After Lis’s departure, Mahya and I stayed at the hotel for a few days, feelied. I pyed my guitar to process my emotions, but didn’t sing or learn new songs. Lis was my first real friend, and I didn’t know how to say goodbye to friends; didn’t even know where to start. When my wife died, it broke me pletely, and I felt like my whole life had shattered. Like I lost my e to humanity. Saying goodbye to Lis felt like someone ig at the scar, reopening the wound I thought had healed. At night, I stared at the ceiling, w if the emptiness would ever leave.

  Our retionship was different—built on a close friendship, not romantic love. But that didn’t make our e any less solid and real. In some ways, it was stronger. Saying goodbye to him felt like losing a piee—like someone had yanked a carpet from beh my feet a me staggering. The emptiness he left in me was raw, and I didn’t know how to fill it.

  He’s not dead; He’s just visiting some dragons. I told myself again and again.

  Every m, I looked for a message from Lis, but there wasn’t anything. Retly, I stopped cheg daily for a message from Lyura and only checked once a week, but now I was back to cheg daily.

  After three days, I got worried and asked Mahya, “Don’t you think it’s taking too long for Lis to send us a message?” I couldn’t hide the ay creeping into my voice as I paced bad forth.

  Mahya gnced up from her book. “Don’t fet about the time skips,” she said calmly.

  I stopped pag and frowrying to make sense of it. “Do you know how long the time skip is?” I asked, crossing my arms as I turo face her.

  She shrugged. “How should I know?” she replied, before returning to her book.

  After five days, Mahya approached me and suggested, “Let’s keep going. We have a lot of Gates to ched still have shopping to do; we he retail therapy. Trust me, nothing cures the blues like a shopping spree.”

  I ughed and agreed; retail therapy sounded nice.

  Instead of taking a train jouring over 15 hours, we flew to Yig, and Alfonsen didn’t raise any objes. It was a small thing––not pining about flying––but I appreciated it more than I could say. Maybe Alfonsen wasn’t so bad after all.

  When I first saw the Yangtze River, I was i was huge. I had seen big rivers before, but something about its size touched me, and I just stood there and looked at it, mesmerized and awed. Somehow, its vast width, with the mountains oher side and the browhan-blue water, all blended into a picture that amazed me and took my breath away. The color of the water should have put me off, but here, it blended into a perfect image that I couldn’t look away from. I didn’t even think of taking a photograph. I knew no picture could do it justice. Somehow, its beauty and immense size filled a small part of the hole I felt in my heart. It reminded me I was a Traveler; I would see many things a many people on my road, and I would have to say goodbye to some of them. Lis was right; we went where the road took us. It made me feel better and less hollowed out.

  Yig had a big marina with many sailboats, fishing boats, and river cruisers, and I decided it was a great pce to shop for a sailboat. I spent three days expl the marina until I stumbled upon a sailboat, specifically the HARMONY 47 model by PON YACHTS. Although it had some visible wear and tear, it caught my attention.

  I checked online and saw that the asking prices for the same model were between y and a hundred ahousand dolrs; the asking price for this one was eighty-five. I checked its specifications and saw that it had four s, with two bathrooms, each shared between two s, a kit alley or whatever, a big living room, and a back deck partially covered with an option to enclose some of it entirely. Externally, the yacht appeared to have some dents and bends, and the decks looked broken and torn.

  I asked the marina mao tact the owners on my behalf, and after I waited for an hour, one of them eventually arrived. Two English people were the yacht owners, and one of them, Albert, who preferred to be called Brett, offered to show me the inside of the yacht.

  When I ied the yacht’s interior, I found it had suffered extensive damage. The fl had many broken areas, the furniture looked threadbare, and a thick yer of limescale covered all the showers. Broken door hinges tributed to the worn-out appearance of the mistreated ets. The kit appeared as if an army had rampaged through it, while the living room resembled a frat party gone bad; in short, the yacht was in terrible shape.

  I ran my hand along the rough, chipped edge of the door, feeling the wood splinter beh my fingers. “What happened here?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as I surveyed the worn-out upholstery and the thick grime on every surface. The pce looked like it had been through a war—or a really bad party.

  The hed and shook his head. “We have beeing a private cruise business on the Yangtze River for six years using this yacht. Some individuals ck basic care and sideration for the property of others.”

  I nodded, still taking in the damage. “What’s the meical dition?” I asked, turning my gaze ba.

  “She sail,” he replied with a slight shrug, “but she needs work.”

  I rubbed my thoughtfully, weighing the pros and s. “I’m ied,” I finally said, “but the price sounds too high, sidering her dition.”

  The owraightened, his expression shifting to a businesslike focus. “How are you paying?”

  “Cash.”

  He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Let me check with my partner, and I’ll get back to you.”

  I gave a brief nod iurn. “No problem; I must also check with my partner.”

  While I was waiting for an answer from Brett, I checked the prices of gold online. I didn’t have enough cash to pay for the yacht, but I could take money from Mahya and pay her ba gold, or sell gold s. I realized I had underpaid Alfonsen for the gold I bought from him. The s he gave me weighed 32 grams each, and acc to the i, each was worth 2,144 euros. I did the math and discovered that I had given him six gold s worth of euros.

  I went looking for him, and I found him in his room. “Alfonsen, I paid you too little for yold. What do you prefer—one hundred and four s back or one hundred s bad another 8,500 euros?”

  Alfonsen cleared his throat, his eyes darting to the side before meeting mine. “I would prefer the local currency, with a preference for an amount surpassing 8,500,” he said, his tone careful, as if trying not to sound too eager. “Mahya and I went shopping for the past two days to restock her iory of fabrics, and I ended up making several purchases as well.” He gnced down at his hands, fidgeting slightly, before looking back at me. “She informed me you lease a warehouse for receiving deliveries. Will you be doing so this time as well?”

  “Yes, I’ll find something for us,” I replied, giving him a reassuring nod. “I must also find a pce to sell some s, as I’m running low on cash.”

  I checked and discovered that the s I received from Lis weighed 40 grams each, Alfonsen’s s weighed 32 grams each, and I also had a colle of different s from Shimoor in various weights, from 27 grams to 46 grams. To avoid any unnecessary plications, I opted to sell a biotal of 600 s. These s sisted of 500 s I received from Lis and an additional 100 s from Alfonsen. After a short online search, I found the Gold Trading Servid tacted a representative.

  When the Gold Trading Service representative heard I wao sell gold s worth over 1.5 million euros, he inquired about ownership dots and invited me to dinner. I refused dinner, not wanting to make up lies about where the gold came from, but I assured him I had all the ownership dots.

  Two representatives arrived at the hotel with an armored trud a big, armed guard, like something straight out of a movie.

  “Hěn gāo xìng néng gēn nín jiàn miàn” (o meet you), they said in unison, bowing slightly as they approached.

  I smiled politely, gesturing toward the chairs. “Hello, gentlemen. Unfortunately, I don’t speak ese,” I said, shaking my head with a slight chuckle. “Please, sit down.”

  I showed them all the relevant (jured) dots for the gold sale, hahem a briefcase with the gold s, ea its pstic sheath that took me hours te—and made Mahya ugh at the “artistic presentation” —and received 1,687,530. We ed up our business, and I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or another a-packed film with all the fa made me ugh and improved my mood further.

  John, you o learn to appreciate the little things, or in this case, the big trud guard.

  Brett tacted me to meet and discuss the yacht’s sale, and I asked Mahya to e with me. As we pulled into the marina, I noticed Mahya’s eyebrows shoot up as she took in the yacht’s exterior dition. “Are you sure about this? It looks pretty damaged.”

  “I’ve got the Restore spell; it shouldn’t be a problem,” I replied, waving off her . “But could you check the engine and see if you vert it to run on mana, or eveer, on mana and traditional fuel?”

  Mahya shook her head. “You don’t want it to run on fuel. Only a few pces in the universe rely on fossil fuels. It would be better to switana or use sails.”

  “You know best,” I admitted. “Look at it and tell me if it’s possible.”

  After taking a tour of the boat, I couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at Mahya’s expression of disbelief as she saw the dition up close. Finally, I turo Brett and introduced her with a slight grin. “This is my engineer. I need her to look at the engines.”

  Mahya spent some time iing the maery, her face serious as she worked. When she finished, she telepathically sent me a message: “I vert it, but it will work best with a dungeon core.”

  “But we sail safely on it without one?”

  “Yeah, don’t worry. If you fix the damage, I vert the engine.”

  With that “ringing” endorsement, I asked Brett, “Shall we discuss the financial aspect? Remember, I’m paying cash.”

  After a short iation, I bought the yacht for seventy thousand dolrs. Brett reminded us we needed a boating lise to sail it. I assured him it was all fine, and we cluded the deal.

  Following the sale, I discovered the IYT Try Sailing Course, a four-hour course about sailing basics. The three of us attehe course but unfortunately didn’t gain the sailing skill. So, I found the Iional Bareboat Skipper (IYT) Course, which takes five days. We atte and finally gaihe sailing skill.

  We moved to the boat, and Rue didn’t voiy pints. I started the restoration process by w on the s, starting with theirs. We requested delivery of all our shopping items to the marina and the boat, which was an effective solution.

  I went over my list of the things I wao buy, deleted all the stuff I bought already, and made a new, shorter list:

  Copper sToolsDIY equipmentMedical suppliese JewelrySpare furnitureGames for adultsThe three of us went shopping. I bought all the stuff on my list and gave Alfonsen a copy of the inal list after Mahya told him it was fantastic.

  In the evenings, we got into the habit of learning the various box games I had picked up, and everyone, including Rue, quickly fell in love with them. We pyed every night, and somehow, Rue won more than half the games. We suspected he was using telekinesis to cheat when we weren’t looking, but no matter how hard we tried, we could never catch him i.

  One evening, we pyed backgammon, and Rue won again, his tail wagging so hard it thumped against the deck. Mahya looked at him with narrowed eyes, suspi written all over her face. “There’s no way you’re this good,” she accused him.

  Rue tilted his head, giving us those puppy-dog eyes and a tongue-lolling i look. But when we rolled the dice with telekinesis, I could swear I felt a tiny additional nudge on the dice before they settled on 6-6. That dog was sneakier tha on.

  We pleted all the shopping iy. I bought another 100 gold s from Alfonsen for 214,400. They bought their own copies of all the grownups’ games, and we decided to sail to the Gate he Wu Ge.

  The time here was good for us. Mahya and I started ughing again. The little things gradually lifted our spirits—silly jokes, deep versations with Alfonsen about the responsibility of govers or morality, and the game nights of the four of us together. Each ugh helped fill the Lis-shaped hole in my heart, slowly healing it. It took time, but our friendship and fresh memories gradually, little by little, filled the void.