Chapter 23 Watching
Isaac got up with a long and deep stretch. “That was nice.” He groaned. “We haven’t slept since we left Safeharbor.”
“Agreed.” Lenna said as she sat up in bed. “Thank you for watching over us, Shamesh.”
Shamesh, who was standing by the door patiently waiting for them to wake up, bowed towards her. “It was my honor and duty, my Lady.” He told her.
“Shamesh?” Lenna spoke to coax him into what he was about to say.
“Yes, my Lady?” Shamesh replied as intended.
“Has anything changed, since our last talk about your growth as a sapient being?” She wondered.
Shamesh was silent for a time in deep contemplation. While he thought, Isaac and Lenna began getting ready to explore Sapphirestone. It had been nearly five minutes before Shamesh finally nodded and his eyes of death flames locked onto Lenna’s silver ones. “I think, I miss Martha.” Shamesh told her.
Isaac’s eyes went wide as Lenna looked back and forth between her mate and his physical shadow. “Describe the feeling to me.” Isaac told him.
“It is like a slight sadness at not being near her. I feel like there is a piece of myself that was left behind, not a big piece, but a piece nonetheless.” Shamesh explained. “Is that what it is like to miss someone?”
Lenna smiled warmly at Shamesh and Isaac gave him a comforting smile and a nod. “Yes.” Lenna told him. “The longing for a friend that was left behind is something that many know very well.”
“It is a normal, understandable, and very real emotion that almost every other mortal to have ever existed has felt.” Isaac agreed. “I know that the feeling is not pleasant, but it is a good thing. It helps prove that you are you and not just a collection of reactions to external stimuli. This is now another nail holding up the sign that says ‘Shamesh is a real person’. Congratulations.”
Shamesh was silent for a short while before he bowed towards his master. “Thank you.” He spoke sincerely.
“Maybe one day we will find a way for you to taste food, but for now, Lenna and I must eat. I’ll summon you again when we find something interesting or require your assistance.” Isaac told him.
Shamesh bowed again. “As you say, my master.” He replied as he sank into the puddle of shadows so dark that it was pure black even to Lenna’s perfect vision in the darkness.
“Well, I know you just told Shamesh that we were going to get breakfast but, well, we are on our honeymoon.” Lenna said to Isaac with a glance towards the bed.
Isaac looked her up and down and then gestured to himself. Both of them were already fully armored and ready to go. “We just got dressed.” He reminded her. “Maybe if we would have sent Shamesh away as soon as we woke up, but at this point, you are going to have to wait until tonight.”
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Lenna crossed her arms before grumbling: “Breakfast had better be good.”
—
Sapphirestone’s layout was well planned but complex. The port was a crescent that had been built on the rocky shore. The smell of fish and unwashed sailors dominated the area between gusts of wind replacing it with the scent of the sea. The port was large enough for a hundred simultaneously docked ships and nearly half of the piers were full. At either end there were eight warships ready to go at a moment’s notice. Each fleet comprised of one Storm Class Warship and seven Frigates. Combined they carried an impressive two hundred and seventy ballistae per fleet. Each ship carried ammunition for the ballistae that specialized in penetrating into the water as well as special canisters that would break open right after they were shot and would release a few dozen iron darts at high speed into their target. The sailor that Isaac had questioned about them also seemed to know about more kinds of unique ammunition types but was not willing to share any information on them with someone that was not in the navy.
Straight out from the open center of the port was an island made of tall smooth gray stone that formed the base of a castle that looked to be made entirely out of Sapphire crystals. The midmorning sun was caught and scattered in all directions as the jagged and uneven cuts of the sapphire stones reflected the light in different ways and in different directions. Isaac and Lenna had been informed that the castle was both a bastion against the terrors of the sea as well as the home of the Duke and Duchess Von Sasston, Sera and Edward’s brother and sister-in-law.
The Sasston Bastion was a sparkling beacon for all to see and it even had a lighthouse to help guide in ships in the dark. Out from either side, of the six hundred foot wide castle and island, there was a seawall that stood a full fifty feet above the water level. The wall was so impressively high that Isaac wondered how thick it had to be to maintain its integrity. Apparently the walls were relics of a time long past and had been reinforced with strengthening runes throughout their entire construction. The seawalls were kept meticulously clean to prevent any creatures from eating away at them as they held the merciless sea at bay. The seawalls and the city walls were the same height giving the illusion that they were supposed to be one continuous wall around the city and port. At their closest point, where the city walls met the sea and the seawall ended, there was a mere hundred and fifty foot gap.
Isaac and Lenna had been informed that, in the event of a catastrophe, two chain link gates of deific proportions would be raised from the sea that would block each port entrance. The chain link gates would break up waves that threatened to smash the port, and ships that it harbored, as well as catch even the mythical kraken. Sapphirestone had held firm against tsunamis, megalodons, dragonturtles, and countless summer storms. It was truly impressive how unassailable the city seemed to the residents and visitors that Isaac and Lenna talked to throughout their day. Sapphirestone was a monument to the fortitude of the mortals of the Kingdom of Altia and the glittering sapphire blue roofs seemed to taunt every catastrophe that had failed to break them.
The duo had also been informed on the nature of the glass statues in the lobby of Sapphirestone Fine Glassworks. They were the same person. The patron demigod of Sapphirestone was simply known as Storm. Storm was a being with a different face for every kind of storm. An icy princess who froze lakes and buried towns under a dozen feet of snow, a hotheaded and impulsive youth who threw thirty foot waves and hundred mile per hour winds at port towns, an aloof scaredy-cat that blotted out the sun with rolling clouds of sand, an angry elder who carved troughs into the ground with spiraling wind funnels that threw trees around like a child’s toy. Each of Storm’s faces came with it their own personality but they were known to split apart at need into multiple versions of themselves. They were also fickle beings, though Storm seemed to like Sapphirestone for some reason. The demigod’s apparent fondness of the city was one of the many reasons people saw it as one of the safest cities on the continent, despite it being a port city.
Eventually, after trying a dozen different versions of fried fish, including one that was wrapped in seaweed and doused in eel sauce while being fried over a fire in front of them, the duo finally found their way to the bad side of town. Every town had one; it was just a question of where. Some were only a street wide but some were half of the city. For Sapphirestone, there was an area that just had a certain grungy air about it. The sapphire roofs of the area maintained their brilliance but the walls of the buildings got dirtier and a lot of things, and people, started to look more run down. There were even a few people sitting in the alleyways that looked like they had no homes to return to.
Once Isaac and Lenna had noticed the change in atmosphere they wandered around until they found all of the edges of the bad part of town. Once they had done so, they let it be for the time being, and moved on to their next stop. Isaac led Lenna the entire way back to the main gate that they had entered from. “I didn’t think we were leaving yet?” Lenna questioned him as they approached it.
“Oh, we aren’t. There is just something that I want to show you, now that you can see. I am sure that it will be the greatest view that you have ever seen. It is probably going to be the greatest view that I have ever seen as well.” Isaac explained to her and stopped a dozen feet from the wall. He craned his neck to look the entire way up to the top. “Do you think you could jump it, if I gave you a boost?”
Lenna chuckled. “Isaac, that’s thirty feet.” She replied. “I don’t think anyone can jump that.” She then smirked at him. “But I would be willing to give it a try.”