Sonder reached the harbor well before noon the next day.
The docks were already busy. Sailors hauled crates and shouted to one another. A line of passengers had formed near the gangplank of the large ship, each carrying bundles or bags while a pair of crew members checked them through.
The ship looked even larger up close.
Its hull towered above the dock, and its wood creaked softly as the tide lifted and lowered it.
Sonder waited her turn quietly.
When she reached the gangplank and stepped onto the ship, a sailor stopped her to check her passage.
"Hold there," he said, lifting a hand. "Who are you?"
"A passenger," Sonder replied. "I already paid for the voyage."
The sailor frowned slightly.
"You did, did you? I've sold passage to every passenger meself, but I don't recognize you," he said. "And who sold you passage?"
Sonder had expected this. She had only hoped it wouldn't happen, but people were not always as kind as their words.
The woman who sold her a spot on the ship had tricked her out of some easy money.
Sonder frowned.
She was already preparing to leave without a fight. These sailors had nothing to do with her being cheated.
But before she turned away, she glanced around the deck.
There were a few dozen people, all happy to be on board, but then she spotted a familiar figure moving between two stacked crates, yelling something about rope.
Sonder lifted a hand and pointed.
"She did," she said.
The sailor followed her gesture.
Across the deck, the woman turned at exactly the wrong moment and noticed both of them looking straight at her.
Her expression froze for a brief second.
Then she sighed.
It was not the sigh of someone surprised.
It was the sigh of someone who had known this moment was coming and had hoped it might arrive a little later.
The sailor at the gangplank crossed his arms.
"Come here," he called to her across the deck.
The woman straightened from where she stood beside the crates and walked over.
"What?" she said when she reached them. "I'm busy."
"Did you sell this… girl passage?"
The woman looked at Sonder, then back at the sailor.
"…Maybe."
"That's not an answer."
The sailor stared at her.
"You know full well the captain handles passengers," he said. "You don't sell space on this ship."
"I didn't sell space," she replied calmly. "I arranged transportation."
"That's the same thing."
"It isn't if you say it differently."
The sailor rubbed a hand over his face, clearly trying to decide whether to argue or throw her overboard.
"You can't just pocket coin and promise people rides," he said. "We've got supplies counted, bunks counted, food counted-"
"It's one passenger," she interrupted. "Look! She's barely even got one bag."
"Ain't the point."