After three days of traveling through the desert with only Fore at his side, Xander sees the Silent Brotherhood’s airships off in the distance, their mechanical forms surrounded by endless dunes.
“We finally made it buddy,” Xander scratches Fore on the chin.
As he walks towards the airship, two men come out to meet him, “State your business”.
“I am here to see Grayson; tell him Xander is here to see him,” Xander responds, not taken off guard by their cold greeting. The first one walks with Xander to the entrance, while the other one rushes back towards the ship.
A few minutes later, Xander sees the man return along with a concerned-looking Grayson, he leads Xander into a room and they sit down at either side of a table in the center of it.
“You look serious, please don’t tell me my daughter has died,” Grayson begs him solemnly, fearing the worst.
This catches Xander off guard, and he holds up his hands in a defensive position, “No! No, no, no she is fine. I’ve come here for a different reason”.
Grayson visibly relaxes, sitting back in his chair, “Thank god, when I heard that it was just you, I was terrified that you were going to give me bad news”.
“No, no bad news. The reason I am here is this,” Xander pulls the wooden box he’d painstakingly acquired out of his pocket and puts it on the table. Grayson takes it and opens it up revealing the diamond ring inside.
“I would like to marry your daughter,” Xander declares his intentions, bracing himself for Grayson’s response. Grayson remains silent for a long time, making Xander quite anxious, unsure of what his response may be. Suddenly he sees a single tear fall down from Grayson’s left eye.
Grayson gets out of his chair and walks over, giving Xander a firm hug, “Of course. I am so proud right now, son. Can I call you son?”
“Yeah,” Xander squeaks out, his lungs being crushed by Grayson’s tight hold on him. Grayson notices Xander’s face slowly turning blue and releases him.
Xander coughs a couple of times before commenting, “I guess as long as she says yes, you can”.
“We should share a drink,” Grayson offers, going over to a cupboard that is hidden at the edge of the room.
“I probably shouldn’t, the others are already waiting for me in Melusarej. I need to start heading there,” Xander declines the drink.
“No problem, we will bring you there in the airship; have the drink son,” Grayson insists, clearly not taking no for an answer.
“Okay, but drop me a ways outside the city. I don’t want Gwendolyn to know I was here,” Xander reluctantly agrees.
Grayson pours them a couple of glasses of wine.
“So, how do you plan on doing it?” Grayson asks, curious about Xander’s plans.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. I just know I am going to propose after we take down the Purity,” Xander explains, wanting to wrap up the thing most important to him before he can fully commit himself to a permanent relationship to Gwendolyn.
“I see, then it could be a while before it happens,” Grayson notes, hoping he could throw them a party sooner rather than later.
“It could, I just got the ring now so I could be prepared when it’s all over,” Xander explains why he purchased the ring so early.
“Makes sense, gotta give yourself something to look forward to so you can make it through that mess. To be honest with you, I’m not confident you will succeed; but, promise me that, if things do go south, you will make sure Gwendolyn makes it out okay,” Grayson makes him swear.
“You have my word, I won’t let anything happen to her, but I’m sure she will be able to take care of herself,” Xander assures him, knowing Gwendolyn is not someone to be trifled with.
“You are right there son, but you know those little tricks of yours make you uniquely qualified to make sure nothing goes wrong,” Grayson points out.
“Yeah,” Xander agrees, realizing he hasn’t had to turn back time in a while.
Grayson and the Silent Brotherhood land near the edge of Melusarej, leaving Xander and Fore to walk into the city themselves. They see the others outside of the inn, the place Kayde specified for them to meet up at.
Upon seeing Xander, Gwendolyn gives him a hug, “I’m glad you are okay”.
“Yeah, you too,” Xander responds, putting his arms around her as they stay like that for a second.
“Why let them have the only touching reunion, come here Fore,” Kayde picks up Fore, and rubs his head while holding him in his arms.
“Where were you?” Gwendolyn questions why Xander had to leave them.
“Following a lead I had far off in the desert. It turned out to be nothing. What about you guys, have any luck with the Scientist?” Xander asks, changing the subject while hoping they got information that could help.
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“Yeah, he marked up all our maps and stuff with secret passages and the sewers underneath the city. Oh, and he said something about you too,” Kayde relays the information they gained.
“Me? What about me?” Xander is confused about what he means, not sure what the Scientist could know about him.
“He mentioned that you have connections within the capital,” Kayde responds.
“I don’t know what he is talking about, I never made any friends there,” Xander tries to think of who he could turn to for help.
“He said there were a bunch of people who admired you and that you should turn to them for help,” Kayde tells Xander what the Scientist told them.
“I see… is that all he told you? That people admired me?” Xander asks, wanting to know exactly how much detail the Scientist went into.
“Yup,” Kayde nods.
Xander sighs, “that cheeky,” he pauses not wanting to finish that thought out loud.
“I didn’t know he knew about that kind of stuff,” Xander notes, bringing his hand up to his forehead.
He looks over at Gwendolyn, “Look, I don’t want this to come between us, but the people that the Scientist was talking about were mainly girls, although there were some guys too I guess. They would follow me around town in mobs trying to get my attention all the time, but I never did anything with them. I was always focused on my mission of taking down the church from within”.
Xander watches as Gwendolyn’s face turns slightly more sour with every word that leaves his mouth.
“What a backward place, you popular with women,” Kayde starts to chuckle a bit.
“Hey, I was the best damn fighter that church had,” Xander tries to defend himself, not thinking that him being popular with women is such a foreign concept.
“I thought you were a hopeless romantic, but now I am hearing you are just a common ladies man?” Gwendolyn finally jokes after being deadly silent for a minute.
“I didn’t even like those girls. I was focused on my mission the entire time and I never thought about that sort of thing,” Xander tries to defend himself, not able to tell she is messing with him.
“But you still haven’t completed your mission and you are with me,” Gwendolyn points out, going along with the ruse that she is mad at him.
“Look… That’s… That’s…” Xander looks around, bracing himself for the teasing that is about to come his way.
“That’s because when I saw you, I knew I couldn’t just ignore you like I did with everyone else,” Xander finally gets it out.
“Ignore her? Dude, you wrote her a poem. I was there. It wasn’t like she was all over you. You pursued her,” Kayde keeps him honest, not letting him rewrite what happened.
“I know what you mean Xander, and I think it is sweet. I’m glad you tried so hard and it got my attention,” Gwendolyn tries to pick him back up, but all he does is hang his head in embarrassment.
After regrouping, they head towards the western docks in order to find a boat bound for the Sacrosanct Empire. The stench of salt and dead fish reaches their nostrils as they arrive at the docks, noting a large amount of burly fisherman, doing their best to subsist off of their trade. While walking along the docks, they see a sign advertising voyages across the western sea.
Upon finding the aforementioned boat, they are greeted by a jolly, balding man, “Hey there, looking to head to the Sacrosanct?” Heading the group, Xander replies in the affirmative.
“Alrighty, climb aboard,” the man instructs them, ready to leave and excited that he has paying passengers. He studies each of them as they walk aboard.
He stops Kayde before getting on, “Are you sure boy? There’s nothing, but trouble for you on the other side of this sea”.
“I’ll be fine,” Kayde smiles at him, trying in his own way to set the captain at ease.
“It’s your life, don’t say you weren’t warned,” The captain comments, letting him on board.
Once they are all inside, they pay him some gold and the ship starts to head out.
“Look here you lot, these two might fit in fine over there,” he signals towards Xander and Gwendolyn, “But you three are going to be met with animosity, some more than others,” he looks to Kayde once again.
“We know,” Xander tells him, already knowing this is an obstacle they will have to overcome.
“Just want to make sure you kids know what you’re getting into. I’ll be on deck if you need me, voyage should take a couple of days,” the captain grumbles before heading above deck.
They wait for a couple of days, readying a plan for when they arrive. Kayde is going to stay cloaked the entire time, making sure to stay out of the capital initially, before going invisible when they determine how and when they are going to make their moves.
“Hey you lot, we see the port on the horizon. We’re probably two hours out. The bad news is that a storm is coming, so it could get a little hairy before we make it to shore,” the captain goes below deck to warn them.
As they continue they feel the boat start to rock, being easily pushed around by the turbulent waves that have started to brew. Fore begins to whimper.
Kayde attempts to soothe him, “Don’t worry buddy, you are the luckiest being on the planet, nothing bad will happen to you”. Fore’s whimpering continues as he starts to rub his head against Kayde’s arm.
The captain comes back down one more time, telling them, “Grab your things and follow me”. They do so and reach the upper deck. Drakthar goes over to his horse’s reins and grabs a hold keeping it from freaking out and rocking the boat further.
“Forget your horse son, we are going to have to abandon ship,” the captain tells Drakthar.
“But the armor inside this cart is one of a kind,” Drakthar retorts, not wanting to see his power armor at the bottom of the sea.
“It’s either that armor or your life,” the captain makes it clear for him.
Drakthar gives up and follows the others to a smaller boat the captain ushered them towards. The crew gets into a second boat and they begin to paddle to shore, the bigger vessel sinking in the distance along with Drakthar’s horse, cart, and power armor, falling to the bottom of the ocean where they will forever rest.
They stay with the other boat for a while, but eventually, the rough waves separate them. No matter how hard they look, the boat with the crew inside is nowhere in sight.
“Looks like we are on our own,” Kayde points out, not seeing the other boat with them anymore.
They continue on for hours, some rowing and others bailing out the water that makes its way into the boat. As they work the storm gets worse. They hear the loud booming cracks of thunder as bright flashes of nearby lightning split the sky asunder.
Suddenly, they are all blinded as lightning hits the center of their boat, cracking it in two. “Was anyone hit!” Xander yells out, still not able to see what has occurred. He only hears Drakthar and Gwendolyn respond, “no” as he feels himself slip into the water.
The three of them quickly flip over their half of the boat, clinging to it in order to stay afloat. They hold onto that floating wood with all the might they have, attempting to outlast the harsh storm lashing them about. Finally, above the massive, choppy waves they see the shore. They swim towards it with all they have, struggling their way to the sand. They eventually wash up near a dock, falling unconscious the second their bodies sense they are safe.
“Hey, we need some help over here!” A sailor yells out, seeing the three unconscious strangers that just washed up near his boat.