Chapter 75
Xerath laughed and said, "Do you think Virgil is not a bad person anymore? It was him who brought you back!"
Sylas said, "But then I met you."
Her voice was soft, like white feathers gently falling into Xerath's heart.
It was as if she was comforting herself, and suddenly Xerath realized her own loss of control and returned to being indifferent. "Cunning little beast, sit back down. Virgil is my friend, and as long as he doesn't cross my boundaries, I won't hurt him."
"That's good! You also said friends should cherish each other."
The fork in Xerath's hand suddenly tilted. She knew she had to change the topic immediately. "Let's eat..."
The archmage showed off with her proud apprentice and her water lord, receiving tons of envy and surprise, and then returned triumphantly.
Classes continued in the afternoon and evening, with the only difference being the blue water ball that Hyectra made faces at. Life was almost the same as before. When it was time for Sylas to sleep, she came out of the library and walked back to her room. After taking a shower, she found Xerath leaning against the door, arms crossed, seemingly lost in thought.
Xerath was still in her daytime attire, without the oversized robe. Sylas wiped something off her face and let the breeze dry her hair. She asked, "Teacher, what's wrong?"
Xerath suddenly looked up. "Sylas."
The powerful mage walked towards her. Sylas felt a subtle emotion as she watched her teacher approach and stand in front of her.
Sylas stared at Xerath with confusion. Xerath stared back intently, then extended her arms and gently pulled Sylas into a hug.
"I..." Xerath paused, unable to find the right words.
"Teacher?" Sylas, dressed in her pajamas, could feel Xerath's warmth through her thin clothes. It was comforting, something she had always longed for. As it enveloped her cool body, she knew she would miss it once it was gone.
"I..." Xerath's voice, reminiscent of a cello, rang in Sylas's ears. "I used to believe words could describe everything. But today, I realized that the joy in my heart cannot be... cannot be expressed with words. I have written so many... so many words trying to convey my love for you, but they still cannot calm my emotions..."
Her voice this time was filled with richness, sincerely displaying her confusion and joy.
"I think I can only use something irrational, something beyond language."
Like this embrace, for example.
Sylas was so overwhelmed with joy that she instinctively hugged Xerath tightly without thinking. By the time she realized how nice the delicate and soft feeling of her waist was, she had been holding on for a while.
The new joy, mixed with some unclear emotions, diluted the old one and quickly replaced it. Sylas wanted to hold her forever, experiencing the beauty that carried those beautiful entities. She felt as if she had entered a dream, unable to distinguish between the unreal and the real goodness that surrounded her. Her eyelids felt heavy, her head resting on Xerath's shoulder, gently leaning against her embrace.
"...Sylas?" Xerath sensed Sylas's body gradually becoming heavier.
"...Hmm?" Sylas woke up suddenly, straightening her body. She looked up at the archmage and then shyly smiled in Xerath's arms. "I almost fell asleep. It's too warm."
Xerath also smiled. "Go to sleep, and we'll go to class on time tomorrow."
Aimekotes is located in a barren desert with no grass. It is surrounded by white sand, with large rocks buried in the sand that occasionally emerge from the surface. The archmage said that Aimekotes is built on a bedrock twenty yards deep underground.
There is nothing around the mage tower except elemental creatures. The only flesh and blood creatures here are Sylas, Xerath, and Titus. That's what Sylas thought for a long time.
But on the second day after she summoned Leunen, causing a flood in the desert, a continuous growth of white flowers appeared around Aimekotes.
Sylas was the first to notice this. She leaned against the door, drinking her milk, but noticed that the sandy ground around Aimekotes and the distant silver gravel were different.
She called Xerath with excitement and asked her what it was. The archmage explained, "It is a legendary rootless flower. Its seeds are very tough and can sleep in the desert for up to a hundred years. It will only grow when there is enough rainfall. However, the Elemental Gate has not had enough rain for a long time."
What she said is true. Even the water here is unusually active. It often runs off to other places on its own, not to mention the water escaping with the help of the restless wind element. Only the sand is stable, but it is often blown away by the wind.
The flood that came from the Endless Water Realm soaked the sand dunes here, 20 yards deep. The seeds awakened from their long dormancy, quickly took root and sprouted after absorbing enough water. They blossomed before the water evaporated, producing the next batch of dormant seeds.
Unusually, Xerath took Sylas out of the white tower. They entered a field of white flowers, and Sylas happily jumped in, getting covered in sand and causing some petals to break and fly away under her weight. Xerath used a gentle breeze to catch her and whispered, "They are too fragile, don't disturb them."
Sylas glanced at the sea of white flowers and responded with regret.
Three days later, the white flowers withered. The white petals wilted under the scorching sun at a speed visible to the naked eye. Sylas felt sad for a while. But after about three more days, tiny green sprouts started growing on the ground.
Standing by the window in the morning, Sylas could hardly believe her eyes. Doesn't nothing grow in the desert? Xerath led her outside the wind barrier once again. This time, she carefully walked along the edge of the green area. These little guys had spread inside the mage tower, as if the wind barrier didn't exist. Unlike the fragile, rootless white flowers, all the green sprouts were vibrant green, each one plump like a green quartz.
These green crystals slowly grew larger. Sylas even dug one up to show the gardener in Withered Leaf City, asking if it needed more watering. The answer was no.
"They can only survive in the wind, sun, and drought. They need to be thoroughly watered at most once a week, or else the roots will rot due to lack of oxygen."
Therefore, Sylas eagerly went down to water the plants every day, but Xerath had to stop her and only let her go out on rest days.
In order to cooperate with the water lord, Sylas took some time to adjust. She always forgot that she had a water lord and didn't know what to ask it to do. She even asked Xerath, "What's the difference between a contracted water lord and an uncontracted water child?"
Xerath didn't answer directly, but handed over the authority to the two water lords.
"We can chat," the two big blue water balls said in unison. In fact, after the water lords returned to the Elemental Realm, they had many opportunities to meet other water lords who came back to rest. They gathered together to talk about what they had learned about the mortal realm, giving useful advice to the younger ones. But the water lords tacitly followed the contract: they would not talk about things unknown to their masters, or anything about their previous masters.
Apart from the war's end, the life of an elemental creature is endless. When a water lord's master passes away, it will return to the Elemental Realm until the next wizard summons it. Observing humans and participating in the mortal realm is a mentally stimulating game that is quite attractive to elemental creatures. Almost all water lords are addicted to it, which is why they are willing to enter into contracts with wizards.
Water lords have knowledge that ordinary people can't compare to. They have good memories and intelligence similar to humans, so they are indeed good conversation partners for wizards. In the past, Sylas always felt more familiar with Hyectra and her teacher, and they had more topics to talk about. If it weren't for Hyectra's patience and affection for her, Sylas would definitely have treated Hyectra as a seriously jealous person and an enemy who could hold grudges.
Now she has her own water lord that she can use to record which page she left off in a book, what assignments Xerath assigned, and even to record her spoken content. As soon as she finishes class, she can't help but take her water lord to a corner of the library and ask questions.
Xerath didn't show much reaction; she was always busy. After the last meeting, she brought back many notes and papers. She has been digesting that information during this time. Sylas occasionally went to find her, but she only answered a few sentences hastily and stopped. Sylas had no choice but to walk away silently.
The two of them hardly talked about anything outside of class for almost the entire summer.
Sylas has become familiar with how to get along with the water lord. After the initial excitement wore off, she couldn't help but want to talk to Xerath more and more. She used to have a vague understanding that she and the elements around her were of the same kind, as she had little interest in communicating with creatures outside of the elements she was familiar with - those creatures who shared her pattern were so dangerous and boring.
Now she suddenly had another clearer idea: only Xerath was her kind. The Elemental King said things she could understand, talked about things she was interested in, and tempted her to come closer, enticing her to explore and understand.
Except for the day she summoned the water lord and Xerath showed unusual happiness and excitement, their relationship returned to what it used to be. Xerath devoted himself to teaching her, praising her, encouraging her, but that was it.
There were no more comfortable hugs that made her almost fall asleep, and she never saw those smiles breaking through the ice again.
Time passed unpredictably in the tower. Sometimes it felt like time was flying, and other times an hourglass felt like it had been a year. Her friends would sometimes send letters, and Virgil would occasionally visit, bringing news from the outside world. But overall, it felt like there were only Xerath and her in the world. She would lift her head from her seat and look to the left, and there would be Xerath, with their exquisite profile, sharp chin, wise and cold gray eyes, focused on the book in their hands, sometimes looking at her too.
Sylas had grown taller, but Xerath's appearance never seemed to change.
