❆ ❆ ❆ Chapter Twenty Five ❆ ❆ ❆

The Strange Orb

[Snow]

Snow and Aela sat across from each other, both staring at the strange orb. The orb key laid on the center of the table, pulsating red.

“Well, at least in our little quarrel we found out a weapon that’s useful against them. You said that the key absorbed him?” Aela questioned.

“Yes.” Snow replied.

“That key is a useful weapon for both of us. In our hands, we can use it to absorb them. In their hands, it can be used to break the seals.”

“What should we do? Start hunting them down?”

“Hard to say, that key is still an unknown. If anything we use it as a deterrence. We should try not to use it. Since we have a lot more to lose if we lose possession of it.”Aela rolled her fingers on the table in quiet thought.

“Makes sense. I agree. But, Aela, can we speak freely on the situation though. You can't do this forever, and if there is a chance that angelic souls are suffering. I can't leave them like that. I want to figure out a solution that helps everyone.”

“Sure. Tell me everything that happened on the day you saw goddess Regalia.”

Snow explained everything in detail: from almost falling off the owls nest, to meeting the gold-cloaked nameless man, to riding Mina north and discovering the waterfall that lead to the angelic town, the furnace in the fountain and finally the huge magical object that Goddess regalia was bounded too. Now that Snow thought back on it, the seal key looked very similar to that anomalous object.

Aela got up, and pulled out of the box that was underneath her bed. In the box she took out a small leather parchment book.

“Here.” She gave Snow the book.

Snow opened the book. Each page had intricate details of those symbols inside the tornado and the same symbols that were hovering around the sphere in the angelic town. The book also had descriptions of magical formulas on how to replicate them. Snow didn't understand the symbols themselves but she could see the notes underneath them.

“Aela! Where did you get this book!?”

“It was Laura’s, flip to the back.” Aela said. Snow flipped to the back, there was a map of this world, and each seal was marked with a dotted circle. There were lines drawn from the dotted circles all the way up to a question mark at the top of the page. The question mark was in the northern mountain, just above the interweaving rivers. “Laura was mapping them, she kept complaining about how each site was too small to regulate an environmental change. Something about how all of them are connected to a regulator, whatever that means.” Aela sighed, “She could never find it though.”

“Aela this question mark, this is the angelic town! I know it is, it has to be!”

“Okay, and even if it is, what will you do?”

“What do you mean? I want to find a solution.”

“Let's say I fully believe that there are souls suffering at the costs of the seals. Laura believed that too, and Laura was pretty damn smart, way smarter than anyone I ever knew. But tell me, Why did she break a seal, and used all her power to try and seal it back? She clearly was wrong, or tricked.”

“Yeah but.”

“Laura had to be wrong. Why?”

“Give me some time to go through this book, I’ll see if I can't figure it out.”

Snow read through all the notes in the book, and pondered at the table for hours. She had Aela give her a parchment and pen. Snow scribbled a new map. Just looking at Laura’s findings were very helpful but there was something missing. Something about the seal system itself or their perception of it seemed incorrect. The black knights were another factor that told them information. The knights weakened tornados but never destroyed them. The knights also did not go near the seals closest to the angelic town. Laura’s death seal was also the farthest one away from the angelic town. Why would she choose the farthest one to break? Did Laura not trust what she saw, did she choose the farthest one as an experiment?

Snow had three key pieces of information; The fact that the seals were all connected to the angelic town, the typical routes taken by the black knights strayed away from the angelic town, the fact that Laura sacrificed herself to reseal one of the southern seals. Something did not seem right.

Snow sighed, leaning back.

“Figure something out yet?” Aela entered.

“No, not really. I feel like there is something I am not seeing. Like it's staring me in the face, but I am not noticing it.”

“Well, maybe you will get an epiphany up in the owl’s nest.”

“Owl’s nest?”

“Yeah, I wanted to show you something. Let's go.”

----------------------------------------

They reached the base of the owl’s nest spire.

“Race you to the top.” Aela leaped with a head start.

“Hey no fair! You got a head start!” Snow ran up to the spire and began scaling it.

Snow reached the top in record time but Aela still beat her of course. Aela was waiting for her at the top.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Look at you, you climbed it twice as fast as last time.” Aela complimented her climbing skill.

“Yeah, but still slower than you because of the frostblood.”

“Not with that excuse again. That’s what I'm going to try and teach you.”

Snow got caught off guard. Frostblood?

“Are you going to teach me how to activate it?” Snow excitedly asked.

“Sort of, your training is sufficient enough for now. You are no longer that novice that stepped in here all that time ago. I figured it's time to start Frostblood training.”

“Okay, let’s do it!”

“The goal of today isn’t to bring out your frostblood. You’ve tried that enough times. We are going to try something different. You can sense black knight energy, you can sense the seal defense magics. So you should be able to sense frostblood magic.”

There was a rock towards the back of the owls nest that Aela had her sit on. She was sitting in a meditative stance with her eyes closed while Aela spoke behind her.

“I want you to try and differentiate the different types of magic that you feel around the area.”

Snow cleared her thoughts and dug deep into her mind. She tuned into the same gut feeling she would get whenever comes in contact with a black knight, or seal tornado. After a moment, she started to sense something flow into her. Like a large stream of water going into her back. The force was pushing against her hard before it invaded her body, causing a tingle in her spine.

“What is..this?” She tried to push the force out of her but she stood up against her will.

Snow looked behind her and Aela’s eyes were blue. She was laying on a rock holding her hand out towards snow.

“That force is you? What are you doing?”

“So you sense it, good. Now here's the deal. With my frost ability I can control your body. I am going to make you walk off this cliff unless you can break free.”

“What!”

Snow took one step forward against her will. She couldn’t believe she fell for this sink or swim training again.

“You're wasting time. Focus on what's in front of you.” Aela smirked, she sounded like she was joking but Snow knew she was dead serious.

The mysterious force was obviously the frost but it still felt foreign to her. Snow pushed back with all her might but it felt like her body was uncontrollable. She took another step forward. She knew why Aela was doing this but it was still ridiculous. Snow gritted her teeth trying to fight against her own body.

“You can't brute force this Snow. Expel my energy with your own.” Aela said calmly.

Snow was halfway to the edge. She stopped trying to brute force and focused within herself. The foreign energy inside body was just freely roaming through her but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Before she knew it she was standing at the edge. Her heart started racing at the downward view of the landscape.

“Broken legs, cracked pelvis. Real painful stuff, I'll make sure you don't land on your head though!” Aela joked.

“Yeah, yeah, I know!” Snow shouted back.

“You're not going to beg me to stop?”

“Why would I, you wouldn’t stop anyways!”

“Good, you know me well. You will soon learn another lesson, whether it be pushing my power out or learning how to regenerate two broken legs.”

Snow was hovering one foot off the edge.

“You're going to fall.” Aela teased.

Snow walked off the ledge, without a sound.

“hm?”Aela didn’t hear a scream

Aela got up and quickly dashed to the ledge. When she looked over it Snow was hanging off the face of the spire with Icebreaker stabbed into the wall. Her arm had golden lines on it.

“What happened to letting me break my legs! I guess you really were bluffing. Looks like I do know you after all! I will never forget that face!” Snow said laughing.

Aela ticked her teeth.

“Yeah yeah, Just get up here”

They were both sitting on the rock, on top of the owl’s nest.

“So those lines on your arm. How long have you been able to use them?”

“I don’t know. The first time I saw them was when I touched Warden Flora. The next time was after I woke up the first night I was here. They also appeared when I crossed the first seal tornado and the barrier for that angelic town.

“Hm, I think I see.”

“What are they, Aela?”

“Those lines seem to only appear whenever you touch something with a lot of magic. Interacting with Flora was the first time you saw them you say, she also happens to be the strongest mage I know. Then you said you almost froze to death on your first night? You were probably coated in frost magic from the night cycle. The tornado and town barrier you described are also condensed with magic.”

“So what is this strange power?” Snow said, examining her hands.

“I don’t sense any of the magic lingering in you. I don’t believe you are absorbing it. If you aren’t absorbing it then it can only mean one thing; Magicka Deconstruction.”Aela determined.

“Magic Deconstruction?” Snow questioned the term..

“Magicka Deconstruction is a unique ability of angels. They are able to revert magic down to its base form, So complex magical bindings like barriers and seals can theoretically break down with just a touch. The only reason I know of this is because of the great war, a lot of barriers had no effect on the angels which made them a real problem. The deconstruction doesn't work on all magic types, but the ones that do are pretty much rendered useless. Seems you are more special than you think.”

“Does that mean I am really half angel? Was the goddess right?”

Aela started an outburst of laughing, “Your mother despises angels, She would lose it if she heard you say it like that. But uh, between you and me, I think so. But, I also think that's a conversation you should have with her.”

“My mom never liked to talk about my father. Do you know who he is?”

“No clue. Soon before the war ended she became pregnant with you, that's all I know. She made it very clear not to question who the father was. The birth was also very difficult for her.” Aela looked her up and down, “But look at you; between magicka deconstruction and your ability to use Icebreaker, you are a lot more special than you give yourself credit for.”

“I don't know how you’ve been here for so long. I wonder if I'll ever be able to go back.”

“Don't worry, I’ll find a way for you to leave. I need to convey some information to your mother anyways.”

“I won't just leave you.” Snow felt guilty, Aela has been here for so long.

“You've seen Laura’s findings, someone has to give it to your mom. Anyways, It's not like you're leaving tomorrow. We got a lot more work to do Snowflake.”

“Don't call me that, it sounds so babyish.” Snow pouted.

“But you are my Snowflake though.” Aela patted her head.

“Egh. Whatever.”

“AELLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” They both heard the giant’s roar in the distance, echoing across the land.

Aela squeezed her fist. Her face was both troubled and pained.

“Aela-” Snow emphasized with her.

“I know.” She snapped back.

“We have to give her peace.” Snow addressed the issue.

“I’m not ready yet.” Aela sharply said, as if the thought was already present in her mind before even today. Aela wasn't even responding to her, Aela was responding to herself.

“It doesn't matter if you're ready or not, Laura is suffering. You need to help your friend.”

“Gods dammit Snow, are you really going to make me do this?”

“We need to do it. Now.”