AETHER BEASTS

Sandra woke me up an hour later and informed me that Allana was done, and waiting for us out in the main room.

As I stretched, I turned to wake Zirani but frowned as I felt at our bond. I always checked it and it was instinct at this point. It was even weaker than before like something was diluting the connection. I tried to send a thought over but it just faded the moment it was halfway across the bond, swallowed up something I couldn't sense. It was a moment later that I also noticed Zirani's shallow breaths.

I shot Misty a worried looked as I placed a hand on Zirnai's forehead. "She's burning up. Did she do anything while I was asleep?"

Sandra shook her head. "No, she just slept."

"Zirani?" I slowly shook her. "Wake up, Zirani!"

I shook her harder, but she didn't respond, and I cursed as I grew worried. "Somethings wrong. Misty go get Allana."

"No need," Allana said, appearing out of nowhere. "I'm already here."

"How did you…?"

"This is my domain." she laid a gentle hand on Zirani's cheek and closed her eyes. "I hear and see all that occurs within these walls."

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

Allana didn't respond for a minute as she muttered unintelligible words other than her breath. She opened her eyes and sighed, glazing at me with a sympathetic look in her gaze. "it's just as I suspected."

She stood. "I'm afraid you three will have to find the girl on your own."

"Why?" I asked insistently. "What's wrong with her?"

"Like I said earlier her body is reacting to the ambient energy in the air," Allana explained. "The bits of magical energy were attracted to her due to her bloodline. She is not a simple dryad, her years of constant growth via aether had enchanted her blood and allowed her to become something more than a common dryad. That part of her that was created to harness magic grew with it, and now it's finally in an environment with magical energy, no matter how weak. It is attempting to absorb the magical energy into her, but the problem with that is her aether. As I said earlier she is a creature of aether now, and the ambient mana is clashing with her aether. If she did not bear the blood of a dryad then her aether would have expelled the foreign power, but it isn't because a part of her that's always been empty is finally being filled and it's not so easy to let that go."

"And what does that mean for her?" I asked, my mind coming up with all sorts of dreadful possibilities. I couldn't lose Zirani.

"It means she's fighting," Allana said. "Either she will deny the foreign power or she won't. I don't think she could handle both. I've never seen aether and magic meld before, so it could be possible."

"You can't do anything to help her?' Misty asked.

"Oh no I can," Allana replied. "I can help with the fever and pain, but not her inner struggle, that's up to her. Now, as for the location of the girl. I have crafted a necklace similar to the one you have. Simply wear it and you will know where to go. Take care as you travel, the beasts out there are in a process of change and far more volatile than usual."

I didn't want to leave Zirani, but I also knew that there was nothing I could do so I leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before whispering into her eat, praying she could hear me. "Fight on, for me and for everything will still have to do."

With Sandra and Misty in tow, I made my way out of the room. The necklace was lying on a table and I quickly put it on. Just as Allana had promised I instantly knew where to go. It was like constant thought in my head informing me of her location.

"Are we really going to leave Zirani behind?" Sandra asked.

"We can't bring her with us," I replied. "And you heard Allana, she's dealing with her own problem so let's take care of this so we can return and congratulate her."

I didn't let myself think of the possibility of her losing the fight. No, she was too strong, not just physically and when it came to the arcane, but mentally as well. She would survive this, she had to.

With one last glance back in Zirani's direction, we left through the front door. Almost immediately I held a hand up to ward away the blizzard that was in progress. Where the hell had the serene white snowfield gone?

"Damn it's cold." Sandra placed her arms around herself and shivered.

The cold was biting and the fact we were feeling it meant that it was strong as all three of us were at the third level. Normal, even extreme cold shouldn't have poised this much of a problem. In any case, there wasn't much we could do about it but put on a few extra layers. I formed my bark armor while Sandra formed her cloak and had it wrap itself around her.

Misty on the other hand did nothing as she looked fine.

"You aren't cold?" Sandra asked, her breath misting.

Misty shrugged. "Not really. I think it's because I'm a vampire."

I led the way through the snow, moving east in the direction I knew Hope was. The snow was thick and we weren't able to move as fast as we wanted. If there had been trees then maybe we could have used those, but I couldn't see anything else other than snow. We pushed on for an hour, keeping our eyes open for any potential predators, which was hard since the snow flurries hampered our vision. If we were attacked, we wouldn't have much time to spot them beforehand if we spotted them at all. Beasts tended to adapt to the environment so it wouldn't be a surprise if the beasts here could blend into the snow.

How the hell was Hope even still alive. She was only level one, and at her first core. She'd have a hard time dealing with the cold let alone the threat of beasts. Unless the cold was at severe at certain times. Whatever the case it was good for us as it meant our mission wasn't over.

I stopped for a moment and turned to make sure Misty and Sandra was still behind me. The blizzard had gotten so bad that I could only see a few feet in front of me, and I was mostly relying on my arcane senses which was only working half the time in this place.

"I think we're close," I said when Misty and Sandra came to a stop.

Sandra opened her mouth to reply, but a white blur shot out from my right and slammed into her, sending her crashing into the snow.

"Sandra!"

I stepped forward to kick the white beast of her, but something slammed into my back and sent me slamming face-first into the snow. I rolled onto my back quickly just in time to dodge the claws and fangs of a giant white wolf.

It turned its red eyes to me and growled, but that didn't last long as Misty appeared at its side and slashed at its flank. It whimpered and blood sprayed onto the snow as it shot away at an incredibly fast speed. Misty followed and I Quincy tuned to Sandra who had gotten to her feet and was staring down at the corpse of another white wolf, though hers was smaller than the one that had attacked me. A long scratch marred her neck, though fortunately, it seemed like a flesh wound and nothing too serious.

"You ok?" I asked, just to be sure.

She nodded. "It stings but I'll live. Where's Misty?"

Almost as if in spoken, there was a loud pained howl, and a moment later, Misty walked back, partially covered in blood. "I'm here, are there any more?"

"Not sure," I said as I glanced around. "It's hard to tell since their fur matches the color of the snow."

It seemed I'd been right when I'd considered the possibility of ambush predators. It was the perfect place for them after all. Low visibility, long stretches of flat land, and an easy way to hide via the snow. Hell, all it would take for a person to blend in would be white clothing.

"Well I think we should keep moving," Misty suggested. "There's no point in just standing around and waiting. Maybe we'll come across some shelter soon. I mean how else is Hope surviving this."

She waved a hand around herself. "This blizzard would probably kill a normal person and even weak arcanists."

I nodded and we continued on, still keeping an eye on our surroundings, even though it was unlikely we'd spot any of the wolves.. With their speed and natural camouflage, we could only hope that we'd be able to react once they pounced and not take too much damage.