The boy tossed Althea an apple through the bars of the cell.

"Thanks," she said, catching it but not taking a bite.

"I didn't poison it."

"Mhm," she said, unconvinced. The fidgety boy had been pleasant enough so far, but you never knew with pirates. She had a key to the cell behind the cot in the corner and the dagger in her boot, but she hadn't needed to use either just yet.

"Here," he said, holding up his apple. "We'll swap. Catch."

She caught his but didn't toss hers back. She held them both up, considering. "Then again, maybe you expected this. Maybe you poisoned yours, knowing I wouldn't trust mine."

He grinned. "I'd think the same. Okay, give them here."

She did, and he took big bites of each.

"See? Not dead." He handed one back to her. "Sorry, you'll have to eat around my bite."

"That's okay."

Maybe it would be better not to eat the apple, but it would show trust, and her stomach was growling. She'd been too nervous before the mission to eat anything other than a handful of peanuts. She took a tentative bite of the apple, and when nothing happened, devoured the rest quickly. It was crisp and crunchy, with the perfect amount of sweetness. She could've eaten a dozen.

"You must be hungry," the boy said, and tossed her another. "The Paragon doesn't really feed their prisoners."

She paused. From what she'd heard, the Paragon did treat prisoners decently...but then again, she'd only ever been to the cells in the headquarters a handful of times, and she'd never visited the brigs in the outposts or on-board Paragon vessels. She'd had no reason to.

"Sorry I can't let you out," the boy continued, taking a seat on the bench opposite the cell. "It's just that we don't really know you yet."

She'd never expected them to let her out of the brig. In fact, she'd assumed they would consider her too much of a threat or an inconvenience, and dispatch with her immediately.

In fact, nothing about this situation was quite what she'd expected. The boy was strangely kind. Wren, the fierce-looking girl who'd been in the brig earlier, had seemed more overwhelmed and tired than anything else. Even the mage—who had caused the deaths of thousands of people in the Settlement—came off as peculiar, and a bit naive.

Her mission was to figure out what the crew was up to, but now she felt even more clueless than before, if that was even possible.

The way that this boy and Wren spoke to each other reminded her of herself and Nathaniel. They couldn't look more different, but they certainly acted like siblings. They both looked at the mage with distrust, so she imagined they hadn't been around him for long.

"So, are you with the Jackals?" the boy asked.

She shook her head no. Who were the Jackals?

"The Jade Seals?"

"No..."

"You aren't wearing any red, so I guess you aren't with the Red Silks. Although maybe they're changing their style, what do I know?"

Ah, he was talking about pirating groups.

"I'm not with the Red Silks," she said.

"So what, did you lose your crew or something?"

"Or something."

He nodded. "I get it. Some crews are really tough...we ran into this one crew that would pull names from a hat for a fight, just to keep things interesting." He raised his eyebrows. "How messed up is that?"

"Yeah, that's messed up," she agreed, but really, it didn't sound bad at all, compared to the Paragon. They were forced to fight every day.

Now that Althea had discovered that this pirating crew wasn't completely barbaric, and that this boy was chatty, she wondered if she should engage more. Perhaps he would give up more information. "Your friend Wren seems...intense," she said.

He shrugged. "She's just looking out for everyone. It's been a stressful few days...it's a miracle that we're all still standing." He looked down at his hands, picking nervously at a nail.

"What's been so stressful about it?"

He gave her a small, knowing smile. "Wish I could talk about it, but I can't."

The door opened, and a young girl with dirty overalls and purple hair walked in. She nodded a greeting to Althea. "Hey."

"Er, hi..."

"I thought you were manning the engines?" Godfrey asked the girl.

She took a seat beside the boy but couldn't sit still, and immediately started going through her pockets. "Doesn't need supervision. Thing just runs, smooth as a whistle. No bolts flying off, no sudden plumes of steam, no nothing. Kinda nice, actually."

"So you'll have plenty more free time."

"Maybe I'll ask..." the girl paused, eying Althea, "our mutual friend to finally to teach me to fly."

The boy waved a dismissive hand at Althea. "She already knows Wren's name. And Wren couldn't teach a fish to swim."

The girl suddenly squeaked and leapt to her feet. She hid behind the boy, using him as a shield.

Althea followed her gaze to the shade hovering in the corner of the room.

"It followed me!" the girl cried.

"Shoo!" the boy tried, gesturing wildly at it to no avail. "Scram! Begone! We don't have anything for you here!"

This must be the mage-less shade reported in Carnivale, Althea thought.

"Where's its mage?" she asked, trying to look as frightened as they were.

"Bloody weirdo doesn't have one," the girl said, narrowing her eyes at the creature. "It just floats around, keeping tabs on us." She leapt up to standing, a constant swirl of motion. "Okay, I'm off! And you," she jabbed a finger in the shade's direction, "follow someone else."

"See ya," the boy called after her.

The shade, surprisingly obedient, stayed put. It shimmered a little in the artificial light of the brig, reflecting little flashes of colour: deep purples, burgundy, and navy.

Not thirty seconds later, they were joined by another visitor: a boy popped his head into the room. He was so large that he almost filled the doorframe. Seeing the shade nearby, he pulled back a little.

"Was Abigail just here?" he asked.

"Oy!" the boy on the bench groaned, pointing at Althea. "No names in front of strangers!"

"Right, sorry...nice to meet you, by the way."

She gave a stiff nod.

"Was Lottie just here?"

"Very convincing," the boy sighed. "And yes, you just missed her."

He grinned. "Great! Thanks!" He was about to disappear when the boy at the bench spoke up.

"Hold it!"

"What?"

"Did the mage say where we're headed?"

"A town called Stonecliffe. A pigeon came and told him."

"A pigeon?"

"Yeah! It cooed, and Orix announced that we were heading to Stonecliffe!"

The boy on the bench made a sound of disbelief. "How long until we're there?"

"A couple of hours."

"Good, good. Thanks."

"Okay, I have to go find Abi—Lottie! Bye!" He was gone in a flash. The shade floated behind him, drifting through the closed door.

The boy on the bench heaved a sigh, leaning back against the wall. Althea stayed quiet, looking at him through the bars.

"Yes, he's in love with Abigail," he said, nodding to where the other boy had just been at the door. "But they're still so young...but then again, maybe it's fine. Wren's been with her girlfriend for ages." He scratched his chin. "I don't really know when they started dating. One day I woke up and they were holding hands."

Althea wondered what information he was trying to get from her with this little speech, so she stayed silent.

"Everyone makes it seem so easy," he continued. "Lucas Nunn says that you can't just sit on your laurels and wait for love to come to you. You have to go after it, chase it down, put yourself out there." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at the ceiling. "I feel like I've done nothing but put myself out there."

Was he really just venting about his romantic problems?

"There's someone out there for me, I know it. I just have to find her." He looked appreciatively at her. "You're a great listener. Are you sure you're not a spy? Heh..."

Was this the moment when he finally called her out and got tough? But the boy just sat there, tapping his foot. He looked like he was thinking about something else entirely.

A beautiful red-haired woman appeared at the doorway, moving like a cat. This ship sure was busy ...

"So this is the infamous prisoner," the woman said, stalking over to the bars. "I've heard you're the strong and silent type. How'd you end up in a Paragon brig?" Althea could tell she wasn't like the boy—she expected an answer.

"I got sloppy," Althea said. "And I got caught."

The woman nodded approvingly. "A woman who owns up to her mistakes. I respect that."

"How's everything in the bridge?" the boy asked.

"I tried to convince Orix to take a shower. He didn't go for it." The woman joined him on the bench.

"Ah, well. Worth a shot."

"I came down to tell you that we're landing outside the town. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention with a Paragon vessel."

"Good call...so have you and Wren patched things up?"

The redheaded woman tapped her temple. "Right, I knew I'd forgotten something...it must've slipped my mind somewhere between finding a shade and nearly being killed by the Paragon." She grew serious. "We'll sort it out. We always do."

"It isn't easy for her to be away from you for so long."

"It isn't easy for me, either!"

"I know! All I'm saying is...Wren may have a hard shell, but she's soft on the inside. Like a crab leg. Every time you two get in a spat, it takes a little more out of her. Sometimes I wish..." he let the sentence trail off.

"Sometimes you wish what?"

Althea remained completely still. It felt like she was eavesdropping on a private conversation.

"That you'd make more of an effort," he finally said.

"That isn't what you were going to say."

"Yes, it was!"

"You were going to say that sometimes you wished we'd break up!"

"Well, maybe! You don't know what the past few months have been like. Wren's been cranky and miserable, milling around the radio at all hours, hoping you've left her a letter at the Strand—she isn't an on-and-off relationship sort of person. She is an on-relationship person—an on-all-the-time sort of person."

"And I'm not?"

"Right now you are because you're here with her. But the next time you get assigned to a job? No, you won't be."

The woman was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "I'll write to her more."

"That would be a start."

"We're not breaking up. Some people are just meant to be together...you can just feel it. That's Wren and I."

"Then maybe start acting like it."

"Fine. We'll be better."

"Fair enough."

All three of them fell silent.