It was almost evening, and we were playing a game of trump under some mage light, when we spotted a ship. We didn’t have any kind of spyglass, so all we could see was a splotch of red far away. Which was reassuring; only ships operating under the Coalition agreement could afford such an enormous amount of dye. Other, less prestigious ship had to manage with white.

“That must be your Captain’s ship,” the Viscountess said.

“She’s not my anything,” I muttered.

“Ah, so there’s no need for me to worry?” Zaya teased.

I hesitated.

“Well, the Captain is pretty comely, if nothing else.”

Zaya just gave me a look.

“I’ll remember that next time we see Mikas.”

“What! Honey!” Bringing her former paramour into this was a low blow!

“You started it.”

“I didn’t!”

“Girls.” The Viscountess said. She put down her last card and added, “I win.”

I gave it a suspicious look.

“Honored Mother, I could have sworn that any deck had only four cards of the same value.”

“Antaran decks are different.”

“Ah, but Your Motherness! I could have sworn this was my deck.”

“Daughter, you are Antaran.”

“Only half,” I grumbled.

“Hmm.”

I took all the remaining cards and put them back. This was the sixth time the Viscountess had won. We’d tried everything, even outcheating the cheater, but alas. Her time in the military must have taught her a few tricks. At least that’s what Auntie Sabine always said anytime she’d manage to win at something through blatant and cruel cheating. I hoped she was doing well, wherever she was. I would go and visit her once we arrived in the capital. But, oh, maybe in the meanwhile…true, she might have been in a different country’s military, but there was a lot of international cooperation in the Solaris Coalition when the war was on.

“Ah, Mother?”

She glanced at me.

“Do you happen to know a Sabine Artas? Tall, far too cheeky for her own good, quite an adept cheater? She served during the war.”

She stood silent for a few moments.

“Not as such, no,” she finally said.

I made a disappointed sound.

“Are you worried about her?”

I hesitated.

“Kind of,” I admitted. “She’s just the type that gets into trouble often”

She gave me a tiny smile.

“She sounds like the type that manages to get out of trouble just as often”

“Just like you, darling,” said Zaya. “Unless that trouble is a seatbelt.”

“Honey!”

The Viscountess started to laugh. She had a big, great booming laugh.

“Mother! Don’t encourage her,” I decidedly did not whine.

Just then we heard cannons being fired.

The two of them shot to their feet, alarmed.

“It just means they’ve spotted us,” I said. I got up too.

Now the ship was far closer, and I did recognize her. We were within spyglass distance too.

I started to wave in case old sea wolf Shan was the one to man the route. He’d liked me because I was the only one willing to purify his liver after each of his many, many, many, off-duty alcoholic adventures, even if I had to do it in the middle of the night. I only did it to get a share of his special grog, of course, but nonetheless.

I hoped they recognized me.

The ship was approaching us at a very high speed- they probably had a mage on board. Some other poorly paid University intern, I bet.

When we got withing boarding distance, I saw Morgana and her distinctive black hat. There was another woman with her, one I didn’t recognize- the intern, probably. She had a weird kind of magical veil on her.

“That can’t be-” muttered the Viscountess.

They hopped on board with a wind spell.

“If it isn’t my old treacherous student,” she said, talking to the Viscountess, who was busy staring searchingly at the covered-up girl. “Hoping for some rescuing, eh? It’s going to cost you.”

I sighed. Not this shit again.

“Captain Morgana. Put your glasses on.”

“Ah!” She said, turning towards me, “I would recognize that tone everywhere.”

“You’d recognize me too, if you would just put your glasses on.” In addition to being terrifyingly greedy, wretchedly cheap and a very bad singer, the Captain was blind as a bat. And thought that glasses made her look frumpy.

“Carina, is that you?” the Viscountess said in really quiet voice.

It was a dangerous sort of voice, and it made me pay attention to what was happening there. Morgana as well. She wasn’t stupid enough to ignore a possible threat, after all.

The woman flinched.

“Ex-excuse me? I was just sent to look for you, Viscountess.” Goodness, that was one of the most obvious lies I’ve ever heard. Up there with “No, I didn’t eat the last truffle.” or “Yes, we’ve received your article and are paying it very close attention.”

“Don’t lie to me, you little fool. Get your disguise off immediately. Or did you forget who taught you how to do it?”

The woman- girl, at a closer look, did. She had some beautiful chestnut hair and piercing blue eyes. Eyes that now looked on the verge of crying.

“Oh, dear, family drama,” whispered Morgana. She’d put her glasses on, in the meanwhile. She was as thirsty for other people’s business as I was. And we must have reached the same conclusion; this was one of my bratty little sisters. I would’ve asked the Viscountess for confirmation, but I didn’t want to attract her attention when she was so incensed. Sorry, Carina, Big Sister Bea will save you another day!

“Mother, I-” she started to say, chin trembling.

“You what? Where are you siblings? What are you doing here? Do you have any idea how dangerous-”

Zaya elbowed me, hard. Fine, maybe this was getting to be a little too much.

“Ah, Mother, perhaps we should sit down and discuss things calmly?”

Carina whipped her head towards me.

“I don’t want or need your help, stay out of this.” She said, voice so cold it was outright glacial. Ah, so the bratty part was confirmed.

“Carina! She’s your elder sister and you will respect her.”

Oh, lovely. Now I was getting thrown in the middle. I threw a tiny glare at Zaya, who shrugged apologetically.

“She’s a bastard!”

“Not anymore.”

Morgana bent a little towards me and Zaya and whispered, “Maybe we should go below deck to catch up and leave them to it?”

I nodded fervently.