Below deck Petra was desperately trying to maintain an outer appearance of calm as she furiously searched through her bag for her mother's letter. She was failing. She knew she had put the letter in her pockets. She had taken the pockets off with her sarafan, blouse, petticoat, belt, and stays yesterday to go to sleep. But when she had gotten dressed this morning the letter had not been there. Had she put it somewhere else? It had to be here somewhere. Petra paced and surveyed the piled contents of her bag on the table. Where was it? How could she have lost it? She dived back in to her bag and began pulling more out.

"Petsha?" She heard Dimitri's voice.

She stood up and could not hide the panicked expression on her face.

"Petsha, whats wrong? Are you alright kitten?" His voice was concerned and the familiar Northern language calmed Petra if only a little.

"My letter, from my mother, I had it in my pocket yesterday, I must have put it down somewhere I can not remember and now I can not find it" she paced back and forth pinching her arms.

"Kitten" Dimitri walked around the crowded table and held her arms down to her sides. "None of that now. Say again whats wrong"

Petra was so alarmed by the closeness and earnestness of his gaze that she froze for a moment. Before recovering herself and breaking eye contact and saying, "My letter from my mother, that I picked up in Turtle Harbor the day before last, I have lost it and I can not find it."

"No need to fret dear," Dimitri said tenderly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "We'll just find it won't we?" He moved his hands down her arms to hold hers. "Where was the last place you had it?" He asked.

Petra swallowed. "I know I had it in port, it was in my pocket. But I have checked and its not there so I must have put it somewhere but I do not know where I put it I cannot remember" She said.

"Petsha, it is alright. We will find it, kitten. Keep looking through your bag, let me look threw what you have on the table. A fresh set of eyes to double check yes?" He touched his chin to the top of her head.

"Alright" she said pulling back to look at him. "Thank you Dima."

"Of course kitten" he pecked a kiss on her forehead and turned to look through the contents of the table.

Petra returned to pulling things out of her bag. She felt a little calmer. She hated asking for help. She knew everyone would just think her incapable and needy if she asked for help. But Dimitri had just offered. He seemed so concerned about her, and it didn't make her feel helpless and small. She smiled to herself. She felt calmer.

"Petsha is this it?" Dimitri held her mother's folded letter out to her.

Petra looked up from her bag. "Yes" she said with a sigh of relief and stood to take the letter from him.

Dimitri smiled at her. "See Petsha, no need to panic. It was just here under this book on the table."

"Thank you Dima" she clutched the letter to her chest. She must have put the letter with her spell book for safe keeping. She had tucked important things into it before.

"You are welcome Petsha. Do you need help putting this all back?" Dimitri asked.

"No Dima thank you. I like to put it all back myself so I know where everything is."Petra answered.

"Of course Petsha" Petra took half a step back as Dimitri took her hand and kissed it. Petra watched him walk away. She rubbed her pointer finger repeatedly against her thumb and gently chewed her cheek. It was good to have someone who saw her and cared for her.

Petra put the letter back into her spell book, shook out her hands and began to put things away. She was about halfway through when she heard, "Holy cats Petra how does all of that fit in your bag?"

Fire bloomed quickly in Petra's hand as she was startled but she put it back down when she saw it was only Lark.

"It is a bag of holding." Petra said simply "why is everyone so surprised by this?"

"Because it's expensive! And you are so casual about it. How did you get it?" Lark asked.

"It was a gift from my grandfather when I left home." Petra answered.

"What else did you leave home with?" Lark asked.

Petra gestured to the contents of her bag stacked all over the table.

"So what does it all do?" Lark asked picking up a clay jar and smelling it.

"That is something you should not want to have to use." Petra said taking the jar from him and placing it in her bag.

"Why whats it for?" Lark asked brightly.

Petra fixed him with a gaze, and darted her eyes down quickly down to his pants and back up.

"Oh, no" Lark laughed over his awkwardness. "Don't need that, don't need that" He clapped his hands. "Do you need help with any of this? Why is it all out?" He asked.

Petra breathed out through her nose, Lark was so persistently chatty. Talking to people like this gave her a headache right at the base of her skull. But it was good practice.

"I had lost my letter from my mother. But Dimitri helped me find it. Now I need to put this all back."

"Dimitri helped you?" Lark asked.

"Yes, that is what I said." Petra replied.

"Are you and he..." Lark lead.

"Are he and I what?" Petra asked not stopping repacking her bag.

"You know." Lark prompted.

"I would know if you asked a question." Petra said.

"I mean, I saw you in port the other day together.” Lark said.

"Yes and I saw you." Petra responded.

"Are the two of you, together, together." He finally asked.

Petrianna did not know how to answer this question. So she asked one instead. "Why does everyone on board seem so interested in Dimitri and I?"

"Because there's betting on it." Lark answered simply.

"What? How? Why?" Petra asked confused.

"There are bets on who you will be in a relationship with, and other bets about other people and stuff, because Sezjeck and Etheldred both have betting books and just about everyone is in one the other or both, and why, because it's fun." Lark counted on his fingers as he answered the questions and ended with a smile.

Petra pulsed squeezing her fists as she tried to figure out if she was more outraged or curious.

"I'm holding out for you and Tornas by the way. Is there anything there?" Lark asked.

"Tornas is my friend." She answered matter of factly.

"So Dimitri is more than your friend?" Lark tried.

"They are both my friends" Petra felt exasperated. Her friendship with Dimitri was of a very different sort than her friendship with Tornas but she did not want to have to try and explain that to this child who refused to admit he had magic.

"I do not want to discuss this please stop" Petra said sternly.

Lark's face fell "I'm sorry Petrianna, I didn't mean to offend you."

Petra took a deep breath. "I am not offended I just do not wish to discuss my friendships with you. Now is there anything you need?"

"No, nothing, I'll leave you to it" Lark said and turned to walk away.

Up on deck there was the usual amount of activity. The general business of sailing really did not take up that much time in the day after all. Ruben was back out at the helm. Erika was close by talking to him. The captain must have been in her quarters. Etheldred was no where to be seen on deck, this was by no means a unique occurrence. Dimitri was practicing with his bow with a group of rangers. Seanathan was speaking with Sezjeck. Lark was too far off to hear exactly what it was about but he assumed it must be to do with the keeping of the ship.

Tor, as he often was, was on the forecastle. All of his regular sparing partners were otherwise occupied so it seemed that he was drilling on his own. Lark took a deep breath and walked up the steps to attempt to talk with Tornas. Lark's only interaction with Tornas had been the one in Turtle Harbor and he had not spoken to him since. The word was that the monk was quiet, newly sober, and kept almost entirely to himself. He was close of course with the first mate and also the married couple Ruben and Erika. Lark knew about the nightmares and that hinted at something deep and dark in his past but he guessed that he would not readily offer much about that. Lark strode across the deck and up the steps to where Tornas was drilling with his staff. Lark watched him for a moment. The way in which he moved was absolutely remarkable. He was fleet and fluid. He never stood still for an instant. His staff was in constant motion swirling and spinning above, behind, around, and in front of him. It was difficult not to stare. Lark stood on the stairs and did just that. He found himself inching closer. The man was honestly hypnotizing to watch. Lark wondered what exactly Dimitri had to offer that was skewing the odds in his favor. Lark snapped to as he felt the staff entrap him pulling him against Tornas' chest. Lark looked down at the monk's hands on his staff and saw on his left hand a small tattoo of a grape leaf on the base knuckle of his ring finger.

“Didn't your mother ever teach you not to sneak up on people” Tornas growled in his ear and then pushed him away.

“Not really no” he managed to stammer “everyone in my village was always looking out for me so it was pretty hard for me to sneak there so no need to be told not to.”

“Its a lesson you should learn quick then, nobody likes a skulk.” Tornas told him.

“Right so, sorry, again didn't mean to sneak, but I just wanted to ask” he paused as Tornas continued drilling.

“Yes?” Tor prompted

“Could you teach me to fight?” Lark asked nervous and abruptly.

Tornas stopped and looked at him.

“It's just because I don't really know how, like you said I skulk, but I figure I should probably know how?” Lark asked.

“When we took the merchant ship what did you do?” Tornas asked him.

“Mostly I stayed out of the way, snuck over to the other ship and started taking their stuff.” Lark answered honestly.

“Next time, just stay completely out of the way.” Tor said and began spinning his staff around himself again.

“Oh come on, I don't want to be completely useless.” Lark protested.

“If you were completely useless you would be dead by now.” Tor said as he continued moving.

“Well then I would like to be more useful.” Lark offered

Tor stopped in front of him. “Look kid, you must be doing something on this ship or you wouldn't still be here, and honestly the skulking is a skill that I am pretty sure you are already putting to use. So the best thing to do is to just know your strengths and stick to them.” Tor advised.

“Oh come on, it's not like you knew all your skills and just practiced what you were already good at since you were sixteen.” Lark protested.

“You're right,” Tor said taking a step closer to him “I've been honing the same skills since I was four, hells since I could walk. I can't teach you because I don't remember learning it. There is not a point in my memory where I could not do this. So stick with what you know, or ask someone else to teach you.” Tor finished stepped back and began to spin his staff again.

Lark stared at him for a moment and blinked taken aback.

“Gods” Tornas caught his staff and swore, “do you have a weapon?”

Lark took a small dagger from its hilt on his belt.

“Silvanus and all the druids,” Tor massaged his temples with one hand “is that really all you have?” He asked.

Larked smiled a toothy grin.

“So sneak up and stab people. If thats all your working with then that is all I have for you. Stay sneaky, get stabby. Some things really are that simple.” Tor began spinning his staff again.

Lark looked crest fallen. And then said “fight me! Help me practice.”

“I am strongly opposed to child abuse baby boy, no.” Tornas said.

“I'm not a baby! I'm sixteen, I left home! I'm grown! Now fight me!” he stared Tornas in his dark brown eyes.

Tornas was taken aback by Lark's conviction. “ok,” he said spinning his staff around himself “don't let me hit you.”

Finally, some one was engaging with him. Lark stepped up with his knife in hand. And immediately felt the hard wrap of Tor's staff on his wrist causing him to drop the knife.

“Stay sharp Lark” Tor chided.

He tried to. He watched as Tornas moved and tried to stay out of his reach but all the same found himself struck more times than not.

“Stop trying to block and just move.” Tor corrected him.

Lark dodged. He watched the monk's movements and tried to match his own. He was struck

“Keep moving, once you stop you're a target.” Tor advised.

Lark followed the advice. He kept moving as Tor did. He tried to move closer to where he had dropped his knife.

“Oh don't crouch like that!” Tor sounded exasperated as he struck Lark in the gut and swept him away from his knife.

“Stay up stay alert.” Tor swung twice and Lark dogged both blows.

“Better, better!” Tor encouraged.

Lark kept moving, he kept up, he did his best to not make himself a target and still got hit several more times.

Tor extended a hand to help him up when he was fallen. He grasped onto Lark's forearm and pulled him to his feet.

“Not bad baby boy.” Tor said “we'll work more tomorrow.”

“Will I get to use my knife?” Lark asked.

“If you can keep it in your hand” Tor answered.

“Ok I will” Lark said and dashed off

Tor couldn't help but smile at the boy's enthusiasm.

“A little protege, finally the drunken monk has a purpose.” A sneering voice came from behind him.

“He's not a protege, and I've been sober since Goldhaven so respectfully, fuck directly off quartermaster.” Tornas said.

“Is that how you speak to an officer of your ship?” Etheldred asked.

“Actually I am on great terms with Petrianna, Sezjeck, Seanathan, Erika and the Captain, so it really is just you I speak to this way.” Tor answered.

“Despite your insolence you are proving to be less useless than predicted.” Etheldred said.

Tor was quiet for a moment and then said “yep, yep, that is the worst attempt at a compliment I have ever heard.”

Etheldred sighed “all I am saying is that you should consider, given your newfound sobriety, if you are appropriately appreciated on this ship.”

Tor shook his head “you know it's funny because no matter what you say positive or negative, it still just sounds like you are telling me to get off this ship. But I promise quarter master, I'm staying till we reach the South. Evening.” and he turned and went down the steps onto the main deck and then below.