"'Neel,' I said to the captain, 'We've got to turn around.  If
we do it now, maybe we could reach Lyrana or Burgin in five weeks.
 There is nothing out here!'  Neel just looked at me with one
ye (the other one hadn't quite settled after the storm, it just
looked off somewhere in the distance) and shook his head.
	"'We sailed for four weeks before the storm, which pushed us further
east, and then another week.  This ship can't go as fast as it
did before, and the wind is against us.'  he turned from me, as
if the matter was closed.
	"'Neel, turn this ship around!  We can't last much longer, and--'
 I got out before he cut me off with that same fire he used to
convince Jolsan and I to take the venture.
	"'Druthal is four weeks away!  And we have just enough supplies
to make that.'
	"'Neel!' I shouted, 'I'm in charge of this vessel and I'll...'
 Just then, the watchman on the crow's nest shouted exactly what
I did not expect to hear.
	"'LAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!'  Neel and I were so surprised we almost
fell over scrambling to the bow to see."
	"So the sea does reach Druthal," said Honifet, "Fine.  I'll be
going."
	"Sit, Uncle!" shouted Solrhat.
	"Was it Druthal?" asked the Magistrate.
	"If it was," said Solrhat, back to a calmer, but once again distant
self, "I wouldn't be here now.  And we were too far south.  For
a moment I thought it might be Acseria, but I realized that we
could see the northern shoreline, and Acseria doesn't have one.
 No, this was a new place, indeed.  
	"We were approaching it for three days in excitement.  We thought
they might send skiffs to meet us, whoever these people were,
but realized since the main sail went with the mastpole, they
probably couldn't even see us.
	"'That is, of course,' said Neel on the third night, 'If there
are even people there, and if they are civilized.'
	"'Well, there must be people, mustn't there?' I asked him.  Neel
just shrugged.  
	"I won't keep you in suspense.  We got as close as we could with
the Spirit, and we could see some structures on the shore.  Still
no one had come out to greet us, or give us any sign at all. 
It was definitely odd. Finally I decided to take one of the longshore
boats to the land to see what was happening.  I wasn't surprised
to find when I got in it that Lovatska had joined me.  I tried
to get her to go back to the Spirit, but either she didn't understand
me or didn't care.  Maybe she knew better.
	"We reached the shore around dusk without incident, near the structure
we had seen.  It seemed to be some kind of fortification or such.
 I'm not quite sure.  The only sensible thing to do was approach
it, but doing that required climbing a steep slope.  Lovatska
and I were about halfway up when we heard this noise, a loud thump
and a whistle, and a ball of fire shot out from the top of the
slope out to the Spirit.  I rushed to reach the top, to see a
small contingent of men loading a barrel into a catapult of some
kind, like the ones the Kierans use.  They shot again, and the
barrel burst into flames as it flew.
	"The Spirit didn't stand a chance, she was already in terrible
shape.  She was ungulfed by the fire and sank.  All hands lost.
 A started to pray to the Elements for their souls when Lovatska
started to pull on my arm and shout some Turjin gibberish.  I
looked over and the men who were firing the catapult were now
pointing to us and shouting.
	"The most sensible choice at this time was to flee, and that is
exactly what we did.  These men were soldiers or such, and I am
just a trader. Apparantly an out-of-shape trader at that, for
Lovatska had quite a lead on me.  When I glanced back at our pursuers,
I saw that one of them was well ahead of the rest, and still gaining
speed.  I had never before seen anyone run that way.

	"He was on me in seconds.  More to the point, he ran past me,
striking me in the shoulder.  This man had a punch like you could
not believe.  I dropped to the ground, and he circled back at
me.  For a moment he stood over me, at first, I thought, to gloat.
 But then he seemed genuinely confused.
	"I'll take a moment to tell you what he looked like, because it
will keep me from repeating myself later-- that's because everyone
here looked virtually the same.  His skin was pale, almost pure
white."
	"Like the Druths or the Waish?" asked the Magistrate.
	"Paler.  And his hair was black, as was all his clothing.  Either
way, as strange as he looked to me, I'm willing to bet I looked
as strange to him-- he hadn't met anyone who didn't look his way.
 His moment of confusion saved me.  That, and Lovatska.  She came
out of nowhere, leaping through the air with one foot extended
in a kick which sent him to the ground.  That kick should have
knocked him out, but he got back to his feet.
	"Lovatska looked at me and yelled, 'Solrhat, julka!', which I
think is Turjin for 'Run!', but I didn't.  Instead I was frozen
in fear as they fought.  Lovatska used the strange but descructive
Turjin unarmed style I had seen a few times before, and her advesary
was all punches, but they both had a skill and speed which astonished
me.  Strike for strike, they were incredible until the strange
man missed a step in the dance.  I think he was a bit thrown off
balance by her style, having seen nothing like it before.  Her
foot hooked into his jaw and he dropped.  She grabbed me and pulled
me along.  I was out of breath, but she was in prime form.  
	"After running for a bit more, we had lost the men chasing us
when we found a small cave to hide in.  And while I am hazy on
it all, I am rather sure we passed out at this point.
	"When I came to, there were lights and people in the cave.  This
was, to my initial instincts, quite bad.  I shouted in fear and
jumped to my feet, and shouted again from the severe pain in my
shoulder, which was much worse than I remembered it being.  My
shouting woke Lovatska and startled, even frightened the people
around us.  Lovatska was already in a defensive posture in front
of me when I got a good look at these people.  They were similar
in features to the gentleman who attacked us, but these weren't
soldiers.  They looked closer to brigands, except they seemed
more afraid of us.
	"'Where is this?' I asked them.  They looked confused, then one
stepped forward and said some babble.  I suppose I shouldn't have
thought they'd speak Fuergan, but I was hopeful.  I tried again
in Trade, the only other language I could speak, but that didn't
work either.  they started to confer with each other, and then
another one stepped forward.  He looked at us both, peering and
squinting.  Then he mumbled and waved his hands, and my head felt
like someone had shoved it into a fire.  Whatever it was affected
Lovatska as well, because we both dropped to the ground.  The
man then rushed over and helped me up, saying, 'Are you all right?'"
	"I was quite surprised, because suddenly he was making perfect
sense.  It took a second for me to realize that he wasn't speak
my language, but I could understand his.  I nodded my head, and
again asked where this place was.
	"'This?' he said, confused, 'This is Poasia.'"

			************

	"Magistrate," said Honifet after Solrhat had fallen asleep during
the telling of his story, "Must we continue?  I'm quite satisfied
that this is the ravings of a lunatic.  'Po-azea'?  Fighting Turjin
women?  Ludicrous!"
	"Jorchal Solrhat," said Jertin, "I think there is more here than
you realized.  Solrhat is the only survivor of the doomed Spirit
of Fire, and while they might not have found the new route to
Druthal, they may have found something far more incredible: a
new land!"
	"I am not the slightest bit interested in this!  Just keep him
locked away with his bugs and he'll be happy.  I'll even pay for
better accomadations for him."
	"But the possibilties, Jorhcal..."
	"What possiblities?  Even if this is not a complete fantasy, these
'Po-azeans' sound even worse than the Turjin.  No, I've served
my familial duty to him."  Honifet started to leave.
	"What about your duty to Jolsan?" shouted the magistrate, "Is
he not your nephew as well?"
	"Jolsan..." started Honifet slowly, "Is dead.  And I mourn him.
 And now, I go home for supper and sleep."  He walked to the door.
	"Jorchal..."
	"I will return in the morning to hear the rest of the story."
 Honifet sighed and walked out into the evening.