"Knowledge is power."

- Unknown

"Mages horde knowledge even fiercer than a dragon to gold."

- Unknown

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The doors to the mansion were opened by menservants, maids lined the entryway, bowing to their lord. The masked elf strode into the room with a natural presence, not even those who served this home for decades were used to its pressure.

No person spoke to him as he deftly moved to a door to the side, the skeleton following behind by chain. Beyond the door was a narrow staircase leading under the house. This door was not hidden for no elf was mad enough to enter the masked elfs domain. The stairs creaked and groaned with age with every step the two figures took. Down and down they went, the sole light an orb conjured by the elf to light the way. Eventually, they reached the bottom, a door covered in runes glowing faintly in the dark. The elf chanted words under breath so softly not even the skeleton with its magically powered hearing could catch. With a final flick of the elf's wrist, the door creaked open as slow as a turtle revealing a massive room covered in various arcane objects and text. After entering the room, the elf shut the door with a flick of the wrist and muttered more incantations, locking the two within the room.

Leading the skeleton to the center of the room, the masked elf spoke for the first time as he let go of the chain "Stay." Immediately the collar restrained the skeleton, not that it was going to move anywhere. The elf pointed to a book, causing it float over to it, hovering by his hip as words quite literally wrote themselves as he observed. The elf removed its mask as it got to work, casting spell and incantation onto the skeleton for experiment, and various magical tools to study. It should be noted the elf did not check for any mental capacity, writing it off as though different in looks, a skeleton is still a skeleton. Thus the elf found itself annoyed. It could not pinpoint the source of the divine arcane essence swirling around the corpse no matter the method used. For three days and nights, the elf studied. He refused all meals the servants attempted to bring as well as having the steward turn any potential visitor away at the door, enraptured in its study.

While most would grow increasingly disinterested at the project with absolutely not even the smallest tangible observation, this elf grew further both intrigued at the prospect and perturbed at what the hidden secret could be. On the fifth day the elf passed out from fatigue, the skeleton looked on at the collapsed form, still unable to move, imagining an ear growing from the top of his head. On the sixth day, the elf awoke and left the room, having no choice but to eat and take care of any work piled up. On the ninth day, he returned to the laboratory, continuing his research. It was on the twelfth day he used a specific tool and something happened.

This elf is old even by elven standards. The reason he is revered so well, is because he one of the progenitor elves, the first twelve to walk the land. Of the twelve only he remains alive even after the thousands upon thousands of years since they came into being, his insight in the arcane unparalleled to any save the gods and dragons, which was also the source of his long life. It was on this day he pulled out a tool from an age passed, the purpose of the tool lost and looked like a straw basket in design. The basket sent out a magically powered frequency, causing resonance with the skeleton, specifically its shoulder.

The elf fell back mouth agape, it recognized that mark, an elgasia, something that he worked hard to erase from the world. While the elgasia, or the mark that connects hearts, is inherently a good thing, it had some dark sides. If the blood ritual used to bind the two souls was altered just right, it could create an absolute master and slave relationship. This was so absolute if the 'slave' was ordered to kill themselves, they would without question. Not only that, but they wouldn't question the situation they were in. Thinking to serve this person only to be natural. Similar to the Mitocrasis becoming rather maternal towards the skeleton. Though of course at the end of the day the Mitocrasis still had its own 'will', these 'slaves' would not.

Fear crept onto his face at the sight of this, he destroyed cities to erase his mistake of creating this ritual so none would suffer through it like many did. He ran to his bookshelves, seeking his journals from millennia ago, for he had lived so long he was bound to forget something and he didn't want anything problematic to arise in, what the elf considered, a situation with potentially dire consequences.

The skeleton continued to remain still, following as best it could with its orbs as it could not move even its skull, it listened occasionally, still enraptured with its mental canvas in preference over the elf's near ravings at its discovery. It began imagining humanoid features on the various creatures it had seen. A human mouth instead of the muzzle on the Mitocrasis, an elf ear on the starfish it saw beneath the sea, or even a nose on a bear. It was slowly expanding its mental capabilities unaware of it doing so.

On the fifteenth day, the elf would do something, that for one should not be possible to his knowledge, that only one other living thing had done. It stared deeply at elgasia, and the unique variant enraptured a new connection.

Immediately several things happened. As the nature of the elgasia prevented 'ownership' between bonded members, the collar snapped releasing the skeleton. The elfs eyes glowed as it fell back screaming, using all his magical strength and will to fight off the elgasia's advance on his mind. The skeleton having unconsciously gotten used to being a statue fell over at the sudden sensation at regaining control, ruining its latest mental 'masterpiece'. Finally, the skeleton would fall knocking down a candle, which landed on the journal the elf had been taking his notes on the skeleton with, though the one older one the elf had was untouched.

The skeleton stared forward, doing what little it was capable of to assess its current situation. Recognizing this from its time under the sea, it attempted to push itself back up. However, the skeleton was under hundreds of tons of water pressure then, so the skeleton launched itself into the ceiling, causing it to be knocked right back down on the floor. The skeleton used what little it had in thought to assess this, and once again decided to launch itself into the ceiling. So within this room was an elf rolling onto the floor screaming bloody murder and a skeleton seemingly practicing extreme push-ups.

Very curious, for anyone really.