[ For a moment, all Annaliese can see is that piercing ocean green. With everything frozen and still around them, she feels as though it's that light filling her lungs rather than the air that had been tossing the ship from side to side. It lasts for just a split second, just in the pause you take between breaths, just long enough for her to wonder if any of that beautiful light might show itself in her eyes, too.

Then everything smashes back into motion with a dreamlike immediacy. The noise of the rain, the sea, the crewmen around her is almost deafening but Annaliese feels unnervingly steady. As though not a thing in the world could frighten her anymore. If a beast of the sea this powerful can be bested, then what else could possibly stand in her way?

The ship screams on ahead but Annaliese is calm as she takes in the sheer size of the obstacle in their way. After a moment to breath and steady herself she once again turns to face him. ]

Even for a beast of this size, it would be quite the odds to strike her directly in the heart, would it not? Even with the surest aim, fortune plays some role in a battle as chaotic as this.

[ Just as Sheyd had done, Annaliese lifts her hand – but then offers it, palm up, in the manner of someone requesting a partner to dance with. ]

So might I ask for your assistance in making it so?