Zalan woke up early the next morning, immediately moving to rouse Rep from his sleep. Rep rolled over in bed, rubbing his eyes. He stared at Zalan with concern for a second. He wasn’t used to seeing the new scars across Zalan’s face. They came about when Zalan shocked himself with lightning during the Elemental Rage Tournament. While they could heal themselves of most wounds in this realm with Healing Rest, self-inflicted scars remained. Rep couldn’t help but frown.

“You good?” Zalan asked.

“Yes. I am fine,” Rep said dismissively, pulling himself out of bed and gathering his things.

Rep and Zalan gathered their gold coins, Artifacts, and respective swords. Zalan had two Artifacts on his person; the Homeseeker and the Reversal Stone. The Homeseeker could warp those holding it back to their homes and the Reversal Stone could turn back time on a non-human by a few minutes. They waved farewell to Heron and made their way toward the Port of Oriton to purchase a boat. As they walked across town, Rep seemed agitated, like something was on his mind. His eyes kept scanning townspeople as they passed by.

“What was that about an Artifact that Heron was asking you about?” Zalan asked.

“I do not wish to talk about it,” Rep said, sounding disappointed in himself.

“I thought you liked talking about Artifacts. Or at least knowing all about them,” Zalan pressed.

“I am not yet sure how I feel about that particular one,” Rep sighed.

Zalan’s lip twitched thoughtfully, then his eyes went downcast.

“Did you kill someone with the Artifact because you didn’t know what it did?” Zalan asked.

“What? No! Nothing like that. I just never should have meddled with things I did not understand,” Rep responded.

Zalan continued to assess Rep. Something else was on his mind, even more than his Artifact business. Zalan thought they had enough time to kill that he could keep prodding.

“Are you still worried about Nold showing up, or something?” Zalan asked.

“No, my concern is with the Port of Oriton. It is filled with those that are not known to bear honor,” Rep said carefully.

“You mean like they’re scum?” Zalan filled in the gaps.

Rep neither confirmed nor denied the phrase. They would have to be careful as they went to that side of town. As they passed by Madam Hikma’s building, Zalan could see the streets transitioning. Bits of detritus littered more corners of the roads. Homes and buildings were not nearly as nicely maintained, gashes in walls and stains on doorsteps. The smell of the sea swelled, masking a somewhat rancid odor that ran through this side of town. Even the people looked less inviting, granting him and Rep shifty glances as they walked by.

The further they walked toward the port, the more attention they gathered. Zalan began to feel self conscious. The people watched him like they knew he didn’t belong on this side of town. They watched him with hungry eyes. At first Zalan avoided eye contact. Then he tried to look tough with his eyes. Then he looked at the ground, feeling embarrassed.

“What should I be doing right now? Should I be staring back or something?” Zalan mentioned to Rep.

“I do not know. I have never traveled here without someone that was Level 10 before,” Rep responded.

“Great,” Zalan said, slightly nervous by the amount of eyes they continued to attract.

Zalan felt a chill go down his spine. He felt any of the people around them would try to take advantage of him, given the chance. Zalan began to imbue himself, running his Elemental Lightning across the top of his body in case anyone tried to sucker punch him. His arms were tense, constantly flexing in preparation for a fight his mind convinced him was coming. The closer they got to the seaside, the narrower the streets felt. They were more like alleys rather than roads. In the distance, they could see the narrow paths opened up once they got closer to the sea. The port had much more space than the areas leading into them.

Zalan was beginning to feel confined, even as he was free to keep moving. Rep and Zalan had to twist their bodies to pass people without bumping into them. Despite his efforts to remain at a distance, someone crashed directly into Zalan, walking the opposite direction.

“Watch where you—”

The passerby couldn’t complete his insult. He began reeling in pain, screaming as the electricity passed from Zalan through the man’s system. He stretched and cringed in several directions.

“Sorry!” Zalan said, mortified, turning to look at him and help him to his feet. “I was imbued, I didn’t mean to hit you with…”

As the man convulsed on the floor, Zalan saw a familiar pouch in front of him. It looked a lot like the pouch where Zalan stored all of his money. Zalan felt at his pocket as he simultaneously realized he’d been pickpocketed. He blinked in shock, his worry quickly morphing to offense.

“Hey!” Zalan took a step forward and the man reached out to grab the pouch.

Rep looked between Zalan and the robber, realizing that Zalan was dealing with a thief. Zalan let out a shock of lightning, striking the man directly and causing him to scream once more. Rep rushed forward to wrestle the pouch away, but had a hard time moving quickly in the cramped pathway. The man’s eyes widened and he slapped something on his hip. In a fraction of a second, he zipped away in an orange flash.

Zalan stared at where the man was a second ago. He blinked and shook his head in disbelief. In a moment of confusion, Zalan zapped the floor, making sure the man hadn’t just turned invisible.

“What, did he disappear? What just happened?” Zalan said, his head racing from side to side.

“He used a Belt of Bolt. An Artifact to teleport him away from here. He won’t be far, but we will have no way to know which direction he took himself,” Rep sighed, sounding defeated.

“We can’t? What do we do?” Zalan asked, disturbed.

“There is not much we can do unless we find him,” Rep shrugged. “But I do not think he will show himself if he knows we are in the area.”

“You’re saying it’s not even worth looking? He has my money!” Zalan said urgently.

“With the Belt of Bolt, it is a waste of time to search unless you know where he likes to teleport himself in order to escape. Let us keep moving before another thief happens upon us.”

“Fine,” Zalan sighed, frustrated by the thief and with himself for not acting faster.

He imbued himself with more lightning, making it shine around him. It wasn’t very bright, even in the shadows of the alleyways. But it was enough to show that touching him meant they would be dealt with pain. The random eyes watching them from the shadows slinked away at his show of power. Most of them weren’t familiar with Elemental Lightning and didn’t want to discover its effects.

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“Did he take either of your Artifacts?” Rep asked as they moved, keeping his voice low.

“No, just all my money,” Zalan replied,

“Do we need to go back to the guild?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to replenish your funds with whatever funds you left behind in the guild?” Rep clarified.

“I didn’t leave any behind. Did you?” Zalan asked.

“Of course!” Rep said, a little too loudly. He brought his voice back down. “You were walking around with over a hundred gold coins wherever we went!? Even when we traveled days away to the Elemental Rage Tournament?”

“Yeah, what else was I supposed to do with it? Do you have banks or something?”

“Leave some in the guild! No one would go around with such money at their hip!” Rep said, amazed that Zalan had been so foolish to carry a fortune with him.

“Look, can we just drop it? You still have enough money to get a boat, right?” Zalan asked, feeling embarrassed on top of his frustrations.

“I suppose,” Rep said, disappointed in the massive loss of their funds.

They finally reached the opening at the other end of the alleyways, revealing the sea in all its splendor. The shining blue waters stretched out to the horizon, covered in a golden chainmail of sunlight. Just ahead of them, the port was heavily populated, filled with sailors and workers loading and unloading vessels. There were boats of varying sizes all across the water, making Zalan wonder what size they would need to make it to the Island of Remains.

In addition to the usual sails on the boats, there were also parachutes connected to the ends, being shoved away into compartments on the incoming boats. The skies were filled with seagulls and markets smelled heavily of fish. Zalan knew that animals from his reality existed in this realm, but it still felt odd and nostalgic to see familiar creatures overhead. He was so used to seeing monsters wherever he went that regular animals were a pleasant surprise.

“What now?” Zalan asked, distractedly looking around for the man that robbed him.

“I suppose we talk to crews to see what we can find,” Rep replied, peering out at the boats with mild expectations. “Let us start with that one! That is a good size.”

Rep and Zalan walked to one of the largest boats that was docked, filled with sailors having just returned home. It looked like something out of a movie to Zalan. Big enough to have several decks of a ship to carry cargo. From people traveling back and forth, Zalan was sure there were at least forty crew members working on board, if not more. There were portholes in the side of the ship without cannons placed in view. It occurred to Zalan that the portholes might be for sailors to use their Elemental Powers to attack rather than require use of a cannon. He then realized he didn’t think gunpowder had been invented in the realm.

Rep asked around for the captain and was directed to someone shouting orders from on deck. Rep and Zalan walked up to speak with him.

“Excuse me, Captain. What does it take to hire you and your crew?” Rep asked politely.

“This is an expensive vessel, unattached to Ma. You think you have the coin to manage us?” the captain immediately countered.

“More than certain,” Rep nodded confidently.

“Where you off to?” the captain asked.

“We would pay handsomely to go to the Island of Remains,” Rep reacted immediately.

“The Island of Remains!” the captain let out a bark of a laugh. “No, sir, I can not do business with you.”

“Why not?” Zalan asked.

“Off with you. No amount of money is worth our lives. Go ask another ship,” the captain waved them off.

Zalan was going to press further, but Rep just grabbed his shoulder and led them to the next ship. The next ship was also quite large.

“Hello good sir,” Rep said, even more cordial with this captain. “I hope to be able to purchase passage to the Island of Remains, if you would like to increase your wealth substantially.”

“I thank the good sir for his inquiry, but I prefer to live to sail another day,” the captain replied, not looking up from swabbing the deck with his crew mates.

Zalan and Rep traveled to the next boat. Zalan looked over at Rep, confused.

“How dangerous is it to go to the Island of Remains? Is it really that bad?” Zalan asked.

“I have never been at sea before. I do not know what it takes to make it to the island,” Rep shrugged.

“And… you’re okay with not knowing?” Zalan asked carefully.

“How else would we get to the island to get you closer to home?” Rep said, not even considering the question.

Zalan was amazed at the difference he saw in Rep before traveling to the Elemental Rage Tournament and after. The old Rep would probably have dozens of questions about how dangerous the journey was and if there was an easier way. Now that Rep was flush with confidence, he seemed at ease with the number of unknowns that would come with travel at sea. Rep stepped up to the next vessel.

“My good captain, what kind of trip would you deny hundreds of pieces of gold for?” Rep asked, flipping the script.

“What did you have in mind?” the captain asked, revealing a gold toothed grin.

“The Island of Remains,” Rep said casually.

The captain’s gold teeth disappeared behind a furtive frown.

“Ah… No. Not that,” he said begrudgingly.

The next few captains and quartermasters brought about similar responses to their inquiries to go to sea. Even when Rep tried to offer concrete numbers, with gold worth more than the ships they traveled in, the captains were certain that they were unwilling. The more they traveled down the docks, the more desperate Zalan and Rep looked. The boats were smaller and less crew-heavy the further they went from the larger ships.

“Are you at all interested in the Island of Remains?” Rep asked one of the last few quartermasters that hadn’t already rejected him.

“Only a fool would be,” the quartermaster said, raising an eyebrow as he looked up from his ledger.

“Would you like to be a rich fool?” Zalan said, trying to sound charismatic.

The quartermaster looked at him with an unchanging expression. The awkward silence hovered between them until Rep and Zalan turned away in defeat.

“Great,” Zalan said as they walked away. “There’s only like two boats left. They look exactly the same. And they’re so small. What are we gonna do if we can’t get a boat to the island? I thought this would be the easy part, to be honest.”

“Let us try these last two captains and then we will try something new,” Rep said, sounding unenthused about their chances.

Zalan and Rep were dragging their feet as they walked to the next boat. Zalan could tell this was not the same level of ship as the earlier ones. This ship could hold about ten crew members at max. As Rep reached the deck, someone jumped out from behind a mast and looked upon him with wild mirth.

“Greetings, my good sir! Do you bring word from the Mother of the Port?” the captain asked jovially. He wore a large captain’s hat with golden threads across the top and a bold red uniform below. He presented himself like he was the star of a play introducing his character.

“Umm…” Rep stared in so much stunned surprise that the captain continued the conversation by himself

“I am familiar with your facial expression. You are thinking: ‘Woe is me! I have seen his face before, but I cannot place it! I hope I do not shame myself and my family by misspeaking his name!’ Fear not, good sir, for I will remind you that it is I, Captain Buttonwillow McKittrick! From where have we met before?” the captain asked, presenting a hand to shake.

“I… do not know that we have?” Rep said, sounding like he wasn’t sure himself. He very slowly raised his hand to shake in his confusion.

“Ah, but I never forget a face. You are…” Captain Buttonwillow took Rep’s arm and began whipping it rigorously up and down in greeting. He peered deeply into Rep’s face. He narrowed his eyes, straining hard. “I knew it! We have never met before!”

“Right, I just said…”

“But you came to my vessel because of my reputation. What is it that I may assist you with?” the captain asked, releasing his grip on Rep’s hand to be able to present himself with both fists on his chest.

“We’re trying to get to the Island of Remains,” Zalan said.

“The Island of Remains! What an incredible destination to name! A place of incredible potential, if I say so myself! And I do! The stories one could tell by completing the journey... I would love to assist you!” Captain Buttonwillow said with added flair of a finger gun pointed to the sky.

“Really?” Zalan said, excited to finally find someone willing. “That’s great!”

“I would love to, but unfortunately I can not!” Captain Buttonwillow clarified.

“Oh,” Zalan said, disheartened.

“Allow me to clarify. I can assist you, but only if you do one thing for me,” the captain said.