Onwards to new horizons

Breakfast had been a hurried affair, and goodbyes had been equally rushed. Vel didn't mind though, he considered last night to have been the real farewell with his wives. His cousins had demanded the most time for their farewell, and the two girls had even shed a few tears. Vel had found it quite cute, and strangely, a tad arousing.

Many of the ships had been moored in different areas, Point Conquest had no shortage of docks. That meant the squadron first gathered in its full glory at a rendezvous point about an hour outside of the city. Vel, watching from the prow of his own ship, had to admit that it was a very impressive sight.

The six large ships all anchored reasonably close to each other and the smaller scout vessels threw anchor just outside that formation. Then, using rowboats, they all gathered on the Stormsaber to discuss the plan. “They” meaning the captains of the frigates and scout ships, the two head navigators, as well as Fionne, Vel, Dina, and Fal.

A big table had been placed in the middle of the deck for the meeting. The Aluvian Fury was right next to them, her higher railing visible. Vel could see it still irked Fionne that he had the larger ship. He'd been present when she first found out and, while she'd quickly hidden it, he'd seen a flash of consternation and anger on her face. That was good. Any strong emotions, resentments, and other internal conflicts were things he could use to work on her.

The plan seemed pretty clear and had been discussed at length before their departure, but even so they went over it again to ensure everyone knew it and the part they had to play. They had multiple reports of where the pirates had been last seen and where they had last hit. Combining that with how the band previously moved, they had estimated a few likely courses. The scout ships would head out ahead of the main squadron and look for the pirates along those, the warships following a day's sailing or so behind, attempting to keep an equal distance from them all. Attempting was the key word there, it would be impossible to get that right, but trying should give every scout ship an idea of where to look for them if they had something to report.

Vel headed back to the Fury in high spirits. Everyone seemed competent and confident; he wasn’t too worried about finding or beating the pirates. The only thing that kind of nagged at him was his uncle’s unexpected request. How was he going to ensure Catalia was kept alive? Fionne was in no uncertain terms in charge of this mission, and he couldn’t order her to do anything. So even if he managed to make sure she didn’t get killed in a fight, his aunt was still well within her rights to just have her executed at sea.

There was only one way to be sure then, he’d need to get to work on Fionne and hope he got far enough before they caught their quarry. They were on different ships of course, but as her second in command Vel would no doubt be spending a lot of time with his aunt. He found the thought of it, manipulating the manipulator and eventually dominating her, rather exciting.