Where was he?

Vantra leaned over the railing and peered at the docks, then skyward, as the crew hastened around, preparing the Loose Ducky to cast off during high tide.

No frantic streak of black against the shimmery grey of the morning clouds rushed to her. No Fyrij.

He had snuck away late the night before, after an exhausting evening getting Qira settled and the new passengers in cabins. Hanging hammocks was not as fun as it sounded, and lugging trunks of gear even less so. Sun Priest Xafane used his cart to help, but it took multiple trips from the Dark Light to the ship.

Everyone else was in good spirits, considering.

Kenosera trotted to the railing next to her and waved at the other nomads, who stood together, miserable at his departure. Dedari spent the previous night needling him about staying, which he adamantly refused to do, and they had words before she vacated the ship with a sob. He felt terrible about it and went after her, but his depressed annoyance upon his return meant the talk did not go well.

Vantra had no advice to give. Relationships eluded her in life, and she had even worse luck after death. Hopefully her awkwardness did not interfere with the glimmerings of something more between them.

Feeling graceless for not waving as well, she did so. While friendly, they did not have as close a friendship with her as they had with Kenosera, and she was the wedge between them. She did not expect them to return it, but they did.

The Light-blessed and families who remained in Selaserat filled the docks as the passengers, one by one, joined her at the railing. Everyone waved, some shouted, and Qira sent a sparkle of light to those who could not accompany them.

The rivcon docksmen released the mooring ropes and the crew hauled them on board. The ship, after a few moments, moved from the dock.

“Fyrij’s not back.” Vantra desperately looked to the skies, but no little avian darted towards them.

“If he doesn’t make it, he can wait at the Dark Light. Katta can retrieve him tonight,” Kjaelle said, patting her on the back. “Then I’ll talk to him about being late.”

Worry threaded through her despite the elfine’s reassurance. What if something happened to him, and the reason he missed the boat was because of injury? He grabbed things from random beings; one of them might have harmed him. “I’ll go look for him. Once I find him, I’ll—”

Salan hefted his front legs onto the railing, tilted his head back, and howled.

There! She saw him! Her little caroling zipped from a dirt mound just beyond the dock, leaving behind a man swathed in twisting vines. Navosh? Who else could it be? She waved, and the figure waved back before sinking into the earth and disappearing.

He had come to see them off? How sweet of him!

She triggered Physical Form as Fyrij sped into her chest, a yellow wooden amulet dangling from his stubby legs. She caught him and cupped the disc in her palm as he excitedly tweeted at her.

“I saw Navosh,” she assured him as Kjaelle untangled the leather strip and drew the object away. “He gave you something?”

Fyrij twittered as if yes, exactly that happened. He hopped onto her arm, climbed up to her shoulder and plunked down, chest puffed out in pride.

“That’s interesting,” Katta said as he joined them.

“What is?” Kjaelle asked as she turned the unstained, unvarnished object around and smoothed the blank back before running her fingertips over the braided vines on the front. Carved dots ringed the image, and notches decorated the edge to make it less slick.

“It’s a badge with a communication and shield spell attached.” Fyrij whistled, then chattered at him. “Hmm. He said Strans told him the Labyrinth insisted on blessing it. If you return and wear this, all pathways through the forest will be open to you.”

“Really?” Vantra stared at the disc, then back at the mound. “That’s nice of it, but why did the Labyrinth insist?”

Fyrij did not know, which meant she needed to ask Navosh when she next saw him. It might be years, but she knew, she would again meet Strans of Twisted Vines within the bounds of Greenglimmer.

Qira sagged, rubbing at his shoulder. “When did you want that meeting, Katta?” he rasped.

“It can wait until after you’ve rested,” his friend assured him. “We’ve days of sailing ahead of us, so there’s no rush.”

“Let’s get you below,” Joila said as she slipped an arm around his back and gently pushed him towards the stairs leading to below-deck. Vantra accepted the disc back from Kjaelle before the elfine and Darkness followed the two, and she hoped Katta sternly reminded Qira if he did not rest, he would not heal.

“I can’t believe he’s doing this,” Jare muttered after a final wave at shore.

“He’s stubborn,” Kenosera and Mica said in unison.

“Can’t argue with that,” he chuckled. “Would you mind, if I looked at that?” He nodded at the badge.

 Vantra handed it to him, and he studied it as Kjaelle had. She wished she saw what they did within the wood. If it had communication and protection spells, how would she trigger them if she could not detect them? She needed to ask Lorgan, because her Sun badge acted on its own, no need for her to initiate anything.

He raised his eyebrows. “This is a nice badge,” he said. “You have a direct link to Strans if you need it, and it shows favor without the gaudiness. Normal beings won’t notice, powerful magic users might, and deities definitely will. I wonder who they think you need to impress.” He gave it back.

“I wonder if they gave the listeners the same thing.”

“Considering how twitchy the Labyrinth is right now about another attack, they did. These badges mark the holder as safe without further inspection.” Jare stretched, yawning. “Now that we’re off, I think I’m going to rest, too. Have to show Qira a good example.”

Mica smacked his arm, amused, as they drifted towards the stairs.

Vantra wished him luck in finding a quiet alcove. The roommate arrangement had changed from their trip to Selaserat because space was a tad sparse; twelve Light-blessed had joined them, and Qira needed a room large enough to hold healing supplies and equipment. She had the impression Resa and Joila planned to stay with him and badger him into recovering properly, which helped, just not much. Twenty-five squished into five rooms did not leave much breathing room, even if most of them were ghosts.

How had Laken’s Redemption grown into such a huge entourage? How bizarre, having that many accompanying them, but most traveled to the Windtwists as fierce guards for two syimlin, not as companions for her and her Chosen.

“It feels strange, leaving,” Kenosera said, rubbing at his chest and looking back at the receding dock.

“It does,” Yut-ta agreed as he hopped to them. “It’s not like I’m leaving the Raining Sun Temple forever, but it feels like it.”

Vantra knew what a forever-goodbye felt like, and even that turned out to have only lasted five years. Her mother promised, after things settled in the rainforest, that she would find her in the Windtwists. She refused to explain how she would manage that, though she would probably hitch a ride with the Badeçasyons. They flew to far more places than she ever realized, considering how many beings in the Evenacht hated technology, ghosts, and especially the interstellar invaders.

“You’re both sacrificing, to join me,” she began.

“Not really.” Kenosera grinned. “Janny promised that she and Lellenwyn will teach us how to fight, pirate-style. That’s not a sacrifice.”

Vantra blinked. “She did?”

“She teaches tourists all the time at Ghost Pirate University,” he told her. “She and Llel are among the best.” He leaned closer. “Dough won’t admit, it, but Janny beats him in duels.”

“Ghost Pirate University?” That sounded extremely odd, even for the outlandish Merdia pirates.

“She and Trevel convinced Dough that both the living and dead needed to know what to do during the sea battle re-enactments. He founded GPU for that purpose. Now people travel to Merdia just to take classes and earn their pirate badges. They’ve broadened their offerings, too. They teach diving with the bay’s fish, they—”

“That’s fantastical.”

“Everything surrounding Dough is fantastical.”

Vantra could not argue with that.

“And we have several other warriors to ask for tutoring,” Yut-ta said. “We have knives, but neither of us uses a larger weapon. The Light-blessed have spears, Mera and Tally have halberds, Vesh has a bow. It’ll be a busy trip, figuring out what suits us best.”

She had no plans other than to read through the books Lorgan gave her on wielding magic. Hopefully the trip remained uneventful, and she could drown her anxiety in inky pages.