A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

It was just past noon when Erik sat comfortably in one of the empty window sills, on the highest floor of the palace. He leaned against the wall, and looked out over the city. One leg dangled outside, the other was pulled up, serving as support for one of his arms.

On his shoulder sat Elora. Across from them, leaning against the wall on the other side of the window, sat Astrid. All three of them looked out over the city. Particularly, they looked at the main gate, leading out into the dense forest.

There, a small group of about ten people was walking out, led by a graceful, mature woman.

"Worried?" Elora asked while looking at Erik gently.

Erik didn't look away from the departing group, even as he parted his lips to speak… and then wryly closed them again.

"Hehe, you can't lie to me!" the fairy chuckled, referring to their bond. Erik instinctively wanted to respond he wasn't worried, but almost immediately realised that wasn't true, and that Elora would know it wasn't.

"Fine, so I'm a little worried," Erik grumbled under his breath. "That's not a betrayal of my trust in her!"

"Hehe, no one said it was," Elora chuckled smugly. Unlike Erik, her confidence was unshakeable.

"There's no way anything happens to her," Astrid snorted across from them. "She's strong!" Turning away from the city, she looked at Erik and Elora with some ridicule. "Besides, we all know you two have loaded each of us up to our guts with emergency measures."

Erik and Elora smirked, not denying her claim.

Meanwhile, the small group had finally fully left the city. Strangely, however, the one person Erik and his wives were following with their eyes looked nothing like Emily. This woman had dark skin, regular brown eyes, curly dark hair, and she was seemingly only a second rank Arcanist.

Yet… for anyone paying attention, a dark, mischievous glint played in her eyes.

After the group was gone, Erik sighed and jumped off the windowsill, quickly followed by Astrid.

"What should we do with her?" Astrid asked nonchalantly as she thumbed at a corner of the hallway they were in.

Erik looked over there and snorted as if he'd forgotten about her. In this corner lay the crumpled corpse of a second-rank Arcanist, who looked suspiciously similar to the one they'd just been staring at. "Let's just cremate her," Erik shrugged.

Snapping his fingers, a spark of electricity flew over to the body and rapidly reduced it to ash.

"I almost feel bad," Astrid chuckled indifferently at the woman's final fate.

Erik shrugged. "Nobuntu had already proven this one was only ever loyal to her opponents. That makes her our enemy. Perhaps the fairness is truly debatable, but our right to kill her is not."

"Hey, I said almost!" Astrid defended herself indignantly as they disappeared into the hallways. Behind them, the unnamed woman's ashes were soon picked up by the wind and carried off.

***

Not much later, all three of them entered the training room inside Erik's dimension. Once there, Erik kissed both his wives with a smile, and they wished him good luck in their own way: Elora with a promise of salacious rewards if he was quick, and Astrid with an awkward punch against his shoulder.

After hugging them both, Erik took a seat on his meditation pillow and quickly enclosed himself with an isolation bubble.

Finally alone, he sighed and took a moment to collect his thoughts. Despite this being his plan, he discovered it was harder to let Emily go for a while than he had originally thought. He knew there was little that could truly threaten her out there, but little wasn't nothing. Plus, there were her unstable emotions… but also the fact he was simply going to miss her.

Emily was just the kind of chaos he needed in his life, and the absence would leave a void for some time.

He suddenly shook his head and smirked. "Well, anyway. At least I can keep my mind busy for a while. By the time I'm done, there probably won't be much time left before we reunite, anyway."

Sighing, Erik cleared his mind and closed his eyes. Calling upon his recent advancements in the spatial affinity, he conjured both the rune and glyph he'd created for this affinity in front of his mind's eye. Finally, he raised both his hands, with small, deep blue globes shining on each of his index fingers.

"Let's start…" he mumbled softly, and began the process of exploring his spatial affinity more.

Currently being in the first rank of spatial affinity, he only had a single rune and glyph. To advance to the next rank, he'd have to explore them until he found connections leading to his next rune and glyph.

His recent advancement in understanding of the spatial affinity would help significantly with this—as well as the fact he was already a third rank, because going above your highest rank was always harder than catching up a secondary affinity—but… space was still a fifth-rank affinity. Advancing it would not be easy, and likely take several weeks, if not months.

***

Boom

Screeeeee

The sound of explosions and screaming filled the sky. Crimson blood seeped into the sandy floor underneath.

In the middle of a desert plain, a large army was laying siege to a sprawling city of yellow sandstone. Tall walls surrounded the city, temporarily keeping it safe from the army demanding entry.

At least… for now.

Large balls of fire and other elements were hurled at the wall from tens of thousands of Arcanist standing safe in the backline while a literal horde of crazy-eyed Runebound stormed the walls.

The defenders were no less numerous. Massive numbers of them manned the wide walls, but they focused mostly on defence. Some formations were present, but not as many as littered the attacker's side.

Even just a few minutes of observation would quickly make it obvious which side had the advantage of pure power on its side. Yet, the defenders held their own for one simple reason…

The walls.