After an invigorating night by myself in the mayor's refurbished bedroom, I left the empty manor behind and went to see if the Auvani princelings had secured our transportation. When I say "night" I mean a period where most activities in the city died down. In this Age of Eclipse, darkness was a given. And by the number of people walking around without any light source, I guess night vision or even dark vision was a perk most invested on.
I felt the people's hard stares when they thought I wasn't looking and heard their venomous whispers behind my back. My departure from Tijen's Cove was overdue. Reaching the warehouse where the kin-folk was resting, I nodded at the mercenaries and walked inside. Nenandil flew toward me and took her place on my shoulder. Devan came right after her.
"How's everyone, Devan?" I asked.
"Never been better, Your Highness," he answered with a grin.
I was about to dismiss his use of honorifics, but I noticed he was keeping an eye on the guards.
"I'm going to check on everyone's health. Follow me."
They were all malnourished. That was something only time and adequate food would solve. Fortunately, the System and my medical Profession could fix any permanent damage they'd suffered. After I was satisfied with their conditions, I spent some time talking to the mercenary guards they were happy with their job. I wanted to leave a good impression in at least some of the people in Tijen's Cove.
I found Serena and Albryan by the docks looking at a ship that I thought to be a caravel. The tech level of this world was all over the place. Some things were made easier by magic and there wasn't much effort invested in mundane technology. The smart people became magicians and never looked back - or down - at their origins.
"Ah, Princess Lakerta!" Albryan came to greet me. Solana looked warily and kept her distance.
"Prince Albryan. Did you find a ship?"
He pointed at the caravel next to the one we were, "Ships, actually. With my people and yours, a single ship is not enough."
The ships looked small this close. I think it will be a camped trip, but the kin survived worse.
"Good. And when are we departing? Can we secure enough supplies?"
"Actually, that's something we need to talk about. You can store items in your dimensional item box, right? We'll need you to carry our supplies to make room for more people."
"I'm fine with that but will the ship captains take that risk? What if I die on the trip or something else?"
He grinned, "If we find something in the trip that can kill you, we'll all be dead anyway."
His grin was forced. There was something else going on.
"Fair enough. Thanks for trusting me. Anything else? You seem worried."
He lowered his voice, "They are charging a premium for the trip, though. They want one kingmetal coin paid in advance. Each! We need to leave the money in escrow with the wharfmaster."
I sounded outraged, "That's a ripoff!" Platinum coins were used for huge deals and were scarce. I had less than a hundred of them. The metal soaked enchantments like crazy though, so it had an intrinsic value. I put a hand in my jacket's pocket and took two platinum coins. "It's my pleasure," I beamed.
Before I handed out the coin, I placed tracking and camouflage enchantments on it. That would allow me to find it later.
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The next two days were a flurry of work. I stored the supplies for both ships, including freshwater even though between Nenandil and me that wouldn't be a problem. That allowed us to convert the cargo deck into passenger cabins separated by canvas curtains. Devan assured me the kin wouldn't mind. I used the Spell-song to check and repair the ships and ended up reinforcing their hull. Previously that would be too much exposure but I decided to do as I pleased in this life. And I could rest easier knowing there was no risk of sabotage.
At the last-minute, I got a potted tree sapling. It was a meter and a half tall and it went into my cabin. The kin and I occupied the Amber Witch, the newest caravel while the Auvani were on the other, called Meadow Sweet.
We needed to head Northeast because the currents would pull us south. I got a feeling for the expenditure of SP to use wind magic on the sails along with water magic to ease the resistance to the movement of the ships. I found that at a sustainable rate I could improve our sailing speed by between forty and seventy percent.
My MP was untouched, entirely dedicated to {Erode Curse}. I had the Wellspring active but in hidden mode.
After we lost sight of land, I pretended to be seasick and withdrew to my room with the ever-present fairy on my shoulder.
I did exactly that. I shifted into the tiny Etruscan shrew and my {Fox-Kin Disguise Set} morphed into the fur coat. From inside the sapling I teleported back to the Cove. From there I tracked my coins to the wharfmaster's office vault, deep underneath the building. The guy had his own dungeon without undead archivists this time. I looted everything in the vault, including some enchanted weapons. After I was done plundering the wharfmaster, I went back to the ship.
No need to pillage the town clean. I just wanted to punish the greedy men that kept the Auvani stranded. And I feared the ship would move out of range. Even though {Tree Stride} now reached twenty-two kilometers, flying blindly at night would be a big problem. The ship was sailing without any lights.
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A week passed and we still sailed in the dark. Captain Frederiksen of the Meadow Sweet, the leader of the expedition, ordered us to use no light on deck for fear of attracting pirates. No such thing happened and after that, we were too far away from any coast to be worth the risk. Lights were a bad idea overall for another reason. The creatures of the depths were attracted to it. My sapling was thriving in the dark of my cabin. When I studied it, I found it was living off of the ambient mana.
I could use {Shadow Warp} to cross between the ships so I visited often to deliver supplies. In one of the first visits, Albryan insisted that Solana should teach me a Darkness spell called {Dark Vision}. We used it on the crew and passengers of our ships.
We leaned on the rails of the deck, gazing up at the starlit sky. Sir Hector guarded the princess a few steps away. Searching, I couldn't find any constellation I knew. I was truly on an alien planet.
While I was alone with the princess, I asked about a sensitive topic. "Solana, why are you avoiding me? Is it something I did?"
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She was still not used to being talked to as equals. But the fear she had of me was new. The princess looked away. I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to face me. Sir Hector tensed up but didn't interfere.
"Princess Solana of the Auvani. I'm your friend and supporter. I swear I'll never hurt you intentionally. You can ask me anything. What is troubling you?"
"How can you do all that? You have forty million HP, can fight better than my knight, rise a dozen levels in a few days, use magic better than me..." her eyes were watering up. "Who are you?"
I transformed myself into an albino rabbit. Well, sorta. I became a naked rabbit, the disguise set became white fur. I didn't have the red eyes, though. After I was done shifting, I jumped on the railings. I used the sign language because why not.
> From the dawn of time I came. Moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to find sense in my life, when many times I'm forced to fight to the last. A few know I am among you. Now you do too.
Totally butchered that one. I was worried about triggering a flag that will cause others like me to come and do a deathmatch tournament. I felt the urge to start singing "Princes of the Universe". But to these natives, it might as well be a declaration of war. Nah. No song this time.
She took me in her arms, "Would you tell me? Stories of the First Priestess?"
I squeaked.
I spent the rest of the day telling her about my daily life with the ancient Auvani. I even created illusions of how they looked like. My reincarnation perks made the memories of my past lives here in Yznarian, as the elves call this world, crystal clear no matter how long ago they were made.
Solana and I exchanged magic spells and lessons every day after that. She got over her worries regarding me. With me and Nenandil helping the ships glide over the ocean, we were making good time according to the captain.
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During the second week, our spirits were uncrushable high, everyone was having a jolly time! When suddenly the ocean was all like "Suprise!" and a huge massive storm brewed out of nowhere!
I looked at the dark clouds and said, "We might need to buckle our pants. Or they might fall down!"
"You don't wear pants, silly!" Nenandil shot back.
Giggling with the fairy, I made whooshing sounds with my mouth. "And the ocean was like 'PSYCH'!"
We found our way to the poop deck - we men of the sea can say poop with a straight face - and found the captain looking at the lead ship growing closer by the minute.
"Damn. Meadow Swift can't sail so close to us!" Captain Gunther of the Amber Witch cursed. "What is Frederikssen thinking?"
I checked the boats. All the sailors had the dark vision perk. It was limited in range and didn't entirely replace the light, however. Oh, yes! Light.
"Captain, I can sense monsters in a kilometer around us. I'm going to throw a light spell up to let us navigate this storm. And maybe tow the boats. Nenandil, stay here. You might need to relay a message for me."
"Aye aye, skipper!" She saluted and flew to the railing.
The erratic winds were pushing the sails to and fro. They were already half-folded but removing the sails would leave the ships without any steering power.
I bundled twenty thousand SP and tossed it up and ahead. The spell was set to increase the light level slowly over two minutes before glowing like daylight. I moved to the bow of the ship and looked around. The spell did its job and moved with the ships. The miniature sun caught on the raindrops and created a circular rainbow as if Lisa Frank had drawn some angels.
I pondered my options. Fighting the weather was a terrible idea as I would have to pour millions of MP. The volume I'd need to affect was too much. Maybe some specialized Perk could make these costs manageable but I wasn't going to gamble.
I could tow the ships. I could become a large shark. Not a huge one as my {Large Animal Forms} was limited to creatures with about three or four meters. It was more of a volume limitation than a long one. I had four meters of tail and was still considered medium. A powerful shark or large dolphin might be what we need.
"Captain, I need you to dock the two ships together. I'm going to transform into a big fish and tow the boats."
"That's a terrible idea, Your Highness," Captain Gunther replied. "In calm waters you get scratches. In a storm like this? The girls will bang each other until they break. And steering will be a pain. We need to point the bow to the waves to cut them. Getting hit by a wave sideways in a storm is how ships capsize."
My mind wandered. Hum, girls banging each other until they break. So delicious. The captain broke me out of my wet dream with a harrumph. His face told me he would harbor no arguments.
"We'll get lost," I tried to defend my stance with a retort.
He shook his head, still as serious as the father of your prom date when he learns she got pregnant, "I'm sure Your Highness can find the Meadow once the storm passed."
"That I can. I'm going to do something I should've done already."
I ran back to my cabin after checking with the Kin in the cargo deck. They were scared but fine. I cut a branch from my sapling. Rummaging through my ridiculously large item box trash heap, I find a vase. After a goading the branch to grow roots in the new pot with {Nature Magic} and {Treesinger}, I made sure I could teleport from one tree to the other before I took the new tree with me to the Meadow. This little tree would increase my teleport range more than tenfold.
The siblings were climbing up to the main deck when I climbed out of a shadow. "Hey, I brought this tree. This way I can find you in the storm even if we get separated."
On the deck of the Meadow, Solana taunted me, "Why don't you make the ship fly already?"
I sneered back. "I needed two dozen first-rank mages feeding me their MP. Only you is not enough."
Maybe making an airship wasn't a bad idea. Ten seconds after the thought passed through my mind I came to the conclusion that if I ever make an airship, a dragon will appear during the maiden voyage to bring it down.
I placed the pot on Sir Hector's hand. "This tree is the lifeline between the ships. The storm may separate us. Keep it safe. I'll move back and forth regularly to check on you. Stay safe."
"I'll do my best, Your Highness," the resurrected knight vowed solemnly.
We placed the tree in Solana's cabin and I shifted to the Etruscan shrew to teleport. The requirement of fitting inside the trunk demanded the thinnest creature possible.
I felt I should be doing something more but I stayed on the background as a good passenger and let the professional sailors do their job of navigating the treacherous waters. I stayed with the Kin, hugging little Talia and comforting everyone.
I learned some folk songs from their secluded homeland in the heart of the Zaemisan Empire. I had to visit them. I had to visit a lot of places. Tour the world. Stay away from trouble. Dragons, demons, gods.
Between one batch of songs and the next, I used {Tree Stride} to move between ships and check how the others were faring. My light spell was working as a lighthouse of sorts, giving the Meadow Swift a way to follow the Amber Witch.
Just sitting and comforting the kin while the storm raged and our destination was out of my control felt strange. I wasn't trapped without choice but submission as with Apricot or trapped like Alloralla. I was on the sidelines of my own choice. But I found that I didn't like this lack of control over my fate. Or the lack of the illusion of control. The kin around me was powerless to fight against the storm and they knew it. What about me? Did I have the power to change fate or was it an illusion? Was I just being swayed by it?
The storm would rage for two days. I forced myself to stay put and spend my time with the kin. Not fighting back. When it ended, I prepared to send another summoned messenger bird to Lorna. This one would have the upgrade of a reply. Would I get one? My heart pounded as if I were on the front porch of my prom date, waiting for her to come outside, dreading to meet her father. Including sexual expectations. Nenandil and I also wrote letters to her mother Doris, Sariandi, and Neep the brownie. Finally, I drafted a short missive for Kazuyran, telling him to meet me in Windemere.
I went to the deck to summon the birds and sent them flying. Three flew back west, toward Pekothas, while the ones for the dark elf [Assassin] and Lorna streaked away toward Auvanini.
The birds would fly to a location where I believed the person was. If they were not found there, the summon would then search for the person. Killing the summon would make the letter vanish, lost wherever it was stored.
Captain Gunther called me from the poop deck.
"What is it?" I asked. as I slithered up the stairs.
"Your Highness, those birds, what are they?" He had airs of both suspicion and amazement around him.
I smiled, "Oh. Those are messenger birds. I can send letters to people I know."
"And may I ask where the last two that flew east were going to?"
"You may. They are going to Windemere."
He held his breath. "Do you know what this means?"
I tilted my head, "That I can keep in touch with my friends?"
The captain bellowed a hearty chortle, "That too, Your Highness. But the birds can also serve as a guide. If we can follow them, we can go straight to our destination. You can even send one to Frederiksen and find his ship anytime if we get separated."
That didn't happen during the storm thanks to my light spell. But he had a good point, didn't he?
I covered my mouth with a hand to hide my surprise, "Oh!"