A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The actual process of fusion happened by taking one ability of each base affinity, and combining their symbols into one. This would effectively create the first rank thundersnow ability while also providing Erik with insights into the basic understanding of thundersnow.

Since this was the first time Erik was attempting to fuse affinities, he didn't actually know if he had to do this for both his Runebound system and his Arcanist system to gain access to the affinity, but he wasn't about to test it out.

After all, he did know for sure that it would surely count as brining his systems out of balance, and he didn't ever want to suffer through that again.

Luckily, his ability to do two things at once would help out here as well. Naturally, it would slow his progress down a little, but it wouldn't be too bad. He still expected to finish within a month, even though most people would take far longer to fuse third-rank affinities, if they even succeeded at all.

Some would call it hubris, others would call it arrogance. Erik called it confidence. After all, he had Elora. While his beloved fairy could not give him her direct insights into affinities, lest Erik's foundation was affected, there was after another way she could help…

There where two methods of creating a fused symbol, insightful and brute force. Insightful essentially meant using knowledge of the base affinities to guide you on the best way to fuse them. Unfortunately, it could take months or even years of meditation to get a useful insight.

Brute force, meanwhile, meant taking the two base symbols, imagining different combinations of the two, and then simply drawing them until something stuck.

The problem with that second method was that the number of combinations for two third rank-symbols ran into the thousands, and most people lacked the imagination to even think of them all.

Erik intended to use a combination of the two, and that was where Elora and her fairy powered computational brain came in.

By having Elora present him with possible combinations at a speed that most races were unable to match, while he used his own insights into ice and lightning to pick out the most likely candidates, he could have the best of both worlds.

The only reason this worked was because he and Elora shared such a close connection that Elora could see his runes and glyphs as if they were her own. Something that was usually impossible.

With the plans made, and Erik having fully recovered from the information transfer, the next step was to pick the abilities.

This was another important factor in creating a fusion, compatibility of the spell or skill.

For example, in fusing an ice and lighting rune, he had four possibilities: ice armor + lightning enhancement, ice armor + lightning flash, sub zero aura + lightning enhancement, and sub zero aura + lightning flash.

Obviously, ice armor and lightning flash didn't make for the best combination, since the skills were completely different. Thus, trying to fuse them would make the process all the more difficult.

Erik decided it was probably best to fuse the enhancement skill with either of the ice skills.

It didn't take him long to choose the armor.

He wasn't yet confident in using the aura in a group fight, after all, so binding his lightning enhancement to that would be a bad idea.

Ice armor and lightning enhancement, on the other hand, not only fit well together, but he also pretty much used them both constantly in any fight.

Next he had to choose spells for the Arcanist side of things. His choices were: ice shrapnel blast + lightning claw, ice shrapnel blast + concussive lightning blast, ice maker + lightning claw, and ice maker + concussive lightning blast.

He immediately tossed the ice maker combinations out, the results were too unpredictable, even if he did succeed.

He considered combining ice shrapnel with lightning claw, which would likely result in a simple, electrified ice shrapnel blast, but he went for the other option instead.

Ice shrapnel and concussive lightning blast were his most destructive abilities, and he had to admit to being curious about their combined power.

Finally, with plans made and abilities chosen, it was time to get started.

"I think we're ready. You?" Erik asked his beloved partner.

"All good," came her distracted response. "I've already got a handful of combinations for you to look at!"

Clearly, she'd already gotten started.

Erik chuckled, before nodding and readying himself. "Alright, send them through."

He divided his mind in two, as he always did when working on his advancement, and each of them quickly received one of the many possibilities in fusing these symbols.

One a rune, the other a glyph.

Immediately, Erik tossed one of them out as his insights into the ice affinity told him it wouldn't work, and he instantly received a new one. At the same time, he started drawing the other symbol to see how it would feel, as his insights told him it might work.

So they continued working, as minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days.

Every day, hundreds of different symbols flew past, and his fingers never stopped.

Nor did Elora's brain.

Finally, six days later, they stopped.

"Pfffff," Erik released a large breath of air as he shook his painful hands. His brain felt heavy, as did his eyelids. "How are you doing, Elora?"

"Uuuuuugh," came her groaning response. "Head… hurts… need sleep… than sex… than more sleep."

"I think that can be arranged," Erik chuckled with exhaustion, before dispelling the sigils around him and stumbling to his feet.

Immediately, a chirpy voice sounded next to him. "Master! I've prepared a bath, some tea, the bed, and myself!"

Erik smiled with affection as he looked to his side, to see a brightly smiling Emma.

He had given Emma the schedule he and Elora had come up with, so he wasn't particularly surprised she had neglected her own schedule to care for him at this moment. Experience tales at m v|l e'm,p| y- r

Especially not considering who she was.

If he had to be honest, however, he might have been hoping she'd do this, so he didn't feel the right to be angry at her for neglecting her own schedule.

He leaned over to her, and kissed her. "Thank you, Emma. You're a treasure."

Emma giggled happily, and then led the way.

Soon, Erik was washed, satisfied, and sound asleep.

Then, after nearly a full day of sleep, he and Elora went right back at it.

In the middle of their third week, however, he opened his eyes, stopped drawing, and sighed, "I'm missing something…"