Ewan called both Kidd and Stefan in the yard, licking his dried lips, butterflies fluttering in his stomach, and the thumps of his heart making it worse. Once he did this, there was no going back, he would face the wrath of the Governor, he would face the man as someone who ‘stole’ from him. The danger was apparent, but he didn’t intend to back down.
“You remember how to use this right?” Ewan handed Kidd a fist-sized crystal ball.
“I just need to put it to my ear, Boss, even I won't forget that much,” Kidd said.
“Smartass,” Ewan said. “Pack up what you can, what you really want to bring with you, don’t overdo it. When you get my message, rush to the cave as fast as you can.”
“Are we finally leaving Boss?” Kidd asked, beaming with a smile, his widened eyes glittering.
“We are if everything goes well, and I don’t get exposed. We’ll fly if I don’t find the Warship there, we can buy a ship somewhere else. Stefan, are you sure you want to come with us? You might not be able to come back here anytime soon.” Even if he needed a navigator on the ocean, an unwilling man would only lead them to their death.
“I am. I finished all the books you gave me. If we get the Warship, I can help with the repairs now,” Stefan said.
“Okay then, pack your bags and wait for my message,” Ewan said.
“Boss, what about the meeting?” Kidd asked. “Won't they notice your absence? They might send someone to look for you.”
“We’ll have to gamble on that, there’s no other way, we won't get another chance like this.”
“What if I go there and make an excuse for you? I’ll tell them you’ll be late. I’ll create a good reason, it’ll buy you some time,” Kidd said.
“No, you might spook the old man. And even if you don’t, you might get stuck there. Forget it, let’s just roll with what we have,” Ewan said. “Remember, don’t dawdle around, and if you meet someone on the way, just ignore him and come to the cave.”
“Aye-aye Sir!” Kidd said with a sailor’s salute.
Ewan clicked his tongue and turned around, facing the fog, and took a deep breath with his Spellbook in his hand.
Veil!
He cast the mystic spell, copying the circuit from the book, and when success came after a series of failures, a silver halo blanketed him. He had a tracer spell too, there was no way that the Governor didn’t. If Ewan purged it, it would alert him. But if he used the specialty of the mystic element and falsified the details, he could slip under the radar—the pings would show that he was still in the villa.
The spell scanned him and his storage artifacts, including the gifts from the Governor, yet it found no target to act upon, there was no trace of any foreign spell on him or his items, and the halo fizzled out. One round wasn’t enough to assure him, so Ewan cast it again and repeated it, bearing the pain it brought. When the result of each scan came out with a negative, Ewan let go. However, his anxiety worsened. It would’ve been better if the spell found something…. Because now, he was in the dark.
Nevertheless, whatever might happen, he would do this. And so, steeling his mind and the trembling heart, he raced out of the fog and beelined for the cave. It was now or never.
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Yet…
What if Kidd betrayed him right now? The skeptic in him asked and his heart skipped a beat. He gritted his teeth and sped up his flight, sticking close to the ground. The dawn of the decisive moment also brought his conflict with paranoia to the surface. Indeed, the time was ripe, Kidd would make a killing if he were to out him to the Governor today.
The emerging thought was harrowing, and it gripped his nerves, but Ewan shoved it down and continued forward. Though the consequences could be deadly, he wished to trust Kidd. If he came out alive on the other side, if Kidd mirrored his wishes, it would shed some light on the distinction between caution and paranoia for him. He would get to know what an unrelated family’s bond meant; he would get to trust someone besides Nana…
If not, he would go up in flames with his naivety and turn to ashes.
…..
Today too, only the mystic accompanied the lonely cave, and even their liveliness was only for the favored eyes. For others, the cave might reek of death, but for Ewan, the ocean of the Mystic-Anima was full of vigor, and it brought this gloomy place to life.
When he injected the mystic potion for Step-1 in his vein, the lively ocean churned into a whirlpool around him. The same amped up intellectual acuity broke out again, the racing thoughts colliding and concluding into garbled ideas filled his head. The modification still held the same essence yet was on a whole other level. His sensitivity skyrocketed, even a little sway of the Mystic-Anima jolted him, and the load of information his receptors fed him back overwhelmed his perception. But he couldn’t indulge right now, he couldn’t let the flow take him. He had to tunnel all the enhancements towards upgrading the spell circuit.
The support from the potion corrected any mistakes he made, his heightened senses found the right direction even in the dark, and the help from the abundance of Mystic-Anima reinforced his venture and kept him from crumbling. By the time the potion changed his heart and etched the Step-1 circuit for the subtype, when he took the first step towards the next level of Elementalist, the new model for the
With the spell in hand, Ewan was ready to meet the wolf.
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.3
Anima: [Fire – 25.3 | Ice – 25.3 | Blood – 25.3]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 1]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-4] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 28,245
Crelith: 1,298