Now that I thought about it…
"We're spending a lot of time on ships, aren't we?" I said as we stepped on it after we'd paid for our tickets.
Technically this galleon had no business being part of the Yun Seojun festival since it was from the wrong historical time entirely. But… the city had one, so they always brought it out at every occasion—in honor of Innishae's shipwrights or something.
"Correction," Llewellyn said. "We're spending a lot of quality time on ships."
...Uh. My face heated up.
Well, he wasn't wrong.
"You actually haven't told me how you did all that, last time."
"Mmh?" Llewellyn said.
"You know what I mean. You used your Command Line to… what? Code a pirate dungeon so we could...?"
"It wasn't a dungeon," Llewellyn said.
"So?"
"I asked the System to provide a training space like the dojo we used before. Then I extrapolated the Gilded Bay blueprints from my saved preferences and created a convincing replica of it in there. The scope was smaller than the original Gilded Bay, however. Also the pirates… flickered a bit."
Wait, was that why he'd gone for the blindfold last time?
Well, that had been great too, so.
"But why did you even go through all that trouble?! That must have been a lot of work."
Llewellyn's ears went a bit red as he eyed me, then looked away.
"You seemed into it in the Dungeon," he said. "And Valentine's Day was coming up. It seemed like something you might enjoy."
Well, I'd definitely enjoyed it.
"But I did wonder afterward," Llewellyn continued. "Since you'd just died, I thought maybe I'd been too… hasty."
Ha. As if.
"Hey," I said. "Really? Do you even remember the state we were in because of the bond we'd just initiated? Besides, I know you could feel I was enjoying it."
"Yes," Llewellyn said. "But it's been on my mind."
Honestly.
"It wasn't too hasty," I said, waving my hand. "I'm giving my seal of approval. And anyway, if we're talking about hasty, what about me drinking three aphrodisiac shots, only the second time we'd decided to… you know."
I kept my eyes ahead, not looking at him.
"Definitely hasty," Llewellyn said, eyeing me with amusement. "But also very hot."
I started coughing.
What!!!
I mean, I knew he'd enjoyed it, but I'd not expected him to put it like that!
Anyway, we were properly on the galleon now. There were a few stalls around selling various specialties, fries, ice cream, but there was also a full restaurant up ahead.
"Any preferences?" I asked.
"I'm feeling very partial to that ice cream," Llewellyn said.
Well, that sounded good to me. It was a sunny day after all.
We ordered two cones and sat down in one of the nooks looking over the ocean. I even got a small spoon for Penguin, who started licking at the ice cream on it happily.
Yeah, this was perfect. The sea breeze from up here was amazing.
I wished we'd brought Lumos with us—he might have enjoyed it. Gléonwon, too.
"What should we do after this?" I asked. "Should we start our research into the Alliance?"
Llewellyn's expression became pained. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to that either, but… we couldn't just keep going like this. We never knew when their next attack might come and we knew too little to try to figure out their moves. Plus, we might be pulled into a new Distorted Realm any time and have no time to investigate properly. We needed to do something, instead of just reacting to whatever happened to us.
"Then let's start from TAPESTRY," Llewellyn said. "We can pay them a visit after this and find out what they know. They might have already gathered more information."
It was a good idea. We hadn't really sat down and talked to them since the auction.
Penguin chirped from his position between us on the nook, looking excited.
"What is it?" I asked. "You miss the TAPESTRY guys?"
Penguin chirped three times.
I guess I could see it. They'd taken good care of him in the aftermath of the auction, when they thought I was dead, and they always treated him affectionately.
Well, anyway. I liked this plan. It was a good way of doing some digging without ruining our day with boring research.
"I'm game," I told Llewellyn. "But after that—"
"After that?" Llewellyn asked, raising an eyebrow.
I grinned. "I challenge you to an Elemental Café match."
"Deal," Llewellyn said, amused.
Well. I was enjoying this day more by the minute.
***
We sent a quick text to Tiernan, who replied immediately, telling us to come.
"…"
I stared at the text Llewellyn was showing me.
"Doesn't he sound a little too eager to you?"
"Yeah," Llewellyn said, frowning. "Better prepare my tankard."
I snorted. "What, you think he wants to drink?"
"You never know with Tiernan."
I still wanted to try that Destabilized Whiskey, so this wasn't too bad.
"Destabilized Whiskey?" Llewellyn said. "Didn't you just suggest we go to an Elemental Café afterward?"
I mean, yeah. But.
I sighed.
"Well, I'm not competing against you while drunk," I told Llewellyn. "So I guess we'll see how the trip to TAPESTRY goes."
Llewellyn grinned. "At least we're in agreement on that."
"Hey," I said. "What do you mean 'at least we're in agreement on that'? We're generally in agreement on most things."
Llewellyn eyed me, amused. Through the bond, suddenly I could feel— Uh. What was this?
Llewellyn stepped closer and leaned in to kiss me.
"I guess you're right," he said.
Oh. Um.
Well, exactly.
We had our concealment artifacts on, so… I cupped his head and pulled him into another kiss.
We made out on the ship, lulled by the waves. After some time, we stepped off and wandered the promenade, before finally deciding it was time to leave.
We'd considered getting the Baekline, just to feel like we were out and about a bit longer since we rarely got to enjoy Baekhaven like this, but in the end we just teleported outside the TAPESTRY headquarters.
We removed concealment, made sure Penguin was tucked into my pocket in case they had clients, and rang the doorbell.
A few moments later, we were let into the room with red brick walls from last time. It was still full of floor lamps and—
Wait.
Gilded was sitting on the floor, surrounded by most of the TAPESTRY members, several crystals, and a floating artifact currently slowly rotating in front of him. One of his arms was stretched toward the artifact, sending golden Magic into it.
Huh?
Penguin chirped enthusiastically and jumped out of my pocket, to go and check too.
What the—
"What is going on?" I asked.