The call was given, they were finally leaving. Ballen had already packed his things aboard the ships, so it was a simple matter of stepping across the gangway. But he had matters to attend to before he left Rayne for the first time in his life. He scanned the crowd of people on the shore, after a moment, he spotted one of the people he was looking for.
"Tavas! Over here!" Ballen called out, waving his arm so his friend could see him. Tavas turned around, and Ballen made his way over across the dock. "Some day, isn't it?" he asked Tavas when he got to him. "Are you sure everything's alright? I could ask the captain to-"
Tavas raised his hand. "I know. I don't want you to make trouble. I'll follow. I'll leave soon enough," he seemed very withdrawn, and Ballen suddenly felt very guilty.
"Take my place, Tavas!"
"NO!" Tavas's voice was angry, but when he next spoke, he gained control of himself again. "You go. It was just bad luck. Just go. I'll follow. You and I both know-"
Tavas was interrupted by a familiar voice. "Tavas!" Ballen's brother called out.
Ballen put on a forced smile. "Hello Errav," he said.
Errav thumped an arm on both Tavas's and Ballen's backs. "How are things going for the two of you? I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier. I slept in late, I was busy in the storage room." He had a rather slap-together knapsack over his shoulder, which lent itself to the late-riser image, but Errav's smile erased any hint of that. One thing was certain, he was eager to leave.
"Well. I guess you haven't heard. One of the ships was stolen last night." Ballen said.
There was a pause. "What?!" his brother said.
Tavas gestured to where the missing ship would have been. "A gang of kids came into the village last night while everyone was sleeping to be prepared for the exodus today. They stole the Seablazer, and went God knows where with it."
"T-tavas. I'm so sorry." Errav shifted his pack. "Do you want to take my place...?"
Tavas raised his hands. "No no no. You go. I'll find a way off the island eventually. You know me. I'll never rest until I get off the island. We all will. That's what we promised."
Errav didn't say anything for a long time. Nobody did. Then he put his hand on Tavas's shoulder, and said, "I'll miss you. Catch us up quick," and for the first time, Tavas smiled.
Ballen looked at the ground, he felt for the object inside his pocket. He had been debating whether or not to give it away. He probably would never see Tavas again, even if another ship did leave Ibara later. But still... it was his fathers, it was his now. It had been in his family for generations, always being passed down from father to son.
Ballen looked up, Tavas was still there, he wasn't looking at Ballen, but at the nine ships ready to leave. Ballen stared at his face, and then looked up to the Great Mountain of Rayne. The ring had always been in his family, and his family had never left Ibara. Perhaps it should always belong to Ibara. He looked back to his friend. "Tavas," Ballen said, "I want to give something to you. As a token of our friendship."
Tavas only raised his eyebrows.
Ballen gingerly took the ring out of his pocket, and handed it to Tavas. It had ten symbols on it, along with a dull, grey stone in it. Ballen or his father never figured out what the symbols meant, but Ballen had discovered another one of the ring's mysteries
"It, it's very nice of you to give this to me." Tavas never did show much emotion, but Ballen knew he was touched. Ballen showed the ring to his friend multiple times. They had seen it, studied it, watched it awe as it glowed whenever they walked near the cove of Evangallin. Tavas looked into Ballen's eyes, "Thank you." There was nothing more that needed to be said.
Ballen took a step back. "Goodbye Tavas."
"Goodbye Ballen."
Ballen turned around, so he didn't have to look at Tavas anymore. It was going to be harder leaving this place than he first thought. He walked across the dock for a few minutes before getting close to Errav's, Maneeys, and his own ship. The Venture.
He found Errav quickly enough, he was crouched on his haunches, helping a child with his bag. The child's parents were busy with sorting of all the people. In a busy event such as this one, one needed to do everything possible in order to make it work. They had practiced all the drills and the launch multiple times, but it was still chaotic.
"Errav!" Ballen gestured over to himself when his brother looked around for the voice. "Is Maneeys on board already? I haven't seen him on the dock!"
"Yeah!" his brother called back. "I didn't think he'd be in there already!"
Ballen walked over to them. "Yeah, I know. I'd have thought we'd need to drag him out of bed." They both laughed. As the date of departure loomed ever closer, Maneeys became more and more worried. "Do you need any help?"
Errav finished tying up a knot. "Yeah. Can you carry Linod's box onto our ship?" Ballen did so.
"Thank you mister!" Linod said. "I couldn't carry that, you're strong."
"Guess I am." Ballen grunted. The box was heavy.
Errav stood up. "I guess Maneeys decided to suck it up. He always seems to come around at the last moment."
"Th- that's Maneeys."
Errav gave the kid, Linod, a little nudge. "Go off to your family now. You need to be together." Errav then turned around to Ballen. "Can you handle that? I need to see Jeyne off. We didn't get on the same boat. She's on the Ocean Wave."
Ballen was now struggling up the gangplank. "F- fine," and then under his breath mumbled, "Thirty more steps... twenty nine..."
It was with great relief when Ballen finally put the box onto the deck, to be lowered below decks. Then, Ballen finally got his first real view of the dock, from the deck of the boat, one could see the entire port.
Ballen stared over at the people left on the shore. Their ship had been stolen by the gang he heard was called the 'Jakills.' There were supposed to be 500 colonists on the great exodus, but now only 450 were able to travel the world. Despite all the planning and all the arrangements that took three centuries, something went wrong.
Ballen knew what it would be like to lose the one chance to explore the world. He felt sorry for all those who were left behind, including his friend Tavas. Stupid kids. Because of a few selfish little pricks, one of which was apparently distantly related to him, his friend and dozens of others were left standing on the shore, watching their dream sail away without them.
Ballen scanned the island that had been his home for so long, as a boy, he used to climb trees on Ibara to get a good look at the stars, or wade in the tidal pools near Rayne, looking for little animals to keep in his room. He watched his home become smaller and smaller with each passing year. There were less challenges with every new day, but Ballen's thirst grew.
Even though he was very inquisitive, Ballen knew that the council knew best. It was a fact, a way of life. But still, sometimes Ballen used to wonder what lay beyond the island. None of the villagers knew. Did the council know? Ballen didn't know. Neither did anyone else. And no one bothered even to ask.
Asking questions was always a rare thing in Rayne, but people did ask the occasional, "What's for dinner tonight, Ma?" In the case of older brother, and "Why is the sky blue?" In the case of his younger sister. Ballen never actually asked. Though he was inquisitive, he always kept to himself, and let the questions roll around in his mind. He was very independent, and for some reason, the more he thought about what lay beyond the island, the less connected he felt to his family.
So, one day after rolling the thought around in his head, he decided to ask one of the officials the very basic question, "Do you know what is beyond the island?" The official told him to come with him, so Ballen, the inquisitive yet obedient young man followed.
What he learned blew him away. The truth was horrible, frightening, he wished he had never asked, the things he thought were beyond the island were always so much nicer in his mind. And then they told him if he would like to colonize the rest of the world, and make it civilized, to explore it, and to live it.
A whistle blared. There was only an hour to go. A sense of boy-ish excitement filled him up, head to toe. It was the kind of excitement that hadn't filled him up since the day he had climbed Rayne's Great Peak by himself.
He was obedient. He was young. But he was still very inquisitive, and very courageous.