And so, time passed.
It was smooth sailing from then on, in the most literal manner. There were no rough storms, there were no creatures that needed to be fought off, no accidents had occured on ship, and the captured crew below remained quiet too. Everything had gone just as perfectly as one could imagine.
This did cause Azdin some worry, with even Hugo feeling a bit more anxious than usual. If no nightmare or noble creature had been spotted, then that could only mean a terrifyingly powerful one was lurking around somewhere. When it would appear was only a matter of time.
Funnily enough, Lotte was the one to doubt it's existence.
"It'll be fine. Even if it does exist, it surely wouldn't take an interest in us. It would be attracted to a much larger populace.. like a floating city.."
She still held some grudges about their destination it seemed, but she didn't act on it.
That wasn't the only worrying thing though. It wasn't just sea creatures that had seemingly disappeared, but also sailing ships too. Hugo had seen some in the past from the eyes of his crow, but every passing day they seemed to grow fewer and fewer in number.
If they hadn't been destroyed, then it would only make sense that they were all fleeing from something.. but apparently it wasn't dangerous enough to stir Lottes concern.
Anyway, it wasn't like they could do anything about it so there was no point in worrying. All they could do was pray that they would make it to their destination safely. It wasn't like there was nothing at all to do on the ship. Of course, the deck needed cleaning.. food needed to be rationed.
Food.. Azdin could still remember being forced to eat that terribly stale bread. Before that he got to enjoy meat although poorly seasoned, it was far better then that sad excuse of a meal.
As for now? He got to try a new delicacy.
Fish!
Without thinking too much, he shoved a fork right into it's grilled body, picking it up and taking a huge bite out of it at once. That would quickly prove to be a mistake.
Feeling something sharp poke against the roof of his mouth, he dropped the fork, and coughed up his food in pain.
Sighing, Hugo looked at him with pity,
"You're supposed to mind the bones first."
"Couldn't you have told me that before I ate??"
It wasn't just that, Azdin had also been studying. Although he remembered how to speak the most common language, embarrassingly enough he couldn't even read nor write.
So he ended up spending most of his time in the captain's quarters studying, sometimes being helped by Hugo and Lotte, while also absorbing common information about the world from the few books scattered about. Not just things about the path of ascension, but also more handy knowledge like fishing, or how a ship worked.
"Ah, now that i think about it.. whose steering the ship?"
The question suddenly came to him one day while he was reading. As the one who had lead the charge and earned the support of the people, he had naturally assumed the role of captain. But.. he was terribly unqualified.
So one day he went to go check who was behind its wheel.. just to find it empty all day. Completely rattled, he went and asked Hugo in a panic.
To his utter horror, he replied,
"It's her.. ya know."
He understood him right away.
It was the brutish Awakened women who had yet to reveal her name. Even after all this time she didn't bother to interact with them, keeping things as bare as possible. Because of that they didn't know much, other then the fact she was incredibly lazy. She slept in most of the day, so her being the one behind the wheel was a terrible shock.
But she was an ally, so it had to be fine.. right??
There were very specific set of skills one needed to be able to navigate the seas, and conversely sail it. Because of that, not just anyone could sail.
Even with ship handling knowledge, just picking a direction, and sailing wasn't enough if you wanted to get to somewhere quickly. This realms geography was strange, and plotting it accurately on a paper map was impossible, so even those were unreliable. All the ones in the captain's quarters were just for estimates.
Azdin had read in one of the many books:
"In the distant past, the gods were known to live amongst humans. And occasionally, to those who earned their favour, they could even receive their blessing. Whether it be unique powers, or knowledge of peculiar skills."
Although that number had vastly dwindled down in the present day, it was still a rare occurrence here and there.
"In particular, the storm god was fond of those with an adventurous spirit. So to those who wanted to travel across her realm with sincerity, and prayed to her earnestly, she granted them her blessing. This gives the chosen the ability to navigate her seas by reading the stars."
The twilight sea was the storm gods realm. As such, it embodied many of her epithets such as oceans, depths and stars which explained much of the weird phenomena that Azdin had come to know. The inconsistent day and night cycles being just one of them.
However, the one most people held the most reverence for, was her epithet as the goddess of guidance. It was only because of her guidance that allowed one to navigate her vast realm, it was the reason why any kind of large society was able to form here. And so people came to respect it over them all.
It was a big reason why the war empire had struggled to get a foothold here too. They lacked such blessings, and they were far too arrogant pray to another god, so their ability to navigate the seas here was terrible.
Studying aside, that wasn't all Azdin had been up to.
Name: Azdin
True Name: —
Rank: Awakened
Soul Fragments: [1154/2000]
Attributes: [Descendent], [Brilliance]
Memories: [Azure Saber], [Azure Saber], [Azure Saber], [Pierce Spear], [Fierce Edge], [Jack 2nd], [Traveler Wear], [Archbow]
Aspect: —
Flaw: [Selfless Brand]
Ever since that little accident all those nights ago, Azdin promised to check on his runes daily. Quite a few things had changed in that time.
To his and everyone else's pleasure, Roswell had been gathering a lot of resources from all of his errands for the war empire. Such as a light amount of treasure, wood, and plenty of soul shards. Hundreds of them, varying between dormant all the way to ascendent in quality. Of course, Azdin used a few to fix his crumbling soul core.. and then helped himself to a little more to recover the fragments he had lost. He wanted to stop there, but..
"Keep going, I'll use some too."
Hugo egged him on.
"I can't. All these shards.. how much life did they take to get it all?"
To that, he just snapped.
"Some of these probably came from the corrupted. Are you gonna say you feel pity for those things too?"
Azdin had yet to encounter one, but if they were like anything the books described then there was no salvation to be found in them. They were the only things he'd be comfortable with killing.
With a heavy heart, he proceeded with the harvesting. Once they had gotten halfway through the collection, his current Soul fragment count was the result.
There were some mundane people who wanted in, but Hugo chased them off before they could do anything. Lotte did go through it a bit too, but there was nothing there that she fancied, and the nameless awakened didn't seem too interested in it as well.
So on Azdin's suggestion, they'd agreed to split a small share of the winnings with the people when they reached land. To support them until they got back home.
Now, as for his memories.
Memory: Pierce Spear
Memory Rank: Ascendent
Memory Type: Weapon
Tier: II
Memory description: [A reliable spear made from a mystical alloy.]
——
Memory: Fierce Edge
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Weapon
Tier: II
Memory Description: [A trusty greatsword.]
——
Memory: Jack 2nd
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Weapon
Tier: I
Memory Description: ["My baby.. my beautiful baby.. he's ruined!!!"
Gazing down at the shattered weapon, Drewey patted down on his crying friends shoulder.
"Your alive atleast. You can always get another."]
——
Memory: Traveller Wear
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Armour
Tier: I
Memory Description: [Light weight, but durable. Could save you in a pinch.]
——
Memory: Archbow
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Weapon
Tier: I
Memory Description: [Driven to madness by a star, he threw himself into the abyss.]
——
Azdin had tried to make more memories using the weapons of the defeated Awakened. While doing that, he experimented a little with the surplus of shards and made some new discoveries.
As it turned out, the tier of a memory was dependent on how many shards were infused into the object. The number didn't do too much for it's strength though, the real benefit appeared to be in its enchantments. He still hadn't figured out how to make those yet, so there was no real point at the minute.
He had also discovered a new type of memory, armour. It was something he made on a whim, but he was still surprised that it actually worked.
"I wonder how many more types there are?"
That wasn't where the changes in his memories ended though. The real surprises were in the descriptions. Before, the sorcery would just give plain descriptions of either what is was made from, or judged it's quality.
But in the case of [Jack 2nd], the weapon that belonged to the awakened that almost killed Hugo, it appeared to describe.. a story?
"It looks like a conversation between it's former owner and.. Drewey? Wasn't that Roswells son?"
There was another, even stranger case though. [Archbow], a crossbow that belonged to the first Awakened who died. The one killed by Lotte.
The weapon itself wasn't anything too special, but it's description was nothing but eerie.
"Is it describing how he died?"
If he remembered correctly, he had fallen to his death. Was that what throwing himself into the abyss meant? Then what about the star?
"Reasonably it could only be Lotte. This thing has a unique taste in poetry."
She was obviously keeping her own fare share of secrets, just what was the truth behind her method? Was she really a mundane like she claimed?
Those were all things she was dead set on not revealing, so asking her wouldn't help. It wasn't like he absolutely had to know anyway, very soon they would go their separate ways.
Next on his list.. was his flaw.
Flaw: [Selfless Brand]
Flaw descriptions: [Others may push their burdens onto you.]
To which he got brutally scolded for, he told Hugo about it right away. But even with his insight it wasn't a flaw that they really understood until the first couple of nights had passed.
At first he suffered from a random nightmare every night, but then he'd suddenly feel pain that would fade in and out without end, each time in a different part of his body. Sometimes he would even feel a sudden surge of anxiety that would flash for a few moments. Lucky for them, there was an old doctor among the people Roswell had held hostage so he had a check up with him. But even he couldn't find anything wrong, so the only conclusion left was that everything was of mystical nature.
In other words, his flaw.
If others were scared of the dark and believed in him, he would feel their fear. If others were grievously wounded and believed he would save them, their pain would be something he would behold.
It really was a curse. One that could become more potent and extreme the more famous and renown he became.
He didn't feel much at the minute, as everything was bearable and only considered mild discomfort by an Awakeneds standards. Once they all parted ways it should all end. As long as he didn't have too many expectations put on him, he would be fine.
And so the days continued to pass by quietly..
Then soon enough, civilization finally appeared in sight.