001. ( the saltwater cure ) — voice.

[sacral]

[ First, there is the sound of the sea — cresting waves, shimmering crashes. Then, the vast buoyed ache of wood loved too well by salt and sun. Voices boom, bark, and scatter about though none are distinct save one (who does not seem so keen on proper introductions): ]

I'm here on behalf of a man named Captain Samuel Vane — or Quicksilver Sam, as his reputation travels. I suppose you can also say that means I'm here on behalf of the man who calls himself the merchant. I hear you're already acquainted.

There is a group of you who travels east. I met some of you... in the forests, the village Ke-Waihu, but our paths diverged.

[ He is stern but an apology still lies beneath its surface. Still, he's here for a reason and so gets on with it. ]

Now, Captain Vane is ready to offer his vessel as a means to reach your next destination. He is also sailing east.

[ Here, his words slow and measure, though they remain heavy with what he doesn't say. ]

He doesn't desire money or goods in exchange for your [ our?? ] passage. Only safety... "sainted protection."

[ It's then that gulls cry overhead and across the crack of sail cloth. ]

Look for the Pariah.

Comments

[sacral]

I don't mind. You're free to speak as you wish. [ Subaru is — altruistic, but also complacent in his role. He cares, but the extent of it seems dampened. ] I can't deny it's possible that he has his own intentions in how this journey unfolds.

[ Possibility isn't always a kind concept. He does pause. ]

Is that what happened in the village? A malfunction?

[chosenbylight]

Indeed. In the village here, and in the city we came from in the past. Both times, the beacon failed when we attempted to pass through.

In Taravast, my friend went so far as to make it home again, before the beacon... rejected him, I suppose?

[Is that the right way to phrase it? Who knows. Anduin may be a magic user, but he will not claim to understand how this interdimensional travel works in the slightest.]

[sacral]

Rejected? Did it return him to this place?

[ That does make him question what fixtures the beacons are in this reality and those they hail from, though it may as well be a futile interest in the end. ]

[chosenbylight]

Yes. It --

[How in the name of the Light does he even explain this.]

For myself, it was only the span of a few minutes that he was gone. But for him, he had returned to our homeland for a far longer time than that. During that time, the beacon had become inert and I had assumed... The worst, if I am being honest.

But then, for lack of a better way to put it, it seemed to spit him back out again.

That is not to say that -- I have heard of others, being able to return. And he had done so, before being sent back here. It would just appear that they are not the most reliable means of transportation.

[Sorry for the word dump, Subaru. This Concerns Him.]

[sacral]

I suppose it's natural that the flow of time has no obedience when it's between worlds. But it does seem like its ability is being used to gain your compliance.

[ Going home is an attractive carrot on the end of the stick, as it were — for most people. ]

Knowing that, does it change the path you've been willing to take so far?