The days passed monotonously. There was not much to do aboard the ship. Thael and his cadre rested when they could before their nightly watch. A brawl between Cyrus and one of the crew had been calmed by Loric’s intervention. Cyrus had claimed there were two ways to take the edge off a man: bloodied fisticuffs or a good fucking. Verena had obliged him with the first choice after several needling remarks.

Since then morale had soured and simmered to resentful glares and ill-tempered words. One day Thael knocked upon Krystos’ door. He opened it after a moment. The young man looked up from his table, scroll unfurled before him. His frown turned to a somber line of acceptance.

“You should leave your door open,” Thael said. “It will help clear the air.”

“Have you read her decree?” Krystos asked. “She wishes for all of Haol to submit to her rule. What I carry and will relay is a death sentence.”

“Then don’t.”

Krystos looked up from the scroll. “That would be rebellion.”

Thael shrugged. “Do you see the arch queen here in this room? Do you think she will know that you merely changed the conditions of this accord?” He placed his finger on the scroll. “Let this sink to the bottom of the Oceanum. Or die with all of us on Haol’s shores.”

“That’s it then? Simple as that? Write down a new accord with a man known as the Demon King?”

“You have not yet met the man. What do you know of his reputation?”

“I know uniting the western front of Haol hasn’t been done since the Age of the Mythic. Such a man rumored to be mortalborn no less, slaughtering Arcadian settlers in their homes.”

“Soldiers,” Thael said.

“What?”

“You make it seem as if the Empire sent helpless women and children with the soldiers. They didn’t. The Haolan villagers along the western coast were driven away from their homes, or killed. Soldiers set up their forts along the coastline, preparing to invade further inland.”

“The Haolans–” Krystos paused “–were the first to strike Arcadia. Raiding the Casparn Coast, laying siege to the kingdom. What other action was there left to do?”

“Not how Haol sees it. Why do you think they have united after all this time? What greater cause is there than to protect one’s homeland? A trapped dog turns rabid soon enough.”

“And we are headed straight into its jaws,” Krystos murmured. “You are of Haolan blood, Thael?”

“Do my eyes give it away?”

The young man shook his head. “I ask you since you are a Wraith. You know more of the shadowy dealings that go in in the Empire. Do you feel for your people?”

“I hold no bond or kinship to the people we will deal with. They are no more my people than a Haolan raider is to Arcadia. I speak for what the Haolans will think if they should negotiate. The raiders hailing from Haol were never united, the attacks from their group does not represent the nation. Treat this Demon King with the respect he is owed. Then perhaps we may return with our heads still on our necks.”

The young mage grimaced, rolling up thee scroll. “To the sea, then.”

It was a clear, warm day and all was calm on deck. Krystos stepped to the ship’s side, hanging the scroll over the railing. He let the wind whisk it away, flitting and disappearing into the endless waves.

He turned to Thael. “Now our fates rest in our own hands, despite my sister’s choking grip. I’ll think on how best to negotiate with one the who calls himself the Demon King.”

“You won’t pray to the gods?”

“If the Gods watched over us all why would they have let my sister into this world?”

Thael gave no answer and walked away.

They saw the distant island of Shen-La, waters brighter than the sky. Captain Arnas had stated that they had ample supplies to reach Haol, only a few days' east from the island nation. When Krystos had asked him how he knew what passages to take, the man answered, “I was a ship’s captain for the Quilling Company, charting trade routes from Arcadia back to Haol and between the Isles. Then the war came, and trade died with it. So I enlisted for the navy.” The captain gazed out at the horizon. “Never knew my work would be used to ferry a mage for a secret treaty.”

True to Arnas’ word, a few more days passed before Haolan ships appeared patrolling their waters. They cut through the waves faster than their own ship despite their larger size, yet they did not attack, letting them pass to see the faraway coast. Even from such a distance Thael could see the pointed towers and high buildings.

“The port of Ghuang,” the captain said as the crew gathered on the deck to watch the approach. “Where our journey ends.”

“No, Captain,” Krystos said. “This is where our journey has just begun.”