Once they were well settled and on their way, Emi took the time to think about how quickly her plans had changed. One minute she’d been planning to sail for warmer weather, the next she was on her way northwest to a new place. She still wasn’t sure why this sword and demon gate were such a big deal, but as long as her passengers paid, it didn’t really matter that much to her. Speaking of whom, her passengers were certainly out of the ordinary.

She glanced at the floating skull out of the corner of her eye and suppressed a shudder. As interesting as his disassembly may have been, it was still a little disturbing. She had thought the weight of the skeleton would slow them dramatically. After all, just getting on the small catamaran had been an exercise in extreme caution to keep from capsizing. Still pondering her unusual passengers, her glance fell over Sorian. He seemed tired in a way that no amount of rest could cure. Based on the color of his beard and lack of hair, she judged him to be an older man. Perhaps that was the reason behind his tired demeanor: he was just old and tired the way those that live longer than they expect to get tired.

Then there was Leoric. Much younger than Sorian, he seemed to be around her age. She watched him for a moment. Controlling the wind through magic was an ability she’d only ever heard of in the ancient stories of times long past. Her great grandfather had told stories of people who could pull up wind out of dead calm. It was awe-inspiring to see such a feat in person. At first she had been wary about human-controlled wind, but as the days went by and Leoric kept them at the speedy pace, she came to appreciate it quite a bit. It was many times better than being at the mercy of nature. She turned her eyes forward again, keeping a steady hand on the wheel. Between Wavedancer’s light design and Leoric’s steady control of the wind, they were making better time than she’d ever dreamed.

Before she realized it, they had caught up to and were passing the much larger yacht that had been docked beside her at the Radasanth docks. She rolled her eyes as she noticed the man relieving himself off the side of the ship. Men! Then burst into lilting laughter as a “sudden” gust of wind blew spray back up into the man’s face. She doubted that would go over well and steered a bit further away from the yacht. You could never tell how much range someone’s magic abilities had and she didn’t want to be too close should he figure out the source of the sudden updraft.

Once they were safely away from the yacht, she set a hold on the steering wheel and turned around to study her many maps of the Althanas. They had been among the first things she’d purchased when she found a port. Carefully she measured the distance between the corner of Corone to the coast of Alerar. There was a river that appeared to be a natural boundary between Alerar and Raiaera. At the mouth of that river lay a port city called Etherea. Further inland, a city called Ettermire was placed on the river.

A city on such a large river will have a port if we need to go further inland. Otherwise, that Etherea place is probably the best place to put them ashore.

Nodding to herself, she went back to the wheel, adjusted their course slightly, and reset the hold on the steering wheel. It would take several days to make the crossing, maybe even less than she expected with Leoric controlling the wind.

“It will be a few days before we get to the Aleraran shore,” She called out as she came out of the cockpit hut. “There’s a port city called Etherea. I’ll put you ashore there unless someone has a better suggestion.”

With the course set, there was little left to do except make sure they didn’t go off course and hope for no storms. She had plenty of food stores, so they ate well on their journey. Though for the return, she’d need to resupply in Alerar. Leoric kept the wind at their stern strong and steady. Aside from the waves, it was the smoothest sailing she’d had in a long time. At night, when he needed to sleep, she dropped the sails, set the steering wheel and let Elite’s skeletal mass act as a sea anchor to keep them from drifting off course.

As they journeyed she questioned them about Alerar and what was so special about this alleged sword. What were Demon gates? Over the course of the next few days, between Sorian and Leoric she learned quite a bit about the Demon War, the country and the various factions that ran it. The conversations had helped pass the time and before long, they came within sight of the coast and the mouth of the Glaith River.

“Land ho!” she called out. “Leoric, let up a bit. We don’t need to rush. We’ll put in at Etherea and decide from there if that is far enough or if we need to go further inland.”

The depth meter made a soft whirring noise as she flipped it on and carefully guided Wavedancer through to an empty dock space. With practiced ease, she quickly had her ship secured. Remembering how much ’Dancer had shifted with Elite’s full body on board she looked around for a different way to get him ashore.

“Sorian, Elite, let’s pull that net up directly to the dock. I think that’d be a better place for Elite to reassemble himself than my deck. Then I need to find the harbormaster and find out how much it will cost to leave Wavedancer here for a bit.”

“Why would you need to do that?” Sorian asked.

“Because I’m coming with you. From the sound of everything you guys told me over the last few days, this is something that needs to be dealt with and I want to help.”