Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 129 - A. O.

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. Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins and finds a diary hidden inside a pillar. While picking herbs Luki finds a patch of land where a large quantity of ash is buried under the soil. He finds it suspicious but his comrades disagree. Nelaira stumbles onto a hidden cellar in the ruins of the village that contains food that is 16 years old. Nelaira gives their archaeologist the diary to translate. The writer of the diary is the village chief's son and he talks about his life. It seems the diary was written after the mage wars, which makes everyone wonder what destroyed the village if not the wars.

Nelaira wanted to investigate the possibility of survivors but her superiors ordered her to proceed towards the Valley of Eternal Snow. The diary speaks of outsiders that came to the village one day from a utopia without Ink. The outsiders were capable, beautiful people who were welcomed with opened hands by the natives. Both the writer of the diary and his sister set their sights on an outsider.

One day, Nelaira had been ordered by her superiors to stop translating the diary and to destroy it.

Episode 129 – A. O.

The diary was returned to Nelaira's possession, and now she had to find a way to translate it without anyone finding out about it. She did study the subject of ancient runes in Muni so she could understand them somewhat. However, she doubted it would be enough to translate the diary.

Thus, she came up with a plan. She started to volunteer for night guard duty often, so she could translate the diary when everyone else was sleeping. And so she could secretly sneak a peek at the ancient rune dictionary carried by their archaeologist when he was asleep.

It took her considerably more time and effort to translate the remaining diary entries than it would have taken their archaeologist, but it helped that there wasn't much left of the diary to translate. After about a week worth of sleepless nights she was confident that her translation wasn't far off.

* * *

When they offered to help us move into their blessed land, many villagers wanted to go, yet soon after, a rumor started spreading.The word on the street was that the outsiders were descendants of the madman that doomed us all.Now many villagers are vehemently opposed to leaving and are even proposing we kick them out of the village.

I thought that someone was intentionally spreading false rumors, but Cammy confirmed that the outsiders were indeed the descendants of that man. But she claims that they are good people with good intentions that shouldn't be condemned due to the sins of their predecessors.

I'm worried that even Cammy can't see into their deepest, truest self. I fear that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

...

Cammy took her boyfriend to the Lands of Eternal Snow.

I feel happy for her, but also, kind of bitter. She used to only go there with me. I used to be the only one to admire her snow sculptures.

And now...gods only know what the two are doing there... alone... together...

Gods, I hope morphing snow is all they are doing...