It was barely visible above the horizon, yet as the time passed, slowly but surely a small island emerged from the sea. It was a strange, V-shaped land, with a small city nestled in between the ridges.
"Saint Helena" murmured Japan. "The place where the great Napoleon spent his final days".
"Not a bad retirement prospect, I see" said Alfred, surveying the land.
They came ashore and were greeted by the locals with the hospitality shown to shipwrecked sailors. Checking in at a nearby inn, they talked strategy while allowing themselves a bit of rest. The place was very conducive to their needs, quiet, quaint, with only the occasional screeching seagull interrupting the blessed silence.
"I'm going to the Napoleon Museum," said Maria. "I just think there's some reason we ended up on this particular island and I'm not going to waste this opportunity"
Japan nodded. "That's wise. Useful tools for the main quest are usually found on side quests"
"We playing Genshin Impact now?" quipped Alfred, emerging from the shower.
Maria nodded wistfully. "Time to scout for those items"
Longwood House is a majestic mansion now repurposed to serve as a museum and memorial to its most famous tenant, Napoleon, Emperor of France. Previously a farmhouse of the East India Company (and once again after Napoleon's death), it began its journey to restoration and curation beginning with reforms by Napoleon the Third, grandson of the great emperor. The entire area finally came under ownership of the French people after its last owner, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau donated it to France in 2006.
Maria stared in awe. Napoleon lived in a world so different from the 2020's: Japan was unheard of in the West, America was still a rookie nation looking to carve a name for himself, and she of course was merely a colony of Spain. Yet Napoleon's impact was so powerful even she felt the ripples, as the Napoleonic Wars drew the forces of Europe back on the continent, giving her and her fellow colonies a relative stasis, a faux autonomy that allowed them to develop themselves internally. England once told her the threat of Napoleon was so great he had to cancel all plans to invade her and focus his navies on defending the English Channel.
If it weren't for you, you crazy little man, I could be eating scones and drinking tea right now, Maria muttered at the face of the ruler. I could've ridden to the top of the dung heap with the boost of the Commonwealth of Nations. But that's neither here nor there now. She focused herself on sensing whatever may be lying in wait for her.
She broke away from the groups of tourists and went to a part of the house not frequented by the tourists. She didn't know whether the ghost of Napoleon still walked these grounds, but if he were, she would find him. I am the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, she reminded herself. Philippines, or Ma'i, was the seventh daughter of Nusantara, the seventh daughter of China. She reminded herself of the reasons a ghost may linger on and tried to find one that might apply to Bonaparte.
Ghosts hang on to places they loved in life.
Nix to that, she thought. Napoleon loved St. Helena, but his love for Vive la France was greater still.
They fear judgement and the Lake of Fire, the second death.
Certainly a man with the blood of millions on his hands would fear judgement. Yet she saw no ghost, sensed no premonitions. No, she thought, if Napoleon still roamed Earth, he wasn't in St. Helena, he would be haunting Montmartre, the Petit Trianon, or Notre Dame. He loved attention and glory, and he would seek it in his homeland, not on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere.
"Curiouser and curiouser" she murmured.
Then she saw it. All alone on a forgotten hallway, a small creature stood in the way. Covered in slick white fur, the being belonged not in St. Helena, but somewhere thousands of miles north.
It was a polar bear.
It was a damned polar bear. A polar bear that gave her The Shining vibes in context of where she was.
"Who are you?" asked the bear in a tiny voice.
Did I fall down the rabbit hole?!
"There you are," said a familiar voice behind her. An ice-cold hand touched her shoulder…