Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

Elaru grinned. “I have a better idea.”

  Kiel’s face fell. I don’t like the sound of that…

  “How about I transfer my memory of the pattern to you? Perhaps if I transfer a memory, it would be easier for you to remember it? Maybe my memories can become your memories.”

  Elaru jumped down from the pillar like a lunar pouncing on its prey.

  “Oh no, you don’t!” He remembered how she transferred her memory to him the last time – she pressed their foreheads together.

  Kiel dodged to the side as if his life depended on it.

  Instead of hitting the ground face first, like Kiel expected her to, Elaru flipped in the air and landed on her feet. Just like a lunar…they always land on their feet.

  She looked at him frowningly. “Aren’t you overreacting?”

  Kiel’s eyebrow twitched. He needed to find another way to deal with her. Outright refusing never seemed to work.

  “I just think you should practice sending me your memories without physical contact. That would be much more useful in the long run.”

  Elaru’s eyes brightened, and her face showed what seemed to be enlightenment. “You’re right!”

  Score! Kiel suppressed the urge to fist pump. Then he caught himself and realized he shouldn’t be counting his clucklings before they hatched. He looked at Elaru, half expecting her to say “But…”

  However, she didn’t. Instead, she smiled and explained: “See, I knew it was a good idea to make you my partner. You are full of great ideas.”

  Kiel’s mouth twitched. Why do I get the feeling you are being sarcastic?

  However, Elaru didn’t try approaching him again. Instead, she turned him her back, intentionally removing him from her line of sight.

  Kiel stood there, not knowing what to do with himself. He needed that spell pattern. At least write it down for me. Who knows how long it will take you to…

  His thoughts were interrupted when a vivid world of glowing lights appeared before his eyes. It was a perfectly clear and detailed recollection of what happened a few minutes ago.

  The memory showed beautiful golden, orange, and red flames congealing into the Morph spell. He saw the embers burrowing through the earth and spreading glowing tendrils of light.

  An involuntary amazement flashed through Kiel’s mind. Her mana…is so stunningly beautiful…

  It glittered vividly, in colors so gorgeous that everything else paled in comparison.

  He could even see himself in the memory, surrounded by striking sea of blue. However, while his own mana did look beautiful, he found it rather lackluster when compared to hers.

  He could see their entire surroundings. The earth, the trees, the wyrms underground. He could perceive everything clearly.

  He could even see Elaru herself as seen by her own Aethernea of Sight. It gave him a strange feeling. He saw everything from her point of view, yet her own point of view included herself in it as well.

  She was glowing so brightly it was blinding. She was like the sun. Countless obscure patterns surrounded her. Innumerable spell roots weaved a tight web around her.

  Kiel felt a sense of déjà vu. I think I’ve seen this before…

  He wracked his brain for several moments before he remembered where. He saw these same patterns back when Elaru had shared her memory with him for the first time! Back then, he had thought these patterns to be a part of the Aetherneal bond. Only now, seeing them again, did he realize that they weren’t.

  He concentrated on the spells again. He could only pick up a few symbols that he recognized. The mana that surrounded her body was too dense, it too glowed and made it harder to see the spells clearly.

  What is that? Kiel’s eyebrows furrowed. Am I seeing the enchantments on the magical artifacts in her possession?

  No…if it was the enchantments on her items, they wouldn’t be so widespread. They would be concentrated into the item itself. However, these patterns were everywhere around and inside Elaru. Why are there so many? With so many spells cast on her, how can she even accelerate without causing destructive interference?

  Kiel’s eyebrows furrowed even further. Better yet, what are these spells for? I don’t recognize any of them. Ah…there is one I recognize.

  It was the same color changing spell Elaru had shown him the day before yesterday for the purpose of hiding the mark of the bond. The spell was very small and barely visible. It seemed to be targeting her eyes.

  How come I haven’t felt any of these spells on her body before? My mana sense should have been able to pick it up.

  Unless…

  Unless she was intentionally concealing them.

  Kiel shook his head. Now was not the time to concentrate on unveiling Elaru’s secrets. His priority was learning how to Morph.

  His thoughts cleared, his attention returned to the Morph spell. He concentrated every fiber of his being into remembering the scene, engraving every line into his memory.

  Soon, all his previous thoughts vanished, and he became completely absorbed into the Morph spell.

  The world, him, Elaru, everything faded out; it ceased to matter. The only thing that mattered was weaving this spell. His entire being concentrated on that single task.

  Seeing the pattern with her Aethernea was indeed a more effective way to study it. A pen and paper drawing was only two-dimensional; it couldn’t adequately portray a three-dimensional spell. It was incomplete.

  Kiel started weaving the Morph spell over and over again. He felt as if he could actually see it. As if seeing it once somehow increased the sensitivity of his own mana sense.

  Seeing Kiel in the state of absolute concentration Elaru smiled softly and walked away from him to the same spot in which she sat yesterday.

  She pulled the same book out and started working on the same enchantment.

  Yet one thing was different. Today, the spell she was weaving looked nothing like it did yesterday.

  * * *

  The feeling of controlling materials by using the Morph spell was very similar to how Kiel controlled mana. He felt as if he was a slime that could control its body to change however it wished. As if that pack of dirt that he was trying it on became a slimy extension of him.

  He found it extremely fun to control the ground. He tried creating earth spikes, pillars, and walls. Then he tried changing the shape of his own sword. He bent it and twisted around, seeing endless possible variations of how he could use it in battle.

  He tried it out on tree trunks and on his own shirt. He even tried morphing the water in the nearby stream. That proved to be extremely fun as the water was very flexible and proved to be easier to morph than rock.

  He even ended up trying to wrap the air around him. It gave him the most trouble out of all the materials he had tried so far. The less dense a material was, the harder it was to morph it properly.

  Each time he thought he had finally run out of things to Morph, he would get another idea. He was like a child playing with a new toy.

  He tried all possible aspects of the spell. How to do it as quickly as possible, how to do it as accurately as possible. In a span of several hours, a spell that he had never cast before became his second nature. A part of him.

  Only after half a day had passed did he come out of his strange mood. He was awakened by his stomach growling.

  His cheeks flushed with a tinge of pink. He looked towards Elaru from the corner of his eye, but she showed no sign of hearing it.

  Thank the gods! That would have been awkward.

  He stopped his practice and approached her. How should he bring up the matter? He needed to convince her to stop her work and leave to have lunch asap. Before his stomach gave out another embarrassing sound.

  His gaze shifted to Elaru, finally paying attention to what she was doing.

  She was currently weaving an extremely complicated spell around her arm. If the spell she was weaving yesterday was a thread of yarn, this current spell was the ball of yarn. Countless spell patterns intertwin
ed, overlapped and formed a web in which one couldn’t tell heads apart from the tails.

  The patterns were intertwined so tightly together that Kiel didn’t know whether he should be impressed or appalled. How can you still continue weaving this?? It is a giant mess! Will this spell even work?

  He was skeptical about it. It will most likely fall apart before it manages to activate, or it would implode on itself. When a magic spell gets weaved as densely as she was weaving it, the different parts of the spell start interfering with one another causing the spell to shatter and fall apart before it can form.

  It looked as though she didn’t take that into account at all. Alas, he didn’t dare underestimate her. She always found a way to surprise him with her abilities.

  As Kiel inspected the spell more closely, he was startled to find out that he didn’t recognize a single spell pattern. This spell…is completely different from the one she was weaving yesterday!

  Did the old spell fail to meet her expectations so she started working on a new one?

  Well…whatever. None of my business.

  He shrugged and no longer paid attention to her weaving. Instead, his eyes landed on her expressionless face.

  Usually, he avoided looking at her face. Partially it was because she would stare back at him and make him feel awkward. But mostly it was because the more he looked at it, the more he noticed just how beautiful it was. And he didn’t find that to be beneficial to him in any way.

  His gaze was naturally drawn to her eyes. Just as always, they were teal with a bit of yellow around the pupil, which one wouldn’t be able to notice unless they really paid attention.

  Huh? Isn’t there supposed to be a color changing spell on her eyes? But they don’t look any different than usual…

  Suddenly a memory flashed before his eyes. A memory of the night when they first met face to face. Her eyes were still teal, but they were glowing with not so subtle golden lights. The dots and stripes in her eyes moved around magically. It was a mesmerizing sight.

  When he met her the next day, he didn’t pay a lot of attention to the appearance of her eyes. Thinking of it now, he vaguely remembered they didn’t look as magical as the previous night. Back then, he didn’t think much of it. Glowing things would naturally be much more visible at night, so he felt it was normal for her eyes to not look the same at daytime.

  However, now that he thought about it…he had already spent several days with her, and he had never seen her eyes look as magical as they did the first time they met.

  His mind connected the dots quickly, but he still wished to confirm his speculation.

  “Elaru.” He called out to her, snapping her out of her own little world. She looked towards him questioningly.“Do your eyes change color?”

  She blinked a few times before responding through telepathy. “What do you mean? They always look the same.”

  “The first time we met, they looked much more magical.”

  She stared at him a bit confused, before starting to laugh. “Well of course they did.” She covered her eyes with her palm and swiped it down as if wiping her face.

  As she removed her palm, Kiel’s breath caught in his throat.

  * * *

  Coming up in the next episode:

  Suddenly a growling noise spread through the clearing, interrupting their conversation.

  The first thing Venric saw when he opened the envelope were two words written in a large font: “Elaru Wayvin”.

  Venric “tsked”. What a bad taste in women.

  Venric’s eyes widened. Trying to infiltrate the Rroda mainhouse?

  “Order someone to pick Kiel Rroda up and bring him back to the mainhouse. I authorize you to use force if necessary.”

  Episode 30 – The Act of Teenage Rebellion

  Episode 30 – The Act of Teenage Rebellion

  Previously:

  Venric Rroda, Kiel’s grandfather, orders Kiel’s whereabouts to be investigated, along with information about Elaru Wayvin.

  When Elaru shares her memory of the Morph spell, Kiel notices that her memory contains a color changing spell cast on her eyes. Kiel asks her if she had changed the color of her eyes.

  * * *

  She covered her eyes with her palm and swiped it down as if wiping her face.

  As she removed her palm, Kiel’s breath caught in his throat. What stared back at him were those same stunning eyes from his memories. The daylight did nothing to lessen their ethereal beauty. Their vibrance made everything else look colorless.

  “Aethernea of Sight has a very characteristic appearance that you just can’t miss. If I went around looking like this, everyone would be able to tell I possess the Aethernea of Sight. So, of course, I always cover up their real appearance with a color changing spell.

  The only reason why I didn’t cover them up the first time we met was because I intended to reveal my Aethernea to you. It was a show of my sincerity. Since my Aethernea is one of my biggest secrets that should under no circumstance be revealed to anyone.”

  So it really was as he had thought. Kiel’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. “So the reason why I can’t feel the spell is because you are concealing it.”

  Elaru smiled softly. “The disguise works the best if people don’t know it is a disguise.”

  Besides the glittering of his eyes, Kiel’s face remained emotionless. “What other spells do you have hidden on your body?”

  Elaru’s soft smile abruptly shifted into a smirk, followed by a shrug. “Everyone has their secrets.”

  Of course she wouldn’t tell him. He didn’t even expect her to. But at least she confirmed that she had other spells cast on her. So his question wasn’t pointless.

  “Don’t worry. I am capable of telling what should be kept confidential. It might not be of life and death importance like the secret of Aetherneal bond, but I won’t reveal it just the same.”

  It was, after all, an incredibly rare and sought after ability. Revealing it wouldn’t benefit him in the slightest.

  “But it is of life and death importance. It falls into the same category of danger as Aetherneal bond.” As Elaru frowned, Kiel too furrowed his eyebrows.

  “Aetherneal gifts aren’t a secret. Everyone has heard tales of the divine gifts. Noble families like to gloat about their offspring which are Aethernea wielders. They don’t hide it.” Kiel reasoned.

  “That’s their show of superiority. Something they are the proudest of. Something that makes them feel like children of god. How would they react if an Aethernea that they thought to be their signature ability, something that can appear only on people from their own family, suddenly appeared on an outsider?” Elaru gave him a meaningful look before continuing.

  “They would feel like their family heritage or a family heirloom was swiped away by someone else. Here they are, gloating about being children of god, and suddenly, they are not so privileged and unique after all. It would be a severe blow to their pride.

  They’d stop at nothing to eliminate that person. They would never allow their Aethernea to spread around. If another noble family managed to get the Aethernea wielder under their banner and insisted on protecting them, it could easily escalate into a war between families.”

  Kiel’s frown deepened. “That serious? Could one person really end 15 centuries of peace?”

  “You underestimate the power of divine abilities. Aetherneal gifts can easily shift the balance of power.”

  Kiel raised his eyebrow questioningly. “If it was that dangerous, why did you tell me about it in the first place? What would have happened if I didn’t agree to the bond and ended up telling on you?”

  Elaru looked at him and gave him a mischievous smile. “It was a gamble. I was confident in winning it though. And even if I lost, I had 6 contingency plans.”

  Kiel’s eyebrows shot up. “6 contingency plans? Really?”

  Her smile grew wider. “Of course. I am always prepared. No one can one-up me.”

 
; Kiel’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What were they?”

  “1. Making sure no one takes you seriously. 2. forcing you to sign a non-disclosure contract, 3. Switching my identity, 4. …” She paused suddenly. “Let’s just say that you are better off not knowing the rest.”

  Kiel’s eyebrow twitched. Was killing me on the list? I wouldn’t be surprised…

  Suddenly a growling noise spread through the clearing, interrupting their conversation.

  Kiel pressed his lips into a thin line.

  Elaru smiled mischievously before opening her mouth to speak. Before she could even utter a single word, Kiel snapped. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Elaru turned her head away from him, trying her utmost to not burst out laughing. “I see.”

  A few seconds of silence had passed before she managed to control herself enough to ask slyly. “Since you aren’t hungry, we don’t need to return to Ashar for lunch. Carry on with your training.” She waved her hand as if shooing him away.

  Kiel glared at her, grating his teeth. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

  * * *

  ◈ Meanwhile at Rroda Mainhouse, Ashar ◈

  “Your grace, we have received the results of the investigations you requested.”

  A servant quickly handed over two large envelopes to Lawrence and then bowed deeply. Lawrence wasted no time – he nodded to the servant, giving him the permission to escort himself out of the room. After deeply bowing in respect, the servant didn’t dally around and quickly left the premises.

  As Lawrence made his way back to the work desk, Venric Rroda moved aside the papers he was currently working on. Lawrence didn’t miss this act and instantly deduced that the Lord wanted to see the investigation results right away. He placed the envelopes gently in front of the Lord.

  The envelopes were shiny, coated with a thin layer of sealing wax. There were no letters on the envelope, only a black wax seal on the back, confirming that the envelope has not been opened before.