Chapter 7: Overseas
Port Royale was bustling, despite the group arriving not long after dawn, merchant peddling their goods in the stalls lining the streets, city folk moving from seller to seller, the occasional whistle blow of a guard demanding someone to stop for random inspection, and the screechy cawing of the seagulls. Port Royale, Balthazar found, was nothing short of lively. Between the massive crowds spilling across the streets, and attention turning to the criers of various markets, the group was able to step through the city relatively unimpeded, none suspecting their prince was walking among them, mistaking them for just another guild.
The guildhouse, likewise, was clamoring with people patrolling the boards for work. It was easy to get separated, as the group scrambled back and forth, squeezing through the people rushing back and forth. Balthazar made it through the crowd alongside Atma, up to a thankfully open desk. This receptionist, Balthazar noticed, was a lot more lively than their counterpart in Linia. “Greetings, how can I help you toda-” He realized who was standing before him. “Ah! Prince Atma.” He held back an obvious excitement in favor of discretion. “We were expecting you last night, is everything alright?”
Atma sighed, before pulling an impressive stack of papers. “Well, we took the route through the Forest of Elders, as posted in Linia. I stayed up putting this together, it’s a detailed compilation of what happened in our journey. In short, monsters in the path have been defeated, but it’s just as likely that there could still be more in the forest. It’s promising, but is going to need a lot of work.”
The receptionist skimmed through the report, making an obvious show of surprise as he made note of the bigger points. “Dryads, shorter general time, and impressively, a discovery of some sort of forgotten ruins.” He looked up to Atma and Balthazar from his seat as the others caught up, with a wide grin on his face. “I’ll be honest, most guilds go years without making such a discovery, but your very first job netting you such a find? That’s nothing short of incredible. I’ll have to raise this with the other local branches, that’s just not something we can ignore.” The receptionist stood, and scrambled back into another office giddily to share the news with his branch chief, leaving the party relatively to themselves.
“You know, when he puts it like that,” Balthazar smiled. “It really sinks in how special what we did was. It’s incredible, really!” He could feel his body clench up in excitement. “I could stand to do it again.”
“We almost died, Balthazar.”
“Well aware, Locke, but all the same, we made it to the other side of it, and it’s not something I’ll ever forget. Thank you again, Prince Atma, for giving me the chance to come this far.”
Locke smiled, seeing his friend’s passion reignited. “We did pull it off, didn’t we?”
“Again, Balthazar, you don’t need to call me Prince. I owe you far more than you do me.”
“Right, sorry. But thank you all the same.” His smile weakened a bit as he turned to Miles. “Miles, the spot is still yours to go. Have you thought about it at all?”
Miles was silent for a moment. He sighed. “I don’t think it was ever my spot, Balthazar. This is what you were meant to do. I stand by what I said. I need to find my own place too, but it’s not with you.”
“Miles…”
Atma nodded, and bowed slightly. “If that is your wish. Miles, your honor is not tarnished, so stand tall.” He reached into his bag, to a neatly folded letter, alongside a small bag, with a familiar jingle of credits. “I also wrote this last night just in case, explaining everything. Certainly, this whole situation is unconventional, but it’s not unprecedented. My pilgrimage doesn’t begin in full, technically speaking, until I leave the country. The credits should be more than enough to see you safely back to Linia.”
“Sir, I don’t-” Miles was silent again. “Thank you.”
The receptionist burst back into the room, with a sizable bag, that he placed on the table with a dull thunk! Balthazar was taken aback by the size of it, it had to have easily had closer to eight thousand credits with the sound and weight. “And that would be your reward money. For both your job, and the success of your discovery. Places like that are of particular interest to many of our benefactors, so we try to offer rewards for any such discoveries. Furthermore…” He placed a second bag down, which had a similar noise to credits clicking together, but this was far smaller, and sounded like a few smaller objects. “These would be your guild badges.”
Atma opened the smaller bag, finding a set of ten identical metal badges, a purely polished iron so clean it might have appeared silver. Atop a circular etching representing Gaia, standard for those tied to the guild houses, there was a silvery wing, like that of an eagle, inscribed upon it ‘ZEPHYR.’ They were roughly palm sized, where one could comfortably hold on to it, or pin it to their clothes. “I don’t recall custom ordering these.”
“You didn’t, but our guild smith is something of a patriot. When we received the order the other day, he set to making something special just for you. You have the standard set of ten badges here in the event of new members of the guild. If you need more, I can bet he’d be happy to make more.”
“I’m sure this is plenty, thank you, but be sure to pass on my thanks and best regards.”
“Just a reminder, Prince Atma, but I would recommend settling into the ship sooner rather than later. It’s not set to depart until later, but if they can depart further away from the evening, they will.”
“Then I guess we should be going. Miles, I think this is where we part ways.” Balthazar put out his hand, Miles shaking it in turn.
“Do well out there, for both of us. Keep them safe.”
Atma held out his hand, a badge in it. “It’s yours if you want it.”
Miles shook his head in response. “Thanks, but I’m not ready to accept that.”
“I’ll hold on to it until you feel like you are, then. I wish you the best, Miles.” Miles turned to face the exit, turning back briefly to wave, before stepping back into the city for whatever came next in his path.
***
The masked woman strutted into a balcony overlooking the House of Lords’ council chamber, as the nobles of the local districts scrambled in for the emergency summons. More would be on their way with the coming days, until each region was informed, so that the summit would be able to decide the best course of action following the King’s assassination. As it stood, as the woman leered down at the lords below, it was an absolute mess, some completely unaware of the reason for their summons, others assuming Ranzian attack. “This part is always so boring. It’s not even to the point of proper build up just yet.”
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“I’d hardly call any of this boring. This? This is where the first real battle begins.” Another voice front the shadows of the dimly lit balcony. The woman was unsurprised, as Duke Kaian stepped next to her.
“And what battle would that be?” The woman retorted playfully.
“For justice and vengeance. I will not allow Atma to sit on the throne and be a weak king in the face of Ranz’s King Gilliam. After all these years, we stand at a new apex. Last time, Ranz caught us off guard, weak, killed all too many of our people. Women, children, the weak and sick, none were spared in the face of their attacks. Escalus I believe is the key to the just future I desire.”
“Just?” She turned to him as he did her. “You’re talking to someone directly involved in your King’s murder. Someone you’ve hired to keep killing, might I add? Not that I particularly care about your justice.”
“For years, my people have wanted a bloody vengeance for the suffering we faced. If I’m not perfectly just, then that’s fine by me. I’ll simply return the blood we shed, for my brothers and sisters, and their children.” He clenched his fist, trying to reign in his rage. “You never did disclose your other benefactor.”
“It’s not Gilliam, if that’s what you’re implying. Like I said when I first reached out to you, their interests align with yours for now.”
“And what exactly do you plan on doing with Prince Atma? I doubt you have much in the way of implicating him.”
“Oh you leave that to me. I hardly need to do anything. Let’s say, put him in a situation where he has no choice but to run? Sometimes, Duke Kaian, a scalpel is a far better tool than a hammer. Consider the king the use of a hammer. Prince Atma will be a scalpel, giving him just the right push. But to really get things going, I’ll be needing to make one more little cut here with the lords.”
Kaian tensed, putting himself on guard. “And that would be?”
“Oh it’s not you,” the assassin snickered. She playfully tapped him on the nose with her finger. “So don't you worry your handsome little head about it.” She glanced out to the crowd of lords once more, Duke Ryner arguing with others below. She turned back to Kaian once more, he flinched slightly, the stitches in her mask shaping into more of a smile than they had when she had turned away, and the eyes shaping into something more joyful. “You’ll have your blood and war. I promise you that.”
“What do I call you if I need to reach you? How should I reach you?”
“My assassins are otherwise occupied for now, but I’ll leave you in Nemesis’ care. She’ll take care of relaying anything you need to me, and you can trust that she’ll always be nearby. As for me? Well, people call me a lot of names I’m sure you’ve heard, but you can call me Loki.”
***
Balthazar giddily explored the ship, as they cast out, clear skies ahead, and a cool breeze inviting them out to sea. He leaned over the side a little, making out the name of the ship, Daybreaker. A couple of the crew members found him rather odd, though finding some appreciation in the Dark Mage expressing such an interest in the sea and their ship. The Daybreaker was a fairly large ship, carrying passengers and cargo both between nations and continents. It had taken a fair bit of time for the ship to be let out of port, departing some time after noon. Port Royale had exceptional security, seeing as it had been used as an invasion point during the border war. Now though, they were out on the open sea, passengers moving about to familiarize themselves with the layout of the ship. It wasn’t especially crowded, this particular voyage had more cargo than passengers, though it wasn’t as though they could afford individual rooms.
Similar to Deponesian airships, as Locke had been quick to point out on boarding, the ship made use of mana drives, specialized engines that ran off of magical energy. It was far cleaner, and more cost effective to keep a mage, or someone at least with a high capacity for magic aboard, than it would be to run a steam engine, with better output to boot. Locke wasn’t all too familiar with the magical side, but Balthazar was familiar enough with technology to connect the dots. A few decades back there’d been some experimentation with steam engines, but any real development had stopped in favor of mana drives once people applied magic to the principle. It was easy enough to get someone skilled in enchantment to feed energy to a mana drive, and get something far better than an old piece of junk. Combine the engine with sails, and one could cross the ocean far faster than one might unassisted. Balthazar found it fascinating all the same, wondering if Faust worked on a similar principle, if returning a flow of magical energy to his core would help to restore him.
Balthazar found himself bunked with Atma and Locke both, Alice receiving her own room out of common courtesy to her privacy. It took a little while, but it wasn’t long before it settled in to Balthazar that even for a ship as fast as the Daybreaker, it would be over a week before they made port on the other side of the Ocean, in the Land of Mist, and the port city of Calima. Balthazar let out a deep breath and faced out to the horizon, leaning against the railing of the ship, an empty blue consuming all that he could see in the distance..
“It’s kind of boring, now that it’s setting in, isn’t it?” Alice walked up next to him, leaning against the hand rail with him.
“After what we went through yesterday, I’ll take a bit of boring. It was at least a little fun though.”
“When I wasn’t worried about being turned into fertilizer, yeah.” She smiled gently as she glanced over to him. “I’m glad you can be here in full. I really don’t think this trip would have been the same without you.”
“I’ve had your back since we were kids, no point stopping now. Won’t lie though, it puts a lot into perspective, everything from yesterday.” Balthazar matched her gentle expression, closing his eyes, the events of the forest playing through his mind.
“Tell me about it.” Alice sighed, but her body stayed tense. “I know we can’t really remember the invasion of Linia from all those years ago too well, but yesterday, I started wondering if that’s how it felt back then. To be afraid, to not know if we were going to make it. I wondered if that’s what the war was like.” She paused, carefully considering what she was about to say. “Honestly, I’m worried I was able to shake it off as well as I did. It feels wrong, like I should be more panicked or something.”
Balthazar gave her words some thought before answering. “I think that’s part of why they always tell us in Academia; ‘you’re going to kill people,’ ‘you can die,’ ‘you’re not invincible.’ Locke says they do the same thing in the Knights’ Academia, to try and reinforce us for life as soldiers. I think it’s okay that you feel the way you do.”
Alice relaxed a little. “You know, when I saw Miles breaking down before, I really wondered if being so relatively unshaken was a bad thing. There he was, having some epiphany about his mortal existence, and there I was, munching on macaroons.”
“I won’t say Miles is weaker, or we’re stronger. My Mom always told me, after working with veterans and explorers, that everybody just responds differently. I was scared. I’m sure Locke and Atma would tell you the same thing. Without Miles and Faust, I don’t think I could have pulled off that rescue. But back there, I found new determination to keep going. I can’t fully explain it, but I just knew I had to fight, and I could fight.”
“No, I get it. I just wonder sometimes. I don’t really remember my Mom and sister, but you remember when we were growing up, people always saying ‘you must feel so sad,’ or ‘you must be so lonely.’ That sort of thing just makes me feel… like I’m not feeling what I’m supposed to be.” She sighed, a smile returning to her face. “I think what I felt then and now is a kind of appreciation for life. Mine, yours, everyone’s. That part I’m still not sure on. For all of it, what I do know I feel, what I know I should feel is happy you did come to save me- us.”
The two let the slip of the tongue slide, trying to ignore it at first. “Alice, whatever you’re feeling, whether either of us understand it or not, I’ll be there to listen.”
“I know. Always have been, haven’t you?”
“Always will.” The two stared back out to the ocean again, Balthazar resting his hand on the railing, a moment later, Alice resting her hand on his half a moment later as she turned her focus to that blue horizon. The two flinched slightly, but kept their hands together.
Atma from a distance saw the two as they were finishing their conversation, about to approach. “So that’s where they-”
Locke held out an arm to hold him back for a moment. “Sir, if you would please.”
“Locke?” Atma was surprised that someone who was such an adamant follower like Locke was holding him back, not remotely offended, but curious to this new side of his knight.
“Could you give them a moment?” Locke glanced back over to his friends, sighing in relief. “I just think they need a minute to themselves.”
Atma nodded and smiled. “So are those two-”
“Sir?”
“Right, right, let’s give them some space.”
Locke turned the prince away, a feeling of content that his friends were expressing themselves.