A mass of people moved slowly along the wide streets, slowest at the outsides, carriages, horses and other vehicles on the most inner parts. Nannade used all her strength to push herself through the crowd and catch up to her teacher. Garetas had three distinct advantages on these streets. First, he grew up in Halonnes – at least from the age of seven to twelve. Second, he was much taller, being able to peek above the crowd had its advantages. And third, he was wide and strong enough to simply push his way through where Nannade had to employ her elbows to squeeze her nimble body through between shoulders and hips.

The city was beautifully busy and Nannade would have loved to stay a day or two, but Garetas had insisted on booking passage further east as soon as possible. Now they were heading for the harbour. Eventually, after much pushing, they made it through the harbour gate onto the harbour bridge. Wide enough for three oxen carts it spanned the mouth of the river, first from western bank to guardian island, then from there to the eastern bank. From the gate, they had the perfect view on guardian island, the rest of the harbour and the wide blue ocean to the south. Guardian island was shaped like a four-pointed star and housed dozens of docks both on its east and west side. Directly opposite of it on the western bank of the river were the university’s docks. Many ships were lying in wait or setting out as they were walking, heading either up the river or out to the ocean. And in the centre of guardian island, dominating it all, stood the salt spire.

Several hundred feet high it rose from the fortifications of guardian island, dazzling in the sunlight like a salt-encrusted needle. Garetas stopped for a moment. “I missed this view. That spire is covered by thousands of crystals and at night, they shine brighter than the stars. Sailors say the spectacle can be seen from more than fifty miles away.”

Nannade began to dream. She had to admit that despite her bad experiences, the prospect of setting sails over the seas had its allure. Maybe it was that the ocean was an obstacle to most, but to sailors, it was freedom, a path to faraway lands, only the wind and water to guide them.It didn’t take them long to find a ship eastbound. In Southbridge, they would find one even further east, through the passage of Lu-Udi into the bay sea and finally to Chsyatana. At noon, they would set sail.

The winds were favourable and the travel went along nicely. Just over a month it would take them, during much of which Nannade meditated to get in tune with Ssil. But more and more often, the Serpent would not answer her calls, or just speak in simple terms at best. During their stop in Southbridge, Nannade caught herself looking whether she could see the Flitting Fiona anywhere, but to no avail, a silly proposition, Muhtessem spent more time moving that resting still, after all.

It was three days after they had set out from Southbridge and Nannde was standing on deck, looking far into the distance. Southward, that’s where the shattered continent of Lmakahir was, torn apart in the great sundering by a might force, the same force that cleaved the salt river through Ackarom. Further south, it had turned a continent into nothing but an assortment of stone shards, still jutting out of the sea like the scattered teeth of a sea monsters.

Garetas joined her at the railing. “What are you pondering, Fleabag?”

“Just this and that. Over there is where Lmakahir is, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I have never been there, but one day maybe.”

“At what wounds of the world were you so far?”

“Only two. The salt river and Othmuraigg.”

Nannade thought back to her visit to the wound of the north. “I guess we both have room to fill our travel stories then.”

“Travelling far must be a wonderful vocation.” They stared into the distance for a while.

Garetas eventually asked her a question in that hushed and serious tone of his. “You were beyond the veil, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Despite all the warnings Elissa gave you? That you came back at all is a miracle.”

She couldn’t even remember her thinking back then. It was all just a drive in the back of her head. “I had to. It was time.”

“For what?”

“The Serpent told me of objects I had to retrieve.”

“And did you?”

“No. I destroyed them. Not even a trace remains. But the Serpent has been... dissatisfied with me. She grows restless.”

“This is what we’re heading to Chsyatana for, Nannade. They’ll know how to make this work. I won’t lose you to that snake completely.”

Nannade could feel the Serpent tremble in anger over that remark. For now, Nannade could do little else but trust her teacher.