The sea held Farli’s broken ship gently in the night, and it seemed that the ship stood still among the body of water if it wasn’t for the calm toggling from the waves that gave it motion every once in a while. The moon was bright and there were no clouds. Farli could see the stars from where he laid beside the crushed cabin, but he could not get to sleep. Shipment was strewn across the deck to even out the weight. Given that the ship had maintained such trauma was a miracle in itself; he just wanted to make sure it stayed afloat long enough to find land.

Farli huffed. Land, he thought. Wondering in the possibility of ever finding any land after being sent out by that burning beast back at island. The idea was absurd, but that was all he had. If he was ever going to make any repairs to the ship, he needed something solid to work on, not water. And until then, nothing could be done.

He still couldn’t shake the feeling he was getting from Tannar. He was going to find out anyway, Farli reasoned. He might as well have just told him right there. It happened just after they lost sight of the island. Farli was shoving the load across the deck. Tannar dodged around a sliding box and asked, What is all this stuff, anyway?

“Explosives,” Farli said bluntly.

What…Tannar said stabbingly.

Farli, really messing it up this time, quickly turned from Tannar’s stare and ducked back below the cabin.

I thought we were hauling cloth. You told me we were hauling cloth. Farli!

Farli came back up with another load. Set it down on the deck. “You thought wrong, okay. I lied. We’re hauling explosives. Or rather…” Shoved the box across the deck toward Tannar.

Tannar dodged that one. ‘Or rather’ what?

Farli didn’t answer. Just ducked back below the cabin to retrieve another load.

Farli, don’t tell me we’re smuggling explosives!

Farli came back up. “Okay. We’re not smuggling explosives.”

They both stared at each other for a moment. Tannar, not believing the situation. Farli, not really caring either way.

And that’s basically how the conversation ended. Tannar silently hating Farli for lying in the first place, and another for doing something completely illegal that he didn’t want anything to do with. Like he said, Tannar was going to find out one way or another. It was just a matter of when.

Farli sighed and relaxed a bit on the deck. He didn’t feel like sleeping, but he knew he needed some sleep. Tannar would at one point understand, he told himself. They needed the money and where it was coming from, there was a lot of it. They just needed to do this one thing.

Farli found himself slowly closing his eyes against the clear sky. The wind carried a warm breeze that gently cradled him in an invisible blanket. The urge to sleep was unbearable.

Farli quickly snapped awake at the sound of music. A great gentle symphony across the waves. Farli sat up confused, quickly scanned the dark horizon for any ship or land. Nothing. Yet the music continued.

“Tannar,” Farli whispered.

Tannar, asleep on top of one the boxes, stirred a bit. The music faded a bit like a needle being gently lifted from a record. Tannar settled down and continued his sleep.

The music slowly came from nowhere. Tannar was dreaming, Farli realized. He laid back down and silently listened to Tannar’s orchestra. During his sleep, Tannar didn’t have full realization of what he was doing, and he could accidentally, like a fluctuation, trigger his mental ability and release his dreams in sound to everyone within range.

The symphony never swelled beyond the ambience of Farli’s condition. In fact, it seemed to tell a story with the single violin that was played, easily transitioning from one point of the story the next.

Against his will, the music pushed Farli into a deep sleep. And left him with a hope that told him something was going to happen the next day. At least something…