Dinner at the Varethe Residence was awkward, to say the least. With Urie trying his best to raise the dead, the conversation would always die back down whenever Stella uses more strength than necessary with her knife. And with how loud her plate resonates with the table, Urie wouldn't be surprised if she cuts it in half— the plate and the table both. Still, he persevered because he had heard about the story behind the feud between the father and daughter from loose-lipped uncle Simone.

Apparently, the union between-pure blooded elves and humans were looked upon quite unfavorably by the elves adhering to strict tradition. Although there were already a great number of half-elves amongst the population, none of them were first-generation. They were mostly descendants of bygone times, an already foregone result that the Elder Council had to overlook when the elves first took refuge in Daerin.

Over the recent half-century, however, the birth of two first-generation half-elves brought that controversy back into the light. A brother and sister pair had broken into the Elder Council assembly and proclaimed themselves the offspring of the highest seated member. The two looked upon their father with eyes of hope and longing. Then, a much-awaited sappy reunion between parent and children... didn't occur.

Before Ashur could even utter a word, the council members already denounced the children and kicked them out of the assembly building. Ashur himself also dismissed the matter as nonsense but after a certain amount of time, recalled a certain woman at one point in his life.

It was at a time before he was appointed head of the Elder Council. Eventually, he had taken the position and he had to sever their relationship. It was at this realization that Ashur made a dash to his former lover's house, only to be confronted at the door by the girl who had proclaimed herself his daughter.

She was furious and torn— not listening to any of his excuses and preventing him from entering the house. At her words, “It's too late! We don't need you anymore!” He had rushed past her into the house and found the woman lying unresponsive on the bed, her cold hands clasped within the hands of his crying son.

It was too late.

She had always sickly. And with childbirth and the pain of their separation, her health had deteriorated faster than it would have had normally. Ashur fell down to his knees asking for forgiveness. He felt great regret, more so when his son began to depict their story on her deathbed.

They were told that their father was a pure-blooded elf. One with the highest authority. That it was not that they were abandoned, but it was that their mother had purposely kept them a secret. It was only when she was at her last moments did the siblings decide on their own to oust the secret— for her, for their mother— only to be met with the opposite of what they'd hoped for.

This story, Simone had recounted to Urie one day when he could no longer keep his curiosity in check. He'd accompanied him to pay respects to a grave— the grave of Ashur's former love and Stella and Simone's mother, where he heard the entirety of it all...

“—That's for little Urie.”

“—That's also for little Urie.”

Ashur made a complicated expression at having his cutlery blocked whenever he tried to take food onto his plate.

Urie would then try to ease the tension, “Mama Stella, I won't be able to finish all this by myself now. If possible, I'd like Granpa Ashur to help me eat everything.”

“A-Alright...”

Of course, Stella would always look conflicted. Urie knew that she wouldn't refuse him, however, she would always turn around and grind her teeth away from his eyes. He would then wonder, “Am I doing more harm than good?” before shaking his head and focusing on his food. Whatever, he was doing what he thought was right.

Anyways, the root cause of all this stemmed from the elves' narrowmindedness. Grandpa Ashur, Mama Stella, Uncle Simone, and grandmother— they were only the victims, Urie thought. Although their relationship had fractured to some extent because of what had happened then, Ashur was still making an effort to connect with his children— albeit with subtlety as he still occupied a sensitive position.

Urie contemplated, “If there was anyone who could help them mend relations, it would have been their granddaughter, Celeste, but unfortunately, she was absent...” so he took it upon himself to act her role.

*

The next morning, Urie was in the backyard of the Varethe Residence sitting cross-legged on the grass. While practicing mana circulation, he was pondering the contents spoken over dinner the night before, he mumbled, “I know what the culprit looks like, the problem is where to start searching...”

Suddenly, he felt a change happening within his body. A small pop rang in his head and a refreshing feeling washed over him. The feeling was coming from his chest, “Again?” he muttered, this was what he felt every time his mana seed had broken through its current shell and expanded in size.

He was used to it as this occurred frequently over the year he had spent under the eccentric headmaster Arinndra's guidance. Back then he would always lose control and his body would unconsciously spit out fire but ever since he'd arrived over at this side, his control had improved tremendously with the help of the fire spirit, Volcanus.

This time, however, he felt a distinction. Although his body did not spit out fire, it did once again release a blast of hot air. Urie quickly opened his eyes and scanned the surroundings to assess if he did any damage.

“Thank goodness...” he sighed with relief after seeing only grass stripped of their moisture.

“Wait? What is this?” He felt an odd sensation surrounding his body, like his perception had undergone a massive change. He wore a curious expression and did a full turn, once more doing a scan. Still, he couldn't quite place it...

With his eyes falling onto the back door of the house, “Is that Mama Stella about to call me for breakfast?” he guessed, and sure enough, Stella opened the door and called for him to eat.

He glanced around again, perplexed, before answering her with a smile and following her into the house for breakfast. He didn't bring up the issue, deciding to mule over it only after eating.

A while later, he stepped out of the Varethe Residence with the excuse of doing an early patrol, “I should go over the recent growth of my mana seed...”

He stood in the streets and tried to recall the sensation. Like how he would focus on mana circulation, he slowly closed his eyes but opened them again immediately in shock.

“This is really quite unusual...” curiosity lit up in his eyes as he closed them once more.

“—Watch where you're going, young man!” Someone shouted behind him. It was someone whose shoulder Urie brushed as he started walked around clumsily.

“Sorry about that!” he apologized, and continued placing his feet forward, but the sudden lapse in focus caused him to stumble and crash into a few wooden crates.

“Ah! I'm really sorry!” He apologized again.

Opening his eyes, he chuckled as there were no longer any people around him.

“I need more practice with this, it's a bit hard to tell random objects from the ground.” Urie again proceeded to walk with awkward steps as if he were a blind man.

“When I close my eyes, I can still see. I see the presence of fire within... everything. People have a similar appearance to Volcanus', but random objects differ,” Urie knelt down and placed his hands on stone pavement, ”The streets that receive some warmth from Volcanus' glow, they are dimmer in appearance to people. Likewise with this rock...”

He picked up a stone hidden within the shadow of a building, “ It hasn't retained any heat, I can only perceive it as something small, round, and dark,”

Different temperatures in objects appeared in different shades within Urie's newly attained vision. The world seemed unique and different. It was a world of mana tinged with the colors of fire. There was marvel as well as profound curiosity.

Urie continued to go around the city but with his attention fully immersed in this new ability, he did not notice the eyes that were falling upon his unusual demeanor.

“Ah! It's that person!” a green-haired boy softly exclaimed. He quickly stood to the side and jumped into an alley— almost dropping the bags of food he held in his arms, and warily peeked his head out to steal a glance at the ashen-haired boy clumsily walking into various things.

“What's he doing?” he wondered, but flinched in surprise as Urie suddenly opened his eyes and met with his.

“Ah! It's you!” Urie blurted out.

The green-haired boy's face paled after being called out, he turned into the alley and made a swift escape.

“You won't get away!” Urie chased after him, “I noticed someone slipping into the alley and acting suspicious... I didn't expect it to be him.”

Urie recognized the green-haired boy as the mirror thief. Although he did say he would look for him, he didn't expect to run into him not even an hour after he left the house...

Urie ran through the alleys of the city, along multiple twists and turns and although the mirror thief was fast, he was not fast enough that he could outrun him. For two years he had been tempering his physique all in order to cope with his abnormal condition, “Strengthen the vessel that contained the seed so no matter how wild the roots would become, the body would not falter,” that was what Stella had instilled in him.

Urie ran with a steady pace, barely brushing against walls and corners. While following the thief, he made certain to maintain a distance. A distance that was far enough for the thief to mistakenly think that he'd lost Urie's pursuit but was close enough for Urie to occasionally keep track of him with his new ability.

“Looks like he went inside.”

In front of him was a dainty wooden house, much like all the others but smaller in comparison. Urie hid behind a barrel outside and used his thermal senses to take a look. The walls weren't of much of an effort to see past with his vision, and inside he saw—

“Wha—? What is that?”

Besides the visage of the mirror thief, he saw an unusual sight. It was of a large object with the same glow of mana coming from the fake sun up above.

“The mana of Volcanus... it's concentrated at that point in the room.”

Urie opened his eyes and made a saddened expression. He immediately made sense of the situation inside. The large object which he could only see a vague outline of was a bed, and on that bed lay a patient.

Now, illness was commonplace. Without seeing the symptoms, one wouldn't be able to tell what ails a sick person. But the patient lying there on the bed, Urie knew of her affliction.

He whispered quietly, “Maybe there's more to this than meets the eye...”