The System Seas

There were a couple of reasons it didn’t take too long to find Invisible Isle. First, it wasn’t all that far away. The drifting bar had drifted pretty far from its most recent launch point, but The Foolish Endeavor was a fast, fast ship, and covering days worth of drift for a floating platform was hardly more than a matter of seconds for it.

Even though the bar had apparently been towed here and there sometimes, by the time Marco woke up in the morning, something about the sky and the air was so familiar he knew they were close.

“There it is.” Aethe pointed out an island in the distance. “That's where we are headed.”

“Can’t be, right? It’s not invisible.” Marco turned the ship towards the new island anyway, but turned to Aethe for more explanation. “It has to be somewhere else.”

“Nope. This one. I can tell from the peaks and mountains and all.” Aethe took a look through the spyglass and nodded. “And they’ve already spotted us. I can see people running to the fortresses.”

“The fortresses?”

“Yes. But they aren’t firing yet. That’s a good sign. Keep going, Marco. Try to look friendly.”

With Marco sailing in his least intimidating way, they approached the docks of the island. Aethe was right about the fortresses, even if they didn’t track exactly with what Marco had expected from them. The docks were now firmly interspaced with short stone firing platforms, each with a bank of two or three cannons protected under a thick wood and stone awning. Given just how many dozens of different landing spots he was seeing, they represented a large show of force all by themselves. Behind them, the old firing positions that had held Frisk and Steed at bay were just as well armed as they had always been. Overall, anywhere anyone would want to land was more or less bristling with firepower.

Marco was pretty sure a single barrage wouldn’t take down his ship, but he didn’t want to test that math with real-life experience if he could help it. Before that could happen, Aethe perked up and pointed, almost hopping with excitement as she pointed out an older frame approaching from behind the cannon, yelling and smacking anyone who looked like they might get jumpy.

Marco didn’t know she knew who they were with any real level of surety until she looked directly at the ship and waved them in with one lazy motion of her arm, then strolled casually back out of view. For more chapters visıt noᴠelfire.net

“It’ll be all right now.” Marco sped up the ship and pointed it a little more directly towards the island. “She doesn’t make mistakes.”

When they disembarked on the docks, word about who they were had apparently already gotten around. Nobody they knew was present, but they were greeted by so many people they didn’t know there wouldn’t have been much time for reconnecting anyway.

“The temple kids!” a heavyset man in an eyepatch yelled. “I heard her say it! Although you lot don’t look much like kids to me.”

The crowd gathered around and took them in, looking at the crew like they were some sort of long-lost legends. Not only did Marco not know any of them well, but most of them were people he would have sworn weren’t on the island last time they were here at all. As they pushed past the crowds in the direction the old woman had disappeared in, he saw some of why.

The town was a loose collection of ramshackle buildings and clapped-together sheds when they had been here last, with just a handful of dirt paths tying it all together. Now there was a real, honest-to-God built town in place, with roads that five people could walk down at once, shoulder-to-shoulder. The buildings now had something approaching a unified style, with the same kinds of brickwork and same varieties of wood showing up in most buildings in differing proportions but patterned in a way that lent an overall feel of planned development to the town.

Most noticeably to Marco, the old woman’s meeting building, from which she had once run the entire island, had changed. It used to be as cheap and simple as anything else on the island, even worse in most ways. Now its rough-hewn boards had been replaced with the finest stonework. Shock-white bricks carved of some smooth, hard rock were stacked expertly into a hulking, official-looking building that was so regal in its look it was almost funny.

“Don’t stand there gawking at it.” The old woman appeared in the doorway, grimacing at the shining stone. “I didn’t ask for this. The folk who live around here demanded it anyway. Said it befit my station.”

She spat on the ground.

“Couldn’t convince them otherwise. Now get in here. We’ve got talking to do.”

Marco took one look around the much-changed town. Whatever he had been hoping to find in this visit, he was quickly learning he wouldn’t get. There was nothing familiar about this plac, now. Most of what he remembered was torn down and replaced. Whatever familiar faces he had looked for were either not seen or diluted with dozens of people he just didn’t know. It was the same place geographically, but not at all the temporary home they had once known.

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“It’s changed, yes.” The old woman looked out. “That’s good. You learn that over time. Places grow up or die. They do it when you aren’t looking, sometimes, but it’s not always better if you are there to see it happen. I’ve moved on from a dozen towns that didn’t need me anymore. It’s how it is. Hate to tell you, but if you go down the road further into town, you won’t find what you want there, either. Not the same place. Not anymore.”

“Ah. I see,” Marco said. “I have to admit that’s a bit of a letdown.”

“Don’t let it be. It means good things for people. Just not the trip down memory lane you expected. Now, what brings you by? I figured you were halfway to the edge of the world by now.”

“We were, but something told me to come back. Or I was homesick. Not sure which.” He pulled the letter from Tatric out of his coat. “But when we got back to the floating bar, we got this. I wanted to get your thoughts on it, at least.”

The old woman took the letter and started digesting its contents. Marco watched her eyes pan down through it, then go back to the top and read it a second time.

“None of it makes sense for him. Tatric had this old widow he used to talk up. If he asked me to do anything while I was in town and he wasn’t, I’d expect him to ask me to stop by and look after her. This is something different that I don’t understand,” Marco explained.

“You want my honest opinion on this?”

“Please,” Marco said. “You’re also…”

“Old.” The woman interrupted. She didn’t look offended at the idea. “If I were sending this same letter with these same words, I think I’d only say it this way if I needed you. This is a man who is hoping you don’t come, Marco. But who needs you to.”

“Why, though? Why the capital? Why his tools? Why do I need to talk to Frisk?” Marco said. “None of it makes sense.”

“I imagine it will, later. As you start to learn bits and pieces of what he already knows. Now, if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate it if you left the island.”

Marco looked in surprise to Elisa, hoping she could tell him how he had offended the old woman. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to know either. Riv and Aethe also looked just as shocked as he was. This had always been a friend before.

“Now, don’t be like that. It’s just what it is.” The old woman shook her head. “You’ve got adventure dragging in your wake. By now, you are used to a higher sort of adventure. I’ve seen that before. It follows some folks. Now, if you needed anything from me, I’d give it. But what I can give, I just gave. The rest of what you are looking for this island no longer has.”

“So we have to leave right now?”

“Oh, I expect you should go to that temple. Just in case. I expect it might be a piece of your story worth revisiting by now. That won’t take you very long. But after that, I need you to get on your way. I have enough problems with tidal waves and freak storms without you bringing down sea dragons and horrors of the deep to our docks.”

Marco nodded. He didn’t know that any of what the old woman said was actually how it worked, but it seemed plausible enough that he didn’t feel like he could argue. Worse, there were some things she had said that he knew were right. Whatever he had hoped to find on this island during this visit, he wouldn’t find. Maybe it hadn’t been a mistake to come here, but his real story wasn’t here. It was somewhere else.

Considering the team’s stats and the fact that there were far more roads crisscrossing the island than before, they made excellent time towards the temple. On the way, they talked.

“Something that woman said has me thinking. Look at this.” Elisa shoved a piece of paper into Marco’s hands. “This is something I translated from the notebook. Not all of it is sure to be accurate, but it should be something close to that.”