She doesn't recognise that tree.
She's been here before, she's not that far from the estate, this isn't some unknown place. She must've taken a wrong turn, of course, but where? She should probably just try to retrace her steps, Jaol will be incredibly mad at her...
They'll have to wait a few days, as Reim said (they can practice stealth in the meantime, and Tetsuma offers to make a game of chasing each other up and down the cliff in a sort of vertical hide-and-seek).
Then, one gray morning, a sleek ship emerges from the swirling mists in the distance, seeming to glide through the thick, shimmery fog like water. It has gossamer sails and an opalescent sheen to the hull.
Well, they can go out to the dock and wave? The ship seems to be heading in towards the island, and will glide towards the dock they're on when they do.
It slides smoothly to a halt next to them, thin tendrils brushing like spiderwebs to cling to the dock, and a woman steps out onto the deck.
"Ho there!" she calls. "Are you looking for a ship?"
She jumps down to the dock, in a smooth motion that really shouldn't be possible for an unaided human. "Captain Sarati, at your service," she says once she's standing before them, extending a hand.
That seems safe enough. She shakes. "I'm Dayo, it's a pleasure."
Tetsuma takes Sarati's hand next. "Senju Tetsuma - or just Tetsuma - at your service." (Not her people's custom, but she can adapt.)
"Yeah, I know where that is. Not quite on my route, though it's close, so it'll cost you a bit. What've you got to trade?"
Tetsuma pulls a ten-ryou coin from her pouch. "Coins like this, some in smaller sizes, some in silver, some in bronze. We can also trade labor, or act as guards, or trade stories - we're both recently come to this realm, and those we've had contact with hadn't heard of either of our realms."
Sarati takes the coin and seems to weigh it in her hand, staring at it intently for a few moments. "This'll do. Good quality gold. How about, one of these for the both of you? Plus some tales on the route, though I'm also willing to trade a story for a story. And if we're attacked, help defending the ship, though that's unlikely."
- Gold must be worth a lot more here than back home. "Sounds fair to me. Dayo?"
"Yeah, sounds reasonable." She does not look surprised that Sarati thinks that single coin covered the entire trip, so perhaps it's worth a lot more where she's from, too.
Sarati hands the coin back to Tetsuma. "I'll collect when we set out. For now, I'm resting - it's a bad idea to sail a ley-ship nonstop. My loose plan is to leave in the morning, though I can delay until slightly later if needed. It'll be about twenty days past that, give or take a few; the ley lines aren't super direct, I'm the only navigator, and I have other stops to make first."
"Intuition, for me. There's - the lines have a flow, which can be somewhat seen but mostly felt with the magic sense. It feels like music across my skin, to me. And locations have their own resonance, and some points within the ley-realm are fixed, as are some directions. The ley lines aren't actually in this dimension, so magic also behaves a bit oddly, and you can sometimes tell where you are by how oddly."
"Theoretically? As long as you can use local magic, I mean. Not everyone has any talent, mind you, and it takes years to learn even for a genius, especially if you're soloing and not part of a crew. I was practically born on a ship."
"So it's not, like, something you're born with or anything like that, it is in fact learnable."
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