Felazo's Return to Civilization

A day and a half. Felazo spends nearly two days traveling the circlet-current of the sea near the isle he just left. Normally, he would try to avoid such currents, as being in it wastes time and getting out requires both skill and focus on sailing. Two things he is capable of but doesn’t particularly wish his journey to require. But, he needs to figure some things out. For one, where the nearest safe haven he can sell things is. And for two, which of the knickknacks and trinkets he’s picked up does he actually want to sell. And he was always taught, so long as you have the food to spare, it is better to do nothing until one knows where they are going than to rush in a direction that may or may not be wrong. And so, he sets about going through the items he found in the old lair.

The first thing he does is go through all the books. They won’t be for sale, unless he already has a copy. These books are all significantly older than his previous ventures had him finding, so there are no repeats. He places them in neat piles by the shelf they will eventually sit on. But not until he reads them. At least enough to fill out the card with a brief summary. Twenty books in all, four of them magical tomes. Felazo puts the magic ones in a chest in his cabin. Those he’d get to eventually. But he has time.

Next, he moves on to his former cart, now once again returned to its state of being a magical table. Bringing with him a couple of identifying encyclopediae, he dumps out all the trinkets. A few gems. One of them looks odd, almost like a perfect sphere. It also doesn’t feel like a gem, but like a ball, pulling itself together as he picks it up and looks it over. He knows it’s magical, from just about every detail about it. The question is, useful magical or valuable magical. A sphere of water, the book describes, contains the essence of watery magics. Could be useful out in the seas. He puts the small sphere in his box of magic trinkets he wants to keep. A whole two others from his journeying. Back to the odds and ends, there are herbalism and cooking tools, which can be sold. Felazo already has much less ancient versions of those. Some detailed statuettes. Either a hobby or something darker. Muttering under his breath and examining one away from the table, he can tell. It's the darker something. Cool, but also a pain-imago for some random people in a village that’s been gone for centuries, not the most useful. Beyond those, there are a few fetishes that don’t actually seem magical. Perhaps the sorceress thought them lucky? That’s how Felazo plans to sell them, in any case. And finally, an ancient chess set. Fascinating, he muses as he takes that over to his old games collection. In most of the so called lairs he’d been to on this trip, he found the game sets to be one of the few unlooted objects. After all, they weren’t particularly valuable or magical or useful. What they are is a good place to hide magical items from mundane eyes, so many of the game sets are incomplete, missing dominoes, rooks, and stones. Not that it matters to Felazo. His collection isn’t to play the games. Not really, in any case. It’s to understand the minds behind these particular versions of the games. Placing the chess set beside the others in the games section of the Ekzokia’s hold, Felazo moves on to the map.

Within a reasonable sailing distance there are several different places he could dock and sell things. Flying the flag v’Icria means pretty much anywhere he docks that buys things will buy things from him. The issue is the items he is going to sell. Gems means he needs people with access to deep pockets. Easy enough, that only eliminates one of the Ditrech Ports. Warzones are a no go for him, so that eliminates the two main ports of Ressyta. And the ancient Elfish fetishes and statuettes aren’t really that popular an item these days, outside of the Betrayer State and the Ragers. Since the waters of the Raging Kingdom were not a safe place to travel alone, the ideal price would come from a port in the Betrayer State whose merchants had access to smugglers. The Cove of Smiles on the Isle Yolryta would probably work well enough. The caravan never stops there as it needs to avoid obvious relations with criminals to keep itself secure, but Felazo had gone there with other caravan members on some excursions to acquire books before and they were friendly enough. He remembers at least a couple of the cove’s regulars would have the money for the gems and a few would definitely pick up ancient fetishes. He’d travel there.

After he heads back to the top, using the isle he just left in the distance to determine direction, he sets his course towards a part of the sea that will allow him to hit a hungering current that would bring the ship to a different ebbing that would lead to the stillness relatively close to the cove. Bringing out his invisible helper, he lowers and tacks the sail along with the rudder. He’d need a strong gust of wind to break from the current. Unfortunately, the weather disagrees with his motives. The skies are clear above him, the sun shining bright down, and the air is utterly still. If he were a normal sailor, this is the part where he would be forced to row or wait. But Felazo is no normal sailor. Locking the rudder in place, he heads to the rear of the deck. Stretching his arm forth towards the sail, he folds his fingers over intricately as he mutter the old words. Wind erupts violently from his outstretched palm and the ship’s sails fill with air. Slower than he would normally like, the Ekzokia begins its journey.

He has to work at it to get to the hungering current, but once he does, it’s a day of stress free travel. That’s the advantage of the hungerings, once the ship is in one, it will go without any input from the crew. The disadvantage is it will go where it goes, and to no other places. That means if one knows the currents, like most people in the Caravans do, traveling through the open waters over the Sea That Once Was Not is a fairly mundane task. But to those who do not know the currents and their cycles, it is a dangerous endeavor that risks accidently landing in the wrong country. But Felazo has little stress about open water sailing. And so, once the boat suddenly turns of its own volition upon entering the hungering, Felazo heads below decks. He has the magical items to identify more fully.

The table seems to have some sort of restful invigoration element to it. Felazo expects working upon the table and resting to feel one and the same to his body. Very useful, especially if he wishes to craft anything more intricate than his bombs. The clothes feel lighter than clothing should be, and appear to change with his will. Fun, though limited in usefulness. The bowls each seem to be meant to summon a specific sort of creature when the right ingredients are put in. Again, useful but limited. The box, it seems, should contain memories, but Felazo chooses not to open it. Best not risk it containing so powerful or many memories that he loses himself to some powerful mystic from the past. At least, not without knowing more about it.

He also skims, summarizes, and shelves about thirteen of the sixteen new mundane books before he feels the hungering current slow. That puts an end to his tasks for the moment, as he must keep on deck for the rest of the journey. The ebbings and weaker currents are more navigable and less predictable, and so one must make sure they are going in the right directions at all times.

It takes another half day to reach the cove. Rather than docking while he’s tired, he drops anchor in the bay and raises the “Don’t bother me” flagset below his flag v’Icria. Heading into his cabin, he finishes going through his new, mundane books. Then, he lays down in his new, very comfortable bed and goes to sleep.

No one bothers him overnight, and in the early morning, Felazo dresses in his new suit, gathers what he’s here to sell, and brings the boat into the docks of the Cove of Smiles. As he ties the ship onto the docks, he is greeted by Ilrassno, the self-proclaimed mayor of the small cove’s less than legitimate settlement. “Welcome back,” Ilrassno proclaims, “We are always pleased to greet another of the Caravan v’Icria. I thought you’re family passed weeks ago, though?”

“Ilrassno,” Felazo says as he disembarks, “It is great to be here again. And, yes, we did, but I am on my own for now.”

Ilrassano looks at the young elf for a moment, then recognition shines in his eyes. “Felazo. Welcome. Sorry I didn’t recognize you. Yasyinni isn’t here today, but from what you have on your back, I suspect she is not why you’re here.”

“She’s not, though I do wish she were here,” Felazo admits, “I always enjoy picking up new books, and her selection is the best in this part of the Sea That Once Was Not.”

“That it is,” Ilrassano agrees, “But enough of what could be. Do you need help finding people?”

“No,” Felazo says, then adds, “But do warn your friends here that twelve of the objects in my ship are cursed to instantly give anyone who picks them up a mind-consuming venereal disease.” A lie, but where Felazo is concerned, a very believable lie. He is, after all, a weirdo collector of random magical nonsense and a practitioner of the more questionable sorts of magic.

Ilrassano nods, clearly believing Felazo. “I don’t know what you’re implying,” he says, “But I’ll make sure people know that.”

Felazo smiles as he and Ilrassano go their separate ways. Felazo knows the risk there, combined with not wanting the caravans to be upset with this cove, is more than enough to keep the thieves around here away. He walks to the Smuggling-Free Resellers Shoppe, a place run by Roslytti and Sarrylto, who are definitely not smugglers or smuggler-adjacent. It says so right in their name. Roslytti is the one at the desk this morning. She smiles as Felazo enters. “Felazo. I take it you have something strange that you want me to overpay for?”

“Me? Never,” Felazo jokes, “I got some magic statues and other lucky fetishes, though.”

Roslytti shrugs. “So? That doesn’t sound that special.”

“These are more than seven centuries old, from a powerful Sorceress’s lair,” Felazo says, pleased with himself.

Roslytti smiles back at him. “Now that, that I can work with.” And, after a spot of haggling, Felazo gets a significant payment for the fetishes and statuettes. Which left the herbalist and cooking tools. He could sell them here, but he figures it better if he used them for bartering when he gets materials for his special bombs. With a wave farewell, Felazo heads back into town towards the herbalists place, where he offloads the gear and acquires the materials in a straight trade. As he heads back towards the docks, to ask about rumors, he runs into a pair of people he’s never seen before. A human woman in plate armor and an elf guide.

“Excuse me, good ser,” the armored one says, “I am Sister Hilan of the Darian Order of the Cold Fist’s Bold Flame. Would you be the owner of this fine vessel.” She gestures towards the Ekzokia.

Felazo smiles. “Felazo v’Icria. And, that’s not exactly how we work,” he replies, “Why are you interested in the Ekzokia?”