The inside of the tent was far bigger than what Elodie would have assumed from the outside.

The floors were covered in jewel-toned carpets with the same intricate golden embroidery as the gilded trim on the sleeves and hems of the lady and Galen Mirandola's clothes. There were bookshelves pressed against the walls, filled with all sorts of weathered-looking tomes, the spines embossed in a script similar to that of the ancient Manoan ruins, but still markedly different.

Hanging from the ceiling were banners and streamers that matched the carpets, but were more sheer, gossamer that caught the glimmer of the hovering lights all about the place, little floating candles that somehow never bumped into anything or made anything catch on fire. Also hanging from the ceiling were plants, some of the likes of which Elodie had never seen before. She wondered if they hailed from far-off places like Oyeshima and those territories in the southwest that sultans and shahs fought over.

Galen Mirandola stopped at a desk, far smaller than the one that dominated the office of Captain Marius Hawkins, but distinct in its carved feet like that of a lion, or so Elodie had seen in illustrations. The desk was covered with a scarlet tablecloth, a book left open and a black iron bell right by it. There was also an elaborate tea set made of brightly-colored glasswork.

He turned his back to the group. "So you have come here because of the Limurian keys, then?"

"Yes." Carina took the lead. "I have one of them. My brother, Pri—King Alcor now, I suppose—he offered it to me as a sign of goodwill. As a promise for us to rule over the revived Manoan Empire."

Galen turned back around, an uncannily similar wry smile to Kas's playing about his lips.

"And yet you're here?"

"Yes." Carina took a step forward, her eyes burning with the ferocity of lightning from the heavens. "Because my mother was a Voyager. Because I've seen what happens when islands fall under the powers of Empires, and I've heard the stories of what their wars bring to the people who were born on those islands, who belong there. I don't think adding another into the mix will help anyone."

"So you would turn your back on your own people?"

"My father's people." There was reluctance there, evidenced by how she toyed with the string of pearls also around her neck.

"I see." Galen smiled, as if he knew something that she did not. He looked down at his desk, his fingers tracing along the edge of the parchment of the open book. "You needn't worry, Miss Eldora. We've kept our key safe for a long time, and we will continue to do so long after you."

He then looked up, and caught Elodie's eye. "It would be best to continue to keep the keys separated. You should leave Clarida as soon as you can, stay as far away from the other keys if you can, if you know where they are."

"The Manoans and their king aren't the only ones looking for Limuria." Captain Jennings folded her arms over her chest. "I'm sure you've heard the story of Captain Vance's treasure?"

"I have." Galen was wary again. "And I had heard some rumors of a possible connection to one of the keys to Limuria."

"My mother went looking for it, to relocate it and try to put it where no one else can find them." Elodie spoke up. "We're trying to find her to make sure that that can happen, and before the Pirate King of the Black-Sail Fleet takes it."

"I see." Galen frowned. "Then perhaps that does change things."

"Are you sure about that, sire?" The lady finally spoke, lifting her black petticoat. "You know what is at stake."

"I do, Venetia." He looked to her meaningfully. "Could you fetch us the tea? The special box, the one for guests?"

She nodded quickly, shaking her dark twin-tails over her shoulders. "Of course, sir."

"Come, sit." Galen snapped his fingers, and large plush chairs appeared in front of the desk. And one behind it, of course, which Galen Mirandola took no hesitation to sit into, loungeing about as comfortably as a cat.

Elodie gingerly sank into one of the chairs. It was as soft as she thought that clouds might be from their look, and not too warm for the climate either. With their deep purples, it was the sort of armchair that might have belonged in a castle.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I apologize for not offering my full hospitality earlier." Galen gave a charming smile. "We'll see if we can resolve this."

"Okay." Carina looked unsure.

"I am curious—do you know the story behind Limuria's fall and the separation of the keys?" Galen asked.

"No," Carina admitted, fidgeting with the blue crystal. "My mother told me the story of her people, but she knew nothing of my father's."

"That's alright." Galen chuckled. "Luckily, I do. All of us who were entrusted with the crystal key have had to learn the story. I only hope I can do it justice, as my mother did with me."

He paused, with the same trepidation that Kas held when telling a tale, the moment in which something spun behind his eyes like the cogs in a clock or the gears to a mill as he wove the pieces into a story.

"It was said that the Manoans ruled the entire Sea of Gales from their city in the heavens, the floating island of Limuria," Galen began. "This was different from all of the other little floating islands, anchored to the land and the sea because this one could drift freely across the sky."

He tugged at his sleeves. "It was said that the Manoans got their power from a crystal that was bonded to them. They were the only ones who knew how to create or harvest them, and however they were obtained, to enchant them with the powers of flight and other such magic."

He looked to Carina. "We are not limited by such stones—but even a powerful magi is nothing compared to the raw power of your people's crystals."

Carina pressed her lips together and clutched her crystal key. Somehow, Elodie suspected that she was thinking of what happened to the Foxtrot. The all-devouring blue-light, the complete destruction of the ship remain burned into Elodie's mind.

"It made their ships and island fly, it gave them the ability to destroy all of their enemies, to keep all of their subjects in line," Galen continued. "So they ruled in uncontested decadence over the entire Sea of Gales. In the height of their power, there was an emperor who had a son, a prince, and a daughter, a princess."

It was at this point that Venetia returned with a silver platter filled with a cups from a teaset made of rainbow-colored glass. "I have the tea you requested, sire."

"Ah, thank you, Venetia." Galen accepted a cup from her. "Now, where was I?"

With a wave of her hand, the cups danced off of Venetia's platter, and into the hands of the visiting party.

Elodie stared into the depths of the cup, a deep burgundy color similar to the gown she had worn to Mrs. Hawkins's party. It smelled of cinnamon, and the glass teacup was not in the styles of the southeastern islands, but rather of the people who were native to Los Dorados, who had been displaced by first the Cartagenan and then the Albionese colonies.

She took a tentative sip, curious about its taste. She'd never been given enough doubloons to try the food and drink at the magi carnivals, just as she'd never had enough pocket money to buy any of the marvelous items sold within.

The tea was sweet and rich—or at least, she thought so.

Kas frowned when he swallowed his, making a face as if it were quite bitter, or at least foul-tasting.

How curious, Elodie thought to herself as she surveyed the rest of the party. No one else had quite so strong of a reaction.

"Ah, yes, so as I was saying—" Galen cleared his throat. "There was a princess, naturally."

Elodie supposed that all of these sorts of stories did coincidentally have a princess as a key figure in their events.

"The princess was not the favored child of the Emperor, for she was not the heir." Galen paused, his eyes sweeping across them all. "It was said that she was frivolous, capricious. It was said that she grew jealous, or one of her favorite lovers did, and so they hatched a plan to destroy the power of the crystal and harness the throne for themselves. This destroyed the city and the empire, plummeting it into the sea with only her brother as the sole survivor. That is the story that everyone else tells."

Elodie had heard something similar before, although she wasn't sure where or when. The Manoans and ancient history weren't exactly the types of stories her mother told.

"But we the magi know a different story, one that we believe to be the full truth." A smile played about Galen's lips. It reminded her of how Kas would smile sometimes in the telling of a story, enjoying how he could pull anyone—how he could pull her—in.

"The last Princess Ahez of Manoa was said to have all-seeing eyes," Galen continued. "She could see the truth of the world in ways that most men could not, much less those of her dynasty. She looked at her father and saw a greed-ridden coward, saw the empire and saw suffering, and in the crystal at the heart of Limuria, a curse forming."

He sipped again. "Princess Ahez tried to warn her father and brother of the trouble, of how their bloody deeds done with magic would command a price. But because she was a princess, they told their own story of her being frivolous, jealous, shallow. She tried to stop the corruption, but she could not. She only barely survived the fall of Limuria, unbeknownst to her brother."

He then looked at Carina. "Ahez knew that her brother would consult the sages of Manoa, would try to bring back and repair Limuria, bring back their empire. She had to let it fall, to free the people within. So she hit the keys, the fail-safes that she'd stolen in preparation for this day. She hid them, for they could not be properly destroyed."

"That's not really an ending to the story," Carina pointed out.

"It isn't, is it?" Galen narrowed his eyes. "I suppose that will be up to you, won't it?"

"Then I know how this story ends." Carina held her head high, eyes blazing. "There doesn't exist a way to destroy it yet. But I will find a way. I'll find a way to free the Sea of Gales of all Empires."

Galen nodded. "I believe you."

Carina blinked rapidly. "Wait, really?"

"The truth-telling serum shows the truth to those who know how to see it." Galen raised his teacup in a toast. He set down his teacup and removed the chain from around his neck, the one that Kas had subtly pointed out to Elodie when they arrived at the camp. "I'll give this to you, if you swear to find a way to destroy it."

"I will."