Sparks

Jin

The next four days passed quickly. I spent the entire time heavily considering what to do about the letter. Was Fyor doing okay? Was he even alive? Worries about what to do and how to handle everything kept running rampart through my mind. I had easily reread the letter fifty times at this point. The more I tried finding solutions myself, the more I realized I wasn’t able to manage that nearly as well as I wanted to. At the very least, I managed to get a decently blank slate set up in my head in regards to everything that was in connection with the kingdom, or rather, the council of crests.

All my ideas on how to progress focused on one specific route.

‘Oh well. Here goes nothing.’

I cleared my throat and turned to Erinara, who was, as usual, working on revising spellcasting formulas. She looked up from her documents.
“Erinara, I could really use your advice if that’s possible”, I said. We had gotten closer over the last few days. 
“Sure, what do you need?”, she sounded puzzled.
I fished my master’s letter out from underneath my chestplate. Carefully folding it open, I placed it and the feather inside of it on the table in front of Erinara. She tilted her head slightly before picking the letter up and beginning to read it.
After a short while she lowered her hands with the letter. Then she moved the notes of the spell she was working on to the side, and read the paper in her hands once more. In all of our conversations, this was the first time Erinara pushed her work aside fully.

She placed the letter on the table, waiting taciturnly for me to start the conversation.
“I’ve been pondering over this since you teleported me back here. I’m… To be honest, I’m lost for what to do”, I said.
She seemed to consider her words carefully.
“I see.” After another pause, she added: “Do you have any specific things you’re looking for?”
“Can I hear your thoughts on the letter first?”, I asked.
“I can confirm that the information given in the writing is all absolutely true, but if you want to talk about the finer nuances, you’ll have to talk to Ebiron”, she stated.
“I want you to be the first one I talk to about this.”
Another silence hung in the room. She seemed to tense up a bit.
“Very well.” She took a breath. “Where do you want to start?”
“I… I am not sure. I understand that the council appears to be corrupt, and with having seen the enforcers first hand twice, it’s hard to not imagine them so. I don’t understand how they could keep in power or even charm four of the legendary heroes to their side.”
I gestured at the letter.
Erinara gave a solemn nod.
“Your heart is too chivalrous, Eaglecrest. Once people get a taste of power, it is very common that they would do anything to keep it. Whether human or elf, that is all but constant. I strongly assume those four followed that principle.”
She was right, of course. Even I knew that people wildly prefer holding on to their might rather than relinquishing it, but some part of me assumed that all the legendary heroes would be similar to Fyor in their values.
“What do you think I should do, Erinara?”
“That’s a heavy question. I would say take the advice from the letter. What do you want to do?”
“I should protect and help the people of the kingdom. I’ve been granted the name Eaglecrest after all.”
“Let me ask again. What do you want to do, Eaglecrest?”, she emphasized the word ‘want’.
I sat in silence. I didn’t consider personal desires at all. I haven’t ever since I was named a, potentially not so, fated hero. I scratched the back of my head without saying a word. What an odd predicament. I hadn’t even realized I was still thinking of myself as a fated hero, even with the entire kingdom and all but total disproof of fated prophecies stacked against that sentiment.
“No need to despair”, Erinara’s voice cut through my disheveled mind, “You’re able to make choices for yourself now. …It takes a while to get used to.”
She had her hands gripping the sides of her mantle’s hood, but lowered them again.
Not that I had seen it, as I was still exclusively staring at the letter.

“Eaglecrest. How do you feel.”
“More like an outcast than I realized”, I answered dispiritedly.
Erinara placed a hand on my shoulder. An unusual feeling briefly tugged at my chest. “You’ll get used to that as well. I think your master has given you wise words to live by. In a situation like this, let your heart guide you.”

My heart, is that right?
“I wanted to talk to you”, I finally said, “and I’d like to know if Fyor was still alive.”
Erinara remained quiet for just long enough for me to silently question if she had even heard me.
“If he is alive, I can probably work on a spell to track him”, she offered.
“You can do that? How?”, I asked hastily.
“Granted, I would need something like an item that he has interacted with either recently, or often. Wait. Maybe I already have that. Do you mind?”, she pointed at the feather that was inside of the letter.
“Please, go ahead and try.”

Erinara

I was happy to have a distraction in working on the spell to track down Fyor. ‘I wanted to talk to you’ rang through my head once more. Thinking about it in an efficient, calculating mindset, it was likely he was just looking for help. But still, it took me by surprise. While I was no stranger to talking about personal topics, either with Kayon or Ebiron, it felt very different to this situation.

My mind had gone blank for a second when Jin said that.
I almost felt bad that he knew next to nothing of me, he didn’t even realize that I was an…

Shaking my head briefly, I snapped my consciousness back to the task at hand. Jin didn’t need to know. Especially not now, that was for certain.

I reached for the feather, drawing runes into the air. Six runes appeared around it, slowly decreasing in size until the outline of the feather was inside a box of symbols.
“This should work. If your teacher has been in close contact to this feather, the runes will be able to trace residual mana”, I explained.
“Wait, residual mana?”, Jin looked puzzled.
“Yes. Every living being has mana. It’s just that only few creatures have access to it. A specific level of intelligence and conscience is required, and even then, for humans it is infinitely more difficult to learn spellcasting than it is for elves."

The runes activated, and briefly glowed green.
“What does that mean?”, Jin asked.
“I have good news for you, Eaglecrest. This was the first sequence of the runes. It checked if the mana was still strong or dissipating already. When a creature dies, their imprint of mana slowly disappears as well. The power remaining in the feather indicates that Fyor Eaglecrest is, in truth, alive.”