Chapter Three

19 4 0
                                    

"That's a tiny boat."

Priam rolled his eyes. "Lina, we walked for two hours getting to the coast, where the nearest place here with a boat is just over there," he points at a wooden shack, "and the nearest costal town is about three miles from here, and I'd rather not drag a boat that far. Did you even find any tomes?"

Lina sighed and placed five thick books into the wooden rowboat. "Three Forseti tomes, two Excaliburs. That's actually pretty surprising, considering these're A-Ranked tomes. Although, that Anna merchant was in that town."

Priam picked up a Excalibur tome, flipping through the yellow-bound book. "And to think... This contains enough power to sweep Risen off their feet and to their doom. Just by... Flipping through pages and magic-filled pages to unleash a powerful spell. And tomes are more interesting, because in them is a language that nobody understands anymore, plus serve as relics of a time long gone."

"Okay, Mr. Philosopher," Lina snatched the tome from Priam. "If I let you talk anymore, it'll be a week before we set sail. And by then, we'll both be off to snooze-land and serving under Serra. Let me get in."

Lina tossed a duffel bag full of pork and hardtack to Priam, then carefully stepped into the boat. Priam shuffled some items around so he could get more comfortable, but his feet stuck out from the boat side and his neck uncomfortably rested on the hard edge. The sack of food and Ragnell sat on the bow of the boat, while the tomes rested beside where Lina sat.

She plucked a Forseti tome and cracked it open on a random page in the middle. After looking over the words and paging through it occasionally, Lina finally held the tome with one hand while out stretching her other hand.

"Priam, hold on. This'll get a bit rough." She opened a compass, looked down at it, and adjusted her sitting position so that her back faced northeast. "Okay... FORSETI!"

A strong current of air jetted from Lina's outstretched hand, making the boat rocket into sea. Wind whipped the poor boat recklessly, making the waters around them choppy and throwing up a big sea spray to the two mercenaries' backs. Priam made sure the bag didn't fly towards the sea, and he gripped the edge of the boat of the boat tightly. He stamped his foot on Ragnell's flat side of the blade, which was starting to slide towards the end of the boat. Lina kept a tight grip on her tome as she struggled to keep her arm upright, which was getting icily cold from the strong wind.

After fifteen minutes, the jet stream started to let up, and soon after the Forseti magic stopped altogether, slowing the boat into into the sea currents. The two slowly exhaled a breath that they didn't know they were holding in. If they had glanced towards the mainland's direction, they would have seen that Ylisse was miles away.

"Let's not do this again," Priam sighed, his grip on the edge not faltering. "At least, let's try and get a real boat once we're done."

"Agreed," Lina said, rubbing her magic arm. "I've never held out my magic for that long. Truth be told, I haven't used A-Ranked tomes in a long time... Practice, I guess."

Priam sat up to look forward, and groaned. "Elibe isn't anywhere in sight. This is going to be a long sea trip."

"Of course. It'll be hours before Elibe'll be in sight."

Priam shook his head as he resumed his lying down position and used one arm to hook onto the bow seat. "I can't wait."

"Me neither. FORSETI!"

Once again, the boat sky-rocketed away from land into sea, Priam and Lina holding on the boat for dear life as they headed for Elibe.

***

LightWhere stories live. Discover now