Elara laughed lightly. “I can’t say I’ve ever met a pyurgist who wasn’t at least a bit crazy. There was this one I used to work with who would make Kisaki’s… episodes seem almost serene.” She shook her head ruefully at the memories. “Though I couldn’t really blame him,” she added. “You can only work at the spellcrafter’s guild for so long before you’re just [i]itching[/i] to blow something up.”

Elara accepted the drink with a smile. Alcohol was definitely welcome after such a long day. The smile faded however as she heard Grady’s question. She shifted in her seat, taking a large gulp from the drink in her hand. She was quiet for a moment.

“Once,” she admitted. Elara sighed, taking another drink before she explained. “There were these two years, right before I joined your crew,” she said, nodding to him. “It was just a little while after I’d left the guild. No one would hire me, didn’t want some young girl flying their ships.” She frowned in distaste. “I started to get pretty desperate for work, and of course I didn’t want to return home at the time... So, when I finally found a job, I accepted right away. The ship was a piece of crap, but I didn’t particularly care. It was supposed to be a month long job. I’d been hired by the first mate, so I didn’t even meet the captain until I was already on board.” She scoffed. “It was the first and last time I ever made that mistake.” 

Elara paused briefly, a flicker of anger in her eyes. “...The bastard was completely insane, in the worst way. Half the crew was scared and starving. I was on there three weeks before the son of a bitch set his own damn ship on fire in the middle of the night. It didn’t really end well.”

She stared off at nothing for a moment, lost in the memory, eyes hard. Crew members had been burned alive on that ship while others suffocated in the lower levels. A few had jumped overboard. The ship had practically fallen out of the sky once the engine blew. She’d managed to land the thing in the water off some coast to the east. Most of the crew members hadn’t made it. There’d been one young girl in particular who’d reminded Elara of one of her younger sisters... The captain had unfortunately made it onto the shore, but that was as far as he’d gotten. It had been the only time Elara had lost control of her aeurgy. It was not however, a moment she regretted. Elara had a rather protective nature, and to see such ruin come to a crew and ship that she had been sailing... It had been rather trying.

It was a relief when more of the crew members started to appear in the wardroom. Elara cleared her throat and straightened in her chair. “Good,” she said. “We should start this meeting soon. Carter’s good with sailing, but the boy still gets a bit nervous. I’d like to make sure he’s not flying us in the wrong direction,” she joked, referring to the crew member she had sailing the ship in her place.