Silax sat at the desk in his cabin, with the box he got from Jack in front of him, Callon was also in the room.
Callon looked at the box nervously, but also with a little bit of excitement.
"Are you sure it's okay to open it? Remember what Jack said about the energy they emit."
Silax pointed at several hidden points around the cabin.
"It's fine, this cabin was built with the help of a shaman, it has different runes with different purposes carved in and around it. There would be no energy leakage from the inside."
Callon raised his eyebrow in surprise, even in a big city like Ullion shamans were rare. He always knew Silax was different from the other elves he had met, but his opinion of him had gone higher now.
After answering him, he took hold of the box and opened it, he didn't feel any different. It was the same for Callon, but his heart still skipped a beat seeing them, cause these things could help him answer some of the questions he's had for the longest time.
Callon had a confused look on his face.
"I don't feel anything, if I didn't know Jack, I would doubt the authenticity of these items."
Silax lifted the piece of fabric that was placed over the items.
"That's cause we're not spiritualist, of course we can't feel those energies, or as the elf spiritualist call it Orenda."
He brought out each item one by one and inspected them.
The first one was a gold necklace, the chain was thin and aged, it had a faint scent of fire and brimstone.
'Gold that has spent a significant amount of time in close proximity to dragonkin.'
Pressed between two pieces of parchment lay a perfectly preserved four-leaf clover. This leaf wasn't green though, it was a vibrant blue.
'A leaf from the ancient Trefoil tree, it's rumored that the tree doesn't exist anywhere in the world anymore, making every leaf very precious.'
A black ball the size of a grape, its surface smooth and cool to the touch. It had a glossy finish and was the color of twilight.
'Oncadion, the best material when it comes to creating space pockets.'
Finally was a slender vial crafted from moonlight quartz, it had a crystal-clear liquid in it.
'Lastly the tears of a Fae, creatures said to dwell in a dimension parallel to the real world.'
Callon wanted to touch them but held himself back.
"We have all the materials now, so that means we can go ahead. Right?"
Silax shook his head and closed the box.
"No. I initially planned on getting someone else to draw the runes and feed it with orenda, but I've changed my mind on that. If the ruins Jack found has what I've been looking for, then I should be able to do all that myself, it might take a while, but I'd rather do it myself than expose the procedure."
He walked to the bed and placed the box under it.
"I'm not sure if the ruins will have the answer, but it is more likely than the other methods have used. I've not told you why it is those ruins are important to me right?"
Callon was confused by the question.
"No, you never did."
He thought of the different methods he had tried over the years, even methods he tried before settling in Scola, and then to the number of years he had put into researching the ruins in Central Artiyaem.
"I'm hoping to find a way to return home."
Callon still confused by the answer said:
"Home? What do ancient ruins that have being ravaged by time have to do with your home?"
He turned towards Callon and decided to expatiate.
"Yeah, that doesn't explain it. The simplest answer is, I believe it holds the means to return, although I'm not sure exactly what that is, the information I have conflicts.
"On one hand it speaks of a door that leads anywhere you want when you step through it, then some of the books I sourced information from speaks of the attainment of strength. Personally, I would pick gaining strength, hopefully it's a way for me to become a spiritualist."
Callon looked at him in doubt, not understanding why he'd pick a method that would cause him to work more.
"Why would you prefer gaining strength over a direct path home?"
"That's because with enough strength you can do anything, go anywhere, strength gives you the freedom to make your own decisions without the consideration of how people feel, or frankly how it affects anyone. That freedom is what I crave, to be unfettered from life's worry."
He sat on his bed and gestured for Callon to take a seat at the desk.
"You see, I can't become a spiritualist due to my inability to sense orenda. I've tried a few methods but none have worked. Let me start from what it means to be a spiritualist. For elves, the glabella is not just skin between the eyebrow, it serves a more spiritual purpose that helps brings us closer to nature and connect with it.
"The way we elves get stronger is by using orenda, we sense the orenda that exist all around us, then draw it in and use it to inscribe Orenda-Sigils in the glabella. There are four different Orenda-Sigils corresponding to the elements of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Each sigil-"
"Aren't those what some people call the different race of elves?"
Callon interrupted him as he was speaking, irritating him a liitle.
"That doesn't have much to do with why I can't sense orenda, but I'll explain. The four kinds of elves used to be just one and they all lived in the center of this world, the ruins that cover Central Artiyaem were the cities built by ancient elves, no one knows why they abandoned the cities and spread out towards other parts of Artiyaem."
He sat on his bed and thought to himself as he sat down on his bed.
'I have a few ideas which I would have been able to confirm if I was given access to the restricted part of the Aualis Athenaeum.'
"On the plane of Artiyaem, you have the sea and the islands to the east. There's the deserts that cover the western part of the plane. To the north are the chain of mountains and network of caves beneath them. Lastly is the never-ending forest at southern part of the plane. Due to the culture and way of living of the elves that live in this region, the became the elves known today.
"The Pale-Elves who live in the islands and the sea are the water elves, the Golden-Elves who live in the deserts are the fire elves, the Dark-Elves who dwell in caves within the mountain are the earth elves, and lastly the Light-Elves, which live in the forest are the air elves."
Callon scratched his head in confusion, while looking lost.
"I understand the water elves cause they live in the sea, and the earth elves because they live in caves, but the other two don't really make sense."
"They are not called water or earth elves cause of where they live but cause of the element they control. This takes us back to the sigils, each sigil gives control over its corresponding element, elves from the different regions usually stick to inscribing their sigils, which means they control mainly that element. That is how the name which some people refer to these elves came about, and when I say people I mean humans, cause elves don't refer to each other with their elements."
"Oh, that makes more sense. Do water elves-, I mean pale-elves really live in the sea?"
"Not all of them, and not all the time." Silax replied.
The thought of people living in the sea intrigued Callon.
"How do they breathe then?"
"Each race of elves has evolved differently to suit their environment, some more noticeable than others, and the names explain one of them.
"The Pale-elves have a pale skin color due to the amount of time spent in the water, but they also have a larger lungs that make it able for them to stay in the water for an extended period of time."
"What traits do the other elves have?" Callon asked.
"Golden-Elves have golden colored skin due to long amount of time spent in the sun, their skin also helps to reduce the amount of heat absorbed. Dark-elves have a darker skin color and are also able to see almost perfectly well in the dark. Light-elves have a lighter skin tone, and lighter bones due to the fact that we live very high up in trees."
Callon was excited to be learning more about the world around him.