Resonance Poisoning? It is nothing to me, before my divinity the laws that have kept these pitiful schools safe and ‘powerful’ for a thousand years mean less than nothing. Continue to feed me your faith and I will show you.
-The Book Of Creeds
Chapter 41: Ashton’s Lookout
Alabaster
Alley enjoyed his time at Ashton’s Rest. Once the mayor realized he wasn’t going to unleash an army of monsters on the still recovering town he was more than happy to have them stay a few days whilst Alley regained his full strength. To the boy’s eternal gratitude the rigors of running a town undergoing this sort of recovery meant the man didn’t have time for any more kowtowing.
The theft of Alley’s boat had briefly crushed his spirits. The little skiff had been a gift from his entire family, he had owned it for longer than he had a Deck. It was one of the few relics of his parents and sister he had left…or didn’t have he supposed.
On the other hand the townsfolk had offered to crew one of their own ten man ships and ferry the boys back to the mainland. Alley might miss The Bay Runner, but it would be nice to travel on a sturdier ship with more experienced sailors, who could make significant repairs while still on the ocean.
Alley had never really been one to mope. Even if he had been, maintaining a sad demeanor while relaxing in a beach town that refused to let him do any work or pay for anything was a challenging prospect. He couldn’t stay here long though. As Alley grew stronger so did his desire to continue their journey once more.
In his quieter moments Alley knew that gaining the sort of power he would need to defeat Soren Creed was a pipe dream at best. That didn’t mean he was ready to surrender the dream yet and keeping it alive meant throwing himself into the quest for strength with a relentless gusto. It was the only way he could convince himself there was even a chance.
By the morning of the second day after he had woken up Alley found himself climbing up the side of the Silver Sea Deep Hunters League hall. Once atop the circular structure he took a moment to admire the glowing silver of the morning sea before starting to run. The dome of the hall was looped by a small stone ledge that was barely large enough to hold Alley at all. It was almost perfect.
As a child he had hated all the climbing, sprinting, and jumping his parents made him do in the mountains above Valeton. Yet here he was, doing his best to imitate what they had put him through.
‘Life is weird.’ He thought to himself as he looped around the roof gaining speed. Just like running the stone ridges on Cursed Isle one foot out of place would send him tumbling. Unlike the ridges of Cursed Isle Alley was pretty sure he could endure a fall from here without too much injury.
While Alley ran he schemed, planning out how he would continue his adventure. The boy was hungry for another Challenge, the rush of power he had felt as the first lock within his essence lines had begun to crack felt amazing. Passing out from blood loss had been less pleasant.
Next time Alley would have to be aware of how the cloak reacted to him getting cut. He assumed that it was some sort of effect that refiled his Vials faster, but Alley was only rank twelve. He could not afford to actually make use of the power. That meant not only could Alley not test is theory, he was going to have to play around the fact that his own Dealer had the potential to kill him.
None of that really changed course as far as Alley was concerned. He still intended to head to the Rakino swamp and do some study of the Undead there. According to Darius’ parents the monsters that inhabited the swamp were on the weaker side which wasn’t exactly ideal for Deck Building but that was one area Alley would have to take things a little slower. Not only was he still getting used to not being able to Manifest outside of a Challenge, something that had been harder than he thought during the fight with the pirates. But Alley didn’t actually know how one converted an Undead into a Card. If he was lucky you just killed the creature in question and activate the Dealer’s ability to create Cards, just like normal. Everything the boy had read about Undead monsters suggested they couldn’t be killed in the traditional sense, only exorcized or destroyed utterly. So what did you press the dealer against?
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Alley had a good sweat going now and he began to incorporate more complicated movements into the run. Every few laps he would spin as he ran, skidding dangerously close to the lip of the ledge before taking off sprinting in the opposite direction to how he had been running. He wasn’t really sure how long he ran like that around the roof of the hall but the silver glow of the sea had faded and he was breathing heavily when he finished.
Taking a drink of water from a little metal flask on his belt, Alley let himself rest for a few minutes. Once he felt a little more recovered the boy dropped over the side of the roof, caught the ledge, and started doing pull ups. Alley’s record was six sets of twelve, what he managed today was well short of that. It was a little disappointing that his stamina hadn’t grown after winning the Challenge against Karieto, but he figured that probably had more to do with the massive blood loss.
Climbing back down the building on shaking arms Alley knew he was far from fully recovered but had concluded he could heal just as well on a ship as he could here. Resolving to leave tomorrow if the townsfolk could manage the boy headed off to find the mayor and express this desire. Somehow he felt confident the overly polite man would be happy to see them go.
Alley was proven right with such haste he was almost offended. Within minutes of his conversation with the mayor a crew was assembled and one of the ten-man rowing ships was being filled with supplies for a short journey.
Darius was significantly less excited to leave a town where he didn’t have to pay for anything and curvy raven haired pretended his flirting wasn’t clumsy and inexperienced. However the hunter understood Alley’s desire to get moving once more, and didn’t offer any objections beyond a few sarcastic jokes.
They departed the next morning before the sea had even begun to glow aboard a fishing vessel called ‘The Satisfaction.’ It was crewed by volunteers who could either be spared or whose own boats had been damaged in the conflict. The Ship’s owner was a white haired old fisherman named Helado, who took on the role as captain of the impromptu crew. His first mate happened to be his daughter who was about five years the senior of the boys. Something that got a flat glare from Alley turned on Darius, who promptly promised he wouldn’t try his luck with any women until they were back on the mainland.
The trip was expected to take three days. It was only really one as the crow flies to get back to the mainland, but the people of Ashton’s Lookout wanted to deposit their ‘heroes’ as close to their goal as possible. Alley was more than happy for the accelerated journey though much to his chagrin getting the sailors to let him pull his weight on the ship was almost as hard as it had been in town.
Eventually Alley and Darius just started doing things around the ship that needed to be done without asking for permission. Once it was evident no one was going to complain, the pair found it easy to fall into rhythm with the rest of the crew. Granted the townsfolk did most of the actual sailing but the boys were helpful enough that they didn’t feel lazy. Resting in Ashton’s Lookout had been nice but both boys agreed they couldn’t live with themselves if they did nothing while the work of getting them where they wanted to be was being done around them.
It was only once the sun set that things took a turn for the weird.
Alley was sitting in a circle of light cast by a deck lamp near the prow of the ship doing his best to study one of the two new maps he had acquired while still in town. It was a roughly done sketch of the coastline around Rakino including rivers and roads though in the poor light he was struggling to tell which was which. Sadly whatever magic let Alley see perfectly in the dark when he was in a Challenge did not extend to more mundane activities.
The boy was about to give up and go bed down for the night when he spotted a flash of white out of the corner of his eye. Turning his gaze out into the dark waves he swore he saw it again for a split second before it vanished. Alley frowned and went to roll up his map. The white appeared at the corner of his vision once more. Instead of snapping his head in that same direction again Alley carefully tied and stored his rolled map, pulled the second one out of his cloak and set about pretending to go over it.
The figure, he was sure it was a figure now didn’t seem any larger than a regular person. Neither did they seem to be moving particularly fast, and yet they were able to maintain pace with the ship.