We took the time to look carefully around the room, but the Pattern was the only thing left intact. Everything else had been blown to smithereens by the beetles.

“Don’t forget to get the door on the way out,” Marjory said after we’d determined that there was nothing else to find. “We’re headed for my people, and they’ll pay well for that much Whitesteel.”

In complete agreement with her, I got the Shapes to pick up the heavy metal door. It took both Deckhands to life up one side of it, but the Sailor was strong enough to pick up the other one on its own.

We were much faster on the way out of the cave. The beetles had made sure that there was nothing living in the entire area, and with the Echo gone, the Ephemera it generated were gone as well. The girls were talking most of the way back to the Swift, but I wasn’t really paying them any attention. Between the influx of vim and the discovery of a new Pattern, I had some thinking to do.

The Echo we’d just destroyed must have been at least tier III if not IV, and the vim it released was enough to max out all of my Shapes that were present for its destruction. In fact, I probably missed out on a whole lot of vim since I didn’t have anything with any room left to absorb it.

In total, I now had four Deckhands with the bare minimum of vim needed to Shape them, two Hawks with a little above the minimum and three maxed out Archers among my tier I Shapes. At tier II, I had one maxed out Longbowman, one Marine with somewhere around two hundred vim, and one Sailor, which had fortunately reformed during the battle, and while it hadn’t been at all useful against the monstrous insect, it had been present to absorb its vim, and was therefore also maxed out.

And, if course, the Swift herself which was far from full of vim, and would have been impossible to rank up even if it were, since I had nothing else to contain the extra vim it would need.

My obvious option was to rank up one of the tier II Shapes into tier III. However, a maxed out tier II Shape had four hundred vim and needed an even thousand to rank up. That meant that if I wanted to rank one of them up, I would need to either Unshape the other two. Which meant losing the Sailor, which wasn’t much of a problem, and either the Longbowman, which I had no way to replace, or the Marine, which would mean losing the elemental attunement.

Another option was to Unshape the Sailor and just about all of my tier I Shapes in order to rank up the Longbowman, which would mean losing the irreplaceable Archers and Hawks, and also leaving the Swift without sufficient crew.

I didn’t like any of those options, which meant ranking up some of the tier I Shapes. Unshaping any of the maxed out Archers would be counterproductive, and none of my Deckhands had any extra vim, which made Unshaping them pointless.

The Sailor, however, had four hundred vim ready for the taking. I could Unshape it, Shape a new Deckhand, and rank that one up back to Sailor, and still have three hundred vim left, which would then let me rank up five more tier I Shapes. Five more maxed out tier I Shapes, that is. And I only had the three Archers at that point.

I did have the Hawks, which probably had enough vim that I could rank up at least one of them, but while the avian Shapes had proven to be very good scouts, ranking them up wouldn’t be much of an improvement. It might even reduce their usefulness, since the larger tier II Eagles would be a lot easier for potential enemies to see.

With one new Sailor and three ranked up Archers, I’d be left with a hundred and twenty vim. Enough to rank up one more Deckhand, which would give me two tier II expendable Shapes and make it possible to push for tier III in the future, and leave me with thirty vim, which I could use to try out the new Pattern.

Speaking of the new Pattern, we would have to decide what to do with it once we reached civilization. As much as I wanted to keep it, Marjory and Doreen were each entitled to a half share in it. A half share that was worth more than anything else I owned, other than the Ship Pattern, combined. But even if I’d have to sell it later and split the profit with the girls, I could still get some use out of it first. And knowing for certain just what Shape it contained would make selling it more profitable anyway.

“So is this how all ruin explorations go?” Doreen’s question pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Not really,” I answered. “This was the smallest ruin I’ve ever seen. I’ve spent days exploring the ruin I found the Swift’s Pattern in.”

“It’s possible that this used to be a bigger one,” Marjory added. “But everything other than the Pattern room was destroyed in whatever happened to bury it under all that stone. Probably some sort of volcanic activity.”

“Do you think you’ll be joining us in future explorations?”

“I think I will,” Doreen answered after some consideration. “I can’t exactly go back to what I used to do before I was Warped, and this feels somehow… right.”

“Good to have you on board,” Marjory smiled. “Neither one of us is really much good in close combat, and even the Shapes are better suited for sailing a ship than fighting.”

***

It was getting dark by the time we made it back to the Swift, and a very relieved Mable charged at me as soon as I made it up to the deck.

“You’re back!” She cried gladly, holding me tightly. “You were there so long, and I was getting worried.”

“I’m sorry, but you know this is what I do,” I answered.

“I know. But those beetles could kill your Shapes in one hit, and I started to think that one might have hit you, and that I’d be left here alone.”

“You wouldn’t be left here, Mable. The Deckhands have an order to take you back to the island if anything happened to me. It would be a slow and uncomfortable trip but…”

“I don’t care about that!” she started sobbing against me. “If you died in there, I would… I don’t…”

She couldn’t even seem to finish the sentence, and I just held her while she cried.

“I think we need to finish this talk in private,” I told her once she’d calmed down a bit. “Marjory, Doreen, can we talk about sharing the loot tomorrow?”

The two nodded, and I sent the Sailor to raise the Swift to a safe height from the ground, and led Mable to my cabin.

“I’m sorry I’m acting like this,” Mable said as soon as we sat down. “I hate how I’ve become. I used to be so confident! I knew where I was back in the Boar and Barrel. I had my room, and Agnes was like my mother, and I was safe. But ever since Gerald’s Rest all I have is you, and if I lost you…”

“I’m never going to live a safe life, you know. Even if I wasn’t on board with Marjory’s quest to find her brothers, and even if the Swift wasn’t targeted by whoever it was who sacked Gerald’s Rest, I’d still be fighting Warped in the wild and going into Old-world ruins.”

“I know,” she almost mumbled. “And I’m not expecting you to change.”

“We could head back, you know. I’m sure you could find a tavern to work in at Whitecliff.”

“And what if they sack Whitecliff next?”

“They won’t. Whitecliff has Simon’s family to protect them, and it won’t fall so easily.”

“That’s what we thought about Gerald’s Rest! And look what happened there!”

“Then what do you want to do?”

“I’m staying here, with you. And I’ll get over the fears, I promise. It just… it’ll take time.”

“You’re always welcome on board my Ship,” I answered, and chuckled. “Shatter it, I don’t think I’ll manage without my purser and cook.”

She joined my laughter, and I felt her tense body relax a little.

“Can I stay here with you tonight? I don’t think I’m up for anything yet, but I… I’d just like to be held.”