Noelle, as she spoke, appeared as some sort of aedra as she spoke; an effect Sarel was sure had something to do with his exhaustion since his vision had become so pallid and sensitive to light. She seemed so beautiful and gentile, in fact, that Sarel almost had no time to be offended, but that came in time. 

She was worried about the amount of space Sarel would be able to devise under the stressing conditions. And it was simple really, a great deal actually: 2 dozen or so. That was assuming Sharee allowed it, but Sarel figured that if she did, which was likely, she would have to do it to such a degree that it was almost overwhelmingly worth it. And Sarel could provide that. He’d done the same thing during his journey to Akaviir. The only difference was that he had far less access to materials and seeds. It would be easy business to create a step ladder sort of platform, decending as it went, most certainly somewhere at the aft. The design could be improved by magically infused clear glass pots in order to double the space available. The mages on the ship could come together to form a semi-permanent barrier for protection against rough winds, and ballista bolts— and especially against fireballs. 

But the girl wouldn’t hear this. And she wouldn’t hear about the obvious medicinal, alchemical, and transcendental properties of [i]herba[/i] either. She dismissed Sarel and left. Sarel searched his mind for a shred of a memory that he’d done something bad to her. Perhaps is criticism during the meetings with the captain. He was a little trenchant, but this is how Dunmers are, she must know that. 
Serge came back as Sharee and Malakaus rowed off from the tiny bay. Sarel felt a pang of paranoia as he thought about them leaving us at the mercy of jungle cats, more bandits, or a devious plot of their own making. They could very well be going back to the boat in order to leave the team behind, more loot for them. 

Serge had successfully attached the crossbow to his wrist, he stared at it’s machinery as he leaned against the wall near his Dunmer pal. 

“Imagine if they didn’t come back.” Sarel said as a half joke. 

“That would be something, wouldn’t it?” Serge asked as if not paying attention. 

“It would.”

“Would you kill them?” Serge asked with a new interest.

“I don’t know. Probably not. I don’t think there’s a time in my life I ever would have either. Would you?” Sarel asked back.

“Maybe. A lot of my stuff is on that boat. I’ve sunk a good bit of time into this. It might be worth my satisfaction to hunt them down if they betrayed me.”

“Do you think you could kill Sharee?” Sarel asked, aware of how absurd the question was, and not ignoring Noelle’s presence. 

“Maybe. If I fought as dirty as she would, maybe. The trouble is, I don’t know if I’m clever enough.”

“You’re plenty clever,” Sarel responded without thinking. It was true either way.

“Thank you, but not that clever. You could.”

“If I wanted to, sure. Anything’s possible. She could just as easily kill me.”

“True, and then there’s Malakaus to contend with.”

“Assuming he’d stay loyal. We did make a pact, didn’t we. Gods what was that?” Sarel questioned with a chuckle. 

“Not quite sure, spur of the moment [i]fraternidad[/i]?” Serge responded with a boyish tone. The duo laughed a little. 

“I’m feeling better already.” Sarel said with a humor as he sat up. It was true, at least for him. His magicka reserves were kind enough to fill themselves, not all people had that privilege. He could feel his strength returning. 

“Laughter is the best medicine.” Serge opined. 

“Ha, tell that to a healer of Mara, or Kynerith. They would say alchemy is the medicine of the future.” Sarel said with a confident worldiness. 

“Alchemy is an antiquated school of medicine Sarel, for the Atmorian hunter gatherer. We’re gentlemen of the Fourth Era, magick is our muse of medicine now.” Serge insisted with a scholarly intonation. For all the jokes and stupidity, these were not stupid men. 

“Not ordinary alchemy, that’s the beauty of it. It’s very tiny, very small. There are people who say diseases are not magickal, but of physical origin, just too small for ordinary eyesight. Sometimes, I think I can see these tiny bugs.”

“That sounds absolutely mental, Sarel. Nothing like that exists in any sort of journal.” Serge said easily, dismissively. 

“Just because we haven’t studied it yet does not mean it does not exist. We’d need a sort of internal telescope. Rather than looking at the stars, looking closely at our own world.”

Serge stared at his friend a while, looked at the dark horizon. “Are you sure you haven’t had any Moon Sugar lately?”

“Bah,” Sarel exclaimed, pushing Serge off the wall, “Damn you.”

Serge lost a little bit of balance but regained it further on. He looked around after laughing a little, saw Noelle on a bit of a mission. “Hey, gir… Noelle! Sharee is sending men to help us move all these things, no need to worry just yet, they won’t be here for another hour or so. Have a seat!”