“Maybe I can’t find the exact location with this.”

Roth flexed his fingers as his gaze swept over the sheepskin map for the nth time. There were now tons of small marks all across portions of the ocean to the south, but he had yet to reveal an island. Every time he thought he was getting close, the elevation stopped rising before it reached 0.

The irregular sea floor was giving him a headache. Initially, he thought it would be simple to follow the rising of the elevation straight to an island. After drawing numerous lines, though, he realized that was a nearly hopeless idea.

There were countless small underwater hills and valleys strewn across the sea floor, and he grew more frustrated with each line he drew on the map.

“Another underwater hill. Why can’t I just find the island?”

Roth’s entire body swayed as he drew the twentieth unsuccessful line on the map, and his vision dimmed for a moment.

“Roth, stop that for a while. You’re exhausted.”

Alisa pulled herself up to her feet from where she had been sitting on the bed across the room. As she walked toward Roth, she shot a glance at where Anpo was still manning the wheel, then turned to face the hunter.

“Do you plan on going back to the Quian after winter?”

Anpo glanced down at his hands for a moment, then looked back up at Alisa.

“I- I don’t deserve-”

“Stop with the self-pity. You lost your family yesterday, but you still have some back up north. Your best friend is still alive, too.”

Almost as if on cue, there was a knock at the door to Roth’s right, and Jaren stepped into the wheelhouse.

“Jean is making a stew right now. He said it was better to soak some jerky to soften the hardtack. I can bring some here so you can eat.”

Jaren looked over at Alisa and Anpo, then spoke again, his voice still just as monotone as every other time Roth had heard him speak.

“Hendricks, Anpo, are you feeling alright? A lot of the others were crying for a while.”

Alisa just grunted in affirmation, and Anpo stayed silent. After shooting one more glance over in Roth’s direction, Jaren turned and headed back out of the wheelhouse, promising to bring some stew over once it was ready.

“Anyways, back to what I was about to say before. Anpo, if you have any plans of not moping around and being useless, it’s best to listen in. Even if you try to hide away, the war to the east will probably reach everywhere in our lifetimes.”

Alisa sat back down on the small bench next to Roth, her arm brushing against his shoulder as she reached over the table to point at some of the lines he’d drawn on the map.

“When you use a Regard, you use up some energy. It doesn’t decrease the amount of mist you have or anything like that, but it will make you extremely exhausted if you overdo it. Most folks with First level Regards can only use their abilities a single time.”

A pained look passed through Alisa’s eyes, and she turned away so that Anpo couldn’t see her expression as she continued speaking.

“When you reach half, and then full… like me… you will gain more stamina as well as strength, and you might be able to use an ability multiple times. It depends on what ability it is though, as well as how many Regards you have.”

Alisa looked back up at Roth, her finger still pointing at the lines he’d just finished drawing on the map.

“Generally, the higher the rank, the more taxing something is, but the stronger you are. Some minor abilities, like the one you are using on this map, take less energy, but will still tire you out eventually. It’s best to keep some energy in stock, in case of an emergency.”

Roth looked at Alisa quizzically, and she shook her head slightly, then nodded in Anpo’s direction.

Ah, it’s probably best not to reveal that I have an artifact. I don’t really know any of these folks, and I doubt I can trust them to keep a secret for me.

As Alisa shifted around, Roth caught a glimpse of the back of her hand again. Most of the one-vibrant lights representing her sled dogs were gone, and the one remaining one was completely grayed out.

A quick glance at the back of his own hand showed a similar dot, which was now just as brightly shining as Alisa’s had once been. The concern he had for Alisa’s state mixed with a tinge of excitement as Roth looked at his own hand.

“Anpo, could you go check how the stew is coming along? I can watch the wheel for a while, go spend some time with the rest of the crew.”

The young Quian man looked up at the duo sitting side by side on the small bench in front of the desk, his gaze traveling back and forth between them a couple of times before wandering over to the other side of the room, where the bed was sitting empty.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Internally, Anpo sighed something about finding comfort after loss, then headed for the door out of the wheelhouse.

“Please keep an eye on the wheel. I’ll let the others know not to bother you for a bit.”

After they heard a latch on the other side of the door click shut, Roth shot a confused glance at Alisa.

“It seemed like there was something else he wanted to say… was he mad that I asked him to leave and kept him from learning more about Regards?”

Alisa’s hand found her forehead, and she let out a small mutter, “I guess I really didn’t need to worry about anything, falling asleep in front of you.”

Roth wasn’t nearly dense enough to not understand once he heard Alisa’s words, but instead of blushing, he just nodded slightly.

With all the shit that’s been happening, how could anyone focus on romance?! I’m doing everything I can to not die, where would I find the time to worry about creating a new generation? Heck, even right now, we’re on a floating coffin, and I’m the most qualified person to pilot this thing. And I know next to nothing about piloting this thing.

If there were any merits in the idea of ‘finding comfort’ or ‘releasing stress’, none of them were frequenting Roth’s mind. Alisa was the only person Roth still trusted, and he wasn’t even sure if he could 100% trust her.

“Ahem… anyways. I didn’t have a chance to talk to you about it earlier, but how is your Regard?”

Alisa’s expression turned depressed, and she hopelessly tapped on the grayed out dot on her hand, with no results.

“I’m back at Base, and I doubt I’ll be able to summon my dog back until I reach First. My Regard is one of the spirit ones that takes the most energy-”

Mid-sentence, her eyes caught on the vibrant blue dot on the back of Roth’s hand, and she jumped up to her feet.

“The puppy! The one you stole from me before, it’s still alive!”

Seemingly forgetting that it was Roth’s, Alisa snatched up his hand and raised it to her mouth, planting a small kiss directly on the blue dot. The color of Roth’s cheeks finally budged a bit, but he didn’t pull his hand away.

“Can I summon a dog now, too?”

Alisa hurriedly nodded, then repeated the same explanation she’d given to Roth just after he’d accidentally stolen the part of her Regard. Unlike before, though, this time there was a reaction. The bright blue dot jumped from Roth’s skin, and a moment later, a tiny white dog peeked its head out from behind the desk.

Its fur was snowy white and fluffy like it had just been groomed, and the cute little creature’s glowing blue eyes shone with affection as it bounded forward, only to bump into Alisa’s leg.

The girl immediately scooped the puppy up, then passed it over to Roth. Holding the dog in his lap, Roth could immediately identify it as one of the three puppies he’d seen back in the town.

“Alisa, what’s its name? I think I saw this one back at your place when I visited.”

She took a moment to respond, and when Roth glanced up from admiring the cute puppy that was now gleefully licking his palm, he could see tears welling up in Alisa’s eyes.

“Th- they’re not all gone. Thank you…”

She buried her tears as she pushed her face into the puppy’s impossibly soft pelt, causing the little dog to look back at her in surprise. When the dog saw Alisa crying, it quickly whirled around in Roth’s lap, then started licking the tears off of the girl’s face.

Alisa cried for a little while longer, and when she eventually recovered, she looked embarrassed and ashamed.

“I’m sorry, little one… and you, Roth. This little girl would be dead if you hadn’t taken her with your Regard, before. I never actually named her before, I couldn’t really get close enough to spend much time with my dogs the past few months. I needed most of them to keep an eye on the town, and I knew that Tolus would at least feed them…”

Roth’s eyebrows raised as the puppy shifted around in his lap again.

“Didn’t that guy hate you?”

“Yeah… but he wasn’t chosen as our town’s hunter for no reason. Unlike Enric, he was directly endorsed by the town’s elders, and they helped him acquire a Regard from Tarth. Northern towns will only pick people they think are trustworthy to be Regarded, because of… of…”

Alisa’s voice trailed off again, and Roth butted back in.

“It’s alright, they’re gone now. What you’re saying is, this dog doesn’t have a name, right?”

Roth clunkily shifted the topic away from Alisa’s dead townsfolk, but she luckily seemed to be just as willing as he was to change the subject.

“Yes, and she’s a girl. The rest of her litter was with me… she’s the only one left, now.”

“Hmm… how about Snowy?”

Roth only received a scathing glare from Alisa.

“Ehem… Blue? Fluffy? Licker?”

Alisa snatched the dog out of Roth’s lap and carried her to the other side of the room, intent on protecting her from Roth’s naming sense.

“If you try naming this dog ‘Licker’, I will personally see to it that you don’t wake up tomorrow morning.”

A small grin cracked onto Roth’s face as he rubbed at his chin.

“Hmm, I think I can do better… let me think for a moment.”

Seeing the devious smile growing on Roth’s face and fearing whatever the next awful thing to spew from his mouth would be, she quickly shook her head.

“Nope. This baby might be yours to take care of now, but she was originally mine. I will make sure she gets a proper, good name, not whatever terrible things you are cooking up.”

Roth pulled himself up from the bench, but when he stood up, a wave of dizziness suddenly swept over him, and he grabbed the desk to steady himself. Alisa noticed immediately and apologized. She’d completely forgotten about him being nearly out of energy from working on the map, and summoning the dog had completely wiped him out.

“Here, get some rest. Sleeping is the best way to recover… I’ll stay in here the whole time, and make sure nothing happens to you. If you die, that dog will die with you. You don’t need to worry about me backstabbing you.”

Roth’s dizziness was only getting worse and he felt like he was about to black out, so he didn’t launch any complaints about Alisa’s reasoning, instead just walking over to the bed and lying down.

A soft bundle of fur was placed next to him, and it snuggled into his embrace as he drifted off to sleep. It didn’t take more than a couple minutes before he was sound asleep, leaving just Alisa to watch over the wheelhouse.

She looked over at the huge wooden wheel at the center of the room, then at the map still laid out on the desk.

“Ehm… I hope we just need to go straight.”