Chapter 164 Spirit Crystals (1/2)
Snowcloud turned her eyes to the thirty or so bodies that lay scattered across the grass, as if to confirm that they were really dead After a moment, she looked up and faced Arran
”They're Eidaran priests,” she said ”They were pursuing me because I took a spirit crystal”
”Priests?” Arran frowned ”The ion are priests?”
”Not all of thees But from what I learned, the core of the Eidaran priesthood consists of ic Or, at least, they did until the empire fell”
”So how do the spirits crystals fit into that?”
”Spirit crystals are how the Eidaran priesthood uses es open their own Realiven a spirit crystal when they are deemed worthy, and the spirit crystal is what allows theth as they use it When they die, the spirit crystal gets passed on to another priest”
At once, Arran's eyes shot toward the dead priests ”Can we use their spirit crystals?” he asked, i the possibilities
Snowcloud shook her head in response ”Not without years of preparation, and even then, you wouldn't want to The priests use spirit crystals to quickly reach the level of their forebears, but after that, further progress is nearly iic”
Arran ly face ”Then why use theed ”And before the fall of their empire, they had plenty of powerful spirit crystals But the strongest priests perished in the civil war, and their spirit crystals were destroyed with them When you killed the ones ere after me, you may have snuffed out the Eidaran priesthood's last hope of survival”
Arran glanced at the bodies Onceconsequences ”Why were they after you?”
Snowcloud let out a sigh ”I proe for a spirit crystal That's why I was gone so long — I spent ic”
”I take it the deal didn't work out?”
Snowcloud gave him a wry s their side of the bargain and giving me a spirit crystal, I took one frohed once more ”I didn't expect the entire monastery to cohtful look on his face ”Froenerations of future priests”
She nodded ”I know But I was desperate, and I thought they wouldn't send uess it all worked out in the end,” Arran replied sih he wanted to chastise Snowcloud for her recklessness, he kneas hardly in a position to do so Just es based only on an untested belief that their h to seriously harm him
”I've told you my part, now it's your turn,” Snowcloud said ”I want to hear just what happened to you in the city that allowed you to do… this” She gestured at the bodies that were sprawled across the ground
”It's a long story…” Arran began