As tempting as it was to test my newfound limits of freedom immediately, a couple of factors made me wait until Lirillin’s next trip into town.

The first was the method that I was tied up by. Both in town and at the lighthouse I was attached to the dock with rope, but Lirillin either had something enchanted at the lighthouse to make sure I remained attached, or simply used a more complex system of knots. It was the difference between tying me up to stay in place for multiple days and tying me up for a couple of hours. Limited as I was to wiggling my oars around, there simply wasn't all that much I could do to untie knots.

Shellpin Bay had a couple of things that mitigated that. As mentioned, not being tied up so tightly gave me better odds of freeing myself while leaving the rope intact, but even if I did have to break the rope I would have the benefit of an alibi. At the lighthouse, it was only me and Lirillin, so I would be the first and only suspect for anything going amiss. In town there were dozens of people who might be responsible, and while most of the people I had overheard seemed like decent honest folk, I knew that there was still a sizable group of teenage hooligans. Borrowing a boat for a joyride was just the sort of mischief they might get up to.

There were also the mystical reasons for waiting and making my escape attempt from Shellpin Bay. While Blessing of the Tides did seem to augment my spiritual reserves, the benefit it provided ebbed and flowed, and wasn’t actually displayed on the boat status screen. While I felt like I was capable of fully handling the mystical strain of maintaining all the enchantments, I couldn’t actually be sure without putting it to the long-term test. Instead, I wanted to raise my attributes to the point where it didn't matter how much of a benefit my Skills provided. Levelling up my class would take a thousand experience points, more than I had collected so far, but not by much. My exploration of my abilities and theoretical planning slowly but steadily increased that last number of my status page, and if I had a good evening of eavesdropping around town I should have enough experience points to level up and get the benefits that were waiting for me. Ocean’s Child might not be as obviously mystical as Bound Spirit, but I still expected to get some manner of increase to my Spirit Attribute, and I didn’t need a whole lot more Spirit to reach the breakeven point where I could independently sustain my enchantments indefinitely.

One last benefit of starting my independent exploration from town was the guarantee provided by other boats that came and went every day. I still didn’t have a great understanding of whatever was messing with basic geography, but I did know that fishermen safely went out fishing every day, and the occasional merchant from other towns and cities made their trips without incident. The more established routes there were to and from a place, the less likely it was that I would accidentally fall into a hidden pit and doom myself. Not impossible, and a factor that meant I would be exploring carefully, but it was definitely a smaller risk than I would face if I was checking out the more isolated area around the Lighthouse.

That last point was the largest factor tempering my eagerness. Even if I knew why I should be patient for another week, actually waiting for Lirillin to decide to take his next trip back into town was difficult. Every moment I was tempted to simply break my rope and head off on my own, only to hold myself back due to the risks of the unknown. A single Power Strike was all that stood between me and my own destiny, but that destiny would likely end with me at the bottom of the ocean far too quickly. Instead, I fiddled and philosophized, and waited out the week until once more I heard Lirillin approaching to head into town for his regular session of socializing.

The trip itself my focus was on paying as much attention as possible to the Navigation Enchantment as I could. Even knowing it was at work, it was hard to tell if it was actually doing anything. I also tried to keep an eye out for any significant landmarks I could commit to memory for comparison purposes on future trips, but the senses available to me simply didn’t leave me with many options on that front. My sense of touch was based on contact, I had a pretty good sense of hearing, it wasn't all that useful for making note of interesting features without an ability to use sonar, and my Saltwater Sense didn’t extend further than 15 meters. That was enough to detail the ocean floor I was passing over even if it didn’t always reach all the way to shore. Despite my efforts, nothing obvious stuck out to me, and even if I did find something notable it would be all too easy for me to miss it on a later trip if we were to travel a little bit to the left or right. I did my best though, and kept myself occupied all the way to Shellpin.

As expected, Lirillin quickly moored me to a cleat in a quiet part of the docks, and left to go take care of his own business. While simply tugging on the rope didn’t get me anywhere, I was able to use my oar to lift the rope up and over the post it was wrapped around. I waited a few seconds just in case anyone had spotted my actions and was coming over to investigate, but inside I was already rejoicing.

I was free! I had just solidly proven to myself that I wasn’t trapped in my current situation, that if I deemed it necessary I could break out and go my own way. Simply having that confirmation took away some of the self-inflicted pressure I had been experiencing, but I wasn’t about to immediately tie myself up again and return to my initial plan of taking things slowly. Instead, I let myself casually drift along the dock towards the shore, slowly making my way closer to the murmur of conversations that were just barely audible from my starting position.

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My main problem with where Lirillin tied me up is that it was in a quiet part of the town. I was a small boat, and Lirillin was healthy and didn’t mind walking a bit further if it meant he could save on harbor fees. Combined with the fact that the prime locations were probably reserved for the larger ships I didn’t really expect to ever get a great place to float while Lirillin was in town. It all made sense, but it did mean that there weren't a lot of conversations available for me to eavesdrop on and gather information from normally. I made do with what I could gather, but now I had the opportunity to wait in a better spot.

Saltwater Sense gave me a decent picture of what was happening in the water around me. I could make out the indentations caused by boats taking up space, and I could see the upright poles that held the docks up. The retaining wall was also visible, a solid barrier that firmly separated land from sea, and I slowly made my way closer, sliding from one empty berth to another.

Soon I was next to the wharf itself, and slowly let myself come to a rest so I could pay more attention to what I could hear. It was more of the same conversations that I had overheard by my original docking point, but there was lots more of it. More passerbys, more vendors, more workers and sailors going about their jobs or heading home early.

"Been a while since we've gotten a shipment from Highcliff."

"I heard they founded a couple of new villages to do their fishing, so trading with us hasn't been as important."

"Just got a job at the new bakery as a cleaner! The hours are kinda bad, but it pays alright"

"John! It's been weeks since I've seen you around town! Looks like the healer did a good job on your leg there!"

"Fresh Plums and Peaches! Tasty Apples and Apricots! Get 'em while they last!"

"This weather has been terrible! Far too hot for this time of year. I can't remember the last time it took so long for autumn to get here."

"Has anyone seen a parrot?"

“Green Pirates Strike again! Get all the details and more news for just two copper!”

Some information was more immediately useful, but all of it was fascinating, and I simply enjoyed the ambient energy of a busy town as my experience steadily increased. The only risk I took was to use an oar to fish my anchor line out of the water and to toss it onto a conveniently placed post in the water next to me.

My position right next to the retaining wall kept me out of most people’s sightlines. It seemed like the few who did spot me were mostly happy to go about their own business instead of bothering to investigate why a small empty rowboat was slowly bumping up against the wall. My trick with the rope was enough to assure those rare curious individuals that someone had intentionally left me here. Most of the people present were finishing up their work for the day, getting ready to head home and relax, and the last thing they wanted to do was to make more work for themselves for no apparent reason.

An hour or so in conversation began to die down, and comments on the weather began to include brief descriptions of the beautiful sunset they could see over the bay. While I was happy to get a small piece of cardinal orientation to use for later, getting a rough idea of time was more useful at the moment. I was tempted to stay where I was, or even to let myself drift further away towards a tavern where I could hear a group of rowdy sailors carousing, but I wasn’t quite ready to completely give up the benefits that staying with Lirillin provided me. Besides the convenience of my current situation, and the guaranteed safety it offered, simply knowing I could leave at any time meant I wasn’t feeling the need so much. I no longer felt quite so trapped, and that made all the difference to me.

Getting back to my original starting point was mostly just a matter of following the shoreline, slowly retracing my path until I was at roughly the right spot on the dock. There were a couple of open berths next to each other that I had to pick from, but I was hoping between the darkness and however much alcohol Lirillin had consumed that he wouldn’t be in a state to notice anything unusual. Putting the rope back required me to repeat my earlier trick, but knowing that it was dark out gave me the confidence to put more effort into getting things right. A few shoving splashes with my oars gave me a decent picture of where the cleats were located, and the rope was so waterlogged by this point that I was able to sense it fully. It took a few tries to get the still tied loop on the end of the rope to catch on the cleat, but once that was done the rest followed easily.

Probably half an hour or so after I had settled in again, I heard the sound of someone approaching me. Lirillin had returned alone, having apparently left his sailor friends still drinking at the bar. Grumbling about the price of a room and greedy innkeepers, he managed to get settled in the boat without any mishaps.

“Take me back home.” He groaned, before settling in for the trip.

I was somewhat surprised when the Navigation enchantment recognized his request as a valid location, and watched curiously as the oars began to move. As far as I could tell we were heading up the coast exactly as we had every previous time. Perhaps the coastline was slightly different than it had been previously, but I wasn’t able to give myself a definitive answer one way or the other. We made it back to the lighthouse without incident, and I focused on my gains for the trip, only to realize that I had picked up more than I had planned to.