Transmigrated as a Ghost

"I suppose we do not have anything better to do. Sure, we would be happy to talk with you for a bit." Mrazivy said in response to Rosina's request.

"Perfect. You two are certainly interesting, I would love to get to know your stories." Rosina said with an ecstatic smile on her face.

She then turned to Vimmarn and asked him to make sure that the ship stayed on course.

"I suppose I do not mind just this once. But you will have to procure some more of those Granvena Fruits for me later." Vimmarn sad before jumping back into the water.

The currents around the ship began to shift almost immediately and no longer was the vessel at rest as it had been throughout Rosina's performance.

"That should keep this vessel on schedule now. When everyone wakes from the stupor I put them in, they should not realize immediately that they have lost an entire day, and I am sure by the time they do it will not stick very long in their minds" Rosina said, obviously having had some experience doing this before.

After that the four of them headed to a scheduled area of the ship where there were not stupefied people simply standing or sitting around.

"Now to start, how did the both of you meet Ardea and Jaela? They only told me a little bit, but I want to hear the full story." Rosina said the moment they sat down.

"Hm, I suppose I should start when I met Ardea the first time when she was fighting Retharin." Marcus said.

Quickly he retold the story of how he first met the Grand Witch of the Peaks, and the ruler of the Verkoudhied Mountains.

"That surely must have been something. I have never personally seen Ardea fight as fiercely as you just described. But I suppose that is to be expected of one of the current strongest grand witches." Rosina said with a sparkle in her eyes.

Unlike Jaela and Ardea she was a relatively new Grand Witch and quite a bit weaker than either Ardea or Jaela at level eighty-one.

Of course, she was not weak, just that Jaela and Ardea were close to the top of the world in terms of power.

It became clear that the more Marcus spoke about the grand witches that he had formed a relationship with that Rosina really looked up to them.

Apparently, they were great seniors that had helped her out when the title of Grand Witch of the Deep was thrust upon her.

"So, you did not start out as the apprentice of the last Grand Witch of the Deep?" Marcus asked when he found out she had suddenly received the position. 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

"Nope, the former apprentice to the last Grand Witch of the Deep was too weak to take up the title at the time of my predecessor's death, and the other grand witches sought me out since I was the best candidate. I did take the former apprentice on as my own afterwards, so she manged to retain her position. That was around thirty years ago now though." Rosina said recalling the experience.

Hearing this Marcus thought back to the conversation he had had with Jaela and Ardea about the apprentice not always taking over.

"I am sure that Lilia will probably be fine. Jaela gave her assurances as well." Marcus mumbled.

However, everyone had implacable hearing and easily picked up on what he had just said absentmindedly to himself.

"Oh, who is this Lilia? And what relationship does she have to Jaela?" Rosina asked, naturally interested in the topic pertaining to another grand witch.

"Did neither Ardea nor Jaela tell you?" Mrazivy answered in surprise.

She knew of Lilia being taken as an apprentice as well and was astonished that another grand witch did not know about it.

"No, I have not heard anything about someone named Lilia." Rosina said shaking her head.

Mrazivy then turned towards Marcus to make sure that he was fine sharing this information, since it had to do with his little sister.

"I suppose that telling you is not a problem. Lilia is my little sister and Ardea's new apprentice. You could say that is another reason we became friends."

At this Rosina's eyes went wide with shock.

"Wait, Ardea who only ever thinks about fighting finally found an apprentice! I honestly never thought she would get around to it until she absolutely had to. Your little siter must be incredibly impressive to have won Ardea over. Please tell me the details of how it happened?" Rosina said beaming with delight.

Going over how they first met, to Ardea's recent evaluation and acceptance of Lilia, Marcus told everything he knew to Rosina.

"Still, I am surprised that you did not already know all this." Marcus said at the end.

"Oh, that is because taking on a new apprentice is not something that is announced to the other Grand Witches until our gatherings every five years. The next one will be happening in around eighteen months, so I imagine that Ardea with introduce Lilia to all of us then. This is also done to give us time to properly evaluate a new apprentice. No point in introducing them to everyone else if they do not measure up." Rosina explained.

Rosina then asked more questions about Lilia, wanting to learn about Ardea's new apprentice.

Naturally Marcus was more than happy to extol how amazing his little sister was and began raving about how impressive she was.

"Well, if what you say is not an exaggeration, I cannot wait to meet her. In fact, I will promise to give her my support as well." Rosina said resolutely.

After that they moved away from the topic and began talking about other things.

"So you are from the other world, just as Jaela. No wonder she took to you so easily. She has a soft spot for those that came from the same world as her. That also sort of explains how you can be a great spirit at such a low level. But how exactly did that happen?" Rosina asked.

"I am not sure that I should be sharing that information casually. I trust you since you come with Ardea and Jaela's assurance, but my transformation to a great spirit is closely related to the administrator." Marcus said.

Hearing this Rosina's smile broke, and it was clear that she was shocked and afraid.

"Yes, there is no need for me to know about something like that. Instead allow me to tell you a bit more about myself." Rosina said, swiftly changing the subject.

Time went by quickly as Marcus, Mrazivy, and Rosina continued talking, while Recha just sat back and listened.

"So, there are several kingdoms of aquatic humanoids that live at the bottom of the ocean. That sounds really interesting. Do you think it would be possible for us to visit some of them?" Mrazivy asked after hearing about the civilizations that lived in the depths.

Yet Rosina frowned, and thought a good bit about what to do.

"If it is just the two of you and I act as your guide it should be fine. It is quite rare for visitors from the surface to come down all the way to bottom of the ocean, and in some places, it is common to try and kidnap those that live in the depths whenever they appear near the surface. Especially mermaids like myself." Rosina said with a dark shadow over her face.

When she was younger and curious about the surface, she had gone up with some of her friends only for one of them to be captured by a fishing vessel they had approached in their naivete.

"Once I had gotten stronger, I went back to find my friend and those that took her. Truly it was horrible. Some wealthy merchant had locked her up in a small aquarium and was showing her off like a trophy. And it was not just her. That vile woman had hundreds of people of different races chained up and stuffed in enclosures like some sort of zoo." Rosina said, lingering fury clear to see on her face.

She then told them about how she had killed everyone in a fury and set free all of the slaves, including her friend.

"It took years to help her restore some semblance of normalcy but last I saw her she was fairly happy. Still, those from that live in the depths of the ocean do not often take kindly to those from the surface." Rosina warned.

Nevertheless, Marcus and Mrazivy wanted to see all the world had and would be remiss to pass up the chance to see an underwater city or two.

"Very well. I can take you to my home city of Nonalier. I am well respected there and if you come as my guests, you will not be mistreated." Rosina said, agreeing to take them to her home.

Marcus and Mrazivy then began discussing when they might be able to go and made plans to meet up with Rosina again in the future.

"Well, this has been enjoyable, and I really am glad I got to meet the both of you. I can see now why Jaela and Ardea were so quick to form close bonds. I look forward to meeting you both again later, but for now I have duties that I must attend to."

With the sun close to setting and her spell on the entire ship soon to come to an end, Rosina gave her farewell to Marcus and Mrazivy, before jumping back into the ocean and disappear into the depths.