Chapter 28
"What happened afterwards?"
"It went through ten villages, but it burned down every village. Soon, the Adventurer's Guild issued a wanted order, seeking this arsonist. Many adventurers came to catch it. It was very timid and scared, running everywhere. But its temperature was too high, and all the plants withered wherever it passed. Adventurers could easily find it by following the withered traces."
Sylas unexpectedly started crying, "Flem is so pitiful, so pitiful! What will happen to it? Will it be killed?"
Xerath was momentarily stunned, then realized that the fictional story of Flem, the Fire Child, had triggered her own painful memories. She pulled Sylas into her arms, patting the little girl's back while flipping through the pages, "Don't worry, Flem later found a safe job. No one wants to kill it."
"Can it become a chef?"
"No, in the end, it chose to become a blacksmith and work in the forge. It partnered with Earth Child Terry and opened a successful blacksmith shop. Its swords and daggers became famous far and wide, even the dwarves came to learn from it."
"That's... great..." Sylas finally sighed with relief, holding onto the Archmage's robes and closing her eyes. Xerath gently touched her smooth hair, "This story isn't quite finished yet. Do you want to hear the next one or listen to the part we skipped earlier?"
However, Sylas didn't respond. The Archmage looked down and saw that the little girl had already fallen into a peaceful sleep. He shrugged his shoulders, skimmed through the next story, and decided what to tell tomorrow. Then, he gently took back his robes from Sylas's grip.
The night passed peacefully, and even the next morning when she went to wake up Sylas, the girl was still fast asleep.
The matter was finally resolved properly, and the archmage was finally able to get a full night's sleep.
Xerath's experiment also went unexpectedly smoothly. One reason was that her "spell generator" operated smoothly, and the data fell within her expected range. There were no major mistakes in the analysis.
Of course, the main reason was good communication with Sylas. Xerath got the desired experimental data, and Sylas was free to play. Except for a few accidents where intense experiments caused splashing water, their collaboration was very enjoyable.
During the data analysis, Xerath came up with many new ideas. However, the agreed-upon month had passed, and Virgil didn't come back as promised. She wasn't worried; this month wasn't as difficult as the previous one.
Most of the time, she lived according to her schedule, but with some changes. She had more time to play with Sylas at night and had to answer her questions. When the wind blew, Sylas often looked outside, and at these times, Xerath would bring her little elemental envoy, who had a fondness for the wilderness, to the rarely used terrace to watch the storm together. During this time, she would have many things to say to Sylas.
It might be a long history or a series of classic theories, but the whole storm always accompanied her quiet murmurs.
Most of the time, Sylas might not understand, and her expression was confused but thoughtful. Maybe many of the words were new to her, but Xerath probably just needed someone to talk to.
There was once a paper written by an elven scholar studying human behavior that pointed out that human women need to speak around 20,000 words a day, while human men only need 7,000 words. It was probably this chatter that saved her from the loneliness.
Everything was going according to plan, except that Virgil didn't show up after the agreed-upon month.
About five more days passed, and the magic circle at the bottom of the tower was activated. The magic circle was like a lock, and only the correct way to unlock it would allow passage through. The tremor undoubtedly meant that the lock had been opened.
Besides Virgil, no one else would come to this boring and dull place. Xerath signaled Sylas to stop and said to her, "Sylas, Virgil is here. Do you want to come with me to meet him, or stay here and continue playing?"
When Sylas heard the name "Virgil," she still showed fear. But obviously, being with Xerath had a great attraction for her. She let go of all the elements, allowing them to return to chaos, and crossed the barrier, reaching out to grab Xerath's robe.
Xerath had seen expressions of admiration, envy, and admiration before, but this light and vibrant green washed away all emotions and made everything seem pure and clean. Rationally, Xerath understood that it was just her own subjective illusion, and the reason was simply because she knew very well that Sylas had no other purpose in getting close to her.
But it was just admiration, envy, and the inherent human nature of wanting to catch her attention.
She held Sylas's hand, which was small, soft, and dry. Sylas's hand had distinct and strong bones, as if she were truly a young beast.
The strength in the small hand conveyed a clear sense of tension, holding onto her until they faced Virgil directly.
Virgil's cloak and bow were already hanging on the coat rack, and he was playing with a strange creature in his hand. When he heard footsteps, he turned around and said with a smile, "Well, old friend, long time no see. I'm really sorry for being late, but you have to believe that it was well worth the wait."
"Are you planning to surprise me, Virgil?"
"Never mind that, you get along well with the little beast, huh?"
"Kind of."
Virgil wore a thick leather armor on his arm, with a semi-transparent falcon perched on top. The falcon wore a strange helmet on its head. Virgil raised his arm, and the falcon spread its wings, flapping twice, but didn't take off.
"Doesn't it look familiar! Shamodial's soul didn't go far. A kind of shaman witchcraft extracted its soul from its body, leaving it in the real world. It's now a messenger that doesn't need to eat meat. Awesome, right?"
Xerath walked over and tried to touch the bird. The bird seemed eager to get close to her, but unfortunately, her hand passed through its ethereal form.
This is hard to imagine, because the bird is clearly standing on Virgil's arm.
Virgil introduced with a smile, "You have to touch its helmet first, causing some kind of blur. That way, you and it are actually in the same dimension. You have to do this when delivering messages too." Xerath then touched the helmet and was able to touch the bird of prey.
"Will Shamodial... remember us?"
Of course, what I mean is, maybe. After all, the soul was not immediately extracted upon death, so it's possible it will forget some things.
