Oops, I forgot to properly schedule this post and it didn’t go through. Apologies for the short delay
“While you were off flirting with nobility, I did some hard work here on the island,” Mana proclaimed, after coming up from the water. She quickly put a towel over her shoulders. “It’s freezing down there, I’m not enjoying this.”
“You don’t have a lot to show for that hard work.”
She smirked. “That’s where you’re wrong, look at this.” She pulled out the quill of Jerech Sez from underneath her robe, still pristinely dry. “I figured out the perfect way to use this thing.”
“Enlighten me.”
“It can lead me to lost items.” She took Cobal’s scarf from around his neck and tossed it onto a nearby branch. “Watch this.”
She kneeled down with the quill and closed her eyes for a few seconds before tracing the word “scarf”. After finishing the last stroke, the letters popped out of the ground and started hovering in the direction of Cobal’s scarf.
“So what’s the point in inventing that diving bell then?” Cobal sat down, frustrated.
“Well, it seems that this sort of magic only really works at very short distances. If you don’t remember which room you left your car keys in it’s ideal, but if you dropped your wallet somewhere on your way home, you’ll probably be out of luck.”
“And that’s where the diving bell comes in?”
Mana nodded. “Exactly. We’ve already divided the search area into grinds and they seem like a pretty solid baseline to try out the quill. If the key is within range, the words should head in that direction. And since we have a dry spot underwater to write on, it will actually work. I’ve tested it and the quill doesn’t work underwater but it does work on the inside of the diving bell.”
Cobal smiled. “This is huge, this should make the search much easier.”
Mana nodded. “The only two hurdles are the fact that the search area could be as large as, well, everywhere, and the fact that I’m the only one who can use this quill and it takes quite a bit of energy for me to do so repeatedly.”
“Hmm, well at least the others can continue clearing other spots while you recover.”
“That’s true.”
Mana sighed. “Getting married huh?”
“Jealous?”
“A little bit. I was never a very social person in my old life.”
“You? I can’t imagine that,” Cobal said sarcastically.
“Shut it.” She smiled wryly. “I remember going on a date or two and just feeling completely out of my element. But marriage is definitely a bit different in my world. Status didn’t play much of a role where I’m from. You would just find someone you liked to spend time with and grow closer over time.”
Cobal thought of Salandra. “That sounds nicer than a political marriage.”
Mana nodded. “It does.”
They sat in silence for a while, staring at the Tidesetter as it slowly moved the diving bell along the seafloor. “Well they seem like nice people at least.”
“They are, especially considering our history with the Vadier family.”
“What history?”
Cobal looked around to see if there were any people listening in. This wasn’t a secret, but it was also something he shouldn’t loudly talk about too much. “Let me talk to you a little bit about the history between our families.” He sat forward and interlocked his fingers before starting his story.
“When my grandfather was still young, there was talk of a marriage between our families as well. Things weren’t nearly as friendly as they have been in the past two decades or so, we’ve gradually built up to that. My family wanted the resources that were richly available to the Vadiers, but Sagrath Vadier, the lord at the time, wanted nothing to do with us. His son however was very interested in my great-aunt, Skye Vadier. They were around the same age and she was only second in line to the throne, so a political marriage between the two was very much possible. They seemed to be pretty close already and the young Vadier was going to ask for her hand in marriage as soon as he came of age. Unfortunately, my great-grandparents had a different plan. Skye was instead used to strengthen relationships with a region that was still separate from Blueyerd back then, absorbing it into the kingdom. That’s the part of the country that Lord Meduer is from. Bitter from the sudden change, the Vadiers closed off from the kingdom for years, taxing any travelers and traders very high, which in turn caused the Blueyerd family to become more and more fed up with them. As generations passed, things became less tense, but it took quite a while.”
“Sounds almost like a story, except in a story the two would elope and live together happily ever after.”
“Unfortunately life isn’t always like the stories we tell around the fire.”
Mana nodded. “But sometimes it is. Perhaps you can get the happiness that your ancestors failed to procure.”
Cobal smiled. “You have a way with words.”
“I do what I can.” She got up. “I think I’ve recovered enough to go on another dive, want to come along?”
Cobal nodded. “Let’s do it, I want to see your magic in action.
The duo swam to the Tidesetter where they informed the crew that they’d be diving with the next round. Mana supplying air from above helped the diving bell stay useful longer, but it also tired Mana out, so sometimes they would just have to do with natural air supply. Two of the crewmembers swam back up not long later and tapped out for Mana and Cobal. Swimming still took some effort for Cobal since the shoulder wound he received all the way back when they were traveling to Milinia still stiffened his movements somewhat. There was a scar where the fiery creature had bitten him. He would one day pay back that damned woman for sending that lion after them. They never confirmed that it was her work, but there really was no other explanation since she also summoned the one in Milinia proper. But it wasn’t bad enough to stop him from moving, it’s just that the cold water seemed to make him feel less at ease. He came back up under the diving bell, seeing the inside for the first time. It was scarily dark down there until Mana summoned some light through the quill’s magic. She simply drew a strange looking flame that stayed in place and lit up the inside ever so slightly. “Now, watch this,” she said. She drew the words Wizard key on the inside of the bell. The words started swirling around the inside, moving in strange patterns until they seemed to detect something. They stopped to the left of where Cobal was treading water. “That’s easy, it just sends you in the right direction?”
Mana shook her head. “This is the first time it seems to be certain where to go. I think we might be close.” She smiled. “Maybe we get to go home before the winter after all.”
They swam back up and instructed the Tidesetter to move closer to where the letters led. They continued this process several times until Mana was completely exhausted and the sun was going down. “Should we continue tomorrow?” Eliana asked. She’d come from the camp to the ship to check on progress.
“I’ll dive one more time before the sun goes down, I feel like we’re too close to stop now.” Cobal said.
“Alright, but be careful, it’s definitely harder to see down there.” Mana said as she plopped down on the deck of the ship. “I’m exhausted, so I’m staying up here.”
“I’ll be back shortly.” Cobal dove back down to the diving bell that was floating about a meter above the seafloor. It regularly bumped into things as it seemed that part of this sea was once part of the island itself, and the underwater jungle made it hard to properly search. Despite this, it didn’t take long for Cobal to spot something that seemed out of order. Just as the sun was disappearing, the last few rays of light hit upon something shining on the seafloor. Hidden between the foliage was a strange object, about the length of Cobal’s forearm, that seemed to be made out of solid gold. It didn’t look like a regular key, but even if it wasn’t what they were looking for, it was definitely something worth grabbing, so Cobal did just that. As he took hold of the strange object he felt a weird sensation go through his body. He looked up at the surface above him and was surprised to see a stranger’s face right in front of his own. This stranger had no eyes in their eye-sockets but instead several colorful gems were floating around their head, moving in strange patterns. The visage grinned at him before disappearing into nothingness. Terrified by what had just occurred, Cobal rushed back to the surface and climbed onto the Tidesetter with the help of Jarrod.
“That was a scare and a half,” Cobal said, panting on his back.
“What happened?” Eliana asked.
“Found a strange object that might be the key, then saw someone’s face stare at me right as I grabbed it. Then it disappeared and I swam up here as quickly as possible.”
“A strange face?”
Cobal nodded. “It had no eyes, but gemstones flying around it instead.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Eliana said. She looked at Mana who also shook her head. “Show me what you’ve found though.”
Cobal held up the strange object that he had found and showed it to the others.
“At the very least that looks expensive, but I don’t know if it’s a key,” Eliana said, holding it up and inspecting it from different angles. She gave it to Mana.
“I think it might be what we are looking for. If the bell pointed in this direction and this is what you found here, then it might be some sort of strange magical key. Either way, mark the location where we are on your map and let’s call it there for the day. If this isn’t what we want it to be, we can just come back here tomorrow.”
Eliana nodded and walked over to her quarters where the map was located. The Tidesetter then lifted its anchor and sailed back to camp.
Opal Kaharis 