CoESC Book 18-11.3: By the Sea (Patreon)

It turned out that Elaine’s idea of a disguise was a beanie cap and a redhead wig. The hair fell down past Yuriko’s shoulders, all the way to between her shoulderblades. Her own golden hair was twisted into a bun and secured under the wig with several metal pins and rubber scrunchies. It was too warm to wear anything concealing, and the thin hoodie she wore was already pushing it. 

Still, the plan was relatively simple. She and the others would go to the marina to board the Sea Sage, and from there, they would leave Rakkisgrad. She would either join them while they drive, an issue being the car was meant for four passengers, not five, or she could follow on her bike. That presented another complication considering she’d have to pedal at speed to keep up. No, the better choice was actually…

“Why don’t we just hire a cab?” Yuriko asked. 

Two cars could reach the marina just as easily as one did. It would also make it easier to stow luggage as the car’s boot wasn’t big enough to hold everything. 

“Hmm, yes, that works!” Elaine exclaimed happily. “Nem! Call for a cab!”

“At once, your graceful majesty!” the assistant recruiter said with so much aplomb that it circled back to sarcasm. 

“Shut it!”

Nemeo sketched a bow and trotted towards the phone. Yuriko watched the hullabaloo with amused eyes. Everything she owned was already on her back and all she needed to do was wait for everyone. 

Another recruit, a petite girl by the name of Chloe Margaret Strassburg, only had a small backpack and an equally petite suitcase that couldn’t have more than a couple of changes of clothes. For a potentially two-month-long trip, that was completely inadequate. Though Yuriko supposed that the Cleanse spell, which Elaine assured her that the magus knew, would make short work of laundry. 

Tristan, the young man she met outside the door yesterday, had thrice as much luggage as Chloe. He had a bit of a shadow under his jaw, and slight bags under his eyes. His hair was gathered neatly at the nape of his neck, and while the scent of tobacco hung about him, he didn’t have a cigarette lit. Yuriko noticed a pack was sticking out of his pocket though, and there was no doubt he’d light up as soon as he could. For the moment, he waited patiently for the others’ decision. 

“You have everything you need?” Lucian asked anxiously from behind her. Yuriko turned and arched an eyebrow. “I’m just asking.” He held out his hands placatingly, which was odd since she wasn’t even glaring. 

“I’m fine.”

“But…that’s all you have?” He gestured at her rucksack. She lifted her gym bag with the bike, though none of them knew that, and he shrugged. 

“I have all I need, for now.” 

Nevertheless, Lucian hovered around her like a mother hen. Understandable considering how she’d disappeared for more than a month, but Yuriko couldn’t quite get why he remained attached. Whatever was left of Amalia’s features had been subsumed by Radiant Physique, or at least, she thought so. Synchronisation happened every five or so days, but it mostly depended on her true body’s whims. In those cases, she had the opportunity to observe what changed. 

There was no doubt that there was divergence between this body and the greater self. Unlike the true body and the 1st-incarnation body, the partition between her strands of consciousness allowed divergence. The fact that more time passed for her here than the greater self meant that the weight of experience was on this side. However, the greater self, with more than ten times the amount of strands of consciousness, meant that objectively, there were a hundred plus Yurikos to the six that were here. Six times five was just thirty, compared to a hundred and six. The greater self’s core was safe from being unduly changed by the 2nd-incarnation’s experiences. 

What that meant in the practical sense was that during synchronisation, the favourable parts of the divergences were reinforced, while the unfavourable were closely examined, then either adjusted or discarded. 

It also highlighted the mannerisms that this body inherited from Amalia, and she supposed that was what Lucian hung on to. It didn’t help that because of the way a new body was chosen, there was always a resonance. Lilibeth mirrored a lot of Yuriko’s virtues, and Amalia was the same, though to a much lesser degree. 

Either way, she couldn’t pinpoint which mannerisms triggered Lucian’s senses, but she figured he was vacillating between treating her as a different person entirely and as his sister, changed only in physique. It showed in how he hovered right now, and how he practically avoided her last night. It wasn’t too annoying, but if he persisted, she’d have to set him straight. 

It didn’t help that a part of her cared for him, and that part furiously refused to let him go. She wondered what troubles she’d face when it was time to leave Bellemer. Oh well. 

After half an hour, the taxi cab came and the boys took it. Yuriko, Chloe, and Elaine took the car, a rental to be sure, and made their way to the marina. Yuriko made sure that her disguise was intact. She pulled her perception aura into herself, and used the wig to partially hide her face. She worried that something would happen, some security guard, police officer, or mercenary would identify her, but all was quiet. 

The marina was actually across the Ridge, so they had to take the tunnel, but it was also right next to it, but the bit of land that jutted out into the ocean as part of the border. The sound of the waves and the scent of the salt water, as well as the stench of dead fish and trash on the water was quite pervasive, even if the marina was upscale compared to the industrial docks. 

They waited at the harbour master’s lobby while Elaine filed the paperwork, and it was here that Yuriko expected the highest chance of trouble. Inexplicably, nothing untoward happened. Elaine finished filing, she paid the fees, and she left the rental car to a valet to return it to its owners. 

“The company is the one recommended by the harbour master, actually, and I got it right here,” Elaine revealed when Yuriko asked. “It wasn’t bad, though we had to have some dings buffed out early on.” 

Considering it was the same car they used to spirit Lucian away from his potential abductors, that was saying a lot. Whatever happened to those rotters, anyway? Then again, it was by people from District 4 not 2. 

She didn’t learn much about the underworld factions of Rakkisgrad, but she was certain that different groups dominated each District, so perhaps the word hadn’t gone around. She was still wanted in the entirety of the city, however, so she still had to remain careful. 

The caution proved unwarranted, though she was still waiting for something to hit. In the end, they went past the offices and headed to the actual harbour. Pier 14 was where the Sea Sage was berthed, and the first view was somewhat…underwhelming. 

Nemeo called it a pleasure yacht and it was difficult to deny it. The Sage was roughly fifty paces long, and about a quarter of that wide. It had a motor, but it also had sails. It was single-masted, and it looked like it could be taken down as well. The Sage was painted white with blue streaks, and bobbed gently on the waves. The gangplank was down and Elaine walked on board with little aplomb.

“Welcome back, magistra,” a sailor clad in light grey greeted Elaine as she stepped on the deck, “A fruitful journey?”

“Very much so, Paul, thank you,” Elaine answered warmly. She gestured towards the apprentices and introduced them, using Amalia for Yuriko’s name. Nemeo was at the back with most of the luggage. 

“Vic! Help with the luggage!” Paul yelled, and another sailor, a younger looking man that was probably Amalia’s real age, scrambled out of the yacht and down the gangplank. He grabbed a couple of suitcases and clambered back into the ship. He and Paul looked like they were related considering both had the same shade of brown hair and that Vic looked like a younger version of Paul. Brothers, she guessed. 

Yuriko followed the others up into the yacht and Paul led them inside. There were more than enough quarters that nobody had to share, although each room had double bunks. Yuriko placed her rucksack at the foot locker after she retrieved a change of clothes as well as Amalia’s well loved book. Afterwards, she sat on the lower bunk and sank into a meditative trance. She worked on her Sword Seal though she was still quite a ways from completing another layer. 

She was somewhat regretful of using the Seals as the base. She underestimated how long it would take to forge larger and larger layers. Although…perhaps she would have to compress the extant Seals once they got too large. The denser Seals would be more stable and she could continue progress by constructing another layer on top. 

She imagined the path would be to compress, build until it took too long to build another layer, they collapse them all together. She would have to see how it all worked out later, but the insight gave her a thrill of excitement. 

After a while, she heard the ship’s engines ignite. 

Grrrrk. Whuuup. Whuup. Whup. Whup. Wup. 

The yacht shook with the engine’s rough start up, then it jerked as the propellers engaged. She resisted the urge to spread her perception aura to check everything as she could be tracked from it. 

Tock, tock.

“Amie, wanna go up front to watch us leave?” Lucian called out from behind the door. Yuriko sighed and relegated her forging to a strand of consciousness. Another strand was used to convert Radiance to Animus, and another was used to feed the lumens to the forging strand. That left three strands to her normal functions. 

“I’ll meet you outside,” she called back. 

“Alright.” 

She’d removed her wig and beanie cap as soon as she was private, and since they were still in Rakkisgrad waters, she should keep her disguise in public. Once it was on, she left her quarters and followed the hallway and out into the deck. The way to get to the upper deck required climbing a short ladder, but it was easy enough to hop from the bottom to the exit. Once outside, she was greeted with the sight of the ship’s wake as well as the piers nearly a hundred paces away. 

Despite that, they weren’t quite outside the marina just yet, and she followed the side walkways that led to the bow. The Sage made its way towards the gap between the breakwaters, and it took about ten minutes before they were through. 

“Bluurgh!” 

Yuriko found Chloe hanging off the railing and losing her breakfast. 

Squawk! Squark! 

That attracted sea gulls as they dove towards the water to pick off the floating food. She could also see that the vomit attracted some fish from the glimmering of their scales against the sunlight. 

Taking pity, Yuriko crossed the bow to stand beside Chloe and she held the girl so she wouldn’t fall overboard while rubbing her back soothingly. “There, there. You’ll get your sea legs…er, eventually.” 

“Blarg! Not…soon…enough,” came the miserable reply. The girl’s sordid appearance was quite a departure from her cheerful mien last night, where she nearly talked Yuriko’s ear off with random gossip and spurts of spell knowledge. It was how she knew that the three apprentices all inscribed the same spell, Reinforcement, into their Arcana Hearts. The spell was comparable to her Boost technique, though it was also able to empower anything held as well. Ah, apparently, it also scaled well with higher circles, and with the restrictions in Irisvaile, was quite suitable as a novice’s first spell. 

She spent the next hour just soothing Chloe, and it took that long before the Sage’s engines began to idle and the sails went up. Rakkisgrad was still visible in the distance, but all of a sudden, Yuriko felt quite relieved to be away.