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Chapter Text

Syldra's Tailfin held its course steady on calm seas to Tycoon's nearest harbor for the first time in over a year. Faris Scherwiz took herself across the deck to overlook her surroundings with pride. A large and formidable ship, the crew was all working their hardest to make sure it returned safely, from the navigator at the charts to the latest swabby cleaning the poop deck. The latter muttered a new sentence of disdain with each swipe of the mop: "Aye, captain, I'll start at the bottom. I'll go as low as you want. You know, your boots look dirty too, should I clean those along with this filthy..." He stopped when a shadow overtook him.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" Bartz Klauser asked in a wavering tone.

"You know why you have to do this," the captain responded. Faris stared up at him with an intensity that belied the size of the speaker. "I told you when you agreed to come aboard that you'd earn your way up. Now do it." She leaned in close to his ear and added lowly, "Or else they'll cry favoritism."

Bartz groaned as he stepped aside towards the crew to whom she referred. His grip on the mop tightened as though it were on the pommel of a sword instead, which Faris knew all too well he could wield expertly. Was he really losing his temper or was this an act? Either way, the air thickened from his anger. She took a moment to linger on his next actions, gauging her friend by them.

To her relief he just went back to work, still cursing but doing his job. Faris strode her way next to the helm of the Tailfin. "So what's the estimate based on these new charts?" she asked her first mate.

The burly, copper-haired giant looked down at his captain with a nervous smile, checker boarded from missing teeth. "That one's trouble. Why'd you accept him?"

"We saved the bloomin' world together, Coren. Have some faith in me. He'll shape up." Faris drummed her fingers along the ship's wheel and prayed she was right.

After all, as it stood now Bartz was worrying her. Not that she could ever voice the concern to him out loud. When could she anyway? The only time they would ever have was at night after dinner... Wait.

"Something amiss, captain?"

Faris shook her head and sent her lilac hair akimbo. "No. I just had an idea is all. By the by, you never answered. How long till harbor?"

Coren eyed her with a curious expression. "I'd give it two days. Maybe three, based on them clouds we're seeing."

"Good. Keep the men safe above all and know I trust your judgment." She reached up to pat him on his broad shoulder, flashed him a grin that looked more confident than she felt, and turned on her heel to meet back up with the swabby.

A few of her men started working faster at the ropes when she passed but she took little notice. Her attention sat squarely on Bartz, who was pouring the dirty mop water overboard. "What is it now?" he asked harshly, not meeting her gaze. She turned him around to face her and pointed his head downward to address her properly. "Klauser." He flinched. "You're going to be meeting with me during nights now. After you've finished your meal, which you'd best be quick about doing, I want you to report to my quarters before the lamps get lit. Am I making myself clear?" The last Faris said in a raised voice, turning the heads of those nearby.

Bartz, who had gone from aloof to stock still from the use of his family name, gave a trembling salute and murmured, "Aye, sir."

Sir. There was that bubble of contention too. Ever since felling the great tree known as Exdeath, Faris had grown at least a little more accustomed to her sex. Those on the Tailfin knew nothing of her facade but sometime soon the truth had to come out to everyone but the healer aboard and Bartz, those who already were aware. She was suddenly too conscious of the bindings at her breasts after that last word, shrugging her shoulders with her response.

"That'll do. This does start tonight, so you have..." The sun peeked through the clouds at a crooked angle, one that made her guess what time was left. "Looks like one or two hours to clean that deck. Think you've got it in you?"

Bartz followed where she pointed and groaned as he replied, "Aye, sir."

Faris tried not to cringe at the word. For some reason hearing him in particular address her as such was almost painful... "Good." She clapped him on the back and smiled the widest she could bear.
---
At the galley Faris was quiet, to the point where Coren took note at her side as she played with her mealy apple at first. "This ain't like ya, sir. What's eating you that you're not eating, yourself?"

She sighed and took out her favorite dagger from her adventure, the one infused with a dancer's soul, to slice the fruit while she scanned those with their meals. She didn't see Bartz among them readily but she had faith. "I don't know. I..." Guilt from her lie filled her stomach with bile as she pressed on: "I'm going to speak with Klauser. I know it's only been two weeks aboard but his disposition's gone from sunshine to clouds."

"And he still hasn't got his damn sea legs," Coren grumbled through the soaked hard tack he now had in his gullet. "He does a good job hidin' it from you, though we see him leanin' over the Tailfin's edge at least twice a day.

At this Faris popped an apple piece into her own mouth, chewing over her thoughts and the fruit at the same time. "Just be happy it isn't an airship or a wind drake. He can't stand heights." The edge of her lips turned in for a weak smile at the memory of his admission.

Coren turned on the bench to face his captain after a sip of grog and said, "You like him. No, don't go sayin' nothing, it's obvious," he continued over her splutter. "Savin' a whole world does things to those who do it. You've had life or death on these seas with us, but it's a mite different than that. The Lady Krile and Her Highness have your likin' too."

Ah, her sister. In truth, Faris recollected over another bite, this ship has been a gift from Lenna. She'd set the grand boat at harbor with conveniently few guards so the captain could "steal" it and never pressed charges on her in the meantime. And as for Krile, she was arranging things within her own kingdom to take the crown any minute. It had only made sense for the two girls to keep up with each other on that page, so Bartz had begged to come aboard for adventure with her as well.

Or was there more? Begging was most unlike him and he was usually easy to read. But something in that motive was unclear.

"Captain?" When she blinked, Coren's meaty hand was waving in front of her, free of the hard tack. How long had she been lost in thought?

She quickly sliced through her apple again and stuffed it into her face to avoid speaking more before she could formulate an alibi.
---
A knock sounded on Faris's door about twenty minutes after dinner. "Enter." Her coat sat over the seat she now occupied, poring over two old maps and trying to puzzle where they combined on a blank parchment roll. She glanced up to see Bartz as expected, but the green tinge in his cheeks and slump in his shoulders wasn't something she anticipated. "You all right?"

He tousled his hair away from his face better than what the circlet allowed. "Permission to speak freely, captain?"

"Granted."

He sighed a puff of relief. "Thank the gods. Faris, I've missed being able to talk to you like a person!" Bartz's demeanor changed from anxious to relaxed as she knew from their time together. "What did you call me in here for?"

She set down her chocobo quill, the headache in her forehead forming too fast for her comfort. Getting up from the chair Faris approached him, meeting eye to eye for the second time today.

"Are you happy aboard?" she asked in a tone she prayed didn't betray her nerves.

For a moment Bartz's mouth lay open on its jaw. He put a finger to his chin in thought, but Faris rolled her eyes before too long.

"I'm serious, Bartz, are you? I know you agreed to this-- hellfire, you practically begged for a spot on the crew-- but you don't seem like yourself," she conceded to her friend.

"Then I put on just as good an act as I mean to," he replied with a grin that seemed to brighten her quarters. Now that was more like the Bratz she knew. "I'm trying to be miserable so the men don't pick on me. Don't want them thinking we're too close."

Too late for that, she thought, but didn't voice it. Instead she just matched his smile. "That's good to hear but don't lay it on so thick, for Leviathan's sake! I was worried about you, you dullard." She cuffed him gently on the head and let out a laugh when he dodged it for the most part.

"No need to worry about me," Bartz assured her as he straightened back up and rubbed unnecessarily roughly at where she had an impact. "I'm fine here with you," he added in a softer tone.

One that put a knot under her bindings. What did that mean? She was about to ask for some clarity when a glow under her emerald green scarf caught both their sets of eyes.

"Lenna?" Faris undid the fabric to reveal the necklace whose pendant matched her sister's, charmed with a mix of Silence and Esuna to allow them to speak across great distances. "Did you mean to activate--”

"Bartz is with you, right?" the queen asked over her. "I have a message. It's urgent. But it's for his ears only."

Faris's nose wrinkled. "Yes... He's right here, actually. What's so important I can't hear?" she insisted. Taking off her necklace was not something she did for anything but bathing. Giving it up, even to someone she trusted so much as Bartz and even for a moment, left a foul taste in her mouth.

She was damn lucky they were in her quarters. That title was loaded and Lenna knew it. "Fine." Faris undid the clasp of her jewelry and handed it to him with great care before stepping out... And pressed her ear right to her heavy door, whose weight she cursed.

Nothing. Damn. There was no way to tell what the two of them were saying. She'd had her white mage sibling magic it too well before taking off with it. At least the spell works, she consoled herself, before the flat surface in front of her opened and nearly made her tumble into the cabin.

"Warn me next time," Faris admonished him. But he didn't seem to hear. The hand that held out her necklace, now its normal appearance, was shaking. "What exactly did she say then?"

Bartz gulped, his face white. "Change course as quickly as possible. I'm to be knighted by Castle Surgate."

Chapter Text

"You're-- what do you mean, knighted?" Faris demanded before she could stop herself. "You've got to have a king to do it first! And as I recall, Galuf and Xezat and Kelger were the rulers of that world before they..." She trailed off, waved her hand weakly before taking back her necklace.
Bartz, who let his arm drop to his side, shook his head a couple of times like a waterlogged dog. "Lenna says they looked through his family tree and found an heir in it. Someone named Xinia will be taking his crown..." He swallowed hard again, his expression twisted in confusion. "And she wants me to be a knight of Surgate. She said it was the least she could offer a Dawn Warrior."
Pride made Faris's chest swell as she rested her pendant upon it. It actually did so to a degree where it hurt under the bindings, but that was little concern compared to what was going on now. To think one of her friends was going to receive such a high honor! She scanned him carefully, noting that he hadn't looked away from her at all yet. "So are you going to take it?"
"Are you joking?" he fired back immediately. "Of course! I've always wanted to be like Dad. And now I can." At least he seemed a little more like himself now, that same dopey smile pulling at his re-coloring face. "So what's the fastest way to get to Surgate from here?" Bartz asked hesitantly. He knew. So did she.
"I'll tell Coren to head to Crescent for the airship. Besides, it's been too long since we've seen Cid and Mid anyway." Faris tried to make the best of it for his sake. Being that high up in the air would turn him green within minutes but maybe keeping good company would help. It was worth an attempt anyway.
Bartz's shoulders sloped in defeat. "All right. Just-- this has to be a secret." He emphasized the word with enough power that she knew repercussions were after her if she didn't. Probably least of which was the ire of her sister, regardless of anything else. But either way the captain would never have dreamed of betraying his trust.
"Can this wait till morning, do you think?" This late at night, no one would be fond of starting a new course. If anyone even got an inkling as to it being on his behalf she'd never hear the end of it from Coren either. And that was just him. Who knew what the rest of the Tailfin's crew thought of him, or if they cared?
"It can, but not by much. Lenna said we have ten days till the ceremony."
"Ten--?" Faris pulled at her ponytail, frustration seeping out of her mouth as a deep groan. What was Lenna thinking, giving so little notice? Thank Leviathan it was for a good reason but anything else and there would have been hell to pay, her crown be damned. She twisted her hair through her finger, fidgeting as she thought. "Fine. We're going to have to make some amazing time on the water and in the air, so I'm warning you now, it'll be rough seas and rougher air."
By now the nerves had Bartz pacing back and forth like a clock's pendulum. He didn't seem to be fully listening anymore either. Not by the faroff look in his eyes whenever she caught them in the dim light. It took her saying his name to get a reaction and even that was stunted when he stopped in front of her. "What?"
Faris huffed and replied, "Never mind. Below deck with you, and get some sleep. We'll need it for tomorrow."
"Do you still expect me that night?"
"Why would I..." She was halfway through the question before remembering her request this afternoon. "Oh. Yes, please. That way we can talk like we used to. I don't like having you as an underling." And that much was true. Since his two months aboard the ship Faris had barely gotten a word in edgewise with him that wasn't a command. She'd seen him wilting over that time and it hurt to lose the closeness they once had. But what would be the excuse for it? "Bring your lute. I fear I have had trouble sleeping and I know you mastered that class while we were off felling that damn tree."
He gave a trembling salute and bowed low for her. "Aye, captain. Permission to leaven then?"
"Once again, granted."
She followed him with her eyes on his way downwards, surprised when he stopped towards the edge of the stairs. "Good night, captain," he called gently enough that she had to strain to hear it.
"Good night, Klauser," Faris replied similarly.

Just as she thought, Coren wasn't pleased at all once she broke the news first thing in the morning. "So we're just changing course completely then?" he bellowed at her request. "We were supposed to be getting supplies! Do you know how creative the cook's had to be with what little is in the foodstores?"
Of course she did, but there was no disobeying orders from the queen of Tycoon, practically the de facto kingdom of the merged worlds. Maybe she should have taken up Lenna's request to be her privateer after all; then she would have had an out here. No time to explain now, though. "Trust me. It's for good reason. We need to get to Crescent as soon as possible." Flailing mentally, Faris told a half-truth: "Do you recall that old man I told you about, that inventor from Karnak?"
Coren scratched beneath the bandanna at his forehead, jostling it in the action. "Aye, but what does this have to do with--"
"We need his airship. Or, I do."
His gaze darted up from the half-finished map to his captain, the implication of that amendment heavy in her heart as he put two and two together. "You're leavin' us again? Why?" His crestfallen expression almost made Faris want to break her promise to Bartz.
But she didn't. Instead, she powered through: "I need to get somewhere in a hurry with as few of the men as possible. Klauser is joining me. No offense," she added quickly to the raise in his eyebrows, "but it's business I trust him with."
"An' not me? I'm the one who helped you earn your title after the old captain hung up his boots," he reminded her harshly. "Sir, you've been gone so long the crew barely knows who you are anymore. So much has changed. The entire world is different and you are too."
He didn't have to say that. Faris was all too aware of her tentative place back at command on her own ship. But had she changed, really? The only real difference was... well, that was an issue for another time. Only Bartz and the medic knew that part, and she was inclined to keep it that way. Being the only woman aboard, even if she was the highest ranking, was no good.
She feigned disbelief and rested a hand over her heart. "I don't know what else you want out of me but what I'm doing. Please, just spare a sip of belief in me. I swear what I'm doing is the right thing, Coren." Was it? Now wasn't the time to think about it too much.
His curly orange hair, already limp from sweat in the morning heat, went all over the place when he finally gave her a nod. "Aye. But you're breakin' it to them. I'll not be doing dirty work of saying goodbye for you."

That was exactly what Faris did. After ringing the bell and summoning the crew in a single file line above deck, she strode across them on the squeaky-clean boards. "Men. I know I haven't been back long... and I thank you for all you have done in that time, by the by. But I need you all to stay strong while I'm land-bound a little while longer." A few of them moaned their despair, quickly silenced by her acidic glare. "I have business to attend elsewhere and I'm going to be needing each and every one of you to be your best in the meantime. Coren's taking over in my stead."
"What's the reason?" the navigator, a salt-and-peppered older member among them named Kashi, dared to ask.
"Dawn Warrior business," she responded a mite too fast for Bartz's comfort based on the throat-clear she heard from him. "I'll be gone as short a time as I can. Until my return, remember my rules. Take only from those better off from us and whatever happens ashore is all on the level. Am I understood?" Albeit a pirate, Faris did her best to make sure she kept some morals about those under her employ.
The captain watched myriad hands come up in a joined salute. Various affirmations popped out of their mouths.
"Then off to Crescent we go."

Chapter Text

True to his word, Bartz did show up the next evening. He brought Apollo's harp with him from the Graviga bag. Krile had charmed it with her time magic, holding four times as much as it should have due to reducing its inventory's weight. Faris lazily watched her friend's fingers strum away at the instrument while he sang. This time it was a love song from a far-off place.

"Anna, rest in peace where you lay

We will reunite, but till then

Love the man who I am today

Not the fool I once had been…"

Her eyes were growing heavy by the time Bartz got to the second verse. In truth she didn't know the next set of lines because this one always put her out. In their arrangement to soothe her tired nerves Faris always demanded he wake her to say goodbye, no matter how long she had been asleep before. And it happened again tonight.

A gentle hand with calloused fingers rustled at her exhaustion-tousled hair. "Hey. Coren's about to douse the unneeded lamps." Her fellow Warrior of Light spoke so gently, so sweetly. "Have I permission to leave, Captain?" Well, there went the sweetness. It was there for just those few words before and then they grew cold when expecting her command.

Faris sleepily nodded and stretched against her bindings, a great yawn rippling through her. "Yes. We should be hitting Crescent soon too," she added. Looking his way she saw a smile form on his face but his eyes remained stormy with emotions she couldn't read. "From there we won't be far. It'll be good to see the scientists. Lenna'll be there too with Krile's help supposedly."

Bartz flinched. Why, she didn't know, but there was no mistaking the hesitation at his hand on the doorknob. She heard a swallow in the dim light and regretted the next words he spoke: "I was hoping we'd be alone."

"And what's the meaning behind that?"

He seemed to flounder for words a moment or two by the weak movements of his jaw. "Shouldn't they already be at Castle Bal meeting this Xinia?"

"Ah, true, we know nothing about her. Did my sister share any information about her?" Faris asked through another yawn.

"Only that she was a niece of Xezat," he replied weakly. "I didn't think he had siblings, but that would have been a question for the old man."

Galuf. The Warriors spoke little of him for some reason or another, not even his granddaughter. He was a good man, and the last they'd seen him was on the parapets of the castle formed after Exdeath's felling. Every one of them missed him greatly, especially Krile. Faris felt it the hardest at moments like this where she could have used his fatherly advice. Like how she missed her Captain. And even the king of Tycoon in his own strange way.

Her thoughts captured her long enough that Bartz cleared his throat. "May I?" he reconfirmed.

"Yes, permission to leave. Don't wake the others."

He ruffled his hair past his circlet and turned the knob. "Aye, Captain."

And she was alone again.

---

The old sails around Faris's torso were not in place when she woke up, well past dawn. A bell rang to alert her to the sunlight that made her eyes ache as she tied her breasts down in a hurry. Just how long had those flotsam let her sleep?

Quickly she tossed a shirt over herself and pulled her pants up, barely bothering to make a presentable facade for the crew. Not far off in the distance a moon-shaped island was appearing on the horizon, according to the spyglass she kept at the outside of her door. "And why was I not woken?" she demanded of anyone in earshot.

The nearest deckhand, a gangly teen who struggled to form words around her before the worlds became one, found his tongue against all odds. "We tried," he stammered out once her eyes fell upon him. '"But… but you was out cold, Cap'n. Short of touching you we couldn't do a damned thing."

Good to know they were still respecting that rule. Faris had little time to thank him for doing so before Coren and Kashi took to either side of her. It was the first mate who spoke.

"I swear to you, that Klauser boy is just as poor luck aboard as a woman would be," he rumbled. "If not for your adventure with him I'd have the waste of space using seaweed for floss. But…" He gave a significant look to Kashi, who shrugged in return. "Good to see you on two feet, though, Captain. We reach landfall in three hours or around there."

"Good." The comment about a woman on board the Tailfin had put a shudder down her spine but it must have gone unnoticed. Those two were still too busy arguing with her over Bartz yet again. "And I swear in return that Mister Klauser just needs his sea legs to come back. Early on we ended up on a ships' graveyard. He had them fine there, but it shook the lot of us."

Faris more than anyone. It was the reason this very vessel bore its name. Syldra was not something she brought up to anyone if she could avoid it. Hopefully the flow of conversation wouldn't go there. They had to know her sea monster sibling of sorts was a bridge too far.

Her shoulders sagged in relief when Kashi just made a "pah!" noise and trudged off, while Coren gave her a once-over in silence, only to do the same a few seconds later.

With all hands doing what they needed, Faris took back to her room to put in her coat and hat to protect her skin from the sun's harsh rays overhead. Three hours until her sister and their companion would see the two of them again. Three hours until the Warriors were whole once more.

Why did she feel so much regret?

Chapter Text

The next three hours passed by glacially slow. Navigating a new reef formation thanks to the new world was not part of the plan, but with some careful sailing it was a snap. If Faris had been honest with herself she would have preferred the situation to take even longer. Unease sank into her bones over the whole situation but what was she to do? This was Bartz's dream come true. His nerve-stricken face still held excitement every time she looked it over, which was more often than she realized until—

"Captain!" A man lugging a rope passed by, waving a hand in front of her face. "Quit making googly eyes at the shore. We don't get there by staring at it. We get there with effort."

Any other day and she would have had that former swabby keelhauled but today she couldn't argue with him. It was time to focus. Getting her head into the task at hand she called up to the crow's nest, "Have we a spot to moor?"

Cid and Mid should have prepared one by the time they returned, and true enough, a small dock was standing near where their ship had once been swallowed. It didn't take Kashi's response to see it, yet it was good to hear the old deckhand's confirmation. "Aye. You'll be leaving us soon again, Captain."

The way he said it left a sour taste in Faris's dry mouth. Scorn, or was she reading into that too much? Whatever. It was of little importance compared to actually getting into the laboratory again. Characteristically the grandfather and his assistant were not there to meet them. Too busy at work. But who was there surprised the new Dawn Warrior.

A ship each bearing the flags of Bal and Tycoon waited for them when they were close enough to read what their sails said. Unsure whether to fly the Jolly Roger or not Faris demanded a change to the purple-green of Syldra's skin and a sea monster's tail as its emblem. Both of the other vessels closed their cannon ports at the sight. Lenna had told them long ago that this was a friendly banner now, even if the ship flying it was a stolen good. And besides, the queen and princess would never have allowed any harm to befall the former's sister.

Before Faris could properly round up her crew to say her goodbyes, a small— yet not as small as she remembered— figure audibly teleported onto the deck in between herself and Bartz. There was no questioning who it was. That blond hair and serious face with twinkling eyes could only be one person. One who wrapped her arms around the single male of the party.

"Bartz, Faris, I missed you two so much!" Krile practically shrieked. She knocked Bartz's circlet clean off his brow and almost took out Faris's tricorn when it was her turn for a hug. "Oh. Sorry. Forgot you're not much for…" Her grip loosened on the pirate, who merely wheezed at the tightness around her abdomen.

"Missed you too, kid," she managed through her shallow breaths while Bartz took to rubbing his knuckles briskly over Krile's scalp to muss up her hair. It was good to see the honorary little-sister of the group again, especially in such an exuberant state. "Where is—?"

"Not far," Krile responded once she succeeded at last at pushing Bartz away. As if realizing in one fell swoop she was royalty, the girl straightened her clothes with a deep clearing of her throat and straightened the subtle tiara on her forehead. Ever torn between two mindsets. It was enough to earn a chuckle from Faris.

"That's good to hear, lass. Let me make a wager that you came over to get us over there?"

She responded with a nod and a regal smile. "But of course. It would be way easier to get you two to our destination if we, uh, make haste with my travel methods?"

This time Faris disguised the outright laugh with a cough. So unlike her to speak this properly. Her governess must have been having a field day training her to take the throne with dignity. Wordlessly the captain reached out the hand that had covered her mouth moments ago to Krile's own extended one, just as Bartz was doing.

In a thrill of energy that never got too easy to experience the trio warped through their surroundings. Colors flashed all around them until it was mostly dark and their feet rested, instead of on a rolling vessel, over a threadbare-carpeted tunnel's floor.

The Ronkans had spared all expenses with their decorating in the centuries passed since their ruins were discovered, but to the Previas' credit they were trying their best. In the time it took for Faris to swivel her head from left to right once she'd finished bracing herself she saw a few plants in the abandoned pots. Some paintings and schematics also lined the halls as they walked forward and Krile and Bartz jabbered about something she couldn't quite register. The sight of hair so strawberry-blonde it looked pink in the low light made her stomach do a happy flip.

With no one to call her on it, Faris strode past her companions to the chair where Lenna was sitting, laughing at something the young scientist had just said. In an instant the freshly crowned queen looked up at the sound and excused herself. "Mid, please forgive me, you'll have to finish this story later…" In a graceful, fluid motion Lenna stood to leave the inventory to his welding once more uninterrupted. "Sister, it does my heart good to see you well!"

Even if the act wasn't necessary it still felt right to bow at the waist and remove her hat in a sweeping gesture. Without missing a beat the younger sibling broke out into her charming laughter and lifted Faris's chin with those fingers somehow still delicate after battle-hardening.

"Come now, are you really going to treat your own like royalty?" she asked slyly. "You're going to make me feel out of sorts."

"Just practicing for this Xinia bird," Faris explained through her own grin. "It's wonderful to see you so hale and hearty yourself, Lenna. I was worried the chancellor was going to be breathing down your neck even now. Did you ever express my feelings to him about having been shoved in that abomination of a ballgown like I asked you to?"

In fairness, her rediscovery had led to one good thing. It hadn't just scared Exdeath out of hiding to cause another portal to the Void. It had also given Faris a different look at Bartz. Or rather, him at her. She still remembered fondly his starstruck smile and strange reaction overall. Had things not gone so fully sour, maybe that night would have—

For the second time she found herself interrupted by someone's fingers in her face. Lenna coughed loudly enough to bring her into reality again and asked, "Did you even hear a word I said?" When Faris nodded too fast she knew her fate was sealed. "I don't want to cause him any further undue stress. If you were even serious about it in the first place, I mean. He still thinks you left because of him." They both knew it was a moot point because it was partially true.

Salt and seawater and the wind were just as much a part of her as the essence of flame she carried thanks to the crystals. There was no readying her for rulership over anything but the Tailfin. Lenna would do well enough for both of them, as Faris had told her time and again. "It's not my fault Hiryu dumped me over his back during that storm… but speaking of weather, what is Cid predicting for the travel southwest to Castle Surgate?"

Mid spoke up this time, lifting a gnarly-looking shield from his face to reveal how sweaty it was underneath. "Oh, that's me. I like spending more time aboveground than Grandpa. 'I might just be part Ronkan, this place feels so much like home,' he likes to say," the boy added with a smile. Sure enough, though, he was becoming less boy and more man. All his work in the ruins were bulking up his muscles to match his brain.

"So what have you got to say then, Mid?" Faris amended while she ducked away from the torch he held a tad too close for comfort.

"You'll have clear skies the whole way. Thank you for not taxing yourselves with teleporting. If all four of you knew how it would be a different issue, but it strains Krile." A lilt on her name made both girls share a look at each other. Maybe it wasn't just the heat getting to him. He massaged his Adam's apple a couple times before going on, "And we've made some advancements to the airship too. It should be the smoothest ride you've ever had on it."

"Sincerely, thank you, the both of you." Lenna's voice forever had a diplomatic tone to it but the devotion in her smile was evident. She curtsied gently to the scientist and looked around, off in the distance to where Cid was asleep at a blueprint.

Mid's glance followed hers to the old man, where he shrugged and wiped some soot off his neck. "He's been getting sleepier. It's part of life. Or maybe not life." His goofy grin faded into something not often seen on the enthusiastic young man. It reminded Faris of how Bartz was looking lately.

"Would you like me to grant him a little more energy?" the queen of Tycoon offered, white magic swirling around her wrist.

Mid wiped at his glasses in shock and gulped. "I don't think it's that. It's just… he's tired. Let him be. If time magic could show us how much he's got left, that might be worth seeing— or maybe not. Some things are best untouched," he decided in slow, methodical hesitation. But he did flick his eyes to Krile for a moment.

"You are a wise soul." Lenna patted him on the head after dispelling her mana, reaching up to do so, which seemed to surprise her. "And a tall body. I don't recall you being so much so. A lot has changed since… then," she ended lamely.

"And more's about to," Bartz added after breaking free of Krile's conversation. Of course he'd be eager about getting his title. Something lingered in his expression she couldn't place, though, and it made her uneasy in a way she similarly couldn't identify. "So let's get this ship in the air. Normal positions?"

Faris, knowing she would be at the helm, nodded resolutely to the one the crystals had already chosen over and over to wield a blade. The other two women went to their places and Mid rushed into the heart of the ruins, screaming something about foodstuffs before coming out with packs of hardtack.

Time to set sail into the skies.