After an invigorating night by myself in the mayor's refurbished bedroom, I left the empty manor behind and went to see if the Auvani princelings had secured our transportation. When I say "night" I an a period where most activities in the city died down. In this Age of Eclipse, darkness was a given. And by the number of people walking around without any light source, I guess night vision or even dark vision was a perk most invested on.
I felt the people's hard stares when they thought I wasn't looking and heard their venomous whispers behind my back. My departure from Tijen's Cove was overdue. Reaching the warehouse where the kin-folk was resting, I nodded at the rcenaries and walked inside. Nenandil flew toward and took her place on my shoulder. Devan ca right after her.
"How's everyone, Devan?" I asked.
"Never been better, Your Highness," he answered with a grin.
I was about to dismiss his use of honorifics, but I noticed he was keeping an eye on the guards.
"I'm going to check on everyone's health. Follow ."
They were all malnourished. That was sothing only ti and adequate food would solve. Fortunately, the System and my dical Profession could fix any permanent damage they'd suffered. After I was satisfied with their conditions, I spent so ti talking to the rcenary guards they were happy with their job. I wanted to leave a good impression in at least so of the people in Tijen's Cove.
I found Serena and Albryan by the docks looking at a ship that I thought to be a caravel. The tech level of this world was all over the place. So things were made easier by magic and there wasn't much effort invested in mundane technology. The smart people beca magicians and never looked back - or down - at their origins.
"Ah, Princess Lakerta!" Albryan ca to greet . Solana looked warily and kept her distance.
"Prince Albryan. Did you find a ship?"
He pointed at the caravel next to the one we were, "Ships, actually. With my people and yours, a single ship is not enough."
The ships looked small this close. I think it will be a camped trip, but the kin survived worse.
"Good. And when are we departing? Can we secure enough supplies?"
"Actually, that's sothing we need to talk about. You can store items in your dinsional item box, right? We'll need you to carry our supplies to make room for more people."
"I'm fine with that but will the ship captains take that risk? What if I die on the trip or sothing else?"
He grinned, "If we find sothing in the trip that can kill you, we'll all be dead anyway."
His grin was forced. There was sothing else going on.
"Fair enough. Thanks for trusting . Anything else? You seem worried."
He lowered his voice, "They are charging a premium for the trip, though. They want one kingtal coin paid in advance. Each! We need to leave the money in escrow with the wharfmaster."
I sounded outraged, "That's a ripoff!" Platinum coins were used for huge deals and were scarce. I had less than a hundred of them. The tal soaked enchantnts like crazy though, so it had an intrinsic value. I put a hand in my jacket's pocket and took two platinum coins. "It's my pleasure," I bead.
Before I handed out the coin, I placed tracking and camouflage enchantnts on it. That would allow to find it later.
The next two days were a flurry of work. I stored the supplies for both ships, including freshwater even though between Nenandil and that wouldn't be a problem. That allowed us to convert the cargo deck into passenger cabins separated by canvas curtains. Devan assured the kin wouldn't mind. I used the Spell-song to check and repair the ships and ended up reinforcing their hull. Previously that would be too much exposure but I decided to do as I pleased in this life. And I could rest easier knowing there was no risk of sabotage.
At the last-minute, I got a potted tree sapling. It was a ter and a half tall and it went into my cabin. The kin and I occupied the Amber Witch, the newest caravel while the Auvani were on the other, called adow Sweet.
We needed to head Northeast because the currents would pull us south. I got a feeling for the expenditure of SP to use wind magic on the sails along with water magic to ease the resistance to the movent of the ships. I found that at a sustainable rate I could improve our sailing speed by between forty and seventy percent.
My MP was untouched, entirely dedicated to {Erode Curse}. I had the Wellspring active but in hidden mode.
After we lost sight of land, I pretended to be seasick and withdrew to my room with the ever-present fairy on my shoulder.
I sent it to Nenandil.
I did exactly that. I shifted into the tiny Etruscan shrew and my {Fox-Kin Disguise Set} morphed into the fur coat. From inside the sapling I teleported back to the Cove. From there I tracked my coins to the wharfmaster's office vault, deep underneath the building. The guy had his own dungeon without undead archivists this ti. I looted everything in the vault, including so enchanted weapons. After I was done plundering the wharfmaster, I went back to the ship.
No need to pillage the town clean. I just wanted to punish the greedy n that kept the Auvani stranded. And I feared the ship would move out of range. Even though {Tree Stride} now reached twenty-two kiloters, flying blindly at night would be a big problem. The ship was sailing without any lights.
A week passed and we still sailed in the dark. Captain Frederiksen of the adow Sweet, the leader of the expedition, ordered us to use no light on deck for fear of attracting pirates. No such thing happened and after that, we were too far away from any coast to be worth the risk. Lights were a bad idea overall for another reason. The creatures of the depths were attracted to it. My sapling was thriving in the dark of my cabin. When I studied it, I found it was living off of the ambient mana.
I could use {Shadow Warp} to cross between the ships so I visited often to deliver supplies. In one of the first visits, Albryan insisted that Solana should teach a Darkness spell called {Dark Vision}. We used it on the crew and passengers of our ships.
We leaned on the rails of the deck, gazing up at the starlit sky. Sir Hector guarded the princess a few steps away. Searching, I couldn't find any constellation I knew. I was truly on an alien planet.
While I was alone with the princess, I asked about a sensitive topic. "Solana, why are you avoiding ? Is it sothing I did?"
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She was still not used to being talked to as equals. But the fear she had of was new. The princess looked away. I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to face . Sir Hector tensed up but didn't interfere.
"Princess Solana of the Auvani. I'm your friend and supporter. I swear I'll never hurt you intentionally. You can ask anything. What is troubling you?"
"How can you do all that? You have forty million HP, can fight better than my knight, rise a dozen levels in a few days, use magic better than ..." her eyes were watering up. "Who are you?"
I transford myself into an albino rabbit. Well, sorta. I beca a naked rabbit, the disguise set beca white fur. I didn't have the red eyes, though. After I was done shifting, I jumped on the railings. I used the sign language because why not.
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