Some days after its departure, Le Délice, a Bellegarde ship captained by Esther-Chétienne Abbadie limps back into Port-a-Lucine. Its sails are badly ravaged, and it's clear by its exhausted and bedraggled crew that ship has been through mist-wreathed hells and back. It becomes apparent, however, that its ungainly arrival is not alone a matter of frayed lines and a skeleton crew. When the Bellegarde crewmen come ashore, they unload an over-stuffed hold's worth of rice and with it, delicacies; barrels of strange shellfish, eels, squids, crates of exotic fruits like persimmons and loquats, fine hinoki chests of spices and sauces the defy description to the Dementlieuse pallet. After that comes the silks and teas, and then the jewels; pearls and jade. Generous payments are distributed to the widows and children of those common men who did not survive the journey, but for the nobility and their merchant friends, Rokushima Táiyoo has relinquished a vast trove of reward through the Way of Venomous Tears.