A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Over the next few days, Erik's boat travelled along the coast of Europe and Africa, aided by strong winds, and a continuously working electric motor. The motor was, of course, charged by the sigil Elora had stolen from the Council, which created electricity from the aetherium in the air.

First, they came across Spain. This was somewhat of a contested region, as African warlords often crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to try and conquer more territory, or at least raid people and resources.

They never got very far, however, at least not since the Council formed. Before that time, it was simply African warlords fighting against their European counterparts, with varied results.

But now, the Council's professional army of mixed Arcanists and Runebound stood guard on the border, and a single second, or even third ranked warlord with an army a few thousand strong had no hope of crossing it.

From there, they continued sailing towards the south. Elora periodically left the dimension to check their direction compared to what the piece of Runa's soul she possessed was telling her, and it appeared Runa had travelled quite far inland.

Thus, they continued sailing along Afrika's western coast. They decided to continue using the boat, because otherwise Erik would have to run, rather than train.

This continued for six days, but when they entered the Gulf of Guinea, things changed for the worse.

* * *

It was scorching hot. As the poles were, so too was the equator affected by more extreme temperatures. Back in Scandinavia, they noticed this mainly due to almost year-round snow.

Now, however, it was simply scorching hot. It wasn't even dry per se, as there was plenty of rainfall, but it was at least 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on a cold day.

Fortunately, however, it made no difference to Erik and the others. They sometimes had to resist actual fire when in the midst of battle, so a little sunburn wasn't going to do them in.

Even the vampires, Astrid and Seraphina, weren't deterred. Not that they cared about the heat, but even the sun's radiation—a vampire's actual weakness—was stronger here. Of course, with Astrid that was due to her affinity, which allowed her to ignore that weakness altogether.

But even Seraphina was able to handle it easily. She wore dark, leather clothing that hugged her body and kept very little skin exposed to the sun. She even wore gloves, meaning that the only part of her body exposed to the sun was her face, which she kept safe by simply keeping a small layer of Runebound energy between her skin and the sun.

Now, she leaned against the invisible ship's railing and gazed at the African coast they were sailing by. They'd just passed the Sahara, meaning the coast was now filled with an endless expanse of rainforest, interspersed by small, usually abandoned settlements.

Her long black hair was tied into a ponytail and resting on her back, together with the large sword that was her weapon. She'd seen the storage jewellery everyone was using, but she hadn't asked about it yet. Not that it would have mattered, because Elora only handed those out to prospective family.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

While she stood there, Erik suddenly appeared behind her, after stepping out of the invisible cabin. Now, it appeared like the two of them were floating above the water. Fortunately, they were perfectly capable of using their energy to guide their steps, even if all they could see around them was water.

"Standing here means we're actually visible to any potentially dangerous sea creatures, you know?" Erik asked her with raised eyebrow.

The vampire wasn't surprised by his appearance and shrugged her shoulders without turning around. "I promise I'll personally deal with anything that shows up," she said casually. "The Council has never found anything particularly bad along the coast."

Erik rolled his eyes as he walked up next to her and began leaning on the invisible railing as well. "Right, and how much data does the Council have on dangers along the African coast, rather than the European?"

Seraphina flinched slightly, clearly proving she'd thought of that as well, but then sighed. "Ugh, I know, alright? But you have to agree the chances are low there's anything worse here! Besides, I just can't help myself…"

"Oh? Why's that?" he asked her curiously. Even if he was a little worried about sea creatures, he didn't think they'd be unlucky enough to encounter one just at the wrong time. Besides, she was right in thinking there probably wasn't anything worse here, compared to European coasts.

Of course, Elora was waving a big red flag inside his soul. Stay connected with empire

Regardless, the vampire frowned, and answered his question with one of her own, "You know what the one good thing to come out of this damn awakening so far is?"e

Erik shook his head laconically, "If I'm being honest, the awakening has mostly meant good things for me. Even the attack on Frostvik had nothing to do with it, and without the awakening I would have died there."

Seraphina scoffed, a little annoyed, "Well, good for you, then."

Realizing his mistake, Erik chuckled apologetically, "Sorry. I wasn't there for the first few years, so I shouldn't say anything. Why don't you tell me what you meant?"

Since Seraphina was already bound to silence through the covenant, Erik and the others had already revealed some information to her over the past week, so she wasn't surprised.

Instead, she sighed, "It's fine…" and then looked up at the sun with a small smile, "The one good thing is that I can feel the sun's warm rays on my skin without almost dying."

The only thing her thin layer of energy stopped was the sun's radiation, not its warmth.

Erik frowned and nodded. He remembered Astrid saying something similar once. "Admittedly, I can't imagine what that was like before."

Seraphina shrugged casually, "We never really knew what we were missing, I guess. Until we got the opportunity to truly feel it." Before continuing, she chuckled wryly, "Although, vampires with fire related affinities like Astrid are the truly lucky ones. They don't even need to protect themselves."

They remained silent for a moment after that, until Erik raised an eyebrow. "You didn't ask me here to talk about this, though, right?"

The raven-haired vampire sighed and shook her head, "No, I guess not…Emily has been pushing me to talk to you." Suddenly, she raised her hands, which had previously been resting on the railing, and Erik noticed they were trembling slightly.

He frowned with a hint of concern when he noticed that. "You need to drink," he stated, matter-of-factly. It wasn't hard to spot the effects of thirst in a vampire.

"Yeah," Seraphina nodded wryly. "Which, I guess, is why I finally took Emily's advice."

"Okay, but why not simply drink some of her blood then?" he asked with a curiously raised eyebrow. "I haven't forbidden anything like that, nor would I. You've made it clear you don't want to be dependent on me, so I don't expect you to drink mine."

Seraphina sighed again, as her wry expression remained. "It might already be too late for that…"

"Too late for what?" Erik asked, becoming more and more confused. "To drink Emily's blood?"

But Seraphina shook her head, still wry, but also with a lot of frustration. "No. Too late for me not to be dependent on you… because any other blood besides yours tastes like dog piss now, and I can't bring myself to drink any other when you're basically right next to me."