B2 – Chapter 42: Revisiting prior combat

Tristan and Felicity left the Fey Realm with both horses. He mounted up on Onyx and pushed the steed hard until the horse began to tire and nudged him. Swapping over to Midnight, they kept the pace and were able to cover quite a bit of distance before night fell. They had to stop for the horse’s sake, and heading back to the Fey Realm, they rested up.

The same process repeated over the next few days – and the whole time they were traveling, Tristan was inside of his inner world whilst dual-direction spinning his essence crucible. Felicity was doing the same, and so their time of travel, despite being boring and rote, was productive as they both gained more essence capacity.

By the fourteenth of Harvest Season, they reached Rigger’s Cove. They had intentionally cut the journey slightly short, so that Tristan could leave Onyx and Midnight in the Fey Realm. Tristan made for the docks, having already used his message-spell-storing ear cuff to notify the captain and admiral of his arrival.

The Vantir captain had set up a barricade along the docks with extra boxes, crates, barrels, and had put all of the boats out into the harbor to prevent them from being used. He met Tristan, and the Fey Realm ruler had Felicity transfer a large number of crafted items with varying values to their ship’s cargo hold.

“We’ll have another day or two at the most for repairs. Then, we’ll be off. It looks like you are going to Klaktol’s southern coast?” Captain Bitters asked.

Tristan nodded, “Yes. You are going to head to Yustat so you can hire an essence-weaver and be able to actually use that bangle to communicate.” He headed up the docks, giving slight nods of acknowledgement to the crew members, but also looking for any of them who were not people he recognized. Thankfully, no hidden assassins were in their midst.

The rowboat that took him to the Tideskipper’s Crest traveled rapidly, and as he clambered up on the deck he was greeted by Obadai who had a stern look on his face. “Logos prevented me from keeping an eye on you,” he said. “How is that possible?”

Tristan chuckled, “I wrote him a letter.” He pulled the paper out from his hip pouch and handed it to the Archon. “An exchange.”

Obadai frowned, “I did not know one could communicate with him. There were warnings against delving too much into the Thought Realm.” He looked back to Tristan, “It was a foolish thing to do.”

“He didn’t know any better,” Felicity replied – no longer invisible as the crew had become used to her appearance.

Admiral Yokain came over, “Lord Tristan – we are ready to depart. Southern Klaktol, I believe is where you wished to travel next?”

Tristan nodded, “Then we’ll cross back across to Schlarz, and then back to Yustat. Keep any pursuers guessing.”

The Admiral tapped his foot impatiently, “And the contract?”

Felicity pulled it out of the storage dimension and handed it to the Admiral from atop Tristan’s head, “Signed, and delivered!”

The Admiral’s face split into the largest grin Tristan had ever seen, and he let out a whoop of delight. “Finally! I’ve been vying for this contract for my whole merchant career!” He raised it up, “You hear that, lads? We’re going to be rich!” He glanced at Tristan from the corner of his eye as the crew took up cheers around him, “Well, more rich.”

Tristan smiled and glanced to his right as Shandra walked over. She looked to have became acquainted to the sea, as her gait was steady and her cheeks were full of hue instead of being pale and wan. “You’re back,” she said with a smug expression. “Happy to see you survived.”

“Where to, Admiral?” Tristan asked as he glanced to Yokain.

“We’ll make for Plinth. It’s twelve day’s travel to get there. We should arrive on the twenty-sixth of Harvest Season.” He rubbed his chin, “We should be able to finish your whole route before Winds Season – and by that point we want to be on the other side of Klaktol, or risk the storms.”

“Then let us set sail.”

The days fell into a pattern. Mornings were spent learning about the ship. To Tristan’s mind, it was sensible for him to at least understand the basics of how the ship worked, should the worst happen and he need to sail elsewhere. Admiral Yokain was a strict teacher, and Tristan was clambering up and down the rigging almost constantly. The experience left him quite sore, as he was using muscles he never knew existed in the exertion.

In the afternoon, he practiced Essence-Weaving. By the end of their journey to Klaktol, he had mastered First Order fire elementalism, in addition to his existing spells of First Order he had mastered. Then, the focus shifted to Second Order spells. He had already been studying and practicing his ice elementalism spells, but the pronunciation of Dragon’s Tongue in a rapid flurry was a point of stress and criticism from Obadai.

“You need to get better at speaking quickly if you want to be a truly prodigious essence-weaver,” the Archon admonished. “We’ll practice by just talking in Dragon’s Tongue and nothing else. Word drills. Spelling practice. We will get you to the point that you can speak a spell phrase in under a second.”

The rest of the day and evenings were spent in his inner world; spinning his essence crucible in both directions whilst he replayed fights over and over in his phantasmal space. That is where he gained the most insight into his actions, as he could revisit prior events and fight against defeated foes.

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