In the early hours of the voyage, Jace had been looking forward to Sheiral’s recovery… which he had no doubt she would make, as there seemed to little point to his rescuing her and their escaping the island on what was clearly a magical ship if she never woke up… so that she could be suitably impressed with the way he had discovered a magical ship and arranged for their passage from the island.
Her natural gratitude, though, evaporated before she regained consciousness. Even though Jace had to admit he didn’t deserve full credit for their much-improved situation, he thought she’d at least be happy that they were no longer running or crawling through a tiny cave… but she was positively distraught to find herself once again on board a ship, especially a smaller one without a well-stocked galley, a competent cook, or a bed.
“But you were a prisoner on that ship!” Jace had said, after taking a few moments to register the absurd and lengthy initial complaint.
“A prisoner with a cabin,” she had replied. “Now I’m strung up in a net in a tiny hold that smells like fish!”
“That fish is paying for our passage,” was Jace’s response.
To that, she’d responded, “I didn’t ask for you to rescue me!”… and that proved to be her all-purpose conversational ender every time he tried to engage her in conversation.
From that point on, he avoided conversation with her as much as possible. As much as it seemed that she felt the same way, though, she kept striking them up. When she realized that the captain of the vessel was harboring a cabin that even had if not a proper bed than at least a bunk, she tried to enlist Jace’s help in convincing her to relinquish it, and then bent his tiny round ear to complain about the woman’s unreasonableness at every opportunity.
By the end of the second day, he’d begun to dread her voice even more than he did Loki’s.
By the fourth day, it was not even a contest any more. Loki’s menacing comments became powerless over Jace once he realized that Loki himself was effectively powerless. Although Katryn relied on him to make the boat go, and although he had no problem speaking his mind no matter how awful the thoughts it contained at the moment were, he seemed to be totally cowed by her. He never so much as touched Jace… or Sheiral, as far as he could tell.
When it came to directing the Horizon Chaser across the endless waves, he seemed to be all-powerful, but other than that it seemed to Jace that he might as well have been an intangible spirit.
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