With the meeting dismissed, the many Fallen Sky Elder's left the castle in a hurry. Zegris left alongside them, tasked with searching the kingdom for any remaining survivors.
Meanwhile, King Alexander remained in the castle, teleporting through the halls, searching for secrets or records left behind by Victor.
"Where the hell did you go?" Willow nudged Emile in the shoulder.
"Alexander was standing at the top of the bell tower, he teleported me outside of Rising Tide for a bit." Emile replied.
"What was he doing up there?" Willow asked.
"Observing, I guess that's it." Emile said.
"Willow, you will be traveling alongside Spright from now on." King Ulmor directed.
"Yes, my King!" Willow said enthusiastically.
"Protect him until further notice and be careful of the miasma, you aren't a King yet." King Ulmor continued.
"Your consideration means the world." Willow lowered her head before King Ulmor.
"Spright—" King Ulmor collected his thoughts, "don't die."
"Yes, my King!" Emile copied Willow and bowed his head.
'Oh I'm gonna send you into the most dangerous place we know of'
'But don't die, haha, that's an order'
'I'm definitely gonna die now'
Emile left the castle and returned to the ruined streets of Rising Tide. Willow walked beside him, her dress from the banquet still as immaculate as it was from the beginning.
On the other hand, Emile looked more like a chew toy. His clothes were tattered and burned, his cloak had long ago transformed into a rag, and patches of his skin were dyed purple from the Sea Crawlers blood.
"Hey Willow?" Emile asked amidst traversing the streets.
"Yeah?"
"Do you like kids?"
"I've always thought it would be nice to have some, but the world is a little too depressing these days. Why are you offering?" Willow teased.
"No—" Emile rolled his eyes, "I have a friend we have to pick up."
"You?!" Willow exclaimed, "Friends?!"
"Yeah, wait—what is that supposed to mean?"
"You always look so serious. You're like a little old man."
"Okay no. There's a lot to be serious about! We just fought with our lives on the line! That's no laughing matter!"
"I mean it was kinda funny watching you rip through that slime. You hit the ground pretty hard coming out too. Rolled for a while."
"Oh and that was funny?" Emile asked.
"Yeah, pretty funny." Willow doubled down.
"Oh my goodness, you're just like him."
"Like who?"
"The idiot we're going to pick up."
***
Blood sat on a mound of snow a mile away from Rising Tide. His Beaky Box was open beside him, a delicate scent of savory smoke poured out from the box.
Every so often, Blood plunged his hand into the box and pulled out a stick of dried meat. He also came prepared with a blanket and pillow, both of which were covering his lap while he waited.
He had seen the battle; watched the Scarab emerge from the ocean and the glacial dome shatter. He witnessed the unimaginable display of power from King Ulmor, seated so far away, his blade of light traveled even higher and illuminated even brighter to Blood's eyes.
But overall, it was a quiet few days for Blood. Other than watching the battle, the most exciting thing he did was read one of Madame Mercy's journals, the one Spright had taken from the labyrinth.
Blood agreed to carry it in his Beaky Box until he and Spright were able to settle in their new base. And surprisingly, he found the journal strikingly interesting.
The journal was titled "Creatures That Innately Exchange Essence" and had detailed a slew of different creatures, each able to manipulate natural essence into a different medium.
The majority of them were rather basic, for example, one creature was able to convert natural essence into pure energy. As a result the environment would get hotter and dryer, moisture would fade and rain would eventually cease to fall, it essentially manipulated the weather.
On the other end of the spectrum, some creatures manipulated natural essence with a purpose rather than just by virtue of existing. One in particular could draw in natural essence, bubble it up into a pod, convert it to wind and dramatically increase the pressure of the pod, then release the pod to cause an explosion.
Of course, these abilities sounded pretty mundane compared to many of the Gifts Blood's encountered, but the amazing part was that these abilities weren't tied to a Gift. The entire species was able to do this and it was due to some understanding of natural essence rather than a physical trait.
A physical trait, for the sake of clarity, was something like a dragon's ability to breathe fire. The physical trait in question would be a special gland in their throat that releases liquid hydrogen. The gland is then able to create a spark which ignites the hydrogen and allows the dragon to breathe fire, all of which is separate from the use of essence.
One of the major issues plaguing the modern world, according to the journal, is the inability to distinguish between an essence produced ability and a natural ability. The distinction is important because an essence produced ability can be used perpetually infinitely, as long as there's essence to be used, while a physical ability has more of a cooldown due to exhaustion or soreness.
In a battle of life and death, being able to predict which ability may come next is a major advantage and can completely change the outcome of a fight. Hence why it needs to be studied so thoroughly.
Blood closed the journal about halfway through and put it back in his Beaky Box. Some distance away, he saw the silhouette of two figures marching through the snow towards him.
It was finally time to leave Rising Tide.