Episode 124 – Ashes (1/2)

Episode 124 – Ashes

Previously:

While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament She re staircase clih the reen valley filled ildlife and ruins of a village They decide to take one day off to recuperate Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins

Her breath hitched as she was kicked out of her revery by a flaw inside an exquisitely carved pillar

The sense granted to her by her Morph spell detected an anomaly An object stuck inside the stone

So inside the pillar!

Half curious, half excited, she pushed the object out of the stone pillar with her own Morph, doing her utinal shape of the pillar Luckily, she was a ard so even after the object had been pushed out, the pillar re was a that she hadn’t ruined the exquisite piece of architecture, did Nelaira look doards the object in her hand that had previously been hidden inside the pillar

It was a well preserved leather-bound booklet with no title on the cover There were fleeting signs of mana on it, as if it used to be enchanted, but the enchant run out of mana and evaporated

Curious, Nelaira flipped the book open gently, afraid that the wheels of tih it outwardly looked fine Fortunately, the inside was just as well preserved as the outside, no doubt being stuck inside a stone pillar helped

The book flipped open to the middle, to the position of a red silk booke was filled with runes written in awritten in haste

Nelaira could tell at first glance that the booklet was a diary because of how every entry had a date on the upper right corner She sle: “Zel would be thrilled! While other people drea diaries”

Unlike her, as only interested in the architecture and sculpture, her fiancé was interested in culture and knowledge of the ancient civilizations That’s why the best treat he could find in his exploration was a diary filled with randolis at the tie Wars, it would most commonly contain some kind of research notes on various subjects that could be potentially extree had been lost during the Wars

However,the Great Mage Wars, and besides the historical value, they didn’t contain e Wars, people orried that every day could be their last Therefore, everyone wished to leave a part of themselves behind in case of their death Thus, they wrote and left many diaries behind

Nelaira stashed the diary carefully in her bag, ilimmer in the eyes of her other half when she returned with this little diary He’d be so sorry he hadn’t gone with her on this expedition

She was right What her fiancé would regret theon this expedition with her

Nelaira proceeded onwards, not putting a second thought on the matter why the diary was hidden inside a pillar, after all, diaries contained private thoughts, it was only natural that the oould hide it

She continued her exploration, completely unaware that this little book was neither of the things she expected it to be Blissfully unaware of the staggering price she and her co booklet

Unaware, that she limmer in the eyes of her fiancé…

While Nelaira was looking left and right at the architecture, Luki was busy looking for medicinal herbs Usually, he would ask either Nelaira, the redhead or her husband, to escort him around, since he was on closest ter, and the two lovebirds wanted so with the coreen crew cut

Luki was fully focused on his work, hopping around excitedly and picking various herbs Then, like a wo, he would fill the ar around, looking for more “merchandise”

His escort looked at hi

The pink haired elibu went through most of the nearby e where he noticed a variety of interesting specireenery that nized it as Silver properties, especially effective against swellings, burns, bites and irritated skin

Luki checked the surrounding grass for snakes or spiders, and upon not finding anything dangerous he squatted down to pick it

Underneath the bluish grass was the actual root Silver and thin silver carrot that just kept growing longer, burrowing deeper into the earth Luki had to dig deep to be able to pull it out Luckily, he could ed to pull it out, careful not to dae it in the process

Luki intended to cast a Cleansing to remove the dirt from the root, but upon closer inspection, he realized that only the upper half of the root was contaer across the lower half of the root and brought it up to his eye level There was no soil on the root, rather, there was soray dust

The pink haired healer looked back down into the hole he had created and widened it to reveal the soil in which the root had been growing The upper layers of earth were normal brown soil, however, around two feet in, the soil becaray

Luki’s heart almost jumped out of his chest, worried that he had inadvertently come into contact with Ink But after the initial scare, he realized that it couldn’t be Ink If it were, the Silvermoon Root which was in contact with it would have withered away, followed by every other plant here

Ink spread so fast it was visible to the naked eye It was just like dripping a drop of black ink into clear water The black tendrils would spread in all directions until the clear water turned dark This behavior and its black appearance was probably why the scourge had been named Ink in the first place

Still, he couldn’t help but feel curious If it wasn’t Ink, as this soil gray?

As he dug deeper, he soon realized why