Perhaps setting foot on that island would get them killed before they knew it. Or perhaps they would come away with even more than Ruger and the others had. Nothing was certain.
Still, Ruger believed that if Kurt were given the choice outright, he probably would not leave his island. Unless a crisis threatened to engulf the entire place, it would take more than that to move such a steady, fiercely independent Wizard.
"What's this...?" Kurt held two storage pouches whose marks had been erased.
"A little gift for you. You could call it a local specialty. It's somewhat different from the usual glowing plants. We thought you might find it interesting," Ruger said.
Kurt's eyes lit up, just as expected, and he thanked them profusely.
They chatted a while longer. When Kurt learned that Ruger and Mahama planned to move to an island like that and live on their own, he immediately offered advice and help. These days, most of the trees and other plants on such islands had changed or simply died. Light-Loss had hit unattended islands especially hard. Kurt's people had once planted crops on several nearby islands, but they had adjusted their plans as Light-Loss progressed.
Kurt had trained more God-Gifted as well. Some sea beasts had shifted their territories after Light-Loss, leaving ships in need of greater protection. With too many cultivated islands to maintain, his people had been forced to abandon some. Kurt offered to give Ruger and Mahama one of those islands, where much of the infrastructure was already in place.
But the two of them declined.
Once things stabilized, Kurt would inevitably look for ways to expand again. He would start by reclaiming the islands once used for farming and breeding, and they had no wish to get in his way.
All