Chapter 5

VIRION ERALITH

I sat in Goodsky's office thinking about what happened this last month. After Arthur told everyone his deepest secret I decided that he was a danger. An anomaly. It was only after the first week that he disappeared that I realized my mistake and started to look for him.

That boy told us his deepest secret because he trusted us and instead of pulling him closer we pushed him away. He needed us and we abandoned him. I greatly regretted my choice and I wanted to apologize, so I sent out a search order.

Unfortunately no one had found even a trace. The only thing we knew was that he ran to the beast glades and no trace of him was found after that. I even sent Aya and Alea out to look for him but they only got dead ends.

Sighing, I made my way to Tessia's training room. I knocked on the door before entering without an answer.

In front of me was my granddaughter whom I loved very much. This time, however, she was different. Her eyes were devoid of any emotion and she was meditating her core. She had a thousand yard stare and a cold, distant face. She hasn't shed a single tear or shown even the smallest smile since Arthur ran away.

I knew that, on the inside she was heartbroken. She said that she told him to never show himself in front of her again. Tessia regretted her choice of words almost instantly and ran back to Arthur's home only to find him missing.

Tessia decided that she would stay strong until she found him; she cut off her emotions and put all her time into training. She refused to show any weakness, not even to me. She wanted to be like her first love.

"Hello little one," I said as I sat down in front of her. "Hello grandfather," Tessia replied, with no emotion in her voice. "No more grandpa," I thought. I felt as if my heart was stabbed, because of everyone's ignorance we pushed the one person that keeps everyone happy away.

"Tessia, it's ok to cry. We're trying our best to find him. You've bonded with Sylvie right? You need to stay happy, you are her mama." I said as I stroked her face.There was no change in her face or eyes. She truly had forgotten all sense of her previous self.

"Don't worry. I need to stay strong for when I find Arthur. I'll show him that I'm worthy to stand by his side; show him that I'm sorry and that I truly love him. It doesn't matter that he had a past life. Until I'm in his arms I won't have any liabilities."replied Tessia as she got up and grabbed her sword to practice.

"I've sent Sylvie to the beast glades to train as well. Hopefully she'll even find traces of Arthur. Please leave me alone, I find isolated training much more effective." said Tessia. I compiled and left to go and talk to the Leywin family.

That girl was no longer my granddaughter. She was a husk of her past. I still loved her; just like any grandparent I cherish her. I just wish I could see her smile again soon, after all, it was partly my fault she ended up like that.

I walked past the library to hear a familiar voice. I walked in to see an unexpected sight. Young Eleanor Leywin and Feyrith Ivsaar III hovering over multiple books of differentiating topics. Feyrith was teaching Eleanor about multiple subjects while he himself studied them beforehand.

Young Eleanor also awakened at the age of 8. Not as early as her brother but still insane. Feyrith also broke into the solid orange stage. I understood why and how they were bonding; they were the only people that accepted Arthur for who he was. They resented us because of what we did; I didn't blame them. I left them alone because I didn't have the guts to confront them.

***

I walked up to the Helstea mansion and knocked on the door.

'Hello-, Oh Elder Virion! For what reason do I owe this honor?" proclaimed Vincent. He brought himself to a 90 degree bow.

"I'm just here to speak to the Leywin family, please arrange us a private room," I responded, waving my hand to motion him to stand up straight.

"As you wish," said Vincent before he called his servants to arrange us a room.

I was expecting for both of the Leywin's to show but only Reynolds showed. Once we were alone I decided to break the awkward feeling in the air. "I believe we all messed up."

" I agree, but Alice is struggling to comprehend it all. She gave birth to him, breastfed him and even changed his diaper. The fact he was an old man this whole time shook her. She's having the hardest time out of all of us."

"Do you want to know what Ellie said to us the day we found out he left?" Reynolds asked, I could hear the sadness in his voice.

"What?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"He just wanted love, a family, and you rejected him. He loved us, protected mom when the bandits attacked! He protected me! It doesn't matter who he was. He's still by brother Arthur Leywin," Reynolds repeated.

"She hasn't talked to us since. Every Time I go to see her in Xyrus she ignores me. She stares at me with hate and anger in her eyes. I've lost one child and the other cut ties. Please help me Elder," pleaded Reynolds as he started to break down crying.

I pulled the man into a hug. This was Arthur's father after all, I couldn't let him become depressed. What would I say to Arthur when he returned and his father was emotionally broken. "I can't help Eleanor, you just need to give her time, but believe me when I say that I'm doing everything in my power to find Arthur. I promise I'll bring him back to you," I said, comforting the man.

Inside I didn't know if I could keep that promise. Bringing Arthur back will be much harder than finding him. "I swear this. I will find that boy and bring him back to his family so that he can be loved once again."

GREY

I sat down next to Caera in melee enchantment class; we had some time until class started so we made small talk. "Thanks for that yesterday, I'm in the dark yellow stage now. I thought I needed to train for another year or two," Caera whispered.

I wasn't all that surprised to learn of how effectively Caera absorbed the mana. "For some reason the core didn't turn to dust once I emptied it of mana; I was thinking of giving it to Sevren and see what he can do with it," Caera explained.

"That's a good idea, I wonder what he'll find out," I replied as I pondered the possibilities.

"Alright everyone, line up with a partner opposite to you and interchange punching the other," said the teacher as he twirled his mustache and sat down at his desk to ignore us again.

I partnered up with Seth again and helped him to punch properly. I looked around after a while to find that only Me, Seth, Caera and her partner were correctly throwing a punch. The teacher looked indifferent to our exercises so I decided to call him out for it.

"Mr Gachi, shouldn't you be properly teaching us how to fight instead of telling us to punch each other. Forgive my rudeness but isn't this teaching style ineffective and show's how lazy you are?" I asked with a condescending tone.

I heard some gasps and wow's from student's around me because of my bold statement. The teacher's face went red in anger and I saw some veins almost pop. "If you believe that I'm such a horrible teacher then why don't you teach the class for today!" he yelled at me.

"Very well, Caera please come and assist me in my demonstration." I instructed as I stood in the middle of the platform. "Alright everyone, to punch properly you need to turn your back foot and twist your shoulders so that you can deliver an effective and efficient punch." I demonstrated this by punching Caera's out stretched hand.

Caera had to reinforce herself so that I didn't break her hand and everyone quickly realized this. Me and Caera spent the rest of the class helping everyone get the hang of it, much to the displeasure of the teacher who ran off to the director's office to complain. Since me and Caera were helping everyone Seth and Caera's partner–whoI learned was named Mayla–partnered up.

I could see Seth become flustered so I decided to tease him later.

***

I made my way to my next class to research the unique artifacts here in Alacrya. I even found a proximity telepathic movie. Although the teacher wasn't as good as Gideon, he still had more knowledge because of the difference in tech.

Yesterday was just introductions and a safety guide. Today we were left alone because the teacher believed that the students would do better if left to their own creativity. He would still answer questions. All things accounted for, he was a great teacher.

I took out the notes that I got from Sevren. I noticed that everything Sevren owned that was related to aether or something he cared about had a symbol of three hexagons that overlapped each other in the middle; it was kinda like a tri-venn diagram but with hexagons. He said it was to represent aether as a whole. Each hexagon represented one of the three branches. (A.N for those that don't remember this is the same symbol on Sevren's dagger that Grey used.)

I found it fancy but whenever I activated Static void for testing it gave me a weird feeling. No clue as to why though.

I got the notebook that showed blueprints for some of his basic self made artifacts. I looked at the blueprint for the light bulb that could detect high aether usage. In Sevren's notes he said that he drew his symbol for aether and then another random symbol he found on a teleport gate. He drew this on the plate that the lightbulb was located on and he found that it would start to vibrate near dead relics. It read. Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune).

He attached the light bulb to it only for nothing to happen. Sevren then tried writing another unknown aether rune but then the plate stopped doing anything. This time it read. Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune).

There were 3 possibilities. 1. This rune meant nothing 2. It needs more runes to work or needs certain runes. This was like trying to bake a cake with only a few of the ingredients; if you don't have all the pieces it won't end up like you want. 3. The physical plate does not meet the requirements for this rune to do anything. It was like trying to turn on a computer while the computer doesn't have a plug.

So after he erased the extra rune, he drewa mana rune for creating light and when it got close to a dead relic it lit up.

At this point the runes spelt. Aether (aether rune). Unknown(aether rune). Light(mana rune). As a sentence.

Sevren then wrote: Movement (mana rune).Aether (aether rune). Unknown(aether rune). Light(mana rune). It did nothing. Sevren's notes said that maybe it needs an aether version.

Since Sevren isn't stupid he noticed the pattern and kept testing. There was a note that said to check page 234 to understand what he was about to explain so I jumped to page 234 to see what was written there.

There was a list of aether runes and all of them except one said unknown. The one that wasn't listed as unknown said "Movement". Sevren's notes said that through the process of elimination he found out what this rune meant after seeing it– along with others– on a moving platform in the relictombs.

He tried every rune in his sentence to see what it did. It was in this format. Aether (aether rune). Unknown(aether rune). 'Substatuite' (aether rune). After trying every rune and finding none of them did anything he finally tried the last one and the plate started to vibrate violently.

He put some wheels on it and it started to move when near a dead relic. It read. Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune).Movement (aether rune).

His next test was. Movement (aether rune). Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Light (mana rune). Sevren found that when someone used aether i.e teleport gate. The light bulb would illuminate.

He tested one more thing before his conclusion. He wrote. Movement (aether rune). Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Movement (mana rune). This time it moved around upon aether usage.

To recap.

Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). : causes the plate to vibrate near high aether concentration.

Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune): does nothing

Aether (aether rune). Unknown(aether rune). Light(mana rune) : causes the light bulb to turn on when around high aether concentration.

Movement (mana rune).Aether (aether rune). Unknown(aether rune). Light(mana rune) : does nothing.

Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune).Movement (aether rune). : causes the plate to vibrate aggressively when only the light bulb is attached. When wheels are attached the wheels move independently. This happens in places of high aether concentration.

Movement (aether rune). Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Movement (mana rune) : When aether is being used the plate starts to move.

Movement (aether rune). Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Light (mana rune) : when aether is used the light bulb turns on. (This is what Sevren's current aether detector uses)

"So from what I gather aether can influence mana but mana can't influence aether. When the "Movement (mana rune)" was placed before the sentence it did nothing because it was commanding aether but when "Movement (aether rune}" was placed at the start it worked. On the other hand they both worked when put at the end, this also gave different conclusions." I explained to myself.

"When placed at the start of the incantation, the artifact would only work if aether was moving around. When placed at the end the artifact would start to move. But when placed at the end the wheels moved randomly; that probably means the sentence needs to be more specific to work how we want it to. " I pondered as I flipped through his notes to read his other prototypes.

Unfortunately, the aether light bulb was the only thing that worked since everything else Sevren could make was just another version of this.

What I gathered is, as long as we can decipher the old aether runes we can build things similar to the ancient mages. This in itself would be difficult since from Sevren's experiments it showed that complete sentences weren't needed. You kinda need complete sentences to decipher a language.

Deciding to try and make a copy of Sevren's artifact I grabbed the materials needed and wrote down the required runes.

I then activated Static void for a second to see if it worked but the light didn't turn on. I spent the next half of class trying to see if I did something wrong. I redrew the runes, got new materials but nothing happened.

Then the solution came to mind. "Does it require insight? Sevren has been researching aether for years so it makes sense he has a ton of insight. Since he was the only one who did it he probably hasn't realized this limit." I concluded.

"Wait, then what about the unknown runes? If Sevren had the insight would they have done something? Sevren also used an unknown rune to make this. Does that mean he has the insight but can't use it because he doesn't know what the rune means?" I had a thousand questions that I couldn't get an answer to regardless of who I asked.

"What about the rune that Sevren made himself? Is it pure coincidence that it works? Or is there a deeper reason?" I pondered this theory of mine until the bell rang. If I want to learn more about aether then I need to go to the relictombs. But, Sylvia wanted me to live my life so I'm going to stay in school with Caera.

To recap again (all a theory, not proven)

In order for an artifact to function you need insight on all required runes, aether and mana.

Sevren's self made rune worked in the equation.

Even though he didn't know what it meant Sevren could use a Unknown rune for his artifact

(most likely because he had insight on it).

Aether (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune). Unknown (aether rune): This did nothing because 1. It is because of any of the three precious reasons. 2. Sevren doesn't have the required insight.

"All this hurts my brain, I need some food." I thought as I made my way to the lunch hall.