The roads were peaceful, except for the time we had to fight off a few cassoban attempting to eat me in the middle of the night. That was just Corith being itself, and not being directly ireful against us.
I didn’t know what to expect of Neraser, other than knowing that it had taken Arlin’s suggestion to be careful with our borders and spat in Arlin’s face. Whatever hatred lied in Neraser was deep and storied, which helped us get through the border. It was watched by Neraser guard, who looked the most bored I’d ever seen a person look.
They waved us through after checking for weapons, which we didn’t have outside of a few necessary blades. We left all of our burners and igniters back in Freiweld. Nations like Neraser who were fiercely defiant of Arlin had a ban on burners and all magore tech carried by anyone outside their military.
I used to feel naked without one being at my hip. That feeling has mostly dissipated after my time in the forest. Until I managed to create a functional weapon out of magore, I didn’t expect it to completely go away.
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Neraser was flat. The shift from the heavy and hilly forests of Corith to the open grasslands of Neraser was jarring. I could look off into the distance and see the road we would be riding down over ten minutes later. The breeze was constant, and grew heavier the closer we got to Aelwryn.
Now that spring was coming, it rained on several of the days of the trip. It was nice to know that the seasons were changing, as time was feeling extremely stagnant in Corith. It made the trip feel shorter than it actually was, and I was almost shocked when I saw Aelwryn appear over the level horizon
In my entire life, I’d only seen one city, and it was the same city that I had destroyed. Aelwryn was far more dense and lively, with people moving throughout the streets and dodging in between the many carts driving along its cobbled roads. The air coming off the sea wafted a unique smell throughout the air which I had never experienced before. I disliked it, as did Sera.
The obvious problem was figuring out where the Captain Nicole had gifted us was located. That led us to the port authority.
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“Elias?” asked the lady at the desk, sounding somewhat offended by the name.
“Yes, Captain Elias Porter. He owns a ship called The Radiance.” I answered back.
“I know who he is. I’m just surprised you’re looking for him specifically. I know he’d been in the dock for a good time. I’m guessing you’re the ones he’s been waiting for?”
“We think so.”
The lady frowned and glanced off to a cork bulletin board on the wall, sectioned out into spaces with a letter and number combination. My eyeline followed hers, and I landed on a scrap of paper which looked older than the rest which said “Porter”, listed under 6B.
“He’s been holding that spot. I’d love to throw him out, but he’s paying double the normal rate to stay docked. I’ve learned not to pry, but if you’re the reason he’s been waiting, his mistress cares a lot.”
“Oh.” I said, scratching at the back of my neck. It was pretty easy to assume that the mistress was Nicole.
“Just give us directions to where he is.” Elm demanded.
The lady at the desk reached below and grabbed a piece of paper, sliding it across the table. It was a map of the area, with labels of every single dock.
“Head here. He should be staying at his ship.” She said plainly. Our group moved out of the line and walked at the door. I couldn’t help but feel the stares of those in the room as we walked back into the streets.
We hopped back in our wagon and made our way through the streets, the smell and sounds of the sea growing louder.
Eventually we made our way to the dock, with the sign labeled 6B. I hadn’t gotten close up with a boat before, and had only heard them described to me before or in art. Only up close did I realize the scale of a ship. It was likely larger than two of the camp’s bunks combined, and the large pole where the sails were attached which I was pretty sure had a name towered as high as the trees of Corith.
“Wow…”
“Who fuck calls their ship the ‘Radiance’?” Elm loudly grumbled as he hopped down out of the cart.
I followed after him, beckoning Jay to join me as we made our way closer. We stopped in our tracks as we heard a voice.
“I the fuck who calls my ship the ‘Radiance’.” said a man peering over the side. He tried to get out another word and abruptly puked.
I stared at the man, seeing his face and scraggly facial hair that looked in desperate need of a shave. The bits of puke which weren’t in his beard had landed into the water below. He wiped his face with his shirt sleeve and slowly made his way down to the dock.
“Captain… Porter?” I felt off trying to connect the face and name in my mind. His long coat flapped awkwardly in the wind as he stumbled closer.
“The one and only. And if you’re here, you must be the North.” He said groggily, his eyes struggling to focus on me.
“No ‘the’. Just call me North.” I said, glancing at Elm for support.
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“Don’t matter. If you’re here, that means I can finally leave this blasted port.” He said, extending out the same hand he’d used to wipe the puke off of himself. It floated in the air unshaken until Porter used the same hand to scratch his ass.
“Captain…”
We looked up to see someone glancing over the banister of the ship, shaking their head in disappointment. It was a muscular woman whose blonde hair was tied up under a bandana.
“Sorry about him. The mistress said she’d pay for all of his tab while he waited in port. He’s not normally this drunk.”
“And she better keep her fucking promise!” Porter shouted back.
“She will, Elias. And if the Missus doesn’t, we can just threaten to sail off into the sunset.”
Captain Porter let out a laugh so hard it nearly caused him to double over.
“Good one Tocque. Good one.” Porter said in between chuckles before regaining his focus, “Well, get your things and come aboard. Tocque, can you take their cart to Talley’s? He’s probably the best shot for their strigs not ending up as stock.”
“Sure thing, cap. Y’all should probably start moving.” Tocque said, turning her attention to me.
Nicole, you confuse me more and more.
Elm and Jay went back to the wagon with the Tocque person while I stepped onto the ship followed by the captain.
“Can I call you Elias?” I asked. The word ‘captain’ held a bad taste in my mouth, due to my years in the camp.
“Depends on what the mistress wants from you.” He sighed, extending out an arm and holding himself against the big pole.
“She didn’t say.”
He stopped heaving and turned to look at me. His green eyes showed an odd mix of confusion and bewilderment.
“She just told you that she required your presence in Duskarna? Didn’t say what you might be doing?”
“Nothing. Only that it was very important, and I could benefit from it.” I answered honestly, scratching at the back of my neck.
The captain became pensive, staring off into the sea as though he was searching for an answer. In my periphery, his crew began to pull in the objects from our cart.
“Call me Elias. If you have a noble title, I suggest you give it to me right now.” He responded, the alcohol disappearing from his demeanor.
“Why?”
“I assumed you were important, with how much she was giving me to simply get you. But vagueness for something like this isn’t something she would do unless something has gone very, very wrong.”
“Like what?” I asked.
Elias shrugged and made his way to a door leading inside to the ship, taking one final glance back at me.
“You should be careful not to end up like me.”
“A captain?” I said somewhat jokingly.
“No. Her pet.”
Elias closed the door, leaving me to ponder his words for the rest of the voyage.
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A week in, and I was able to confidently decide that my body, as well as that of Sera’s, did not like the ocean. I’d been praying to mana on a daily basis to give me some help and possibly help me adapt to the constant swaying seas.
Only when I was sitting down was I able to hand it, which was why I was able to stomach down meals.
“So, how far are we from the coast now?” Ruby asked Tocque, sitting next to her at the table as we started to tear into the food.
Tocque, as it turned out, was the Radiance’s navigator. Ruby had immediately befriended them over their mutual love of mapping. Sea travel and mapping was different from normal mapping, so the two were happily exchanging experiences and ideas about how their individual trades functioned.
“Half a day, likely. Hard to tell at night, but now that we’ve made our way over the east line, things should be far nicer.”
Ruby was looking at the map she had copied of Sol, which Tocque used to keep the vessel on track. Sol was somewhat rectangular, and we were currently following the northern coast to get to Duskarna.
“Hey, can I ask a question?” I piped up from across the table.
“Go for it.” Tocque responded.
“What would happen if you just went straight and didn’t follow the coast?”
Tocque started to boisterously laugh, slapping her knee. Several other members of Porter’s crew began to do the same.
“You’d die. Sol is the only land that exists, so you’d be running headfirst into pure ocean. It also gets more unruly the farther you get out, so you’d probably lose your ship before you starve.” She explained.
“And if you didn’t starve and your ship stayed intact?”
Tocque stopped laughing and placed her fist against her chin, seeming to ponder.
“Any navigator with any sense thinks the world is one big ball. Best guess? You’d circle back around to the other side.”
“I still think Sol is flat.” Elias remarked as he bit into his extremely hard bread.
“Which is why you are the captain, and not the navigator.”
I groaned and tuned out Elm explaining how Arlin proved it with something related to shadows. My curiosity only went so far in this measure, as I didn’t plan to spend too much time on the sea. We were close to land, but as someone who didn’t know how to swim, it still worried me.
The meal ended and we went to our quarters. I had a hammock, tied up beneath the ship for me to sleep in. As it swayed with the waves, I stared up at the ceiling and pondered.
I’m not prepared.
Usually when it came to my decisions, I had some form of plan. Something to try and stick to, and whether it failed or not, I had the chance to think of something else and solve the problem. Nicole had dragged me into the open, literally, with nothing beneath my feet to hold onto. I simply had to hope that she had intentions to keep me and my comrades alive.
My gut was telling me something was in Duskarna that would aid me. Something to help me take down my foe. Even then, I was losing sight of what that foe even was. I’d held my vengeance against Arlin, and its military, but I was also getting acquainted with members of it.
The Fourth Emperor would be my foe?
I could scarcely think of his face, having seen it on lins and yet never registering it as a person. The stories I’d heard from the Arlinians painted him as a stoic figure, one who managed to do all the things I was currently failing at with ease.
He’s still human. I can defeat him. As long as I have my allies.