“If we all have some affinity for water,” Hester asks, drawing Emily’s attention. “Why couldn’t Juliana link with the elemental?”
“I’m guessing that’s because she can’t attribute her mana with water yet,” Emily says, considering her current connection with the creature in question. “The link we’ve created is a two-way exchange. Even if Juliana can process the water mana it sends her, it can’t process her wind-attributed mana: elementals are purely made from their element, they have no affinity for any other elements.”
Hester nods, but the others seem confused still.
“Why can’t she just send it unattributed mana?” Ivor signs.
“I’m not sure.” Emily shrugs. “There’s nothing about creating a connection with elementals in any of the books I’ve read on them. I’m in the dark here too. However, if I were going to guess, it’s probably because unattributed mana lacks intent. I’ve been tweaking the emotions and will behind my mana to communicate with it, so I’d guess that using its element is a requirement to properly convey intent.”
“That sounds... Confusing,” Tom mutters with a confounded look on his face.
“It is.” Emily nods, forming another message to send to the elemental. “In fact, I’d quite like to stay here until tomorrow morning so I can try and speak with it some more. I’m making progress in understanding it, and it’s increasing the speed of my cultivation a fair amount too.”
Hearing her desire, Tom happily drops his bag and starts pulling out bedrolls, handing them to the others to get comfortable. Emily smiles, giving them a grateful nod and setting up the barrier disc before sitting down cross-legged facing Hester, who also appreciates the gains in her cultivation brought on by the elemental, both of them laying their arms across their laps with the elemental held between them.
“Eat without me,” Emily says as she shuts her eyes. “I’ll leave a few birds to help with the night watch, but I probably won’t respond much till the morning.”
Barely listening to her friends’ responses, Emily focuses on her now-formed next message for the elemental.
‘We. Stay. For. Short. Time.’
The elemental processes her message and sends another back, laced with joy and a hint of worry. Emily picks apart its message, processing the signals and emotions mixed together to translate the meaning.
‘Great. But. Can’t. Speak. Too. Long. Get. Weak.’
Emily eagerly throws herself into speaking with the orb of water, sending messages back and forth as she slowly improves her ability to speak in its strange manner.
***
Hours later, well into the third and penultimate watch of the night, a few hours after Hester broke her connection with the elemental to sleep, the elemental’s strange language finally clicks into place in Emily’s mind.
‘It’s so nice to talk with someone again. I haven’t met one of us in so long.’
As she finally fully understands a message as it’s being transmitted to her, a system notification pops into view. It’s joined by an oddly familiar yet different sensation of her cortex changing, new instincts clicking into place that don’t quite give her knowledge yet instil a feeling of understanding and confidence that wasn’t there before.
¯¯¯¯¯
Hidden-Quest completed: A True Connection
[A True Connection]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] Completely understand another species’ communication method with no external help.
Requirements:
-Become fluent in 1/1 non-human language (Complete)
Rewards:
-Skill: Linguist (passive)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Linguist (passive)]
User is a master of language and can understand almost any language after a few short interactions.
-Grants an instinctual understanding of language.
_____
Woah! Master of language? This will definitely come in handy in the future.
Emily dismisses the system window and turns her attention back to her conversation with the elemental, slowly probing it for more information.
‘That must be lonely. Have you met many of your own kind down here?’ she sends back, with barely a pause from receiving the last message.
‘Not since leaving the darkness,’ the elemental responds disappointedly. ‘I travelled for a bit, looking for some, but didn’t find any, so I settled down here for a while, since it’s connected to the darkness. Hopefully one of my brethren will use this link to leave!’
‘There are more of your brethren in the darkness? Why don’t you just go back then?’
‘No!’ the elemental shakes, primal fear coursing across their connection, sending a shiver down Emily’s spine. ‘Once he tells you to leave, you don’t go back.’
‘Who told you to leave?’ Emily questions, sending reassurance with her words.
However, the elemental falls silent, refusing to elaborate.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Is there a creature in the layer below us that scared it, or is it talking about The Abyss? Either way, it’s probably good we didn’t stay there for too long if something there can scare an elemental this much.
As Emily considers its fear, the elemental sends her another message.
‘Not long left. Getting sleepy.’
Noticing its decrease in coherence, Emily opens her eyes to look at the elemental for the first time since she last spoke to her friends. It’s sitting in her lap on her open palms, shrunk to the size of her head with its core only releasing a faint glow, having lost most of its lustre. Smiling, Emily moves one of her hands to pat the top of the orb, transmitting raw feelings of understanding and appreciation across their bond as she does.
‘Thank you. For company. Was. Nice,’ the elemental sends, losing a little more mass with each word.
‘It was a pleasure,’ Emily sends back, with one final pulse of mana and affection as she stands.
The elemental silently sits in her grip, making no effort to move as she carries it to the water’s edge. She crouches down and places it back into the water, watching as it melts into the pool and vanishes, its core drifting below the fog layer.
With a warm smile still on her lips, Emily stands and turns back to her sleeping friends, nodding to Enzo who was silently watching as she released the elemental. She walks back over and sits down beside him, gesturing to his sleeping bag with her head.
“You can sleep if you want,” she whispers softly. “I’ll keep watching for the rest of tonight.”
“Thanks,” he says, standing up before pausing and turning to ask her a question, a teasing smile playing on his lips. “Did you get what you wanted from that? I half expected you to kill the elemental when you were done.”
“Hey! That elemental was very friendly and helped me a lot. I’m not that callous. But yes, I did get what I wanted,” she answers with mock offence that has morphed into a satisfied grin by the end.
“Good,” Enzo says with a nod, turning away again to go to sleep.
I didn’t just get what I wanted, I got more than I could have hoped for!
¯¯¯¯¯
[Attributes:] Strength 20 (26), Dexterity 64 (67), Agility 51 (55), Vitality 17 (22), Intelligence 123 > 127
_____
I gained four intelligence from just a few hours of meditation with it. What a strange creature. It willingly gave up part of its own cultivation just to interact with someone for a few hours. I guess isolation makes even sentient masses of mana do strange things.
***
In the morning, they set off into the tunnels again, leaving behind the elemental’s pool. The rest of their journey back is uneventful. They find the exit to The Waters a few weeks later, stepping out of the underground labyrinth back into the warmth of the sun, much to everyone’s relief.
They trek back through the forest, the rain and trees a welcome change from the darkness and stone they’ve grown used to, and approach the edge of the forest a few days later.
“What do you plan on doing when you get back?” Tom asks Emily mid-morning, a few kilometres away from the edge of the trees.
Everyone’s attention instantly focuses on Emily, keen to find out the answer to the question they’ve all been avoiding since leaving The Waters.
“First, we’re going to look at distributing the loot from this expedition,” Emily says while flashing a grin over her shoulder, bringing excited smiles to her friends’ faces. “Then, I’m going to visit the docks and find out when the next airship is leaving for Eimdon.”
The mood instantly drops, their excitement giving way to a sombre air of acceptance. Emily keeps going, noticing the shift but choosing not to address it.
“Once I have a departure date set, I’m going to convert anything from this expedition I don’t need, along with the rest of my remaining contribution points, into a stock of magical metals and mana crystals. Then all that’s left while I wait to leave is spending a little time in the library and a few, other plans,” she says, glancing at Juliana and flashing her a smile.
Juliana tilts her head with curiosity, but Emily simply smiles and turns away, not elaborating yet. They walk on in silence for a short while, until Tom breaks it with another question.
“How are you planning on converting all of the beast parts from this expedition into useful resources? I don’t think I’ll need most of them either.”
Emily turns to walk backwards, making eye contact with the non-vassal members of their group.
“Well, first I’ll get you guys to check with your families if they want to buy anything specific: you should probably ask the Dahlias first. Then, if they don’t want to buy anything, I’ll probably talk to Oscar. His family seemed happy to take the bulk of the bounty on the last expedition.”
Enzo and Dante both nod in agreement.
“The Salvias make a lot of their wealth through alchemy,” Enzo explains. “Our families sell a lot of beast components to them already, since they burn through them so fast with their experiments, so we were probably going to do the same. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t tell you about it, he’s normally very proud of his father’s achievements in the field.”
“Oh, he mentioned his dad briefly,” Emily responds with a shrug, turning back to face the front. “But he didn’t say more than he’s a great alchemist. I think he was trying not to damage my ego.”
Chuckling at the idea, Emily smiles as one of her birds breaks through the treeline into the empty fields beyond.
“That’s silly,” Tom says with a grin. “How could he damage your ego? It’s far too big to be-“
He cuts off as his sister’s hand snacks into the back of his head, and everyone breaks into laughter as he playfully cries out at the injustice. Their playful laughter and teasing continue until they reach the edge of the forest, stepping from the trees in high spirits and breathing a collective sigh of relief as the slight tension held throughout the whole trip finally dissipates.
“You know, I said it last time and I’ll say it again,” Enzo says, rolling his shoulders and stretching. “I’m definitely looking forward to sleeping in a real bed.”
Murmured agreement spreads as they walk out into the open, putting a little distance between themselves and the dangerous forest.
“How are we getting back though?” Tom asks, looking around the open fields and not seeing a single person.
“I sent a message to one of my family’s servants in Chroni yesterday when I finally got a connection with them,” Juliana reassures him. “Our lift should be arriving around midday.”
“Great! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m looking forward to eating some real food,” Tom says with a mischievous grin, dodging the expected strike from his sister as he insults her cooking.
Emily grabs Tom by the bag before Hester can start her full assault, slipping it from his shoulders and tossing him to the wolves before sitting down on the grass.
“We may as well use this time productively,” she says as Juliana drops down next to her and the others settle too.
She undoes a few drawstring pouches tied to her belt, each with a different pattern woven into them courtesy of Juliana, and lays them out beside herself before reaching into the bag and pulling out some of the magic crystals within. Hester quickly notices and releases her brother from a headlock so they can join everyone in watching Emily divide their spoils.
They spend the next few hours deciding who to give what to, filling the spatial pouches with only items they want to keep and leaving anything to sell for points in the bag. When they reach the end of the collection, Emily is surprised by the value Dante and Enzo assign to the Wind Walker, ten greater crystals. However, they quickly explain the rarity of convenient flight artefacts, so she accepts their valuation while making a mental note to double-check once they return to The Dome.
Enzo, Ivor, and Tom all agree to leave the burrower ant queen’s heart with Emily, asking her to brew them earth drops when they return. Emily happily agrees, eager for a chance to brew the complicated potion.
The car, the same one as on the trip there, arrives as Emily is doing one final check of the pouches. Noticing it’s time to leave, she hands a pouch to each person, the weavings customised to fit them: Dante’s is covered in flames; Enzo’s depicts a muddy quagmire; Ivor’s is made to look like a cauldron, with small vial’s pouring multi-coloured liquids into it; Hester’s shows crashing waves; and Tom’s looks like a miniature fort with sturdy portcullises that reminds Emily of the dungeon they encountered.
Holding their gifts close and thanking Emily and Juliana, they all pack into the car to leave. The drive back is quiet, with half the group falling asleep, and the other half happy to sit in silent contemplation. Juliana uses Emily’s shoulder as a pillow, while Emily watches the countryside slide by the window, slowly getting closer to the city she’s called home for the last year and a half as she considers her departure.