Just as Caleb lay in bed, rubbing his temples and contemplating the worst, he heard a subtle change in the sounds from outside. The walls that made up his cabin blocked most noise, save for the ever-present sounds of the ocean and the creaks or groans made by a sailing ship’s innards. Yet he looked up to see that the stern windows had been left a quarter-turn open, allowing in more air and light.

That fresh air had gotten cooler, wetter, and the light distinctly grayer. A hum came from the window’s edge as the direction of the breeze shifted. On the heels of that shift came the sounds of crewmen on deck and the soft ripple of canvas being shifted about.

Suddenly, he heard Ronan Murray’s clear, deep voice raised in song.

Once I lived in Arrenmar, I lived at home at ease.

Now I am a sailing man, I ply the tropic seas.

That was followed in turn by a chorus of men and women on deck. Their raised voices were shaped by the movements to tug on the ropes to haul the sailing canvas.

Now it’s haul lads and lasses all, haul ‘fore the stiffened breeze.

Heave away the capstan and get our sloop to speed.

Ronan’s voice rang out again twice more, punctuated by the chorus each time.

I thought I’d hate sea faring life, t’was all right when I found,

It’s a damn sight better than slavery when we left the Myrkur’s grounds.

Now it’s haul lads and lasses all, haul ‘fore the stiffened breeze.

Heave away the capstan and get our sloop to speed.

The winds do blow to fill our sails, takin’ us across the seas

Lir and Danu watch over us, we Arrenmar do plea!

Now it’s haul lads and lasses all, haul ‘fore the stiffened breeze.

Heave away the capstan and get this sloop to speed!

Caleb sat up and discovered to his surprise that he had a smile on his face. His officers might be divided for now, but the reason for his gambit – keeping the crew together – had worked. What’s more, the singing on deck inspired him.

There’s no use worrying about what could be when it comes to Shaw and Tavia, he sternly admonished himself. You’ve got things to handle right now. Just for starters, your crew’s taking care of the rigging, but can anyone repair that busted cannon Donal was talking about?

He reached out and gestured to bring up his two wizardly sub-specialties: Weathermancy and Craft with Iron. Curious, he traced out the entries of the spells that he hadn’t been able to activate yet with his index finger. Then he touched each entry and moved it to one side.

“I keep discovering more things about the ‘system’ that Lir and Danu set up,” he murmured. “I can Cut and Paste like on a desktop. Someone in this world’s pantheon looked up either the Windows or Apple operating system.”

Caleb rubbed his chin as he looked at the options before him.

Weathermancy Spells :

Wind Cast (45) Wind Shift (45) Call Up Storm, Minor (50)

Craft with Iron Spells:

Align Metal Object (18) Mend Forge Crack (25) Extend Forge Crack (25) Assess Metallic Object’s Value (26)

He then reached out and picked up the golden fewmet that Daffodil had left behind for Ferris Pender. Gingerly, he unwrapped it and hefted it in one hand, feeling its heavy solidity. Now that he knew where it had come from, he noted that the bluntly tapered ends of the piece made sense.

“Okay,” he said to himself, “time to do some educated guessing, and a little math in the head.”

Sienna had said that around one hundred silver coins had gone missing – or as he now knew, had ended up in Daffodil’s stomach. He’d touched and held Avalonian silver pieces, and their weight reminded him of something.

A dim memory swam up from the depths. He’d been perhaps eleven or twelve, and searching for something up in the family home’s dusty attic. He had come across his father’s old coin collection.

Caleb recalled hefting his father’s prize coin: a Peace Silver Dollar minted in 1918. Even tucked away in a stiflingly-hot attic, the coin had been cool to the touch. The information card that came with the silver piece said that it weighed four-fifths of an ounce.

The Avalonian coins had weighed the same in his palm. So that meant that there were around twenty Avalonian silver pieces per pound. Daffodil’s snacking had resulted in the consumption of roughly five pounds of silver.

How much gold had the little alloy dragon returned on five pounds of silver coin? Caleb eyed one of the entries on his list and shook his head.

Assess Metallic Object’s Value (26)

“Well, that’s ironic,” he said. “How am I supposed to know how much gold is in an object if I don’t already have that spell activated?”

The answer came to him almost immediately.

Perhaps if I try to spend the gold on a spell, that will give me a clue.

He scanned the list of spells and picked the one which promised an immediate use.

Mend Forge Crack (25)

Caleb lifted the golden fewmet in both hands and touched it to the (25). A white flash, and a new screen appeared next to his cut-and-pasted list of spells. Before he checked it out, he looked at the small pile of round gold pieces that had appeared in his palms.

Each was the exact size and shape of an Andeluvian gold coin, what were called ‘crowns’. But the faces of each coin were plain, as if they were blanks waiting for the mint to stamp out their chosen pattern. He counted twenty-three ‘blanks’.

If the spell cost me twenty-five crowns, and I ended up with twenty-three in change, that fewmet was worth forty-eight crowns. Sienna once told me that they can strike sixteen crowns from a pound of gold. That means…

The end sums made Caleb sit up straighter.

Daffodil had converted five pounds of silver to three pounds of gold. Gold was worth twenty times that of silver in Avalon. That meant for every one-hundred silver coins ‘invested’ in the alloy dragon, she’d return nine-hundred and sixty.

That’s almost a ten-to-one return. Not bad at all! No wonder Gilarska wants Daffodil back.

He next glanced at the new spell he’d purchased.

Mend Forge Crack: This spell is a significant upgrade to your base-level version, Mend Forge Crack, Minor. You can close smooth or irregular cracks in metal of up to three feet in length, or repair significant spalling, chipping, or pitting in metal surfaces up to six feet in area. This spell can act over short distances but is most effective within the range of touch.

“All right,” he asked himself, as he looked at his updated list, “what else can I purchase now?”

The answer came right away. Though he’d have wanted almost anything else, there was only one spell left within his remaining budget.

Craft with Iron Spells:

Align Metal Object (18)

Resignedly, he turned the pile of blanks to the (18). Another flash, and the number of gold pieces left in his hands shrank to five. He tucked the blanks away in a pocket and looked over to the new screen that appeared to his side.

Align Metal Object: This a rare form of spell that works in multiple ways. It can be used to straighten or repair the metallic parts of items, such as a bent sword or twisted barrel hoop. It can also line up one metal object with a second metal object, such as a key’s bit within the tumblers of a lock.

“That could come in handy, Caleb mused. “Better than the fumbling around I had to use to open locks with Locate Metal Shard and Hold Metal Shard.”

He heard a quiet cough come from above. Looking up, he spotted Daffodil, who’d reappeared up in the rafters. Her tail twitched restlessly.

“I’m so, so sorry!” she said, in an anxious voice. “Captain Ledger, I didn’t mean for you and your friends to get all mad at each other.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Caleb sighed. “Come on down, I’m not mad either. Even if I was…remember, I told you that you’re too cute for me to stay mad at you.”

The little dragon’s sunflower-yellow form glimmered in the light as she slid down one of the room’s vertical beams. Her tiny claws made a clack as she made her way across the floor planks. She climbed up on the bed and sat next to him, looking up apprehensively at his face.

“You may not be mad,” she finally said. “But maybe you’re still a little crazy? I saw you motioning and talking to the air.”

“That’s…a little hard to explain. It’s part of why I’m here in this world, as a Corsair and a Wizard.”

“You do magic…and you get to be a pirate!” The little dragon’s eyes lit up as the concept finally registered in her mind. “That’s so many kinds of amazing! Think of the adventures you could get into!”

“Yeah, you already experienced some of them. Remember when so many things were exploding?”

But Daffodil didn’t hear him. She’s already taken off on her own line of thought.

“I mean, I know all the stories! The forests of Cape Ermine, the dreaded Swallower of Ships, the damned crew of Captain Vayne, the grand pirate haven of Boruta–”

“Wait a minute,” Caleb interrupted. “Did you say Boruta?”

She nodded, and her horns bobbed cutely. “Uh-huh. Stories say it’s the greatest, the biggest, the bawdiest of all the pirate ports!”

His mind flashed back once more to just before the fight broke out with the Gilarskan pinnaces. Captain Terrell of the Savage said: What, are you planning to put in at Boruta, maybe offload some excess cannonballs in trade for rum?

Daffodil gave him a look. “What are you thinking, Caleb?”

He gave her a friendly pat on the head and stood up.

“I’m thinking that I need to fix the broken cannon I’ve got on deck. And then I need to see if my equine Sailing Master is still on speaking terms with me. If she is…then we need to figure out a heading to this mythical pirate haven.”