4E 220, 27th Sun’s Height.

We've left Skyrim's shores behind us, and The Seeker has now entered Morrowind’s waters.

The ship is still too far to see the clouds full of ashes that spread from what remains of the Red Mountain, but I can already feel the difference from my homeland's cold air.

Besides the terrible discovery we made, the navigation has been smooth and without problems.

Edyval's crew is surprisingly efficient, even if they’re nervous about the destination. Or the lack of one, at least.

Still, they’re going to do their job without asking questions, at least according to our crude Breton captain.

Seeing how much they’re paid, some people would even say that they’ve no right to ask questions.

For the time being, using my clairvoyance spell would just be a waste of magicka. I won’t even bother until the coast of Tamriel is far behind us to—

"Maaaaster!” an annoying voice wailed, daring to interrupt Conrad as he wrote in the journal bought specifically for the journey to Akavir.

“What is it, Beta?” Conrad asked, frowning. But his eyes didn’t leave the nib as he kept writing.

“Please, can we stop now?" the girl pleaded with the same tone of a mortal asking forgiveness and mercy from a god.

"The deck is not going to clean itself, Beta. Keep working," he said, destroying any hope the young Nord girl might have held.

Conrad was not inclined to let his so called students get off scot free after that stunt they’d pulled.

"Why do we have to?" Sven asked, as he squeezed a rag. The boy looked really skinny without his robes.

"You're the cabin-boys, Sven," Conrad deadpanned, searching for his ink bottle.

"Beta is a girl," Ta’Sava said as he scrubbed the deck. Strangely enough, the furred teen was the one that was complaining the least.

"Beta shouldn't have followed you in your idiotic plan," he growled.

“Actually, master…” the girl fidgeted with her fingers as she bit her lip, “...it was my plan. All of it.”

To his credit, Conrad didn’t snap immediately. Instead, he stopped writing, took a few long breaths and waited until the ink had dried completely.

Then, he snapped his journal shut, and slowly spun around on the crate he was sitting so that he could face his students.

Sven was avoiding his gaze, Ta’Sava was incredibly interested with the wooden surface of the deck and Beta was completely terrified yet still managing to meet his eyes.

Normally, during the lessons in the College, he would have taken pity on the poor girl.

But he was not in the College anymore. And neither were they.

“Why?” he asked in the harshest tone he could muster.

"We wanted to follow you," Beta squeaked, readying herself for a well-deserved scolding.

A long silence followed the statement, and Beta winced as Conrad raised an eyebrow, completely unamused.

"You managed to track me down, follow me unseen, sneak aboard the ship after enlisting Haming's help… because you wanted to follow me?"

“Well, we didn’t exactly track you down,” Beta started to speak, glancing at him nervously. “You left with your friend passing by the coast, we would’ve never made it. But Sven understood where you were going.”

“Did he, now?” Conrad deadpanned.

“Yeah, so, uh, we got a carriage and went to wait for you to Windhelm and—”

“Wait, just like that?” he asked in confusion. “Why didn’t your teachers—Sven, stop using magic at once!”

The young Imperial huffed in annoyance, and let the mops fall down, releasing his telekinesis spell.

“Don’t huff. Do you want me to repeat what happened that time people came from town to harass us? Do you?” Conrad hissed towards the boy.

The three froze and became paler. Or in the case of Ta’Sava, had his grey fur stood on end. Even if how their master had managed that particular incident was still the stuff of legend among the College’s student board, it had been a little disturbing seeing it in person.

“Good, you got it,” the Nord man growled, eyes slitted, before turning towards the speechless and slightly embarrassed Beta. “How come nobody stopped you?”

“Well, master, uh...it’s not like we’re forced to stay in the College. Every member can come and go as they please, as long as the rules are respected,” Beta said, gaining confidence with every word she spoke.

“I know that! But that should apply to grown-ups, not magelings like you!” he retorted. “That aside, you should’ve continued your studies—”

“It’s not like we left the College, we’ll go back!” Ta’Sava interrupted—how dare he?!—while passing a soap-covered brush over the planks. “We just wanted to help master Conrad.”

“Ta’Sava, go back to scrubbing the deck. And I don’t need your help!” Conrad grumbled. “Now, Beta. Tell me how you managed to persuade Haming to sneak you aboard the ship.”

“We met him in the marketplace...we were looking for you, see. And—”

“Beta. Why. Did. Haming. Help. You,” Conrad slowly growled.

The girl immediately took a step back and replied to the guttural question in a rushed and squeaky tone, eyes averted. “He says it had something to do with curves…?”

Conrad recoiled, like he had been slapped.

“Milk-drinking, arrow-loving youngster,” he whispered, gritting his teeth. “Leaving him to take care of things? Oblivion, once I’m back I will skewer his—”

“Uh, master?” the girl asked in confusion. “What did he mean by ‘curves’?”

“Nevermind that!” he barked, quickly hushing the clueless girl. “Keep doing your work. You're lucky I persuaded the captain to not throw you overboard."

"But why would he do that?" Sven asked, fighting a hopeless battle against a very old blot.

"You're stowaways, Sven. I would've gladly helped, you know."

"To let us onboard?" the girl asked, brightening in a noticeable manner.

"To throw you off the ship."

Beta's eyes widened dramatically.

"But Master, aren't there sharks?!"

"Sure there are. We’re in open waters, Beta. But at the very last moment I realized that I will need someone to carry my stuff while walking on a unknown, dangerous unexplored continent."

"... Master Conrad is evil," Ta'Sva lamented.

"And one more thing… you will continue your studies. Under my watch."

"Not really different from before, then," Sven observed, unimpressed.

"But this time… Mirabelle won’t be around to stop me."

Their faces were quite enjoyable to witness.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

The masked man pulled a pair of small bells tied to a red string out from his pocket, showing them to the trio of brats in front of him.

"To pass, you have to take these from me before noon."

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 1st Last Seed.

Those three are getting used to the life on the ship, even if they complain about their cramping muscles.

Pussies.

Even if I can understand that they're not used to manual labor, it's no reason to be whiny about it.

Anyway, I have to start thinking about how to teach them. It's not like I can throw fireballs on the deck—

"Hey, what's that?" the young Khajiit asked, indicating something out of Conrad’s field of view.

Judging by the grey-brownish clouds that the Dragonborn could see, he already knew what it was. Since it was nothing dangerous to the ship, at least for now, he kept writing on his journal.

"It's snow. It always snow in the north," Sven dismissed his friend worries, and kept gutting his fish with the usual unexpected enthusiasm. Even if he had started to enjoy the art of cuisine, he was still annoyed by the idea of having to process the raw ingredients.

"Oh come on, that is not true Sven,” Ta’Sava rebutted. “And it is not—"

"So what? Even if we're not in the land of barbarians and cold, it's still snow—"

“It is not cold enough for snow,” Ta’Sava insisted as he opened another small fish’s belly. “Come on, Beta, tell him that.”

Before the girl could comment about it, the three were distracted by the sound of boots on the wooden deck and turned to stare at the newcomer.

"That's not snow, ya bilge rats," Edyval, the captain of The Seeker said grimly, as he walked closer to the scoffer.

"What? But, captain—"

"That's ash," Conrad said as he closed his journal. It was clear that he wasn’t going to get anything written for now, anyway.

“Oh? Ya’ve sailed under ash before?” the Breton asked, stroking his chin covered by two-days stubble.

“A few times, either to Solstheim or Morrowind’s coasts,” Conrad said, recalling his former experience with the region.

“Good, then ya can tell to your lads and the lass about what to do if we get an ash storm,” Edyval said, while gesturing the young mages present. “Get to it, Dragonborn. I’ve to tell my crew to prepare some buckets.”

Conrad nodded, and put away his journal for the time being as the captain moved towards the other end of the ship. He was well aware of his students’ stares so he decided to avoid the barrage of questions with a simple solution.

Talking for first.

“Yes, brats, it’s ash. Don’t make those faces. Now, we’re pretty far from any volcanoes for now, so we should not find any ash storms but—”

“Um, what is an ash storm, master Conrad?” Ta’Sava asked, blinking his eyes.

Conrad huffed. Of course they would ask questions anyway.

“To make a long story short, it’s a big cloud of ash that the winds have pushed away from the Red Mountain, or one of the other active volcanoes in the province. They can travel pretty fast actually, since ash is very light.”

“That doesn’t sounds dangerous, master. Why is it a big deal?” Sven asked in confusion.

“Because you could die from asphyxiation inside one, that’s why,” Conrad deadpanned.

“Die?” Beta whispered, barely moving her lips.

“Well, yes. You breathe the ash as it falls down from the sky and lingers around. It clogs your lungs. You die,” he explained. “That’s why so many Dunmer have fled to Skyrim in the past two centuries.”

Seeing their confusion, Conrad inwardly made a note for himself to tell the magelings about the downfall of Vvanderfell at a later date.

“Now, if we can’t outrun it, it means we’re probably in the middle of it. If that happens, I want you three to get a thick cloth and use it to cover your mouth and your nose. Got it?”

He waited long enough, so that the brats would have time to process his simple instruction. Since two or three of them had nodded, he decided to continue.

“And if it starts to pour down really thick, go under the deck and remain there until it’s passed if you know what’s good for you.”

“Master? What’s the water for?” Sven asked, indicating the crew that was busy with the buckets, throwing water taken from the sea onto the whole deck.

“Sometimes, if the volcano is erupting, the ash is still burning. If you’re not careful enough, the ship could catch fire. Soaking it makes it harder to burn, and it’s better not to waste water we can drink.”

“Couldn’t we help in case the ship catches fire?” Beta asked. “You know, uh, with ice magic?”

“That would be helpful,” Conrad considered, scratching his beard. “A simple spell like Frostbite should be sufficient. Just don’t overdo if that happens, we don’t want to freeze the deck.”

“Master, how come you can’t use some magic to send the ash away?” Sven inquired.

“I can shield the ship from most of it, but we're on a moving ship. Any barrier would not be very stable and I would start to breathe ash sooner or later. And I like to breathe,” he explained, crossing his arms. “As for the Thu'um, well...it's not like stopping an actual storm."

“You can stop a storm? You’re joking right, master?”

Conrad just gave his students a smug grin.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

"Oh, come on! Another D-rank, sensei?"

"Hn."

"Ah-ha. Cute little genin are not supposed to whine about their missions. Now, go on and get that trash."

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 9th Last Seed.

I had to force myself to take a hard decision today.

In better circumstances I would have not done such a thing, but I have no choice.

From now on, I will ration the remaining mead.

Since we’re sailing on the north of what remains of Vvanderfell, I doubt I will found a commercial dock with lots of the only thing that makes life bearable on sale.

I hope Akavir has mead, they better have it!

On an unrelated note, the magelings saw the Red Mountain on the horizon today, since the weather was somewhat clearer than usual.

They were like little children, mesmerized by the alien and somehow beautiful landscape. How can anyone find a wasteland of ash beautiful, I’ll never know.

Maybe, as long as we can still see the crimson volcano, I should lecture my students about the less discussed events that led to the Red Year.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

“So, how was your mission Naruto?” the young woman asked as she placed the bowl of miso ramen in front of her favourite customer.

“It was awful! We had to buy groceries. What kind of shinobi goes to buy groceries?!”

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 12th Last Seed.

Tried to teach the magelings some Alchemy for a few days by now.

Alas, they are just beginners in this field. Even with a few simple experiments, they've put a noticeable dent in the alchemy supplies available onboard.

For this reason, they're forbidden to use the rarer ingredients. But I was able to find a suitable adjustment to that problem—

“Master?” Sven asked, pale as snow. “May I not drink the potion this time?”

“You botched it, Sven. Think of it as a learning experience: you’ll do your best next time, in order to avoid drinking an awful potion.”

“What if it’s poisonous?” the Imperial asked, looking with dread at the reddish-brown mixture inside the bottle in his hand. Which was actually a former mead bottle repurposed for another task.

“It’s not, trust me. Just unpleasant.”

“But—”

“Sven. Drink it,” Conrad ordered with a tone that didn’t brook a reply.

The youngster searched for the support of his fellow students, but they avoided his gaze with little or no shame, since they had been forced to do the same with their last failed potion.

If Sven was not good as them, or just unlucky with the equipment Conrad had brought on The Seeker, it was not their fault.

Sven finally resigned to his fate and after mumbling something that sounded like “traitors”, he drank the foul liquid.

“It wasn’t that bad, right?” Conrad asked, as the teen made a disgusted face.

“I need to puke...again,” Sven said.

Conrad rolled his eyes, and passed him the bucket.

What a fuss for a few fish guts mixed with salt. But at least it would teach the brats to not waste ingredients.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

"This is ridiculous," the pink-haired girl lamented, as she ran a paint filled brush across the surface of the fence.

"Hn."

"Heh. Don't worry guys, I've got this," the blond kid said, forming a cross symbol with his fingers. "We’ll finish this in no time.”

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 20th Last Seed.

Great news. We’re rounding Morrowind’s eastern promontory three days earlier than expected.

Once this is done, it will be open ocean, and the harder part of the journey will begin.

My mind lingers, and it's haunted by doubts.

Am I doing the right thing? I honestly don't know.

Minato's ghost gave me a task from beyond the grave, but I wonder if I'm doing this because of some sense of honor towards a sibling I never knew, or was it because I just want to go away for a while and forget all the problems that haunt me daily in my homeland?

Even if that was the case… so what if I am?

Maybe that's what I need after all these years.

A grand, ludicrous adventure, for old time’s sake.

Even if it is for something as stupid as a long lost twin.

Tamriel will survive without me for a few months. There's no danger of Alduin anymore. And the dragons were...finally, reined in.

I just hope to be able to find ‘Cornoah’ quickly, whatever—or who—it is.

“Master!” Beta called excitingly, distracting Conrad from his writing session. “Look, look!”

He turned his head, following her student’s extended arm and what he saw pleased him.

The Seeker had passed the promontory and in front of the ship was the ocean, with its deep, cold colours. Nothing else was visible on the horizon.

Leaving his journal on the crate he had been sitting on, he started to search for the captain, giving a pat on Beta’s shoulder as she and her fellow students watched the immense mass of water in front of them.

After all, this was not the unforgiving and frozen Sea of Ghosts. No surprise they were lost in their wonder.

But as Conrad walked among the crew, he could feel the nervousness in the air.

There was a reason ships remained close to the coastline. If shit went down, the sailors could try to reach the closest shore, either swimming or in a launch.

In open, uncharted waters, it was a different story.

“WHAT’RE YA LOOKING AT, SCUM?” Edyval’s voice exploded from the prow. Oh, there he was. “Never saw a little water before?! At yar posts! Prepare ta steer starboard!”

"Good to see you're keeping them busy," Conrad chuckled as he reached the Breton on the ship's bow, ignoring the people scurrying back and forth the ship’s deck.

"It's better that way. If they work, tha lads will think less," Edyval said, turning towards the sea with a frown, but the Nord saw a mix of concern and nervousness in his eyes.

"Having second thoughts, old contrebandier?"

"Nonsense!” Edyval scoffed. “I'll do tha job, we have a deal. But it will be a difficult crossing, for who knows how long."

Conrad half-smiled, noticing that he had not denied anything about his profession.

"Well, nobody's dead yet. So we're going good so far," he commented grimly.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

“They’re just a bunch of brats, especially the short one with a stupid face,” the burly man grunted, before taking a sip from a sake bottle. “Are they really shinobi?”

“Who’s the short one with a stupid face?” the blond kid laughed, before freezing and widening his eyes. “Wait a second…”

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 24th Last Seed.

I made a great discovery today.

Being on a ship, in the middle of the ocean with nothing visible for miles, is incredibly boring.

The crew noticed this too, even with Edyval’s best efforts to distract them. The man can be a real slave driver when it comes to distract people with the necessary works that keeps this mass of wood afloat.

So far, the routine we started is working.

A little before dawn, all the crew wakes up, besides the guys that did the night shift, who can now rest a few hours. A small meal is consumed, consisting of the perishable food items. Once we run out, the only things left will be rock-hard biscuits, salted meat and fish.

The crew’s surgeon checks up on us as we eat. The guy is not really a surgeon, he’s more like a barber that acts as a surgeon. Beta helps him with the small wounds caused by the menial work, though. Magic doesn’t waste bandages and alcohol.

After this is done, the deck is scrubbed, the sail is adjusted, ropes are mended… we check our supplies too, to be sure they’re still good. And every now and then, the sailors fish.

As for me, every six hours I use my clairvoyance spell to adjust our route, and I try to teach something useful to the magelings when they’re not toiling around the ship. I’m also reading—again—all the notes about Akavir I could copy or borrow from the College’s Arcanaeum.

In the evening, all of us eat dinner on the deck. Personally I find the meal rather dull, without mead to entertain my tastebuds. I’m saving the sweet nectar for the special occasions.

The crew tries to find some entertainment, singing songs or playing games of chance.

Bastards won 100 septims from me.

Edyval has also started asking me to do the whole ‘Dragonborn thing’, to boost the crew’s morale.

I’m still not sure what he means by the ‘Dragonborn thing’ but apparently I’m doing it right.

Although we did get a temporary entertainment when they tried to bet against me when we were attacked by a giant tentacled sea monster. I thought it was sentient but unfortunately for me, its only thought of us as it's snacks.

It was quite a struggle for me due to being unused to fighting underwater and those three bastard were just cheerfully watching the fight on top the ship while I am trying to save their lives.

I made a mental note to increase the difficulty of their lessons later as I dragged its large corpse with my claws and maw, surprising them when I went back to the surface. Thankfully, the ship's cook later discovered that it's meat was edible, increasing our food supply.

Maybe I should hunt sea monsters to ease my boredom tomorrow.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

“Everyone, get down!” the shinobi yelled.

A spinning blade bigger than a man swung over the heads of Team 7 and their client before embedding itself straight into the trunk of a tree.

In the blink of an eye, a man stood on its hilt.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 31th Last Seed.

The last week’s evenings were a nightmare.

The magelings are now used to the life on the ship, and have learned to use their sparse free time in lots of troublesome ways.

For example, they decided to provide us with something they called ‘evening entertainment’, which means that they tried to play some instruments they found onboard.

I am sure it was Sven’s idea, since he was actually a pretty good player.

The problem was that the other two, well... they couldn’t play a good note to save their lives.

Edyval told me something about a bard leaving the instruments when he left the ship without paying the fee, but I was too focused on trying to tear my ears off.

So I robbed them of their free time for the whole week and forced them to practice. They seemed surprised that I knew how to play, especially Sven.

How come all those bards sing about me, but always forget to tell people about how I used to be one of them?

True, I was and still am a passable bard at best, but still…

Since I can’t do miracles in just a week, the two musically inept magelings improved just enough to not sound like a trio of horkers farting inside a flute, or battering a lute.

This evening they somehow managed to force me into singing something, the little brats.

Apparently Beta is from Solstheim because she recognized the verses and started to educate her fellow magelings about the story of King Olaf and how the Bards College worked hard to find the missing verse of the song.

Oh, if only she knew…

But I didn’t know about her being from Solstheim.

How much do I really know about my students?

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

"Kid, let me borrow your kunai," the wounded, broken man said, looking to his apprentice's body.

The blond boy hesitated for a second, before throwing one of his weapons in the man's direction.

The shinobi's sharp teeth caught the weapon by the hilt mid-air.

Without pause, he immediately charged the mob of thugs on the other end of the bridge.

The little man in front of the group panicked, deciding to retreat behind the ranks of his mercenaries.

"Kill them!" the businessman screamed in fear, not realizing that it would not help.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 4th? 5th? Hearthfire. Who cares, I’m tired.

And I can’t go back to sleep now, so I guess I’ll just write what happened.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by one of the crewmen on guard and the first thing I thought in my dazed condition was that they had seen land on the horizon.

Which proved to be a false hope since I could hear some half-whispered prayers and even a pair of superstitious exorcisms thrown around by the sailors that were still awake.

So, how to write this… a moon has disappeared from the sky.

Yesterday night both were present, but today there are no traces of Masser, the bigger moon.

I checked, sure that I was seeing things just because of the sudden awakening. But there were no clouds that could hide it from view.

It was simply gone and only Secunda was soaring the firmament above us.

Which immediately caused the natural reaction among the crew of: call the wizard.

I tried to calm them down, but apparently not even the ‘Dragonborn Thing’ was good enough for such a case. I can see the reason right now above me, as I write.

Still, between me and Edyval’s motivational speech—which may have consisted mostly of taunts, insults and comments about the crewmens’ conception—they realized that they’re not in any immediate danger.

Especially because Edyval promised them that if any problems should arise, I would fix it.

Damn contrebandier.

Even if I’m sure that the ship is in no danger due to the sudden disappearance of a celestial body, I can’t help but wonder how it was possible.

And without knowing the cause, I won’t know if it’s actually dangerous or not.

It could just be a deception caused by the planet’s curvature.

The moon is still present. Has the curvature of the world affected our view of it? That could explain it.

But if that were the case, we would have seen that the moon rise less and less in the sky until it finally stopped rising at all instead of this sudden disappearance.

I could be wrong, but maybe a powerful mage is behind this?

Either as a simple—but powerful—illusion or as an actual, physical disappearance?

It has already happened in the past, the most recent example in 4E 98. And the Thalmor took credit of “restoring” both moons in the sky, gaining them the gratitude and the loyalty of the Khajiit—after a coup against the Imperial-friendly government, of course.

Shit-eating bastards.

Oh, great. I’ll have to explain to Ta’Sava that one of the moons disappeared. At least he is still asleep now, so I can deal with it in the morning.

Why would only one moon disappear, though?

This just gives me new questions. Is the moon still visible from Tamriel? Has it disappeared only for us? Or is this some kind of astrological event that has happened for—

Just gave another look at the remaining moon, which is now proudly displayed in the sky.

The lunar phase is wrong.

And looking at it more closely, I can spot differences on its surface.

That moon is not Secunda.

Screw this, I’m opening one of the last bottles of mead.

For all I know, a daedra could be toying with us right now, and I wouldn’t give a damn.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

"Don't overdo it, Sasuke. It will take a few days before you're completely healed."

"But—"

"No buts, you'll be able to train later."

"This is boring, sensei! If we can't spar, how're we supposed to pass our time?" the orange-clad genin lamented.

"Why don't you go helping at the bridge then? I'm sure they—"

But before the infamous Copy-nin could finish that line, his louder student had disappeared out of the door. The man shrugged and resumed reading his favourite literature.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 15th Hearthfire.

Found a maggot in my hardtack today.

Which means that even our less perishable rations have started to go bad. Great.

I hope we will find more food before scurvy sets in.

On another note, Ta'Sava still refuses to leave his hiding place after the sunset.

I guess I can understand how he is feeling.

Sven and Beta look instead really homesick.

I've heard the three of them whispering about the College, about the places they're from... and about me.

Apparently they're interested in some aspects of my past.

This is troubling, to say the least.

I don't want them to find out about some specific things, like the Blades and our secret war.

If they found out, they would not be safe—

Shit, I have to find a way to disassociate them from me once we get back.

The last thing I want is to pull those magelings in this whole mess.

And the fact that a little voice in the back of my head is telling me that each of them has great potential, the thought of them being recruited makes me disgusted with myself.

The next day, I caught another sea monster, this time to was a large hybrid of a fish and a bird. The taste was also good. The khajit in board was literally drooling when the cook was roasting it's meat. This should ease the crew and the three magelings at least even just for several days.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

"Woah, look at that!" the loud genin yelled. "It's even better than before!"

"Of course it is. I know my stuff," the bridge builder declared proudly.

"Well, old man, we’ll make sure to take it on our way home! Dattebayo!"

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 19th Hearthfire.

I hate this sea and everything in it.

I tried diving many times but mysteriously there are no large prey for us to eat. Much to my disappointment and frustration. The crew is getting restless also. I decided to stop once I found out that my large presence underwater freaks out other small fishes for the other crew to catch.

Food stores are getting low, so most of the free hands are spent fishing. Fresh water is also running low, and there had been talk of possibly needing to break into my mead supply.

Had been.

I put an end to that fairly quickly. I set up a rotation with the magelings to freeze the buckets and let them melt. Not the highest quality water, but it’s better than seawater.

I started studying a spell to turn it into fresh water. I am so stupid, I should’ve started doing this before our departure.

If Toldfir could see me, he would be ashamed of his former pupil.

So far I still have to make it work since I can’t just make the salt disappear but I hope to make a breakthrough in one or two more days.

The cook says Sven is a wonder at helping him find new ways to prepare fish. I still doubt I’ll ever want to eat seafood again by the end of this.

Still, the crew is particularly nervous now, between the moon and these new difficulties. Some of them have started to huddle together, whispering to each other.

Everytime I or Edyval get close they stop. I suspect the same could happen with the magelings.

I immediately began making a habit of sharpening my axe in plain view.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

The Wave inhabitants kept watch as the Konoha shinobi departed, heading back to their village now that their mission was complete; just as the bridge connecting their homeland to the mainland too was complete.

"Oh right," Tazuna said, as he had just remembered something very important. "We need to name this bridge, and I have a perfect name for it.”

"Oh?! What is it?"

"How about... The Great Naruto Bridge?"

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:

4E 220, 24th Hearthfire.

Crew’s looking to mutiny, gotta go knock some heads in.

Either they calm down or it’s going to be a bloodbath.

I’ll be back soon.

Alright, I’m back.

They calmed down, I just had to give them a little reminder of who I was, and what exactly will happen to any man who actually mutinies.

Seriously though, they saw me many times, taking down large monsters that could swallow this ship whole and they still have the guts to think of mutinying?

I guess desperate minds will do the worse things they could think of.

I’m not sure they’ll be getting much sleep tonight—

A loud yell was heard across the bridge, which was pretty normal on a ship.

Conrad would've ignored it, since there was no accompanying sound of combat or other such nasty stuff, but he wasn’t sure if he’d heard it right.

"Edyval, did one of your crew's finest just shout something about land?" he asked, turning towards the ship’s captain, who was now staring at something out over the water with incredulous eyes.

“Yeap, he did. Ya’ve to look yarself.”

Conrad leaped from his sitting place, forgetting completely about the journal, quills and ink.

He saw it.

Peeking up over the horizon, a long, incredibly long, strip of land was clearly visible.

As the crew exploded into a cacophony of celebrations and rejoicings, he allowed himself to smirk a little before casting the spell that had guided them so far.

“Correct the route north-northwest, captain,” he said, not looking away from the azure orb that was running towards the continent of Akavir. “Let’s try to make landfall as close as we can to the destination of this journey.”