A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"A gift?" Elora muttered curiously. She had little knowledge of this world's history, but she easily recognized the resemblance between this city and the structure in Erik's dimension, which sparked her interest.

It was Audumla who placed the structure in that dimension, after all, which means that this city is likely related to the time before Earth lost its connection to aetherium, and anything related to that time awakened the fairy's inherent desire for knowledge.

For a moment, that thirst for understanding even suppressed her worry for Erik.

But before Naeku could elaborate, Elora suddenly came to her senses and shook her head. "Actually, never mind," she frowned sternly. "I want to hear more, but we need to get Erik and Runa to a place they can rest."

The werepanther, who previously looked at the city with pride, quickly furrowed her brows as well, before nodding and indicating for Aster to move on. Thus, they quickly began to move along the wall, presumably towards a gate.

Meanwhile, Naeku quickly sprinted ahead and began walking at the head, next to Aster. "Aster…" she began to ask, a little hesitantly. "How is my father? Did he get back after the last battle…?"

Aster's face quickly fell, and she shook her head, "He did, princess, but… it's best if you see for yourself."

Despite feeling relief that he was still alive, the werepanther paled significantly at Aster's final words, and her stride quickened.

It wasn't long before their group reached a well-guarded gate, where the soldiers quickly jumped to attention when the princess entered their line of sight, worship in their eyes.

Unsurprisingly, the gates were quickly opened to let them through.

Yet, something strange happened. At the top of the gate's archway, a sigil appeared, which started to shine down a light on everyone who passed the gate's threshold, yet didn't appear to do anything to them.

Naturally, everyone directed a strange gaze towards Naeku, but the werepanther could only shake her head. "We have no idea what it does either," she shrugged helplessly. "Most of us simply assume it once did something, but time has eroded its function down to simply shining a light down."
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Most of their group had already gone through the gate without issue, but Naeku's explanation wasn't good enough for Elora. She remained outside the gate, together with Emma and the golden disc carrying Erik, who she'd stopped at the last moment.

Frowning, the fairy looked up at the light and directed her omnisense to inspect it. Within moments, a flash of recognition passed through her eyes. Immediately, everyone who she had a telepathic connection with also showed understanding, as Elora had quickly shared her findings with them.

Suddenly, a dark green light enveloped her, Runa, and Erik, until they were covered by a bubble. Then, Elora finally stepped through the gate, followed by Erik and Emma, at which point the light helplessly bounced off their bubbles. When they were through, they disappeared again.

Aster, and the guards all looked at her with surprise, before they all panned worried gazes towards their princess.

The chance Elora knew something they didn't, and deliberately tried to avoid that sigil because of it, was significant and worrisome—either because the sigil was actually harmful, or because it tried to protect them against Elora for some reason.

Naeku, too, looked at Elora with a frown, yet the fairy only stared back at her calmly, and with no intention to explain herself.

But after a few moments, the werepanther sighed and shook her head. She knew Elora was a special existence, she just couldn't talk about it because of the covenant she'd agreed to. Thus, in Naeku's mind, it was entirely possible that the sigil was supposed to protect them from beings like her.

And yet, she also realized that the Humanitas Sangh was the only real threat she could allow herself to be worried about. Besides, she knew Runa to be a relatively good person, and since Elora was the wife of Runa's son, who risked his life to try and save his mother, she could only assume that Elora wouldn't suddenly turn around to harm Naeku's people.

Of course, technically, that was true, but to assume anything with Elora was dangerous.

Still, she had to know one thing: "I can't force you to explain, but at least tell me if it's dangerous…" Naeku said with a low growl, clearly not intending to budge on this.

Fortunately, Elora shook her head, "If I suspected it was dangerous, I wouldn't have allowed my sisters to pass through. Don't worry, it's a good security measure, and if it ever reacts to someone, you should definitely be careful with them, but it won't harm anyone."

"I see," Naeku nodded with a little relief, while directing the guards to take note of Elora's words. "That's what I suspected, but for the sake of my people, I had to be sure…"

Aster and the other guards remained sceptical and worried as they looked at Elora and wondered what was going on. But Naeku's word was law to them, so they things quickly went back to normal, while Elora and companions moved on.

* * *

Back in the bedroom, Erik's curiosity compelled him to interrupt his wife's story. "Wait, so what was going on with that sigil, then?" he asked the fairy curiously and with just a hint of worry. "Why did you avoid it?"

He still spoke with strained effort as fire practically burned through his chest with every word, but he ignored the pain and didn't let it show on his face.

Elora frowned slightly, "Because it was scanning for irregularities in the soul. Both you and your mother would, without a doubt, have set off the alarms, after which we would have been trapped in a cage of energy." Then, she shrugged indifferently, "I simply didn't want to waste that kind of time."

"Curious…" Erik muttered thoughtfully, and then raised an eyebrow. "But didn't Naeku suggest she knew my mother? Wouldn't she have come here in the past, then?"

But Elora shook her head, "Maybe, but simply missing a piece of your soul wouldn't set off that alarm. Rather, it is your bond with me, and Lilith's attempts to enslave Runa that would set it off in this case."

"I see," Erik nodded slowly, but although there was a still a question of why exactly the people that built this city would put that sigil there, the mention of his mother also quickly redirected his priorities.

"Please, continue," he rasped quietly.