Dear Mother,

Henry and I have left the island. We've taken the dinghy and intend to sail until we find answers. Rest assured that we were not captured or taken, nor do we intend to be. We are both so sorry for leaving you and Elizabeth behind, worrying about us, but we will be safe.
We first intend to locate Uncle Jack. It will be no small feat, but at least know that Henry and I will always be traveling together and, once we find Jack, we will be among family.
Amour pour toujours,

A.

I quickly scrawled that note on a page of my diary and tore it from its binding, leaving it on the parlor table at which I had been sitting. Henry was kind enough to let me dash to the fortress, where I was able to grab a few other essential items from my room and the storeroom, such as a map, a compass, two water canteens, some hard tack and fruits, and a jacket, as well as my beloved pistol and holster. Together, we then walked to the shoreline of the Cove, where we were able to board the dinghy and push off towards the open ocean. We hopped aboard, sitting down inside it and exchanging an excited glance with each other. We had done it! For the first time in our lives, we were leaving Shipwreck and pushing out towards the great unknown.

Once we got nearer to it, however, and the boat began to sway with growing swells of waves, I grew a bit concerned.

"Um, Henry," I said, watching him fiddle unsuccessfully with our sail in attempts to extend it. "How do you suppose we'll surpass the tide? The waves are rather strong, don't you think?"

He looked over his shoulder briefly, regarding the precarious waves. "Eh," he said, choosing to pay them little mind, "We'll be fine. As soon as we clear the Cove, we should cut right through them. I reckon this boat's big enough."

As he was older, I figured that he knew what he was talking about, so I stayed quiet, instead working to stow away our supplies within the small cargo hold we had at our disposal. "So, where to first?" I asked, procuring our map.

"Well," he began, still preoccupied with our stubborn sail, "We're heading East, thankfully away from the Dutchman, so we technically can stay out of that mess and not run into danger, but that also means that we are heading towards Port Royal."

I looked up at him. "So…you don't have a plan? We're just sailing aimlessly?"

"Listen," he said with a grunt, now putting all of his weight into his task. "Leaving was a rather spur of the moment decision. I thought we could figure it out while we made our escape!"

"Sailing right into enemy territory, that's a wise plan," I scoffed. "I'm sure the British Royal Navy won't bat an eye at a Turner and a Norrington sailing right up to Port Royal's docks."

He groaned, "We'll use aliases. Please use your head!"

Just then, we came around the rock face of the cliff which served as the entrance to the cove, and had also been shielding us from the turbulent winds on the other side. No longer protected, we were instantly buffeted with gusts of air, causing my hair to whip around my face wildly and Henry's job to grow ever-more challenging.

"Use your head!" I shouted over the wind. "It's nearly sunrise! You know as well as I that your mother and my mother will be awake with the dawn, and if we haven't cleared the area, they'll catch us in no time. We need to decide on a heading and sail there!"

Henry finally lost patience with the sail and yanked the canvas down by hand with a loud grunt, but as soon as the high winds caught the fabric, it jolted our boat forward violently, causing me to lose balance and topple over the starboard side of the boat and into the ocean. With the sudden chill of the water completely surrounding me, I had little time to react other than clawing my way towards the surface to try to get back on board. When I finally broke above the waves, however, I was completely turned around, and flailed wildly as choppy waves smacked into my face as I struggled to find the dinghy. When my eyes finally found it, I was alarmed to see it retreating away from where I was at an alarmingly fast rate. Even more alarming was that it was unoccupied. That's when I felt Henry grasp onto my shoulder as he too broke the waves. He must have immediately dived in after to me to retrieve me.

His grip was tight, as not to lose me, but the weight he had put on my shoulder was causing my head to sink below the waves. I struggled and kicked against him, finally shouting out, "Let me go! You're not helping!"

"Sorry," he finally sputtered upon realizing what he was absentmindedly doing to me.

"Henry, the boat!" I cried, looking in a panic to our increasingly smaller vessel as it travelled independent from us.

His eyes widened in horror as he realized that he had forgotten to anchor before leaving the vessel unmanned, then took off, swimming at top speed to catch it. I immediately followed suit, swimming in stride with him. We had already sailed too far to swim back to shore—there was no going back now. Without that boat, we were done for.

I barely looked up with each stroke, focused solely on swimming straight on with all my might against the waves. I only stopped when I caught a glimpse of Henry's form ceasing movement in the water. I then tucked my body in and brought my head up out of the water, following his bewildered gaze to our boat which was…now heading straight for us, somehow.

My blood ran cold when I saw my mother, the main sail rope wrapped tightly around her right hand as she steered the rudder with her left, her face flushed with such fury it could have set an entire island aflame. She must have somehow found out that we had tried to run away and used her powers to instantly transform onto the deck of her dinghy. I felt my heart plummet into my stomach when I realized what it was that alerted her to our absence.

As though reading my mind, Henry asked me, "But…how?"

I gave a sharp exhale out of my nostrils. How had she known? The same way she could immediately find me despite being inside when I had wandered off and ventured out swimming on my own in the ocean as an infant countless times. "My blood," I answered, having forgotten in the many years since I had learned the futility of disobeying her in that way. "As I share hers and she shares the power of the seas, she knows instantly where I am in the ocean when I make contact with it." I caught his stare. "As soon as I fell in, she felt it. She knew we were here."

Henry said nothing, and instead just grimaced. By that point, mother had managed to slow the vessel down enough so that Henry and I both could grab hold of the sides and hoist our soaked selves onboard, where we then both tried to sit as far away from my mother's wrath as we possibly could as she she steered us back to the Cove, her jaw tight and unflinching.

"I'm not sure what part of 'stay off the ocean,' neither of you understand," she finally said, her hair whipping wildly around her face as she sailed, "So would you prefer me to restate in another language perhaps?"

"I'm sorry, Mother," I whimpered.

Henry was quick to cut my apology off. "It was my doing, Rose. It was my fault, my idea. We left without much thought or prior planning."

"Clearly," she scoffed. "I suppose those few, measly items you've got in the cargo hold were your stock for this grand journey, mm? That would have lasted you exactly one day at sea."

I felt my face grow red with embarrassment. "Didn't you once tell me that you sailed for days on nothing but hardtack and rum, though?" I asked.

"And I nearly died. It was a remarkably stupid decision, and if my mother was alive then, she would have scolded me just as I am scolding you now." Mother shook her head in disbelief. "You're both lucky to be alive, first of all, given the danger we discussed not hours ago, you're lucky that I caught you, you're lucky, Henry, that I am choosing not to concern Elizabeth with this ridiculous stunt, and you're both lucky that I'm not going to place a homing charm upon both of you for the rest of your lives!"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Henry trying to make eye contact with me, but I was too guilty and sheepish to return his gaze. My eyes were focused on the pool of water developing on the floorboards beneath me, running off my dripping wet clothes. I could only listen to my mother's voice, which, though it still shook in anger, was softer. "Listen to me; I was once where you were. Feeling invincible, like I could take on the world. But there were many instances where I could have and probably would have died were it not for a great deal of good fortune."

"What's to say that good fortune couldn't grace us?" Henry protested.

Mother shook her head sadly. "Henry, look at our lives. I would struggle to call any of this, 'fortunate.'"

"We believe that the answers to the Dutchman's capture lie beyond anything Shipwreck could offer us. If you're so worried about us, Rose, come with us!"

This was actually a fantastic idea. I looked up at her with newfound excitement. "Yes! You can transform anywhere, you could always split your time between us and the Cove!"

But she just rolled her eyes. "I've covered this, no. I am going to listen to my Captain's orders and stay beached. It's too uncertain, and until we have a certain heading, I won't head out at all. If I do, it will be on my own because I'm not mortal. Understood?" I could feel both Henry and myself deflate at this, but we had no choice but to comply, especially after Mother conceded with, "However, what you can do if you really wish to help is continue the research. No more secret meetings, no more lies. We will all work in tandem. Can we agree on this?"

"Aye," we both muttered defeatedly.

"Good. Now, because of your foolishness, you both will stay up, retying the boat to the dock, emptying its contents and cleaning it out."

Once we got back to the Cove's shores, we obeyed as Mother stood on land with her arms crossed sternly, every now and again giving us guidance when we were stowing the dinghy improperly. The sun was completely up by the time we finished and I had returned all of our stock to the storeroom and changed out of my wet clothes, and I could tell that Henry was wrought with anxiety that his mother would be awake and would have found us all gone by the time the three of us trudged back to the lighthouse. Thankfully, this was not the case, as all was still and silent when we entered. Wordlessly, Mother commanded us to return to our places of rest as though nothing had transpired, me in the parlor and Henry back in his room. Mother gave us one final, warning glance as she returned to Elizabeth's room. Henry, still soaked and exhausted, walked gingerly towards his room until he saw me lean over and pick up the note that I had left my mother, still folded and positioned just how I had left it. Clearly, she hadn't seen it before she transformed from the lighthouse to fetch us.

I looked up from the note to see Henry staring at me. We didn't say a word to each other, but we didn't have to. We both shared a small smile before he took his leave, our eyes shining in determination. Our efforts to save our fathers were nowhere near being finished. While continuing our research collectively would be beneficial, both Henry and I knew that the most effective means of freeing our fathers from their shared prison would be seeking a solution elsewhere.

I pocketed the note, resolving to save it for later. I had a feeling that I would need it again soon.