Welnar is stirred awake by the gentle rocking of the boat. He lays in a bed, covered only by a blanket. Kali is asleep beside him, gently snoring. Slowly, as quiet as he can, Welnar gets dressed and out of bed, heading out of the room. He hears chatter and laughter alike to the left down the hall, and decides to head that way… He finds a room filled with people, looking akin to a tavern but… Much smaller. Welnar is about to walk towards the bar to get a drink when a hand taps his shoulder, causing him to turn around. He sees that strange man from earlier, who smiles and extends a hand.

  “Hey there. I’m Daniel, what’s your name?” He says.

  “Uh… Welnar. Welnar Bismorg.” Welnar responds, cautiously shaking the man’s hand. He seems to think about something for a moment upon hearing Welnar’s name.

  “Well, shall we get a drink?”

  A minute later, Welnar and Daniel are sat at a table with wooden mugs in hand. The bar only had water for non-alcoholic drinks… It seems neither of them actually like alcohol though, having both taken the water.

  Daniel sips from his mug. “So, Mr. Bismorg. What brings you on this boat trip?”

  Welnar shrugs. “I’m uh… Looking for someone, I guess you could say.”

  “Funny. Same here actually… Although I think I’m getting close to finding them.”

  Welnar drinks the water from his mug, examining Daniel’s outfit again… It just feels so out of place, he can’t help but wonder. “Say, Daniel… What do you do?”

  “Like, my job?”

  “Yeah. You seem like someone who gets paid well, so I’m curious.”

  Daniel looks around, seeming to think for a few seconds. “Hmm… I’m just a simple wanderer.” Welnar is confused by his answer. He looks too… Clean, to be just a wanderer. It doesn’t make sense.

  {“Your suspicions are not unfounded, Welnar.”} Monarch cuts in. {“That man is strange… His mana, I… I can’t sense it. I can’t see him at all, he’s invisible to me.”}

  {“Invisible to you… Is it possible he doesn’t have mana?”} Welnar questions.

  {“As far as I know, that’s not possible. Be cautious, Welnar… I don’t trust this man.”} Monarch says.

  Welnar slowly nods. “Just a wanderer… Right.” Daniel’s smile never leaves his face as he takes another sip of his water. Then, he puts the mug down and shuffles around in his pocket… Pulling out that deck of cards.

  “Say, you want a tarot reading?”

  “Uh… A what reading?”

  “Tarot reading. Y’know, tarot cards. Never heard of them?” Daniel asks.

  “Not really, no…” Welnar responds.

  “Huh. Well, that’s okay. I’ll explain it as I go.”

  {“I know what tarot cards are.”} Monarch says. {“But that deck… It’s missing all of the minor arcana. It only has the major arcana.”}

  And it’s true. Daniel’s deck of tarot cards is missing all fifty-six minor arcana cards, having only the twenty-two major arcanas.

  {“Wait a minute… That deck is an artifact.”} Monarch realizes. {“I can sense the mana, although it’s faint.”}

  {“Weird…”} Welnar says. He’s definitely unnerved by this mysterious man… Just who, or what is Daniel?

  Despite the fact that he is missing the minor arcana, Daniel doesn’t seem to even acknowledge that fact as he begins shuffling his deck. His hands move in a blur, Welnar can barely tell how he’s shuffling.

  “Now, let’s have a look at your future shall we?” Daniel says, finishing his shuffle and spreading the cards out on the table. “I’m going to take three cards from here. The first, will be your near future. The second will be a little further into the future, and the last will be far into your future. Got it?”

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  Welnar nods. He can’t say he believes it’ll be accurate, but he can’t help but be intrigued.

  {“Usually a tarot reading covers the past, present and future… This guy is going totally off the books.”} Monarch says with disapproval.

  Daniel seems to think carefully as his hand hovers over the spread of cards, his eyes closed. Then, he grabs a card seemingly at random, opening his eyes as he flips it over to reveal… What appears to be a man holding a lantern, standing alone in a cold desolate night. The card is facing Welnar.

  “The Hermit, reversed.” Daniel says, a grim look on his face. “You may soon begin to experience a great isolation and loneliness of some kind… Maybe. Something like that!” Daniel says, chuckling. Is he even serious about this?

  “Uh… What does that mean?” Welnar questions. Daniel shrugs.

  “Who knows. I don’t know what exact events will transpire in your life, just… What they may cause, so to speak. Now, let’s move on a bit further into your future…” He closes his eyes once more, waving his hand back and forth over the spread of cards slowly. After a few seconds, he takes another card and flips it… Revealing what appears to be a jester, juggling three bottles. Once again, the card is facing Welnar.

  “The Fool, reversed yet again.” Daniel says. “This means that you may want to step back in life and evaluate what you’re doing in the future… Or perhaps, you will be taken advantage of.” Taken advantage of? By who? This whole tarot card thing just seems to be leaving Welnar with more questions.

  “Well, let’s see if your far future at least ends on a high note.” Daniel says. He closes his eyes once more, his hand hovering over the cards… He looks like he’s about to grab one, but stops and decides on a different card, taking it and flipping it.

  The card depicts a woman wearing a fox mask, her hands hovering over a small orb in front of her. Behind her are nine large tails. The card is facing Daniel, this time. He nods with approval.

  “Judgement. In the far future, you may rediscover yourself and awaken to a new you. Sounds like a nice thing to end on.” He says. Welnar slowly nods… Perhaps it means him getting the Zero Blade? Daniel snaps a finger, and all the cards laid out suddenly fly upwards and into the palm of his hand face down, stacking perfectly. “Well, that was fun but I oughta be going now!” He says, drinking the rest of his water as he gets up. He begins to walk away… Until Welnar suddenly stands as well. “Wait.” He calls. Daniel turns.

  “Who are you really? You aren’t just a wanderer.” Welnar asks. Daniel looks down, seemingly thinking carefully. When he looks back at Welnar, he has a smirk.

  “You’ll find out down the line. Don’t worry. See you in the future.” Daniel waves as he turns and starts walking. He pulls a tarot card from his pocket… The Fool. And in an instant, Daniel seems to turn into a mess of colours and abstract shapes… Then disappear entirely. Welnar stares silently for a few seconds in confused shock. {“What… The fu-”} {“I think he’s traveling through time, somehow.”} Monarch talks midway through his thought.

  {“Yeah, I’d believe it… I guess that could explain his odd outfit. Question is, when exactly?”}

  {“That… I don’t think we’ll get an answer to. But he talked as if he was certain you’d meet him again. So maybe he’s already met you in the future somehow?”} Monarch says.

  Welnar leans against a wall, rubbing his forehead with his index and thumb. {“Time stuff is weird…”} Monarch transmits a general feeling of agreement. Welnar hears footsteps approaching, and turns to see Kali. “There you are! I can’t believe you just disappeared on me like that, had me worried.” Welnar chuckles.

  “Sorry about that… Just had an… Interesting encounter with that guy we saw earlier, in that weird outfit.” He says, Kali giving him a questioning look. “Interesting? How so?” She asks. Welnar would sit down with her and explain his encounter with Daniel, about the tarot cards and their incredibly odd goodbye…

  “Sounds like a bunch of bullcrap to me.” Kali says dismissively, shrugging. “I mean, the tarot card stuff at least. The time travel… I dunno.”

  “I can’t say I fully believe the tarot reading either. But maybe he was predicting my future because he already knew it or something? With the whole time travel thing…” Welnar says. Kali shakes her head.

  “No point dwelling on it. I sure as hell don’t know what it all means, and you don’t either. And neither of us will probably be able to.” She says. {“She makes a good point. We oughta just prepare ourselves for when we make land on the Eastern Continent.”} Monarch agrees. Welnar sighs… They’re right. He has bigger things to worry about than Daniel.

  Welnar closes his eyes, focusing as the heartbeats fill his ears. Four hearts… Slowly but surely, it does sound like he’s getting close to one of them. No, wait… Two of them. {“I think there might be another Heart in the Eastern Continent.”} Welnar mentally says.

  {“Sweet. We’ll get two birds with one stone then.”} She responds.

  …

  The boat would travel across the sea for 5 days. Welnar and Kali would keep to themselves for that time, discussing ideas of what to do when they reach land and… Enjoying themselves. In the meantime though…

  The Collector has been hard at work in the Eastern Continent. Utterly relentless, he has been on the hunt for this Flooding Rain the moment he made land upon the continent… And he’s growing close. In the dead of night, The Collector stands outside of a tall tower. Inside is an old Shogun, this continent's version of a king, who he believes would know the location of the Flooding Rain. The Collector carefully inspects the tower from afar, judging the distance he’ll need to move… Once he’s certain, he opens a rift in reality and enters his pocket dimension. He walks through the endless realm of crimson, climbing up invisible walls seemingly at random until eventually he stops… His armory appears at his side, and the Collector takes a simple dagger from it.

  A rift shatters open inside the Shogun’s tower, at the very top where he sleeps soundly… The old man is startled awake as The Collector steps through the rift. He tries to get up, getting ready to run…

  “Activate Haste.” The Collector mutters to himself. He leaves green afterimages as he moves with sudden, incredible speed, cutting off the old man’s escape and clasping a hand around his mouth, the dagger wielding hand being held at his throat.

  “If you yell, I will kill you. If you run, I will kill you. If you try to kill me, I can assure you, I will kill you before you kill me. Answer my questions, and I will leave. Understand?” The Collector talks swiftly and directly, his voice monotone and cold. The Shogun slowly nods, and The Collector lowers his hands.

  “The Flooding Rain. Have you heard of it?” He asks. “I-I have.” The Shogun responds.

  “Where is it?”

  “I-it’s in a shrine-” The Collector cuts him off. “I know that. Where is the shrine?”

  The Shogun is silent for a few seconds. “I… I c-cannot-” He is cut off once more by a dagger flying mere inches from his cheek, past him and into a wall. He stumbles to the ground from shock, The Collector standing over him. “I can kill you with my bare hands instead then. Tell me where it is.”

  “I-it’s up north! The shrine is up north… W-we have guards posted there, they’ll…”

  “They will not kill me. You should pray that they do not even see me, let alone attempt to kill me.” The Collector steps past the Shogun, taking the dagger off of the wall. Then, he turns to him.

  “Thank you.”

  With those few words, The Collector opens a rift and leaves, the rift closing behind him shortly after. The Shogun sits there, processing what just happened before holding his head in his hands, distraught.

  The Collector meanwhile, is feeling quite the opposite. He is rather happy… The hunt is coming to a close. Soon the Flooding Rain will be his.

  The Determined Heart beats with fervor.