The ship shared the general shape of ships Rafe knew from Earth. But it had its subtle differences. For example, even though it could float, and was, the largest part of its base was submerged. It was like a crossbreed between a submarine and a normal floating ship.

It did not have sails, or oars for that matter, and there was a pretty good reason for that. There was a good reason for it having less than five Ma'lan crew members as well.

The ship was driven by four gigantic sea serpents yoked to it by sturdy, water resistant ropes. And the large sea dragon like creatures, complete with scaly bodies and dragon-like heads and large manes of hair around their necks, were controlled by other sew creatures. Ones Rafe had last seen in a dungeon.

These mer-people were subtly different from the ones he remembered. For one, their fish tails were more shiny and had a blue tint. And their hair was to a one blue. There were many of them Rafe could see cycling around and carrying whips to keep the sea serpents in control.

For a similarity, they had sharp teeth still, and were subtly barbaric, if Helare's words were to be believed anyway.

They were considered children of Ma'la as well since the water was their home. They did not use water magic though, like the Ma'la people did. They could, but it was not something forced onto them by their very being like the Ma'la.

An elemenoid's natural affinity was almost impossible to resist. If one was born a water Elemenoid, it would be impossible to learn even basic fire spells. The mermaids were more predisposed to sound magic, and at times cosmetic magic to help them camouflage their appearances. The seas in which they lived were brutal places, and so their magic was designed, almost as if naturally by the Essence, to help them survive in their dangerous natural habitat.

"So these were the swimmers you were talking about?" he asked Helare.

She only nodded in response. In the water, a tiny mermaid raced away from a large merman. The merman gave chase. The other mer-people got out of the way whenever the couple reached their area. The mermaid at one point launched herself out of water and into the air much like dolphins usually did.

"That looks like some kind of courtship ritual," Rafe said into the silence.

Helare nodded again. "You're right. It is? How do you figure, though?"

Rafe shrugged. "I do know of animals back on my home planet that have similar courting rituals. And the cat calls kind of gave it away."

Humans also used cat calls, didn't they. They might be civilized, but ribbing and making fun of each other was a universal trait of living things it seemed. And so was mating, Rafe supposed.

"They are still a little barbaric as I said," Helare said. "They do understand our language a little, though they mostly speak to each other in hisses and grunts."

"How do you guys trade with them if you can't understand them?" Rafe asked.

Helare shrugged. "We have common ancestry. There have been a few intermarriages. We have shared the same world for thousands of generations. We should be able to communicate with them. I mean, don't tell me there weren't people in your world who could speak to all these animals you had? Especially these, were they cats that everyone seemed to love?"

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Rafe just grinned at her. "Oh, cat whisperers were a thing. Everyone else just thought they were crazy, but they existed."

She looked at him uncertainly, saw his grin, and smiled back lightly. When she returned to the camp, they hadn't had the chance to talk yet. Or maybe they were both just trying to avoid it, to pretend it hadn't happened. But it had, and they needed to talk about it.

"I'm happy you're coming with me," Helare said. "I'm happy because… I know you want to leave. And I do not intend to stop you. But, I hoped you would have at least a few positive recollections of my world."

That was not exactly what Rafe wanted to discuss. He could still respect Helare's wish to push their discussion for a more private setting. Filoria wasn't exactly next to them, but she wasn't exactly far from them either.

And she was always watching them, him specifically.

Rafe decided to simply enjoy the journey for now.

Primus was a more beautiful world than he'd experienced when he had a bunch of visions showing its past. Probably the people who had grown up in this expansive blue world saw everything as mundane, and Rafe had been sharing their emotions back then, hence why he wasn't as impressed then as he was now.

They'd spend hours with nothing in sight except endless blue. Then out of nowhere they'd float past an island with Ma'la mages practicing on the beaches and small boats and large ships, although none as large as their vessel, moored there, and young mer-folk diving in and out of the water and playing with their land based cousins.

That first island Rafe saw was very huge. He couldn't see the edges of it even with how far their ship was from it. The next two islands he saw though looked like these pieces of land rich people back on Earth usually bought to use as their vacation homes or the like — in size at least.

The Fourth island he saw was small as well, but it was different. It seemed to be floating, traveling almost in the same direction as the ship Rafe and the others were on. It didn't use sea monsters as the main driving force though. It seemed to have gigantic sails placed all over the place.

Rafe realised the people of Primus probably also knew about such things as using the wind to travel. They just had other, more efficient means. Especially since the floating island seemed to require a squadron of mages to try and also boost its speed. It was still slower than the ship regardless.

"That is a village of traders," Helare explained. "They are hoping to make it in time for the festival, I guess. We'll probably arrive two weeks ahead of them."

"So the tiny fixed islands?" Rafe asked.

"Villages," it wasn't Helare who responded, but Filoria.

She stepped up to Rafe's left and watched the floating island they were leaving behind with every passing moment.

"Me and my father lived in such a place before the war that everyone thought would never end."

Rafe fought a, at least in his opinion, natural reflex to shrink away from her. There was a chance he was subconsciously scared of Filoria, and who could blame him. The way she kept watching him recently, like he was some kind of snack just waiting to be devoured. It was kind of creepy, but what could he do.

He controlled his body though. He looked her in the face with as much composure as he could, and he nodded at her in acknowledgement.

They stood at the stern of the ship for hours, the three of them. They watched the endless blue horizon for hours.

The silence had started out as companionable between Helare and Rafe. It became a bit awkward after Filoria's inclusion, but then Rafe had just sort of decided to ignore her presence and then everything was back to being companionable.

The ship was huge, and so, Rafe being the only male passenger, had his own cabin. At least he'd had his own cabin during the first week.

The day Filoria joined him and Helare on the hull marked a turning point in their three way relationship.

Rafe couldn't remember how it happened, but suddenly he was not sleeping alone in his cabin. There were two women there with him, and he found it hard to sleep during the rest of their travels.

They arrived at the capital, an island city, after three whole weeks of travel.

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