"He's still working?" Zyra could hear Gabrio scribble on the other side of the cabin.

  "Miss?" Millie, the assistant she took, raised her head. "Is there anything wrong?"

  "Nothing, continue your work, you asked for this."

  "I did, Miss."

  Millie returned to reading her book. "Miss, do you think that I would be capable?"

  "Read first, comprehend, and then learn, Millie."

  "You won't tell me, Miss."

  Zyra didn't reply. She caressed her finger on the surface of the book she was reading. Her side ached, and although she's been walking without exerting too much strength, her wounds hurt more than it should.

  "I guess this is lucky enough for me," Zyra thought to herself. "If we didn't manage to find that beast, then things would have gone so wrong."

  A close call, Zyra thought. If Terin didn't manifest the light, then they would have died. She knew how dangerous it was, but she couldn't help but ask if her luck would continue.

  Zyra couldn't sit still inside her cabin. Instead, Zyra took Millie with her to the bar found a deck above. Along the way, Zyra took notice of the wary passengers of the ships, stumbling to the bar with downtrodden faces.

  The smell of bacon caught Zyra as she entered the bar. The music bounced around the walls of the bar, and dancers swung their hips. Finding a booth that personnel of the Galleon could use, a serving barmaid took their orders, noted their role in the Galleon, and served them food and beer on a tray.

  "Millie, are you and Wiles a thing now?"

  "Miss?" She blushed. "What are you saying?" she said.

  "Are you two?"

  She nodded meekly. "Yes."

  "Oh, that's good. I am not against it, but I hope you two can keep your relationship out of the clinic. Not that I am the one to talk when I barely help in the clinic now."

  "I think Doctor Gabrio doesn't mind it."

  "He worked in Fort Rava," Zyra said. "What he does here is probably heaven compared to what he does back then. Hell, I think many of the passengers know him more than me now."

  "You are still the surgeon, Miss."

  "I am the surgeon of the ship, but even I can tell he's good at what he does as well. I cannot complain, not when I am making problems with him. Millie, be sure not to piss him off."

  "I try my best, Miss. Doctor Gabrio, he's been teaching me in his spare time."

  "Along with Wiles?"

  "Wiles, I think he has potential, and he appreciates how he can learn from someone like the Doctor."

  "That's a good thing," Zyra sipped on her beer. The sharp smell of salmon caught her nose as she swiveled her head to where that smell was. "I heard that the Ark could supply food and beer for the next ten years, but this is baffling."

  "The bar," Millie chewed bacon, "has a supply of it in barrels, the elven people provided us with their elder trees."

  "For people who like the forest, they sure know how to preserve meat."

  "Millie," Zyra said. "Just because they prefer the forest as their home, doesn't mean they do not eat delicacies as well. You see, I'd visited a place where they only eat vegetables. They are Elven Nomads that roamed the land instead of staying inside their forest. These people have lean bodies, long limbs, and they look starved because of their diet. But they are light as a feather, and I saw one of them take a step on a leaf and not fall on the water."

  "Anyway, these Elven Nomads follow a strict diet that forbids them from eating meat. Each Elven-kin has its own set of cultures."

  "I see," Millie nodded. "So, they must have their way."

  "Indeed," she palmed the uneven table. "So it is not a surprise that some mistake them for vegetable-eaters. Even back in Accad, I'd seen some of their kind carry large horned deers and roast them in an open fire. So I am not surprised that they have their ways."

  "It's strange, Miss. That they are so magical compared to us, I mean even now we are protected by the Lady of the Fleet."

  Around them, tiny green sprites floated around the bar. They whirled around the bar, accompanying the dancers. The Sprites once only appeared when the Lady of the Fleet calls. But now they appear as if they are residents of the Fleet.

  "The Lady, huh," Zyra muttered. "She only appears when we need her, and she spends most of her time inside her cabin."

  "She has to conserve her strength. Our travels have only been safe because of the Lady. You must not forget that, Millie."

  "Of course."

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  Zyra took a sip of her beer and ate her meal. After a time, she helped Millie back to her place, avoiding drunkards, navigating through hallways filled with people, and green sprites dancing around.

  She left Millie with her roommate. She went to the top deck, watching the sun come out early while listening to the sound of the sails flapping against the fair winds.

  The longships covered the flank of the ship. After what happened in the Coral Atoll, the Fleet changed its tactics, watching the undercurrents with attention.

  The smaller ships are much ahead than the rest of the Fleet. The Fleet won't make the same mistake as it did in the Coral Island. Not to mention that as the Fleet forges ahead, the more dangerous it would be to be careless.

  Sitting alone in the quarterdeck, gazing at the sky, Zyra thought to herself how long the journey will still last. They know the seas they must cross to reach the thousand islands. To go around them would cost them years. The distance of the thousand islands itself was troublesome.

  "Terin will have to fight monsters, and I have to make sure he reaches the heart of the world."

  She gazed longingly at the skies. She put her hands up and clenched it.

  "It seems you are worried, my dear."

  Zyra turned to the voice. "Lady Rosalve. It's strange to see you out here."

  "What's so strange about wanting fresh air?"

  "I thought that the mighty Lady wouldn't need the air of this kind of sea."

  She chuckled, holding her chin. "Hmm, your disrespectful tongue does suit you."

  "Thank you, Lady. I try to cultivate it just in case I find people like you."

  "Cheeky." She folded her arms. "But you did save us, and that alone is good enough for me."

  "Good," she snorted. "You two dragged me into this mess. I hope you don't expect that I'd be so well-behaved."

  "The Pride of the Dai Khan, truly astonishing."

  "Pride?" Zyra grinned. "Do you think that men and women made to attend to the blue blood have pride?"

  Lady Rosalve stared silently. "You must think of us as fools."

  "I don't. I hope that you do not take me for an idiot who couldn't see what is at stake here. I am not helping you all for pride."

  "You already told us why."

  "And I'll tell you all again and again. I am not doing this for pride. I am doing this because this is the promise that I made when I left the Dai Khan at the time where they needed help."

  Zyra leaned her head on the railing, fist-clenching as she thought. "To abandon the Dai Khan's name is the same as telling them that they are not my family, and my promise to them stands that in the day someone with the mark of the serpent appears before my eyes."

  "Is the day that I fulfill the oath. I thought this would be a promise passed down to my children, who knew that I might no even live long enough to pass it down. In my whole life, I thought of myself as nothing more than a monster. But in Accad, I learned that even someone like me could be better."

  She cupped her forehead. "I guess resolve doesn't matter when fate plays you like this."

  "I never thought you'd be the kind of person who agrees with fate."

  "To fight the wheels of fate is stupidity. Lady Rosalve, tell me, truthfully, how many more do we need to kill?"

  Lady Rosalved turned solemn. She pulled on her hood. "There are thirteen fragments that we must defeat. We killed one of them."

  "Terin needs to deal the final blow to the thirteenth then?" Zyra guessed.

  "Yes, the one who possesses the mark of the serpent must be the one who deals with them. If not, then their master will only be able to renew their souls."

  "When we fought that beast, I remember that there were those who could relay the power of the world among them. If Caldor Ando didn't finish them off, then it would have been over. How do you propose to fight armies like that?"

  "That is a problem we must solve in the future," Lady Rosalve pointed out. "The fleet is our greatest ally, and if we can have the support of the Lady of the Fleet, then I believe that our chances in victory would double."

  "What's so good about that Ark?" Zyra asked what's been bugging her.

  "That Ark is made by them."

  "So?"

  "The Ark can sustain this fleet for ten years."

  "I know."

  "Because of their technology that they can do this. Miss Zyra, do you understand what makes them so dangerous?"

  "The blood?"

  "That alone is dangerous enough. But that Ark is made from the same trees that they use to shape their cities. They can shift their shapes and even bestow life in them by 'asking' the sprites they call with their songs to fight for them in wooden bodies. They are far dangerous that they appear to be, Miss Zyra."

  "I was a Dai Khan. You don't have to tell me how dangerous the blue blood is." She cupped her chin. "They probably have an army in their hulls. But that's what bothers me, if they know what you people are doing, then why are they not cooperating?"

  "Lass, at this moment, they do not put the one who has the serpent's mark in their eyes. The Chancellor's promise is worth more than the one who might save this world."

  "Then, they won't help us?"

  "If the Lady of the Fleet permits it, then we'll have the power of someone who has reached deeper connections to the blood."

  "If you fight Lady Eletha, can you win?"

  "She is the sun while I am a lamp. Only Terin can match her in power if he ignites her veins."

  "Then, she knows that he is here."

  "She's not blind. The only reason she does not care is that we aren't giving her a reason to do so."

  "If we overstep our bounds again, then she'll do something about us. The moment the Lady moves, then I wonder if Terin could even stop her."

  "Even if that means killing the supposed savior?"

  "Yes," she said, narrowing her eyes. "The Elven-kin are people who could barely compromise, and there are only a few that can convince them. The Chancellor has my respect for what he had done."

  "So watch out for the thirteen fragments and also the Lady of the Fleet. Great, just wonderful!"

  "We should be fine as long as we don't put the Fleet safety to jeopardy again. And if it comes to it, then we'll have to make sure that Terin can protect us from the wrath of the Lady."

  "I hope it doesn't come to that. You know where are my true loyalties are. I belong to this ship now, and I have left it all behind the moment I left the mainland. This promise is all I carry and if your group threatens the safety of the fleet or this Galleon. I am sorry, you would lose an ally."

  "I understand, Zyra," she nodded. "I pray that we do not come to that."