Though, for the ferry, she really didn’t have a choice. It was almost noon by the time she was finally on a boat, cruising over the ever-so slightly choppy waters out in an arc towards the islands Old Saffron rested atop. She tried her best to squint further north and catch even a slight glimpse of the sect grounds, but either it was too far away or the faint mist that had settled over the lake was occluding her vision… shame. Not that it was an impressive sight, at least not until one got closer— something that she was pretty sure wasn’t allowed for anyone who wasn’t actually part of the sect— but it would have been nice to at least see it… alas, it wasn’t to be. Instead she just had to content herself with the sight of Old Saffron.
Old Saffron was always interesting. The islands jutted up from the sea with an almost knife-sharp abruptness, like huge sheafs of rock and wrenched free of the earth’s surly grasp and kicked back in at a slant. The jagged edges loomed, a sea’s toothy maw— and though the waters were a clear blue beneath the ferry, she could only imagine what it must have looked like in the legendary past, when the lake had truly earned its Saffron moniker. Some monster, or a jagged maw, or the world thrust up to scar the sky— or some strange combination theirin? She didn’t know, but the jagged cliffs and sweeping landscapes were majestic nonetheless.
Luckily, the ferry was on a loop, so she didn’t have to disembark at the first stop and wander around in search of another. Unluckily, she still had to pay an additional fee for staying on to the next stop… which was, in her opinion, probably something they’d put in just to inconvenience her specifically. Did they really need to go around extorting everyone who stayed on the boat? Surely letting a few people stay on wasn’t the end of the world…
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She sighed, just leaning against the railing as the ferry continued onwards. She supposed that was what she got for daring to think that anything would ever be simple…
They passed beneath the shadow of two more isles— literally, at one point, the immense outcropping of rock looming above them and twinkling with the lights of some strange architecture— before they got to her real destination. It wasn’t the largest of the isles— that claim probably lay with the central isle and the city administration— but it did have a certain… rustic? No, rustic wasn’t the right word, given how densely populated it clearly was.
It merely wasn’t completely packed full of buildings— sprawling estates covered the north half of the isle, a dense forest of pine-green spilling out over the sheer lip of the cliff, while a small town… or suburb, or whatever, pooled around the lower part of the isle, where a nice little harbor had sprung up.
The ferry was the biggest boat there as it churned in, the heavy wake left behind it ungainly compared to the way all the other sailboats lightly cut through the water. Finally. It was already getting late in the day, and finally she was almost there…
The ferry docked, and the seagulls wheeled overhead, and she stepped— at last— onto the dock at the Pines’ Isle. Now, to find that alchemist…
She sighed to herself. Avyr better really appreciate what she was going through for him…
So, she set off once again.
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