Swamped

"Hold on a second. Enchanted maps? You sure it's okay for me to be looking at those when I've got spells on me? I know magic can do weird stuff, maybe they'll mix and turn me into a chicken or something."

"You need not worry. The spells on the maps are not very strong. Any reaction is likely to simply drain their ether without noticeable effect on the other enchantments. And it is the map itself we need, not the warding or pathfinding spells."

Warding? You're not entirely sure what he means by that. But you feel like it wouldn't be very productive to ask.

"Speaking of pathfinding," you say, "how exactly do I get there? I was brought here in a rush, so they didn't exactly give me a map of the ship. Wouldn't want to stumble into the wrong place and find their wizard, you know."

"The navigator is an officer. All of the officers' quarters are one level below the top." He pauses. "Though that does mean the wizard would be fairly close, as he is likely on the bridge. Regardless, you are only three levels down from the officers' quarters. As for the stairs leading to there..."

Thank the gods, actual directions. Looks like you got away with this, for now. You even ask him where the stairs up on that level are, so you can check if the wizard's coming down.

You're half-wondering if it might not be a bad idea to grab the map just to keep it out of their hands. But you can worry about that when you get there. For the moment, you just slip out and head up the stairs.

Of course, you soon get a reminder that having directions doesn't stop you from running into other kinds of trouble.