"We don't fully know! The Mountain of Light is considered by many to be one of the three gods of the Neath — Stone of 'Stone, Storm, and Salt' — and there's anecdotal evidence that attracting Stone's attention positively can grant you better health and resilience, but all of that is just speculation about what Stone does, not how. I'd love to find out, but unless someone learns to properly talk to the Mountain and gets close enough to ask, we're not likely to find out."

"We do know that pieces of the Mountain retain this property. A shard of the Mountain was shoved into the chest of the man who became the King of Polythreme. He's called the King with a Hundred Hearts, and he is extremely immortal. He is also why objects come to life on Polythreme, and in turn why I built Maya there."

"So the Mountain of Light is why you're alive?"

She nods and smiles. "It is!"

Snuggle. "I like it, then."

Such snuggle. "We do too~"

So much snuggle.

A few minutes later, Maya looks up, ahead, and slightly to port.

Then she grins warmly. "Oh, you'll like this one. Hurry to the rail, dear, port side."

She hurries over to the port side rail. 

Sable and Maya follow her, and after a moment, Maya points to a faint glow visible beneath the waves.

She peers down, eyes wide. 

Glowing beneath the the murky peligin of the unterzee is a small squid — only barely as big as she is — with vivid apocyan spots and irrigo eyes. A pale blue tentacle briefly splashes out of the water as it zips to the north alongside them, though they're gradually overtaking it.

"--Oh wow, that's so pretty and cute..."

She wraps an arm around Anselma, hugging her close. "Isn't it just? Probably one of my favorite zee-creatures, and one of the only peaceful ones. You usually see more of them around the Principals of Coral, but now and then one turns up over here."

Maya wraps her arm around Anselma from the other side, snuggling in with a soft smile.

Snuggle snuggle snuggle. 

The zee is beautiful, but Anise would like to start learning how to be useful before they reach London. 

She may appreciate this, then. After several minutes more of glowing fish, Maya looks up.

"Jillyfleur, Captain. Hasn't spotted us yet, but it will."

And if Anise follows Maya's gaze and looks ahead, and a tiny bit starboard, she'll see a jellyfish as big as a mastiff, with a cap that resembles a woman's face.

"--Whoah. Why does it have a face."

"No one's quite sure, but if you'd like to learn about gunnery, and maybe dissect it afterward, now's your chance."

"--Yes, absolutely!" Bounce bounce. 

And with a smile and a nod, Sable leads the way to the Handbasket's deck gun, a short distance aft of of where they'd been sitting earlier.

There is a steel case secured to the deck, right next to a small platform for a gunner to stand, with two control wheels (labeled "Pitch" and "Rotation"), each with a perpendicular handle for easier turning. On the side of the barrel, is a screw-fastened breech block. Mounted on a nearby bulkhead is a reference table, matching distances in feet down the side and arcane shorthand labels along the top to angles in degrees. Strapped down to a nearby rack is a long device with two eye-pieces near the center, two lenses at the far ends on the opposite side, and a knob. 

Anselma peers at the reference table, trying to see if anything on it matches obviously to anything on the gun. 

It does! The angles in the intersections of the reference table are all two-digit numbers measured in degrees, and the pitch dial has a little two-digit display measured in degrees as well.