As soon as they entered the circular hall that held the various bedrooms, Erik sighed. He wasn't particularly happy with how he left Eira, even while knowing it was necessary.
He turned around and looked at his companions. Their faces showing a mixture of confusion and curiosity, since only Emma had been able to follow his conversation with Elora this entire time.
"So… what are we doing, Erik?" Astrid questioned as she scratched her head, and looked around the luxurious living room. "That Eira seems like a nice girl, and I feel for her, but she also feels a little unstable. Is it safe to stay here?"
"More like bat-shit crazy," Emily rolled her eyes, although she quickly coughed and retracted a little when she noticed Emma glaring at her. "But… not harmful?"
Meanwhile, Alice kept quiet. Erik suspected she was still processing everything that happened to her lately.
"I don't think she's deceiving us, or dangerous…" Emma mumbled sadly while poking her fingers together—a gesture that seemed to transcend space and time as it was exactly the same as Eira's version.
"I know you don't, Emma," Erik smiled at her. "And your intuition is usually spot on, but the problem is that we're not just dealing with Eira here. She's intricately connected to this Audumla, who is still an unknown entity. That means that, unless we can ensure this entire space is under our control, we can't trust it…"
He fell silent with a thoughtful expression on his face, before addressing them again while rubbing his own white-gray hair in a slightly frustrated gesture. "The thing is, we could really use this place. We need a safe space to train and grow stronger before we confront Frostfang again, rescue Astrid's mother, and put Sigurd into the ground."
Finally, he sighed and came to a decision. "Alright, I don't want us to split up just yet, but I know we can all use a little rest, so for tonight, we'll all sleep in my bedroom. Tomorrow, I'll try to figure something out with Eira, but if I can't… then tonight will be our first and last night here. At least for the foreseeable future."
While none of them wanted to leave here, Erik included, they all understood the stakes, and went to get some rest with dismayed expressions.
Not long after, the five of them had put themselves down on Erik's bed, where most of them fell asleep almost immediately. Erik was in the middle, with Emma hugging Erik, and Alice hugging Emma, while Astrid and Emily took plenty of personal space on Erik's other side.
Only Erik and Elora remained awake now, with Erik reaching inward to ask Elora what she thought of Eira. "So what do you think of Eira? And I don't mean as an… arguably sentient being, but as a construct?"
Elora remained quiet for a moment before responding. "I met a few sigil constructs before I met you, but it's not my area of expertise. That said, I think there's something strange about her. She seems far more… alive than I thought a sigil construct should be. But again, that could simply be due to my limited knowledge on the subject."
"Yeah," Erik nodded thoughtfully. "She seems so naive, energetic, immature, and… autonomous? Not at all what I'd expect something like her to be like."
"For what its worth," Elora shrugged. "I detected no signs of deceit, but since she's not an actual person…"
"Yeah…" Erik nodded again. Then changed the subject. "So what about the dimension? Anything we can do, should Eira be unwilling to cooperate? Even if we have to leave this structure behind, I'd still very much like to activate my spatial affinity."
Elora started chewing her hair as she searched through her knowledge on the subject of spatial affinity and affinity seeds. Finally, she spoke up, "It really depends on how intricately this place is woven into the dimension's foundation, and there's just no way to know without access to knowledge about how this place was built."
Erik sighed, "So we need Eira to at least somewhat cooperate."
"Yeah…" Elora nodded. "Although, the good news is that the affinity seed is not going anywhere. So even if we're forced to pass on this opportunity, all we need is to find something else that can serve as a catalyst for forming your own dimension."
"Sure, but what are the chances we find anything like that here on Earth?" Erik chuckled without much hope.
"Which means you'd better put on your most charming smile tomorrow," Elora giggled.
"Suppose I should," Erik laughed softly.
Quiet descended again, as Elora and Erik both sorted through their own thoughts. Until Erik spoke up again, "So why do you think me having the space affinity is so important to Audumla's plans?"
"Absolutely no idea," came Elora's near immediate response. Clearly, she had also been thinking about this. Unsuccessfully. "Just like I have no idea why the light and darkness affinities are required as well."
With all they knew now, they would have been foolish not to realize that Audumla had used the same method on Emma and Emily, as she had used on him. Only, the light and darkness affinities didn't need a catalyst to be activated.
"Right…" Erik mumbled but fell silent. Then continued, "You know, I've been thinking. Obviously, Emma and Emily were first supposed to be born among the guardians, but after they rebelled, Audumla had to improvise and implanted the affinity seeds into the Ashcroft family instead. But why didn't she give them a medallion? Did they even know what was done to them?"
Elora shrugged in response. "Who knows? Perhaps they lost the medallion somehow, or perhaps she didn't give them one so as not to draw attention to them. The hunters would have surely been looking for any medallions they could, after all. Or… perhaps Seraphina's family was originally tasked with guardian the Ashcrofts from the shadows.
They lived near them, and it's not unlikely that that was by design. Perhaps the Nightshade family simply forgot, or decided not to care. We do know that Emma found that book on sigils in the Ashcroft library, so her family likely had some contact with magical elements on Earth at some point in time."
Erik sighed and chuckled in response. "Even when questions get answered, more questions arise as well. Perhaps only Audumla herself could lift all the veils…"
With his last comment made, Erik started drifted of to sleep, while Elora stayed awake to keep watch. After all, she was the only one Eira shouldn't know about.
—————
A few hours later, Erik's eyes shot open to be confronted by Eira's face, floating mere inches from his.