Inside, the ship's main-level corridor is fitfully lit by the single hanging lantern intact, against the wall near the adjoining corridor, and it silhouettes the Eeee's figure as he pulls the trigger on the crossbow. The loosed quarrel shoots from the weapon, and clatters as it skitters against the chitinous side of Elise's helm. Her ears ring from the impact, and the side of her muzzle stings as the chitin slams into it from the force of the bolt, but the helm holds, deflecting the shot past her, into the wall of the water closet behind her.

Sword raised, Elise makes forward to bring the blade down across the Eeee and she follows it forward. Hit or miss, she intends to get close enough to him to make herself a obstacle to any reloading or drawing of secondary weapons. She also prepares to grab him once she is certain of his end, in hopes of using his corpse as a shield or to toss it as a ram should whomever Lord haut Glas was pleading with around the corner armed.

The Eeee drops the crossbow as soon as he sees the bolt spent in vain, and it bounces uselessly off the ground and into the hallway beyond. His left wing lashes out in an effort to knock the lantern's flame out, but Elise's blade catches it, cleaving through the joint and partway through the membrane in one pass. He hisses with a suppressed scream, trying to draw his sword and dodge to the right, away from the armed woman.

Elise doesn't offer the man any quarter. She cannot allow herself to be pinned to the left of the privy, caught between this bat and the other who might lurk with haut Glas and however many others still hide below. She follows him, trying to force him that way instead, or to simply kill him if her blade can find its mark.

The Eeee dances away from Elise, his lighter, more agile frame giving him the advantage in mobility over her armored one – not to mention her limp. He finishes drawing his sword and makes a quick thrust for her abdomen.

The poodle may be slower of foot, but her sword remains as fast as ever. She flicks it out to parry the strike, which was made so clumsily that the Eeee loses his grip on the sword. The canid warrior sends it skittering away, ricocheting off the floor and down the corridor behind him. Cursing again, he scrambles backwards, trying to escape back into the night outside.

The poodle tries for a quick and passing trust, more concerned with what goes on behind her than the fleeing unarmed bat. There is still a armed opponent behind her she remembers.

The thrust goes wide, and the bat turns and bolts through the open door, his injured wing spattering fresher blood over the already bloody walls. Elise glances quickly over her shoulder at the corridor behind her, hearing footsteps. She spots a wild-eyed Dominic haut Glas, who looks to her as if in hope of support. His hands are out before him, palms up, in a cautionary gesture, presumably to the as-yet unseen person he was talking to before.

Elise draws her pistol. It may be empty, but given its make it would be rather difficult to determine that without putting one's eye to the barrel. She holds it in her free left hand, and edges up against the portside wall of the hallway trying to take up position where anyone outside would have to fire from the captain's quarters or similar areas of the starboard side to get the angle to shoot at her, using the frame of the doorway itself and the angle for cover. She hopes the position would require an enemy attacker from outside to need get too close to Sweet Destiny and hopes all the more she still has someone manning its defenses, or at least the ship itself would provide enough incentive for the enemy to remain away from the starboard side. Against the wall she aims the pistol towards where haut Glas lies, and waits for whomever hides there to round the corner. She keeps an eye behind her as well, sword up, to meet anyone who might charge behind her as well. She hopes the ruse works. "Surrender!"

The Gallee yells the shout with confidence, trying to startle whomever stands around the corner with her tone. Let him think us confident, she considers – though she herself is hardly confident at all.

Haut Glas flinches at her shout. From the side corridor, there's a moment of silent, then an equally confident voice retorts, "Drop your weapons, and come where I can see you, or Lady Katherine dies."

At that moment, the ship lurches again, a sickening grinding noise sounding from the starboard engine room.

From the side corridor, Elise hears two thumps, the first louder than the second. The female poodle manages to keep her balance, leaning against the wall for support, and so does Dominic. He lunges forward, into the side corridor.

And Elise follows after the male poodle, sliding down the wall towards the turn, then pushing off when she reaches the entrance to the privy and following him to the corner with pistol aimed and sword raised using the turn for a bit of cover.

The white poodle sees herself face with a confusing tangle of bodies. Haut Glas is bent, reaching for a fallen chitin sword, near the prone body of a canine who is struggling to get to his feet. A Gallah woman lies near him, bound hand and foot, whimpering through the gag on her muzzle. but squirming determinedly farther from both men, towards Elise and the main corridor.

Elise dashes past the bound Gallah woman, trying to get between her and the two struggling men as she raises her sword high. She aims for the canine, the one haut Glas struggles with, and attempts to strike him dead while he fights with the male poodle.

The Gallah barely has time to register her attack, still stunned from the fall. He gropes for his lost sword, head half turned towards Elise, as her blade drives through his back. He spasms at the blow, coughing, then slumps back to the floor. The sword slides out of him, blade slick and gleaming red in the flickering lamplight.

The dark-armored woman watches the man's life's blood run along her sword for but a second. "We leave," says Elise quietly. "Get your sword and unbind my sister. Beware, more remain." And the elder de Bellefeuille turns back to keep an eye on the hallway in both directions.

Dominic cuts loose the trembling Gallah, though she seems to cringe from his touch. While he works, he says, "I left de Ayde just below us. He was badly wounded but still alive. We were beset by several Eeee and mercenary guards. Your guardswoman was sorely injured as well – I am not sure if she'll have lasted even this long." Given the wounds still bleeding freely on him, calling someone else badly wounded seems dire indeed.

"Grant," the Gallah whispers in Katherine's voice, when Dominic frees her mouth from the gag. She struggles to get to her feet, limbs obviously weak from poor circulation, and haut Glas has to help her stand.

If Elise notices her sister's attempt to flee haut Glas, she pays it no mind. Let him think he has his prize. She nods slightly. "I trust you are able to go rescue Lord de Ayde, then." It's not a question. "I will tend to my sister."

"Where is he?" Katherine says, hoarsely. She leans against the wall, and slides forward on unsteady legs. Dominic hesitates, glancing at the disguised woman, then nods to Elise and moves out of the corridor.

"Oh, and haut Glas … your efforts are not forgotten here. Bring Lord de Ayde back, that we might entertain the notion of a double marriage," Elise calls after the man. She offers her sister her gun, and then her hand. "Come, Katherine."

The former poodle, her fur cropped short and dyed in splotchy grays and blacks, seems more interested in the gun than Elise's hand. She clutches both hands around the grip, barely able to keep the barrel from trembling even so, and shies from her sister's touch. She shoves herself forward on shaky legs, leaning against the wall, and only when it becomes clear that necessity demands it does she accept her sister's aid. "Grant … ," she whimpers as they enter the main corridor, looking to the ladder as Dominic vanishes down it.

The main deck, as it turns out, was cleared of what appears to be the final Eeee, who was killed by a lucky shot from one of the sailors on Sweet Destiny. The Gallah sailor cautiously came over to Siren to investigate, as the fighting appeared over, and helped to recover the barely-conscious Lord de Ayde from the lower deck. The infiltration party had successfully barricaded the crew in their quarters and in the engine room on their way up from the cargo hold, but met with stiff resistance as they tried to reach the passenger level, apparently from several Eeee and from a few of the guards from Siren.

When Sweet Destiny's few remaining uninjured people go to search the ship, they find the corpses of Siren's navigator and pilot are found in the navigator's room at the head of the ship, while the captain's lifeless body lies slumped near the wheel in the pilot's chamber. Navigator and captain were killed by sword; the pilot by a crossbow quarrel.

Lady de Bellefeuille orders the remaining crew left barricaded where they are, and the Destiny cut loose. The Gallah sailor from Destiny speaks to a man he knows in the engine room, through the barred door, while he's down there to help recover de Ayde, and offers earnestly to the noblewoman that Siren's crew was innocent in all of this. "Ma'am, the guards only helped the Eeee because they thought our people were pirates, skulking aboard."

"And you would stake all our lives on that chance?" asks Elise. Beyond the slits of her battered helmet he can see her looking at him, glassy and worried eyes stare at him partially veiled by the way she squints in pain. "Ask Grant. Someone ask Grant how many Eeee there were when they boarded … "

"Seven," Katherine says. She sits slumped against the rail of Sweet Destiny, still cradling the pistol in her hands. She has a glassy-eyed look, having refused to go below decks until Grant was brought aboard, but even when he was, she did not follow him, perhaps lacking the strength, and no one left to assist her. "There were seven Eeee. And one Gallah – the one you killed, 'lise." She looks at her sister. "The crew didn't know. They kept me tied in the room under covers for the whole trip, after we boarded. They wouldn't let anyone in … careful not to let anyone on board see me … told the captain I was airsick."

Elise looks between Katherine and the Gallah crew member, then nods slightly. "Save them. Go," she says simply. And then she begins to reload her remaining pistol, arming herself – just in case. While the Gallah goes to handle her order she offers another to the crew, "Prepare to take on more people. Arm yourselves and make ready … " In case we are wrong, she thinks, but does not say.

"The rest of you make ready to cut the lines at a moment's notice," hollers Elise in a hoarse yell.

In all, there are forty people left on the crippled Siren – confused, distraught, and mistrustful, but not hostile. Destiny's captain and one of their sailors confer with the Siren's crew for a while, after surveying the damage on the ship, while some of the sailors try to patch the damaged rigging. After a short conference, Destiny's captain returns to his ship to discuss the situation with Elise – haut Glas having collapsed while bringing de Ayde back.

"Ma'am, the situation's both better and worse than it looks," the captain reports, while Siren's ship medic tends to Elise's injuries. "The good news is, we don't think The Siren's Tail is going to go down – not soon, anyway. The bad news is, I'm not sure how we can get it to port. Their crew damaged the port engine when they did an emergency shut down shortly after we boarded. There's some damage to the ship from it, but nothing that'll tear it apart … we think.

"But they've got no navigator and no pilot. Their crew can try to fill in … but I'd be really worried about leaving them out here undermanned like this. We can tie a tow line to it, and bring it with us – I spoke with Mage Shanna and she says she can provide enough wind for us both, at least for a little while. Trouble is, that'll slow us down a lot. And we'd have to go to the Stygian Paquebot. They've got healers there, but nothing like the treatment Lord haut Glas can afford in Rephidim. And the lords … ma'am, they're both hurt bad," the captain concludes, nervously. "Not to mention your ladyship."

"What of my Light Mage? Where is he?" asks the lady poodle. She sits in her chair, leaning back for support as the medic tends to the bolt wound around her midsection, her breastplate and helmet having been removed along with a few other pieces.

"He's been helping explain the situation to Siren's people and keep them calm, m'lady. I think he's still over there." the healer answers, as the captain tries to recollect.

The Gallee nods slightly, and winces more than a little for the effort. Her face hurts and her side aches worse. In words made unsteady by pain, she asks, "Do you think it would be possible to utilize that man as a navigator, in conjunction with our Air Mage perhaps?"

"Maybe," the captain concedes. "But we can't leave Mage Shanna on Siren – Destiny's got no engines. Siren would do better without an air mage than us – they ought to be able to rig up their remaining engine to work at some capacity. And if we're staying with Siren, she doesn't need a navigator."

"And Lord de Ayde and Lord haut Glas may well die for our choice of ports, should we stay. But … ," the dark-armored Gallee considers a moment, glancing towards the deck where her sister rests before continuing, " … I do not think Lord de Ayde would put his life above forty-some others … Very well. Maybe your preparations. Have our Air Mage prepare the necessary spells, and our Light Mage keep vigil for other craft and attempt to contact the Stygian Paquebot and see if he cannot get help to us sooner. Is there anything else?"

"No, ma'am," the captain answers, and adds, "As you command." He salutes her, and departs the dining room.

Elise returns the salute with a nod, a stray thought causing her to wonder if she can even manage a proper salute after so long of going without. She rises from her chair after the her wound is seen to and proceeds out on to the deck to see to another, deeper, consideration – and the offer that perhaps she might find some comfort there, too.

After a little searching, Elise locates her sister in the cabin Grant was placed in. She finds herself with time to be shocked by Katherine's appearance. Dirty, thin, wan and haggard, she doesn't seem to have made an effort to even clean up since her rescue, much less brush out her now close-cropped hair or scrub away the layers of dye in her fur. She sits ensconced in a chair a few feet from de Ayde's bed, watching the sleeping black poodle. Her hands are folded over the blanket in her lap, and her eyes are curiously dry, her countenance free of the kind of agitation and even hysteria she's displayed before during times of crisis.

Trying to enter as quietly as chitin plate allows, the elder of the de Bellefeuille walks to stand inside the room with her hands folded behind her back and around a small bag she had brought aboard with her things. "Katherine." The elder sister bows her head slightly, and speaks her sisters name with such tired relief it might well sound like more prayer than greeting.

The younger canine turns her head from her vigil to look at her sister, and in that gaze, for one moment, Elise catches sight of all the horror, fear, and sorrow she expected to see so much more vividly. Then Katherine bows her head and closes her eyes, "Elise," she whispers. "I always knew you would come."

Elise stands there quietly for a moment, her own head lower further till the poodle just stares at the floor. She tries to remember what she was supposed to say, the words that would comfort Katherine, the joy she would speak … and cannot find the words. Struggling in the silence Elise reaches a hand, gloved stained where blood trickled past her gauntlet and rubs her eyes – staining the glove with tears as well as blood. When did I start to cry? she wonders. Crying and unable to think of anything grand or soothing to say, all she can do is hold up the bag and offer, "I … I brought my things. My comb, sweet sister. My comb to comb your hair like … " I never combed her hair. " … like I should have."

"My hair … " Katherine reaches to touch her head, where thin fuzz has replaced her once-long tresses. Her fingers tremble, brushing over her scalp, and her mouth twists, and she closes her eyes again. "It will be all right, 'lise," she says, her voice unsteady. "It will grow back."

That was not what I meant to offer. Silently Elise limps forward, her stride made all the worse by the bolt that had earlier lodged in her side. She walks right up to stand over her sister, and Katherine can see the blood and the tears and the bruises that cover her older sister. Elise eases herself down next to her sister, on the floor beside the bed and her chair, and hugs her little sister so very tightly.

Katherine stiffens at the hug, hunching her shoulders as if afraid. The tension doesn't ease from her as Elise holds her, but she does reach out, awkwardly, to pat her sister's shoulder. "Thank you, Elise," she whispers. "Thank you."