Chapter 3: Storm
"Let's see... that fog in the distance should be it, right?" Lune asked as he sailed the ship through the Great Eastern Sea, manning the steering wheel as he observed a wide, foggy section of the sea on the horizon.
"I think so, yeah. That whole area looks like where the Sea of Time should be!" Pewter nodded as he floated a little above Lune for a better view.
Lune had been sailing for a few months in his ship alongside Pewter and Glare, exploring the shores of the Eastern Sea and finding many new places to visit. Along the way, the two Djinn taught Lune how to make better use of his psynergy, practicing how to combine both elements in combat.
He struggled at first, at one point during a land expedition almost failing to spot a kobold sneaking up on him while he practiced a spell, only Glare's warning making him notice it just in time to avoid a nasty slash. Another time, he would try to use the combined force of Ragnarok and Heat Wave, and the raw power of both would nearly blow him away, leaving his clothes lightly singed and accidentally leveling a section of forest into a small clearing.
Now, he had more or less learned which spells worked well combined, and which were best to cast on their own to avoid backlash or collateral damage, at least for now. Casting Gaia and Lava Shower resulted in a fissure under the enemies spewing pure molten earth at them, while Blast and Spire yielded unstable spires that violently exploded on contact. Others, he had learned, seemed to work well together... perhaps too well, as he had learned with the Ragnarok and Heat Wave incident. He would need to hone his skills further to avoid that much collateral damage, he thought.
As Lune and Pewter discussed how to navigate into Lemuria, Glare brought attention to a group of thick, looming clouds near where the fog could be seen. "Hey... that looks like a big storm coming up!" They called out to the other two from the crow's nest, who looked at the clouds Glare mentioned, frowning.
"Hmm, you're right." Lune conceded as Glare floated back down with them. "You said the Lemurian ship can withstand rough weather conditions, right, Pewter?"
"I did say that... still, we could always wait until the storm passes?" Pewter suggested, floating down to rest on Lune's shoulder. Glare mimicked the gesture on his other shoulder.
Lune shook his head. "For all we know, the storm could last a while... I think we should try to hurry through the Sea of Time, maybe we can make it before the storm reaches it!"
"We should get through relatively quickly, as long as we remember the way through." Glare nodded.
During the trio's trips around the Eastern Sea, they came across a tiny village by the name of Yallam, where Lune learned a children's song and dance that the town's kids told him was written by a legendary pearl diver. Pewter and Glare later realized this song was actually the instructions to navigate the Sea of Time.
With this in mind, Lune sailed into the thick fog, steadily approaching the Sea of Time. As the ship got deep enough into the fog, they started seeing massive whirlpools and jagged rocks scattered about. With the reassurance from his Djinn that Lemurian ships were made to withstand rough waters like these, he sailed forward through the whirlpools, each one tossing and swerving the ship around, maybe causing the ship's wood to groan now and then from the strong forces. Thankfully, the ship stayed in one piece as Lune slowly guided it further through the sea.
After a few dizzying sets of whirlpools in a row and various currents pulling the ship back outside, however, Lune found himself feeling a little nauseous, and just as he reached a relatively calm part of the Sea of Time, he felt the first droplet of water on his nose. A thunderclap resonated around the foggy sea as rain picked up in intensity.
"Darn, it's already here..." Lune got off the wheel and looked around the ship's vicinity, Pewter and Glare doing the same. "I think this part of the sea looks calm enough to stop for today, at least until the storm passes. I can barely see anything with the rain and fog!"
Pewter quickly returned to Lune's side as Glare nodded, looking less than pleased to be out in the rain. "I think that's best... please, let's go back inside..." Lune and Pewter nodded in agreement and they all headed into Lune's cabin before they could get too soaked from the storm.
Lune let out a sigh of relief as he spent a moment taking in the atmosphere. His cabin was fairly spacious despite the ship's relatively small size, and while he didn't have much to decorate the place, he had settled in quite well, and a single lantern hanging on the ceiling, seemingly powered by the ship's black orb, gave plenty of light to the room despite the weather conditions outside. His backpack was resting near a closet by the door, where he put the spare clothes he'd brought for the journey to Tolbi, and now Lemuria. His bed, resting by a window on the opposite end of the room, was also fairly comfortable and soft, with a nightstand where he'd place the odd novel he had brought with himself to read before bed. The nightstand also had a pink parasol resting against it.
"...Huh?" Lune stopped his assessment of the room and stared at the parasol. That was not there that morning.
Pewter was the first to speak up after. "What is this umbrella doing here?" They pondered, floating near it to inspect it more closely.
"I think that's a parasol, Pewter." Lune corrected them, but then paused. 'Wait, why do I know this is a parasol? I feel like I have seen this somewhere before...'
"Hey, Lune?" Glare gently nudged Lune's cheek from his shoulder, staring at his bed. "This may sound silly, but... you... definitely made your bed this morning, didn't you?"
"I… did, yeah. Why do you...?" Lune trailed off as he followed Glare's gaze to the bed. The covers were pulled to the side, like someone had gotten off the bed in a hurry.
"Do you think... someone else is on this ship?" Pewter asked uncertainly, retreating from the parasol back to Lune's shoulder, the two Djinn looking around the room worriedly.
Lune had to admit, he was feeling the slightest bit unnerved, himself. "We should... check the other cabins. And below deck, too..."
The trio started to look carefully around the ship's hallways, with Pewter and Glare both keeping an eye on the hallways as Lune thoroughly searched each of the rooms, making sure nobody would escape their gaze as they searched the entire ship. After about an hour of rather tense searching, however, they found nobody at all, and found themselves going back to Lune's cabin.
He sat on his bed, observing the parasol as Pewter and Glare sat on the night stand. "I feel like... I've seen this parasol somewhere before..." He frowned, trying to search his memory.
"I don't think I've ever seen this particular parasol..." Pewter narrowed their eyes. "If you did see it before, could it have been before we met?"
Lune's eyes lit up as Pewter's comment jogged his memory enough for him to remember. "Ah, right! I saw this woman in Tolbi's docks holding it... Her clothes looked different from the people around the city..."
"Different how?" Glare tilted their head.
"I don't know, like... the sort of clothes a noblewoman would wear in some of the books I've read. But how did her parasol end up here...?" Lune scratched his chin. "We haven't been to Tolbi in months, and Gondowan Cave is a two-week trip from the city. Even if the parasol somehow got lost in here and the ship's sailing through the Sea of Time knocked it out of its hiding place... how would that woman end up all the way in that cave from the city? Then again..." He trailed off, recalling how he saw her almost disappear into thin air after going behind a building. In retrospect, she seemed just a little suspicious, Lune thought.
After a few seconds of quiet contemplation, Glare looked out the window. "...Do you hear that?"
"Huh? Hear what?" Lune asked, looking out the window and straining his ears to try to hear what Glare may be hearing, but came out empty. "I don't hear... anything?"
Pewter's eyes widened in realization. "It was raining heavily just a moment ago."
Lune's eyes widened as well. The outside still looked dark from the heavy clouds overhead, but there was no sound of rain. 'Something feels wrong.' He stood up and hurried out of the cabin, Pewter and Glare flying into his body and readying themselves to aid him, in case anything happened.
As he got outside, he could see that it was no longer raining and, now that he was outside, he noticed the fog around the ship had receded somewhat. He could see the place where they'd stopped was a wide watery clearing with barely any rocks jutting out the surface except for three of them, seeming to be in a rough triangle pattern. As Lune looked at the rocks, he could see that something was disturbing the water in the center of their formation.
Lune frowned and ran to the steering wheel, turning the ship so the starboard side faced the disturbance, spotting some kind of massive white crown starting to poke out of the water. To his dismay, the crown was being worn by someone, or something.
It looked like a massive merman, with white beard and a massive fish tail, wielding a huge, yellow trident, scowling at Lune. He looked angry and ready to fight, so Lune got off the steering wheel and ran to starboard, preparing a spell to hurl at the imposing enemy. "Clay Blast!" He called out, conjuring a trio of earthen spires and sending them at the merman, who spun his trident once in response. The motion seemed to create a massive blue force field around him, the spires violently exploding against it, but causing no visible damage.
"No damage at all!?" Lune exclaimed incredulously, bracing himself as the merman spun his trident three more times, creating a whirlpool around the area that started spinning the ship around him. All Lune could do was brace against the railing as the whirlpool spun faster and faster around the enemy, suddenly thrusting the trident at the ship and pushing it against the rocks of the Sea of Time. The ship groaned and creaked more, but seemed to stay afloat for now, Lune thought.
His relief was short lived, however, as he saw the whirlpool his ship had been pushed out of start to push out from the merman like a massive wave, picking up the ship and swiftly sending it away from the merman's area, taking mere seconds before Lune realized the wave was pushing them out of the Sea of Time entirely, receding soon after.
Lune stood still, gripping the railing for a little while as the ship swayed in the sea for some time, but eventually the waters became calm again. He let out a long sigh and let go of the railing, calling out to Pewter and Glare. "Hey, could you check both sides of the ship? We should check if anything broke..."
At that, both Djinn shot out of Lune's body in a tiny burst of brown and red light, both looking a bit worriedly at him but nodding regardless. As they got to that, Lune went up to the crow's nest to get a better look at where they had ended up.
"Starboard side seems a bit roughed up, but there are no holes!" Pewter flew up to Lune as he'd made it up top.
"Port side is fine, no sign of damage anywhere!" Glare flies in right after, Lune letting out a sigh of relief.
"That's good to hear..." Lune smiles weakly. After a scan of the nearby area, he continued. "I think I see... an island over there. I think that's Izumo?" He squints at the island on the horizon. "That guardian thing sent us way northeast..."
"Not just that... remember the storm we had in the Sea of Time?" Pewter asked rhetorically, looking over southwest towards the cloudy sea. "I think the storm is heading in this direction."
Lune hummed and nodded. "Hmm, we should sail north, then..." With that, he started climbing down to the deck. "That force field thing he did was unfair... have you seen that guardian before?"
Glare nodded, resting on Lune's shoulder as he climbed down. "That was Poseidon, Lemuria's guardian... but that was weird, he was supposed to be in a deep slumber centuries ago!"
Pewter rested on Lune's other shoulder, deep in thought. "Whatever woke it up... we will have to find a way to get past that force field. Lemurian stories said something about a trident being capable of breaking through it, but where could we find one...?"
Lune walked over to the steering wheel and started channeling his psynergy onto it, causing the ship to start sailing north. "Hmm... Oh! Maybe we could find one somewhere in the north? We never tried to get past the rocky formations that separate the Eastern Sea from the northern lands." He suggested.
"Oooh, you're right!" Glare nodded. "I... think there's a lot of snow up there, though. Will you be okay, Lune?"
"Well... I do have a warm sweater in my closet, but we should check for warmer clothing for sale around any northern towns we find." Lune conceded.
Pewter and Glare both nodded in agreement, their determination renewed to find some way to get past Poseidon.
That night, the mysterious blonde woman Lune had seen months ago in the Tolbi docks was sitting on Lune's bedside as he slept, completely unaware of her presence.
"I felt a strange presence in that sea and felt compelled to prod his consciousness..." She pondered aloud. "But I could not have imagined he would be such a grump about waking up. I often hibernate back home, but I don't get like that when I wake up... do I?" She asked herself, putting a gloved finger to her chin.
She soon turned to look at Lune's sleeping form with a smile. "At least he won't have to worry about him anymore, hopefully, and I should leave my parasol lying around here next time..." She whispered. "But I wonder why one of us was born here, of all places..." She pondered, staring at him with a conflicted expression.
A few weeks later, Lune was arriving at a town near an azure lighthouse on the northern lands, deep in thought. "I still can't get that dream out of my head..." He scratched the back of his head. That night, he had a very vivid dream about the mysterious woman he saw months ago... or at least he thought it was a dream. The next morning, they had searched for her again after he told the Djinn about his dream, but she was nowhere to be found on his cabin or the ship... and neither was her parasol. He wasn't sure what to make of it.
"We never felt her presence at all during our trips!" Glare pointed out as the trio left the ship at the docks, Lune shivering just a tad despite a thick, orange sweater he'd selected out of his other clothes inside his cabin's closet, pulling his scarf closer to his neck.
"Either way, her parasol suddenly vanishing isn't normal... do you think she's some sort of goddess messing with us?" Pewter pondered skeptically.
Lune could only shrug at that. "Whatever it is... you should probably hide, or someone might see you two." He told the Djinn, who nodded and promptly retreated back into his body.
Imil, the town Lune had arrived at according to the townspeople who helpfully informed him, was a relatively small settlement, perhaps about the size of Vault. The snow covering the roofs of the houses, the road and even the frozen river running near the town gave Lune a sort of calming sensation. Were it not for the few people walking around the streets, the scenery would've seemed frozen in time, perhaps a place to just sit around and take in the sights in quiet contemplation...
'Don't stand around out in the cold, isn't it freezing out there?' Glare's voice broke him out of his mental observations.
'Sorry, sorry!' Lune apologized in his mind to the concerned Djinni. 'I'll ask around, there should be a tailor somewhere to get something a little better suited for this area other than just my scarf and sweater...' He thought as he looked around the town, walking through the street looking for someone to ask. Ironically, it was someone else that talked to him instead, first.
"Excuse me, sir?" A girl's voice asked behind him. Lune jumped a bit and turned around, finding a girl with long cerulean hair and thick white robes with blue decorations, looking warm and perfectly suited to the weather unlike himself, he thought.
"Ah, yes?" Lune replied to the girl looking at him.
"Sorry for bothering you, but... are you new to Imil?" The girl asked with a tinge of concern. "You look... unsuitably dressed for this weather..."
"Well... yeah, I am." He said with a nervous laugh. "And I was looking around hoping to remedy that, in fact... would you happen to know where a tailor is, miss?"
The girl nodded with a half smile. "Of course! Please allow me to take you to her, I couldn't bear seeing you so cold..." After a moment of hesitation, she gingerly took his hand and guided him across the street. "This way!"
Lune could only make a sound of affirmation as the girl guided him around Imil. He couldn't help but let his gaze linger on her as she did so, noting her apparent age. 'She looks about Isaac's age... It's been almost a year since I left Vale, huh? I wonder how Isaac's group is doing...' His thought process was interrupted when he felt the girl's hand no longer on his, showing a building for him to see. It was a shop from the looks of it, with a wide window display showcasing various winter clothes, and a wooden sign above the door frame carved in the shape of a shirt.
"We're here." She nodded, opening the door for Lune to enter. As he did, he felt some relief from the cold outside, he figured there was probably a heating system of some sort keeping the inside of the building warm. He walked to the counter alongside the girl and the shopkeeper greeted her as they approached.
"Good morning, Mia! What can I do for you and your friend today?" The shopkeeper smiled at the two.
"Oh, I wanted to help this man find your shop, Dahlia. He seemed awfully cold, and he asked where he could find a tailor, so..." The girl, Mia, trailed off as she glanced at Lune, who nodded.
"Yeah. I'm planning on traveling further north, so I was hoping you'd have some clothing that would help keep me warm." Lune continued.
The shopkeeper, Dahlia, nodded in understanding. "My, you're traveling even further north? You will need an extra layer or two..." She observed, eyeing him up and down. "The scarf and sweater are a good start, but..."
"Yeah... I was thinking a coat and... probably something to keep my ears warm would help?" Lune pondered as Dahlia tapped her chin thoughtfully, her gaze wandering the shop until she found what she was looking for.
"Aha, I think I have it!" She exclaimed and moved off from the counter and towards the window display, Lune and Mia following her as she brought up a brown beanie that matched his hair, and a thick, dark blue winter coat, long enough to also keep his legs warm.
"Oooh, that would be perfect!" He picked up the two articles from Dahlia and, after showing him to the changing room to try them on, he came out wearing both, looking satisfied as she then walked him to the counter. "How much?"
"That would be 680 coins in total..." Dahlia trailed off, then smiled at the other two. "But since you're friends with one of Imil's best healers, I'll give you a bit of a discount! How does 600 coins sound?"
"Ah, uh..." Lune looked at Mia nervously, but she didn't seem to mind being called his friend, smiling and giving him a nod of approval. "Yes, I'll take it! Thank you!"
Back outside the tailor after payment was handled, he felt much better than before, and wasted no time in bowing to Mia in gratitude. "Thank you so much for showing me around." He smiled sheepishly. "I... felt a little bad about getting a discount from being called your friend..."
Mia, smiling kindly, shook her head. "It's okay, don't worry about it. I don't mind at all, and I certainly won't mind if you called me your friend." She put a finger to her chin and tilted her head. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced, though. I'm Mia, a healer here in Imil." She finished with a polite bow, which Lune returned.
"One of the best, or so I heard." He couldn't help adding with a small chuckle, and Mia giggled as well. "I'm Lune, from Vale. I have been traveling for a little while, though." He introduced himself.
"Vale? That's in the middle of Angara, isn't it?" Mia blinked twice in confusion, then looked in the direction of the docks. "But... you came here on that ship on the docks, didn't you?" Her gaze turned back to him. "It must have been a very long journey..."
Lune chuckled and scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Y-Yeah, you could say that... I have been on the road for a while, or... sea." He gave a tiny laugh, which Mia mirrored with a giggle of her own.
"Indeed. But..." Her eyes showed a bit of concern. "You're really going to go further north? There's a sea route that leads to a village on the other side of Angara, but it's been very rocky the last few years..."
Lune gave her a tiny grin. "Yeah, that's fine. There were a lot of rocks on my way here from the Eastern Sea, but I made it to here without a scratch on my ship!" He nodded confidently.
Mia smiled a bit. "I suppose that's true. We don't get many ships around here because of it, that's a very sturdy ship you have." After a pause, she continued. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Lune. I hope you have safe travels in the north!" With another smile and a wave, she walked off as Lune waved back, heading back to the docks.
"Likewise, have a good day, Mia!"
As he made his way back to the ship, Pewter piped up in his mind. 'I'm almost certain that girl you met was a Mercury Adept.'
"Huh? Really?" Lune tilted his head as he hopped onto the ship, walking to the steering wheel.
'Yeah, I felt it too!' Glare chimed in as they popped out of Lune's body and onto his shoulder once Lune started sailing away from port. "Mercury Adepts are really powerful healers... that must be why the shopkeeper said she was a healer!"
Pewter popped out of Lune's body and onto his other shoulder. "She seemed a little young, though..."
Lune nodded, staying quiet for a little bit before speaking. "...Yeah. She reminded me a lot about back home. I wonder how Isaac and the others are doing." He let out a small sigh. Despite the journey he had wanted to embark upon, he found himself still missing those four. Isaac and Felix mediating the usual Jenna and Garet spats, or Jenna pulling Isaac into a scheme to prank Garet as Lune and Felix observed with a grin...
Glare broke Lune out of his thought process. "Hey... why don't we visit your hometown after we explore the northern lands? Whether we find the trident or not, I think it'd be nice for you to return home for a bit." They leaned on Lune's cheek, their teal eyes showing concern for the Adept.
Lune managed a tiny smile as he glanced at the Mars Djinni. "...Thank you, Glare. I think I would really like that." His gaze moved to Pewter. "You don't mind, do you?"
The Venus Djinni gave a tiny giggle. "Of course not, silly. Glare and I know exactly how you feel... being apart from friends can be hard." They bounced a little on Lune's shoulder. "Besides, who knows? Maybe we will find our friends back in Vale!"
Lune let out a hearty chuckle. "I can't be certain, but it's definitely worth a try!" He felt Glare's flame-shaped tail poke his cheek.
"I'm sure you just didn't check hard enough, when we go back there, we might find our friends popping out everywhere in Vale!" They quipped, earning a good-natured laugh from the other two, joining their laugh shortly after.
After a minute of comfortable silence, Lune spoke again. "Okay, let's do that once we finish exploring. For now, we have a whole northern region to explore. Let's get to it!"
The two Djinn cheered as the trio focused on their journey once more.
Meanwhile, high up on the crow's nest, away from the sight of Lune and his Djinn friends... a certain blonde woman stood there, observing the horizon as a very rocky sea pass came into view... along with the end of the world, the border to Weyard known as the Gaia Falls.
To be continued...