As Sylver stepped through the portal, he felt the taphorical knot in his equally taphorical stomach loosen.
And as the portal closed, the faint fluttering in his nonexistent belly disappeared completely.
Apparently whatever issue Sylver had left unresolved, was proximity based, and as of this mont, was no longer his concern.
The feeling of lightness remained throughout the day, everyone was checked over by healers, Shawn handled their paperwork, and Ging sorted out everyones belongings, and where they would be sleeping.
Until Faust arrived, the cultivators would be staying inside Sylvers ho, and it would be up to Faust to decide how to handle their lodgings afterward.
Including Xalibur, there were 22 foreigners currently spread out throughout Sylvers ho, much to the delight of his normally grossly underutilized staff. Maul in particular was excited at the chance to prepare a feast, as she put it.
Is that him? Bruno asked as Sylver closed the door behind himself.
Since he couldnt carry Edmund via [Fog Form] Sylver had to use one of the secret entrances, and it took him a while to rember how the locking chanism worked.
It is, Sylver said with a proud smile as he looked around the room.
Lola and Chrys were sitting down drinking tea at the back of the workshop, while Bruno was standing near one of the vats that were housing Sylvers spare bodies.
The tallic firepit in the middle of the room had been scrubbed clean, and soone had enchanted it to deal with the resulting smoke.
Sylver stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the face Chrys was making.
Whats wrong? he asked, as the girl stood up and brushed the crumbs off the front of her robe.
She and Lola were wearing near identical light blue robes, and Chrys hair was braided in a style that was similar to Lolas, the only difference was that Chrys hair wasnt long enough to copy the high elfs completely.
Chrys just looked at Sylver, and after a few monts of silence passed, Lola answered for her.
She cant find Faust, Lola said with an odd defensive note in her voice.
As in the eye isnt working, or what do you an? Sylver asked as Chrys shook her head.
I havent been able to find him since it started to rain blood. Hes just gone, Chrys explained.
Sylver waited a mont to see if his gut had anything to say about this.
Dont worry about it. Is there anything else I should know? Sylver asked and brought his smile back onto his face.
There was another mont of silence, during which Chrys appeared to be waiting for Sylver to start shouting, or at the very least react with sothing more than just a slight shrug of the shoulders.
Was this part of the plan? Chrys asked, more confused now than worried.
Not as far as Im aware of. But youre making a big deal over nothing, Faust isnt defenseless, I wouldnt have let him leave alone if I thought he couldnt take care of himself. He probably thought he was being tracked by soone else and used a technique that just so happen to hide him from you, Sylver explained.
No one did anything as obvious as sigh in relief, but Sylver saw the tension in Lolas shoulders lessen.
I feel like you two forgot that Faust and I have been on our own much longer than weve been under Sylvers care. How far away was he the last ti you saw him? Bruno asked as Chrys closed her eyes for a mont.
About 2 weeks, I think. I use birds, but there arent enough landmarks for to know for certain where exactly he is, but I feel like 2 weeks is right, Chrys explained, as Sylver once again shrugged his shoulders, and walked over to the firepit. It was an enlarged barbecue grill, essentially, but big enough to cook an adult human.
Everyone ca over to him and just stared at the simple-looking rectangular tal box.
Sylver undid the clasp holding the coffin closed. He then used a thick tendril of [Necrotic Mutilation] to gently pick Edmund up.
Sylver imdiately noticed that Edmund didnt weigh right but considering how long had passed since the last ti Sylver perford this ritual, there was a good chance he was simply misrembering.
Sylver laid Edmund down into the firepit, and just as carefully moved his beard off his nude chest and tucked it underneath his shoulder.
Aim for his stomach, Sylver said to Lola, as he and Bruno took a few steps away from Eds body and were quickly joined by Chrys and Ria.
Lola lowered her staff towards the old mans torso.
Do I just Lola asked, with a vague gesture towards Edmund.
Yeah, as hot as you possibly can. Dark red cracks will start showing at so point. Depending on the temperature, he should wake up within 30 seconds, Sylver explained, as Lola nodded at him, and began to chant under her breath.
Sylver decided to take another step back and pulled his 3 companions along with him.
A sphere of blinding white light appeared on the tip of Lolas staff. She moved the sphere in a figure 8 motion, and a beam of vaporizing white fla disappeared harmlessly into Edmunds gray chest hairs.
Sylver waited 10 seconds.
Then 20.
Then 30.
Then a minute.
And when Lola ran out of mana, and Edmunds skin hadnt even turned pink, he forced the quickly rising panic out of his mind.
Its fine, everything is fine. I expected this to happen, everything is fine, Sylver lied.
Edmund wasnt missing any limbs, his internal organs were all fine, a fucking match should have had enough heat to wake him up, a mage of Lolas caliber was overkill 1,000 tis over.
Sylver looked up from Edmunds old wrinkly body and watched Lolas jaw moving up and down.
He didnt know what exactly she had said, because the only thing he could hear was a deafening ringing sound. He then saw that Lola turned to face Bruno and moved her jaw again, and Bruno proceeded to move his jaw up and down in response.
Sylver stood where he was for a while, and plain and simple couldnt bring himself to pay attention to them.
He saw sothing moving on his left and shifted his [Lesser Perception] towards it. The various half-ford bodies floating together inside the various vats were all banging what would one day beco a fist, against the glass.
The murky, orange-tinged liquid splashed out of the top, splattered all over the ground, and covered a good half of Sylvers squeaky clean workshop in the sticky and slimy fluid.
So of the liquid, which was essentially very well digested at, landed on Sylvers shaking hands. He looked down and watched as the disgustingly oily substance reached his sleeves.
Ed is in my hands, everything else is just details.
Sylver repeated those words to himself, over and over again, as he closed his eyes and willed the ringing in his ears to leave, and by the ti he opened his eyes, he felt, if not relaxed, at the very least close enough to appear that way to onlookers.
Sylver turned to face Lola, and then turned again when he saw that she was staring at sothing behind him while covering Chrys eyes with her hands.
[Dead Dominion] inford him of what he was going to see, but he turned to look anyway.
Where before the vats had housed vaguely human-shaped bodies, there was now nothing more than minced at floating around in a frothy mixture of red and yellow.
Sylver concentrated on his surroundings for a second and made every single drop of liquid float back into the vats. He turned around and spoke in an unusually quiet voice.
Where is the nearest storm? Sylver asked.
Storm? Bruno asked.
A storm. You know, a storm. Thunderbolts and lightning, and all that, Sylver asked.
He saw a small flicker of light pass through Lolas hands, which were still holding Chrys eyes closed.
Theres going to be a hurricane about 390 kiloters southeast of here. But going by the amount of interference I felt, its littered with Krists, Chrys answered.
I can hire a team of pyromancers! Lola interjected.
Sylver shook his head.
For starters, I highly doubt the people who describe themselves as pyromancers would be capable of outputting even a tenth of what you can, Sylver said but was interrupted by Lola before he could continue.
Theres a wizard, Allanther, he- Lola started, but Sylver spoke over her.
And more importantly, I cant have soone that I dont personally know wake him up. If Ed gets it in his head that he owes these pyromancers a life debt- Sylvers eye twitched -if lightning doesnt work, Ill try an active volcano, he explained.
In terms of being stubborn, Edmund had no equal.
If he decided he owed these pyromancers for waking him up, there was no telling what he would do to pay them back. The man was famous, or infamous, depending on who you asked, about always paying his dues.
Lola tried to argue with Sylver once more, but when she saw the look on Sylvers face, she decided that he knew what he was doing, and trusted that if he needed her help, or wanted her advice, he would have asked for it.
Mora was thrilled to finally do sothing, after spending so much ti doing next to nothing, and after Sylver gave the list of things he wanted to be bought for him to Ging, he once again left Arda.
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