Chapter 94: The Long Way
Some part of him considered killing himself right there on the pier as he watched the ship sail off into the distance. A quick reset would definitely be faster than waiting around to catch the next ship, he told himself. Still, he resisted, grinding his teeth in frustration as he stormed his way back down the docks to get a drink in the tiny, overpriced tavern.
“Miss your ship?” the barkeep asked as he poured Simon a pint. “The view from up top is good, but maybe not that good.”
“It’s fine,” Simon grumbled. “Now you get a paying customer, and I get a week to enjoy it.”
“A week?” The old man laughed, walking off to chat with some of the locals at the other end of the bar. “At least!”
Simon ignored the man. Instead, he kicked himself for his cockiness. He’d been so sure that he’d been in Helades head about this that he’d walked straight to the damn arch that had taken him to the owl bear level, and there he’d found nothing but a throne room that had long since been picked clean of anything of value, and evidence that someone occasionally used it as a sheep pen. He’d spend hours scouring the grounds and other nearby buildings, looking for an arch that contained a portal.
It was only when he’d walked outside and seen the ship raising its sails that he realized how long his wild goose chase had taken. A quick run down the mountain, which resulted in a close call at one of the sharper corners on the path, got him down the cliffside in ten minutes instead of the hour it had taken him to hike up it, and he arrived at the pier just a few minutes too late.
Even as he watched the thing lumber toward the mouth of the harbor, he was sure he could have made it with the judicious use of force magic. He also knew that wouldn’t have ended well. At night, he might have risked it, but in broad daylight? Well, there was no way people would miss that.
So, instead, he was stuck waiting for the next ship, whenever that was, but he had no idea what he would do from there. All he knew now was that the portal wasn’t here, so it was either at his destination or on the ship he’d just been on. The ship seemed to be the more likely choice, of course, but the world was a big place. He might never catch the ship again.
“Does that mean I’m stuck here the rest of my life?” he muttered to himself.