Even though they were only on the sea for a few days, it felt interminable. Kaldalis was glad that so much had happened since his first trip from Baimer, because he suspected a fresher memory would sour this trip all the more.

By the time the last day of the trip finally came, he was excited for the change of pace to come.

And he wasn’t alone.

Reno and Ess shared in his excitement. Like him, they still had the opening quest of the tutorial, and were eager to get to the castle to turn their Adventurer’s Chit in to the steward to see what came next. Reno hoped the tutorial quest would reward a decent pile of crescents or guild credits. Ess hoped to get some more valuable information about game systems that they might have missed.

And Kaldalis was hoping for a distraction from the real reason they were here.

He’d gone out of his way to avoid Onirioago and Demriv, and they seemed content to let him do so. It worried him that neither of them were inconveniencing him at every turn, but he was glad to be able to spend his time fishing and joking around instead of being neck deep in drama. He was surprised that he’d gotten Pale Perch out here off of deep sea fishing, but he did, though they were much rarer than they’d been anywhere else he’d gotten them. Between him and his friends over the first three days of the trip, he’d more than doubled his total Pale Perch count, getting him over the two thousand mark.

Having nothing else productive to do the whole trip, and the assistance of four other people went a long way.

It was difficult to get everyone on board with fishing today, though. Reno and Ess wanted to be at the prow, waiting to see when the mainland appeared on the horizon. Balrim and Myrin had emotionally checked out of the fishing once they’d caught up their fishing skill to Kaldalis’ on the second day. While Kaldalis was willing to be the only one down there, he didn’t want to burn himself out. Pale Perch catch rates out here seemed highest around noon.

“Do you think that’s it?” Ess asked, pointing to the horizon.

Kaldalis squinted, but didn’t see anything. Just the line of blue sea meeting blue sky.

“Right there,” she pressed, “I’m pointing right at it.”

“Maybe?” Reno said, leaning far over the ship’s railing at the prow. “It might be a cloud coming over the horizon.

“Come here,” she said, grabbing Kaldalis and pulling him close so that he could see where she was pointing from her own perspective. “It’s right there. Right?”

Kaldalis put his face next to hers, trying desperately to look down her arm to follow her finger. There was a little shadow? Maybe? It was hard to tell.

“I see something,” Kaldalis said at last. “But it’s not enough to be sure. Maybe it’s just because I want to believe you instead of actually seeing something.”

“Maybe Finnian eyes work differently,” Myrin offered. She and Balrim were leaning over the side of the railing on the left side of the ship. “Maybe this world had its own fall of Numenor and only non-elvish races are limited by the curvature of the planet.”

“What?” Kaldalis asked. “That doesn’t make any sense. How would that be possible?”

“It’s magic,” Myrin said with a shrug. “I ain’t gotta explain shit.”

Balrim snorted, though the moment of mirth didn’t break through his dour expression.

“What’s the matter, scale-butt?” Kaldalis said, sidling up to the Talsar, giving him a gentle elbow in the side. “Something got you down?”

“I should ask you the opposite,” Balrim grumbled. “Why doesn’t anything have you down?”

Kaldalis grimaced, starting to understand, but Balrim continued before he could protest.

“The people of Cotanaku were under attack by cannibal snake monsters,” Balrim said, his frustration coming through his voice all the clearer with every word. “And in the wake of dealing with that, the former expedition leader - a megalomaniacal seductress who was going to enslave everyone in town with magic fish juice - turned the tables on all of us, got loose, and took us prisoner. Then, in the chaos of that, we kill her, and she gets the fuck back up!”

Kaldalis tried to get a word in edgewise, but Balrim was on a roll, and powered right on.

“Not only does she get back up, but we find out that one of the local leaders for the nation we’re on the brink of war with is her fucking sister,” Balrim continued. “Because it wasn’t enough that we stole a town from them by accident, we had to piss them off all over again. And now we’re stuck on a boat with a Xanatos-level threat in a cell, taking her to trial and pretending like she’s not going to break out and kill us all.”

Kaldalis again wanted to speak, but he held his tongue. Balrim obviously needed to vent, so he let him.

“And your ass is in the middle of all of this, and instead of worrying, you’re super hype for a tutorial that’s just going to tell you what you already know.” Balrim took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, visibly trying to calm himself. “I’m just stunned that you’re so damned calm about all of this. Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“I get it,” Kaldalis said, once he was sure Balrim was done with his rant. “This is a whole lot of heavy stuff going on all at once. But that’s just it. It’s all happening at once, all the time, super fast. You can’t possibly understand how much Onirioago coming back to life has terrified me. But somehow my brain is in the perfect state to protect me from a constant state of high-octane terror by just putting up a screen so I can pretend this is all going to work out just fine.”

“You know that’s not a healthy coping mechanism, right?” Balrim asked, crossing his arms.

“Obviously,” Kaldalis agreed. “But I sure as hell need to cope. If I’m looking ahead at what’s coming, I’m not looking back on what’s happened.”

“But you’re not even doing that,” Myrin pointed out. “Sorry, but you’ve just found something innocuous to fixate on and have put everything else out of your mind. If you were at least planning for the trial, that’d be one thing, but…” She trailed off, gesturing out at the horizon.

“So, uh,” Reno said, pointing out ahead of the ship. “There is definitely something there, if that helps.”

Kaldalis spared a glance for the sea, and saw that the vague shadow Ess had pointed out was starting to become a dark bump on the horizon.

“It kind of doesn’t,” Kaldalis admitted with a sigh. “I know I should be more responsible about this. But what can I do? Prepare my case? Prepare to cross-examine witnesses? I’m not the lawyer or whatever they have in this world. All I have to do is remember an event that I couldn’t get out of my brain with a band saw and a belt sander. It’s on the prosecutor to use that to put her away, not me.”

“That seems like a lot of faith you’re putting on a stranger you’ve never met,” Ess observed. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. Especially since you’re constantly worried about her swearing revenge on you, specifically, if she gets loose again.”

“Thanks, Ess,” Kaldalis said, leaning on the ship railing and squinting at the faint bump on the horizon. “That makes me feel much better.”

“Sorry,” she said, the silvery skin of her cheeks flushing slightly purplish. “I just mean that it is probably a good idea to take some time to think about what’s coming. Sometimes in court, if you take the stand your mind just goes completely blank. Like stage fright. Write down what happened and you’ll remember the details better then.” She shrugged. “At least, that’s what they told me.”

“When were you in court?” Reno asked.

Ess grimaced, and her hand flinched.

Kaldalis knew that in her real body back on Earth, that hand had a twisted scar from the injury that had ended her e-sports career. Kaldalis never got the whole story, but the pieces he was learning about it painted an unpleasant picture.

Considering his recent experiences with assault, he decided not to pry.

“Anyway, we’re obviously making our final approach,” Kaldalis said, looking down at the water sliding by the ship’s hull. It was moving way faster than the mild wind would indicate, but Kaldalis knew that was due to the gamified system that sped up their trip dramatically since both endpoints were to establish settlements. “It won’t be long before we’re finally out of these cramped quarters.”

“So what’s the plan for the day?” Ess asked, giving him a grateful smile for changing the subject.

“Same thing we do every day, Ess,” Kaldalis said, gesturing towards the back of the boat. “Fish.”

Balrim and Myrin groaned, and even Reno and Ess rolled their eyes.

“You go on ahead and get set up,” Reno said, “I think I want to stay until I can catch sight of Baimer. You were all there once before. Some of us spawned on a boat.”

“Yeah,” Myrin said, bouncing up to pull herself to a seated position on the railing. “I want to pick out a landmark from here and see if Monsoon will let me physically go there.”

“You’re just going to pick the tallest thing you can see and try to get on top of it,” Balrim pointed out.

“Adventurers are just slightly more complicated cats,” Myrin said with a sage nod. “We are full of murderous intent, and we like to be tall. And yes, I fully understand the irony in me saying that.”

Kaldalis laughed at that, even though it seemed he was going to be fishing on his own no matter what today. He excused himself as the four others leaned farther and farther over the railing to try and pick out any details from the slightly darker smudge on the horizon that was probably the mainland.

Escaping the conversation was but one of the many benefits of moving towards the fishing deck. Kaldalis had been shirking his self-appointed duties as Onirioago’s nemesis, and it had been a little too sobering to get called out on it. He’d allowed his vigil over her to slip since there wasn’t exactly anywhere for her to go while they were at sea. As soon as they landed in Baimer, things were going to be happening very quickly. If Onirioago got loose in the city, he feared that would be the end of his time sleeping with both eyes closed for the rest of his time in this game world. He needed to take some time now to check in with Gavinkim and Garyung, and possibly try to appeal to Demriv’s sense of morality.

There was still time to-

“Kal,” a voice came from the door to below decks. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”

The speaker emerged before Kaldalis’s eyes adjusted to the shadow. It was Garyung, the large Bhogad who had become something of an ally to Kaldalis. Their friendship was complicated by innumerable circumstances, but for right now, he was Kaldalis’s strongest asset when it came to pulling tricks out of his ass.

“Of course,” Kaldalis said, knowing he’d need the man’s support in return sooner rather than later. “What’s up?