A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Eira, in a surprising show of intuitiveness and guile, could clearly see Erik's strong interest in this matter, and decided to make use of it.

"Actually," she grinned slyly, "the affinity seed is part of the tour."

Erik raised an eyebrow and locked his amber eyes with her brown ones in a show of calm confidence. Eira, meanwhile, quickly started getting nervous. Her eyes darted, trying to avoid Erik's gaze, and her lips were pursed, yet she didn't give in.

Finally, Erik relaxed his gaze and chuckled. "Alright, Eira, have it your way. I suppose I'm quite curious to see this place, anyway."

"Yay!" the transparent minotaur girl floated up a little and clapped her hands, a bright smile on her lips.

Erik shook his head with a small smile. 'She really doesn't act her age, does she,' he thought to himself.

He looked behind him at Emily, Astrid, and Alice. "You guys coming?" he asked, while noticing the various emotions that appeared on their faces after the many revelations from the last few hours.

'I'll need to have some individuals talks with them later, I guess,' he realized.

Yet, when he asked if they were coming, they all nodded with determination. Whatever they were thinking about, it clearly hadn't affected their decision to stick with him.

Naturally, Emma had been beside him the whole time, had talked with him through their bond, and they had felt each others emotions.

Thus, he simply gave her a kiss and smiled. "Come on, let's go." To which she responded with a happy nod.

He turned to the happy Eira, "Well? Show us the way."

"Yes!" she beamed, and quickly floated towards one of the six doors that led out into the circular hallway they found themselves in. The plaque above the door read: 'Living space'

"Living space, huh?" Erik mumbled. "I guess Audumla really did intend for this to become my home…"

'It's nice to have a home, assuming I even want to consider it as such,' he thought to himself, 'but I probably won't use it much, considering I'll be leaving this area within a year…'

"Of course!" Eira nodded excitedly. "I've been living here alone for so long, but now I'll have company!"

"I imagine you've been feeling lonely," Emma mentioned, while looking at Eira with parts pity and parts sympathy. "I can relate. Even just a month ago, I was miserable and lonely. But then I met Erik, and now I'm none of those things! In fact, I couldn't be happier! I hope you'll feel the same soon!"

Eira blinked in confusion as her gaze panned to Emma. So far, her entire focus had been on Erik, the Harbinger, the one she had been waiting for, and only now did the presence of others in the room actually register for her.

"U— Uh… Y— Yeah. I mean, Yeah!" shaking off her previous confusion, she now looked at Emma with a bright smile to math the girl's own. "I like you, girl with white hair and funny eyes!"

Emma giggled, "You can just call me Emma."

"Alright, Emma," Eira nodded happily, before beckoning them towards the door again. "Now, come on, come on!"

She flung open the door, and floated inside, quickly followed by Erik and the others.

On the other side was a short passageway ending in an open arch before opening up into another large, circular hall.

This hall looked very similar to the previous one, but the colors it consisted off were far warmer. The entire floor was covered with a rug, several pieces of furniture like tables, chairs, and sofas were set up around the room, and there were even some paintings hanging on the wall.

Naturally, there was nothing that belonged to modern Earth, as none of the art or furniture were in any kind of style known on modern Earth, but they looked beautiful, and comfortable.

"Damn," some of Erik's companions exclaimed as they looked around in wonder, while the man himself whistled approvingly.

"Your mistress certainly went out of her way to make me comfortable," Erik mumbled with some surprise. He hadn't expected this much.

Eira, became giddy due to their reactions, but quickly lost some of her confidence when she heard Erik's comment. She started to poke her fingers together awkwardly. "Actually… this living space of the dimension was simply ripped away from some noble's residence when Mistress created this dimension."

Hearing her admit that made Erik chuckle. 'She's surprising honest.'

He turned to the slightly embarrassed Eira and smiled, "Well, it doesn't matter. It's yours now, and your home is beautiful, Eira."

The girl's sizable chest swelled in pride. "Hehehe, you think so?" she grinned happily. "But it's not just my home, it's ours now!"

Her comment made him mumble inwardly, "Does she even realize I can't stay here if she wants me to find Audumla?"

To which Elora responded, "Actually, I've been thinking, and… based on what I know of the spatial affinity, perhaps it's more complicated than that. I'm sure we'll find out later, though, but if it is as I suspect, then we'll need to have a serious talk about how to proceed."

Erik was curious what she was thinking about, but simply nodded for now, and focused back on Eira's tour.

Similar to the previous circular hall, this one, too, had several doors leading deeper into the dimension. Ten of them, in fact. Currently, Eira was quickly flying past them all and throwing them open one by one, before floating before the tenth and last door. She opened her arms wide, with a bright smile on her face.

"These are all bedrooms you can use!" she exclaimed while smiling happily. Clearly, she was enjoying the exposition, happy to finally have people she could show her home to.

Then she thumbed behind her at the final door. "And that is the master bedroom, intended for the Harbinger!"

Feeling like three pairs of eyes were boring into him from behind, Erik turned around and could see Alice, Emily, and Astrid looking at him intensely. Erik raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You all seem… strangely excited?"

"You know how long its been since I had my own bedroom and bed?!" they all nearly shouted at him at the same time.

Erik chuckled a little surprised, but couldn't deny they were right, so he waved his hand. "Alright, alright. Go pick a room then while I check out my own. But be careful and don't get too excited…!" He shot them all a warning glare, hoping his intentions came across.

He didn't want to outright say they might not be staying there with Eira within earshot, but they seemed to get the message when they all tempered their enthusiasm somewhat. Still, they quickly ran off to look at the rooms behind those nine open doors, and pick their own.

In the meantime, he walked up to the tenth door, with Eira and Emma right besides him. Emma, of course, had no intention of sleeping in any room other than Erik's.

Before he opened the door, however, he questioned inwardly. "Elora? Our bond prevents anyone from affecting our mind, no matter the difference in power, correct?"

By now, he was convinced that neither Eira nor Audumla meant him any harm for now, but if Eira's Mistress had any intention of brainwashing him in some way using a sigil, then the perfect place for that sigil would be his bedroom.

Elora couldn't currently detect sigils, but she should still be able to detect when something was trying to influence Erik's mind, and stop it.

Luckily, her response was positive. "Yes, don't worry. Even someone of Audumla's presumable power would have to break our bond first."

Reassured, Erik opened the door and stepped inside.

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