The Erratum

In the morning, Skadi had finally returned.

However, she didn’t come from where they expected her the most — the skies. Rather, she emerged from the shore, walking from the direction where the people of the Mirage Island were at.

Once she arrived at the camp, she instantly gathered the crew.

"Alright, I’ve learned a couple of things from testing this island.."

Her tone was serious as she spoke.

"First, I can’t simply fly out of the island as a storm is still brewing around it. Additionally, once I enter the storm, it always brings me back to the direction that we entered it from."

"Second, I tried flying to the core of the jungle and I succeeded. However, I didn’t reach the ’core’ of the island. Instead, I found myself back to the shore of the Mirage People.."

"Lastly, the island seems to be in the shape of a perfect circle, or.. What seems to be an interpretation of a perfect circle. It has the shape, yes, however, upon inspecting further, there are multiple flaws in its shape."

Skadi raised her finger and drew on the sand below, creating a perfect circle to the best of her abilities.

She then created the cardinal directions to each side of the circle. Pointing to the east, the wind created a small, unnoticeable bump.

"For example, in the eastern side of the island, at least from what I can tell, is an off-angle land that is covered with sand and is hidden by the waves. It is quite small and I’ve tried to reach it but it didn’t seem significant enough at the time."

"However, how can we tell the cardinal directions from this island?"

Skadi brought out a compass from her coat. Looking at it, the needle spun rapidly, undetermined which direction is which.

"Of course, there is the existence of the sun, but the nature of the island cannot be trusted. After all, we are surrounded by a storm, so how would there be clear skies and a sun on this island? If you look in that direction, the sun is rising. But how would that be possible if there should’ve been dark clouds around us."

"But disregarding that, I’ve noticed that from this little bump right here–" Skadi pointed to the circle below, "-that the sun rises exactly in its direction."

"Therefore, if we go with the island’s logic, then this should be east, this is west, and this is north and south.." Skadi pointed to the respective directions.

Elishia squinted her eyes, unsure of what Skadi was saying.

"But what does this mean, Captain?"

Skadi looked at Elishia, her expression remaining composed.

"That there is something East.. Whatever this.. is pointing to, there is something out there. It can’t have been a coincidence. It’s so subtle to be noticed but in a place such as this — where imitations are meant to be perfect yet flawed, this could be our key to learning more about the island."

Galkan then opened his mouth and raised his concern.

"So are you saying that the way inside the island is to leave it?"

Skadi nodded.

"It sounds crazy. Let’s do it."

Galkan revealed a wide smile.

The crew collectively agreed.

"We have nothing to specifically solve.. We’d just be finding nonexistent needles in a haystack.." Jones expressed.

"I have no objections to this." Reid said casually.

"Seems like we’ll be back at the sea then." Elishia enthusiastically stated.

Hearing all of their opinions, Cetas couldn’t help but speak too.

"I’m coming too!"

With that, Skadi was satisfied.

"Alright then! Let’s go back to the ship!"

*

The sun was still rising from the east, barely leaving the seas in the distance.

It was a good thing though, they had a clear direction as to where they would go.

But first, Skadi ordered Galkan to steer the sheep to where the bump in the island was.

It only took them a couple of moments to reach and once they did, Cetas observed the bump that Skadi stated.

The bump was as she described.

It was only a foot or two in length, covered in the waves of the seas. If one didn’t know about the shape of the island then they wouldn’t have noticed such an oddity.

Thankfully, Skadi could fly and see things from a bird’s eye perspective

After confirming their location, Galkan steered the ship to the direction of the rising sun.

"Ready yourselves!"

Skadi used the winds to push the sails forward but not fully as not all the sails were raised.

The ship went forward with considerable speeds but not too fast to let them get to their destination quickly.

They were going slower so that any details could not be missed.

Soon, they were distances away from the island.

The skies turned darker and the sun seemed to be swallowed by the dark clouds.

"Be wary of mirages, they might show up soon. Stay close to each other." Skadi warned.

With that, the crew stuck close on the main deck, watching for Mirages to pop up.

As the world got darker, rain started to pour down from above.

A storm was brewing.

Skadi casted a veil around the ship, protecting her crewmembers from the rain.

Sooner or later, lightning cracked from the skies, illuminating the dark seas with its radiance.

Surprisingly though, the waves remained calm — similar to how it did when they first approached the Mirage Island.

"The storm really is a fake.." Elishia stated as she looked up.

She smirked and found the situation amusing.

"Don’t let your guard down. We aren’t certain if another mirage or a ghost would show up. Battling on the ground was already hard enough, whose to say we can handle one in the ship?" Reid kept his voice stoic.

"Right.."

Elishia kept her mouth shut.

As the ship journeyed through the dim seas, the crew remained cautious.

Minutes passed and then hours, and finally, something seemed to change.

"Something’s up ahead!" Skadi, standing on the crow’s nest, yelled down on the crew.

Although it was dark, she could still sense a presence distances in front of the ship.

"That’s.."

Standing in the middle of the calm seas was a humanoid figure.. Not made out of flesh no, but of winds.

It looked almost illusory but if one focused their eyes, they could see the rotating winds surrounding the figure’s body.

"A ghost."

This one was vastly different from the one that they encountered. It seems like this ghost in particular has an attunement with winds, similar to Skadi!

"So even a Pathfinder-ranked Zeal Essence can conjure Mirages that harness Zeal.."

Skadi grinned, "How interesting."

"Captain! How would we handle it?!" Elishia screamed from below.

"Don’t worry.. I’ve got this."

Unfortunately for this particular Mirage, it just had to be Winds that it was attuned to.

For Zealots that are attuned to the Winds or are using Elemental Zeal aligned with Winds, Skadi was the worst match for them.

It wasn’t because she had a counter or anything.

She was just better.

Skadi flicked her wrist, moving the wind-covered mirage high up in the air. Then, she conjured a cyclone far above, creating a disturbance in the clouds.

Afterwards, water flew from the sea, shaping up to be tendrils that headed towards the wind-covered mirage.

Soon, the water tendrils carried by the winds pierced the air that covered the mirage.

Afterwards, the water’s formation collapsed.

Skadi knew that she couldn’t fell the ghost directly. However, the existence of the winds covering it gave her an opportunity.

Utilizing the water to break control of the mirage’s control of the winds, gave Skadi full manipulation!

If she couldn’t kill it then she might as well throw it away!

So, using the force of her Elemental Zeal, Skadi used the winds of the mirage and chucked it away in the far distance.

Skadi already knew how it stood on the sea! It used the tension between the winds and the water to keep itself afloat, albeit not in perfect mastery.

By piercing several points of winds around the ghost, it couldn’t harness its power anymore! That is because oftentimes, novice or amateur users of the winds tend to have 1 to 3 critical points in their Zeal.

This is where their winds originate from!

In simple terms, they create little reservoirs of wind to use!

Skadi doesn’t do this! She merely uses the natural wind and air around here as a source!

Thus, when Skadi pierced its critical points and made it lose control of its own element, she was sure that it could no longer stay above the water.

So even though it was only a Mirage — a ghost — it still wouldn’t be able to travel without its powers.

It fell under the water, unable to go any further!

To a Master of the Winds, even a Mirage conjured by a Pathfinder’s Zeal Essence could be of no match!

And with that, the encounter with the ghost was immediately taken care of!