Chapter 295 Ho (2/2)
A quick search through his void ring confirmed Arran's fears None of the food he carried had survived the years — centuries, most likely — he had spent in the Shadow Real that contained Natural Essence were Panurge's bottles of wine
While he'd traded most of the ones he'd received to Lord Sevaril, about a hundred of the bottles still re had withered away, the as still rich in Natural Essence — though considerably less so than the dragon ifts, Arran gave the wine a thorough inspection using his er, but he was surprised to find that the Natural Essence it contained was subtly different from that around him
It reminded him of the difference between his own Shadow Essence and that which he had encountered in the Shadow Realh the tere alht disparity between them — as if they'd come from different sources
The discovery caused Arran to frown in wonder, as he realized that the wine must have come from another world than his own And if that was the case, the sae hied, then put thewas that the as safe to drink, and that it would allow hith
He spent the week that followed drinking up al the Natural Essence within He left a few bottles in reserve for eth as quickly as possible was his foremost task, and it was one that could not wait
The wine allowed his body to recover soh not as on nored if he had any alternatives But he didn't, and so, he settled for the wine
The week passed with little sign from his sword, which didn't surprise Arran His own Sense had been overwhelh the portal, and the sword's Sense wasof which he wasn't certain — it would need ti was that there was no sign of change to the portal, either By now, many years would already have passed in the Shadow Real to fear that Karanos had failed
If that was the case, the task of closing the portal would fall to Arran And so far, he had not even the slightest idea of how to do that
He gave the ht, then decided to head to the city in the upper cavern Karanos had said there were three books ae's notes about the Shadow Realm
Arran doubted the notes would be of much use, but they were the best lead he had Or rather, the only lead — because other than Karanos's notes, he had no idea where he could even begin to look for answers about the portal
Unwilling to leave the portal unattended for long, he quickly left the spherical chah the caverns to the city above
The caverns were exactly as he remembered them — filled with treasures that were discarded like trash, and without any sign of unwelcoround city, he found hirown accustoain, but it was still incomparably sharper than it had been before
And with his sharpened Sense, Arran no that the city was even e — than he had previously realized Sprawling across s held an alien beauty, as if they had been designed by people with an aesthetic wholly different froeness of the city caused him to wonder whether its builders had perhaps coh the portal when they realized their oorld was falling to a flood of Shadow Essence
Perhaps they had even been the ones who created the portal in the first place — a path of escape they built once they knew their world was doomed
These were possibilities Karanos had not mentioned, but ones Arran could not reject And if there was any truth to them, it meant that the Shadow Realht still live in this world
Yet Arran had no way to confirm or refute these speculations, and after a few ht, he put theh the ancient city, hurrying back to Karanos's old quarters There, he would find the e's notes — and, hopefully, some answers to the many questions he still had