Snowcloud turned her eyes to the thirty or so bodies that lay scattered across the grass, as if to confirm that they were really dead. After a moment, she looked up and faced Arran.
"They're Eidaran priests," she said. "They were pursuing me because I took a spirit crystal."
"Priests?" Arran frowned. "The mages in this region are priests?"
"Not all of them," Snowcloud replied, "and not all priests are mages. But from what I learned, the core of the Eidaran priesthood consists of mages, and the priests are the ones who control most magic. Or, at least, they did until the empire fell."
"So how do the spirits crystals fit into that?"
"Spirit crystals are how the Eidaran priesthood uses magic. While normal mages open their own Realms, Eidaran priests are given a spirit crystal when they are deemed worthy, and the spirit crystal is what allows them to use magic, growing in strength as they use it. When they die, the spirit crystal gets passed on to another priest."
