Chapter 143 - Aetherion’s Eyes

Chapter 143: 143 - Aetherion’s Eyes

It was the first time Adrien had ever left Valleroy, and the fact still felt strange even after the border disappeared behind them.

Everywhere he looked, the people travelling the roads were elves: merchants, soldiers, families moving between settlements, workers running mana-powered vehicles, every one of them from a race that would have drawn stares in most human cities. Here Adrien was the unusual one.

He kept watching the landscape through the window while the vehicle followed the pale road deeper into Sylvamir.

The mountains gradually opened around them, giving way to thick forests, rivers and wide stretches of green land where mana seemed almost visible in everything.

The driver eventually spoke from the front. "Lady Amelia, we’ve entered Sylvamir properly now. We’ll stop at the first city along this route. You’ll change transport there so you can reach the capital faster."

Amelia looked up from the guide resting on her lap. "You’re returning to Elyndor afterward?"

"Yes. I’ll inform Lord Vael that you crossed safely. When it’s time for you to return, I’ll come back and wait in the same city unless I’m told otherwise."

"Understood. Thank you."

Several hours still separated them from the city, which left little to do except watch the scenery or talk. Amelia closed the guide completely and looked toward Adrien.

"What were you talking about with my grandfather before we left?"

Adrien took a moment to work out what she meant. "Oh, that. I told him I received an invitation from Aetherion."

Amelia’s expression changed at once. Lucien’s did not. He looked away from the window with a slight frown.

"Aetherion? Is that another noble family I’m supposed to know?"

Amelia turned toward him. "No. Aetherion Institute of Magic. Adrien left out the important half of the name."

Lucien seemed no better informed than before, and Amelia went on.

"It’s an institution dedicated entirely to magic. They only accept people with the Mage Path. Not Spellblades who happen to use spells, not Healers, not Spiritcallers. Just Mages."

Lucien leaned back again. "Then that explains why I’ve never cared enough to remember it."

Amelia ignored the comment and put her whole attention on Adrien. "When did you get invited?"

"A few days ago."

"And?"

"I decided to go."

The shift in Amelia was small enough that somebody who did not know her might have missed it. Her shoulders went a little more rigid and the light in her eyes dimmed for a moment before she looked down at the closed guide.

Adrien understood the reason almost immediately. Aetherion did not accept Healers, so if he left, Amelia could not simply come along the way she was coming with him to Sylvamir now.

"I don’t leave for another six months," Adrien said. "There’s still plenty of time."

Amelia looked back at him. "Six months?"

"That’s when the next intake starts."

Some of the stiffness went out of her face. "That’s later than I thought."

She nodded and tried to recover the expression she had worn before the subject came up. Adrien caught the relief underneath it and chose not to point it out.

He had no idea how long he would stay at Aetherion once he went. The invitation had not pulled any commitment out of him yet, and too many unknowns still surrounded the institute, especially now that Vael had told him how far its reach extended.

Adrien let the conversation drop and turned back to the window. Absolute Mana Sense stayed active around him as naturally as breathing by this point, since the continuous cost meant nothing against Bottomless Core and he preferred knowing what surrounded him to trusting his eyes alone.

Most of what he sensed was ordinary.

Mana inside the vehicle, the crystals feeding its systems, the three people travelling with him, the driver, passing travellers, distant animals and the ambient mana soaking Sylvamir’s forests.

Then something above them felt wrong, and Adrien’s attention sharpened.

A small concentration of mana moved through the air directly over the road, nowhere near large enough to be a threat, though its density made no sense for something that felt no bigger than a bird.

Adrien looked upward through the window. At first he found nothing but blue sky broken by scattered clouds, and then his enhanced eyesight picked out a dark shape riding high above the vehicle.

A bird.

Black feathers covered its entire body, catching faint traces of light whenever its wings shifted. Its head ran narrow, with a thick black beak thrust forward, and its wings stayed spread wide as it rode the air currents above them.

Adrien’s eyes narrowed.

A crow.

Vael’s words from the previous day came straight back. Sometimes a crow was only a crow. Sometimes somebody very far away was looking through its eyes.

Adrien focused Absolute Mana Sense on the creature. The strange concentration definitely came from it, gathered around its body in a way he had never felt from an ordinary animal.

’Is the person who sent the letter watching me?’

That was the only explanation he had that covered everything else: the changed contents of the invitation, the raven in the wax, Vael saying Aetherion kept eyes on every continent. Perhaps they had never stopped watching after sending the letter.

Amelia noticed where he was looking and turned toward the same window. "What are you looking at?"

Adrien kept his eyes on the distant shape. "Nothing important."

Amelia searched the sky for several seconds, apparently unable to pick the bird out at that distance. She gave up eventually and leaned back into her seat. Lucien glanced upward as well.

"Something interesting?"

"Just the sky," Amelia said.

Lucien looked through the window, found nothing but clouds and returned to what he had been doing without another question.

Adrien followed the crow for several more minutes. It never came closer and it never dived, and it simply held its place above them until it drifted far enough that even his enhanced vision lost it among the distance and the clouds.

Whether somebody had truly been watching him, Adrien could not prove. He doubted he would ever look at a crow normally again.

Several hours later buildings finally appeared between the trees ahead, and the first Sylvamir city on their route came into view.