The second day on the boat passed with no new developments, with Tercius training little Amber in a few more tricks and Lux essentially robbing the already poor sailors, making them frustrated and angry and only itching for more, saying that luck could not stay forever on his uncles' side. Some of the sailors even wanted to use the wage they have yet to receive as a deposit of sorts, but the good captain declined. There were some calls about the skill his uncle used, but those mostly went ignored. After all, most of these sailors had a skill that helped in some way, so to call out his uncle on it was something that only those who no longer had anything to play with did.
On the early dawn of their third day of travel when Tercius woke up, he felt that something was different. These last two days traveling by boat had accustomed him to a particular feel of moving through space, that as soon as he woke up he noticed was missing. He knew he was still on a boat, the slow rocking and the barely noticeable rising and falling were still there, so he had to wonder what was going on.
Unless I overslept some 15 hours, then we are still on our way. he thought.
Peeping his head over the edge, he saw that his uncle was still asleep, and Amber laid curled up near him, so he gave up on getting up now. He heard voices shouting outside, and that by itself was nothing unusual. It was how information traveled on the boat, where everyone was in earshot.
But the whole thing about the boat not moving made him think that something else was afoot.
Mana Sight gave him the positions of the men that were on their boat and as far as he could see, there was nothing that indicated trouble of any kind. The men were slowly moving about, doing their jobs, one tying ropes, another cleaning the deck, one way up high observing the surroundings. He merely saw the outline of how their Mana behaved and based on that, there was no danger in sight.
Only he counted five crew members missing, a number that was easily seen when the whole crew counted 22. It took for him to look around in all directions to finally find them.
Only he found many more than the missing men.
There was another group of Mana outlines right behind his back, out there on the sea.
The five missing men were, based on what he could observe from their body motions, rowing towards the other group.
"Uncle," he said gently at first, then repeating it more forcefully until the man woke up.
"What is it Tercius?" Lux said his voice sounding tired.
"Did you not notice already? The boat has stopped," he said, glad to be able to at least once notice something before his uncle. It did not matter that it was just because he woke up first, a win was a win.
"..." his uncle got up and dressed, attaching his sword to the belt and cloak over his shoulders with impressive speed. While his uncle made himself ready, Tercius did the same following in his steps mechanically, for it seemed like a better alternative than thinking about what was going on and just making wild guesses. In a moment both men were ready and armed.
"Let me go first. It's rare, but not unheard of pirates to attack vessels." his uncle said. "Only they usually do so around the islands of Isgea."
Tercius covered Amber with his blanket and left the little creature to sleep. Stepping out of their cabin they went left towards the stairs when a man came running down.
"What is going on?" his uncle demanded.
"Nothing to worry about. There's a boat that requires repairs and the captain decided to help." said the hurried man, then went running to the lower floor. Tercius and Lux exchanged a glance and, still on guard, slowly went up to the deck.
On the left side of their boat, some 30 meters away, a smaller one floated, its sails folded. On the side that was immediately visible Tercius saw large mangled looking holes, looking like something a bear's claws would do, only on a far larger scale. That the vessel still floated probably meant that very little damage had been done below the water surface.
"Are those from rocks?" he asked one of the men who observed what was happening.
"Captain said those are from a Bone Whale. I don't know myself, this being my first year." said the man, and Tercius turned to see who he was talking to.
The young-sounding voice matched the young-looking face of the man, probably just 5-6 years older than the current him.
"I think I read something about them," he said and tried to remember what it was, but an answer came before he could do so.
"They get their name from the large jagged bone spikes that grow on their backs, peaceful creatures really, but they can get a little crazy when those bone spikes grow to such size that they start to pull them down. Then they are known to try to hit things to try to break them off." said another man with a strong resemblance to the first. "That is what I was told anyway. Good omens they are considered, but they have been known to sink ships with their
scratching."
"Don't forget that the bone spikes can be sold for pretty dweta to them mages." another added.
Oh, I remember now. he thought. It's used for making a powder of some kind, but it did not tell what it was used for.
"Why do they need it?" he figured it was worth a try, knowledge sometimes hid in the most unlikely of places.
"Who's to say? For all I know they use it to pick their nose." said the man with a wide smile full of yellow teeth. "Or poke their wives..."
The crew within earshot reacted predictably, a laugh infecting them all at the same time.
"But what if this whale is around here somewhere? Should we stop at a time like this?" Tercius asked suddenly worried that the thing lurked in the depths below them.
"What will be we cannot change, so don't worry little one." the captain said as he approached with his uncle. "We are not faster than the whale, so if he wants to go after us, there is nothing we can do about it."
"Here we can help someone and maybe one day when we need help someone will step up, that is the way of the world here at sea. I would not be here if we did not adhere to the rule, to pass another in need of help is an offense against the Sea God."
"So how big is this whale?" he asked while trying to get the thought of sinking below waves to water full of flesh-eating fish out of his head.
"Two to three times my ship I reckon. You know little one, the largest I ever saw was over 120 meters long, the spikes on its back were 15 meters long easily. It was a thing of beauty, I tell you." the man said, a distant look in his eyes.
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"They say that these whales never die of old age, they just grow and grow, and with them so do these spikes. If they grow faster than the spikes, they live, otherwise, the weight pulls them to the bottom of the sea, and they die slowly from hunger." the captain continued after a brief reminisce.
"Lack of oxygen more probably," he murmured.
"Alright you sea slugs, to your posts! Let's get my baby ready to sail!" the captain shouted, and Tercius almost jumped. "Borro you go..."
Tercius went to his uncle who secluded himself near the railing, while he observed the boat with the crew members come back. "I am going back down uncle."
"Scared?" his uncle said, a tease in his voice.
"I know I will be on the same boat, but just having walls around me will bring some peace."
When he returned to his cabin he activated Mana Sight, his eyes blazing with a supernatural light, and cast his gaze down below.
There were plenty of Mana outlines in the depths below, but nothing even close to the size of what the captain described. He honestly started to admire these men and women who could be sailors for a living. Just knowing that these titans of the sea could sink your ship with a single scratch and it was enough for him to think of running for the hills.
"What can one man do against such a creature?" he murmured as he gently petted the sleeping form of Amber.
***
They arrived near Tripatis sometime after midnight, under the guidance of a spinning light that Tercius identified as a lighthouse. Slowly the light made a full circle, but the night was dark so they waited in the bay for the light of day to allow safe passage.
The waterways to the city were too dangerous for night travel, the captain assured Tercius when he asked about why they waited when the city was just there.
It was a dark cloud covered night and Tercius only saw an outline of two sloped hills that made a steady decline towards the sea. There were lights right near the sea, but those were few and far between.
"At it's widest it just over a kilometer wide, and the narrow part in the middle is just over 700 m." his uncle informed him. "At the other end is an island where most of the administration and the army reside. And the local nobility of course."
"Most of the city on both shores is not currently visible, they have no lighting at night, but you will see it all tomorrow morning. Let's get some sleep."
***
On both sides of the strait, there were walls and buildings as far as the eye could see. Just like his uncle told him it would, the city seemed to have grown overnight. The constructed dwellings went all the way up the sloping hills, mostly wooden cabin-like homes, in the middle he saw some that looked like they were made of bricks, a few stone ones here and there.
And then some were a mix of them all.
The docks themselves were all made of stone, much like those in Spheros, yet here the number of ships was easily triple that of what he observed in Spheros. There were sails everywhere, and many ships like theirs waited for the coming of dawn to get to the docks, while many others did the same to start their journey from the city.
The Zephyr slowly approached an empty dock on the northern side of the strait where, as soon as the ship stood still, Tercius, Amber, and Lux disembarked.
The captain informed them that they had three days before he sailed for Lissea and they most certainly did not want to stay on the rocking ship when more comfortable lodgings were available within eyesight of the ship.
When he got off the boat it took Tercius a moment to readjust, but as he followed after his uncle, his senses recalibrated and the discomfort passed. The inn they ended up choosing had a straight view of Zephyr, with many of the sailors they sailed with recommending it to them for its good food.
Bellies filled and rested they left the inn just before noon, in search of a tailor's shop. The days were no longer so hot that a mere shirt and pants were enough, with Tercius using his cloak even during the day, so Lux decided that it was time to do something about it. The innkeeper pointed them in a direction of a nearby shop, where both men had their measures taken and paid extra for a rushed order.
"Now we need to search for something to fix your weakness, and I think I know just the thing. Don't worry we can talk" Lux said once they were out of the store and patted his shoulder.
"Uncle, I have been unable to gain a new skill for almost two cycles now, even with all the help I had," Tercius said.
"Nothing to worry about, it is known to some that there are skills after which it takes much longer to get a new one. These skills generally tend to be more powerful so the current theory is that skills by themselves are not equal. They exist in strata of sorts, like a… pyramid." his uncle explained. "The higher up your skill is, the longer it takes for you to get back into that state where acquiring new ones is possible. Two years is nothing, believe me. I have heard of cases where after some skills people in their twenties never got a new one for the rest of their lives. Your last two skills sound like something of that nature."
"What?!" Tercius snapped, suddenly worried about his chance of getting into the academy. "Why is this not known?"
"Why do you think? When someone, such as yourself, does not know about this, they tend to ask someone else, and eventually, that will reach an interested party." his uncle said.
"What am I going to do if I get rejected from the academy because of this?" he said with panic in his voice. This was something that he found unacceptable.
His uncle laughed. "Then you are coming with me."
"What? Where?" he asked, his brain a jumble of opposite statements rapidly gaining heat and threatening to burn out.
"Why, to our family estate, of course. Mother will be pleased to meet you. Tercius, if you can't become a mage, then I think that going with me would be your best choice. Don't you think so?" his uncle said in all seriousness.
Tercius felt his legs stop, leaving him stranded in the middle of the street of a crowded street and his eyes stared at his uncle's back, not sure what to think at the moment.
He felt someone push him from the side, yet he did not react.
"Watch where you're going!" he heard someone shout at him, spittle drowning his face.
"…"
"Tercius!" his uncles' voice reached him.
"Are you all right? Tercius."
"Yes, yes, I am fine, just…" he said weakly, as a feeling he thought long lost returned.
"Listen, in your case, I think that it is only a matter of time before you are able to do it," Lux said, suddenly concerned for the pale-faced boy. When Lux did not get an answer to his question, he looked back and his nephew was not there behind him. The boy looked dazed.
"I just…" Tercius murmured, his eyes looking lost.
"Listen! You can do this. I know you can." Lux said, with a confidence he did not know he had.
"I can?" Tercius asked.
"Will you stop at the first thing that gets in your way?" Lux asked. "Then you might as well give up now. Tercius, life will throw so many things your way, and this is not your first, nor will it be your last. Some things will seem so, so heavy, you will want to take a break every now and then, and that is fine as long as you get it back on your shoulders and carry on."
"Carry on," Lux repeated.
"I am sorry uncle, I don't know what came over me, I…" Tercius said.
"Nothing to worry about, it happens to us all," Lux said, patting Tercius on his back. "Let's go relax a bit first, I know for a fact that the Baths in Tripatis are one of the best in the world."
***
The Baths proved to be an excellent distraction for Tercius, as soon as he sank his body into the hot liquid, all of his worries melted away.
"This must be what Heaven is like." Tercius almost purred like little Amber did when she went in.
"You mean Heavens, plural." his uncle corrected.
Tercius did not bother making a correction, his body in such a state, that he might as well agree to anything.
The Baths were a large complex of pools and buildings built around natural hot springs. But not all were built aboveground. When the man who charged them admission said that there were underground pools that were added artificially later, Tercius knew where he wanted to go.
The water came falling in through a hole in the ceiling of the cave, and along with daylight gave the area a unique atmosphere.
Listening to the water rushing in, hitting the walls, and floating in the dark part of the pool, while little Amber made circles around him, with a speed that belied her size. From time to time she would climb on his stomach to rest, while Tercius thought about what was going on with his inability to gain new skills.
What his uncle said about the whole thing kept going on and on in his head, and he realized what a mess he had made with gaining his skills.
Gaining Energy Manipulation took almost four years of work, then Energy Sight after it took months. He knew there was something special about them, and what his uncle told him only confirmed it.
Now if these two skills were in the same "strata" as his uncle called them, then he should have gotten another skill long ago. Three possibilities came to mind.
The first is that Energy Sight was in a stratum above Energy Manipulation.
The second is that gaining two skills from the same strata somehow influenced the time of recovery, extending it to who knows how long.
The third is that there existed some other factor that was not taken into account.
The first he thought unlikely, the third, a possibility that could not be discarded, but if he were a betting man, he would put his money on the second.
There existed a possibility that he was worried for nothing, that Mana Manipulation and Mana Sight were the skills that were needed for someone to be a mage, but his gut told him that something was missing. Mana Sight while certainly helpful, was not entirely necessary, the skill merely gave him visual guidance, allowing for more precision.
Mana Manipulation is required. he thought, completely sure of the statement. And I will probably need another skill, the only question that remains now is will I be able to get it in time?