Perlita... Where's Nene? You shouldn't have come back.
Teach
I set it free in the Flat. It may be weak, but better out there than getting killed by mutineers.
Teach
We can't just leave you here.
Teach
You don't look well...
Teach
What did they do to you?!
Juana
Nothing... just gave me some drugs.
Juana
You could have fled. You would have lived.
Isidro
I didn't take you for someone who would give up so easily.
Elysium
Now that we're all here, don't we have better things to do than just talk? You know the Salt Flat better than anyone else, señora. Is there anywhere we can go?
Juana
How big is our group?
Teach
Twenty-four.
Juana
Excelente. Enough to commandeer a ship.
Teach
Which one?
Juana
La Conquista.
Teach
That's the oldest one, slower than the newer salt ships.
Juana
But I know it best.
Juana
Besides, because they consider it an antique, it will be lightly guarded. All the easier for us.
Teach
I'll take eight men up to the deck and get rid of the sentries. The others will go in through the side with Elysium and deal with the rest.
Isidro
What about me?
Teach
Stay with Señora Juana. She's... not at her best, and won't be able to move as quickly.
People always tell me to look for the good in others.
Anastasio
The truth always proves them fools. When first we met, I knew you intended to take the compass for your own sinful alchemical research.
Anastasio
I was right.
Isidro
The compass is no more. I'm still trying to scrape what's left of it off the transmutation table.
Anastasio
That black mud? No, that is not the true compass. Your lies have no purchase here.
Isidro
Must the Inquisition spill so much blood for each thing it loses?
Anastasio
You know that the compass corrupts the heart.
Isidro
It's nothing more than a tool for sailing the seas.
Anastasio
Sailing the seas. Hah.
Anastasio
Those who attempt to elude both judgment and the reins of morality often seek out thorny paths that few have walked, and distant shores that none have reached.
Anastasio
As if their accomplishments could offer sanctuary for their sins.
Isidro
I don't recall sinning.
Anastasio
Harboring a thief, feeding upon the remains of the townsfolk, assaulting a cleric of the Inquisition, associating with bandits who menace the town... Is that not enough?
Isidro
Pretexts and framed crimes.
Anastasio
And now you begin to deny your sins.
Anastasio
All who have sinned will desperately deny it. I was no exception.
Anastasio
But I learned to accept my sins, and thus discovered the path of atonement.
Anastasio
My life was born from the evils of cannibalism. My very being is a sin. I am unworthy of the liberation of death.
Anastasio
But you were once pure and upright, before desire corrupted you. You have the right to die.
Are you trying to crash the ship on those bones and have us hang on them to dry like human jerky?
Juana
Full left rudder!
Teach
—Full left rudder!
Weedy
Damage to the starboard side! Another hit from a steam blast, and this ship's going to fall apart!
Elysium
The skeleton formations are getting denser! We'll crash if we don't steer this just right!
Teach
The erupting steam means we're close to the Skeletal Reef.
Teach
They won't dare go in there!
Elysium
But do we? The steam blasts will punch through us like a hot knife through butter!
Teach
Better than the Inquisition, at least!
Elysium
...Ugh!
Boiling steam shoots out of gaps in the skeletons and tears the sail apart with terrible force.
The gang is thrown into the air before crashing back onto the deck.
The helm wheel spins wildly out of control. Gushing steam sends the ship crashing towards a massive skeleton more than a dozen meters tall!
Juana
...
Juana says nothing, as if waiting for something.
Elysium
Weedy! You're an engineer! Do something!
Weedy
This is my first time on a Golden Age ship, never mind one that's been modified beyond recognition! I need time to figure out how it works!
Elysium
Do we abandon ship? We might survive if we jump right now!
Pascuala
Are you loco?! You'll be impaled by saltfins in less than a minute!
Teach
—Señora!
Elysium
We're done for...
Juana
No, we're not.
Juana looks towards the spinning helm wheel.
If the ship were alive, its flesh would have been stripped away by a century of wear, leaving only a bare skeleton. Even its once-magnificent embroidered sail was replaced with a patchwork of finskin.
Yet, the helm stands proud at the deck's center.
Juana halts the spinning helm wheel with her hands, as if steadying a dance partner, and begins to turn it with a frenzied rhythm. Her ink-black hair whips around like seaweed caught in raging tides.
Juana
It's been so long, old friend!
La Conquista brushes past the massive skeleton, banking at a dangerous angle. Only by hanging onto a rope for dear life did the passengers avoid being thrown overboard.
For decades, this heavy old ship has had to drift slowly behind other salt ships.
Now, though, it darts through the bones, riding upon the wind, as it once navigated treacherous reefs with Juana at the helm.
Teach
Señora...?
Elysium
W-We're on course again!
Pascuala
*pant*... *pant*...
Pascuala
I... I'm alive? Do I have all my body parts? Am I hanging off a piece of bone?
Weedy
You said... YOU SAID YOU ONLY NEEDED ME TO PUT OUT A FIRE!
