"Thats right! I am Shakkai... I had completely forgotten that part!" She gave him a draconic smile right before she started laughing, she made the motion to wipe away tears before hunching over the table where the book was.
"I am nothing more than a powerless goddess with no memory of how I wound up this way. I hope you won't abandon me anyway!" She spoke with happiness but Samuel could feel the traces of sadness in her voice.
Unfortunately he was a bit too shocked to reply at that moment so he slowly rubbed his hands together. "Okay... Alright, yeah sure!" He slowly nodded his head.
"We made a promise, a pact didn't we." He said every word with care, partly because he was still shaking it off. There was a goddess bonded to him and the bigger question was how it had happened.
Well of course he knew how it had happened because he was there when it happened, but how had this happened to her? He wasn't the only one with the question as Shakkai stood in silence clutching at her head with one arm.
Shaking it she was quite clearly frustrated. "I really can't remember anything, I would say I hate it, but something about being here with you is helping me from panicking about it all!" She looked at Samuel that instantly gave her a smile.
Samuel realized this wasn't anything that could be solved right away when he saw her eyes that seemed to cry out their frustration. "We will find the answer together... I promise!"
The words she needed to hear at that moment were those ones. "I was afraid you would want nothing to do with me, knowing your annoyance about gods and goddesses in the first place."
"Hey I get a free goddess that can kick my enemies ass on my side! I can't complain about that, also because I won't go back on a promise!" Samuels lighthearted joking and mood definitely made Shakkai feel better. At least something was like it used to be.
"In that case, I won't be a bother!" She mumbled and jumped back into his shadow. Samuel took all books related to the realm of shadows and put them in his Shadow Dimensional storage.
"All the books related to your home should be there, perhaps you can find out a clue or remember something if you read through them all carefully!"
Shakkai snorted, "And how am I supposed to read them while in your shado-?"
"Wait... I can access everything in the shadow storage from here..." Shakkai squealed out of joy, "This getting stronger is so handy... There is like an entire huge room in here! With everything we have stored!"
Samuel turned around is if he wanted to see it, "Wait what?" He couldn't help but shout loudly. "I also want to see it! Damnit!"
"I always wanted my own room!" Shakkai couldn't help but grin and Samuel could almost feel it all the way outside.
"Woah thats weird! Did you feel that?" Samuel asked and Shakkai nodded, for some reason Samuel could feel her nodding.
"In one way it seems like our minds connection split but then connected on another form of level. Try to send thoughts my way instead!" Shakkai told him and when he did she could see them clearly.
"Well that is handy!" Samuel agreed when she sent the thoughts of what had happened back. "Super handy!" She agreed.
The two spent some time learning their new and improved connection to know the pros and cons since it could be a matter between life and death in certain situations.
So time passed until the day finally came around.
Samuel had left what work needed to be done with his faction that had advanced to the point that he hardly needed to help anyone anymore, instead he could leave it with the other leaders.
Alsian had told him they would be gone for at least two weeks at the summit. Vuldara and Zalbas had both travelled with their masters on their own.
But Vazmarx was still sticking with Samuel, a summit for Children of Mana to come gather from all over the world. Samuel had packed everything he needed and it was easy enough to store everything he needed inside his shadow pocket.
Alsian came to Samuels house to pick him up and he was definitely surprised to see Vazmarx there. "Who is this?" He asked Samuel. But it was Vazmarx who replied, "A child of mana just like yourselves, and a sworn member of Samuels organization!" Vazmarx grinned and actually did a partial transformation.
Alsian was surprised to see the tails and fangs Vazmarx showed and he raised an eyebrow at Samuel, but when Samuel gave him a nod he relaxed. "As a child of mana I have also decided to follow Samuel, so you don't haveto worry about me!" The foxkin continued.
"Who is your master?" Alsian asked and Vazmarx couldn't help but sigh loudly. "Unfortunately I have no living master! But all memories are stored in the blood!" His answer made Alsian laugh.
"I see so you are one of them!" Alsian couldn't help but grin, he knew exactly which of the older smaller clans he belonged to. "The only clan that ever followed the notions of the Xaxiaz clan. Although never on paper according to most history about it." Alsians words made Samuel quite surprised.
From what he had understood the Xaxiaz clan had never had any other clan that followed them, he turned to Alsian "I thought no clan did?"
Alsian only shook his head, "Trust my time magic! The clan he belongs to were all a bunch of weird fellows, they were unique so to say!"
"I won't tell you everything remember? Some things you must find out for yourself!" Alsian turned heel and walked out of the house and the two youths followed him.
He led them all the way to the house of dimensions where all the teleportation circles were. He took them to one that was more on its own in the room. "Island of Sepotoac!" Vazmarx read on the sign on the side.
Alsian didn't hesitate to enter the circle and the other two followed him and teleported together with him. They arrived in a semi empty room, it was well lit with almost nothing else but two statues that each stood guarded towards the circle.
Samuel could swear one of them moved slightly but then stopped as Alsian walked past. "Magical defense golems!" Vazmarx whispered to him as they also walked past.
As to be expected that they wouldn't leave anything without defense, Alsian walked through several parts of the building and soon enough they started encountering Rejuan officials, except their attires were slightly different.
Samuel remembered that the Sepotoac Island was actually an island state of Rejuan, they had certain independence. He knew mostly about Sepotoa island because it was a prime breeding spot for Gryphons.
The large island had plenty of mountains and hills where gryphons migrated to, all guards made way for Alsian whenever they came upon any.
Soon enough Samuel and Vazmarx saw out a large window, the city they were at was built into a large mountain with a huge natural spring running all the way through.
The water was almost completely clear light blue, it almost looked magical. Alsian led them all the way to the opposite side of the building where there was another teleportation room.
Samuel was a bit bummed out about not being able to see the beautiful city outside, so he made a mental note to one day return here and see it all.
Without asking too many questions they followed Alsian and teleported once again, this time they walked through a simillar building as the last one, which one could recognize as local magistrate buildings.
This time they walked out of it though and walked out onto a main street. Samuels eyes went wide because the road that slightly tilted downwards led all the way down to the sparkling ocean.
The buildings were made like other Rejuan architecture with only a few differences that they looked older. Many merchants and townfolk were making their way through and Alsian didn't stop so the two youths had to almost run to catch up with him.
"Welcome to the port city of Sitra! The largest port city of the Rejuan Republic!" Alsian said as the youths caught up with him, they were quite clearly making their way to the port.
But Samuel took every opportunity to look around at this new large port city. Port cities like this were always full of people from all over the world, because of the major trade routes that would be used.
Slowly they approached the docks where there were hundreds of ships of different sizes. Most of them fishing ships or merchant ships, the rest were Rejuan navy ships that were going in an out for patrols.
Heavy patrol ships was one of the best ways to discourage piracy, the more frequent ships patrolled the fewer pirates, of course the ships could only go out of port to some extent.....