Sofia, Ihuarah, Pareth and Bookie were sitting around a bonfire in a valley not far from the tower. The conversation had drifted away to a great many topics, with Ihuarah taking his turn to ask a lot of questions about the last year’s events, as well as Zerei and Alith’s current whereabouts.
In between two bites of Firebird roasted meat, Sofia brought the subject of soul-offsprings back up.
“Can you tell me more about the Spiritually-reproducing races?” she asked.
Ihuarah answered with a question of his own, “You know about Dragons already. Is it the Fey or the Nymphs which interest you?”
“Honestly, both. Fey and Fae are the same thing, right?” Sofia first asked, “From what I know they are supposedly extinct.”
“Fey, Fae, Fairy, all different ways to refer to the same race. They are a reclusive few, and not eager to reproduce, some of their species might have very well gone extinct by now, I would not be surprised. My mentor, the one who taught me the basics of animism, thousands of years back, was a Fey. He is probably still alive.”
“It has been more than three thousand years since you died and you still believe him to be alive?”
“That is so. He is a hermit, the troubles of the world have always failed to reach him. Thousands of years may go by but they mean little to him.”
“He must be powerful,” Sofia commented.
“Not particularly. I was ‘stronger’ than him by the time of my death. He is not interested in growing stronger. But the respect he commands among the stronger races is not to be underestimated,” Ihuarah explained before stuffing his face full of roasted bird meat.
“Hmm… Bookie, can you show him the page?”
The book of skeletons appeared in Bookie’s small hands and he brought it to Ihuarah, showing him the page containing the tiny creature born from a Midenicite ingot, which Sofia still did not have the mana to summon yet.
Ihuarah let out a rare expression of surprise as he observed the page.
Sofia explained the skeleton’s origin, showing Ihuarah the old logs of the Ingot’s description, and what she thought about it, which left Ihuarah pensive for a while as he ate. It was only when he had finished drinking his entire bowl of soup that he felt ready to talk.
“I believe I have a clear explanation about how this may have happened. Be aware that it is all conjecture.”
“That would already be nice, as I have nothing.”
“To begin with, let me explain the basic, innate power, which all Fey have, regardless of the species. They corrupt their environment.”
“Corrupt?”
Ihuarah nodded in confirmation, “That is to say, the environment around them changes to copy their characteristics, the longer they stay in the same place, the more drastic the changes. In the case of my master, he is from a species with innate powers in soul magic, and as he stays in the same place, everything around him develops a strong spiritual body which will naturally defend him.”
“Wait, wait. Did you not say when I first summoned you that Animism first came from a belief that all things have a soul? How would you make that mistake with that kind of mentor?”
“Precisely because he was my mentor was I led to this false conclusion. I did not know, at the time, that his mere presence was what granted his surroundings a soul. He taught me through example what became the basis for my animist magic, but that is all he did. Back then, he did not even speak the human language,” Ihuarah recalled in a nostalgic tone.
“I see… Sorry for interrupting.”
“Pay it no mind, your questions are always welcome. I personally find your inquisitive nature to be quite endearing, you remind me of my old pupils. Anyway, as you may have understood by now, this would explain the discovery of an unusually huge vein of Midenicite.”
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“It was a Fey with Midenicite bones which made everything around him become the same magic-repellant crystal…” Sofia completed by herself. “And the Ingot was made with its remains.”
“That is what I believe, too. Although I did not know about the Midenicite bones, I believe I have heard of that particular species of Fae before. But you are missing a crucial point.”
“I am?” Sofia tried to think about something she might have missed but she failed to think about anything plausible.
Seeing her struggle, Ihuarah finally explained his theory.
“The truth is, this Fae in your book is likely not dead.”
“What?!” Sofia exclaimed, incredulous at the outrageous claim that the skeleton stuck in Bookie’s pages may still be a living creature.
“Not that it is alive either, I theorize it to be in an in-between state, much like I have been for a very long time before you brought me back.”
“And Bookie still ate it?”
“Likely for the best. It is likely that the Ingot was crafted from this Fae’s remains to help preserve its soul within for a long time until a way to bring it back was found. Had they gone through the painstaking process of refining it to make something out of it, they would have not left the Ingot unused, would they? Either way, you can always ask the craftsman, Alkorm, you said?”
“That’s it, yes, I still have the letter for him, too,” Sofia told him, bringing out the sealed envelope from Zangdar’s hero, labeled ‘To Alkorm D.’.
“Alkorm… Morlak… This is without a doubt the Dragon I knew,” Ihuarah told Sofia, “Always one to meddle with humans. We shall pay him a visit after this trial, is that fine with you, Lady Sofia?”
“That’s the Dragon you knew? We really should have gone into more details about our stories when I summoned you…”
“Ahahah,” Ihuarah laughed, “You had more important things on your mind back then, and I was more than a bit disoriented myself. Your humble servant is here now. I will have to leave you again soon, but I will be waiting for you wherever we land after this trial.”
“I’m counting on it. We have a lot on our plate. Anything else to say about the Fae?”
Ihuarah ripped another chunk of meat off of the Firebird roasting over the open fire, “this is really good,” he commented before quickly giving a few more details on the Fae skeleton. “It is likely that the soul will wake up when you summon it. You should take your precautions as it very well might try to rip off your head, if so. What’s more, considering the Midenicite bones, this is probably one of the rarest Fae subspecies, the magicless Fae. They have a high resistance to magical damage and effects, are naturally completely invisible, can fly faster than you are able to comprehend, are violent and savage in nature, and could tear a hole through adamian steel with their bare hands.”
Magicless Fae…
Hearing Ihuarah’s explanation, Sofia couldn’t stop herself from digging through her old system logs. After just a few seconds of intense search, she found what she was looking for, the description of the Invisibility potion provided by Nicet before exploring Saria’s sky island in Sovuln.
[Fae wings dust extract] : A potion brewed around the natural powers of invisibility of an extinct species of magicless fae. It allows light to flow through you, and completely suppresses any sound, mana, heat, and particle emission.
Active skills will be unavailable.
May cause sensory deprivation, loss of balance and loss of own-body spatial perception.
Allows phasing through thin objects such as grass or pebbles.
Mana regeneration -75% while the effect is active.
Effect Duration : 6 hours.
Item level : 166.
Grade : Precious.
It does say extinct species here… And for Nicet to be able to get this potion when he works for Red Carpet… Richard helped with making Zangdar. He was likely present when the Ingot was refined. No wonder. Things line up very clearly.
Sofia looked at Bookie.
“You ate this thing’s soul?”
Bookie nodded.
“See,” Ihuarah commented.
“Will it be ‘alive’ when I summon it?”
Bookie shrugged.
“You don’t know, uh? Will you be able to prevent it from ‘ripping off my head’ if it is actually alive?”
Bookie energetically shook his head, making an x with his arms.
“... It’s good that I can survive without a head, then…”
“If you will let me be here when you first call it, I may be able to prepare a few things,” Ihuarah suggested while sloppily gulping down his sixth big chunk of firebird meat.
“We will do that, then… Hey, Iwa, now that I think about it, this is not your first time making a mana heart, right?”
Ihuarah wiped his greasy ‘mouth’ with his ‘clothes’, and he nodded, “Indeed. The first time was a great deal more frustrating than this one. The entire process this trial expedites took me right about two hundred years to get right. I must admit, I am a bit sad to have lost it, I hope we can find my tomb and collect it in the future. It would be a nice keepsake of the times gone by.”
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