Resti was sleeping quietly, her hair was shifting colors still back and forth, making it look like her hair was the color of burning fire. Lurk thought he had better get Resti involved in his idea of latching an Immense volcanic fire spirit to her soul. So he gently shook her shoulder. Resti yawned and opened her eyes, it was comfortable and warm in the workshop as Resti seeing Lurk trying to improve everyone's comfort had also helped with her fire magic to place down small heating spells that would last a great deal of time. But they did cost a lot of mana. She was a bit jealous at Lurks seemingly large mana pool as he had also cast Light spells and renewed them regularly. She had used a lot of her mana to help Lurk, keeping enough for usual emergencies as her mother always taught her.
She stretched and sat up with the furs she had wrapped around her, feeling extremely wellrested. It had been a long time since she had felt this way. But she could tell the heating spell in this room had already gone out, the warmth she had right now was from sharing the furs with Lurk and Sylvie.
As she thought about that her face reddened as she looked at Lurk. He was looking a bit odd at the moment. Was he still acting weird around her despite them having shared such a passionate night?. Resti sighed as she decided to put the heat spell back in place and talk to Lurk, whos face just got a tad more odd, as she did her fire spell aimed at the place in the corner for the rune.
"Yawn... Morning Lurk... ["Lesser Heat"]...wa?.....Waaaahhhh!!!"
Lurk stared with wide panicked eyes as Resti chanted the usual spell she had done countless times during their stay here. Place small glowing runes on surfaces that would then begin to emit a gentle warmth. Lurk thought it was a clever spell that took the place of a room heater. But this time the spell was suddenly several times more potent. The corner having a pulsing rune, the room quickly turned hot, as waves of heat came out from the corner. It was not painfully hot it was just the sudden change in temperature that shocked Resti and Lurk.
Clearly, the fire spirit was supercharging the spell, and Resti had poured in a percentage of mana as she usually does, but her mana pool had just multiplied several times over since she was now connected to Lurks larger mana pool. Lurk thought this was still way more than what the description of the fire spirits bonuses said. Perhaps the fire spirit was giving out way more power right now since it had not been used in a while??
Lurk grabbed Sylvie who was still sleeping gently and pulled her out of the furs as they leaped out of the room. Resti following right behind. The glow from the rune lighting up behind them. Normally it would be a gentle glowing dull red, but now it was a pulsing fiery color.
"What in the realm! Lurk! What happe...." Resti said loudly as they stood outside of the small room Lurk had claimed as his own bedroom, when Resti was about to scold/ask Lurk what in the world was going on. She froze midsentence as she noticed a lot of eyes on her and Lurk standing there.
Naked.
The women and Emily looked over with an odd look, especially Emily. The goblins all looked extremely pleased, Sala included looked like she was beaming with pride and glee, now grinning as she joined the others staring at the naked trio, Lurk holding the sleeping catgirl, so easily despite his size.
"Eeeeee!!...."
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A bit later Resti was sitting back inside the bedroom, with clothes on this time. Sylvie had not woken up to full consciousness and went back to sleep pretty quickly once they returned inside the bedroom after Resti had calmed down and turned the heat spell off. Resti was looking judgingly at Lurk, petting Sylvie's hair and large fluffy cat ears. As Sylvie had chosen to lay her head in Restis Lap, looking extremely lazy.
"So... You somehow awoke or -activated as you said- the great fire spirit of my mothers family... And attached it to me during my sleep..."
Lurk had filled her in on the activity he had been doing while she slept, she had been told that Lurk had some form of influence on the child in her belly, and he had managed to figure out how to activate the spirit's connection to her blood.
"... More or less ..." Lurk said sitting across Resti, looking at her as she sat with closed stern looking eyes and an angry frown.
"More or less?!! Our family has been trying for the last couple of generations too -Activate- the fire spirit! You did it while I slept on a whim?!" Resti exclaimed in a stern but not to loud voice, her eyes glowing red as she expressed herself. Though she was reined in by the fact Sylvie having suddenly laid her head on her thighs before dozing off saying "soft". So she was holding back her frustration and anger she had due to the ludicrousness of this goblin in front of her.
"Yes!, I could see you had a connection to a fire spirit! so I expended some energy to form the connection back up!" Lurk said quickly startled by Restis intense aura and stern voice, as her fiery hair and glowing red eyes now made her look that much more intimidating.
"... hah... You are just too much... How can you just do something like this... That fire spirit is an ancient legacy of my ancestor... I should not be able to have it due to my... Father and mothers connection it needs his pure bloodline... My mother had to flee her country because of her involvement with my father... My family is very strict on the mingling of bloodlines...I hated them for it..." Resti said as she somewhat calmed down as remembering her mother and father arguing one day where they thought she was not home.
But she heard her mothers frustration and anger over being discarded from her family, she clearly had a lot of pent up feelings and the fight with her lover allowed her to suddenly vent out. Resti had run away hearing her mothers anger at basically her having decided to run off with her father. Resti felt her mother was disappointed having had Resti as a child, her being brought up in a family where finding the best potential mate to carry the bloodline and reignite the fire spirit in their family. Restis mother had rebelled in her youth after meeting the charming and dazzling wood elf adventurer and it had cost her family.
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"It's that bad huh?... They were hunting your mother?" Lurk said gently as the mood had calmed down, Resti's hair had even returned to normal along with her eyes, so clearly the fire spirit was something you could pull out, and now it had apparently pulled back during the somber remembrance of a bad moment in Resti's life.
"Yes... Feverent parts of my family kept the family close, trying their best to not get splinter off families that could potentially awaken the fire spirit, the family was built around the potential power the person could wield for the family. My mother going off could invite others to do the same, or even worse suddenly lead the fire spirit away from the main family if it decided to appear in a -bastard- offspring" Resti said the color in her hair once more whipping up a fiery color as she began talking in detail of her mothers family.
"My mother managed to flee when they realized she was pregnant, they managed to avoid being found for many years, until one day when they stumbled across us, my father held them back while my mother and I escaped... Mother was very careful after that and began to live a more quiet life traveling further and further away from the family. Until we came to a quiet village where she managed to live a normal life, helping the village prosper from her knowledge."
Lurk nodded listening to Resti tell her tale, her mood was easily discernable from her hair as it would shift in color as she brought up memories. He gently put her hand out on hers that was petting Sylvie's hair.
"I am sorry to hear that... also sorry I accidentally awoke your fire spirit..." Lurk said somberly and added in a little joke, in the end, to try and liven up the mood, giving Resti a gentle smile. He had just seen the Fire spirits description and thought the bonus it would give would be helpful, clearly, there was a bigger weight attached to it.
"hehehe... You are so weird... But I am worried what my family will do if they find out I have the fire spirit..." Resti said as she smiled at Lurk as he tried to comfort her. But she remembered the way her mother had spoke of the fervor the family had around the fire spirit.
"Why exactly are they so adamant about it?, do not get me wrong, it is a pretty big boost the fire spirit is giving you I can tell. Do they just want the ancestor's power?" Lurk questioned Resti, as he joined in on petting Sylvie's fluffy ears.
"I think so... He was very powerful apparently, but my mother had mentioned that no one ever reached his potential despite even when they had the fire spirit. They were merely the main spokesperson of the family. It is a lot of nobles, after all, they were all extremely competitive to get the fire spirit, the one group in the family that had it would lay claim on the leadership after all..."
"I guess you do not want to go back and claim the family leadership mantle?" Lurk said jokingly to Resti.
"Definitely not! I hope they never find it." Her hair blazing up once more.
"Well I think we can make that happen, can you feel this?" Lurk smiled at Resti, as he tried to activate the new soul link her had between her and him. Resti's opened her eyes wide feeling something connecting to her spirit.
"Yes?... what is that?... Is ... Is that you?" Resti stared wide-eyed at Lurk who smiled back nodding.
"Can you see this here?" Lurk focused on asking for the fire spirit to switch over to his soul via the menu. Resti suddenly shifting her eyes to something entirely different in front of her eyes.
"waa...what is this!??" Resti looked amazed as in front of her she could see the words hovering in front of her and the sensation of a yes or no answer to be given.
"User [Lurk], Requesting access to [Fire Spirit]"
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Meanwhile in an entirely different part of the realm. In an extremely well-decorated room, sat a group of people around a large table, in the middle of it sat complex looking rune machinery. Above it floated a Red crystal. One of the men rose up as the person entered the room, the chatter and murmurs between the group of eight people quieted down.
"Ah good Shamus you have arrived... Then we are all here... Take a seat and then Calman please begin..." The man at the head of the table state to the newcomer, He was the current voted in spokesperson of the great Firekeeper family, his hair was a strong red, in fact, every person's hair in here was a strong red color, except the last person who entered who had dark black hair. The disdain clearly is seen in some of the people sitting at the table as they saw Shamus entering the room and making his way to the table.
"I would never ignore a call from the current leader, ah sorry I mean spokesperson of our family Lord Hamel," Shamus said as he sat down, looking around with a smirk at all the people in the room, he was clearly the youngest in the group, his clothes were rich and he had a striking form. compared to other old people sitting around he was clearly the odd one here. Even if you ignored he was the only one with dark hair instead of red.
"Myes.... quite... Calman..." Hamel said nodding over to Calman the old wizen wizard that was responsible for the device on the table.
"Lords and ladies of the Firekeepers family, the fire spirit has chosen a new host!" Calman exclaimed triumphantly to the table. He himself was not seated as he was merely a retainer of the current head of the family Lord Hamel, the people all had different reactions but they all instantly began to talk"
"Who?!" "When did this happen?!" "Oh, I hope it's my new niece!"
"Quiet quiet, I will show you the new chosen one that will once more propel our family to greatness!" Calman said as pointed towards the device on the table.
"Through my hard study of our ancestor I have designed this rune device to sense when the fire spirit has connected to someone, using the very Ley Crystal he once used to capture the spirit in before absorbing it into his glorious blood!"
"Behold! our new hope for our family!!!" Calman made a gesture again towards the rune device and a red piece of energy left his hand and activated the runes as they began ticking and glowing with energy. The crystal lit up showing a brief moment of a girl's face before it suddenly switched. And the picture of a goblin was now shown before all the head family members.
"..." Calman stopped dead in his tracks, he had planned to begin questioning the family members if they knew who the girl was in the crystal... But now she suddenly shifted over to the look of a goblin male.
A deadly silence was hanging in the room no one said a word or moved a muscle only the spinning crystal with Lurk's face was mobile... the silence was broken by the laughter of Shamus, the dark-haired man had thrown his head back and was laughing loudly. The table then erupted into clamoring and loud yelling between all the members. Calman sunk his shoulders in despair as he stared at the crystal.
("... What in the name of the Firekeeper is this travesty!!!")