"Know what?" Mariello looks confused. "Cavella..."

"I just sent Ritelli off to fetch a hakima," Cavella admits. "I think this might be bigger than just us."

"Oh, that's fine," replies Mariello cheerfully. "Hakima know how to pay for a find.

As for guarding the place - if it's out to sea, I'm sad to admit the Grendel have us beat on that. We tried fielding a war fleet against them, once a long time ago and once fairly recently; you can see the last one's remains down in the ruined harbour... We're at peace for now, but if there's a hole in the sky that rains Prosperity... I don't know what would happen."

"The Grendel would try to trick the Thomassians into giving them weapons and tools for oppression. Lucky for us, I doubt they'd succeed. We could have a chance to reach the portal and contact the other side before they return, if we act quick enough. And if they were able to send a fleet to guard the portal before we could reach it, I might be able to hit them with a sufficiently powerful surprise attack; this doesn't look like a world where people worry about someone being submerged under water for 2 full hours to ambush them, and I think I could do a lot of damage in those 2 hours. There are many paths to victory yet; I don't there are words that can describe how urgent it is to find a ship capable of reaching the height of the portal."

"How are you at fighting sharks underwater? We did try the diving trick with some Merrow, but the Siahka heralds are better at it.

That... does sound like we might want to start walking and meet the hakima half way, yes. How obvious is this portal from a distance? The Grendel have a lot of fleets out in the Bay but at worst they'll be looking for weather patterns, even the trained Varushkan birds don't like getting too far from shore."

"Sharks must be the one thing I haven't tried fighting underwater yet! Why would it have to be sharks, of everything to fight underwater? And I'm not sure what, exactly, the Siahka heralds were better at. You mean attacking Grendel ships while hiding under the surface of the water? Oh, and the portal blended in relatively well with the clouds, actually. It looked like the start of a lightning bolt, occasionally flying through the clouds; you'd need to be paying very close attention to find it without knowing where it is." Hopper just starts walking in the same direction as Ritelli, not wanting to waste any time in seeing the hakima as urgently as possible.

"Eating people who were trying to attack Grendel ships underwater, mostly. The Grendel are happy to propitiate her with blood and violence, we're generally a bit less keen on the whole indiscriminate violence thing. And should be more careful of Eternals in general, not that you'd know that from the huge statue of Elionaris they built."

Mariello bustles forwards and joins Hopper in heading towards the road - there is only one road out of this place; Cavella does not look all that happy to be on the move again, where it's harder to keep a good look out, but just follows along without making her feelings known verbally.

Soon the road crests the hill and provides a useful view down across the rest of the island. There is a much larger settlement on the other side of the island, which has a lovely natural harbour that is slightly marred by a considerable expanse of burnt ex-docks.

There is still a bustling port area full of various trading and fishing vessels, often with orange or otherwise flame coloured sails - not as bright as the clothing, but still somewhat notable.

An enormous, square built, white and gold lighthouse guards the other side of the natural harbour, on what looks like a separate, smaller island. There are also a few other clusters of adobe structures here and there. Open courtyards, flat roofs, carefully tended herb gardens and fruit trees seem to be popular; there is little sign of larger scale agriculture.

Ritelli is just about visible, thanks to the brightly coloured outfit, just about to enter the outskirts of the larger town. Brightly coloured fabrics seem to be very prevalent in general across the whole town. There does not seem to be a town wall or similar, despite Cavella's concerns about violence.

Hopper has thoughts rushing through her head. The super-tall ship is option 1; she tries to think about bombs, grenades, guns, cannons, because error margin is good. What she knows of warfare from her many reenactments. She just continues on her path, hoping that the hakima is capable of helping her get back to her portal. It's not just that she knows she needs more help to save these people; she wants to go home, and strategize, and have familiar surroundings and everything!

"The docks seem to be in bad shape, and I'd expect any ship we were upgrading to be similar. How quickly are we going to get this done? And what will it take to get it?" Hopper finds the continued absence of staple food production suspicious, but keeps her thoughts to herself. An island that's torched and ravaged by a slaver empire, yet feels no need to make its own grain, is one she doubts she'll understand. She tries to think of as many of the different weapons she's seen so far. Do they seem like they're even close to sufficient machining to start making smoothbore gun barrels?

"Oh, the great shipyard was burnt years ago now; it's a condition of our treaty," which he sounds very bitter about, "not to rebuild it. I don't think you'll be building what you need in Atalaya; I expect they'll ship you over to Siroc, although that's dangerously close to occupied territory - the docks there actually have some defences, though.

I'm not a shipbuilder myself; just a small town sutannir; I imagine the hakima will know more. There are ways of getting things built fast, but I don't know if any of them apply to ships; and I suppose you'll be needing a lot of weirwood... if you're unlucky, you'll have to go to Anvil about it, but I hope the hakima can sort things out without going that far."

As for metallurgy and machining - there's a lot of excellent craftsmanship on show, but it all has a rather hand-crafted look, and favoured metals seem to be brass and bronze - although Cavella's bhuj has got at least a good steel edge, and is possibly steel with a bronze-look finish? It's hard to tell from the limited evidence so far, really.

"How would we want to proceed, to build a boat able to reach the portal, quickly, and before we can be detected doing so? What kind of resources and tools do we have access to? Would we be able to hide its construction or purpose, in some way? I'm thinking of telling the story of me being a noble from a distant land, wanting to look down from the crow's nest, having rebuilt an existing ship to be both taller and more comfortable. A cover story might give us more time and privacy to finish the ship."

Hopper is carrying her clothes and her phone, in a waterproof pocket of her drysuit; her phone is likely worthless, and Hopper seriously doubts that she'd be able to sell her dress and other layers for enough to refit a ship so that it would let her reach the portal. But it sounds like the start of a plan, at least.

"Well, the things you need are the materials, some shipbuilders who are crazy enough to try it, and a shipyard for them to work in. Materials are going to be expensive, although I hear they fished a load of weirwood out of the Broc so you might be lucky there. You might find someone in Atalaya who'll design and build for you, but they're mostly traditionalists, you'd have a better chance in Siroc.

I don't know much about tools for this, but Siroc is the best place in the Empire for building experimental ships. You might be able to disguise it as just some wacky idea that someone decided to see if they could pull off, they're always up to that kind of thing.

Nobles... aren't popular in these parts. You could pose as a Herald but that's likely to draw attention, although it'll handily explain away any odd behaviour. I reckon the hakima can put you in touch with someone who can pass it off as their own inspiration... Your outfit stands out a mile though, nobody here would wear something that elaborate in white, I suppose at least it's not black... Heralds are expected to dress weird, maybe the hakima will have a better idea of what you should pose as, or we can just stick that in a bag and dress you in some proper clothes if it won't make you itch..."

Ritelli has got a bit further into town, exchanged a few words and a coin or two with some eager children, and ducked into an outlying parador which might contain his quarry.

"It seems like Siroc has everything! I think it'd help to have a look around the city in person, see what kinds of people exist and which of my other ideas might be useful. The herald idea seems great; I just don't know what I'd be the herald of, is the thing. I'm extremely unfamiliar with this world, so I don't have the faintest idea of what heralds might act like. Hopefully, I can just act like my weird self and be considered the herald of something-or-other."

"Oh, and I'm not very worried about changing into proper clothes. I'm wearing a special suit that covers my body from my toes to my neck under this dress, so anything scratchy won't even touch my delicate skin. I was going to ask whether we'd be able sell the dress I'm wearing for a significant amount of money; I could easily change out of it and into something more fitting, if avoiding the attention my clothing would bring proved necessary."

Hopper is excited to see the hakima. She wants to know what plan they'll end up on, so she can jump into liberating the suffering, mistreated sentient beings on this world.

"It's literally the hakima's job to know about Eternals, they'll be able to pick you out someone suitable; I could say whatever names came to mind, but it would probably not be helpful!

You'll have trouble selling the dress here except as some kind of curiosity - usually we avoid white fabric, it symbolises poverty - even though getting something that white and keeping it that way is actually quite difficult! I could see the Sarvosi going for it, perhaps - they'd dress it up with a lot more unnecessary frills and lace if they were going to wear it, but they'd be fascinated by it as Interesting New Fashion.

It might not be a bad idea to go to Sarvos, if the hakima think it's too dangerous in Siroc - we do have most of a Grendel fleet parked on the doorstep, which is going to make it harder to keep construction hidden from them..."

Ritelli has found someone! They're also brightly dressed but with more blues in amongst the flame colours. They're both starting back up the road; Ritelli keeps trying to pick up the pace, but whoever he's acquired is determined to walk at a reasonable pace rather than break into a jog.

Hopper waits for the person dressed in blue and flames. She's waiting to learn more about this world before deciding on her plans; she isn't close to familiar enough to know what the right plan might be. She just feels a pang of sympathy for the plight of the slaves she's heard mentioned; her years of reenactment experience and reading many stories of misery still didn't prepare her for learning about those things happening to real people, right now.

Eventually, they meet each other on a nondescript patch of dusty road. The hakima looks at Hopper with considerable curiosity. Her robes are not dripping in precious stones like the others, but she has gold in her headdress and the silks she wears are clearly of a very high quality.

"So! Mysterious stranger, I am Sofia i Riqueza of the Riqueza hakima; I hope that I will be pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Everyone who's made me an acquaintance have been quite happy, and I'm sure you'll be next. I came from a portal, as you might suspect from my unusual attire. I want to help ease suffering and end slavery, and I like to hope that you'll be able to find a way for me to use the prosperity of my homeworld to help every last person in this. I'd insist on keeping the secrets of my homeworld to myself at the moment; just know that it would make for a fantastic refuge for anyone ending up with a new, strange illness."

"Are you willing to tell me which Realm, or even perhaps which Eternal, you are aligned with? I'm suspecting Spring and Irrah Harah from that description, not that that's a bad thing.

Did you come with a specific offer in mind, or are you asking for ideas of where you might be helpful?"

"I haven't heard of Realms or Eternals! Unless something happened in my sleep before getting here, I'm not aligned with anyone!"

"I do have a few ideas for plans, it's just that all of them begin after my return through that portal. And all of them require complete secrecy to have much chance of success. I don't want to say anything more than that. I would offer using my equipment to salvage sunken treasures, but I suspect that there are probably tons of people better than me at it, anyway."

"We do have a great number of sunken treasures, and if you can retrieve things from the ocean depths that may well be very useful.

Do you require secrecy from those here gathered, or only from other listening ears? In the middle of an open plain is often the best place to talk of matters that should not travel far."

"I can't find treasures from the ocean depths, but I know very many people who could. I was hoping that there was a ship sunken somewhere that it would be a nightmare to recover it with a diving bell, but not much deeper than that.

I don't actually need secrecy from you; it's just considered bad luck to begin on a plan with an extremely important and risky step before that step has been taken. Doing so has cursed my fellow citizens many times, and I'd rather not risk finding out that there really is some bizarre curse triggered by such premature planning."

"Are you going to tell me what this important and risky step is, or would you like me to guess?"

"Would you enjoy guessing? I wouldn't want to take away your pleasure!

Well, I was going to start planning that important and risky step with you: building a ship sufficient to take me back through the portal. It's quite far up in the sky; I was told we'd need weirwood and to modify a ship to make it possible to reach the height of the portal."

"That does sound like quite an undertaking, yes. Have you specifications for exactly how high? You've come to the right nation for an adventurous ship-building project, but fair warning, I suspect those who might be persuaded to part with their weirwood are going to want more of an explanation."

Hopper learned to get a really good feeling for distances during her reenactment work, and tried to catch as many details as possible after landing in the ocean; she can describe the distance to the portal fairly accurately.

"I'd be able to promise those giving up the weirwood a life of divine luxury and plenty on the other side of the portal; do you think that I'd have to offer them something more, as well? It sounds like something quite a bit more valuable than my reassurances!"

"I expect they will be inclined to be sceptical of such an offer, but the opportunity to explore the other side of the portal may well be sufficient, assuming that one does not need to leave one's soul behind to pass through?

If your desire is to end slavery, you are much more likely to be successful in gathering resources if you can offer some concrete examples of possible assistance with that grave issue; the Grendel threat hangs heavy over us all, with the treaty being up for renewal this season, and Feroz under their dominion."

"I suspect I have my soul on me now, after going through the portal? A chance to explore the other side is something I could absolutely give them.

And I'd need help from the other side of the portal, to be able to offer assistance with the slavery issue. My main idea for ending slavery is one I expect to work, no matter the treaty or the situation of Feroz. It's just an idea that has to remain hidden from the Grendel, or it would fail disastrously."

"...Mariello, you're the kind of sutannir who knows the ceremony of Insight, right? Do you have some liao on you?

Stranger - do you have a name that you would rather I use? - would you mind us performing Insight on you? It seems like it might clear up any confusion about the variety of being that you are, and the usability of this portal to the ensouled."

Mariello reaches into a well-hidden pocket and draw out a vial of purple liquid.