“Magic has transformed many of our lives to much more well lived and meaningful! Take for example mining within the Empire proper, now religious figures scoffed at the idea of it of course due to its arguable moralistic complications but we have removed worker mortality thanks to having zombified undead miners. Why should we, the living, have to do the dangerous works of labouring in fields, mines, soldery, this list goes on gentlemen! And of course we submit all of our findings to the university as well as Inquisitorial Intelligence, we have found ways to ensure people won’t be attacked by theses soulless automatons. You’ll find we have done much rigorous testing though the remaining issue is with decay and smell is a little harder to…” Head Arcandemic Alamandus F’Igillin Imperial Arcane Conference 1455

1509.04.04 Tomstar, Varsh

Nico breathed in the deep sea air and had been looking at the sky for the better part of an hour. Stars above that Nico hadn’t normally had the opportunity to look at much since many of his evenings were spent studying. Now he was absentmindedly scratching an orange tabby cat leaning over a banister of the ship wondering the adventures his mum and master must be up to now. Though the captain was gruff she really did seem to have the crew’s best interests at heart, Nico finally figured out how to turn Sal into a cat from their previous more avian form though he wished it hadn’t cost him so much sleep to parse over notes for. Nico smiled and silently cursed his rushed note taking at the time.

“You must be that kid we are transporting” A voice cut the silence that Nico had previously been enjoying.

“Yeah I guess I am.”

“My name is Vick.” Nico tore his eyes from the twin moons in the sky now to look at Vick and sort of just stared silently for a moment as Nico tried to gather himself. He’s never seen a pink haired dark elf before and wondered how it was possible.

“Aerith to strange magic kid.” Nico then realized he’d been staring instead of conversing.

“What's your name?”

“Right, sorry, My name is Nico.” Sal wandered over to the stranger while they’d purred

“And who is this handsome stranger?” The moonlight reflected off of Vick’s buckles, a soft brass mixed with brown leather trousers as well as. Vick also wore a loose bleached shirt and they seemed armed to the teeth with a variety of strange looking handheld sized crossbows. Nico wondered how practical the crossbows were to use since it seemed the bow part of the crossbow was folded back.

“Thats Sal” Nico chuckled nervously, he couldn’t help but be a little smitten by the dark elf Sal seemed to trust them which made Nico feel strangely vulnerable.

“Well it seems the boy wizard does talk and isn’t just a pretty face.” Nico blushed.

“You Imperial humans are so easy to read.” Vick chuckled to themselves as Nico tried to hide his face.

“So magic potato peeler what's your story” Nico couldn’t keep his thoughts clear, his face was flushed and he felt very overwhelmed by the flurry of words.

“Look I peel the potatoes the same as every-”

“I know I know, I am just teasing you kid. SO! What is your story?” Vick came close and Nico cursed at his bad luck.

“I am just a villager who is his town’s wizard’s apprentice.”

“Yeah I know that part already! Why are you here so early? What happened?” Nico didn’t quite know how to rightly answer this question, he wasn’t fully sure he could trust this person but the tug in his heart made Nico feel as though he should trust this person. Nico began to divulge whatever he thought would be most interesting while trying to leave what exactly they were doing.

“I didn’t know there was other worlds, I guess it should be possible just never thought about it.”

“Well it's not exactly another world, it seems to have ties to this world but at the same time it isn’t our world. Currently I think it's one of our moons.”

“Seems like a stretch.” Vick eyed the one full moon and the crescent moon waning as well.

“Ah, mother watches while her daughter finds sleep.”

“What?” Nico shook his head, that last sentence was rather cryptic.

“Sorry the elvish would be ‘féachann a máthair agus a hiníon ag codladh.’” Vick looked at Nico expectantly.

“I am not the most familiar with elvish, my village is close to the Elantran Border and they frown upon us knowing their tongue.” Nico scowled at the ground trying to hide his hatred for the pious elves.

“Ah yeah…” Vick gave Nico an empathetic look but the boy was too busy trying to pull back tears that started to form. The silence started to form again as Nico began to silently cry, the waves splashing at the walls of the ship as it moved northwest and into the Endless Ocean. Nico felt the weight of expectations his Master would and will have, Sal brushed their head against Nico’s face.

It’s okay master, we are headed to the palace where we are to learn

I feel as though I still know nothing

An empty space to fill with wit and knowing then.

Nico absently scratched the cat on its chin again and let Sal onto his shoulders where they curled around his neck.

“That is a cute cat Nico.” Vick was more soft spoken now.

“The Elantrans have taken a lot from everyone Nico but knowing that also unites everybody that the Elantrans have hurt.” Nico looked up, he’d stopped crying moments before but his eyes were still red and they stung. Vick wrapped an arm around Nico.

“Look kid there is more us then there are of them, however this shakes out those sad excuses for Elves will get fucked over.” Vick smelled nice Nico noted, a certain musk that came from working on the ship, and something Nico couldn’t quite place.

“I don’t understand why they have it set up the way they do, it seems so destructive.”

“Well the only reason they have power in the first place is because of ‘elven superiority’ and they’ve convinced the other elves in their country that this is the way of things.”

“So they owe fealty to the idea?”

“They’ve tied the identity of their kingdom to the idea that Elves will take over the Empire there will be a new ‘Ré órga’. Even the humans will appreciate being dominated by the glorious Elantran Empire!” Vick’s tone went from informative to mocking in a split second. Nico could help but laugh at the tone Vick had used

“I mean I already miss home and I’ve only been away for a week or more.”

“I don’t. At least what was supposed to be my home.” Vick separated from Nico and crossed their arms on the bannister, staring down into the ocean beyond and its’ deep and dark mysteries.

“Where might that be?”

Vick pointed to the west.

“West Empire?” Vick snorted as they stifled a laugh

“No no, kid much farther than that.”

“I don’t know much farther West than the University.”

“Red Rock? It's an island out west that moves.”

“An island that moves?”

“It's made of all kinds of debris and wreckage of old ships and some other kind of debris.”

“That seems quite impossible, most shipwrecks sink I thought.”

“Ha not everything but yeah most of the ship would go down but Red Rock is special.”

“There was this old pirate captain that found a chunk of metal just floating out onto the water.” Vick continued while wistfully looking out onto the moonlit horizon. “He decided it was some kind of magical abomination so like any good seaman he decided that it was not long for this world.”

“They tried weighing the thing down with as much metal as they could ferry out there and it did nothing and since most pirates are superstitious they took it as a sign that it couldn’t be sunk.”

“Then this other Pirate captain known as Captain Red accidentally smashes her ship to smithereens on the rock and the bloody thing still stands.” Vick then turns and leans their back to the banister eyeing Nico now, Nico enamoured with the story unconsciously moved a little closer shoulder to shoulder with Vick.

“So Red and her crew found all the shit that the previous captain tried to sink this thing hooked together with long chains. They ended up cutting a lot of the excessive weight but kept these chains and ended up attaching them to the two rowboats and left enough weight hanging off of them to keep them stable. Then row those boats straight out to the opposite sides and I can imagine you can guess what happens next.” Nico shook his head though and Vick sighed loudly though and rolled their eyes.

“The chains caught more boats and stranded more people with more row boats… Captain Red was lucky enough not to get overwhelmed and it's been called Red’s Rock or Red Rock then on. Very few people know the original name.”

“Red’s Rock?”

“No, the original name of the floating metal trash barge.” Vick laughed then Nico sort of felt sheepish and red faced unsure of how to react.

“Bless Hera kid, you are fine! Of course it’s to increase the odds of catching out at port to the heavy floating objects that happen to be going on by?”

“She got more ships to crash into the object?”

“Build the whole city out of shipwrecks and a constant labour pool.”

“How do people get food there?”

“A combination of fishing and raiding, though there was a time where food was hard to come by when I was young. That place in constantly shifting since there is really only one good anchor point so some parts of the city have a tendency to float away a bit but they usually will try to save you.”

“Usually?”

“Well sometimes there are places better left to float off and sink.”

“Oh…” Nico was left with that bitter silence.

“Well try not to stay up too late, bid day tomorrow!” Vick’s hand then slapped Nico’s back and they left. Nico once again scratched Sal’s fur and stared into the two moons lighting up the night sky, one full moon and one crescent waning. Nico’s thought’s swirled of home as he got lost in thought, mind massaging by the rolling waves crashing against the ship and its rocking encouraging him to head off to bed.