Chapter 12: Face the Truth

After leaving the keep, the companions only went back to where they had camped the previous night before stopping, even though it was scarcely past midday. They did this for Rath's benefit more than anything else, exhausted as he was from the encounter with Astos; even had he not been, however, none of the companions had much motivation for further travel at the moment. Cen and Estel set up the camp, allowing Sapphire and Rath to rest and clean up at the nearby streams. Rath returned long before Sapphire did, and when she did finally come back she looked pale and shaky, as though she had been sick. Cen, crouched by the small campfire, muttered a quiet curse under his breath.

Rath, already in his bedroll, glanced at Cen. "Yes?"

"I think we have a problem."

"Explain."

Cen nodded toward Sapphire, sitting curled up at the edge of the clearing with her back against a tree, her face hidden against her knees. Rath watched her for a moment, his eyes half-closed beneath the brim of his hat, then looked back at Cen.

"If I may momentarily borrow your vernacular: it serves her right."

Cen stared at him, then frowned and shook his head.

"Maybe. But don't be too hard on her. Everyone makes mistakes."

"And should be expected to take responsibility for them," Rath added coolly, then he rolled over and proceeded to ignore the others as he waited for sleep to claim him.

The afternoon passed with excruciating slowness. Rath fell asleep almost immediately and remained that way for the rest of the day, escaping the uncomfortable tension that hung over the others. Sapphire remained seated at the edge of the campsite, her appearance gradually becoming healthier, though she remained despondent. She kept glancing over at Estel where he sat in quiet conversation with Cen in the shade of the trees at the other side of the campsite; Estel, however, would not even look in her direction. Cen tried to speak with her later on when Estel was busy preparing something to eat, but when she persisted in not answering him, he gave up, shaking his head and looking concerned.

Once evening came, Estel insisted on taking the first watch. He settled himself on the ground beside the fire, stick in hand and ready to start poking the fire should the flames start to die or if he should grow bored. Cen went to his bedroll and soon dozed off. Sapphire, however, remained awake. She lay curled up on top of her sleeping bag, staring into the campfire and listening to Cen snoring. Estel pretended to ignore her. A light breeze whispered through the leaves of the surrounding trees

After a long time, Sapphire sat up, looking at Estel across the fire.

"Estel—"

"I don't wanna talk about it," Estel cut in, poking the fire with his stick.

Sapphire blinked, startled by his blunt reply, then looked away, tugging at her sleeves. "I just…I was so sure…" She trailed off.

"Yeah, but you were wrong," Estel said, finally looking at her. "And that almost got me killed a couple times. Maybe next time you'll listen when I talk, huh?"

Sapphire's lip trembled, and tears began to spill down her cheeks. Estel sighed and shook his head.

"Don't do that."

"I should have—"

"Yeah, you should've. Too late now, though." He nodded at her. "You oughta get some sleep. We got a long walk comin' up."


It took two weeks to return to Elfheim. Estel and Rath continued to disregard Sapphire almost entirely, Estel keeping any comments to her brief and sharp while Rath would not speak to her at all. Sapphire herself stayed disturbingly quiet the whole time, and she constantly looked as though she was on the verge of tears. Even with Cen, who was the only one to make any kind of effort to interact with her, she answered in little more than a whisper and would not make eye contact. Cen found this worrisome and would occasionally try to talk Rath and Estel into at least being polite to Sapphire. They would not be swayed, however: they would change their behavior as soon as Sapphire apologized to them, but not before then.

"Doesn't her feeling awful count for something?" Cen asked with some heat. "It's bad enough to have all that mess hanging over her in the first place, and the way you two are acting about it isn't helping. Does it really matter so much that she tells you to your face?"

"Yes," Estel said, as though this should be obvious.

Rath nodded. "She must accept responsibility for her actions."

Cen rolled his eyes.

The heavily-forested road toward the capital forked in a number of places, with smaller paths leading off to other towns and to the docks on the Aldean to the north. As the three men walked on ahead, Sapphire turned down one of these side routes. Cen noticed this first and stopped the others before calling Sapphire back.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Sapphire stopped and turned around, gaze directed at the ground instead of at her companions. "I…I'm going back to the ship."

Cen blinked. "The ship? Why?"

"I just…I thought that we should…should bring Matoya her eye. If we did that then…then maybe she could help…I mean, give us a cure for Prince Avarion, and we could…" Sapphire trailed off, faltering, then rallied somewhat and continued. "We could bring the cure back, and then…and then it would all be all right, and…we won't even have to let them know we—"

Estel's expression darkened. "What d'you mean, we won't hafta let them know?"

Sapphire quailed a bit, and it took a moment for her to reply.

"I just…it was so stupid, and I know I couldn't tell them, and…and so if we came back with the crown and the cure, we could…I mean…" She started twisting her sleeves. "We could just say we…we found Astos dead, and that then we went and got the…the other things, and they'd just be so pleased to have the cure that it wouldn't really matter. And they…they wouldn't have to know that…Astos tricked us…"

A nasty silence followed this. Cen stared at Sapphire in stunned bafflement. Rath regarded her with something almost like disgust, while Estel's expression grew angry.

"So you're gonna lie about it!"

Cen gave him a warning look. "Estel…"

Estel ignored him, remaining intent on Sapphire.

"You're gonna go and pull the same thing that asshole pulled! Is that it?"

"I…" Sapphire stammered, her eyes widening as she looked at him. "No, I…"

"Yes, it is!" Estel snapped, making Sapphire jump. "It's the same thing!"

Rath's gaze became icy. "Astounding. It seems I truly underestimated your immaturity, Sapphire."

Sapphire took a step backward, and tears filled her eyes.

"No, it…it's not the same, I… If they knew what I did—"

"That's not an excuse!" Estel exploded. "I went through hell because of this! We all could've been killed! But you're just gonna sweep all that outta the way just to make yourself look better! How the hell can you think that's okay?!"

Sapphire, hand over her mouth and tears falling, just shook her head.

"Oh, it is simple, Estel," Rath said, his voice acidic. "She is a pampered little girl who has always been able to delegate the resposibility for anything she did wrong. Now bereft of that option and without the mental and emotional capability to shoulder her own burden, she will simply pretend it did not happen in order to spare her own fragile psyche. In simpler terms…" He cast Sapphire a venomous look. "She is a spoiled brat who cannot admit she has made a mistake."

"That's enough," Cen said sternly. He placed himself between Sapphire and the others on the dirt path, his arms folded across his chest. "We get it. You're angry. Quit taking it out on her before you say something you'll regret later."

Estel rounded on him. "Why should I stop? It's her own damn fault! If anyone's gonna regret anything, it oughta be her!"

"So, what, you're trying to make out like you've never made a mistake before?"

"No, but I never tried to weasel out of them or pretend they never happened!"

"This goes beyond simple immaturity and childishness," Rath said, cold expression still in his eyes as he regarded Cen. "Sapphire's actions could easily have ruined this country, destroyed any chance we had at fulfilling our duties. The elves have a right to know what nearly happened to their nation, and that alone is reason enough to disapprove of Sapphire's actions. However…" Rath's eyes narrowed. "…for her to refuse to acknowledge she was in error does little to urge us to instill our trust in her. If she will not be truthful concerning something of this magnitude, how can we be expected to believe her with regards to anything else?"

"She's a liar," Estel said coldly. "Just like that king, or—"

"I really don't think you want to finish that, Estel," Cen interrupted.

Estel opened his mouth to retort, but he broke off at the sound of wood impacting dirt and of rapidly retreating footsteps. The three combatants looked around and saw Sapphire's staff lying abandoned on the ground, its owner nowhere in sight. Cen made a frustrated noise and rounded on the other two.

"Now look what you've done! I ought to…" He lapsed into an angry pause, trying to articulate what exactly he felt he should do. "I ought to knock your heads together, see if I can beat some sense into you!" He mimed doing this as he said it, with enough implied force to possibly crack any heads involved.

Rath's demeanor swung from icy to fiery in seconds. "You expect us to feel remorse when she refuses—!"

"She's not refusing anything, she just feels bad about what happened! That's why she ran off crying, you idiot!"

Rath raised an eyebrow but did not retort; the burning, dangerous look in his eyes spoke for him. Cen turned to Estel.

"You should be ashamed of yourself. I expected him—" He jerked his thumb at Rath. "—to flip out sooner or later, but I figured you'd know better. How do you—"

"I don't give a damn anymore," Estel interrupted, folding his arms and glaring. "This tears things. It's not worth it."

Cen looked stunned for a moment, then he shook his head in disgust.

"Fine. You both go ahead and keep being jackasses for all I care. I'm going to go find Sapphire, and we're all going to go back to the ship—"

Estel and Rath both tried to interrupt at this, but Cen just spoke louder and pressed on, his deeper voice easily overpowering theirs.

"—we'll go back to the ship and take that eye to Matoya, and if I hear either of you say another word about this to Sapphire, then you're going to end up in pieces. And yes, I mean both of you," he added as Estel opened his mouth to protest his inclusion. With that, Cen turned and started down the side path after Sapphire.

He did not have to search for long; Sapphire had only gone as far as the first sharp bend in the path before collapsing onto the verge, like a distressed child who had flung herself onto her bed to weep. She lay with her face buried in her arms, her sobs muffled by the dirty fabric of her sleeves. Cen hovered uncomfortably a short distance away, looking as though he half-wanted to turn and leave to spare himself the awkwardness. After a moment, however, he took a deep breath, walked over, and knelt down beside her.

"Sapphire?"

Sapphire recoiled at the sound of his voice and jerked her head up to look at him, her face red and tearstained. When she saw who it was, she relaxed a little, her breath hitching, and her head fell back onto her arms.

"Cen, I—" She broke off with a weak little sob and hid her face again.

Cen glanced off down the path in discomfort, then looked back at her.

"They shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

Sapphire made an odd hiccuping, snuffling sound that might have been a reply. Cen gave a quiet sigh and slouched a bit.

"Please stop crying."

"I, I can't…I—"

"Sure you can. Come on, sit up…"

He took her by the shoulders and drew her up to a sitting position. She remained like that for a moment, sniffling and wiping her streaming eyes, but then she flung herself forward, throwing her arms around Cen and weeping against his chest. Cen grunted at the impact, almost tipping backward but managing to keep his balance. He looked down at Sapphire.

"Uh…you know, mail really isn't the most comfortable thing to squish your face against…"

Sapphire did not appear to hear him. Cen sighed again, then, looking distinctly ill-at-ease, put his arms around her, patting her back in an attempt at reassurance.

"Okay," he said after a minute. "You need to calm down now."

He patted her one more time, then released her and tried to get her to straighten up again. It took little effort to do so, and he left his hands on her shoulders to keep her upright as she tried to catch her breath and stop her tears. He started to speak again, but Sapphire beat him to it.

"They're right."

Cen frowned in confusion. Sapphire went on:

"Estel and…and Rath. They're right, I…" She covered her mouth with her hand as more tears welled up in her eyes. "I…I was so stupid, and if you, if you and Rath hadn't killed him, then, then, then he would have killed all of us, and everyone in Elfheim, and, and then…" She tried to suppress a sob, with poor results. "Oh, Cen, I almost ruined everything!"

"You didn't, though," Cen said. "Everything worked out, right?"

"But—"

"You didn't," Cen repeated. "Listen, it was just a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. This was kind of a big one, but nothing really bad happened from it, right? And, hey," he added, striking upon a sudden idea, "it's actually a good thing we had to go up against Astos like that. How else would we have got Matoya's eye back?"

Sapphire sniffed and nodded, rubbing at her tear-swollen eyes.

"That's…yes, I know, but…but if I had just listened to all of you in the first place, we…" She hesitated, casting a fearful look at Cen. "We wouldn't have wasted so much time…going down to Marsh Cave and—"

"Yeah, I thought about that," Cen interrupted, speaking before she could push herself to tears again. "But it's all already happened, so I guess I can't really get angry about it. So, see?" He smiled a little, trying to provoke a similar reaction in Sapphire. "Rath can grump about immaturity and whatever else all he wants, and Estel can rant and complain until he's blue in the face, but they'll get over it. The way I see it, they're just being stubborn and making things worse anyway, so all they're going to get for their trouble is a very angry me. And that's not a good thing."

Sapphire shook her head. "No, it's…" She trailed off, tears finally halted, though her breathing remained uneven. Fiddling half-heartedly with her now rather damp sleeves, she stared down at the packed dirt between her and Cen, then looked up at him. "I can't…you know why I can't tell the chancellor or anyone what…what really happened with Astos, don't you? I mean, you understand—"

"What, you mean about them being all these big, great, really smart people and you not wanting to mess up and make an idiot out of yourself in front of them?" Cen gave a slightly bitter smile. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

There was a brief pause.

"Okay," Cen said. "Here's what we're going to do. Ready?" He waited for Sapphire to nod, then continued. "We're going to go back and get Estel and Rath, who won't say one single word about this unless they want to end up as a bunch of very tiny pieces. Then we're all going to go up to the port, and get on our ship, and go give Matoya her eye back, just like you said. And then everything will be just fine. Does that sound okay?"

Sapphire nodded.

"Good." Cen gave Sapphire an encouraging smile, which she attempted to return. "Okay then. Let's get going."

He got to his feet and offered his hand to Sapphire. She took it, and he helped her up, then the pair of them set off back down the path together.

They returned to the fork in the path to find Estel and Rath conversing in low voices. Sapphire's eyes filled again as soon as she saw at them, and she quickly looked away. Cen patted her on the shoulder.

"It's okay," he whispered to her. "Go grab your staff; I'll talk to them."

Sapphire moved to do as she was told, while Cen walked over toward Estel and Rath. They fell silent and watched him as he approached.

"Okay," he said. "We're leaving."

"Pardon our lack of enthusiasm," Rath replied dully.

Cen glowered. "Don't start with me," he snapped, jabbing a finger toward Rath. "I've got enough reasons to want to rip your guts out without you keeping this up." He looked from Rath to Estel and back. "I'll make this quick. I think you're both jackasses for ganging up on her like that, even if I do get why you're so angry. I should probably be angry too, but I'm not. Because, you see that girl over there?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Sapphire, crouching to retrieve her staff. "She's on our team. And she's trying real hard not to screw up, and when she does and you go off on her like that, it doesn't do anything to help her."

"I get it, Cen," Estel said, giving Cen a slightly knowing look.

"Yeah, I figured you would." Cen looked from Estel to Rath and back. "To make it short, either be nice or shut up. Not too hard, right?"

Not waiting for a reply, he turned and walked back over to Sapphire.

"Okay. Let's get out of here."


Watchman's Promontory, the thin peninsula on which Matoya made her home, was the northernmost point of mainland Cornelia. It lay high on the cliffs above the surrounding ocean, and so could only be approached from the south, on foot. This would, however, be no trouble; the region was close to the Bay of Cornelia and thus quite populated, with the land cultivated and easy to travel.

The journey there, however, did not prove to be a pleasant one. Sapphire spent most of the voyage sequestered in her 'cabin'—a few crates arranged to form a semblance of a room down in the hold—not even wanting to be within sight of the others. Estel, in between bouts of grumbling, would sometimes glance at the hatch that led below deck, a flicker of unease crossing his face. If either Cen or Rath saw him doing this, however, he would hurriedly shake his head and glare out over the water. Cen, at the tiller more often than not, frowned whenever this happened, but Rath would just roll his eyes and turn back to whichever spellbook he was reading at the moment.

The Charybdis crossed the Aldean quickly and smoothly, paying little heed to the contrary winds that sought to delay it. Within three days, the ship had rounded the Cornelian Peninsula, passed beneath the restored bridge to the mainland, and docked at Port Haven on the northern side of the Bay of Cornelia. From there, it took only three days of travel on foot to reach Matoya's home at the tip of Watchman's Promontory.

The place reminded the companions a bit of Duergamel. The cliffs tapered up into a low rise of mountains, at the base of which had been carved the façade of a small house, complete with front porch. A wooden door, hanging partway open, covered the opening leading to the dwelling beyond. A short stone wall curved out from the mountainside and surrounded all this, as well as encircling an herb garden that was nearly overrun with weeds. A pebbled path led from a gap in the wall up to the porch.

The group paused for a moment as Sapphire looked blankly at the home before her, partly to wait for her to continue, partly to wait for Estel, who had lagged behind. Once he had rejoined them, looking distracted, Cen turned to Sapphire.

"Are we ready?"

Sapphire nodded and walked forward onto the pebbly path, the others following behind her in single-file. She hesitated at the door, perhaps wondering whether or not to knock, then pushed it open the rest of the way and entered. Estel came in last and made sure to leave the door open behind him.

The hall onto which the door opened was dry and clean, the smooth stone floor nearly spotless. Torches sat in brackets at regular intervals along the wall, the flames crackling but not giving forth any smoke. From somewhere around a bend in the hall came the sound of someone sweeping the floor.

"Well, at least we know someone's home," Cen said, starting forward.

The sweeping sound paused after he spoke, then began to draw nearer. A moment later, a broom, swishing from side to side under its own power, came around the corner and approached the companions. It stopped and seemed to look at the group; that it had a large, eye-like knot at the tip of its handle aided this impression. The companions stared back at it with varying degrees of astonishment. This only increased when the broom spoke in an appropriately reedy voice.

"M'i yrros, tub Ydal Ayotam t'nsi gniviecer srotisiv. Uoy lliw evah ot evael."

Cen and Estel both looked completely dumbfounded.

"Huh?"

"What?"

Rath shot them a silencing look, while Sapphire frowned at the broom, trying to work out what it had said.

"I… It's very important that we see Matoya at once. We're the Light Warriors, and…and we have her eye."

"Uoy od?" The broom sounded both surprised and pleased. "Didnelps! Ll'i tel reh wonk ta ecno. Esaelp wollof em." It swished off down the corridor, and the companions, after exchanging rather puzzled looks, followed it.

The broom led them to an inner room. The large chamber looked very homey, especially given its odd location, with bookshelves and cabinets lining the walls and deep crimson rag rugs dotted over the floor. More brooms swished around as well, followed by skittering little dustpans. From the ceiling hung bunches of dried herbs and vegetables, along with exotic-looking feathers, tiny rolls of parchment, and myriad other peculiar items. In the center of the room stood a large table covered with a fringed, slightly moth-eaten tablecloth. Only one chair stood by the table, and in this sat Matoya, wearing a dark red dress and tan shawl, with a hat similar to Rath's perched on her greying, flyaway hair. A black eyepatch covered one eye, and her other eye was closed, though there was clearly nothing beneath the lid. She held a worn pack of cards in her brown hands, flipping through them absently.

The broom swished toward her.

"Ym Ydal, eht Thgil Sroirraw era ereh ot ees uoy. Yeht yas yeht evah ruoy eye."

"Do they?" Matoya lifted her head. "Come in, come in, then!" She stood and shuffled around the table toward the companions. "The Light Warriors, hm? It seems I have some important company today."

Rath retrieved the small crystal orb from a pocket of his robes and held it out toward Matoya as she approached. "This belongs to you, I believe."

Matoya snatched it from Rath's outstretched hand and ran her fingers over the smooth surface. "Ah, that's mine all right!" She turned away from the companions for a moment; there was a wet popping sound, and when she turned back the eye was sitting comfortably in its socket, glinting in a rather unsettling way. "Much better! Now, let me get a real look at you…" She scrutinized the companions, particularly Cen and Estel, then frowned, looking slightly disappointed. "Hmph. You're not as good-looking as I thought you'd be."

Estel seemed alarmed by this statement, but Cen looked offended.

"Hey, what do you mean I—"

Rath stepped on his foot to shut him up.

Sapphire ignored all this, hurriedly putting on her more formal manner. "Matoya, we come with a plea for help from the royal family of Elfheim. Prince Avarion has been cursed, and we believe that you're the only one who has the ability to help him."

"Ah, yes," Matoya said, giving them one last appraising look before she turned away and walked back to the table. "Astos up to no good again, as usual." She shuffled through her deck of cards and laid one down on the table: the title read, "The King." "Not a problem anymore, though, eh?" She laughed quietly and flipped the card to reveal a different image: The Hanged Man. She shuffled the cards back into the deck and set them down on the table. "A stolen crown does not royalty make, just as a stolen eye does not a seer make. Astos and his hired thief both know that well now, with their plans having come to naught."

Estel blinked. "Hired thief?"

Matoya turned to look at him, and her crystal eye glinted. "Oh, yes. It is someone you know who visited me and took my eye for the elven wretch. His reward didn't help him in the end, though it has aided you greatly."

"Wha—" Estel gaped for a moment, then a flash of anger appeared in his eyes. "Bikke! So that's where he got all that gold, and the ship! That fat son of a—"

Cen shushed him, but Matoya gave another quiet laugh. Sapphire, looking a bit helpless, addressed Matoya again.

"Please…can you do anything for His Highness? It's—"

Matoya waved aside the rest of her sentence. "Yes, yes, I can help young Avarion. I have all the things I need to make the elixir." She waved vaguely at the cabinets lining the walls and the bundles hanging from the ceiling.

Sapphire sighed in relief, looking at least somewhat pleased for the first time since they had left Marsh Cave. "Thank you. When you wouldn't respond to our messengers, we thought…"

"I'm not so fickle as that, Priestess," Matoya said. "No eye means no sight, and no sight means the wrong ingredients go in the potion. Rather a slow cure than a quick poison, eh?" She turned to one of the cabinets. "Now, a cure for young Avarion."

She set to work gathering items from the cabinets, including a bowl that looked disturbingly like the top of a skull. For a while, only the swishing of the brooms and the clinking of potion bottles broke the silence of the room. Occasionally, Matoya would turn and pluck some herbs from one of the hanging bundles, or she would begin muttering over her work, shutting her eye and waving her hand over the bowl. Cen and Estel looked slightly uneasy and kept glancing at each other. Sapphire watched Matoya anxiously, chewing on her lower lip and twisting the edges of her sleeves, while Rath seemed only mildly interested in the proceedings, instead watching the brooms or examining some of the more exotic items strung from the ceiling.

At last, Matoya turned back to the companions, holding a small, teardrop-shaped brown bottle in her hand.

"Jolt Tonic," she said, holding it up for them to see. "Able to break down any of Astos's curses. Have young Avarion drink this, and he'll be right in no time."

"Thank you, Matoya," Sapphire said, looking relieved as she took the bottle.

"Hm." Matoya stared around at them again. "Many trials lie before you, Warriors. Whether you will prove equal to them or not, I cannot say. Though…" Her crystal eye glinted. "I do see some things. Reunions, farewells, victories…and losses. You will experience all of them soon, sooner than you may think. Your first great test approaches swiftly…"

She trailed off delicately, her gaze sweeping them. Sapphire's face paled, her eyes widening, while Cen looked worried and Estel shivered as though he had got a sudden chill. Rath, however, looked distinctly unimpressed.

"What…what sort of test?" Sapphire asked, speaking barely above a whisper.

Matoya did not answer, instead giving the companions a slightly unsettling smile. "Best be on your way. You have a great deal to be getting on with." She nodded toward the door.

Cen and Estel took the hint at once, looking all too ready to leave this eerie woman behind. They started toward the exit, Cen taking Sapphire by the arm and drawing her along with them. Rath turned and began to follow, but Matoya stepped after him, seizing his upper arm in a tight grip and pulling him to a halt.

"A question for you, young mage."

Rath shot a cool look at her out of the corner of his eye, his shoulders stiffening.

"I need answer none of your questions. You can See once more; find the answer yourself."

"Oh, I have seen answers, Rath of Onrac, just like I have seen so many other things. But you have not seen, and so I ask you this." Matoya's eye narrowed somewhat. "How can you believe that you will be fit to stand as a Warrior of Light when you keep your soul shrouded in so much darkness?"

A heavy, unpleasant silence fell. Rath's gaze hardened.

"Take your hand off me," he said, his voice quiet and dangerous.

"As you wish." Matoya gave Rath a knowing look, then released his arm and went back to her seat at the table. Rath swept out of the room, his robes fluttering around him and his staff clunking against the floor.


Rath did not speak to any of the others on the trip back to Port Haven, giving them only blank, stony looks when he chose to acknowledge them at all. Remembering Rath's actions when he had last behaved like this, the other companions did not speak to him either. This new source of tension, added onto Sapphire's continued somber and guilt-ridden mood, made the silence in the group nearly unbearable. Cen and Estel attempted to maintain some degree of normalcy, even if just between themselves, but the moody silences of the two mages cast an oppressive pall over their efforts.

Reaching and boarding the Charybdis provided some relief of this, as Sapphire disappeared into her room in the hold, and Rath became absorbed in one of his spellbooks and generally made himself unobtrusive. Cen got the vessel underway, while Estel sat astride one of the benches nearest to the tiller and stared at the hatch in the deck. After a moment, he looked over at Rath.

"Hey, Rath?"

He may as well have addressed a stone for all the reaction he received; Rath remained wholly occupied with his reading as he sat leaning back against the gunwale. Estel frowned and looked back at the hatch.

"Fine, not like I wanted to ask you anything anyway," he muttered.

Cen glanced over at Rath, giving him a look of dislike, then turned to Estel. He watched him for a minute before speaking.

"You could go talk to her."

"Huh?" Estel looked up with a start. "What're you talkin' about?"

Cen rolled his eyes. "I'm talking about Sapphire. You feel bad about yelling at her before, don't you?"

Estel spluttered. "What? No! No, I don't! She deserved it! I don't…" He trailed off and looked away, frowning. "She just…she shouldn't be lyin' like that."

"Yeah, well, according to her, you shouldn't be stealing, but she hasn't ever gone off on you like you did to her," Cen pointed out.

Estel scowled and did not reply. He lay back on the bench and stared up at the cloud-dotted sky, his brow furrowed; after a moment, he wrapped his arms around his stomach, and his feet began to tap restlessly against the deck.

Cen, busy negotiating the Charybdis out of the harbor, did not notice this at once. When he did, however, he rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Come on, Estel. If you feel that bad about it—"

"I don't feel bad about it," Estel said flatly, still staring upward.

Cen gave him a skeptical look. "Now who's lying?"

"I'm not lyin'." Estel's voice had a sudden edge to it.

Cen shrugged and let the matter drop, instead applying his attention to steering the ship. After a moment, however, Estel broke the silence.

"And it's not like she'd listen to me even if I did say anything, anyway."

Cen smirked. "Knew it."

Estel shot Cen a dirty look before turning his gaze skyward again.

"If you say 'I told you so', I might have to hit you."

"Can I say 'why don't you go down there and tell her you're sorry?' instead?"

After a pause, Estel shook his head. "No. I'll…" He trailed off and shut his eyes, his feet continuing to tap. He shook his head again. "I can't deal with that."

Cen leaned against the tiller and shrugged. "Just thought I'd ask." He paused for a moment, then added, "But I did tell you that you'd regret all that, you know. You shouldn't have yelled at her like you did."

"Yeah, I know," Estel said, frowning at him.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Estel did not answer. Cen sighed, shook his head, and turned his attention back to the tiller.