The sea was full of sails to the horizon. The perpetual flow of traffic through Griolor was as awe-inspiring as usual. Much of the import/export of the nearby city of Zyrine flowed through Griolor on its way out, for Zyrine's clifftop prominence was very impressive, but did not give it access to a port.

Aleicree flew over the wharfs of Griolor looking for one ship in particular. The Serene Chordalite! Zie murmured a prayer to Boghegd, land god of Griolor, for guidance to the ship. Zie knew it wouldn't work here, but such little prayers could tip Fate in so many theomes, that they were a harmless habit while searching. Every ship of a kind looked the same, but they flew different pennants, different flags, and had different lettering on the side. Eventually, zie spotted the name of the Serene Chordalite, and flew down to land aboard.

Zie was greeted there by Calira, officer of the watch of the morning shift, whose heightened pay came with an obligation to continue on her shifts during market days. The blue vrash hailed Aleicree. "Welcome back, Aleicree! Good to see you're well and whole."

"I wish I could say it's good to be back, but time off has me rethinking my employment," Aleicree said candidly as zie walked up to Calira.

"Oh, the officers of the ship will miss you! You've been a reliable worker and never a troublemaker, all these years," said Calira. "How long will you be giving the Captain to find a replacement?"

Aleicree said, "I was thinking three circuits, or half a year. How has Rhaokir been in my absence?"

"Zie raises a stern, steady wind and we've no complaints officially," said Calira. She glanced about deck and then said, "But Kajir and Jazhou say that Rhaokir has been poisoning our Fate, and we've had a terrible time with crew conflicts and price fluctuations all through this circuit."

"Crew conflicts?" asked Aleicree.

Calira laughed and said, "So much griping! Everyone wants something and suddenly nobody is satisfied. It seems superstitious to blame the wind for that, but it seems like something has been driving a great big rift between us!"

Aleicree went cold at the word rift, thinking of the fifth floor of the library of Querent-Querent in Sorjek. Rift, one of the categories of arcane lore.

Zir studies! The wolejerrup! Zir own withdrawal from the ship! Was it all being powered by fate manipulation? How much of what changed in Aleicree's life was zir own will, and how much of it was Fate?

The thought hardened Aleicree's resolve to study necromancy. For necromantic spells were un-augurable, they were the breakers and violators of Fate. Necromancers followed their own will, fair or foul.

"Rhaokir may be combining wind magic and... something that's probably actually called rift meditation," said Aleicree, looking worried. "I remember the strange modifications that Rhaokir's meditations invoked when we worked together for a few days."

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Calira sobered up from her earlier laugh, and peered at Aleicree. "You just got here, and you already agree with our other two windmages? I guess we hired a dud." Calira glanced towards Captain Kagnir's cabin, then back to Aleicree. "I'll tell the captain you're here when he gets in, but I believe he's negotiating something in the market right now."

“I need to go into the market myself,” said Aleicree. “Not that I think I’ll meet him by chance, but… I just do.”

"Sure," said Calira.

Aleicree's taste for copying books definitely hadn't changed and needed to be fed. Griolor was a treat, too. It had a bookstore! It wasn't a large store, but even a small specialist bookstore had an astonishing wealth of paper. It was built up next to the Griolor Wind Magic Academy and, in addition to a broad selection, had a whole aisle dedicated to student textbooks.

All the shelves in this store’s tightly-spaced aisles were packed full of books. The wall behind the counter was decorated with a colourful tapestry wider than it was tall depicting readers with their snouts buried in untitled books. One of them was even a kalla, beak likewise buried in a book. After browsing the aisles for a while, zie bought another book and another blank to take back to the ship. Zie also bought a copy of Missing Meteorology, being glad to discover that the old textbook was still being distributed.

Notwithstanding the gift for Kajir, Aleicree was by zir purchase of a book and a blank well-equipped for yet more ignoring zir colleagues while pursuing a hobby that gave zir nothing in common with sailing culture. Nobody aboard cared one whit that Aleicree copied books. Zie flew back to the ship.

The ensuing days were utterly unextraordinary. It wasn't that Aleicree was bored per se. Zie did zir hobby thing. Zie flew for exercise. Zie performed perfect, clean wind meditations all day. Zie went to meals with Shiowatha, who zie did quite like. Zie just didn't like anyone else on the ship. Zie could have really gotten along with Kajir and Jazhou, if zie'd met them in wind magic academy, but they were on different shifts. They were busy when Aleicree wasn't, and vice versa. And anyways, what was the point of striking up friendships during zir last three months?

That defeatist thought occurred to zir a few days into the journey, and zie reminded zirself that meeting dragons even briefly in Sorjek had been life-changing. Zie started trying to figure out where Kajir and Jazhou went during their market days. Kajir was soon revealed to be a bar-hopping extrovert. That was out. Jazhou was a sober poetgon who found quiet cafes and occasionally performed in them. That was interesting. It didn't change Aleicree's determination to move away from the ship, but it leavened the remaining time.

Which was, on the whole, unextraordinary. Aleicree still thought of Fate sometimes and didn't like feeling that this regularly-shaped life was being pre-ordained. Zie had a few oddly familiar dreams, reminding zir of the dream-map in The Ascent of Shattered Knives. Zie didn't meet anyone who could talk of arcane lore, though talking of Rhaokir with Jazhou and Kajir was briefly interesting, for they agreed that "rift meditation" was a great phrase for what they suspected Rhaokir was doing. That bit of rumour didn't help Aleicree's new resentment of Fate.

Rhaokir, of course, had gone back to the wind magic academy. The irregularities that Rhaokir had introduced all faded once Rhaokir was out of the picture. Everyone found their place in the crew again. They went out to have fun together on market days. They took their pay and were thankful. They made the kind of expensive far-in-the-future someday-plans that unaging dragons make as they accumulate funds. They stayed with the ship, their Fates bound to a place that contented them.

The Serene Chordalite scudded swiftly from port to port, being loaded and unloaded as fast as possible according to a pre-arranged supply route that yielded a modest, reliable pay for everyone aboard.

Aleicree dreamed of Fate unmoored.

THE END