“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 ’t attribute her mana with water yet,” Emily says, sidering her current e with the creature iion. “The link we’ve created is a two-way exge. Even if Juliana process the water mana it sends her, it ’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 fused still.

  “Why ’t she just send it unattributed mana?” Ivns.

  “I’m not sure.” Emily shrugs. “There’s nothing about creating a e 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 cks i. I’ve been tweaking the emotions and will behind my mana to unicate with it, so I’d guess that using its element is a requirement to properly vey i.”

  “That sounds... fusing,” Tom mutters with a founded look on his face.

  “It is.” Emily nods, f another message to send to the elemental. “In fact, I’d quite like to stay here until tomorrow m so I try and speak with it some more. I’m making progress in uanding 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 fortable. Emily smiles, giving them a grateful nod aing up the barrier disc before sitting down cross-legged fag Hester, who also appreciates the gains in her cultivatiht on by the elemental, both of them ying their arms across their ps 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 m.”

  Barely listening to her friends’ responses, Emily focuses on her now-formed message for the elemental.

  ‘We. Stay. For. Short. Time.’

  The elemental processes her message and sends another back, ced with joy and a hint of worry. Emily picks apart its message, processing the signals aions mixed together to trahe meaning.

  ‘Great. But. ’t. Speak. Too. Long. Get. Weak.’

  Emily eagerly throws herself into speaking with the orb of water, sending messages bad forth as she slowly improves her ability to speak in its strange manner.

  ***

  Hours ter, well into the third aimate watch of the night, a few hours after Hester broke her e with the elemental to sleep, the elemental’s strange nguage finally clicks into p Emily’s mind.

  ‘It’s so o talk with someone again. I haven’t met one of us in so long.’

  As she finally fully uands a message as it’s being transmitted to her, a system notification pops into view. It’s joined by an oddly familiar yet differeion of her cortex ging, new instincts clig into pce that don’t quite give her knowledge yet instil a feeling of uanding and fidehat wasn’t there before.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Hidde pleted: A True e

  [A True e]

  [Rank:] D

  [Description:] pletely uand another species’ uniethod with ernal help.

  Requirements:

  -Bee fluent in 1/1 non-human nguage (plete)

  Rewards:

  -Skill: Linguist (passive)

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  [Linguist (passive)]

  User is a master of nguage and uand almost any nguage after a few short iions.

  -Grants an instinctual uanding of nguage.

  _____

  Woah! Master of nguage? This will definitely e in handy iure.

  Emily dismisses the system window and turtention back to her versation 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 st 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, si’s ected 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 c across their e, 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 reassurah her words.

  However, the elemental falls silent, refusing to eborate.

  Is there a creature in the yer 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 scare aal this much.

  As Emily siders its fear, the elemental sends her another message.

  ‘Not lo. Getting sleepy.’

  Notig its decrease in coherence, Emily opens her eyes to look at the elemental for the first time since she st spoke to her friends. It’s sitting in her p 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 uanding and appreciation across their bond as she does.

  ‘Thank you. For pany. Was. he elemental sends, losing a little more mass with each word.

  ‘It leasure,’ Emily sends back, with one final pulse of mana and affe 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 doces it bato the water, watg as it melts into the pool and vanishes, its core drifting below the fog yer.

  With a warm smile still on her lips, Emily stands and turns back to her sleeping friends, nodding to Enzo who was silently watg as she released the elemental. She walks back over and sits down beside him, gesturing to his sleeping bag with her head.

  “You sleep if you want,” she whispers softly. “I’ll keep watg for the rest of tonight.”

  “Thanks,” he says, standing up before pausing and turning to ask her a question, a teasing smile pying 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 offehat 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!

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [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 i with someone for a few hours. I guess isotion makes eveient masses of mana de things.

  ***

  In the m, they set off into the tunnels again, leaving behind the elemental’s pool. The rest of their journey back is uful. They find the exit to The Waters a few weeks ter, stepping out of the underground byrinth bato the warmth of the sun, much to everyone’s relief.

  They trek back through the forest, the rain and trees a wele ge from the darkness and stohey’ve growo, and approach the edge of the forest a few days ter.

  “What do you pn on doing when you get back?” Tom asks Emily mid-m, a few kilometres away from the edge of the trees.

  Everyone’s attention instantly focuses on Emily, keen to find out the ao 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 fshing a grin over her shoulder, bringied smiles to her friends’ faces. “Then, I’m going to visit the docks and find out when the airship is leaving for Eimdon.”

  The mood instantly drops, their excitement giving way to a sombre air of acceptance. Emily keeps going, notig the shift but choosing not to address it.

  “Once I have a departure date set, I’m going to vert anything from this expedition I don’t need, along with the rest of my remaining tribution points, into a stoagical 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 pns,” she says, gng at Juliana and fshing her a smile.

  Juliana tilts her head with curiosity, but Emily simply smiles and turns away, not eboratihey walk on in silence for a short while, until Tom breaks it with another question.

  “How are you pnning on verting 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 tact 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 o expedition.”

  Enzo and Dah nod in agreement.

  “The Salvias make a lot of their wealth through alchemy,” Enzo expins. “Our families sell a lot of beast pos to them already, sihey burn through them so fast with their experiments, so we were probably going to do the same. I’m holy 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.”

  Chug at the idea, Emily smiles as one of her birds breaks through the treelio the empty fields beyond.

  “That’s silly,” Tom says with a grin. “How could he damage yo? 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 ughter as he pyfully cries out at the injustice. Their pyful ughter and teasing tiil they reach the edge of the forest, stepping from the trees in high spirits and breathing a collective sigh of relief as the slight tensiohroughout the whole trip finally dissipates.

  “You know, I said it st time and I’ll say it again,” Enzo says, rolling his shoulders and stretg. “I’m definitely looking forward to sleeping in a real bed.”

  Murmured agreement spreads as they walk out into the open, putting a little distaween 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 i yesterday when I finally got a e 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 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 dowo 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 ys them out beside herself before reag into the bag and pulling out some of the magic crystals withier quickly notices and releases her brother from a headlock so they join everyone in watg Emily divide their spoils.

  They spend the few hours deg 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 colle, Emily is surprised by the value Dante and Enzo assign to the Wind Walker, teer crystals. However, they quickly expin the rarity of ve flight artefacts, so she accepts their valuation while making a mental o double-chece they return to The Dome.

  Enzo, Ivor, and Tom all agree to leave the burrower ant queen’s heart with Emily, askio brew them earth drops when they return. Emily happily agrees, eager for a ce to brew the plicated potion.

  The car, the same one as orip there, arrives as Emily is doing one final check of the pouches. Notig it’s time to leave, she hands a pouch to each person, the weavings ised to fit them: Dante’s is covered in fmes; Enzo’s depicts a muddy quagmire; Ivor’s is made to look like a cauldron, with small vial’s p 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 duhey entered.

  Holding their gifts close and thanking Emily and Juliana, they all pato the car to leave. The drive back is quiet, with half the group falling asleep, and the other half happy to sit in silent ption. Juliana uses Emily’s shoulder as a pillow, while Emily watches the tryside slide by the window, slowly getting closer to the city she’s called home for the st year and a half as she siders her departure.

  KeroKeron