The vestige of Erin’s drunken state eventually bade its farewell right around the beckoning of noon. In the drunken vestige’s stead, Erin was left with a slight throbbing ache in her head but it wasn’t bad as the torment of her drunken vestige. Lyra had returned then with some food along with Celia who was sucking meekly on a red hawthorn candy, painting her own lips bright red. Erin wasn’t starving but she was still grateful for the toasted bread Lyra had bought for her. It wasn’t just any toasted bread. It was made from Elven wheat, which was once considered a luxury but after the Elves mass produced it, it became one of the staple foods among commoners. It would be a shame if she ate it now so she decided to keep the bread for later when her belly growled.

As much as Erin loved to spend some time with Lyra and Celia, she had her magic lesson to attend to. Magic was hard but difficulties were to be expected. After all, Erin’s sword skills did not arrive to this stage without any hardships. The challenges were part of the lessons, as how Erin perceived it. When she told the two that she had to take her leave, Celia clung onto her hard. The little girl finally relented when Erin patted her head with her tails, with much difficulty but it made for good training for her tails. Erin was getting good at using her tails and Lyra never ceased to remind her during their nightly session.

“Come back early, okay?” Celia held out her pinky finger.

Erin hooked it with her own. “Of course, Celia.”

From the most subtle gestures to her big movements, Celia always somehow managed to tug on her and Lyra’s heartstring. Erin thought it to be deliberate but she brushed it off as her own imagination.

Noticing the sun rising to the zenith, Erin knew she was going to be late if she didn’t move now. Washing herself up with a bowl of hot water, she rushed out of the inn after giving her tails some quick grooming. She had not enjoyed it at first but slowly, she became dependent on it. She enjoyed the feeling so much that she even hugged her tails sometimes in her sleep, a fact told by Lyra and something that Erin coerced and sworn her into silence about.

The sun greeted her in full glow but the same energy couldn’t be returned by Erin who only winced against the blinding light. It was another thing that she came to realize just recently, morning did not agree with her new body. She didn’t have any troubles for the first week but down the line, it was getting harder for her to leave the comforts of her bed. Unlike her former body, she needed a lot of effort and motivation to just make body leave the bed. However, she became livelier at night and it was also the time her lust would surface, almost as if she had become nocturnal.

“Maybe this is why I always managed to keep going until the beckon of dawn?” such thoughts had crossed her mind repeatedly.

Realizing she was chasing tails with her own thoughts, she shoved those into the corner of her mind and hastened her paste the appointed spot for her magic lesson with Nivia.

****

Lightning spilled for her palm and traveled in an erratic path before clashing into the straw dummy, turning the target into charred remains and leaving trails of fire and cinder in its wake. Even so, the destruction was minimal and not spread beyond the expected range. A ground of only dirt and soil for yards and the grass present was all at the final stage of their lives. There was no risk of any fire catching.

Nivia, who was watching the display, gave a huge clap. “Well done, Erin,” she praised. “You managed to conjure a solid attack spell without even a week’s worth of training. You’re extremely talented even among us Fae.”

The Fox-kin herself offered a weary smile in response before falling onto her knees. That spell just now was the lowest tier among all of the offensive spells in Lightning Magic, Lightning Bolt, but it was one that was cast with almost all of Erin’s Mana poured into it.

“Next subject, Spirit Magic.”

Erin muttered a groan.

“It’s difficult, I know, but it’s essential.”

Spirit Magic was hard to acquire and master. Erin had eight levels worth of advantage when it came to the lessons but she came to know there were still mountains to learn. Even so, Spirit Magic was not to be neglected. It was versatile and the pride of every Fae.

As for Lightning Magic, the difficulty lay on a different level. It was hard to obtain and harder to wield once learned. Lightning was volatile by nature and among the five basic magic elements of fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning, lightning took the first place in being the most dangerous spell to learn. Incredibly and equally destructive to both the caster itself and the caster’s targets. Erin paled when she was told of this only now.

“I have utter faith in you, my dear Erin,” Nivia said when she received a glare from the panting Erin. “You have already exceeded the standards of the average Fae. I’m sure in due time, learning another spell of Spirit Magic will be like cutting cake, as humans tend to say.”

“What if I failed?”

“You survived the onslaught of Ghouls and you fought and won against a foul creature levels above you. And that spell just now is solid. Your failure is highly unlikely.”

“Unlikely but not impossible,” Erin grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet. She looked at her palm with scrutiny. It was slightly charred but that was the extent of her injuries in using Lightning Bolt. “I burnt my hand a little, I wouldn’t call this solid.”

“Well, there’s a reason I didn’t call it perfect.” Nivia approached Erin and grabbed her hand. “You did good, Erin,” she said and cast Spirit Mend on Erin’s palm, healing her small wound.

Erin couldn’t help but be envious of how insignificant the Mana consumption of Spirit Mend was to Nivia.

“Your conjuration still needs some practice,” Nivia remarked. “You put yourself too vulnerable for attacks when you’re conjuring a spell.”

“I know,” Erin muttered softly.

One of the requirements for efficient spell casting was having a clear mental image of the spell itself, something Erin found it hard to execute in combat. Due to her high affinity with Spirit Magic, she didn’t have much trouble with it but for Lightning Magic, casting Lightning Bolt left herself in a defenseless state for a duration longer than desired. Also, Spirit Magic was easier to use because she could and had often seen Spirits with Spirit Sight but the only times she could witness lightning was during a storm. Even in her past life, she couldn’t remember the last time she fought anyone who used lightning as their means of assault.

The crimson lightning from the Dire Wolf, the bandit, and the Wight was different. It was no normal Lightning Magic like the one she used. It wasn’t even entirely lightning at all. Using that as an image proved to be no help in assisting her conjuration. Still, in spite of this hurdle, she was praised by Nivia for being more talented than the other talented ones.

“Shall we take a break first?” Nivia suggested.

Erin nodded. Those words felt like a godsend. Training with magic was more tiring than training with swords. It exhausted her both physically and mentally unlike with swords, it was just physically for most times. She wasn’t starving minutes ago but upon using up most of her Mana in that last spell, her stomach had never felt emptier. They both moved to a lonely old tree in this vast ground of dry soil and dirt. They took their seats by the bulging roots.

Erin had the Elven bread Lyra bought for her late lunch while Nivia had a sandwich with only tomato slices and lettuces. Erin was baffled at first on how Nivia could be full just from this meagre amount of food but after knowing the peculiarities of Fae, she rested her case.

“About Celia, what do you intend to do about her?” Nivia asked after taking the first bite of her sandwich.

“Hmm?” Erin mumbled as she chewed on her first bite. After swallowing, she responded. “Taking her with me, I guess?”

“Surely you’re not expecting to have her around you at every moment,” Nivia said. “You’re an adventurer. She can’t exactly follow you everywhere. She’s young. She needs to familiarize herself with words more. She also needs to learn something and what can you teach her that is good for her age?”

Erin didn’t have an answer. The only thing that she was qualified to teach was how to wield a sword and it wasn’t something she wanted for Celia, especially given what she had gone through.

“There is a Ruvan Temple in Maven’s Creek. It’s also a home for the children without parents or guardians.”

“An orphanage?”

“Yes,” Nivia nodded. “She can learn much there. They also have the necessary health care she needs.”

“Sounds too good to be true. And I have heard unpleasant rumors about Ruvan from relatively reliable people.”

“I have the same doubts but from what I have heard, they are true to their claims as being a sanctuary. There actually had been people who tried to take advantage of the temple but they were quickly unrooted by the paladins. The church as a whole doesn't take too kindly to corruption. Since then, no one even dared to hold thoughts about desecrating the sacred ground.”

While Erin knew Nivia wouldn’t lie to her, the same couldn’t be said about rumors and most of all, religion. In her past life, she did not have a single good memory about religion. It was always the same tune and melody. The clergymen took advantage of the people’s blind faith and used it for their own goals, most of them which were even unholier than the dark beings they vowed to destroy. And Ruvanian was the largest faith in the west and if she had learned anything from her history and experience, the bigger an organization was, the more corrupted it was likely to be. Be that as it may, Erin knew she couldn’t have Celia with her all the time considering her profession.

“If it’s any reassuring, this information comes from the nun who resides in the church.”

Erin raised her eyebrows. “A nun? How do you come to know a nun, a Ruvan nun no less.”

Nivia only smiled at Erin's question. “The nun’s name is Saphielle of Willowglade.”

“Willowglade...” Erin repeated the Elf’s word in a mutter. “Is she perhaps—”

“Yes, she’s an Elf too.”

“An Elf, working as a Ruvan nun?” Erin remembered what she was told. Ruvanian was prejudicial towards races other than humans but an Elf was serving as a nun there. “How’s that possible?”

“As much as they have an unnatural obsession with their prejudicial view towards Demi-humans, they are not fools. Spirits played a huge part in maintaining the world in ways we would never understand, or so that’s how the story goes. Spirits are one of the main factors in getting a good harvest. Having a terrible relationship with the Faerie-kin is something no country or faction would ever wish for unless you’re the empire.”

“The empire?”

“The Corven Empire. The largest nation ever existed. The empire itself comprises a whole continent, one that is as big as Evarenan. Some say the empire is even bigger.”

“How’s the military?” For the duel-loving Erin, she really needed to know this. ”They’re strong too in addition to their numbers?”

Nivia shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure except the empire itself. But given that they managed to not let much of their information known to the outside, that says plenty of the nation’s capabilities. There are even rumors about the Empire having an agent in every part of the world.”

“And do you believe that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Nivia said as she finished her sandwich. “As long as they do not wrong the Fae, whatever they’re up to, it is no business of mine or our people. We put our people first before the affairs of the others.”

Erin nodded in agreement. “Politics and war, they never change,” Erin mused in her heart. She was involved in politics in her past life but at most, she had only plunged her hands into the pond. Even then, she could see the chaos that was overflowing from within. If even a mere sight could offer so much headache, she couldn’t begin to imagine the outcome had she committed herself to a faction. To her, taking a side in politics was the same as telling herself which lie she willing to be ignorant to.

“We’re going off the trail here,” Nivia remarked. “So, what do you think?”

Erin smiled wryly. “I think I’ll have to see it for myself to be sure.”

Nivia returned the smile. “That’s the Erin I know. Come on, let’s resume the lesson,” she said as stood up, patting herself of the crumbs on her laps and the dust on her posterior.

Erin skipped the last two bites and threw the whole remaining bread into her mouth.

Nivia sighed at the sight but she had long accepted it as a quirk of Erin. Moreover, Erin’s swollen cheeks from stuffing her mouth full was a really endearing sight. Nivia had to hold herself back from pinching those cheeks.

The Elf’s smile vanished when she noticed a bird with a tail in the shape of a “v” swooping down at them.

“A swallow?” Erin mused in confusion. It wasn’t just some normal swallow. The swallow was not of flesh and feathers but a creature of pure cyan luminosity. She appraised it and found out it was actually a spell of Spirit Magic; Familiar Summoning.

The swallow flew into Nivia’s extended arm before disappearing into thin air and leaving a rolled-up parchment falling into her open palm. A wrinkle appeared on her brows when she noticed the red ribbon wrapped on the small parchment. She quickly unwrapped the parchment and read the contents thoroughly.

Nivia paled after she finished reading the content.

“What’s wrong?” Erin asked worriedly.

“It’s from Saphielle,” Nivia said. “There was a… rumor among the Ruvan clergies in Maven’s Creek. Azaela is one of the paladins sent by the main temple to investigate the dark ritual their Seers had picked up in Green Scar.”

Erin had a bad feeling when she noticed the faint twitch in her expression. “Who is this Azaela?” she asked.

“Someone that I don’t want you to know or meet, but of course, that’s not very likely considering your predisposition towards troubles.”

“Why? Is she dangerous?”

“Dangerous if she sees you as an enemy but that’s not the cause of my worries.”

Erin waited for Nivia to continue.

“I do not know of her personally but she is quite a popular topic, even among the Fae. From these stories I have heard, she’s the most uncompromising person I have ever heard about. And the greatest rumors surrounding her was that if it wasn’t for her oath sworn to Ruvanian, she would have been the Sword Saint instead. And I know you’re enthusiastic with swords.”

And Nivia wasn’t wrong. Erin’s interest was piqued to its heights when she heard that, but it wasn’t like she just stopped using her head altogether. As much as she wanted to meet this Azaela, she knew it would be the most foolish thing to do. Azalea was essentially a recipe for disaster from what Nivia had told her.

“If you were to encounter her, don’t even try,” Nivia warned.

“I won’t,” Erin answered.

Nivia rolled her eyes back. “Erin, your grin.”

It was only after Nivia pointed it out, Erin realized how she had a grin this whole time after knowing she was a contender for the Sword Saint title.

“Erin, I forbid you to approach her, if you can help it,” Nivia told her off.

Given what had happened so far, Erin could only retort, “no promises.”