Yazwa marveled at the forest of masts surrounding her. The Nathnar islands were little more than a few pieces of bare rock rising above the sea, covered in screaming seabirds. They had set sail from Adoti five days ago at full sail to reach these unremarkable hunks of rock. Now that they were there, the ships that surrounded them were far more interesting.

Most looked like their own, battered merchant ships that would hardly catch anyone's notice. Some were small and sleek, with narrow hulls and tall masts rigged with wide sails. A few looked like proper warships with high sides, multiple masts, and cannons poking out of hatches along the side.

"Have you ever seen this many warships in one place?" Yazwa asked, leaning on her staff and looking over the deck railing.”

"No, I have not," Saiyun said, joining her. "The largest naval squadron that ever harbored at Chanan Harbor was twenty ships at most. But then again, most of these are little more than armed merchant ships, not proper warships."

"What's the difference? They're all made of wood aren't they?" Yazwa shrugged, wincing and rubbing her shoulder. Since they had sailed from Adoti, she and Batro had doubled their time sparring. He was still winning more often than not, but she wasn't getting her staff tangled in the rigging or losing her footing anymore.

"I suppose," Saiyun said, looking over the water to watch a crew winch supplies up out of a longboat onto their deck. "But a spear and a rake are each made of wood and iron, and they are both very different."

"True, but what can we do about it?" Yazwa asked, looking up and down the deck. "I've barely seen Aven and Ji in the last few days. Where are they?"

Saiyun pointed to the stairs that led below decks. "They've been spending most of their time in the hold. Aven has been teaching Ji how to fight in close quarters. From how bruised up they both are, they must be doing well."

It was true, Ji had been limping back to her hammock every night and going to sleep without saying a word. Of course, Yazwa had been hard at work too. Everyone was. Batro was obsessively scrubbing his chainmail and Cai was cleaning his pistol collection over and over again. She had even seen Bill in the early hours of the morning, punching a canvas bag over and over with incredible speed for his bulk. "Ji's been busy, and so have I. What about you? You've been holed up in Tsen's cabin for days, has he told you anything useful?"

A grimace crossed Saiyun's face. "When I can get him to sit still for a minute. He'll finish writing something down in his books, change his mind, rip out the pages and start again. He hasn't given me much help, but I have finally settled on a summon I think I can master in the next few days. It's an air medium, so it should be useful."

"Great," Yazwa said, tapping her staff against the deck. She glanced over at the door to Bill's cabin, still closed tight. It had been hours since the other pirate captains boarded the ship and were ushered inside. "What do you think they're talking about in there? And why did Bill ask us to wait outside?"

Saiyun followed her gaze, brushing some hair out of his face. "I suppose they're talking about strategy. As to what Bill could need us for I could hardly imagine."

He had barely finished speaking when the door swung open and Bill stuck his bearded face out. "You two, come on in!" he shouted, beckoning them inside.

"Guess we're about to find out," Yazwa said, walking over with Saiyun close behind him. Light streamed in through the windows of Bills cabin, illuminating four people gathered around a table. Food and drink were scattered across it. Yazwa recognized two of them as pirate captains, but one we new.

“You’ve met Laojen and Zeidu before,” Bill said, sweeping his arm at the three people gathered around his table. “But I don’t think you know Abatel.”

Abatel was a woman with wrinkled skin to match Tsen’s and long, wavy red hair streaked with gray and white. Her dark brown eyes bored in Yazwa as she stepped in, and she found herself almost compelled to meet her gaze. The hold only broke when Abatel looked down at the candle in front of her that snuffed out.

"See?' Bill grinned, pointing at Yazwa

Abatel waved some of the smoke away from the candle as it drifted up into her face. "Should I be impressed?"

"No, there's more," Bill said, drawing a pistol from under the table. With one smooth motion, he aimed it at Yazwa and pulled the trigger.

Yazwa yelped, taking a step back and raising her staff in front of her. But the gun did not fire, only shot sparks when the flint hit the steel. "H-hey!" was the only response she could muster.

"You loaded these yourself," Bill said, producing another gun and pulling the trigger to the same effect. "It's not a fluke."

"That was completely uncalled for!" Saiyun snapped. "There are better ways to demonstrate her curse!"

Yazwa laid a hand over her hammering heart and took a breath, letting it out with a laugh. "Oh well, no harm done I guess. Did they not believe it?"

Bill tossed the pistols away and leaned in towards Abatel. "I'd say she doesn't doubt it anymore."

"I also don't see how this should change my decision," Abatel said, sitting up straight. "One interesting curse does not make you or your ship suited to take a spot in the line of battle."

"This whole thing was my idea," Bill said, drumming his fingers on the table. "I want to see it through."

Abatel's eyes swept over the other captains before returning to Bill. "It was also your idea to put me in charge once our ships met. Your ship has no guns and I will not provide any from my ships. If you sail out with us an enemy ship will blast you to pieces without you being able to answer."

"That's where she comes in," Bill said, pointing a finger at Yazwa. "Gunpowder doesn't burn around her. Get her close enough to another ship and they can't shoot at us as we close in. That's what he's for."

Saiyun frowned as Bill singled him out. "You expect us to ride out on my summon and get so close to the other ships their cannons won't work?"

A gleeful cackle threatened to escape from Yazwa's throat. "That's perfect! The curse doesn't just get things around me, it works on stuff above and below me too. And they wouldn't even be able to shoot back either."

"See?" said Bill confidently, folding his hairy arms over his hairy chest. "I have an Achali and a Vao on my ship now. I also picked up an acolyte of En Chitei on the way that Aven, Anela's son, has been training. And you know, I'm aboard too."

"We all know about your reputation," Abatel sighed.

Bill took a breath and his head turned to liquid, floating there as a bubble of water on top of his neck before reverting to normal. "Feels like you forgot. Seems like you also forgot that even with your fleet here, we're outnumbered four to one. Every ship we can put into the fight is a better chance we come out of this alive and rich."

Yazwa flexed her fingers, eyes darting between Bill and Abatel. "I can do it," she blurted. "It'll work."

Abatel's gaze lingered on Yazwa for a moment before turning to Bill. "Your only job was to bring Tsen into the fold. Don't expect an extra share of the loot because you decided to do a little extra."

Yazwa pumped her fist as Saiyun groaned.

"If it doesn't work, I don't get my share at all," Bill grinned and made a shooing motion with his hand. "Outside. I need to gather the crew for a little announcement.”

“Now?’ asked Abatel.

Bill grinned and nodded. “Saiyun, will you be so kind as to fetch Tsen? He needs to hear this too.”

-

The frustration and stress built up inside Saiyun faded like a morning fog. Tsen was needed? Tsen was never needed.

"Do you..." Saiyun trailed off as Bill strode away, bellowing for the crew to assemble. "Do you think this about the favor Bill owes him? About his plan?"

“What else would Tsen need to know about?” Yazwa said, shoving him towards the stairs. “Go! Go get him, I want to hear what this is all about!”

Saiyun hurried below decks as a bruised Aven and Ji emerged into the sunlight. The whole crew was gathering and he could feel the weight of expectation growing. “Tsen,” Saiyun said, knocking on the five-locked door. “Tsen, Bill wants you to come speak with him.”

“If he wants to talk to me, he knows where to find me,” Tsen snapped from the other side of the door.

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“He wants to talk to the whole crew as well as you,” Saiyun said, glancing over his shoulder. “I think it might have to do with that favor you owe him.”

The locks clicked and the door swung open with remarkable speed. “About time,” growled Tsen as he charged past Saiyun and up the stairs. “I’m growing sick of the delays.”

Saiyun followed him up to find the crew gathered in a circle around Bill. The other captains stood off to the side, looking somewhere between bored and amused.

"What a voyage it's been!" Bill shouted, pacing in the center of the circle. "We killed an imperial governor, nearly got sacked along with an entire city, and found the Emerald Arrow. Can you believe we made it?"

Saiyun wiped his sweaty palms on his pants as the crew shouted back at Bill.

"Not only that," Bill continued, pointing at the sky. "We slipped out from under the eyes of Azun's scouts, fought off a Korav, AND killed an Akshi. I've never sailed with an unluckier crew!"

All Saiyun could manage was a weak laugh as the crew cheered. Tsen stood stock still next to him, watching Bill's antics with his usual disdain.

Bill held a map up over his head, clenched in his fist. "By now, I bet you're all wondering why you followed this hairy bastard halfway across the world on nothing but a promise that you'd all be rich. Hardly seems worth it, doesn't it?"

"I grow tired of your theatrics," Tsen snapped. "Tell us."

"Yeah, tell us!" shouted Batro.

"I'm not getting any younger!" called Cai.

Bill pointed to the north, the map still clenched in his fist. "Out there is the largest fleet to sail the Raoin Sea in fifty years. Two hundred and more ships from Tsilen, with Azun himself in command, sailing right towards us and packed to the bilges with gold and silver!"

Saiyun blinked as excited chattering broke out among the crew. The naval squadron at Channan Harbor had twenty fighting ships at most. It was almost impossible to imagine two hundred ships sailing together.

"Emperor Litzu wants to wage a war, and wars are expensive," Bill crowed, pulling a few silver coins out of his pocket and tossing them up and down. "So he packed his entire treasury onto these ships and sent his pet admiral Azun down south to buy as much rice and gunpowder as he could afford. I don't think they're going to make it."

The crew laughed and cheered, but Saiyun frowned. Merchant convoys with a tenth of that value were heavily armed and protected by warships. One sent directly by Emperor Litzu would undoubtedly have a swarm of summons protecting it from above and below too. Attacking the fleet would be a massive risk.

Bill grinned, waiting for the noise to die down before starting again. "I know some of you are just drooling at the thought of waiting for one of those ships to fall behind or get lost so we can pounce. But you're thinking too small. We aren't picking off stragglers. We're going to sail in and take the best ones for ourselves!"

The crew's reaction was much more muted, but Bill answered with a cackle and continued. "Now, we’ve rendezvoused with Laojen, Zeidu, and Abatel to combine our fleets. I know some of you can count, and those numbers aren't adding up. How are fifty pirate ships supposed to take on two hundred armed and alert warships? That's where he comes in."

An eager silence fell over the crew as they followed Bill's gaze to Tsen. He unfurled the map in front of Tsen, and Saiyun gave it a quick look. It was a map of a coastline that ended with a point and several large islands offshore. Two lines were drawn on it, one between the point and the islands heading south, and the other looping around the islands and heading south as well. Saiyun glanced at Tsen, but his face was impassive as usual.

"The fleet is coming south and expecting to make landfall at Adoti within the week," Bill said, spinning around and showing the whole map to the crew. "If they want to make it in good time, they either have to sail through the Fotha Channel or around the Udeb Islands. Either way, we know where they're going to be. We'll attack from both sides to draw away the warships and the summons protecting them. And then..."

"I assume," Tsen said, looking up at Bill. "You're about to call in your favor."

"In return," Bill boomed, voice rolling out into the open ocean. "For Lazanu's Manual of Plant summons, I want you to take to the sky after we've met with the others. You'll watch from above until the last of the ships either clears the channel or sails around the island. Then you will swoop down and smash the masts of any vessel flying a Tsilen flag. Can you do this?"

Saiyun was as silent as the rest of the crew as he looked at Tsen. Impossible. One man, no matter how many types of magic he knew, could take out an entire fleet on their own. What was Bill thinking?

"Of course I can," Tsen replied. "Well worth such a rare manual."

Silence reigned for half a heartbeat before the crew broke out into wild cheering, jumping up and down, and screaming in different languages. Saiyun took a step back from the thunderous noise, heart hammering in his chest. If Bill's plan worked, if Tsen could cripple the fleet, it would deal a devastating blow to Tsilen's war effort. Emperor Litzu was one of the pretenders to the throne of Qisin that rightly belonged to the man Saiyun served, the Haogon Emperor

If...if he could take part in such a battle and bring proof back...

It was his ticket home.

In his shock, he missed Tsen leaving amidst the tumult. Dipping under a crewman's flailing arms he caught up and grabbed the old mans shoulder. "Wait!"

Tsen did not stop moving, simply tugging away from Saiyun and continuing on. "What is it? I have much to do."

“I’ll trade you for the last summon you don’t know in the red book," Saiyun said, hurrying to keep up. "Flying Kotack. I’ll let you learn it so you can teach me."

-

Ji sat alone, leaning up against the mast. Night had fallen and most of the crew was gathered around the cookfire on the sterncastle. Excited talk about Bill's plan drifted through the cool night air even though it had been hours since his announcement. The crew was drooling at the thought of so much riches.

And they were all her friends.

Her stomach twisted and Ji laid a hand on her belly. After all this time and all this secrecy, Bill's plan was a simple robbery? A giant robbery, but a robbery nonetheless.

It made sense of course. He was a pirate. A famous pirate. Stealing gold was his path in life.

And she was helping him do it.

Ji rose to her feet as a sudden feeling of restlessness washed over her. Acolytes of En Chitei were supposed to wander the world and protect the weak, to walk the path of violence and strife in the search of greater meaning. They weren’t supposed to fight alongside pirates.

But she had.

Ji paced in a circle around the mast, tip of her tail flicking back and forth. Time and time again she had thrown herself into battle with her companions and come out alive against terrible odds. How could she look down on them? But they were pirates!

"Ji?" came a soft voice from above.

Looking ahead she saw Yazwa and Saiyun sitting together at the front of the boat. Yazwa was kneeling, a chunk of rock resting on her leg and a small hammer held in her hand.

"Is something wrong?" Saiyun asked, moving to get up.

"No," Ji said quickly, hurrying over to them and dropping to her knees, bowl in hand. "I'm just hungry."

"Well eat then," Yazwa said, whacking the rock with her hammer. Her eyes glowed gold and she picked up each of the flakes, examining them one at a time. "I'm just making some fresh blades while we talk."

"Yazwa and I are going to be paired up," said Saiyun, looking up at the darkening sky. "We're trying to come up with a coherent plan that will keep us alive."

Ji didn't know what she meant to say, because something else came blurting out. "I don't think I should be here."

"What?" Yazwa said, blinking the gold in her eyes away.

"I don't think any of us are supposed to be here," said Saiyun with a shrug. "But here we are, making the best of it."

Ji's hands shook as she set her bowl down. "That's not what I mean," Ji said, a lump forming in her throat that she tried to swallow. "I mean, I mean you both need to be here to go back home. But, but I don't. I can just go."

"True," Saiyun said with a nod.

Yazwa frowned and set her tools aside. "What brought this on?"

Ji tried to find the words as the lump in her throat got bigger. "I was...do you remember what you told me back in Adoti at the bathhouse, Saiyun?"

"Of course I do," said Saiyun. "We're just doing what we need to do to survive."

"Well not anymore," Ji replied. "It was different when we were getting attacked or we were fighting the Korav and the Akshi. Those were demons. I'm supposed to fight those. I'm not supposed to fight alongside pirates! That's not what an Acolyte of En Chitei does!"

"If you want to leave, now's the time," Saiyun said quickly, stroking his chin.

"Wait," Yazwa said. "How do you figure that?"

Moving to sit up on his knees, Saiyun continued. "There's so much activity, no one will notice if you slip away. I can have Ijose bring you to shore and drop you off. You can continue on your journey."

"But," Ji said, gripping her robes tight. "But then I'd be abandoning you on the eve of battle."

"And, you know," Yazwa said, poking Saiyun with her staff. "We'd be abandoning you on some random shoreline, so that seems like a terrible idea all around."

Saiyun glared at her, knocking the staff away. "At least she'd be safe."

A laugh rippled out of Yazwa. "Sure, she'd be safe, completely alone in a foreign land. That sound safe to you, Ji?"

At first, Ji wanted to agree. But then she remembered everything she learned from Aven and how often her friends had bailed her out of trouble. Of how many foes they had vanquished together.

"No," she said softly. "If I was on my own, I would be vulnerable. But that doesn't mean it's right for me to join this battle."

"There are some ships that are going to hang back–" Saiyun started before Yazwa poked him again.

"You said it was different when you were fighting the Korav and the Akshi," Yazwa said, glaring at Saiyun. "Why's that?"

"Because they were demons," Ji said quickly. "Hunting them down is one of my solemn duties."

Yazwa nodded along. "That's right. And who were those demons working for?"

"...Azun," Ji said slowly.

"The guy whose fleet we're about to attack," Yazwa said, pointing to the north. "That Korav might be sailing towards us right now. Just because they work for a navy, doesn't mean they're good."

Saiyun retorted, but Ji wasn't paying attention as the knot in her stomach slowly untangled. Yazwa was right; the Korav and the Akshi had both been servants of Azun, which meant he must have been an evil man. Who else would bargain with such creatures? Even if she was fighting alongside pirates, even if plunder was the only thing on their minds, she was still serving the call of En Chitei.

Ji thought back to Channan Harbor, when the Esgan ordered her away. She had said that En Chitei did not speak to the comfortable. Perhaps this is what she meant. "Thank you, Yazwa."

"My pleasure," Yazwa smiled. "Can't have you missing out on the big fight."