The rest of the festival games go without a hitch. The booths run short on prizes and food and everyone walks about with heavy bags of loot. The pirates make a big show of their winnings, but Karmen sees them handing out a good portion of them to the kids, even Law. She dismisses herself to officiate a private tea ceremony with the dance troupe before the big performance, leaving the pirate leaders in Winston's care.
As the games wrap up and all prizes are received, the islanders excitedly make their way down to the workout chamber where the dance is being held. The pirates are given front-row seats next to the veterans for an optimal view. The patients settle around the walls and the elderly or disabled use targets and workout equipment as chairs. Saaresto stands to the side with his hand-selected musicians, warming up their instruments and fingers in anticipation.
"Captain Law," Winston calls, leaning over and drawing the man's attention. "Karmen told us that when you were first treating Pierce that you switched their souls. Would you be willing to switch mine and Pierce's for the duration of the performance?"
Pierce is instantly by Winston's side, his acute hearing picking up every word. "Winston, I could never ask that of you," he insists before Law can answer. Still, he can't quite quell the hope in his voice.
"Trust me. I am doing this for purely selfish reasons." Winston smiles. "Besides, I saw their practices and dress rehearsal. For something as special as this, I don't want you to miss a moment."
Law sighs with feigned annoyance, mutters a few words, and pokes them both in the forehead. With a twist of his palm, he inserts their souls into the other person's body. Winston's face instantly freezes as Pierce blinks his eyes, getting used to the focus. "Thank you, Winston, Sir Law," he says breathlessly. "I didn't realize how much I missed… real color."
Law tilts his chin down so that his eyes are shadowed by his hat. "Don't focus on me, bat-ya. The show is about to start."
Pierce gives a sheepish smile. "Right." He turns to his own body, taking a few seconds to focus on his own features as Winston's nose extends into a snout. He seems to be holding in extra sets of wings out of sheer determination to keep from ripping the shirt he's wearing. Pierce places a hand on his own back. "Sorry about that. It'll get easier to manage with time. We're in the front, so you'll be able to feel the vibrations. If you focus on attaching the movement to the scents and sounds, you can tell where everyone is. Let me know if it gets overwhelming."
A cloth had been draped over a side chamber to keep the area private beforehand. Now a hush falls over the crowd as the curtain lifts and eleven women step out of the passage, followed by nearly half of the camomorphic squid on the island.
Karmen is wearing a marbled red and blue bodysuit. It's the only outfit that has fabric also covering the hands in fingerless gloves. Camilla is still dawned in her cloak and the women falling in line behind them are all wearing purple and sky-blue marbled bodysuits.
The island's matriarch moves back to the center of the room, taking her place in front of the women with her. She raises her voice in practiced pronunciation that keeps her tone gentle and mellow but projects her words to every ear. "Ladies, Gentlemen, Fishmen, and Esteemed Guests, it is my great honor to present to you our highly anticipated performance entitled 'Flourish,' choreographed by my very own protege, Camilla."
She proudly gestures toward the aforementioned woman. Camilla unclasps her cloak and lets it fall to the floor. Beneath she is wearing a matching green and gray bodysuit. Every single patient gasps and leans forward in disbelief. The pirates look around in confusion, wondering why this warrants such a reaction. Though Camilla is uncomfortable showing this much of herself, her expression remains even and poised for the performance.
The girl makes a few hand motions which Karmen quickly translates. "And she would also like you to know that the lighting and stage effects will be overseen by myself and our squid friends on Tuna's stage team."
Karmen whispers a few words to Tuna, who had crawled to her feet as she spoke, then lets him climb the silks before her as the crowd applauds in polite anticipation. He reaches the ceiling and takes his place amongst his brothers and sisters, covering the bioluminescent lichen and darkening the chamber. There is the sound of rustling fabric, then all is still.
A ripple goes through the squid as they're given their cue from Karmen's haki. They begin to glow in the lichen's place, illuminating only four trails of white silk ribbons. They're so long that they pile on the ground in odd clumps. A low drum rhythm sounds off from Saaresto's band to create a suspenseful atmosphere.
With the sound of a flute, Camilla steps into the light at the base of one set of ribbons, picking carefully over piles of fabric on dainty tiptoes. She lies at its base, wrapping silk around her waist and leg in a calculated pattern. Her face depicts focus, on the silks, on the performance, pointedly not on the audience. When she's finished, the flute is overtaken by the sound of an ominous violin and tambourine. She is hoisted nearly to the ceiling and dangles there in a tight ball that mirrors her hands and eyes as they scrunch closed.
The squid create another, wider spotlight, revealing more of the floor. Beneath Camilla, the silk has lifted off the ground, revealing the prone forms of the other dancers, Karmen included. The audience murmurs in excitement as they point out individuals they know and comment on the costumes Winston made.
The sound of clarinets seems to breathe life into the statuesque women as they inhale, then sit up, unanimously and stretch as if upon waking. They mime laughing and preening, each woman's gestures individual from the next. Then, as the clarinets raise in pitch, they stretch their arms out and spin to their feet with serene smiles on their faces. The Scorpions leap in powerful, free movements before casting fearful glances upward, shying away from where Camilla dangles. A tambourine cuts in with sharp jingling. The squid around the other silks grasp the ribbons with their spiny teeth and twirl them wider and wider until the fabric spins over them all like a net waiting to unfurl.
They throw their hands up as if to defend themselves with a sharp jolt of sound from trumpets across the room. Their hands get stylistically tangled in the silks and they're suddenly jerked off their feet. The audience gasps and applauds as all of the women arabesque and curl into tight spirals as they're swung about the room with clarinet trills echoing around them. Nadia, her disabled limb unable to grasp the silks enough to support even her slight body weight, leaps gracefully beneath them, trailing ribbons of flowing blue silk hooked on each hand. A single clarinet mirrors her movements with an ebb and flow to the notes as her arms arc to form roiling waves that briefly draw the eyes of part of the audience.
The women drop to the ground one by one, drawing back their attention, each having a painfully forced grin on their faces as more low brass instruments join in a growing cacophony. They roll across the ground and rise up, arms swinging in exaggerated motions to simulate hard labor. No individual stands out in their synchronicity until some fall and are covered by sheets of black silk ferried by Nadia. These women slide out on the other side and resume their previous motions, creating a continuous cycle.
Few members of the audience notice as Camilla opens her eyes and watches the proceedings below her, but more are drawn to her as she reaches toward the women below with an articulated gesture. Her face grows desperate and she struggles against the silks that hold her in the air. From here on out, Camilla's movements change from the graceful norm of a typical aerial silk performance into fierce, fast, and passionately beautiful maneuvers, punctuated by the sharp tongue of the flute. She has a trust for the fabric that few can manage.
The more she struggles, the more desperation that shows on her face, the more the silk wraps around her until she's completely enshrouded by them with only her hand reaching out. Slowly, it grows limp and the flute fades out with somber notes. The crowd goes quiet as they wait with baited breath to see what happens next.
In a flash of luminescent blue from the squid, the cocoon unravels, dropping Camilla into pinwheeling cartwheels at an alarming rate, spinning her like a horizontal top gone out of control and the flute spikes back into the ensemble. The audience gasps and a few members even scream and shield their eyes, sure that she's about to plunge to her death. As she falls, the white silk drops off the rigging, revealing red silk underneath. The harness she'd created for herself slides down her hips and hooks around her ankles where she's caught three feet from the ground, snapping back into the air as her momentum swings her forward.
She catches the falling white silk, letting it trail behind her as she circles toward the other women. As this ribbon passes in front of their faces, the women's smiles melt away, replaced by grimaces of agony and pain. They break off from their union, movements becoming individualized once again in a frenzy. The low brass fades out and the clarinets and violins weep and scream as their dancing devolves into organized chaos. They flail in desperation, silently beating the ground and pulling at their hair with futile hope of relief, grasping their heads and their ribs heaving in anguish. The squid make a strobe effect and the percussion punctuate each seemingly frozen gesture in the flashes of light.
While they flail in anguish, Karmen reluctantly separates from the Scorpions and climbs another set of ribbons to the sound of the violin, winding her leg in the fabric, shoving it down to her foot and pulling herself up in steady, deliberate motions. She keeps the silks out and away from her body as she goes, but some loops still form between her cloth-covered hands and feet towards the top. She reaches up into the squid and pulls out a flower bud with a long stem, still green and young. The violin wails in a heart-wrenching sound that starts at an ear-piercing squeal and glides down to lower notes as the bud slips from her hand and drops to the ground.
Karmen scrambles for it, and the loops slip from her hands and wrap around her hips and legs. Her upper body follows the bud and she falls straight down until the fabric around her waist snaps her to a halt, where she dangles, lifeless. The Scorpions below continue their anguished dance, but turn to face inward, surrounding the bruised flower bud from a distance, agony increasing. The instruments become more disjointed than before, creating a cacophony that echoes off the walls of the chamber.
Camilla, still swinging round, passes just inside the circle of women, flute still accompanying her movements, but mellowing. She reaches toward the dancers, unable to make contact until she reaches Karmen's ribbons. She drops the white silk and catches Karmen's hands, pulling her into a tight spiral with her. In the motion, Karmen is freed from the silks around her waist and she drops to the ground in a fierce crouch, whipping her hair back away from her face.
The violin strings trill and scream, inciting an attentive stillness from the audience.
For a moment she joins in the anguished movements of the other women, wrenching, jolting, and tearing with far more precision and fury than the others, but as Camilla begins her return pass, kicking to make herself spin over their heads, Karmen leaves the pattern and the wailing music softens. She runs in the opposite direction with powerful strides, and as Camilla swings toward her for another pass, she leaps forward with her arms outstretched. Camilla reaches back and captures Karmen's wrists, hoisting her up and letting her climb her body like a ladder in a union of flute and violin. The audience lets out soft gasps of appreciation for their precision.
Camilla climbs after her, doubling over and pulling herself up on the silks as Karmen climbs higher to allow her room. Slowly, as the red silk passes over, the other women leave their anguished movement and climb up the same silks, arms stretching high overhead in striving motions to extended notes of the clarinets.
Finally, with all the added weight, the silk returns to a vertical spin, and the women ball up in their positions with the one above them, each resting their feet on the lower woman's knees. Nadia is pulled up and held up by the lowest two, making sure she doesn't get left behind due to her disability. One by one, they peel back like flower petals and slide slowly to the ground with one strong hand.
They return to their anguished movements, but with more purpose and grace. The instruments, continuing to lessen their chaos, find each other in a new, blended harmony. Moments after the last dancer drops, the movements alter from disjoined motions into choreographed fighting routines. Harsher instruments support the woodwinds in a fierce and purposeful drive.
This gets a big cheer from patients.
Izzie and Wendy climb the two sets of silk ribbons behind Camilla and stretch the discarded white silk between them. The Scorpions on the ground form a set of stairs with Tala at the lowest point, Izzie bent over in the middle, and Traci in the rear. The remaining women form around them with the blue silk.
Karmen bounds over to them and leaps, pushing off Tala's hands, stepping lightly off Izzie's back, and launches to the suspended silk near Traci. The music swells with light airy notes as she somersaults through the air and catches herself on it, hands-free, with her Gancho Kick. She swings for a few seconds, holding her arabesque with her eyes closed as the dancers below spread out.
Camilla forms a seat harness out of her silk. She throws out her left arm firmly, flinging her head to the same side as if to stop something from approaching. The dancers on that side of the stage freeze in dramatic poses. She does the same on the other side, and the women also freeze with bursts of music. Camilla raises her hands, and the women rise to their full heights, squaring their shoulders powerfully. She extends her hands forward, and they run in an expanding circle to waiting props.
When the music cues her, Karmen grabs the silk she's dangling from and uses it as a trapeze bar while Izzie and Wendy hold it taut. She flips around and swings off to the free set of ribbons. Her arms support all her weight and Karmen swears she feels the stitches holding her right sleeve to the main bodysuit pull, but she dismisses it. Winston's work is always immaculate, and he wouldn't allow his work to be disgraced by coming apart in the middle of a performance.
She twists into her next move, wrapping the silk around her wrist in a slight harness and dropping systematically a few feet at a time while the violin jumps with her. As she descends, she can hear threads snapping. Tearing. Slipping. She hadn't imagined it.
The silk coils around her hand covering, but her arm slips out. She's able to grab the end before she falls completely, but she knows the fabric won't hold her for long. Panic fills her as the back of her bare arm brushes naked silk.
The women beneath see what's happening and stare up with horror, their motions faltering. The patients know too. It's obvious in their quiet gasps and the thinness of their worrying lips. They'd snuck peeks during the training and had seen Karmen struggling with her self-prescribed therapy.
Saaresto keeps the music going as best he can, extending the notes and motioning the others to hold a suspenseful trill. What will happen? No one can say for sure. Some of them look now at Pierce in Winston's body, marking him as a dead man walking after the performance concludes.
It's Yasha who continues to dance, triggering them all to follow suit. The musicians follow Saaresto's prompts as he watches their motions as a lead. The woodwinds lower to a hush and the brass becomes prominent, as if this was all planned suspense. Still, everyone's gaze remains on the women above.
The Scorpions lie on the floor with blue silk scarves draped over their feet and roll backward, arching their feet high into the air with the silks attached, creating a wave motion as the clarinet chords rise and roll like an oncoming tide, lowering with the silk. Unsure what to do next with Camilla preoccupied, they repeat this motion, rolling around in a circle underneath until their next cue from above tells them to move on. The music follows, becoming more certain as they too, wait to see if the performance will continue. The violin follows Karmen's movements in a panicked rise, almost like a swarm of bees or the beads of sweat forming on Karmen's face.
Most of the Heart pirates look none the wiser, believing that this is all part of the show, but the more perceptive ones quietly suspect that this may be an unexpected turn of events. "Winston" leaps to his feet, as if Pierce could still sprout wings and come to her aid, but Pierce's own arm reaches out to hold him in place.
"You make breakthroughs for her. That is not the case for our Lady," he says in a low voice.
The audience goes silent, and only Saaresto's frantic violin and waffling silks cut the empty air over the lowered tones of the orchestra.
Camilla sees what's happening and swings her ribbons toward Karmen as Karmen desperately does the same. The flute and violin follow along as best they can. As Camilla swings back one last time, Karmen swings forward and her sleeve slips free from the silk knot. She performs one full backflip before whipping the sleeve, still grasped in her hand, toward Camilla, who catches it by mere fingertips.
Camilla grunts heavily and gives one strong yank to hoist Karmen to her, catching her by the back of the head so that Karmen can splay out, slowing their unexpected spin without touching the silk. Her chest heaves in shallow hyperventilation. Sweat drips into her hairline and she shakes so hard that it's hard for Camilla to keep her grip. Camilla's flute and Karmen's violin play a serene bridge, as if this is to be a tender moment between the two. The audience calms and the tension in the room dies down some, but not completely.
"Look at me," Camilla says in ancient Elbafian. "Look at me."
It takes all the willpower Karmen possesses to force her darting eyes to focus in one direction. When she does, they lock on, wide and frantic.
"You can do this. You're ready. Let's show them the results of all your hard work. They're waiting for you to lead."
Karmen grits her teeth and looks down at all her beloved patients. All of their eyes tell her the same thing. "We believe in you, Miss Karmen. Show us the path to aspire to." If not now, with the whole island supporting her, then when?
She can feel their faith like a living force washing through her, imbuing her with strength. She reigns in her panic and regains control over her muscles, forcing all fear from her mind. She doesn't have to be past what happened. She doesn't have to be forever healed. But here-now-in this moment, she can choose how much power to give it. For the first time since she'd regained that horrid memory, she can be stronger… even for a moment.
Determination fills her eyes and she nods at Camilla, careful not to jostle herself out of her hands. Air fills her chest like a sail in a storm. She reaches up and wrenches the other sleeve from her bodysuit. With a wide flourish, she lets both drop to the ground like flags ripped by the wind. Camilla grins back at her fiercely.
"Eyes forward," she answers firmly in Elbafian. "Give me a toss?"
Camilla gives a calculated swing and flings Karmen back to her own silk. The force placed on her neck propels her into a flip, effectively reversing her first trip over. She collides with the fabrics. Grabbing it is easy, despite the shaking in her arms. She can feel her clammy palms staining the fabric. Good. It's what it deserves.
Words in ancient Elbafian leave her lips as she struggles for control. They come again, and this time she throws herself back into the routine with no reservations. She winds the silk around her body with every poisoned caress a struggle, but she powers through. The audience cheers ferociously.
Karmen mirrors Camilla perfectly as the flute and violin swell with a newfound strength and certainty. The women open their legs into splits and grab their ankles, throwing their bodies backward again and again until they're swaddled in silk up to their torsos. Making eye contact, they hurdle themselves forward in a blur of somersaults as the silks unwind with them in their midst. The fabric jolts them to a halt just before they hit the ground, and they reach below to take the excess silk in their hands.
The other women, rising to resume the performance with them, make motions as if they're throwing them back upward, adding their power to the controlled frenzy. The audience quietly settles in an awed silence.
With a flourish, Camilla and Karmen fling the fabric over their shoulders and frantically climb to the top, winding the silk around themselves in fiery, passionate motions as they careen above the ground. Forward, back, sideways, upside down. The instruments sing in triumphant strains as they catch and drop in precision-pointed poses, accentuated by harnesses they'd woven around their own bodies to depict power and determination. Catch, flourish, jolt, arabesque. Down, down, down.
This time there is no pre-made safety net of silk around them. They drop and the other dancers run to the base of the silks to catch them. Camilla and Karmen are ferried to the outside of the huddle. The future Scorpions then climb one by one, according to their physical ability.
First is Caprice, then Traci, Izzie, Tala, Wendy, Pixie, Yasha, Rosa and finally Nadia, with Karmen and Camilla helping her from their place on the ground. The Scorpions hold the silk with one hand and extend the other with their heads thrown back passionately with the sense of joy and freedom. The two island veterans gesture with pride to the women above them as they hold their pose and the band ends their symphony with a note just as bold.
Slowly, they descend from the ceiling, followed by the squid who exit out the curtained tunnel, leaving the room illuminated to its brightest extent. The silks are lowered, folded, and ferried away. Camilla and Karmen stand back and let the Scorpions form a line in front of the audience.
The women join hands and bow deeply, smiling brightly and staying there a few seconds longer, whether in appreciation to the audience, to catch their breath, or in relief that it went off with barely a hitch. Perhaps all three. They rise in unison and step back to allow the other two women to move forward.
Karmen interlocks her fingers with Camilla's, holding her hand high, beaming with pride that breaks through her shaking form. A roar erupts from the patients once again, even the ones that are usually bothered by loud noises. It's so loud that the island shakes. In Karmen's ears it sounds like the roar of the ocean from the back of a mount.
Camilla looks about ready to bolt from the room, and the way Karmen is currently feeling after being in skin-to-cloth contact with silk for so long, she can't blame her. However when a yellow fishman with black dreads, and a purple yukata to match his headband bends down and picks up Camilla's cloak, she goes very still. His expression is contemplative and his movements slow. He holds the garment out at arms' length to her and smiles gently.
"That was… powerful," he tells her. "Thank you for all your hard work."
Her eyes fall on his sun symbol as she accepts her cloak without hesitation or suspicion. "Thank you. It's nice to have you and your crew here," she says in a voice that can barely be heard over the din. She quickly dawns her cloak, pulling the hood securely around her face and relaxes a fraction. She looks to Karmen. "Can… can we change back into our yukata now?"
"Soon. I have one more formality to address," Karmen says. She steps forward and raises her hand, waiting for the noise to die down. "I would like to thank everyone for attending this performance. These women have worked hard to get where they are today and like many of you, have faced many trials to do so. So, without further ado, let's all give one more big cheer for Camilla and her troupe of Scorpion Warriors!"
Camilla balks and looks to Karmen for confirmation as the room erupts once more into applause. Karmen just grins and nods her affirmation.
-You've proven yourself.- she signs.
Karmen signals to Izzie. The Scorpions move forward to receive the praise from the other patients and the two veterans make a hasty exit back to their makeshift changing room. Pierce doesn't say anything to Winston, but after Law switches them back into their own bodies, his hackles are clearly raised. Still, when the other dancers leave to change, he goes on to quietly perform his duties.
The patients leave the workout chamber and move to the kitchens, carrying out large plates and bowls of food. Others grab blankets and chairs. Together they all move up to the surface of the island toward the clearings in the upper cliffs. They leave plenty of space for Karmen around her apple tree and encourage the guests to sit closest to where she'll be working so that they get a good view of the surprise.
Soon the veterans and Scorpions come through carrying a table, a giant pot, crates of cups, dried wood, quills and ink, slips of paper, and bottles of colorful syrup. Pierce carries a large spherical object wrapped in paper with a long fuze. Karmen, emerging from the tree line, beams at the bomb-looking object with pride as she hefts a large bag up the hill. She sets it down by her tree and Pierce ties streamers from the tree's branches to the nearest ones in the surrounding forest.
Elen and two other patients, Gloria and Periwinkle, make a large fire between two rocks near one of the tables and balance a pot over it. She carefully watches Karmen, making sure she doesn't get too close as they pour in water and various ingredients. Others whip cream until it's solid with sharp peaks.
Karmen turns to her people and guests. "As the last part of our Festival, we'd like to open the floor for a Wishing Tree. Many of you have lived your lives without feeling the freedom of dreaming of the future. Tonight, I give you the opportunity to dream. Write your hopes and wishes on a piece of paper and tie it to the strings and branches. I fully believe that one day our wishes will be fulfilled."
"But before you get started, Secretary-ya and I have put together one last festival treat for you," Law says, patting the bomb.
Karmen holds her hand out to Pierce. "If you would, dearest?"
Pierce swings around her, transforming as he goes, and harnesses himself on her back. Karmen coats her thumb and pointer finger with Super Sunblade and pinches it at the tip of the fuse on the bomb. It glows angrily and then sparks to life. The patients and pirates look concerned, yet hopeful that their leaders didn't have any plans to harm them.
With a mighty thrust of his wings, he pushes off the ground and rockets them into the air. He flies high and fast, shooting through the air so quickly that the wind stings Karmen's eyes. She keeps her eyes on the faint clouds above them. Their target.
"On the count of three."
Pierce counts three bats of her eyelashes as she blinks her normal rhythm and throws her like a spear into the air. While she flies upward and he drops back down as fast as he can. As soon as Karmen feels the cool mist on her face she curls into a crouching position.
"Room."
Karmen opens her eyes with her feet on the solid ground of Batoidea where the bomb had lain. High above them in the hazy air, an explosion sounds, right on cue. The island is stock still and silent for several seconds as they process everything going on. Some of the patients cover their ears and cower, their eyes squinched shut.
Slowly, dark clouds form over the island and the air grows cold.
"Weather?" "The weather is changing." "In the Calm Belt?" "How?" "What was in that bomb?" "How does she even know how to do that?" "Wow." "Snow!"
Winston had been asked to line the trees in the area with blankets, coats, and cloaks beforehand. He had been all too happy to comply with the request when provided the materials. "If you feel cold, feel free to take something to wrap up in," Karmen tells them as she rises to her feet. Pierce lands back on her shoulders and wraps his wings around her like a cloak, already succumbing to his hibernation state. "The kitchen staff will be passing out hot chocolate to anyone who wants it. And yes, children, you may have as much whipped cream as you like."
Gloria and Periwinkle are flooded by children as the adults try desperately to wrestle them into winter gear before they have their hands wrapped around a mug. Others sit back and laugh, catching snowflakes on their tongues and snuggling into blankets. One by one, sip by sip, cheerful smiles and rosy cheeks brighten up the island. The hot chocolate warms the inhabitants and guests.
When Law finally gets handed a cup, he takes a sip and raises his eyebrow at Karmen. "Secretary-ya, what did you put in this?"
"A holistic dose of Sunblade," she admits. "It won't do any harm, but it adds an extra-lasting warmth that will protect them from the cold."
He takes another sip to hide his endearing smile. "That's very thoughtful of you. They're in good hands here."
Karmen looks around at her veteran patients and the people who have chosen to stay on the island. Everyone who has chosen to fill a leadership role and make sure that every patient is cared for when she doesn't feel her arms are long enough to reach. At the literate patients who are helping those who are not write wishes.
She looks at the Scorpions who have chosen to turn their trauma into a force for protection and good. At Saaresto, Winston, Elen, Gloria, and Periwinkle who have turned their passions and skills into a way to care for those around them. She watches the patients as they write their wishes, hopes, and dreams on slips of paper and tie them to the tree branches and strings. "They truly are."
The patients and guests have settled back into snowball fights, fort and snowman building, and gone for second, third, and even fourth helpings of hot chocolate. Finally the cups are empty as the cups and Gloria and Periwinkle are whisked away to make snow angles and dance with the Karmen steps up to write her own wish.
I wish that my efforts will be enough to protect the ones I care for and help them to stand on their own two feet.
She feels Pierce's wings tighten around her as if in a hug as her pen scratches across the parchment.
After she ties the wish to her apple tree, she pulls Luffy's vivre card out of her sleeve pocket, feeling the gentle tug leading far across the ocean that mirrors the pull in her chest. It's a strange feeling for her, but she smiles and holds the card gently to her chest. "Soon, my dears. Soon."