Reyani leaned on the railing, her eyes searching the darkness desperately. Not that the Feysha who were on the ship wouldn't see, or hear, or smell, anything before she did. But they were not the happiest sailors, looking very unsettled at the concept of a ground that wouldn't stay still, which may hurt their abilities.

So she did the only thing she could think of that involved ignoring the sounds of wings as one of those large, dark men landed or took off. Only, it had gotten so dark that even they couldn't see anything useful, leaving them pacing restlessly behind her, talking in their dark, ancient language. She could almost understand it, recognizing it as a derivative of the old tongue and forcing herself to remember her lessons.

Shelby had felt something through his blade a while ago and given them a directly, south west, but he had been unable to say any more once the pommel had stopped lighting up. Whatever flash of power he had felt had disappeared, leaving them sailing through the darkness blindly. Shelby now paced the deck beside Oliver, who would not allow anyone else to steer his ship, because it was what he was best at. In a world where men could fly and smell your emotions, Oliver could chase down whatever ship they were looking for after years of hunting pirates.

Each of them had a purpose, though they were all rather hobbled by their ignorance regarding the situation and the utter blackness of the sea at night.

A flash of red shimmered over the water, and she frowned, knowing the sunset had disappeared almost an hour ago and that there should be no red left on the horizon. But there it was again, slightly to her left and flickering.

"There! Look! There! " Reyani yelled as she pointed in the direction that she strained her eyesight toward.

She wasn't really a sailor, couldn't claim salt in her blood, so the term for a ship's left was lost in her moment of excitement.

"Port!" Oliver yelled and the ship turned in that direction smoothly, his men jumping into action under his commands, expanding the sails to allow the ship to pick up speed. The six winged warriors leapt into the air as one, disappearing into darkness as they crossed the distance in half the time the ship did.

Though Reyani's excitement slowly died to dread as the enemy vessel came into view, listing hard to one side. The ship was obviously taking on water, the flames that were now slowly dissipating having destroyed most of the deck.

The crew was huddled into two crowded life boats that floated alongside the ailing ship, or cowering away from the winged fighters on the deck. There was no sign of Verana and as Reyani ran down to the main deck they came alongside the small smugglings ship, allowing Sencha and Shaktay to leap across. The Feysha landed with swords drawn, ignoring the humans and winged warriors and moving immediately into the cabin areas.

Reyani frowned when the two Feysha returned a short while later and grabbed one man out of a pack of others, tossing him to one of their winged allies. Then Sencha pointed to a man who was in chains on one of the life boats, though she couldn't hear his words from where she stood.

She turned as Oliver shouted orders to arrest the remaining sailors, watching the Royal Navy move into action of rounding them up under sword point.

There was a quick argument between the Feysha and their mysterious allies, before they all returned to the deck of Oliver's ship, the captured smugglers being dragged towards the back deck, where Oliver stood at the helm. They were separated from the arrested crew, signalling to her that Sencha must have sensed something particular about them.

However, Reyani recognized the unchained man as someone from her corner of the island and strode forwards, ignoring the circle of angry males. She turned to the islander and lowered her gaze on him, speaking in their language. "Who is Jack?"

Everyone fell silent at that, though the tension caused her spine to tingle. She was surrounded by tough, dangerous men and jumping right into the thick of things without a thought to her own safety.

Why hadn't she stayed safe, in the Palace with Amiya?

The man watched her for a moment, before nodding towards the one in chains. "She threw them on him and they stuck, as if she had locked him in. We weren't going to let him go, we weren't sure if they would try to catch us next. He was the one who brought her on board. My crew and I were just contracted out. We didn't know what was happening until we were already out to sea."

"Where is she?" Reyani didn't need to specify the woman they were both speaking about, shivering as the man gave her a frightened look.

"She asked about the island. I told her where it was in relation to the ship and she took off in one of the life boats. It moved on its own, down to the water and then away as the ship started burning." He gave her a pleading look, pressing his palms his hands together as he begged. "Please, My lady. I work to feed my family, we did not know... our Captain had no choice. This man, this devil... he is a murderer..."

She frowned at him, unsure if she should believe his proclaimed innocence. Surely they would have seen an unconscious Verana being carried onboard. She motioned first to the two Feysha and then to the others who were standing there, glowering. "If you make it to Clairval, you will be tried for treason. But I will tell the King what you have told me."

She turned to Sencha, who was watching her intently, though she couldn't tell if he had figured out her language yet. "That one in chains is Jack"

He repeated her words in the Old speak to the winged men and then turned to her. "I didn't catch most of it... what happened to Verana?"

"She rescued herself. Got free, chained this guy up, lit the boat on fire and took off back to the island in a life boat." She sighed softly, feeling her anxiety beginning to build once more. "Though I don't know how much experience she has, piloting a ship in the ocean."

Sencha translated her words to the winged men and four of them took to the skies, flying as low to the water as they dared, heading back towards the way they had come. The remaining two turned toward Jack, who had enough awareness about the situation to begin begging for his life right about then. The man shamelessly tried blaming everyone but his own activities for what had happened and Reyani did her best to ignore him as she turned to look at her friends.

Shelby stepped up beside her, giving her a careful look. "I am caught between the desire of doing my duty as an honoured Lord of Clairval and insisting on fair treatment of our prisoners... and staking a claim in that man's torture myself."

"How about we find Verana first... then fight over the scraps..." Oliver said drily as he pulled his ship away from the burning wreckage and turned it back around, slowing down the speed and setting his crew on watch. They would all be on high alert, trying to find a single lifeboat in the ocean in the middle of the night.

The creature called Jack screeched and crawled towards her, pulling her attention back toward him. "My lady! My lady! Mercy! As angry as they are... they will listen to you! You are a delicate creature, a beautiful woman who understands empathy, you do not want to see such violence as they would visit upon me! Please! Mercy..."

Reyani strode towards him, holding up a hand in hopes it would stall the others while she crouched down to face the man. "Mercy? Tell me about what you did to my friend."

"The others... she killed them... but they wanted to do... unspeakable things... but I wouldn't let them. I didn't have much sway but I kept her safe. Maybe that's why she spared me... she.. She spared me... your friend did, because I kept her safe from them. Mercy my lady... your friend was unharmed when she left me." Jack blubbered and though there was panic and fear in his eyes, she could see the cold glint of calculation in his expression.

The man had no qualms over what he had done to her friend and was merely trying to manipulate her.

"Now... Jack, is it?" Reyani said sweetly, batting her eyes at him, and offering him her best smile. "I'll be honest. I'm not as delicate as you think I am... when you say unspeakable... do you mean rape? You want me to congratulate you for not raping my friend?"

When the man froze, his eyes going wide and mouth falling open, she shook her head to stop him from speaking further. Reyani trembled with rage despite her sweet tone. "I'll make them keep you alive for now... but only because I want to know exactly how much pain I need to inflict on you, depending on the amount of suffering and level of health we find my friend in. You think those big men with wings and sharp knives are scary? Or maybe you're afraid of the smaller ones, with teeth as sharp as daggers and senses so fine that they can smell what you're thinking before you think it? No. You will beg them to take you off my hands once we find Verana. You will die wishing for the soothing death from falling a thousand feet onto a rocky ground... or the ease of being eaten alive, piece by piece."

She didn't change her tone, letting it still ring with sweetness, meeting his gaze with a polite smile and a serious look.

It was rather disappointing that Jack pissed himself and fainted right about then.

Reyani sighed and stood, glaring at Shelby when he took a step towards her, not wanting any comfort for her burning anger. She wanted to harbour her rage, to allow it to keep her fear and despair over her lost friend at bay.

Without saying a word, Reyani turned and walked back to her place on the front of the ship, looking down into the ocean for any sign of Verana. She prayed that the woman was alright, despite being lost and alone.