Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 25 - I should get a pet

Phew, that was close. You guys barely made it in time! 

Let's give a special applause for everyone who managed to give their nominations in time to fill up the 200 nominations quota. Especially joetxwatts, dragophoenix96, JauntyJanan14,  and a_dappled_fern who are responsible for over 60% of those nominations.

With 203 nominations in total, I hereby announce the special event over, and give you this extra episode as a reward. 

Enjoy the hard earned extra episode. :)

Previously on Aethernea:

After knocking Kiel unconscious, Elaru meets with a doctor and an alchemist by the name of Ixos Eryey. She seems to be on close terms with the man, calling him "uncle" and scolding him for not getting enough rest. Ixos is researching tempering pills and wants to make the most powerful tempering pill in existence.

Elaru gives him a small box filled with burrowing windroots - a rare medicinal plant. In return, Ixos gives her three magical pills and a list of ingredients he wants her to track down.

Ixos thinks Muni is a dangerous place for Elaru and doesn't like the idea of her enrolling there. Elaru tells him she is out of ideas and that there is a professor there that might be able to help her.

* * *

◈ Canyon near Beyd, Wednesday, 15th of August 1449 A.W. ◈

(10 days prior)

Elaru Wayvin stood in front of the orange canyon ridge. The winds howled around her, ruffling her red hair and raising up puffs of red sand. The sun blared down on her as if trying to burn her to a crisp, yet neither her clothes nor her hair were wet with sweat.

Around her spread an intricate mage-sustained spell that bent light which entered its area of effect. This spell treated rays of light as if they had shape, and as such, that shape could be altered by transmutation magic to curve away from her. Since no light touched her, the warmth of the sun was unable to directly reach her.

Elaru walked right into the wall of the canyon. Just as her body was about to hit the wall, the rock bent and twisted away from her, creating a hole for her to pass through. She was like a queen, everything moved out of her way.

Ok, so it wasn't anything grand like that...she just transmuted the rock around her to shift away from her.

Her goal was deep inside the wall of the canyon. It took the form of a small, orange root, growing inside the rock.

Burrowing windroot was a rare magical plant that could only grow in a hot, windy valley inside a special type of canyon rock. It was an expensive, hard to find ingredient because it couldn't be seen from the outside, nor could it be found by bloodhound's sense of smell.

There were very few ways to find the root inside the walls, Elaru's eyes being one of them.

Every living creature had a soul that provided it with mana. Including plants. Since Elaru could see mana, living creatures looked like bright flames in comparison to the rest of the world. She could clearly see the root inside of the wall because the mana inside the root and the mana in the rest of the rock were very different in quantity and density.