Chương 38: Finding Heedy

When Arielle couldn't come up with a reasonable solution to her problem, she decided to ask the prince, who was pretty impatiently waiting–tapping his foot and pursing his lips–for her to come to her decision.

"Prince Aerendyl?"

"Yes, human?" Arielle took a few seconds to work out the phrasing in her mind before she spoke.

"As an apprentice mage by rank, I am not supposed to be in Elfheim. I am also certainly not supposed to complete quests and collect rewards while I'm in Elfheim. If I go back and get investigated, and it's revealed that I completed a quest while here, it would get me and someone I care about into immense trouble.' He frowned.

"Why? Completing a quest and getting rewarded for it is a very admirable thing."

"It should be." Arielle nodded.

"But it's also against the rules. I don't typically like breaking the rules." Though she had done it an uncomfortable number of times since she'd met Elric.

"However, when I do break the rules, I especially don't like getting caught. It puts the people I care about in jeopardy." The prince raised a white eyebrow.

"So you don't want the quest?"

"I do. But unless there is a way to conceal it in my system, I do not think I can accept it." As painful as it was to say, while staring at the rewards in her face.

"Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so? Elfheim-lev-loom." He waved his hand, and a bunch of essences, including the foreign purple and teal ones, surrounded her. They created a constellation, the bonds solidifying before the magic narrowed to her system screen. Suddenly, it blurred, then duplicated in front of her vision.

"What did you do?"

"When elves contract other species, like humans, we sometimes prefer to keep our activities secret," he said.

"Therefore, we create a duplicate quest menu and storage system which reflects our agreement with these humans, and can only be viewed by other elves and the contractee." He shrugged.

"I've never contracted a human before, but I learned the spell from my brother."

"Ah, I see." Arielle's excitement began to expand again.

"So the humans can't see this other system screen?"

"No. It's a copy of your human system, but one that only Elves and you can access. Your activities here will be sufficiently shielded." And just like that, the quest offer disappeared from her original system screen and appeared on the copied one. Arielle wanted to jump for joy, her anxiety relieved. But she still considered the implications of this new development. He said other elves were capable of viewing the private screen. There were not many elves on Earth.

There might not be any at all, as Arielle had never actually met or seen one. However, human ministry officials could technically consult with an elf who could investigate and find that she had two separate quest screens.

"Prince."

"What now?"

"Is there a way to conceal the quest screen from other elves?" He sighed.

"There is, but I don't know how to do that. I shall ask Elarys."

"Please do," Arielle said, but then she also calculated the chances of her being investigated, and even suspected of having visited Elfheim. From that, she drew the odds that they would question her about being given a secret system quest screen by an elven prince, who wanted her to find his father's terrified pet. Truthfully, the odds of all that happening were very low.

"Not to mention, I could always claim that, after I was summoned, the Prince forced the quest on me," she murmured to herself.

"Everyone knows how fearsomely powerful the elves are, so it's a plausible excuse. I'm not a good liar, but perhaps I will be better by then."

"Are you audibly scheming to lie against me to save your own skin?" the prince asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"You were scheming to do the same with me."

"That is fair," he said.

"Human, I really must go now. Do you want the quest or not?" She only took a second before she replied.

"I do." Then she visually clicked on the obvious yes button on her quest screen. Congratulations! You have accepted the quest from Prince Aerendyl. Duration: 2 hours Failure to complete the quest within the given time limit will result in no rewards. Your time starts now.

"I suppose I'll see you in two hours," the prince said.

"Yes. Which direction did your pet wander off to again? And what exactly do they look like?"

"She went into the forest, though I'm not sure exactly where. As for her appearance, she's quite young, so she's not the largest. She has a red scaly body, although that can sometimes change, too. Her wings are small, arched, and webbed, but it's hard to tell sometimes as she doesn't like to use them." He put his index finger to his chin, then snapped.

"You'll really know her from her eyes. She has a very soft, charming, yellowed gaze. They're so innocent and curious, it tugs at your heartstrings immediately. She's a very lovable thing, and very friendly too. Except for with the blasted falcon." He paused, ruminating some more.

"You should coax her with some fish you might find in the Talias river. That's in the forest, where the waterfall is. You'll hear it when you enter. If you carry the fish around, eventually, she'll come out to meet you."

"Okay." That seemed easy.

"Alright, then. Good luck, human." He spun around on his pointy little slippers and strolled away, with the ease and poise of a spoiled prince. Arielle headed in the opposite direction toward the forest. As she did, she thought about what might happen should she run into a villager or another elf who saw through her disguise and wanted to behead her. She wasn't afraid necessarily. Though she knew elves were powerful, so was she. She'd never had any opportunity to explore the full breadth of her power.

Perhaps this would be the perfect chance. She did wonder how she got here, though. Was it really the elven prince's summon? What else could it be? What was the strange sensation she'd experienced when she'd touched the statue of the Drift? Had something been there with her? It had felt like something that held her hand and ensured that she got teleported? If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

It brought back to mind all the other times she'd felt like a ghostly presence watching her. Was she being haunted by the Abyssal disciple? If so… it was a little disconcerting. But also interesting. She got distracted from her thoughts when she entered the forest, walking between a canopy of trees, and was instantly greeted by an orange essence buzzing in her face. Arielle stopped and smiled.

"Hello." She held her hand out, but it swept backwards, keeping a respectable distance from her. It was curious about her, but also it was protective of its space. She couldn't blame it.

"I'm Arielle Blacksoil," she said, but the buzzing did not change in intensity or type. She tried to pull it closer, but she didn't have the cores, or at least the core awareness to do so. Could she possibly develop it while she was here? If she sat in the grass and meditated right now, would she eventually gain the cores to communicate with the other foreign essences? She didn't have time to check right now.

Perhaps when she was done finding Heedy, she would try to spend the rest of the period communing with the essences before she went back to earth. As she walked, she scanned the forest. The trees were packed closely together, but light filtered through leaves of various colors, ranging from green to mauve to even silver. The trees were impossibly tall, their trunks smooth and pale, the subtle breeze bringing along a fresh scent unlike anything Arielle had ever smelt.

It was like rain, without the mud, combined with a fresh, icy breeze. The air carried the quiet whispering of the leaves and the gentle gurgle of a waterfall. Arielle was headed in that direction, and she spent so much time looking up at the colors spun by a medley of the aurora and the leaves, until her foot struck something metallic.

"Ouch." She glanced down and saw it on the soft grass, surrounded by leaves. A small gold bar.

"Wow." Arielle had almost forgotten about the promise of treasure, and she'd been certain that she would at least have to dig for it. But here it was, right in her face. It was about the size of her palm and half the width. She picked it up and wondered just how much she could sell it for. They could probably make at least ten gold coins from this. How many books will it earn me? She fluttered in excitement as she put it in the pocket of her cloak. A few steps later, she found another one. Then another.

They really were not hard to find, deposited every few steps, and lying on a bed of grass.

"They must not be very valuable here," Arielle realized. That was why there was so much of it. But if they were not valuable here, and they were very valuable in the human realm, why did the elves not just sell them to the humans? Perhaps because there was nothing they needed from humans? After all, the nature of human-elven relations consisted of humans asking things of elves and the elves being magnanimous enough (or not) to grant their requests.

Arielle carried as many gold bars as could fit in her pockets, without weighing herself down. Eventually, she had the thought to put it in her duplicate system inventory.

"Open Inventory," she said, and both the real and fake screens opened. However, she visually directed the gold to the second one, eyes hovering over the prompt: Add Gold Bars to Inventory. Yes? No? She selected 'Yes,' and the gold bars disappeared from her pockets. So useful. She kept walking, eventually happening upon the glittering lake that Prince Aerendyl had mentioned. Though the waterfall trickled at the other end, the gleaming water nearest to Arielle remained undisturbed.

"Is he sure there's fish in here?" she murmured, Well, she had to try, and she was almost regretful that she would be disturbing its peace. But she said, "[Soul Search]." That was a Tier 6 spell that would search for any life form and inform her of what it was from the shape of its soul. When she found the fish, she used [Hooked] to attach it to her. She then reeled it in and hung the struggling fish in the air, smiling at her success. The smile dropped when she heard the bedrock rumble.

She instantly stepped back to stare at the rock face, noting that it was moving for some reason. It was shifting and emitting raw, deep sounds, the creature extracting itself from the rest of the background. Arielle's heart caught. Gleaming yellow eyes blinked open, and then she finally made out the shape of the creature camouflaged against the large monolith. It was a dragon. A large one. Arielle held her breath, wondering if it could see her. Its eyes blinked slowly, and then it zeroed in on her.

Oh, it definitely saw her. It huffed a breath first, then opened its maw and breathed fire.

Prince Aerendyl was very pleased with himself. He had successfully averted a crisis (though it was one he had inadvertently caused) all by himself, without the help, and using only his quick thinking. He had put the human to work, too. Humans. He hadn't ever been curious about the species, believing them to be irritating, ugly little invaders that they needed to protect their realm from. But the one he'd just met had not been irritating. She'd been clearly female, and her face had not been ugly at all.

He'd heard humans were overly expressive and liked to shout. But she'd had a flat affect and had spoken in an even tone, even when she was shocked. And she did not like to look at his eyes. Perhaps because she found them to be too beautiful. His mother always told him he had beautiful eyes, and he'd heard that humans liked to write sonnets about how beautiful elven creatures were. She was likely stunned by his good looks, though she had not prostrated herself before him like she was supposed to. No matter.

She was going to help him find Heedy, and Father would never find out what the Prince had done. He giggled to himself as he skipped through the drawbridge entrance of the castle, made of smooth, polished wood that was always on the alert for invaders. He ignored the guards on either side as he ventured down the long hallway, light pouring in from the large, mullioned windows, and through the crystals that dotted the walls.

The light cut across and landed on the paintings of all those who had come before, lining the way as he walked toward the courtyard. Only to see his brother coming in the opposite direction, a clean white cloth pressed against his palm. Elarys was taller than him, to be expected as he was nearly two centuries older, and there were those who said he was more handsome, but Aerendyl did not believe it.

"I thought you were practicing swordfighting," Aerendyl said.

"Clearly, I am no longer."

"Are you hurt?"

"You should learn to stop asking such obvious questions." He frowned. The human had been the one asking obvious questions, and he didn't like being compared to her.

"I don't appreciate the prank that you pulled on me, by the way."

"What prank?"

"That summoning spell you gave me. It was not for druids. It was for humans." He frowned.

"No, it was not."

"Yes, it was. I know that for a fact." The frown lingered for only a second before his eyes widened in dramatic, near-human alarm.

"You summoned a human?"

"No. You summoned a human. Indirectly. By tricking me with that spell."

"The spell wasn't supposed to summon humans unless you did it wrong. It was supposed to summon–" His breath ceased in the throat.

"Where are they now? Tell me you sent them back."

"I wasn't sure I could," he protested because his brother was making it seem like it was his oversight that caused this.

"So the spell wasn't a human summoning spell?"

"No! I would never do that! Do you know how much trouble we could be in? If Father learns of this..." He shuddered.

"Just tell me where they are." He looked at his feet, studying the design of his shoes.

"Aeryn?"

"The Telaris forest," he murmured.

"What?"

"I thought she could help me find Heedy."

"Heedy is missing?" He paused.

"I should have mentioned that first, should I not?" His brother then released a string of curses that made Aerendyl's ear bleed as he stormed toward the entrance.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Sending a human after Heedy?"

"She told me she was more powerful than her peers."

"It doesn't matter! Unless she has a mature kind of power, there is no way she'll be able to subdue a dragon scared out of her cave. Does she?"

"Does she what?"

"Have a mature power."

"She said she was an apprentice." He swallowed.

"If that human is dead, and I'm fairly certain she is, it will be all your fault. We'll have to apologize to the entire human race, and Father will not be happy."