Damon and Vel were joined by the others as they hurried down to the main deck. Lascivious was already making her way across the length of the arm, crossing it as though it were a bridge and she was on a leisurely, evening stroll across to the other side of town.
She wore all black, a tight outfit that showed off a tight body. Seffi had become a woman alongside one of the Forsaken, one with curves that Damon would have appreciated, had she not been the new central evil in his life.
“Would you care to explain to me just what it is, exactly, that you think you’re doing?” called Lascivious. Her voice was closer to petulant than authoritative, but still loud, still powerful.
Damon was ready, as were Ria and Lilian, all of them standing poised for combat. Malon was also ready, but for a different battle, as it happened. She strode to the front of the group and set her hands on her hips, assuming a familiar posture that still brought memories of her punishments from their childhood.
“Seta,” she snapped at Lascivious. “That was uncalled for. You have no idea what using your magic in such a manner might have done to this ship. There are better ways to get answers to your questions than—”
An aura of crimson pulsed around Lascivious, and Malon suddenly gasped, back arching, eyes glowing, crest pulsing with brilliant runic light. Damon shouted in horror, knowing that Lascivious was taking control of her, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it.
The moment only lasted for an instant, however, more like a quick prod to the side, a hard yank of a leash. Malon wavered, but didn’t break, still staying on her feet and more importantly, still maintaining her authority.
“How dare you!” shouted Malon. “You promised me that you would never do that again! Get over here, this instant.”
That tone, that expression. Damon felt a secondhand cringe run through him as he watched Seffi drop her eyes in shame. He was amazed that his aesta could use the same voice she’d once used during her most infuriated moments with Ria and him, during their childhood, on one of the Forsaken. Vel had usually been spared this level of ire, cute and mostly obedient as she’d been.
“You… were talking to me as though I was a child,” said Lascivious, shoulders slumping, eyes looking anywhere but at the red-haired matriarch.
“You act like a child!” snapped Malon.
Lascivious flinched as though she’d been slapped, a reaction with which Damon was familiar. Malon had never raised a hand against him and Ria in anger, but he’d seen her punish Lascivious with a strike before. He supposed physical discipline was within the fair realm of punishment when it came to dissuading one from world-breaking temper tantrums.
“I just wanted to know what you were doing!” said Lascivious, voice frustrated.
“I’d be more than willing to explain,” said Damon. “There’s no need for drama or… giant crimson hands.”
He glanced toward Malon, who slowly nodded. He wasn’t sure how to tell her the truth in a way that didn’t risk compromising their objective. Lascivious would no doubt take issue with their quest to dampen the Ocean Klykia, but he supposed he could still tell her a version of the truth, if not the whole thing.
“We discovered a way to undo much of the destruction of Veridan’s Curve and restore vitality to the land,” he said. “It’s a means that stems from a magical place of power far across the Endless Ocean, hence the ship.”
He waited, expecting her to call him out for being so vague.
“By what right would you deign to change the realm that I rule?” she said. “Avarice ruled it, and I killed him, so it’s mine now.”
“And what a realm it is, seta,” said Malon darkly. “By what right did you have to destroy it to begin with?”
Lascivious looked away again, and Malon pressed on.
“I know how much guilt you still harbor. You can’t change the past, Seffi… but perhaps in allowing us to do this, you might make for a better future. For yourself, for the people of your realm, and for the world.”
Damon had to suppress a smile as he heard the echo of his own words from a few days earlier. They seemed just as effective on Lascivious as they’d been on his aesta. The Forsaken slowly nodded and turned to face the shore.
“So be it,” she said. “I have better things to do than watch you all sit on a rusty ship and get seasick. I expect you to give me a full account of events once you return, aesta.”
With that, Lascivious stepped back onto the crimson hand, which opened to release the ship and carried her back across the water. Everyone but Malon let out a collective sigh of relief as they watched the magic dissipate upon reaching the other side.
“True Divine,” muttered Vel. “She is so much scarier than Avarice ever was. At least with Avarice, we knew what we were getting.”
“She’ll stay true to her word,” said Malon. “She listens to me.”
As much as Damon trusted his aesta, he couldn’t help but harbor a niggling sense of doubt at that. There was still work to be done, and after waiting another minute to ensure all was quiet on deck, they got back to it. Damon went with Vel up to the navigation cabin and stared out through the glass as they found their path amidst the rocks and shipwrecks littering Avaricia’s coast.
“We should be good here, I think,” he said, once they were in deeper waters. “I’ll set the anchor down, and we’ll let the ship rest for tonight.”
“It’s fun,” said Vel. “I plan on being behind the wheel tomorrow, I hope you know.”
“You’re welcome to it, as long as you don’t do anything too foolhardy.” He ruffled her hair and headed for the stairs.
Ria was waiting for him at the bottom, and she pulled him away from the others, out onto the deck.
“Damon,” she said. “We must talk.”
“I’m listening.”
She looked around, making entirely sure that they were alone. “That was too easy. Lascivious could have insisted on any number of demands, and we would have had no means of truly refusing her.”
“She listens to aesta.”
“Does she?” Ria pulled him closer, eyes darting around the empty deck once more. “You saw how she seized control of Malon through her crest when she came onto the ship. This is the relationship between Venmalese and Venmalani.”
Damon shook his head. “What are you saying?”
“I think you know. We must watch her now. You must watch her. You know her better than any of us, husband, even after so long away. If Malon acts in a fashion that you consider to be unusual, uncharacteristic, or… outright suspicious, we will need to act.”
Damon blinked, a bitter taste suddenly in his mouth. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ria had such a sad look on her face that he couldn’t even blame her for what she was saying, as much as he wanted, and as much as it would have made things easier. “I do not know what it means. I wish it did. It could mean the difference between life and death for us all. It could mean allowing Lascivious to have an agent or a spy among us.”
“She already asked Malon to report back to her on whatever it is we’re supposedly accomplishing,” he said.
“She is powerful. She could have a means of seeing through her, controlling her, even, as Velanor has done with her dreamspelling.”
Damon rubbed at his temples, feeling a headache coming on in full force. It wasn’t fair for her to ask him to be suspicious of his aesta, but her logic was unimpeachable. He sighed and slowly nodded his head.
“Thank you.” She pulled him into a tight hug. “I know how hard this will be for you. I hope I am wrong, for all of our sakes.”
“I pray that you’re wrong, and I’m not even the praying type.”
They kissed, sharing a moment under the faint glow of the ghost moon behind the thinning clouds, husband and wife.