The World of Emns 4: The sons of Clipium

Chapter 4: Frustrations

Olivia had her eyes closed until the wind that was blowing in her face stopped, and her feet had touched the ground. Medri gently let go of her waist to fully let her stand. They were quite a bit outside the city of Heinmarts, yet the trip that had taken Olivia almost 3 days on foot had taken Medri no more than an hour to fly over.

The shifter's white dragon wings shone in the sunlight and she winked at the ice mage.

"From here I imagine you can get back home quite easily on your own," she said, a gentle voice gliding from the half dragon half human body. "Just remembered, don't tell people about me unless you trust them or it's our little observer friend."

"What if I would tell the wrong people," Olivia questioned, tired yet curious.

"I'll see what I'll do. Oh, and if you ever want a new place to look, go to Cordova, and go deep into the dwarven mines. I doubt your Steven is there, but you'll find Sight. Sight for the future, perhaps."

Olivia wanted to ask what she was talking about, but she was too late. Without any further word or explanation, Medri, her wings folded out, shot into the sky at incredible speeds, and then glided away.

"She's nice," Lillian whispered, as her body appeared next to Olivia. "Maybe we should take Steven to her some time?"

For some reason, those words really hurt Olivia. But she knew Lillian was trying to do the opposite, and couldn't really be mad at her. She forced out a smile instead as she started walking back to the castle of Heinmarts.

"Maybe, yeah. Though he should leave his dragon slayer sword at home."

The track up the slope leading to the castle felt long, and Olivia started feeling nervous and embarrassed. She was so desperate and frantic to find Steven she didn't even consider what it would be like to return from disappearing empty handed like this. It made her chest hurt and her legs weak. She didn't want to confront anyone. She wanted to go to her room and sleep. Yet sneaking back into the castle without a word felt like an even worse option. At the very least, she should let everyone know she was safe.

"Remarkable," A familiar voice called as she spotted Ruhnim, a huge man broader than he was tall, with a gentle face and sand green hair, crouched down at one of the decorative plant gardens lined along the castle walls. Next to him was a young man, or more like an old teenager, with reddish hair, and cat ears sprouting from the top of his head in the same colour. Olivia knew him as Lightell; one of the soul stones. The one they freed from the lab in Sanzai before everything started going wrong. Ruhnim, Shey, and Kyzer brought him back to the royal castle in Heinmarts after they left Sanzai to try and reunite with Olivia and Wynn.

Lightell had his hand hovering over a patch of flowers, which were slowly, but very noticeably growing in height.

"It's not much," Lightell exclaimed, removing his hand. "That journal did most of the heavy lifting for me.

"Not much, you say," Ruhnim laughed. "Anything at all is amazing! To think you could learn any magical abilities at all! As an artificial creation, that is amazing."

"Well, since Frederick could-"

"Fredrick Clipium was born to human magical parents," Ruhnim said, "while your soul was created. You should feel proud of this, Lightell."

Ruhnim then looked up, to spot Olivia.

"Oh!"

He quickly ran to her and slapped his arms around her shoulders. Feeling awkward and not sure what to do or say, Olivia simply let it happen until the earth mage was satisfied.

"We were so worried," Ruhnim cried out. "It's good to see you back again!"

Olivia sighed, feeling some slight relief. "I thought you would be mad."