Salty water filled my mouth. My mind was trying to wrap around what happened while all four of my limbs struggled to stay above the water. The ax was pulling me down with its weight, but I held on to it anyways. What happened to Alberto, or Fayette?. With all of the strength in my body, I swam for the shore. The shore was not far away, but with a have battle-ax with me, it was quite challenging. 

“GET THEM, DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE!” I heard Stratford scream from above, on the ship. 

I tried to swim faster, but the more I tried, the more tired I was. Eventually, I got to the shore. I saw soldiers heading my way, with their blades out. I tried to run, but it didn’t seem like I was going to be able to get away with this fatigue. I ran past the sand, into the harbor’s city. My body tensed up and I fell. My stamina is almost gone. But then, I felt a touch on my finger, and when I looked down at myself, I couldn’t see my body anymore. 

“Run straight, west of the city, I will see you in the Full Moon tavern.” Someone whispered in my ears. 

I looked at the soldiers that were chasing me. They all had confused looks on their face, looking back and forth while shaking their heads to find me. I looked up to the sun to determine where the west was. It was still quite early morning, so I went the opposite way where the sun was. I kept running and running, trying to ignore the pain as I knew that Invisibility only lasts five minutes. When it seemed like I have lost the soldiers, I ran into an alleyway. I sat down, trying to catch my breath. I felt terrible, I was drenched from sweat and water. My body was dehydrated from seawater. I shook my head, trying to brush it off. The alleyway was dark, even though it was early morning. There were some people in my sight, they looked homeless, most of them weren’t even awake. I stood up, still a bit out of it, but I couldn’t stay there for long. I took my bandana and covered my face with it, if anyone from Stratford’s crew recognized me, that would have been a problem. I walked out of the alleyway, into the stream of people. My first impression of the city was its diversity, I could see all kinds of species and races. Elves, dwarves, beastmen, all kinds of people. Different species didn’t have good relationships with each other, even though they all agreed to have peace. The heat here is nothing compared to Barrsons Island. It was breezy, with the scent of the ocean filling the street. There were stores on the sides of the road, restaurants, weaponry, jewelers, among other things. They all looked fancy, with dark blue color like the sky at night, and the letters were the color of the moon, cream white. It was a beautiful city, perhaps the most beautiful city that I have ever encountered. I looked back at where the Owl’s Wings were. I could see barrels being brought out of it. I tried not to think that I could have ended up in one of those barrels, or Chelsea, or Vesper, or anyone that I held close. I looked back forward, straightened my posture, and tried to find the Full Moon tavern.

It wasn’t really hard to find the Full Moon tavern. The tavern was huge, with shiny decorations on the outside. There was always someone coming in and out of the door. It must be a very popular tavern. On the inside, the air was filled with laughter, noises. Unlike the tavern that I stopped at on Barrsons Island, this place had a variety of people. There were people of different backgrounds, many of them had weapons, some of them looked like mercenaries, others looked like esteemed nobles. I looked around the tavern, and I saw…. Alberto! That explained it. He noticed me walking to him, as he put a pen in his cloak and started grinning. 

“Hey there, glad to see you managed to escape the guards,” Alberto said with a smile. 

“And I to you,” I said back. 

“What are your plans for now?”
“I have to travel to Cevine, which is quite far from here.”
“Ah, Cevine, the industrial city of this country. May I ask you why?” He leaned forward and raised an eyebrow.

“I have some… family business there,” I said 

“A family, as a mercenary? Well, that gotta be common.” He said. 

“ It’s quite private to get into, what are your plans?” I said, trying to divert the conversation away from me.

“Well, I got some personal issues with Stratford there. I need to get to the capital city. He has someone… quite dear to me.” He frowned.

“As a slave?” I blurted out.

He didn’t answer, he just looked down. He looked angry, but also sad.

“Give us 2 servings of your finest meal. Wine for him, water for me.” I said to a nearby waiter. 

“You got money?” Alberto asked.

“Indeed, some spoils I got killing someone for Stratford.” 

“Ah. The person you got that money from is probably a ship inspector, Stratford wouldn’t want anybody snooping around his ship.”
“Oh.” 

The waiter brought the food and drinks out. It smelled like I have never eaten before. Part of the reason is giant eagles can’t exactly be called decent. It was a whole roasted quail for each person. The crispness on the skin just felt like heaven to me, as I picked up a fork and dug into my dish. Alberto also did the same thing. 

“Why would you want to go to the capital? Stratford is here right now.” I asked Alberto with food in my mouth. 

“This is just his main ship, he got others from around the world to ship slaves for him. Sometimes, I feel like this man is a genius. Being able to stay under the radar while having this big of a system” Alberto said. “His… store, is in the capital city Arcanus.”
I remembered back to the map. Arcanus is very close to Cevine. Is the cult trying to establish itself as the main religion of Magicae? Magicae didn’t have a state religion. It was a kingdom. The King was revered as the one above all here, but not much was known about the royal family. 

“Say… Arcanus and Cevine are on the same way. What if we go together. Much higher chance of surviving that way.” Alberto asked me while sipping his wine. 

I thought about the offer for a while. It sounded like a good offer. We have already worked together once, and even though things didn’t exactly come out as planned, it worked out. And thanks to him, I had my ax back.

“Sure, but we will go our own way when we get to where we are.” I didn’t exactly want to deal with his problems, so I suggested we part ways when we get to where we want to be.

“Deal!” He put his hand out for a shake.

“Deal.” 

I took his hands as we shook it in the name of companionship. Right then, someone outside yelled out: “THAT’S THE GOD DAMNED PIXIE, GET HER!”