If only Gazen had allowed me to run away with him, perhaps Cira would be my daughter too. I love her already. Eliza watched the young sorcerer crash against the frozen lake. Frost formed on her wounds as the undine fought against the cold, impaled on a pike of glacial bedrock. Ice crystals formed and cracked as she lurched further towards the girl. Perhaps I should step in, but Cira doesn’t look ready to give in.

  “It was a gift… you bitch.”

  On one hand I was certain she turned herself into some kind of undine abomination, and somehow devouring one would be in line with this theory, but if Cira truly received a greater spirit’s blessing, I don’t know what to think.

  Many experienced casters could speak telepathically, but the way Cira did so even felt like a spirit. There was far too much emotion in it. It was to the point Eliza could practically read her thoughts with each word, which only exacerbated the mystery around how she dealt with that broken soul.

  Regardless, Eliza was amused to find out the spring of Icarus was an undine in disguise all along.

  “You are a good liar,” The undine spoke, “but that cannot be so. Even a blessing would remain to some degree a piece of the spirit who granted it. I will give you one more chance to speak the truth.”

  Eliza remembered the Bifrost Scepter. This staff looked exactly like it, but larger. At this point, Cira had even turned it into a javelin. If it’s anything like that weapon of his… just how powerful is this undine?

  “I have not told a lie.” Cira pushed herself off the bloody ice in ragged robes, wrapped in a faint veil of holy light that gradually healed her wounds, “Nor do I intend to repeat myself.”

  Even the most proud sorcerer needs to respect their own limits… Can’t she see how much stronger this thing is? Even pumping the entirety of her mana into one of Gazen’s own staves, what does she hope to accomplish? I suspect Icarus would fall if she truly won.

  Eliza prepared an array of light within the aether. If Cira were in fatal danger, she could appear and stop it—or at least try. Escape was the ideal outcome in Eliza’s head. This undine was stronger than any greater spirit she had ever come across. That’s also why it would be a pleasant surprise if Cira betrayed her expectations.

  The undine’s rage rippled through the air like waves in the wind. It seemed she was struggling to determine the veracity of Cira’s words. Each face of the hydra formed difficult expressions, not taking their eyes off her.

  “Then why have you come here?” The undine snarled, “I sensed the birth of another sister just recently from the same direction you arrived. Do you mean to tell me this is a coincidence? I could tell the moment she appeared that something was horribly wrong with her… And now she’s gone. Just what have you done?!”

  She didn’t wait for Cira to respond before unleashing another tentacle like a cleaver, leaving a deep rut in the earth. Cira narrowly sidestepped it and clicked her tongue, brushing a layer of dust off her shoulder.

  “I intended to enter the spring to discover its nature and what bearing it held on this artificial island,” As if it had been there the whole time, Cira twirled a wooden staff around before pointing it forward, “but if you dare badmouth my daughter again, I will have no choice but to kill you.”

  “Wha—” The undine tried to speak, but Eliza was equally baffled. She has… a daughter? No wait… did she just have one the other day?

  “There is nothing wrong with her!” Cira cried. A staff of gem-like water appeared in her offhand, and she used it to further freeze the undine. “Apologize immediately!”

  While the undine burst out of the ice and didn’t seem to care much anymore about being impaled, she wore the same confused expression as Eliza on all eight faces.

  “What is happening here?” Fitzgeralt asked, suddenly next to Eliza. “That girl sure like trouble, doesn’t she?”

  “It’s probably my fault.” The girl was remarkably deft at pulling in mana from the atmosphere. Eliza thought she could even sense a vortex forming above. “I asked her to inspect the spring.”

  Cira seemed to be putting all her mana into the wooden staff in her hand. Eliza and Fitzgeralt both watched her for a moment before inspecting the staff, then turned to each other with wide eyes.

  “That’s not—” The high arbiter was left speechless.

  “I think it is…” Such a thing shouldn’t exist anymore. The way she held it in her hands so naturally, like an extension of her body, was almost terrifying.

  ___

  I don’t know much about being a dad—or mom, I guess, but my dad once beat a guy up for calling me a demon… Maybe I should unpack that at a later date, but this obstinate spirit told me to my face that there was something wrong with my dear Lazulei. I can’t let that slide. She doesn’t know who she is, but her undine senses were evidently enough for her to disparage my darling daughter.

  “Apologize? Daughter? Are you trying to make a joke?” The undine further irritated Cira. “You couldn’t kill me if you tried, interloper. On the contrary, it is I who will kill—"

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  “I think that’s quite enough.” Fitzgeralt appeared between then. “Calm yourself, Destria. This girl is an honored guest.”

  Yeah… I don’t know if I could have taken her, honestly. The high arbiter looked at her with something akin to patience.

  “Cira, do you mind recalling your staff?” She wasn’t sure at first. She did almost die after all—at the hands of a ridiculously powerful spirit.

  To Cira’s surprise, the undine named Destria was first to release her presence over the island. With a shrug, Cira made Perma disappear as well. Back from whence it came at the deepest reaches of her treasury. Next the Auld Sprig faded into smoke as colorful embers wisped away on the wind.

  The moment the frost receded, the hydra flowed into a single point like a whirlpool before taking the form of a woman. Her pale cerulean skin gave off an elegant glow and Cira couldn’t help but shudder when they made eye contact. She approached with delicate steps across the water’s surface, never taking her gaze of Cira.

  “You may be an honored guest, but that means nothing to me.” Pressure like the deep sea threatened to crush Cira, “All I care about is what you have done with my kin. Explain yourself.”

  She wore a pleasant smile, but her eyes creased in a predatory sneer. It was obvious the difference in power between the two, and Destria blatantly flaunted that fact.

  Cira let out a long sigh, shaking her head and taking a seat. “So, you’re the type not to believe that which you do not wish to hear, is that it? I haven’t told a single lie. Undina, who is much nicer than you, granted me a ‘blessing’ for her own amusement. Granted, my soul was broken at the time. Now it’s not. Could this be the cause of your confusion?”

  Stratagem number seventy-four: In strong winds, the frond follows the palm.

  When severely outmatched, it was best to appear unthreatened and go with the flow. Otherwise, the other party would have no problem steering the conversation in their favor. Despite the disparate levels of power, Cira wasn’t keen on letting the ageless water spirit blame her for something she didn’t do.

  “I don’t care about the blessing.” She spoke as if to a pest, “Your powers are negligible. I am more concerned about the short-lived birth of my kin which you’ve clearly had a hand in bastardizing. Speak plainly, cur.”

  With an elbow planted on the arm of her chair, Cira buried her face in her hands, rubbing her temples. A low growl escaped as she tried to stifle her anger and frustration. She doesn’t know how insulting she’s being. She’s just a bitter old woman, ignorant to the world around her. Just relax, Cira.

  There were many prying eyes and ears around. Aside from all the first marks, Eliza and Fitzgeralt watched the conversation with blatant curiosity. It’s not that she planned on keeping everything secret from them, but divulging information without choosing to deliberately made Cira uncomfortable. After thinking about it for a few moments, she decided to tell Destria alone for now.

  “Listen, you old hag.” Cira telepathically relayed her story of a couple days prior. She didn’t believe it at first, but after diving through a few memories, even the undine was looking at Cira with amazement. That was the bonus of her undine powers—conceptual communication. That meant Destria could see and feel the memories as Cira relived them for the sake of getting this incessant creature off her back. “And that’s how it went. Know that if you attempt to harm my daughter, I will do everything in my power to burn you away. At the absolute minimum you will be cursed until the end of time.”

  Blinking in shock at the weight of her sincere words, the undine could only let out a short, awkward chuckle.

  “A spirit of two elements… I can hardly remember the last time I met one—” Cira’s eyes sharpened to a glare, “Worry not, little sorcerer. Your daughter is my kin regardless of whether the power of earth exists within her. No matter how distant, we were all born from the same Seas of Yore. I would sooner destroy you completely than harm a single tentacle on that girl’s head.”

  And Cira could tell she meant it. That was an acceptable response as far as she was concerned.

  “Whatever might you two be talking about so candidly?” Eliza cut in with a chuckle.

  “Undine stuff.” Cira laughed, nudging the squishy woman next to her who didn’t find it as amusing. “In any case, this matter is resolved. I don’t yet understand what the second mark is supposed to be, but what say you we wrap this tour up? There will be plenty of time to satisfy your curiosity in the future.”

  “Are you satisfied, Destria?” Fitzgeralt leveled a diplomatic nod to the undine.

  “Indeed I am.” She smiled with a nod, briefly glancing at Cira, “Feel free to carry on, but do make sure to return to me before you continue your journey.”

  She trickled away into the lake and soon, there was no trace of the undine whose mana exceeded anything Cira had ever seen in person aside from her father charging up a large-scale sorcery.

  These skies are taller than I ever could have known… I would be terrified to see her full power directed at me. Good thing we could come to an understanding.

  Undines were near invincible by nature. Disintegrating an entire island, turning all traces of water into vapor which settled back into the aether, would still leave an undine with countless particles mixed in with the air’s humidity, to be taken away on a variety of paths through the sky. Like a dandelion savaged by a brisk wind, seeds of her former existence would all end up in distant skies.

  This may sound like an unfair level of invincibility when taken singularly, but one must consider how much more difficult it would be to destroy a greater spirit of the wind affinity this high up in the sky. Incidentally, Cira would absolutely not want to get on a spatial spirit’s bad side.

  “Very well then,” Fitzgeralt looked toward Cira and continued, “Feel free to refuse if you wish, but I think you may enjoy tagging along with Eliza to her next engagement. The Archive isn’t going anywhere, and sometimes the most valuable wisdom is found from exploring a different perspective.”

  With no context, Cira didn’t know what to make of his words. She could nitpick and ask what this engagement involved, but there was no point. She didn’t want to be some prude who turned down his advice right away, and he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t think it would be a valuable experience.

  “Very well then,” She turned to Eliza, “Show me the way.”

  “We are still early since I haven’t had to stop by the Archive, but I suppose you can help me set up.” The world turned white for a moment, and when Cira came to, she was met with a variety of artifacts and mechanical instruments. Torches, spickets, Lightwave sterilizers and microscopes, this appeared to be some kind of storeroom.

  Nevermind the fact that they were there as quickly as Cira could travel around Paradise, this was like a large closet with many instances of the same thing on different shelves. Contextually speaking, Cira surmised this place was used for educational supplies.

  “Since we’re already here,” Cira grinned, picking up a circular glyph of create flame, crushing it and letting it roil up her arm. “Mind telling me what I’ve been roped into?”

  “Today is the fourth session of ‘Introduction to Aethereal Metaphysics’, and you will join us.” Eliza looked too young to teach something so profound, but Cira knew she wasn’t.

  “I see…” Cira knew it as the study of this world. The skies, the aether, and everything within—specifically how all these facets interconnect. “I suppose it’s been a while.”