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Trying to connect with Captain Jone using transmission crystal i found myself stuck since crystal demanded magic in order to be activated. Due to my lack of knowledge of newfound Aether magic i was unable to cast any spell to activate the crystal and escape from this place. Standing around in open was a bad idea so i moved into one of half ruined houses next to city entrance, covered in vegetation and tree growing outside it's roof, i opened a rusty door and made my way inside.

Fortunately house interior wasn't much damaged as rooms were mostly intact with only vegetation growing in some of them, i went into living room where nice old carpet was placed and cozy old couch remained. Desperately trying to cast magic i pushed my hands in the air and focused on casting it, i tried that for ten minutes more until i gave up and just took a rest on old rusty couch.

Aiming my hands over and over i couldn't cast any magic which got me pretty frustrated, thinking back Aether magic only activated when i was in grave danger, during combat. Remembering how i focused and imagined myself dashing using Aether i again aimed my hands in front and imagined how my hands start glowing with sky blue color, blinking over and over.

Ten long minutes of sweating and trying my hands finally managed to glow and form blue light on them, blinking repeatedly. Finally being able to willingly activate magic i jumped from my accomplishment and happily laughed at my new powers. Thinking back when i used Aether i didn't sense any kind of tiredness or energy loss since i know that when using magic a caster can feel tired due to draining his mana.

Of course each person has different mana amount, even if there's no official metric for mana count most of people measure it by number of spells then can use. Spells vary of how strong they are and how much mana they waste, some of spells are pretty weak and can be used over twenty times but some spells can do serious damage and be casted only once per day or even more. 

To that each person has it's own way of using magic, magic is special for each individual and spells can vary in many forms. Athena uses wind magic to gain speed against her opponents, Ferdal had water magic which allowed him to cast bullets like projectiles and form water barrier or even armor. Most of the people and creatures outside of Elven race can use up to three magic spells for whole life, a barrier which blocks outpowered mages to have infinite amount of spells. 

Elves however are born up to five spells and have generally much larger mana pool than rest of the residents of Cardal. If my speculations are true then Aether doesn't use mana pool but instead it uses itself as fuel since Aether and Ether are the same element of unlimited fueled by unknown force. 

Proud on myself for gaining such amazing power i formed smug smile on my face and touched transmission crystal with my glowing hands. Crystal sparked and blinked few times before i could hear.

"Hello anyone there? Do you guys hear us?!"

Hearing Captain's voice i jumped and held speaking crystal who blinked each time Jone spoke, nervous of what i'm about to say to him i stuttered a little bit when trying to reply.

"Hello this is Sparrow, Captain Jone i require airship to transport me back."

Captain Jone paused for a moment there and our communication went silent, nervous and scared of near future i sighed and took deep breath to calm myself. More so i will have to explain my sudden awakening of magic but that could maybe stay a secret for a while.

"Sparrow where are you? Where are the others? Are you guys okay?"

Finally Captain's voice spoke out again and crystal returned it's blinking, thinking how should i get out of here as fast as possible i replied.

"Captain i'm at town of Zelos near the entrance, please hurry up since i don't want to spend any more time in this place."

Hearing this Captain replied positively and told me that he'll sent one airship for me, relieved i sat down on couch and turned my gaze on the celling. 

Hour after i looked trough the window and saw airship with Arnes symbols on it, immediately i jumped and burst trough the door to wave. Getting outside i felt cold wind breeze brush against me and i felt both fear and relief, i'm glad that i managed to survive all of this but still i feared possible punishments for murdering Ferdal, Chairman Francis is going to try and hunt me down for killing his man. 

Waving with open arms airship slowly descended and made balloon releasing noises, minute after it landed and couple of men with academic armor opened the doors for me. Jumping on the ship they greeted me and asked me if i was okay which i replied positively, after that they instructed me to sit down somewhere and relax until we arrive back to main fleet.

Me being alone surprised them much but it looked like they didn't wanted to bother me with any questions, letting relieving sigh i looked up at blue sky and thanked Uriel for saving my life. If it weren't for him i would be goner by now and Ferdal would just report our deaths as casualty during combat, however it surprised me that he didn't use crystal before but i didn't put mind into it. Ascending i saw ruined town getting smaller and smaller, ruined house in distance and vegetation all spread over the place. But my eyes noticed one detail, in front of the house where i resided minutes ago i could see same old man waving at me with pleasant smile on his face.

Creeped out i waved back out of respect for unknown man or whatever it is and turned my head back to ship's deck. Hour passed and we finally arrived back in the flock, small airship where i flied took me back to Aura and i politely thanked pilots and rest of guys there. Turning my head back i saw two aviators waiting for me and instructing me to follow them, taking deep breath i nodded and followed them into the ship.

Escorting me to pilots room, two of aviators left me alone with Captain Jone, Jone stared at me with serious expression and worry in the same time.

"Sparrow you okay? Where are the others?"

In worried tone Jone asked, losing fourteen men is no small deal especially losing such force made to scout enemy infected area. Everyone inside the group had some special or unique ability or talent to be chosen for such dangerous and important feat of scouting in such distance. 

"Captain Jone i am okay but rest of the crew died during elven attack."

Jone's eyes widened and his usual firm and positive stance turned into defeated and saddened, depressed for losing fourteen of his men he sat down on pilot's chair and turned back to me. Waiting for me to continue my report i didn't want to take any longer and managed to speak once again.

My explanation continued and at each phase of event his shocked expression became bigger and bigger. Hearing about Ferdal's betrayal and murder of his men made him angry, out of anger Jone slammed his fist on the table and cursed loudly. He looked back at me and listened further to my words.

"And i managed to kill Ferdal in the end, getting crystal from his corpse at the end."

He seemed surprised for a second and quickly looked at me with doubting looks, crossing his arms he leaned over the table.

"Sparrow i don't doubt you, you are if not the best aviator out of all of us. But i know that you lack magic and overall combat abilities to fight Ferdal so please explain to me how did you manage to kill such powerful man?"

Expecting such question it seemed like i couldn't hide the truth about Aether from Jone, resisting at first i looked at Jone's eyes.

"I awakened magic before my battle with him, but Captain i need you not to reveal that information to anyone."

Looking at me shockingly Jone seemed to doubt me at first but soon after that saw my seriousness.

"Even if i don't know why do you want such feat to be hidden, i won't tell a soul about it. Report will say that Ferdal died during the combat with elves like rest of them and that you survived by acting dead."

With that he dismissed me and sent me out of pilot's room, relieved with outcome i thanked God for letting me live despite many attempts of death claiming me. Suddenly my stomach made aching sound as i haven't eaten anything in past three days, deciding it would be best for me to eat i made my way towards dinning area.