If Elodie turned around now on the ship's deck, she could see the silhouette of Leonida in the mists. She was so close to home that she felt the same sort of enchantment as she had under the narwhal song, something like that lure, calling her to rejoin where she belonged and where the world had made sense once.

The thing was, when she looked back to the island of Clarida, she remembered that nothing would ever make sense again.

"According to the letter, the band of magi with Mirandola in it should be here." Kas looked through his spyglass at the harbor.

"I wonder how they found all that out," Elodie mused aloud. "As I recall, the magi are wanderers, with no borders and they keep to themselves."

"Apparently not enough of them do." Kas frowned and looked to Elodie, turning his spyglass to her.

She shook her head, and pushed it back to him. "I appreciate it, but not this time."

She then looked over her shoulder again, toward her home. She hoped the girls in her etiquette class were alright, that the fires had not taken their homes. She hoped that Rosemarine and the servants had found other places of employ, or that Brendan Fleetwood remained oblivious to what had occurred in Port Augustine five weeks prior and they'd kept receiving their doubloon payroll.

"What are you two up to, you're always together nowadays!" Jade come up behind them, throwing her arms around each of their necks.

"Just looking at Clarida, discussing our disembarking mission," Kas responded coolly. He tucked his spyglass back into the pack strapped around his waist.

Today he'd eschewed his usual teal jacket and hat to keep just the scarlet vest. It was a much more humid heat in Clarida compared to the other Los Dorados and Libertalia, similar to the Windward Islands. The mists that hung heavily in the air certainly weren't a help in that realm.

"Ah, yes." Jade looked to Elodie. "You lived nearby—surely you've heard the stories about Clarida?"

"About the Fountain of Youth?" Elodie laughed. "Of course I have. Everyone knows that isn't true."

"One wonders if the magi are here though. . ." Jade trailed off. "I suppose we'll find out what they do soon enough."

"I suppose so." Elodie's eyes lingered on Kas.

His features revealed nothing. But she saw through them all the same. Turbulent worry, fear, and insecurity of a bastard about to meet the father who had granted him life.

She couldn't blame him for not wanting to say as much.

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It was easy to find the magi encampment. They'd only so much as had to ask one of the workers in the harbor at Dulcinea before they were informed with contemptuous tones and distasteful glares that the magi had settled about a week prior just outside of the city limits.

"Can't miss it," one sailor had spat. "Don't know what you'd want with them, the magi. Think they're better than everyone else, with their fancy words and their clothes and all their secrets."

His expression had then turned contemplative. " I'd stay away from them if I were you. The way I've heard it, stories say that the magi know how to lie without lying, if you know what I mean. Their magic has a way of making your biggest wish into your biggest nightmare. I'd leave well alone, if I were you."

Not that this had dissuaded them.

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The disembarking party of the Albatross, Elodie included, made their way to the northern route out of Dulcinea, a city fairly identical to Port Augustine if not for the size, as it was not quite so large or elaborate as Port Augustine had become in its three-hundred years as a major trade port. For to the north, not more than fifteen paces up the path, were the magi in what might have once been a field for some sort of farm.

Of course Elodie had heard stories about the magi. She'd even seen them come through Port Augustine from time to time.

Like the Manoans, you could find them anywhere, but unlike the Manoans, the magi that one saw were not a diaspora, fragments of an empire that once was that had reluctantly put down roots in cities that were foreign to them by their very nature.

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Rather, the magi wandered in clans, for reasons that were known only to them. They stayed for weeks, maybe even months at a time in their major cities. They might hold carnivals or perform magical services for doubloons, but they mostly kept to themselves, staying outside of the cities themselves and the jurisdictions within. Then, through means only known to themselves, they would decide to leave and that was that.

Elodie had always enjoyed when her mother would give her two silver doubloons to go down to one of the magi-run carnivals whenever they passed through Port Augustine. She'd go just to marvel at the trinkets in the booths, to watch with wonder as some free-roaming performers not in the tents performed little snippets of magic for those who could not afford the proper shows.

There were stories about the magi, terrible ones that called them liars and worse. But that was not what Elodie had seen when she attended their carnivals.

Rather, she would remember a young lady, a girl of about fifteen or sixteen in a blue gown like rippling water in a pond, as she knelt down in front of a group of children, Elodie among them. She'd smiled and cast shapes of stardust, of animals from far-off places and creatures of the sea.

She—like many of the others at those carnivals—were more artists than hucksters. People who loved the wonders they could create as much as those who watched them, if not more.

The settlement of the magi outside of Dulcinea was just as magnificent as those carnivals.

Brightly-colored tents abounded, with lights strung up between them that glowed without the aid of candles. The people between them cast magic openly, wearing ornate clothes in jewel tones with gilded trims from an older era, all with flowing capes and billowing sleeves. Many of the magi had distinctive ruby-red eyes, disconcerting at a first glance, and all with a golden ring in their depths.

In retrospect, Elodie wasn't entirely sure how anyone had missed Kas's heritage.

Then again, she'd seen similar rings of yellow in those with gray and hazel eyes. It was enough to muddy the water. But nonetheless, it seemed obvious now as they approached the magi settlement.

Lively chatters dropped to whispers as those nearby turned their heads to see the party of pirates. Distrust and suspicion colored their scarlet and golden-ringed eyes.

It haunted Elodie—for it reminded her of how the Manoans looked at them, and how she realized she had looked at the Manoans.

It wasn't right, she realized. We all don't trust each other, although we live under the same flags.

Her musings were pushed far from her mind, however, as a lady in black approached. An older gentleman in garnet lingered behind the young lady like a ghost, a wariness guarding his aristocratic expression, all strong features and angles. Angles, that Elodie realized were familiar to her somehow.

"Ah, we were not expecting guests." The lady smiled apologetically. "I'm afraid we are not taking visitors right now. I hope you'll forgive this and come back on a different day for our services?"

"We're not here for your services." Captain Jennings nodded at Carina.

She stepped forward, holding out her blue crystal for all to see.

The lady's rosy tan complexion blanched, and the gentleman was off-balance for a moment—as if both of them had seen a ghost.

Elodie felt a tap on her hand, and turned her head to see Kas looking at her meaningfully. His eyes flicked and his fingers moved ever-so-slightly towards the man—and toward a chain dangling from his neck, the end of which was tucked into a vest.

"My name is Carina Eldora," Carina began, her voice carrying through with all the confidence and authority of an Albionese or Cartagenan queen. Even though Elodie could see the uncertainty in her blue and green eyes, the faintest trembling only to be quelled by her free hand curling into a fist. "My brother seeks the keys to Limuria to revive the Empire of Manoa. And I've come to stop him. I must speak to a man named Mirandola at once. Is he among you?"

"You say you've come to stop your brother." The older gentleman stepped forward. "But how do we know your intentions are true?"

"Because we can vouch for her." Elodie pushed through to the front of the group, to stand by Carina's side. "We rescued her from her own people, multiple times. They're after her because they know she means to stop them."

Carina briefly smiled at Elodie.

"Forgive me for not trusting the words of Albionese pir—I mean, privateers," he hastily amended with a wry smile. "I do not wish to doubt your intentions. But we have long learned in our dealings with all empires that their agents are often undermined and spell disaster more frequently than not."

"Then let my word stand." Kas charged to the front, locking eyes with the man.

The man's features twisted into irritation. "Now why would I do that?"

"I know who you are, Galen Mirandola, and I am the son of the Duchess Adela Beaumont of Silvershire." Kas smirked in triumph."And it would seem that I'm your son as well."

Galen Mirandola blinked, even as Kas held fast in their matching gold-ringed gazes. He recognized the boy. Something bitter passed over his face, a sort of primal sorrow. It was the kind that Elodie recognized in her own mother whenever she spoke of that life she dreamed of, that life of which Keira disapproved.

"I hope you will forgive me when I say that I hoped this day would never come, Kaspar."

He then looked to Carina and Venetia. "I see there is much to discuss. Let us retire to my tent."

His eyes returned to Kas. "We can speak more privately there."

Kas said nothing.

Galen sighed, and turned around with a flourish of his cloak. A clear sign to follow him. As the party took the steps to follow them, Elodie reached for Kas's hand—a silent act of reassurance.

He glanced to her and smiled, squeezing her hand gently as they followed Galen Mirandola into a deep garnet tent.