The next couple of our traveling days were pretty much uneventful. Following the incident with the Order, we had become braver and decided to travel throughout the whole day.

Trees thick with branches were gradually replaced by taller and leaner ones but the sounds of birds were as lively as ever. The weather was, for the most part, sunny and hot enough that the people who were riding on the carts did so with no furs or coats, taking turns to enjoy dozing in the sunlight.

Things were not much different inside the tower in terms of activity either. Everyone had found their own tempo and as duties became more scheduled, the tower’s tavern turned into a hot spot throughout the day. Of course, Krysha was still making plans to prepare new rooms but she was now looking at higher floors since the first to the fifth were mostly occupied.

The tower’s foyer had also been redecorated to look more homely rather than like the entrance to a trap-filled dungeon. Large purple drapes hung from the walls and framed paintings of various sizes, making the hall sound less echoey and more welcoming.

We had also been lucky enough to locate a panel that was embedded with crystals hidden close to the staircase. This panel could be used to control the brightness of the magically generated light at the top of the tower which meant we could emulate night and day on the inside as well.

On the fifth day of our travels, we were finally reaching Leskia so we called another big gathering of everyone in the tower. People began appearing near the entrance slightly before the moment we had agreed upon but this time there was little wonder at what the topic of our discussion would be.

This was the moment we would decide if we were going to cross the Endless Sea and continue traveling in Leka An, the land of the manaless, or stay here. I didn’t expect the decision to be a difficult one to make as most, if not all, of the young men and women in the tower were curious to see the lands and people that Man had told them so many wondrous things about. The painters, the blacksmiths, the sculptors, the engineers and all of their majestic accomplishments—even the odd gods that those people believed in.

I’d often told myself that it was not right to settle in the safety of what we were used to, and that since we were manaless, living in a manaless country did make sense, even more so since we also had their prince on our side.

Little did they know that I would not be joining them in their voyage across the sea, at least not yet. This time though, I was going to inform them instead of running off in the middle of the night. After all, there were still things I had to do in Elysia. Seika was a few days riding distance to the east along the coast and I would not risk traveling there with everyone.

However, I had to inform my sister about our parents. She deserved to know the truth and so did Haad but I needed to find him first. For all the chaos and confusion that the past events had brought me, this mission of finding my siblings that I had undertaken, served as a beacon for me. A guiding light into keeping my sanity and making sense of the world.

The gathering was conducted more in the form of an open discussion than an announcement. Krysha took the role of the mediator, steering us back to the issue at hand whenever we went off topic or fooled around too much.

It was evident after just the first few minutes of our talks that everyone wanted to cross the Endless Sea and that they were already getting restless. They seemed ready to board one of Leka An’s ships any day so that they could exit the tower and freely roam aboard the ship.

The voyage would last a little more than two tendays and Man was very confident that he would be able to find passage as soon as we reached the docks. The overall atmosphere of our the group was very positive until I gave them the news that I would not be following them, which was not received well at all.

“Why do you always wait until the last day before telling us these things?” shouted Kard from the back, and others in the hall joined him in protesting against my decision.

“This is something that I need to do,” I explained, and before someone was able to say what I knew they would, I continued. “And it is something that I need to see through by myself.” I put emphasis on those final words.

“Well I don’t care if you think you need to do it by yourself,” came the voice of a young woman standing with her back against the wall. “We should stick together. I’m not leaving unless you are with us.”

“Me neither!” came the voice of a young man on the opposite side of the hall. Then another voice joined in, and another and another.

Soon the whole hall was shouting that they were not leaving and shaking their heads in denial. This got really out of hand, really quickly, I realized. I waited for them to quiet down before I continued.

“If me going will stop you from leaving, then I’m not going at all. I’d much rather see you all safely on the other side of the sea than take care of my own business here. But then I will have to return to find my sister before I come back to you again.”

People started to settle down now and instead of staring at me, many of them were now looking at the ground in front of them.

“I beg you to understand,” I continued. “I am not leaving you. I will use my teleportation hourglass to return to the tower as soon as I am done here, but I need to know that you are on the way to safety. This is a very difficult thing for me and I won’t be able to do it if I still have to worry about how safe my people are.”

The loud shouts and nods had now been replaced by almost complete silence and everyone looking away.

“If I know that you… that my people are on their way to safety, I will have one less thing to worry about. I will find my sister and if my brother is not in the immediate vicinity, I promise you that I will return to you then. Probably before your sea voyage is even over. So, please… let me have this.”

After a brief pause, Krysha sighed loudly. “You will be given the best possible protection artifacts and a means for us to communicate with you at all times. And I don’t want to hear another word about it,” she said angrily. Around the chamber, others emitted low agreeing mumbles and nodded their heads.

“Not a word,” I said, and nodded my thanks to all of them.

My previous magical inventory—the boots of sound void, superior straw hat of invisibility and hourglass of recall—was enriched with an earring of communication and a beacon ring.

Item : Earring of Long-distance Communication

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 1468/1900

Grade : D Grade

Weight : 16st.

Description : Two-way communication is possible between the two individuals that are wearing or using each piece of the earrings pair. The maximum range of the pairing is 50,000 miles while the communication is traveling instantaneously through the Dark Energy as long as both individuals are in the same realm and no magical barrier is dividing them.

As Krysha explained, either her or Kard would always be wearing the second earring, or at least someone who is still awake, while the ring would always indicate its relative position to a scrying device back in the tower.

Item : Beacon Ring

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 1179/1400

Grade : D Grade

Weight : 16st.

Description : A ring that is Dark Energy-entangled with a scrying board representing the map of the nation of Elysia and lands where The Divine has influence. As long as the Ring is in lands where the magic influence of The Divine is present, its location will be indicated on that scrying board.

Additionally, I was gifted with a robe that would protect me from cold and rain, along with a trumpet that summoned a white stallion.

Having all those magical items made me feel a lot like the great magicians of old tales, though of course nothing could fill the hole of not having mana of my own.

Once I was ready, I said my farewells and exited the tower along with Man as our small caravan was entering Leskia. The plan was to head to the docks, locate a captain, preferably one whose loyalty laid with Leka An, and pay him to grant us passage on his vessel.

When I opened the exit of the cart that was carrying the entrance to our tower however, I completely forgot of our plan. It was the first time I smelled the ocean and by the time I climbed on top of our cart and saw it in the distance, I was entranced.

I had seen water bodies big enough to reach the horizon once before in the great lake outside Elysia but never had I laid my eyes upon waters that moved like these. So engrossed was I by the reflections of the sun’s fire on the waters as it was set to the west, that I barely noticed the merchants pushing their produce upward for me to get a whiff of.

“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” prompted Man. “You know, when I first visited your village it shocked me how you could live so far away from the sea. I felt as if I was wearing a tight belt and couldn’t take it off all the while I was there.”

I didn’t reply but only smiled. How could I argue with him after experiencing the majesty of the Endless Sea first hand?

“Which reminds me,” he said and began to take off the belt he was wearing. “Take this with you, Adel.”