An hour passed of journeying further into the fairies forest, and soon enough they approached the forsaken temple. One side of it had completely collapsed, scarred with ginormous claw marks. Hope was taken aback by the ruins, "What..what caused this?"
Quin glanced over to Anesta, "Probably a corrupted garta, one of the purest blood-line at that."
Hope looked surprised, "What are these bloodlines you keep mentioning?"
Floating up the temple steps, she replied, "The Sovereign God favored some beings back when the creation of the world began. She instructed several beasts and races to keep the balance of the world in order, and gave them each a drop of her blood, also called ichor." Quin pointed at the garta. "That thing here carries the blood of one of the beast guardians. The beast guardian's race was always changing so im not exactly sure which one Anesta has. Panthers were able to carry on the guardian's genes the best, so over time their bloodline evolved. Anyways we're finally here, let me go get us some firewood I'll be right back!"
After setting down her things, Hope laid her head on Anesta and took a well deserved break. Hiking for hours was not the most relaxing activity in her list of hobbies. 'Not that I have hobbies anyways… what happened to me? Why are my memories so incomplete…?'
Pondering for a moment, Hope considered every possibility for this. She could have come back to life with part of her mind gone, or even been punished by the heavens for some terrible crime and stripped of her memories. Deciding that thinking about this further was worthless, she decided to train. Entering the state of ether focus, she felt every particle of energy rush through her nerves, it was as if another form of blood was flowing through her. She sent her senses through every pathway, ensuring that her ether channels were undisturbed. After a while of actively practicing changing the speed and intensity of her ether, she learned to subconsciously maintain a specific speed of ether flow; whether fast or slow. Quin finally arrived with the bundle of dead logs, she seemed ready to stay here for a while if needed. Removing the hide from the meat had taken Hope a while because she had no past knowledge of hunting beforehand. That had, until she imbued ether into her blade and cleanly sheared off all the hair. Finally ready to roast her meat she suddenly realized,
'Wait, I need seasoning.'
Turning to Quin, who was currently munching on puffs of clouds, she asked, "Is there anything we have for seasoning?"
Raising her food up to her face, she smirked, "I wouldn't have that dummy, clouds don't need seasoning!" Hope rolled her eyes and raised a deer leg, which was suspended by two opposing sticks, above the fire. Slowly rotating the deer meat and petting Anesta had been the most relaxed Hope had been since her sudden drop-off from the sky. After a while of having nothing else to do she looked down on Anesta, who's head was on her lap, and spoke softly. "Hey girl, are you going to grow huge like that garta who destroyed this place did? I hope you'll still stick with me by then though, this grumpy old fairy is rude."
Hearing this Quin exclaimed, "Mind you! I'm only 2 hundred years old! That's very young by fairy standards you pricky human! You humans may have been the ruling race but that doesn't give the right to be so arrogant!"
'Wow. So her age is a sensitive topic I see… and humans were the ruling race huh? No wonder we speak the same tongue.'
Noticing the outburst Hope shrugged, "Proving my point."
Quin scowled at Hope then flew to far back of the temple, not bothering to say good night. 'Ah damn, I should apologize tommorow…'
After she had her fill and rested long enough, Hope got up, careful not to wake up Quin and decided to go for a walk. Anesta followed close by purely of her own choice. The temple was one large hall with interlocking chambers. The flora had grown past the barriers and now claimed the ruins as its refuge. Walking through the entrance to the chamber the group had decided to rest in for the night, Hope made her way to the steps leading down the temple. Anesta brushed against her leg every now and then, purring. Finally making her way to the forest, Hope decided to find a suitable place with the thickest concentration of fairy energy. Making her way past the trees, she closed her eyes, only relying on her sense of energy to navigate. Soon enough, she found what she had been looking for. An overwhelming concentration of it was gathered to her right. Finally opening her eyes she made her way past the vines, cutting through shrubbery every now and then. As she dug further into the forest the darkness slowly dissipated, replaced by glowing orbs of nature energy. They aimlessly floated around, as if lost souls without a body to host them. She felt weird thinking about that, as if it had something to do with her as well. Finally seeing an opening through the trees, she stepped through, fully on guard against any ambushes. However, what awaited her was not a beast, or even a fairy of some sorts. Instead a broken tree stump was up ahead, with a silver crown rested on the top. Knowing that crowns weren't found atop tree stumps, she concluded that the crown must be special. She activated her energy sense, hoping to gleam at its true purpose, then immediately fell on her back as soon as she took a glimpse. Thinking that the nature energy would gather around it and the source of orbs stemmed from it, she now realized that her assumption had been horribly wrong. The energy near the temple had been unusually powerful compared to its other parts and Hope had assumed it was because the temple had belonged to the nature guardian. Opening her senses had given her a shocking realization. 'The orbs, the energy near the temple, maybe this whole forest. The energy never gathered here, they originated from this crown.'
Suddenly she felt her mind being invaded, an unknown presence flowing through her ether, as her soul had every time she wielded ether. Then, a voice spoke to her; not in thought or sound, but in spirit. It was an unfamiliar feeling, she could hear and think the exact words while understanding, but her ears and mind were not responsible.
"Child, you are not of fairy-kin, who are you?"
Hope began to panick, searching for a suitable answer. After a second of debating she spoke, hoping the being could hear her. "I have not come to harm your kin, or your forest, I apologize if the few trees I cut have offended you." Hope blushed, realizing how stupid she sounded. At that moment the presence laughed, letting her know that she found it stupid as well. "Oh those! No don't worry, they may take a while, but every part of me regrows!"
'Aw damn it! The forest is one whole being.' Not knowing what to do, Hope knelt down and spoke again. "I apologize Miss uh… Miss forest is there a reason you've called out to me?" The being replied, "Well normally, only those of fairy lineage can go within the presence of this crown and here you are! Not a fairy at all! Did you not notice that your cat stopped following you?"
Hope was mortified, she quickly stood up and looked around for Anesta. Sure enough, she had actually disappeared. Slapping her forehead, she turned back around and faced the metallic crown bearing a single green gem at the front. "Uh, thanks for that heads up, I'll go back now, if you'd like me to Miss" getting ready to depart, she was suddenly interrupted by the presence yet again, "Stop, there's a reason you can even approach me, yet alone not collapse under the pressure of my mana. I had not noticed it at first, but when I was inspecting your mana for any trace of my kin, I noticed something. Your mana is unique in nature, well it is unique precisely because it has no nature. It seems to be the perfect conduit for any and all forms of energy but you've only began to take your first steps into mastering it."
Interrupting her, Hope spoke. "I can't use mana, the only thing I've managed to utilize is my ether."
The being chuckled. "Mana, ether, who says they are different? Some preposterous fools divided them, thinking that it would allow for more power. Besides that, I think you have the talent to wield both "ether and mana." She strained the sarcasm, letting Hope know that whatever fools she was referring to had ticked her off. "I have a question for you, knowing that learning fairy magic would erase all chances of reaching the true ascension of the sword, in exchange for a moderate power in both, would you like to learn it?"
Hope was taken aback, however, not for long as she began to think. 'My blade and ether have never faltered or let me down, should I really be taking this risk?'
After a pause, Hope spoke, "What makes fairy magic unique if I may ask?"
The being chuckled again, "An arrogant one eh? No matter, no matter, it's good to know your worth. Make sure you never underprice yourself wielder of formless nature. To answer your question, fairy magic is revolved around your connection to the world tree and how you wield that connection. Some fairies back in the First Light were able to create life, although it required many days of toil and resources, while others formed a kinship so deep with a beast that they could take along traits of each other and fuse. Overall, the strength of your magic will depend on your bond with the world tree."
Thinking about Anesta, Hope almost agreed until she noticed that the crown had left out some details. She never mentioned what the world tree bond actually was or how it affected you, or how the ancient fairies had created life. With the gaps in her explanation unfilled, Hope finally decided on her answer. "I think the best way for me moving forward to gain power, would be to focus on mastering the sword. Thank you for the amazing opportunity, but I'll be heading back now."
Suddenly it arose, her instincts started to react, and forced her body to take a hurried step back. "I was afraid this would happen"
Then all hell let lose.