The Circle had previously retrieved a diary from the ship on which their countrymen had been brought to Coral, and had returned to their ship to study it. It included a description of The Rose's Thorn, a ship which the captain knew by reputation, but had not seen before. Third Monsoon recognized the description as following first age design principles, but was not able to determine if it was actually a first age vessel.

As they discuss the issues facing them, they hear a commotion from the other side of the harbor. Going up to the deck, they see a brawl breaking out in front of the Realm Emissaries' ship. They decide to stay out of this one, and turn to go back below. Animas flare, and a large section of masts disintegrated in an explosion near the brawl. Hammer begins running over with Howl, Rabbit and Brad follow shortly afterward. As they run closer, several more castings of Death of Obsidian Butterflies shred even more of the harbor.

Arriving at the foot of the pier, Hammer finds that what looked an attacking force is actually their erstwhile nemesis, Way Too Many Zombies. He picks up a crate and pushes all of the nearby ones further out onto the pier, but then more turn around, and it's suddenly an even match.

Coral's upstanding citizenry emerges drunkenly from waterfront taverns, and begins betting on who will win. Way Too Many Zombies is favored, but Hammer also has supporters. A few zombies break past Hammer's crate-based barricade, and Rabbit handles them. Third Monsoon runs for the Guard. Brad starts picking off zombies which are pushing against Hammer. Orchid remains on the ship.

Aboard the Realm ship, things are not going well. The fighting is now mostly confined to the aft deck, and there are three Terrestrials with animas burning. The air-aspect who has been casting Death of Obsidian Butterflies winds up for another, but right beforehand is struck hard in the head by a huge opponent. That opponent is immediately cut down himself by the fire-aspect behind him. A dark trireme has been rowing closer, and suddenly rams the rear of the Realm ship.

Things continue to go poorly for our heroes. Monsoon finds the Guard already running toward the harbor, and runs ahead of them toward the rest of the circle. Brad continues winnowing the zombies, Hammer continues grappling them, and Rabbit continues dealing with the ones which have slipped past. The crowd continues to grow. Orchid is safely away, and does not care.

Aboard the ship, the fighting reaches its peak. The previously downed air-aspect is tossed onto the trireme by a moderately large assailant in bright orange armor. The fire-aspect continues to be super-dangerous to everyone around him. The water-aspect has been kung-fuing everyone's face, but then has a large bag dropped on her head, is punched repeatedly, then tossed onto the trireme also. The remaining attackers break off and jump to the trireme. It pulls away from the ship and starts rowing for open sea.

Most of the remaining zombies turn and walk off the pier, into the water. Hammer runs up the pier, to the realm ship. Monsoon arrives and tells Rabbit and Brad that the Guard is en route. All three sneak off back to their ship.

Hammer confronts the fire-aspect, who shouts at him to “stay dead.” A brief fracas sends the fire aspect into limit break, and he chases Hammer until he leaps to another ship, then follows Howl through the city, burning.

Eventually everyone gets back to the ship. They sail off after the trireme, which is out of sight. Complicating matters, Brad has botched a roll, and is now sure that the trireme is homeported far to the south. They decide to sail due west anyway, towards Skullstone.

A day later, they haven't found the trireme and are at the outer edge of the territory which Skullstone claims. There is a flotilla there. They hail the flagship and pull up alongside to talk. The admiral is human, which is a little weird for Skullstone, but everyone is still willing to talk. He is not very forthcoming about what the fleet is doing in this area, other than that they are maintaining Skullstone's borders. He also asks whether they have information on who might be raiding in the area. The circle, of course, has no idea what he could be talking about (see last episode). Orchid also asks him about The Rose's Thorn. He knows of it, and says that it is a scary ghost ship! But don't worry, he'll keep her safe! They decide he probably has heard of it, but the rest is suspect. Rabbit gives him a tiny flag (which he has been doing for everyone he meets). The admiral asks for more tiny flags. Rabbit gives him more tiny flags.

Giving up on the fleet, they sail back to Skullstone. After hanging out in a tavern for a while, they learn some more information that I have forgotten. They also hang out in a Guard station for a while, listening to the fire-aspect harangue the officer in charge. Orchid asks him questions afterwards, and discovers that the circle is being sought as the culprits. Apparently, Hammer is dead and they have his body. They also have good descriptions for Rabbit and for Howl, a decent description for Brad. Monsoon is described as wearing a crazy lab-coat, and Orchid is dark haired and in heavy black armor.

Eventually, they decide to start spreading rumors about there being a Skullstone fleet massed on the border (which is true), hoping that someone important will listen. Sure enough, someone official-looking finds them after relatively few hours and invites them along. The route is familiar to Monsoon, Orchid, and Howl, and they soon arrive again at Lord Gerard's mansion.

Lord Gerard is surprised to see them, and not entirely happy. Nonetheless, he listens to their story about the fleet before asking why they thought kidnapping the Realm emissary again was a good idea. They work very hard to convince him that this is not so. He counters that all the dead zombies had tiny flags, which is a sure sign of Rabbit's presence. All are concerned. Hammer's presence makes a strong argument that he is not actually dead in a morgue.

Gerard tries several times to send them on a wild goose chase to 'far to the east/south/away,“ but eventually agrees to see about getting the charges dropped if they bring back the emissary. They ask him about The Rose's Thorn and he agrees to also tell them everything he knows about that, as long as they go away.