"And I Shall Rest At Sea"

# "And I Shall Rest At Sea" {%hackmd @ZeWaka/dark-theme %} {%hackmd z-6kgRjMReiU-UOwlyZa9w %} ## I Alden flew through the air, pondering what had just occurred. Going into that meeting for "peace" between the two sides, he had known that it would hardly be easy. What he hadn't expected, was Cirillo would be the one to disrupt it. The bastard didn't even fight back when he was attacked, he just took the walking corpse of Winfred and *vanished*. Worried and shaken as he may be, the priest took comfort in the achievement of a truce between Ebon and Justyce- what remained of the latter, at least. A thought occurred to him, his flight slowing as he turns towards the sandy beach not far to his right. As Alden slows to land, a pain in his chest causes his focus to break, the spell of flight ceasing. He hits the beach on his side, the brunt of the force going through his hips. Splayed out on the sand, body dully throbbing with pain, the priest lets out a groan. He lays there for a minute, letting himself both rest and recover on the warm, grainy beach. Alden sits up, releasing an annoyed sigh. He turns his body to look at the sea, breathing in the cool, salty breeze of the blue waves. How nice it is, he thinks, to be here, away from everything. His right hand moves to the eye around his neck, covering it with his palm. Out here, able to see the water, everything felt better already. Indeed, this place brought him a new burst of energy, a rejuvination that he had yet to feel anywhere else. That was something to remember, he thought to himself. After sitting on the beach for close to twenty minutes, Alden gets up, brushes sand off their clothes, and starts to continue home. ## II Gliding over the weathered wooden wall that once could keep out invaders, Alden gracefully lands on the roof of the compound, the very first building built in the once-proud colony of Justyce. Climbing down the stairs, he passes by a burned out fire pit, remembering his first true conversation, the one with Leah Wolfenstran. How enamored with her knowledge of the past he was. All gone. What a waste, he thought. Alden reaches the weathered, creaky wooden stairs, stepping down to the underground layer of the very same compound. Looking down the hall, he remembers all of his former neighbors. Stahl, the one person Alden can truly call a friend, lived at the farthest end, before moving to a temple far, far way. One closer was... Sintice, the rabbit. Dead, of course. And the closest was what was supposed to have been Wolfenstran's room, but they... left, before that happened. Alden sighs, turning to the door in front of him, a wood-etched sign reading The Study Of Alden Hornfels directly to the left of it. Opening the door, he steps into a cozy wooden study, built when his ambition could be contained to such a small room. Ignoring the chests and books littering the room, he moves towards a lone painting above his bed. Huffing as he steps up, Alden phases through the illusory artwork, entering a far different chamber. The man steps down yet more wooden stairs as the ambient temperature drops lower and lower. Reaching the bottom, his worn and rough shoes step onto the glass now covering the floor. Walking briskly through a short hall of deepslate and andesite, paying no mind to the dusty rooms that branch off his path. He stops before the end of the hall, turning to face an unassuming section of andesite wall. Pressing a palm to it, Alden mutters an incantation under his breath, a six-meter section of wall vanishing in the blink of an eye. Stepping through, he looks down the long, cold stairs that lead deeper and deeper into the rock and stone of the planet. Shaking his head lightly, he takes a few steps downwards, before turning into a visible doorway. This doorway leads to a hallway just as long as the staircase, but at very least not as harsh of a descent. The Justycian starts pacing down the hall that's scarcely any taller than he is, humming ancient tunes to nobody but himself. ## III Alden gazes down the infinite halls of stone, all very plainly decorated. Beneath him lies a floor of blue sand, covered by dark glass. He remembered why he chose that color in the first place. The blue was enchanting, a striking contrast between the red-brown of the andesite and the black of the deepslate that make up the walls and the ceiling of these tunnels. How suffocating this place had become, he realized. Buried beneath millions of tons of rock, there was no life to be had here, just a slow, lonely death. And a death he would have, should he not find a way to cure his magical ailment. Walking down one of the many halls, he turns a corner, only to be facing a wall. With a frown he turns around, now seeing another place to turn that he *knew* wasn't there when he first looked. Continuing down that hall, he eventually comes to a more familiar area, where the twists and turns seem a bit more... intentional, he supposes. Finally, he finds an empty section of wall, one ever so slightly different than the rest, barely visible, certainly not to anyone who wasn't looking for it. Alden presses a hand to it, the wall blinking out of existence, revealing a wooden study, twice as large as the last. Against the far wall, a tall pile of books sits next to a plush seat, with some half-full bookshelves to complement. To his left sits his desk, writing utensils and his journal adorning its surface. To his right was a small bed, purple like the sourceberries that make magic so much easier to cast. Above him, lanterns, enchanted to never run dry, burn a warm orange with a fiery warmth that no magelight could replace. Stepping in as the wall reappears behind him, he lightly smiles. This, this was as close to life as one could get down here. This quiet room of wood never shifted its position, it was the one constant thing down here. Alden sits down in the chair behind his desk as he thinks further on everything. He slides a piece of parchment in front of him, taking a pen and starting to sketch something that looks like a building. After a few minutes, he rests the pen on the desk, what was once an idea now a genuine consideration. A sharp pain in his chest making him double over, was all that was needed to turn a consideration into reality. ## IV Alden grabs the last odds and ends of value from his small original study, putting them into his backpack. Then, he reaches down to the ground, grabbing a plank and pulling it up, revealing a chest under the floor. Opening it, Alden grabs a few assorted gems, a strange golden totem, and an apple of gold that faintly glows. He stashes them as well, taking no effort to re-conceal the chest. The man shoulders his backpack, walking out the door and up the stairs to leave the compound. Once outside, Alden begins walking north, towards the blue sea. As the lush green grass turns to sand beneath him, a familiar blue orb appears over his shoulder, dancing around his head as he moves. The priest stops where the sand meets the water. He breathes in the sea breeze, that salty, cool wind from far-away lands. So calming is that fresh air, so... freeing. Alden steps into the water, feeling water envelop the soles of his shoes. Strangely, though, he doesn't *feel* wet. He steps further in, now up to his shins. Indeed, his clothes feel completely dry, but the man still can sense the water pressing up against his skin anyway. Hornfels unshoulders his burdening backpack, hefting it onto the dry sand. Turning back to the water, Alden takes a leap of faith, running into the water with a newfound burst of energy. Feeling the liquid rise over his head, he walks a little further into the deep blue. Taking in a breath of what seems to be air, Alden slowly opens his eyes. Immediately, Hornfels is taken aback by what he sees. The water's deep blue becomes even more vibrant below the waves, giving it all a deeply enchanted look. He watches as a brown cod swims not ten feet from him, weaving through some slimy kelp before gliding off into the distance. Alden glances down at the eye of the sea around his neck, sighing contentedly. This will be my new home, he thinks, this will bring peace.