B2 – Chapter 44: Summerbalm Springs – Unseal!

As they arrived in the Fey Realm, Tristan glanced at Felicity who flapped off his head before shifting to her elfanoid form next to him. “Why did you care so much about that other fairy dragon just drinking and enjoying life?”

Felicity frowned and crossed her arms, “We can go to The Mortal Realm infrequently. Some of us had missions.” She stopped and her frown deepened, “I was not supposed to tell you that.”

Tristan also frowned, “Why?”

She squirmed for a moment, tapping her foot impatiently as she tried to hold it back. “Gah. F-i-n-e. Mom sent a couple dozen of us younger ones out to scout the Mortal Realm.”

“Oh,” Tristan replied as his face shifted to one of a perplexed expression, “That’s not something bad like I was expecting to hear.”

Felicity cracked a smile and giggled, “I was just playing you! Yeah, mom had us scouting-”

The Matriarch walked out of the Queen’s Wood, cutting Felicity off, “Scouting to find those of the Winterbloom bloodline.”

Tristan looked past Felicity to The Matriarch, “Why?”

She approached the two, “I had advised you about sealed parts of this Realm. The reason for that was to prevent the spread of disease throughout our Realm during that Incursion from the Plague Realm. And the seals could only be broken by a Winterbloom. That war between the Elves and that Realm cost the lives of many. Only a few remained, and shortly after I grafted that Realm onto the Fey Realm…the essence was too weak.” She sighed and her face shifted to a grimace. “The Great Exodus followed shortly after. No Winterbloom could muster the essence required to break the seals.”

“And you need one to break the seals now,” Tristan stated.

“Correct. That is why I sent some of my children out into the world. If the seals remain for too long, then those parts of the Realm may be split off permanently and become Lost Realms. We needed one of the Winterbloom blood to come back, grow in power, and break at least one of the seals within ten year’s time.”

Tristan looked at Felicity with suspicion, “Did you set me up to come here then?”

She nodded proudly, “Yup! I went to Bhant, followed a ton of Winterbloom blooded Elves I could sniff out, and lucky me, I found out one of them was a dragonslayer! Did some spying, found out that no one had ever seen a fairy dragon in Bhant. So I pranked the king…and lucky me they sent you on the hunt.” She giggled, “That was pure luck by the way.”

Tristan frowned, “I was set up?”

Felicity shrugged, “It’s not like it was a bad thing. It kept you alive. You heard what Obadai said; people with your bloodline were killed off. It’s lucky we got you here in time.”

The Matriarch nodded, “It does appear based on my conversation with Logos – lovely individual, by the way – that Obadai’s divinations were correct. All Winterbloom save for you are dead…unless they are not in the Mortal Realm.”

“I was saved by happenstance,” Tristan muttered. “Well,” he said as he returned to a normal volume and intonation, “You need me to un-do one of the seals. Give me a minute. Felicity, blood vial please.”

She reached into the extradimensional space that opened next to her and handed him the vial. Tristan popped the cork off and the heavy scent of mud hit his nose. “Bottoms up,” he stated as he dipped it back into his mouth and swallowed down. He winced, doubled over, and felt a grinding, aching pain in his stomach – like rocks being banged and smushed together to make the most irritating noise possible. But that noise reverberated throughout his whole body, and he collapsed to his knees, sucking in breath.

The Matriarch frowned, “That is a disgusting way to gain power, Lord Tristan.”

The pain began to fade and Tristan shook his head as he stood, “Not power. Resistance. That was an earth dragon, so I’m more resistant to earth elementalism. Not quite sure what that entails, like with wind before.”

Felicity went to the small stalactite that was still sitting upright near the arrival area from when Tristan left the cave near Bhant so many Seasons back. She snapped off the top chunk and chucked it at Tristan’s head. He dodged it as the object went clattering to the ground. “We can’t test it if you dodge!” she stated as she broke off another piece.

“Fine,” Tristan replied as he stood still. “But we don’t have a baseline to test this on.”

“Sure we do. You’ll throw one at me after, and we rate the pain on a scale of one to ten!”

The Matriarch leaned down and grabbed the bit of rock, “If you are going to do a test like that, I shall be the one to throw with equal force, and the same object.” She paced back a few steps and threw the rock with some decent force at Tristan’s shin. It hit his flesh, and he felt a little bit of irritation, but nothing extremely painful. He picked up the rock and tossed it to her.

“Felicity, are you ready?” she asked.

Felicity grumbled out, “Yeah…” as she got next to Tristan. The Matriarch repeated her throw, this time at Felicity’s shin, and she let out a curse as the rock hit, and she began hopping around on one foot. “Damnit that hurt! I’ll definitely get a bruise from that!” she shifted to her fairy dragon form and flew off.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Tristan shook his head, “I’m guessing that earth elementalism resistance includes being hit by giant rocks and boulders.”