In the darkness of her small, dimly lit quarters, a young woman settled down on her knees before a smoldering incense bowl and set all or her energy towards clearing her mind. Her efforts in this matter so far had been largely fruitless, and she was now running out of patience, as well as incense. With one last movement of each hand to tuck back a few errant strands of golden hair that had escaped the strip of leather holding the rest together, the wizards apprentice settled her palms flat against the tops of her thighs, and settled into a quiet meditation, matching her breathing to the back-and-forth motions of the ship. In her mind's eye, the woman, who had just reached the age where strangers would hesitate to refer to her as "child", created visual representations of everything that had been occupying her mind as of late, allowing her subconscious to create others to represent the things she'd forgotten. Once the representations, she had always called them "shadows", though she knew this was misleading, stopped appearing unbidden, the woman would shift her energy to the erasure of these shadows, allowing her subconscious to, again, join in the work, until her mind was truly and thoroughly purged of all thoughts. In theory, anyway. The woman forced herself to focus on the rhythmic rushing sounds of waves crashing against the hull of the Requiem, a tactic she had not attempted before now, but it was recently suggested to her by one of the smartest people she knew.  

In and out, she repeated to herself to keep her breathing synchronized with the sway of the deck. The sway caused her armor to bump lightly against the bulkhead with every starboard end of the ship's trajectory, a fact she used to remember both nautical terms. 

Armor on the starboard bulkhead, she thought idly, before the thought evaporated. In... and out. When she opened her eyes, she would see that her cuirass, jerkin and grieves were all hanging on the right wall, and briefly wondered, for what must have been the hundredth time, why sailors insisted on giving everything silly names 

In... and out. In...- 

Two quick knocks came at the door, which swung open without waiting for a response. "Yana? Are you still-?" 

Her eyes shot open, and the young woman pounced forward to pull a partially filled sick bucket towards her, before bending forward to loudly fill it further. ...and out, she thought to herself. This was the third time on this day that the girl named Yana had been forced to empty her stomach, so this particular episode didn't last more than a few heaves before she lifted her head and found that the aging gnome who had entered the room was awkwardly offering her a large handkerchief at arm's length towards her. In the back of her mind, Yana knew Ladrus hadn't caused her to lose concentration and, by extension, lose her tug of war with seasickness, and that it was merely coincidence that she had staved off her nausea until just before he'd come in. Still, she glared at the old wizard, bits of her last few meals clinging to the bottom half of her face, for several seconds before accepting the white piece of fabric, which, upon closer inspection, turned out to look more ordinarily sized in her human hands. 

"Did you try focusing on the sound of the waves?" the old gnome asked Yana. She nodded, deciding not to protest that focusing on the waves to meditate as a solution to her seasickness didn't make any sense, seeing as the waves were what caused her seasickness. She knew that it did make sense; Ladrus wouldn’t have suggested it if it hadn’t. She just couldn't see how, yet.  

"Are you sure?" he pressed. "I'm told the pirate storm sorcerers in the area swear by the rocking of a ship, they say it’s better for concentration than a pendulum." 

"Yes, I am sure," Yana muttered with slightly more venom than she intended. Ladrus didn't given any indication that he'd noticed her spite and shrugged his shoulders. 

"I guess that trick must not work for you then. Probably best that you don't spend too much more of your time below decks in the future." Without waiting for a reply, Ladrus moved towards the door. "The barrelman called for land around ten minutes ago so we should be able to see Tarlock soon. You'd probably feel better out in the open air, and I would think that the Open Port is something you'd want to see from a distance." The short man turned to face Yana just before leaving the room. "Stay here and rest if you'd like, lass, but I thought I would let you make that decision for yourself." Ladrus disappeared around the corner, calling farewell from out of site. 

I thought I would let you make that decision for yourself. The words echoed through Yana's head, now that she was not trying to suppress her thoughts. Coming from anyone else, that might have been a spiteful quip from an acquaintance one had recently had a fight with, as Yana and Ladrus had. In fact, when Yana had first met Ladrus all those months ago, she likely would have taken the comment the same way. As it happened, Yana had learned that this was just her teacher's way of apologizing. The old gnome rarely had cause to apologize, particularly to a young woman about something so intimate as where she would be sleeping for the next few months, and he was behaving rather uncomfortable with the prospect. The two were planning to take up residence in the governor's manor in Tarlock, as Governor Drunning was, supposedly, an old friend of Ladrus’. Ladrus had assumed that Yana would have preferred to room with him while they were staying with the Governor, and when he had informed her of this fact during the previous night's meal, she had reacted with far more hostility than she was proud of, and ended up retiring to her quarters after she and Ladrus had spent nearly five solid minutes shouting at each other. At least, that had been what she'd believed happened. The more time she spent alone in her room stewing on the confrontation, the more she came to realize that she probably would have insisted in sleeping very near, if not in the same room as her teacher, and that he had only made the assumption because that was the sort of thing she'd done in the past, and that "more than five minutes of mutual shouting" seemed to look a lot more like "Yana shouting at the man who fed, housed, employed and taught her without asking anything in return." For much longer than five minutes.  

Yana sighed, stood, and took the now full bucket to the port bulkhead. She drew the Sailor's Rune for Open with her fingers against the wood, and a magically sealed, watertight window slid open to reveal the open air, surrounded by a featureless blue ocean, into which Yana emptied her bucket. She had decided to apologize to Ladrus, and as the briny fresh air washed over her face and chased away her lingering nausea, she realized he was also right in saying she'd prefer to finish this unpleasant journey from the weather deck. She stopped to put all of her armor on and picked up her spear from where she'd lain it after the fight with the draugr, within arm's reach of her meditation spot. Not that she expected anything more to happen to her while they were still aboard the Requiem, indeed that afternoon's fight and the subsequent rise of the carrion golem were the only two things that had happened in their entire two and a half month journey. But she never liked to be more than one pounce away from something she could use as a weapon, just in case. Armed and armored, Yana closed the door behind her, drew the Sailor's Rune for Lock against it and listened for the deep crunching sound that signaled the wood of the door had fused with the wood of the threshold, before finally heading up the ladderwell.  

The weather deck, or top deck depending on who you were speaking to, was shrouded in fog, just as Yana had been told it would be. As Tarlock had been kept secret from the Acredian Empire since its founding roughly 300 years ago, there were several magical protections of about that age to keep unwanted attention from ever being drawn to the remote island. Among these protections was an illusion of inclement weather, forming a ring all the way around the island, taking the form of a heavy fog that would gradually become darker, and the sounds of thunder that would slowly grow louder. When a ship comes within ten nautical miles of Tarlock, the illusion would completely block out the sun, putting the ship in total darkness for about ten minutes, before suddenly receding, and allowing the crew to see the mountainous island growing in the distance. While the fog was still bright, Yana found Ladrus standing on a crate on the port side of the weather deck, the added height allowing him to lean on the top rail. He was engaged in what sounded like friendly chit-chat with the captain of the Requiem, a human woman named Karima. Yana hesitated at the sight of the tall woman. She and Ladrus had been dining with the captain when she'd had her outburst, and Yana hadn't considered having to apologize for her behavior to her as well. Karima was facing Yana and noticed her before Ladrus did. She smiled and waved at Yana before apparently letting Ladrus know she was there, nodding her head in Yana's direction, and walking away. Yana resumed speed-walking towards Ladrus and quickly took Karima's place beside him, almost too quickly for him to follow her when he turned to look at her, which Yana took to mean his mind must be preoccupied with something. 

"You should start to hear the thunder in the distance soon," he told her, turning his eyes out to the sea. "I can already hear it; gnomes tend to have better hearing than humans. I've never been great at judging how loud something has to be for me before others-" 

"I can already hear the thunder," Yana interrupted, drawing Ladrus' gaze back to her. His expression wasn't reproachful, having grown numb to Yana's impatience, but rather, expectant; Yana thought that he probably already knew where this conversation was going. 

"I'm sorry about last night," she said quickly, trying and failing tremendously to maintain eye contact, feeling her face grow red. "I probably would have insisted that we room together, I just didn't want you to say it in front of Karima." She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the next part. "I overreacted, and I'm sorry."  

Ladrus nodded and looked more pleasantly surprised. That was all the confirmation that Yana needed to prove her theory that she'd genuinely convinced him that he was in the wrong. Whether Ladrus was aware of her manipulations or not, Yana had been searching for a way to subtly end the arguement which led to the mutual understanding that there were no hard feelings between either party. The look on her teachers face told her that she'd succeeded.

"Why do you feel the need to treat me like I'm under your protection?" he asked her, seeming genuinely curious.  

Yana blinked, apparently her subterfuge had not been as effective as she’d believed. "It comes natural," she said, shrugging slightly. "It's what we do." 

"No, it isn't," he said nonchalantly. "Not really. I brought you with me as a student, not as a bodyguard. Besides, you aren't one of those fool barbarians from the mainland." Ladrus gazed out into the sea, and Yana waited patiently for Ladrus to realize the rudeness of that statement. Yana was one of the barbarians from the mainland, just not one of the ones he was referring to. He turned back to her holding both index fingers raised vertically in a placating gesture. 

"Do not misunderstand, I am not saying that the Vo Merkyn are fool barbarians, I'm saying mercenaries that work as bodyguards for people like me are. More to the point, the real reason you don't need to dote on me like some kind of she-bear, is that I can take care of myself. You know this. So why do you keep insisting on acting so protective?"  

Yana shrugged her shoulders with more exaggerated movements and let her rising irritation seep into her voice. "It comes natural," she said again. "It feels like the right thing to do, and the thought of being left on my own out here makes my skin crawl." She shivered in the false fog, looking out into the ten or so feet of visible ocean. "It eases my anxiety."  

"And you didn't want to let someone like Karima know you felt something as natural as anxiety," Ladrus said dryly, placing a small hand on her shoulder. "You should know you don't need to make any excuses to her if you were planning to. She knows me well enough that she didn't think I was trying to get away with anything untoward. In fact, she suggested that you might have just been angry that I'd embarrassed you in front of her." 

Yana's blush returned, and she felt no relief from the fact that she no longer had to apologize to the captain. This is ridiculous, she thought. We were attacked by over 200 water zombies, and then they all joined together and attacked us again after we'd killed them. That is what we should be talking about. 

"Besides," Ladrus continued, "a ten-minute outburst is hardly the worst bit of drama the captain of a pirate ship will have seen in her time." 

Yana snapped her head towards the gnome. "Pirate ship?"

"Yes?" he said raising an eyeborow at her. "Is that a problem?"

"I'd assumed these were smugglers, or, I don’t know, some kind of traders." She looked back over the three-month journey, suddenly very thankful for her habit of always keeping a weapon nearby. "How well do you know these people?" 

Ladrus rolled his eyes. "The 'pirates' of the Kytaran Sea are nowhere near as dangerous as people on Ikar will have you believe," he said, falling into the lightly enthused, gentle tones he used when he was teaching her something. "Most of the more violent stories are entirely Acredian propaganda. Pirates can be violent, and frequently choose to be, but they're not the murderous thieves Ikarans think they are. Lawlessness does not automatically lead to total anarchy, and they are not the same thing, I don’t care what your father says. For the most part, if you can pay enough, you can be promised an uneventful trip across the Great Ocean with a crew that will be nothing less than entirely professional. Trust me, if the pirates here were anywhere near as bad as the expression on you’re face is telling me you think they are, you would have noticed well before now."  

Yana looked around the deck while there was still enough light for her to see and tried to note anything out of the ordinary about any of the sailors milling about, but quickly gave up after she conceded that she didn't know what would be visibly different from sailors to pirates. She instead busied her mind by trying to commit the happenings of their arrival to Tarlock to her memory. After a ship enters the Fog Ring, it is astoundingly easy to lose course, and end up milling about inside the Ring for days, or even weeks. Not that the Ring was massive, but part of the spell would lead stray ships to wander aimlessly, infecting the minds of the crews themselves. Unless that crew happened to know the correct technique to weather the spell, which in this case, was to maintain a straight course, and to arrange the rigging as if the ship were not sailing into a storm. This three month journey was Yana's first actual experience around sailors, which she'd admittedly spent most of below decks, and these men and women didn't look like the bloodthirsty mercenaries she'd been led to believe would be crawling all over this remote stretch of ocean, known as the Kytaran Sea. Some held rigging, some were engaged in menial tasks like scrubbing the deck or changing lamp oil, and some others were simply standing around, marveling at the illusion surrounding them, though Yana surmised they must see this sort of thing all the time. 

"So, what? A bunch of outlaws and refugees exist out here on their own, answering to no authority, and it all just works out for everyone? No ships full of criminals that chase down and rob other ships?" Yana knew she'd earned the condescending look Ladrus gave her. 

"Kytaran Pirates are their own culture, and cultures are more complicated than that," he told her as if he were speaking to a child, "I hope I can trust you not to go around accusing every sailor you meet of being a criminal?" 

"I'll be more cautious," Yana reassured him, careful to word the statement to give her some wiggle room without outright lying to Ladrus.  

He eyed her briefly while the sound of thunder grew around them, and Yana found she had to strain her eyes to see. 

"This should end in about ten minutes!" Ladrus shouted over the sound of wind, which the close observer would notice was not even ruffling his hair. The last of the late morning light shortly left the ship, and Yana was plunged with the unease of being mostly unable to perceive her surroundings. She jumped slightly when someone put their hand on her shoulder, but soon realized this was Ladrus, uncharacteristically trying to be reassuring after she'd basically told him she was frightened of this journey.  

I can’t believe he still believed that part, she thought to herself. Even if it was partially true. Yana had learned early on in her travels with Ladrus that he was more willing to swallow dishonesty if it was lightly peppered with the truth. 

He's starting to make an effort, at least. Ladrus wasn't emotionless like some people might think after a few interactions with him. Nor was he crazy, unkind, intentionally obtuse or most of the other unpleasant words Yana had heard people use to describe him during their travels. He was just very old and very smart, by Yana's standards at least. Her father had introduced him to her as  one of the greatest historians to ever live, and a powerful mage to boot. Yana had been utterly impressed with the man when he'd strode into her tribes longhouse. Until, that is, he'd come into the privacy of their family home and let his glimmer drop, and Yana realized this seven-foot tall, muscle-bound war mage was actually a three-and-a-half-foot gnome with square white beard, and only a short crop of white hair on the top of his head. The truth was a complete mirror to the illusion, which had looked very similar to most of the men and many of the women that Yana had known among the Vo Merkyn. He'd explained that while the Acredian Empire, who once enslaved the entire dwarf species, held so much authority on this side of the world, the wizard was better off traveling in disguise, lest he end up as part of Acredian ritual blood sacrifice.  

Yana was still impressed with Ladrus, and still she asked him her endless cavalcade of questions about his travels, but this was the first time she'd been confronted with the idea that somebody could be both incredibly powerful, and incredibly small. Worse, she was ashamed to find a slight revulsion at the idea, as if this man were somehow a contradiction to the shared philosophy of her entire clan, that strength was necessary to protect those who cannot protect themselves. A philosophy she had been studying at the time as a prerequisite to The Burden. Having been approaching her 18th summer, she was soon going to be made to carry The Burden, as all members of her tribe did when they reach adulthood. And who better to bestow the Burden of Knowledge, her father had reasoned, than a world-renowned scholar? One who also happens to be about to embark on a journey of unknown length out into the ocean to search for the secrets of a dead civilization surrounded by monsters and pirates?  

Ladrus suddenly twitched and pulled back his hand in the darkness, which Yana was glad covered the roll of her eyes. Yana wouldn't forget that Ladrus was the first to speak up against her father's idea. He'd only begun to show an interest after she had, unintentionally, displayed some use of the arcane arts. After that, he'd agreed with her father that he should take her away and teach her how to control these powers. With the caveat that he would also give her The Burden along the way, they had convinced her mother as well. Yana, from the beginning up until now, had been rather lukewarm on the idea. On the one hand, she certainly didn't want to be stuck in her home village on the far side of the Blackwater Swamp for her entire life. On the other hand, she didn't really like this man, nor did he seem to like her. Before this, his callousness had been getting to her. He was essentially holding the role of her guardian, teacher and employer, but he didn't seem to trust her with anything. When she'd asked about their destination while they were travelling on horseback from Lingrun to the coast to meet with Karima's ship, he'd told her that he wouldn't risk their safety speaking of it while they were still in Acredian lands. When she'd asked about when he could train her in magic after she'd learned of their destination from Karima, he'd told her that he has lots of preparations to make before their arrival and would let her know when he could teach her. That had been roughly three months ago, and Ladrus had made no other efforts to teach, or even speak to Yana throughout the entire trip. Yana realized this was not exactly because he disliked her, though she knew he wasn't especially fond. Ladrus was simply constantly plagued by a mental case of Hunters Frenzy, which she'd heard dwarves referred to as "tunnel-vision." He would become so engrossed with any one thing, like a hunter who has injured his prey but not killed it. So he would become so engrossed with tracking the injured animal, he doesn't notice the dire wolves closing in on him. Ladrus would simply be unable to be pulled away from whatever was occupying his thoughts, and Yana was losing patience with the fact that his young ward was not one of the things that occupied him.  

She'd asked him what she was supposed to do with herself during their journey, and Ladrus suggested she try to do something about her seasickness. Through no fault of his own, Yana was furious with Ladrus over her lack of success, though she was mostly sure he had nothing to do with it. It was easy to find reasons to be angry with this man, who had come into her world and taken her away with no real direction that he would speak of, but she also realized that after being cooped up on a ship for three months, unable to hold in more than one meal per day, had probably made her more irritable than usual. 

Light slowly began to return to the topdeck of the ship, but the fog remained, mirroring the gradual effects of the spell on the outside of the ring. The thunder also began to grow more distant, and when Yana was confident she wouldn't have to shout, she spoke. 

"It would help my anxiety if you told me more about what we're doing," she said, just loud enough to be heard over the lessening winds, but not so loud as to be overheard. "I understand that you didn't want me to be concerned about the fact that we were apparently travelling with pirates, but I'd still like to know that sort of thing. And I would very much like to know what the plan is once we land on Dwarf Island." 

"Tarlock," Ladrus corrected with a disapproving furrow of his brow. "But you're right. You have a right to know what's going on or you wouldn't be able to prepare yourself for it." 

"Really?" Yana failed to hide her surprise at having convinced him, but soon realized he was probably only agreeing in order to prevent another tantrum. He was infuriatingly practical. 

"I have paid a substantial sum to the Governor of Tarlock for the two of us to stay with him for the next few months," Ladrus began, without reacting to her reaction. "Hopefully we can find a new lead in my current investigation in the library at the Governor's Manor. If not, I've heard there are substantial collections of ancient books on a few of the closer Kytaran Islands, but it shouldn't come to that. In short, I'm planning for the two of us to stay at a mansion for the foreseeable future, and I swear to you, you will be involved in the decision for where to go next. Does that help?" 

He looked at her, wrinkled face and aging features not affecting the youthful focus in his eyes, as if he were thinking of nothing in the world other than the resolution of this problem and wouldn't allow Yana to get out of giving her an answer right now. Thankfully, she also wanted to put this behind them, and quickly agreed. 

"You need to find some time to start teaching me soon," Yana said, figuring she may as well bring up another of her grievances. Ladrus looked down, ashamedly. 

"I know," he said, "The Burden of Knowledge is not something to be passed lightly, and it holds quite a lot of bearing on what we will be looking for in the library." 

"We?" Yana asked "You think I'm going to be any use in the library? I can't read dwarven." 

"Modern dwarves often translate their books to a common version," Ladrus said. "Not all of them, but you should be able to read those ones. You can read common, can't you?" Yana briefly considered claiming that she couldn't, but she knew that she would never get away with that lie. She came from a barbarian tribe, but a learned one, and Ladrus knew that. 

"Yes, fairly quickly, I'm told." she admitted. "My teachers told me I could read over 400 words a minute." Ladrus shook his head smiling. 

"Only the Vo Merkyn would bother measuring such a thing, and still go around claiming to be barbarians." He shook his head and chuckled to himself. "Bless." 

He turned to look at her. "I'm planning to intersperse our readings with teaching you. I'll teach more in the beginning of our studies, because the more of The Burden you have, the more useful a researcher you'll be, in that you would gain a better understanding of what you're looking for in the library. And as time allows, I will also teach you how to use your magic, and we can see just what kind of sorcerer you could become." 

"Oh, I'm less worried about that part." she said, careful not to sound like she was less enthusiastic about learning magic than she was about learning history. "I just don't want to take on The Burden too late." 

Ladrus raised a condescending eyebrow. "You know there's no real reason that your tribe take on The Burden at nineteen years old. It's just that your elders don't want to teach you about the horrors of our past until you're old enough that they won't ruin your childhood." 

"I know, " she snapped back. "I just don't want to put it off. " 

"Alright then," he said with a nod. "We'll start with the first Passing of The Burden as soon as we have our living arrangements situated. Kralm assumed we'd want two rooms in the first place so it shouldn't be an issue to switch things around when we arrive." 

Yana was glad that the old gnome seemed to be making some steps towards being less of a chore to be around, and she noted with displeasure that she might do the same. This man hadn't made any effort to form any sort of bond with her, but neither had she. Yana had been content to stew in displeasure from a distance, and she found the realization frightening. She had been taught from an early age that negativity only breeds more negativity, and she wanted to try to be less moody.  

Yana had just begun to wonder if the universe would try to meet her halfway towards staying positive when the fog began to clear. She looked up from her reflection, which she'd been gazing at, and looked at Ladrus, to see if he was expecting an answer. He was smiling and looking out into the distance over the water, and when he noticed her looking at him, he pointed for her to look as well. Yana turned to where he gestured and saw what looked like a massive warship, taller than all of the buildings in the town behind it. 

"Oh my stars," Yana whispered, her breath catching. "Who-?" 

"Calm down, child," Ladrus whispered urgently. "Give it a moment and look again." 

Yana realized what she was looking at were silhouettes, and she looked more closely for when the island was near enough for her to make out the more subtle details. After a few moments, it became clear that this was not a warship at all, or at least, it was no longer, as it was resting on the island, not in the sea. The Open Port had two sharp projections of land on either side of its single southern opening, and this ship was sitting on the southeastern one. It looked like it had once been used as a ship, though Yana couldn't imagine what would call for the construction of such a large ship, but it now had the barely visible modifications at its base that told her that this ship had been converted into a building. The ship rested in a large dugout trench, to the east the excavated earth could be seen repurposed to created a larger shelf of land for the ship to rest on its southern side. On this shelf, there stood several intricate looking pillars, stuck in a foundation of what appeared to be dark stone, keeping the ship from sliding into the sea. There were also several hundred feet of line tying the ship down to various posts and rocky outcrops around its base.  

The closer the Requiem got to the Open Port, the more Yana could see people milling about at its base. People of all sizes, whereas she had expected to see mostly dwarves, as Ladrus had told her that they had claimed this as a sort of surrogate homeland. Around the time that she thought she could make out a bird the size and shape of a man, she realized that the sounds of people behind her had risen.  

Yana turned and saw that the crew, Karima and the four other passengers, two increasingly relieved looking dwarves, a young girl dressed as a maid with bruises on her face and a far-off expression, and a tall person of ill-defined gender who covered all exposed portions of their body with colorful scarves, had all gathered onto the weather deck, and were looking at the ship as well. Karima walked out before the gathered crowd and gestured grandly towards the landed ship 

"Feast your eyes on the Dwarven Salvation! Long may she stand!" she shouted as if she'd been rehearsing it. This drew a cheer from every member of the crew, as well as some milder reactions from the passengers. 

"The ship may be called the Dwarven Salvation," Ladrus spoke up, "But everyone who sails the Kytaran Sea pays respect to it, as the progenitor of their way of life. Everyone, with the exception of the Acredians, who don't know of this island's existence, and the M'bani, who were here first. Though, the M'bani are familiar with the story of the Dwarven Salvation, and they most assuredly ally themselves with the dwarves in their plight." 

"But what is it?" Yana asked, craning her neck to see the encroaching ship. 

"It was a massive slave ship," Ladrus said with a sigh. "Built by the Acredians, stolen by the dwarves that founded this place. The Strongarm Shipwrights, that is, the group that put together the whole thing while they themselves were slaves, grew so fond of the vessel, they made it their permanent city hall, and grounded it somewhere that all newcomers to their island could see it. Pirate captains recite that little mantra you just heard Karima give, because they all seem to think paying tribute to a ship that never sunk and is now unsinkable will bring them luck. Traders do it too, and locals are rather fond of the custom." 

Ladrus yawned and stretched his arms. "You'd best gather your things. There is a carriage waiting for us at the quay waiting to take us to the Manor. It's nearly noon now so best not to put off the rearrangements to our quarters before it's too late in the day." He looked at her. "We may have some time for the first passing, if Governor Drunning doesn't have any other plans for us." 

"That would be nice," Yana said turning. She went to gather her few belongings, and spent the time ruminating on how nice it would be to be able to spend some time on dry land once again, and how she would like very much to stay at this Governor's Manor for as long as she possibly could.