Chương 18: Chapter 17 - Varrin's Blessed Basics Course and Lorelle's Genial Geography Class

Morning came slowly. The sun stitched itself through the forest canopy as cold, eerie mist curled low over the ground, clinging to roots and fallen leaves. Ren was already awake when others stirred, sitting outside the shelter, his eyes lazily tracing the way the fog shifted with the winter breeze. Sleep had been near impossible with his back propped against the roots of the sheltered nook, and even when it did come, it never lasted long.

He hadn't dared move much either, not wanting to accidentally wake Lorelle, who was curled up against his side. Earlier in the night, Varrin had woken Elowen for the watch after his own, even though Ren had offered to take it instead, seeing as he was already awake. The silver-haired boy hadn't been shy about admitting he simply wanted the larger sleeping space Elowen had been using all to himself, but the regal had said it was fine, so Ren let the matter go.

Then, just as he'd finally begun to drift off again, it was suddenly his turn to keep watch. Tired as he was, the general creepiness of the forest was more than enough to keep him awake and alert, so much so that he ended up taking Lorelle's watch onto himself as well, not wanting to wake the young Firekeeper after all that she'd been through. Something shifted from within the sheltered nook and Ren turned to see Varrin climbing out.

"Ahhh~ what a good nights sleep," the silver-haired boy proclaimed, not even sparing Ren a glance as he stretched.

"A shame there isn't any of that jackalope meat left, that was nice. What do you think the chances of running into another one is—woah, what happened to you?" Varrin stopped short and gave Ren an alarmed look when he finally turned around, seeing the ruined, blood and dirt caked tunic, as well as the blood-stained bandages that were clearly visible through the large holes in the shirt.

"A hobgoblin happened," Ren said, raising the dull cleaver slightly.

"But don't worry, it's healing slowly." [Accelerated Regeneration] was still working away tirelessly now, just as it had all throughout the night, leaving the wound feeling more than a little itchy.

"Whatever you say..." Varrin responded, eyeing him up and down.

"Just don't let it get infected. Cause I'm not going to carry you around after you get sick. In fact, why don't you just ask Lorelle to heal it?"

"Ask me to heal what?" Both Ren and Varrin turned to see the young Firekeeper climbing out of the sheltered nook as well. Lorelle straightened up and stretched, arms reaching high above her head as a small, sleepy sound escaped her, before she set about dusting the dirt clinging to her clergy robes. The silver mask on her face was slightly askew from the night's rest, and she reached up to adjust it back into place, the polished surface catching the pale morning light that filtered through the trees.

"Who needs healing?" she repeated with a warm smile. Varrin pointed at Ren, who got to his feet.

"He does." Lorelle looked at him before quickly pulling a hand over her mouth to cover a gasp.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I can't believe I didn't notice sooner!" As she jogged over, white motes appeared and coalesced behind her head, forming the lantern Ren had first seen her with. Once she reached him, the young Firekeeper extended her hands and pursed her lips in concentration. Her lantern flared slightly, and a soothing sensation spread outward through his shoulder.

"Thank you," Ren said sincerely.' Maybe a healer of some kind would be the best soul to shepherd first? That way I can be more reckless in my efforts to get back if I knew I could just get healed right after!'

"I'm sorry," Lorelle repeated as he felt his wound begin to close.

"Normally I can easily see when someone is hurt, even more so because of my Soul Power, but since everyone was so close the fire and so close together, my vision was kind of hazy." She shook her head.

"But that's no excuse. It's a Firekeeper's first and foremost responsibility to look after the Eternal Flame's children."

"There's no need to apologise," Ren assured quickly, "you went through so much so quickly, it's only natural." Truthfully, the thought of asking Lorelle to heal him hadn't so much as crossed his mind. Between the gnawing hunger, catching and cooking the jackalope, and reuniting with Varrin and Lorelle before falling asleep almost immediately after, there simply hadn't been room for it. And with his trust in [Accelerated Regeneration] to handle all the hard work, the idea had never occurred to him at all.

"How exactly do you see, anyway?" Ren said, changing the subject. It was a genuine question, one he'd been wondering about for a while now. Just beyond the two of them, Varrin drew his broadsword and began to flow through a set of movements, each step forcing the mist at his feet to swirl and billow. Ren watched the silver-haired boy with open admiration, while beside him Lorelle smiled.

"The answer is simple," she said, moving her hands, and the soothing sensation with them, up his shoulder.

"Even though the mask covers my eyes, it doesn't take my vision away entirely. Instead, it lets me see the heat of every living thing's inner flame. Everything has at least a small part of the Eternal Flame's grace within it after all, even the rocks and trees around us."

"We do it this way to honour the very first Firekeeper, Lady Gwynevire," Lorelle continued, her warm smile never wavering.

"Oh! Did you know that a thousand years ago, the church used to gouge out a new Firekeeper's eyes to prove their devotion? I'm very glad we don't do that anymore." She laughed at her own grim fact, the light and melodic sound filling the small camp. Ren couldn't help but smile at it, and he opened his mouth to respond, when he suddenly spotted something that made his skin crawl. Not far from where Varrin was swinging his sword, a figure peeked out from behind a tree.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. It stood with a tall frame swaddled in an oversized black cloak that swallowed nearly every feature below its chin. The garment hung straight to the ground, its ends dripping with a sort of black sludge and its surface devoid of any decoration. Nothing beneath the cloak suggested the shape of a body either. Its face was wrong too. Or perhaps it was a mask, Ren couldn't tell.

Completely smooth and pale white, it lacked every feature one instinctively searched for. No eyes, no nose, only an unnaturally broad grin stretched across the blank oval of its face, exposing rows of perfectly square teeth that looked more carved than grown. The smile never shifted in the heartbeat Ren stared at it, as though it had been etched into porcelain rather than flesh. What was worse was the thing surrounding the figure.

Behind it coiled a colossal black appendage, thick as the surrounding tree trunks, arching overhead like the body of some sort of serpent and dripping with the same black sludge as its cloak. Its form twisted and folded into itself in a slow, fluid motion, and at its end was the same grin that was painted onto the figure's mask-like face. The instant Ren blinked, the figure disappeared, but that didn't stop the fear from rushing into him.

"Look out!" he yelled, pulling Lorelle aside and stepping in front of her, his dull cleaver raised. The young Firekeeper yelped in surprise, and Varrin reacted at once, breaking off his set of movements and dropping into a defensive stance. A few moments passed as the three of them faced the direction Ren was staring, the eerie forest's mist swirling around at their feet.

"What exactly are we looking out for?" Varrin asked carefully, back-stepping toward Ren.

"I saw a person," Ren said, glancing wildly at the trees around them, trying to spot the figure again but finding nothing.

"At least I think I did."

"Another person?" Lorelle asked.

"But that's impossible Ren. I don't see any creature's inner flame besides us four."

"Could they be invisible?" Ren said, already doubting if he saw the figure or not.

"Or hiding from your sight somehow?" The young Firekeeper shook her head.

"The only way to hide your inner flame would be in death." Varrin sighed and sheathed his broadsword.

"Don't go yelling false alarms like that again," he said, just as Elowen popped her head our of the sheltered nook.

"This forest puts me on edge enough..."

"What happened?' the regal elf asked, her blue hair catching the thin rays of sunlight as she climbed out from where she was sleeping.

"Did a monster attack?"

"Nothing so exciting," Varrin assured, gesturing towards Ren.

"He's just seeing things that aren't there."

"Let's get out of this forest and continue forward now that the princess is up." Elowen looked at Ren quizzically, but he could only shrug.' This creepy forest is just playing tricks on me,' he decided. The party of four moved quickly after that, smothering the fire with dirt and erasing what signs of their night's stay they could before setting off toward the sound of the rushing river.

They still had no way to cross it here, and would need to make their way to the spot Varrin and Lorelle had used the day before to do so safely. But the sky was a clear, cloudless blue, and the sun shone brightly overhead. Save for the thin whispers of smoke still rising from the ruined village in the distance, all was well. Lorelle inhaled a deep breath of the cool winter air once they reached the river's shore again.

"Ahh~" she sighed happily as the party began walking.

"I didn't believe it before, but the Great Forest really is as creepy and as suffocating as they say."

"The Great Forest?" Ren asked, though he could already guess what forest she meant.

"The one we just left, silly!" Lorelle teased happily.

"And we were only on the outskirts, too. Apparently it gets a whole lot creepier the further in you go."

"The people back in Southwood used to tell all sorts of stories about it," she continued, her tone growing exaggerated and theatrical.

"How it's positively crawling with monsters, how there's a Faery Queen slumbering somewhere deep within, and how Pyreridge Bastion itself was built to keep her from ever leaving the valley."

"What's funny is that it's called the Great Forest because it makes up most of Pyreridge Valley, but it's not even close to the biggest forest in all of Aetira! That honour goes to the Wildes, which is something like five times the size of the Great Forest." Lorelle paused, then added sheepishly, "Or so a wandering Scholar told me once, anyway." Elowen was the first to comment on the fantastical tale, latching on to the bit that stuck out most to her.

"A Faery Queen?" the regal elf said, her pointed ears twitching excitedly.

"I've read about them a whole bunch! I've wanted to see one myself, ever since I was a child."

"Southwood?" Varrin asked, interrupting the young Firekeeper before she could respond.

"Was that the name of your village? For being south of the Great Forest? How creative."

"Well, it's not like I named it," Lorelle laughed lightly, only to turn sombre a moment later as she looked toward the thin lines of smoke rising in the distance behind them. The winter breeze blew between the party, and Ren felt every single bit of the cold through his ruined tunic, making him shiver.

"It would be nice if clothes could just… fix themselves," he muttered as he rubbed his arms vigorously.

"Wouldn't it?"

"You probably don't know this," Varrin said casually, not even looking back at him, "but if you get a clothing or armour-type Soul Attunement, it will repair itself inside your soul using your Soul Essence."

"…What?" Ren said, getting excited.

"That's great! How would I go about getting one of those Soul Attunements then?" The silver-haired boy glance over his shoulder.

"There are three main ways." Ren gave him his full, undivided attention.

"First is the natural way," Varrin continued.

"If you have an item you're deeply attached to, repeated exposure to your Soul Essence can cause it to awaken. The stronger the attachment, the higher its rank will be, and the abilities will depend on what the item meant to you." Ren found his gaze drifting to the bracelet on his wrist while the explanations continued.

"Second way is to craft them. Very rare Blessed have Soul Powers that allow them to forcibly awaken items. They're called Artificers." Varrin nodded toward Elowen.

"Abilities depend on intent and skill of the Artificer when they crafted the Attunement, while the rank depends on their skill as well as the materials they used."

"The Sword of Aelcryth was crafted for me by House Aelcryth's Artificer," the regal elf said proudly.

"And the third is the most common," the silver-haired boy continued.

"It's getting lucky when consuming a Soul Core, sometimes the deceased's Attunements form within it."

"Or you could just buy them from someone I guess, but they're usually very expensive." Ren nodded in understanding before turning to Elowen.

"You must have tons of good Soul Attunements then, because your House is basically royalty."

"I'm not royalty!" the regal elf snapped, her ears going a slight red.

"And besides, that's not how it works at all."

"There are jumps between each rank in the Ladder of Ascension, so just like how and Awakened Blessed would have a hard time beating an Ascended Blessed, I wouldn't find much use out of a Soul Attunement higher than my rank purely because higher-ranked Attunements consume more Soul Essence to use their enchantments."

"There are nuances to that of course," Varrin said, raising a hand to shield his face from the sun as the river continued to rush past beside the party, "as there is in everything."

"Depending on what enchantments you get, you could wield a Soul Attunement of a higher rank quite easily. Monsters also don't follow the exact jumps in rank as Blessed do, but that's mainly due to their intelligence." The silver-haired boy didn't elaborate past that and Lorelle nodded in agreement to it. That all sounded great to Ren, who couldn't even feel the cold any more thanks to his excitement.

The grass crunched softly under the party's boots with every stride and the river rushed steadily along beside them, its cold spray misting faintly through the air.' I can't wait to get my own Soul Attunement!

'he thought joyously as the sun warmed his face.' I wonder what it'll end up being.' Ren glanced down at the bracelet Yumè made him once more.' And I wonder if I can awaken this, too...'