After the presence of the outsiders was confirmed by the scout boats, I spent a few hours thinking while the islanders did their best to observe the outsiders without being seen. In total, the Outsiders seemed to have eight boats, five more ship than the three damaged ones they came in last time. Furthermore, these ships weren’t damaged; they were perfectly intact this time.
I didn’t have many ways to contribute to the island and secure our home from external invaders on my own. The Outsiders clearly meant business, since they had brought eight warships this time. As far as we could observe, the massive sea creature which had demolished most of the first group wasn’t attacking the outsiders, so they hadn’t brought Astrellium with them this time.
The fact that they weren’t carrying Astrellium weapons with them meant they had probably somehow received word from the first group of Outsiders. I didn’t know why they had taken so long to return, and I didn’t know how much information they had gotten from the first group of Outsiders. However, if they had explicitly avoided carrying Astrellium with them, they probably knew we were in this area, and were back for a second attempt at attacking the island.
Most people seemed to come to similar conclusions. Therefore, I decided to change my schedule. In a head-on battle, I couldn’t contribute very much to the islands. I only had five runes, and my illusions weren’t good enough to fool humans. This wasn’t a situation I could solve with my own power. I didn’t want the people of the islands or my friends to get hurt by the outsiders, but I couldn’t directly protect them.
Therefore, there was only one way I could think of to help protect the islands. I took my original schedule for when I wanted to explore the ocean, and I drastically changed the time I intended to start exploring. A few hours after the Megailian Fleet was sighted, I went up to the village chief and told him I was going to explore the Ocean’s Depths.
“Why do you think that going into the depths of the ocean will help?” Asked the village chief as he stared at me. After I made my declaration, he had given me a baffled look.
“It’s because of the storm orbs,” I said. “We’ve already confirmed that there’s one useful resource available in the Ocean. Since we’ve already found one way to increase our power by using the resources of the Ocean, there might be another. After all, the ocean is huge. There must be all kinds of weird and unique objects and resources we haven’t come across so far. So if I delve deeper into the ocean and brave the dangers there, there might be a way to make the islands stronger. Right now, the village has already suffered from two catastrophic fights in the past decade. The first fight was against the first wave of outsiders, and we also lost many good people and floatwood boats during the fight with the Glowing Fish. I know that we’ve recovered a good amount of our previous strength, but we’re still only a little stronger now than when we fought the glowing fish, and probably still weaker than when the first wave of outsiders appeared. And that’s including the new Storm Orbs. Even with that, I don’t know if we can win this battle right now. So I want to find a way to even the odds a little bit. And the ocean seems most likely to hold that opportunity,” I said.
The village chief frowned, looking at me as he fell into thought. Now that I was older, he didn’t seem quite as eager to dismiss the notion of me putting myself at risk anymore.
“You’re making a lot of assumptions about special resources,but they may not exist. Your assumptions could be wrong.” He didn’t seem like he was chiding me; he seemed more like he was genuinely curious to know what my thoughts were. This was encouraging.
“I know,” I said, looking the village chief in the eyes. “I might be totally wrong about there being unused resources in the deeps. But I also think that if we continue as we are now, the Outsiders will probably win this fight. We don’t know how strong they are this time, but they’re definitely stronger than before. All of the villages working together might not be enough to overcome this crisis.”
The village chief frowned, before he massaged his temples and sighed. “We have no idea how strong the outsiders are, indeed. Based on Olav’s words about the Megailian Empire, while not numerous, they have some number of people with thirteen to fifteen runes spread amongst their warriors. They also have a leader with sixteen to eighteen runes. We don’t know what the thirteenth through fifteenth runes do, but we can definitely assume that they’re dangerous. If they have numerous thirteen rune warriors, the village chiefs and I will need to outnumber them in order to win, and that will force us into a dangerous and time consuming battle. If this goes poorly, could be the end of the islands.” The village chief sighed. He was giving my words serious thought. I gave him another verbal push.
“In that case, it makes sense to gather more power, right? If the outsiders are really here for us, we need as many ways to fight back as possible. I think it’s at least worth trying to find a way to survive by looking in the Ocean, even if it might be a fool’s errand.”
The village chief directed a questioning look at me. “The ocean is filled with dangers, many of which we have no knowledge of. Monsters as dangerous as the glowing fish might lurk everywhere beneath the waves, and monstrous creatures like the great tentacle monster from years ago almost certainly still lie deep in the ocean. Also, humans can’t breathe underwater. And moving will be difficult. Do you have ways to overcome these problems? I know you can heal flesh, teleport, control water, and make illusions, but while those abilities would certainly help you, I don’t know if that’s enough to let you survive whatever lurks in the deeps. Do you have a plan for all these problems?”
“I do,” I said, nodding. “In fact, my ability to heal flesh also lets me heal the effects of drowning. It does take a good amount of mana to do it for a long period of time, but I already confirmed that I can keep myself alive without breathing the moment I formed my fourth rune.”
“… I’m sorry, what?” The village chief looked as if he were taken completely off guard this time, and I gave him a confident grin.
“Drowning doesn’t kill someone instantly – instead, it’s a gradual process of the body dying, step by step, right? If that’s the case, as long as I can heal myself fast enough, it’s possible for me to survive drowning. I’ve done some quick tests with Aria (Sallia) and Felix watching over me, and if I heal myself all the time, I replace the need to breathe with my healing Ability. I could originally only do so for fifteen minutes before running out of mana, at least when I had four runes, and I originally thought I would be able to sustain thirty minute intervals when I formed my sixth rune. Luckily, the Storm Orb seems to have increased my mana capacity more than a regular rune does, so even though I only have five runes I can still manage to function without air for thirty minutes. I’m planning on bringing a bunch of fish cores with me as well, so that I can replenish my mana over and over again. With teleportation to keep me safe from monsters and healing to keep me from drowning, I can probably explore the ocean for between four and six hours at a time.” I paused. “Though in truth, I’ll probably return to the surface a little earlier than that, to give myself some extra time if I need it.”
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The village chief looked at me like I had lost my mind for several seconds. The two of us just stood there, looking at each other, before the chieftain’s baffled look was slowly replaced with a look of resigned acceptance.
“You’ve been thinking about this for a while, haven’t you?” The village chief frowned. “No, you haven’t just been thinking about this. Have you been planning to explore the Ocean before you even formed your fourth rune? Most villagers form runes based on abilities they think are useful for their day to day jobs, but for you to know all of interactions between your abilities and the ocean already… now that I think about it, your Abilities seem like they’re explicitly designed to help you survive underwater. Was that planned? When did you start thinking about exploring the Ocean?”
“When I saw a storm with master Olav, when I was six or seven years old!” I said cheerfully. “When I saw it, I wanted to figure out why the Ocean was so strange, and I never forgot that dream.”
The village chief looked at me, and then started laughing.
“Well I’ll be. I never would have thought you were planning that far in advance. No wonder your abilities are so weird.” Then, after a few more moments of hesitation, he nodded. “If you’ve been planning to do this for almost a decade now, I guess I can’t really stop you. You’ll just try again when you officially become an adult anyway. If you’re so determined to take the risk, why not make it count? I’m going to regret this, but I’ll agree to you exploring the Ocean. I’ll even give you my support. If you run out of fish cores for mana and healing, I’ll lend you some from my own personal stash. And I’ll make sure the healers give you priority whenever you return to the surface, to make sure you’re still all right. BUT,” He held up his hands. “You must come back the moment you discover anything, or if you are in danger. Losing a villager won’t help the village any, especially since you’ve absorbed one of the storm orbs. You’re as strong as a relatively powerful person with six runes already, and while that won’t make a massive difference in the fight, it’s definitely powerful enough to help contribute to the battle. Since we’ll almost certainly fight the outsiders sooner or later, we’ll need every fighter we can get, and that means you need to stay safe until then. Come back safely, all right? Also you are going to be the one to inform your parents – I’m not handling that burden.” He put his hands back down, before he looked at me again and sighed, sounding both amused and resigned. “When were you planning on leaving?”
“I am planning on leaving within a day or two. The outsiders are heading in the wrong direction right now, so we have some time, but we don’t know how long it will take them to find our islands. The paper fish Olav and I found two weeks ago indicates they already might know we’re in the area, even if they don’t have an exact location.”
The village chief gave me a final look, as if trying to engrave me into his memories in case this was the last time he saw me. Finally, he nodded.
“Your choice is yours to make. Good luck. I pray that the Ocean Mother will watch over you and keep you safe.”
“Thank you, village chief.” I said. Then, I turned and left the village chief’s hut. I needed to inform my parents and friends before I left – and if anything, that conversation was going to be even harder than this one.
* * *
“Miria, even if you’re nearly an adult now, that doesn’t mean you can just recklessly jump into situations that might kill you. Please, don’t do this.” My father gave me a glare that mixed anger and a hint of worry.
“Father.” When I looked at my father now, all I could see was a worried parent. That brought me a sense of… nostalgia. Even if I couldn’t remember my original parents, I could still see my current father’s face overlapping with another face I couldn’t quite remember. I felt a small, muted pang of sadness, before I brushed it aside and focused on how to let my father see me off with a smile.
“I’m the best suited for doing this. You’ve seen what happened the first time the outsiders came. Now that they have come again, we need a way to protect ourselves, and my Abilities make me suited to look scour the ocean for a chance to survive. We need to be able to protect ourselves, and the Storm Orbs already indicate how much untapped potential the ocean holds. I want to do this, and I’m the only one in the village who can do this. My Abilities are literally made for this.”
My father stopped talking for a moment. Instead, he looked at my face, as if searching for something. I stared back at him, letting my determination bleed into my expression.
My father sighed.
“I don’t want you to die, Miria. You’re my daughter; I don’t want to outlive you. It’s an awful thing for a parent to outlive their child. And no one has ever returned from the ocean.”
“The village chief and some of the fishermen have entered the water and lived, though,” I said. “They need to take breaks every now and then, to shrug off the effects of the Call of the Ocean, but it’s clearly not impossible to do so.”
“But that’s the village chief, sweetie. He has eleven runes. You only have five, and you even absorbed a storm orbs and lost some of your Willpower.”
I sighed, before I gave my father a hug. “I want to keep the village safe, because I don’t want you, or mom, or Felix, or Aria (Sallia) to get hurt. I’m decent at fighting, but I only have five runes. So I want to do my best to keep the village safe, in the only way I can think of that will let me help. Besides, if we don’t win this fight, it’s not like the outsiders will just ignore me. I don’t know how they deal with captives in Megailia, but I doubt my ending would be good if they conquered the islands. I’m not just taking a risk for the sake of taking a risk; this is also the best way I can think of to protect myself. I don’t want to die, and I think this is the best chance of not just my survival, but the survival of everyone here.” I said.
My father looked at my face again. On his face, I could see a mixture of hesitation, and a growing sense of… acceptance? He sighed.
“Miria…my little girl,” he said, finally. He looked like he had a hard time forcing out the words, but in the end, he managed to say them. “I don’t want you to do this. But… your argument makes sense. I’ll respect your decision. But you need to come back home, all right?” He sounded like he was squeezing his words out, but he managed to say the words in the end.
“I’ll do everything I can to come home,” I said, giving him another hug. He simply looked at me, his gaze now containing a mixture of acceptance and sadness as he looked at me. I did my best to look him directly in the eyes and keep hope in my heart. I would come back safe and successful – and I would pay back the trust my father was trying his hardest to put into me.
We spent the night as a family. I told my parents that I intended to leave in two days. My father said that he would inform Olav that he would be missing the next few days of fishing. We would spend the next three days together, spending time as a family and reveling in each other’s presence, before I entered the deeps of ocean, where no one had ever returned from.
In two days, I would see with my own eyes what lay under the surface of the ocean. I just hoped it wouldn’t be the last thing I saw in this world.