Elyza's halberd sliced through the air, aiming for Alex's chest in a swift, determined motion. Alex had abandoned his longsword in favour of a dagger and a short sword, seeking to match Elyza's formidable skills that had rapidly progressed in a surprisingly short span. He could no longer afford to fight at a disadvantage, a fact he had chosen to keep to himself.
The halberd's blade sliced through the air where Alex had stood mere moments before, narrowly evading its intended target. Alex immediately surged forward to take advantage of the opportunity. Elyza countered by swinging her halberd backward, intending to strike with the beak. Any ground she let him gain could tip the balance between victory and defeat. But since Alex was agile enough to avoid any of the 'normal' attacks, it was also a risk she was ready to deal with. The idea was good; even if Alex managed to evade the attack, the halberd's shaft formed a natural barrier against any retaliatory strikes.
But that plan quickly fell apart. Alex used his parrying dagger's curved hilt to redirect the shaft upwards, creating an opening. Ducking underneath, he moved quickly, catching Elyza off guard. Before Elyza could slide the halberd back to put the spear point in-between them, Alex struck with his xiphos. The blade barely missed her left hand, the latter quickly withdrawn to avoid any injury. The force of the blow drove the halberd's end into the ground, leaving a stride's distance between them. Elyza moved to retrieve her knife, but the gap had already been covered.
He was about to pierce her chainmail with his dagger, but Elyza grabbed his left wrist with her right hand, bending his elbow to point it back at him. Alex quickly let go of his dagger, which she tried to grab as it fell. And she would've, if there were not a sword's edge resting on her neck.
"Dead." Alex smugly stated. "And I believe this also ends your coveted run."
Elyza sighed, "I did not want another match to end with a draw. The idea had its risks but had merit."
"That it did. Any lesser man would be dead, just like our previous twenty-two consecutive draws," Alex reassured her, though the words were dampened due to his expression. He bent to retrieve his dagger and her halberd, "It might have worked if you were more aggressive. But you ultimately lost, because you withdrew your hand from your weapon while wearing gauntlets." his tone became more critical as he spoke.
"It was reflex," Elyza protested, grabbing her halberd back, the gauntlets feeling heavier now that she was not fighting, "I have only had them for a few days. And you know why I asked for them."
"A real opponent would..." Alex began.
"...have done the same. I was lucky you missed," Elyza interjected, cutting off his excuse.
"Yes, it was luck that saved your little fingers," Alex teased.
Elyza sighed, not acknowledging the joke. She walked away and sat in the shade provided by the wall of vines she had conjured, propping the halberd against it. They had started to flower, and she was glad that she was grateful for having kept it alive. She reached out towards Alex, and got her bottle thrown to her. Downing the water, she relished its citrus flavour, giving her mind a temporary distraction from the frustration she felt at herself. Before her mind could turn back to it, Alex appeared to her right, his head popping up from her shadow.
"You wanna gamble?" Alex asked, in a voice that belonged in a back alleyway.
Without missing a beat, Elyza set down her bottle on top of his head, showing little reaction. "As soon as you reveal what it does, I will be willing to roll the die."
"It chooses something for me," Alex replied vaguely, keeping the nature of the die's effects shrouded in mystery.
Frustration tinged Elyza's response, "Then why not roll it yourself?"
"I don't want to be blamed for what happens." He responded, a bit too ominously, "Come one. We both know it won't cause any direct harm."
Elyza took a deep breath, sick of his persistence on something he refused to tell her about, but was able to control her frustration from manifesting outwards. However, she was unable to stop it from affecting her thinking, "Fine, give me the die, then allow me some peace of mind."
Alex knew that she was not in the mood for any additional statements of his, so he just gave her the die, and waited for her roll. Elyza scrutinized the eight-sided wooden dice, trying to figure out if there was some type of magical device embedded within or any runes scratched alongside the numbers. The dice appeared to be totally normal, and that worried her. Left with no grounds to object, she reluctantly rolled the die, which landed on 3. Before she could even ask what that meant, Alex swiftly snatched the die from her hands, his head disappearing back into the shadow.
Knowing better than to fret over what he had planned, Elyza closed her eyes and tried to strategise ways she could best him. The environment seemed perfect for a nap, with a gentle breeze through the meadow, the sun lazily hanging in the sky, and a comfortably warm temperature with almost no humidity. Yet, there was a tiny part of her mind still worried about what Alex was up to, which kept her aware of her surroundings.
The first indication of change arrived with the wind slowing to a crawl, as if it was struggling to move through something dense. Soon, even Elyza felt the heaviness in the air, the scent of rain accompanying its transformation. Glancing skyward, she saw the usual blue sky being covered up with gray clouds. After a week of picturesque weather within the barrier's confines, this sudden shift felt almost apocalyptic, and could only mean that Alex had something to do with it.
As she was walking towards the house, her curiosity wanting to know how Alex was able to change the weather, Elyza abruptly felt a strange resistance. It was as though she was treading through mud, the sensation slowing her pace. Looking back towards her vines, she could see a clear split between the soil surrounding it versus the sludge under her. The entire meadow seemed to have transformed into a mudflat, save for a 2-meter radius around the vine wall and the house, which showed absolutely no change. The vibrant green grass had vanished, replaced by crumbly brown dirt that turned to mud with the slightest pressure.
Deciding that she would prefer standing back on solid ground rather than trudging back to the house, Elyza found that her feet refused to budge. She tried to pull them up with her hands, but to no avail. The only option that remained, was to abandon her boots and sprint back to the vines. However, before she could wiggle out of them, her shadow promptly swallowed her. In an instant, Elyza found herself back beneath the poison ivy wall, with Alex standing before her. Her mouth opened to ask about the weather, but he beat her to the punch.
"I'll tell you how I was able to do this, after our sparring session ends." Alex answered her unspoken question, smiling as he did. Elyza wanted him to explain it right there, but nevertheless grabbed her halberd. "Ever fought in mud?" he inquired as she stood before him, the halberd towering above him.
"No." Elyza stated, not a trace of worry in her voice as she observed the field of battle, "I have, however, hunted in similar conditions."
Just for his peace of mind, Alex gave her some pointers, "Well, there is some crossover. But mainly try to keep moving till the ground flattens a bit, and be light on your feet. You stop too long, and you will get stuck."
"First contact, or till death?" Elyza asked, her mind already developing ways to win for either.
"Death." Alex responded, his expression blunted, as their shadows enveloped them both.
After a delay of a second, they both emerged somewhere in the field, a five-meter gap between them. They were both being held up with their respective shadows, which acted as a temporary ground. Both adopted their starting stances; Alex holding his weapons parallel to each other, while Elyza gripped the forward quarter and the end of the staff, both her palms and the halberd's blade pointing upwards. Gradually, Alex's magic shifted its mana source from him to Elyza, and the stage was set for their battle.
Immediately Alex started to move around, dropping his stance, bouncing on his feet, causing the shadow he was standing on to dissipate. He took care to not come any closer, but instead circled around her to keep her guard up. Elyza's gaze followed him, and so did the point of her spear, keeping her stance as she waited for his attack. But, as her mind raced to predict where it would come from, she shifted her feet, which meant that they soon stood on sinking ground.
Alex knew this would happen. Elyza had a tendency to allow her mind to complete its thoughts before acting, a trait that usually served her well. However, it meant that she often failed to make the first move, always reacting to her opponent. However, when wielding any form of pole-arm, it tends to put you at a disadvantage. Despite Alex's repeated reminders and Elyza's own recognition of the need to overcome this tendency, she reverted to her usual approach in uncertain situations. And he wanted to illustrate why that was dangerous.
Without hesitation, he surged forward, sword and dagger poised to counter any defence she might muster. A flicker of fear flashed within Elyza as she realized he had planned this. It was quickly quashed by Elyza, her mind firing up as it tried to salvage a way to win. Determined to regain control of the battle's momentum, she moved forward, wrenching her feet from the mud, knowing she needed to control the flow of the battle.
Thrusting her pole-arm forward thrice, each strike evaded by Alex, Elyza smoothly retracted the weapon before executing a slicing motion across his chest. However, as she swung the staff back, mirroring her earlier manoeuvre, she also slid it backward. In the ensuing attempt to deflect the halberd, Alex found his dagger being wrenched out of his hand. Seizing the moment, Elyza shifted her stance to point the halberd toward the ground, aiming to get rid of his remaining weapon.
In one fluid movement, she flicked the halberd up, forcing him to defend. He side-stepped the strike and wrapped his left arm around the shaft, implying that he would try and pull it out of her hands. Elyza slid her halberd back using her left hand, threatening to cut his arm if he didn't let go of the staff. Instead, Alex kept his grip, allowing himself to be pulled along and into range, exploiting the mud beneath his feet.
With a quick flick of the spear's point, she broke his grip. Swiftly shifting her stance, she now held the halberd horizontally in her hands, the dominant hand gripping its socket. She struck with the blunt to draw out a parry before striking using the blade from the other side. Alex blocked the blunt with his arm, sacrificing its use temporarily, managing to deflect the blade before its point could reach his torso. Elyza forcefully shoved him back with the shaft, leveraging her physical advantage and forcing him to scamper for stability as he stumbled backwards.
Alex retaliated immediately, aiming a blow to her chest, when she slipped. Anticipating his strike, Elyza had moved into it, knowing she could inflict more damage than he could. As she did, her front foot slid backwards as she tried to add power to her diagonal slice, and she fell. Now, Alex's strike to her chest was aimed at piercing her mouth. He tried to pull back his sword, rotating so that her face hit the flat. Instead, the motion resulted in a cut to her cheek as her face met the ground.
Too embarrassed to rise from the mud, Elyza lay there, screaming internally. Alex helped her up, pushing her back to her knees, her face still smeared with dirt. Opening her eyes, she could see by the small tugs at the corners of his worried, panting face that he was struggling to contain his laughter. The sight was absolutely hilarious, two emerald circles surrounded with semi-wet splodges of faded brown, but through the mud he recognised the expression of 'Why did this have to happen in front of the worst person possible.'
He pulled out a towel and a healing potion, "Do you want me to...?"
Elyza grabbed the towel, removing large swathes of mud at the same time, but her face still had streaks of it remaining. As she handed back the towel, he tried to hand her the flask of glittering red syrup. "No." She said, pushing back his arm, which baffled Alex.
"You got cut, I can clearly see the blood dripping down your cheek. What do you mean 'No'?
Elyza defended her decision, "The cut is shallow, I do not like how the potion makes me feel, and during our last match I felt on the verge of winning. So, I would like to continue." Her determination resonated through her expression.
Alex, for the first time, couldn't argue. Instead, he pulled out a bottle of dry alcohol, the ball of cotton still wrapped around it with some butcher's twine. Before she could protest, he started to clean her cut, which was quickly followed by a short yelp of pain from Elyza. "I could not stop you if I wanted to, but if this forms a scar, you're going to have to live with it for a long time."
"I know." Elyza said, staying still as he wiped off the rest of the mud.
"So," Alex said as he finished up, "First contact or death?"
----------------------------------------
After two hours had elapsed, Alex found himself sprawled on his back, gazing at the grey ceiling above. He was narrowly able to avoid the halberd coming down at his head, executing a nimble roll to the side and seamlessly flipping up onto his feet. Fortuitously, he managed to sheathe his dagger mid-air after being tossed by Elyza, so he still held onto both his weapons. However, there was no respite; she sliced then thrust in a single fluid motion, both attacks aiming for his neck.
Swiftly evading both strikes, Alex shifted his grip on his sword to a reverse hold and promptly retreated, putting a distance of about six meters between them. As their session had continued, the ground had started to level, erasing the advantage he had once had. Elyza, adapting to the halberd's weight and behaviour, forced Alex to rely more on feints. Yet, the more he used them, the less they were effective. Her growing confidence meant that she was becoming more aggressive. This, technically, was good news – that was what he had told her to be. However, he was not the type of person that appreciated losing.
Switching to his defensive stance, xiphos pointing towards her, the dagger acting as its extended cross-guard, Alex faced Elyza's advance. She gripped the halberd like a claymore, the shaft at a downward angle, the blade to her left, and the blunt raised in front of her, ready to strike. It felt as if he was facing a seasoned general, and Alex forced his mind to calm down from its excitement. Her stance was full of possible openings, but he knew better than to fall into her trap, again.
Elyza swung at his head, and as he moved to block, she quickly thrust her right hand upwards, slicing him in the stomach. Though the blade couldn't cut through his leather armour, it did knock the wind out of his lungs. She followed up immediately with a thrust into his left shoulder, which he deflected with his xiphos. Alex retaliated, dashing forward with his dagger, feinting a stab to her gut. She was about to smack him back with the shaft, when Elyza was kicked in the stomach. Alex thought it would provide him an opportunity to end the fight, but instead, he was sent flying with a blow to his jaw, almost breaking it.
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Landing on his knees, but as Alex attempted to get up, he felt the familiar feeling of a metal spear against his neck. Acknowledging his defeat, he let go of his weapons and sat back in the mud, signalling that he was done.
"Dead." Elyza stated, her voice wavering with silent excitement.
"Yup," he groaned out through an aching jaw.
Lowering her halberd, Elyza extended a hand to help him up, and he promptly accepted. Pulled to his feet without having to exert his own strength, Alex spat into the mud, checking for any signs of bleeding in his mouth, since he couldn't properly feel it.
Satisfied that he wouldn't accidentally dribble out some blood as he spoke, he formally conceded her win. "Just so I can remind you, you only won because you fought better than me, and you dared to doubt me when I said that a halberd would suit you." Alex said, rubbing his jaw, a smile playing on his lips. "But if you hoped that would shut me up, should've hit harder."
Elyza smiled at his joke, feeling almost euphoric that she had bested him. "That is a shame." They both looked like they had just fought a mud elemental, prompting her to suggest, "If we are done for the day, I would like to have a bath before I show you something interesting I learned of Druidcraft as I was practising yesterday."
"Wait for a second," Alex responded, crouching down and reaching into his shadow. She could see his arm moving, so she knew he was doing something, before he stood up again. Holding up his hand, he signalled for her to wait.
Then the ground started to rumble, the mud they were standing on drying up before being replaced with the soil she was used to. It was as if it was rising up from its resting place somewhere deep underground. Elyza was lifted by an arm connected to Alex's shadow as wild grass rapidly grew beneath them. She was set down shortly afterward, the vegetation blooming across the meadow. The glade resembled how it looked when she had first arrived with Alex. There was a moment of silence before the clouds thundered.
Suddenly, rain fell, swift and ferocious. Elyza almost collapsed under its flow, relying on her halberd to stay upright. Strangely, Alex seemed to be unaffected by the cloudburst, but she soon noticed that he was using his shadow to keep himself up. Slowly, the rain's ferocity reduced, allowing Elyza to enjoy its feeling on her skin. She took the opportunity to remove her gauntlets and clean the mud off herself. Soon enough, as fast as it had arrived, the rain stoppedl, leaving a sky as blue as could be, with only a few wisps of white clouds and the two soaked individuals as evidence of the flood.
"Ears, got any way to dry us?" Alex asked, his hood down, his hair plastered to his face.
Elyza closed her eyes, feeling for a pocket of warm air. Finding one, she pulled it towards them, forming a warm whirlwind around them. The air sucked out the moisture off the duo, and after she was sufficiently dry, she eased her control over it, letting it dissipate on its own.
"Thank you," Alex said, his hair still slightly damp.
"How did you do it?" Elyza asked, her mind eager to satisfy the question that had been gnawing at her.
"Hmm?" Alex said, pretending he didn't hear her question, asking his own, "What did you want to show me?"
Unfortunately, she quickly caught on to his cunning plan, "You never pass up any chance to talk, so either tell me how you were able to control the weather, or tell me why you do not want to."
Alex's mind went blank for a moment before he finally responded, "It's not that I don't want to, it's just... I don't know how it works."
"Excuse me?" was the most appropriate response that popped into Elyza's head. The concept that he had done something without knowing how it worked seemed extremely uncharacteristic of him.
"I mean..., I know how I made it happen; I just don't... know how it makes... it... happen...," he stumbled on his words as he tried to explain a concept he had no grasp on. "Just show me what you learned while I try to figure out a way to properly explain what I think happens."
Sighing, she started walking towards Geoffrey with Alex in tow, when she realised something. "Would you be willing to be the target today?" She asked, expecting him to at least question why.
"Sure, where do you want me to stand?" he agreed immediately.
"Just walk towards me when I tell you to." Elyza instructed and walked away. She knelt down on the grass, a few meters or so away from him, holding out her right hand with her palm facing the ground. Choosing the glyph for ivy from her memories, purplish-green energy emerged from her palm, solidifying into lines as they rushed to form a magic circle. "Greim," Elyza whispered, causing the circle to rotate, shifting its shape to follow her command. With her left hand, placing it on the ground, murmuring as she did, "Cóip." The grass started to weave itself into the circle above, and as they did, Elyza pulled out some ivy seeds, filling them with as much mana as they could handle without blooming. Scattering them within the grass circle, she stood up to see if she needed to camouflage it better.
She walked to the other side of her trap and motioned Alex to approach. He already has suspicions about what she was doing, but nevertheless tried to act aloof as he neared whatever she had prepared. Stepping onto the circle, he heard a slight crack, before a ring of vines exploded from the ground. Their roots weaving into the ground as the rest grabbed every single part of his body, pulling Alex to his knees.
He was barely able to stop himself from collapsing entirely, but there was a wide smile on his face as he struggled to keep it from eating dirt. "I'll be honest, this is not the first time I've been restrained like this, although that was by choice." he remarked, adding, "Right now, though, I'm very excited that my theory on delayed reactions in Druidcraft was wrong."
"I thought you would be disappointed that I proved your writings wrong." Elyza stated, as her hand started to rise, preparing to command the vines down. However, Alex interjected.
"Give me a second, I want to test something out," he said.
Attempting to dissolve himself into the shadows, the vines' grip strengthened in response, preventing him from fully transforming. To her, it appeared as if her spell had caught a monster from Niflheim — Alex's body temporally changing into one made of pure darkness before suddenly stopping. A realization struck Elyza; she had seen the same thing happen every time he shifted from one place to another, but it usually happened faster than her brain could perceive it properly.
"Fuck," Alex exclaimed after another failed attempt to teleport, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Well, that's good to know." He muttered to himself, before white-purplish electricity started to arc from him, forming bridges that charred wherever they touched the vines. The vines restraining his hands burst into flames as a sudden surge of electricity surged through them. Before long, Alex stood upright, dagger in hand, smiling.
"Why are you so happy?" Elyza said, bewildered at his optimism.
"I'm impressed at how fast you've progressed. In what – one and a half months or so, you've gone from only knowing one spell for wind to disproving the 'leading' expert on a style of magic. Well, that and the fact that I still have a lot to learn about Druidcraft," he explained, sheathing his dagger. Continuing, he added, "Which reminds me, I have a proposition concerning our spars from today onwards."
Sighing, she inquired, "What do you have in mind?"
"If you agree to it, instead of us continuing on as usual, training till you can quite handily defeat me, which wouldn't take that long, I feel it would be more efficient to start using magic in our sparring sessions to stimulate actual battles." he replied, trying not to sound as excited as he was.
There was a brief moment of silence as Elyza contemplated his proposal before answering, "I agree."
Concerned at the speed of her answer, Alex added, "Just to make sure you understand what I mean; I will be allowed to use my entire arsenal from now own, meaning that you will be facing attacks such as this," he said, maintaining eye contact as he pointed his hand towards the training dummy, fingers spread wide.
Small arcs of white electricity dance between his fingers before a stream of lighting shot out of his palm, slamming into the wooden figure. Exploding into a cloud of wooden shard, the smell of smoke wafted through the air, leaving only the blackened log it once stood on.
"Oh no, Geoffrey!" Alex exclaimed with enough distraught in his voice to make it appear real, before quickly muttering, "That was stronger than what I was aiming for." All the while, he hadn't looked away from Elyza. He continued, "While I usually never hit anyone as hard as I did him, it's still an apt demonstration of my abilities. So, you sure about this?"
Unfazed, her confidence soaring after her recent victory, she replied immediately, "I am."
"Good," he said, grinning, "And since you don't have a target for today, let's make one."
Elyza responded, wanting her curiosity quenched, "No. First tell me how you did it, then we will do whatever it is you want to."
Walking by, he remarked, "I have the rare ability to talk while walking." Rolling her eyes, she followed, and as he turned around, walking backward, he asked, "I believe you have noticed that my house is larger than it appears to be."
"I did, some form of dimensional transcendence, I believe." she replied, much to Alex's surprise.
"'Dimensional Transcendence'— I've never heard that phrase before." he said aloud, before quickly adding, "It does fit. Where did you learn it from?"
"I found the library. There was a book left open on the desk. I read it, and it explained how one could manipulate dimensions."
Sighing, Alex said, "The library was supposed to be a surprise for after you read everything. Did you at least mark the page it was open on?"
"Yes."
"Good. So, there's an attic of sorts in the house that was revealed to me some while after I gained ownership of it. The attic was full of some sort of machinery, I could recognise about... a quarter of the mechanisms and some glyphs drawn upon it. I thought it must've been the workings of the previous owner, a madman, or both, and since I didn't know what it did, and because it looked extremely unstable, I left it alone," he explained, both nearing the edge of the glade, marked by a line of trees that separated it from the barrier behind it.
"Until a notebook appeared in my room," he added, "Which had diagrams upon paragraphs detailing what the machine does and how to operate it, almost incomprehensible due to the handwriting. It's capable of manipulating the environment within the barrier, not the surrounding areas, to change the plants, soil, humidity, weather, and whatever else you can think of, given enough time, of course. You have to specify everything you can, even the acidity of the soil. It is the most complex machine to be created by mortals and immortals alike that I've come across, anyway. Fortunately, there were pages that specified which settings were necessary for creating areas like deserts, forests, mudflats, and many more."
"So... how does it work?" Elyza asked again.
"Unfortunately," Alex replied, his voice tinged with frustration, pulling out a cutting axe with a blade larger than her halberd's. "The bastard that made it never actually jotted down how it works, at least not in the notebook I found. So I have no idea how it works, what fundamentals it operates on, nor do I know what it asks for returns, because the ability to control the environment must cost something, but I found nothing of the sort." He continued, moving towards an ancient-looking tree, its bark, over time, dotted with some white fungus, the branches thick yet having lost the shine they once had.
Surprised, she questioned, "How can you use it if you do not know what it asks in return?"
"It did, once," he remarked, inspecting the trunk for the best place to notch it, "But I know what not to do, and until something goes wrong, that's fine by me. After all, there's no reason to suspect its creator was planning anything malicious, and the best way to understand something is through using it." raising his axe to strike.
Elyza felt an overwhelming need to ask more questions, "Does that not frustrate you? Knowing that the answer to your questions will have to wait. Or have you given up ever answering them?"
Alex lowered his axe, happy to talk some more. "I haven't given up, just accepted that the answers will take me more time to decipher. Obviously, I have a lot of theories on how the machine works. For instance, I know for a fact it has something to do with spirits— not the alcoholic ones, mind you, because I found some diagrams detailing their appearance with descriptions. And that the area within the barrier has to exist in between or in another dimension, and the house exists separately from that as well..." he continued, raising the axe once again.
"Wait." Elyza protested, wincing as she spoke.
Alex noticed a strained look on her face and dropped his arm. "Is something wrong?"
"Just," Elyza said, looking better than she did moments before, "Are we in between the barrier?"
"No. Why?" He looked concerned.
"I thought it was just a gut feeling at first, wanting to ask you that question, but just now, it was like there was a sea of thoughts in the back of my mind that wanted to stop you."
Confused, Alex asked, "Stop me from doing what? Cutting down this tree?" Raising his axe once again.
Elyza again winced, the thoughts getting louder. As Alex stepped away from the tree, they returned to being a low roar, causing her to remark, "Yes, it seems that something in my subconscious is against cutting down trees."
He went quiet, thinking, before abruptly saying, "Focus on the thoughts for a second and tell me exactly what they're trying to say."
Elyza closed her eyes, trying to pull the thoughts into focus, an exceedingly hard endeavour now that they weren't screaming at her. An idea sparked in her head, and she told Alex, "Cut down the tree." As he went to chop the tree the voices immediately flooded back, allowing Elyza to pick out what they wanted to say, grabbing his arm, "I think they are trying to say, Do not let him cut down the elder.'" She relayed back to him, her words laced in doubt.
"Are these types of thoughts common?" Alex had to ask before he started to make assumptions.
She nodded, before asking a question herself, "Any idea where they are coming from?"
"I have a hunch," he said, turning around and screaming, "Oh spirits of the trees, can you hear me?"
The voices returned, not as frenzied as before, but more unified, all in agreement. She nodded to Alex, confirming his suspicions, prompting him to address Elyza, "Congratulations! You can talk to spirits!" There was a tinge of jealousy in his voice, masked by his excited demeanour.
"I can?" She sounded genuinely surprised, "Is that something to be excited about?"
"Well, probably? At the very least, you can understand what they want to say. And it definitely is. Even if you can't hear what they are saying, just being able to understand them can help a lot. Especially since I can finally see if my theory that the house is operated by them holds true. Either way, I have a lot of questions, some for you, but mostly for them," he said, turning back to the trees.
"Like," Alex added, continuing, "I know that most of the plants we grow ourselves don't house spirits, but can you sense how many spirits may have perished by someone's hand?"
The voices surged once more, confirming what he had said. Elyza relayed the information, "They can."
"That's horrifying," he admitted, adding, "Also explains a lot. And you," addressing her, "How did you not know you could talk to spirits?"
"I assumed the voices in my head were my own, advising me what to do. I only once doubted that when I first crossed the barrier." Elyza explained.
"Good, you didn't lie to me." sighing, he continued, "This has been an eventful day, and I have to clear my head, meaning I want to cook. But since we don't have ingredients for what I want to make, I'm going to the town, and you're coming with me this time."
"Why?"
"Practice." Alex said, smiling.