Jace had been sailing south for a little more then two weeks. He didn’t really have any real destination in mind as he traveled. Ultimately, he wanted to make it to Khavar, and search for the old research facility he was summoned into, but there was almost no way to search for it, or to enter it until he could channel again. As a result, he was in no particular hurry to get there. He had spent a lot of time reading between the lines of what Jaenin said, and thought he heard a few hints about Godhood in what he was telling him to do.

In preparation for the journey he studied a lot of maps available in the palace. What bothered him when he was studying the maps was the distances involved. He had a chance to look at maps before when he was back in that dungeon. But he didn’t quite grasp this worlds measurement of distance, and frankly it meant little to him because there were no full continent maps. In studying maps this time around he came across three full continent maps including one which had what he thought was the old magic academy on it. He even was able to figure out the units of measurements, they used something called a “Ra” for longer distances, and after jogging one measured out Ra, he thought a Ra might be pretty close to 2 or 3 miles. He had jogged 3 miles a morning back home (when the weather allowed) so he had a pretty good feeling for the distance, and he was pretty sure this was a bit short of 3 miles. No matter how he looked at it, the “Ra” had to be something like 2.5 miles, yet if you used that as your basis of measurement, then he traveled something like 8,500-10,000 miles in 40 days on a small sailboat. While the J/24 probably could manage that if everything went right and you sailed it actively 24 hours a day, he didn’t believe it was possible with the way they were forced to hide below deck for long stretches of time tethered to a sea anchor. 5,000 miles, easy. 7,000 miles was plausible, but 8500-10000 miles? It just didn’t make sense to him. Which meant the maps were wrong.

After realizing the maps were probably not accurate he remembered his father telling him longitude was the hardest thing to properly measure before the clock and compass were invented. He didn’t think these people navigated by the stars much, or at least he didn’t see anything like a sextant anywhere. Nor did he see anything like a clock or star map. Which meant navigation and likely map making was probably stuck in some stage prior to the Age of Discovery on Earth.

Of course, assuming the maps are wrong only made his sailing journey that much more interesting. He really wanted a watch, a compass and a star map, but this world had none of those things. Nor did this world have binoculars, which meant he was forced to attempt dead reckoning navigation without an accurate map, compass or clock. This meant he was forced to say within sight of land, which of course meant he was in rather serious danger if a real storm snuck up on him, OR he ran into something like a reef. What made his prior journey relatively safe was he could take a reading of the depth under the keel miles in front of his boat, at any time he felt like it. He was never in danger of hitting anything. Since he was taking this trip alone he didn’t have anyone to be a watch out, which meant he had to use the shoal maps made by the traders and pirates of the coast, which of course he now knew were completely inaccurate. At least he had a trusty rock on a knotted rope to help him measure depth.

The first 20 days of his journey south went well. The weather was mild, which was unexpected. He had brought a lot of equipment to help him survive a winter storm, the surface of the sea was still relatively warm, which meant he had to deal with fog every morning, which meant he couldn’t really sail anywhere until it lifted. The fog worried him. It made it almost impossible to tell what type of weather might be heading his way, and of course there was something spooky about being on a boat in a fog bank that could make you believe old ghost stories pretty easily.

What he didn’t expect was the solitude. He knew traveling alone would suck, but sailing alone was another level of isolation he hadn’t considered. In his whole life, he had never been so alone. He had no one to talk to but himself, and found himself daydreaming a lot, singing to himself made up songs, fishing fruitlessly, and in general making himself as busy as he could to keep from dwelling on his loneliness. The seawater, the sound of the sail, and the gentle swells under the boat were exactly like he remembered sailing on earth. Had it not been for the purple and red shoreline he was tracking, or the blood red sky, painting the sea black, he would have found the journey beautiful.

Unfortunately, those things just reminded him he was on an alien world. The concept of loving the world was hard for him to wrap his mind around. He thought what Jaenin might be discussing was that feeling of closeness he felt when he was submerged in the pulse, only deeper. The idea he would actually have to develop an emotional attachment to the world to step into the realm of a grand sorcerer seemed a bit iffy to him. It was too unscientific. And while he was mostly just an athlete back home he wasn’t an idiot. Having been raised in a school system on a planet which had the historical “Enlightenment” in the 1700s meant he learned the scientific method. He couldn’t put wrap his mind the idea an emotion like “love” had anything to do with become a grand sorcerer. Furthermore, he couldn’t see how those gods which were dominating the world, could possibly love it. Their actions were aggressive and abusive to the world and its peoples. How could they have ever loved the world?

Without a way forward with his questions he quickly got bored with the questions. So instead spent a lot of time thinking about the glyph form. He was trying to visualize other uses and potential blends of glyphs. It was a fun and interesting time, especially when he started to visually some glyph constructs that were mutually supportive. For example, the constructed glyph “Ice”, which was made out of the glyphs for water and fire, and death, if you twisted the glyph form you could find the constructed glyph “storm,” which was made out of the glyphs air, fire, water, then of course if you twist the form a little more the constructed glyph “Cyclone” forms within storm, (air, strong), then another twist and you come to the form “overwhelm” (strong, power, break), all these glyphs were physically within and part of each other, each one sharing something that connected to each other. Which made him wonder what would happen if he tried MIXING the glyphs “Ice, storm, cyclone, overwhelm”. He really couldn’t wait to try. It was for brainstorming and visualization sessions like this that he brought along paper and quill with ink to write with. He started collecting as many “supporting” glyph constructs as he could conceive. He could almost feel the world rejecting the notes he wrote when he wrote “time, space, rift, pull, force, crush, light, death”. All those glyphs were tied together, supporting, and he suspected what he’d create if he tried it might not be far from a black hole.

If there was one thing about his journey which he enjoyed it was the simple peace of a boat on the water. The sound of the wind blowing the sails, the noise of water slapping the hull. All of these things brought him back to his life on earth. So, he did spend a lot of his time wrapped in memories of his family and friends and days spent on boats on Lake Erie. It pained his heart to think he might never enjoy that simple peace and joy again. Of course, the peace of the journey south would not last.

He was waiting out a fogbank on the morning of the 21th day when he heard someone shouting for help in the fog. It sounded like a kid, or a woman. Voices can travel a long distance over water, though fog can dampen that a bit. He was pondering whether he should pull up his anchor to sail toward the voice, when he realized he couldn’t really tell which direction the voice was coming from. Somewhere to the port didn’t help. So he shouted.

“THERE IS HELP CLOSE. BUT I CAN’T SEE YOU IN THE FOG. JUST STAY AFLOAT AND WAIT OUT THE FOG. KEEP TALKING TO ME.”

The voice stopped shouting once he started. He thought he could hear water splashing, then a clearer voice shouted out. “SAVE ME!”

He was fairly sure the voice was almost straight to the port amidships. It was also much closer then he thought it was at first. This made him ponder for a moment how someone could get out here without him hearing it. If they were that close were they from a wreck? Were they tossed overboard? He wasn’t sure; having little experience with the sea creatures of this world, he was even wondering if it was some sort of siren of legend who was calling to draw him into a maritime disaster.

He continued to shout to the voice periodically, calling for it to come to him, while the voice, it was clearly female, kept begging for help in between ‘apparently’ breaths of air. He went below deck, for some supplies he did not have on his flight from the island. It was a type of leather bag, which held air fairly well, apparently, the sailors in this world used them as a type of pillow, seat cushion and floatation device. He thought it might be useful to have some sort of floatation device on hand, so he had one prepared for him. He also had some rope.

Tying the rope to the mast, he removed his boots, shirt and pants, and tossed the rope into the water. Still holding the bag, he eyed the black water suspiciously. He could see nothing in the depths, then scrounging up his courage jumped into the water, holding the bag.

The water was actually warmer then the cold early morning air, not that it was all that warm. Sputtering the salty water out of his mouth, he raised his voice again to let the person know he was coming. Then started to swim out in the direction he thought he could hear the calls for help. It didn’t take long before he could no longer see his boat, had it not been for the rope he would have had a lot of trouble making it back to it in the fog.

Following the cries for help he made it a hundred yards into the fog, when the rope went taught, stopping his forward motion. Cursing under his breath, he looked hard in the fog for the girl crying for help. He could clearly hear her. However, he couldn’t see her at all.

“Hey! Can you come to me?” He shouted again.

“Help me, please. I, can hear you but I can’t see you, where are you?” Was the reply.

“Follow my voice. I can’t get any closer until the fog lifts”

“I’m holding onto a barrel, I can’t swim to you. If I let go of it I’ll drown!” The reply made him frown.

“Then hang on and wait for the fog to lift. Worse case you’ll drift a Ra or two from here. I’ll find you pretty quick in my boat. Since you’re not drowning right now, no reason to panic. Just hang on, I know you’re there.”

“Alright” The voice replied in a worried tone.

Jace quickly made his way back to the boat, and using the rope pulled himself back on deck. He dried himself off and dressed himself. All the while shouting out from time to time to let her know he was still there. He thought she sounded closer every time she replied.

The fog lifted as the sun raised higher over the horizon. He kept a good watch toward the port side of the boat. Eventually he could make out what looked like a floating pile of flotsam and what was perhaps a young woman in a sodden dress clinging to part of it, just a few hundred yards off the port side of the boat. Seeing how far she was, he was thankful he didn’t risk letting go of the float and rope. Had he done so he’d never had found the boat again in the fog.

When the fog lightened enough he could tell there was no obvious nautical hazard near him, he pulled up the anchors, and raised the main. There wasn’t much wind, but there was enough to make way a bit.

Slowly the boat drew near the flotsam; the next part was simple. He used the same float, and rope, and tossed it to her, after getting within 10 yards of the mess, turning into the small breeze to keep the boat from moving too much. She grabbed onto the rope, and he pulled her in. She was so light he was sure she was a young child, he pulled her into the boat without any real effort.

She collapsed onto one of the benches, and he had a chance to get a good look at her. His breath caught. For one she was lovely. Even half drowned she was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. A human woman, large blue grey eyes, great figure with a good sized bust, and long dark/blonde hair. The hair color he couldn’t be certain since it was wet what color it was but it certainly wasn’t one of the normal human colors of grey, white or platinum blonde everyone else seemed to have. She was so attractive his mind actually stopped a moment, but that was just for a moment.

Jace spoke calmly. “Alright. Want to tell me what you are?” He knew there was no way this creature was a human. First of all, her looks were stunning on the level of a mesmerizing spell. Secondly, hours or perhaps days adrift didn’t hurt those unearthly looks. Third, this whole event was so strange he had difficulty believing it. Finally, she was far too light to be a full-grown woman.

“I’m Jennie.” Came the cute reply. Yes, she was cute while saying it.

“I want to know ‘what’ you are, not who. Speak up or back into the water you go.” Rather than approach her he actually retreated back away from her to get out of arms reach, making his way closer to where he had his sword stowed.

“But I’m human. Please hero, you saved my life. Won’t you plant a child in my belly?” Came the cute reply, yes, Jace had to admit, despite the strange words coming from her mouth, Jace thought she was cute saying it.

Without taking his eyes off her, he reached behind him into the portal leading below deck, and seized the hilt of his sword, then drew it in a swift motion. “Alright. Listen. I don’t want to get blood on my boat. I have to credit your guts sneaking onto a ship carrying the name of the King of the Sea, Alayah’s name. You’re clearly intelligent enough to understand the meaning of that name. I have met him. He liked this ship. Go prey on another vessel.”

She sighed sadly. “But I thought I was pretending to be an ideal woman for you humans.” Came a plaintive whine. “Don’t throw me out.”

“Start with what you are, and tell me the truth.”

“I’m one of Alayah’s daughters. Jeanah. Now worship me human!” The creature transformed into a small dragon about 5 feet long, it had the same pretty sapphire blue scales, yellow eyes and similar appearance as he recalled from Alayah, with a thick mane of blue hair and ivory color horns, she looked like a miniature Chinese New Year’s paper dragon, complete with 4 small legs tipped with pearly claws.

Jace sighed, the tension of the moment completely gone. So, he sheathed the blade, then sat down across from the pretty serpent. He desperately wished he had found a human eating Siren from Greek legend, he suspected one of those would have been less trouble then what this little dragon would end up being.

Kay’rin was studying the statue of Jace in the middle of what the locals were calling “Sorcerer’s Square.” She was cloaked in a long dark cloak with a hood pulled up to hide what was left of her hair, and was wearing a very conspicuous mask. She had started to wear the mask when she caught a strange illness several weeks ago which caused her to bleed black poisonous blood and eventually caused her skin to flake off in strips leaving open oozing wounds. Her body was failing around her, she would have panicked had Meli not told her it was a temporary sickness that came with becoming a sorcerer. Meli had taught her some herbs to use to dull the pain and suppress the sickness, which made it possible for her to continue the journey.

Now that she arrived in Lotsorn she was depressed to learn that Jace had left weeks ago.

“Meli, I want to rest for a bit. I don’t feel good. Can’t I just get a room at an inn?”

“No you foolish girl. The illness is temporary, it will cause no real harm. Ignore it. Find a way into the keep and the palace within, we must see the circle this Jace used to harm the moon.”

“Meli…” She whined, knowing it would do no good but really feeling ready to collapse and die.

“I told you child, you are to kill Jace and learn what he did. If you have to kill every person in this city to learn how he did it, you will do it. Perhaps you can use the death of this place to draw him back from wherever he went.”

Sighing sadly, Kay’rin turned her tired and sore feet toward the keep.

Jace was studying the horizon, with a frown. A dark line of storm clouds seemed to be rolling in. The journey had been relatively safe until the past week, when one storm after another rolled in. It had ground his forward progress to a halt. Now it appeared he’d have to button up again to ride out another storm with nothing but a foolish little dragon for company.

It had been several weeks since he picked up the little pain in the ass dragon. He now knew the Kindred’s flare for overbearing theatrics was probably genetic, as the little creature was prone to make grand proclamations and demands at a whim. Of course a 5 foot long serpentine creature declaring the boat hers was a lot less intimidating then a kindred with a sword, so he usually dealt with her stupidity with a quick thwack with his hand on her head. The smack usually ended up causing the silly beast to curl up and cry wet tears for her father, which actually terrified Jace the first time she did it.

The threat however lost its meaning when Alayah never showed up. He did feel a bit like a bully sometimes, the dragon was fairly stupid so he tried not to bully it too much, but it never seemed to learn unless he smacked it on the head.

Keeping it from unpacking and ruining half the supplies on the ship seemed to take up more and more of his time, as the little beast was full of endless curiosity. It was much like a little child, only physically far more capable of carrying out mischief. He got the impression from the creature that nothing had ever told it “No” before from how it would act when it heard the word. It ignored the word completely.

Dropping the sea anchor and securing the sails he headed below deck. The little dragon had spent every single storm curled up and sleeping in the hold of the boat, this time she was watching the storm with interest above deck. Jace paused on the short ladder below deck looking at the small creature.

“I’m going to button up the hatch shortly if you want to come below?”

“Why?”

“Because these storms can sweep a person off the deck of a boat and drown them.”

“So, you don’t like the storms?” Came the obscenely innocent reply. The small blue head cocked slightly to the side as if curious. He would have considered it cute if this was the first time he had this conversation with it.

“They slow my trip down and endanger my boat, so no, I don’t.” He had explained this to the small Dragon every single time a storm came. The repetitive conversations were a drag as this small creature rarely bothered to listen to his actual answers.

“Ok.” The dragon simply nodded then said “Then the storm won’t come here.” The innocent tone made Jace dismiss the nonsense for a moment but it was curiosity that made him take a step up and take a glance back toward the bow of the vessel his eyes widening.

“What?” There wasn’t a cloud in the sky no matter where he looked. His eyes darted back to the little creature disbelief painted on his face. The Dragon looked quite pleased with itself.

“Praise me human!” It bellowed out in a small childish voice.

Jace sighed and approached the small dragon and pet it once. “Good job. How long have you been able to do that?”

“I always could.” Came the small reply.

Jace couldn’t help himself, as he rapped the small beast on the head with his knuckles, and while it was crying out in surprise in a cute voice, seized it behind the neck and tossed it overboard.