Chapter 296 (2/2)

After struggling for a couple ofthrough the snow, Regis gave up “You know, I think I’ve stretchedaether” With that,to jump into my arms, but instead faded into ather aether?” Caera asked as we pushed forward through snow that was now up toa path so that Caera could more easily follow

“My summons is powered by aether When we used…the purple fire, well, we used up all his power So he shrunk into this form” I kept my tone matter-of-fact, as if it were perfectly normal to have an aether-powered shadoolf for a companion

“But he’s not really a su eyes burning into the back of my neck

“No, I suppose not Not the way you normally think of one”

“And…” Caera hesitated I kept h the deep, heavy powder “And you’re not really a e, are you? Not the e’d normally think of one, anyway You don’t use , more out of realization than out of apprehension—realization of how tired I was of hiding everything about myself to everyone that I came across There was no way I could answer truthfully without giving aho I really was, but any lie would be as obvious as the horns on her head

“No, I suppose not”

We marched in silence for a fewhand on my shoulder pulled me up short I turned to see as thetossed over hed for the first tie either, remember?”

I jerked the wool blanket fro aether into my extreatwithin her, however, and when she finally ht want to etting out of her path as she drew her sword—her real sword The dark, flaiant ence zone flickered around the red blade, turning it black

This tierous

Then Caera thrust the sword forward and the dark fla a channel in the snow for at least two hundred yards

She turned back and walked towardthe bedroll back and wrapping it over her shoulder, she shot rin “You look tired, Grey Let me lead for awhile”

“That trick wasthe snow off ofindelicately, Caera spun away and started h the wide path she’d made

I followed, my mind entirely occupied by Caera’s ability When she’d used her power in the convergence zone, I had been too busy not dying to really exah, I had watched carefully as she manifested the dark aura and released the torrent of black fire

The fla, kind of like the violet fires of the Destruction rune, but she wasn’t using aether In the convergence zone, those sauardian’s attack, literally carving a path through the beay

I flashed back to my battle with Nico, how he had controlled the dark fla story and ht of Cadell’s soulfire, and hoas able to burn away so even vivuht about in a very long tih the forest with Windso The sun shi+ning through the leaves dappled his wise old face as alked He was teaching ic

He had described the nature of aether, though he struggled to coue,” and had settled on referring to it as a “creation-type mana art” The Vritra were made up mostly of basilisks, a race that used a decay-type ave me another na? A unique deviant foric?

I watched Caera’s navy hair bounce around her onyx horns as she strode ahead ofcould touch her She was incredibly talented—and equally confident in her abilities When I’d first seen the way she fought, I’d immediately been rerona and his basilisks had bred with the people of Alacrya Clearly Caera was the result of such experiments, but she hid her ancestry e first est ability only when there was no other option Souise to fail, but even the first tiuards, she had hidden her horns

Why?

‘Right? Personally, I think they’re hot’

When we reached the end of the path carved by Caera’s power, the snoas deep enough that the channel had becoh, the fifteen foot deep cave in the snoas rough and i it out with their bare hands

With no heat toit to refreeze and harden, the tunnel didn’t see me

Caera lifted her sword from her shoulder and pointed it forward, but I held out a hand “I don’t think your power is best suited to this kind of thing Save your strength Based onbefore so tries to kill us”

“I concede the point What do you suggest, Grey?”

As far as I could tell, ere still a quarter e we’d seen fro on its surface impractical, as either one of us could sink in over our head with each step

‘You could blast a tunnel with aether,’ Regis suggested

I had already considered this, but the aether cost of utilizing Gauntlet Forh the snow seeenius

‘I…know?’ I could senseis to move to my hand to help draw the aether that I released froe blast of aether like Ifor an attack, but instead I released a sy

As I siphoned aether through e out, but thenew, and it required y

Taking a deep breath and tuning out Regis’s stray thoughts and Caera’s boring gaze, I tried again—and again

After the fourth attelobular balloon that dispersed as soon as it left my palm After the seventh atteer as I fed it more aether

It took every ounce of lobe fro the aetheric sphere forward into the snow

Despite using only a fraction of the aether it would’ve taken to unleash a full aetheric blast, the large aetheric orb bored through over twenty feet of snow before it faded away, leaving behind a round, stable tunnel that we could easily walk through

“Good enough,” I huffed I had hoped toas even a half-decent sphere was barely possible, I quickly settled for so simpler

‘You know, that’s pretty ’

Of course it was, I teased

Caera walked carefully into the tunnel, her hand running across the wall and roof as she warily inspected , I said, “I should be able to get to that dointo the tunnel “After you, hty companion”

Whether it was because I was tired from the amount of concentration that went into the aetheric spell—if it could even be called that—or just because I was still proud of h before building up aether inbriefly after every few uses of the aether cannon, as Regis quickly dubbed it, I was able to keephostile under the snow I took it as a good sign that we did not, however, and within an hour we found ere looking for

Behind lea the cold stone

“I’ve never seen anything like it—like frost that’s been turned into stone,” I said, brushi+ng away the snow at the outer edges of the tunnel My aetheric sphere hadn’t even scratched the surface “Let’s hope there’s a door so an to open up space around the outside of the white doy touched the shi+ning stone,over the smooth surface like water across wax

Then, with a final pulse of aether, golden-white light spilled fro our snowy tunnel to blaze so brightly that I had to shi+eld lare “I hope that light is colittering stars in er, infused my body with aether, and moved cautiously up to the archway

The inside wasn’t exactly what I had expected

The dome was about forty feet tall at its peak, and nearly one hundred feet wide Blazing balls of light drifted through the air like paper lanterns A dais rose up from the floor at the center of the cavernous room, and on it was a beautifully carved arch

Or, as left of it

Though the dais enty feet across and raised up ten feet over the level of the floor, it still looked se, elect and loss within the dome that made my skin crawl

From next tothe roo to the ceiling or creeping along the walls, I stepped into the dome, then slowly crossed the open expanse to the stairs, feeling entirely exposed

There was a pile of random items at the foot of the stairs Caera kneeled down to inspect them

“Bones, mostly, but look at this?”

She held up a pure white arrowhead “It looks like it’s made from the same material as the doers; it was cold to the touch and silky sers was a leather cord hung with large, curved talons, like those of a hawk or an eagle, but larger

“Made fro ertip to point at one of the claws I winced as a drop of blood blooertip “dah, I wonder,” Caera asked, tossing the talon necklace back into the pile

Although I was interested in the iteht tell us about this zone, I wasover the scattered objects, I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the top of the platforh and just as wide I ran ns, which were incredibly detailed, showing aniardens full of impressively crafted plants and flowers

But Caera had been right Several pieces of the arch werethat this was the portal out of the zone, meant that ere stuck