The beautiful sound music permeated the clearing inside of the forest. A girl of about ten sat in the center surrounded by animals ranging from deer to squirrels to wolves and bears.

The music was a soothing lullaby calming and encouraging them to lay down and take a nap or eat some grass. A couple birds circled over head before swooping down and settling on her shoulders. Next to her the large form of a gray wolf lay taking a nap. Behind her a large buck nuzzled her arm as it searched for the best tasting grass.

A large bear trundled into the clearing from the forest and sat down lazily. The boar next to it lifted its head up but ignored it and set its head back down. The owl on top of the boar hooted in annoyance and ruffled its feathers but went back to sleep.

The wind blew in ruffling Lara’s hair as the sun radiated warmth down onto her skin. She could smell the scent of fresh flowers and could hear the sound of leaves blowing in the wind.

Slowly her music trailed off and she removed the flute from her lips. Lara reached out and set her hand on the wolfs head and scratched its soft fur. She could feel the skin on her fingers indenting from the pressure and each strand of the wolfs hair.

Lara set her palm flat on the wolfs head and chanted out a few words under her breath and a bolt of radiant light speared out. It shattered the illusion around causing the whole scene to break down at the instability the destroyed wolf caused and her music no longer supporting it.

“Weak” Lara muttered to herself as she twirled her flute between her finger. “It’s to weak. Can I, no that won’t work, hmm… what if I, no that won’t work either. Its to weak.” Lara muttered to herself more and more irritated with each word. “Maybe I should start working on my aether that would be able to make it stronger.”

“You know that isn’t your current problem.” Amara’s voice said from right next to her as her form materialized next to Lara. “You need to go out and experience life. You can be the most talented musician able to channel your mana perfectly to bring your stories to life but you will never be able to capture the essence of them unless you have experienced that essence.”

“So, you want me to go out me to go out and experience loss and hardship? Maybe save a few princesses, kill a couple dragons and fight of an army of demonics and angelics?” Lara said snarkily, allowing her noble facade to drop knowing Amara’s answer but still wanting to argue.

“No, you know that is not what I mean. You need to go out and simply experience new things and live a life that consists of more than just this. Yes, maybe you do get into a couple of fight maybe some of them are dangerous, but you don’t need to put your life on the line as you know.” Amara said as an illusory bird fluttered down and landed on her finger.

Lara sighed as she pushed Amara back into the flute's mana scape. She got up and walked out of the room silently grumbling to herself but careful to not break the facade of a noble lady what she was expected to put up.

Walking out of the room she found Elowen setting up a table with tea and some snacks for her.

“Elowen, do you have any new information on my cuosin Zac?” Lara asked as she picked up a cookie and politely took a bite of it.

“Yes, my lady I do.” Elowen said. “Prince Zac has returned victorious the opposing army wiped out.”

Lara’s eyebrows raised in surprise at that. “That shouldn’t be possible unless Zac charged in recklessly with everyone he had, and I know he didn’t do that.” Lara said in confusion. Zac should have arrived there around a week ago. That was nowhere near enough time for two armies to fight.

“Prince Zac did not sacrifice his forces.” Elowen said calmly. “In fact, he wasn’t even the one who wiped out the army. From what the rumors say it was some mysterious man who wielded a scythe and had some extremely powerful lightning spells along with other stranger spells.”

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Lara furrowed her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t have guessed that Nath would get involved in this. Isn’t that a bit of an escalation.” Lara asked in confusion. Nath was an extremely powerful tier two and being near of peak of it. People who reached that high tended to not act unless absolutely necessary and act more as a threat that kept their counter parts from acting.

Elowen shook her head. “There are a couple discrepancies that make it so there is reasonable doubt as to whether or not it was him. The first being that he was at least supposedly on the other side of the empire. There are also three other reasons that people are unsure. According to the reports, there was an aura of death, storms and chains in the village. While the storms' part fits, it was an aura of the element of death and not killed people. As you know Nath does not have the death element. The is reports of what looked like a spell that created a massive angle that temporarily blotted out the sun when it appeared. After the angle appeared apparently it seemed to become more demonic in appearance. The final reason is because there is lingering death magic mixed in with the lightning magic in place where the whole army was slaughtered.” Elowen explained.

“The lightning and the scythe does sound like Nath but the death element isn’t something he has.” Lara continued to think. “Unless he bonded with a death and lightning element beast. But I have never heard of a beast like that though it would make sense and would make him far more lethal than he is. I might even believe that is what happened if not for the fact that anything with the death element is nearly nonexistent.”

"What do you think?" Lara asked her bond spirit Amara. A beautiful woman with an intricately crafted white summer dress and a flute in her hand appeared next to her.

"You may go." Amara said dismissing Elowen.

"Of course, lady Amara." Elowen said with a bow before leaving.

Amara turned her attention from the door to look at Lara. "Creature with the death element are exceedingly rare, almost as rare as those of the life element. I find it extremely unlikely that he would have decided to bond with one now." Amara hummed to herself as she contemplated something. "I can use that spell if you would like."

Lara sucked in a breath of surprise. "Are you sure? Isn't it extremely costly to use that spell?" Lara asked her voice filled with concern.

Amara shrugged. "Yeah, its costly to use but this isn't a small matter, and I am curious about it."

Lara thought about it for a moment before nodding. "If that is what you want to do."

Amara's aura surged out of her before quickly condensing down into a song book. Amara pulled her flute up to her lips and started playing. For a moment a haunting melody spread out through the room before seeming to slip away into the room around her. Amara continued playing and Lara could feel the drain on her as the spirit peered into the aura of the world.

Abruptly Amara's playing stopped and the screeching sound of finger nails on chalk boards grated on Lara's ears. Amara's eye went wide and her hands trembled as she lowered her flute. Her distant eyes snapped into focus as he face went deathly pale. He breath quickened with fear.

"Th-" Amara cut herself off and then muttered. "Terrifying." With that she disappeared into the flutes mana scape.

"Uh, Amara you there?" Lara asked while mentally poking at the wall Amara had put in between them.

After not getting any answer from her Lara gave up. Looking around the room Lara judged that it would be safe to relax for a little while. Lara reached into her dress and pulled out a small black and white gemstone. The air around her head and back shimmered as a pair of rough ruby fox tails and ears appeared.

Lara let out a sigh as she ran her hands through her silky crystalline hair. Getting up she walked over to her bed, pulled out a mirror and looked them over. When her parents had first seen her ears and tails at her birth they had been excited. Of course they would be excited, runic body parts were rare and powerful especially external ones.

Lara's ears and tails did offer a lot of power. It would be especially useful if she ever got into a life and death situation and needed something extra. Yet they had their down side. something that made them closer to a curse than a blessing. If people knew about them she would be hunted down and killed. Her eyes, hair, ears and tails taken by crafters and turned into powerful items.

Her eyes and hair was bad enough, though most people believed it to just be a strange mutation in her mana. Due to how good it looked most people simply accepted it. It was her tails and ears her parents had spent so much time and money on keeping hidden.

"I wonder what aunty is doing." Lara mused to herself. "Maybe I should go visit her and Zac. The song I promised Zac did get interrupted." Lara sighed to herself as she got up, pet the necklace back on and left.