Chapter 25: Come Fly With Me
They exited the cavern without any further trouble; no more dragons waylaid them, and the chamber they had fallen into after retrieving the levistone had connected directly back to the passage leading to the crevasse. The companions ascended to the surface to find the sun drawing toward the western horizon, staining the snow pink, and the weather looked to be taking a nasty turn. The wind had picked up, and a storm brewed around the heads of the mountains, towering pale grey clouds blotting out the northern sky. Cen had set up the camp before the group entered the crevasse, but they could not dive into the tent for cover immediately: Rath sent Sapphire in by herself first so she could change into undamaged clothes. Once that was done and the others entered the tent, illuminated by one of Sapphire's little marshlights, Rath began heating the small area as he moved to take the torn clothes from Sapphire. She, however, would not release them.
"I'd…I really don't think…"
Rath gave her a look, and she trailed off and looked away. After another moment, she handed over the bundle of clothes. Rath set to work at once, picking out the basting on the outer clothes and then threading his needle again to start fixing the damage properly. He started on the innermost undershift, working very fast, and this time the stitches were small, neat, and close together.
Still getting situated, Estel happened to look over at Rath's work; when it dawned on him what precisely Rath was working on, he looked from it to Sapphire, his face going bright red, then he promptly turned around and put his back to the others. Sapphire could not help but notice this, but she said nothing. Shivering, she hugged herself and watched Rath's fingers and the darting needle, her face burning in embarrassment at him handling her underclothes. She started and looked around, however, when a sudden weight fell on her shoulders: Cen putting his heavy outer cloak over her.
"You look like you need that more than I do," he said with a half-smile.
Sapphire dropped her gaze and pulled the cloak close around her.
"Thank you…"
The wind continued to howl around the tent, and after a few minutes, there came the sound of tiny, hard granules of snow hitting the canvas walls. A collective shiver ran through the companions, the sound of the snow somehow making them feel much colder. Rath paused in his work, shut his eyes, and raised the temperature a bit more before continuing. He finished the first shift and handed it back to Sapphire—she immediately tucked it under the cloak where no one could see it—and began on the next. Cen sat and watched him work out of a lack of anything else to do, while Estel kept his back to the others and stared at the side of the tent.
Rath kept his eyes on his sewing and, after a few final stitches, he finished the second shift and handed it back to Sapphire. She immediately hid it under the cloak with the first, and her blush lessened a bit now that her undergarments were out of view. Rath just started to work on Sapphire's robes without comment.
Estel shuffled a little and cleared his throat, the sound so quiet that it could scarcely be heard over the wind and snow outside.
"Um…" He cleared his throat again, a little louder. "Is there, er, something I can be doin'? Only I feel about as useful as a…er, as a really useless thing, and this tent is gettin' really boring to look at."
Sapphire startled a little, but she managed to look at him for a couple of seconds before her face flushed and she had to turn away.
"If you are as desperate for diversion as you sound," Rath said, not looking up, "you may begin studying the levistone. It would be best if we knew something of its nature before we attempt to employ its power in any way."
"…Yeah, okay. Good idea."
Estel felt around behind him with one hand until he located Rath's ratty old pack. He pulled it toward him, opened it, and removed the levistone before pushing the pack away. He turned the levistone over in his hands, holding it close to his face and squinting at its surface. Silence fell over the companions, broken only by the storm outside, but it did not last long: after only a few minutes, Estel spoke up again.
"It has cracks in it."
Rath and Cen both paused and looked over at Estel, Rath with a raised eyebrow.
"Cracks?"
"Yeah." Estel held the levistone back over his shoulder. "Here, look."
Rath sighed. "Turn around, Estel."
Estel squirmed. "No. You're—"
"I assure you, I am currently working on nothing you have not seen yourself on countless occasions. Turn around if you wish to speak to us."
After a second's more uncomfortable shifting, Estel drew a deep breath and turned around, scooting over a few inches to sit by Rath. His eyes fell on the bundle of cloth in Rath's lap, and he exhaled in relief as he saw that it was only Sapphire's usual robes. He held up the levistone and pointed to one side of it.
"See? All those black lines. Those're cracks, right?"
Rath paused and looked at the stone, his shadowed eyes still managing to catch a bit of the marshlight and reflect it back as a gleam. Black lines did indeed cover the levistone, reaching from top to bottom of the diamond-shaped stone, each line straight, with any variance to the left or right made at a perfect right angle before turning back on its course to the tips. Small black squares lay strewn among the lines as well. Rath ran his fingers over the side, and his eyes narrowed a bit.
"I do not think so. They are far too orderly to be simple cracks or shows of damage. In addition, there is no change in the texture of the stone where the lines cross it; they must be a purposeful inclusion to its design."
Estel blinked a few times. "So…they're supposed to be there?"
Rath grimaced.
"Yes, they are. That is what I said, is it not?"
"I guess so…"
Estel looked up from his study just in time to catch Sapphire's eye over the top of the levistone. The glance lasted for less than half a second before they both looked away, Sapphire starting to fiddle with the hem of Cen's cloak and Estel coughing into his hand and turning his attention wholly onto the stone. Cen and Rath exchanged exasperated looks with one another.
Outside, the snow fell thicker and the wind howled, stirring up flurries of white in the darkness. The companions' little tent shook under the bitterly cold assault, but it did not shift or come loose; Cen had secured it well. Far off, high up at the peak of the mountain, a sound like a woman singing a haunting melody could be heard.
Sapphire lay on her back and stared up into the darkness, listening to the wind. She had declined a Sleep spell that night, insisting she was so exhausted that it would not be necessary, but now she regretted that decision. She tried very hard not to give this impression, though, lying as still as she could so she would not disturb Rath or Cen. Only the sound of the dwindling storm broke the silence of the tent; even Cen's usual snoring was absent.
After midnight had come and gone, Sapphire, squirming and biting her lower lip, sat up. She drew a sharp breath as freezing air flooded her sleeping bag, but she did not lie back down. Instead, she shifted a bit and looked over to her left where, somewhere in the darkness, Estel lay.
"Estel?" she whispered. "Are…are you awake?"
For a minute, no answer came. Then, just as Sapphire was about to repeat her query, there came the sound of rustling fabric and a deep breath.
"Yeah, I'm awake." Estel sounded very coherent, given the hour, but his whisper had a rather strained, nervous quality to it. "What is it?"
"I…" Sapphire hesitated, her breathing becoming shaky with nerves and her fingers starting to pick at the sleeves of her coat. "Before…um…" She stopped again, shutting her eyes and trying to gather herself. It took a few deep breaths before she could continue at all. "Cen told me that you…you've been…ah, I mean…I mean, ever since Cornelia. Is…is that true?"
Another lengthy silence elapsed before Estel replied, and even then he sounded embarrassed and reluctant to say it out loud.
"Yeah, it is."
Sapphire took a few more long, deep breaths.
"So…the whole time we—"
"Yeah."
The silence that fell after this went on for much longer than those previous. Neither Estel nor Sapphire moved, the only rustle of motion coming from Cen as he rolled over and began snoring quietly. Finally, Estel spoke, his whisper barely audible.
"I thought you knew."
Sapphire did not respond. She remained sitting up for a moment, then she lay back down and rolled onto her side, tucking her sleeping bag close around her. Estel lifted his head and looked toward her as he heard the sound, but when Sapphire remained quiet, he lay back down and curled up, frowning into the darkness.
Aside from the temperature starting to rise instead of fall, the journey down the glacier scarcely differed from the upward journey: days of trudging across the vast white expanse, arriving frozen and exhausted at each night's campsite, and Sapphire once again requesting that Rath put her to sleep every evening. For all this familiarity, however, it slowly became evident that something had changed.
Though the air of discomfort persisted, Estel and Sapphire still too ill-at-ease to look at or speak to one another, something of an edge seemed to have been taken away. Sapphire, in spite of her continued dislike of the sleeping arrangements, stopped being quite so withdrawn; she began talking a little more and would help Rath with repelling the cold without being asked first. Cen looked rather encouraged by this improvement, but this faded when he noticed Estel did not seem to be responding similarly. The only change of behavior Estel showed was that he did not sit and stare at his compass as much as he had been. He instead spent more time half-watching Sapphire out of the corner of his eye and studying the levistone with Rath. This latter occupation seemed more out of a lack of having anything else to do, however, as they learned very little from their frequent inspections.
After leaving the glacier behind, the awkwardness lifted a bit more, as the group no longer had to share a tent: the men slept outside in their bedrolls and let Sapphire have the tent to herself. Sapphire looked quite touched by this gesture, but Cen just smiled, shrugged, and waved off her thanks.
"Hey, we figured you deserve some privacy by now. You've kind of had to put up with a lot thanks to not having any lately." He started to turn away to help clear the ground for a campfire, but then he glanced back and added, in all nonchalance, "It was mostly Estel's idea, anyway."
Sapphire went pink and did not reply.
It did not take long for the companions to make their way back down the Whisperwind River and to the Charybdis waiting at its mouth. They had decided beforehand not to return to Crescent Lake, instead proceeding at once to Ryukahn Desert, situated on the southernmost tip of the continent between two arms of the mountains. The journey, only a few days longer than that to Hook Port, suffered from the same discomfort the trip up to the Whisperwind had; being cooped up on the small vessel with no way to exorcise his restless energy was almost torture for Estel, and his fidgetiness did little to encourage a calm atmosphere.
Fortunately, the voyage ended before things could become too unbearable. They reached their destination, anchoring the Charybdis at the mouth of the Crescent River, just to the east of the desert. The upcoming task looked to be daunting; Ryukahn Desert had no landmarks within it, being only a wide, rolling expanse of yellow-white dunes stretching out to the feet of the surrounding mountains. It would be only too easy to become lost, as at the right angle, the gap in the mountains could completely disappear, the two arms blending together due to a visual trick. Cen assured the others he would be able to find their way back out should they become disoriented, however.
"And if that doesn't work," he went on, "we can just use Estel's compass to…"
He trailed off as he spotted the look on Estel's face. The compass still refused to behave, both needles constantly spinning out of control. Cen cleared his throat.
"Well, I'll just keep us from getting lost, then. It's okay."
Estel looked away and did not comment.
The companions started into the desert the morning after their arrival. Cen and Rath had gone over a map of the area during the voyage, and they had marked out a grid system to organize the search. Cen put Estel in charge of this to help keep his mind off things, and the distraction actually worked somewhat; Estel led the way through the sandy, windswept valley, so completely focused on the task at hand that he started behaving almost normally. He held the levistone as he walked, and he occasionally looked at it as though hoping it would point in the correct direction.
Around noon, a frosty, dry wind picked up, sending ripples of sand across the desert floor, tossing around the companions' cloaks, and threatening to wisk away Rath's hat. Sapphire, wincing and shielding her eyes, pulled her hood closer around her face.
"I didn't think it would be so cold here," she said.
"We are pretty far south," Cen pointed out. He brought the group to a halt at the top of the tall ridge of sand they had been climbing. "Okay, let's check the map really quick; we've got a good start going, so we don't want to get lost now."
He had scarcely reached for his pack, however, when the levistone tried to jerk itself out of Estel's hands. The sudden movement pulled him off-balance, and he slipped and tumbled down the side of the dune. Sapphire gave a startled cry, and she, Cen, and Rath hurried after Estel as quickly as they could without falling themselves. He righted himself just as they reached him, and he eyed the levistone with suspicion.
"How'd that—?"
The levistone lurched again, yanking Estel hard to the right, and he almost toppled over again. Cen steadied him, but the levistone continued to tug at Estel's arms, dragging him along a trough between two dunes. The other companions chased after him. After a couple dozen yards, however, Estel's feet could not keep up with the levistone's quickening pace, and he slipped and fell. The levistone flew out of his hands and set off rolling across the sand like a tumbleweed. Swearing, Estel scrambled to his feet and dashed after it, the other companions right behind him.
When they caught up to the levistone, it had come to rest at the base of a low dune. The companions stood in a cluster a few feet away from it as they caught their breath, none of them wanting to get too close.
"Alright." Cen's eyes did not leave the levistone. "Someone want to try to explain this?"
Before anyone could reply, the levistone vanished into the ground as though pulled downward by some impossibly strong magnet. Sand started to drain after it, then the ground gave a sudden, terrific jolt, nearly knocking the companions off their feet. Faintly, beneath the sand, there came a deep clang, then a low, sustained grinding. The ground began to shake violently, and with another tremendous jerk, a long, straight crack began to open up in the desert, directly beneath the companions' feet. They ran as the crack yawned wider and wider, sand cascading into the immense dark cavern below. Struggling against the tide, the companions did not stop their flight until, as abruptly as it had begun, the tumult ceased.
Silence fell, broken only by the wind and the quiet hiss of falling sand.
Estel, breathing hard, recovered first.
"What the hell was that?" He edged forward through the sand, craning his head forward to peer down into the gaping black pit. "What just—?"
"I believe," Rath said, wading over to stand beside him, "we have found the object of our search." He walked closer to the precipice and gave the pit a brief, clinical examination. "There is a stairway here."
He walked to the end of the rectangular hole, which was over one hundred yards wide and at least twice as long, and carefully stepped down from the desert floor onto a long, narrow metal staircase protruding from the cavern's wall. The other companions followed him, Estel first, and Cen leading a rattled-looking Sapphire along just behind.
Faint sunlight slanted down into the darkness, making the still-falling sand glisten. Farther inside, the light half-illuminated a dark bulk and a mish-mash of thin, delicate-looking shapes. Rath conjured a puffball flame as he descended, and the fire cast its flickering glow over a stretch of smooth, reddish-brown wood and glinted on rims and knobs of metal. The scents of timber and oil mixed with the dry, dusty smell of the desert. On the side of the wooden expanse, a gleaming plate of metal bore what must have been the vessel's name, both in Common script and a strange alphabet: Phaëton.
The group reached the bottom of the stairs. A narrow ramp extended from the last step over to the wooden bulk. A broad wooden railing encircled the deck, and the metal ramp rested atop it, so that the companions had to hop down to reach the smooth, sand-dusted floor. Sapphire, finally coming back to herself, brought up a marshlight so they could see better.
"Is this the airship?" she whispered, her eyes round.
"It could be nothing else."
Rath made his way around the deck, holding up his flame and feeding more energy into it to make it brighter. The small blaze showed many long, hinged beams topped with propellers, retracted close to the ship's bulk with loose cables hanging from them. What looked like a building encompassed almost the entire stern of the vessel, which likely constituted the cabin area. Near the cabins, the light revealed a pedestal, a little more than waist-height and made of grey stone marbled with some unfamiliar blue substance. Atop this sat the levistone.
Estel's eyes widened as he saw it.
"Hey, so that's where it went!"
He trotted over and looked down at the levistone, Rath standing beside him with the light. The stone rested crookedly on the pedestal's square top, one tip pointing up and the corners pointing outward at the straight edges of the square. The indentation beneath the stone, however, showed the corners lining up with those in the pedestal. Estel and Rath examined this for a minute or so.
"Interesting…" Rath murmured.
"So, how does this work?" Estel asked, squinting at the levistone with great puzzlement. "This's supposed to make the thing go, isn't it?
"That is the impression I received, yes." Rath glanced over at Cen, who was approaching. "Is that correct, Cen?"
For all of Rath's positive behavior of late, Cen still looked quite startled to hear this question. He gave himself a little shake.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's right."
"Hm." Rath turned back to the stone. "Well, then. Let us see what happens."
He shooed Estel away and bent to study the stone and pedestal closer, his hat completely overshadowing his face, leaving even his eyes in darkness. After just a few seconds, however, he straightened up, placed his hands on the levistone, and twisted it so that it fit into the pedestal's indentation. The levistone settled into place with a quiet thunk of stone striking stone. Rath let go and took a step back.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, all over the surface of the levistone, the thin, dark lines and little squares began to glow bright blue, pulsing sparks shooting along them. The glow spread to corresponding lines on the pedestal, the light flowing down like water. Sounds began to emanate from below deck: a long, low groan, followed by the squeals of long-dormant machinery being forced into motion, gears and pistons beginning to pump and move. The smells of metal and oil intensified, becoming almost overpowering. The deck began to vibrate, and a steady, deep hum filled the air. Off to the sides, there came rattles, creaks, and thumps as beams and hinges folded out and snapped into position, their cables pulling taut. With a rushing sound, the windmill-like propellers began spinning, slowly at first, then moving faster and faster until they were only so many pale blurs.
Slowly, the airship rose out of its hidden cavern.
Sapphire gasped and ran to the railing, staring down wide-eyed as the crack in the desert closed beneath them.
"Look! Look at this! It's flying! We're flying!"
Cen could not help but laugh, though he too looked around in amazement.
"Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it?"
Rath looked around with rather forced calm, holding his hat in place to keep it from being swept away by the gusts from the propellers. Estel, on the other hand, ran to the railing as well, staring down at the ground and then up at the many devices keeping the ship aloft.
"This…" He spun around to look at the others, his grin somehow managing to widen. "…is the best thing ever! Just look at all this!" He ran back to the pedestal. "How do you steer? Let's go fly over Crescent Lake and scare everyone!"
"I do not know," Rath said, sounding as though he was only half paying attention. His gaze remained on the levistone. "And until I do, kindly go sit somewhere and take a few deep breaths to calm yourself. You are being rather distracting."
Estel managed to stay still for about five seconds. Then the suspense became too much for him; he gave a dramatic groan and circled around to the other side of the pedestal, peering around Rath to look at the levistone himself.
"Lemme try, Rath, please? I wanna see what it can do!"
Rath started to protest, but before he could utter even one word, Estel reached out and touched one of the blue squares on the levistone.
A hiss, just audible over the noise of the engine, came from below deck. The lights in the levistone flickered. More hisses, accompanied by jets of steam, burst out from all along the edge of the deck just past the railing as dozens of little wooden slats flipped open. A white glow flickered in the gap the slats revealed, then a translucent, green-gold dome of light formed over the deck. At once, the wind stirred up by the propellers ceased, leaving the companions in undisturbed air.
This time, it was Rath who rushed, wide-eyed and astonished, to the railing, staring at the bubble of light.
"NulGale!" he gasped. "It's generating a NulGale spell!"
Only Cen looked surprised at Rath's slip from his usual precise diction: Sapphire was too busy staring in wonder and amazement at the magical barrier, and Estel was getting ready to take full advantage of having the levistone all to himself. He cracked his knuckles and set to work.
"Okay! Let's get this thing goin'!"
He touched another blue dot. This time, there came a deck-vibrating rattle and a high, mechanical whine. The noises terminated with a dull thump somewhere below. Cen went to the railing and looked down.
"You just opened up a gangway," he said.
Estel blinked. "What? Damn, that's not what I wanted…"
He looked back at the levistone and pressed the same dot. The noises, sans thump, repeated themselves, and Cen reported that the hatch was closing.
"Okay," Estel muttered, half to himself. "Let's try movin' now, huh?"
Instead of touching one of the dots, he pressed his finger to one of the thin blue lines, and the blue light disappeared past where his finger was set. Only faint sounds came from below deck this time; louder now were the sounds of the propellers shifting and increasing their speed. At once, the airship shot upward, throwing the companions, bar Estel, to the deck.
Estel yelped and removed his finger from the stone at once. The light resumed its course, and the airship shuddered and slowed to a halt.
"Aheh…" Estel gave a sheepish grin as the others hauled themselves to their feet. "Sorry. Didn't think it'd go that fast." He turned back to the levistone and rubbed his hands together. "Well, let's try this again!"
Estel's experimentation went on for over an hour, and by the end of it, the other companions were getting motion-sick. In his attempts to work out the controls, he set the ship spinning in place like a top, nearly plunged it bow first into the sand below more than once, and sent it shooting backward across the desert like a cork shot out of a bottle. Rath at last managed to intervene, and once he did, more useful progress was made: determining which lines controlled which functions, how to control speed, the angles of turns, rise and descent, and so forth. Estel, though still grinning, protested that Rath's analytical approach took all the fun out of things.
"I do not see how it is 'fun' to repeatedly endanger what is perhaps our sole means of continuing this quest," Rath said.
"Yeah, yeah…" Estel waved a dismissive hand at him. "Hey, can we go out over Crescent Lake now? It'll be great; seein' this'll scare the daylights outta them. Thing's huge and even louder than Cen snoring."
Cen, standing hunched over with his hands on his knees as he tried to make his stomach stop doing cartwheels, looked up and frowned.
"I don't snore!"
"Yeah, you do," Estel said matter-of-factly. When Cen only spluttered in reply, Estel went on. "You so do. Hey, Saph, doesn't Cen—"
He broke off at once as it struck him what he was doing. He stared at Sapphire, looking stunned, but Rath spoke up over the sudden silence.
"Yes, Cen, you snore, though it is not as bad as Estel would have you believe."
Cen just shook his head and bent back over, breathing deep.
"I'm gonna go check out the cabins," Estel announced. He rather pointedly kept his gaze away from the others. "You all get us going, and I'll let you know what I find." With that, he turned and disappeared into the cabin building.
Estel's delight with the Phaëton showed no signs of diminishing. He made a thorough job of investigating every cabin along with the large common room in the center of them, and occasionally the others heard an exclamation from him even above the hum of the ship's engine. He made no further appearance on deck for quite some time, while Rath steered the ship back to the Charybdis to retrieve their supplies before turning it northward to begin their journey to the next Shrine. One particular reason for his prolonged disappearance became clear when he finally emerged back on deck and explained it in great detail: he had discovered the water fixtures in the cabins. It completely fascinated him that little knobs and levers could cause a spout protruding from the wall to spew out water into a basin for washing, or could send a rush of water into a privy to rinse away the waste. Cen, for all that he found this amazing as well, had to chuckle over how enamored Estel was with all of it.
By the time evening began to fall, the companions already had a fair start on their journey, cruising along over Crescent at a great height to avoid the mountains. Estel had finally been persuaded to go focus his attention on something other than the toilet, and so he instead went into the cargo hold, accesible via a staircase behind the cabins, and began ransacking it. Out on the deck, Rath stood at the pedestal, steering the ship, while Cen leaned against the railing nearby and watched. Sapphire stood at the opposite railing nearer to the bow with her hood pushed back, staring out with round, awe-filled eyes over the mountains and billowed clouds. On the western horizon, the sun had nearly set, staining everything gold and pink and scarlet.
Estel emerged from the hold, looking somewhat subdued now and clutching something behind his back. He rounded the corner of the cabins but stopped rather than proceed out onto the main deck. He stood there for a moment, watching Sapphire and fiddling with the small object in his hands. Finally, he drew a deep breath and strode across the deck. He stopped just a few feet away from Sapphire.
"Um, Saph?"
Sapphire drew a sharp breath, surprised out of her reverie, and turned to look at Estel. Her face colored.
"Oh… Um, hello, Estel…"
"Hi. Um…" Estel took a breath, trying to gather himself. He could not quite meet Sapphire's eye, so he glanced away to the other side of the deck instead. "Look, I…" He sighed and turned back to Sapphire. "I messed up pretty bad. I mean…" He gave a short, hollow laugh. "I told you I wasn't any good at this kinda stuff, didn't I?"
Sapphire just continued watching him and did not answer. Estel's demeanor became more serious, and he cleared his throat before continuing.
"Yeah, I guess I was just…I was bein' stupid and got carried away. I mean, I didn't even think that you didn't…um…anyway, I guess I just had things figured out wrong. And I feel really bad about what happened. So, I'm sorry."
He took his hands out from behind his back and held a small, flat wooden box out to Sapphire.
"Here. I found this down in the hold, and, well…call it a…" He thought for a moment and shrugged one shoulder. "…a peace offering."
Sapphire hesitated, then reached out and took the box from him.
"Thank you…"
Estel shrugged again. "I just thought…yeah, since I can kinda tell that you don't really…um, y'know." He gestured vaguely between the pair of them. "With us, then… And that's fine, really, I mean, whatever you want is okay with me. It's just…" He gave a faintly hopeful smile. "We can still just be friends like we were before, right?"
Again, Sapphire did not answer, though this time it was because she was looking at the box and did not seem to have heard his question. She opened the lid and gasped: inside lay a beautiful gold hair clasp, delicate-looking and intricately made, dotted with little gems of an exquisite, deep blue speckled with flecks of gold. Sapphire lifted the clasp from the box to examine it, her eyes round.
"Oh, it's beautiful…"
Estel perked up a little.
"You like it?"
Sapphire nodded.
Estel's expression lifted further. "Oh. Oh, good. I mean, I thought you would, so, um, yeah. Great. And, y'know," he added hastily, "this doesn't hafta be some big thing; I mean, I'm not tryin' to make you change your mind or anything. Like I said, if you don't, y'know, feel like that about me, we can just—"
"I do feel like that," Sapphire interrupted. She dropped her gaze, not able to meet Estel's eye.
Estel stopped and stared at her. He tried to respond, but he only succeeded in producing a couple of disjointed half-syllables before giving up. Sapphire continued.
"I guess…" She blushed darker. "I guess I'm not any good at this kind of thing either. And I…I've just been too shy around you to let you know I…" She trailed off, keeping her gaze lowered and biting her lip.
Estel looked as though he did not quite know what to think about this. He blinked and again tried to speak several times without success before he finally got his voice to work, somehow sounding both hopeful and cautious.
"…Really? I mean, you're sure—?"
"Yes," Sapphire said, again speaking before he could finish his question. She gave a firm nod. She set the clasp back in its box and glanced at Estel, but she only managed to keep his gaze for a couple of seconds before she had to look away again.
A few moments of stunned silence passed. Estel stared at the nervous Sapphire, looking as though he scarcely dared to believe this turn of events, then a broad smile spread across his face and he gave a breathless, almost relieved laugh.
"Wow. I didn't even think…" He put one hand to his head, his expression warmer and less uncomfortable. "You could've said something sooner."
Sapphire drew a deep breath and sort of shrugged. She seemed to be resisting the urge to fiddle with her sleeves.
"I just…I needed time to think about…about everything, that's all."
"Yeah, I understand." Estel smiled. "Saph…"
Sapphire looked up at him. "Hm?"
Estel opened his mouth to speak again, but then he stopped. After only a flicker of hesitation, he crossed the short distance between them and embraced her, this time more gentle and affectionate than had been the last. Sapphire drew a quick breath, but she also returned the gesture, tentatively resting her head against his shoulder. Estel visibly relaxed, releasing a quiet sigh, and held her closer.
Around them, the sky began to darken to crimson, purple, and blue as the sun fell further behind the horizon.
Estel loosened his hold on Sapphire just enough to back up a step, and Sapphire straightened up and looked at him. He gave a small smile and, again far more calmly and with more sentiment, leaned in and kissed her. A bit of unease showed briefly on Sapphire's face, but she did not pull away. Estel drew back, looked at Sapphire as though checking her reaction, then he grinned, gave another short, breathless laugh, and kissed her again, this time deeper and with more energy, drawing her close against him. Both startled and overwhelmed, Sapphire went rigid, half clinging to him and half pressing away; but, in the face of the sudden, insistent force, she almost could not help but begin, in her timid way, to respond.
"Okay, that's enough, you two," Cen called from across the deck, to his credit managing not to look too amused. "If you want to keep that up, take it somewhere where we don't have to see you."
Sapphire broke off the kiss at once with a gasp, as though she had forgotten Cen and Rath were present. Breathing hard, she turned away in embarrassment and shut her eyes, for a moment looking almost relieved. Estel frowned over at the others.
"Moment killer!"
"It is just as well," Rath replied. "That was becoming indecent." He jerked his head, motioning for Estel to come over. "I wish to retire; come take the helm."
Estel started to say something, then he stopped, looked down at Sapphire still enfolded in his arms, and looked back at Rath.
"Can't Cen do it?"
Rath raised an eyebrow.
"I had presumed you would want to do so. After all, you are nearly as enamored with this vessel as you are with our dear healer, and this, at least, has the novelty of being something new."
"This is new," Estel said, looking at Sapphire out of the corner of his eye.
As though she sensed his glance, Sapphire looked up at him.
"You can go ahead and steer, if you want, Estel. I actually wanted to go…" She hesitated, then backed up and rephrased her statement. "I wanted to go to my room too; I'm really kind of sleepy."
Estel immediately nodded.
"Okay, sure. Whatever you need." He released her from the embrace and kissed her once more, this time on the cheek. He smiled. "Sleep good, Saph."
"Thank you."
Estel turned and crossed the deck to take Rath's place at the pedestal. Rath said nothing to him, just turning away and starting toward the cabins. He took his time about this, however, tarrying so that he and Sapphire would reach the door at the same time. He arrived just a couple of steps before, and he held the door open for her. Sapphire murmured a quiet 'thank you' as she entered.
"What an interesting turn of events," Rath commented, his tone noncommittal, as he followed her into the common room. Lights, powered by the same force that gave the ship flight, illuminated the spacious, comfortable chamber, and the low, wickerwork chairs and sofas looked none the worse for having been buried for four hundred years. "I do hope you are quite certain you know what you are doing."
Sapphire stared at him, her eyes round with alarm.
"Wh…what do you mean?"
Rath's expression stayed perfectly inscrutable. "What do you think I mean?"
"I…"
"Sleep well, Sapphire." Rath inclined his head to her, turned away, and went to the cabin at the far corner of the common room. He entered and shut the door behind him, leaving Sapphire in the common room.
She retreated to her own room shortly afterward.