Chapter 18: Talisman tracking method.

Levi lay on the ground, inside the place which Raja referred to as his quarters. His body was purposely pushed to a corner of the room, beside two large rocks. Levi stirred from his slumber.

'ugh.. did I pass out again'. Levi thought as he sat up. He yawned while stretching out his arms. He had been sleeping.

'ow! My back is killing me'. Levi thought as he looked to where he had been sleeping, it was the bare ground. His discomfort finally made sense as he wasn't previledged to sleep on his wonderfully made bed last night.

'....well, I've slept through worse'. Levi though as he finally stood up. He took in the state of his body.

His jacket had apparently been forgotten in the woods. Most likely during his rush to make it back to the mansion. His shirt had cuts all over it as well as patches of dried blood. His blood. His trousers were also torn and looked extremely worn out.

His cuts and injuries had mysteriously disappeared. It bothered him a little bit decided to shove it to a corner if his mind. He would find out later.

'well. Could have been worse.' Levi shrugged. He never actually cared much about his appearance, it was just that his father's status had made it a necessity.

After confirming the state of his body, he surveyed the area with his eyes, in search of Raja, but failed to locate him.

'he isn't here?....good, now I can practice in secret'. Levi thought with a smirk as he once again confirmed the absence of the hurricane wolf, before sitting down in a lotus position.

The activity of passing aether from one's core thought the other parts of the structure was called aether rotation. Levi had decided to make the activity a routine as it would help him further the level of his aether core.

He continued his aether rotation activity for about half an hour, before he noticed something. The aether was passing through his mana veins quite easily now and the pain which previously assaulted him was growing even lesser.

'i don't think they have fully become aether oriented, but at least I made some progress. Oi Grim, won't you congratulate me?' Levi asked, but his partner had not forgiven or forgotten Levi's actions.

'oh come on! Seriously! Are we seriously still doing this Grim?!'. Levi asked. But Grim didn't make any reply. Levi could still feel Grim's anger through the telepathic link they had.

'sighs.....look, I know that what I did was very insensitive and it probably hurt your feelings, but you're indestructible for crying out loud and I'm not. It was the only way for us to escape together, please understand'. Levi told his partner.

There was a long silence as Levi awaited Grim's answer. When it didn't come after some time, Levi wanted to open his mouth to speak but was cut off.

'.....is that so. It was the only way? Seriously? You practically threw me to my death just to save your own sorry ass, you completely forgot all that I had done for you, teaching you aether when you had absolutely ZERO talent in magic and-'. Grim spoke, but apparently it was Levi's turn to cut him off.

Levi who had been calmly trying to reason with Grim took a turn for worse as his anger flared up from Grim's statement. Grim had just reopened old wounds.

'what! Don't try to talk as if I'm the only one benefiting from all this! Don't forget that you need me to live, heck you were the one who called out to me back then, and you did so because you amounted to nothing on your own.

I saved you and this is how you repay me! You! Who doesn't even have a body, you are nothing more than a pest! A goddamn pest!'. Levi lashed out. His rage had taken over him and he wasn't aware of how insensitive his words were.

'a pest? I'm a pest?! Let's see just how far you can train aether on your own without the help of this pest!'. Grim shouted out. He was also pissed.

'fine then! I will do it on my own....just like I always have!' Levi retorted angrily.

The relationship between the two had gotten even more severe as they allowed rage to cloud their judgement.

Levi calmed himself down and sat leaning against a huge rock with the shadow grimoire in hand. He was still very mad at his partner, Grim, though.

'if he won't help then I will just do it on my own'. Levi thought as he opened to where he had stopped to continue reading.

*Back at the Swordhearth mansion*

The morning breakfast had gone by as normal, even though Levi was absent. Levi's parents assumed that he had left the house earlier for whatever reason, and they couldn't care less about his whereabouts or well being.

Isabelle was also glad that her brother wasn't around as they freely discussed about 'her' birthday. They were already making preparations as Isabelle short listed the the list of people that she wanted at her party. Raymond was also making due preparations to leave town.

It was just like any other day for all the members of the Swordhearth family, except Aina. Unlike the rest of them, she actually cared enough about her little brother to understand that something was wrong.

After breakfast, she called for Mariam, Levi's personal servant. But she wasn't around in the mansion. Aina queried her colleagues and discovered that she had left to find the young master earlier in the morning after he didn't come home last night.

Aina was a bit touched by Mariam's actions, but she also needed to get to work. Normally, she would have buried herself in books till her magic tutor arrived in the afternoon, but instead she went up to her room and brought out a purple coloured crystal ball.

'when I saw that he was leaving for the woods, I thought that something like this might happen so I placed a tracker talisman on his jacket. If he still has that jacket on, then I should be able to find him with this'.

Aina was about to use a tracking method which involved having to come in contact with the target and planting the hidden talisman on them. The talisman imprinted itself on the target allowing the tracker to determine their movements, and the target would never know. It was called talisman tracking and it was a relatively outdated method of tracking someone due to certain limitations.

Aina infused some of her mana into the crystal ball and it started to glow a bright purple.

Suddenly, a blank map appeared right above the crystal ball and it showed Levi and Aina's locations as two red and blue dots respectively. Levi's dot though was static, unmoving, and this caused Aina to fear the worst.

'if he isn't moving then he is either without his jacket where I planted the talisman, in a injured state which won't allow him to move or.....'

"I really hope that it isn't the last one". Aina muttered as she changed to a simple attire. She wore a simple shirt and trousers, a suitable outfit for entering the forest.

Aina was a bookworm, meaning that she wasn't one to leave the house much not to mention going into the forest. She was a smart and rational person who was well aware of her limitations, so she sent for her most trusted aides.

In a few short minutes, two people appeared before her. One woman and one man, they were both Aina's personal bodyguards both were a C- rank mages.

The man was named John. He was a young man in his early thirties, with brown hair and eyes. He was an earth elemental mage and had been taking care of Aina ever since she was little as per the orders of his employer.

Originally, he was only devouted to protecting Aina since that was what gis work as a personal guards entailed, but as time passes, he took a liking to the especially curious young woman known as Aina Swordhearth.

The woman's name was Juan, she was in her late twenties and had orange hair with black eyes. She had a nice face, which was her only saving grace due to her severe lack of assets. She had a true magic affinity of water and was only a normal servant, until Aina discovered that they both shared not only the same affinity but an interest in books. They grew closer and she was then promoted to Aina's personal bodyguard.

"You called for us, ma'am". John said.

"That's right. I need you two to accompany me in finding my brother who is lost in the woods". Aina said.

At her blunt revelation, the two guards went wide-eyed.

"Let me explain it to you." Aina said and begun explaining everything. From the way she planted a tracking talisman on her brother's jacket to the way she tracked his position with the orb. It was good to note that the two guards both carried shocked expressions through the entire explanation process.

"I see. M'lady you don't need to go yourself, your humble servants will take over this job for you and we promise to fulfill it to the best of our abilities". John said.

"No I would like to be directly involved in this". Aina said.

"But m'lady!" John said.

"Don't make me to repeat my self John. I want to be involved in this and that is final". Aina said.

John's mouth opened to say something before closing again as he accepted Aina's orders. He promised himself to protect her no matter what.

"Alright then. You two should get packing. We need to find him before the sun sets today." She ordered and the two complied. It only took a few minutes before they finished and set off for the woods.

A/N:

Special thanks to Epic_Buddie123 and Courtney_Taylor_8326 for the power stones. Love you guys!!!