15[20:16] The sea is swift and the winds are fair, and as it sails toward the Gyre morale on the Defiance is high. The hold is full, everyone is healthy, working, and fraternizing, and the venture is spurred on from a resounding victory to what feels like the strongest lead they've had all season. 15[20:16] ...right? What say you? [20:16] 4Whew! Nice to be getting in regular workouts again. [20:19] 10Surely it hasn't been that long. [20:19] 10Well, except for Garnet.  [20:20] 4We've been busy. Piu assumes Caxi hasn't been participating too much in either the curriculars or the extra-curriculars, since aloof disdain is kinda her thing, but Piu will be sure to check in. Been awhile since they've had girl talk. [20:22] 10Yeah, Daizo's kind of been taking up a lot of Caxi's time. But in terms of practical occultism, he's progressing by leaps and bounds.  15[20:24] Caxi is easy enough to find, because she's taking up quite a lot of space digging through the improbable amount of shit she brought on board, leaving piles of books and heaps of cushions and knick-nacks from her huge trunks spread all over the cabin and out into the hall. [20:25] 4Piu carefully steps through it all to reach her. "Wow. Lose something?" 15[20:26] Caxi: "...no. No, surely not." 15[20:26] "Am I in your way?" [20:27] 4Piu: "Nope! Just came by to see how you were doing. Been awhile since I'm sleeping with the crew now." 4Doesn't bother to act ashamed of the phrasing. 15[20:29] Caxi smiles. "Such a soft touch with the commoners, our blessed Piu. I am... very good, actually. Immediate circumstance notwithstanding." [20:29] "So what ARE you looking for, if you don't mind my asking?" 15[20:32] Caxi: "An old schoolbook. I'm certain I had it when I moved cabins..." 15[20:32] "Daizo's freehand sorcery has left him skipping over some of the fundamentals." [20:33] "Would you like help? Surely I can identify an old schoolbook by sight. Though it might not be the right one." [20:34] 10Around this same time, Daizo's up on the poop deck, practicing the conjuration of Infallible Messengers. Small six-winged cherubs waver into existence around him—most of them collapsing a moment later into puffs of Essence. None have lasted long enough to entrust a message to, much less deliver it. 15[20:34] Caxi takes a deep breath and looks very thoughtful. 15[20:34] "Sure. Yes, thank you." [20:39] "Don't worry," 4Piu says conversationally, "I can't even read most of this stuff!" [20:39] 4She gets to looking. [20:40] 10Drawing forth Current was a labor, but one that came naturally, the water and earth essence resonating with that which flows in his own blood. Shaping unaspected—no, what was the word? Prime?—spirit-stuff turns out to be quite another matter.  15[20:44] Up on deck, Daizo practices the delicate shaping that attends the Infallible Messenger, and each time it fails to quite cohere. He's got a good one going when the wind starts to change and music starts to wriggle through the gaps in his concentration. Very upbeat music, with the thin, echoey quality of something traveling a long way. 15[20:46] Caxi looks over at Piu as she settles in, and her expression softens a bit. "It's not hard to learn, you know. The old language. Maybe it is if you want to debate aesthetics with a neomah, but enough to read warning signs or the like." [20:47] 4Piu: "That'd be nice! Uh, if that was an offer." [20:47] 10The last of them unravels into so many threads. Music? Sounding out over the sea?  15[20:54] Caxi: "Yes! I'd be happy to. I feel like quite the schoolmarm lately. I confess it's growing on me." 15[20:55] "And it won't do to send someone into old ruins who can't read the warning signs." [20:55] 4Schoolmarms are in. Especially on this ship. Ooh, probably shouldn't say that out loud, she might still be touchy over Ratel. [20:56] 4Out loud Piu happily accepts Caxi's acceptance, and continues looking. [20:56] 6Zhangyu's keeping to the lower decks for the time being; mainly, he wants to check in on Sadako to see how she's been handling these last several days, because he hasn't had a chance to speak with her since, well. Events. 15[20:58] Daizo scans the horizon, peering between the choppy waves (with Caxi belowdecks rather than at the bow to keep the sky clear, the last few weeks of the rainy season are making themselves known on the open ocean). A couple of sailors temporarily shirk their duties to join him, standing beside him and following his gaze to try and see the source of the music. Likely others up in the 15[20:58] rigging are keeping their eyes peeled as well. 15[20:59] But none of them are Princes of the Earth, and it's Daizo who sees it gleaming low in the water, frequently obscured behind the false horizon of the tossing sea: a low, smooth, impossibly broad disk of gold just grazing the surface like a lilypad. It must be the size of an island to be visible at the distance Daizo judges. 15[21:00] There could be ships docked there, but you'd never be able to make them out with the sea in the way. There's just that low, smooth shape, and the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIEeKI0qYII [21:01] 10Daizo: "Send for Ratel, or one of the Cathaks—someone who can chart our position—" [21:03] 10Last time we encountered something unexpected in the sea, it was a black iron ship, then a singing island made of gold. What's next? 15[21:05] Sadako has... invited Zhangyu to have tea with her and Seiri. How does he take it? Seiri's got something simple and dark in her fine jade-heated pot, and Sadako's adding a generous spoon of sugar to her cup and Seiri's. [21:06] 6Add nothing to it, if it's good tea. Add some sugar to it if it's not. 15[21:06] Daizo gets Ito Jun. "Yeah, what's up?" 15[21:08] Sadako's about to add sugar but a look from Seiri stays her hand. So instead Sadako says, "Did your friend get out in time?" 15[21:09] Piu has to rifle through a lot of books before she finds anything that looks like a schoolbook, and even those are much more finely-bound than the stuff you get at Pasiap's Stair. [21:10] 4Oh please, she's dated plenty of boys from the Bells, the Academy, and the 'gram. Not for long individually, but cumulatively, long enough to have a decent idea what their schoolbooks look like. [21:12] 10Daizo: "First thing: You hear that? Second: can you, I don't know, compare notes with the helmsmen and make sure we aren't off course somewhere?" [21:12] 6Zhangyu: "He should have. I gave him a warning of what would happen and a new place of employment, so." 15[21:15] Caxi doesn't seem to be having any more like than Piu is. She leans back against a pile of blankets and it reveals its instability; a moment later she's half-reclining half-lying on a pile of blankets. "Ugh. But how are you?" 15[21:15] *any more luck 15[21:16] Sadako: "That's good. You'd be sad if he died." 15[21:16] Seiri coughs a bit into her teacup. [21:16] 4Piu grins. "Finally landed one of the Cathak boys two nights ago. More importantly, so did our stressed-out Imperial Highness." [21:17] 6Zhangyu sips his tea while he attempts to think of a clever response. He fails. "Seiri, are you all right?" 15[21:17] Caxi cackles. "Finally. I don't know who I'm happier for. What a four-way coup." [21:17] "I would say they're adorably stupid but it actually goes way past adorable into, like, I'm suspicious that they're doing a bit. Excellent dick, though." [21:18] 07Dryas has spent the last several days pointedly avoiding the hold - up late at night burning lanterns and spilling ink pots, and circling the deck all day on the lookout for gigantic sea creatures, menacing aerial creatures, rogue gods, flying contraptions, etc. 15[21:18] Seiri: "Oh yes, Master Zhangyu. I just— wrong pipe, is all." 15[21:19] Sadako: "So can I come when you have to fight the admiral?" [21:19] 6Zhangyu: "That's fair. And we aren't training right now, I'm just Zhangyu." [21:20] 4Piu: "Anyway, Ito Pan is still a bit wary of me -- little ol' me! Can you imagine! -- so it was me and Ito Jun, but I'm sure Garnet will want to switch it up at some point." [21:20] 07(She's been looking in the opposite direction from Daizo and hasn't noticed any music yet over the sounds of the surf and sailors.) 15[21:22] Caxi: "They scarcely speak to me anymore. I suppose I can't blame them." She sighs. "Not like I could make use of it anyway." [21:22] "That would -- yes? Yes." 6Best to not phrase it as a question. 15[21:22] Ito Jun squints out in the direction Daizo gestures. "What the hell is that?" 15[21:23] "Is that carnival music?" [21:23] 4Piu: "In some ways that might be a blessing." 4Then: "What do you mean?" 15[21:25] Sadako: "Good. I feel like I'm getting stronger every time we train." 15[21:25] "Is that what it's like for you?" [21:27] 10Daizo: "Might be. But what kind of lunatic builds a carnival in the middle of the ocean?" 15[21:28] Caxi: "Because of Daizo. He hasn't said anything about it directly, but the longer I go without forcing the issue, the longer we go before anyone has to." 15[21:28] "This is all so lovely. Reality can wait at the door a while." [21:29] 6Zhangyu: "Mostly. There are sessions where suddenly nothing makes sense, but the session after I can figure out how to handle things." 6Except for whatever freaky things you come up with, but honestly? That stuff is cool. [21:29] 6Also very difficult to deal with or get used to. But very cool. [21:30] 4Piu: "Ohhhhhh right. It's been so long since I was, you know, exclusive." [21:31] "It has its benefits!" 4From time to time. Theoretically. 15[21:31] Ito Jun: "I don't know, this sounds like one of those things sailors bullshit about when they're drunk. You want me to get a real sailor? The CommodorE? Samperson? I checked our heading and we're still on course." [21:33] 10Daizo: "Let's get Samperson and see what he thinks about it. I don't think the Commodore's likely to want to deviate from her course for anything." 15[21:36] Caxi: "It does keep things simple. There's only one number smaller than one." [21:41] 10While he's waiting for Samperson, Daizo tries to make out any features on the golden… plate. No, it's shaped a little more like… "It could be…" 15[21:44] Sadako: "Fighting for real is so different from training. There's so much noise and shouting and so many people breathing so hard. That woman from the guards had a spear and a net and was just tangling people up and running them through. She got ten, eleven people. Working through the dockworkers to get to the ship. Every person she got in the net held her breath. Even if she didn't 15[21:44] kill them right away, like if she had to kick a burning barrel at someone." 15[21:47] Samperson joins Daizo and Jun on deck, shading his eyes to peer out along the waves. "Shit." 15[21:49] Dryas, meanwhile, scanning the waves, sees something the scouts have thus far missed, a mostly-sunk obstruction in the water, close enough to the Defiance's heading to scrape the ship if it's big or heavy enough. It looks a bit like an enormous, mostly-sunken vase, mottled yellow and riddled with hundreds and hundreds of tiny pockmarks in its surface. [21:49] 10Daizo: "Have you seen or heard tell of it before, Mr. Samperson? I just recalled a conversation that Dryas shared with us—" 10And he'll lay out the bit about weird Rorf and Plentimon's Chosen. 15[21:50] Finally, Piu manages to find the book, tangled up in a sash which was itself tangled up in a camisole. The title matches, and there's a card attached to the inside back cover with names and dates, the last of which is CYNIS CAXI [21:50] "…and it is gold, and it's projecting quite the festive atmosphere." [21:50] 6Zhangyu: "It can be unpleasant," 6he allows. "But sometimes necessary. Knowing when it becomes necessary and what to do when it is are important, too." 6He glances to the two of them past his tea, then asks the question he probably should have started with: "You're both unharmed, right?" 6This time he isn't asking about Seiri nearly choking on her tea. [21:51] 4Piu: "Thiiiink I found it babe. It was in with the fashion." 15[21:52] Sadako: "Seiri got shot. There was blood everywhere." [21:52] 6His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. "She what?" 15[21:53] Perhaps she's bleeding again, because Seiri's face is suddenly quite ashen. "You know, on second thought, I will have some sugar in this tea, it a bit bitter..." [21:54] 07Dryas scurries up the crow's nest, deciding how to announce this. "...There's a reef ahead!" 07she announces to the crew, gesturing towards it. 15[21:54] Sadako looks quizzically at her before turning back to Zhangyu. "One of the guards who was shooting at the ship. Seiri was on deck so Garnet could come out and fight and she got an arrow in the gut. Caxi said if she hadn't collapsed right in front of a doctor she might have died." 15[21:56] That's not... quite a reef. From the vantage point she can see the wide, rough breadth of the thing beneath the waves, and it has a large, roughly conical texture... and two shimmering blue-white eyes, or some aesthetic facsimile, that seem to meet Dryas's through the waves. [21:59] "Dragon's teeth!! It's an enormous sea serpent!" 07Dryas shouts urgently as she unslings the Earned Nemesis in a single smooth motion. [21:59] 6He rubs his forehead, exasperated. "I... am going to be happy that you survived, and try not to think about what might have happened. I need to - defense lessons. That should have been the first thing." 15[21:59] Samperson: "That... I don't know what else it'd be. Imagine if there were two." Dryas's exclamation has him turning around. "Oh shit." 15[21:59] Seiri: "Oh, it's fine, don't worry. I'm alright. Lady Caxi was right there, like Sadako said. And Master Daizo has agreed to train me, if he can find the time." [21:59] 07Dryas: "It might be a facsimile...?! But it's huge and dead ahead!" 15[22:01] The Thing in the Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK0XqK9mbMk - Ready?! [22:01] 10There's no if. Daizo's going to make some time if he has to gouge it otu of his sleep schedule. However… [22:02] 6Zhangyu: "If he can't find time in his schedule, I can take over. But I'll talk to him, he'll make time." 15[22:02] Caxi: "Oh, wonderful. Excellent, yes. Thank you so much." 15[22:03] The alarum brings the Commodore on deck. "What are we looking at?" she calls up to Dryas. 15[22:04] Caxi takes the book gingerly from Piu's hands. "How are you and Dryas doing?" [22:04] 4Piu: "About as well as can be expected, after assassinating her cousin. Of course she's done quite well off of it, as was the plan, but it's the principle of the thing." [22:05] 07Dryas shields her eyes from the glare with a hand as she squints out at it. "Five malms out, dead ahead, close to the surface. It's like a big vase? Two big blue eyes. It looks... spongy?" [22:05] "The radical honesty thing is going about as well as can be expected, considering being honest just means delivering a lot of bad news. Like that there's a Lunar in the hold." 15[22:06] Caxi: "Oooh. One of ours or a new one?" [22:06] "The Tough Mouse. Gotta say, still sounds hot. Though the voice with the mouse form is weird." 15[22:06] Caxi: "You haven't gotten him to show himself yet?" [22:07] "Have some faith and give me some time." [22:07] "Anyway he's in the back where they keep the salted meat. I've gotten him to agree not to snack inordinately." [22:07] "Or to scare the galley assistant." 15[22:08] Caxi: "...which of course being man-sized would make harder. Yes, I see. Does he want privacy? Do you? I am terribly curious." [22:08] 10Daizo's crossed the deck in a bound—he's following Dryas' gaze now. "Some kind of behemoth or a greater elemental, that much is clear—" 15[22:09] Sadako: "See, Seiri? I told you he'd be cool with it." [22:10] 6Zhangyu: "I am incredibly not cool with people I care about almost dying. But. That's what training is for." 15[22:11] Seiri only frowns, but it sounds like she's grinding her teeth a bit. She manages a nod, and pushes her tea away. 15[22:12] Sadako: "So have you thought about how you're going to kill the admiral if you get her?" [22:12] 6Zhangyu: "Not beyond 'with my bare hands,' no." [22:12] 4Piu: "I didn't hash out whether we could all take terms introducing ourselves and poking at him, but as far as payment for passage goes, answering questions from babes has to be among the least painful." 15[22:13] Ratel: "Are we going around or are we taking it out?" [22:14] 10Daizo: "I'm not certain, but we may have encountered one of the reasons the shipping out of Wu-Jian's been so dangerous lately." [22:14] "Do we have the armaments to kill it?" 15[22:15] Ratel's got her flame piece out, five jade barrels rolling at a steady clip. "Anything will die if you shoot it enough." [22:16] 07Dryas, shouting down to be heard on deck: "Has it got anything to do with the floating whatever-it-is over there?" 15[22:17] Ratel: "The what?" [22:17] 10Well, that's true enough, but… "Dryas, you're the hunter here, what's your take—shit if I know!" 15[22:17] Samperson: "Some kind of Gold Saucer, ma'am." 15[22:17] Ratel: "Here?!" [22:17] "That way, looks to be a couple hundred malms out—" 15[22:18] Samperson: "That way, ma'am." 15[22:18] Ratel: "Okay, that's not our problem. This thing is in our way." 15[22:18] "Dryas! Can we adjust course and evade it?" 15[22:18] Caxi: "I'll have to go down and see him, then. Perhaps I'll bring some cheese." [22:19] 4Piu: "So what's in the book?" 15[22:21] Caxi: "Principles of the Emerald Circle. Daizo's working on a spell and my explanations have not been very good. I was hoping to refresh myself, or just... give the book to Daizo, I suppose." 15[22:21] "Though knowing him he might insist on returning it." [22:22]  [22:22] 4Piu: "He IS the infuriatingly responsible type." [22:22] 6Zhangyu squints a bit at Seiri, but ultimately lets whatever he saw go. Something to mention to Daizo but past that, not really his place. 15[22:22] Dryas judges that a drastic course correction could be made to avoid the creature. 15[22:23] Caxi: "He's loosening up, though. The sea air is good for him, I think." 15[22:23] Seiri notices the look. "Sir? Is something wrong?" [22:24] 6Zhangyu: "Concerned, that's all. You're handling being wounded well." [22:25] 10The problem is the almost lackadasical way Caxi hangs her spells—there's nothing to fault in her results, but watching her is like watching a cook throw half a dozen raw ingredients into an oven and pull out a perfectly trussed suckling pig. [22:26] 4Piu frowns at the commotion up above, not for the first time. "...We should probably go see what that is." [22:26] "I think Daizo's up there, so you can give him the book!" [22:26] 07Dryas: "Ah, hard to starboard should do it!" 15[22:26] Caxi: "Good idea. I can tidy up... later." 15[22:27] Seiri: "Lady Caxi and Master Daizo handled it well. I just slept through it." [22:28] 4The ship lurching hard to starboard probably puts a spring in their step. [22:28] 6Zhangyu: "Sleeping through the worst parts doesn't always help. But I'm glad they were there for you." 15[22:28] She still seems off. Jittery. When the ship lists, Seiri bolts to her feet. "What was that? What was that??" 15[22:29] Sadako: "That was the boat." [22:29] 6!!? 15[22:33] The ship veers to starboard as hard as it can, but it can't quite escape the drift of the thing beneath the waves. There's a groan as the hull of the Defiance scrapes against its spongy surface and part of the creature's gaping, conical orifice rises slowly but steadily from the water to swallow the vessel. [22:34] 4That's about when Piu gets on deck. "Oh what the FUCK!" [22:37] 6Zhangyu's already heading to the top deck before Seiri can finish her question. [22:42] 4The True Rune of Life and Death catches fire and spreads over her in white flame as she shoots across the deck to where the great sea serpent (???) has most closely latched onto the Defiance. [22:46] 4There's a sick, weird hissing as her blows come in contact with the sponge, like it's being dessicated and killed inch by inch. [22:49] 07Dryas calls a few deckhands about her and in a single smooth motion draws the pocket flamepiece she keeps in her pocket and throws it to the deck. Roots and branches grow around it until there is a short, stubby flame cannon sitting there, with a few ripe firedust melons and matchstick flowers growing alongside. Dryas aims and, at the right moment, orders the crew to fire as the ship's rolling coincides with the monster's [22:49] movement. A gout of flame spurts from the mouth as the crew begin reloading the melons into the smoking barrel. 15[22:53] The creature withers, splinters, scours, and burns. Huge rents are blown through it, wide enough for Daizo to glide through, as its grip on the Defiance is broken before the hull does so much as crack. There's a sound, somewhere between whalesong and the low, mournful intonation of a giant horn, that rattles the teeth of all on deck. 15[22:53] The creature, badly wounded, recoils and sinks beneath the waves, perhaps to die. 15[22:53] The sailors and officers cheer at the Fangs' success! [22:54] 4Piu feels the Rune retreat. She's fairly certain it'll live, if diminished; at the very least, the Rune wasn't able to kill it outright. [22:56] 10Daizo managed to break one of the leviathan's teeth right off with a flying knee, and a moment later he sees Current pull off a very similar attack aimed for another part of the beast. It's almost cute. [22:59] 07Dryas points, calling her shot, then draws, nocks, and fires! A tendril of vines follows behind her arrow, which sinks with a thunk sound into one of the creature's watery blue eyes and then pulls back. 15[23:00] The eye is heavy, hard, and slick in Dryas's hand. It seems to slosh, also, being hard enough that the cobalt-blue vitreous fluids swirling within act like reagents in a phial. [23:03] 07Dryas holds it aloft in triumph. "Ha ha! Get a look at this! Amazing!" [23:04] 4Piu, happily: "Gross!" 15[23:05] Ratel: "Damn fine work, everyone!" [23:07] 10Daizo: "Whew. Talk about a close one." 15[23:08] Samperson: "No kidding. That thing was big enough to crush the ship." [23:09] 4Piu: "We should probably find a place to pull into port and give the Defiance a once-ov--- what's that golden...saucer?" 15[23:10] The rest of the voyage is far less eventful. Caxi gives Daizo the book she stole from the Heptagram library, and finds another of her possessions floating among the crew: the sugar dish she keeps her cocaine in had been picked up by Sadako, who thought it was part of Seiri's tea set. Luckily no one actually used it, as far as Sadako attests. Unless Zhangyu wants to contradict her. 15[23:11] Ratel agrees that the ship needs a once-over, but is adamant that they keep making time to the Gyre. They can examine it as they go. [23:11] 4Fair enough! 15[23:11] And certainly not try to lick their wounds at a floating casino. Samperson will explain if no one else does. [23:11] 4Sounds fun though. [23:11] 10Yeah, no. Not today. [23:12] 10It does raise the question: who's it out here for? Furia? Some ship on an even weirder and more doomed mission? [23:13] 07Maybe Fakharu is sightseeing. For her part, Dryas is incredibly self-satisfied. Bagged a sea-behemoth! [23:13] 10Or maybe it's just a ship and a casino passing in the night.  15[23:15] Several more days pass, and the seas grow treacherous. Caxi can keep the skies clear enough, but the ocean churns beyond her ability — or that of Daizo's elemental — to contain. It's quite a sight, the calm gray sky above and the tense, choppy water they sail on. The mist out beyond the range of Caxi's magic parts only reluctantly as they draw further east, and it's six days from 15[23:15] Brightwork that the first ships are visible. Foreign lettering, quaint little threshold designs... and new crew. Empty hulks bobbing in the water. 15[23:18] Ratel frowns over the water, her senior staff arrayed around her. "Dryas, can you pierce this fog at all?" [23:22] 4Piu's on the rigging, wearing a bit more clothing than usual from the chilly, foggy seas. 15[23:23] Gyre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLvCMZEPGJg - ♫♪♬♪♩ [23:27] 07Dryas crawls up atop the bowspirit at the very front of the ship. She cranes her neck this way and that - not looking with her eyes, but feeling for scents with her nose. She breathes deeply, past the brine, past the rotting wood and barnacles and canvas and hemp and birdshit... 15[23:32] For a long while Dryas doesn't get anything. Just the turbulent sea and the still, vacant derelicts. But the first prickles of smoke catch her nose on the wind, and she's able to call headings that bring it closer and closer over the course of a day, and with it come more smells, of sweat and leather and roughly-brewed wine. What kind of approach does she advise? [23:36] "Better go straight at them. Whoever it is," 07is Dryas's recommendation. 15[23:36] So be it. 15[23:37] The mist is so dense and the seas so rough that despite the scents being much stronger than they were hours ago, the first horn is alarmingly close. Then another, further away. Then two more, in opposite directions. Over the next few minutes a network of alarms goes up, dozens of them, stretching for malms deeper into the mist. [23:39] 4Great. [23:40] 07Great! [23:41] 10The Defiance is probably already aat the center of a cordon—not that they'd ever know unless the damnable fog clears.  [23:41] "How do they see us if we don't see them?" 07Dryas ponders as she, salt-soaked, clambers back to the deck. 15[23:42] The Defiance continues onward, the mood tense; if it comes to battle, they're well-surrounded and downwind. But Ratel orders a hailing horn of their own sent into the mist, a long string of long and short notes. 15[23:43] Another horn, one of the more distant ones, blows a counterpoint. Ratel points sharply in that direction. "That way! That's an Admiralty code!" 15[23:44] The Defiance adjusts its heading, leaning larboard and cutting a gentle arc past more, shorter horn signals. A weight settles over the vessel, and the sky darkens... [23:45] 07Dryas is all nervous smiles. A lengthy expedition, nearly complete? 15[23:45] ...because they've sailed out of the mist, into clear and open sea as far as the eye can mark, surrounded by dozens of ships, beneath a clear and moonlit night. [23:45] 4! [23:45] 10Haha, yeah. That'd be nice, Dryas.  15[23:47] Many of them are derelicts like the ones they passed, but even these are peopled, clambered over by people in naval uniforms of varying states of repair. The floating hulks are, almost categorically, in better shape than the naval vessels, which look to have barely survived one or more disasters. Snapped masts, roughly patched hulls, huge piles of raw lumber lashed to every vessel 15[23:47] until it sags under its own ballast. [23:47] 4What the fuck? 15[23:49] In the distance, at the far edge of Dryas's night vision, the horizon seems to undulate, a slow and rhythmic convulsion that brings to mind a restless sleeper. But it's open water as far as she can see; the ocean itself is doing that. The Gyre. [23:50] 10The state of the ships, at least, matches up with Deled's description. Other parts, however, do not.  [23:51] 10The sky wasn't clear, it never is this time of year,10 he'd said. But they seem to have passed into another region of weather entirely. [23:52] 07Dryas will call the attention of others to it. "Do you see that? The sea is like wine in a drunkard's glass." 15[23:53] Hundreds of people watch the approaching Defiance through spyglasses and under lantern-hooding hands... but only one vessel moves to intercept. It... was a naval vessel, once. But it's been broken and remade. Behind the huge, almost pontoon-like worked lumber weights hugging it to the sea, the watchful can see the seams where the ship was, at some point, broken almost exactly in 15[23:53] half. And across the bow is the freshly-repainted name of the vessel: Holy Mountain. 15[23:54] The flagship of the Northern Water Fleet. [23:54] 10Daizo: "How huge is it? We must only be on the outskirts of the vortex…" [23:54] 4Piu drops down next to Caedus. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this." 15[23:55] Caedus gives Piu a 'me too' kind of look. [23:56] 10How about Ratel? Does she look troubled, or elated for the object of her quest to finally be in sight? Or simply unreadable, in the way those trained to command can be? 15[23:57] Ratel's eyes are wide and fierce; whatever she's feeling, it's intense. 15[23:58] The huge ship is swift indeed despite its odd bulk, and soon the Mountain has come to Defiance, close enough for the figure at its bow to wave. A wide-shouldered blue cape over a uniform that has been patched through many injuries. Long aquamarine hair pulled into a rough and salty ponytail. An expression of such intense focus that it seems to outshine the waxing moon above. The 15[23:58] hand that isn't waving rests on the hilt of the sword at her hip. [23:58] 07Dryas stares out at her quarry. 15[23:59] Ratel raises her hand in kind; and she, too, has her other hand resting on her weapon. "FURIA!" 15[00:01] The crews and officers of both vessels stare across the distance being closed first by vessels, then by planks, and finally by commanders. 15[00:01] The higher-ranking sister holds her senior at arm's length, giving her a look that wear down a mountain. 15[00:01] "Sister," breathes the Admiral. 15[00:01] Peleps Furia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F51vlBy0lTQ - Rise again. 15[00:01] NEXT TIME: The Moment of the Storm