A ship glided wordlessly on murky seas, unaware of the darkness surrounding it. A dome of light shone from its core, a boy and a girl at the center. Rall looked around as ghostly figures avoided his white Lighthouse, the purpose in their hollowed eyes unknown.

Around the two light mages were several seamen. They sat on the bridge, drinking and laughing and sharing sensational stories and drunken wisdom.

When they had first entered the dense Fog, they had tried to avoid distracting Rall and Tui from their spell. However, it soon became clear that the Lighthouse they were witnessing was not ordinary in many ways. At some point, Billy started conversing with the mages. The sailors had nothing to do since the Lady Veronica seemed to move on its own, so they slowly joined in. Just an hour later, it had become an impromptu celebration over the deck.

"So, what will ya do once we land on the other side?" Asked a middle-aged red-cheeked sailor to the rest of the group.

"We'll be filthy rich, no? I'll leave the sea to the poor and find myself a nice woman to marry. I heard booties attract each other!" Answered a thirty-year-old seaman with a scruffy beard and a large scar on his forehead.

Some of the other seamen whistled, then a drunken woman jumped near the man and looked at everyone while taking another sip out of her bottle. "Dream on, Cole! Once I'm back, I'll take all the ladies for me!"

Some laughed, and others partook in the banter. One young man looked at the two mages who hadn't spoken in a while. In particular, his eyes glued to Tui. The mermaid had gained many admirers during the expedition, some less discrete than others. Thankfully, her status as a light mage and the crew's loyalty to Conrad had been enough to avoid any problems.

However, many things were easier to move than a young man's heart. The sailor took a deep swing at his bottle, then left it behind and got closer to the center of the bridge. "What about you, milady?" He asked Tui while leaning on the mainmast. "You hail from a noble family, no? So what will you do once we return?"

Everyone heard the question, and they all stopped to hear the mermaid's answer. On her part, she tried to keep her expression unchanged. Only Rall, who had come to know her better than most, knew that she was irritated by the constant attention from the man. Not only that, the question itself was something she could not answer lightly.

Suddenly, Tui's face sunk, her eyes betraying part of the sadness that always hid behind them. "Noble... I never knew what that word meant. My house is in ruin. When I come back, I will do what I can to save my sister and then my name."

The crew understood the sorrow in the girl's voice, the same woman from before moved to the young man and gave him a light jab on the stomach.

"See what you've done! Ya never ask a sophisticated girl about her personal life! Not until the third night at least!"

"Don't mind him," a veteran lizardman told Tui. "That's the effect that dog has on all women!" That last comment drew in a couple of laughs from the crowd.

"And what about you, boy?" The question came from the quartermaster, who Rall had learned to be a curious man with a rare knack for storytelling.

The boy thought about it for a while, then looked back at the dark-skinned man with eyes unbefitting of an eight-year-old. "I want freedom. I need answers that I can only get if I'm powerful enough to be free."

The quartermaster nodded, then looked thoughtfully at the Fog surrounding the ship and at the pale light protecting them. "Power is addictive. Freedom is invigorating. But listen to an older man who's seen thousands of ambitious lads perish in an unending search for power. Having people to love and the peace to love them. Those are much better goals."

Rall and the quartermaster shared a look. It was advice Rall could acknowledge but not follow. There were just too many questions in his mind. Who killed his father, and why? Who was her mother? What was the Golden Hour? Why did his Fairylight turn white, and why did the Church of Light want him? And those were just some of the bigger ones. He would've needed a small journal to write them all down.

"Don't give the kid too much hope," interrupted Conrad. His eyes were hazy from the alcohol, his emotions hard to read. "In this world of ours, you need great power to achieve happiness and even more to have love. As for peace, no one man can have enough power to earn that!"

***

Two days passed in the silence of the misty landscape. Rall and Tui took turns taking quick naps while the other held the dome up. It was standard procedure for long-distance military operations through the wilderness of the Continent, but it was certainly a first for the boy.

Every once in a while, Billy and the other crewmates would keep them company, most of their jobs done by the currents as the Lady Veronica slid towards the Deep North. As for Conrad, he passed his time in silence on the ship's bow. He was waiting, looking ahead for a sign of the Fog opening, for the moment he would meet his love again.

Nobody disturbed his wait, only calling their Captain when meals were ready. Every time he would quietly devour the food, then return to his spot. In a way, it was admirable.

"She must be one hell of a woman. Twenty-five years and he still couldn't move on," murmured a sailor close enough for Rall to overhear.

"Ahhh!" A female lizardfolk sighed in reply. "One day, I hope to find someone who would never stop searching if I were lost..."

Rall thought about the matter for a while. If something was missing in the many books of his father, they were stories of love. He had heard the word, and he had an intuitive understanding of its meaning, but he had never seen it. The only people that came to mind were Thork and Dorothy, though he had only seen them together for a couple of hours. All in all, love was still a mystery.

With that sudden realization, he looked at the Admiral's back with renewed curiosity. Then he suddenly found his eyes wandering to Tui's sleeping face. His face immediately reddened, and he shook his head.

However, his distraction did not last long. His senses tingled, and he felt the pressure on his Lighthouse lighten. Just a second later, Conrad's body started trembling, and an excited voice came from the crow's nest.

"The Fog is opening up!"

Tui woke up from the sound of many feet shuffling towards the front of the ship. "What's- happening?" She asked in the middle of a yawn.

"We have finally arrived," said Rall with a smile on his face. Conrad did not lie. There was another side beyond the Fog!

The two light mages were still seated on their spot, in the middle of the bridge. Until the ship was clear of the Fog, they could not release the spell. The crowd ahead of them blocked the view forward, but they would have to be patient and wait to satisfy their curiosity.

The ship moved faster than before as if it too wanted freedom from the unsettling mist. Slowly, the Fog parted away, colors from beyond started to reach the eyes of the crew. Rall and Tui, still seated, could only see a strange silver hue coming into view. It was like the sky was made of pure metal. It couldn't have been anything else since, from their position, an object would have had to be thousands of meters tall from them to see it.

Soon, the last layers of Fog dispersed around the white light magic. At the same time, the chatter of the crew stopped. Rall and Tui's jaws fell wide open. Something impossible had entered their field of view.

A colossal gate, seemingly made of pure silver, covered the sky ahead of them. It was unimaginably massive, its scale so unbelievable that it was impossible to see all of it without moving one's head. On it ran thousands of miles of incisions, elegantly etched on the frame, telling incredible tales from times now lost. The humongous gate stood erect in the center of a clearing in the Fog. It was like the ship had entered the eye of a hurricane. A small, peaceful oasis smacked in the middle of a terrifying entity.

However, this place did not feel peaceful at all. Whatever laid behind that gate, it felt like the world would crumble the moment it stepped out.

Feeling the pressure removed, Rall and Tui stopped their spell. Without the dome in between, the whole scene felt darker, more ominous. They moved through the stunned crowd, and they soon reached Billy's side near the bow.

Now that they were in front, they could see something else floating in front of the gate. Or maybe 'someone' would be more appropriate. It was a giant humanoid figure made completely out of an opaque dark metal, its height not less than fifty meters. Its face was featureless, no eyes, no mouth, no nose. It had four arms. Two of them crossed over its chest, the other two held onto a colossal greatsword pointed towards the sea. Behind it, nine pairs of angelic wings fluttered gracefully as it hovered a hundred meters in the air.

Rall felt a shiver down his spine when the humanoid lowered its head towards them.

"What is that, Cap? Where's the land?" The usual curious young sailor broke the crowd's stupified silence.

However, Admiral Delaux ignored the question. His hopeful eyes locked on the giant angelic figure, and there was nothing but determination in his expression.