It was two days later that the Albatross made landfall at the island of New Aubrais. This city was especially infamous in Port Augustine. It was close by, a little to the south and the west, and had been the subject of many skirmishes between Cartagena, Aubrais, and Albion—but had recently come under purchase by the Albionese, as had the island of Leonida. 

The island was small and swampy when Aubrais had claimed it, but they built a city that spanned its entirety. And what a city it was! For how Elodie had heard the stories, seeing it with her own eyes was another thing altogether. 

The city was built in a mix of the traditional Aubraisian and Cartagenan styles, with the brown-stone buildings built into matching supports around the canals, with the beautifully-wrought ironwork supporting and added as a trim of sorts. Not that Elodie found that the buildings needed much decoration. No, the inhabitants of New Aubrais had taken care of that matter thoroughly. 

Streamers and banners hung from every building and in-between them, with little strings of brightly-colored paper pendants with intricate designs cut into them. Music played from every street corner, the walkways full and consisting of life. Trees with drooping limbs covered in moss rustled in the wind. 

Captain Jennings and some of the older sailors went to retrieve the drums filled with pure water, but the five youngest crew-mates were sent out to “get some fresh air.”

Jade had informed Elodie that what this really meant was that the Captain had come to find them irritating, and so wanted them to go and get some energy in hopes that they would return a little less irritating.

“The joke’s on her,” Jade added with a grin and jerked her thumb at Kas. “This one never stops being so annoying.”

“It’s a part of my charm,” Kas declared with his hands planted on his hips.

Jade snorted. “It has more to do with your little trick.”

“Oh, that’s right, you did something to General Archenar.” Carina was the one to speak up. “He wouldn’t normally give up so easily.”

Jade looked back over her shoulder at Carina. “You knew the men who were chasing you?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Carina pressed her lips together into a line as thin as a pin and looked down to her boots. 

There was a silence in the group for a moment before Kas decided to break it. 

“There’s no harm in telling you lot, I suppose.” He winked at Elodie. “Not that there’s much to it. I find it easier to persuade others—although Jade tells me that there’s some sort of trick to it, because the things I say are allegedly just as inane as the rest of my nonsense.” 

“Because it is,” Jade insisted. “But sometimes you say it with this force and for some reason we all go along with it.” 

Kas shrugged. "I don’t know, it’s always been a gift of mine.”

He paused, then looking out into the canals. “But I suppose I’ve learned how to use it better ever since—“

He shook his head, interrupting his own monologue. “But never mind that. I take it, my lady, that you’ve never been to New Aubrais before?”

He took Carina’s hand, and Elodie had to quell the jealousy rising in her chest. 

Carina, to her credit, tore her hand away. “No. I’d never left my island before.”

“I’ve never been here either,” Elodie found herself saying. She felt quite pathetic for it, slapping her hand to her mouth too late.

“Oh, you’ll love it then.” Kas grinned. “We have to try out the beignets before we leave.”

“What about you, Ventus?” Elodie turned to the tall, gangly boy who was lagging a bit behind Carina. “Have you been here before?”

Ventus shook his head. “Not really—I’ve been on ships that have stopped here, but I never really left the marinas.” 

He then paused, his expression looking troubled. “It’s too loud, too crowded.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back to the marina soon,” Kas assured him. “Maybe we’ll get you a beer or two, make it easier to enjoy it.”

Ventus shook his head again. “I’d rather not.”

Kas opened his mouth to argue further, likely on the merits of hedonism as it pertained to New Aubrais—only for a shout to interrupt.

“Sister, come, join us!” 

They stopped just as a group of Manoans in silvery-teal cloaks approached, clad in jewelry with more of the crystals like the one on Carina’s pendant. 

“Excuse me?” Carina lifted her head high, but drew her arms close, hunching her shoulders—a betrayal of her otherwise stoic expression.

“Come, leave the barbarians behind, today we celebrate, for our king has returned!” One of the Manoan women reached out a hand for Carina, but she stepped back.

“We have no king.” Her eyes flashed. “Excuse me, I have business to attend to—“

The woman stepped forward and snatched Carina’s wrist, moving fast like a snake. 

“Hey, let go of her!” Ventus shouted, but the woman paid him no mind.

“These barbarians are not your birthright, child of the heavens, for we were meant to rule over the seas and the skies!” The rest of the group crowded in and around the young privateers. “Our kings have returned to us, and they’re ready to take back what is ours!”

“No thank you.” Carina yanked her hand free, and drew herself to her full height, squaring her shoulders back.

In that moment, she looked so regal, so royal, that in her mind’s eye, Elodie could see her in a crown and on a throne, leading an entire empire in the way that the King of Albion or the Queen of Cartagena did. 

The Manoans must have recognized this too, for they shrank back—but only for a moment.

“It’s her,” one of the men whispered. 

Carina’s eyes widened, all pretense of authority dropped. “Run.”

Elodie didn’t need to be told twice. 

She took off, pushing through the crowd of people—she was certain she sent at least one man sprawling. But she continued all the same, darting around the merchants and peddlers lining the streets. As she darted around a corner, she found herself caught in a stream of pendants. 

She kicked and fought to get free, only to fall to the ground with a loud ripping noise. She scrambled to her feet and attempted to continue her run—but only tripped, her legs still tangled amongst the string and colored paper.

A strong hand pulled her up, and she was face-to-face with Ventus.

“Thanks,” she huffed as she looked over her shoulder.

Kas and Jade rushed into the alleyway and stopped.

For a moment, Elodie’s heart soared in relief, that their pursuers had been so easily dissuaded by a short chase. Then she realized who wasn’t among them and her heart sank.

“Where’s Carina?”

“I don’t know, we lost her somewhere back there.” Kas glanced over his shoulder. “But at least they aren’t following us anymore.”

“We have to find her, then.” Elodie took Ventus’s knife off of his belt and tore through the string of colored paper pendants that had bound her. She handed it back to him, handle-first, which he accepted without another word. 

“We don’t know that she didn’t just take another route,” Jade offered. “It’s not like we exactly ran for long.”

“Besides, she wasn’t too keen on staying with us,” Kas added. “I got the impression she was just using us to get where she wanted to go. And maybe that was here.”

Elodie raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Ventus. “Will you help me?”

“Always,” he said, without hesitation. 

“Come on, then, she was scared of that group, and we haven’t any time to lose.” She looked to Jade and Kas one more time. “Now, are you man enough to help or not?”

Kas bristled at having his honor questioned, but he drew his pistol all the same. 

“And here I thought you didn’t like Carina,” Jade said as she tossed Elodie her sword.

“I don’t,” Elodie admitted. “But she’s in trouble. So we’re going to go save her.” 

They returned to where the Manoans had been. Of course, they were gone, but their street-tent remained. Elodie ducked inside, curious if it might hold any clues as to where the group had gone—and where they might have taken their missing crew-mate. 

Kas was the one to find such a clue. Of course it had been lying in plain sight, on the table—although when Elodie had looked over the papers on the table, she hadn’t seen it. But perhaps she hadn’t searched it properly. 

Whatever the reason, Kas had been so lucky as to find an invitation in Manoan letters, the ancient script that populated the ruins scattered across the Sea of Gales. Furthermore, they were lucky that Kas had apparently studied Manoan script at some point in time.

“There’s a party at the pink mansion on Clairmont Street,” Kas declared as he pocketed the letter. “All of the Manoans on the island were invited, to meet their new king.”

He looked to Elodie, a gleam in his eye. “I think I’d like to meet this king of a no-longer existing empire for myself.”