S. notices that there is land in sight. With speed, he goes up the ladder and spots land. S. sees Maelstrom and springs down to directly confront him with nail pointed at the soft flesh behind his fur.

S. demands that he is taken to land. To S.’s surprise, Maelstrom laughs. S. gets enraged by this.

“He has been through too much— too much suffering, too much uncertainty, too much loss, too much trauma— to tolerate not being taken seriously.”

But Maelstrom, replies that indeed they are taking S. to land. And also says “ Whole reason we sailt’ere.”

In the margins, Eric writes about his excitement of meeting Jen.