Shonai Point

A lighthouse with tinted green lights and a body of sparkling black stone sits at the end of a small peninsula at the Southern end of the island of Okailu. An elevated stone walkway rises from the sandy shores beside it, meant to connect the lighthouse to the main island during high tides. Following this long stone path, one reaches a large dockyard filled with supply barges and ferryboats. Next to the dockyard is a small castle, squat but bristiling with cannons pointed out to sea. Only vessels bearing the banner of Selkie Circle of Elders can approach this dock without being fired upon - several docked gunboats typically stop and search even these vessels, checking for the correct paperwork and contraband. The traffic headed to Motosui sails a wide berth around this dockyard (and all of Okailu in general).    This is Point Shonai, the official gateway into the island of Okailu. Every week, ferries arrive here from the Pilgrim's Port to deliver thousands of teenagers to make their way on the Pilgrim's Path to Mohomwa Cove. This is also where the supply convoys drop off great volumes of food, paperwork, luxuries, and couriers for the Selkie Circle of Elders.    There is a second more tightly controlled dock closer to Mohomwa Palace, but this is reserved for high-priority messages and deliveries as well as the Grand Elder's personal transportation. But for most traffic, Port Shonai is the only way in or out of the island without attracting negative attention from a patrol.    Shonai Point is not quite a settlement, since not many people actually live here and only a small handful live here for any considerable amount of time. There is the castle garrison, the lighthouse keeper, and the port authority workers, but these are more postings than the foundation of an actual community. Everything here is built around utility, in service of the island more broadly: stables and storehouses for moving people and goods, barracks and armories for the garrison and gunboat crews, local supplies for fixing wagons or replacing common goods for workers.   Most people see very little of Point Shonai: the docks, the main plaza used for recounting and hyping up the pilgrims headed over to Mohomwa, maybe the port authority building or warehouse row. These places are bright, well-decorated, and evoke a sense of awe and excitement in visitors - they are built to impose and evoke a sense of magic, as if the visitor is crossing into a supernatural world of kings and spirits by simply crossing the narrow water from Halamahi. This bit of theater is quite old, perhaps as old as the ritualized pilgrimmages.