"See? Now THAT is a boat. Not a pile of crumbling mud!"

Hitting the east side of the island was only another step on the journey, but one Alice wouldn't let get dangerous again. Before getting on the water again, she asked for help from locals to build a sturdy barge with Stalks trunks. The result was a boat six metres long, two metres wide with a flat bottom, a set of oars and a long perch for coast manoeuvres. The currently open-roofed interior featured a spot for a golem towards the back, benches on the sides, and an earthen fire pit in the centre front. Its shape was ideal for lake travel, as the waters were usually still; the risk of capsizing was none unless one actively tried to overturn that kind of boat, and even if it did it would stay afloat.

Thani, Alice an Oakbud had decided against hiring a ferryman to get to shore to the north. They didn't want to wait for a trader to pass by and take them along, and the town locals were mostly fishermen who wouldn't want to take four days for the journey to and back.

Once Oakbud finished making a brand-new rowing golem and a last push, the little group of three was afloat again. Thani and Alice spent the whole morning fishing, making themselves a stash of fresh food that would let them eat something else than travel-friendly dry food. However, boredom quickly set itself back when the sun began its daily descent. Oakbud was happily dozing off under the heat of the day, looking at birds flying and occasionally practicing his new magic.

With a rope bound to the boat as a guide, it was decided that diving would be a great idea to pass time. Clear and melodious laughter quickly proved the idea's greatness, and the activity quickly turned into a contest to see who could go the furthest down. Alice proved to be the best swimmer and was able to beat Thani by a large margin, almost double the depth ; that record was flipped once magic became involved however : the blood saintess exploited her blood wings fully to fly up and gather momentum for monumental dives that sent her way past their fifteen metres long rope in one move. Sadly for Alice, her shadow magic was completely unable to augment her physical prowess in this manner, and the two bickered for a bit before deciding on a draw.

The balance was upset when Oakbud got jealous and tried to swim too when he didn't know how. He panicked when his spirit body, completely inadequate for swimming, began sinking as he couldn't get traction in the water to stay afloat with his tiny arms and claws. He was fished back out by one of Thani's tattoos, who could barely hold her laughter, and grumblingly tried to use water magic to navigate in the water. As it turned out, walking on water was feasible, but swimming still stood out of his reach; he would need to possess a body to explore the lake's depths or attain greater mastery over the element.

The occasion presented itself after another predatory fish tried to get his fill by eating Alice. Her shadow magic was used to make a decoy silhouette in front of her, making the attacker bite through water. Not letting go of this opportunity, she applied her blessing of [break] to one of her hands and pierced right through the fish's gills and into its head, ending its life with one fluid movement. Normal animals and monsters, which couldn't count on a blessing to protect themselves, were extremely vulnerable to magic-augmented attacks. Thani had struggled against the same type of fish before because she didn't have suitable underwater attack techniques and had to rely on her stout body and an ordinary weapon.

"This is disgusting. Let me in!"

"Gross. Don't come closer, will you?"

"Let me grab something to wipe my hand at least! Otherwise the stench is going to stay for WEEKS!"

"No way! Stop trying to get on the boat, don't come and pollute it for the rest of the trip! Whose fault do you think it is you have fish brain all over your arm?"

"LET ME IIIIN!"

"Shoo! Shoo!"

Thani had already changed into dry clothes and was currently doing her best to slap Alice's hands from the boat to prevent her from climbing on board, while the dead fish was being possessed by Oakbud and twitching reflexively. The black-haired woman finally managed to climb up after Thani had enough of teasing her, sending her a dark glare all the while.

Night fell while Oakbud was getting familiar with his newest toy, and he only came back to the boat once a fire was started in the pit to grill the day's catch and keep some heat. The dead fish was dragged on board for use the next day; attaching it to the boat with a rope was possible, but they feared it would get nibbled on by other creatures during the night. If that happened, Oakbud wouldn't be able to use it anymore, and another predator fish would need to be hunted (Regular fish could do, however being defenceless was not the best of ideas).

--

It was decided to continue lessons to wait for sleep to get Alice and Thani, and the latter began the day’s presentation: “I’ll start with Kali, since she’s interacted with you already, and she’s my Goddess too. Actually, let me make another point before that. There’s the Three, and then there’s those we call ‘Gods of Men’, because they were mortals who became Gods. Others mortals can follow their path now, and get their blessings in return. Back to Kali, during her mortal life, close to the Anger a millennium ago, she helped people wherever she went and took other’s people hardships as her own. Thus, her emblem is a drop of blood, ended up dying mysteriously, and is known as the Goddess of Suffering or the Lady of Pain. Her blessings include the ability to feel people’s emotions, manipulating wounds and self-healing, and for myself manipulating blood. Every one of us gets white hair and pupil-less eyes as a distinctive mark, the most obvious among all Gods.”

“I’ll talk a bit about Liezel, then. He’s… not the most liked of Gods among people, so his followers are sparse and not very sociable either. His mortal life was quite chaotic, and his core value is freedom. His emblem is a gust of wind. He has developed his own branch of magic that only his followers can be blessed with, and you’ve seen what I can do with it already. Since we’re so few, I haven’t met more than a handful of others like me, and it’s hard to progress alone.”

“How many friends for Dad-tree?” Oakbud asked when she was done.

“If you count in Kali and Liezel, eight in total, so the current pantheon of Gods is made up of eleven of them.” Thani said. “Let’s go with a more popular one, Theomars the God of Fighters, War, Warriors and other synonyms. He’s risen up through his heroism during the Anger, and his emblem is his sword. He’d dedicated his life to action, as his followers do nowadays. Not the smartest bunch, but you can count on them in a fight; strength, speed, resistance to magic and a few advanced applications of it are common. He’s one of the rare Gods to curse his followers though; if they lose control of themselves during a fight or become addicts, he’ll blind them until they lose a fight they go all out in; those usually die quickly or stay blind their whole life. We’ve fought some on our way to Ebb, remember?”

“Yeah, my deceased friend was one of them, and he’s the one who taught me how to fight.” Alice grimaced from the bittersweet memory. “Anyway, next would be Oberon, God of protection. His emblem is his shield, and almost nothing is known about his days as a mortal. He blesses those who hold things like a place, a value, an object or people dear to them with strength and endurance, but he will also curse them harshly in return for neglecting their charge. History says they don’t live long after that. Thani told me you’ve met one among the bandits that attacked you.”

“The tin-can, right.” Thani nodded. “No way I could beat someone that heavily-armoured without exploiting the curse. It still leaves me with a bad aftertaste, though. I’ve killed before, but this isn’t a kill I’ll ever feel good about.” She sighed. “I’ll tell you about Nyx now. She’s risen as the Goddess of Arts about eight hundred fifty years ago, and her emblem is a burning pyre. In her eyes, anything can become an art and be mastered, and she twists the bodies of her worshippers to better fit their craft. Her race was unrecognisable even before she ascended.”

“Yeah, there’s not that much to say about her, except that she’s one of the more active Gods in the world, she brings her Child to Ebb every few dozen years apparently in order to change her temple’s decorations.” Alice added.

Nodding along, Thani continued: “Next is Deva, Goddess of Truce from the ever-elusive Fairy race. She lives on the Jagged Heights, and she’s from before the Anger. Her emblem is a heart, and her thing is reading into people’s personality, which in turn makes her followers very good oath-keepers for anything related to contracts. She also has the ability to heal people.”

“One each for the last two?” Alice asked Thani.

“No, go for it, they’re a pair anyway.”

“Alright. Oakbud, the last two’s mortal story is from before the Anger so it’s unknown, but they’re a couple. Eludia and Monte are the Gods of Fate and Fortune. Monte’s emblem is tree roots, and he rewards those who work hard to surpass themselves. He’s an immovable peak that will assuredly bring success and limit losses for his believers, his blessings are quite varied. He’s also the one who made the language everyone speaks everywhere in the world today. Eludia’s the opposite, her emblem is a hundred-faced die and she’s all about luck and opportunity. She can twist fate and guides the hand of the audacious towards opportunity. Whatever blessing she gives is intangible, there are no known existing records at all of it, only what people worked for themselves.”

“There, that’s all eight.” Alice finished.

“Thani fairy and Alice talked of Anger, what is?” Oakbud asked after getting his fill of information about his Dad-Tree’s friends.

“That,” said Thani while releasing a yawn, “is a taboo best left for another time, to be explained by someone else. Goodnight now.”