‘Where do we head now?’ I asked after we said our goodbyes to Phosi.

‘The way I see it we have two options,’ Ren said. ‘We either head South to Lin-Vyme… or East to Tyr-Mel.’

‘There is a monastery to the Old Gods in Lin-Vyme,’ Lilyth said. ‘We could likely spend a few days there.’

‘I believe Ren’s family home is that way too,’ Caei added.

‘I didn't want to bring that one up,’ our new friend said, sadly. ‘I thought it would be difficult for me to convince you guys to go check in on them.’

‘Gives me the sales pitch,’ I told Ren.

She visibly brightened.

‘It’s a countryside estate next to Lake Heligst. A few guards. It’s just my mom there most of the time, as dad keeps touring our other compounds. If there was one family member I would like to check in on… it would be her.’

‘Promising,’ Lilyth said. ‘Define few?’

‘While it is only mom I believe it’s just three people. One of the rules of the game is “no touching family members if they aren't involved’. And my mom never wanted to be.’

‘Meaning if anyone is making a move against your family, she is vulnerable,’ Savri noted.

Pain and sorrow showed on Ren’s face.

‘If there is one family member I can ask you to help me save… let it be my mom.’

We looked at each other.

‘Lead on,’ I said.

The journey to the estate took us two days. It was both tiring and restful at the same time. It was nice not to have to worry about people wanting to kill us for a few days. We managed to catch up on a few things too, like Savri finally teaching me that [Contraception] spell or her starting to train Ren in basic sword fighting.

While they were sparring the first night, with Caei observing, I noticed that Lilyth and Veenaya were nowhere in sight. After a minute or so, I found her sitting on the forest floor against a tree, her back turned towards the camp. Veenya, completely spent by the difficult day, was curled into a ball next to her. Lilyth smiled upon seeing me approach and patted the ground on the opposite side of her from our lumizu. Veenaya briefly woke up hearing this, let out a happy arf upon seeing me, and then went back to sleep.

‘I can’t imagine how tired she must be,’ I said sadly, as I sat down next to Lilyth.

‘She’s taking it much better than my cat. Poor thing spent a few days hiding after I adopted her. It took her a while to accept me. But then… well… I sometimes called her a furry barnacle. These are small marine creatures that spend their lives attached to some hard surface. Rocks, ships, large sea animals. So my cat…, she…she would often sleep for hours just hugging my leg.’

There were tears glistening in Lilyth's eyes again. She quickly wiped them away and I gave her shoulder a squeeze.

‘Did you know that on Earth it is very rare to see stars if you live in a city?’ she said after a moment of silence.

That was a sad thing to hear. I loved looking at the night sky.

‘It’s too bright, you see,’ she continued. ‘All the artificial light that our civilization required robs of this beauty. It feels weird to realise I had to quite literally go to another world to be able to see them again.’

I lay my head on her lap and looked up.

‘Do you think that one of them is where your home was?’ I asked.

‘I certainly wish it was there. It would make this alien sky slightly less foreign.’

She began to absentmindedly stroke my hair.

‘It is still weird to think that there are untold numbers of these,’ I said.

As we were walking that day, I finally got around to asking what this whole nootron star thing was. The sheer despair on Sav’s and Lilyth's faces told me they hoped I had forgotten about that one. My wife was right when she said there wasn’t enough alcohol on Dwynveia to explain that subject. I knew she and Sav were already likely incredibly oversimplifying things but it still felt insanely complicated. The gist I got was that: Dwynveia was actually orbiting our Sun and not the other way around. Every star was a similar object and that nootron stars were stars that ran out of wood to burn… or something.

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‘Yeah,’ Lilyth smiled. ‘The splendour of the universe will never stop being breathtaking for me. I realise now that I am luckier than every single other Terran from my time.’

‘Because you got to see other words?’ I asked.

‘Yes. But mostly because that gave me a chance to meet you.’

I smiled and raised my head a bit so that we could kiss.

‘Can you tell me something about the constellations you have here?’ she asked afterwards.

So I showed her my favourite ones and told the stories associated with them. My favourite was the Dragoon, named after an ancient warrior who fell in the defence of his village. He did so because his wife and young son were still there and couldn't leave. So the man single-handedly stopped the entire enemy force but was mortally wounded in the process. He died in the arms of his wife and the gods were so impressed by his sacrifice that they shaped a monument to him in the sky. I always found this one to be incredibly romantic.

‘I hope you aren't mad at me and Savri for ruining that one for you,’ Lilyth, who was listening to me in rapt attention, said

‘No, you didn't,’ I quickly denied. ‘Mom always said those were just stories. Though… after she died… I always hoped one of the stars was her looking at me from the afterlife.’

That brought an expression of sadness to Lilyth's face.

‘We are not that different of a people then,’ she said. ‘Back home one of the ideas for the afterlife is this place called heaven. Good people who die supposedly go there. Due to its name, it is often associated with the sky and clouds. So dead relatives are often said to be looking down on us from the above. It does make it easier, you know…’

‘Want to hear more about the constellations?’ I asked, desperate for a change of the subject again.

‘Sure!’ Lilyth said with relief visible on her.

One constellation that caught Lilyth's undivided attention was the Admiral. The legend had it that he was in charge of a force from an island he was the ruler of. After years at war, they were beset by various hostilities until he was the only one left. The only thing that kept him going was his love for his family. When he got home though it turned out that every single person on an island died when a necromancer invaded it. Furious, the Admiral went after him only to be killed by the revenants of his wife and son.

‘This reminds me of a myth from home about a man named Odysseus,’ she said afterwards. ‘He was… a chieftain of an island called Ithaca. He went to fight in a war and helped to end it after over ten years. His entire crew stupided themselves to death on the way home, he pissed off a lot of major gods, got raped for years by two minor goddesses and then finally managed to get home after twenty years of being alone. His wife, still somehow faithful after that long a time, had a problem with a bunch of freeloader suitors. So he killed them, almost caused a civil war in the process and then got killed by his son by the first goddess who raped him.

‘I’ll take the undead version,’ I said. ‘Less rape and murder.’

‘To make it even more fun, then that son married Odysseus’s widow. And Telemachus, Odysseus firstborn, then married the rapist. What can I say? Greek mythology was really fucked up. ‘

‘No kidding,’ I laughed.

‘Yeah. Retellings tend to make these stories… more… uh… less… rapey.’

‘I can imagine. Though it makes me wonder… how was the story of the Admiral changed?’

‘Yeah. Probably your parents wouldn't give you the brutal version, assuming they knew it. Still… I kinda want to get to the bottom of this one.’

My ears perked up hearing that.

‘What do you mean?’

‘We have two… very similar stories. At least on the surface. The travels of Odysseus have been fully mapped. Ithaca is a real island. So… I wonder if a similar record exists for the Admiral.’

My heart skipped a beat.

Could it be…?

‘You want to look for the Necromancer’s Island?’ I asked, feeling excited.

‘Yes,’ Lilyth smiled and caressed my cheek. ‘Even if its location is known I still want to figure out the connection between the Admiral and Odysseus.’

‘You have no idea how much I love you right now,’ I said genuinely giddy. ‘I always dreamed that after becoming a Seeker I would find some legendary location. So this will be a wish come true!’

Lilyth leaned down and I kissed her.

‘We’ll need to get the others on board,’ Lilyth said. ‘Plus this likely won’t be cheap. But hey… it is something to work towards.’

‘So what… we check in on Ren’s mom and make our way to the coast?’ I asked.

Lilyth shook her head.

‘We should first find a large town or a city and look for an as detailed as possible written account of that story. For one, we need to know which coast to head to.’

‘I guess it would suck to go to a porttown only to discover it was the wrong one,’ I laughed. ‘I guess we should also find some paying work and a place to stay for a while.’

‘That too,’ Lilyth agreed. ‘I have no idea what we could do to earn money though.’

‘We’ll figure something out,’ I said with more confidence in my voice than I felt.

We first brought up the possibility with Caei when we went to sleep later that evening. Initially, she didn't seem particularly excited about the prospect of taking to the seas but said that the idea of potentially finding some secret knowledge there did seem intriguing.

‘Won’t it all be necromancy, though?’ I asked.

‘Could also be alchemy, like the journals you found from this Rivard guy,’ Caei explained. ‘And it is possible that there will be other magic there.’

‘Sounds good,’ Lilyth said. ‘Could be some wicked Umbral arcana spells. Or Life… I guess.’

‘Yes,’ Caei said. ‘Not gonna turn down an opportunity to potentially study ancient magic.’

‘Yay,’ I hugged her tightly. ‘Thankyouthankyouthankyou.’

She hugged me back and kissed me.

‘How about the three of us go for a late-night walk?’ Caei suggested with a wink.

And that was all the convincing we needed for that trip.