It ended up taking another week for us to find the pass through the mountains, in sharp contrast to the mayor having said we could not miss it. When we had finally located the passage, I had genuinely been considering jumping over the mountains; I was pretty sure I could make it, even with them being as high they were, but it would mean leaving my friends behind. As much as the delay rubbed me the wrong way, I was not that impatient.
As it turned out, we had walked past our target once already and simply failed to notice; I had actually never seen a mountain pass before. The only mountain I had been near was off on its own and we had simply climbed over it. The gap was, as we discovered, significantly smaller in scale than the range itself, appearing almost tiny in comparison to the towering rock spurs, despite it being wide enough to drive a palace through. It turns out that perception and scale can fool anybody, even if you’re born into things being larger than life.
By the time we had made it over the colossal mountain range, two months had passed since we left Ouhl and both Darina and Toria had completed the integration of their Exemplars. While they and Riffa were only just starting the long journey towards Pinnacle, it still did not feel great to once again be the weakest person in the group; I knew I was not weak, I was many times faster than my companions. But their endurance, strength and toughness were rising along with their speed, and as fast as I was, I was otherwise behind in every way.
At the peak of the pass, looking out over the world beyond, I saw what looked to be an ocean in the distance, its waters stretching over the horizon. I looked for a bay to find the city we were looking for, but at that distance it was difficult for me to make out any details.
“With some surety, I think I see a city; there are regularities in the geometry that would not be present in nature.”
I looked up at Reff who was shading his eyes against the sun and staring off towards the ocean; I looked again, straining my eyes but could not see what he apparently did. I almost asked him if risi had better eyesight than humans, but remembered at the last moment that I was no-longer human.
“You have better eyes than me, Mountain’s Anger.”
“With modest dismissal, your eyes will improve as you build your Foundation, Toria. Risi eyes are no better than human, I am simply further along in my cultivation.”
I grinned mentally at having my question answered, though the reminder about our relative stages was vaguely irritating. That irritation was not something I wanted to dwell on, however; I knew it was a combination of factors making me irritable and did not want to let it affect me.
I watched as the others set off down the mountain, taking a deep breath, wondering what we would find waiting for us in Cresent Bay.
*
***
*
The city of Crescent Bay seemed to be less of a city and more a series of large villages laid on in a grid pattern, when we arrived. Around its edge ran a strip of perfectly level stones, on which various designs were etched. This cordon of flat stone even ran along the water’s edge, jutting out regularly like spokes to form piers.
As we crossed the stones, I half expected a ward to spring up, but nothing happened and we left the curiosity behind. As we passed along the arrow straight roads which delineated the city, the citizens would stop and give us hard looks, though none chose to try to stop us. I wondered if the city had been attacked, like Ouhl, though I thought there was unlikely to be another pool of blood here, so far from the last. Of course, it was perfectly possible that the residents were naturally suspicious, like those of the village at which we had gained directions. But something in their looks indicated something deeper, to me.
Unlike other cities I had visited, there were no grand buildings or edifices, just simple low huts that rose no more than a single level from the ground, and while the wood was no doubt many times stronger than a similar material on Earth, I had to wonder how they dealt with beast attacks and such, with no wall and relatively flimsy buildings.
We were looking for somewhere that suggested skyships; we had been looking above the city but had seen no evidence of them in our approach, and so were heading to the water to see if any of them looked to be other than normal water-based ships. It made sense that if they did fly from that place, they might sit in the water, rather than the air when not in use.
Upon reaching the lapping edge of the ocean, I discovered that while the city did seem to be built around a bay, it was not a crescent in any way, but rather appeared to be a man-made, rectangular cut-out in the land.
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“Are we sure this is Crescent Bay? Looks more like a box-shape to me.”
“This do be Crescent Bay, lad. The Crescent be the water, this be the bay.”
The voice came from behind us, rough, dry and creaking with age. Turning, I saw an old man with a white beard tucked behind a wide belt, dressed in dark blue and leaning on a hooked spear more than twice as tall as he was. He looked to be in his nineties, face deeply lined, rough and ruddy, though he was not bowed by the weight of whatever years he carried.
“The ocean is called the Crescent? And this is Crescent Bay? Is there only the one bay, or is this one special?”
“Ocean? The Crescent be no ocean, lad. A lake, it do be. And this be the only bay along its long edge, as it be the only bay set deep enough to not be attracting the Deep Fish.”
“A lake?!”
I thought back to the massive body of water I had seen from the mountains and the way it had rolled out and over the horizon; no matter where I went or what I saw, my new home kept surprising me.
The old man was frowning at me, the action deepening the creases of his face to resemble tiny canyons. I wondered how old he must be, and what stage, to form such lines. It was my understanding that a Pinnacle stage was basically immortal, and a Foundation stage could expect to live for tens of thousands of years. I almost asked, but had no idea how polite it was.
“A lake it do be, Lad. What do be bring ye all to Crescent Bay? If’n ye be about to cause mischief, be warned that ‘t’would be unwise, it do be so.”
“We’re not here to cause trouble, just looking for a skyship to take us south.”
“There be no skyships in Crescent Bay, lad. We sail the waters, not the air.”
I cursed under my breath and felt the frustration inside of me surge; the delays reaching the city, more than a month of travel for nothing. Jorl might have already returned to Ouhl for I knew, and rather than being there waiting, we had headed off to a random port city on a random hope, just because it was relatively nearby.
“With piqued curiosity, I did not see any ships; you say you sail the water, to there must be ships. Are you a fishing community?”
“You also mentioned mischief, elder. Have you had any trouble recently? And strange attacks?”
“With particular interest, is there an inn in town where we might take a bath?”
The old man looked startled by the barrage of questions from Reff, Darina and Rifa, blinking rapidly before frowning hard at us.
“And is there an alchemist in town?”
I could not help adding the last, though it seemed to attract the majority of the elder’s ire.
“Bah, alchemist ye ask? Void blasted Alchemist did up and leave us high and dry a week ago, something about a war, he did say. We have no business in war, do Crescent Bay. Fools and madmen, it do be for.”
I saw Darina turn to me with a grin forming on her face, but before she could unleash whatever barb she had thought of the craggy faced man spoke again, a trace of a sigh in his voice.
“The boats do be out, but they do not be fishing, giant. They do search for moon lotus. No one do be fool enough to attack Crescent Bay, girl. No weakling tackles the depths for moon lotus, and so we do be having no weaklings. And there do be an inn, with a bath. The Settelite. It be over there.”
The man answered my friend questions in order, irritation clear on his face, and finishing up by pointing one gnarled but solid looking finger behind and to the left of us, indicating a building with a white roof and a balcony all around its edge.
Noting the location in my mind, I turned back to thank him but he was already walking away, long, hooked spear booming on the wooden slats of the promenade as he walked with none of the frailty I would normally expect from somebody of his apparent age.
“That guy is old. The only other actual old-looking person I’ve met was Ben Won Ro in Everwood City.”
“It usually means they met a bottleneck at an early stage of cultivation, before breaking through. He’s probably at least Foundation stage, looking at his spear.”
At Toria’s mention of the spear, I looked at its departing form in confusion for a moment, before noting the deep blue metal of the blade, which indicated that it was about as heavy as the sword Aella had taken from the bandit... the one I could not actually hold. I nodded once, though my mind wandered to what else she had said, about meeting a bottleneck for long enough to become old, before breaking through. At the Path stage, I had a long, long life ahead of me and it would probably take thousands of years for me to get to the same appearance as the spearman. I shuddered a little at spending that long without making progress, and promised myself that I would double-down on my efforts to make it past the eighty-percent mark.
The five of us made our way to the indicated building, which was substantially larger than the ones surrounding it, but still made entirely of wood. It was painted whited, with what looked like a blue roof. Entering, we found a common room that seemed to take up the entire bottom floor, with a long bar that stretched the entire distance and backed by thousands of glass bottles and wooden kegs. Behind the bar was the first fully-fat person I had ever seen on that world, wearing a white apron and rubbing away at huge, clear glasses with a white cloth.
The bartender, or innkeeper, looked up at us from under bushy eyebrows as we crossed the common room, weaving between tables and chairs. We had not quite reached the bar when he spoke, his voice almost as rough as the old man outside.
“It do be fifty per night, per room. Bath included; booze be not.”
I blinked at the cost; it was significantly less expensive than the City’s Edge had been, which immediately put me in a better mood.
Without a word, I pulled two-hundred and fifty’s worth of coins from storage and slapped them down on the counter, before looking at my friends.
“One of you can pay the next inn, or the next night. Whatever.”
The coins were carefully counted by the barkeep, and we were handed five keys. I was just about to ask about drinks when an incredibly loud bell began to ring outside, almost making me cover my ears, though I could tell from the echoes that it was not nearby.
Looking at the barkeep in question, he simply sighed in a half-growl and reached under the counter to pull out a short, broad-bladed spear, which he tucked into his belt before pulling a bottle off a shelf behind him and pouring a large glass of purple liquid.