Vessels throng the water. The big ships move slowly on, heedless of the littler ones and the personal-sized boats. There's quite a variety of styles. People are chattering, arguing, singing - the river is as crowded as any city street. Someone buys bread by throwing coins across a gap between two vessels and having their food tossed in return. At one point Vaulter shouts friendly insults about their respective vessels to another captain across the height to the woman's much bigger ship. His ship is bumped around a bit in the crowds.

Past the sky-soaring bridge, the cliffy walls of the city fall away and the river widens. Traffic is still thick, but they're moving faster than a jog if not quite as fast as an outright sprint, now.

"This seems like a very lively occupation, quite aside from the sailing itself."

"Why, this is one of the most crowded and busiest rivers in the whole world! They expanded it not fifty years ago to increase capacity, teams of earth elementalists working all hours to dredge the river and line it with stone. The sea is much more open and quiet, and that's the part I enjoy most, myself."

"Oh, elementalism. I think they mentioned that at the Academy but I don't know anything about it myself, yet."

She gives him a smile.

"Back on the Silver Shrine, sometimes, when we had enough surplus power to run the air shields, I'd go out on the hull to look at... the moons and stars. The quiet out there is utter."

"I'm familiar with that kind of feeling. There's something beautiful in sublime loneliness. But, air shields?"

"The Silver Shrine floats on top of the sky, up above where there's air," she explains, "but it can coat parts of itself in a layer of air temporarily, so we'll have something to breathe when we step outside."

"...I suppose I don't actually know what the sky is like so I can't refute that but it sounds very implausible."

"I suppose a deep-sea creature might say the same about you." She taps the deck with her foot.

"I am quite happy above the waves and below the sky, personally."

"Most people are!"

Smile. A pause, a gentle adjustment of the rudder.

"As I said earlier, I would be happy to hear more about your goodness-measuring math, or whatever else interests you. Perhaps I'll even manage an insightful comment. Or would you like me to ramble onward instead?"

"Any of those are fine."

The captain launches into a drawling travelogue of busy and colorful distant ports heavy with spices and opulence and music. And tales of ocean journeys, the sky and stars and the smell of salt on the waves. The things seen out there, the vast, majestic power of the weather.

He has a good storytelling voice.