In my mind’s eye, I saw what I could only understand as a glossy magazine brochure for literally thousands of different boats covering all different types and sizes, from small rowboats to huge sailing vessels. Each spread covered dynamic pictures of the boats, their deck plans, schematics, technical information, and an immense amount of sales copy.

It was humourous to see just how much detail they put in about even the simplest of row boats. In total, there were eighteen rowboats ranging from a single person craft, to one which would not look out of place on in an Oxford and Cambridge boat race, to an ornate barge rowed by countless banks of rowers and an oversized decorative pavilion on the back.

All of them would be pointless to us right now in our situation, especially as Alis was right as these two black balls would be our chance to go out and do some good in the isles.

Once again, being impressed by the utility and power of magic, I performed a search of the catalogue. Once done I had limited the boats down to those which were mana tools. Thankfully, there was a wide range of boats available to choose from. The smallest seemed similar to a small speedboat. But that wouldn’t be very helpful and useful for what we wanted, even if we could still use our divine realm as a home and sleep there. The largest was almost the size of the ship which brought us to Netherfane in the first place.

Whereas it might be useful having such a large ship, the technical information showed that it required a large input of mana on a regular basis. Not good, considering that it was only me who could impart mana to the ship. Another search, this time with more filters and also using my own personal information and statistics, which somehow were visible within the catalogue’s search function, there was no sense of privacy there, and I limited it to ten vessels.

Each of the vessels had their benefits.

The smallest was a small cabin boat. It was slow, cramped, but had great mana efficiency. It was also not really capable for sea journeys.

Oh well, that was a filter I had forgotten to activate. I couldn’t be bothered to research everything, so I just continued from where I was.

The next smallest was larger, a river barge in size, more comfortable, yet still slow and had great mana efficiency. It might’ve been okay for sea journeys. The one thing I liked about it was that it was a nice size for the two of us.

Still, I wanted a faster boat so we could traverse the isles faster.

So I quickly skimmed the technical details, finding two which seemed to be a good compromise between mana efficiency, seaworthiness, and size.

The smallest was only slightly larger than the river barge, and it could sleep six, though they would be cramped. It had a narrow and elongated hull and only a small cabin reaching above the gunwale. As it slept six and most of the facilities focused around six, everything looked cramped. Despite the smiling, good-looking male and female models in the glossy photos below decks, the lack of space put me off.

The other was a fair bit larger, maybe too large for the two of us. But that size should make it better, I hoped, for sea voyages. It was also not too large for it not to be able to enter some rivers. One other benefit was that it also had a separate vessel, something akin to a small speedboat, we could use to leave the vessel and reach places where the other vessel couldn’t go.

It too slept six, but from looking at the deck plans we could easily have a master cabin and a separate bunk area for other crew. Also, there was a much nicer, and more spacious, interior. From the looks of things, it seemed closer to a small, well specced private yacht. Ideal for travelling and living in comfort whilst traversing the isles.

It would be best if Alis had some say, so I was about to exit the catalogue. But a warning message informed me that entrance into the catalogue was a one time only thing. So, if I failed to make a decision now then we would be unable to create a vessel for us.

Hoping that Alis would forgive me, and that I made the right choice, I accepted the vessel I had been looking at last.

Once I activated the construction of the vessel, my awareness snapped back into the immensely large room with the reflections of waves dancing on the seemless grey walls and celling.

‘Sorry, Alis,’ I said. ‘I wanted to talk to you about the ship but—’

‘Don’t worry, Klarric. I need to apologize to you too. I’ve been so focused on getting my way over Celameth, I forgotten just what was important. We found this room a week ago, but as there was little to do in it, I ignored it.

‘Then this morning we were arguing over what flowers to put into the flowerbeds running along the bridges. In a moment of weakness I glanced at that horizon and saw…’

I knew what she was talking about. If I was caught unawares and caught myself viewing that distant horizon. That dark blight which was creeping outwards, corrupting anything within its path. If I dared to look within the dark blight, there was an ever present hunger which would never be satisfied.

Even now, thinking about it in the relative safety of our fort, a tingling shiver ran through my body. I swallowed the rancid bile which rose in my throat.

Yes, I could understand how Alis could react, could feel, after being caught unawares. Most everything would seem minor annoyances when we had to face off against that. But the fear of facing it and fighting back against it.

More and more I sympathised with the elder gods who had fled this realm. How had Aggard remained strong and make plans to fight against that overwhelmingly powerful consuming hunger?

Maybe I had made a mistake in the vessel I had picked. Maybe I should’ve picked one which was larger so we could have more people to join with us in our fight against the corruption.

‘Klarric, do you think the two of us will be able to do anything against it?’ Alis asked in a small voice

I wished I could comfort her, tell her everything would be okay, but I had doubts myself.

Instead, I was honest, ‘I don’t know, Alis, I really don’t know.’

I took her hand and pulled her towards me. For the first time on this mortal realm, I opened my divine self in an act of loving embrace. I did that not only for her, but for me too, so the two of us could feel each other deeply. A small trickle of Alis’ divine self sank into me, strengthening our bond, bringing us ever closer. Even though Alis’ slender body was being held tight in my arms, that closeness was nothing like the intermingling of our divine spirits.

Wordlessly, in perfect sync, we knew we needed to deal with that corruption. And once more we rededicated ourselves not only to each other but to the mission that Aggard had abandoned.

A painful static screamed in my head.