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"Ugh, mm." grunting, Aero forced himself to sit and stay still. "Is there something wrong?" the innkeeper asked as she set drinks at the group table where they were joined by a harvester for the valley and another for the volcano.

From the volcano, they harvested ash and minerals for mutual purposes, while the valley mostly went to perfumes and soaps. Aero was considering buying some of the soap after having sampled a bit. 

"No, just an old ache." he brushed them off, trying to wrap his energy around the spiritual wound, but it barely made a difference from the ache that pulsed through his being. As if his body were being used like a drum. "Anyway, you were talking about the path to get up the volcano?" he prompted the guild to go on.

"yes-," she spoke hesitantly," the best way is to fly 3/4 the way up and walking up the trail after that." she went on to explain the air near the top of the volcanin was frequicnlty fillwed with smoke and ash. worse there were creatures that thrived in the high heat and ash, agressives ones. 

"They are more likely to ignore something that is walking but will clearly attack anything that flies." 

"oh, this is going to be fun, tillia sighed, taking a sip of her drink. " okay what kind of supplies to you recommend?" the guild started listing out very sensible items. with a heavy resistance on water containers. "there's a usable spring a walk down from the top of the volcnoa. but trust me it never feels like enough. it is hotter than hot."

"Lots of water check," Inna stated," so what about the valley?" The guild shivered, a haunted look in her eyes." So many insect creatures. Trust me, you will never bring enough insecticide. Never enough fire."

"Ugh, are you okay-." Galia started asking, only to be cut off by the guild, and started speaking again, "But there are plenty of spaces. You'll be fine, and unless you start something, they'll leave you alone for the most part." 

"Most part?"

"There are a few species that partly like the taste of blood, the poisonous ones. Poisonous blood drinkers, worse thing."

"I'm losing confidence in this idea, and I think she's doing it on purpose." 

"How are you with pollen? Cause if that's a problem, you'll be sneezing all day and night," she continued to list out problems and struggles. Only after getting called out did she start telling them how she dealt with them.

"So we've got a list of things, some of which we already have, but..." idit trailed off, sipping her drink." Most were going to have to buy." Aero took over." Let's see what we can afford with our current funds. That should determine how long we stay before heading home."

"works for me, should we look into valley or volcano supplies first?" they wuiqckly agreed they didn't know the local prices to make a decision. splitting up, they started looking around, getting an of how much things cost before actually buying anything.

it left their fund a little low, "Okay, so hunting something while we're off." so they went to check what work they could do, since the village had a constant export of thing from the valley and the volcano it wasn't hard to find a few things they could do even as they split up.

"ugh," Aero leaned against the wall, holding the physical location os his spisrtla wound wrapping mover energy around it. threading enngery though it but neither ofthem seemed to help each the throbbing. "this is normal isn't it?"

'No, my lord. Through a search, I found possible causes; one is that you're getting near a phenomenon that affects the spirit, and your injury is making you more sensitive to it. This phenomenon could range from a vein of spiritual reactive materials to the physical position of this town and planet. It could even be how the light is shining today.' Aero sighed, gathering some strength as he stood up.

Step by step, he moved, pushing through the ache as the helper explained how they could determine what was affecting him. it was mostly using the intensity of the pain to determine where the things affecting him were. 'I wish there was a better way to determine this, my lord, but your world doesn't have the advanced enough knowledge to determine it another way.'

"If it works, I don't mind." Slowly, he walked to the edge of the town, feeling the pain grow and receded. "Okay, if I compare it to the map, it's in the forest near the volcano. But not towards the volcano." he could be wrong.

"I'm glad I'm heading for the valley." it was away from the forest and volcano, and thankfully, it would lessen this pain. which would give him some time to think and decide." for now, he walked and put the entire town between him and the source of his pain. 

it brought his discomfort down but it was still there the enitre time until they decied to head out. leaving the rented cart in town as they climbed onto the backs of what Aero could descirbeed as winged turats. there shells were uncomritable but for something so big was suprsigly fast. 

"Oh, thank the zalts." Aero stretched out after the Turats had landed in the valley. The constant wind was thick with the floral scent, along with the faint sound of buzzing. "Well, I'm going to stretch." Aero lowered himself to the ground and started reaching for his toes before slowly lifting his leg over his head.

"I'm doing that, have fun," dropping down next to Aero, she started stretched while their other teammates settled down for meditation and gathering heaven and earth energy. "mm," she hummed, feeling the wind flavored energy flowing into her. rushing throug her veins, it was differnt more engergizing then the engery she's pulled into herself before.

she manghed to stay focused on it before hours, drawng in a stream of steady flow. she could feel her engery pool growing, around her she could hear her teamamtes stop streahcing and turn to setting themsleves up a camp.

"thank you!" Inna felt the burn of the sun decrease as some set up a tarp over her." you welcome." it was while before she heard the sound of her teammates starting to spare. opening her eyes, Galia Tzillia were sparring while Aero had decided to mediate on his own. what he was doing she didn't know.

'energy can not be destroyed; it can be absorbed, altered. But not destroyed,' Aero repeated this to himself as he mediated. feeling the energy born from his pride, this phrase was actually from a textbook about energy. as for why it was important to the young lord. well, it was possible this phrase, and more would help him grow stronger and open more possibilities.

"my pride energy is a mental/ emotions based energy." words of the doctor qoqax. if it could be altered to have more physical qualities. hevean and earth energy is more physical, it being the only one Aero had any other experience with. he was going to try and repliacite it through his pride energy. 

He's made no progress.

He wasn't upset, really. He knew transmuting the energy would be a long-term project. Which he had time for," that doesn't mean I'm not annoyed with this." he had shit to do, not exactly at the moment, but still, he had shit to do. Lying back on the grass and flowers, he took a moment to just take in the moment.

taking in the moment turned into a short nap but you know what he wasn't going to complain about it. instead, he grabbed some paper and started rafting some letters he's been meaning to write. "let's see this one is supposed to be about thermal energy and how it is technically a evormentaly safe energy source." it wasn't like they didn't have active volcano and hot springs. " only been to the later though."

The next letter was about politics, and Aero dragged his feet over the next two flowers, writing it. Well, not entirely. He had to spend a lot of time thinking about it. How do you word it? What are the questions to ask more? This wasn't a letter he wanted to make a fool of himself over." Not that I even want to make a fool of myself." Aero thought as his teammate proofread the letter." Well, in terms of spells, there is nothing wrong, but you rewrote this word three times." He grumbled and stretched that out before going on the final draft of the letter.

"All alright now; we just have to hold onto it until we reach a mail station." Aero only packed the letter away before stretching his fingers." Well, we've got a bit more sunlight, now what?" They stretched, spared, and wrote the letters." Helper, let's reread charting stars and loves."

'Of course, my lord, is there a certain part you would like to start from?' Aero thought about it for a moment. "Nah, let's start from the beginning." 

"Ugh, I feel good!" Inna stood on her feet, stretching out, suppressing a shiver at the cold night winds." Okay, let's get to the fire." But when she turned around, she found no fire." You want to set this entire valley ablaze?"

"The zaltess have abandoned us," she replied with great drama as she started piling on clothing and dropping in the warmth pile with her friends. "I'm glad we brought her advice about these thick cloaks." With one over her shoulder, she felt significantly better against the blowing winds. "Man, it is bad out here." The wind seemed to howl in response to her statement; creepy was a way to describe this valley at night.

they stayed huddled up for the rest of the night, conserving warmth togther until they felt the sun rise and begin to heat the air. sighing areo streahced out in the rising sun light and feeling the air warm before finding a stop to mediaite again. cheacking on the beast, the new resonating pride chains were holding strong.

'So I've got some time to try and transmute the energy.' Closing his eyes, he focused on one of the orbs he had hovering, and slowly, he separated a fist-sized amount. The first thing was trying to condense the energy, pushing and full into the tightest decent form he could manage. 

there was now realy notiable chacnge other then the densitly, 'i need more.' the queastion was what,' maybe something like current? does this energy have a current? he tried it, creating a path within the condsed ball and forced the engery to move along it.

"mm, this is having some effect, mostly it is easier to condense it." but there wasn't any sign of transmutation. he got the energy to the size of a toy ball before it became unusable and burst." ah!" hissing, he felt some of own pride knocked off. 'great, have to be more careful with that.' grumbling, he drew out another portion. 'this time lets see if I can draw in another energy to mix and transmute.' 

That ended up being a flower-long project before he even started to get a hint of something else. But it was too elusive for him to grab hold of, the strain got too much for him.' Okay, that, it felt like pride energy on the edges.

'well that something i guess." leaning forward he threw himself back and rolled to his feet." but i still have work to do?" more then a little frustrated at the situation he decide to move and work out his frustration. punching and kicking the air as a warm up before grabbing his staff.

Coming up from a low swing, Aero stopped, looking around. Then he went back to it, stepping forward and swinging down. With the momentum, he flipped, kicking at the imaginary enemy. He stopped almost a mile from camp, turned on his heel, and started working himself back. 

reaching the spot around the camp he stoped, standing straight in the wind as he worked to calm himself down. cooling off as he listened to the world again. Turning his back towards the sun, he watched his shadow; it mimicked his movement as he went through some cool-down stretches before getting some water.

"we're being watched," Inna stated. Aero rolled his eyes before making a quiet motion. Just cause they knew they were being watched, didn't mean they had to let there watchers notice. Finding his waiter he stood up, "There just watching. lets ignore them for the moment."

"yeah cause ignoring the gaze is simple, it was sharp switching between them. it was creepy. aero was fully fine ingoeinrg them as he returned to medication, even when ti contained for the rest of the day. until the day light changed color.

"there nothing goes anywhere." Inna said as she pulled on more layers as the tempture decrease. " look you could just knock them out if they really bother you. there no one to tell anyone." for a moment she didn't say anything." Aero! seriously that a crime, and question ethical."

"So is spying on us, but you don't see that stopping them," she rubbed her face for a moment," okay, I'm annoyed and unnerved, but I don't want to seriously hurt them if it's not necessary." Aero immediately shot back it depended on their watcher.

"he is way too desensitized with violence against your own people." Aero scuffed before sitting down for meditation and energy manipulation practice, feeling the ebb and flow of his pride energy and shaping the flow into a tool.

'When I add compression and rotation, I can increase the movement speed.' How on earth did that work? If it were solid, he'd think of air resistance. But this was pure energy, not a physical one either,' of course, the emotion-passed energy might be interesting without energies, I can't see?"

'that is the most likely conclusion, what other than the naitraul energy like light and heat i don't know.' Aero nodded before thinking, 'could i make use of this. adding light or heat to the pride?'

the helper ran the calculation over serveral times,' my lord i regreatble inform you that result are in conclusive. there is not enough data on the pride e energy reactions with other engeyr forms. qoxax has done some test but nothing as intense or riskty as your are about to.'