10/26/11 - Slight edits.

It was a pleasant sunny day somewhere in the waters off the Atteka continent. Sheba was still lying in her bed staring at the wooden ceiling in the lonely cabin (Jenna had left two hours ago to cook breakfast), wide-awake but feeling too lazy to get up. The ship bumped into a wave, but continued on its serene way…

Not without consequences, though.

Overhead, there was a huge thud, accompanied by a "whoops" from Garet.

Now that could not be good.

"Garet!" came a shriek from Mia.

Okay, things had just gotten worse.

"What the fu – " another wave crashed on the side of the ship, obscuring the rest of Felix's (likely profane) sentence.

And worse! Sheba scrambled out of bed and dashed out of the cabin, making her way up the stairs as quickly as she could with her short legs (which Felix and Piers never, ever ceased to tease her about). Of course, she had the luck of getting stuck in the cabin at the bottom of the ship. But nooo, no one cared about poor Jenna and Sheba being put in the bottom. Even though their cabin was right next to the engine room, showers and bathrooms, Sheba still disliked the location because people (namely early birds like Felix) were always coming down here and making a huge commotion going to take a shower at the unholy hour of 6:30 in the morning.

Piers and Felix had scored the best quarters: the ones next to the galley, one deck above Jenna and Sheba's. In fact, their rooms had originally been the girls', but a slightly tipsy night involving cards and bets ended in the girls forfeiting them to the boys. And then Isaac and Garet had called dibs on the one next to Piers and Felix's, Mia had her own cabin next to Isaac's, and Ivan had gotten the short end of the stick and was forced to bunk with Kraden.

Anyhow, because of all this inner narration, it took Sheba a little longer than usual to make it upstairs. By the time she arrived at the scene, most of the excitement was over. Mia had retreated back to her room and Garet was hauling his now (thoroughly iced over) body to his cabin. The only person left was a disgruntled-looking Felix, who was lounging against the wall in what Sheba called his 'I'm too good for you so I'll look elegant but bored at the same time' pose. His eyebrows rose alarmingly when he saw her approach, which Sheba took to be surprise that she was up so early.

"Sheba!" he said, looking fascinated and leaning forward. "In a…rush, weren't you?"

Sheba stretched and felt a joint or two pop when she did. "Yeah, how'd you know? What was all that noise about?"

"Distracted from your beauty sleep?" Felix replied dryly. "If you really want to know…"

Sheba focused on him impatiently. "If you don't tell me now, I'll just mind read it out of you."

"I'd like to see you try." Felix glared his trademark death glare (patent pending). Sheba ducked just in case (for all one knew, he could have installed those laser-shooting eyes he'd been threatening Kraden with) and pouted. It was true; one time, Sheba had gone on a mind reading binge due to extreme boredom aboard the ship. Afterwards, she'd learned that 1) Piers had never kissed a girl before in all his two hundred twenty one years (count 'em: 221), 2) Jenna knew what Saturos looked like naked (Sheba didn't want to know how), 3) Isaac was afraid of big trees (?), 4) Mia couldn't stand the word "haphazard", 5) Kraden wanted to marry a werewolf, 6) Garet had a flower garden back in Vale (peonies included), 7) Ivan was allergic to carrots (but not the purple kind), and 8) if you ever tried to mind read Felix you'd wake up two hours later tied to the mast with a massive headache and Kraden tied to the other side.

"Be that way. But at least tell me what happened."

Felix rolled his eyes. "When we hit that wave the ship rocked and at that exact moment Garet was passing by Mia's doorway so he got thrown against the door and Mia just happened to be changing inside and Garet just had to be so darn heavy he busted straight through it and fell on her but the thing is she was naked which led to her beating him up for being a pervert and then you came up here and we had this conversation and I explained everything in a really run on, badly structured sentence." He said all this in one breath without stopping.

Sheba glanced down at the floor and kicked a piece of melting ice left over from Mia's attack on Garet.

"So, basically, an ordinary day?"

"Yep." Felix stretched and yawned. "Toooootally ordinary. By the way," he remarked, getting up from his elegantly bored pose and walking past her, "you might want to put on some clothes before getting out of bed next time. I like the corset, though."

Sheba looked down at herself. She was still wearing her pajamas.

"Ice Missile!"

The deadly spikes of ice materialized and homed in on Isaac, but the swordsman ducked and they rattled harmlessly overhead. Garet grabbed for his best friend's scarf (tied around his waist) and sent off a Flare but missed. He swore sharply and looked around for Mia. "Mia, go!"

The Mercury Adept raised her hand to cast another spell. "Douse!"

Water appeared underfoot and Isaac slipped, landing on his back. Mia stood over him triumphantly and yanked his scarf off, jerking her thumb towards the jail. "Off you go!"

"Traitor," Isaac grumbled, picking up his scarf with ill grace and stumbling off to the prison (an area marked off by four swords stabbed into the deck). Mia turned around with satisfaction to ward off more intruders.

It was Friday, which made it Capture the Djinn day. They were playing on a glacier – the ship was swaying gently next to it – and so far, each side had already scored once. Overall, in account of how many games won, Isaac, Jenna, Piers, and Ivan were still the defending champions, but it seemed they were out of luck today. The rules in play that day were that only level one psynergy could be used.

On the other side, Felix ducked to the side to dodge Piers' clumsy attempt to grab his cloak. Spinning out of the way, Felix turned – only to find Ivan reaching out to pull his cloak from his waist. The Venus Adept raised his hand hastily.

"Rockfall! Quake!"

With Ivan buried under a small landslide and Piers' footing lost with the earthquake, Felix skidded and changed direction, throwing up powdered ice in his wake, to make for the djinn. He made it into the fenced off area, scooping the Jupiter djinn up.

Gale looked at him peevishly.

Be gentle or I'll destroy you.

Pleasant, Felix sighed mentally, and turned to face Ivan and Piers, who had recovered in time to follow him. "Five second rule," he pointed out when Piers advanced on him. Ivan started tapping his foot.

"One…two…three…"

Felix bolted off, shoving Gale under his arm. Stupid…darn…humans… the djinn grunted with each bumpy step. Playing…childish …games all the time…GENTLE I SAY!

Ivan grabbed for him and missed; Piers, as usual, couldn't keep up. Even Jenna and Isaac, returning from jail, didn't come in time to stop him (though they did try). Ducking a Ragnarok (or two) and several Blasts, Beams, and Fumes, he drew Gale back and lobbed it at the waiting Sheba. She caught it and raised her other hand to calmly absorb the Plasma Ivan flung at her in her palm before stepping over the dividing line.

Kraden, who was supposed to be keeping score but was snoozing off instead, jumped up with a snort from his perch on the deck railing and almost fell into the water. "Eh what?" he looked at Sheba and Mia, who were jumping up and down squealing in victory, while Felix and Garet stood around looking cool. "Uh, yeah…you guys win…" He fell back to sleep.

Down on the glacier, Flint hopped out of its coop on Felix's side and slid across the ice to Isaac, who was sorrowfully untying his scarf. Next to him on the floor of the glacier, Jenna was just as sadly melting a hole in the ice with her superheated finger. "They won," she sighed.

Isaac wrapped his scarf around his neck again. "And now, Felix is going to rub it in my face all week," he grumbled.

Meanwhile, the hole in the glacier expanded.

"Can't blame him. You've been lording our victories over him for a month."

Isaac felt himself sinking into the slush Jenna's heat was creating. "Whatever, we'll beat them next week."

By this time, Jenna's head was about at the same level as the rest of the unmelted glacier, as she was sitting in the hole she'd burned herself into. Isaac laughed at the sight and offered his hand to help her up. "Hey, let's get going. It's almost lunch, and Piers is cooking today…"

While everyone was still devouring the rest of the tiramisu cake Piers had made (no one knew where he had gotten the ingredients, but no one cared), Ivan and Sheba were settling down to play a nice card game up next to the wheel. Of course, this was also where Felix was, because he was (as always) the disgruntled helmsman – especially disgruntled now since he hadn't gotten a chance to eat any tiramisu.

The thing about a card game between Ivan and Sheba, however, was that no one ever won. They simply mind read each other back and forth until they knew each other's hands by heart and were by then too paranoid to play any of their own cards. That wasn't as bad as it was, of course, when it was a game between one of them and one of their friends; then, their friend were sure to lose. Hands down. Jenna had lost more than one article of clothing to Sheba over a poker game because of her psynergy cheating (Sheba called it tactical usage of a resource). But today, Felix was so bored of watching them eyeball each other he decided to take extreme methods. Leaving the wheel for a moment, he hunkered down so he was at the two Jupiter Adepts' level.

"Hey, guys."

Ivan narrowed his lavender eyes at Sheba and spoke without looking at Felix. "Hi."

Felix rolled his own black eyes and sat down next to them. "How's your poker game going?"

"Wonderfully," Sheba said between gritted teeth. You could almost see the psynergy rampant in the air.

"Anyone put down a hand yet?"

"Nope," both wind adepts chorused.

"Didn't think so. Rime and Luff, release!"

Ivan and Sheba let out cries of irritation as the two djinns sealed their psynergy, bowed courteously to Felix, and hopped back into nothing. Felix crossed his arms defiantly and met their glares head on with his own. "Hey, I just did you guys a huge favor. Now play like normalpeople or I'll start whacking heads."

Sheba winced – Felix's whacks hurt – and handed in her cards so Ivan could re-shuffle. "Um…thanks, Felix."

"It's all for the greater good," mumbled Felix in return.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Sheba picked up her cards and grinned when she saw that she had a royal flush. "And, by the way, you might want to go back to the wheel. We're going to crash into an iceberg in about ten seconds."

Even though the iceberg had been taken care of, Thor and Judgment were still hanging around, much to their summoners' irritation.

"Go away already," grumbled Sheba, throwing a plate at Thor. The dish flew about ten feet before crashing against the invisible force field surrounding the god of thunder and dissolving.

"Hey! That was one of my best china dishes!" Piers called, offended.

"So," Judgment purred, not noticing any of the drama down below, "I was telling Iris the other day that she should really tone down all those special effects she has whenever she gets summoned – really bad on the eyes, you know."

"True, true," rumbled Thor, not noticing the various dishwares Sheba was throwing at him. Felix almost expected them to start drinking tea or something while putting their pinkies in the air. There was something very wrong with this picture. "And let me guess, she exploded on you?"

"More than that." Judgment rolled his eyes. "She started crying and calling me all sorts of names. Honestly, you'd think that after a few eons of knowing each other she'd be nice to me or something, but noooo."

Felix couldn't take it any longer. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that Judgment sounded so gay or that summons gossiping was just so plain weird that made him snap, but he did. He jumped up and unsheathed his Sol Blade. "Ahem." He cleared his throat to get their attention.

"She's always like this! Thor, is she like that to you?"

"Well, I don't really talk to her as much, you might want to ask Charon – "

Felix grumbled and started climbing the mast to get into the crows' nest, which was considerably closer to the floating summons. "'Scuse me!" he shouted, waving his sword. Judgment finally glanced his way.

"Oh, hello, puny human." He went back to chatting with Thor. Felix rolled his eyes. "Do you mind?" he hollered.

"Mind what?" Thor grunted, shifting his hammer.

Felix moved his wrist in a circle so his blade swooped in an arc. "Well, you see, the winds kind of die when we summon you, which isn't very good for our ship, so if you please we'd like to dismiss you now!"

"No, I feel like staying," Judgment decided, shrugging unsympathetically and turning back to Thor. "So, like I was saying – "

Felix groaned and glanced around for something to barter with. He spotted Kraden, still snoozing on the deck railing. "You can have him!" he pointed.

Thor glanced down and wrinkled his nose at the old man. "What can he do?"

"Er…" Felix thought fast. "He's an incredibly wise scholar with…nice teeth? And he's really good at making cutscenes longer."

"Hmmm." Judgment picked Kraden up with his thumb and finger as he slept on. "Okay, we'll go. He'll make a nice trophy for our boudoir's walls…" he was saying to Thor as they faded away.

Felix sighed in relief and sheathed the Sol Blade, making his way down the ladder and jumping the last few rungs. Down on deck, Sheba was there to greet him.

"Killing two raptors with one sword?"

"Something like that." Felix grinned; but abruptly, the wind ceased again as Judgment popped up once more. He had a lei around his neck, suggesting a bit of time had passed since his last appearance.

"Sorry, this guy's no good." He dumped Kraden on the deck. Felix groaned once more.

"What? Just when we'd gotten rid of him…" he muttered, running his fingers through his dark hair. Sheba gave him a look and spoke to Judgment.

"Couldn't you get rid of him somewhere else?"

"Nope." Judgment was already disappearing. "He's way too annoying…I can't stand another second of him, even if he is sleeping. Call me when you need me, as long as he's not around…"

Sheba and Felix were left on the empty deck, staring despairingly at each other. At that moment, Kraden decided to wake up.

"I had a fascinating dream where I was kidnapped by summon spirits and stuck in a ladies' bathroom for eons…" he remarked, adjusting his glasses. Then he fell back asleep again, already snoring. Felix sighed.

"Well, it was worth a try."

Sheba just kicked despondently at the deck and went below.

It just so happened that day was also Underground Organization night. Piers had turned off all the lights in the ship except for the ones in the engine room (where they were all situated), and had lit four lanterns. "So, does everyone remember how to play?" he inquired.

Garet scratched his head in embarrassment, adding more to the insanity that was his hairdo. "Could you explain one more time?…"

Piers sighed, tugging at a strand of blue hair. "Right, so there will be three 'guards', and their goal is to capture everyone. But, one is them is actually a double agent and trying to help everyone else get to a safe sanctuary. The sanctuary is a place of the double agent's choice and can change from time to time. Everyone can hide anywhere on the ship except for above deck, but the guards will be looking for you. So if the light from the lantern shines directly on you, then you're captured and have to come back here until the double agent comes back to release you. The guard has to spot you and call you out in order for you to be captured. No using djinn or psynergy to scout people out, though. And…once everyone gets to the sanctuary, you win. But if you're in there, and not everyone is there yet, you can still get captured inside. And if you know the location of the sanctuary from the double agent, you're free to tell others. Oh…and the double agent has to be devious, because he or she doesn't want the other guards to figure out who they are or the guards will win. Everyone got it?"

Universal nodding. "If you win," Piers added, smiling, "you'll get Felix's mille-feuille."

Garet was already drooling at the prospect of the cake. Jenna handed him a handkerchief.

"Who will be the guards?" Mia questioned. Piers stroked his chin and frowned.

"I'm…thinking of a number between one and twenty five. Closest three get to be the guards."

"One," Isaac guessed.

"Sixteen," came Jenna's answer.

"Three," Sheba and Ivan chorused. Piers glared at them. "Okay, let's try that again! And no mind reading this time. Rime, Luff, release!"

Both of the Wind Adepts groaned simultaneously as their magic was sealed away once more. Piers sighed importantly. "Try again. A number between thirty and sixty. Isaac?"

Isaac pondered for a moment. "…Thirty-three."

"Garet?"

"Fifty-one."

"Ivan?"

"…Forty-six."

Piers glanced suspiciously at him and went on. "Mia?"

Mia tapped her chin. "Thirty-one."

"O Esteemed leader?"

Felix realized that Piers was speaking to him and scowled. "Don't call me that, you donkey. Fifty-six."

"Jenna?"

"Forty-four."

Piers nodded and looked to Sheba sternly. "How about you?"

Sheba threw her hands into the air and glared. "Don't take that tone with me! My psynergy is sealed, remember? Ah…thirty-five."

Piers nodded once more. "All right, the number was forty-five, which means Ivan, Garet, and Jenna are the guards. Everyone, wait around while I talk to them one by one."

"We should pair up," Felix said quietly the instant Piers started speaking to Ivan. "There should be one slow person and one fast person in each pair. Uh…I'll stick with you, Sheba."

"I'll go with Isaac, then," Mia said cheerfully. By now, Piers had already finished up speaking with Garet and was talking to Jenna. "Where should we hide first?"

Isaac mentally ran through the blueprint of the ship through his head. "We should go in opposite directions. So…Mia and I will hide the kitchens – "

"Galleys," Sheba interrupted importantly.

Isaac stared at her. "…the galleys, and you guys – "

Abruptly, Jenna appeared over his shoulder and he was forced to snap his mouth shut, widening his blue-black eyes at Felix to show him he would have to figure out a place to hide himself. "Hey, Jenna," he greeted innocently. The Valean girl was swinging a lantern on her hand, brown eyes devious.

"Piers says that you guys can go hide now," she responded cheerfully. "We'll come looking for you after a fifty count. …Don't expect not to get caught."

Felix snorted. "Confident, aren't you, little sister?"

"Just for saying that, I'm coming after you first." Jenna stuck out her tongue at him and flounced off. "Fifty…forty-nine…" she began, twirling her ponytail.

Felix and Sheba darted off, eager to be gone. Isaac and Mia followed more slowly, the latter picking up her skirts to run faster while the former danced from foot to foot, impatient to get going.

"Two…one." Jenna got up from the wall and glanced to Garet and Ivan. "Should we split up? Or stay together?"

"Split up," Ivan suggested. "There's a lot of ground to cover and dinner is in an hour. Meet back here every twenty minutes, okay?"

"Okay." Jenna rushed away, like a red kite on the hunt. Garet left shortly after. Ivan and Piers were the last in the engine room. The Jupiter Adept looked despairingly to the Lemurian.

"Why did you make me the double agent?" he whined. "Jenna has much longer legs…"

"Irony, dear friend, irony." Piers smiled evilly. "Now, go! Or Jenna will catch Felix and Sheba before you can get to them and you'll have to come back here to release them."

As (more) irony would have it, Jenna caught Felix and Sheba while they were sneaking along the corridor in hopes of finding a nice hiding spot. "What tipped you off?" sighed Sheba as Jenna triumphantly led them back to the engine room.

"Let's see…I've gotta say, your bright purple cloak was pretty easy to spot." Jenna didn't even try not to sound smug. "And next time, Felix, it might help not to wear such heavy boots."

The rest of the journey back was spent in silence (sullen on Felix and Sheba's part). Once there, Jenna gently pushed them in and raised an eyebrow at them before walking off. "Stay in here, kiddies," she called behind her.

"I can't believe my little sister is treating me like this," Felix mumbled.

"I can't believe my best friend is treating me like this," Sheba mumbled.

"I can't believe you two got caught so easily," Ivan mumbled. Sheba and Felix both nearly jumped out of their skins. Sheba fixed him with a suspicious stare.

"Ivan! What do you want? Come to rub our imprisonment in our faces?" She tried to mind read him, remembered she couldn't, and pouted. The younger Jupiter Adept did likewise.

"You're too mean. I'mthe double agent. Right, Piers?"

The Lemurian, who was leaning against the back wall, nodded in confirmation. Felix snickered.

"Now that's just incredibly ironic!"

Ivan glared. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Felix doubled over in laughter. "Because you're tiny!"

Ivan gritted his teeth and ignored him. "Anyway, I've come to free you guys. The sanctuary is Jenna's room. Go find Isaac and Mia so you can tell them!"

He was gone, calling Garet's name loudly and claiming he'd spotted someone running down another corridor. Felix and Sheba glanced at each other, shrugged, then stepped out of the room into the corridor. Making sure no one was around, they started running.

"Where to first?"

Felix grabbed Sheba's wrist so she could keep up with him. "My room, then we'll look for Mia and Isaac. Looks like we should take Jenna's advice about clothing…"

It was eerily dark in Felix's cabin. Sheba shrugged off her cloak and accepted the ball of light from Felix, throwing her cape on Felix's bed. "Do you have elven boots?" she whispered.

Felix was already searching around under his bed. Sheba winced; the noises he made seemed thunderous in her keen ears. "Hurry, bring the light closer."

Sheba put the light down and hopped nervously from foot to foot. Finally Felix gave a cry of triumph, coming out from under the bed. "Found 'em – "

"Shh!" Sheba clapped a hand over his mouth and doused the light, adrenaline pumping. She could have sworn she'd heard footsteps…she pinched Felix's side, telling him silently to hide.

They both flattened their bodies down to the floor just as Jenna passed by the open cabin, steps as soft as a panther's. She paused at the door, giving the room a sweeping glance, then moved on.

Sheba's heart was pounding erratically as Jenna's footsteps faded away. She slowly got up, exhaling loudly. "Oh Procne," she muttered. "That was a close one."

Felix was already discarding his boots for the lighter elven shoes, grimacing at the tight fit. "Let's get going. I've got a feeling I know where Isaac and Mia are."

"Where?" Sheba pulled him out and dragged him out of the room. "Hurry, hurry."

"Den," Felix grunted as he was pulled along. "It's got the best view and Mia will think it's romantic."

"But we're playing a game."

"Mia is Mia. Though Isaac probably won't notice a thing."

"Of course. He's a boy."

Felix took offense, though Sheba couldn't see his face in the dark. They made their way through the corridors, doubling back once to avoid Garet, but otherwise avoided Jenna totally.

Upon entering the den, there was a muffled shriek. Then, "shh!" from Isaac.

Felix glanced knowingly at Sheba (the porthole letting some moonlight through so they could barely see one another). "It's us," the Jupiter Adept hissed. "Come on, hurry! I feel like every second Jenna is gaining on us…"

Mia crept out of a cul-de-sac between the bookcase and the wall, and Isaac tumbled out of a niche near the ceiling, cursing as he brushed dust off his clothing. "What are you guys doing here? What happened to going in different directions?"

Felix ignored the question. "Sheba, guard the doorway," he ordered, then whispered to Isaac and Mia, "do you know who the double agent is?"

"No." Isaac scowled, flicking his scarf over his shoulder. "But we did caught about, I don't know, TEN TIMES? I swear, Jenna has supersonic hearing…"

"Garet never caught you? Not even once?"

At the doorway, Sheba squinted down the hallway and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was just a shadow.

Isaac snorted. "Are you kidding? We were in plain view and he walked past us. No trouble there. So, who's the double agent?"

"Ivan."

Mia giggled. "That's really ironic."

"Right, right," Felix said impatiently, waving her words away. "The sanctuary is Jenna's room. We need to get there quickly."

"Someone's coming." Sheba's anxious voice pierced the quiet. "Hide, hide!"

There was a mad scramble to get concealed as Jenna entered the den, eyes flashing in the darkness. Evidently she thought the same way as Sheba did about people hiding in the den because of its 'romantic quality.' "Come out, come out, wherever you are," she called sweetly. "I can hear your hearts beating…"

Anyone else think that was as creepy as I think it was? Everyone was thinking simultaneously. Darn, I wish I were telepathic.

Her lantern light landed on Isaac, who was crouched behind the chaise longue. "I expected more from you," she told him, sounding disappointed.

Isaac glowered, shielding his eyes from the light. "Okay, okay! You caught me, now let's go."

"Uh-uh." Jenna tilted her head, listening. "There are others in here. Let's see…" She stepped over to the drawers and opened up a cabinet. "Aha. Come on out, Mia."

The healer sighed and crawled out from her cramped position. "Jenna, you're brutal."

"I know," the Valean responded cheerfully. "Now, where are Sheba and Felix?"

Isaac eyed her, pretending to be puzzled. "What do you mean? They're not in here."

"Lying is bad, Isaac." Jenna waved her finger at him sternly, then glanced up at the ceiling. "…I'm not even going to ask how you to got up there."

Felix let go and fell to the floor with a thump; Sheba followed less noisily. "Lead the way, beloved sister," Felix sighed.

Jenna ushered them all out the door.

"You're really making this too easy for me. I mean, hiding all in the same room? Who do you think I am, Kraden?"

A universal shudder. Jenna examined Sheba and Felix. "Though I'm glad you went through the trouble of trying to get stealthier outfits, just for me."

"Just for you, Jenna," Sheba sighed, putting her hands over her heart in sarcasm. Jenna beamed as they arrived in the doorway of the engine room and nudged all four of them in.

"Here we are! Piers, does this mean I win?"

Piers shook his head. "Not until you figure out who the secret supporter is."

Jenna scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. The lantern light flickered crazily and she stilled it with a flick of her finger. "That is such a pain. Now I have to get someone to watch these guys." She glanced off to the side, as if she had seen someone in the hallway. "Hey! Hey, you! Garet? Or Ivan?"

Sheba crossed her fingers behind her back and mentally prayed it was Ivan. Mia bit her lip.

"Ivan! Come over here!"

Isaac and Felix exchanged relieved glances.

"Coming!" Ivan shouted. "Hey, I looked all over the ship. Did you find them?"

"Yep." Jenna gestured with her lantern. "All four. I need you to go watch them while I find Garet and interrogate him. I think he's the double agent…after all, he hasn't captured a single person so far…"

"Okay." Ivan arrived in the doorway and fixed Isaac, Felix, Sheba, and Mia with a purely evil look. Mia shuddered for dramatic effect. "Why, hello there."

"Traitor," Isaac grumbled. He was saying that a lot these days.

"I'll give you twenty thousand gold to let us go," Felix offered. Ivan glared.

"Don't even try! I'm not that cheap."

"Forty thousand?" tried Felix.

Ivan turned to Jenna. "I've got this covered. You go get Garet…last I saw him he was hanging around the middle deck."

Jenna saluted smartly and stuck out her tongue at them before pivoting on her heel and leaving. Everyone watched her leave until her footsteps retreated into the distance. Then Ivan turned urgently to the four.

"Okay, you guys are free. Come on, I can't keep this up for long. Jenna's hard to lie to, it won't be long before she suspects something."

"Why was I stuck with such an evil sister?" moaned Felix, dragging Mia out the engine room. "Oh yeah, bye, Piers. Breathe a word of this to Jenna and I'll throw you to the kraken."

Piers smiled a smirk quite reminiscent to Alex's vampire smile (also patent pending). "Oh, you can count on me."

"Great, I'm screwed," Felix muttered.

After a few minutes, they arrived in Jenna and Sheba's cabin. Sheba whapped Isaac with a fuzzy slipper when she saw him glancing at Jenna's diary. "Don't you even think about it."

Isaac retracted his hand and looked as innocent as possible while sneaking a look at Jenna's desk. Mia sat down on Sheba's chair, looking up at Felix (who was staring in fascination at the girls' totally neat beds like he'd never seen anything like it). "So, what do we do now? Do we go tell Piers everyone got here?"

As if on cue, the lights flicked on, causing everyone to shield their eyes. "Owww," Sheba moaned. "So, we get cake?"

Piers strolled in, accompanied by the three guards. "You guys win!" he announced cheerfully. "Though I have to say it took you pretty long."

Sheba made a face at him when his back was turned. Garet put out everyone's lanterns with a snap of his fingers and frowned. "So, Ivan was the double agent all along? I knew it! That is so – "

"Ironic, I know!" Ivan shouted. "Arghhh, I'm never being guard again. Can I have some cake now?"

After a few – or many – slices of Felix's mille-feuille, everyone settled himself or herself down on deck to have some time to stargaze. Jenna was at the prow, silhouetted against the night sky as she closed her eyes and played the flute, her slender fingers flying down the length of the instrument to create a sweet melody. Sheba and Ivan were scrambling to change the sail as part of a race, Piers was one-fourth steering and three-fourths listening to Jenna, and Kraden was at the stern figuring out the orbital velocity of Weyard. Garet and Mia were the only ones actually stargazing. Isaac and Felix sat at the stairs leading below deck, swinging their legs over the side.

"Today was a good day." Isaac sighed contentedly, smoothing his golden hair out of his eyes. Felix glowered darkly as usual, scraping at the deck.

"You didn't have to deal with making cake while people were swordfighting through the kitchen – " Isaac smiled in apology – "or trying to braid your hair or eating your batter. And you're not the one who got beat up by your little sister because your friend – " he raised his voice so Piers could hear – "sold you out for a slice of cake and told her that you thought she was evil!"

Piers steered intensely (and innocently), totally focused on his job. Isaac snickered. "Awww, underneath all that wicked intent, Jenna is a sweet, innocent little girl."

Felix massaged his temples. "Somewhere under there."

"Hey, at least she's not as evil as you. Yet."

"Shut up." Felix used his death glare. Isaac almost fell down the stairs. "But today was fun, I guess."

"Yeah, Kraden didn't nag us about saving Weyard today at all."

There was a slight pause as Isaac and Felix ruminated upon deep things. Then Isaac sat up abruptly.

"…Uhhh, do you have any idea where we're headed?"

This was supposed to be a birthday present to myself, but it's late. It's 11:20. Hey, at least it's only a day late. I wanted to write a relaxing, humorous, pointless fic. And succeeded, at least in the pointless part. On the other hand, I made Felix and Jenna way OOC and barely talked about Garet, Piers, Mia, and Ivan at all. XD Don't judge me. (hides) But…I had fun writing this fic!