Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 124 - Ashes

She continued her exploration, completely unaware that this little book was neither of the things she expected it to be. Blissfully unaware of the staggering price she and her comrades would have to pay for stumbling upon this unassuming booklet.

Unaware, that she might never again see that excited glimmer in the eyes of her fiancé...

* * *

While Nelaira was looking left and right at the architecture, Luki was busy looking for medicinal herbs. Usually, he would ask either Nelaira, the redhead or her husband, to escort him around, since he was on closest terms with those three. However, Nelaira went off exploring, and the two lovebirds wanted some alone time, so he ended up going with the comrade with the orange-green crew cut.

Luki was fully focused on his work, hopping around excitedly and picking various herbs. Then, like a woman shopping, he would fill the arms of his escort with herbs while he continued striding around, looking for more "merchandise".

His escort looked at him helplessly but said nothing.

The pink haired elibu went through most of the nearby meadows until he reached a meadow near the village where he noticed a variety of interesting specimens. He noticed a bluish grass mixed within the greenery that most people would fail to notice, yet Luki recognized it as Silvermoon Root. The plant had wonderful healing properties, especially effective against swellings, burns, bites and irritated skin.

Luki checked the surrounding grass for snakes or spiders, and upon not finding anything dangerous he squatted down to pick it.

Underneath the bluish grass was the actual root. Silvermoon Root looked similar to a long and thin silver carrot that just kept growing longer, burrowing deeper into the earth. Luki had to dig deep to be able to pull it out. Luckily, he could morph the earth away from the root, so he eventually managed to pull it out, careful not to damage it in the process.

Luki intended to cast a Cleansing to remove the dirt from the root, but upon closer inspection, he realized that only the upper half of the root was contaminated with the brown soil.

He wiped his finger across the lower half of the root and brought it up to his eye level. There was no soil on the root, rather, there was some kind of brittle gray dust.

The pink haired healer looked back down into the hole he had created and widened it to reveal the soil in which the root had been growing. The upper layers of earth were normal brown soil, however, around two feet in, the soil became brittle and gray.

Luki's heart almost jumped out of his chest, worried that he had inadvertently come into contact with Ink. But after the initial scare, he realized that it couldn't be Ink. If it were, the Silvermoon Root which was in contact with it would have withered away, followed by every other plant here.

Ink spread so fast it was visible to the naked eye. It was just like dripping a drop of black ink into clear water. The black tendrils would spread in all directions until the clear water turned dark. This behavior and its black appearance was probably why the scourge had been named Ink in the first place.

Still, he couldn't help but feel curious. If it wasn't Ink, why was this soil gray?

As he dug deeper, he soon realized why.

There was a thick layer of ash buried underneath the earth. Other than ash, there were also some kind of gray flakes mixed within, which crumbled with the lightest of touch.

Curious. Luki mused. Did the people here use to bury the ashes of their deceased?

His curiosity piqued, Luki turned towards his escort. "Hey, could you mow down the lawn?"