"I do feel out of my depth, in many respects. I've learned to do the best I can, regardless. It helps that I've not felt trapped, yes. Merely...driven." 

"I don't know that I've ever felt like I needed an opinion about slavery. I guess I might have had to come up with one if I'd been thinking about getting on a slave ship."

"A view shared by many," he says, sounding sad. "Less so, I think, among those who have borne witness to its worst excesses." 

"Excesses?"

"You observed that if England mistreats me, I can always go elsewhere. The harms one may inflict on another are often limited by that other's ability to leave. To be owned by someone, to be little more than property in the eyes of the Law, leaves few options save death to escape from torment. I have seen many needless and tragic harms result from such arrangements, harms not always borne by slave alone.

"...I am not sure you want to hear details." 

"It sounds like it would be a downer. ...one time I heard a story about a slave girl on a ship getting magic and wrecking the ship and turning into a giant turtle and the turtle brought all the slaves back where they came from before she swam away. I dunno if she drowned the crew or what."

"If true, I suspect she endured much to drive her to such extremes." He should probably change the subject, Rebecca seems less than interested and he's here for a break, not to moralize at her. "Is it common for former magical girls to do things like rescuing people from shipwrecks, in addition to monster-fighting?"

"Oh sure, they're generally pretty friendly, that's why nobody decided to like fire a cannon at you when they thought you were one!"

"A fact I greatly appreciate. What have you been doing these past days?" 

"Found a church for Sunday though it took really a lot of flying to get to a Catholic one. Determined I probably cannot have a piano on a boat and spent a long time conjuring up fiddles to see if I could make one sound good, I think I'm getting closer but might need to just save up for a real one if I can convince myself I won't disappear it by mistake."

"You can vanish things as well?" 

"Yeah, sure. Stuff I make disappears when I drop it, but I can disappear things I'm still holding or wearing whether I made them or not. Why, is that important?"

"Not obviously important, just unusual for objects that aren't conjured, in the magic I know.

"Regardless, your singing is excellent, and if you've half that much skill with an instrument I look forward to the resulting harmonies. Is it a hobby, were you a musician before...?" 

"I've always loved to sing and I used to play piano too! The magic seems to like it too, I'm thinking about composing a song about ice to go with whenever I want to make a big chunk all at once."

...huh. Seems a bit like very narrow song-sorcery.

"A convenient marriage of the beautiful and the practical. Whoever is responsible for this particular feature of your magic, I cannot fault their taste."

"I don't think I've heard of music being helpful with magic, so I don't know if it's just my imagination or what, though you do sometimes hear about the soulless ones singing."

"Regardless, I thoroughly approve." 

"Would you like me to sing you something else?"

"Please do!" 

"Any requests or, well, I suppose all your music knowledge is foreign -" She picks something and starts up in Latin.

Thanks to tongues, he even understands the lyrics! 

...he hasn't needed to shapeshift today. He folds into himself and shrinks...

...into a small nightingale that perches next to Rebecca on the crow's nest. 

Awwwwwwwwww will he perch on her finger??

Sure! 

She gets to sing to a bird perched on her finger, that's the best.