ILIAS VAN PAYNE

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After taking a moment to assess the situation, I think I was able to figure out what happened.

The beam of light that consumed Gilead must’ve been some sort of mana incident. There were instances when mana gathered that it would do something random instead of forming a labyrinth. But these were few and far between.

I’ve never heard of a mana incident teleporting people before but there was a first for everything, I suppose.

This mana incident Gilead was caught in must’ve teleported everyone to random places in the world. Maybe it wasn’t random, but I didn’t have enough information on that.

What’s my next move?

My stomach answered with a growl.

Fine, what’s my next move after I eat?

Mother, Jaime, and Doria—I hope they were somewhere safe.

If everyone was teleported, I should start looking for anyone in Gilead. It would be impossible if I was the only one transported east.

There was also the money problem. I hid all the savings I got from the State Jynixst Exam Program under my bed and I only had enough loose change to last me a week.

Never have I regretted saving money.

As I wandered through Shoya trying to find a decent and cheap tavern to eat at, I heard a commotion from the nearby market street.

“Listen, Girl,” a shop owner announced. “If you want food, pay for it. And don’t stand in front of my shop if you’re not going to get anything.”

“Please, Sir, I don’t have money and I’m starving,” the green-haired elf girl said. “It’s just one apple. I’ll help with work.”

“It’s one copper piece for an apple. If you don’t have money, go hunt rabbits or sell your pretty sword. It’ll fetch you enough to buy hundreds of apples. Now, let’s have a talk with the soldiers, shall we?”

“Wait, no. Please. I won’t take the apple.”

“But you attempted to.”

The shop owner had a quick reaction time and was able to catch the copper coin I tossed him.

“I’m buying the apple for her,” I told him. “It’s not stealing anymore.”

The owner tsked and sat back in his chair. “You better keep your girlfriend in check, Boy.”

“Yes, sorry about that.”

Jaime practically leapt onto me when she recognized who I was. “Ilias!” she cried while hugging me on the floor. “I thought I was all alone.”

“It’s okay. Neither of us is alone anymore.”

“What happened? Why are we all the way in the east?”

“It’ll take a while to explain. We’re both hungry so let’s grab something to eat first.”

When I woke up in the forest, I managed to catch a bird so I was only moderately hungry. Jaime, however, probably mustn’t have eaten anything since yesterday. The moment we sat down in a tavern and got our food, she wolfed down her meal and even ate the sides I couldn’t finish.

“So what’s our next move?” Jaime chewed with her mouth full.

“We have to travel back home. We need to ask for help too because there are other people from Gilead scattered everywhere.”

“No one’s going to believe us. I told them what happened and they just chalked it up to child’s play. They all thought I was crazy.”

“When you woke up, where were you? I got sent to a forest three leagues south from here.”

“Just outside the town. I was knocked out for a few hours too. I woke up and it was already night.”

“You weren’t knocked out. It’s the time zone.”

“The what zone?”

“Do you seriously not know what time zones are?” I sighed. “Armestis is a big country which means that the sun can’t be in the same position in different places at the same time. When the beam of light hit Gilead, it was noon for us. But here in the east, where the sun rises first, it was already long past dusk. Meanwhile, if it’s noon at Gilead, it’s morning at Port Town.”

Jaime stared at me dumbfounded. “Ah. I get it.”

“No, you don’t.” I took a sip from my drink. “Moving on, we can’t stay here. We have to go home and we need as much help as we can get.”

“I already told you, they won’t believe us.”

“That doesn’t matter. We can hitch rides using stagecoaches going from one town to another and maybe we can even rent some horses. Enough people will say the same story and they’ll believe us at some point.”

“You have enough money?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, I keep my savings under my bed. I only have enough for us to last here maybe a week. No, there are two of us now so not even. We certainly can’t cross the country with what I have.”

Jaime slumped defeatedly in her chair. “Why are you suggesting options that won’t work for us?”

I interlocked my fingers and rested my chin on them. “Tell me what my full name is.”

“Ilias Payne.”

“Something was added in between a few months ago.”

“Ilias Van Payne,” she corrected.

“What does the Van mean?”

“That you’re a State Jynxist?”

“Precisely.” I stopped a server that was passing by. “Miss, do you know the benefits of being a State Jynxist.”

“Uh…” the server staggered.

“My friend and I were just arguing about it. Do you not know?”

“No, I do.” The server rested her tray on her hip. “Well, you are welcome to join the military at any time and you’ll be promoted to the rank of major instantly. You get free health care, free access to restricted knowledge and information, free stays at military outposts, free transportation… There’s a lot of benefits.”

“And how can one prove that they’re a State Jynxist?”

“I think you get a watch that verifies your identity.”

“Thank you, Miss. That’ll be all.”

Jaime waited for the server to go away. “So as long as you have your watch, we can take free rides?”

“You’ll have to pay your own fare if we use a stagecoach, but we can manage by enlisting as adventurers and taking jobs. But, if we get our hands on a horse from the Rohan Company, we can take a big one that’ll fit the two of us.”

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The elf’s ears rose up. “Nice, good thing you have your watch on you.”

“Unfortunately, I left it at home.”

She stomped on the ground. “Then what’s the point of all that?”

“Calm down! Relax! I was kidding,” I reassured, pulling out my pocket watch and opening it to show my identification. “See?”

“Yes! What are we waiting for? Let’s go get a horse.”

“Now, wait. No shop owner is just going to believe us. The person in jurisdiction of places needs to verify that I actually am a State Jynxist and must write a note. We also have to find the Adventurer’s Guild and apply so we can take on jobs while on the road.”

Jaime and I went around town asking where the person in charge was stationed. Unlike Camaro, whose base of operations was in a library, the brigadier of Shoya had his own office.

The person in jurisdiction of this town was Brigadier Ishida—a beast person that was part butterfly. He had antennas protruding from his head and brilliant wings folded behind him.

I instructed Jaime to let me do all the talking.

“Good afternoon, you two.” He shook our hands. “Brigadier Ishida. What can I do for you?”

“A lot of things actually.”

“Of course, that’s my job after all. I’m assuming you two are travellers? I know everyone in this town and your faces are foreign.”

“Uhh… I guess you can say that.”

“I’ve never seen travellers so young. Especially a nandir and an elf carrying well-crafted equipment.”

I scratched my head. “Nandir? I’m a terran.”

Jaime raised a hand excitedly. “And I’m half-elf and terran.”

“I apologize, Ilias. My mistake. Your skin is a bit tan and it makes you look like a nandir.”

“I hiked from a nearby forest under the sun to get here. I’m not usually this tan.”

“Sorry, nandirs are known for their tanner skin. You can definitely trick people into thinking you’re a—” The brigadier shook his head. “I’m sorry did you just say you hiked from the forest?”

“Yes, the one sandwich in between Shoya and the town south.”

“You walked from Orisa and camped in the Mitte forest? That place is a labyrinth. It’s not as dangerous as opposed to others, but it’s a place no child should venture into. You should’ve just camped along the road or joined adventurers for the night. But still—Orisa to Shoya is ten leagues and you walked?”

“No, I mean… the forest was my origin point.”

“Origin point. I’m not following you, Ilias.”

“You see, Jaime and I are originally from Gilead. Yes, the Gilead from the western half of the country. I’ll just say this straight up because it’s better to lay everything down. A beam of light engulfed our village in some sort of mana incident and teleported us here.”

“I’m sorry, is this some kind of joke? Did you lose a bet with the other members of your party and this was the punishment?”

“I mean, look at us, Brigadier. You already said that you haven’t seen travellers as young as us. It’s because we’re not travellers.”

“If you guys got teleported, your entire village must’ve been teleported too. Where are they?”

“This whole incident just happened yesterday and I think everyone else got teleported to random areas. I’m sure once more people are found telling the same tale as us, news will spread rapidly.”

“You said you wanted me to do a lot of things for you. What do you need?”

“I know I look too young for one, but I’m a State Jynxist. I wanted your permission to rent a horse from the Rohan Company.”

Ishida grabbed a book from his shelf. “Ilias Van Payne. Payne. Payne.”

“Sorry, Brigadier. One more thing. I only became a State Jynxist this year.”

“Now this has got to be a joke.”

“It’s not.”

“So you’re telling me you became a State Jynxist just when the white whale cut off our communication with the West, so there’s no way to verify who you are. Then you got caught up in a mana incident that teleported you here—which has never been heard of because it happened yesterday. And you want me to give you permission to take a horse from the Rohan Company.” Ishida’s antennas twitched. “Now, I want you to see this whole situation from my perspective. Do you know how ludicrous this sounds?”

The brigadier shrugged us off so, much to Jaime’s dismay, I told him that everything I said was a joke and quickly took our leave.

Jaime waited until we were a good distance from the office to critique me. “Why didn’t you show him your watch?”

“Because Brigadier Ishida is right. There’s no way to verify it. Moby Dick claimed Headrig’s Pass during the exam so there’s no way for the Capital to send documents here. Even if I show him my watch, Ishida would just think it’s a high-quality fake and confiscate it. Maybe he would’ve even thrown us in jail. The moment he repeated our own story back to us was the moment I knew we’d lost. At that point, I’d rather cut my losses rather than risk it.”

“So we can’t rely on your State Jynxist benefits.” She kicked a pebble. “Then what’s the point of it? You’re telling me we’re going to have to keep doing quests from the Adventurer’s Guild to get money?”

“Correct.”

Jaime went silent as if in thought. “What if we joined the military? With our skills, I bet they’ll send us to Headrig’s Pass. That’s free travel right there.”

“I like that you’re thinking of ways, Jaime. And with our skills, they’ll definitely send us to the pass. But we’re four years too early for that. We have to be at least sixteen to enter the military and there are no exceptions.”

“What about the pre-military program that the colonel took?”

“That’s only offered in the Capital.” I adjusted my hat. “Entering the Adventurer’s Guild and taking on quests is the only way we can make money.”

“Is there an age limit to joining the Guild?”

“No, but the jobs are based on a ranking system and we’ll start from the bottom with mundane jobs that pay poorly. But the higher we go, the more we can earn.”

“But we won’t have that much early on?”

“Yeah, we’ll have to budget our money until we climb the ranks.”

“That’s doable.”

The night was rapidly approaching so instead of wasting away our time trying to find the Guild, we went up to a shop owner and swallowed our pride.

“Excuse me, Sir, where can we find the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“The Guild?” he asked. “I’m sorry to it break you, Lad, but there’s no Adventurer’s Guild north of the Great Sand Sea.”

“No Guilds? What? Why?”

“The area we’re in is secluded by the Great Sand Sea so there aren’t that many requests. The Guild was losing money so they just pulled their company out. The closest Guild is in Roa.”

“But Roa is across the giant desert, no?” Jaime cried. “We have to cross it to join?”

I sighed. “I have about fifteen silver coins. If we don’t touch it and walk all the way to Orisa, we’ll have enough money to take a stagecoach across the Great Sand Sea.”

“Yeah, and we can make do with your spells and hunt for food.”

“Oh, I’m afraid fifteen silver coins isn’t enough to cross the Great Sand Sea,” the shop owner warned. “It’s not even enough for one of you. It’s a gold coin per body.”

“A gold coin?!” I wailed. “That expensive?!”

“The Great Sand Sea is a vast and dangerous labyrinth. The expedition to cross it only occurs every month.”

“How many silver coins is a gold coin?” Jaime asked.

“A hundred silver or a thousand copper coins.” I sighed. “It looks like we have to make do with regular jobs. Pops, are you hiring? She’s pretty strong and agile and I’m really good at jynx.”

The shop owner shook his head. “Sorry, the white whale has messed up the economy here. I can’t afford to pay you and I doubt anyone else could do the same. We’ve got to look out after ourselves first.”

Feeling defeated and cornered, Jaime and I booked a room at the cheapest inn we could find. Our bodies were exhausted, but our minds even more so.

We had to save as much money as possible so we decided to book the smallest room with one bed and share it. And if we couldn’t find a good paying job by tomorrow, we’d have to start camping outside of town.

We climbed into bed to rest.

Jaime and I slept over at each other’s houses before, but never in the same bed. She lay on her side facing away from me while I stared at the ceiling.

“What do we do?” Jaime asked. “Can’t you just make gold with jynx?”

“If jynxists could create gold, this country would be in civil war.”

“That’s a good point.” She pulled the blanket to cover her shoulder. “Can’t we just walk through Great Sand Sea?”

“You heard the shop owner. The Great Sand Sea is a labyrinth. It’s not as focused, but it made up for that in size. Walking through it is suicide.”

“What about going to the ocean and sailing around the desert?”

“The eastern ocean is very dangerous. The desert is too big and no sane captain will sail their ship around it.”

The room went into silence.

“There is one thing I could do to make enough money to get us across,” I mentioned.

Jaime rolled over to look at me with gleaming eyes. “What is it?”

“I can sell this.” I used jynx to unwrap my robe from my staff. “I can sell this. The materials used to make this are expensive. If I take this apart and sell it, I bet the money we get can get us across.”

“No!” Jaime screamed. “You can’t do that. You were so happy when everyone back home gifted it to you.”

“I am, and I don’t want to let go of it either. But we have to get back home. We have a money problem and selling my staff solves that.”

“We’re strangers in a strange land with nothing but what we had on us when we got teleported. We can’t stoop down and lose more than we’ve already lost. Especially not something that means so much to you.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t want to get through it like this. I won’t forgive you if you sell your staff and use the money to take us home. Not the wand that you have in your pocket either. That was Heloise’s first gift to you and it means just as much.”

“Okay, you win,” I said, laying on my side facing my side of the bed. “But the same goes for you. Don’t go lecturing me about not selling our stuff and turn around to sell your sword. You became a real swordsman when the colonel gifted that sword to you. It means as much to you as much as my staff to me.”

I could tell right away that Jaime had planned on selling her sword. “Fine.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get through this.”

Jaime hugged me from behind, pressing her face against my back. “Yeah, I know we can.”