Jason surprised her with a smile as he shook his head. "Kira, he already knows who you are. Maybe he's starting to guess who your mother is, but he already knows who you are. The girl who saved this ship and the lives of everyone on it. The girl who got both of us this far even though I've been a dead weight most of the trip. The girl who I'm trusting with my life and the lives of millions of people back on Earth."

She looked at him, trying to grasp such an image of herself. Part of her tried to reject it out of hand, but… "I guess the captain doesn't know who my mother is, but he knows who I am. Jason, I never thought about it that way." Kira felt a sudden urge to hug Jason. Instead, she wrapped her arms tightly about herself, looking at him. "Thank you."

"Your one flaw is that you haven't seen who you really are," Jason said, looking embarrassed.

"You think that's my one flaw? Oh, are you in for some difficult surprises," Kira said. "Listen, we have to get back on deck. We can't talk about this stuff until we're alone again. Just remember that I'm fine as far as me physically, and as far as the Mage-powers thing goes, it's known to only a very few people so please don't discuss it with anyone else."

"What about the Mara thing?" Jason asked, grinning.

"Don't ever joke about that, don't ever talk about that, don't ever think about that, and especially don't do those things when my mother is around or you will learn the hard way just how hot my mother's and my tempers can burn."

"Got it," Jason said, looking to Kira's eyes properly worried by her warning.

On deck, the captain waited by the rope ladder leading to the boat. He solemnly shook Jason's and Kira's hands before they left. "Best of luck. May fair winds follow you."

The first mate ordered them into the center of the boat, then cast off from the ship, other sailors pulling at the oars to drive the longboat to one of the piers that thrust into Kelsi's harbor. The city hugged the coast, walls standing firm against storm and Imperial aggression, mountains rising behind to the north and east, a stretch of open land to the west rising to meet the mountain pass that led toward the high plains and the city if Ihris.