Since the Black Death was circling south of Rorsted Archipelago, and had set the course to pass by Tiana Port, it wouldn't take us long to reach there in the morning.
By the time I woke up, it was already 5 am, and the eastern horizon had gained its usual saffron, which signalled the dawn's arrival.
While neither of us wanted to part, both of us decided it was better to keep the development between us a secret. At least until I was strong enough to deter any possibly stupid moves our fleet's certain members might make after learning that the first mate they idolised was taken.
So, around 1 am, post midnight, I'd left Eleanor's room. Not after getting another gift from her, though, and this time, it was a sealed artifact.
...
"I will not be there to watch over you any more, so until you come back, I want you to take this. It's a sealed artifact of the Monster pathway. They're almost non-existent, so it was only after gaining a lot of merit that I was able to exchange for it. The other reason why it was also hard to obtain was because of its craftsmanship. It has only minor negative effects."
Having fixed our clothes and stuff, Eleanor opened a certain drawer in her desk, tapped open a false bottom, pulled out a key, went to the side of the desk, tapped a certain area which opened a previously unnoticeable latch, and inserted the key in the hole inside the latch to reveal a secret compartment.
From the compartment, she took out a tiny, violet coloured, translucent vial made of glass. It was about two and a half inches long, and an inch wide at the midpoint. It was shaped like a reverse hourglass, thinnest on ends, and thickest in the centre.
Holy shit, this lady is too good to me. I don't think I deserve something that precious.
"Are you sure about this? It seems too valuable for me. I... I can't just take it from you!"
Hearing this, Eleanor stared at me with a blank face. She took a step forward and put her right arm on my left shoulder.
"Li'l bro, you're not taking this from me, I'm giving it to you. And, of course, I'm not just letting you have it; I'm lending it to you. It's another precaution to make sure you don't do something stupid like last time and put yourself in too much danger. Seeing you last time, I'm not too sure about your self-preservation instincts, so I believe if you had something with monetary value that belonged to someone else, you might just act more responsible."
She tilted her head a tiny bit to her left, her lips curving slightly upwards. "And who knows, it might just turn the tides of a battle for you, and save you in a pinch. What more could I want?"
She said with a wink.
"Now, I do not want to hear any more complaints. You wish to repay me? Go do whatever you want fast, and come back to me as early as you can."
Ruffling my hair, Eleanor pulled out a chain from a different drawer in her desk. Winding it through a ring on top of the vial, she turned to me. "Look down," she said with purpose.
Nodding, I glanced at the floor between us. I saw as her booted feet came forward with grace, and she put the makeshift necklace around my neck.
Once it was clasped, I heard a snap from behind me. I could feel a sudden warmth at the back of my neck, but it was soon extinguished. Before I could ask anything, I felt Eleanor leave a peck on my neck behind the ear.
Soon, she stepped back, put her hands on her shirt-clad waist, and looked at me with a joyful face.
"You're good to go now. I left a hex, so if you ever unlatch or break it, I'll know, so you better keep it with you all the time. Re-filling doesn't require you to take it off. Just open the lid on the other side, and do it when needed."
"Yes, madam, I shall do as you say," I said to her with a bow.
Giggling, Eleanor looked left and right for a second, and pointed at one of the two chairs in her.
"Alright, sit with me for a while. I'll tell you more about it before you leave."
I nodded and sat on the third main piece of furniture in her room, a sturdy chair with a cushioned bottom and backrest. There was another such chair right beside it.
Instead of sitting down, Eleanor stood in front of me, and prompted me to shift further back into the chair. When I did, she sat sideways on my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck.
What a surprise. Not that I did not like it. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Now that she was sitting on me, she was half a head taller than me. To steady her, I wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her further into me.
Once we'd settled, she circled her fingers through my longer than average hair, and spoke with ease.
"The artifact I gave you, it's called the Lucky Weekend. What it does is, when empty, it makes the possessor mildly lucky from the moment it's worn. But that luck only lasts for sixty hours. Once the sixty hours pass, it brings exceptional bad luck to whoever it's nearest to. But if it was only that much, this would be quite worthless, right?"
I nodded in response, curious to learn more. From what I remembered of the past, this knowledge was enough to eliminate Sequence 5 and Sequence 6 of the gambler pathway as the source for this artifact.
Klein's marionette, 'Winner' Enuni, was a Winner. As a Sequence 5 beyonder of the gambler pathway, he could control his own luck, and foresee misfortunes that would plague him. This allowed him to always slip by from dangerous encounters at the closest of moments.
I wasn't too aware of Sequence 6, but from its name being Calamity Priest, it could be easily eliminated. Since the artifact had no other traits besides providing some good luck, that only left Sequence 7 as the viable answer.
Seeing me somewhat lost in a thought but still paying attention, my teacher continued her explanation.
"That is where its speciality comes in. The vial is a container, and it can be filled with certain mediums that it consumes over time to lengthen its luck-enhancing effects. This means, as long as you keep filling it up, it will keep providing you some amount of good luck. And even if it does not, you will not encounter misfortune. From what I learnt from Madam White, the artifact works exceptionally well with mercury. The moment its refilled, it provides the biggest stroke of fortune."
"I'm sensing a 'but'," I said to her. Smirking, she nodded and continued.
"But it won't provide the initial big stroke of luck unless it's filled after 90% of its contents have been consumed. And once it's filled, you can't drain its contents. And it only provides the strong good luck when it's filled to the brim. So one has no other choice but to wait 9 nine days; that is only when it consumes 90% of its mercury. In total it lasts ten days. Besides that though, it makes you hear unwanted murmurs once a day, but as long as you cogitate during, or after that time, it passes harmlessly."
I could see why the artefact would be so precious now. For something coming from arguably a Sequence 7 beyonder, it had almost no major flaws. And the one flaw it had was relatively easy to mitigate, and only worked to further improve the artifact's effects.
"So it has effectively no drawbacks... I did not expect it to be so exceptional."
Eleanor giggled at my expression.
"Look at your eyes. It's still not a very strong or power enhancing artifact. But maybe it really is that good, though, because I think it is the reason why we happened to meet. I'd just filled it that day, and lo: the one person I was planning to seek in the wide world appeared right in front of my eyes!"
She exclaimed, planting an affectionate kiss on my forehead.
"I see, so that's how it was... I was just thinking how strange of a coincidence it all would have been otherwise."
"It would have been a wonderful coincidence, though, if it could have happened even without this."
I wouldn't be too sure about that sort of case...
Hiding my unease, I nodded. Now wanting to sour the mood, I looked up at her pretty face adorned with a sweet smile, and pushed my face up invitingly.
Seeing my intent, she leaned forward and welcomed my lips to her own.
As I was, I was too weak to understand the kinds of forces that might fuel the root cause behind my appearance in this world. After all, as far as I knew, this world was all fictional.
No matter how it happened, what I need to do now is what I can do.
Parting our lips, I looked silently at my new girlfriend's beautiful, intense red eyes.
And protect what matters.
And for that I'll have to get strong fast.
...
Saluting Captain, I turned towards the port side, and went down the ladder. Hanging from the last step of the ladder, I used the ship's body to propel myself forward and jumped on the dinghy that had been lowered for me.
I put my small pack to the side, and started rowing towards the shore just about 500 metres away. The ocean was calm today, and the 9 am sun coloured the sky 'sky blue', and the boundless ocean reflected the same.
This time, Eleanor hadn't come out to bid me farewell. She had already said, and given to me everything she needed to. On top of all her love, she gave me the precious artifact around my neck, and an ink-pot filled with mercury. The mercury in the vial is supposed to last 1 week, so I would need to refill it at some point. I was careful in packing it, though; after all, it was mercury.
Not my fault the Wheel of Fortune pathway loved toxic heavy metals.
In a matter of ten minutes, I had entered the ideal area from where I stopped rowing, and sat back as the breaking waves pushed me towards the beach ahead.
Just when I reached the area where rip currents pulled things back into the ocean, I started rowing with my enhanced strength and endurance as an Instigator.
A certain song—that I couldn't stop myself from singing—came to my mind.
Row me bully boys, we're in a hurry boys,
We've got a long way to go.
And we'll sing, and we'll dance, and bid farewell to France.
Row me bully boys, row.
I'll sing you a song, its a song of the sea,
Row me bully boys, row.
And we'll sing, and we'll dance, and bid farewell to France.
Row me bully boys, row.
In a few minutes of rowing, I had reached the shore, and I didn't even break a sweat. It was late enough in the morning that the land breeze had switched into the sea breeze. Even under the late morning sun, the beach remained chill from the cool wind coming from the ocean behind me.
At 9:27, on the 21st of January, 1350, I'd reached Tiana Port.
___
Hope y'all liked today's chapter. No more fluff, we getting back into action from the next chapter.
Remember to drop some comments and power stones to make me feel good. Another chapter coming tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.