Sleep was not so easy for Lucas. Shivering, he pulled his cloak around him and sat on a smooth rock. Inside him, the constant well of energy sat untouched. He wondered if there were some way to use it to warm himself up. As he tried to piece it together, he had another thought. Orhin often talked about sending his energy into the future. If Orhin could do it, maybe he could too. It might even help them find the wagon train or tell him if they ever would at the very least. Where to begin to try such a thing was the hard part. With a deep breath he straightened his back and focused. The energy inside him flowed through his body, but where to send it? The only thing he could think of, as dumb as it sounded, was to simply focus on the concept of the future. Once it was all that filled his thoughts, he sent out his energy.
It disappeared, flowing from him and into nothingness. That threw him off a bit, but he reigned his thoughts back in to focus. Any time before that, he always felt his energy no matter where it was. Excitement welled up inside him. He felt no energy, but that didn't mean it had disappeared. After a few minutes he pulled on it, and it all came flowing back. Like a rushing river he leaned back at the weight of it and his eyes shot open.
He was standing on a ship, swaying back and forth with the waves under it. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down on him directly overhead. He shivered despite it. The ocean around him was normal for a sunny day. Other than the cold, he would have sworn he really was on a boat. He knew he was on the rocky side of Blackstone Pass, but he felt the lean of the boat and smelled the salt in the air just as much as he thought he would if he were actually there. A sense of displacement took him, and he shook his head to steady himself.
"What is this? Where am I?" he said out loud to himself. Suddenly, he noticed the men around him working the sails. There were men of stone, manning the rigging, running back and forth. Others had jobs that he couldn't decipher, sailing on large vessels wasn't something they taught young lords of Atleos. That was left to the lowly merchants and sailors. He had never been on a boat so big; it dwarfed his tiny vessel by at least five times. The burly stonemen moved around him, careful not to get to close. He stopped one, touching a man's shoulder as he hurried past.
"What's going on here?" Lucas asked him.
The man stopped as soon as Lucas addressed him, drawing a deep breath, and standing up straight, head held high, but with hint of confusion on his face. "We're following where you say Lord Lucas. We've never sailed past the storms, so we don't know exactly where it is you be taking us to, other than it be called Atleos, my lord, your homeland and ours, as you say."
"Atleos? Why would we be going to Atleos?" Lucas responded. The man looked even more puzzled.
"I don't know my lord, but I know there be things I'm not supposed to understand. Would you like me to tell the captain to head back my lord?" The Eartheye asked, still standing at attention.
"No, I just...," Lucas turned to take in the ship again, trying desperately to piece together where he was. With a full turn on his heel his heart dropped in his chest. Behind his ship was a fleet of others in a triangle formation stretching out as far as he could see. At least a hundred ships, maybe more. A fleet fit for a king. The coldness around him gripped him even tighter. He pulled his cloak tight around him, scraping his hand against something pinned to his chest.
He took it in his hands, angling it to see better. It was not halved as every other he had seen and worn, and he didn't recognize it from the few he knew of. It was a gold crown in front of deep purple; more elaborate in detail than he thought was possible in such a small space. The Eartheye still stood there waiting for him to respond when he looked back up.
"Back to it then," he said, with more authority in his voice than he meant. The man nodded and jogged away. Despite his confusion Lucas felt completely in control. His back was straighter than he was used to. He held his head higher, without even realizing it. The men weren't avoiding him because he was in their way, they were avoiding him because he was in charge.
