The four Returners - “Kweh!” - the five Returners waited until hightide had come and gone and let the receding waters of lowtide pull their cutter out from the cave and into the open sea. Yeri was in her element, bossing Seulgi and Irene around on the deck while Joy sat at the helm, begrudgingly doing as the she was instructed.

“I forgot you used to be a smuggler,” the queen grumbled as she struggled to hold the ship steady while Irene and Seulgi tried to tie down an unruly boom.

“Tie it…! Just tie it to the- no, not like that!” Yeri barked and gestured at the waving sail. “Use a- you know what? It’s fine. Yup, just leave it like that. I don't care, as long as it doesn’t move,” she sighed as Seulgi finally lashed it in place.

Yeri looked up at Joy, who was finally able to relax a little as the ship stopped swerving around, and went back to her question. “It wasn’t a bad gig, I’ll admit. The old gang cut everything pretty evenly, and hey, I got to travel,” Yeri explained. She fell silent after that, feeling the rise and fall of the small ship’s hull on the rolling waves. She had never quite lost her sea legs, even after all this time. So much had happened since she had last set foot on a ship.

Seulgi, however, had never been sailing before, and as Joy tried to gently maneuver them around a swell, the rancher nearly lost her balance and tumbled into Irene who was leaning against the railing.

“Ah-!”

“I’m sorry!” Seulgi apologized as she attempted to regain her footing. She flailed around as she tried to reach past Irene to brace herself against the railing.

“Just be careful!” Irene admonished as she held Seulgi steady with a grip on her shoulders, and kicked the rancher's feet into a wider stance. “Bend your knees. A little more- yes.”

Seulgi did as she was told, letting her knees bend slightly with the rocking of the ship, instead of trying to stiffly brace herself against waves. She put her hands on Irene’s arms as the shorter girl kept a hold on her shoulders. “Oh, yeah, that’s much better,” Seulgi admitted with a little laugh. If the brim of her hat hadn’t been blocking her view as she stared down at her feet, Seulgi might have been able to glance up and see Irene’s faint smirk.

+++

Dear mom and dad,

You’re probably wondering where I am-

Seulgi crossed out the line and sat back in the deskchair of the captain’s cabin. Miraculously, there were two homing pigeons roosting in a special hutch built into the wall, used for communique to the Returners’ hideouts. Joy had explained to her that she was going to use one to send a message back to one of their bases, and that if Seulgi wanted to add a brief letter to her parents, she was welcome to.

But what could she possibly tell them after disappearing without a trace?

I’m sorry I left so suddenly without telling you where I was going. A lot of things happened, and I ran into some Returners-

She balled the piece of paper up and tossed it aside.

Irene side-stepped the litter as she walked over to the modest writing desk. “... Is this a bad time?” she asked.

Seulgi was surprised at the way Irene had come up behind her so soundlessly, but she shook her head and reached around her to pick up the piece of paper. She should probably find a better way to dispose of it than to just throw it on the floor of the ship that people died trying to rescue them in. "N-no, I'm just... no, it's not a bad time. What's up?"

As Seulgi sat back up she noticed Irene had the Imperial soldier’s sword she had been using, and Irene held it out to her.

“Joy thought I should… refine your technique a bit. And I agree.” There seemed to be more than just Seulgi’s swordsmanship skills that would need to be refined if she were going to be of any help to them in a fight, but Irene wasn’t exactly willing to go full drill sergeant on the poor girl.

But a two-hour practice session that concluded with Seulgi slumped against the railing of the deck, sweating profusely and trying to catch her breath suggested she may have pushed the ranch hand a little too hard anyway.

You can take the girl out of the Imperial Army, but…

“Hold on!” Seulgi gasped as she stripped off her hat and let her head hang back. “Just… give me a minute… just a minute…” and after a few breaths, she looked up again and was a little perturbed to see a hint of a smirk on Irene’s face. She felt herself grin and she stuck her swordpoint into the deck to get some leverage as she pulled herself back up.

There was something about seeing Irene so pleased with herself that made Seulgi want to push further, like she wanted to try to prove something to the smaller girl, and maybe wipe that smile right off her face in the process.

“Okay,” Seulgi said, trying to banish the weariness from her limbs as she gripped her blade. “What’s next?”

“What’s next?” Irene asked, blinking at her. She had been sure Seulgi would be done after their little break. She wouldn’t be surprised if Seulgi would be sore for days after such a workout.

But… “Alright ranch hand, let’s go through it all again, then.” If Seulgi wanted more, she’d give her more. “Downstroke! Cross guard! Hold it right there. What did I say about your wrist?” Seulgi was already winded again, not at all recovered from that brief respite, but she obediently adjusted her grip as she held the blade up in a block, parallel to the deck.

It had been a couple years since Irene had been promoted to her final station in the Imperial army, and generals rarely worked with new recruits - certainly not to train them, anyway. Everything she was trying to teach Seulgi came from the lessons from her own personal instructors, and she was doing her best to try to translate her fencing techniques for Seulgi’s longsword.

Without warning, Irene brought her sabre down hard against Seulgi’s sword, and there was a sharp ring as steel met steel. Seulgi hadn’t even seen her draw her blade. “Good,” Irene said quietly, as Seulgi kept steady under her attack. “But now we’re going to go over ripostes,” she began. In a slow, deliberate motion, Irene reached out and carefully pulled the tip of Seulgi’s blade towards herself until it rested against the pale skin of her neck. “After you parry, keep your sword touching mine, as you bring it straight across to attack.”

Seulgi was reluctant to bring her blade anywhere near her, especially as she watched Irene subtly lift her chin and swallow. Seulgi had woken up more than once during the night remembering the way she had cut straight through that soldier’s face as he lay there defenseless in a foot of water.   

Irene stepped away and fell into a profiled stance. “Cross guard!” she barked as she lunged, and Seulgi barely brought her sword up in time to block Irene’s powerful strike. The petite girl smiled faintly. “Good. And now…” she prompted, and Seulgi obediently, albeit slowly, pushed her sabre away once again and hovered the tip of her sword above Irene’s shoulder.

“Seulgi. Are you tired?” Irene asked, and Seulgi shook her head, even as she blinked the sweat out of her eyes. “Then focus,” Irene chided as she once again pushed Seulgi’s sword against her neck.

“You need to get used to the follow-through. An enemy isn’t going to stand still and wait for you to make up your mind.”

“But you’re not an enemy,” Seulgi mumbled in her own defense.

And Irene looked at her for a long, silent moment, feeling the cool tip of Seulgi’s sword against her skin.

“Again!”

“Why are you pushing her so hard when she’s going to receive the treatment, too?” Heechul asked, watching the way Irene doggedly fell to one knee as she barely dodged her maestro’s blade. He had learned a lot from his first… failed experiment, and was much more confident with this new strain of the injection he had developed. “She’ll be the perfect match to the Witch: together they'll be Fire and Ice.”

The fencing maestro stepped back and evaluated his young pupil for openings, even as he answered. “I have been told to teach the Witch my art as well. The Emperor wants them both to be the perfect soldiers in every way- HA!” he shouted as he suddenly lunged at Irene. She parried and went for a riposte, but the maestro reversed the positions of their blades with a flick of his wrist, and he touched the tip of his sabre against her chest, right above her heart.

Heechul knew the master swordsman didn’t believe in the Empire’s use of magic and had nothing but contempt for his work. But Heechul had his apprehensions with the maestro’s ethics as well, as he watched Irene begin to tear up in frustration.

The instructor took her wrist in his hand and positioned her back in her parry from before. He put their sabres in a bind and made her angle her blade slightly more off to the side.

“You need to commit to the defense first. Close your own openings, and then you can worry about the attack,” he instructed, as he slid his blade along hers to demonstrate how he was more effectively blocked in this manner.

“Protect yourself, Irene. That’s what’s most important.”

Heechul slowly crossed his arms. Maybe there was something he and the maestro could both agree on after all.

Irene finally took a step back and fell into her fencer’s stance, and Seulgi was suddenly sorry she had ever wished to wipe that smirk off of her face, because Irene’s expression was just as emotionless now as it had been back on the Veldt.

“Again!”

+++

Dear mom and dad,

Please don’t worry about me. I am safe, and with friends. I have decided to join the Returners and we’re on our way to-

“... by the way, where are we heading?” Seulgi asked, looking over at Joy who was sprawled out on the one bed on the ship. They rest of them would be sleeping in the hammocks below deck with Boko, but the queen had decided to call rank and take the captain’s cabin for herself.

Joy pushed herself up on her elbows, glad to have some relief from her boredom. Inheriting one of the most technologically advanced kingdoms in the World of Balance meant there was never a shortage of things for her to tinker with or modify. But now the queen was stuck out here in the middle of the ocean without any form of distraction, and it made her fingers twitch. There was too much to think about, and the long silences that filled the hours of their journey were oppressive.

“We’re heading to Albrook,” Joy replied. “We’ll stow the ship at the port there, stock up on supplies, and then plan on how we’re going to infiltrate Vector.”

“Wait, we’re heading to Vector so soon?” Seulgi asked, turning in her seat. She had this impression that the Gestahlian capital was this massive military complex from the way her brother had described it to her. She knew that he had never seen it before, either, but as he was a part of the front lines of the resistance she felt she could trust him.

Joy gave her a small smile. “You’re new to our little rebellion, but trust me, this phase of the plan has been a long time in coming, and now that we have Irene-” but she cut herself off.

Seulgi simply nodded, misunderstanding Joy’s hesitation. Irene had proven herself to be quite formidable in a battle, but were they really going to try to bring down the Empire from inside its own walls… with just the four of them?

“Are we… going in alone?” Seulgi asked hesitatingly.

“And with whatever other strays we seem to keep picking up along the way,” she said with a wink before laying back down.

Seulgi looked back down at her letter to her parents. So they were on their way to Albrook, the southernmost city on the Southern Continent, and then they’d march inland to Vector. It seemed like she had joined up with the Returners just in time for the big , and she didn’t feel the least bit prepared for it. Her arms were still throbbing from the simple drills Irene had put her through.

I have decided to join the Returners and we’re on our way to Albrook, and then on to Vector. We’re going to try to put a stop to all of this, and I hope you can understand why I need to help.

There is so much more I want to tell you, but I’m not even sure that this letter will make it to you, so I will wait until I see you again. I love you.

Always,
Seulbear

PS: Boko is here with me too, so please don’t worry about him!

Seulgi read over her brief note again, then carefully rolled it up into a small tube shape. “Thanks for waiting for me to finish. I felt like I had so much to say before, but when I sat down, I didn’t even know where to start,” she sighed, handing off the tiny paper scroll to Joy as the queen sat up again. She took it and wrapped it up inside of her own letter she had already composed.

She handed the bundle back to Seulgi. “You’re from Mobliz, I’m sure you know how homing pigeons work,” she said. “You can send it when you’re ready.”

Seulgi nodded dutifully as she went to the small hutch and peered in. The two pigeons blinked at her through the lattice doors, tilting their heads this way and that. Mobliz was such a remote village; the only way they received post was either by boat, or via these little pigeons. But she sincerely doubted these two knew their way to Mobliz directly.

“Where did you say the Returner’s base was?” she asked.

“It's not our base, really, it's just one of the hideouts." It was little more than a cache of supplies, and Joy bitterly recalled how they had been followed back to it in their flight from Doma and ambushed. "It's near Barren Falls, in the mountains between Doma and Mobliz. If… if anyone is still there, I told them to hand-deliver that message to your family.” It was the least they could do. But if no one was left… “But there’s always the possibility that-”

“I’m sure someone must still be…” Seulgi interrupted, but then paused and glanced away. “Someone must have survived,” she ended quietly.

How strange.

Was she still clinging to a little bit of hope about her brother even now? She paused with her hand on the latch to the roost. Is that why she couldn’t bring herself to write the words themselves in her letter to her parents?

Joy frowned as she watched her, guessing her thoughts. She wanted to say that it was possible. Who could really know for sure? The three of them hadn’t exactly checked through every inch of the grounds at Castle Doma to confirm for themselves, but the conversations they had overheard from the Imperial soldiers as they took occupation had been pretty clear on that one point: every man, woman, and child had been murdered in one of the most cowardly, dishonorable sieges in history.

“We still have a job to do, Seulgi. We need you with us - we're going to need all the help we can get - but only if you’ll actually be able to do the job. Basically what I’m saying is, will you be able to focus on the mission?” Joy didn’t mean to be so cold-hearted about it, but they were getting ready to go right into the heart of the Empire, and none of them could afford to be distracted. “You can always stay on the ship and… wait for us instead, if it’s too much for you,” she offered.

But Seulgi shook her head and opened the hutch. She slipped the rolled up papers inside the tube tied to one of the pigeon’s feet, and carefully took the bird into her hands. “No, I’m coming with you. I want to do what I can,” she said quietly, but firmly. “Everything else can wait until we’re finished.”

Joy gave Seulgi a nod of approval, and watched her exit the cabin. It was hard to not get attached to all of the little misfits they kept finding on their quest to stop Gestahl’s campaign, and Seulgi was no exception. If they somehow made it through all of this, she wondered if she wouldn’t be able to interest Seulgi in joining her Queen’s Guard. But she supposed she was getting a little ahead of herself.

Out on the deck, Seulgi watched the pigeon flap away until she couldn’t tell its form from the wisps of clouds drifting about on the horizon. Yeri came up to stand beside her, and Seulgi wondered if the blonde had anyone she would write to if she could. Joy hadn’t even asked the two other girls if they had wanted to include messages to go along with Seulgi’s, and it suddenly struck her as odd.

“You didn’t want to write to anyone?” she asked the shorter girl.

Yeri smiled as she looked out at the sea, watching the drifting clouds. “Nope!”

She had long since said her goodbyes.