A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"You're missing something?" Elora halted her calculations to do the mental equivalent of staring at him quizzically. "What's wrong?"

He scratched his chin and furrowed his brows. "I think my insights into the ice affinity are too shallow…" he pondered. "I can still recognize the symbols that wouldn't work, but I think I may have simply failed to draw one that would have, due to the missing insights into ice."

While their current method was far less reliant on deep knowledge of an affinity than the alternatives, he still needed to have reached a certain threshold in order to actually draw the sigil.

So far, he had assumed any symbols he had failed to draw were because they simply weren't stable enough to become the foundation of thundersnow.

But now, after three weeks of not even coming close to finishing a rune or glyph, he decided it had to be something else. And what else could it be, besides his relatively low understanding of ice?

After all, he had only had the ice affinity for a month. The winter wolf bloodline did give him some insights into ice, and while Earth's current development stage also helped with gaining insights, it seemed that even their combination wasn't enough…

Perhaps they should have realized this as a problem sooner, but the fact was that neither of them had ever fused affinities before, and it was hard to determine the exact insight requirements from mere research.

"Well, I suppose that's not too big of a surprise," Elora mumbled thoughtfully. "So what do you want to do?"

"Not sure…" Erik slowly shook his head. "We need a way to rapidly increase my understanding of the ice affinity, otherwise we'll loose too much time."

Elora agreed, and sank into thought together with Erik. Finally, she seemed to get an idea. "How about we check out that alchemy lab? None of us knows alchemy, and Emma hasn't started yet, but I should be able to recognize ingredients. Perhaps there's something there that will help with understanding the ice element?"

"You're a genius, Elora!" Erik quickly exclaimed. He dispelled the sigils, and quickly stood up. No one noticed his unscheduled break, as everyone was busy with their own things right now.

Of course, there was one who noticed.

As he made his way towards the alchemy lab, a floating minotaur girl appeared. True to her bright and playful nature, she was floating upside down and looking at him with big, expectant eyes.

Seeing her gaze, Erik chuckled. "Sorry, Eira. Not yet." Enjoy exclusive content from m-v l'e|m,p-y r

Eira immediately pouted, but his response caused her to be puzzled by his appearance. "Then why have you come out?" she asked, a little confused.

"Well," Erik shrugged with a slight smirk. "I just didn't feel like it anymore. I think I'll give up on the whole thing."

Immediately, Eira's pout disappeared and she righted herself while her eyes widened with panic. "W— What?!"

But seeing Erik immediately start to chuckle, caused her pout to return, and a glare to slip into her gaze. In the last three weeks she had quickly learned that both Elora and Erik liked to tease her. And yet, she still fell for it every time.

Her indignant and frustrated expression didn't last long, however.

Her glare was more playful than frustrated, and her pout quickly turned into a smile.

The fact was, that she couldn't be happier.

Finally, she had so many people to interact and joke around with.

"You're mean!" she exclaimed, although any and all force behind that statement was lost due to the smile on her lips.

"Yes, I am," Erik chuckled as he moved into the crafting section of the structure.

"But you still haven't said where you're going!" she beamed playfully while floating circles around him. "Can I help?!" she asked, excitedly.

"Sure," Erik smiled softly. "I need to increase my understanding of the ice affinity. Do you know if there are any special treasures in the alchemy room that could help me?"

Eira quickly pursed her lips and looked a little uncomfortable. "U— Uhm… m— maybe," she mumbled as she poked her fingers together. "B— But those are supposed to be saved for actual alchemy. You won't be able to find those again on this planet anytime soon, you know!"

Erik paused a moment and a frown appeared on his face. "She's not wrong," Elora shrugged inside his mind. "If we use that kind of resource now, we might regret it later. I mean, we don't have an alchemist now, but after Emma reaches second rank she'll start learning."

"Yeah," Erik mumbled thoughtfully through their bond. "But time is an issue for us right now. We need to get as strong as possible, as fast as possible. And only when I have created a new medium for Eira and absorbed this dimension can we really get focused on growing. Which means that, right now, I'm inclined to say that tomorrow's problem is tomorrow's problem."

In the meantime, they had reached the alchemy room, but with the large amount of omnisense resistant wooden boxes and vials around this place, it would take at least a few days to sift through it all in search of what they needed.

"I don't disagree with you," Elora shrugged. "I'm just saying we might regret it later."

Erik nodded in agreement, but still turned to Eira, who was hopping from one foot to the other in an uncomfortable display. She hadn't heard anything Elora and Erik had said to each other, after all.

"You're not wrong, Eira, but I'd still like you to show me," he told her, sympathetically.

"I…" Eira began with struggle in her eyes. Doing this would mean disobeying another of her mistress's orders.

Erik quickly realized her struggle. "I appreciate your loyalty, Eira. But after we transfer you to a new medium, we'd be able to access these resources with or without your help anyway."

A sad glint passed through Eira's eyes. She may be excited to start her adventures in a new medium, but she still didn't like the fact that she would soon be unable to follow most of her mistress's directions.

The argument was still effective, however. She sighed, and nodded, before suddenly disappearing.

While she was gone, Elora's voice sounded in his head again. "It really is surprisingly easy for Eira to disobey Audumla, despite being a sigil construct created by her… I wonder why that is."

Her thought would continue to go unanswered for a while longer, however, as before Erik could respond, Eira was already back again.