Page 77 of A Yulean Sister’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped

Bee was there, holding the helm to the right, trying to correct best as they could.

They made eye contact with me. “I’m trying to steer her back, Cap,” they said. “It’s just a bit difficult with the tide.”

I approached them quickly. “Don’t pull too hard right,” I instructed. “It will pull too far and damage the router.” With the way the ship was scraping, damage was going to be expected, but we wanted to mitigate as much as possible.

“Aye, aye,” Bee said, letting up on their tight pull of the handles.

The scraping quickly became horrendous. Every sound warning of a new breach that was surely being formed. But there was nothing to do at this point other than wait it out to see what would happen.

The rock had reached the stern and that was when I heard it. The telltale sign of the rudder being smashed to bits.

When I rushed back down from the helm, Bramwell was there, talking to Connie about what was happening.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Everything’s fine up here,” I said, “but there’s assuredly damage on the hull. And I think the rudder snapped.”

“That’s what that sound was,” Bramwell said. “I was worried it was some kind of attack.”

I couldn’t even consider that possibility. We were prepared for anything if we had to fight, but with Sage here, it would be way more dangerous.

That’s when I realized Sage wasn’t with him. “Where is she?” I asked.

He didn’t need me to tell him who she was. “I left her below, figured if it was a fight it would be best for her to be down there.”

While that was true, there’s no way of telling where a leak may have sprung.

“Connie,” I said, “have Anne and some of the others assess the damage is, I need to go downstairs.”

“Aye,” she confirmed.

I didn’t waste any time, going back down below deck to the war room where I knew she would be.

There was no water running into the hall, which was always a good sign. When I opened the door, I didn’t see anything at first. Had she gone back to her room?

“Sage?”.

“H-here,” she stuttered.

I realized she was tucked into the back corner of the wall, all but hidden for view.

She was curled in on herself, tears freely flowing down her face. It had been so long since I’ve seen somebody cry that it took me by surprise.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Are we going to sink?” she asked, a slight blubber in each of her words.

“No, everything’s going to be fine,” I assured her.

“That’s good,” she said, but her voice made it clear it was anything but.

“We just hit a rock,” I said, sinking down so I was closer to her level. “There will be some damage, but nothing too severe.” That was more of a hope I was speaking into existence, but I was trying to calm her, and myself, to a certain extent.

“Y-yeah.” Her breathing was short, coming out in bursts.

“Follow my breathing,” I said, taking loud deep breaths in and out.

She did her best, but it was obvious she was still struggling to reel herself back from the attack she was having.