She didn’t look at the captain’s face. Instead, she peered around the room. There were several strips of colored metal hammered into the wall, and the wood itself wasn’t all from one tree either. Focused on where to sit earlier, she’d somehow missed all the carved plates displayed on the wall, and for a few minutes, she tried to make out what was written on the one farthest from her. Finally, she turned back to Juji.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Seren answered, looking down into her cup. Inside, her mind was already shrieking that she needed to run out of there, somehow make it up? Down? Back to her little shellship, and escape a ship that was three to four times her size. A miracle.

“I don’t care about you.” There was a slight laugh at the statement. “Sorry if that was a little harsh. It would be more correct to say I don’t care to know about you. You seem a lot like me when I was younger, and if that’s true, then you’re being chased by things that I wouldn’t be able to help with anyhow.”

She straightened her back, tensing to make sure that nothing betrayed the fact that she was fleeing something.

“What I do want to know,” Captain Juji said, “is this. How can I help you?”

That was not what she was expecting. At all.

“You just said you didn’t care about me.”

“My captain is not the best at speaking for understanding,” said a wind-scraped voice. Seren looked over to see that Joelle was coming into the room, her cane striking out to shut the door behind her. “What he means is this. The less information we have about you, the better we can’t inadvertently give you away. If you have a debt with another, keep it to yourself. If you’re running away from an abusive place, keep it to yourself. If you’re looking for love that’s not welcome at home, that’s something Captain Juji might be able to help with, since he knows what’s legal in which countries.”

Joelle grabbed a goblet from the drinks section, poured herself some wine, and then took the seat opposite Seren. Her cane leaned against the table. Before, back out on the deck, she had looked younger. Here, with the sunlight gone and lanterns casting shadows about, the woman was still younger than her father and dad, but not by as many years.

“What she said!” declared Captain Juji, tail swishing side to side. “Don’t tell me what you’re escaping; tell me what you need to run faster, harder, longer.”

Seren reached out and took another drink of wine. This was an offer, as far as she could tell, with no strings attached. For him to not want information about her, then he’d most likely not want to give up anything about himself as well.

“If asked about your past, what would you say?”

Joelle smiled as Captain Juji laughed.

“Here an’ now? I don’t mind so much. My debts are paid, my nightmares have been ground back into dream dust, and there’s not much that frightens me.” He leaned forward over the table, tapping the wood with a claw. “My crew though... Well, some of them are still fighting the good fight. So if I talked about my past, it wouldn’t include them.”

She took another sip of wine as he leaned back, taking off his hat and placing it on the table beside him. Jo started talking again, using the time to unbraid her hair and portioning to replait it.

“My past is easy enough to find out about. Younger, I was an apprentice at my city’s library. It was my job to make sure we threaded the pages together, and when we were busy, I was to listen to book requests. We were attacked on one of our holy days, and out of all the people taken, one invader chose me to be a slave in her house.”

“How did you end up here?”

“The captain,” she said, nodding to him as he preened. “He doesn’t like the idea of slavery much, so when he saw the chance, he took it.”

“The trick to slavers,” he interjected, “is to steal from them. If someone runs away, they’ll hunt them down. If another person sneaks in and claims the slaves for their own, however, then that is a fair gust.”

“And they just... allow it?” She couldn’t picture it. Setting slavery aside since that was wrong to begin with, if someone had taken something she thought of as belonging to her, she’d run after them and take it back. The thought of her shellship came to mind and her face heated. Ducking her head, she drained a bit more of the wine and hoped they would attribute the redness to that.

“It’s less ‘allow,’ and more acknowledging that a bigger, badder person came by.” Joelle shrugged and downed half her drink. “It makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. Pretty much, if you can steal something or someone out from under a thief, then it just means you’re the better thief.”

“And they don’t try to steal back?”

Joelle smiled, showing all of her teeth; Seren was fascinated by the colored etchings on the woman’s front two.

“They can try. And some do. But when a bigger or stronger person comes along, most thieves decide discretion is the better part of valour and fade into the shadows.”

“Then... my situation.” Seren took a deep breath. ”I won’t confirm if I’m running to something or away from something.” Captain Juji and Joelle both nodded, so Seren continued. “However, I don’t know how to fix my engine and I’m running low on food.”

“Easy enough,” said Joelle, exchanging a glance with her captain. “We’re setting down soon for supplies as well.”

“Then it’s settled!” The captain stood up and drew one of the handles sticking out of the sheaths at his hips; the metal pointed at the ceiling. “You’ll stitch with us and land in—” he looked to Joelle. “Where?”

“Viadora. Large city, good-sized population. She’ll be able to find a steamhead by spitting.”

“Viadora,” finished Captain Juji, “which will set you up to find someone to fix your ship.”

“Which brings up another question, though. Money.” Joelle looked Seren up and down. “Hmph. I can’t read you, to be honest. You come from money, yes. The material of your clothes is a higher than average quality, and you hold yourself in a certain way. On the other hand, I can’t tell if you have coinage on you or not.”

Seren didn’t want to answer that question either. There was a big difference, from what she’d been taught at any rate, between accepting help and accepting money from someone.

“I should be able to take care of myself once I get there.” She could always trade favors with a mechanic, working for them to offset the cost. It all depended on what was wrong with the engine.

“There, she’s taking care of herself.” Captain Juji leaned back in the chair, the top edges hitting the wall behind him. “So we’ll tow you into port and put you in a berth; after that, you’ll be on your own.”

“Thank you.” Seren gave a half bow from where she was sitting. “Is there any way I can repay you?”

The captain and the first mate were silent, and she could almost see thoughts chasing each other across their faces.

“For now, nothing,” said Joelle. ”We make our own way on our own terms.”

“However,” interrupted Captain Juji, ”I would ask for one thing.”

“Name it.”

“A favor now, for you, in return for a favor in the future, for us.”

That... that was a very big ask. Seren frowned, covering the action by taking another sip of the wine. While it meant a lot for her to be taken to an area, it was almost an afterthought for them to help this way, especially since they had more than one thread elemental on the crew. One of her father’s ideas on charming was to make sure that what a person was made to do was something they didn’t feel was a big deal. She really hadn’t gotten the meaning he’d been pushing during that lesson. Every time he had charmed her made her angry, and it hadn’t mattered if it was a small chore or a larger errand. She looked up to see the two of them watching her.

“What kind of favor do you expect?” she asked warily.

“Your background is interesting,” Joelle said instead. “You’re naïve in some ways, but not in the ones I expected.”

“A shrewd bargainer!” Captain Juji straightened back up again, placing the sword he’d been holding onto the table. “You have my word. The favor, one that might never be asked for, I might add, will be only a medium in importance.”

“Then that’s what I agree to. You have my word, as Captain Serri of the Shell Sky, that I’ll return your favor given now with a medium one to be given in the future.”

Joelle grinned.

“I’ll give you some information for free. One of the first things you’re going to need is a guild license. You can’t call your ship Shell Sky, and if you do, it’s a dead giveaway of you not being part of a guild. Now, I don’t have any love for our guild; any guild, actually. They’re always run by people with too much lust for coin and too little brain for thinking things through. However, they’ll help you when you’re in trouble... as long as you pay your fees.”

Seren was stunned.

“You could tell all that from a name?”

“Yep. For the skies we sail there are rules to follow, rules to break, and rules to ignore.” Captain Juji got up. “The guild, if you hadn’t figured it out, is one of those to follow when possible and break in emergencies. When you do decide to ignore them, it’s best if they don’t find out.”

“I have some questions, then, if that’s okay. And won’t be tacked onto my future favor.” She looked at the two of them, but the captain only went to get more wine. “How did you find me?”

“Would you believe we stumbled upon you?”

Seren shook her head.

“The sky is too big for that. Unless you’re an air elemental?”

“Nope.” Joelle pushed her cup across the table and Captain Juji refilled it. “None of our ships have one.”

“Jo, do we have a copy of the guild rules? If the poor woman goes in there like this, they’re going to eat her alive.”

The first mate nodded.

“We should have a non-marked copy.”

“‘Non-marked’?” echoed Seren.

“We’ve kept notes on which rules are a bit... bendier than they would expect.” Captain Juji gave a wide smile, showing a hint of fang. “Jo is a little worried that if you showed the knowledge we’ve worked hard to dig up, they would connect you to us. More wine?”

Throwing back the cup drained the dregs. She and her father had drunk a bit together on summer evenings, but that only meant she knew her limits were low. If she was going to keep her identity a secret, then she needed to make sure her lips wouldn’t be loose, and that would require less wine, not more of it.

“Fruit water, please.”

“Excellent choice.”

She gave over her cup and he chose a fresh bottle, chipping off the wax seal and filling the cup halfway.

“How did you find me?” Seren emphasized the second word, then took a deep breath. “Were you sent by anyone?”

“No,” Jo answered at once. “We don’t bend to the orders of others.”

“While there are no air elementals on ships, we do have many threaders. You know what they do, right?”

“Weavers, also known as threaders, are people who can connect to others,” recited Seren. “The connection depends on many factors, with health, intent, and ability are three known out of an unknown number.”

“Well,” Jo said, nodding a thanks to her captain as he gave her the wine. “You know the textbook definition at least.”

“A threader,” replied Captain Juji, giving Seren back her cup, “can be a matter of life and death in the skies and on the seas. See, there’s a difference between threaders and dowsers. Dowsers search, threaders are used to keep found things close by.”

“Or at least easily found again.”

Seren’s thoughts whirled with the information. None of her books had talked about threaders like that. Most of them concentrated on how to build skills.

“I’ll let you have five questions,” said Captain Juji, retiring to his chair with his cup as well. “Four, since you already asked one. After that, it’ll be time to ready our ships for the berths.”

She opened her mouth to ask another question, then chose to sip her water instead. The rich flavor of cherries and strawberries was a tasty distraction. She had a limit tempering her need to get as much information as she could. One thing she needed to know was what country they would dock in next. The length of time given for an answer that might require her to waste another question on food rations, but if not, then she could ask where to find an engineer, or better yet, how to find an engineer that wouldn’t take advantage of her.

“Viadora. Which country is that city a part of and how long will it take to reach it?”

“Two questions,” coughed Captain Juji. Both ears went flat, but then he smiled, shook his head, and they popped up again. “You have two remaining.”

Ah, so this was more like negotiating with her father rather than with her dad. Annoying, but at least she had plenty of years of practice.

“Tedrus, and we should be there in about two hours.”

Good, that meant she wouldn’t be deeper in debt for rations.

“How can I find an engineer I can trust?”

“That’s a little harder to answer.” Jo frowned. “There is no guarantee, no matter what port we land in. People are people all over, and their hearts can be moved by greed and bribery and just as easily as love and honor.”

Seren glanced at Captain Juji, then risked a very open follow-up question.

“Is there any way to get more information so I can learn quicker?”

“Learn what?”

“Anything you think I need to know,” Seren said. She finished off the water and the empty cup banged on the table, accidentally lending urgency to her request. Captain Juji and his first mate looked at each other.

“Last I heard...” Jo mused, rubbing her chin, “was that Anks was looking to trade some of their books. They might be interested in Captain Serri’s need for information.”

“Thought they did that at the last port?”

“Already finished reading everything they bought. Looking for something new.”

“Are they looking for anything specific? I have some books aboard my ship,” Seren asked, cutting into the conversation.

“Let’s get this trade set up then!” Captain Juji stood up and drained his cup. “With the wind to wish us fair skies until we meet again!”