He was back in the hotel room with the four scrolls laid out in front of him.
Biolumine and Parasphlen were both staring at them with unmistakable interest. For once Veneri did not bother pretending to be composed. He was excited. He picked up the scrolls one by one, examining the seals, then set them back down with a grin.
"Sonic Speed and Glide Flight. Those two are mine. I have no need for Diamond Strength and Endless Stamina. My bloodline's stronger than those Techniques already."
Parasphlen hovered above him.
"Then who are you giving them to?"
Veneri didn't even hesitate.
"Vienna."
He glanced up and saw the exact same reaction on their faces. Vienna was not a throwaway name to any of them. He rested an elbow on the arm of the chair and looked at the two Supreme Class scrolls again.
"Vienna's always wanted to be a knight. She just couldn't because of her Bane. Extreme Fatigue. Her strength and stamina are too low. The Techniques should help. It can't erase it, but they should push back on it far enough to live a normal life."
Vienna had been there in the years when he was seventeen through twenty, roaming the Fallen Bridge with his army of three hundred, Insignia. Vienna had been the cook, though calling her "just" the cook had always been absurd. She was technically a knight yes, but her body had always betrayed her before her spirit could. She was weak, frail and always tired. Extreme Fatigue had made the battlefield nearly impossible for her and yet somehow she still found her place by turning towards the one thing she could do better than most people in the army.
Her Boon had made her meals exceptional. She had become the saint of the army without ever asking for the title. Everyone in Insignia loved her because she kept them fed, comforted and alive in ways they didn't always have the words to thank her for. Veneri helped her often. Vienna always tried to keep up with everyone else, and everyone else had always quietly adjusted the pace around her without making her feel weak for needing it. That was the thing about her. She didn't fight at the front but she held everyone together from somewhere behind the line where most people never looked.
Then there was Annabelle. He had helped Vienna give birth to her.
That was not a memory he threw around casually. It had been one of the few times in his life when worry had nearly taken over his entire body. Extreme Fatigue had nearly killed her during the delivery. It had been one of those long, tense, ugly moments where everything came down to whether the body would hold long enough for the child to arrive safely.
And somehow she had. She lived long enough to hold Annabelle.
"Vienna's the glue of Insignia. She doesn't fight much but everyone loves her. She kept the whole army together without needing a blade in her hand. So when I saw those two scrolls, I thought of her immediately."
There was a reason for that. They both understood that this wasn't a random act of generosity. It was how Veneri remembered people. Once someone mattered to him, they always did matter, even if centuries passed and the world changed around them. He looked down at the scrolls again, then smiled.
"I'll give them to her when we meet again."
Parasphlen floated in a lazy circle near the ceiling.
"And when's that likely to be?"
He gave a faint shrug.
"Could be centuries. If my daughters take their time reaching the Immortal Anchor with the Obsidian Runic Spire, so be it. I'll wait."
He slid the scrolls together and set them carefully aside, already deciding how he'd handle the distribution later. Sonic Speed and Glide Flight were his. Diamond Strength and Endless Stamina would go to Vienna.
"Tomorrow we leave."
Biolumine gave him a skeptical look.
"Why not just let me turn into a manta ray and fly above it?"
Veneri leaned back and put one hand behind his head.
"Because there's no need to rush. We don't know enough about the Immortal Anchor yet. We also don't know about Cornvelia Ocean yet. If Agnar has a ship, then we use the ship. That's the safe route. Also, I don't want to reveal how strong I am yet."
That got a reaction out of both of them.
"If I fly over the ocean on a manta ray with you and show off too early, people will start asking questions. I've already had enough of people staring at me like I owe them an explanation just because of how good-looking I am."
Biolumine gave him a long look, then finally let out a sigh.
"You mean you don't want to attract more trouble than you already have."
"That too."
Veneri folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. He could already imagine the look on her face when he handed over those two scrolls. She would probably protest at first and say he shouldn't have bothered. She would then complain that someone else needed them more. Then she'd realize he meant it and that would probably make her emotional. He could hear her voice already, scolding him for spending money or effort on her while pretending she wasn't deeply grateful.
He'd wait centuries if he had to. He had done worse for less. And tomorrow, the voyage would begin.
-------
The next morning, Cornvelia left the harbor. The whole departure somehow made the city feel smaller behind them. People along the dock waved as the great ship pulled away from the coast.
For a moment Veneri just stood there looking over the rail, feeling that rare thing settle in his chest again. He felt at peace.
He had already fused the Glide Flight and Sonic Speed scrolls by then. The fusion settling into a single new Technique called Sonic Glide Flight. He'd tried it once before they fully docked and had immediately understood why he wanted it in the first place. He smiled to himself at the memory while the ship finally left the coastline, then turned and started exploring Cornvelia properly.
Inside, the ship was even more ridiculous than it had looked from the harbor. Veneri still felt like he hadn't seen everything even though he was given a tour. There were observation lounges where passengers sat reading or staring at the water like they were trying to solve their own thoughts. There were recreation rooms with games, private nooks and quiet sitting areas. There were dining halls with staff moving calmly between tables and every so often he'd pass a corridor that branched down toward lower sections where crew and specialized staff worked out of sight.
Biolumine followed him for most of it, occasionally hopping up onto a bench or a low ledge just to keep her view of the world unobstructed. Since she was still in cat form, people kept looking at her, then looking at him and finally deciding not to ask anything. That suited him perfectly.
His first stop after breakfast was the open deck.
The upper observation levels were already active but not crowded. A few travelers leaned on the railings and talked quietly. A small group nearby was drinking tea. Someone was sketching the horizon. One child was trying and failing to convince a parent that the clouds were "obviously sea dragons." Veneri stood at the rail for a while. The ocean air was clean. It was strange, after a century of war, to be standing on a moving vessel and not feel threatened by the world. He could almost forget what he had become used to.
Then he went looking for food. That turned out to be a very good decision.
Cornvelia's dining system was divided cleanly between public, mid-tier, and private service. Because Agnar had clearly paid for enough to make him comfortable, Veneri had access to a level of service that bordered on absurd. Breakfast was already being served when he arrived. The staff greeted him with politeness and he selected a table near a window where he could see the waves without being blinded by sunlight. Biolumine curled up beneath the chair after being given a dish of water and a little seafood from a very wise attendant who had immediately understood that ignoring the giant white cat would be a mistake.
Veneri had tea, fruit, bread and a plate of spiced fish that was so fresh it probably still resented being cooked. That's when he remembered that he couldn't eat seafood. It was tasteless to him, even though it had spices on it. Still, he enjoyed desserts. There was no war camp schedule here. It was the sort of morning that would have felt boring to the version of himself who had first arrived at the Immortal Anchor. Now it felt like a gift. After breakfast, he wandered again.
He checked the lounges, the reading spaces and the upper promenade where passengers could walk in circles while pretending it was exercise. He visited one of the private refresh halls and decided the ship's water system was probably overengineered in the best possible way. There were quiet alcoves with ocean-view benches, little decorative gardens and side corridors marked for crew traffic only that he politely did not invade. By mid morning, he had already settled into the rhythm of ship life. There was something almost soothing about the routine. At one point he passed a lounge with a few fellow passengers in it and ended up drifting into a casual conversation with a merchant family from one of the port cities. They asked where he was from but he gave a vague answer. They asked what he did and he gave an even vaguer one. The conversation stayed pleasant. No one pushed further. Nobody needed to know the full story of the man sitting across from them.
Before midday, he went to look at the ship's training deck.
Any ship large enough to cross dangerous seas would have some sort of practice or exercise space and Cornvelia was no exception. The deck he found wasn't huge but it was clean, open and equipped with a few basic training implements for guests who wanted to stretch or keep their body in shape during the voyage. He didn't join anyone there, not this time. He just watched for a few minutes, then tried a little Sonic Glide Flight in the empty space above one side of the deck to test how it would behave in a controlled environment.
It worked beautifully.
It was fast, responsive, light on output and smoother than he had expected. He was already thinking of ways to refine it when he stopped himself and laughed under his breath. Even on a cruise ship, he was still itching to improve himself. Flying without any need of using Mystic Circles was new for him.
The rest of the day stayed like that. He explored, ate, sat, looked out over the water and occasionally watched the crew go through their routines. The ship had a steady heartbeat of its own: staff carrying dishes, sailors adjusting lines, passengers moving from one area to another, merfolk swimming in and out of their sections whenever navigational checks were needed. Eunecia appeared once in the afternoon while he was near the observation lounge and gave him a brief, professional check-in that lasted all of thirty seconds before she moved on to the next task, though she did pause long enough to smile at him a little too warmly when she left. Veneri noticed. He just didn't make a thing of it.
The sky gradually shifted from bright morning to a softer afternoon blue and by the time evening started leaning into the horizon, Cornvelia had become exactly what he'd hoped for. It was normal. For someone like him, that was probably the rarest thing in the world.
He stood on the deck at sunset with Biolumine beside him and looked out across the sea as the light turned gold on the water. The air had a scent of salt, wood and dinner from the kitchens below. Somewhere behind them, people were laughing. Somewhere below, the crew was doing their work. The day had passed without incident.
This, he thought, was good. It was a normal day.
Which, for him, was almost unsettling enough to be funny. But of course, like all sea voyage movies, there was bound to have a case.