Captain Arrolg spent the rest of the journey telling Rusk stories of the Heroes, scolding his granddaughter, and yelling at his scurvy dogs, ahem, crew, to repair the damage to the ship. Rusk helped with the damages diligently, thoroughly impressed with both Captain Arrolg’s adequacy with the sword he carried and the way he handled internal disputes with his shipmates. It was hard to get any information out of him that revolved around Iya Tarfell, but Rusk put his trust in Captain Arrolg for the most part. Elena mainly skirted around corners and avoided her grandfather, but it seemed Captain Arrolg didn’t mind her being stowed away on his ship. Apparently family members were exempt from the whole toss ‘em overboard thing when it came to breaking the rules.

Rusk had seen exactly one person thrown overboard on the journey, and it was the one who was revealed to have given Greil and the necromancer their coordinates and caused the whole sea serpent mess in the first place. So even though at the beginning Rusk may have wanted to intervene on the basis of being a noble heroic hero, he didn’t.

Amazing what extra information could do for his moral code. He wondered if he even had one anymore.

But ahead, Sanctuary Island eventually broke the horizon.

It was dusk, with the sun just dipping low and the waves cast in orange and purple hues, with the island itself a silhouette against the first stars of the night, when someone shouted land ho!

Rusk scrambled to the front of the ship right by the wheel where Captain Arrolg was chirping affectionately at his little parrot to see.

It was momentous.

The island hosted a volcano on one side, and it arced up against the night like a knife, billowing white ashen smoke out its tip. The other side of the island was all forest and trees and sand. The entire island as a whole from Rusk’s vantage point was that of a wave cresting before it fell. Or maybe that was the time at sea talking.

He couldn’t wait to get his feet back on the ground. Just because he’d grown accustomed to the seasickness didn’t mean he liked it. He mostly had managed to keep his stomach contents to himself after the first couple days, but the perpetual queasiness never passed.

Elena sidled up next to him, making sure to place Rusk between herself and her grandfather.

“She’s a beauty, ain’t she?” said Captain Arrolg.

“Yeah,” said Rusk, eyes on the horizon.

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“We’ll make port tomorrow. It might seem we’re in range but with a sea like this distance is hard to judge. We still have until the morning until we get there. Why don’t you two get some sleep?”

“Nah.”

Elena squirmed. Her eyes were wide open. She’d stopped glowing and never started up again during the journey, but Rusk sometimes got the feeling she was still bothered by the whole dead portal incident. Not that he could blame the girl.

Together they watched the sun descend completely and the shadows overtake the night. Then through the night they watched and waited and sailed, and in the morning when their eyes were wrinkly with fatigue and wonder the sun crested from behind the island like some godly entity, bathing the island first from below and then climbing up to illuminate it from above.

Rusk marveled at the beauty of Sanctuary in the light of the morning, all orange-tipped leaves and saturated brown tree-trunks and the reddest red volcano he’d ever seen. Not that he’d ever seen a volcano anyway, but he figured they’d look different. In all the tomes he’d read on the journey, he’d always heard they were tinted blue or black, never the crimson that rose like blood or chemical fire out of the earth before him now.

“Wow,” said Elena, apparently sharing Rusk’s sentiment. “It’s so red.”

“That’ll be the Daemontra Volcano,” said Captain Arrolg. “Best to avoid if at all possible. Only the Heroes who’ve tested their mettle approach that territory.”

“How come?” asked Rusk.

“Island comes from the Daemontra Volcano system, which is ruled by a particularly powerful family of the same namesake. Used to be they didn’t like outsiders intruding on their territory, but Iya, back in the day, she convinced them to make a treaty with her up-and-coming organization. There’s still some tension between the Daemontras and the Heroes, but for the most part the top tiers get along pretty nicely. I would know.” Captain Arrolg waggled his eyebrows. “I was there.”

This of course implied he was one of those top tiered Heroes. Rusk had no doubt of that. The man had near singlehandedly fended off a giant sea monster. Of course he was a top tier Hero. Anyone who might’ve thought otherwise would be touched in the head.

“Really? You were one of the first Heroes?” asked Elena.

“That’s right.”

“But you’re so.” She gestured at him as if that explained what she was trying to say.

Captain Arrolg scoffed in mock offense, placing a hand over his heart dramatically.

Rusk chuckled. He had his own thoughts to occupy his attention for the moment.

Sanctuary Island. This is where it all was supposed to begin. Its majesty approached gently on bobbing waves as Captain Arrolg maneuvered the ship around imaginary obstacles. Or maybe real ones that Rusk just couldn’t see.

“Okay Mandy,” said Rusk under his breath. “Here I am. Here we go.”

“Mandy?” asked Elena.

“An old friend. My first friend.”

“What were they like?”

“She.”

Elena nudged Rusk conspiratorially.

Rusk chuckled. “Not like that. I don’t think she liked me that way.”

“That’s like something out of a tragedy.”

“And what would my granddaughter know of tragedy?”

“A whole lot,” said Elena, either offended or playing the part extremely well.

Rusk thought it might be time for a change of subject. He’d soon step foot on the very place all Heroes hailed from. He didn’t want to think about Mandy.

But all he could think about was her.

A whole journey across the sea, and he hadn’t changed. Not even a little.