Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

  Underneath the bluish grass was the actual root. Silvermoon Root looked similar to a long and thin silver carrot that just kept growing longer, burrowing deeper into the earth. Luki had to dig deep to be able to pull it out. Luckily, he could morph the earth away from the root, so he eventually managed to pull it out, careful not to damage it in the process.

  Luki intended to cast a Cleansing to remove the dirt from the root, but upon closer inspection, he realized that only the upper half of the root was contaminated with the brown soil.

  He wiped his finger across the lower half of the root and brought it up to his eye level. There was no soil on the root, rather, there was some kind of brittle gray dust.

  The pink haired healer looked back down into the hole he had created and widened it to reveal the soil in which the root had been growing. The upper layers of earth were normal brown soil, however, around two feet in, the soil became brittle and gray.

  Luki’s heart almost jumped out of his chest, worried that he had inadvertently come into contact with Ink. But after the initial scare, he realized that it couldn’t be Ink. If it were, the Silvermoon Root which was in contact with it would have withered away, followed by every other plant here.

  Ink spread so fast it was visible to the naked eye. It was just like dripping a drop of black ink into clear water. The black tendrils would spread in all directions until the clear water turned dark. This behavior and its black appearance was probably why the scourge had been named Ink in the first place.

  Still, he couldn’t help but feel curious. If it wasn’t Ink, why was this soil gray?

  As he dug deeper, he soon realized why.

  There was a thick layer of ash buried underneath the earth. Other than ash, there were also some kind of gray flakes mixed within, which crumbled with the lightest of touch.

  Curious. Luki mused. Did the people here use to bury the ashes of their deceased?

  His curiosity piqued, Luki turned towards his escort. “Hey, could you mow down the lawn?”

  His companion stared at him dumbfoundedly. “You want me to do what??”

  * * *

  Luki hoped that he would find a tombstone or some other landmark in this place, covered by the overgrown grass. He would be praised for his achievement if he found anything with writing on it.

  Unfortunately, even after mowing down the nearby area, there was absolutely nothing there.

  It probably got buried under the earth with the passage of time. Luki concluded. He wasn’t an archaeologist, but after years of expeditions, he would be stupid if he didn’t pick up a thing or two.

  Thus, Luki took some time to weave a large-scale Morph spell on the ground, hoping that he would be able to feel the monument. He wasn’t a scout and didn’t specialize in using large-scale Morph spells to feel the surroundings. However, he was a healer, and healers used the Morph spell to feel the bodies of their patients. The precision of his sensing ability was higher than anyone else in the group. It’s just that doing a small but precise Morph spell wasn’t the same as doing a large, less precise one. Thus their scout was still better when it came to large scale sensing.

  After the spell had been completed, Luki stood there, feeling the ground, for a long, long time.

  He felt many little rocks underneath the ground and even reached the bottom of the soil where the hard mountain began, yet, he couldn’t feel anything that could possibly be a tombstone or a monument.

  Perhaps the ancient civilization had a custom of burying the ashes of their deceased without a tombstone? Becoming one with nature and all that?

  Luki rubbed his chin in thought and decided to Morph the upper layer of earth into a wall around the area to reveal the ash underneath. Soon, what greeted his eyes was a dense circular layer of ash the size of an average bedroom.

  Luki’s green eyes narrowed. If they simply used this area as a graveyard, why would the distribution of ash be circular? Without a monument, how would they even know where to bury the ash? Unless of all of it was buried at once?

  Perhaps they had a giant pyre and buried the remains here?

  “I say, a fire dragon probably burped here.” Luki’s companion offered his opinion.

  Luki looked at the man with the crew cut strangely, unsure if he was joking.

  “If that’s the case, we should leave quickly. Dragons can be quite territorial.” A familiar voice floated over to reveal another comrade, who had probably gotten overwhelmed with pity for the comrade who had been forced to carry around plants, and thus decided to come help out.

  Luki returned his gaze to the ashes, deep in thought. Fire dragons did have a bad habit of setting things on fire. They are also known for burying miscellaneous stuff. It was possible that the dragon buried the remains of his activities. But…when had Luki ever simply accepted the most reasonable and likely answer?

  “If the ash had been buried here for a long time, it would have been slowly dispersed and mixed with the soil. Yet there is still so much visible ash here.” Luki looked up, giving his comrades a meaningful look. “Do you know what that means?”

  “Uh…that we should warn the rest about a potential fire dragon threat?”

  Luki sighed sadly, mourning the severely lacking imagination of his companions.

  “The quantity of ash is too large for it to be the remains of a simple fire. Someone burned a large quantity of matter and buried the ashes here within the last 20 years.”

  * * *

  When Nelaira returned to their campsite for lunch, she overheard a rather interesting conversation between her comrades:

  “I’m telling you. A fire dragon took a dump and then buried its droppings. Its droppings were hot and burned the adjacent foliage.”

  “There is too much ash. No way would adjacent foliage leave so much ash behind. Are you saying he burned down half the forest compressed into ten square meters?” Luki argued.

  “Or perhaps it had a lair here. All I’m saying is that it’s possible.” The argel with a crew cut shrugged his shoulders. Luki glared at him and tsked.

  Aurel Iphis, the husband of the redhead, sighed in resignation. “Luki…only you’d make such a fuss about finding some ashes.”

  Seeing Nelaira’s approaching figure, Luki’s eyes lit up. “Lieutenant, help me out here.”

  * * *

  After receiving the summary of the situation, Nelaira had a strange expression on her face.

  As an expert with dealing with Luki’s overactive imagination, she knew that the more one opposed him, the more he wouldn’t let go of his view. So, she decided to take the opposite approach this time: “Alright, for the sake of argument, let’s say you’re right.”

  The middle-aged argel with a monocle, who sat next to Nelaira, grunted: “Don’t humor him…” but Nelaira ignored him: “Let’s say that someone indeed buried the remains of a pyre here in the last 20 years. The question is, why would someone bother burying the ashes of a pyre?”

  * * *

  Author Note

  Please help me improve Aethernea by telling me which three things you enjoy the most about Aethernea (no need to register). Just few seconds of your time to tick your answers will help me focus on those things more in the future and make Aethernea even more enjoyable. Thank you!

  Coming up in the next episode:

  “Maybe they wanted to not leave any traces of their pyre? Perhaps what they did wasn’t right and proper, and they didn’t want others to find out about it?”

  “Personally, I wouldn’t go around talking about survivors without concrete evidence if I were you, Luki.”

  “There might be survivors! A land we don’t know of!”

  But if the war didn’t destroy this place… what did?

  * * *

  Support Aethernea through Patreonto read up to 8 extra episodes right now. | Vote for Aethernea on Gravity Rankings to receive bonus releases

  Episode 125 – Aged Food

  Episode 125 – Aged Food

  Previously:
<
br />   While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament. She remembers how her squad of ten found a hidden entrance to a long staircase climbing through the mountain, first discovered by Zor Arite. There they find a green valley filled with wildlife and ruins of a village. They decide to take one day off to recuperate. Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins and finds a diary hidden inside a pillar. While picking herbs Luki finds a patch of land where a large quantity of ash is buried under the soil. He finds it suspicious but his comrades disagree.

  * * *

  “Let’s say that someone indeed buried the remains of a pyre here in the last 20 years. The question is, why would someone bother burying the ashes of a pyre?”

  * * *

  Aurel Iphis sighed, deciding that the sooner they started playing along, the sooner they would finish with this ridiculous conversation. “The only reason why someone would bother to bury the ashes would be either to hide them or because it was a part of some sort of ritual.”

  “Or perhaps the ash was an eyesore?” The archeologist of the group grumbled.

  “Right,” Nelaira nodded. “Let’s set the ritual aside for now. Why would someone want to hide the ashes?”

  “To avoid leaving traces of their pyre? Perhaps what they did wasn’t right and proper, and they didn’t want others to find out about it?” Luki’s eyes glistened.

  The archeologist with a monocle rolled his eyes. “Or perhaps they just thought that it would be better for the environment to bury it.”

  Luki ignored him and continued adding more ideas to the mix. “Perhaps there was someone on their trail, and they wanted to wipe off all traces that they were there?”

  “Any other ideas?” Nelaira glanced over the group, but this time no one spoke.

  “Alright. So then, since the ashes were allegedly buried in the last 20 years, that would mean that either Zor’s expedition buried it or there are survivors in the forbidden zone.”

  Luki nodded his head like a cluckling pecking rice.

  Nelaira continued: “Personally, I think the pyre was used to burn the bodies of our fallen comrades. Zor’s expedition did have causalities and carrying dead bodies around would be impractical.”

  Luki interrupted: “But weren’t causalities caused by the Tainted? Since this place is untainted, the encountered Tainted would have attacked them before they reached this place. I doubt Zor Arite would carry tainted bodies up the mountain and risk infecting the remainder of his squad.”

  Silence descended onto the clearing.

  “I still believe it the most likely that they had a celebration for finding this place and buried the ashes because they were unsightly.” The archeologist broke the silence.

  He was ignored once again.

  “Perhaps they encountered the tainted on their way up and hid inside the passage through the mountain? The tainted comrades were in bad shape but not dead yet, so he had no choice but to carry them along, unaware that he was carrying them towards an untainted place?” The redhead offered.

  “Tainted comrades are a liability, not only would they slow down the exploration but they would also potentially infect more people. Purge Rule 5, Tainted comrades are to voluntarily leave the squad and abort the mission.” Luki rolled his eyes.

  Nelaira gave Luki a strict look. “So, what you are suggesting is that either Zor’s expedition did some kind of strange ash burying ritual, burned the evidence of something they shouldn’t have done, or that there are survivors in the forbidden zone?”

  Everyone sucked in a cold breath.

  After disregarding the possibility of Zor Arite doing something shady (the man was known for his upright, frank and unyielding character), of the remaining two possibilities, the more likely one…

  …could it be?

  Could there really be survivors in the forbidden zone?

  There had always been a possibility that the people in the Lands Under the Shield weren’t the only survivors of the Mage Wars. However, since there had never been any evidence to support otherwise, the Purge were more inclined to believe that there weren’t any survivors.

  The forbidden zone was a place of death, a dangerous land not to be ventured into lightly. And everyone that had survived the calamity due to the sacrifice of Aegis Arite, should be eternally grateful for the existence of the Shield of Aegis and the safe haven under it.

  If it turned out that long-term survival inside the forbidden zone was possible, that would change the public image of the forbidden zone from the barren land of death to the dangerous land of hidden treasure. Adventurers would be lining up to go into the forbidden zone, dreaming of finding priceless relics and striking it rich.

  Saying that strict control of entry and exit was for the safety of everyone would no longer be as effective. Thus, the Arites and the Purge had been fighting against this change of viewpoint for centuries, making sure that only the Purge and related personnel were allowed out, so that any treasure found would belong to the Arite family.

  Other noble families have been pressuring the Arite family for years, but since only the Arite family could control the Shield to allow entry and exit, and since there was no possibility of living in the dangerous lands outside, all other families could do was to suck it up and pay heavy fees if they wanted to take their own expeditions out and keep the found loot.

  “Or it could just be a fire dragon.” Nelaira shrugged. “Personally, I wouldn’t go around talking about survivors without concrete evidence if I were you, Luki.”

  The tense silence had lasted for several moments before it was once again broken by Nelaira’s calm voice. “Enough about this. Look at what I found.” Her eyes glittered as she pulled out a small leather-bound book.

  * * *

  Everyone was so thrilled about the little leather-bound diary, hoping to find some interesting research notes within, that all of them forgot about Luki’s ashes. Even Luki, while not quite forgetting about them, was quite intrigued by the small diary. Perhaps there would be some scandalous conspiracies inside?

  Thus the archeologist of the group spent the remainder of the day with his nose inside the book, translating the contents of the diary to commonly used letters.

  The language of the ancients wasn’t largely different from the current language. The most significant difference lay in the writing system. Ancients didn’t write words through a combination of letters, but instead, they had a unique symbol for each word. Due to this, they had a countless number of different runes, which made it difficult for the populace to learn how to read and write.

  After the Lands Under the Shield were established, to make it easier to educate the commoners, the nobles came up with letters that represented different sounds and started writing out words how they were pronounced. Naturally, this caused the revolution of education and brought significant gains to the development of society.

  While the archeologist was transcribing the diary into the new writing system and adjusting the sentence structure to be easier to understand, everyone else resumed doing what they were doing.

  * * *

  Nelaira continued her exploration for the remainder of the day, until she had visited almost every single building in the village. All that was left were several buildings on the outskirts.

  She entered the ruined building, carefully watching her steps and sensing every crevice and rock, just like always. She spread her Morph into the ground also, in case the ground was unstable and shouldn’t be walked on or if there was a hidden compartment in the floor where ancients loved to stash their secrets.

  Yet, this time, her exploration didn’t proceed as usual.

  Her breath caught in her throat and her footsteps paused.

  For she felt that the land underneath her feet…

  …was hollow.

  Underneath this seemingly ordinary house, there was a cave, or perhaps a basement?

  However, no matter how she felt around with her Morph, she
couldn’t feel an entrance towards it. Grass and moss covered the stone tiles under her feet. There was no trap door, no enchanted artifact, nothing at all that could lead downwards.

  Could it be that the cave was naturally formed?

  She recast her Morph spell, specifically targeting the cave this time.

  Soon enough, her senses revealed that this hollow space truly wasn’t a cave – it was a cellar. She could feel the stone tiles used to build it.

  Yet, if it was man made why was there no…

  And then it hit her.

  The owner of this house must have been an elibu mage. He didn’t make a passage towards the basement because he didn’t need it. He would Morph himself a passage whenever he needed to go into it.

  Perhaps he had something to hide in that little basement, and not having an entrance to it was one of the best ways to hide it.

  Nelaira’s usual calm was replaced with excitement. Hidden areas were the most likely to yield treasure. Perhaps the owner of the house stored his finest possessions underground?

  While architecture was what she liked the most, she wouldn’t say no to treasure. Every explorer who was in their right mind would be excited by the prospect of a hidden treasure trove.

  Nelaira deliberated whether she should call for her comrades. After all, if this was indeed a treasure trove, it might be filled with dangerous traps. But then again, she couldn’t feel any magic when she swept the basement with her mind. How sophisticated and powerful could traps set by a villager to protect his basement be? Surely, they wouldn’t be powerful enough to last for more than a millennium.

  Besides, it would be very disappointing if she called all her comrades only to find the cellar empty of treasure.

  In the end, Nelaira decided to check it out on her own. Just in case, she placed a signal flare on the floor next to her and set it to go off in half an hour if she failed to return from the cellar. That way, even if some misfortune came her way, her comrades would come rescue her immediately.