The Jewel of Orlegon

Chapter 10: Reaching land

As her heart raced and seconds ticked dangerously by, Alteria sensed the familiar sensation that had vanished when Ieza had asked her to clear her mind a little earlier. Suddenly, she became aware of feeling the presence of the water in a different way than through her senses, as if the salty expanse of the ocean was an extension of herself. Without thinking, she brought her arms forward as if pulling something from behind her. The water embraced her much sooner than she had expected, and there was no violent impact as she had anticipated. Her astonishment was such that she forgot to hold her breath as she plunged into the waves.

Tossed by the current, Alteria struggled for a moment to determine her position underwater. When she finally regained her orientation, she propelled herself towards the surface with a kick that, even though she had found no foothold, managed to shoot her quickly back into the open air. Beneath the twilight sky, Alteria emerged from the water with a deep breath, filling her lungs with salty air and almost swallowing a mouthful of water. Above her, over the roar of the waves, she heard Nanthamo's cries of triumph.

Struggling to distinguish the young man atop the mast, Alteria saw his silhouette dive from his perch into the ocean with a supernatural arc. Rising suddenly next to her and heading toward the diver, a massive watery form welcomed the Enartian halfway before blending back into the ocean. Nanthamo resurfaced beside Alteria, smiling broadly.

"Well?" he asked, radiating enthusiasm.

As the adrenaline rush from the fall faded, Alteria realized that the person responsible for her fall and the young man now bragging next to her were the same. Swiping her hand across the water's surface, she sent a spray of water toward her companion, which transformed into a full-fledged wave under which the Enartian disappeared for a few seconds before resurfacing.

"You threw me!" she exclaimed.

"Yes!"

"From the top of the mast!"

"Yes!" the culprit confirmed without losing his smile.

"I could have died!"

"Not with so much water around you. It's like in any dangerous situation, instinctively you'll do everything you can to protect yourself."

"After twenty years, I broke a seal out of a moment of irrational panic rather than a real danger situation! And you really thought I should trust that kind of instinct to prevent me from crashing into the water?"

"I was right, wasn't I?"

Alteria couldn't find a response. The truth was there, and she couldn't deny it. She had protected herself from the danger of the fall, using Nolensat to bring the water to her before the impact could be deadly. And she had done it on her own. Running her hand along the water's surface, she found that she could guide the ripples around her in any path she chose. It was crude, a vague flow in a specific direction, but it was real. And if that was real, then everything else was too.

"Nanthamo," she called out, raising her eyes to the young man.

"Yes?"

"I think I'm really an Enartian."

"It's about time you convinced yourself of that," Nanthamo replied with a laugh, "because believe me, few people here ever doubted it."

Guided for a significant portion of the journey by the ever-favorable wind generated by Ieza, the ship took only five days to make its way back to the continent. During this time, Nanthamo began to teach Alteria the basics of Nolensat, under the watchful eye of their elder. By the end of the voyage, Alteria was able to control simple water movements and roughly divide a volume of water into multiple parts. However, she desperately failed to crystallize even the slightest form of ice. As her improvised teacher repeatedly reminded her, ice was not a common sight on Nimeo.