The Ascension

"The other merchants will soon know that you are my protected merchant." Aila said as she placed the six plates on his counter, and fifty large silver.

"Young lady, what is this for?" He pointed to the silver.

"Compensation for the damage." Aila said and looked at him. She frowned slightly. "Hm, why do I see dark sparkles around your black eye?"

"Dark sparkles?" He asked. "Ah, the injury. Sometimes a wound received from a malicious person will leave dark elements behind. It's the intent behind the injury. I might have nightmares for a few nights until they disperse."

"Nightmares? That's not good." She held out her palm. "Hm, how do I do this? Ah, there it is." She smiled as she sucked it up, and Rirn felt a difference immediately. He felt lighter as the dark elements had a negative mental affect.

"Yeah, but you still have the injury?" She said with a frown.

"The dark elements didn't cause the injury, but were an after effect of the elementalist's intention." Rirn said, as that is what he was taught at a temple years ago.

"Oh. Then can light aid regeneration?" Her hand glowed golden yellow, as did her eyes.

"Holy." Rirn said as the surprise registered in his eyes. "I've only heard of the Seer of Underground Black using light elements, or purifying dark elements." He said, and started to chuckle heartily. "If you had life elements too, you could heal it completely!" He said, and only said it as a passing joke. He hadn't heard of anyone being able to use life elements, but it was an old story from their ancient tales.

"Life? Is that the green colored one?" He nodded. His mouth fell open when her eyes glowed green, as did her hand. "There. The black eye is gone." She smiled. "I'm glad this happened as now I know what those energy colors mean." She grinned and walked away.

"Absorbed dark elements. Has flame elements. Has light, and now life." He sat down on a crate as his legs were unsteady. The only thought on his mind would be a dominant one among those who faced her in combat, or those who eventually would call her Master.

"Is she a god?"

* * *

"Yellow is light, which is naturally occurring." Aila said and gathered it on top of her hands when she entered her house. "Green is life, while death is a mottled black, and dark is pitch black. Earth is brown, flame is red, and water is blue with white specks, like waves. I can use life to cut wood, or disassemble it."

Aila looked around and could see the earth element buried within the stone of the manor.

"I need more stone and elements to fix my home. I also need trees so I can fix my roof." Aila sat down and chewed a bit on the cheese she bought.

"So much to do. I wonder if this is how dad felt. Overwhelmed with all he had to do in order to provide enough money to keep me alive." She sighed a bit. Though she missed her parents, she didn't want to go back to earth and die from her disease. She was healthy and strong here.

Aila took several minutes to have a snack with some bread and cheese, shook the melancholy off by the end of her snack, and decided to head to the wasteland. She needed stone, and earth essence. The easiest way to absorb the element she needed was to take it from the environment itself. She could also hunt down stone bears, but she didn't believe she should hunt just to get beast cores.

When she needed meat, she would go on a hunt. If a bear came to attack her, she would kill it as she needed, but she didn't want to do the things she remembered from Earth's history.

Pelts and skins from animals trapped or killed only for their fur and hide. Ivory from animals butchered only for their tusks and horns. She had heard of some hunting storm wolves for their unstable beast cores as they were the weakest of the elemental beasts.

Storm wolves were also stupidly aggressive, and would give chase to a hunting party no matter where they went. All a party had to do was set a trap, go in, and lure them out. It was the easiest way to hunt, but hunters weren't stupid themselves. They stayed out of the depths of this massive forest, and stayed away from clearly marked territories.

One foolish hunting party had tried to lure out a stone bear, and they succeeded. The bear fell into the pit, the spikes broke as their hide was too tough to penetrate, and the bear climbed out of the pit within thirty seconds.

It killed all the hunters, and the nearby village that the hunters came from. It was the only time it happened as it was a lesson that no one wanted to learn a second time.

* * *

Aila shook her head. The area was rich in flame element, as well as light and wind elements. She could even sense dark elements that had seeped into the stone as it was exposed to heavy amounts during the evening.

There was a simple reason she shook her head. The lack of life elements.

"No grasses, shrubs, or other living things. It is a completely wasted land, with nothing here of use to other people. However, it is of use to me." She inhaled the air, and sighed. Flame elements rushed towards her, along with the thick light elements, but she was a little surprised that the wind element wasn't that thick.

However, she soon dismissed the thought as her eyes fell on something.

"There is my target." Aila had immediately taken note of a large elevated plateau that was several hundred yards in width and a few thousand yards in length. It didn't require her to dig, or create any type of cavern that was of no use in order to harvest ample earth elements.

Although it was a few miles away, Aila soon discovered that her running speed was more than enough to get her where she wanted to go, and in record time. What would have taken ten minutes or more by a four wheel drive all terrain vehicle, only took Aila a minute. She even stirred up the dust as she passed.

"Ha ha ha!" She laughed when she slowed down not far away from the plateau.

"That was incredible! It was like a roller coaster that I was able to ride when I was a child!" She was quite excited and bounced a bit before she was able to come to a complete stop, and arrived at the vertical rock face that rose a couple of dozen feet into the air.

"Wow, this is perfect! I can't wait to practice here!"