Xane went back the next day and grabbed his new armor. It was light and durable. With a minor mobility decrease in arm movement that Xane would just get used too. He dare say he actually looked good in it. The helmet didn’t really match though but protecting the head was important. “Looking good Xane. And I agree you got to change that thing you call a helmet. Like really are you trying to laugh your enemies to death.”

“No I… just went for the most protective helmet there was. You are in here too, you know.” He emphasized this statement by jabbing his own head. Instead of hurting his head he found that he barely felt it. He had been doing that lately. Hurting himself. He didn’t fully grasp the amount of raw strength he had gained since coming here. He broke his favorite mug while making tea. Just crushed it when he was feeling the warmth of the hot mug. A mistake he would try not to make again.

“Well indeed since I am in here too I think I should have a say in how we look. I refuse to look so dreadful. If anyone saw this I’d be a laughing stock.”

“We look? You mean how me, Xane, looks, not we. You aren’t a part of the decision making.”

“Fine but I recommend finding new apparel as fast as possible or at least not wearing it all the time. You can keep it in your ring while in town.” Xane could hear the pleading in her mental voice.

“Fine.” He said this while putting away his helmet. It didn’t take long to get it on and off. But any sneak attack would leave him defenseless. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. But I’m afraid of the answer.”

“What is-”

“How much of my thoughts do you hear? Most of the time you respond to my thoughts and other times you don’t. If we are to trust each other I need to know this.”

“Well… as I said before. I can’t see your stats and stuff without your permission. And I only hear what things you don’t actively try to hide from me. I hear them as an unintelligible whisper. I probably could listen in if I tried hard enough but I respect your boundaries.”

“Thanks for not intruding into my mind.” He stated blandly.

“You are welcome.” She said it with true enthusiasm that Xane was flabbergasted.

“Fine, let's move on. What should we do from here? We need to head to Zakor itself right?” They had talked about it and their goals. After deliberation the goal was to head to Zakor and access their library and information hubs. The library was self explanatory. It was a place full of books and knowledge. It was owned by the queendom itself. Now information hubs were a different story. It was an illegal, in a loose term, information trading house. You pay a lot of money for gossip, secrets, and the like. There were apparently an entire system of these in most big towns and villages. There was one even in the port they were at.

In that “store” of sorts is where Xane found himself an hour later. It took a bit of finagling and bribing but he was able to buy information to find the information house where he would then spend more money to buy information. The entire situation wasn’t lost on him. The man was as skeemy as anyone he had ever seen. He had a hawkish face and a well to do suit similar to what a business man would wear. No hat was on his head but there should have been. He had the shiniest head Xane had ever seen. It practically glowed in the magical fire light. The most absurd thing was the name tag on his shirt. The man was clearly not human or elf. It said Deriict. “Hello sir. What can I do for you today?” And of course he had a scratchy yet unmistakable butler-esk accent.

Xane queried Lyenn,”That is a goblin. They are the lowlives, usually pickpockets or house servants. Sometimes one is born with a similar ability as yours. It is called Goblin Insight and gives amazing memory. They are also used as information brokers and full of libraries of information. Really they are remarkable creatures, being creative as a gnome yet quite stupid in most cases.”

“Yes hello Derick…Derict?” Xane attempted to say.

“My name is pronounced Dear-eck” He mumbled something about name tags.

“Sorry about that.” Xane said feeling awkward, “I would like to buy any information on the dead/missing god Lyenn Goddess of the Ocean.”

“Did you have to add dead? Clearly I’m not dead.” Lyenn huffed.

“Ahh the missing goddess. She is most likely not dead since a new god of the ocean hasn’t been chosen. That is your free information.” He answered with a sharp grin. “I also have a few missives on such a topic. Some general and less so specifics.”

They had also talked about not being too specific about her being in pieces since that might start a wide hunt for said pieces. They would get information about Lyenn here and then try a different set of questions at another as to not warrant suspicion. The information houses were discreet about who accessed their information but didn't hide things they learn while doing business.

“How much would it cost for it?” Xane wasn’t afraid about asking price since the business was sneaky but was ultimately fair and the prices on information was pretty much the same in any house and the brokers were apparently spell bound to not take bribes or take some off the side. That was mainly due to how much money exchanged hands in the place.

“The basics will only cost 250 gold. And rumors will cost 150 gold each. Verified will cost 500 each. Specifics will vary.” The grin that the goblin gave Xane scared him to his core.

Xane was rich but that was still a lot. With Lyenn steering his choices he spent well over 2000 gold. His pile of money was seeming less and less rich. You better be willing to repay me for all this. What even is my reward for helping? The quest never said.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Uhmm well it depends.”

What do you mean it depends?

“Well, I said that I would help you try and get back home. And honestly I didn’t think material wealth was your style. On top of that I don’t really have full control of the reward you get. The quest was system made and not my doing. It will give you whatever it wants to give you.”

Ok ok. And yeah I don’t really care about the money but you are starting to become expensive. On top of all the money it cost you weren’t allowed to see what the missives contained so it could be complete trash or tell them everything they wanted to know. Luck was on his side and what they got was pure gold.

Most of what they got was not that useful. He got a book about Lyenn that read like an autobiography. A rumor about her being the fastest god to ascend. A rumor that she is hiding after a great battle. Another that said she was imprisoned by another god or wizard since she was so young. Many many more weren’t useful. Lastly though and something that Lyenn said was the best.

*Verified* There are reports of a new pirate crew going by the name of Goddesses of the Ocean. It is a mostly female pirate crew that has grown in strength rather quickly in the past 10 years.

*Unverified*Rumors has it that it is the goddess herself that is in control. It wouldn’t be the first time a god got so entwined in mortal affairs. She is rumored to be based in the ocean of stars and might be the new Lord of Iron

It was short but gave all the information that Lyenn needed. Lyenn do you know what the lord of iron is so I don’t have to spend even more money on it?

It took her a moment to respond which was odd for her. “Sorry what? Ohh yes the lord of iron is the ruler of the island of iron. Like 150 years ago the island of iron was under control of the Tortogan empire. The island is called such because it had an insane iron deposit that was still producing the most amount of iron than anywhere else. Really it's a dumb name but fits. But a coup happened and the workers took over.

Why don’t they just take it back? 150 years is a long time to lose control to a bunch of workers?

“I was getting there. Rude. But therein lies the problem. The coup was years in the making. The workers waited till great fortification and the largest sea weapon in the world was made. A party in the completion was taking place when they attacked.

They had help from a …wizard and sealed all the ships magically. They then with mostly pickaxes and tools attacked the soldiers who were mostly drunk and killed them taking control. With now an army worth of strong miners and sailors. As well as the fortifications to protect it they are in control of the largest supply of iron. It was a huge part of history and the Tortogan Empire didn’t even know it happened till three weeks after. They had no chance. The Tortogan Empire tried to take it back but they only had a token armada compared to their main one. They retreated after losing half their ships and ever since the island of iron has been run by two groups. The miners who mine the iron and the pirates who sell it and raid other ships for even more income.”

By the time she retold the tale Xane was back in his ship. “Ok so how dangerous are the defenses? Are they like giant catapults or something?”

“Only if. They do have some. But the main threat are called wave makers. But a more fitting name is tsunami makers. They create giant waves that are imbued with magic to not be able to be controlled by another water mage. They wouldn’t be useful if another mage could just spread the water around their ship. The plans for them were also lost in the battle the creator Garrith Markins was part of the coup.”

“You know a lot about this.”

“Yeah- that's just because it is an island. That is in water. And was one of the biggest water based battles in my time.” She seemed to be hiding something but Xane didn’t pressure.

“So what are we to do about this? Just waltz up and say hey we need the body you stole back? On that note how do you know your body is there? Could just be someone pretending to be you since you've been gone.”

“No one is that foolish to pretend to be a god. Easy way to be smited. I believe they could have just hopped in and are using my body like a suit of sorts. Wait there could be a guy in my body.” The cringe was audible in Xane’s mind.

Now it was Xane’s turn to cringe. “A meat suit, seriously?”

“Yes if they are then they have insane stat increases. And probably great control of water magic or other things. This is new to me and I really don’t know.”

“Since we know where should we just head on over? If it is unassailable as you say then I don’t think that is a good idea.” Xane really didn’t want to be hit with a tsunami. Being pulled into a whirlpool was good enough for him.

“Of course not, you aren’t nearly high enough level to do such a thing. We would probably need to kill her or find another way to get her from my body. And really you aren’t good enough for that.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Really the only fight I've seen you in is the one where you ran away.”

“Fair enough.”

In the middle of the night. When no one was watching and most were asleep. A ship that was once there disappeared. What also disappeared on a caravan heading west towards Zakor was one of the people who owned the ship. It was the talk of the town for many days. An investigation into the disappearances was started but quickly shut down by a higher up.

Two men in darker clothing stood in the spot where the ship called Sierra’s Song once sat. “What should we do? The boss doesn’t like it when things he likes aren't his.” A taller one said, trying to peer into the depths as if the ship just sunk.

“We do our job of course. This situation is much more interesting than it was before.” The other said.

“Do you think that it is a magic ship even though the mages couldn’t sense it?” Now he was just about to stick his head into the water.

“It isn’t in the water, Busard. That is the first place they checked. And possibly yes. They only used rudimentary sight incase of traps.” The shorter one said this about to slap the Bussard in the back of the head.

“Yeah of course. I in fact was just making sure someone didn't drop something shiny. Yes, that's it.”

The other man grunted and they both left the scene to follow other leads.