A chill gust of wind blew across the deck of the schooner, catching Quies' tunic. He left his light-armor in the storage room. Holding the tourniquet in his hand, he closed the door and walked out.
"We're here."
Quies heard Valerie call out from above him. There, not too far off in the distance, he could see tall spires of stone and a faint wooden structure shrouded in fog.
The approach to enter the isles of Vigils wasn't necessarily perilous. However, there were clear obstacles which a ship could easily crash into. Off the shore of the small island were several stone pillars that seemingly erupt from the sea. At their bases were small beaches mostly made of rock.
As they passed one of these stone spires, Quies could finally get a glimpse of the Isles of Vigil. As he did, his heartbeat quickened.
"Don't worry too much. You technically helped them indirectly."
"Oh… yeah."
Quies was confused for a moment, but was able to make sense of the situation after some thinking.
If he remembered correctly, Valerie had stated that she made some sort of contract or deal with the vigils in return for her carrying out their objectives. This mission was one of those objectives.
'Still…'
***
Garett, the masked shipwright, descended from the flight of stairs which led to the central grounds of vigil.
His blueprints for the commissioned ship were finally completed, and he had already placed orders for the materials that he would need to build his ship. Turns out, a master shipwright like him could cook up a blueprint of this caliber in just a matter of a few days!
In fact, making the blueprint wasn't the most difficult part of this project. Well, actually, it was rather difficult, since this was a ship with rather specific specializations. For some reason, he needed space to mount a gale powered projectile launcher which can shoot kilometers inland…
Despite that, gathering the materials to construct such a specialized ship was rather time consuming and mind aching. For one, he needed to source abundant amounts of metal to build the structures of the ship, when most ships usually used wood. On top of that, the advanced technology implemented into the ship required him to scout for exotic materials he didn't even know existed.
'That's why they paid me so much… I didn't know the vigils were so demanding.'
As he turned the corner towards the dock, he could hear the sharp creak of wood and a figure dash into the air.
"Garett, could you take care of my schooner? I… don't think I'll be using it for a while."
Valerie landed with a thud on the wooden surface of the dock. Behind her, a lean man in a tunic climbed up the ladder that led to the elevated surface of the dock.
"Sure."
He noticed the lean man's sable hair.
"Am I just… you know what? I saw nothing."
"Huh?"
Valerie turned to see where he was looking.
"Oh, him? I'll talk with them about it. He helped… a lot."
The masked shipwright looked blankly at Valerie from behind his mask.
Wasn't he the man the Vigils were looking for. He recalled the time when they approached him and described… Well, him. He was wanted for being a bloodrender of sorts—not like he knew what a bloodrender was. But, it wasn't a problem he had to worry about.
Currently, he should be focusing on the titanic task that was gathering the materials to build this ship.
'I have to get to the eastern luminant and ask if they have any of that conductive material…'
***
Quies was an enemy of the Vigils.
Well, for now at least. And the word "enemy" has a rather strong, negative connotation. He was more of a target, but not valuable enough for the Vigils to go out and hunt him down. No, they couldn't spare the resources to do that.
He walked past the food stall where he had gotten his first taste of real food since fleeing Etris.
"I know what you're thinking, Quies, but we can get food later."
"Valerie, you literally ate a portion of food half the size of yourself. Of course you're going to be full."
"And? I'm a big eater!"
He gave the man behind the stall a warm acknowledgement, and he returned it.
Soon enough, they entered the training room. Warm lamps illuminated the entrance as always.
As Quies slid the ornate wooden door open, an invisible gust of wind made him shudder—the air around him seemed to change. It didn't have any effect on his material items, like his tunic which stayed stagnant. Rather, it felt like the suffocating wind was grazing his bare skin—his soul. Even Valerie, who walked in before him, had buttoned up her thick matte coat.
"Come, Quies, I feel that it's appropriate for you to meet Evengarde yourself."
The two walked across the outer edge of the room. As they did, they passed by exhausted students, sitting down with their backs against the walls and resting their practice swords. They wore similar garments to the Vigil guards— fully white garments which nearly covered their whole body.
And then, Quies saw him.
He sat there staring—observing the students and mentors sparring within the training room. His slicked back hair flowed like the winds of the Etrean luminant, and his eyes commanded attention—one green, one fuschia.
However, he didn't acknowledge them until Valerie was just a few steps away from him.
"Who are… Valerie? Ah, my apologies."
He stood upright, no longer leaning on the wooden wall of the training room, and faced Valerie. At his full height, he was maybe a little taller than Quies.
"The mission… I assume it didn't go as expected?"
He must've noticed the change.
"Well, the main objective was completed. But, with what I found… I'm not confident if the Vigils can secure the forge."
Evengarde's expression changed faintly. His features seemed to tense—eyes narrowing, gazing a touch harder.
"elaborate."