After that night, she really hadn't seen Caelen again. And Akari didn't have much to divulge about him from her conversations as they had only discussed Farinheld and the disappearance of Balgair's body after the fight. This discovery was beyond disturbing, that he had been able to walk away from what was supposed to be a death blow. At the very least, though, he had been too weak to try killing them in their unconsciousness. But this was also concerning and made Essairyn wonder if he had any help. Perhaps one of the villagers had picked up his body.

Essairyn tapped the wooden table she sat at listlessly. "I should make a trip back to the village..." She murmured to herself, bored of not being allowed to do anything but mostly eat and sleep for the last two days. At least Akari could keep busy scouting the area around the abandoned village. But in that time, Aispin also hadn't woken, making Essairyn wonder if Caelen's spell had only affected her. Then again, Dr. Cyanmay still held the resolute belief that his soul had been tainted by the demonic energy because his body had fully healed before Essairyn even woke.

Sighing, she flopped over onto the table in defeat. Outside of resting and eating, Essairyn slyly snuck practicing magic spells in her free time. They were minor spells that wouldn't impair her recovery, and she always allowed the magic to flow back in her body before release. But Aispin's and Caelen's injurious spells made her all the more determined to fully grasp ancient language and the art of proper spell casting. While her unorthodox methods allowed her vast flexibility to manipulate magic into many forms beyond the typical scope of human mages and standard spells, it took more mana as a price.

Lifting her body back up, she glanced around the room and initiated one of the spells she had been practicing. Not a second later, the spark of magic fizzled when Essairyn jolted in surprise from a shout in the house. Disconcerted, she jumped out of her chair and ran out of the parlor. In the hallway, she saw an open door to Aispin's room where the noise originated. Dashing inside, she was met with a grief-stricken father holding his limp daughter.

"What happened—?!!" Essairyn, and Darren who had rushed inside after her, both yelled and stooped down to where Eisso had caught Lyressa from hitting the floor.

"Huuh..." A low grumble from the bed caught their attention.

"Aispin?!?" Essairyn jumped up in conflicted joy. "You're awake! But Lyra...why is she?"

Eisso shook his head miserably. "It's my fault. I left the door to my study open. The main treatment I discovered to be effective against the demonic energy affecting Aispin's spirit utilizes a poisonous flower which can be cleansed with the tonic from Yhirdene Cove. The poison latches onto demonic magic, so both of them can purified from the body at once. But I recently ran out of this tonic and left the study to send a mail request for more." He turned his head toward the flower vase by Aispin's beside.

"Lyressa is such a good child, I didn't expect her to enter my study when she knows not to... I suppose she really attached herself to Aispin and thought placing the flowers in here would help instead of the wildflowers she picks every day for him." Seeing the concern that flashed across all of the adventurer's faces when he mentioned those very poisonous flowers were inside this room, Eisso reassured them.

"Only if you touch them with open cuts are these flowers dangerous." He opened Lyra's enfolded hands which had minor scrapes from playing out in the woods. "She likes sitting in this chair beside him, so I imagine when she called me over upon seeing Aispin stir, the poison had already infected her bloodstream."

Everyone was silent.

"Then..." Essairyn carefully spoke first. "Will you be able to heal her like Aispin? Until you discovered this treatment, he made it through with other medicine in the meantime."

Eisso was wordless as he lifted his daughter's body up and began walking out of the room. "It was my mistake. I should have never left the door open."

"Dr. Cyanmay?" Essairyn continued nervously as they all followed him to another room. "Are you ok—"

"I'm no doctor if I can't even save my own child. I've been researching an alternate method of mirroring the Sytas Meisyirus flower's medicinal functions without the need for the Yhirdene tonic since it is largely inaccessible to the populace, but before I could even make one breakthrough, my own daughter—" His arms quaked from his surging emotion.

"Eisso." Darren laid an assuring hand on the other man's arm. "Please tell us what we can do to help. You already reordered the tonic, correct? So—"

"No, it's too late." Eisso shook his head regretfully as he gently placed Lyressa on the bed. "If I had only sent a request earlier before I ran out, maybe I could have traveled to Byar'non's relay station in time to pick it up. Alas, a child exposed to the poison cannot live long. I can only extend her two days' time by just another day at best. The shipment will arrive in one day, but it takes at least four days to travel from here to Byar'non and back."

Essairyn's chest tightened as she gripped her hands. "Is there really nothing else we can do? Maybe you'll be able to extend her time by two—"

"Thank you, Essairyn, Darren. I'm going to tend to my daughter now. Please excuse me."

They watched Eisso's retreating back with hushed sorrow. Essairyn and Darren both knew the pain of losing someone, but their grief could not compare to that of a single father loosing his only child, his remaining connection to his beloved, deceased wife.

"There must be something..." Essairyn murmured in thought as they went back to Aispin's room. "I feel absolutely terrible that in his time of need, we're helpless yet again to return all of his kindness."

Darren sighed heavily. "After Leo's death, I thought we could finally get away and return to happier times by going to Neu'arth. But in the end, it still turned out like this..." A sudden flash of hope sparked in his mind. "Wait, maybe Aispin knows something! He finally just woke up, but he's way more knowledgeable in magic than we are. Maybe—!"

Both of their eyes' widened in unison and they swung into Aispin's room eagerly. The black-haired boy was sitting up in bed with glassy eyes staring off into space. Upon his friends' loud entrance, he jerked his head toward them.

"Hey." He greeted weakly. "I heard everything from the next room. I'm sorry that this happened; I feel responsible. I didn't know the daughter of the very doctor that saved me would suffer because of me too."

"No," urged Essairyn as she drifted to his side. "It's not anyone's fault. But since you heard us, then can you think of anything that we can do to help?"

Aispin contemplated. "The only thing I can think of is if we could teleport like how Kajarn and Lyam escaped. But Byar'non is far, and you'd need a lot of magic for one way, much less two."

Conflicted, Essairyn frowned. Although she had quickly recovered most of her strength the last couple of days, even with three more days of accumulating magic in her Ayvirdizite, she was in no condition to try and teleport such a distance without any prior experience on how teleportation was done. If this had been before Farinheld and Balgair, then her past self might have jumped at the chance to learn and risk it for her benefactor. Still, she couldn't just give up because she had become more level-headed.

"Can you teach me how to teleport? I know I might not be able to master it in time and that it's dangerous, but without giving it a serious shot, I'll never know. Besides," she paused and held up a hand to Darren who was about to protest. "I'll be careful and start small. If I really can't do it, I won't attempt a long-distance teleportation." Darren released a breath of relief and Aispin nodded in agreement.

"I can't teach you right now in this condition, but starting tomorrow, we can begin. Fortunately, since we've already been to Byar'non, you can choose a place there that you're most familiar with, and the teleportation will be safer for you."

"Yes!" She bobbed her head. "I can easily visualize my old room, so that first step of teleportation won't be a problem!"

Aispin smiled at her determination. "Okay, that's settled then. Now, can you two tell me what happened since I fell unconscious? I heard something about demonic energy affecting. How long have I been out, anyway?"

His two friends exhaled simultaneously. It would be quite the long story, so they decided to first make food for Aispin so that he could eat while listening. The quicker he recovered, the better Lyressa's situation could become.

Thus, over the next two days, Aispin recovered and carefully taught Essairyn how to teleport. Although he had never teleported long distances himself as it was a huge waste of magic, having studied at the premier school of magic, all magically adept student were taught the process. It was a skill that could be deployed in battle strategically and was commonly referred to as "blinking."

For longer distances, the process of breaking down the body was much slower. Besides the main risk of transporting oneself over the world's flow of magic, another risk was being possible killed while casting. A body not fully formed made it vulnerable to any average person rushing in and disrupting the process. Fortunately, connecting together was quicker than breaking apart due to the special, magnetic-like linking of an individual soul and identity.

Now that Essairyn was being taught the proper way to cast teleportation rather than experimenting on her own, her speed of learning steeply increased. All three of them, along with Akari and Eisso who were initially against the idea, were shocked at Essairyn's learning curve. It was true that a magical genius could perform unimaginable feats. This discovery elated Essairyn. After several failures of not being able to protect people with her own power, her proficiency in learning teleportation restored her hope in her magic and herself.

On the fateful last day, Essairyn stood outside of the forest surrounding the Cyanmay's home. An open location was safer than an enclosed space. But in order to not put herself at risk by reappearing in an open street, her destination was still her old dorm. Hopefully, no one else would be living in it. But in case someone did, they had chosen a time for when a student would still be in class.

"Wish me luck." Essairyn smiled with confidence and waved goodbye. The paper slip from Eisso which allowed her to pick up his delivery was store safely in her inventory. As a magic cache was already nestled securely in the fabric of the world's magic flow, teleporting with it was not an issue.

"Yes, good luck. Be safe." They all cheered for her.

"If you don't come back within today, I swear to gods, I will destroy—"

Essairyn chuckled, cutting off Akari's vicious words. "Don't worry, little one. I'll be back."

Akari huffed and lifted her snout in the air defiantly. "You better be, human."

Essairyn nodded, closing her eyes in concentration as she began casting teleportation. A flurry of light particles surrounded her body in a cylinder the diameter of the magic circle appearing underneath her feet. The maelstrom of magic spiraled frenetically, faster and faster until Essairyn was barely visible. Bit by bit, the clarity of her three dimensional body fizzled out like static until both she and the magical column whorled up into nothingness.