Alexia permitted herself little time to dwell on either Azi or the coming battles. When the sun was up, she sat on the prow of Sea Lion, within a meditative trance where she attuned to the ocean and Dalis's serenity. When the sun was down, she did the same, only stopping when she was too tired to maintain her focus. The first night she'd fallen asleep on the prow long after sunset. The nightmares—of Azi dying or never talking to her again, of Redeemed Men and Mahagan corpses littering the sand, of three-headed beasts with silver eyes and gigantic men turning into shadows—ensured she woke before sunrise and started again.

The second day and night passed much the same as the first. Settle into her perch on the prow, block out everyone and everything except the ocean, go into a trance where she channeled the currents, continue until she passed out, pausing only to briefly eat and make water, get carried to her hammock after passing out, nightmares, awaken.

When she awoke before dawn on the third day, Captain Makeba told her that her channeling had shortened a twelve-day voyage into a two-day race. Before midday, even without her moving the ocean for them, they would arrive at Haaia, the northernmost Mahogany Isle.

Flocks of birds had trailed them from the skies throughout their journey, and nobody aboard the ship doubted their source. There were three times as many this morning as there had been last night. The eyes of the Chimaera were upon them, and the tamers in Celegana's Spire wouldn't let them reach Haaia without spilling red into the Endless Blue. Before midday, everyone in the armada might be dead, twenty-three ships smashed into pieces by tamed kalagoth, half-devoured body parts floating toward the shores of Haaia in waves of red.

Alexia couldn't channel Dalis this morning, couldn't find the calm within herself knowing that she sped them to their probable dooms. She glanced up at the birds, looked ahead for any signs of kalagoth tentacles in the water, not feeling ready to face enemies she couldn't see until it was too late. The more the sun rose, the more she saw the sea as Garrond did: a tactical disadvantage.

Her guardian's taciturn presence didn't inspire serenity either. He hadn't said a word to her in two days, entrusting Redeemed Men to any roles in his protection plan that entailed conversation. But he was always there, on his feet, his cold eyes scouring the waters for threats.

She and Azi hadn't spoken either, breaking their previous longest lapse in conversation during times when they were in the same place. She refused to look Alexia's way. Alexia refused to apologize, more convinced by the degree that Azi's presence was a mistake. Azi spent every moment with Leoquo, chatting away as he taught her about sailing, about the Isles, their people, customs, and the landmarks where they planned landings. Watching their smiles, hearing their constant laughing, feeling her stomach turn upon itself as they made eyes at each other… it was so hard to see the person you loved most in the world ignore your existence as they fell in love with someone else.

But Azi was also a distraction. Not only because her sailing outfit left less to the imagination than King Gideon would prefer. Alexia heard the whispers from the Mahagan sailors that the Emir's relationship with the Blue Princess was inappropriate. They never did anything more sexual than holding hands or exchanging back massages on the quarterdeck, but that was already far past the propriety point Mahagans tolerated, especially from a man who'd already dove to the depths of the ocean floor to find a pearl. It didn't matter that his first love was killed by the chimaera. Mahagans mated once and they mated for life. To tempt tradition like this was to risk Leoquo's blessing from Dalis and provoke the wrath of water and wind.

"Blocked this morning?"

Alexia jumped, Master Theos appearing in her periphery wearing yet another colorful shirt with palm tree designs on it, and the same red swimming trunks he'd worn the whole voyage.

"I can't maintain my connection with Dalis when we're so close."

"You can still feel her?"

Alexia nodded. "More than ever. It was like when I was in Mirrevar and I felt Leverith as if she were beside me. Leverith and Balbaraq are harder to reach from here, while Dalis and Zafrir feel closer than ever."

"Indeed. Were you to travel to Volqor, Seraxa and Qoryxa would welcome you. And in Vesarra, Norali and Celegana. Their energy is concentrated in those regions, leaving behind their influence millennia after their deaths."

Alexia was familiar with the theory. A stormy sky in Balbaraq's Gap lent more power than one in Sapphirica. While in the Mahogany Isles, she would do well to ensure that she made full use of the abundance of wind and water energy. Wind should be easy, as her emotions would certainly be turbulent. Water required calm, but the calm was over and she was going to be in the storm until she set foot on Leverian soil. If she set foot on Leverian soil.

The Chimaera wanted her delivered to him. If she failed, she might never return to Leveria. She'd spend her life bound by gold, unable to access any divine energy, a slave to the man who wanted to claim the world. Her failure wouldn't just cost the armada and the Mahogany Isles everything. It would strip her of her last vestiges of freedom. And doom the entire world.

"I don't think I will be able to remain calm enough to make use of all this water energy."

"Have you felt calm the last two days?" Theos asked.

"Yes, but that was before we entered Tamed-infested waters, before I led this entire armada into a waking nightmare."

"You give yourself both too much credit and too little credit at once."

"I sped these ships into Zamael's Hells. People will die before the day is done."

"And that is your fault?"

"It is." Thirteen Divines. It hurt to say it aloud. She felt like she was sinking into a sea of sorrow. It had been her that convinced Halius to assemble this armada. It was her they were relying on to keep them safe from kalagoth and perhaps even a ribaia or two. She needed to keep Azi alive, to not lead the Redeemed Men to their deaths, to prevent the extinction of the Mahagan people before they disappeared like the Gidiite, Atmana, Heiyan, and Isihlan people.

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"Do you hear this, Sir Garrond? Alexia is responsible for everyone who came with us. If any of them die, it is her fault. Make sure she doesn't forget that."

Garrond grunted. "Nonsense. They were coming with or without her, except for her guards and you."

Alexia didn't know how to feel about that. Garrond being contrary wasn't surprising, but him attacking her self-doubts was.

"But it was Alexia that channeled the ocean currents, she shortened some of their lives by ten days, Sir Garrond."

"She gave the Celegans less time to prepare for us which should give us a better chance at first contact. She also diverted their focus from the killing they're doing on the Isles, which may end up saving thousands of lives."

He spoke with no emotion, relaying these points as if they were just tactical truths. They didn't really pierce the heart of her doubts. "They're all relying on me to keep them safe." She bit back tears, swallowing a lump in her throat. The twenty-three ships were spread out over a vast space of ocean and she couldn't even find the calm to channel Dalis. "I won't be able to protect them all."

"What say you, Sir Garrond?" Theos Stormkin asked. "That's probably true, isn't it?"

"I doubt she places the same pressure on me to keep her safe, even though that is my job," Garrond said. "And I know that if we go overboard or if the battle forces separation between us, I might not be there when she needs me, but I know that she has a much better chance with me here."

"Do you hear that, Alexia?"

Theos and his word games. The storming man would do everything he could to avoid giving someone advice despite being in charge of giving every other cognitive-affectomancer in the Sapphire Kingdom advice. He tried to prod at her perspective without telling her what she should think. Bless him, it was kind of working.

"Sir Garrond is right. I didn't make them come here," she said, offering him a weak smile. "And even if I cannot be perfect, my being here will give them a better chance."

Theos shook his head, dramatically. "But I thought everything was your fault? Like when Tuya brought her coalition to the Hollows."

Now that was a dirty trick. But Celegana's Bounties! Did it crack through her own rockheadedness. The situations were quite comparable. The same enemy. A multinational coalition. The stakes of failure catastrophic. But never in her worst moments would she have thought to blame Tuya for the losses their alliance suffered. Why then should she blame herself?

"If anyone dies today, it is Daichin's fault."

"You mean to tell me that it is the tyrant who invaded another nation, turned their own sacred protectors against them, continues to hurt innocents, and who leads the Tamers in their assault against us is responsible for our losses? And not you? You who are trying to help as many people as possible and won't be able to rescue everyone? Give me a break, Alexia! Who gave you such a preposterous idea? It's asinine!"

Alexia grinned, amused by his antics as always. "I do," she said. "And, no matter how clever my mentor tries to be, it's usually him giving me asinine notions like this."

"Damn him," Theos said. "I bet he's an insufferable old geezer."

Her grin growing into a full smile, Alexia climbed to her feet. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I think he's rather wonderful."

"Well then," Theos said, perfect deadpan, "I think I'd like to meet him sometime. Maybe he can give me a few pointers."

Alexia giggled. Then she remembered that she was the reason he was here and the joy died.

Theos's grin dipped. "You better not be forgetting what I told you back in my quarters, Master Alexia."

"I've forgotten quite a few things you've said in your quarters," she said, trying to diffuse her anxiety with humor, taking a page from her mentor's book.

"Me too," he said. "I guess you're in bad company."

Alexia shook her head. "So, if I overestimate my responsibility, then you imply I underestimate my ability."

"Did I say that?"

"You implied it. If you were paying attention to my word choice, we could've skipped this little detour."

"Good point. But aren't detours worthwhile? A person can learn much from traveling off the beaten path."

Alexia not only shook her head, but rolled her eyes too.

"Sir Garrond?" Theos said, delegating his advice to the commander of the Azureknights once more. "If you had a student who demonstrated profound mastery with the blade for two straight days and then woke on the third and said they couldn't swing a sword, what would you say to them? Mind you," Theos added, "that the student is in a place with more meladonite blades than anywhere else in the world."

"I'd ask them if they broke their arm or their brain."

"And if they said—excuse me—if they implied it was the brain?"

"I'd have them go back through the basics to rebuild their confidence," Garrond said. "They'd soon find their mastery again."

Theos raised a scarred eyebrow at Alexia.

"You're right again, Sir Garrond," Alexia said. Say what you would about his warmth, he was wise. She didn't have to channel so much of Dalis that she could speed the armada forth for several angles. She just needed to figure out how to use it against kalagoth.

She sat on the prow, focusing on the ocean, watching the boat cut through the water, seeing the little ruffles spreading out as the boat passed. There was so much of it, awaiting her summons. Alexia could sense Dalis inviting her to borrow it, to become the water. Alexia formed a simple focus, just something to remind herself that she could do it.

Small jets of water shot up in the ocean just ahead of Sea Lion.

"I'm no expert," Theos said, "but that seemed magical."

Laughing, shaking her head, rolling her eyes, Alexia said, "You'd be an expert jester."

"I'd rather be an expert Alexia advisor," he said, sitting beside her at the prow. "What would you say to some advisement on how to use the ocean against its tamed denizens?"

"Considering that we're imminently going to be attacked by kalagoth, perhaps even a ribaia or two, I'd welcome that."

"Kalagoth, yes," Theos agreed. "But only the most powerful tamers can harness them, so we might not have to face the entire world's population of evil squid. I'd be shocked if more than Daichin ezen Celegan could tame a ribaia."

Theos's attempt to soothe her was like generating a few bubbles of air when already drowning in a deep ocean of doubt. There was a reason he didn't give direct reassurance often. It didn't work, especially when even one kalagoth could wreak havoc on their fleet. One ribaia would likely be a death sentence.

But Alexia didn't want to surrender before the battle began. She looked to the crew of Sea Lion, working hard to salvage what they could from their homeland, to Azi and Leoquo who were on the quarterdeck looking over a map, planning how to save the Mahagan people, to the Redeemed Men who paced the ship, looking for threats and trying their best to keep her safe, to Garrond who had offered to help her several times in the past few degrees and would fight to keep her from falling into the Chimaera's grasp, to Theos who could show her how she could do her best.

Soon, horns would blow, and monsters would emerge from the depths. Alexia would do what she could to make sure the waters were her domain, knowing that all she could do was her best to keep the armada going when the world's most dangerous man was determined to destroy them.

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