Across the Sea

We made it! We made it across the sea to Tuliyollal!

Nori and I stumble off the small trade boat and onto the dock. It is always an adjustment to be on non-swaying ground after being on a ship for so long. The last bit of the journey was done on a smaller vessel. When you get closer to Tural, the reef prevents any deeper hull ships from getting close. If anything, it does make the view back absolutely beautiful; no large ships to block the horizon. 

“Take a look at this!” Nori almost gasps. 

I turn around and my jaw hits the floor. I jump up onto the nearby barrel and look around. In front of me is an unparalleled sight. Tuliyollal is built into the side of a mountain and stretches as far up as my little head can see. In the distance, you can see an aetheryte lazily spinning.

Nori and I walk through the Bayside Bevy Marketplace. The stalls are starting to light up, their lights softly illuminating their wares. I just want to run and look at every shop that I can, but my stomach grumbling makes me focused on finding something to eat. There is a heavenly sent on the breeze wafting to us from somewhere up and around the corner. 

“Nori! I smell food!” I say excitedly. I start to skip ahead moving with a singular purpose in my mind.

“Hey, wait up! You’re hard enough to find on a good day. If you move any faster, I’ll never find you!” he huffs chasing after me. As he rounds the corner he finds me frozen and staring at the vendor stall in front of me. “Geez, Zoei. You’d think you are trying to ditch me… I thought you were…” his voice fades off. Slowly, his focus trails from me towards the stall. In front of us are the most succulent kabobs of all different kinds of meats, fruits and veggies. They are so fresh off the grills that you can see the steam trailing up and disappearing into the ocean breeze. 

Nori nods in a daze and reaches for his coin stash attached to his belt. As soon as the pouch is in sight, I yank it out of his hands, pull out a stack of gil and hand it over to the merchant. 

“How much will this get me?” I inquire. The merchant accepts the coin, counts it meticulously and then holds up three fingers. “Three sticks?” I ask to clarify. They nod in agreement and slip the gil into their own pouch on their hip. 

“Yay!” I jump and reach up grabbing two kabobs. One is nothing but meat that looks marinated and cooked to perfection. You can see the juices from the meat trailing down mixing with the sauce. The second kabob has less meat but in its place are sweet fruits of various colors and chunks of local vegetables. Every single one of them with grill marks and wonderful texture. I may not recognize the exact fruit and vegetables, but by smell alone, I know I am going to love them.

Out of my peripherals, I see Nori reaching forward and grabbing a kabob of his own. He goes to reach for a second and the merchant reaches forward and bats his hand away. 

“You pay for three, not four!” they bark at him. 

Stunned, Nori turns to look at me. Quickly I shove the last of the fruit into my mouth and go to bite one meat of the second one kabob. I look up innocently at him giving him a slight shrug. 

“Ughh!” Nori groans, “You owe me” he grumbles. Turning away from me and heading further down the marketplace. 

“Hey! Wait up!” I squeak through a full mouth. As quick as I can, I follow after him continuing our perusal of the stalls.

After our market adventure, it is time for us to cross over to the other side where Erenville said our accommodations are located. 

“I think this is a short-cut” I say pointing to a path that turns inward away from the sea. 

“You better be right.” Nori responds walking slowly besides me. “I’m almost positive that we have been walking in circles for the last couple hours.”

I roll my eyes and head down the path. I may be tired myself, but this has been amazing so far. The vendors have so many beautiful wares, the food is phenomenal, and the locals are so willing to help answer any questions. Even though the sun had disappeared long ago, the city is lit up in a warm light. Everywhere you look, lanterns burn brightly; even the stretches of local flora and fauna seem to be glowing softly as if illuminated by fireflies. The path curves to the right and we are faced with a long stairway that curls up with the mountain and leads to the upper level of houses. 

“Nope. I’m done. I’ll just sleep here!” Nori complains. He falls over laying face down into the dirt. 

Almost an hour of asking directions and at least three more flights of stairs, we made it to the cabins. Ironically, they were actually located on the shore and not up high on the mountain. Nori definitely complained and blamed me for it, but I never claimed to be good at directions.

Before turning in, we decide to have a last minute meal at a nearby place. We find an open table at the upper level which has a great view over the harbor and beyond. The view is beautiful and calming. You can just hear the lapping of the waves on the shore over the sounds of people chatting and eating below. I take a deep breath and release a sigh, relaxing into my seat. Nori does the same thing in the chair next to me, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“Huh?” Nori’s eyes widened slightly, “What do you mean?”

“Well, it seems we will get some downtime during this whole rite. Is there anything you want to do while we are here? Anything you want to see? Experience?” 

Nori takes a moment to think.

“There is something that I was interested in looking more into while we are here…” he catches my gaze. There is an excited glint to them.

“Oh?” I tilt my head and ask.

Nori leans forward towards me as if he is going to impart some great secret.“I heard that there is a fighting style here that is different than anything I’ve seen in our travels so far. They dual-wield swords!”