A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Emily was lying on one of the sofas, as Seraphina had put her to rest there. At the same time, Emma was almost finished drawing her second glyph.

When she was done, her eyes shone for a moment, and she blinked before smiling excitedly.

It was done! Finally, she wasn't useless anymore!

She panned her sparkling, mismatched eyes towards Erik and hugged him with that same excited smile, "Thank you! And please thank Miss Elora for me as well!"

Erik grinned at the adorable Emma and patted her head, "Don't worry, she can hear everything you say." He didn't feel it necessary to mention that Elora didn't really care about Emma's gratitude.

Emma stepped back and looked thoughtful for a moment before she stuck out her hand. Under the gaze of her two curious onlookers, a bright white magic circle appeared in front of her hand, casting a soft glow over Erik.

Immediately, Erik knew what this did, as he felt his natural regeneration speed up to abnormal limits. He may not have any wounds to heal, but if he did, this would have immensely sped up the process.

Yet, it wasn't an actual healing spell, as it merely sped up several bodily processes but didn't stitch up any wounds by itself, which meant it had limited uses in a combat or emergency situation.

That said, it was still a great spell, and he wasn't about to let Emma down as she looked at him excitedly, obviously aware of what her spell was supposed to do.

So he patted her head with a smile, "Good job, Emma. I told you you'd be plenty useful after you awakened."

Before Emma could respond, Seraphina interjected, "Wait, wait. That affinity just now…"

Erik nodded in response, "Yeah, it was light. The antithetical affinity to darkness. And if you're going to ask me how these two sisters ended up with those affinities, don't bother, as I have no clue either."

There was no reason to mention the DNA manipulation, after all. He wasn't even sure that was the cause yet.

That was indeed going to be Seraphina's next question. Still, before she could even say anything else, Erik continued, "Regardless, healing corruption always works best when you use the corrupting affinities' opposite, so this is good news for Emily."

He then turned his attention back to Emma, who was still almost bouncing around the room with energy and only got more excited when she heard about being able to help Emily now.

Erik smiled at the happy Emma. He had to admit that he really liked this adorable girl. He hoped she would be able to put her hardships behind her as soon as possible, "Why don't you show us your other affinity now."

Seemingly having forgotten about that due to the excitement, Emma possibly lit up even more as she suddenly stood still and pointed her hand forward again, this time causing a light green magic circle to appear.

Next, green branches crashed through the room's tiled floor before they began weaving around Emma until she was entirely encased in a thick bramble of vines, branches, roots and thorns.

Emma's second affinity was nature.

While light was no less rare and powerful than darkness, nature was relatively common. Maybe not as much as fire or water, but certainly no better or worse than Erik's ice or lightning.

Her light affinity was the reason that Emma didn't go insane locked inside the darkness-saturated study room while also protecting her from being enslaved by Emily's dark magic.

On the other hand, her nature affinity gave her an uncanny intuition, which led to a much faster trust growth with Erik.

Moments later, the various greenery was dispelled as they slowly disappeared back into the ground, revealing a smiling Emma, who immediately wanted to know when they could start helping Emily. "So?! We can help Emily now?!"

Erik chuckled at her enthusiasm, "Almost. Luckily for you, Elora will do most of the actual work, while you only have to provide the light-attributed energy. Still, you will need to completely fill up your aetherial storage first, so let's teach you some of the best and safest ways to do this. I'll also teach you about Arcanism in general."

He turned serious, "But remember, Emma. While light corruption may sound less evil, it is no less destructive to your true personality. You might believe that light corrupts your negative emotions just as darkness corrupts your positive emotions.

But nothing could be further from the truth, as light corruption will simply wipe out all emotions instead. No powerful affinity ever has a harmless corruption effect."

He pointed to Seraphina, "Even she has to be careful, as gravity affinity might make her severely lethargic or depressed."

This caused Seraphina to frown, "Are you sure about that? Council data so far suggests that only Arcanists are affected by this so-called corruption."

Her statement made Erik pause. Was he sure about that? It's not like he had much experience with Runebound, and Elora protected him from corruption either way.

He heard Elora speak in his head, "It's possible. Arcanists and Runebound work relatively differently, after all.

For a Runebound, aetherium only really modifies the body and doesn't even interact with a person's affinities. In contrast, a Runebound body's energy is different enough from aetherium that you could even consider it something else entirely.

So perhaps corruption has less to do with the affinities and more with aetherium itself?"

Erik frowned but then shook his head. In the end, this wasn't particularly important right now. He looked at Seraphina, "Now that you mention it, I'm not actually sure about that. But we have different things to worry about right now."

He turned back to Emma, "Getting back to the point, you need to remember to always be careful, understood? You don't want to end up like your sister.

You might not start hurting her like she did to you, but at least Emily still cares about you in her own twisted way, while light corruption would cause you not to care about Emily at all anymore."

Realising the seriousness of the situation, she nodded and swore to herself to follow all of Erik's teachings and instructions.

Erik smiled, feeling like he had driven his point home, "Good. Let's get started then."

*******

A few hours later, at the start of the evening, they were standing in front of the door to the cellar, where Erik had first woken up two days ago.

During this time, Erik had first spent some effort teaching Emma about some of the safest and fastest ways to absorb energy, which she had immediately put into practice. Now, her aethereal storage was stuffed, and they were ready to begin.

All current inhabitants of the mansion were there, including Liam, who had spent the whole night hogtied in a cold, damp closet and was currently being dragged along the ground by Erik.

A dark green sigil glowed on his chest, sealing his magic core and stopping him from casting his magic, something that was easily done for Elora since Liam was only a first-rank Arcanist.

His experiences during the night had made him much more compliant as he hardly struggled anymore and just lay there staring at the people around him with undisguised fury mixed with exhaustion.

Naturally, he was going completely ignored.

Meanwhile, Emily looked doll-eyed as always, Emma looked anxious, and Seraphina had a look of curiosity mixed with concern.

Now that they were at the cellar door and on top of the stairs, Erik produced a small, light purple magic circle, causing a lightning spark to travel all across Liam's body, devouring the ropes that bound him.

Liam looked confused. He wasn't stupid enough to think they were letting him go, but he had no idea why they brought him here and removed his bonds, either.

When he noticed nothing else happened, he looked around himself warily and slowly stood up, stretching his limbs and cracking his bones after the night he had.

No one there besides Erik and Elora actually knew what the exact plan was, so Emma looked at this with confused anxiety. Yet, her nearly absolute trust in Erik made her stay quiet.

At the same time, Seraphina simply matched Liam's earlier look of fury with twice the intensity.

Erik looked at the pasty man and couldn't help but feel some regret. Not over Liam's fate, of course, but regret that he wouldn't get to torture this pathetic little man himself.

Regardless, the plan was the plan.

Liam stood straight and stared at the group of people surrounding him with wariness and confusion. He didn't even try attacking, as he was perfectly aware of his sealed magic.

Besides, even if he did have his magic, three of the people there could stomp him into the ground all by themselves.

He made a last attempt to save himself by addressing Erik and carefully hiding any and all resentment while sounding as amicable as he could, "Look, friend, I'm a little confused as to what your interest in me is.

Exactly what you did to Emily or your relationship with her and Emma, is also a mystery to me, but any animosity between us is negligible, if not entirely nonexistent!

Therefore, might I suggest we simply part ways here? Before anything happens that we can't take back? I have substantial power and wealth in this region, and I'm sure we can make a deal!"