Joy had always loved the water ever since he was a kid. He had not grown up in Vena Cava, instead he grew up in one of the tiny villages the populated the northern half of the kingdom. There was not a nobleman for miles, it was just farmers working day by day to make ends meet.
The little villages all had one thing in common though, and that was their proximity to the river. Rivers and tributaries were lovably called the arteries of the Hearted continent since they allowed the lifeblood of trade to flow throughout. River barges were the way the common person was able to sell their goods.
Joy had loved the water since it was his path to freedom from his boring town. Everyone there was born a farmer, lived as a farmer, and died as a farmer. But Joy had known, even back then, that it was not for him. So, he used to sit by the water, watching it flow by, towards somewhere more exciting.
His mother had been the most popular person in their whole village. She had been given a gift by Time themself. It was an incredibly useful gift that was used to its lowest potential. She could revert any object back in time as far as she wanted.
She could’ve been a knight galivanting around the countryside, turning bandits’ weapons back into ore, and kicking some serious ass. Instead, she reverted sweaters back to when they didn’t have holes in them and kept his father’s farming tools in perfect shape.
Joy’s father was also incredibly powerful. He had a gift from Strength that gave him the power of thirty men. He was an unstoppable force and also could have been a powerful knight. Instead, he used his prodigious strength to make it so that the family didn’t need to use a bull to plow the fields.
Joy never understood his parents and his parents would never understand him. He longed for adventure and life, while his parents purposefully settled down in a place where no one would ever truly disturb them.
There was one thing that brought the family together though. And that was card games. After hours and hours of backbreaking labor, Joy’s father would come back and play at least a few games of go-fish or gin rummy with Joy. He taught Joy every game he knew, hoping to show Joy the joy he had found living a simple life. It never worked, but it did create Joy’s love of gambling.
He yearned for freedom more than any other child in the area, one time even trying to swim the entire river to reach Vena Cava. It did not go well and if the village healer had not been on hand he may have died from that incident. But he just wanted out.
So, when Joy turned thirteen and received his gift, his parents could do nothing to stop him from boarding the barge that came down the river every couple of months to sell overpriced clothing to the farmers, and to buy their foodstuffs they had cultivated throughout the year.
Much like that fateful moment in his life, Joy stood before a ship. This one was massive compared to the tiny barge that had taken him to the kingdom’s capital so many years ago. This ship could comfortably house the prince’s entourage and then some. The wood was not nailed together but seemed to have been grown into that shape. It was almost certain that some sort of plant gift had been used to build this ship. But that only added to its majesty. The water of the Southern Ocean could not rock the ship as it ebbed and flowed in its ineffable cycle.
Joy had never gone the extra couple of miles to reach the southern shore of the Hearted continent. He had been happy with his little adventures in Vena Cava but staring at the ocean now was humbling. Seeing water go further than he could imagine awed him. So, he sat and watched the prince load his ship. Well, he watched the prince’s minions load up the ship.
Joy had been incredibly busy since the prince’s announcement about going to the Frozen Continent. He had been given an important job, to get as much gold as possible. Going over the ocean was not going to be cheap, and the prince was not known to skimp on comfort.
The ship itself had cost most of the money that Joy had acquired. Since there was almost no need for them, and many groups of laborers had already been bought out by other groups going on their own expeditions. There was the princess Dahlia Hearth, who was leading an expedition somewhere, real top-secret stuff. And the Freer Men had commissioned a boat be created for them with their church funds. No one knew exactly where they were going, but it certainly was a sign of the times. Three different groups all leaving for expeditions to the abandoned continents at the same time was auspicious.
For the prince’s expedition, many people had to be hired and convinced to come along on this adventure. He needed someone with a weather gift, water gift, storage gift, and food gift. None of these were particularly hard to find in the vast city of Vena Cava but finding one of them who was willing to come along on an expedition to the frozen continent was near impossible, or prohibitively expensive. Hiring these people is where the rest of the money that Joy had obtained went.
The rest of the crew was part of the prince’s personal retinue. Many teams had been formed with express skills and gifts put together. The prince himself was coming on the expedition even without a combat gift, hoping to grow enthusiasm for the trip with his presence. His team was comprised of Ian, Sam, the prince obviously, and a vaguely familiar looking man named Clyde. Joy couldn’t quite place where he knew him from, but he was certain that he had met him before.
Joy was not gifted by the gods with a combat-based gift; thus, he had not been asked to come along on the expedition. The prince had been perfectly happy with Joy being his little piggy bank and nothing else. So, Joy sat watching the preparations being made for the trip, watching the water lap up the hull of the boat.
Joy was sitting alone on a rock, thinking about what the future held for him now. He had certainly had an exciting couple of months with the prince’s group, but now that the prince was gone, he was being kindly kicked out of the castle where he had been staying. Joy had burned a lot of bridges with gambling dens and casinos to get the prince enough money to fund his little trip. So, he was a little lost for what to do with his life now.
Far too entranced in his own thoughts Joy didn’t notice Sam sneaking up behind him.
“Is this rock taken?” Joy jumped at the intrusion but shook his head, no, and stared back out at the ocean.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The two sat there in silence. One was filing their thoughts and trying to put their feelings into words, while the other patiently waited, even though they were endlessly busy.
“Do I even need to tell you my woes since you’re a seer?”
“You don’t need to.”
“Do you have answers for me then?”
“No, not really. To me, the future is like a coiled-up snake, you know it’s about to attack but you’re never sure when or where.”
Again, the pair lapsed into silence. Joy did wonder why the prince’s personal seer was taking the time out of their incredibly busy schedule to have this little heart to heart with him. But he wasn’t going to complain.
Finally, Sam posed a question, “why did you leave home instead staying and becoming a farmer like the rest of the children?”
Sam had said their piece and brushed off their knees before standing up and walking away to finish preparing the ship for sea.
Joy did mutter under his breath, “can’t hide anything from a seer, can you?”
Sam yelled from a dozen paces away, “no you can’t!” In a little singsong like voice.
Joy thought, that’s why they’re called seer-crets. Because they always know. But he didn’t tempt Fate by saying that one out loud.
He knew he was on a time limit, he had barely a few hours before he his choice was made for him. But this was a monumental moment for him, a farmer’s son who just wanted a couple of adventures in his life could be going on an epic journey. One that for good or for ill would be talked about for the centuries to come.
Joy knew he wasn’t invited to the party on their boat. But no good party came without a few crashers. He smiled and knew that he was going to bring joy to those dour faces stacking boxes on the ship’s deck. He started running, hoping to pack a bag full of the essentials.
Prince David was worn ragged. This had been a grueling experience through and through. He knew that this was not going to be fun, but he hadn’t even considered truly how much work went into making everything happen.
He was truly thankful and lucky that Rose had been willing and able to help him manage all the paperwork. It was truly unfortunate that her gift and skills were inapplicable to combat or moving a ship otherwise he would’ve had her on the deck in an instant. Instead, she was the one minding the castle and making sure his sister didn’t make any power plays while he was gone.
But the paperwork. It was truly a horrifying monster that he would never wish his worst enemy to face off against. He had barely gotten any sleep the past few weeks just trying to stay ahead of it.
And the inane cost of the whole venture, without his many side projects working constantly to find him more money, he never would have been able to afford this. Gold was just a number to David at this point. A really, really, really big number, but just a number, nonetheless.
The amount of gold he had spent had made him question where his sister was getting the money for her personal venture. She wouldn’t be receiving money from their father the king, since he didn’t like to play favorites. Much. Maybe he needed to look into some of her less legal ventures to try and get the public opinion swayed once he came back. A thought for another day though.
Prince David and his sister princess Dahlia had a unique relationship. They had been born to different mothers, both of which had died during childbirth. Some conspiracy theorists thought that this was some dark magic the king employed to create the most viable offspring possible. But it was just a tragic string of bad luck for the Hearth family. Probably.
Since both were missing a mother figure and a present father figure, they spent a lot of time together. They had been reared with the ideal of competition ingrained into their very being. Their father had made it very clear that just because David was the elder did not mean that he would be receiving the throne, and that it would be an intense competition between the two to see who inherited the throne from him.
It sparked rivalry and passion in the two, but David was always just a little bit better, with him being a couple of years older than Dahlia. But everything changed when Dahlia got a much more useful gift than him, causing a rift in their relationship. It became much more antagonistic than a mere rivalry.
Dahlia held the advantage for the first time in their rivalry and she would not let up. She would prove that she was fit for the crown and that David was nothing but a nuisance, taking up time and money. That was when she kicked him out of the castle and he decided to have his own built, just to spite her.
But David knew that he was doing something far more important than Dahlia on their separate journeys. Whatever she was going to do on the Fractured Continent would be far less impressive than his own mission to the frozen continent.
So, he sat near the front of his ship looking out towards the sea. Relishing this little petty triumph. He knew he shouldn’t, but he was a petty man and proud of it.
That was when he heard a small commotion at the back of the vessel. It sounded like Ian had found something he didn’t like. David decided that he should go check it out.
When he had walked to the far side of the ship, he saw Ian holding Joy over the edge of the ship with an evil glint in his eyes. Ian had not liked Joy ever since he had first laid eyes on him, but the prince could understand the sentiment. Joy made too many puns, was so boisterous, and an incredibly good cheat. But what was he doing here? Well, right now he seemed to be begging for the life of his clothes.
“Ian, please? These are brand new, and I will never get the stench of seawater out of them if you drop me in.” Joy had his hands clasped in a pleading gesture. Which made for an odd pose as he was still being held one handed over the water.
“I can see the holes in them, we both know they’re not brand new. Just imagine I’m dousing your ego from its overinflated size.” Ian had a grin that was far too malicious for how his face normally looked. He was normally sagely and kind, he had a cute set of dimples that were just a delight to see. This was just downright evil compared to that.
“Was that a pun? You do have a sense of humor Ian; I knew it was in you somewhere. Now I get that you were just playing old buddy, old pal. So why don’t you just let me down and we can have a nice chat about wordplay?”
“Sure.” And Joy was promptly dropped off the edge. Thankfully the water was not too shallow, and the drop was more annoying than anything else. “He’s got me making puns. It’s like his stupidity is infectious.” Ian grumbled as he passed the prince, intent on getting this ship ready to sail.
The prince was mildly amused by this whole exchange. But went over to look at Joy who was wading back to shore, intent on getting back onto the ship.
“Why are you here Joy?” The prince shouted down at the soggy man.
“It’s the adventure of a lifetime and I want in!” Joy declared with a little bit too much shivering for it to sound confident.
“Why would I let you on?”
“Is my shining presence and can-do-it attitude not enough for you sir prince?”
“It’ll be dangerous.”
“It wouldn’t be worth doing if it wasn’t.”
The prince liked those answers. Joy certainly was an entertaining man to be around, being stuck on the ship with him for the monthlong journey.
“I guess every royal court needs a jester. You’re in.”
“I would like to think of myself as a joker, for the card motif and all that.” Joy said with a smile as he started scrambling to get back on the ship.
The prince rolled his eyes and walked back to the front of the ship which was facing out to sea. He could certainly use a wild card, he did have a unique gift, and was mildly talented at fighting. Joy could do well for himself.
The prince stared out at the ocean as his face turned into a soft scowl.
David had never liked the water. It followed a set path, its own fate and destiny for all of time. There were ways to track and know exactly where each drop of water would be in a thousand years. The prince was not one to accept Fate, or his lot in life, so he had never liked how easily the water followed fate. Maybe that was why this first part of his journey was to overcome the water.
The ship set sail, slowly but surely moving out across the water.