The passage of time has drawn out the night's battle, the nocturnal wildlife returned to roaming and preying in the night. The trail of fallen trees and rocks were slowly returning to what it once was as a shadowy figure floating in the night sky, covered in a long dark cloak flowing with the wind, extends a palm directly at the area where Halungr and Vernack had passed earlier that night.
As everything was restored to its original position, the shadowy figure slowly disappears as the wind blows against them as if they were powder being blown away. No sound was made before, during, and after the forest was restored to its origin.
No one saw what had happened nor felt the land being restored in a few minutes that night, only the nocturnal wildlife witnessed the magic that occurred that night.
****
"So this Eorlu--" Vernack adlibbed when Meyvil suddenly cuts him in his thought.
"Grand Magnus Eorlu, not just Eorlu, ya do not disrespect the first Grand Magus of Wesout with only his name!" She extolled on about the Grand Magus.
"Yes, Grand Magus Eorlu." He clears his throat as he corrects himself.
"So he was the reason that mages all over Wesout learned how to form a magic circle in order to conjure elemental magic from mana?" Vernack repeats Meyvil's explanation earlier, getting the gist of all the things she had mentioned about Grand Magus Eorlu.
Vernack and Meyvil conversed by the campfire as Jon soundly slept beside Bale. The sound of the fire crackling and the two conversing rang within Meyvil's cave.
"Yes! And Grand Magus Eorlu pioneered the 'Appraiser of the Existing Elements of this World' or 'Aprexem' for short that revolutionized the identification of the innate elemental affinity of each individual!" She proudly said as her voice echoes all over her cave, waking Halungr and Bale in their sleep.
"Madam Meyvil can you please tone down your use of over complicated words and single it all out!" He interjects, not being able to handle the information she was spouting.
"Heh, it would better you hear more of it as each civilized person over the seasons have caught up to the linguistic capabilities of the mages in Spickloha Academia." She scoffs, getting some sort of reaction from Vernack.
"Bah! They have lost their sense of survival and became used to the peaceful environment our ancestors have achieved." Vernack snorted, not giving in to her provocation.
"Wow, what do ya know about our ancestors since you know so much?" She rose from her seat and walked toward a shelf filled with scrolls of paper.
"I know as much as you would!" Challenged by her, Vernack also rose from his seat and walks beside her.
Vernack looks around the shelf filled with scrolls but as he checks each scroll, there were symbols and words he could not understand. He turns to Meyvil, muttering words to herself as she checks each scroll with green circles on each corner of the scroll.
"Oh, here!" She yells out, excitement on her voice, as she shows a scroll with complex writing.
She turns to Vernack and notices that he was having a hard time understanding what was written on the scroll. She giggles at the confused expression that he was making.
"Unable to comprehend the records of a mage?" She nudges him, almost unable to control her laughter.
Not wanting to be defeated by her jesting, he snatches the scroll from her and tries to comprehend the writings on the scroll. Surprised by his sudden reaction at first but after a moment she could not help but let out an unrestrained laughter.
"W-what are you laughing at?" He covers his face with the scroll away from Meyvil looking at him.
"I can understand what is written here!" He nervously said as he presents the scroll on a stone table.
"Alright, alright, what does it say then?" She said after composing herself.
"I-it states that thousands of seasons ago t-there was a m-major bloodshed for the o-ownership of Ialonia!" At first he was soft spoken but as he went on his voice gradually increased and confidence booming all over his voice.
Silence. Meyvil looked at Vernack in shock, because of this he had initially thought that he actually got the writings on the scroll right. His eyes shone brightly and released an unrestrained laughter of his own.
"See! I know my stuff and I know how to read this gibberish of a scroll!" His laugh echoed all over the cave, awaking Bale and Halungr once more.
"Ya got it all wrong!" After Vernack's laughter settled, he hears Meyvil cackling and pointing at the scroll.
"W-what do you mean?" Trying to remain confidence, Vernack lets out a stern voice but sweat would fall down from his face.
"This scroll does not speak about the history of Ialonia, but it states about the time when the previous King of Tugal unintentionally shat himself while attending the dubbing of the First Prince as Warlord of Southern Tugal!" Her pitchy laughter echoed all over the cave and awakening some of the wildlife outside the cave.
"What in the torbir's breath is the point of this record about?" Vernack could not help but yell out his complaint, redirecting his embarrassment to the uselessness of the scroll.
Meyvil's laughter not only did not decrease in volume, but it rather strengthened which made her face all red as she tries to hold on to the stone table to not fall on the stone floor laughing.
Dumbfounded by the turn of events, Vernack made an expression that could not be described and turned his back on Meyvil walking towards the cave entrance. He muttered profanities in all forms that he knew as he walked away from her, but as he walks away the echoes of her laughter would only make him even more frustrated than he was earlier.
Moments later, he exited Meyvil's domain, kicking on pebbles and spitting on the soil of the entrance, he would imagine that everything he had done that moment was as if he had killed her a thousand times over.
Suddenly, as he was treading onward he bumps into a tree that was as two mortals thick and as tall the torbir he had met in the cave.
"What the--" As he dusts himself, he finally notices that the trail of broken trees and the large paw prints of Halungr disappeared and all have seemed to return to what it was several hours ago.
Not believing his sight at first, Vernack runs around the forest near the cave entrance to see if it the tree restored itself and to his surprise, all of the trees, shrubs, rocks, and soil seemed untouched. He tries to push a tree that he remembers was chopped off by Halungr, but his attempt only proved that everything has restored to its original state.
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"She did say she could restore everything if she wanted, but I was with her all night..." He pondered as he looked toward the cave entrance, he remembered that one side of the rock wall by the cave entrance had a large claw mark when they returned to the cave, but now it had disappeared.
He hurries back into Meyvil's cave, all thoughts of frustration and annoyance about her were lost in the moment as he enters the cave.
"Meyvil!" He yelled out as he hastens his pace. Vernack's voice echoes in the cave which alarmed Meyvil at first.
However, she sensed that Vernack has returned to defend himself and double down from his embarrassment. She chuckles at the thought of every scenario of what he would have to say about himself.
"Meyvil, did you..." A moment later, Vernack finally arrives to where everyone was, huffing and puffing as he tries to catch a breath after running all the way inside.
"Did I what? Lie to ya about the scroll? Why would I lie about the content of the scroll?" Without letting him finish his sentence as he catches some air, she immediately voiced her rebuttal of what she believed he would say.
Hearing her rebuttal, Vernack scowled as he finally composed himself. He glared at her for a second which released a small amount of threatening aura within him. However, a moment later he shook his head and returned to a proper state of mind.
"I have no care about the scroll right now, but I do want to know if restoring the forest outside to what it was before was your doing?" His breathy voice resounded within the cave and his question caused Meyvil's expression to slacken.
"I have been inside my domain the whole night and ya have not seen me chant a magic circle to restore anything outside as of yet." Meyvil stopped what she was doing and walked passed Vernack, curious on what had occurred outside.
"Alas, this may be also one yer ways of tricking me is it not?" Although she was truly intrigued by the event outside, she also thought of the possibility that he may be tricking her into embarrassment of believing him immediately.
'Why did I not think of that?' Vernack sighs as he thought to himself, he felt that if the trail were untouched he would have not returned into the cave to trick her into embarrassment.
He looks into her alluring eyes, sensing that she does want to go out and check but her pride tells her otherwise.
"I promise, no tricks, no setbacks, no nothing, just look outside." He assures her as he leads her out of the cave.
A few moments later, Meyvil was not merely surprised, but rather, she was stupefied by the forest outside her domain. Just like what Vernack did earlier, she went to a nearby tree where she remembered was felled by Halungr and attempts to push it.
"How did this happen without me knowing?" She mutters as she softly chants and suddenly a white magic circle appeared on her palm.
The magic circle released a faint white light that injected itself into the tree. Moments later, she removed her hand from the tree and looked around the environment, utterly stupefied by her findings.
"What did you just do?" After a few moments of watching her do her magic, he finally let out his curiosity.
"I used one of the complex spells taught in the Academia to check for any history of mana being used in an area, but it told me that no mana nor magic was used to restore the forest." She investigated more of her surroundings as she explains the magic that she just used.
"If what you are saying is true, then this forest probably healed itself to its origin!" Vernack theorized as he reads more into the forest situation.
Meyvil did not utter any word in reply to him, rather, she continued on her investigation on each place she marked by Halungr that she could remember. She scratches her head as none of her magic found any trace of the mana around the area being drained or filled.
"This is not right, what sort of phenomena occurred that even my Halun did not notice!" She extends her arm and a softly chants something then another white magic circle appeared out of her hand.
Several faint white light protruded out of the magic circle and moved around the area around them. However, instead of the faint light injecting into trees and the soil, it injects itself to a number of nocturnal wildlife that were moving around the cave entrance.
The faint light seemed to do no harm to the birds and the insects that were minding their own business. She studied the movement of mana within the wildlife, even checking for any hint of their current or previous illness being healed or restored.
Moments later, she pulled back all of the faint white light and was stupefied even further that not even within the wildlife mana was taken or filled.
"This..." Her face showed neither fear nor anger, rather the shock on her face would slowly transition into excitement.
"T-this is a phenomena surpassing even the legends!" She yells out in excitement.
"How about using magic that will allow you to communicate with the wildlife or maybe read their memories?" Vernack interjected, not minding her excitement.
Meyvil was taken aback by Vernack's suggestion that her excitement about the phenomena extend towards the man in front of her that could not even read the scroll earlier.
"Yer suggestion is right but sadly that is not where my expertise lays on." She happily explains as she approached Vernack.
"In the Academia, I graduated as a Sorceress, meaning by expertise lays on offensive magic rather than forming connections with beasts and beings alike." She suddenly projects an emblem made out of different kinds of element out of her palm forming a shape of a flame and the flame is encircled by the different symbols of worldly elements, such as; fire, wind, water, and air.
Vernack was astonished by the emblem that was projecting out of her palm, before he sees an ant-sized magic circle in the middle of her palm where the emblem is being projected. He could not believe that the magic circle could even be at the size of such.
"Move on about me, ya know this restoration phenomenon surpasses the legend of Grand Magus Eorlu's Light Disciple, Grand Magus Orias!" She urges Vernack back into the cave as she explains more.
"A Light Disciple?" He voices his question as he follows behind her.
"Yes, Grand Magus Orias was deemed as his 'Light Disciple' as she was the first ever student of his that the Aprexem shone in the element of light." She continues.
"How I wish Jon could have heard all of this." He muttered to himself.
"Anyhow, Grand Magus Orias' legend came forth when she used the element of light to restore the body parts of several thousands of men and women during the battle between the Abaklu stationed a hundred massus away from Northern Tugal."
They reach the inner hall of the cave and she pulled out a scroll from one of the stone shelves she had that had green circles on each corner but the middle of the green circles are four yellow dots. She stretches the scroll over the stone table she had by the shelves, but the table was not long enough for the scroll to properly rest without falling to the ground.
"Were not Abaklus stated as peaceful beings of the sea and are there to act as guardians for many sailors?" Vernack surmised, hinting some doubts by the story.
"Although I have little knowledge about Abaklus, all I know that according to the legends the Abaklu from Northern Tugal was causing numerous fishermen to lose their lives as it was the one that would devour them before they even began to fish." Meyvil's tone softened as she was uncertain if the Abaklu, whom had no name, was even an Abaklu or a Nalunhor, a spawn of Nerruso whom are apex predators of the sea.
"Anyhow, the legend stated that Grand Magus Orias conjured a large scale magic that not only restored body parts, but the broken environment as well." She continued.
"However, the phenomena today differed from the legend as Grand Magus Orias 'filled' her mana into the environment, while the forest had none in its history." Meyvil would double-check the scroll finding any sort of hint that the Light Disciple did not 'fill in' mana into the environment.
Rather than being appalled by the phenomena today, Vernack was awestruck by the legend that the people of Tugal and a Grand Wizard fought against a possible Colossal Guardian of Nerrusol. None of what she had said at that moment entered his mind as he ponders on the possibility of a mortal killing the guide of the sea.
As the two were searching more hints about the phenomena that had occurred earlier that day, hours has passed and the light of Ora, the sun, has slowly peaked over the horizon. The nocturnal wildlife would finish their nightly activities and burrow back into their shelters as diurnal wildlife awaken to satisfy their needs before the long night comes again.
Jon rose from his slumber beside Bale, whom laid beside Halungr whose body is facing directly the stone wall of the cave. He looks around the cave but only sees the scrolls on the stone shelves were disorganized and several more scrolls were scattered on the stone floor.
"What are these?" Jon attempts to read one of the scrolls, but he barely understood anything other than a few of familiar symbols he had seen from one of Grandmother Bliss' old books.
"What is the scroll saying about the King of Tugal?" Finally remembering what one of the symbols in the scroll meant, he tries to connect each familiar symbol he could remember but he could not get much anything about it.
As he tries to analyze the scroll about the previous King of Tugal, Vernack drowsily walks back in the cave while holding two rolled up scrolls under his armpit. He holds himself up by resting his back on the wall and drag along it.
"Oh... Jon your finally awake!" Vernack paused as soon as he saw Jon reading one of the scrolls, his face shone in bright light as his drowsiness seemingly lost its hold of him in that instant.
"Verna! What happened to you?" Surprised by Vernack's predicament, Jon placed down the scroll he was attempting to read and checked on him.
"No need to worry about me lad, can you hold these scrolls for me?" Vernack presents the two rolled scrolls to Jon, his face brimming with energy.
"A-alright then." Jon hesitantly took the scrolls, confused by Vernack's expression that he was making.
"Well lad, you take care of her shit now, am knocking miself out." Immediately after Jon took the scrolls, Vernack ran off to the side and instantly slept on the stone floor.
Jon wanted to say something at first but seeing that Vernack was excited to be able to snug himself to sleep, he did not voice his confusion nor complaint.
Neigh! Vernack yelling out in joy awoke Bale whom was also surprised by the beast that slept beside it. Bale immediately ran behind Jon, trying to hide from the ferocious torbir that was chasing them to death just last night.
"Bale, I told you before, need not worry nor fear the torbir, it is friendly." He tries to calm Bale by rubbing its neck and urges it to follow him as he returns the two scroll back to the stone-shelves.
"Vernack! We are not done with the investigation yet, where are you hiding?" Jon hears Meyvil calling out to Vernack from the cave entrance.
A few moments later, Meyvil arrives to see that Bale and Jon were awake and were standing beside the stone shelves. She paused to look at them for a few seconds, then after she moved on to search for Vernack.
"Lady Meyvil and Verna sure are getting along." Jon chuckles as he voices his thought out loud.
"Yer friend right here is helping me investigate the 'Restoration Phenomena' that occurred last night on the forest without alarming me nor Halungr." Meyvil easily brushed off his remark as she nudges Vernack to awaken.
"Lady Meyvil, I suggest not to wake him, how about I help you in his stead?" He happily offers his service as he knows how annoyed Vernack would get if he were to be forced to awaken.
"Alright then, follow me, Jon." She immediately pulled back from Vernack and happily walked out of the cave.