Marco sat up in his bathtub. “It remodeled itself? The whole island? Like upgrades?”

“I know. It’s weird stuff. We have a couple scholar types who are trying to figure out what all that means, but for now we are all rich. Every man, woman, and child living here is handpicked and gets a share. Even if everything shut off today, we’d all do just fine. It’d be perfect except for one thing.”

It wasn’t hard to guess what that one thing was.

“Pirates?” Marco said.

“Pirates,” Floater answered.

“I’m surprised they didn’t find this place earlier. There are enough of them.” Riv dipped his head down below the waterline, wetting his hair and scrubbing it before he resurfaced a few seconds later. “If today was any indication, it’s like an infestation of them in the waters out there.”

Water shifted again as Floater sat up.

“Earlier, there wasn’t anything to find, and there weren’t that many pirates to find it. A lot has changed in the last few years.”

“You just caught pirates?” Marco asked. “Like a cold?”

“It’s more complex than that. You’ll want to ask Kelda about it.” Water sloshed as Floater stood up, wrapped a towel around him, and started pulling their things out of the soaking pot. “Here. Dip these in the baths to rinse them. Sorry to tell you this, but you’ll need to drip dry. We don’t have a system for drying things worked out yet.”

Their clothes were soaking but warm, and even once they started to cool, the dampness was much better than the layers of grime it had replaced. Everyone met back up outside, and Floater walked off confidently towards the food, which he still claimed had a bit of everything they could want.

Marco lingered a moment, letting the others walk a few paces ahead before catching up alongside Elisa and Aethe. They were both barefoot still, their boots slung over their shoulders, and their hair slightly damp. The air outside was cooler now, carrying a slight salt tang from the sea.

“So,” Marco said quietly, “you two didn’t miss much on the men’s side, but I did get a little info out of Floater. You noticed how fancy the bathhouse was?”

The girls nodded. Aethe’s still-damp hair shifted forward as she did. Marco thought it was nice.

“That’s apparently because this island is absolutely loaded with materials. As in, everyone would be rich if they could slip the materials past the pirates. It lets them import good people from other places. They’ve got all the talent they want. Food, and it sounded like lots of other resources too.”

Elisa raised an eyebrow.

“Islands like that don’t stay unoccupied, Marco. They said they’ve only been here a while. His claim is it’s because the island is cloaked? Because that’s not enough,” Elisa said.

“It’s not just that. It got bigger. Greener. Richer. All in the last couple of years. And according to Floater, it wasn’t slow or subtle. They’ve got a team cataloging the new resources and building warehouses just to keep up with the output,” Marco answered.

Aethe tilted her head.

“Magical changes. Sounds more like a dungeon than an island.”

“I thought the same thing.” Elisa was already in her notebook making changes. “But he didn’t say that. I figured I’d wait for you before I tried to dig in, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The pirate problem seems new too, although I think we’ll need to talk to Kelda about it to get the straight story.”

“That tracks. Something valuable crops up, and rats pop out of the woodwork to get at it. It seems like a little much even considering that, though,” Aethe said.

Marco nodded, then gave a slight tilt of his head toward the mass of tables that had appeared ahead of them, off the path set up in the grass of a stump-filled clearing.

“Come on. We can puzzle it out over food.”

“No. We can puzzle it out after.” Aethe patted her stomach. “I’m hungry, Marco. I don’t want any distractions until that’s fixed.

It turned out Floater hadn’t been lying about there being a little of everything. Not much was truly familiar to Marco, but everything was at least a variation of some familiar form. Game was roasting on spits, ready for carving. There were stewed and roasted vegetables, big bowls of stew and porridge, and bread. Some kind of mysterious local cheese was carved up on a big board, and Marco grabbed a square of it as he walked by. It was soft and sharp, so strong it almost stung his mouth. He loved every bit of it.

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Some people were already there as they showed up, but Marco and his crew got little more than a cursory glance as they filled their plates. This was a place for serious work, and it appeared the people of the island weren’t nearly so distracted at mealtimes.

Riv had gone ahead of them and was already there and halfway through a massive pile of roasted tubers when they got there.

“Get some of these, guys. They’re incredible. The meat is good too.”

Aethe wasted no time piling her plate high with bread, cheese, and meat. Marco followed suit, feeling a little awkward taking so much. There was a lot to take, though, and they really had saved an entire shipload of residents. If nobody had put an explicit limit on how much they could eat in this supposed land of plenty, he wasn’t going to impose one on himself.

Plates were passed. Ladles dipped. It wasn’t a formal dinner, but it was a good one. By the time Marco was full, a good half hour of eating had passed without much in the way of conversation.

“It’s getting dark. Much as I’d like to say we have good lighting, there’s just too much path to cover for us to have that taken care of yet. Keep going down the path, and you’ll find bunkhouses. If a door is open, the room is available. Close your door, and people will know it’s taken. Plenty of room, so split up as you need to.” Floater stretched his arms out over his head. “I feel like I’ve earned my keep today a few times over. I’m heading there now. There aren’t very many rules around here, so you’ll know if you are doing something that would break them.”

“And tomorrow?”

“I’ll find you. And we’ll get on whipping that ship of yours into shape,” Floater said as he stood and found his way to the exit.

Riv gave Elisa a significant look just then. When she was too deep in her notebook to notice it, he kicked her under the table. She looked up angry but seemed to catch whatever it was in his face. The two glanced at Marco and Aethe, then stood.

“I think we are just about done for the evening, too. Marco, can you help Aethe find her way once she finishes?” Riv asked.

Aethe was the only one of them who was still eating. Marco had been watching the process with barely hidden fascination. She could really pack it away. He admired that.

“Sure,” Marco said absentmindedly.

Aethe gave a full-mouthed wave as the others left, then swallowed with some difficulty before finally leaning back in her chair.

“That’s better,” she said. “I’m still going to finish this, but that’s much better.”

“Agreed.” Marco searched his mind for something to talk about for an awkward moment before finding something. “So. Autocannons.”

“Autocannons?” Aethe echoed.

“They are called that, but we’ve been firing them manually. I was trying to figure out why earlier today.”

“Oh. Well.” Aethe carved up her bread with her knife, layering cheese over each slice as she did. “The way we’ve been doing it so far is more efficient. Elisa has to be present to load them with elemental power if we want that. I’m a better aim than the cannons appear to be.”

“Still, it’s slow.”

“Slow is fine when you have limited ammunition. Preferable, even. We should be using them automatically more often after this.”

“Ah. Got it. That does answer my question.”

Athe handed him a piece of cheesebread and began working on her own.

“I had a question for you, too. Why were the others being so odd? Just then, and the last few days. They keep acting that way almost every time you and I talk.” Aethe seemed to be just lost enough in thought to miss Marco almost choking on his bread. “It’s because I’m new to the team?”

“Oh. No, it’s not that. They both like you fine. Everyone wants you here.”

Marco searched for the words to explain what exactly the others were teasing him about without making things uncomfortable but realized soon enough that Aethe wasn’t the type of person who would even want that. He decided to shoot straight with her.

“They think we are romantically interested in each other and are trying to get that to move faster. And to make me uncomfortable.”

“Oh!” Aethe seemed genuinely surprised about that and either pleased to find out they weren’t mocking her or happy about something else entirely. “Good. I want that too.”

“To make me uncomfortable?”

“No. The romantic interest. And for it to move faster.”

Marco couldn’t keep himself from choking on the small piece of bread anymore. By the time Aethe had leapt over the table with her normal graceful agility and beat it out of him with several hard slaps to his back, he had just enough time to think of the next thing to say.

“Is that how romance works with elves? Direct like that?” Marco asked.

“No. It’s more an arranged thing, generally. I believe I explained it before.” Aethe sat down by him. “I was told that was how it worked for your people. That one informs the other of interest, and the other chooses whether they are or aren’t interested.”

“And you are informing me?”

“Yes.” Aethe hesitated slightly. “Is that wrong?”

Marco had spent most of his youth jogging and carrying heavy things. He knew that whatever was happening right now wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t like he was an expert. He could think of a few things to clarify, but besides some big, inescapable differences, he didn’t see any reason to stress the girl out unnecessarily.

“There aren't any rules to it. It’s fine,” Marco said slowly. “I think the biggest difference is that your people seem to move from that arrangement to marriage right away. Right?”

“Very nearly.”

“Humans tend to take more time. To make sure it feels right. Sort of an exclusive contract that either person can cancel at any time, so they can make sure they aren’t making a mistake.”

“Oh? Interesting.” Aethe was suddenly paying very close attention to her cheese, this time in a distract-me-from-other-things way rather than a particularly hungry way. “You didn’t respond, though. To my declaration of interest.”

“Oh, did I? I’m so sorry, Aethe.” Marco put his hand over hers. “Yes, I would like that too. Let’s do that.”

Things lightened up considerably after that. For reasons Marco couldn’t entirely grasp, Aethe seemed enormously pleased with him as a person all of a sudden. For a bit, she tried to feed him cheese and was disappointed when he turned out to be too full to be fed much at all. After that, without much else to do, they strolled towards the bunkhouses together.