Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Three days later, Melina and Elowen returned to Sunglow. They relayed all the information they gained from it to the council of elders, who were incredibly concerned that someone like Heiliger had one of the treasures already. They insisted that Melina speak with Lord Eidranis at the first opportunity.

She also asked about the price the Architect had mentioned—letting go of the past she clung to. The elders discussed it in depth, but couldn't provide any concrete answers. Their best guess was that Melina would have to give up something that she considered precious in the past.

For a horrifying moment, she thought it was Alistair, but that didn't seem quite right. While she knew Alistair in the past, the relationship they currently had was completely new.

There was one idea she had, for just a split second, but she hurriedly dismissed it. The elders hadn't even agreed whether the treasures should be destroyed or not. Priority was finding them first.

When Melina told Alistair everything that transpired, he instantly insisted she leave the search for the Codex of Origin up to Elowen. He got along with Lord Eidranis far better, and it was far more likely that he'd be able to find it rather than Melina.

Not to mention that she had been neglecting her regular bakery duties far too much because of everything that was happening. Roxie and Ygdril were managing it, but it didn't take long for people to demand Melina's return. Not to mention the magic training, which she hadn't provided in far too long a time.

So for the time being, Melina left the problem of finding the Codex up to Elowen and instead decided to spend the Sunday teaching her students magic. Leon and Adrien had both mastered mana control at this stage.

Leon was doing especially well as he could control a large amount of water with ease. His fire magic had also improved leaps and bounds, meaning that he could do some serious damage in a fight.

Adrien was able to levitate most small objects, although he struggled with heavier stuff. The point was that he wasn't losing control of his mana anymore, so it was safe to continue to the next lesson.

"Today we'll be learning elemental conjuration," Melina announced to her class of three. Mango was listening intently, too, her fluffy tail wagging in excitement.

"Conjuration? Is it like creating fire?" Leon asked excitedly. "Also, I'm so happy that you're teaching us again. It's been far too long."

"I apologize… There have been a lot of matters to take care of…" Melina said sheepishly.

"No! No! I don't blame you. Engagement is very important, especially since you're trying to endear nobles to elves and the way we live in Sunglow. Although we were all so nervous with all those nobles around…"

"Nervous? Sir Leon, I saw you chasing after some noblewomen, showing them tricks with your magic," Adrien said.

"What?!" Melina looked at the man in horror.

"They quite liked it though," Leon said, rubbing his nose proudly.

"I think they were amazed that you even dared to speak with them," Adrien noted.

"I am known to be brave," Leon nodded.

Melina stared at him in disbelief, then burst into laughter. Such a thing could only happen in Sunglow. Leon and Adrien laughed along with her while Mango hopped around, equally excited but confused about what the whole fuss was about.

She also felt a bit bad that she had pushed all of her friends from Sunglow away because of the nobles. While she was learning nobles' etiquette and entertaining them, except Remi, nobody could attend her engagement party.

She would have to rectify this mistake.

"Okay, so conjuration of elements. What do you think it is?" Melina said, returning to the matter at hand.

"It's like conjuring fire!" Leon said and allowed a flame to burn above his palm.

"Showoff…" Adrien grumbled.

"You're correct. Fire is one of the easiest elements to conjure because it can feed on oxygen to keep burning. As long as there is oxygen, fire can keep burning. Don't be so downcast, Adrien. You can conjure an element, too."

"I can?" The boy looked at her in surprise.

"It is less intentional for you, but I've seen you conjure sparks when you're agitated. Electricity can be conjured if you create static in the air. Feeling strong emotion in general makes it easier to conjure elements like fire and lightning since they are the easiest to conjure," Melina said. "For today, you, Adrien, will be creating these sparks on purpose."

"Wow! I can't wait!" Adrien said excitedly.

"Remember that you still need to apply control. If you just let lightning go wild, you might injure somebody."

"What about me, Miss Melina?" Leon asked excitedly. "Since I can already conjure flames."

"For you, it's crucial to learn how to conjure water, even in small quantities, since you have a strong affinity with it. Ice cannot exist without water, so to fully utilize your affinity, you must learn the basics of water conjuration first," Melina said solemnly and gave a small demonstration.

She concentrated and imagined a small water ball forming in her palm. At first, only a small droplet appeared, which slowly grew to the size of a ball.

"Wow…" Leon and Adrien both gasped.

"Water conjuration is tricky. You're more likely to instinctively gather moisture from the air rather than conjure it. Some mages even prefer to draw moisture out of plants rather than try to conjure water."

Melina levitated a small flower up to her palm and slowly drained it of all its moisture, leaving only a small shriveled husk behind. After all, plants were made up of mostly water.

"You just turned that plant into water!" Adrien exclaimed.

"No, the plant was already mostly water. I just extracted it with maximum efficiency. This isn't an easy skill to master. Gathering water from the air is far easier than extracting it from plants. Conjuring water yourself is a step beyond that."

There was also a method for extracting water from living beings, but it was incredibly complex and could easily backfire. Not to mention that Melina absolutely detested it. She wished the System had never given her this particular skill in the last timeline.

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Melina then explained to both Adrien and Leon how to focus on conjuring their respective elements and tricks for making their manifestation easier. Mango was meanwhile running around them, conjuring snowflakes left and right.

The little fox was so well attuned to ice that she could easily bypass the water conjuration step. She instinctively grabbed moisture from her surroundings and turned it into ice. Rascal even went as far as turning garden flowers into ice.

Melina had to reprimand the fox and stop her from doing that before she froze all of the garden over. Gilbert would be furious if that happened. Even Sienna was eyeing the fox warily from her large rock, not too happy about all the ice around her.

Leon was making really good progress. Since he was already familiar with water manipulation, drawing moisture from the air was the next natural step. The water balls he made were rather small, but he was able to use them quite efficiently by creating thin watery needles and then freezing them. The result was a deadly sharp icicle barrage that would make most monsters think twice before approaching.

Adrien's lightning was far more… wild. He conjured it without many issues; however, he was clearly relying on his emotions to make it happen, thus the results were unstable and hard to control. Melina would often have to take control of his lightning and safely reroute it into the ground before it could strike a friend.

"Why don't you think on a smaller scale? Instead of imagining large lightning, think of small electric sparks," Melina suggested.

"But it's so hard to control. I think of something small and get an explosion instead," Adrien pouted.

"Lightning in general is a hard element to control. It wants to discharge and hit something right away. Actually, rather than trying to control, why don't you try to direct it?"

"Direct it?"

"Yes. Like this," Melina raised her index finger and pointed it at a small pebble on the ground. She allowed a small electric spark to run from her finger to the ground, creating a small electric zap.

"Wow, so fast!" Adrien admired it. "But it went exactly where you wanted it to."

"Try it. Just a small zap at that rock," Melina urged.

Adrien took a deep breath and pointed his finger at the small rock just like Melina had. A moment later, a lightning discharge hit the small rock, giving it a slight char. While it was still too much power, it was much better than the destructive lightning bolts Adrien had been creating before.

"Yes! Very good. Keep at it. Just be sure to practice on grounded objects, so the lightning has a place to disperse and doesn't hurt anyone," Melina warned.

She continued watching their practice with pride, but at one point, a strong sense of melancholy took over her. She needed to teach them as much as possible. Time was running out…

"Why do you always have to come along…" Elowen groaned as Leliana clung to his arm.

"What do you mean by why?" The woman sputtered with indignation, peering at him as they walked through the Monster Realm passageway. "You were gone for almost a week and then set off to the Monster Realm as soon as you returned. We barely have any time together."

Before Elowen could even mutter a complaint, they were already through to the other side, where a few drow guards stood at the passageway.

"Good day, Sir Elowen," one of them greeted him.

"Good day. Has the passageway narrowed even further? It barely felt like a minute passed for us to get through," Elowen asked. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Fifty-three seconds to be exact," the guard answered. "And still getting shorter. Would you and your lady like to meet with Lord Eidranis?"

"We would," Leliana confirmed, her grip tightening around his arm.

Elowen couldn't believe how bold this human woman was. No elven woman would dare to cling to their partner this way. But then again… He didn't exactly hate it.

"I have new information for him," Elowen confirmed.

"I'll send a messenger ahead. Please proceed to Lord's Tower at your leisure. There are mounts available, too, if you'd like," the guard said, pointing to the recently built stables.

A passageway guardian was lurking around the stables while large ant-like creatures with saddles on their back waited for when they would be needed. These were the mount drow usually used, but Elowen wasn't particularly fond of them.

The shiver he felt from Leliana indicated that she wanted nothing to do with the oversized bugs.

"No, that's alright. We'll walk," Elowen said.

"As you wish. A safe pathway has been made, so feel free to follow it," the guard informed with a bow.

"Amazing how much has changed here in about a month and a half," Leliana noted when they were some distance away from the passageway.

Elowen nodded. A trail has been made from the passageway to the Monster Lord's tower. It was made by Lord Eidranis himself and worked rather selectively.

Elowen and the drow could traverse it easily, and it ensured that they would not get attacked by monsters on their way to the tower. Strangers, however, might be led astray or even into danger if the magic determined them to be hostile.

It did make him wonder whether Melina could even travel it. Lord Eidranis held no love for the woman and wasn't shy in showing it either. It was understandable. Even if your murderer has changed and become a good person, it doesn't erase what they had done to you.

Well, not the emotional scars at least. Elowen hadn't experienced death since he had managed to cling to his life all the way to the point when Melina rewound it. But it likely wasn't anything pleasant.

When they arrived at the tower about an hour later, Leliana instantly demanded to be escorted to the gardens. That was her real reason for coming to the Monster Realm whenever she could. She was eagerly studying how the drow grew their plants and fruits and working hard to implement their techniques.

So far, her experiments have been going well. Scorchvine peppers grew some decently sized peppers. Leliana removed their seeds and gifted them to Sienna, who ate them with a hint of disappointment. Apparently, they weren't as spicy as the ones in the Monster Realm.

But being able to grow them in the Human Realm was already impressive enough in its own right. Feyfruit bushes were also growing nicely. They wouldn't yield any fruit this year, but next year was a real possibility.

Now, Leliana was obsessed with trying to grow cocoa or coffee beans. Even regular Human Realm coffee and cocoa were hard to grow, but Leliana was hoping that there was a way to provide the right conditions for at least one of them.

While the woman pranced in the gardens, Elowen hurried to Lord Eidranis, who waited for him in his tower. The inside was… odd. It didn't have the overly modified look that human structures had, but it wasn't anything that elves would build either.

Much of the inside looked to be made of crystals. Or perhaps the crystals were made to look like furniture. It was hard to tell. But crystals, both mundane and magical, were something that the drow prided themselves on. They tended to live in areas with rich crystal reserves, so making things out of them made complete sense.

Lord Eidranis was waiting for Elowen in the guest room on the first floor. It was a room made out of light and translucent crystals, and gave a sense of ease in otherwise dark Monster Realm night.

"I was told you come with news," Lord Eidranis said, narrowing his eyes. "From the Archmage, I imagine."

"Melina and I both went to meet the Architect recently."

"The Architect?" Lord Eidranis's eyes widened. "Whatever for? Where did you even find one?"

Elowen proceeded to explain how Heiliger had somehow escaped, and how she likely would try to separate the realms as soon as possible. He also said that the Sacred Treasures were crucial for this plan to work, so they were trying to gather them all before Heiliger could.

"The Archmage has one of the treasures, correct?" Lord Eidranis asked.

"Yes," Elowen confirmed.

"And Heiliger has another. Which one?"

"The Chalice of the World. The Architect said that the Codex of Origin is somewhere within the Monster Realm."

"Chalice… That's probably the worst one she could have had. I believe that the Archmage's stance on destroying the Sacred Treasures is correct. While my predecessor had meant them as symbols of unity, they currently serve as the exact opposite."

"Are you sure? The council of elders believes that it might be worth it to hide them or make them inaccessible in some other way," Elowen said.

"Perhaps, but I don't believe it's worth the risk. We're going to have to retrieve the Codex… As much as I hate it," Lord Eidranis said with a heavy sigh.

"You know where it is?"

"I do… However, it won't be easy to obtain. The Archmage… We'll need her help."

"I'm sure Melina will be more than willing to offer her magical talents."

"No, not magic. We'll need her baking skills."