<em>Ruined Saloon<br/>Aloisa, Jacqueline, Danae; Eloise, Hannah, Genevieve; Garsenda, Delphine, Emma, Jeanne</em><br/><br/>It became dark, in the sinking ship, but for eerie wizard lights and roiling flame. When the roar of waves tearing pieces of the Charlotte to splinters and the peal of thunder abated a moment, the sounds of the deeps closing in around the Charlotte could be heard, a black abyss pinging against the hull with resonant sounds unpleasantly animal, intelligent, and huge.<br/><br/>As one the survivors met at a treacherous climb up the vertical-turned switchback stairs, now mere planks of hanging fence post crisscrossing at tiptoe's reach, splintering into slivers in desperate hands. There was almost no leverage but what one human body provided another, hoisting up, trapping limbs between slats, climbing body over body, breathless, driven by the will to survive.<br/><br/>It was Aloisa and Eloise reaching the upper deck first, and finding there an utter ruin of the lovely saloon, its few remaining furnishings bolted to a plane of wood wiped clean by scouring waves, the poop deck and Ezra's prayer completely gone. Pieces of what were once the Charlotte swept along the surging waves, while seaworthy barrels and a piano top thumped with the lapping water.<br/><br/>Behind them were Danae and Jacqueline with Hannah and Genevieve, clawed up from the drowned port corridor, Hannah tearful and Genevieve in a state of shock. No sooner had these four arrived under the stars than the boom of musket fire raised a scream. There were voices, further back, at the ship's rudder, and then the musket boom came a second time. Creaking, clanking, and a third mustket shot sent a great weight crashing into the sea.<br/><br/>One of the tender boats came scraping, rocking with the push of the waves. The two Blackwell ladies, Garsenda Goulet and Delphine Bordeaux, with a soaked and supine Emma La Berche and waterlogged Jeanne already filling the small boat halfway to its maximum capacity.<br/>"Another boat is coming," Delphine told them. "Who is hurt? We'll take them."<br/><br/><em>Tender Boat Launch<br/>Corinne; Zoe, Michelle, Sage, Yvonne; Margaret Hotspur</em><br/><br/>Sage and Michelle raced after the swirling wizard lights to the very aft of the ship, followed shortly by Zoe and Corinne. Yvonne yet reeked of smoke, fresh from the torment of her burning cabin, and her coughing could not stop even as it wracked her body.<br/><br/>There were stars, shining in, at last. Margaret Hotspur stood there in silhouette, a musket tucked against her breast, a murmur on her lips. When she heard the footfalls coming up behind her, she took a quick breath.<br/>"You, there," she called to the five of them. "The last tender boat is here, if you mean to escape. Help me to push it onto the water."