V2Ch165 New Learning

I pushed past an hour's worth of a weed jungle. I came out into an opening. The path moved up the side of a hill. I felt lucky that I was able to see ahead and found myself at ease with the lack of weeds on the path ahead. It wasn't traveled very recently but it was in much better shape than the path already traveled.

The incline wasn't very steep. It wove up the mountain back and forth. The forest trees did well to cover the path. It was even difficult for me to see the outlying area.

I found my way to the top. A small cabin resided at the peak. Black smoke was rising from the chimney. Someone was home. I came close to the door. Another image flashed in my mind. Something about the door was wrong. I felt like I wasn't supposed to touch it. I stepped back and looked at the surroundings. Again, another image from the left side of the house.

I followed the image and walked around to the left. There was a tree behind the house with a wide opening. I came close and tried to peer inside. The hole was black inside. Nothing seemed of interest except that it wasn't just hollow, the hole went down into the ground.

'Go in. I think this is where the guide wants you to go.'

I was skeptical.

"I've had enough underground adventures for one immortal lifetime."

'Remember the headaches? You might have to endure them all the way back down the mountain if you want to avoid this place.'

I lowered my head and sighed.

"Man. You know how to ruin my day. If this leads to the center of Eyse, I'm coming in there and punching you."

'You would have to catch me first. I don't have to come out of the light if I don't want to.'

And he picks now to be a smartass.

'Sticks and stones.'

I lowered my head once more in defeat.

"Fuck it."

I jumped in. The fall was actually surprisingly short. Maybe ten feet down. I was in a well-lit room. The fall was straight down so I don't understand why I couldn't see the light from when I looked inside.

"Visitor?"

An older woman's voice called out.

"Um. Hi? Sorry to intrude."

Movement caught my eyes. A short and very withered female dark elf came around an alchemy desk of some kind. She had white hair down to the ground that dragged a few inches behind her. Her eyes squinted heavily. She moved slow but with certainty.

'Adoy? She still lives?'

Rage asked.

"Adoy?"

She stopped and looked up.

"Adoy? I haven't heard... No one calls me that anymore. Ent oversteps bounds. If you wish, Aydiony is my name. Anyway, no intrude. Right on time. Ent told me you come."

"Ent?"

"Ent give you instruction. You come here."

"The images in my head. Those were instructions from the Ent?"

The tiny woman climbed up onto a chair near a boiling pot and began to stir it.

"Yes."

"What for?"

"For? You know. You go to Ent. He sent you here. No mystery. Ent knows all he can. I know most that he can't. You seek something that he can't teach. He said he help you understand but without proper teaching, you can't use what you can't understand. Simple enough."

'Lake. Ask her if she ever finished that potion that the two of us started all those years ago.'

"Oh. Uh... I was told to ask if you ever finished a potion that you and Rage had started many years ago."

"Eh?"

She looked up with one cocked eye. She gave me a mad stare as if I were crazy.

"Rage? Who make you ask that? None alive should know about our involvement in past. Who?"

"Uh..."

'Don't say my...'

"Rage?"

'...Name... Shit.'

I swear I heard a slap sound inside my head. Did he facepalm himself?

"RAGE? Not Rage. Rage dead. Been dead. Over 700 years. The person that ask you is not Rage. Either he play you for a fool or you attempt to play me for a fool. Boy, I am no fool. Was it a dark elf that ask you?"

"Rage isn't a dark elf."

'Don't tell her that. It will only make things more difficult.'

"Why? It's true?"

Rage and I argued.

"To whom do you talk?"

She was already down from the chair and slowly approaching me.

"I'm..."

'Don't say it.'

"I can talk to Rage. He's like... a spirit?"

'Damnit, Lake...'

"The alchemical composition of the Oliander flower dissolved in a solution of three parts Hyacynth acid, one part rotted orc toe can be found in only one place on Eyse naturally. In that location, a flower grows. It dies. What is the flower and what is the result of the mixing of the dead flower in the composition?"

'This crap. I hate her riddles. Most of them, an elf who is 700 years of age can answer. Maybe not a dark elf. The flower is the Brittle Orchid and the result is a flash freeze of over 10,000 feet.'

"Brittle orchid."

"And the result?"

"A flash freeze of over 10.000 feet."

"HAH! I knew it was fake! The result is flash storm. Skies rumble, clouds gather and..."

Her voice was drowned out by Rage.

'Tell her that orcs never occupied the Zuri mountain in the Death Lands...'

"...Once the temperatures cool..."

"Uhm... Sorry to interrupt..."

"What? What? What is it?"

"Rage says that orcs never inhabited the Zuri mountain in the Death Lands."

"EH? But... that's a seventeen... The flower..."

She began mumbling over and over.

"Tha... That's right. I had forgotten. Boy... How old do you think I am?"

'She's over 14,000 years old.'

"Fourteen thousand? Holy crap."

She looked impressed.

"On the money. You know, dark elves... don't live past 2000 years. Normally. Am oldest of the dark elves. Tradition rules our culture. I ran from it. Lived past it. I live away from it. Love convinced me to defy tradition."

She looked like a bad memory was dredged up. Her lips soured even more than their natural state.

"Someone you loved?"

"No. Idiot. Alchemy of course. Life was over. Dark elf people expected me to just give my life away. Not stupid. I keep my life. Experiment. Learn. 2000 years still young."

"I'm not..."

'I'll explain.'

Rage interrupted.

'The dark elf people once revered a greater spirit that they thought was a god. This "god" demanded sacrifices to protect the people. Those that were 2000 years or older were sacrificed to him. At the time she reached 2000 years of age, the greater spirit had already moved on. This was before the world was drained of mana. The dark elves continued to give sacrifices of any member that reached 2000 years old. It was considered an honor. They hoped the god would one day return if they never failed to sacrifice the elder people. Adoy ran away before her 2000th birthday. Many people blame her for the god not returning. The truth is, that god is dead and now it is just a tradition to honor his passing.'

I watched the old woman gouge a hole in a small wooden container with the only tooth I could see in her mouth. She poured the contents into the pot she was stirring.

"Almost done."

"D-done? With what?"

"With teaching. Come here."

The woman motioned for me to come closer.

"Come. Come. Can bite. But won't."

I was close enough to look into the pot. It looked like a magical potion. It swirled on its own. I could see sparkles. It was like looking at the stars in space. The black background encompassing everything but the sparks of light.

My insightful vision was interrupted by a tiny hand to the throat.

"In ya go."

The miniature woman quickly shoved a spoonful of the space stew down my throat. I spent several minutes coughing it out of my lungs.

"What the hell? Warn me next time."

"No next time. Teaching done. Go away now."

"Done? I didn't learn anything."

"That's your fault. Not mine."

"How is it my fault? You didn't teach me anything?"

'Lake... Let it go. She is just as crazy as before. She did her thing. It's time to go.'

She began mumbling to herself as I went toward the hole I came in from.

"Stupid human. Rage. HAH! That Ent gets nothing. I get it all. So selfish. All of them. I see it, though. I see it."

I started feeling around in the dark hole. I found something to grab onto. And another. There was a ladder here.

"You tell that "Rage" that he won't fool me."

She called out.

'Tell her... The inverse flower has wilted.'

"Uh... The inverse flower has wilted."

She stopped in her tracks and started to mumble some more.

"Inverse flower. INVERSE flower. Inverse? No. Not possible. I'll do it another day. Too late now. In the morning."

Her mumbling seemed to mute the moment I was fully out of the tree trunk entrance.