafood," Uraia said.

"So am I, but it's not like we have a choice in the matter."

"I know you're thinking the same thing we're thinking, so how much longer?"

"I think I'll give it another week, if we still haven't found anything we'll go home."

"We can keep going a little longer than that if you want; everybody just wants to be reassured that we're not going to be out here forever."

"Are you all forgetting that I have more reason to want to go back than any of you? I have a throne waiting for me in Aseron."

"That's what everyone is so confused about; why are you prepared to travel so far away from your kingdom and spend so much time away from your throne?"

"I can't stop thinking about what that dragon rider must have gone through to make it all the way to our realm; making this journey with a beast would be incredibly dangerous; they probably made the journey not knowing if they would find anything, prepared to go down in the ocean if they were unsuccessful in their search. Can you imagine how desperate someone would have to be to take such a risk?"

"I understand," Uraia said after taking a moment to consider my words, "We'll keep going for as long as you want to keep going."

I couldn't admit this to anyone, but there was another reason for me not being as anxious as the others about how long our journey was taking, a purely selfish reason. Without the demands of the throne I was able to spend more time with Uraia and I got to enjoy the time that I spent with her more, and because of that I didn't care as much as I should have about being away from my throne and not doing the important work that needed to be done.

Ordinarily the flights that we went on in search of land lasted about three hours, on this morning though Brumli returned to the ship having been gone for less than an hour.

"You're back early," I said to him when he landed.

"I found something," he answered excitedly.

"Uraia, stay with the ship," I said, equally as excitedly.

I got on Myra and Brumli and I were off before Uraia could say anything. One of us had to stay behind on the ship because the connection that existed between the phoenixes through the binding stones was how we were able to get back to the ship.