The night's fires had died out, and Dawnlight Harbor fell quiet once more.
The seawater beneath the seawall smelled of tar and blood, but the roar of battle had ceased.
The Dawnlight fleet returned in triumph, its nine warships entering the harbor in orderly formation. Not one had sunk, and only two had suffered minor damage along their sides, requiring a few repairs.
The outcome of this battle would shake the entire North Sea.
Of the thirty-seven black-sailed ships under the Mad King's command, twenty-three had been reduced to ashes, and the Dawnlight fleet had captured every remaining vessel.
The pirates had been utterly routed in the night battle, with scarcely any survivors.
Apart from a few important leaders taken alive for questioning, all the others had been executed at sea, their bodies scattered by the tides.
News that the Dawnlight fleet had lost not a single ship swept through Dawnlight Harbor like a storm, and many residents came out of their own accord to welcome it home.
When the Red Tide Flags at the ships' bows emerged from the mist, the workers and residents on the docks burst into spontaneous cheers.
Their cheers surged like the tide, crashing against the piers and stone seawall until even the wooden planks seemed to tremble.
"The Dawnlight is back!"
"Red Tide is undefeated!"
"For the Northern Frontier, for Dawnlight!"
More people joined in, their voices rising in wave after wave.
Children bounced around beside the docks, waving little homemade flags.
Craftsmen raised their cloth caps in oil-stained hands, shouting the name of every ship: "Dawnlight!" "Dawnlight!" "Tide!"...
Many workers had seen the flames blazing on the sea. They knew how the Dawnlight fleet had fought in the night fog.
They had built these ships with their own hands, so they felt they,