Chương 29: Goodbyes on the Shore

The coastline appeared at dawn. Ivan had spent half the voyage trying to figure out how the hell they were supposed to reach Greece now. Old maps were mostly ridiculous. The Indian Ocean had widened with new island chains cut across old shipping lanes. The Red Sea had stretched into a monster-haunted corridor, and the Suez Passage had become a fortified channel through expanded desert. Even the Mediterranean had swollen, broken by new coastlines and half-born islands no pre-System sailor had named.

Somehow, the old route still existed in pieces. From Australia, the Order of Dawn had crossed the Indian Ocean, pushed north through the Red Sea, passed the Suez Passage under ward-light, and then entered the eastern Mediterranean. They skirted the southern waters of Crete before turning toward the enlarged Hellenic coast. Ivan had followed the route on every chart Elizabeth let him touch. He still did not understand how anyone had mapped it without getting eaten, drowned, or both.

Greyport waited at the end of it, small but really useful, on a strip of Greece that had not existed before the world grew larger. Ivan stood near the bow and watched the dark line ahead become land. Cliffs came first, then rocky shore, followed by patches of green higher up. A port town sat tucked into the natural harbor. White buildings caught the early light in neat rows. Ivan found the order reassuring, although he did not trust it yet. New Europe, apparently.

Greyport had Aurora's protection, and other gods had influence farther inland. The useful part was that both Victor's and the Iron Chain's reach weakened here. Although "safety" was too large a word, Greyport would do. Behind him, the deck filled with people. The freed folk gathered near the rail in borrowed clothes, clutching whatever they'd managed to scrounge from the ship. Some talked in low voices. Others stared at the roofs and harbor stones without speaking.

Ivan watched the older man from the pens keep the child's hand locked in his. Each time the deck shifted, the man looked down before he looked toward shore. Nobody looked relaxed. They just looked ready to leave. Yara appeared beside him.

"That's Greyport. It's small and usually boring." She nodded toward the harbor.

"But after the last two weeks, boring sounds good, right?" The old maps called the nearest sea the Mediterranean. Newer maps called it the Grey Coast. Sailors apparently preferred the obvious name.

"And after Greyport?" Ivan asked.

"Depends who you're asking." Yara glanced back at the crowd.

"Some will stay while some will keep moving. Be it because of family, old homes, or… maybe just a room where nobody kicks the door in." Her mouth tightened.

"Freedom gets practical fast." Ivan understood that better than he wanted to. Escaping the compound had been one problem. Now? They had to think about food, shelter, work and mainly new people willing to accept strangers.

"You know you could stay." Yara kept her eyes on the harbor.

"The temple has lodging. Work too, if you want it. You could have a few weeks where nobody is trying to put a collar on you." For a second, Ivan pictured it. A room with a door they could lock. Work that involved ink instead of blood. Ren practicing with his bow somewhere nobody expected him to run. Then he remembered why they had crossed half the world. Ivan shook his head.

"Asterion. We're still heading inland."

"I figured." Yara nodded once.

"I just thought I should say it." He appreciated that she did not try to convince him. The offer remained anyway, irritatingly reasonable and already behind them. The ship eased into the harbor, and the crew threw lines. The whole vessel shuddered once as it settled against the dock. Elizabeth appeared on deck looking tired but sober. She'd washed her face and tied her hair back. The staff in her hand hummed with ready power.

"Stay in your groups," she called.

"I'm putting you straight onto the dock. Hold on to the person next to you until your balance catches up." The freed folk clustered together. Maybe twenty of them. Kira stood near the front with the two teenagers she'd taken under her wing. The older man Ivan vaguely remembered from the pens still held the child's hand. Elizabeth planted her staff and space folded. The deck became dock. Twenty feet disappeared, and half the group grabbed for each other after it was already over.

Elizabeth leaned on her staff as if moving twenty people had been simple. Ivan had watched her knees afterward often enough to know better. Yara walked to the rail.

"The temple is up the main road," she called down.

"It's a simple white building. I think you can see the sun symbols from the square. Tell them Captain Ward sent you." Kira raised a hand in acknowledgment. Then the group turned and started walking. Some looked back once. Most didn't. Ivan watched until they disappeared into the town's narrow streets. He did not call after them. They knew where the ship was, and they had somewhere else to go now. Rys appeared at his shoulder with Ren in tow.

"Are we next?"

"Yeah." A strange silence fell over them. None of them spoke. Surprisingly, Gareth approached with a complicated expression. He stopped a few paces away and stared past Ivan's shoulder.

"Well, back at the compound..." His jaw worked once.

"That Slime stunt was idiotic and so was touching the collar when you could barely stand." He finally looked at Ivan.

"But all of these people are alive because of that." Ivan waited. Gareth's hostility had not disappeared during the voyage. Apparently, neither had his need to say this.

"I still don't trust you, you're really weird. But I don't like owing you either." Gareth forced the next part out.

"But I owe you." There were several bad ways Ivan could answer that. Most of them sounded like jokes, but Gareth had already spent enough pride on the conversation. You got your people out," Ivan said.

"That's enough." Gareth studied him for another second, nodded, and stepped back. In the meantime, Leo was talking to Ren, handing a small wrapped bundle to the little boy.

"Here. Bow oil and spare fletchings." Leo pressed it into Ren's hands.

"Keep your elbow down, too. You lift it at the end." Ren cradled the bundle carefully.

"I do?" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Every time." Leo ruffled his hair.

"Make your uncle give you time to practice, all right?" Ren nodded with the seriousness he usually saved for food and arrows. Marcus put a hand on Ivan's shoulders with a tired smile.

"Try not to reopen anything I already closed. I won't be there next time."

"I'll try." Marcus looked unconvinced, but he clasped Ivan's shoulder and let him go. Elizabeth was the last one to say something. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she held out a small crystal wrapped in silver wire.

"Take this." She held it between them.

"It's a Communication Stone. It's linked to mine. Expensive thing by the way, don't lose it. Distance makes it temperamental, and weather makes it worse, but it should work." Ivan took it. The crystal was warm against his palm.

"For next time?" Elizabeth paused, then nodded.

"I said I'd ask again. I don't know where you'll be after Greyport, and you don't know where our squad goes next. This solves that." Ivan turned the stone over in his palm. The urge to inspect it with [Mana Sense] came immediately, but Elizabeth was still watching him.

"You really want an answer that bad, Elizabeth?"

"Yes. Even if you still don't have the answer." Her fingers closed briefly around the silver wire before she let go.

"And don't make me hear from somebody else that you ended up in another trench. Do you understand?" Rys glanced at Elizabeth, then at the stone. One corner of her mouth lifted, but she looked away without saying anything. Ivan tucked the crystal away.

"All right. I'll answer." Elizabeth studied him for another second.

"Then next time, Ivan." Yara watched her squad interact with Ivan's group one last time, wearing a small smile. Then she presented a folded letter sealed in wax bearing Aurora's sunburst.

"This might help." She held it out.

"It's a letter of passage. It's not a shield or immunity, but most Aurora-aligned cities will ask fewer questions when they see the seal."

"I wasn't expecting that," Ivan said. Yara pushed the letter closer.

"You should. You killed a Consortium General who was in charge of providing slaves to Victor, the world champion. Victor will hear about it, and the gods already know." Her eyes stayed on him.

"Keeping your head down stopped working the moment those people walked off this ship, so you need to be cautious." Victor still needed someone to report what had happened, and that report had to reach him. A god could simply have watched and then reported. Ivan looked at the sunburst pressed into the wax.

"I'm aware."

"Mhm, good. The great Aurora saw what you did, and while I can't promise she'll answer if you call, given you've already rejected her, her temples will hear you out rather than treat you as a stranger." It was not protection, but it gave him a chance to speak before someone decided what he was, and Ivan could work with that. Ivan tucked the letter into his inventory.

"Thank you."

"May the light find you where you walk," Yara said quietly. Then she raised her voice.

"Elizabeth, we're ready." Elizabeth raised her staff. Space bent around Ivan, Rys, and Ren. The deck vanished, and solid ground hit his boots a breath later. They stood on the shore. The ship sat in the harbor behind them, and the gap looked wider from the ground than it had from the deck. Ivan looked back once. Yara stood at the rail with one hand raised, Elizabeth leaning on her staff beside her.

Gareth, Leo, Marcus, and the others clustered behind them, watching as the ship began to move and water churned between the hull and dock. The Order of Dawn sailed into deeper water. Ivan had grown used to the noise of those people behind him. Yara's orders carried across the deck, sometimes followed by Leo correcting Ren or Marcus complaining because Ivan had made his work harder again. Even Gareth's silence had become familiar. Now there were only three of them on the shore. Rys adjusted her coat.

"We should get off the harbor road. The Order's gone, and the slavers are probably already looking. Although the Iron Chain isn't openly active here, we can't be certain if they have undercover operations running."

"Yeah." Ren looked up at them.

"Where do we go now?"

"Food first," Rys said.

"Neither of you ate enough this morning, and I'm not planning anything while you're both hungry." Ivan had no argument against food, especially when his stomach had started agreeing with her. They turned and walked toward town.

Greyport's streets ran straight between well-maintained buildings. What Ivan noticed was how people walked past open doors without checking behind them, as though a room would remain safe simply because they had left it for a minute. He checked behind himself twice before they reached the market. Ivan kept [Mana Sense] low and passive, but found only the normal hum of a functioning settlement. The arrays sat where they were supposed to, and nobody nearby carried the bright, prepared signature of an active spell.

Nothing in [Mana Sense] told him to leave. He kept it running anyway. They found a tavern near the market square. The sign out front showed a painted fish and faded letters that spelled something unreadable, while the room beyond smelled like bread and stew. Rys ordered for all of them while Ivan counted coins. The Chain ship had yielded decent money, enough for food and lodging if they were smart about it, although the exact meaning of a while depended on how expensive New Greece had decided to become.

The food came fast and hot, and Ivan was too hungry to care about anything better. Ren attacked his bowl with the focus of a boy who had learned not to trust meals until they were inside him. Rys ate with more dignity and nearly the same speed. Ivan tried not to look as though he was racing either of them. He was halfway through his own bowl when Ren froze.

"Uncle..." Ren's voice went small.

"Look." He pointed toward the far wall. A board hung there under wanted posters, missing-person notices, and warnings about monster sightings. A newer sheet near the center stopped Ivan's spoon halfway to his mouth. The sketch was crude, a hooded figure with vague features. But the text beneath it was clear.

"THE CHAIN-BREAKER" WANTED FOR CRIMES IN SKY REACH. Description: Human male, unknown age, suspected enchanter or mage. Known to unbind legal slave collars and incite rebellion. Approach with caution. Reward for information leading to capture. Report suspected Chain activity to the Greyport Watch. Ivan read it twice. The sketch could have been anyone, but the mention of the collars was specific.

Clearly this was a wanted poster by Iron Chain, not Victor, but they were using Sky Reach's name, since claiming a man was wanted for a crime against Iron Chain would only be a reputational boost, if anything. Rys set her spoon down and glanced around the room before looking at Ivan.

"This is strange. If they know about the collars, how do they not know your face?" Ivan kept his eyes on the paper.

"I don't know." The compound fight had happened weeks ago, and the General was dead. Anyone else who had seen Ivan clearly had either been freed or scattered after the fight. Had one of the freed people talked? No, that wouldn't make sense; they just landed on this land alongside him, but the poster didn't look like it was planted five minutes ago. But the poster had no face. It had only the part of the story the Chain cared about.

'The gods already know.' Yara had said it less than an hour ago. Ivan had treated it like a warning about the future. The paper on the wall made it feel much more immediate. What most likely happened was that one of the Iron Chain-affiliated gods had watched the situation unfold and informed headquarters. The mystery remained, why his face wasn't clear, but maybe there was some limit to what Gods could share with mortals?

"I think that maybe one of their gods saw the situation unfold," Ivan said quietly.

"It didn't get my face for some reason, but it saw the situation with the collar." Ren looked from the poster to Ivan, then to the door.

"Uncle, do they know me too?" Ivan pulled his attention off the paper and looked at him. Ren had stopped eating. One hand still held the spoon above his bowl.

"No. That notice is about me." Ivan stood too fast and had to catch the table with one hand.

"But we're leaving before anyone gets curious enough to ask about either of you." The freed folks were in this same port city. Although they were grateful to him, who could guarantee that they wouldn't ramble on about the story? While their intention would be to share stories about their hero, problematic people would hear and cause trouble. Rys glanced at Ren's half-full bowl.

"Hello, my boy's still eating." Rys was not arguing about the poster. She was reminding Ivan that Ren was still frightened enough to forget his food.

"Wrap the bread." Ivan kept moving toward the door.

"That drawing could be anyone. I don't want somebody noticing it looks like me." Rys held his gaze for a second, then gathered the bread and took Ren by the shoulder. She did not argue again. They stepped out into the afternoon light. Ivan kept his head down and resisted the urge to look at every person who passed them. His [Instinct of the Prey] stayed quiet. No immediate danger. That only meant no one had thought of him yet. The ocean had bought them time, but the news had still reached Greyport first.

Ivan wanted them outside the town before anyone attached his face to the poster. He did not know what came after that yet. For now, he only needed more distance.