Alptraum, Autumn-Storm and Nekara travel northward by riverboat, coming to Northern Shore, then arranging to ride on a fishing vessel along the coast west and south out of the Sea of Ice and along the western coast of Ai.

Twenty days before Candlemass, Alptraum has another disturbing dream – this one not even on a holiday – in which he witnesses a battle between two mages, an Eeee and a Fnerf, in the realm of Zakaro, and he finally learns the name of the strange winged "Rhian", Envoy. He witnesses Zakaro's destruction, then wakes. He goes up on the deck to speak with Nekara, and then hears some strange noises in the mist. A Gallisian galleon is patroling the coast, and Alptraum alerts the captain, so that they can alter course, taking a calculated risk of heading into waters closer to shore, in order to avoid the other ship in the fog. Fortune is with them, as they evade detection.

Much later in the trip, on Candlemass, Alptraum is caught off guard as the ghost pirate cursing the "gold" he's carrying materializes. Alptraum flies away from the ship, drawing the ghost after him, and Nekara pursues the Korv, having spied him. Alptraum dispels the ghost by touching him, then tries to explain to Nekara the story of the curse. When Alptraum goes to sleep that night, he focuses on the Sea of Souls, and wills himself to go there. He conjures up not only Nekara in his dream, but the Korv pirate, Klaus Schmidt, and his entire airship. Nekara is very much put off balance by this turn of events, as Alptraum seems quite at home in this spirit realm by now. Alptraum learns more of Klaus's story, and theorizes that the sorcerer in Klaus's tale may well be the very same one they were pursuing through Sylvania.