Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 124 - Ashes

Previously:

While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament. She remembers how her squad of ten found a hidden entrance to a long staircase climbing through the mountain, first discovered by Zor Arite. There they find a green valley filled with wildlife and ruins of a village. They decide to take one day off to recuperate. Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins.

* * *

Her breath hitched as she was kicked out of her revery by a flaw inside an exquisitely carved pillar.

The sense granted to her by her Morph spell detected an anomaly. An object stuck inside the stone.

Someone had Morphed something inside the pillar!

Episode 124 - Ashes

Half curious, half excited, she pushed the object out of the stone pillar with her own Morph, doing her utmost to preserve the original shape of the pillar. Luckily, she was a master in this regard so even after the object had been pushed out, the pillar remained exactly the same, not a single carving was amiss.

Only after ensuring that she hadn't ruined the exquisite piece of architecture, did Nelaira look down towards the object in her hand that had previously been hidden inside the pillar.

It was a well preserved leather-bound booklet with no title on the cover. There were fleeting signs of mana on it, as if it used to be enchanted, but the enchantment had long run out of mana and evaporated.

Curious, Nelaira flipped the book open gently, afraid that the wheels of time had made the book brittle although it outwardly looked fine. Fortunately, the inside was just as well preserved as the outside, no doubt being stuck inside a stone pillar helped.

The book flipped open to the middle, to the position of a red silk bookmark. The bookmarked page was filled with runes written in a messy handwriting written in haste.

Nelaira could tell at first glance that the booklet was a diary because of how every entry had a date on the upper right corner. She smiled warmly, even letting out a soft giggle: "Zel would be thrilled! While other people dream of finding divine artifacts, he dreams of finding diaries."

Unlike her, who was only interested in the architecture and sculpture, her fiancé was interested in culture and knowledge of the ancient civilizations. That's why the best treat he could find in his exploration was a diary filled with random thoughts. Such diaries gave a wonderful glimpse into the everyday life and important happenings at the time.

If the diary were written before the Great Mage Wars, it would most commonly contain some kind of research notes on various subjects that could be potentially extremely valuable to the current society, as a lot of knowledge had been lost during the Wars.

However, most diaries they found were actually written during the Great Mage Wars, and besides the historical value, they didn't contain much else. After the start of the Great Mage Wars, people were worried that every day could be their last. Therefore, everyone wished to leave a part of themselves behind in case of their death. Thus, they wrote and left many diaries behind.

Nelaira stashed the diary carefully in her bag, imagining the excited glimmer in the eyes of her other half when she returned with this little diary. He'd be so sorry he hadn't gone with her on this expedition.

She was right. What her fiancé would regret the most in his life was not going on this expedition with her.

Nelaira proceeded onwards, not putting a second thought on the matter why the diary was hidden inside a pillar, after all, diaries contained private thoughts, it was only natural that the owner would hide it.