Noticing Lira's trembling shoulders, Gale materialized a bueno from his space storage. He ripped the first layer of plastic and the second layer that protected the wafer.
Holding out the opened stick of wafer to her, Lira stared at what was in front of her, taking a sniff, and then glancing between him and Tyain.
"It's good," Gale said, extending it softly to her once more.
Lira's small hand reached out and took the wafer from his fingers. She slled it again and then took a small bite. Her eyes widened imdiately. The rest of the wafer was gone in an instant as she bit into the rest.
Her eyes saw inside the original wrapper that there was one more. Gale gave it to her after opening it, and it was gone again. After she finished the rest, she looked back in the wrapper again to find there was no more. But she didn't pout. Instead, she looked satisfied. The trembling shoulders were no more, and the tears that welled up were gone.
Although these were ergency rations, the comfort of a child is much more important. Rachel would give him more anyway if he told her this story.
Gale turned his attention back to Tyain. "Why are nobles of this kingdom suffering as well?"
"What do you an?" Tyain asked.
"Your sister is starving. The castle has no decorations. The food is thin soup and hard bread," Gale said as he looked at the empty bread basket. "Kingdoms usually keep their royalty well-fed even when the common folk struggle. But here, the hollow cheeks of the citizens are everywhere."
Tyain sighed. "I do not know the true cause, but my father would always tell that Kair is angry."
"The world is angry?"
"That is what he said. Kair herself is angry with the life on her lands," Tyain said. "He believed the world was punishing us for sothing."
"Punishing you for what?"
Tyain shook his head. "None of us know." He looked beyond the closed windows. "But since Kair beca angry, every generation, the land produces less and less yield. The valleys that were once lush and fertile now barely grow enough to feed our people."
Gale turned to Erin to make eye contact. All she did was nod at him. Truthfully, he had no idea what that nod ant, but he turned back to Tyain anyway.
"There is food up in the mountain peaks where the ambient ether enriches the environnt," Tyain said. "But the climate is harsh and the wild life is even dealier. We send expeditions to explore of safe lands, but hardly ever co back that we've stopped sending our citizens to their death."
"Could this be related to why the rift hasn't closed..." Gale muttered to himself.
You are on the right track, young lamb. Continue with your investigation. Erin told him telepathically.
At least she confird that he was going in the right direction. Even he himself didn't know where he was going with this.
"How long has it been since the land started producing less?" Gale asked.
"Generations," Tyain said. "I do not know the exact count. My grandfather spoke of his grandfather's ti when the sky would halt the snow that falls." He leaned forward slightly. "Dark Hunter, what do you an by the rift has not closed?"
"Have you encountered beings that are not of this land?" Gale asked.
"I am familiar with them," Tyain said. "So have passed through our valley over the years. Most are... hostile. Arrogant even. They treat our people like curiosities. They've stolen wares from our rchants and labelled them as souvenirs."
Well, shit, he would've taken so too for Andrew, Jacob, and Mia. Guess that's out of the picture. He even wanted to go to the resort instead of where Erin wanted.
"They are from our world," Gale said. "There is an entrance still leading between your realm and ours. That entrance is what we call a rift. Normally, rifts get closed. But this one has stayed open for a very long ti."
"Legends say that the Divine Dark led armies of angels and devils to cast away the giant gateway that tore open at the sky..." Tyain muttered. "Is the rift you speak of the sa as the gateway?"
"It is of a different nature," Erin spoke up, and the others turned to her. "An anomaly that is evidence of unsolved mysteries. Nothing more than that."
Tyain nodded.
"We are looking for the cause that has kept that entrance open. Sothing is preventing it from closing naturally," Gale said.
Tyain exchanged a glance with Lruikov before speaking again. "So of the foreigners have asked us similar questions before. They used symbols to communicate since they could not speak our tongue. We answered what we could."
"And?"
"They went to investigate the lower lands. The deep valleys where the rivers flow into darkness," Tyain said. "None of them ca back."
"The deep valleys?" Gale asked.
"Dark Hunter, I must advise against this path," Tyain said. "Whatever dwells in the lower lands... it has claid everyone who sought it. Foreigners. Our own scouts. Even my father's best warriors. None returned."
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Gale stood up from his chair. "I need to go there regardless of your warning, Tyain."
Tyain lowered his head. "Apologies, Dark Hunter. I did not an to oppose you."
"It's fine," Gale said.
Looking back up, Tyain said, "If you must go, at least rest for the night. The day is about to set, and attempting to travel in darkness poses more danger."
"We accept your offer," Gale said. "One night. Then we leave at first light."
Tyain nodded and rose from his chair. Lruikov followed, putting his helt back on. The two of them moved toward the door.
"This way, Dark Hunter." Tyain gestured down the hallway. "We have prepared rooms for honoured guests. They are modest, but warm."
They walked out of the reception room and down a short corridor. The stone walls remained bare, and a single torch lit up the hallway that barely provided any warmth.
Tyain stopped at the third door that appeared on the left, just a couple of doors down from where the reception room was.
"These chambers are yours," he said, pushing the door open to reveal a simple room with two beds and a window covered by thick wooden shutters. "If you require anything, Lruikov will be stationed nearby."
Gale stepped inside and looked around. Modest was a bit too extravagant a word to call this kind of room. The beds had thin blankets, and the shutters let a cold breeze flowing through. The floor was stone that didn't trap any heat.
Exactly the kind of room that Gale wanted. In fact, he preferred the stone cold floor instead of the bed. Much comfier than sothing soft that made him turn and toss.
Footsteps behind him made him turn. Lira had followed them inside, running towards the bed and plopping onto it. She rubbed her face on the blankets as if it were the comfiest thing she'd ever felt.
"Lira!" Tyain's voice sharpened. "Go to your own room. Do not disturb the Dark Hunter's rest."
Instead of running back, Lira ran to hide behind Gale's legs. She peeked out to look at her brother while clinging to his clothes.
"It's ok if she wants to stay," Gale said.
"We must not let Lira beco spoiled." Tyain tried to grab Lira from around Gale but failed as she kept shifting.
"We'll only be here for a while. It's fine." Gale turned to Erin, who had floated into the room and now hovered near the shuttered window. "Is it ok for Lira to stay here?"
"The question is not relevant to . Do as you wish," Erin said.
"See?" Gale said. "It should be fine for a night. We'll be gone tomorrow."
"Please, Dark Hunter. We cannot disturb your rest," Tyain said, taking a step back.
"She is of no nuisance, Tyain," Gale said, smiling. "Let children be children."
Tyain sighed, shoulders drooping. His eyes turned sharp at Lira. "Behave yourself. Do not cause trouble to the Dark Hunter."
Lira nodded rapidly, her white hair bouncing around as she did.
Tyain and Lruikov stepped toward the door and then bowed. "Have a good night, Dark Hunter and his aide."
The latch clicked shut.
"Pfft," Gale chuckled. "He called you my aide."
"That is correct. In the current situation, I aid you in your growth," Erin said, turning back from the windows.
"Wait, is that what that ans?"
"What else would it an? The teacher aids the student in learning the knowledge of the world. Am I not an aide?"
"Now that I think about it... that does sound a bit right," Gale scratched his head. Didn't aide an sothing different?
But before that thought could form, he heard the wind whistle against the shutters, and Lira beside him shivered a bit in turn. She wasn't built for survival. She was basically almost just bones and skin.
"Erin," Gale said. "Is there a way to warm up the room for her?"
"Your question gives an apt opportunity," Erin replied.
"What?"
"An opportunity to teach you of the essence resource types."
"What's that?" Gale rembered the Balista he had needed to change essence types. It couldn't do anything to the guardians in the tomb due to him not knowing how to change it.
"You ask how to warm the room. I will show you."
Gale glanced at Lira. "Even with her here?"
"The child poses no danger. She cannot comprehend the laws of the universe," Erin said, then waved her hand to put ice glasses on her.
Lira tried to take them off, but the glasses resisted her grip.
"Child, do not fight it. It is not cold," Erin said.
Then, Lira stopped fighting. Through the glasses, she blinked a couple of tis until they turned fully transparent. Once again, she turned her head to Gale and Erin back and forth.
"Both of you. Sit on the floor," Erin said.
"Both?"
"Must I repeat myself?"
Gale moved to sit cross-legged on the cold stone in front of Erin. Lira took the pillow from the bed and then put it on the floor beside him, sitting down on it cross legged.
"Close your eyes," Erin instructed. "Feel the ambient wind around you. Its temperature. Its texture. The way it moves across your skin."
Gale closed his eyes, unsure where this was going. At first, all he felt was the ambient coldness that seeped everywhere. In fact, he could still see through Presence Between's tendrils. However, he willed the tendrils to also close their hundreds of eyes.
Now, fully making himself aware of the surroundings, he felt for the air currents. The scent of the foreign trees that covered this land that was carried by the cold wind. A slight whistle, inaudible if not focused on, ca from a slight splinter in the wood.
Focusing deeper, he heard the sharp wind that blew across the valley. The scent of the soil ward by the ether spells of the natives. Slight iron and carbon mixed in with the scent coming from a blacksmith down the road.
Focusing in front of him, he noticed the air that ca from the open door felt slightly warr. The current was lazier, drifting along the hallway where the torch burned. In the torch itself was the sll of tallow that kinda made Gale feel more hungry for at since all they had were veggies and soup, even rembering that he hasn't had at in a while as they'd been in this rift for a couple of days, with his last at al being that baked spaghetti thing that was a heavenly delectable dish. He promised himself he would buy 5 more of those before leaving the rift.
"Child, focus."
Gale's thoughts were interrupted, and he continued to focus on the textures and sources of the two warm air currents. The difference was the energy within the air itself that made it warr. The transference of energy caused warr and colder air to blend into sothing in between.
"Now imagine a rhombus appearing in front of you."
Imagining a rhombus in front of him, a white outline one, he felt his essence pathways connect to the rhombus. There was a slight resistance in his pathways that he hadn't felt before when using his own skills.
"Calm yourself, child," Erin said. "I will create a conduit of knowledge to give you what the resource paraters of matter and plasma are onto your core."
Before Gale could ask what that ant, Erin's index finger pressed against his forehead.
Coldness seeped out from her hand into his skull, onto the veins of his head and into his spine. Not too painful, but definitely uncomfortable, as if his bones were about to freeze and lt at the sa ti. The sensation spread from his spine into his muscles and finally burned along his essence pathways.
"Your pathways are optimized for the voidal and space resource. What you are now feeling is the knowledge of resources beyond your reach which your pathways are not optimized for. The resistance is normal," she said.
In that mont, symbols flashed in his mind, a multitude of them covering hundreds and thousands of multiple types of combinations. Each one appeared for less than a fraction of a second, being replaced by another. Lines curved, angles that looked crooked yet straight at the sa ti.
Foreign characters that should've ant nothing told him nothing of what these symbols ant, yet he knew what the characters were. The language of the Dainvs, and their pronunciation imprinted into his tongue, reminding him of the Mourning Aria to Aurumn that Erin sang.
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