"Those are mostly just nice gloves, but they should give those Foci a little punch." The woman looked up at the mayor. "I registered the cost of those in the community ledger a long time ago. Are we even with these kids now?"

"I'd say so. Any argument from your end, Captain Marco?" the leader asked.

Normally Marco would confirm that with Elisa before agreeing, but this time the girl only had eyes for her new paired wands.

"Can someone toss in a holster for those? Doesn't have to be special. Otherwise I'd say we are more than satisfied," Marco asked.

The mayor looked off to some random man in the crowd, who nodded before returning to his food.

"Done. He'll have them done by the end of the day. That makes us even, folks. Eat up, have fun, and then eventually get to work."

Marco finished his food and watched the rest of the party, glad to kick back and answer the few questions the kid hadn't figured out the answers to himself. Before too long, Kuzai found him and sat down in the now vacant seat at his side.

"So you have questions," Kuzai said. "I can tell. I probably have answers. Shoot."

"The prisoners. What happens to them?"

"They get carted off to the capital to face a trial. A real trial, with a real judge. Don't worry too much about that part of things. They'll face justice, but they'll have a chance to defend themselves first."

"How can we be sure?"

"Well, for one, the history of the court. It is not lenient on pirates. Here, the evidence is pretty overwhelming. Your goal and theirs go hand in hand. Before you ask, you shouldn't have anything to do with this if you can help it. They'd hold on to you for months trying to get a complete testimony. It's a fair process, but it's not fast."

"What about you? You'll ride back with them?" Marco asked.

"I don't think so. My thinking was I'd go on a faster ship if the captain agreed." Kuzai looked hard at Marco. "Do you?"

"I don't see why not. You've certainly helped enough over the past few days to pay your way. Is there much to see between here and there?"

"A bit. I'll guide you to what there is, but bear in mind this is an inner sea, and we are on the near side to the capital, more or less. It won't take long to sail there, and nothing truly important will be worth stopping at."

Marco nodded. That was sort of how his own inner sea had been. Each island he knew the purpose of had a specialty and a use, but those had mostly been things that gave particular utility to the islands around them. Someone like he was now would have had no use for them.

"Is the capital a port city? I'd like to see it," Marco said.

"I'm afraid not. It's landlocked, a day or two's travel into the island. I'll leave your crew then. But in the meantime, the actual port city is worth seeing, and I'll have a parting message for you before I go."

"A parting message?"

"Something you should hear. Trust an old man to have a message for a young adventurer. I'm still working on how I want to say it, though. Consider a perk of having me along if you want; disregard it if you don't. Doesn't hurt me either way. That's all I had to say for now."

Aethe slammed into a chair across the table from Marco in that moment, almost as if Kuzai had sent up a visible I'm done talking signal. She looked flustered, even stressed. It was a huge shift from her normal calm, one that he normally saw only in moments of danger. Marco locked his attention on her as she gathered herself, ready for anything.

"Marco." Her eyes settled on his, grim and serious. "I need you to explain to me how marriage works in your culture. Right now."

—

A while later, Marco found Elisa on the deck of The Foolish Endeavor, aiming energy at the ruined pirate ship they had captured earlier that day. Her hand glowed bright yellow as it always did for attacks she made at touch range but channeled through the glove into the rod she now held instead of her bare skin. The energy wasn't content to stay still and bright in that way. The lightning-colored clump of energy began to take on red until the whole mass was vibrant orange, then began to elongate away from her palm until it resembled a cylinder with a conical spike capping the end.

With still, supreme focus, Elisa extended her hand and suddenly jerked. The spike flew away from her hand. It traveled about a foot before seeming to lose motivation, softly fizzling in the air until nothing remained.

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"Wow," Marco said. "Wasn't that item supposed to be very hard to use? Some sort of crazy difficult process of learning to even get it to do anything?"

"I have a bit of a lead. I haven't been able to do much with my powers overall the entire time I've had them. I've always been trying to squeeze just a little bit more out of them. I'm a scholar, so that ended up helping me notice many things that weren't necessarily useful until just now. I need a few days to make this useful, and I'll get better for a few weeks. After that, though, I'm going to blow your mind. It's an entire game changer."

"Good. I'm glad for you." Marco sat. "You know you were always doing a good job anyway, right?"

"I guess. It didn't always feel like that."

"It's true, though. Even if all you had ever done was distract enemies with lightning or keep us healed up, you did as much as anybody."

"Not Aethe."

"Aethe doesn't count. She's… I mean, she's the best person I've ever seen at using her class, and her class is for the exact thing she wants to use it for. You had to improvise."

"Well, get ready. Because all that improvisation is about to pay off."

Marco sat down. "About that. There was something I was hoping you could help me with. Regarding Aethe."

"Ah, yes. What does she not quite get now? She adapts so well to things she doesn't understand I sometimes forget how little she knows about our society."

"This is definitely one of those. Apparently someone asked her if we were married, today."

"Oof." Elisa said. "How did that go?"

"She said no, because as far as she knew, we couldn't be. The government hadn't given us certificates or orders to do that, or something. Apparently, it's a pretty official thing where she comes from. You don't do much choosing."

"That's elves." Elisa shrugged. "So that's it? The misunderstanding about the differences?"

"Well, not quite." Marco began to turn red. "Apparently… Well, okay, you know me and her move pretty slow."

"Glacially," Elisa said. "Me and Riv talk about it all the time."

"Well, on my end, that's just as you'd expect. We are busy, I'm not really sure how to push the limits of things, and it ends up being mostly her."

"And she doesn't push things because she's the same way."

Marco took a deep breath.

"Partially. Apparently that was how things were at first. But recently, apparently it's been because, you know, we weren't married. There isn't much dating for elves. And there's no… I don't know the word."

"Extramarital activity?"

"Something like that. They take it pretty seriously. And she just found out she could have been married this whole time."

"Oh no."

Elisa dropped her wands on the deck, letting them roll where they would as she rubbed her eyes for a few moments. Marco let her.

"So then," Elisa's voice was flat, "when Aethe came to you, I'm assuming demanding you get married right away, what did you say?"

"So about that."

"No. I mean, Marco, this is for the rest of your life. Why today? People change, Marco."

"I sort of thought about that. But I figured, you know. When have I really ever changed? When has she? And the amount we have changed, we've changed together. If anything we fit even better now."

"That's true. But why not tomorrow? Or the next day? There's time!"

Marco's voice softened, just as Aethe's had when she answered the same question an hour ago.

"Is there?" he asked. "Is there really? You can guarantee that?"

Elisa wasn't jealous. He was thankful for that. Their entire lives, there had been no sense of anything like that between them. Out of everyone in the world, there was nobody he knew that had wanted as much good for him for anywhere near as long, unless it was Tatric.

"No, I guess not. You are sure?"

He nodded.

"As sure as I am about you being my friend, I think."

"Riv thinks it's a good idea?"

"He's rallying the cooks and the builders to get the ceremony going."

Elisa closed her eyes again in a weary, exhausted way. This conversation seemed to be taking a lot out of her.

"Well then. What do you want from me?"

"Just to double-check with her that she gets what she's getting into," Marco said. "With marriage. I guess with me too. Could you do that for me?"

"I don't see how I could avoid it." Elisa stood up, picked up her wands, and helped Marco to his feet. "Come on. I'll do my best, I promise."

Not too much later, Elisa emerged from the building where Aethe had cloistered herself with a dozen of the outpost's women, getting ready in ways Marco could not anticipate, imagine, or probably even comprehend. She paused, exhaled heavily, and shook her head with the weariness of someone trying to figure out how to stop a rock slide. Marco, leaning against a rail, caught the look instantly.

"You tried?" he asked.

"Tried, yes. A little. Succeed? Not a chance. There's no point. She knows what she wants, and no argument is going to shift her. Gods help her, she wants this. A lot. And she wants it right now."

Marco glanced at the doorway as if expecting Aethe to burst out in radiant bridal attire, or radiant combat gear, or just normal combat gear and an overwhelming sense of urgency. None happened.

"You didn’t tell her to wait?" he pressed.

"Of course I did. I told her it was too fast, that she should think about it. She said she's thought about it almost the entire time she's been in the crew, which is probably true, knowing her. In her mind, she's months behind schedule for no reason."

Riv, meanwhile, was turning the common square into something remarkable. He stood in command of a herd of worker types, where his strength and enthusiasm carried the work along faster than a dozen carpenters could have by themselves. He hauled beams into place for an arch that rose proudly over the square, and with a few extra planks and supports, what looked like the beginnings of a stage took shape in the very center. Children darted between his legs as he worked, carrying flowers, ribbons, or just laughing at the spectacle.

Marco stopped a passing town merchant, uneasy. "Are you all sure this is all right? We’re taking over the square."

She blinked and then laughed, clapping Marco on the shoulder. "Are you joking? It’s perfect. The whole town is thrilled. We’ve been bored, captain. This is something different. Different is good. What are you doing for rings?"

"Rings?"

"My goodness." The woman looked at him as if he was a man who was simply letting himself drown, which he supposed wasn't that far off. "Stay here, you poor fool. You are lucky that girl has a heart of gold."