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In all the years since Vinie had been a PearlDiver, the one thing that had not changed was the peace of the world beneath the waves. With the current tugging at her clothes and the salt nipping at her eyes, Vinie could almost pretend that she was once again that girl, young and wild and free of any concerns greater than how many mollusks she might find today.

Rather than a bag for gathering pearls, it was a spear which Vinie gripped as she swam toward the bottom. Above, the midday sun shone high atop the dome of the sky. Down here though, where the currents grew cool, the bright turquoise of the water dimmed to a dark, calming blue. The light from the surface was even further thwarted by an aquatic forest of kelp. The rubbery sea plants grew plentiful in The Bay of Torbos, and it was amongst their waving fronds that Vinie sought her quarry.

The seals were wily creatures though, and had no interest in falling prey to something so unimpressive as a human. Vinie just barely glimpsed a flash of flippers before the pod was on the move. Silvery-brown coats glimmering like the tail of a hippocampus under moonlight, the seals slid away through the kelp faster than Vinie could ever hope to follow.

Rather than sigh – and lose precious gulps of air – Vinie settled for a resigned shrug. A seal would have gone much further toward feeding everyone than a fish. As predicted though, the waters of The Bay of Torbos were already growing lean. With more than one-hundred-thousand Undorians adrift upon the bay, with no other means of providing for themselves besides the sea, fish were dwindling at alarming rates. Vinie had already been down here for nearly an hour, with no success. The chance arrival of a pod of seals had given her a burst of optimism, but that vanished just as quickly as the seals fled.

Needing to breath, Vinie kicked her way back up to the surface. The burning of her lungs was a welcome thing though; it brought back memories long forgotten of simpler days. Even the stinging of half-healed burns on her arms and legs served to ground Vinie in the moment as she bobbed there, treading water. Xolani and Oesu's dhow loomed nearby, surrounded as far as the eye could see by smaller ships on all sides. More spear-fishers were diving from other boats nearby, including off the back of the StormRider. Vinie would have to either catch something soon, or give up and admit defeat in the face of so much competition. Pulling in a final lungful of air, she ducked under the waves and returned to the hunt.

Now that she had returned to reality, for however brief a moment, it was hard for Vinie not to notice the dozens of other fishers scouring the kelp forest. A man swam directly into her path, forcing her to pull up short in surprise. With so many predators in the water, it was to be expected that the prey had all fled for safer shoals. Determined to return with at least something for the others to eat, Vinie dove deeper and deeper, using the fortitude of a PearlDiver to withstand the increasing pressure as she followed the stalks of the kelp down into the dark.

Half an hour and four more dives later, there was no choice but to admit the obvious; the once plentiful schools of The Bay of Torbos were nowhere to be found. In a matter of days, the pressures of feeding so many souls had driven the fish away. Vinie's spirits only sank further when she pulled herself up over the side of the dhow and was confronted by the hopeful young faces of Sahar's orphaned sons. Tani, the younger child - yet ever a realist - was the first to read the failed hunt in Vinie's empty hands and apologetic expression. Any interest he might have shown in her return instantly vanished, replaced by an indifferent shrug which ill-fitted the small shoulders of a child.

Zaneo, the elder brother and peacemaker, was quick to attempt to smooth things over. "It's alright. We still have rice and some dried fruit. Isn't that right, Babati?"

Hearing Sahar's son, named after Vinie's first husband - a secret Blue Obad and the first true casualty of this war - call Bakko 'Grandfather' with such casual ease was bittersweet to Vinie's ears. In another life, the two boys standing at her father's elbows might have been hers. For better or worse though, they were now as good as, and Vinie was resolved to do right by Sahar when it came to caring for her oldest friend's orphaned children.

"I can try again," she offered, gripping the spear anew. "Rice and fruit aren't much to fill the stomachs of growing boys."

Bakko held up a hand, stopping her. "Leave it a while, Vinie. Zaneo is right, we have enough to manage for now. Besides, you need to eat something yourself, before you go diving again." He looked to the upturned faces of the boys. "Why don't you go fetch Gideo, and tell him that I have lunch ready?"

"Yas Bakko," said Tani. "C'mon Zaneo." Taking his elder brother's arm, Tani led the way, as always. Zaneo trailed along behind, and the two disappeared belowdecks in search of Gideo.

"Still?" asked Vinie worriedly.

"Still." Bakko sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "The infection doesn't seem to have gotten any worse, thank the stars. That's all we need is for Gideo to go getting a fever from those burns of his. Speaking of which..." He beckoned for Vinie's hands.

"They're fine," protested Vinie. "Mine weren't half as bad as Gideo's."

Bakko would not be so easily satisfied though, and Vinie had no choice but to let her father peel back the damp bandages on her forearms. He wrinkled his nose at the raw, angry looking flesh.

"Eishhhhh. You should be keeping these dry, you know. They're going to scar something awful."

"The salt helps to keep them clean. It's not so painful as it was, I promise."

"Even so..."

Noticing the silvery scars of an encounter with a knife-wielding magistrate two years ago, Bakko ran a gentle thumb across the patchwork ruin of Vinie's once-smooth black skin. The dismay and regret were almost palpable, pouring unspoken from his weathered face.

"I wish-" he began.

"Don't, Baba." Gently pulling her wrists out of Bakko's grasp, she instead clasped his hands in hers. "There's too much to look back on and regret. My life was never going to be peaceful anyways."

When Bakko looked up at her, his old eyes were infinitely sad. "You don't know that for certain. Perhaps it could have been, if we had only-"

"Baba. If I could go back, I would follow the same path all over again. Of course there are things I would change; I wouldn't have let Sahar act in my stead in Utunma, for starters. I would also never have left Gideo alone in Danitesk, if I had known that would be betrayed the way we were. When it comes to the Factionist cause though; the fight for freedom...for Undor, I would do it all again with a second's pause."

The smile Bakko gave Vinie was half-hearted at best. With one last squeeze, he released her hands and beckoned her over to the corner of the deck where he had set up a small kettle and bowls. A tiny candle – a precious commodity under such circumstances – sat flickering beneath the kettle, warming the rice. When Vinie cracked open the lid, her heart sank.

"Actually, I'm not that-"

She barely got halfway through the thought before Bakko silenced her with the sternest glare she had seen from her father in years. "No. You'll eat what I give you and not a grain less. Now take this and get started. The boys are on their way."

Reluctantly, Vinie accepted the bowl of rice and handful of dried yam. Without fish, the prudent thing to do would be to stretch what food they did have as far as possible. She was hungry though...very hungry, and the temptation to eat after a morning spent spearfishing was too much. Resolving to return to the hunt as soon as lunch was over, she conceded defeat and dug into the rice under Bakko's watchful eye.

They were joined a few moments later by Tani and Zaneo, with Gideo in tow. Gideo sat stiffly, his movements still almost as painful as his silence. Zaneo and Tani were quick to seize upon the bowls Bakko handed out, neither complaining over the small portions. When Bakko held out a bowl toward Gideo, he accepted it, clumsily balancing it between still-bandaged hands.

"Thanks." Then he frowned, peering across the deck behind Bakko. "What's going on there?"

Eager to encourage Gideo's apparently revived interest in their surroundings, both Vinie and Bakko quickly turned to follow his gaze. When they realized what Gideo was pointing out, Tani and Zaneo's attention was caught as well.

"That's how Mama used to dance!"

Sure enough, Zaneo was right; there was indeed an impromptu CoinDancing lesson underway, right there on the deck of Xolani and Oesu's dhow. Under the exacting instruction of Dalar StarGazer, Ijireen stood shifting her weight from foot to foot, trying to mimic the serpentine way in which the older woman's hips and stomach undulated. An expression of fierce concentration darkened Ijireen's face. Try as she might though, the narrow frame of a teenaged girl could not produce quite the same effect as Vinie's memories of Sahar dancing. Dalar continued to prompt Ijireen along though, their arms undulating like the fronds of the kelp forest.

Only Vinie noticed Gideo make use of everyone's distraction to slip a heaping spoonful of rice and a strip of yam from his portion into the bowls of Zaneo and Tani. He caught Vinie's eye and shook his head warningly. Before Vinie could respond – either to protest Gideo's actions or copy them herself – Bakko was turning back around.

"That was Chidea's idea," he informed them. "The girl's started asking questions about things like CoinDancing, SkinPainting, and the like. Apparently, Dalar used to do some dancing before the StarGazers moved to Amenthere."

Tani wrinkled his nose. "She's bad at it. Why bother learning how to CoinDance anyways? It's not like there's anything to celebrate."

"Tani," Vinie interrupted sternly. "Don't be unkind. She's probably never danced before...at least not any dances besides what they do in the capital."

The little boy pursed his mouth. The look he gave Vinie made plain exactly what he thought of being reprimanded by her.

"There's still no reason to dance, even if she was good at it."

"Maybe not right now, but someday there will be again." When Tani continued to scoff, Bakko pointed an insistent wooden spoon at the boy. "Even if there's not, then why not just go on and dance, paint, or whatever else, here and now? Until Xolani and Oesu decide on a course of action, there's not much else for young folk to do, adrift as we are. Finish your lunch, and then the two of you ought to go join in and watch."

Vinie almost smiled around her rice. "Careful Baba, enough people are watching already. At this rate, Ijireen is liable to get embarrassed."

Sure enough, many of the Undorian refugees milling about on the dhow were beginning to gather around the dancing pair. Far from being embarrassed though, Ijireen seemed to thrive on the attention. Her movements grew bolder (if still obviously inexperienced), allowing a certain fluidity of motion which many considered key to the art of CoinDancing to creep into her form. Someone produced a tiny hand-drum and took up a rhythm, allowing Dalar to lead her protegee through the basic steps of a proper CoinDance. Vinie thought she might almost recognize it as part of the traditional celebration for a new birth...one of Sahar's favourites.

The accumulation of so many people on the main deck made it all the more obvious when four people lingered up on the quarterdeck. Although the rising beat of the drum covered their voices, Vinie knew Kiiss, Xolani, and Oesu well enough at this point to recognize immediately that they were quarreling. They were joined by Ebn, the StormRider's First Mate.

Bakko and the boys did not seem to have noticed, intent as they were on Dalar and Ijireen's practice session-turned performance. Even Tani, despite his earlier protests, was watching through a frown and a stealthily trembling lip.

As for Gideo, he either hadn't noticed the four arguing on the deck above, or had decided to ignore them. His attention was at the moment fully engaged with the task of grasping a spoon between stiff, unbending fingers. If he felt Vinie's eyes on him and his struggles, he apparently chose to ignore that too. A maroon flush did however creep across his cheeks. Once, Gideo might have met Vinie's eye and known without asking to follow her for a proper eavesdropping. Now, Vinie simply slipped away on her own, leaving her husband with the privacy that he seemed to crave so much as of late.

The rapid tempo of the drum drowned out the voices of the group on the quarterdeck, even raised as they were. It wasn't until Vinie was practically halfway up the ladder that she was able to catch what they were quarreling about.

"-running out of time to drag our anchors over this. People will start going hungry in a matter of days. Do you intend to wait until they demand action and throw you overboard before making a decision?"

"What I do not intend to do is abandon our homeland so easily, Madame Kiiss." Oesu's voice was terse. "Every day the smoke clears more. Surely the jungle cannot be entirely lifeless; if we are patient, we may be able to put to shore and begin foraging within the week."

"I'm afraid I agree with the ArtSeller, milady. Captain Dagaan sent some of the crew ashore in the dingy last night, and we found the jungle around Moaan...that is, what's left of Moaan, totally barren. You can't find anything bigger than a mushroom still growing. And there were no signs of life as far as birds or beasts. They've all left the area, and so should we. Besides, the longer we stay here, the more likely Mahir will launch warships from that shipyard at the tip of Auli's Inlet to come after us."

From the few encounters that Vinie had had with Ebn, she knew the First Mate to be a generally upbeat, cheerful sort of man. Hearing Ebn speak in such grim terms only reinforced his and Kiiss's point in Vinie's mind. Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu didn't seem to be convinced though.

"Even if we could make such a journey with so many boats, you forget that the southeastern currents would be against us the entire way to Derbesh," said Xolani. "Not to mention that we have no supplies stocked to last us the week and some that it would take to get there."

"At least we would be going somewhere, rather than nowhere," interrupted Kiiss tartly.

Oesu wasn't finished. "What makes you so sure that the easterners won't simply turn us away the moment we arrive on their doorstep in the Beson Inlet? The general's last contact with anyone from east of The Teeth was nearly six months ago. The final news we had of Factionists in the east was Jatheryn Saurivic's report of Nadathan N'Shar and Sula G'Hesh's defeat at Trosk. For all we know, the clans could have fallen firmly in line with the crown, especially now that Princess Ellorae's marriage to Rhadu A'Khet has probably been finalized."

"Since when have the seven clans ever fallen in line on anything, except perhaps trading sativa weed and insults?" When nobody laughed, Ebn mumbled a sheepish apology.

"Then what? We sit here and wait for food to grow from ash? For fish to school right in our midst? I've had many opinions of the pair of you, Lord and Lady of Undor, but I hadn't taken you for cowards."

Shouting erupted again, and Vinie was just about to pull herself the rest of the way up onto the quarterdeck to join in when a hiss like boiling water split the air. The sound was so loud, it drowned out both the arguing and the music of the drum. Every head on the deck came snapping around.

"There!" came a shout from Ekene.

Several hundred yards away, in the middle of a cluster of smaller boats, the sea was bubbling and roiling like a cookpot. The households in question scrambled to drop oar, but the water began to rise between them, sending their boats haphazardly sliding away. One even tumbled broadside into another boat nearby, nearly capsizing them both. Still the waves continued to bulge upward, until the surface was cut by the sharp points of a dark, scaly frill.

Vinie nearly slipped off the ladder. "The sea serpent..." she gasped. Regaining her voice, she repeated "The sea serpent!", this time crying out aloud.

The reaction was instantaneous. Everywhere people went scrambling; some for cover, others for a clearer view. Most aboard the dhow rushed to put their heads under the proverbial covers by taking shelter in the hold. Those who remained on the deck huddled either together or behind the nearest large object, peeking out like frightened children.

Ironically, it was the children who appeared least intimidated by the serpent. Little Madeo only started crying when Dalar scooped him up, and Tani had to be pulled back from the railing by Bakko.

"Woah! Is it going to eat us!?" cried Zaneo, even as Vinie ran to help drag him and his brother behind the mast.

The further the serpent unfurled up into the sky, the more apparent it became that the scaly behemoth already had already found a meal. A dead right whale dangled between the serpent's jaws, looking absurdly small by comparison despite being almost fifty feet long. The serpent swayed slightly, the blue-black scales of its long, graceful neck shimmering like the reflections of water off a cave's walls. It would have been almost beautiful...if it weren't so terrifying.

"What do we do!?" Oesu hid behind Xolani, who was likewise crouching behind Kiiss.

Ebn took the initiative. Waving stocky arms much like how one would to scare off a seagull, he bellowed "Shoo! You have your meal! Go on now, away!"

Vinie groaned...and then nearly choked on her own tongue when the serpent appeared to do just that. Turning away from the dhow, it slid between the mass of rafts, canoes, and boats, which parted around its massive form like floating reeds around a duck. Shrieks of shock and fright echoed across the waves from all sides as the serpent passed.

Incredulous, Bakko turned to stare up at Ebn on the quarterdeck.

"Did you really just shoo away a sea serpent like a thieving pelican??"

Ebn could only shrug in bewilderment. Everyone's confusion only deepened when, upon reaching the eastern edge of the boat-city, the serpent stopped. Opening cavernous jaws, it released the right whale with a flash of needle sharp, sword-like teeth. The whale hit the water with an almighty clap, setting several nearby canoes to rocking precariously. Then, cocking its head in what could only be described as an expectant gesture, the serpent turned fathomless black eyes on the people of Undor.

"...It...It can't be...?" stammered Xolani.

Curling its galley-sized head in a downward arc, the serpent nosed the whale carcass toward the boats.

"Is it...trying to feed us?"

Young Zaneo was the first to say the outlandish notion aloud, but Vinie could not help wondering if he weren't right. With a sound like the rumble of thunder, the serpent again nudged the dead whale in their direction. It seemed to have no intention of picking it back up for its own dining pleasure.

"I think that may be exactly what it's trying to do, boy." Bakko's voice – always so hoarse and full of care – was light with wonder.

A whale of such size would feed hundreds if not thousands of people for days on end. Not to mention the veritable treasure trove it carried within itself in the forms of bone, oil, and blubber. To hunt and kill such a whale would ordinarily cost so much in the way of effort and manpower, the people of Undor rarely caught more than one or two a year across the entire coastline. It was more than a gift; it was a sign. Vinie looked up to Xolani and Oesu.

"I would say our problem of food for the journey to Derbesh just solved itself, my lord and lady."

The serpent still had not withdrawn, however. It remained towering over the water, the long column of its neck undulating like a sea frond...or a CoinDancer. If Vinie didn't know any better, she'd guess that it was waiting for something.

"The currents are still against us," protested Oesu weakly.

Suddenly, the serpent flared all of its frills. Opening its jaws, it unleashed a high, keening shriek that made the very waves rattle. Everyone on the deck doubled over, clutching at their heads. Through the soles of her feet, Vinie felt the dhow lurch...and then rise. It felt like a gigantic hand had slid beneath their keel, raised them up high upon the water, and was now pulling the ship along with slow, inevitable force.

A born and bred sailor, Ebn dashed to the railing and leaned over. A sudden spray of saltwater caught him full in the face, nearly swallowing his cry of "The currents are changing! We're being pulled out of the bay!"

It wasn't just the dhow that was being caught up by the suddenly east-flowing currents. All around them, the entire flotilla of battered boats surged to life, all drawn with irresistible force along the eastern coastline of Goran. No wind blew, and yet every single Undorian ship set sail in answer to the serpent's call.

"What about the whale?" exclaimed Ekene. "We can't leave it behind!"

"Not to worry, it looks like our present is along for the ride too." Sure enough, just as Bakko pointed it out, the carcass of the whale bobbed and began to drift, caught up in the same powerful currents that now carried the people of Undor.

Kiiss let out a dubious laugh. "Well, Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu, it looks like the Ancient One has settled this debate for us. Whether The Weeping Keep will be welcoming or not, that is where the sea has apparently set our course."

Throughout all of this, Vinie had stood more or less transfixed along with Gideo and the rest of her family. The sudden appearance of Ijireen at her shoulder startled her greatly. Even more unsettling was the look of wonder and confusion on the girl's face.

"The serpent...it has magic."

It was hard to disagree with that statement, given what Vinie had just witnessed. "Yas, it seems it must have."

"It has Obads' magic," pressed Ijireen. "I can feel it, as strongly as if Master Tomur were standing beside me again."

All of the small hairs rose along Vinie's arms and the nape of her neck. The spot where Zaneo SeaSon's wedding gift – an enchanted black pearl - had once sat burned icy-hot between her brows.

"How much your kind have to remember, my pearl."

A voice that had once whispered sweet nothings to Vinie in the night, still devastatingly familiar and yet utterly foreign, echoed through her mind. Her stagger toward the railing had nothing to do with the sudden motion of the ship. She felt Gideo's fumbled attempt to catch her arm, but the world had narrowed down to a single point; the sea serpent, still watching the ships with featureless black eyes.

"Zaneo?" she whispered.

The serpent slipped away beneath the sunlit waves, gone as abruptly and completely as a forgotten dream.  

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