Damon crossed the gangway onto The Reunion last. Ria and Lilian had arrived within half an hour of his duel with the Endless King, though it had taken a few minutes more to bring the ship in close enough to transfer them over after Malon had shot up a flare of fire as a signal.
He waved goodbye to his new friends, only letting his guard down when The Reunion had traveled enough distance to be out of arrowshot. Then, he pulled Vel into a strong hug, breathing out and feeling exhausted in the wake of all that adrenaline.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “Did they hurt you, or… do anything else?”
“Ow…” groaned Vel. “Not so tight. One of them threw me against a barrel, and it gave me this bruise. Nothing else happened. I clawed at any of them that tried to… well, you know.”
“Oh, seta.” Malon enveloped both Damon and Vel in her arms. “You gave me such a scare. I thought you were still safe on the ship.”
“She got the idea of jumping after you with a rope tied around her waist,” said Ria, coming up beside them to rub Vel’s shoulder. “It was not tied as tightly as it should have been.”
She looked, if anything, worse than the rest of them. Tired, with bags under her eyes, still wearing the same clothes she’d had on last Damon had seen, though that was something they all shared. Lilian stood in the shadow of the cabin, wearing her cloak, and the group of them made their way inside so they could be together.
“Aesta and I washed ashore on the same island,” explained Damon. “We basically just made a fire, ate some fish, and hung out on the beach.”
“That’s close to what happened to me, but I was on a different island, and only awake for a few hours before those bastards found me,” said Vel. “After that I was just in the dark of their cargo hold. It was hot and stuffy… and terrifying.”
Malon set a hand on her shoulder as she shuddered and hugged herself. “You’re safe now, seta. We’re all safe, and we should be thankful for that.”
Ria stepped forward, her face a mask of concern and an emotion that was hard to place. She opened her mouth, hesitated, considered, and finally spoke.
“I take responsibility for much of this incident,” she said. “If I had not been so brazen as to think myself capable of taking on a storm, perhaps…”
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Damon. “You were trying to protect us.”
“Still, I must offer my apology, regardless.” Ria nodded solemnly. “To you. To Velanor. Most of all, Malon, I wish you to know that I am sorry. You risked yourself to save me, despite the recent… unpleasantness between us.”
“Seta.” Malon gave her a wide, loving smile. “Ria. I accept your apology whole heartedly, but it was no matter. Saving you was as natural for me now as it was when you were still up to my waist. So much has changed since then, but not that.”
Ria looked slightly abashed under the weight of Malon’s matriarchal selflessness, but she eventually smiled and reached out to take the other woman’s hand gently. It was all Damon could do not to yank her arm out of its socket as he pulled her in closer, wrapping her into a tight group hug along with Malon and Vel.
“Am I interrupting?” called Lilian from the door leading to the kitchen. “Is this a private family moment, or…?”
“You’re basically family too, Lil,” said Vel, splitting off to hug her friend.
“Along with the ship’s new cook,” she added. “I made dinner. It’s mostly just leftovers from the chicken we had the night before last with some rice and some barley added.”
“That was thoughtful of you,” said Malon.
Lilian let out an awkward chuckle and shrugged. “There wasn’t much else I could do that felt productive, cooped up inside. Cooking for others also seemed to help take my mind off my own hunger.”
She gave Damon a lingering, sidelong glance. He went over to join her and Vel, pulling Lilian near enough to whisper into her ear.
“Come to my cabin later tonight if you’re still hungry.”
“It’s a date,” she said.
It was as though everyone within the room collectively realized how exhausted they all were as they sat down to eat. Lilian’s chicken soup was exactly what the mood called for, rich and easy to slurp down, hot enough to warm their battered spirits.
Damon opened a bottle of wine, though he was careful about how much he poured. For himself, and for everyone else. The mood around the table was already contented enough to make getting drunk seem like an unnecessary liberty.
Everyone retired to bed early, just after sunset, no less. Damon walked Lilian into his room, and they both sat down on his mattress. He was too tired to do more beyond give her a kiss and offer her his neck to feed off, which she accepted with a murmur of genuine thanks.
The sensation was so blissful and soothing that it put him just about straight to sleep.
***
The next few days passed in a smooth rhythm of rest, light work, and endless blue. Damon was getting a proper tan from all his time out on deck. He tended to his chores, which mainly consisted of fishing when he could and checking up on everyone else. He relaxed and let himself pretend their life on The Reunion would continue with such easy simplicity forever.
Vel shook him awake one morning and all but yanked him out of bed. He smiled, trying to both stay in bed and pull her to join him, but her hurried explanation undercut his efforts.
“Come on!” she said. “They’re in the water. I’ve… never seen anything like it.”
“What, exactly, is in the water?”
“Just come on!”
She ran into the hallway and upstairs without explaining. Damon quickly pulled his trousers on and followed after her. Malon and Ria were on deck, and Lilian stood in the shadow of the main cabin, cloak pulled tightly around her face.
Vel was against the railing, furiously pointing at what looked to be no more than an odd ripple against the waves at first. Damon was about to say as much when the water suddenly broke, and a creature of ungodly size rose to swim alongside their ship.
“True Divine…” he muttered.
They were hairless and slick, each easily the size of a small house. Long appendages hung from their back, streaming through the water like ribbons, but occasionally darting out to seize a fish and pull it toward what Damon could only assume to be their mouths.
“They’re called tasslinettes,” said Malon. “They look like sea monsters, but they have no sinister intent. They aren’t fish, either, closer to reptiles, back on land. They usually travel in packs and grow to be…”
She trailed off, but they’d all stopped listening, regardless. In the distance, far enough away to technically be safe without feeling at all safe, rose a tasslinette larger than a small rural hamlet. It was easily five times, if not ten times larger than their ship. It whipped its appendages through the air like a woman might whip back wet locks of hair, before bringing them down hard enough on the water to unsettle the ocean.
“Alright,” said Damon. “Let’s set a course for… slightly away from wherever that thing is heading.”
He looked toward Malon, hoping she might contribute some words about how the monsterish creature was really just harmless and misunderstood. Her face was pale, and she slowly nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “I would… recommend that.”