“Yura. Use your powers to hurt me,” Elais directed. He had just prepared them breakfast consisting of peppered scrambled eggs with toast and freshly squeezed fruit juice.

Yura, with a piece of egg hanging on the corner of her mouth, concentrated all her energy into her palms, to no avail. “Sorry, I couldn’t do it again…”

“It’s fine,” Elais said, wiping the edge of her mouth. He noted that as her powers weren’t activated by sheer willpower, the possibility of dark magic had to be ruled out. The stream of dark magic is far too difficult for a beginner to grasp, with many competent magic users struggling to use it.

A quick rap of Elais’ door was heard to his surprise whilst he was cleaning up, considering he never had visitors. 

“Let me in, I have a delivery!” Adrienne announced as she rammed the door open, running over to Yura with bags of lace dresses in her hands. “Goodness gracious, Elais! Is this the best you can do?” she exclaimed, pointing to the oversized shirt that Yura had been wearing since she was brought into his home.

“I’m..not good at that type of thing,” Elais responded, vaguely gesturing to the bags of dresses she had brought in. 

“We should go shopping and pick you out better clothes,” Adrienne said, her eyes beaming as she held Yura’s hands.

Yura’s eyes responded with mutual delight, only to become shortly disappointed. “I can’t.. I might hurt people with these powers.”

“Then, how about I make you some instead?” Adrienne responded, revealing her trunk of sewing gear and materials, much to Yura’s amazement. She showed Yura a fashion book. “Just show me what you like and we can get started.”

Adrienne started taking measurements as Yura flicked through the visually appealing styles presented in the book, noting to Adrienne the styles she liked in particular, with Elais watching her face beam with excitement from afar as she continued to look through it.

“Can you lift your hair - I need to take some measurements on your upper body love,” Adrienne instructed, with Yura obeying her command.

Elais rested on a nearby sofa, watching the two from afar as he reviewed his notes, and to be mentally prepared to deal with Adrienne’s energy later on. 

Adrienne presented Yura with a handmade fox doll adorned with a red bowtie. “I feel that you’re probably lonely in this huge house with this old guy, so I made you a friend.”

Yura accepted the gift with glee, hugging it gently. “Thank you so much.. I’ll cherish this.”

Adrienne turned to Elais, noticing him catching a glimpse of the two girls. “I need to speak with Elais alone for a bit, so I’ll be back in a moment,” Adrienne told her with a bright smile.

Yura nodded and played with the doll, admiring its handmade features.

Adrienne headed over to Elais, sitting in the opposite velvet seat. “Could you feel her magic?” she asked, her hand resting under her chin.

He shook his head. “I can’t, rather it feels like a low constant magical reserve, that she surely isn’t controlling.” Nothing really happened during Adrienne’s visit as he thought it would, rather she seemed like just a normal girl.

Adrienne nodded. “I felt it whilst taking her measurements. Has she activated her powers recently?” She held her leather notebook in her hand, waiting to add more notes into it.

Elais had a quick think, resting his head against hand as it leaned on the armrest. “She did. She didn’t want to eat her food properly, and struck me,” he responded.

Adrienne broke out a loud laugh. She looked over to Yura, noticing that she was now reading on a nearby sofa with the doll in her arms. “Are you planning to homeschool her? She mentioned that you were teaching her to read.”

His eyes widened slightly, with the tangent catching him off guard. “Only a little so far,” he responded. He noticed she had begun rereading ‘Mr Red Foxy’ to her doll, rather than moving onto a new one.

“Hm.. if you’re going to investigate her powers, you can’t be in two places at once if you plan on teaching her as well. You should consider hiring teachers,”Adrienne said. Her eyes were beaming, a little too brightly. “I could teach her to sew.”

“She’s not going to sew her way out of a fight,” Elais said, dismissing the idea completely. “She should learn like others her age, although I fear it will be quite a lot to catch up on. I do feel it will benefit her in the long run with learning about her magic.”

Adrienne nodded. “It’s true, those her age would be done with their studies in a couple years.”

She looked at him, curiously. “You’re thinking a lot about her future.”

Elais averted his gaze. “I’m doing it for her since it benefits me. The more we learn about her, the more I can learn about myself if your hypothesis remains true.”

He recalled his frustration from the night prior in the lack of accessibility to information, and reminded himself that this was a good opportunity to press Adrienne for more clues. He ran through his notes before he turned to her for more questions. “Say, how were you able to get information about the cults to begin with if it’s been censored?” Elais asked. 

“It was information that was strictly passed down in my family, mainly orally. Many of my ancestors died trying to fight against those who used this new form of dark magic,” Adrienne explained, moving her arm away from the arm rest to open her notebook. She flicked through pages of her notebook at a rapid pace, as if she memorised its contents inside out. “I have been trying to figure out the exact nature of the magic, and its relationship between the civil wars and cults since it’s highly confidential information. As a magic professor myself, I’m naturally curious, but it’s become extremely personal.” 

He briefly processed the information and jotted it down for himself. “And how did you deduce that this has anything to do with my immortality?” Elais asked.

She turned to a page of her notebook, returning his gaze only a moment after. “You see, what’s happening to you isn’t a natural phenomenon,” she responded. “It relates to dark magic, and this new form may be the key to finding out how to undo it.”

“And how can you be so sure that my immortality relates to dark magic?” He asked, as the idea itself still sounded absurd to him.

Adrienne shook her head. “It’s magic 101. There’s no way it happened naturally, nor do any other streams of magic could possibly facilitate that sort of outcome,” she replied.

“Why did you offer to help me to begin with?” He inquired, a genuine question that had been bothering him since she came to him for assistance in searching for Yura.

“It’d be a major breakthrough if I could accomplish such a feat,” she responded. “And end my family’s suffering for good. I’m not losing the opportunity to resolve both things if I’m able.”

“How did your ancestor know me? It’s been bothering me,” he asked. “Not many people know who I am, since I’m not known for socialising.”

“I believe that they were also a researcher of the Arts,” she replied. “You were in their notes.”

Elais raised an eyebrow. He looked over to Yura, with her noticing his gaze and returned the greeting by making the doll’s hand wave to him. “Would Yura really be a target for the cults?”

Adrienne wore a grim expression and eased back into her seat. “Mm, it’s likely. With such power, if not left in check, could potentially bring more harm in the world than we anticipate,” Adrienne replied. “She might become an experiment for them, to test the limits of their new found strength. Torture, even.”

Elais’ eyes widened, a violent string of memories ran through his head.

He couldn’t breathe. 

The sharp pain that spread through his body made his body numb, as if he’d just been stabbed time and time again.

Suddenly, he managed to take a breath.

A moment of relief, he thought to himself.

Until it repeated in small bursts, again, and again, until he lost consciousness.

“Elais…”

“...Elais?”

“..Elais, you there?”

Elais sharply inhaled. Adrienne’s voice rang in his ears, gradually becoming more clear as his mind processed his surroundings. 

“..Oh. I’m fine,” Elais responded. “I’m just hoping I can get to the bottom of it all.”

Adrienne raised her eyebrow. “Oh? What do you mean?” she asked.

Yura ran across from the room, and hugged Elais’ leg. “Play with me and Mr Foxy! Please?”

Elais looked down at her, petting her head gently.”..I just want to rid myself of my immortality. That’s all.”

Adrienne observed the two, and smiled lightly. “I hope I answered enough for you today,” she said, turning to Yura. “Your dresses will be ready soon, I’ll send them over when they’re done.” She presented her with a card with her address and phone number written on it. “If you ever feel lonely my dear, don’t be afraid to contact me.”

Adrienne took her leave, with the echo of the doors slamming behind her. 

Yura looked up at Elais curiously, still embracing the doll in her arms. “You guys were talking a lot today.”

Elais nodded, and wiped his eyes. “Yeah, it was a lot. I need to do something important, feel free to play or read as you wish, so long it’s within the house. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Yura ran back to her usual sitting area with the doll, reading a different book from what she had been prior. 

Elais entered his study room and picked up his phone, punching in a number he hadn’t used in a while.