Chapter 701: The Lighthouse

Seraphine solved the problem before breakfast.

“Now,” she said, already dressed to go out when Kael came downstairs to the inn’s common room. She had tied her hair back to keep it out of the wind and carried only a small bag, without any of the four books she had insisted on bringing. “We can have breakfast afterward.”

Kael looked at the table where bread, fruit and cheese had just been served. “No.”

Seraphine followed his gaze. “The lighthouse will still be there.”

“Probably.”

“Then we eat first,” she concluded, sitting down.

Sylphie appeared shortly afterward and laughed when she realized the discussion had already ended. Elion arrived with the former Reference floating beside his head, while Umbra emerged from the shadow of a chair and immediately stole a small fruit tart from Kael’s plate.

“That was mine,” Kael said, looking at the dark hand already disappearing with the food.

“Was,” Umbra replied, biting into the tart.

Seraphine watched for a few seconds. “Does she actually need to eat?”

“No,” Kael replied.

“Then why?”

Umbra answered before he could. “Because I can.”

Seraphine accepted that more easily than Kael would have liked.

The lighthouse stood at the far end of the cliffs north of the city. They followed the coastal road on foot after breakfast, leaving the last houses behind in less than twenty minutes. The path gradually climbed through low vegetation, pale stones and small flowers resistant to the wind. Sylphie slowed down several times to observe the plants, but did not pull any out.

“You brought seeds to trade and didn’t find anyone to trade with,” Kael commented while she examined a yellow flower growing almost against a stone.

“The trip isn’t over yet,” Sylphie replied, standing. “And even if I don’t trade anything, I can find out their names.”

“Flowers.”

Sylphie stopped.

Kael kept walking.

“You just destroyed weeks of progress,” she said, catching up with him.

“I know three names now.”

“That doesn’t help.”

Seraphine was walking a few steps behind and was already smiling.

The lighthouse was an old stone tower, wider at the base and marked by salt across almost its entire ocean-facing side. A smaller house had been built beside it, where an elderly man handled the maintenance with the help of a younger woman who introduced herself as his granddaughter.

They paid the small visitation fee and received only one recommendation.

“Don’t lean over the railing at the top,” the old lighthouse keeper said while handing Seraphine the key to the inner door. “The wind feels weaker until you get up there.”

Seraphine looked at the tower.

“How many steps?”

“One hundred and eighty-seven.”

She turned toward Kael.

“No,” he replied immediately.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to count.”

“Now I am.”

Umbra pointed at Seraphine. “I like her.”

The staircase spiraled upward around the inside of the tower. Seraphine began counting quietly, but abandoned it at the forty-second step when Elion had to explain to the former Reference why the wall had small openings facing different directions.

“So air comes in from several sides,” the crystalline creature said, floating beside one of the narrow windows.

“Mostly for ventilation and light,” Elion replied. “But it also helps whoever is climbing know approximately where they are in relation to the outside.”

She slowly rotated in the air. “I know where I am.”

“You’re floating in the middle of a staircase.”

“Yes.”

Kael passed them. “Technically correct.”

Elion looked at him. “Don’t encourage her.”

Sylphie laughed and kept climbing.

Seraphine reached the top first. The lighthouse keeper had not exaggerated about the wind. As soon as she opened the door to the outer platform, she had to hold it with both hands to keep it from slamming back against the frame.

Kael took over the door and let the others pass.

From up there, Vespera looked much smaller. The harbor occupied a narrow portion of the coast, the houses clustered between the walls and the beach they had visited the day before stretched northward like a pale strip.

Seraphine did not look at the city for long.

She went to the side facing the sea.

This time, the horizon seemed even larger.

“Yesterday I thought the beach already showed a lot,” she said, resting her hands on the railing without leaning over. “From here it feels like there’s even less between me and the end.”

“Because you’re higher up,” Kael replied, stopping beside her.

“That was a very practical answer.”

“Were you expecting another?”

“No.”

She seemed satisfied.

The former Reference rose slightly above the railing and was immediately pushed a few centimeters by the wind.

Elion instinctively extended his hand.

She stabilized herself.

“I can do it,” the small creature said, returning to position.

Elion lowered his hand. “I saw.”

She continued looking at the ocean.

“I want to go down there.”

“To the beach?” Elion asked.

“No. Into the water.”

He fell silent.

Kael turned his face to hide a smile.

Elion noticed. “No.”

The former Reference looked at him. “You said I choose.”

“You choose. But the matrix isn’t waterproof.”

She thought.

“Then we need to protect the matrix.”

Elion opened his mouth and closed it again.

Sylphie leaned against the railing beside Kael. “She learns quickly.”

“That’s his problem.”

“It’s not a problem,” Elion replied, having heard them.

The crystalline creature looked at him.

“Good,” she said. “Then let’s protect the matrix.”

Umbra started laughing.

They remained at the top for almost half an hour. Seraphine asked few questions. She wanted to know where the route of ships heading west ended, how long a ship could remain away from the coast and whether there were places where the sea froze completely during winter. Elion answered what he knew; Kael only corrected him when the conversation reached regions he had already visited.

On the way down, Seraphine began counting the steps again.

“You missed forty-two on the way up,” Kael said.

“Now I’m counting from the top down.”

“That doesn’t recover the previous ones.”

“I don’t need to recover them. I’m verifying the lighthouse keeper.”

He really had been right.

One hundred and eighty-seven.

Seraphine left the tower satisfied with a piece of information she apparently considered just as important as the view.

Their next destination was the harbor.

Vespera did not have large restaurants. The dock district was occupied mainly by small taverns, fish stalls, warehouses and ship repair workshops. Seraphine chose a nearly full place because, according to her, “if fishermen eat there, it’s probably not bad.”

Kael found no flaw in the logic.

They sat at an outdoor table near the water. The dish of the day was grilled fish with herbs, roasted potatoes and dark bread.

Seraphine tasted it first.

Chewed.

Looked at the fish.

Then ate another piece.

“Good?” Sylphie asked.

“Yes,” Seraphine replied. “It’s different from what we eat at home.”

“It’s fresh,” Kael explained. “It probably came out of the water this morning.”

Seraphine looked toward the harbor. “Then it was alive a few hours ago.”

“That’s how fish works,” Umbra replied, stealing a potato from Elion’s plate.

He moved the plate away.

“Take one from yours.”

“I didn’t order one.”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

The former Reference floated above the table, observing the dishes.

“I don’t eat.”

“I know,” Elion replied.

“But I want to know what it tastes like.”

He looked at her. “That’s more complicated.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have a mouth.”

She fell silent.

Seraphine drank water to hide her smile.

After lunch, they found a fisherman willing to take them on a short trip along the coast. The boat was small, but wide and stable, normally used for fishing near the cliffs. The man showed no special reaction upon discovering who Kael was because, apparently, he was more concerned with whether everyone would follow instructions.

“No one stands when I tell you to sit,” the fisherman said while untying the rope. “No one leans over to touch the water. And if anyone throws up, do it over the side.”

Seraphine nodded seriously.

Kael did too.

Umbra was inside the shadow beneath the bench.

“Does that apply to shadows?” she asked.

The fisherman looked at Kael.

“Ignore her.”

The boat slowly left the harbor and picked up speed once it passed the last protective rocks. The first larger waves made the hull rise and fall noticeably.

Seraphine held the side.

“Is this normal?” she asked.

“Yes,” the fisherman replied.

Another wave passed.

She tightened her fingers slightly.

Kael observed. “Seasick?”

“Not yet.”

Five minutes later, she was still fine.

Ten minutes later, she was still fine.

Elion was the one who began turning pale.

Sylphie noticed first. “Are you all right?”

“I am.”

The former Reference floated in front of him. “Your face changed.”

“I know.”

“It’s green.”

“It’s not green.”

Kael examined him. “A little.”

Elion gave him an irritated look.

The boat rose over another wave.

He closed his eyes.

Seraphine noticed and immediately seemed more excited than she should have. “Then I don’t get seasick.”

“Congratulations,” Elion replied through clenched teeth.

“Thank you.”

The fisherman pointed toward the outside of the boat. “If you need to, it’s there.”

Elion did not need to.

Almost.

The trip continued along the base of the cliffs until the lighthouse became visible above them. Seraphine tilted her head back.

“We were there.”

“Yes,” Kael replied.

“It looks small from here.”

“You’re discovering perspective.”

“I know perspective.”

“Now you know it from a boat.”

She looked at him.

“That was bad.”

“I know.”

The former Reference spent almost the entire trip observing the water. Elion finally managed to settle his stomach and began answering questions again, although with less enthusiasm than in the morning.

When they returned to the harbor, Seraphine was the first to get off.

“I didn’t get seasick.”

“We’re all very proud,” Kael replied.

Elion stepped out shortly afterward and remained standing on the dock for a few seconds.

The small creature floated in front of him.

“You got seasick.”

“I didn’t vomit.”

“But you got seasick.”

“Yes.”

She seemed satisfied with having correctly classified the experience.

Before returning to the inn, they passed through the coastal market. Seraphine remembered the promise she had made to the nameless man and began looking for something she could take back to him.

She ruled out food because it could spoil during the trip.

She ruled out books because he was already trying to finish the first one.

She ruled out a small boat sculpture because she did not know whether he would like it.

Then she found a stall selling shells, stones polished by the sea and simple objects made by fishermen during the winter months.

Seraphine chose a small shell, white on the outside and pink on the inside.

Kael observed. “Why that one?”

She turned the shell in her hand. “Because he still doesn’t know what the sea is like.”

“And that explains it?”

“Not completely.”

Seraphine paid for the shell.

“But when he goes, he’ll be able to compare.”

Kael nodded.

Sylphie bought three small packets of coastal plant seeds from a woman who cultivated herbs near the dunes.

“I knew I’d find someone,” she said, putting them away.

“You carried seeds for an entire day to trade them for other seeds,” Kael commented.

“Yes.”

“So your goal was to change which seeds you were carrying.”

Sylphie stared at him.

“I’m not explaining horticulture to you today.”

“Thank you.”

The former Reference did not ask for anything.

When Elion asked whether she wanted a souvenir, she simply looked at the sea between the harbor buildings.

“I remember.”

Elion did not insist.

That night, Seraphine returned to the beach alone for a few minutes. Kael found her sitting on the sand, already far from the water, with her shoes beside her.

He did not ask if anything was wrong.

He only sat down when she looked at him and indicated the empty space.

“I’m going to want to see other places,” Seraphine said after some time, watching the dark horizon. “Not now. But later.”

“Then see them.”

“Mountains too.”

“We have plenty.”

“Desert.”

“Farther away.”

“Snow.”

“You’ll probably regret it after an hour.”

Seraphine smiled.

“I want to find out.”

Kael rested his arms on his knees.

“That seems like a good reason.”

She looked at him. “Have you seen almost everything?”

“No.”

“Do you want to?”

Kael thought before answering.

“Some things.”

“Which ones?”

He looked at the sea.

“I don’t know yet.”

Seraphine nodded as if that was enough.

The next day they would return home.

She had seen the sea.

And now she knew she wanted to see more.