I had slightly exaggerated, so my prize for the marvelous feat of magic I had just done was…feeling very weak. Zaya was helping me up the stairs, talking my ears off about what ‘a fantastically smooth landing’ the Viscountess had managed pull off. As if I hadn’t contributed to at least 80% of that. Bah! I did all the hard work.

We emerged to the sharp smell of sea. Ah, this brought back memories. In fact, if my guess was right, we weren’t far from where I used to travel with my former captain. Which meant that pirates were not far off either. Well, if they knew what was good for them they would stay far away from the suspiciously fallen airship. If they had even seen us land.

“Arianne!”

The Viscountess was leaning on the rails of the left side of the ship, gazing at the horizon.

She turned her head towards us and said smoothly, “Girls. Excellent job.”

“Thanks,” I said, gasping a bit. She immediately came over. She was running a diagnostic spell before I could even utter another word.

“I’m just...tired,” I protested. She tutted.

“You have an incipit of magical exhaustion. You have to sit down and eat,” she said sternly.

“I’ll go get something from the kitchen,” Zaya said, worried. She must have thought I was just fatigued, like after a good session of calisthenics. Instead, I had just done the equivalent of pulling a muscle. Oh, well. It could have been much worse, given the type of magics involved.

She passed me over to the Viscountess like a fragile package and went back down. I was led to my leather chair like a drunken friend after a particularly unwise drinking contest which all the group had discouraged him to do but did anyway because there was A Girl involved.

Which was entirely unnecessary, I might add. I managed to put one foot in front of the other just fine.I sat down delicately and decidedly without a grunt. Other Mother stroked my hair a little and frowned.

“I’m sorry. I would have done it myself, but someone had to be the pilot.”

I waved a hand.

“I’m...fine.”

She tutted again.

“I see that stubbornness is rearing its head again.”

I rolled my eyes. She raised an eyebrow and gave me a look. Then she cleared her throat.

“By the by, Beatrice. You’ll notice that we’re at sea.”

I gave her an impatient look that said yes, and?

“You’ll also notice that we’re not sinking.”

I did in fact notice that. With great delight, I might add.

“So,” she said with eyes that shone with humor, “the airship does in fact work as a ship.”

I groaned and put my head in my hands. Besides her stubbornness, arrogance and looks I must have also inherited her being a little shit.

She chuckled.

Speaking of little shits…I had to tell her about the captain. When I regained my bearing a little.

I rested my head on her stomach and she hugged me a little. We stood there, me concentrating on my breathing with her stroking my hair again. It was nice. I was glad that she wasn’t as much of a, well, hardass as she appeared at first.

Zaya came back with some bottles floating behind her and an armful of little packets, which, I discovered with great delight, were my favorite sandwiches and some slices of my favorite pie.We passed them around and had a nice picnic, there in the sea breeze. None of us talked much, too focused on eating.

“Right,” the Viscountess said as we all had finished our share. “I managed to send a message to our allies. We just have to find a way to reach the next major city and they’ll be there to collect us.”

“We’d just passed the mountains, right?” Zaya said, looking deeply in thought. She had an adorable crinkle on her forehead. “At the speed we were going, we must still be relatively close to the shore. Next biggest city around here would be Aurana on the opposite coast.”

I nodded. I recognized the waters and the wind that was blowing.

“But Bea would know more about this,” she added.

“Oh?”

I nodded again.

“Extracurriculars with a merchant ship.” I managed to explain. Now that I had rested a little, I managed to speak in full if short sentences. But now I desperately wanted a bed and a full night of sleep. I gathered my breath again.

“I need a sextant.”

“There must be one included with the MarkIII,” Zaya said.

“Indeed. One moment, I’ll activate the spell from the panel”

Other Mother did so and an oversized sextant appeared in front of us. I looked at the data the spell provided, and it confirmed my guesses on our whereabouts. Thank you, Captain Morgana. Her very precise and very terrifying lessons still bore fruits years later, even if she was an insane, ruthless and greedy wretch.

“Bad news, we’re in pirate waters.” A breath. “Good news, they won’t fuck with us.”

The Viscountess raised an eyebrow at my language but made no comments on it.

“It’s my old captain’s voyage period.” I added.

Bless Morgana and her greedy little heart; she was out there committing insurance fraud, but at least she was smart about it. Aurana had a special policy for mercantile fleets crossing the Sorrowful Sea, on account of all the robbing and pirating. Airships were still very expensive, so most fleets used the old reliable sea ships to turn in a better profit. They couldn’t discharge the cost on the final client too much for most types of goods, so they had to save where they could.

So, this type of policy helped. If they were robbed and they got to Venixia in one piece, they were waived a good part of the docking and storing taxes. Which were a lot, trust someone who had seen far too many reports over the years.

Our cute and criminal captain, of course, found a way around this. She’d give the pirates half of what her waived taxes would be without a fuss and they in return would give her and her fleet a peaceful voyage. At her return in Venixia she would declare herself robbed, get her taxes waived and make a fine profit with no effort and no casualties. Of course there were suspicions, but she always came back timely and with a great part of the cargo, so everybody turned a blind eye. Except that one time when she tried to give our good pirates less than a quarter of what she usually did, of course.

Our best course of action was to find her, but even if we didn’t the pirate captain owed me. And was hopefully still scared of me.

“We’re not too far off.” I still remembered the route, given the sheer number of hours Morgana had made me slave over those type of calculations every day. So, given the day, given the month and adjusting for any small delay, I knew exactly where we had to go. I wrote on the sextant spell our target coordinates.

The viscountess gave me an impressed look. Or what passed as impressed for her.

“You’ll have to tell me more about all that later,” she said.

I nodded.

“You can help me guide the ship to that position”

I shook my head.

“No need.” Given the strong sea currents, we would drift there without any further help

A sudden thought came to me.

“Are we still cloaked?”

“No,” Zaya answered. “That spell needs an active power feed to work. If you remember, the cloaking was off while the ship was parked at the manor.”

“Indeed,” confirmed the Viscountess. “If there is no danger, I would rather save the power. We are in international waters and close to our allies, no need to hide anymore.”

“Oh! I can repair the control system on the motors. In case we need to take off again.”

The Viscountess gave her an approving nod.

“Please. I’d trust you and your family around any kind of magical motor.”

“Automata motors too,” I added proudly.

“Thank you for your confidence in me,” she said, the tip of her ears red.

She was so cute when she blushed. I chuckled and gave her a little push.

“Go to your true love.”

“Right away.”

I gave her a hurt look.

“You were supposed to say something romantic”

She winked at me and then she sauntered off to the bowels of the ship.

“Goodness. Feisty, is she?”

“You have no idea.”