Aella stood, staring at the tree where Arad was hanged. She smiled, falling face first on the ground, bleeding.
“Aella!” Lydia shouted, rushing to heal her.
“She will be fine, don’t worry,” A strange, sharp voice came from inside her head. With a gust of glowing green dust, a tiny fairy emerged from Aella’s back and stood on her head. “She can withstand a few hits,”
Lydia stared at Zephyr. [Holy Smite] CLAP! Instantly striking her hard enough to evaporate her body.
Zephyr’s body disappeared into mist as she appeared a fair distance away, “Why attack me out of nowhere?” She cried.
CLING! Jack emerged from the bushes, catching Zephyr and stabbing her repeatedly with his dagger. But no blood came out.
“Ha!” Jack sighed, wiping the sweat off his forehead and looking at Arad in the tree. “HA! HA!” He then took a deep breath and started stabbing again.
“I won’t die!” Zephyr emerged again from Aella’s body, “This is a mere projection on the wind. I already merged with Aella.” She smiled, spreading her spectral wings.
The air around the garden started vibrating, “I and she are one till the day she dies.” ．
Thud! Arad landed, staring at the spirit with a puzzled face. “Did you really need to fight us? Wind spirit?”
“I have a name. Call me Zephyr.” She floated toward him, circulating around his head. “Someone who can’t take responsibility for their actions, can’t take responsibility for other people’s actions. How is she supposed to control if she was controlled by you?”
“I didn’t control her,” Arad replied.
Zephyr sat on his head, digging her legs into his hair, “The power of will is an important key to control spirits. You have a lot of it, considering the monster inside you.”
“Don’t talk about her,” Arad growled.
Cerilla looked at them, “You’re talking about Doma?”
Arad gasped, “You knew?”
“You touched me several times. Of course, I would notice.” She sighed, “Who expected that witch to return like this.”
Dalla approached Arad, “Is true that the queen and Doma have a lot of bad blood between them, but that doesn’t mean she would snap at her. That would be foolish.”
Cerilla approached Arad, “In fact, it would be nice if you chained that damnable, snorty, accursed existence away. Wouldn’t it be?”
CREEK! A mouth opened on Arad’s forehead, smiling, “[Only if he could, even I don’t know how to chain myself. Since all of those are curses and I control them.]” Doma giggled, trying to seal her away is like trying to tie magma with hemp ropes, utterly ineffective.
Cerilla stared at Arad, “To be honest, even with how much I hate you, your existence alone is a boon to the kingdom, can’t complain about that.”
“[HAHAHA! Are you talking about the orc army? No one would repeat their mistake,]”
“What are you talking about?” Arad looked at Cerilla’s face.
“At Doma’s peak, the orc tribes to the north tried attacking the kingdom. She cursed their water supply, causing them to get allergic to it. Half of their army died in a single night, and they had to retreat.” Cerilla looked at the sky, “Till this day, they can’t drink water. Only get it from their food.”
“You cursed an entire race?” Arad gasped.
“[No I didn’t, I made it like a disease. But I miscalculated and it spread like wildfire between them.]” Doma mumbled, her voice fading into the distance as her mouth closed.
“Say something!” Arad growled, what kind of horror magic the witch inside him is capable of?
“Aella is waking up!” Lydia shouted as soon as she saw Aella open her eyes, “Are you all right?”
Aella sat up, gasping for air as she looked around, “What did happen?”
BZZZZZZZ! Zephyr flew at her, sitting on her head. “We finished the contract, now you can use my power as much as your body allows you.”
“What? The last thing I remember is touching you.”
“I didn’t need you to win or lose. I only needed you to be willing to fight and stand-alone with confidence, it’s painful to have a weak-willed mistress, you know?”
Arad approached, “What kind of powers do you grant?”
“Aella is an archer fighter now. The best she can do is summon me like this, use me as a familiar that she shares senses with, and get a slight buff to her wind-based attacks, I also expand her mana pool by a bit.” Zephyr smiled, “She could draw more of my power after level twenty if she chose to change class into a warlock or a sorcerer.”
“Will she get different powers based on the class?” Arad asked.
“As a warlock, she can start drawing power directly from me. But as a sorcerer, she can empower her wind spirit bloodline that emerged from me sticking in her family for generations.”
“I was thinking of sticking to the fighter archer after level twenty,” Aella said, looking at Zephyr, “I can fire more arrows from Arad’s back.”
BAM! Zephyr punched Aella on the head, “The whole point is for you to fight. Instead of firing arrows from his back like a golem, how about you fly beside him and blast everything with wind magic? You aren’t supported. You’re a ranged half-spellcaster.”
Aella stood, “Depends on what powers you offer,” She sighed.
Zephyr looked at Arad. And then at Aella. She then bent around to whisper in her ear, “With enough magic flowing in your veins as a sorcerer or a warlock, the pregnancy with a dragon egg won’t last a long time as you would have the mana necessary to feed it.”
“I’m listening,” Aella whispered back, “Where do we start,”
Zephyr smiled, disappearing into Aella’s body.
“You can summon me at will and share my senses. Now try it.” A voice boomed from Aella’s body.
Aella lifted her palm, “Zephyr,” SWOSH! With a swirling gust of wind, Zephyr appeared floating on Aella’s palm.
“Now, close your eyes for a moment and tell me when you want to share senses. I will link us immediately.” Zephyr smiled.
Aella closed her eyes, “Link senses,”
Zephyr’s eyes flashed with a green light, and Aella stumbled back as she saw the world from Zephyr’s eyes. Her body tried to adjust, but couldn’t.
“Don’t throw up!” Zephyr smiled, flying forward at high speed and Aella fell on her knees.
Zephyr flew between the grass blades and around the tree trunk. Finally dodging the branches and going inside the house through the window. She flew upside down, skipping between the chairs and around the torches.
“Wait! A door!” Aella cried, seeing A massive door rapidly approaching her face.
“Don’t worry. I can get through!” Zephyr shrunk her body further, going into the keyhole. CLACK! She got stuck.
“Damn it!” Zephyr cried, her hips stuck, “I only fail now?” She growled, shrinking further and flying through. “Sorry about that. I’m usually good at calculating how small or big I need to be.”
Aella fell to the ground, her head spinning from all the rapid flying.
“I can get as big as a human or as small as to fit inside a chickpea. You can feel free to use me as a scout or a…” Zephyr stopped, Aella had passed out.
***
After an hour, Aella woke up again, holding her head, “What happened?”
“You got sick from Zephyr flying and passed out,” Arad replied, sitting beside her.
“Sorry!” Zephyr sat on her hips.
“I shouldn’t have felt like that. I’m used to Arad’s rough flying,” Aella replied.
“My vision is almost ten times better than elves or humans. The information overload with the movement exhausted your brain,” Zephyr replied, liking her eyes to Aella again. “Look,”
As Aella stared at the wall, she could see the fine details as clearly as if they were on her hand. “You’re right!”
“With my vision, you can tell an ant color from a hundred meters away. A good thing for archers, especially snipers to have.” Zephyr smiled, puffing her almost non-existing chest.
Aella looked at Arad with Zephyr’s eyes, seeing him normally and after blinking, she could see the tiny scales on his skin.
“Amazing, all those scales. You don’t have skin,” Aella gasped.
“Won’t that be obvious?” Zephyr stared at her, disappointed, “How else could his skin be so smothered, yet harder than stones?”
“I mean, it looks natural.” Aella stared back at her.
Arad watched the two argue for a while, “Aella.”
Aella turned toward him, “What?”
“Didn’t you before say something about tree houses? I haven’t seen one of them all the way here.” He looked around. Her family mansion looked fairly normal, a bit big but nothing more.
“The wood elves to the west build those. It’s a several days trip to get there.” She replied with a smile.
Isdis approached them, “Aren’t you going to escort me back home?”
Jack looked at them, “The capital is on the other side of Alina. We have to get back home before.”
Isdis’s eyes lit up, “We’re stopping by Arad’s house,”