Asher ended up spending most of the evening chatting with Rosh. Not only was it nice getting the chance to catch up with his old friend, Rosh proved to be quite the font of information. While everything he shared was in fact related to logistics in one way or another, the former professor proved that he truly did know a lot about how the inner workings of each city in the Noala Kingdom functioned.

  Asher supposed when one taught at a military academy, it was important to be able to instruct students on the best way to defend all of the different cities in the kingdom.

  Just to be safe, Asher did still swing by the library to conduct some of his own research. He hadn’t received any alarming pings from Samantha’s Eternal Mark, and she and Moxy hadn’t called him via sending stone, so he figured they were probably fine. It wasn’t until he’d put in another hour of research that he heard a familiar voice call out behind him.

  “The library will be closing soon. You cannot take the books with you, but you are welcome to leave them on the table.”

  “Wilna!” Asher said, turning and smiling up at the craston standing before him. “It’s good to see you again!”

  “You as well, Asher,” Wilna said, returning the smile that was only slightly lopsided due to the jagged cracks running across her face. Her glossy, porcelain skin gave away the fact that she was an elemental-kin immediately upon seeing her, but that didn’t really mean much to Asher. She’d helped him find the books he was looking for on plenty of occasions during his initial research spree he’d conducted upon first arriving in this world, and he’d always be grateful for that.

  “How have you been?” he asked, trying to remember the last time they spoke. “It’s been a few weeks now, hasn’t it?”

  One of the downsides of being able to Incorporate entire texts to read later during his free time meant that he really didn’t need to visit the library all that often.

  “Indeed it has,” Wilna said, gesturing to the books he’d snagged for himself. “You look like you have a much firmer grasp on what you’re doing than when we first met.”

  “I definitely do,” he chuckled, thankful for having earned the librarian class after only a few days of effort. “Oh, by the way. I ended up meeting another elemental-kin over in Dormaul during my recent travels. A ferrum named Helpha.”

  “Seeing as you’re saying that with a smile, I take it the encounter actually went rather well?” Wilna asked, raising a cracked eyebrow. “I have spoken to Helpha a number of times over the years, and I am well aware of her… particular tendencies.”

  “I’d say so. She ended up selling me one of her daggers, and is currently restoring an older one of mine.” Actually, I should probably check in and see how that restoration is going. I don’t know how long something like that takes, but it’s been at least a few weeks now.

  “If Helpha actually sold you one of her weapons, then you must have impressed her indeed,” Wilna said, looking impressed herself.

  “I certainly hope that was the case,” he said, deciding not to mention the fact that he’d been using Helpha’s largely empty store as his Recall point for Dormaul. “Speaking of other elemental-kin… I was actually hoping to ask you a question about them when I got the chance. So I know crastons came from a blended skill from the Life and Porcelain elements, and ferrum came from a blended skill from the Life and Iron elements. Is Life always a required element for an elemental-kin to be created, or are there other possibilities?”

  “By definition, an elemental-kin is a completely autonomous being. One who is deemed alive enough to be granted an origin element and the capacity not just for other elements, but for free will as well,” Wilna explained, largely repeating what Helpha had said. “It is believed that the Life element is required for all these criteria to be met. At the very least, I have never heard of any elemental-kin being born from a blended skill that didn’t come from the Life element, and I’ve never read a record of it occurring either. Why do you ask?”

  “I encountered a strange blended skill the other day… One that resulted in the creation of a handful of shadow-men,” he said, trying to explain what he could without revealing that said shadow men were all master assassins. “I haven’t had too many interactions with them, but as far as I can tell, each one seems to operate somewhat autonomously of the others. Though they’re definitely linked as well. I suppose I was just curious if there was any chance of them becoming elemental-kin and throwing off whatever connection they have to the user of the skill.”

  “That is actually a common misconception regarding elemental-kin,” Wilna explained. “There is no ‘throwing off the yokes that bind us,’ or slaughtering our creators for our freedom like in many horror stories exchanged around rural campfires. From the moment we are created, we know what we are. Unlike humans who have to reach maturity to receive an origin element, we have our origin element from birth, and it is always the one paired with the Life element. All crastons have Porcelain as their origin, and all ferrum have Iron as theirs. If these shadow-men you speak of are not already elemental-kin, there is no precedent to suggest they ever would become them.”

  Well damn, I guess there goes the idea of trying to turn Owl on the Head… Granted, just because there’s no precedent, doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. I bet most quasi-elemental-kin skills also never experience a severing from their creator like these ones did when I yanked them into the astral realm. Who knows what that might have done to them.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “Thank you, that’s all incredibly helpful. I, uh, don’t know if this is racist to ask… But do all elemental-kin know one another?” Asher nearly stopped himself from asking the question, but he was incredibly curious, and Wilna spoke like she was intimately familiar with the ferrum and potentially other elemental-kin. She had always seemed happy to help answer any questions he had for her as well. While he hadn’t come right out and said it, he had a hunch that she’d pieced together the fact that he was a realm wanderer simply from all the different books he’d asked her to help him find back in the day.

  “We keep in touch more with our own families, but yes, there are few enough of us that we often know one another just from time. When you have two people who are both theoretically immortal, it is nearly inevitable that they will eventually come into contact.”

  “Families? I’m assuming that would be the other crastons?”

  “Indeed. I consider all the other crastons born from our creator’s skill to be my family. And while the majority of us have fallen over the centuries, I am fortunate that there are a few of my family still left after all this time. Unlike the ferrum and their relationship with iron, porcelain is not quite so durable.”

  “I know we really didn’t get into this last we spoke, because I didn’t even know exactly what an elemental-kin was,” Asher began, wondering if he was about to accidentally put his foot in his mouth with his next suggestion. “But isn’t there some way you could use porcelain to repair the damage that’s happened to your body?”

  “If my creator was still alive, he could have done just that,” Wilna said, smiling fondly at the memories she must have had with the man. “It was his skill that brought life to us, and thus it is only his hand that could potentially repair us. I suppose a powerful enough wizard would be able to do the same, but it would require a level of trust I could never give to anyone other than my creator.”

  “I know what you mean. I ended up meeting Richard the other day in the capital. He’s the main wizard for the Noala Kingdom from what I understand, and he’s a bit of a piece of work,” Asher said, frowning at the memory of Richard bypassing his Hidden Presence skill and looking at his elements without so much as asking. “I probably wouldn’t trust him with messing around with my insides either.”

  “It sounds like you have been quite busy since we last talked,” Wilna said, chuckling at his slight wince. “In fact, I suppose I should tell you I’ve actually received a few missives regarding you recently from members of my family in the surrounding countries. You’ve made quite the splash with your recent ventures. Many of my family who I only hear from every decade or so checked in just to see if I had any more information about you than what the rumors were carrying. Imagine their surprise when I mentioned we’d actually met face to face.”

  “Yeah, I’m already aware that all that’s going around,” he said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair. “I just had a meeting with someone from the Hojon Empire the other day who offered me a ridiculous number of shards and property to join them. The cat is officially out of the bag on my Spatial element.”

  “I knew you were trying to keep it a secret, so I told my family they would have to wait until you and I spoke again before I said anything,” Wilna said, giving him a soft smile as she finally took the seat across from him. “Not that I would ever reveal anything you told me in confidence, regardless of what my family offered.”

  “I appreciate that, Wilna, thank you. Just to satisfy my own curiosity, how long have you known about my Spatial element?”

  “From the moment you set foot in the library,” she said, laughing gently at his expression. “Your concealment skill was weaker back then, only that of a tier one. My own Identify skill is in the third tier, so I was able to see your elements without issue. All of your elements.”

  “Oh… Oh!” Asher said, jerking back slightly as what she said finally registered. He’d been embarrassed to hear that someone else had known about his elements all this time without him even suspecting, but that meant Wilna didn’t just know about his Spatial element.

  She was one of the extremely few people who knew about his Eternity element as well.

  “You have nothing to worry about, I haven’t told my family or anyone else of your interesting element,” she said, giving him a quick wink. “As I’ve mentioned, we crastons are technically immortal, provided we don’t go and damage our bodies to the point of shattering. And while I’ve received some damage over my long life, I figure I still have at least a few more centuries left in me if I’m lucky. I saw no reason to anger a fellow immortal just to satisfy my own curiosity.”

  “A fellow immortal…” Asher said, shaking his head at the thought. “I don’t know about that. I do have quite the powerful healing skill, but the jury is still out whether or not I’m actually immortal.”

  “You mean you don’t know?” Wilna asked, giving him a curious look.

  “Know what?” Asher replied, suddenly feeling anxious at the way she was staring at him.

  “Oh… It was not my intention to spring this upon you like this,” Wilna said, looking a bit hesitant all of a sudden. “I’m not sure if I’m the one who should be revealing this to you… But I suppose it is a little late now.”

  “Reveal what, Wilna?” he demanded, his heart pounding as if already knowing what she was going to say.

  “You are one of us. An immortal, that is,” she clarified, pointing a cracked, glossy finger at him. “My third tier Identify allows me to know the precise age of anything I look at. A remarkably useful skill for a librarian when it comes to cataloguing new texts for our archives. I witnessed you come into our library day after day during your first week in Whikoga, and one peculiarity stood out above all else.”

  Wilna paused, as though she still wasn’t sure if she should be the one to tell him this, before letting out a sigh and giving him an apologetic look.

  “You do not age, Asher. The age of your physical body has remained completely static since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

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