After a short walk, James found himself in the eating area. It was less crowded than it had been the day before at dinner. That was to be expected. Yesterday was Concord Day, after all. He scanned the room, looking for Celeste. He didn’t spot her, but locked eyes with someone much more unpleasant. Zeke gave him a dirty look as he entered, but quickly turned away. James knew he wouldn’t do anything after yesterday, especially with Jarl around. The thought drew his mind to the counter where Jarl usually sat. He was there, guarding the kitchen as he typically did. James prepared himself to sneak passed him when he saw that he was fidgeting with something in his hands. James had fought a war with curiosity most of his life. It won on most days. James approached the counter.

“What’s that in your hands?” he questioned.

It truly was an odd sight. Jarl had never been the type to be entertained with knickknacks. Jarl lifted his head, as if noticing him for the first time.

“Hmm? Ah, this?” Jarl said, lifting up what he had been fiddling with. It was two small pieces of rope. James tensed, fearing the worst. “I was just practicing some of my knots. A soothing pastime of mine.” James stared at him, not sure of whether to speak or not. Jarl raised an eyebrow. “You alright, Jameson? You look as pale as the clouds.” James kicked himself internally.

“I-I’m fine. Just didn’t expect knot-tying to be one of your pastimes.” James said, relaxing a little. As far as he knew, Jarl was the straightforward type. If he knew what he was up to, he would have stated it in a blunter way.

“Indeed. I usually keep it to the confines of my room, but I needed something to distract me from Zeke’s presence, lest his… less redeeming characteristics get to me,” Jarl said, hiding a smirk. James laughed. If any worry had still lingered within him, it was gone now. “Why don’t I show you my favorite knot.” James shrugged. He had nothing better to do. “It is called a Gogh Knot,” Jarl said.

“Why is it your favorite?” James asked.

“Because it is the strongest knot that I know of to tie two pieces of rope together,” Jarl said, turning his attention to the pieces of rope.

James perked up at this, remembering the knot that came dangerously close to untying itself in his room. If he could learn this, then perhaps the rest of the day would be a productive one spent fixing the rope he had hidden in his room. He leaned in close, watching Jarl’s hands carefully. They twisted about, looping the rope around and through itself several times, forming something that looked like a double knot. James blinked. He hadn’t understood any of what he just saw.

“Can you, um, do that again?” James asked, slightly embarrassed. He thought he saw the corners of Jarl’s mouth lift slightly at that.

“Of course. Watch closely.” Jarl repeated the same knotting pattern, this time a bit slower. James scratched his head. He had caught most of it, but there was still a looping motion at the end that he couldn’t figure out. Jarl noticed his confused look. “Why don’t I leave this with you. You seem intent on learning this.” Jarl passed the tied rope to James. “Besides, it would be nice if someone else on this ship took an interest in rope tying. It can be quite fun once you get the hang of it. And no need to return it, I have plenty of spares.” James grabbed the knotted rope eagerly and quickly mumbled his thanks. He began walking to the door with urgent footsteps when he heard Jarl’s voice behind him.

“Are you not going to eat lunch?” he asked with a curious expression.

James froze. In truth, his hunger had vanished, replaced with a hunger to perfect his rope before his descent, but not eating would have been suspicious.

“I’ll take some jerky to go,” James said after a moment’s hesitation.

Jarl nodded and walked into the back, returning a few seconds later with a small package filled with jerky. James hastily thanked him and left the room. He glanced over to the table that he had seen Zeke at, making sure he was still seated. He didn’t want a repeat of last night. Zeke was still there, eating and talking with a few people a couple years older than James. Perhaps he had retired Fin and Mach for some other people since they had bolted when Jarl got involved. James shrugged the matter aside and slipped out into the hall.

The trip to his room seemed to fly by. Before he knew it, he was at the table in his room. He peered up to Celeste’s platform. She still wasn’t back. With a sigh, he focused back on his objective, pulling the two knotted ropes out and placing them in front of him. Very carefully he undid the knot. First, he would undo one of the loops, then redo it again. After doing this several times, he would undo another one of the loops, then put it all back together again. Before long, he was reconstructing the entire knot. With a little jolt of terror, he let the two pieces of rope become completely undone. He breathed out a heavy breath, hoping that he could remember all the steps. Taking one rope in each hand, he began to tie them together. After a minor hiccup or two, he was able to completely recreate the knot. He grabbed each side of the rope, pulling on them to test its strength. It was true. The knot was strong, much stronger than the knots that James had been tying at least. James smiled to himself and bounded up the stairs to his platform. In all his years, he never thought he would be excited to spend an entire afternoon tying knots.

It surprised him how therapeutic the process was. Every knot he tied left him with a feeling of calm. His nerves about the upcoming days seemed to drift away. At some point during his knot tying, he heard the door to his room. He took a quick glance out the window. It was dark. How long had he been working? He peered down from his platform to see Celeste standing in the doorway. They locked eyes. Celeste eventually broke the eye contact, marching to her platform to busy herself with random tasks. James could tell that she was still mad. He thought about talking to her, but there was nothing that could be said. In an attempt to squash the gloom that her presence had brought, he directed his full attention back on tying the knots.

James collapsed into bed at the end of the day, exhausted. He had retied the entirety of the rope, consuming his time well into the later hours of the night. In his last moments of consciousness, he peered over at Celeste who was fast asleep. She looked a lot less angry when she was sleeping. He smiled to himself, a slight feeling of guilt working its way into his stomach before sleep took him.

A shift in movement woke him up. He had no idea how long he’d been sleeping. He lay confused for several moments before realization dawned on him. The stopping of the ships was always a peculiar thing to experience. In all his years, he still wasn’t used to it. It was the feeling of everything inside of him swaying forward while his body sat motionless. It sent tingles through his stomach every time it happened. Most Vinci citizens became accustomed to the feeling, allowing them to sleep through it. James yearned for that to happen to him. He had been woken up in the dead of night too many times because of it. Though, today it came in useful.

James rolled to the side, peering through the dark at Celeste’s unmoving figure. It didn’t seem like she had been stirred by the ship’s halt in movement. Flinging the blankets off him, he made for the chest, unlatching it. His heart was thumping rapidly in his chest. He was doing it. He was actually going to descend beneath the clouds. Part of him couldn’t believe it, but to the other part of him, it made more sense than anything else he had ever done. He scooped the rope out of his chest and grabbed what was beneath his bed. It was heavier than he thought. Having carried the individual pieces with ease, he imagined the whole of it would weigh much less than it did. He could carry it, but only barely. Still, it was too dangerous to walk down the stairs with it. With an internal sigh, he began slowly unraveling it over the edge, shooting glances over at Celeste to make sure she hadn’t been stirred. A short time later and he was briskly but quietly walking down the stairs. He slowed considerably at Celeste’s platform. He crept by, making sure to use flat footed steps that made no noise. He smiled to himself when he made it to the other side, and then frowned when he heard her voice behind him.

“Two hours passed sunrise. If you’re not back by then, I’ll tell Bron.”

James didn’t know what to make of that. Two hours passed sunrise wasn’t very much time, but could he really blame her? And would an argument in the dead of night do anything to help his cause? No, it wouldn’t. He sighed, this time audibly. He was unsatisfied with her decision but hearing her voice before his descent was an act of soothing that he didn’t know he needed. His heart beat began to slow, grasping the reality of the situation. He carried on, not speaking any words to her. The sigh was enough, he knew. It was funny, he thought, how much a simple sigh could convey, sometimes saying things that many long sentences could not.

Picking up the bundles of rope on the floor, James exited the room. He peered left and right, overly cautious of stray eyes; he spotted none. Though a good sign, it was far too early to feel any type of relief. Luckily, their room was positioned near the bottom of the ship, but he still needed to descend several sets of stairs in order to reach his destination. He moved quickly, moving from shadow to shadow in an effort to conceal his figure. The hallways contained sporadic lamps that cast a very limited light. James smiled, thinking about all the times he had complained about the lack of light. Today, he thanked the winds for it. It would seem that many things could be seen as good or bad depending on the perspective.

He reached the first set of stairs and hurried down it, making sure to lift and lower the hatch carefully. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, he took a moment to scan the hallway in front of him. The night was still. He didn’t know what time it was, but it must have been in the very early hours of the morning if not a single person was walking the halls. Off the top of his head, he could think of a handful of Vinci that were known to walk the corridors late at night. Hearing nothing but the distant spinning of the screw blades, James pushed forward.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the bottom, or at least it didn’t feel like it took long. He had occasionally seen some of the older Vinci people wearing time tellers around their wrists. He yearned for one of those now, especially thinking about Celeste’s deadline. James peered into the rooms that lined the bottom corridor, just as he had a day and a half ago. They remained vacant and empty. This gave him a boost of confidence that carried him forward to the end of the corridor. He stopped at one of the final doors and pushed it open. There was no light within the room, but one of the sporadic corridor lights hung on the wall just outside the room, shedding just enough light to see the outlines of objects inside. One such object was massive and sat positioned in the middle of the room. James looked at it with an expression of fondness. Without realizing it, his hunt of ropes had turned into a type of treasure hunt, and the biggest boon sat right in from of him. He walked up to it and pulled the lever on the side, releasing the locking mechanism and allowing the rope to freely rotate around the spool. It took him a good ten minutes of continuous pulling to reach the end of the spool. He brought one of the ends of the rope out under the light. Working carefully but quickly, he tied the two spools of rope that he had been carrying together, and then tied them to the third rope, making one long—and hopefully sturdy—rope. After testing their strength, he gave a nod of satisfaction. The only thing left was to tie it to the railing of the platform below the metal ladder.

There was now far too much rope for him to carry. A fact that would have been daunting if the door to the ladder hadn’t been right beside him. Steeling himself for the wind, he opened the door. It was a surprisingly still night. There was still some wind that ruffled his hair, but not nearly as much as there could have been. Taking one end of the rope, he stepped out and eyed the ladder. There was no use fearing the climb down it. It was nothing compared to the climb that was to come. He knew this, yet still a flutter of nervousness ran through him. Placing the rope in his mouth, he descended the ladder. Miraculously, no stray winds threatened to throw him off. They were on his side today… for now at least. Once he had reached the bottom, he removed the rope from his mouth and began to pull. Length by length the rope tumbled down to him. By the time he brought it all down, he hardly had anywhere to stand. He walked to the railing, stepping awkwardly on the coiled rope in the process. Once there, he began to tie. He didn’t know an overly strong knot that could be used to tie the rope to the railing, so what he lacked in strength, he made up for in quantity. Nearly a dozen knots occupied the several levels of railing that lined the platform, and he even tied one to the bottom rung of the metal ladder. He pulled on it several times, testing its strength; it didn’t budge. Next, he grabbed the coils of rope at his feet and walked over to the railing. He took a deep breath. It seemed funny to him that after all he had already done, the throwing of the rope over the edge seemed to be the point of no return to him. Reaching inside and finding the reassurance of his conviction, he threw the rope over the side. It was dark, but the moon illuminated the rope enough for him to see it tumble downward into the clouds.