Zhen followed the sounds of the captain's shouting all the way to the top deck. She climbed out through the hatch just in time to hear Jaysa order the helm to increase altitude by another five hundred feet. The Sojourn was already pushing close to her vertical limit, so many of the deck hands began fitting breather masks over their faces to hold off hypoxia.

Jaysa and Idak stood at the prow, both scanning the horizon with spyglasses. Neither wore their masks, but they were veteran aviators who'd acclimated their lungs to extreme altitude. Zhen didn't feel a need for hers yet, either. Growing up in the Mountain City of Drok Moran must've counted for something in the sky.

Zhen jogged to stand at the captain's shoulder. She noted that Idak glanced her way, but he didn't acknowledge her presence beyond a small twitch in his left eye.

"At three-five-five," Jaysa said. "The waves."

Idak adjusted his glass to match. After a long moment, he let out a sharp exhale. "Seabirds. Fishers by the look of them."

Jaysa's voice had grown animated. Excitement fought to get free. "Feeding by day and returning to land before sundown."

"We're close, Captain," Idak agreed. "Ha! Three-five-null!"

Jaysa pivoted a spare few degrees to her right. She bit her bottom lip to stifle an exuberant cry. "Kelp forest. We're approaching shallows."

With her naked eyes, Zhen couldn't see anything like what they were describing. Just an empty, blue horizon with perhaps a few extra clouds than she was used to seeing.

"Master Idak," Jaysa said, her voice raised to be heard by everyone on deck. "Return us to cruising altitude and push the boilers for everything they're worth. Steady on this course."

"Aye aye, Captain," Idak crowed before bellowing orders to the hands.

Zhen wrinkled her nose in his direction. "One 'aye' is sufficient," she muttered.

When she turned back, the captain held out a spyglass for her. "I need an extra pair of eyes," she said. "Make sure I don't just see what I want to see."

Zhen took the glass in hand. "I don't got the best eyes."

"You got the best ears." Jaysa made space for her on the prow. "I want you with me."

Zhen eagerly put the spyglass to her eye, because it helped hide her blushing. She aimed the glass in the same general direction, but she couldn't find anything in the distance besides water and wind.

Then, in a flash, she saw a whole lot more. It was first just one shape, then another. Soon, a veritable swarm of black and white shapes darting down into the waves before emerging again with wriggling fish held in their beaks.

"What sort of birds are those?" Zhen gasped. "Never seen anything like them."

"No idea," Jaysa chuckled. "No idea at all."

A new species. It was a species of bird that no one from the Continent had ever recorded before. Zhen felt her heart start to race, even if it was just on the captain's behalf.

Rather, because of the captain. The eye not glued to the spyglass kept darting to the woman beside her. Before, in the bilges, Jaysa had held herself as if her shoulders were a silk thread's breadth from slumping. It looked like defeat. Now, a few seabirds had returned Jaysa Dominico to the eager and headstrong captain who introduced Zhen to the sky. Her goal and prize were just out of sight. There was a fevered energy within the captain that begged for release.

She was beautiful and fascinating. Zhen wanted to experience just a fraction of the passion Jaysa radiated. Even more than that, Zhen wanted the captain to succeed. How glorious a sight it would be. Jaysa triumphant.

Zhen lost track of how long she stood beside the captain while watching strange, new birds. It might've been an hour or more before she saw something else in her spyglass. Zhen felt her breath catch in her throat, and she grabbed Jaysa's wrist.

"What is it?" Jaysa asked.

Zhen's throat felt hoarse. "Three-four-six, Captain. Three-four-six."

Appearing above the horizon, a dark shape began to rise. The blue waters turned a lighter shade as they approached a black coastline. A single mountain, surrounded by a forest of deep green, rose from the sea.

Zhen heard the captain pull a deep breath into her lungs before her voice echoed across the deck.

"Land ahoy!" Jaysa collapsed her spyglass and strode back towards the helm. "Three quarters steam. Adjust heading, fourteen degrees starboard. Lock course and reduce to eight hundred. I want a slow approach with all lookout posts manned." Jaysa grabbed a passing crewman. "And collect the professor. Time for him to make it worth the effort of hauling his hide out this far."

Zhen remained where she was, spyglass aimed squarely at the mountain growing above the horizon. She squinted against the glass, because something she saw wasn't making sense to her. Not at first. Then, in a spark of understanding, Zhen nearly dropped the spyglass before turning to call for the captain.

"A city!"

Jaysa halted in mid-step and turned back.

"A coastal city," Zhen clarified. "No smoke from hearth fires. It looks abandoned."

In the span of three heartbeats, Jaysa returned to the prow. She raised her spyglass and followed Zhen's indication. "Essence of all spirits take me," she muttered. "It's a damned ruin."

Zhen had to remind herself to breathe. "There were people here."

"There was someone," Jaysa said with a nod. "Whether or not you could call them people remains to be seen."

"Captain?"

"Lots of strange things in the world, Zhen. Out here, it could be anything. Even back on the Continent, there are things crawling in the shadows to give you nightmares for the rest of eternity."

Zhen lowered her spyglass. "Like what?"

Jaysa bent to put her mouth close to Zhen's ear. "I'm all but entirely human. A drop of something else in an ocean of humanity. My ancestors were nothing like you or me."

Zhen held back a shudder. "But, they gotta be all gone, though. Nothing like that is still around in the modern age. Right?"

Jaysa gave her a pointed look before returning to her spyglass.

Sometimes, Zhen wished she wouldn't ask so many questions. It was tempting to ponder what a pureblooded vampire would be like for the next two hours. Unfortunately, Zhen's thoughts were preoccupied with more present fancies.

She was more than a little mortified at herself, to be honest. Zhen wanted to tell herself that the brazen girl who outright propositioned the captain belowdecks had been someone else, or at least a product of the intense dreams of a madwoman. Once again, she was left in a place where she was unsure of where she stood in regards to Jaysa. It almost sounded like the captain was willing to take Zhen as a lover, up until signs of land were sighted ahead. Would Jaysa still be interested? Did Zhen still want her to be? How, if at all, would this change their current arrangement?

It was confusing to a degree Zhen hadn't experienced. But at the very least, Zhen didn't think it was a complicated situation. Layered, perhaps, but not complicated.

Zhen started to feel the weight of fatigue settling on her by the time the Sojourn neared the landmass. The true enormity of it became more and more clear with each stretch of land appearing over the horizon. As of yet, it was difficult to say whether it was truly a new continent or just an especially large island. Nonetheless, what she could see was breathtaking. The first mountain that came into sight had been the first in a range of peaks stretching further to the east. They were black stone, with the tallest of them bearing snow close to the summits. Beneath the peaks lay stretches of wild jungle, home to many flocks of colorful birds and at least a few larger species of fauna.

There was something large moving beneath the tree canopies. Zhen couldn't catch a clear view of it, but it was big enough to set entire trunks swaying with its passage. She could only pray to the gods that whatever it was wasn't carnivorous.

Throughout the approach, her spyglass turned back to the ruins. An ancient city, built up out of black stone from the mountains as well as pale limestone from the coast. Zhen didn't have an eye for such things, but she supposed it couldn't have been all that old. Coastal storms would've surely battered the buildings to rubble long ago if there wasn't anyone living there to keep it all together. Maybe it'd only been abandoned in the last few decades.

That left the question of who once lived there. Zhen wondered if the captain should've brought an anthropologist in addition to Professor Salazar. Then again, who would've ever guessed they'd find evidence of another civilization so far from the rest of humanity?

"The harbor looks serviceable," Jaysa muttered. "We might try a water landing. What do you think, Zhen? Were the folk here wiped out by some disaster?"

"I don't think so," Zhen said. "I mean, there aren't any shipwrecks in the harbor. That probably means the boats left, presumably with people on them."

Jaysa hummed. "Abandoned, not destroyed. The number of fisher birds makes it plain this is a bountiful stretch of coastline. Between the jungle and the shoals, I doubt these people left because of famine. War leaves obvious scars. My coin is on pestilence being the culprit here."

Zhen gulped. "A plague?"

"Could be," Jaysa said. "I need to find out for sure. There's a lot I need to find out. The next decade, next century, the rest of history, could swing on what we learn and on how we learn it." She finally put away her spyglass for what might've been the first time since coming on deck. "I wasn't expecting people, and if they're still around, that changes everything."

"How so?"

"It makes us de facto invaders," Jaysa said. "I don't much care for that. I'd rather be invited, and barring that, welcomed. I need to find where these people went."

"Is it really that important?"
"It is. The Althandi made too many mistakes when they met the Espallans, the molten men of the far north, and pretty much every race of humanity living beyond the Reach. I don't aim to make the same ones."

Zhen made one last sweep of the coastline with the spyglass. She focused on the jungle, hoping to catch sight of one of the large animals she'd seen hints of. Maybe it was dragons; there could be whole flocks of dragons out here who hadn't yet heard about their new empress back on the Continent. Or even better, there could be griffins. Zhen really wanted griffins to exist as more than fables.

Her view in the spyglass landed on a face. It was vaguely humanlike, but the features were malformed and distorted. Far too many teeth. Gray skin covered in infected wounds and open sores. Coarse hair matted down with filth and grime. Empty, soulless, black eyes. And it was big.

It stared back at her.

Startled by the creature's appearance, Zhen nearly dropped the glass. "C-captain."

"What is it?"

Zhen didn't need the spyglass to see it, even from this distance. Its muted coloration gave it a modicum of camouflage against the ruined buildings, but now that she knew where to look, Zhen could pick the creature out with the naked eye. She pointed it out for the captain.

It was truly enormous. While it stood next to the taller structures of the ruin, Zhen could see that it was in the realm of fifteen paces tall. It was completely nude, but whatever modesty the thing had was preserved by a sagging potbelly. It was motionless, just staring at the approaching airship as if trying to determine if it was a threat or a meal.

"Hell's sendings," Jaysa said. "What in the embrace of hellfire is that thing?"

Another of the creatures appeared, this one three paces shorter and six paces rounder. The new arrival waddled out from between two old buildings and carried something in one gnarled hand. Zhen had a moment to recognize it as some manner of elk-like animal before the creature bit off its head with as much effort as biting into a carrot. Blood rained down from between cracked and jagged teeth, and it joined its marginally taller friend in staring at the airship.

Zhen swallowed her gorge. "I think... it wasn't a disease that made folk pack up and leave, Captain."

Jaysa let the thought hang in the air for a moment before humming a curt acknowledgement. "You may be on to something," she agreed. She called back over her shoulder. "Helm, raise altitude by three hundred, increase to three-quarters steam. We're not stopping here."

From beside Diaz at the helm, Idak raised his voice in question. "What is wrong with here, Captain?"

"Giants, looks like."

"Giants? You having me on, Captain?"

"Did I stutter? It's damned giants, Master Idak, and the tall one looks like he's got a good throwing arm. Therefore, increase altitude, if you please."

The captain's orders were followed in haste. Nevertheless, the hands seemed to be spending as much time gawking at the bizarre entities loitering in the ruins as they did seeing to their duties. As if a grotesque mirror to the crew's interest, more giants began to appear. Some came from deeper within the city while most materialized out of the jungle. No one heard the creature's calling out to others, so it might have been that they were drawn by the unfamiliar noise of an airship-grade steam engine.

By the time the Sojourn was making its way off in search of safe harbor, upwards of twenty of the behemoths were staring into the sky with slack-jawed befuddlement. They each appeared very different from one another, ranging in height, build, and in the magnitude of their grotesqueness. The few things they did appear to all have in common were nudity and filth. On the bright side of things, none of them demonstrated how good their throwing arms were. By the size of the larger ones, a few reaching a staggering twenty paces tall, they could probably hurl boulders the size of a cottage.

"Well," Jaysa sighed while stepping away from the prow, "I wager this'll make for a few extra pages in the day's log." Her voice rose sharply, commanding attention. "Commendation to you, Mistress Zhen. I'll have it recorded that the first sighting of— let's call them the native populace for now— was yours. The city, too."

Zhen fidgeted with the borrowed spyglass still in her hands. She was all too aware of everyone's attention on her. "Th-thank you, Captain." Her eyes flickered to the other hands. "Just glad someone spotted them before we strolled into a picnic."

A nearby hand, a toothless old-timer named Gerard, guffawed. "Lass ain't kiddin'. You see that pudgy bloke tear inna tha' carcass?"

"Aye, did at that. Near turned a few of me hairs gray, the ghastly things."

"Ye don't suppose a few of those were the lady giants, d'ya?"

"Stones abide, let's hope not."

"Mighty sure I saw a peck the size of my pa's draft horse."

"Aye, that would be where you'd be lookin'."

"Come off it, as if you weren't."

"All the same, good thing the crewgirl gots good eyes, or we might'a been gettin' turned on a giant's spit this very moment."

"Aye, but you can never know. They might be the friendly sort."

Against her every instinct, Zhen chimed in. "Doubt it. You see fellas with eyes like that in Mountain City alleys. Those are the sort of eyes that only know how to take."

Gerard and even a few other hands nodded sagely, as if Zhen had provided them with some profound words. She took the opportunity to give her spyglass back to Idak and scurry to somewhere out of sight. Before she managed a full withdrawal, the captain's voice sounded out again.

"Zhen!" she shouted.

"Captain!" Zhen went to full attention, stiff-backed and looking straight ahead.

"I'm transferring you to the morning watch. Use the extra hours to get some damned sleep in. The rest of you, keep an eye on solid ground at all times. No telling what other strange shite we'll find out here."

The crew erupted into cries acknowledging her orders. All of them went about their duties with renewed vigor, as if catching a portion of Jaysa's excitement. Zhen, blessedly out from under everyone's attention, managed to make it below decks and to her hammock without getting so much as a single stink eye.

If not for her overwhelming exhaustion, Zhen doubted she would've found any sleep for the day's excitement. There was a new land just within reach, one doubtlessly rife with dangers and wonders unimagined. Giants aside, there could be any number of new peoples to meet, and it seemed the captain was invested in any first contact with the natives to be peaceful and fruitful for all involved.

The challenges ahead would be steep. The Sojourn would have to build an outpost to use as a base of operations for the coming weeks. Many of the crew would have to learn how to carve out a living in a strange new world, and the rest would map the surrounding regions aboard the Sojourn. From there, locate a point from where the return trip to the Continent, and subsequent voyages, could be most easily made. With luck, a true colony could be established within the next year or two.

Zhen lay in her hammock and closed her eyes. So many possibilities, and Zhen wanted to be part of them all. She wanted to face those challenges at the captain's side, even if it was as nothing more than a simple crewgirl. Her newest and deepest desire, however, was that she may be permitted to stand beside Jaysa Dominico while each challenge was met and overcome.

A chalice. More. Anything, so long as Zhen was there to see it all happen.

In one moment, her world seemed to be in the place she wished it to be. One moment, where everything made sense. One moment only, because in the next, nothing made sense anymore.

It began as a feeling, deep within her core. Restless. Zhen stirred and saw that the others in their hammocks were also. A few sat up, blinking around them in bleary-eyed befuddlement. Above on the deck, there was silence. The steam engine's noise seemed muted as well, as if all the world held its breath in anticipation.

In horror.

Zhen made her way out of the sleeping berths and up to the deck as if drawn by a selkie's song. Everyone else did, too. It was nightfall and in the middle of her regular shift. Diaz manned the helm in Zhen's place, Idak at his back. The entire crew stood in place, others coming up from below to share in this moment of baited breath. Every last one of them shared in the same indelible sensation that something intrinsic to the entire world was changing.

Jaysa appeared out of her cabin, drawn by the same feeling. Dressed in a rumpled and loose shirt, it appeared she'd barely paused to get decent before coming on deck. She looked west, back towards home. Her steps brought her beside Zhen where she took her hand and held on tight as if desperate for any comfort she could find against this overwhelming feeling of dread.

"Captain," Idak said from his place by the helm. He looked all around him, futilely seeking out the source of this feeling. "What... what is..."

The feeling was like walking out of your cabin naked to find a deserted ship. Exposed and isolated. Vulnerable in such a profound way. An abyss opening wide, not only beneath your feet but also in the sky above you. Nothingness but also a great unknown something  just beyond.

"It feels like the gates of Hell have opened," Jaysa murmured. "Opened wide, and there's no shutting them again."

Idak removed his hat and let it fall to the deck. His mottled scalp was slick with perspiration. "Scents of the Beyond," he murmured.

Zhen felt it was true, or near enough. She and the rest of the souls aboard the Sojourn could do nothing else but stand in awestruck horror of something unseen. Whatever was happening, Zhen knew it was happening back on the Continent they left behind.

Zhen prayed. She didn't know to which god she prayed to, but she prayed as hard as she could.

Then came the words. They were not heard, they were felt. Deep in her soul, Zhen felt them. From within the very core of her being, the words quaked and shook her to the bones.

THIS WORLD IS OURS

Around her, some of the men fell to their knees and howled as they writhed across the deck. Others covered their ears in futile attempts to shut the words out. It was impossible, because it came from within each of them. Zhen felt as if her own voice joined with the words.

YOU CANNOT HAVE IT ANYMORE

The words reached the Sojourn's crew even though they'd crossed to the other side of the globe. It was like the unfettered voice of a god broke upon the entire world.

As suddenly as it arrived, it was gone. The crewmen who'd fallen stumbled back to their feet, all staring west as if they might find what was different now. Because something was different, and none of them knew what it was.

Zhen tore her eyes from the western horizon and looked to the captain. She bit back a startled yelp.

"Captain," she whispered, "get back to your cabin."

Jaysa's expression was confused and a little miffed at being given an order by a deck hand. Her red eyes flashed in warning.

"Shut your eyes," Zhen commanded. "Come with me while no one's looking."

In the surreal moments that had now passed, Jaysa came on deck without thinking, without applying her illusions. She was exposed, and anyone looking at her now would see her for what she really was. As realization hit, Jaysa's vampire eyes became fearful.

Zhen held Jaysa's hand tighter. She said nothing further, just pulled the captain along until they were behind closed doors. It didn't appear that any of the crew had noticed Jaysa's error, too enthralled by the other strangeness of the night.

She stayed at the door, peeking out through the cracks for anyone who might've gotten a glimpse of fangs or scarlet eyes. Conversation began to rise among the hands, ranging from wild speculations of rampant arcanists or declarations of terrors coming from the depths of Hell. Slowly, Zhen felt better able to breathe.

Behind her, Jaysa trembled as she applied her arcane eye drops. She missed the mark once or twice and made it appear that she shed a few tears. Her breathing was stilted and came out as frantic pants for air.

Zhen went to her. She put a hand to the captain's cheek and made soothing, shushing sounds. "It's alright. It's alright, Captain. No one saw."

Jaysa shook her head and pulled open a drawer. She fumbled with a dagger stashed away in there and failed to get it out of its sheath. "You don't... You don't know that."

Taking the dagger away, Zhen placed it back within the drawer. She kept a calming hand on Jaysa's face as she repeated her assurance that the secret was safe.

The captain was out of sorts, and who could blame her? Zhen wouldn't mind being comforted right then, either. Whatever that feeling was, it was fading. Regardless, Zhen couldn't shake the idea that something had gone terribly wrong back home. Something apocalyptic.

"What do I do?" Jaysa murmured, halfway to herself. "Winds and stones take me, what do I do now?"

Zhen firmly turned Jaysa to face her. "You carry on. You be our captain. We'll follow, and I'll be right here."

Jaysa's gaze darted to Zhen's lips and back to her eyes. "Does your offer still stand?"

Zhen nodded.

"Good." Jaysa's eyes narrowed. "However, you stop giving me orders."

"Shut up, Captain."

"Well, I won't," Jaysa said with a curl in her lip. At least she'd gotten her breathing back under control now that her pique was up.

Zhen shrugged and turned to leave. She was stopped by the grip Jaysa maintained on her hand.

"I didn't..." Jaysa averted her eyes. Unbelievably, she was blushing. "I didn't dismiss you. Stay. For the night. I... want your company."

"Midnight snack?" Zhen asked testily.

"I don't want to be alone," Jaysa admitted. "Not after that."

Zhen was unsure if Jaysa meant the bizarre experience shared by the crew or of the scare of near exposure. Either way, Zhen could understand Jaysa's hesitance to send her off.

They lay down on the bed together. Zhen held Jaysa close and ran fingers through her hair. Jaysa lay curled against her, her head resting on Zhen's chest. Sleep was a long way off for both of them after the night's experience. It was enough for them both to lay next to one another and not be alone.

"Zhen," Jaysa whispered. It was still the dead of night, and dawn was hours away.

"Aye, Captain?"

"Sign a contract with me. Stay on as a permanent crew member. I'll give you an officer's post, even."

"Is chalice an official position?"

"Sod off. Second mate. You'll man the helm and work the crew when Idak's in his bunk. Anyone who speaks out against you is guilty of insubordination."

"No way I'm qualified," Zhen said with a soft laugh.

"Don't care." Jaysa yawned. "You discovered the new continent, remember? That looks good on an application."

Zhen snorted and thought up a good retort. Unfortunately, Jaysa had finally dropped asleep, so it would be wasted. She was probably delirious and didn't know what she was offering. Zhen decided to take her offer with a grain of salt and chalk it up to frazzled nerves.

Unlike the captain, she didn't find sleep that night. Whether it was worry over the surreal experience, anticipation for coming excursions into a land of giants, or preoccupation with a domineering yet disarming vampire nestled against her, Zhen really didn't know or care to consider. Best to get used to these sorts of things, because this was her life now.

Zhen could grow to like it.