A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

So, Eira guided them through the next door, where another short passageway ending in a third, large, circular hall. Only this one was full of massive bookshelves instead, and even had some comfortable seating areas.

"Welcome to the library!" Eira happily exclaimed. Yet her bright smile dimmed a little when she noticed the lukewarm reaction from her audience.

Unfortunately for her, three of them preferred training and fighting over reading, while only Erik and Emma had any interest in the books, but even that didn't go beyond mild.

Only one person among them had an ever-insatiable thirst for knowledge, as did most fairies, but she was currently unwilling to reveal herself.

"Uuuugh," Elora groaned in Erik's mind as she watched those many books through his eyes. "I'm almost tempted to just go for it…" she mumbled with greed and desire.

"Patience, Elora," Erik chuckled. "I'm sure Emma would be happy to lend you her body later, assuming we're continuing the ruse for now."

"Of course!" Emma's chipper voice immediately interjected.

Elora rolled her eyes. "To think that the day would come were you preach patience to me, instead of the other way around! But yes, yes, you're right of course. Thank you, Emma."

Happy emotions flowed from Emma to them, who just wanted to be helpful.

Finally accepting that the library just wasn't going to be the highlight of her tour, Eira sighed. "I see Mistress's efforts to pass on useful knowledge for you people was wasted, but it is what it is."

Still, she quickly regained her enthusiasm and floated back towards the first circular hall, "Next up, the crafting hall!"

This time, it was only Erik's eyes that lit up. 'Could it be…?' he wondered to himself.

Erik's eyes shone with excitement when they moved through the next door, which led to a T-shaped corridor. Eira quickly took a left turn, and they once again ended up in a circular hall.

"Somebody likes circles a little bit too much, I think," Emily mumbled to herself.

"Circles are nice…" Eira pouted, but quickly refocused on what was in front of her with a bright smile. "Welcome to the alchemy room!"

The large hall was littered with strange equipment, sigils, pots, kettles, and many, many shelves full of various ingredients.

'Not exactly what I was hoping for…' Erik thought with disappointment.

"Wow…" Elora mumbled in Erik's mind. "I'm no good at alchemy, but even I can see that this place would be any beginning alchemists dream. A skilled alchemist could probably create even up to fourth rank pills here. Not that we have such an alchemist…"

As if reading her mind, Eira shrugged and said, "Mistress realized, of course, that none who come here are likely to know how to use any of this stuff, especially since this place was intended to come into use directly after the awakening, but the library has a whole section on alchemy techniques just for that reason."

"Perhaps we can convince someone to take up the craft," Elora suggested in Erik's mind.

"I might like to give it a shot," Emma immediately responded. "Big Em is already busy with learning sigils, Master has many other things on his mind, I don't think Astrid has the patience for it, and Alice is still too young. Plus, I think it might be fun…"

Elora immediately added her own support behind that idea. "From what I know, both light and nature are exceptionally useful in alchemy, I think she should give it a try."

"Okay, Emma," Erik nodded inwardly. "But don't start straight away. Your first priority should be to reach the second rank."

"Of course!" Emma immediately nodded. "I can't wait to fully cure big Em!"

When they were done, Eira was already on her way out the door again. "Next stop, the forge!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Erik exclaimed enthusiastically in his mind, before quickly moving after Eira.

Elora and Emma both smiled inwardly at his enthusiasm.

When you're in love, it was nice to see the object of your affection be excited.

They crossed the T-shaped corridor again, but this time, they went the other way.

Soon, they entered another circular hall, and Eira spread her arms wide. "Welcome to the fo—" she began, but was interrupted by a tall, handsome, and armored whirlwind passing by her, chuckling excitedly.

"U— Uhh," Eira mumbled, a little surprised.

This hall was filled with clearly different, but equally strange devices as the alchemy room, along with various sigils, an anvil and a forge.

Erik had a wide, excited smile on his face as he began touching and inspecting the various pieces of equipment, like a kid in a candy store. "Amazing!" he exclaimed, his excitement palpable. "I didn't think I'd find a real forge on the current Earth!"

Back on Söl, Erik had developed a real passion for forging. Although he had been able to somewhat satisfy this passion back in Frostvik, using the minimalistic, outdated, and entirely non-magical forge in his childhood home's basement, it was far from enough for him.

Seeing him run around like that quickly started making Eira nervous. "H— Harbinger!" she blurted out. "P— Please be careful!"

She didn't want her harbinger to somehow hurt himself. After all, some of this equipment was meant to reshape third or fourth rank metals into various forms, which meant they could just as easily reshape Erik's second-rank Runebound body.

"Don't worry, little Eira," Erik chuckled with a wide smile as he put his head into the currently cold forge. "I know what I'm doing."

Suddenly, he made a surprised yelp, and quickly retracted his head from the forge, causing Eira to panic and fly up to him. "Are you alright?!" she asked, worried.

None of the others were particularly worried, but that was mostly because they simply had no idea how hot that forge could get. They knew Erik's power and figured Eira was just over reacting.

Luckily, it wasn't a bad yelp, as Erik's grin had possibly become even wider, while he stared at a certain protrusion attached to the forge that seemed to have a sigil on it. "It's even build with a forgeflame sigil in mind!"

Suddenly, his eyes shone even more, as he turned an excited gaze towards Astrid. "Astrid! Come here a second!" he beckoned.

Feeling herself getting swept up in his enthusiasm, Astrid stammered, "O— Okay," and rushed up to him.

"Affinity's should work the same between Arcanists and Runebound, but I still really hope this works," he mumbled a little crazily, before directing Astrid to the outcropping he was looking at before. "Quickly, put your hand on that sigil, and channel your affinity through it!"

Putting her full trust in Erik, she simply nodded and did as he said while Erik went to the opposite side to observe the changes.

The moment her affinity circulated through the sigil, the forge lit up, and before long, a small sun was shining brightly in its depths.

"Hahahaha," Erik laughed loudly as he observed, "This is amazing! Now I'll be able to forge with the sun affinity!"

Then he turned towards the confused, yet excited Astrid, and grind widely. "How would you like to be my assistant and learn to forge?"

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