Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

  He opened his eyes again and stared meaningfully at the two. “Good thing that the renegade cube didn’t cause any head trauma. Not to say that the experience wasn’t traumatic for the boy. While he laid unconscious, he ended up missing the written exams.”

  Deora opened his mouth a few times but didn’t know what to say. He did hear a strange thump after the cube shot out of the building. Perhaps he should have told someone about it? Maybe if he had done so, they could have healed the poor sod in time for the exams?

  Suddenly, Deora felt extremely guilty about the matter. Which was preposterous, since he was completely innocent! It was all the fault of that jinx!

  After staring at Deora and Zerel meaningfully for several seconds, Eruan Arite sighed and opened the first drawer of his desk, then he picked up the paper on top of the drawer.

  When Deora saw the paper, he started panicking. “Noooooo… don’t deduct my pay! It’s not my fault!!”

  Eruan Arite looked up at Deora and said a single sentence that made Deora freeze without speaking another word. “Who was it that slammed the door so hard that the shelves toppled over?”

  The color drained slowly from Deora’s face as he watched Eruan Arite scribble down stuff on that blasted paper with his elegant handwriting.

  Zerel took this opportunity to pat Deora on his back “comfortingly”.

  “Don’t be too sad little Dei. There are 6 months left until March. You would have lost that pay anyways. So, what does it matter if you lose it now or lose it later?”

  Deora’s bloodshot eyes turned to Zerel. Within them brewed homicidal rage.

  Zerel pretended not to see it and continued. “Besides, the lodging and the meals are free. Even the uniforms are covered for. It’s not like you are going to die if you don’t get paid. Also, doesn’t your family grant you any allowance? You are a noble from the main bloodline after all.”

  Deora glared so hard that the veins in his eyes almost burst.

  Zerel suddenly seemed to realize that he said something wrong and looked at Deora apologetically. “Oh. I’m sorry. I forgot that Thayns aren’t well off…”

  Zerel suddenly covered his mouth with his hand bashfully. He then proceeded to correct himself. “I mean… what I meant is… your folks are righteous and don’t believe in spoiling their children. I really admire how Thayns have a policy that everyone has to work to get paid. It’s because of your strict rules that the members of the Thayn family are so well respected by the commoners. You are nobles, yet you trade luxury for upholding justice and peace in the lands of Halnea. Respectable, respectable.”

  If Zerel had said these words at any other time, Deora would have thought them to be compliments. Zerel even said it in such an innocent and righteous tone. Yet currently, to the furious Deora, those words sounded like taunts and the soft apologetic smile looked simply derisive.

  Suddenly, Deora’s pale face started flaming up. Literally, flames started climbing up Deora’s neck.

  A soft cough caused the flames to freeze in their tracks.

  Both Deora and Zerel looked back at Eruan Arite who was looking at them emotionlessly.

  “Zerel,” Eruan started. “How would you explain the strange phenomena? Why did the Light spell go out of control?”

  Zerel wanted to just shrug and claim that he didn’t have any ideas, but he saw the solemnity in Eruan’s eyes and changed his mind. The situation was serious. This was not the time to test his patience.

  Zerel pretended to cough, swallowing down the lies he intended to say. He then slid his fingers through his long, dark purple hair before responding.

  “It was quite a peculiar occurrence. Technically speaking, it is possible that Elaru Wayvin forcefully changed the spell shape after it was formed which caused the spell to fall apart and go out of control. However,”

  Zerel paused briefly. Eruan intertwined his fingers in front of him and continued calmly. “However, you don’t believe that to have been the case?”

  Zerel smiled coyly. “If it were manually caused by her, the result wouldn’t have turned so chaotic. And more importantly, she would have suffered from the backlash.”

  Everyone in the room understood the principle. Deforming an already formed spell and breaking it would be like twisting one’s limb and snapping it. Not only would it be extremely painful, but it would also be extremely taxing, causing the mage to experience a mental backlash.

  Eruan’s purple eyes flashed. “And you believe she didn’t suffer any backlash?”

  Zerel nodded. “I didn’t notice any signs of her suffering from a backlash. She even proceeded to cast a Morph spell to save the glass tank right after. If she was suffering from a backlash then achieving that precision and ease of casting would have been impossible.”

  Zerel’s eyes glittered mysteriously.

  Eruan understood.

  If Elaru Wayvin didn’t suffer a backlash from the forceful deformation and destruction of the spell, it would mean that the spell had been cut off from her before it got damaged, like cutting off a limb.

  Whatever happened to a cut off limb wouldn’t affect the original owner.

  But also, once cut off, the mage wouldn’t be able to control it anymore.

  Which meant that the deforming and the chaotic behavior of the spell couldn’t have been caused by the control of the mage.

  If Elaru Wayvin cut off her own spell to prevent herself from suffering a backlash, then the strange behavior the spell showed after that couldn’t have been caused by her.

  This incident was… as if a cutoff limb started spasming and moving by itself.

  How bizarre!

  “A magical artifact?” Eruan murmured.

  Zerel’s smile got wider. “I once read a report on how the Mana Twister affects already formed spells. The report detailed an occurrence quite similar to this one.”

  Mana Twister was a divine artifact of the Thayn family. The artifact would exert control over all mana in its area of effect, twisting it out of control.

  The force with which the divine artifact could affect mana was even stronger than the mage’s ability to control his own mana. This twisting force would interfere with the mage’s weaving, making it impossible to cast magic in the area of effect covered by the artifact.

  Because of its ability to prevent the usage of magic, the Mana Twister was used as a core of Asinraz, the prison-island holding the most dangerous convicts.

  Most of the people only knew of the artifact’s main usage. Very few were aware that this force didn’t only affect raw mana, but also the already formed spells.

  When Deora heard the mention of his own family and one of their heirlooms, his ears perked up. He suddenly exclaimed. “You can’t be saying we had something to do with it!? That’s preposterous!”

  Zerel rolled his eyes and smirked. “Of course not. I think we would have noticed if Mana Twister was moved from Asinraz. Surely, there would be interesting headlines in the Sibyl. Perhaps ‘A sin in Asinraz! A large-scale prisoner breakout!’”

  Seeing Deora’s suspicious and agitated face, unsure whether Zerel was messing with him, Eruan added calmly. “Rest assured. No one is suspecting the Thayn family.”

  Eruan’s calm words acted like a soothing tonic, calming Deora down. If headmaster Eruan Arite said so, then that was indeed the case.

  After reassuring Deora, Eruan turned his head full of white hair towards Zerel once again. “Do you believe that someone is interfering with the exams in hopes of stopping Elaru Wayvin from enrolling? Or do you believe her to be the one in possession of the artifact causing the issue?”

  Zerel shrugged nonchalantly. “All I know is that when the accident happened, Elaru Wayvin, was surprised and yet not surprised. As if she was aware that what happened might happen but hoped it wouldn’t.”

  At any other time, Deora would have spoken up against Elaru Wayvin, pushing for the jinx to get banned from the exams. But Eruan’s first question shocked him into silence.

  Coul
d it be that he had been blaming the wrong person the entire time? That there was a sinister mastermind behind all of this? That it wasn’t Elaru Wayvin who was the jinx, but someone interfering behind the scenes?

  The thought caused chills to go down Deora’s back and his righteous Thayn blood to boil. He might be impulsive and shortsighted, but he would never punish the innocent and absolve the guilty.

  People might often forget that he was a Thayn, even he, himself, might often forget the fact. But the righteous principles of Thayns were rooted into their very bones. A subconscious part of them that was omnipresent, that they couldn’t forget even if they wanted to.

  * * *

  Headmaster Eruan Arite watched the retreating backs of Zerel Reysic and Deora Thayn.

  After the door to his office was closed, leaving him alone in the room, his mind once again returned to the report laying on the side of his desk.

  Eruan Arite pushed the papers back to the center of his desk and stared fixedly at the image of a redheaded girl looking back at him.

  Unconsciously, his fingers thumped rhythmically on his desk. His eyebrows kept furrowing and relaxing.

  One would think that he was debating what to do with the red-headed troublemaker.

  One would think that the report on Elaru Wayvin and the today’s “murder” incident would be the reason for his strange behavior.

  One would be wrong.

  What was truly nagging Eruan Arite on this fine evening, was an irritating sense of familiarity that the image in front of him evoked inside of him.

  Did he see this redhead before somewhere?

  Eruan Arite had an impeccable memory. If he had seen the girl before, he would have surely realized it, if not remembered where he had seen her. Yet, he was sure only of one thing – this was the first time he saw her face.

  Which meant that the sense of familiarity should be caused by the resemblance of her face to someone he knew.

  * * *

  This episode is dedicated to Allen. Allen, thank you for supporting Aethernea! It is because of the generous support of you and other Patrons that the future of Aethernea looks especially bright.

  Coming up in the next episode:

  If I ban her, would that draw out the person standing behind her in the shadows?

  “Icya… Tell me, does this face remind you of someone?”

  “We are…dealing with a Shadow.”

  Episode 70 – Mana Crystallization

  Episode 70 – Mana Crystallization

  Previously:

  After receiving the damage report from Deora Thayn and Zerel Reysic, Eruan Arite is left alone in his room contemplating the problem of Elaru Wayvin. On his desk lays a report on Elaru Wayvin and the “murder” incident. Eruan Arite finds Elaru’s face familiar.

  * * *

  Did he see this redhead before somewhere?

  Eruan Arite had an impeccable memory. If he had seen the girl before, he would have surely realized it, if not remembered where he had seen her. Yet, he was sure only of one thing – this was the first time he saw her face.

  Which meant that the sense of familiarity should be caused by the resemblance of her face to someone he knew.

  Yet, no matter how he searched his memory, he couldn’t come up with the face of a person that this redhead reminded him of.

  He even tried concentrating on specific features. Such as her hair and skin color. There was, indeed, several people he knew quite well that had a matching hair and skin color, but that’s where the similarity ended. No matter how he looked at the girl, her face didn’t resemble those individuals at all, not to mention that her race was wrong.

  If he covered the rest of her face and looked just at her eyes, the sense of familiarity grew, but at the same time, he couldn’t point out a single person with eyes like those.

  The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. Perhaps her features were in the exact boundary of being similar enough to invoke the sense of familiarity while being different enough for him to be unable to point out who they reminded him of?

  Eruan shook his head. Was this matter really worthy of his time? For all he knew Elaru Wayvin’s looks could be just a façade. Not her true appearance.

  Regardless, he could just ban her from participating in the exams, and the matter would be dealt with.

  Or would it?

  What if, later on, it turned out that he banned her without just cause? That he pinned the blame on her that wasn’t hers to bear?

  And what if the face he was looking at was indeed her real appearance? What if his subconscious mind was trying to tell him that remembering who she reminded him of was important? That remembering would allow him to pinpoint her origin. And that her origin was important?

  If I ban her, would that draw out the person standing behind her in the shadows?

  Or would that… just make her disappear?

  Eruan’s frown deepened.

  “Icya… Tell me, does this face remind you of someone?”

  He could feel his vice-principal frowning deep in thought. “I’m not sure. Perhaps… Vaguely it reminds me of…”

  She didn’t need to continue. Eruan could tell who she was referring to. “Ignore the hair and skin color. Concentrate on the face.”

  “The lips are also similar…”

  Eruan closed his eyes and sighed. He could tell that his vice-principal also felt a sense of familiarity, but it was much less potent than his. It was so slight that it might as well not be there.

  She couldn’t help him with this matter.

  Eruan Arite rubbed his tired eyes and sighed again. Ban or not to ban?

  Eruan’s mind suddenly cleared. I don’t make uninformed decisions. The optimal course of action would be postponing the final decision until I have more information on the matter.

  He wasn’t worried about the potential destruction of his property. Material things were easy to fix. Even if the entire building was demolished, his abundance of resources would result in it being fixed in a matter of days.

  On the other hand, elusive things such as reputation and relationships were much trickier to fix once damaged.

  Eruan Arite would much rather sacrifice the material to save the elusive.

  * * *

  The temperature in Ashar was still rather warm, yet, there was a room inside the Rroda manor where that warmth seemed unable to reach.

  Judging how deathly quiet and still the atmosphere inside the room was, judging by the omnipresent chill permeating the air, one would think the room was empty.

  One would be wrong.

  Venric Rroda sat at his desk, a deep frown etched onto his face. His butler Lawrence stood to the side, as motionless as a statue.

  Venric was usually in a bad mood, but today, his mood was unusually foul.

  If any of the other nobles found out that he had spent several days and countless men trying to find his own rebellious grandson, and still failed to catch him even though he knew exactly the place where he would be at – the amount of ridicule he would receive would be never-ending.

  To say that Venric Rroda was furious would be an understatement.

  Yet even though he was bursting with rage, he could do nothing about the facts.

  No matter how many men and trackogs he sent out, no matter where he sent them, the only result he received was a no result.

  He even sent out “camouflaged” men that blended with the crowd and tried their best to look in no way related to the Rroda family nor like they were looking for someone.

  Yet all his efforts failed to catch any scent of his grandson.

  He even caved in and bought another D.I. report, hoping that the famous Etezza family of spies and assassins could enlighten him as to why his efforts returned no result.

  The report mentioned places where the two rebellious teens were seen such as the Black Pearl restaurant and the public library, however, it too contained no information on their current whereabouts.

  He didn�
��t know whether he should feel pleased or frustrated. Pleased that even the Etezzas couldn’t find any information, meaning that it was natural that his men failed. Frustrated that he had paid for a report that contained no useful information and still had no clue of their whereabouts.

  What baffled Venric Rroda was that Kiel Rroda and Elaru Wayvin didn’t miss any of their exams, which meant that they had to enter Muni. Yet his men were stationed at all entrances and saw no trace of the two.

  Venric concluded that the two brats had the means to avoid detection.

  Thinking further about the issue, his men were either unable to recognize them or see them. The two also had to control their mana so precisely to not leave any of it behind that could be tracked. Thirdly, they had to have means to not leave any scent behind them.

  If his men ran into someone whose mana and scent couldn’t be detected, they would have stopped them.

  Since they reported no such person, it would mean that they didn’t see Kiel Rroda at all.

  As in, he was completely invisible.

  Since his useless grandson couldn’t possibly turn himself invisible, this invisibility was either granted to him by a magical artifact or it was the doing of someone else.

  Elaru Wayvin came to mind.

  The mastermind behind all of this had to be her.

  And if it was her that enabled the two of them to remain undetectable and untraceable for several days, her skills were nothing to laugh about. It is one thing to hide in the large city, it’s completely another to constantly pass right under their noses when they were vigilantly looking for any possible trace of them.

  Venric Rroda’s frown deepened and he let out a frustrated growl.

  Elaru Wayvin doesn’t exist. No past or background. Untraceable and undetectable.

  All the information slowly connected inside Venric’s mind.

  “We are…dealing with a Shadow.” Venric mused to himself.