"Is it working?"

I looked at the woman before me and nodded slowly.

"Finally! After nearly two hundred years of research, we finally managed to create a potion that is potent enough to help you!" cheered the navy blue-haired woman with fin-like ears.

"All thanks to you, Levi!" I replied, smiling.

"Oh, you really don't need to thank me, cutie. But I'm curious. After all this time, why aren't you telling me the real reason you need that sealing elixir? I mean, yeah, you said that you were cursed and so on, but honestly, every one of us can tell that this was a rather blatant lie of yours. So go on, tell this adorable little water serpent all about it."

My smile dropped, and my face hardened. "I did not lie."

Levi rolled her eyes, "Of course you did! Listen, we have known each other for what now, fifteen hundred years? In all that time, you always vanished right before the so-called 'curse' broke out and came completely unscathed back after some time. If that 'curse' would've been such a problem, then Aur—"

"Don't call her that!" I hissed.

"Fine. Then Ca-lyp-so would've told all of us already about the details. But she didn't, and that bitch freaking loathes you—or loves, I dunno, Calypso kinda freaks me out. Anyway, she would never let a chance to humiliate you go. But she just keeps quiet—it doesn't matter how often we ask her. 'Ask her yourself', is what she says every goddess damn time.”

"So yeah, I know that things just don't add up. And why a sealing potion when you can just go to Ori? She could just destroy the curse. You are hiding something; I think it's time for you to make a clean sweep. I'm your friend, I can help."

When I looked into her eyes, I could see how emerald tears formed that solidified as soon as they left them. A twinge of guilt went through me, but I just couldn't. I was too afraid to tell the truth, to stand alone in this world...again. So I simply turned away.

"I can't, I'm sorry. But let me assure you, it's a curse..."

I left without making another sound. Our relationship continuously grew worse after that. She would still help me create more medicine, but that was all. Finally, my storage was full and we didn’t meet anymore at all.

-------

[Error! Error! System failed to integrate ïÊÓ◘‹}]

[Searching for other procedures]

[Please remain on standby]

When my mind finally returned from another forced flashback of a memory I was sure I had disposed of, I directly opened the storage and took a dozen potions of my medicine out. Even as the cracks disappeared, I gulped more and more vials down until my mind had calmed down.

With a sad look, I inspected the vial. "I am the curse, Levi. I am the curse..."

Luckily for me, Marika was already in her wagon sleeping. I didn't know when she had left, but appreciated the silence of being left alone with the crackling fire. Especially since my head was hammering due to that System-caused flashback.

Where the heck did it even get those memories?! I had cut them out and destroyed them. They shouldn't exist anymore. It was a good thing that I also forgot why I even started to eradicate them in the first place. Probably to protect the seals or something like that. Who knew? I definitely had my reasons for doing so.

While I was pondering many different things, the moons were slowly replaced by the sun, and the first birds began to sing their annoying songs. It was weird that there were living birds in a Grey Dryad's territory, but whatever.

Some of the adults were the first to wake up, followed by the kids. They were surprisingly quieter than expected. But unlike before, they didn't try to catch my tails or come near me. Childlike curiosity—one is only a novelty for a few hours. But this was fine to me. Thanks to this, I could listen silently to them and improve my language skills.

The paladin walked out of the wagon at one point, probably awoken by the scent of the freshly made stew. She somehow looked half-dead. Her hair was a mess, and she had dark rings under her eyes. I snickered. No matter which era, moon elves will always suck at getting up early.

Unlike before, she didn't even bat an eye at me and walked straight past to get some stew. It kinda annoyed me to get ignored like that, but I swallowed down my pride like a good vixen and blamed her behavior on the morning.

About thirty minutes later, Marika stumbled out of the heavy wagon and frantically looked around. She calmed down when she saw me and slowly walked up to me.

Before she could say anything, I smiled at her and said, "Good morning!"

She stopped in her tracks and looked baffled at me. "H-how? Yesterday you couldn't—"

I raised my hand, "I'm a fast learner. But don't worry, I am still not super wisdom about every word's substance. This elven is only a weird form of mine, so it's fine to learn speedly."

Marika nodded, "Well, some of your words are still...wrong, but it's astonishing how fast you're learning it! You are truly blessed by the moons!"

When the elder sat down on the opposite side of the burned-down fire, a kid came up to her and offered Marika a stew which she gratefully accepted. She patted the little girl on the head, whereas she happily squealed, turned around, and ran back to her peers.

"I notice that there only female elf in this wagon train and that none are a high elf; why?" I asked Marika.

A sigh escaped her lips, "Most of our males are at the border, defending it against the demons. Or so we are told. Honestly, I think this is just another farce to decimate our numbers. I don't know where our honored guest has resided for the last few centuries, but the high elves formed a pact with the human aristocrats at one point. They wouldn't lay their hands on some specific elf tribes but could do as they liked with the others, as long as they were somewhat subtle about it. And so, the elven slave trade started to bloom.

"They burn our villages, hunt us down, sell our children into slavery, and for what? To feel like the purest of the pure? I'm sick of those high elves, but sadly I can't do much. Most of the elves here were saved by our company. They had nowhere to go, so I employed them. But I can't do that forever, so I'm always thinking about other solutions. I'm sorry for talking to you in such an unbridled way, but it's just so frustrating. They aren't even afraid to fight in the territory of a Grey Dryad anymore. When is all this insanity supposed to end?"

When the elder stopped her little monologue, which I, unfortunately, didn't entirely understand, I could only shake my head. High Elves were always way too proud of their upbringing and thought themselves as the pinnacle of their race. Such stupidity; they weren't even the first to walk on this world.

And apparently, being an alchemist taught by Itha gave you some liberties in not being sold as fast as others. I wonder what happened to those who weren't as lucky as Marika, but I could guess.

Regardless of the heaviness of this topic, I decided to switch to another one. "How much do you think we taking 'till border of wall?"

That snapped Marika out of her gloomy thoughts. "How long will we take to get to the city? Usually, we would need up to another eight to eleven days, considering the necessary stops. But with the blessed one on board, I think we will approximately take seven to nine days."

Seven to nine days—I hoped that was enough time to find a way to disguise myself. But right now, I had no clue how to solve it.

"Pardon me, honored guest, but when we set out in about an hour, would it be okay for you to stay in the wagon with the kids? It's the safest but also the only one with enough space left for you to comfortably fit in."

I eyed the old elf for a second, "Fine to me. The kids seem less...fear, so it's aye."

"Fear? Oh, fearful, I see. Thank you, honored one, for protecting us for the rest of the trip. With you around, I don't need to worry about anything else than the shenanigans of the kids. You are truly a moon-sent gift," responded Marika with the biggest smile on her face I'd seen so far. What a weird elf.

-------

When the elves started to disassemble their camp, I noticed something: the glade had no trail to leave it.

The paladin seemingly saw my confusion and walked towards me with a somewhat smug face, "The elder told me that you could mostly understand what I say? Too bad that our oh-so-mighty guest can't figure out how we leave. Not so blessed now, huh?"

D-did she just really say that? Even if I still couldn't grasp everything fully yet, I was obviously able to understand most of it. And I absolutely didn't like what I had just heard.

"You want that nobody leaves?" I threatened her.

She narrowed her eyes and put her hand on the sword's handle, "Oh, really?"

Before I could think of my next move, the elven mage that was (apparently) listening to our conversation went straight to the paladin and gave her a karate chop on the head.

"Owww! Moooom! I was about to stand my ground against that—"

"Quiet, Zary! The only thing you were about to do was to kill us all! I know how hotheaded you are and that you are strong, but did you forget what she did yesterday?" She then turned to me and bowed. "I'm sorry for the rushed behavior of my stupid daughter, she is young and strong, but this sometimes goes up to her head."

I rubbed my temples, "It's okay. I am not used to such...treatment. I was gone for...some days and nights. So my understanding of today's magic might be...holey?"

"Ah, I know what you're curious about, blessed one. I may look like an ordinary mage, but my specialty is wood magic. With it, I can open up a path through the forest back to the road. The spell needs some preparation and unique offerings and is very mana intensive, but thanks to the potions of our elder, it's quite manageable. Wood mages are rare, and I'm happy that I managed to become one a few decades ago."

Her face turned back to her daughter, "And you, I may respect you as a paladin, but I'm disappointed in you as a mother. Now get your ass to Marika, get the potions I need, and tell her that I'll open the path shortly."

The paladin muttered something and then walked with a heavy step in the direction of the armored wagon. Her mother briefly said goodbye and went to the woods.

Without saying anything, I followed her. I never heard of a wood mage. Sure, a witch controlling plants wasn't new, but a mage specialized in wood magic? This was the first time I heard of that. I had to see that!

The first thing Zary's mother did was to draw some unknown runes into the soil. Unlike mine, those runes didn't have any ounce of mana, nor did it absorbed it, or have any activation sigil on them.

"Your runes are dead?" I asked her.

"Dead? Oh, because they have no mana in them? Those runes don't work without the right ingredients and order, and until I put the catalysts in the middle, they won’t even start. Also, runes that require your mana are complicated to handle and take a long time to create. My mana pool isn't big enough, and I don't think even most Manaborn could make some without the right tools," the elf replied to my question while keeping her eyes on the runes.

"Manaborn? I do not know this term. What does it tell?" I inquired.

"What it means to be a Manaborn? They are naturally gifted with the ability to not only manipulate mana and store it but also to generate it themselves to a vast degree. They have a natural talent to transform their mana into certain affinities with which they’re associated with, and create their own magic and spells without any difficulty. At least that's what you learn in a magic school about them. Witches are Manaborn and feared because of that. It's rumored that witches will turn into Mana Beasts if they lose control over their magic, but that's bullshit if you asked me," answered the wood mage again like a text to speech AI reading an encyclopedia, and sneered at her last comment.

It was weird; back then, we didn't use those kinds of terms. You were either magic gifted or not. But at least now I knew that I was a so-called Manaborn.

"More types?" I asked further.

She looked up for a moment, brought her attention back to her work, and started to explain, "If we talk about beings that work with magic, there are also sorcerers, mages, and their fused form: wizards. I'm no scholar, and I'm not particularly fond of sorcerers—they tend to be somewhat arrogant—but the most essential difference between them and a mage is that they can't manipulate mana on their own whilst a mage can. Without their tools, they are basically useless.

"Wizard is a unique class you can earn after learning sorcery as a mage. But wizards are... Well, they’re hermits. It takes a long time to become a decent wizard, and once you get this class, you basically start again at level zero without anything, and the amount of experience you need to get back up is ridiculous. There are only two in the human empire that are truly powerful. One is the royal court mage, and the other is the Royal Academy's headmaster. Oh, and I think I heard something about a strong one in one of the Jaeger Families, but I don't know if that's true."

My head was somewhat spinning after her explanation. It was hard to understand everything—stupid earring, couldn't you work faster?!—but at least I could now tell that the ways of magic in this world had definitely changed. Those kinds of scholarly magicians weren't a thing back in myin my days, and to be honest, they sounded hella weak. But if the Jaeger Families put their feelers out in that direction it—

I slapped myself in the face. How could I forget one of the easiest ways to disguise myself? Sometimes I was simply stupid. How did I survive that long in this— ah yes, never mind.

Apparently, the elf was also finished with her preparation and gave me a worried look. "You're okay?"

I nodded. I liked her nonchalant way of treating me. She was polite yet somewhat blunt.

"I am. Want to see something...new?" I invited her.

She briefly tilted her head back and forth, "Sure, why not. My daughter seems to be rather slow today. Without the ingredients, I can't finish the rune circle."

I indicated to follow me, and we walked a little away from the glade.

"Let me show my magic," I grinned and started to draw once again runic glyphs into the ground. But unlike in the cave, those were different. They absorbed my mana, but instead of burning the ground, they nurtured it. The area around the glyphs began to radiate a sweet smell of fresh lilacs, and their purple blossoms began to spread on the grass.

"Amazing!" gasped the wood mage, "I didn't know that runes could do such things! And their forms, I've never seen anything like that. They seem old, ancient!"

I was happy that some things, unlike others, never changed. But the elf would never fully see what lay behind all of this. Those weren't simple glyphs; it was the purest form of soul magic.

I eyed the neck of Zary's mother, "I can borrow that necklace of yours?"

"I-it's a family heirloom; I don't really want—"

I interrupted her, "It is needed."

She gulped but gave me the necklace without further resistance. After finishing the runic circle, I put the necklace in the middle. Then I did something that resulted in a sight that hardly anyone in the world has ever seen before without them dying seconds afterwards—me bleeding.

I let a few drops of my shimmering violet blood fall on the necklace, and as soon as they touched, the world seemed to stand still, and the runic circle started to glow in a dark green hue.

"It's time," I muttered and reached with my hand to my head and pulled a thread out. For the elf, it must have looked like I was pulling a hair out at first, but the strand was ashen and glowed white—it was a part of my soul.

I let it go in the air above the necklace. It floated there weightlessly. Then the thread shone grayish and began to shape itself until a spirit-like figure floated in front of us.

The being looked at me in a fury.

"Hello, Asche," I greeted the woman.

"You!"