A Magical Tale: The Peerless Summoner

Helena nodded her head.

She then said "Be right back girls. Let me go talk to the owner of that large boat over there. I just hope he doesn't demand too much from us, or we wouldn't have enough money to be able to buy ourselves things on the way which have taken our fancy"

Helena spoke while the girls nodded.

She then said further "Girls, don't ever try to lower your guards. Please be extremely vigilant, until we leave here anyways."

Once she said that, she left their presence to go meet the man who had the boat that she wanted to pay for to transport them across the massive lagoon to the region where the Fey kingdom is.

"Good day, sir. I and my friends want to use your boat to move across the lagoon to the vast land at the other side." Helena politely greeted and slowly said.

"Okay. And you do young girls have the money to be able to afford my service?" The middle-aged man asked with an indifferent gaze in his eyes and then spat out at the ground.

"Yea. We have money. But it's not much. I hope good sir can take pity on us poor and miserable girls." Helena said with an adorable, heart-melting begging look in her eyes.

The middle-aged man sighed.

He then said "Whenever I want to transport people with my large boat across the lagoon to another land, I ask them to pay several thousand silver coins. To be precise, seventeen thousand, nine hundred silver coins. But because you are young girls who need help, I will help you. So, just give me twelve thousand silver coins. Any less than that, I won't bulge or make a move. And mind you, no more price negotiation. This is as far as I can go. Therefore, if you don't have that amount with you, you girls can go find another boat owner here to transport you girls across the lagoon to the land destination that you have in mind. It's not totally a must that I convey you girls with my boat."

Once the man said this, Helena turned her head to look at the other stationary boats floating atop the water of the lagoon. But she didn't like them. Only her knew the reason why.

She then stared back at the man and said with a begging tone in her voice "Good sir, help these poor girls. Please!"

Unknown to Helena, as she was speaking to the middle-aged man with a begging gaze in her eyes, a formless type of power began to emit from her body in form of ripples that couldn't be seen or felt. Then once these imperceptible ripples of power struck the man in front of her, he suddenly felt in his heart a very strong feeling of compassion and pity for Helena.

Also in that same instant that his mind became completely clouded by the overwhelming feeling of magnanimity, he abruptly received several strong empathic thoughts that, what if it was his daughter, wife or family that was hugely financially stranded and wanted to come see him on the land that was at the other side of the lagoon, would he like that they be treated the same way he was treating Helena? Absolutely not!

The middle-aged man then sighed.

"How much do you have to pay for my service?" He asked with a gentle tone in his voice.

Seeing that the man had become surprisingly soft for no reason that she could explain, Helena then tried to shamelessly lower the amount that she could afford to pay for the man's service.

"Good sir, I have only three thousand silver coins. Are you okay with that?" She asked with a burning hope in her heart.

Although she had about forty silver coins in that pouch that was given to her by Daniella, she however didn't want to spend almost everything on just boat transport alone. She wanted to buy some stuff for her girls and for herself, then save the remaining one for their use in the near or distant future.

So, she burned with great hope in her heart that the man would accept the amount that she said she could afford.

However, since the man's mind was overly permeated by the powers of both Persuasion and Compulsion that had initially emitted from Helena's body, without her becoming aware of their uncontrolled discharge from her body, the middle-aged man then said softly to Helena, under the overwhelming influence of those formless powers that saturated his mind and heart, persuading him and coercing him at the same time to be really generous to Helena "Give me five hundred silver coins."

"Huh!" Helena exclaimed in shock.

"Are you really sure you want that amount? It sounds... so little for your service, kind sir?" She asked.

"No need to be worried about the amount that I asked for. Just take it as me being really nice to you and hoping that a limitless stream of favor would continually fall upon me from the boundlessly vast fortune bank of our universe." The middle-aged man said with a smile.

Helena whose face had expression of intense bewilderment written on it, abruptly shook her head numerous times in defiance.

"Still, it's too little. I can't do that, good sir. I don't really know what happened to you, but that feels like excessive cheating to me. I will pay you four thousand silver coins. Or better still, five thousand silver coins. You have a family to feed. So, don't be outrageously generous with me and be waiting for some favor to pour down upon you from an unreal fortune bank or whatever you called it from the universe." She hurriedly said.

"Alright" The man accepted.

Helena then looked at him and asked herself inwardly "What suddenly happened to this man? Why did he become so ridiculously magnanimous with me? I am terribly astounded. Anyways, I will think about this later. It's time to get out of here to feel slightly safe."

She then beaconed to her girls who remained where they are with eyes that shone with great vigilance, and bodies that had entered battle-ready stances which they expertly concealed from being noticed by the people walking about in this place to various places that they had in mind.

"Girls, come here quickly! Let's leave this place at once!" She said, calling out to her girls.

Once Lydia and the rest heard Helena's call, they quickly walked towards where she stood and then moved with her by her sides to follow directly behind the middle-aged boat owner to go climb on his large boat.

Immediately they climbed atop the boat, the middle-aged man began to paddle, directing the boat to move in the East direction, which was the direction that the Fey kingdom lied in.

But they had only gone for some meters into the distance across the lagoon when Helena suddenly sensed about twenty strongly fluctuating evil auras in the far distance.

'The bastards have finally decided to show themselves after a long time of hiding in the shadows and in the background.'

'So they really want a fight on water? Well, who am I not to delightfully give it to them?' She said resolutely within herself, with her clear and sharp eyes beginning to glow with intense battling intent, and her hair and cloak now fluttering hard in the soft and gentle breeze circulating around them, but instead gave everyone the feeling that it was a strong wind that was fiercely blowing past only Helena, therefore causing Lydia and the others to be tremendously shocked and bewildered by this strange phenomenon that was occurring before them around Helena.