In mirror to the captain’s gesture, Ayla paused her stand to resume sitting and folded her hands into her lap as he spoke. She released a deep exhale as he said he was not forcing her to abandoned ship and nodded, attention rapt on the man as he continued to speak. 

With each reiteration of how many ways she could cause the contract to become invalidated and thereby rob this generous human of his livelihood, Ayla’s mind struggled under the weight of her folly. She had been so careless with regards to another, prioritizing her future over the life someone had already established for themselves without utilizing the backs of the less fortunate. If he’d been another of the sort who despised her for the shape of her ears, Ayla would have far less guilt over realizing just how trepidatious the situation had become.

Then he stood above her, haloed in the sun of her only hope for freedom. 

[i]“Your commitment to that freedom is no longer just your own.”[/i]

The warning resonated with gale force against her heart. Her success was not only for herself now, but for the life and soul of every unknowing individual aboard that ship. She looked to the waters at The Silver Wing bobbing in the distance and felt the pang of responsibility she had accidentally burdened herself, and the captain, with. 

She shot to standing, posture perfect and chin high.

“Captain Church, I will find freedom. You shall deliver me hence. If the wind loses its nerve, I will be the breath your sails need.”

As she proclaimed her most devout intent, the vague sense of rainy forest surrounded the pair again. The breeze which had been coursing in all directions fell still at once, then surged upward from the ground. Emboldened by her communion with the earth during his venture to the lighthouse, the very winds bowed to her resolve and proffered their service to her cause. The quick up-burst fell still just as suddenly and the void of motion was blatant around them. 

For a moment, nature went mute to allow for Ayla to declare her intentions and form a contract of its own with Captain Church. The powers of the greatest mother to all life sanctioned the agreement in a quiet warm embrace upon the lands where chill and tumult were known to reign.