Kasuni hands me a emerald stone, it has tons of glowing runes and she stares at me. "What?" I ask confused. She gains a look even more confused, "Do you not have a runestone?" "Runestone? What is that?" She pulls another one out, but it's black and has no runes. She then hands it to me, "I luckily carry an extra one with me in case this happens. You can talk into runestones and they will transport your voice to whichever rune you please, but you must have the rune that you want to talk to. Anyway, imprint that with your mana."
I imagine my black mana flowing from my core through the tube in my arm, out of my hand and over the runestone. I hear a gasp. I open my eyes and look at Rasuna and Kasuni, then at the stone as my eyes widen. The stone is shifting between white and purple, the rune glows black and red with conflicting power. I look at her, "This isn't the first time a stone reacted differently with my body."
They stare at the stone, mesmerized by the changing colors. 'It must be from my two abilities being equal in affinity and fighting eachother for ownership of the stone. Or something like that, that's the only guess I can give. I am gonna try my soul manipulation ability out.' I imagine a white soul entering the stone and as I do, the stone becomes whiter than the snow around me while the rune turns as red as blood. Ping!
—————————————————————
[New] Soul Manipulation (Active): With your lively imagination and your high affinity, you can guide souls by will.
—————————————————————
They stop staring at it and look at me, their faces filled with amazement. "That has never happened with my friends or my parents when they got one. That was amazing!" I nod in acknowledgment, trying to look slightly amazed not to give away my thoughts. "How do I add your rune to my stone?"
She kindly starts explaining, "You touch the two runestones together and they imprint their rune on the other. It's quite simple." I do as she says and my blood red rune glows as it imprints onto her and her blue rune glows and imprints onto my white stone. "I have a question I have been wondering about...." I ask, while handing her the runestone back. "Go ahead," Kasuni says while smiling and taking back the runestone.
"Do slimes age?" I ask with a curious look on my face. Kasuni stops smiling and gains a somber look now. "Slimes stop aging at the age of 19. As long as there is mana in the world, we will continue living, unless we are killed. Which happens a lot from rogue adventurers." I inwardly sigh in relief, 'I can't date a person who continues on aging while I remain young. I just wouldn't be able to handle it mentally, watching the person in front of me slowly die while I stay young is definitely a nightmare.
"Oh...is that why slimes usually date other slimes? That is, if you don't mind me asking." Rasuna and Kasuni nod almost at the same time. I look at Kasuni, "No point in dwelling over it. Let's live in the now." 'Besides, push comes to shove, I just tell her I don't age. But that information is something that I am not gonna disclose to just no one.'
She still looks sad so I say, "Hey, look forward to our date, after all, a cute girl shouldn't be dwelling on the what might happen and should focus on what could, and make that a reality instead." She blushes slightly and nods, Rasuna then hands me her runestone, "This is so you can call me when you plan on visiting Sloan." Rasuna says as I mark it as well. We talk for an hour or two longer before everyone starts leaving and I wave Kasuni and Rasuna off.
Once they have left, I walk into the arena to see the kids on wood and leaf cots, currently with casts on. I glance over them and notice A person who is worse off than the others. I see Elva in a full body cast, the only thing showing is her mouth, nose, and eyes. She is awake now and when I look over at her, fear explodes in her eyes. I smile with satisfaction at my triumph and leave to look for my dad. I finally find him talking with some of his older kids and I patiently wait for him to finish talking with them, I pet Winter's gelatinous head and he meows with satisfaction, jiggling while he purrs.
Dad notices me and says, "I'll be right back." And starts walking towards me. I look at him and ask, "Why is everyone in their thirties? You would think that someone would at least be around the age of fifty or something." He laughs, knowing that this question would come up eventually. "This isn't common knowledge but as long as you are part of an elves family, you don't age past 30." I look at him, 'Got it, so manga is somewhat truthful about that part, but then does that mean....' I look at him now solemn, "Does that mean that anyone is disowned loses this blessing?"
He is slightly shocked that I guessed correct but nods just the same. "Yes, although it mostly happens with families to prideful to let their kids date whoever they please. Damn self centered pricks in my opinion." He says a slight tings of hatred in his voice. But as he starts looking at me, he finally sees the slime that is in my arms.
His eyes grow slightly wide, "Where did you get that beast slime?" "His name is Winter and he chose me as his owner when I was opening the door for people." Winter meows when he hears his name, happy to be mentioned. "You didn't have to do a trial or anything to prove your worth?" He asks, calmly but with a slight tinge of shock in his voice. "Nope, he became mine when he bit me an hour or two ago." I say as I show him the tattoo.
He looks at me and then back at the slime and sighs, "You are definitely one unique child. The weird is becoming normal for me and I don't think that's a good thing." Anyway, we are gonna clean this place up soon and you kids need to get to bed, Solica will be coming for Christmas tonight and you better hope you did plenty of good this year for many presents."
'Ok, so I'm assuming Solica is the Santa of this world, but the question is, is Solica a real or a fake? Magic exists so it could be possible but I highly doubt it.' "Heh, Good luck opening your presents Elva!" I yell at the stadium. Dad chuckles, "I'll be healing her arms, face, and neck so she can open them, but that is all." I look at him, mimicking a stern man, "Would she die from those wounds?" Dad bursts into laughter, "No, no, no, no, but as a father and a doctor I must." I look down sad, "...ok."
Dad looks at me and tries to cheer me up. "Hey, don't look so sad. There is still cake left if you want any."
"Ok..." 'Ha. Suffer you cocky prick.' I suddenly think of something, "By the way, why is it called Christmas? I forgot." He looks at me and starts explaining. "This holiday was made in honor of a goddess's son called Christ. Christ was a Demi-god who fought killed a wizard who planned on massacring millions just to increase his strength. The battle was fierce and Christ won, but he was injured greatly. He ended up dying from his wounds a day after the fight, the damage too severe to heal with magic alone. So in his memory, we created Christmas. While his mother delivers presents all over the world." "But you have that magic that can show the inside of a person, how could he of died?" I ask confused.
He looks at me, a solemn look on his face, "We may be able to see the innards of a person, but we have yet to have a spell that can recreate organs." "But couldn't you of saved him with an organ transplant?" I ask unrelenting. He sighs, "We could of, but it was his brain that was damaged in the fight, at least from what I heard."