A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"What… is a world spirit…?" Elora muttered with a raised eyebrow of confusion. "And how did Ymir become one?"

Erik lay still on a couch in their living room, continuing to tell Elora about his experiences with Ymir. His eyes were radiating with exhaustion, but his iron will helped him stay awake as he talked to the fairy sitting on his chest.

"I was hoping you'd know," Erik chuckled wryly. "He mentioned it a little off-handedly, and I was assuming clarification would come later in the story…" he shrugged, "but then, you know, our conversation sort of ended prematurely."

"Right…" Elora muttered thoughtfully. But then she sighed and shook her head. "I have absolutely never heard of something called a world spirit. I can certainly infer their function from the name, but… Spirits, I do wish I had access to my mother's library now…"

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Don't we have a pretty extensive library in this dimension? Don't tell me you've checked every book in there already?"

With every word, Elora's eyes eyes started shining harder, as her tiny body began to vibrate with enthusiasm. "Right! I almost forgot! I've barely had time to continue spitting through that place because of everything that's happened."

Erik could see she felt the urge to simply fly away and get started now, but he quickly stopped her. "Hold on there, my little Ember," he chuckled softly. "If I have to delay my precious sleep for this conversation, then you can delay your search for knowledge."

Elora, eyes locked on the door out, parted her lips to complain… but then closed them and pouted. "I don't like when you're the voice of reason between us."

"Hehe, too bad," Erik grinned. "You can search for more information later. For now, we just know he's this world's spirit, and whatever that means exactly, we know he has a lot of knowledge about everything that goes on here, as well as the ability to affect the people living on that world in various ways."

Sighing, Elora settled back down on his chest and continued their conversation. "Alright, so… what do you think about those vines that were constricting him? Did he say anything about that?"

Absentmindedly caressing Elora's small form, Erik shook his head. "No. I got the impression it was this Yggdrasil doing that to him, but we didn't get to the specifics."

"Speaking of Yggdrasil… that actually is something I've heard of before," Elora frowned as her mind started spitting through her memories. "It's… spoken of in legend, but supposedly, there's a world out there called Yggdrasil. According to the legend, it's like a haven of cultivation. Filled to the brim with powerful people, and with a concentration of aetherium that is unlike any other world."

"But, that's neither here nor there," Elora shook her head, immediately dismissing these thoughts and rumours. She looked at Erik sombrely. "If everything Ymir told you about this entity is true, then that's a serious problem. It may surprise you to know that I don't relish the idea of being sucked dry at any moment…"

Silence fell as they both realized the implications of that knowledge. Erik, and all other Runebound, maybe immune to Yggdrasil's parasitic behaviour, but… Elora wasn't. And neither were Emily, Emma, or Elora's parents.

Finally, Erik broke the silence with a small smirk. "Fair enough. You do enjoy being sucked wet more. I know this from experience."

Elora blinked, pulled from her doomy thoughts by Erik's stupid joke. And then started giggling. "Hehehe, you're such an asshole!" she complained, smacking his chest with one of her tiny fists.

But then she quickly got serious again. "Seriously, though. What if Mom—"

"You can't think like that," Erik immediately interrupted her with a shake of his head. He looked at her gently. "According to Ymir, this Yggdrasil drains the lives of mostly weak people because it draws less attention. Your parents are safe."

"Plus," he continued, waving his arm around. "We're safe. If we believe everything Ymir said about this thing's parasitic behaviour, then we might as well believe his promise that Yggdrasil can't drain anyone on Earth yet. Not to mention that our dimension is supposed to protect us as well."

He caressed Elora's hair soothingly, and the fairy quickly responded by enlarging herself and wrapping her arms around his chest in an effort to look for comfort. "We'll think of something before we get back to Söl, little Ember."

"Or, rather," he smirked with amusement. "'You'll' think of something. You are the brains behind the emperor, after all."

"Hehehe," Elora giggled joyfully with his reminder that their goals had started coming to fruition. "That's right… I suppose I'll have to prove my worth then!" she smiled, full of confidence.

A comfortable silence fell between them for a moment. Erik slowly caressed his wife's hair and back, enjoying the feeling of her soft body pressed against his. There wasn't much left to talk about at this point, so they were simply enjoying each other's presence for a moment.

"I still can't believe there was another Runebound race that I'd never heard about…" Elora suddenly muttered absentmindedly, a frown on her brows. "There's so much information about all this that's missing."
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She sat up slightly and looked deep into Erik's tired, amber gaze. "It must be a concerted effort to hide the truth. There's no other way," she said, stating it as a fact, rather than a suggestion.

Erik smiled slightly, but his mind was already slowly drifting off to sleep. "I guess we'll just have to… ask your great-great-whatever Nyxandra… when we get the chance," he murmured gently. His lips parted in a gaping yawn that echoed in their surroundings.

"Hehehe, yeah," Elora chuckled, her eyes shining with expectation. "If any good has come from all this, it's that I'll now have the chance to meet Queen Nyxandra!"

But, Erik was already out like a light. His hands had fallen to the side, and a loud snoring was rumbling from his stomach.

Chuckling, Elora flew up and kissed him on his forehead. "We'll figure things out, my love. We'll build our empire on Yggdrasil's ashes if we have to!"

With that, she finally left the room to do one of her favourite activities: reading.