71. End of Inactivity (Patreon)

I woke up once more to the world of the living, no different than coming back from the dead. I found extreme difficulty in the most menial tasks such as blinking and breathing. Rebirth was complicated, even more so when your body was dead. Puppeteering a dead vessel wasn’t something you were taught in class; defying death was an even more obscure subject.

Tendrils had to be used as strings as I tried to pop back nerves and blood vessels where they should be. A few casts of Renew and Regeneration spells powered up by Mystic’s Dominion corrected my faulty body, but this was a toll I didn’t hope to recover from.

“Wow, there.” A surprised cry came from behind. “You took your time.” I was greeted by a young feminine voice instead of the rough old one I was expecting.

“You are the emperor’s daughter.” I looked at the albino draconid, she had finally wakened up from her slumber. “Where’s your father?”

“Taking a nap.” She explained as she devoured me with her eyes, or more exactly, my soul. Her crimson eyes clashed with my lavender ones. She wasn’t subtle with her soul magic. “You had him waiting for hours and his body is too old to stay awake after your confrontation.”

I was surprised by the lack of aggressiveness in the woman’s voice. I would have thought that she was going to be furious, or even trying to kill me. But not only she wasn’t doing so but was also amicable toward me. It baffled me as I had threatened her and her dad. Did I lose something?

“Yeah, my fault.” I had unconsciously been talking in ellari instead of draconid and just noticed. “So, you talk ellari.” I gave her a look.

“Kind of, forced into it because of diplomatic affairs. But it has proven rather useless these latter years.” The white-haired girl explained. “But forget about that. Those ellari people have such long ears?”

“No… it’s just me.” I said with tiredness. “I have above-average length.” Not really paying attention to what she had said.

I observed the pair of souls inside of my own. One was tortured for an eternity of construction and deconstruction, being mutilated and reformed only to repeat the process again and again, and the other was embraced in warm hands and safeguarded.

“Oh, I see. I see.” The girl said. “I have mastered the ellari language, yet you are the first ellari I see. Quite romantic, don’t you think.”

“Rather lonesome,” I added as I finally stood up once I felt the control of my body return.

My spine unnaturally tensed up as part of my muscles had deteriorated from all the fighting and death, and only now they had the chance to heal up. I cracked my neck, moving my head from side to side. The healing wasn’t exactly perfect, and I found some imperfections. If I didn’t treat them soon, I would end up with a few malformations.

“Give my thanks to your father, without his help I couldn’t have made it this far.” And also would have killed a lot of innocents in a rampage of blind rage, but I left that unsaid. My loss of control left a sour taste in my mouth.

“Wait, are you going already? You just got here!” The draconid exclaimed in exasperation. Wasn’t she too joyful for almost being killed recently? Especially to her would-be killer?

“I have a soul to return to its body,” I told her. “And I don’t want to wait.”

“So, it’s true, you truly went to the afterlife.” There was a small shift of tone, a change from amazement to academic curiosity. There was that small shine present on the eyes of all mages. That spark, that thirst for knowledge. Information incarnated.

“What did you think the creepy life-draining portal on the ground was about?” I pointed at the magic circle; the cat’s eye gateway had now disappeared. “Anyways, I have to go back to Ferilyn.” I looked out of the throne room’s majestic windows, overlooking the hanging city on the cliff’s walls. “If I depart now, I will be hidden by the mantle of the night.”

As I made my way out of the throne room, I remembered the floating artifact orbiting around me. After coming back from the dead, after commuting once more with the souls, I gained more insight into what the object was actually doing.

I grabbed the orb with my healthy hand, and a slight electric shock caused by the overwhelming arcane energies traversed my arm. I felt another type of mana that shouldn’t be inside the artifact.

“Take this.” I threw the impossibly black orb at the draconid princess. The object in question levitated toward her according to my will.

She grabbed it with both hands, but she recoiled in surprise as the arcane mana also poured across her body. The princess involuntarily swayed her colossal white wings in a spasm, also dropping the artifact. Yet the orb floated in front of her, unmoving.

“Wha… What’s this?” She asked with nervousness.

“A bomb,” I told her.

“A b-bomb?” Her face quickly lost its color, her soul shook in terror.

“And a way of communication.” I looked at her golden eyes, our souls intertwining. “This artifact will allow you to communicate with me at any moment, regardless of distance. But it also contains the pure energy of a leyline. If you try to tamper with it in any shape or form, the nearest leyline will explode. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes!” The albino draconid had straightened up upon hearing my threat.

I still didn’t fully believe the royal family, and I couldn’t trust them. They may have helped me get back Marissa’s soul, but I still lacked a lot of information.

And more importantly, I didn’t know what the artifact was, or how it had even linked to me. But the ones who had tried to sabotage the Lan’el leyline knew. And it was obvious the artifact was one of a kind. In a way, leaving it on the continent was the safest option, far away from ellari to recover. Or at least, the one that implicated not having an explosive tied to the neck.

“Will you come back?” I looked back to find a recomposed princess, her fear having shed off her visage. The question didn’t come from fear of me attacking back but from curiosity and want. I couldn’t understand this woman. Why would she want to have me nearby when I had just threatened her multiple times?

“Surely.” I was unsure how to reply. “I don’t know when, but your father and I have a lot to talk about.” I rubbed my burned left arm, the pain returned once the numbness of the rigor mortis disappeared. “I hope this whole situation doesn’t need to escalate any further. And tell your father I’m sorry for this whole… misunderstanding.”

“I will.” Her pose became more dignified, more royal. Her soul had solidified, and for one moment, I thought she was able to rival me. How curious. “Your gratitude and apologies will be transmitted to the emperor.”

With a nod, I flew away from the draconid’s imperial palace with a combination of arcane spells allowing me to take upon the skies as if I was an aeromancer. I also added a heavy coat of Concealment along the way to hide from the now clear day skies.

**********

I knocked on the door several times and I readjusted the sac on my shoulders. From my way to Ferilyn, back and forth, the several fights I had, my time at the underworld, and the fact I hadn’t slept for over two days, I was beaten, and far past death's door.

“Coming.” A feminine voice said over the door. “Who’s there?” She asked as she opened the door. “Edrie? What are you doing here?” Alatea asked, she was wearing some cute round glasses. It was a gamble that she would even be at this late hour on her office, but it would seem she stayed up late reading. “You had me dead worried! You went out on a field trip, and then when your class came back, you and Marissa were nowhere to be seen!”

I was too tired currently to think about the consequences of my actions.

“Yeah, yeah. Let me enter first, is too long of a story and I feel like I’m going to fall asleep any second now.” I grunted as I made my way inside.

“What happened? Is Marissa with you?” The graduate healer asked. Then she noticed. “Your arm! What happened?” She reiterated, now in distress.

“Long story, let me settle first.” I couldn’t help to chuckle at her questions. A bit cruel on my part, but I needed every laugh I could muster now. I gently left the sac on the ground.

“What’s on the bag? It smells horrible.” Alatea waved his hand over her nose.

“Does it? I may have now stunted my sense of smell.” I sat on the nearest chair. “Would you do me the favor to open the sac?”

“Alright, though I don’t kn-“ Alatea jumped back as she saw the contents of the makeshift sac. “A..a…ah” She did her best to restrain her cry in the middle of the night. “W-why’s Marissa bloodied on a sac? Is she…?” Then she used her mystic abilities. “Her soul! She has no soul, Edrie!”

“I know, I know. I have it with me.” I told her.

“How do you have it with you?” She looked at the corpse, holding her urges to puke. She may be a healer, but she wasn’t exactly a surgeon. Alatea may have been used to seeing blood, but not to… this.

“Long story short, Marissa and I found a terrorist, the terrorist killed Marissa, I killed the terrorist, and I went to the afterlife to reclaim her soul back. Basically.” I obviated the fact I killed the insidious cryomancer and left Ferilyn for a ‘friendly’ visit to the Imperium.

“What?” That story surprised her more than the bloodied body over here.

“You can interrogate me later; I need you to fix Marissa’s body first.”

Technically there wasn’t any haste, I had the body and the soul. She could resurrect at any moment. Though judging by Alatea’s commentary, Marissa’s body had started to expire, to say the least. Rigor mortis wasn’t the pressing issue here (it had already been two days and the body was limp) but having a body to go back. For a moment I wished it was the cryomancer who killed her, at least, the body would be preserved in better conditions. Though a hemomancer was the second best as the lack of blood and the dryness of the body slowed down rotting and decomposition.

Alatea looked at me menacingly, yet she didn’t hide her confusion. “I’ll do it. But you better explain everything once this is over.”

“I will. Don’t worry about it.” I pointed my finger at the corpse and connected Marissa’s soul with her body. It was weak and in a few minutes, the soul would be back at the river if unchecked. But I knew Alatea could manage a miracle.

If I came back from the dead and retrieved a soul from the underworld, what an even more experienced mystic would be able to do? My very mentor?

My consciousness drizzled away as I fell asleep on the chair.

**********

“Huh…” The man grunted as he awakened from his slumber. “Where am I?”

He found himself surrounded by true under a thick layer of leaves. Some curious critters observed him from the distance. The sun was beginning to set down while he painfully stood up. Not even his insane recovery had fully healed him.

“That figure, it was an ellari, wasn’t it?” He recalled a tall and thin humanoid figure shrouded in violet and white mana. He wasn’t unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the world, yet that was a new experience. “But a leyline… Not everyone has the ability to command the world’s mana.”

He supported himself in a tree as he took on a deep breath. His third-degree burns had been mostly healed, now only being burnt patches on his skin. One day of rest should be enough to be in top form.

“If I had been in my dragon form, that attack wouldn’t even phase me. Damn it!” He punched the bark of the tree, almost toppling the whole tree to the ground with his strength. “I’ve grown too relaxed with these decades of feigning peace and treaties that I’ve forgotten what combat felt like.”

His campaign against the ellari stronghold flashed against his eyes. Two mages had been enough to keep him at bay two decades ago. To him, that was downright insulting. If it were the ellari leader, he would be fine with it. The title of the strongest mage was the only thing true about that man. But two nobodies? He was a one-man army!

And now the same had happened once more. Only but worse.

It also didn’t help his ego as the emperor’s right hand that the heir to the throne had also disappeared during the campaign. That was the main reason why he was resting in the forest because the princess had mistaken that ellari for his brother.

“The princess!” He suddenly recalled the situation. The ellari had been marching towards the palace, his instincts told him so. “I may be late, but I won’t abandon my duties.” He ignored his wounds and flew at the capital with supersonic speeds, destroying a patch of the forest with his takeoff.

In a few minutes, he made his way back to the imperial palace. He stopped dead in the air, examining the place to find no damages, which alleviated his worry a bit, then he directed himself to the throne room with haste.

“Your Majesty!” The draconid warrior shouted as he opened the doors. “Are you-“ He stopped as he saw the princess sitting on the ground next to some broken tiles, devouring them with her eyes. “Princess!” He saluted the imperial princess with a military salute.

“Oh, Caius. You are finally here… you took your time.” The princess said with a sad voice.

“Where’s the emperor, princess?” The soldier asked whilst approaching her.

“My father… my father,” she said between sobs, “is taking a nap.”

For a split second, Caius thought to strangle the imperial princess with all his might. His dragon might.

He took a deep breath before referring to her. “What happened here? Where’s the ellari?”

“Oh, the ellari!” Her eyes suddenly shone. “What a magnificent mage he is. Look at this magic circle, it’s incredible. You should have seen his magical prowess, I fainted after doing so.”

“Are you alright?” Though she didn’t deserve it, he asked for the heiress's well-being.

“Splendidly!” The princess stood up with joy. “I have never felt such powerful soul magic, not even my brother showed me his full capabilities. This has renewed my spirit and focus on my research! I think I’m near a breakthrough!”

“That’s… good. I suppose.” After so many years, he wasn’t used to the extravagant antics of the princess. “Soul magic, though? I thought the ellari was an arcanist.”

“An arcanist? He did use a bit of arcane magic, but he felt like a full-fledged mystic to me.” She argued.

“But he did manipulate a leyline, that’s not something a mystic should be able to do.” The general pondered aloud. “He was able to attack me with it.”

“Are you alright?” Salayah inspected his body in search of wounds.

“Yes,” Caius added with confidence. “Although I was engulfed by the leyline, taking its full power head-on, I am fine. That’s the reason I took so much time to come back. By the way, how much time did I spend missing in action?”

“Not a lot, only half a day.” The princess responded. “But an incredibly mystic and powerful arcanist, what a mysterious figure.” Then she suddenly grabbed her white hair in distress. “I have forgotten to ask him his name, ahh! Why had I to be polite? Why? Why? Why!”

Ignoring the girl’s theatrics, Caius approached her to see the magic circle she was talking about. “So, what is this for?”

“Oh, right.” She regained her regal composure. “It’s a ritual to revive the dead.” She answered with a deadpan expression.

“Come again?” The commander acted as if he hadn’t heard it.

“It’s a ritual to bring back the dead to life.” She reworded it. “It’s part of the dynastic spellbook.”

“I understood that part, thank you very much.” The caretaker commented with sarcasm. “I mean, why?”

“Oh, fun story.” Salayah chuckled. “He thought we had killed his friend, so when father proved that wasn’t possible, he offered to help him revive his friend.”

“Right…” What a weird day, Caius thought.

**********

Two ellari found themselves in a dimly lit room. The walls were completely made of stone, with no windows to let light or sound in. The first figure was dressed from head to toe. Their ears were covered with a hood to not even reveal the shade of their skin. It was impossible to guess their gender by the heavy clothing and the ellari’s already androgynous bodies.

The second figure was more notable. Though it was still unrecognizable, the face was exposed, identifying it as a male. He was well-dressed, far too well-dressed. It was quite obvious he held some notable social standing.

“So, tell me. Why did the attack fail?” He asked in annoyance.

“That we do not know, sir.” The covered figure’s voice itself was androgynous, probably hidden by magic. “Our main operative for the mission was found dead at the rendezvous point. They had swallowed the suicide pill, so they must have confronted someone capable of extracting them of information, otherwise, they wouldn’t have taken such extreme measures.” The figure even avoided talking about its fellow agent’s gender.

“So, the operation was compromised.” Not much of a question, but a statement.

“We do not think so, no.” They explained. “Although the artifact is lost, and the scapegoat is dead, there were too many traces of a fight. If someone had known about this operation, they would have been more secretive about it. Especially about the disposal of the bodies. They were just left there.”

“Whatever the case, your job is to find the responsible for these acts. We are now on the turning point, and failure is no longer allowed.” The man acted entitled, disconnected to the play behind the curtains. “The peon’s death is inconsequential, though the loss of the artifact, while not cheap, it is a clue that could be directed to us. Retrieve whatever traces might have been left and investigate this issue further on.”

“As you wish.” The figure responded as it disappeared behind a cloak of gaseous yet tangible shadows.

**********

A man sat behind his desk looking at the window behind it. He looked tired, but most importantly, anxious. He had heard the reports, one of his soldiers had been assassinated in a gruesome manner in his base when there had been a conjoined event with the Academy of Ferilyn.

This event had hurt his reputation, but that wasn’t what he was worried about. Reputation was something he never cared about. He thought he might be better off without it, to begin with.

What affected him was who discovered the body. Her.

“Why’s it always her? Why someone who hates death so much has to always be haunted by it?” The national hero known as the Ceaseless Storm lamented himself.

He had been sent some critiques about the deceased soldier’s behavior. He was one of the best recruits in recent times, but his unstable temperament wasn’t allowed in the army. But he had been nudged by the higher-ups to keep such a promising recruit in. Then that happened.

A soldier’s death was always a bad thing, but he couldn’t bring himself to worry about that. He only thought about his companion.

“Why must she always be surrounded by the dead?” He repeated himself like a broken auditive illusion. After the last encounter two decades ago, he still blamed himself for his incapability.

But he had his duties as the Command Sergeant Major of the Ferilyn Military. He had to discard his emotions to fix the recent problems. Someone had infiltrated the facility during the Offensive Coalition protest and brutally murdered one of his soldiers.

Further investigation was needed.

**********

The Thal’mer marketplace was bursting as always. People constantly traded merrily as the sound of footsteps, children's laughter, and coins flowing filled the place. That wasn’t the same for a certain shop, though.

The shopkeeper comforted herself in the silence of her lair. There were clients, but they were few and far in between. Although the shopkeeper’s humor had some effect in that regard, the main reason was the exclusivity and pricing of the products. This wasn’t a shop for the everyday ellari.

The bell on the door rang, announcing the entrance of another customer. It was a tall man, he wore a tunic, and his left arm was covered in bandages.

Another weird one? Novela thought to herself. Having such a specialized shop always attracted the most ‘specialized’ people, to say the least.

“Greetings.” She saluted in polite neutrality. She didn’t really care about the customer. “Are you looking for something specific?”

“Yes.” The man replied as he approached the counter. “For you.”

If she wasn’t so deadbeat and emotionally dead, Novela might have blushed. That was if someone was fool enough to fall for such a pathetic flirt.

“Excuse you?” Her question was devoid of emotion.

“Oh, sorry. That sounded really weird, didn’t it?” He laughed to himself. “Hello there, Novela.”

Novela’s brows lifted in disconcert. “Do I know you?”

“I do not condemn you for not recognizing me. Too many years have passed. More than six by now?” The man pondered. “It’s me, Edrie Nightfallen.”

“Edrie?” She hadn’t forgotten that small child. A normal one, surely. She didn’t waste her memory on the passersby. But him? He was the first person she ever knew with a Superb affinity, let alone two. “It has been a long time indeed. What are you doing here?” Once again, she asked out of courtesy. It didn’t really matter.

“I needed to test a thing after recent events, and I thought you might be able to help me.” He explained. “Before doing so, can you keep it secret?”

“Another secret? You are pushing your luck, child.” Novela referred to him this way even though she had thought it was a grown adult at first glance.

“Yes, something that will shatter your deadpanned expression.” He said with a smug.

“I’ll like seeing you try that.” The shopkeeper said with a totally neutral tone.

“Can you bring your best elemental affinity detector here? I don’t care if I must pay to use it, I can pay for it.” He poked at a coin purse with his healthy arm.

“Alright. Give me a moment.” Though she didn’t want to play with the kid, a customer was a customer.

Only a pair of minutes passed until she came back from the back shop with a peculiar machine. A big stone bracelet, more akin to a choker for its radius, which levitated on top of a gold platform overflowing with runic inscriptions. Twelve small crystal daggers orbited around the bracelet in a slow but coordinated dance.

“Put your arm through here, please.” She commanded in a practiced manner. Edrie complied and left his arm laying on the artifact. “Now a minute for the precision test.”

The machine began emitting colors from all its parts. The bracelet illuminated, as well as the platform. The daggers unnaturally stopped moving, yet they still floated. A myriad of colors flashed in and out of existence, only to be replaced by other colors. The crystal daggers shone brightly, and one of them, was threatened to shatter by the energy being emitted. Moments later, the machine stopped.

Now only two colors were displayed, violet and white. Though one shone brighter than the other.

“As I feared, the recent events have altered my elemental affinity.” The man commented nonchalantly.

On the other hand, Novela’s façade finally broke. Her jaw fell to the ground in surprise after observing the brightness of the white color. That sprung a smile on his face.

End of book 2