"He's just mad that I was right about you." Markus said, smirking as he pulled the ramrod out of the barrel and back in its holder, going through the practice motions of reloading that had been drilled in him since adolescence. He could multitask whilst reloading as easily as one could both breathe and walk. 

"About me?" Emmaline asked curiously, turning her golden head to face him. 

"Aye," he remarked nonchalantly. "I told Morgan you were valuable to the crew." 

"You did?" She asked with a big smile, clearly pleased and placing a hand on his arm. 

Markus laughed. "Don't let it go to your head. It might be near empty but that doesn't mean there's a lot of room." Thick skulls and all that, he thought to himself, letting her make the logical conclusion. She caught on quick and gave a huff, raising her hand to smack him across the face. The swordsman caught the arm before it could touch him, snickering. "You can smack me later, but not in front of the men." 

"Oh, so you can insult me but I can't slap you?" Emmaline asked, withdrawing her hand like a whip and placing her hands on her hips. She did a middling job at trying to appear as an imperious sorceress when she asked "How is that fair?" 

"It's [i]not[/i] fair. I'm the captain." He assured her. Their faces were just inches apart now, an almost palpable tension between them. The men on the deck had gathered what minds they still had, feeling a second hangover that was nearly as bad as the one they had gained from Sartosa. Considering Tobaro's reputation, a third one was coming soon. 

Before the captain and his woman could begin an argument in earnest, Klaus stirred just a few strides from them. The scholar seemed disoriented, but unharmed saved a nasty bump on his head. Markus and Emmaline blinked and turned to regard the shaken fellow. "Herr Klaus, you were correct." Markus commended him, lowering himself to pick the man up, holding Klaus steady and keeping him from falling back onto the deck. "You'll get a share and a half once we make it to Tobaro." 

"Let's just get going, yeah?" Klaus replied weakly. 

The rocks of Fool's Rock were still an ever present danger, reaching out with a near perceptible need to scratch the ship. The following day, they were grounded twice, and Markus reorganized the crew into three teams. One on the boat, one to help move it, and another to shoot at anything that moved in the water. Thankfully, by the beginning of the third day, they managed to break through the rockline and find three miles of clear, open water to Tobaro. The only physical threat after the mermaids and the rocks was a stray wyvern attack that ripped open Brod's arm, but nothing that couldn't be healed. The beast had been shot at until it fled, wounded and screeching across the rocks before it disappeared. Now, after making good time and with no possible pursuers, they could relax for a few days at the extravagant City of Fools.