A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

After he opened his eyes, Erik extended both hands and began drawing two different, icy blue symbols in the air. One, a rune, the other, a glyph.

He drew them simultaneously and without skipping a beat, despite having never seen their full form.

When he drew the last lines, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, while the symbols flashed and dove into his body, quickly followed by his skin being covered in the rune he just drew. At the same time, inside his body, the magic core on which an Arcanist's glyphs were printed did the same thing.

When it was done, he sighed and opened his eyes again with a confident smile. "Good. Rank two with my ice affinity. Man it feels good to progress again."

He disabled the sigils around him and stood up from his seated position. Looking around, he noticed that he was now the only person in the training room.

He decided to go look for them, but before he could, a minotaur girl flashed into existence in front of him with a bright smile on her face. "Hey! You finished! So can you learn that technique now?! Can we get started?!"

Erik chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry, Eira. I only reached the second rank in my ice affinity. I'll need a little more time to begin the fusion. But that shouldn't take too long, alright? I just need a little rest before I continue."

While fusing affinities was by no means easy, Erik had several advantages that would make it much easier when the time came.

"Fine." Eira pouted with disappointment.

Ignoring her pout, Erik asked, "Do you know where the others are?"

"Resting in their rooms," Eira shrugged. "They stopped not long before you, although the white haired one and the smaller one worked in two sessions."

"You know, since you're going to be spending a lot of time with us, it might be a good idea to start using our names," Erik suggested with a roll of his eyes, fully aware Eira was still calling him Harbinger.

"I'll think about it," Eira stuck out her tongue while disappearing. Clearly, she was still a little unhappy about how her first meeting with the harbinger went.

Erik chuckled and moved towards the exit. At the same time, Elora suddenly showed up and sat down on his shoulder. Naturally, she was aware he broke through.

"Took you long enough!" she smiled teasingly. "I'm almost done compiling all the information I could find about fusing lightning and ice."

"Well, I didn't want to out pace and embarrass you," Erik shrugged nonchalantly, while continuing to walk towards the living chamber.

"Such a gentleman," Elora scoffed. "Now show me your second-rank spell and skill!"

Erik chuckled and brought one of his fingers up to Elora, who looked curiously at what he was doing. A small magic circle appeared at the top of his finger, and before Elora could react, she was suddenly encased in an icy sphere.

"Hmpf, very funny," came her muffled and slightly irate voice from inside, before a cloud of light specks seeped through the sphere and reformed into Elora's form just outside of it, where she was greeted with Erik's smirking face.

It wasn't so easy to capture a third-rank fairy.

Elora ignored his prank, however, and turned her attention the sphere. "So I guess that's your new Arcanist spell? What is it exactly? Is this all it does?" she wondered with a curious, albeit slightly disappointed, tone.

"Hehe, no it's not," Erik chuckled. "It seems to be a spell that allows me to create any physical object from ice almost instantly, and very easily."

While anyone with the ice affinity could create simple objects from ice, it would become harder, more time consuming, and more draining the larger or more complex the object. But with this new spell, it would be far easier and faster.

Although he could still only create an object's physical form. For example, he could create something that looked like a car, but it wouldn't actually be able to drive.

"Oooh, versatile, strategic, I like it!" Elora exclaimed with sparkling eyes while her impressive brain was already thinking of strategies to use this new ability with.

"What about the second one?" she then asked.

"I'll show you, but you should get into my soul first," Erik suggested.

Elora didn't doubt his words and quickly disappeared into a cloud that was absorbed into Erik's body. Next, icy blue runes appeared all over his skin and the temperature around him started to drop significantly.

Both Erik and Elora watched with fascination as small dust particles in the air seemed to suddenly move a little slower.

"I know I'm not, but it almost like I'm slowing time…" Erik mumbled in fascination.

"Yeah, but instead you're just increasing the density of air by making it approach its freezing point," Elora answered curiously. "It won't actually slow anyone down, but the extreme cold will certainly be a hindrance to anyone you're fighting."

"As it would be to my allies, I guess." Erik answered with a wry smirk. "I'll have to figure out how to make it behave a little more selectively before I use it in group fights." Find more to read at m_v l|e'm-p y r

During his conversation and demonstration, he had now made his way to the living quarters and stood before one of the bedrooms that his companions had claimed.

"I suppose I should knock, huh?" he chuckled to himself before knocking on the door.

"Yeah…?" came a hesitant and slightly surprised response.

"It's me, Alice. Can I come in?" he asked her through the door.

He felt he might be acting a little too formal, but the fact was that, now that thing had calmed down, he realized he wasn't really sure how to act around a kid who had been thrust into his care.

Before he could think anymore, however, the door swung open and ten-year-old Alice stood in the opening. She wore the simple clothing usually conjured by Elora. There was a hesitant expression on her face and she seemed to be fidgeting a little.

"H— Hi," she mumbled, seemingly a little unsure.

Clearly, there was something on her mind, but before Erik could ask what it was, she stood aside and invited him inside.