"I assume you want me to surrender?" the centaur said—his voice was calm but with a hidden edge to it, and it was deeper than Vivi had expected.

"Yes, I feel that would be appropriate," replied Aenwyn, who was standing face-to-face with the centaur. "Will that be a problem?"

The centaur cast a glance towards the wizard, who had finally been forced to retreat from Caio's explosive onslaught and had taken refuge next to him in the stern, then towards the fairy, who was again perched on his shoulder and, to Vivi's great satisfaction, still appeared to be unarmed. He scanned the deck for any sign of the wizard's three assistants, but they had been subdued and disarmed long ago—and the Crow was slumped against the mast with a bloody wound in his side, Vivi guessed it was Aenwyn's handiwork. "I suppose I have no choice," he muttered, giving Aenwyn a long, searching look before finally sighing and throwing his sword onto the deck.

"Excellent," Aenwyn said, sheathing her own sword. "Well then. Caio and Myrin, keep an eye on our guests... and make sure to relieve them of their armaments." The wizard and the centaur begrudgingly started handing over their quite impressive load of weapons while the fairy, who had none left to hand over, simply hurled insults at her captors.

"Imbeciles!" she hissed at them. "If I had my rapier now, you would all be stricken blind before you could capture me again! I am not to be underestimated!" She shook a fist in the air. "I am to be feared!" Clearly intending to act on her words, she threw herself towards the captain, but the centaur caught hold of her.

"Sarjeon, how are we holding up?" Aenwyn asked, turning her back on the wildly protesting fairy. "Any more injuries?"

"Yes, Captain," said Sarjeon with a slow nod. "Mao is rather seriously wounded in her arm, Nina has taken an arrow to the foot, and Tyrvoril seems to have been incapacitated by some sort of spell. I have been told Blackwood also had the spell cast on her, but"—he cast a quick glance towards Vivi—"she seems to be doing well now." He paused, looking towards where the wounded had been gathered in the front of the ship. "I don't want to move them back to the Ajdaha unless we have to, but I sent Terry to fetch his medical supplies. He will take care of them."

Aenwyn nodded, suddenly looking very old. "Very well," she muttered. "And what of Kharis and Ardreth?"

Sarjeon's expression was one of subdued anger. "They are both dead, captain. There was nothing we could do."

"I see." Aenwyn sighed, standing on the deck and staring out into the fog for a while. Then she looked up with a start as if she had forgotten something and spun back to face Caio and Myrin. "Make sure you tie those two up!" she hollered. "Not that I think they're not men of their word, but it's not proper to have dangerous captives roaming free on deck. Whatever would Zérèn say?"

"Speaking of," mumbled Vivi, "where is Zérèn?" No one seemed to be in the mood to answer her question, so she started making her way over to the front of the ship where Owen and Terry had just started tending to their wounded crewmates.

"Hey Vivi!" Owen shouted, slightly less cheerfully than usual but with no shortage of enthusiasm. "How are you holding up?"

"Could be better," she groaned in response, rubbing her temples—as the adrenaline started to wear off, her headache had returned with a vengeance. "That old wizard tried to send me to the shadow realm." She cast a brief glance towards Mao, who was lying unconscious on the deck while Owen hurriedly bandaged her bleeding arm, but immediately regretted it. "Are they gonna be okay?"

"They should be fine," Terry muttered as he disinfected the rather nasty-looking wound in Nina's foot. "The only thing I can't figure out is how to break this spell that wizard put on Edmond—or whatever it is."

"That drunken fairy bit me in the thumb, and I seemed to come out of it pretty quickly." Vivi chuckled. "Maybe you should try that?" She quickly had to step forward and stop Owen, who had taken her entirely seriously.

Terry shook his head. "I've already tried everything I can think of to jostle him awake—not specifically biting his thumb, but I doubt that's what made the difference."

"Maybe there's just something special about that fairy, then... maybe the alcohol?" Vivi joked, sitting down next to Owen—but she shot back to her feet just as quickly as a dull, thunderous report came out of the fog.

"What in all blazes was that?" said Owen, who had also gotten to his feet. "Is there a storm coming?"

"No," said Myrin, who had approached to stand behind Vivi. "Not a storm... Those are cannons."