ELEANOR LEYWIN
"-lie. Ellie! Ellie!" I hear as I'm shoved awake. I open my crusty eyes to find it's still dark outside. Who could even be needing me right now?
Just as I raise my hands to wipe at my eyes, a huge weight slams down on my stomach.
"Ugh! Ow! What the hell?" I shout at my aggressor.
"You wouldn't wake up. Consider it payback for years of torturous awakening methods. Now get up. We have training to do," my brother says.
"And be quick, maggot! The sarge is waiting!" says the purple and black puppy from my stomach.
Sarge?
Regis hops from my stomach, sending his two back paws firmly into my gut as he does it.
"Fine, fine. I'll get up," I mutter, staring out of the front window. He really did wake me up before the sun even considered rising.
I roll out of bed and put on my training clothes. I fasten the leather boddess of my armor to my chest and put my bow around my shoulder. I slip my boots on and begin to lace the strings. Striding toward the door, I poke my head out into the cool weather. The breeze blows ever so slightly past the entryway.
"Over here, El. Let's go to where you and Virion typically train. Try and keep up," Arthur says before essentially vanishing. The only way I was able to tell which direction he went was by activating my first phase to heighten my senses. His faint scent from his oily wheat-blonde hair is all I was able to go off of.
Running in pursuit of Arthur- even though it only took me under ten minutes to make it the few miles to my and Virion's training area- he was already there with his hands on his hips. Seeing him, his body was covered in that familiar onyx-black scaled suit with golden glows beneath the cracks of the scales. The two horns that wrap from above his ears and frame his jaw look just like how Sylvie's did.
"You're going to need Boo for this. We're going to spar," he says while beginning to stretch.
"It's not even light out, Arthur. Why can't we wait?" I ask, annoyed by having only gotten maybe 5 hours of sleep.
"Because we won't always have the luxury of sleeping when we want or battling under remotely optimal conditions. Be glad I'm not making us spar beneath that waterfall over there," Arthur replies, pointing at the waterfall over his shoulder.
"Fine. I'll get Boo," I grumble. Instead of roaming around in the forest to where I can feel he is, I start to think about some unhappy thoughts to make myself anxious. Memories of Dad's funeral, Tessia and Madam Astera coming home to tell us that Arthur died, and Tessia getting taken at Eidelholm flood into my mind. Just before the tears would begin to flow, a massive mound of brown fur thuds on the ground behind me.
Arthur stops his stretching and looks at me with surprise. "He can just... poof in?" he asks.
"Yeah, I figured it out a while back. Whenever I'm distressed about something, he'll pop in and protect me," I answer.
"I'll thank Windsom with a painless death then," he replies.
Painless death? What the hell is Arthur planning to do? I want to ask but I think he'll just throw out some stuff I don't want to hear quite yet.
"So let's get started, huh? Mid Silver at 14 is pretty impressive. I want to see how good you are," Arthur chimes in. "Before then though, I have something for you."
Arthur pulls an ivory-white bow from his dimension rune. The bowstring glistens with purple energy and creates an ever so slight hum. He gives the bowstring a single pass over with his hand as the string begins to glow even brighter purple.
Something like this but with a purple bowstring:
"This is all I could muster. I know you appreciate quality so I asked a friend to find a bow that could handle me imbuing aether into it. I know you lost your old one back at the Sanctuary and the one that you have on your back is just a temporary replacement. So, hopefully, this will serve you well. Go ahead and give it a name. Regis wouldn't let me. He says I suck at naming things," Arthur says with an eye-roll at that last sentence.
"I... I don't know what to say... It's beautiful. I've never seen something so pristine. Are you sure?" I ask.
"Yes, Ellie. Take a few practice shots. See if you like the draw weight and whatnot. If you don't I can adjust it a little," he answers.
I do as he asks and create three mana arrows as I draw back the bowstring. I pull back with a little more than I would with my current temporary bow and the string gives. As I draw the arrows to my cheek, hold my breath, and release, the arrows launch at unnatural and blistering speeds into the cliff face, leaving huge pits in their wake. I take a quick glance at my hands and at the bow.
"Holy shit," I mumble.
"Watch it there, El. It's a good thing Mom isn't here to hear that," Arthur says with a mocking grin.
I don't even have the energy to scowl at him through my genuine amazement at the effortless devastation this bow was able to achieve.
"H-how did that even happen, Arthur? What is this thing?" I ask.
"It's a bow..." he says deadpan.
Before I can be angry at his answer, he begins to explain properly, "It's a bow made of the tusks of a queen snarler. Lined through the center, I placed a thin steel rod through the center that I imbued heavily with aether. Before the bowyer finished, I had him carve all of the detail into the shaft itself. That bowstring is silk from a Dusk Tarantula, an A-class mana beast I killed back in my adventuring days. It's fire retardant, cut resistant, and ultra durable. The string was also capable of accepting an enhancement with aether. So, if you do tag along, I can frequently enhance when the aether runs out. You should be able to get around 100 arrows from one enhancement," he finishes.
"I'm still in shock, brother. This is the greatest gift I've ever received," I tell him honestly.
"Then show me how much you like it. I'll give you three attacks before I start to fight back. Show me what you can do. Show me you can be more than just useful in the Relictombs," Arthur says, igniting a purple blade into his hand.
"Don't blame me if you get hurt, brother," I spit, pulling out all of my cards from the start. I activate the second phase of my beast will. The skill I've finally mastered thanks to Gramps helping train me daily. I feel the whiskers that usually form on my face extend, my hearing, sight, and smell greatly improve from my first phase, and I begin to feel my connection with Boo heighten, giving us the ability to cooperate flawlessly.
I take my first move, one that I've done a million times by now. Boo and I flank from separate positions. I charge right into Arthur's guard, using the bow he just gave me as a bludgeoning weapon. Just as he goes to block, I feel the mana drain from my core from using my bond. Arthur's arm which was intending to block my strike with the bow is now engulfed deeply by Boo's huge jaws. Boo clamps down and keeps Arthur pinned to the ground as I, now where Boo used to be on Art's opposite side, draw my bow and notch five arrows. I blast all five of my arrows, each with a different property. One will explode on contact, one will shatter into shrapnel mid-air, one will stay in him and allow me to track my arrow to find him when he moves around, one will hit Boo and enhance his strength, and the final one will slowly get larger until it reaches its target.
As the arrows blast with incredible speed in Arthur and Boo's direction, his eyes widen as Boo continues to use his incredible weight to pin my brother down. The explosion arrow gets deflected by Art's sword but explodes at the contact, obscuring his vision. The second arrow shatters into over twenty smaller projectiles that litter the smokescreen. The third arrow, the one I need to succeed the most, lands firmly in Arthur's left shoulder. Before the fourth one to enhance Boo reaches, Arthur is completely gone without a trace. Well, he should have been if my arrow weren't still in his body.
I sense my own mana signature behind me and rapidly approaching. I feign ignorance until it's immediately behind me and activate my and Boo's second phase again, swapping our places. This time, Boo clamps down on Art's right shoulder and uses his weight to push him down to the ground. The moment Arthur's back touches the ground, I fire another enhancement arrow at Boo to boost his attack potency. It lands in his hind leg, causing my bond to gleam with a golden glow similar to my brother's armor. Boo rakes his huge paw towards Arthur's midsection but never makes purchase as Arthur once again appears behind me, this time, anticipating not only that I would maybe switch my and Boo's places, but may become anxious and cause my bond to appear around me as well.
Boo appears behind me, right between Arthur and me. My brother delivers a devastating kick to my bond's midsection, launching him into me and sending us both tumbling across the clearing. As we tumble, Arthur dissipates his sword. Boo and I end up crashing into a tree that we had felled some months ago. Had I not enhanced my body with mana, my and Boo's bodies would have been broken beyond recognition.
"You're not pulling your punches, brother. What the hell?!" I shout, my body still lodged in the trunk of the large evergreen.
"Believe it or not, I was, Ellie. But I will admit, you made me go a lot deeper into my bag of tricks than I expected to. We've done enough here. Because of you and Boo's bond, I'd say you've reached the level of a White core mage," he informs. My eyes widen at his evaluation and praise.
"So what does that mean then, brother?" I ask with pleading eyes.
"It means I'll take you with me, El," he replies with a complicated expression. He looks excited and worried about me being involved.
Not letting his expression determine my excitement, I sprint over to him and give him a deep hug, even picking him up in the process. The black-scaled armor feels weird on my skin but is strangely reminiscent of Sylvie's dragon form.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Arthur!" I shout after letting him go and jumping for joy in front of him. His expression softens into a smile as he tousles my hair and begins to chuckle at my outburst of happiness.
"Well, it's because you worked so hard to become strong. What the hell did you do to get so strong in just a couple months?" he asks.
"Well, Camellia gave me a bit of advice whenever I was down about you leaving us. She said that if I could get strong enough to be of use to you, that maybe I could help you on your journeys," I answer, proud of my growth.
"Well, I have to say, you've successfully impressed me today, Ellie. Now come on, let's go clean up and cook breakfast for Mom, our favorite Elves, and the Twin Horns," he says, deactivating his armor and turning back toward the encampment.
"Right behind you, Art," I tell him, falling in step behind him.
After cleaning up, Arthur and I went ahead and made breakfast. I never knew that he could cook as well as he can, but he whipped up over a dozen fluffy omelettes in a flash. We all sat around at a big table that Durden made outside for all of us. We sat around and caught up. Angela did her trademark greeting to Arthur resulting in a small outburst from Tessia within Cecilia. Durden and Jasmine fawned over Arthur as they always have. Even Helen brought him into a huge hug before giving him a firm whack on the head for making our mother sad by leaving.
Mmm. Yummy omelettes. They look like this:
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It's finally the day for us to leave. Me, Boo, Arthur, Cecilia, and Regis are all going to be heading into the Relictombs tomorrow. I need to make sure that I don't slack off while we're in there or else Art won't take me on more journeys.
I've been training every single day with Arthur, Cecilia, and Virion. I know I may be one of the strongest mages in this "zone" as Arthur calls it, but I feel weak in comparison to them. I'm stronger than Virion now, but Art and Cecilia are on a whole different level. Arthur has been teaching her how to cancel out my arrows before they even hit her, completely nullifying my attacks. He even taught her how to completely stop me from being able to use the ambient mana.
According to him, it's "training" but it really feels like he's just bullying me. I'm not Cecilia's test dummy. Though, I guess Arthur can't use mana so it makes sense that he couldn't actually be a sufficient partner. Anyway, that's beside the point. I'm frustrated with getting my ass kicked every day. It was too stark of a change. From beating Virion every day to getting handled without a sweat by Cecilia and Arthur is really frustrating. There are always bigger fish I guess.
It's our final meal in this zone with Mom, Virion, and the Twin Horns. I even invited Camellia to come too. Mom made Arthur's favorite once again, and we all are sitting at the same table that we did that first morning after Art came back. Time really does fly whenever you're working hard and having fun. I feel guilty sometimes having fun whenever my fellow Dicathians that we couldn't save are being slaughtered, tortured, and enslaved outside of the confines of the Relictombs. If only I could do more.
"Hey, Ellie?" I hear as a hand begins to wave in front of my face.
"Huh?" I murmur. Turning to my side, I see Camellia waving her hand in my face. Apparently I spaced out.
"You alright there, El?" she asks.
"Yeah, Camellia, I'm fine. I've just been thinking a lot about how it feels weird being safe in here while everywhere else outside of here is dangerous. I feel a bit guilty," I answer honestly.
"I get that. Though I've thought about it too. Do you think that maybe you and the lances have been working so hard in here to become stronger so that you all can save Dicathen eventually?" she asks.
I'm a little dumbfounded by her wisdom. I swear she really has been spending too much time around Virion and the Twin Horns.
"I guess that makes sense. I haven't bothered seeing it like that before. Thanks," I reply.
"Anytime, Ellie," She says with a sly grin. She knows that she got something over me just then. I'll have to get her back for that.
"So guys, it really has been a pleasure to see all of you again. I know it's only been around five weeks, but I need to start working towards the edicts of fate so that we can end this war. Without that, Dicathen AND Alacrya will be a wasteland just like Elenoir," Arthur says strongly.
"We'll miss you, Arthur, but we know why you have to leave. It's okay. You don't need to feel guilty. You've already done so much. We're safe here because of you. Remember that," Jasmine chimes in. Everyone is a bit shocked at Jasmine's wordiness, but considering it's toward Arthur, we all hold our tongues.
"Thanks, Jasmine. It means a lot to have all of you guys' support. We'll visit a couple times over the next ten weeks, but after that, I'm not sure," Arthur states.
"Don't worry about that Arthur. Let's just enjoy this," Mom says while carrying a pot over to the stone table. She sets it down and removes the lid to reveal that familiar and homey aroma. Beef stew.
"Then, in that case, let's dig in!" Arthur shouts, eagerly grabbing the ladle and filling his bowl.
Our conversation revolves around our preparations, what to expect in regards to Arthur and Regis' previous experiences in the Relictombs, and even what Alacrya was like. It feels like the family is whole again. I wish this feeling could last forever but...
Tomorrow we take a step forward to winning this damn war.
A/N: Hey guys, just a little info. I will be out of town from 9/22 to 9/26. During those times, there will not be any uploads, but we'll pick right back up on daily uploads on 9/27. That's pretty much it, though so thank you all so much for your continued support and.....
Naz out!