The days continued to flutter, little by little as the greenery of the trees faded to ashen gray. The viridescent hue was no longer untainted by the marks of age. Little by little the seasons changed over. From fall where the leaves made the ground their graveyard, to the first embers of winter. Small sparks were beginning to fall from the skies and the clouds barred the sun’s presence. Before one could tell, the first sheet of frost had begun to cover the world.

Still yet, Eri continued her training with the witch. The rest of her senses slowly but surely returning to her. It was only a matter of time before everything would reach the fateful day—A day that Eri was certain could only spell doom for herself and perhaps everyone else in the kingdom. There was no hint of her ability returning back to her. Only silence filled her mind where before, it was full of thought. It was as if a long lost person who was always narrating over her life was now missing. The silence was deafening.

With every returning sense, it felt like a death sentence had been muttered to her. First the return of her sight, then her smell, and taste, then finally touch. Of course it had to have returned during the winter, where the tongues of the cold wind would not be so forgiving. The cold battered against her skin, transforming to pain. Yet, even as all the senses returned, the witch insisted that she continue to help her with her mana transformations.

“It’s not yet over. This is a delicate process… so please, allow me to continue.”

“Ah—yes, thank you.”

She had learned it was never a good idea to disagree with the witch. If one simply went with the flow, things end up being much better for all involved. But alas, there was always a sense of guilt that hung over her as these days proceeded. She had come to know the Lusha well during their time together.

She sighed and softly turned her back to her, allowing her to place both of her hands on her shoulders. A warm feeling began to pulsate throughout her back. Her shoulders began to tense as the mana was seeping into her body. This process always ended up leaving her sore.

“ehm… so..- Can you continue to tell me the story?”

Lusha feigned surprise that she had wanted to hear the rest of the story. “Oh? You’re sure you want to hear the rest of that boring tale?”

In truth, she was rather looking forward to telling it as well. She continued this ploy of disinterested throughout most of their days.

“Aye… so it was the first days of our training. He took both me and my brother to Gonkuri. Yet… he didn’t actually tell any of us how it would be like. He simply tasked us with surviving in the eastern continent.”

Lusha dramatically paused. “Then we saw it…”

“A bird had flew right over us, big enough to pick both of us up in one swoop.”

Eri gasped. “W-wha.. was it a wraith???”

“haha, you’re fast. Indeed it was.”

“How did you manage to beat it?” She asked.

“Well, as you know, these were still in the early days of magic. We hadn’t learned to much, and all the applications were still not entirely known to us. So we did the only thing that we could.”

“We ran of course. I couldn’t think of any combatable course of action— since I hadn’t fought before and my magic was lacking to say at the least. Aias was much more proficient in it than I, but he was too scared to react.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Eri paused. “. . . Aias?” This was the first time she had said the name during any of his tales.

Lusha quieted down. “I…-“

She quickly cut off her energy supply to Eri and rested her head into her hands. “I’m sorry… just now, I almost wraithified you… I’m sorry.”

Eri turned around now only to see tears running down the witch’s face. She understood what she meant. The mana transfer was an extremely delicate technique. Any spike of mana on the witch’s scale would instantly spell doom for her.

At the very least, she did feel a sense of pride... that the witch would shed tears over her sake. Perhaps the two of them really had become the best of friends. No… that wasn’t it. This was something else entirely. Her sorrow was too apparent on her face. She who usually showed no emotion worth a grain of salt.

“It’s okay… we can continue tomorrow. I’m feeling refreshed today as usual so, thank you.”

Lusha shook her head. “No… it’s alright. I’ll continue.” She quickly wiped her tears and assumed her usual blank expression. It was as if the instance never happened. “If it’s alright, that will be enough of the tale for today.”

Eri nodded in agreement and turned back facing the dead trees.

“And Eri… please, don’t mention that traitor’s name ever again.”

Eri promptly nodded.

The next few days were quite smoothly. Lusha had been kind enough to continue telling her the tales of her experience at Gonkuri. To think that even the plants there had wraithified is a disturbing thought. Still, the witch was most impressive. She was capable of restoring much of the forests, while also simultaneously healing her. The process of this restoration was much the same as the process she was doing on her. Lusha had needed to focus her mana to a minimum amount tolerable by the terrain around her. Each individual plant was capable of wraithifying.

She had heard stories of some of the wraiths that manifested every so often. But usually there’s never been a wraith that was not manageable. There’s only been a couple instances of Military level wraiths that had gone on rampages in cities. Supposedly during the Warring Period there were wraiths that appeared daily. Some were even said to have taken over entire countries.

“Lusha… have you ever met a wraith that had intelligence?”

“Hmm… as she thought about it, there did come about a single image in mind.” The white haired gentleman smiling with his usual devilish grin. She burst out at the thought that Xin was a wraith. “The sage of Life. He might as well have been a wraith. His borderline crazy demeanor and nonsensical logic.”

There was a faint smile of remembrance as she talked about him.

“The man was absolutely insane… but I suppose that was why we’re all in this mess in the first place. Because he was crazy enough to challenge even the dragons.”

“W-why would he want to oppose the dragons… weren’t the dragons the ones who were protecting us?”

Lusha nodded.

“Wait—I thought the dragons were the ones who sought you all out?”

“No… It was us who fought and slayed the dragons.”

A feeling of dread overwashed her. “For… what reason?”

Lusha’s gaze averted hers when she turned to look at her. “Beats me.”

She was refusing to answer. This was something that was both truthful and untruthful. She truly did not know the reason, but she could gain a lot of answers via speculation. There wasn’t quite an answer as to why they had to kill each of the dragons that day however. Xin had claimed the dragons were plotting their destruction, which was true… but the dragons had to have known that the losses would be monumental in that battle.

They would also have bided their time. Until when? Until they were alone individually? No… that wouldn’t have worked. They were capable of summoning each other at any moment. So there truly was no need to delete the dragons from existence that quickly.

“At any rate… it would do no good to ponder on the past. Perhaps we were fools. The world is calmer now, so there was no harm to such an action. They needed to be dealt with, that was all there is to it.”

A sudden thought flashed in her mind about the uneasiness she felt almost a year ago, at the appearance of the red star. The excited words of the girl “Then it’s the dragons souls!” rang in her head. Eraderonis. Alas, it would be impossible for it to be the souls of the dragons. They were all absorbed by each of the witch’s. There would be no trace of them left. Now of course, if she had absorbed one of the dragon souls, she wondered how powerful she would have become.

She shook such a thought from the depths of her mind. There was no reason for her to absorb any more souls. She was already powerful as it was. Perhaps, if she truly wanted to she would come for her last piece. It may after-all be necessary if she were to ever face Aias. Alas, Aias only ever fled from her. Never once deciding to fight back.

She patted Eri on her head. “Alright... we’re done for today. I’ll be taking a break for the next two days. Do you care to join me?”

Eri nodded, and the two promptly left the forest.