Both Arran and Lord Sevaril were quiet during the carriage ride back to the castle, Arran still thinking over the events of the day, and Lord Sevaril engrossed in his own thoughts.Now that he thought he understood the true purpose of Panurge's food, Arran was convinced he had been on the losing end of the deal. He had sold Lord Sevaril what amounted to an army of Body Refiners at a price of less than a quarter Essence Crystal per soldier, and although Arran had little idea of the value of soldiers, he suspected it lay far above what he had received.But then, Arran had no use for an army — he had neither soldiers to train nor lands to conquer, and the thought of leading a band of brigands or mercenaries did not appeal to him in the slightest. His only goal was to increase his own strength, and for that, the Essence Crystals were infinitely more valuable than the food had been.And when he considered the matter, he was certain that even if his treasures were worth a higher price, ther

As Lord Sevaril showed Arran the rest of his treasures, the man's mood soon seemed to improve, and before long he was once more bragging about the items in the treasury. Shocked though he might be by Arran's revelations, it appeared that boasting about his riches brought him at least some comfort.Arran, on the other hand, found himself unimpressed by most of the treasures. Although there were plenty of them, few seemed to have any useful powers.There was a staff that could create Force Shields with the user's Essence, but the shields were weaker than those Arran could produce himself. There was a small green rod that could heal injuries, but when Lord Sevaril bragged that it could heal a broken bone in days, Arran knew his own Body Refinement techniques were more potent.Each time he thought he had found something truly useful, soon after there followed an inevitable downside that negated much of the item's value.Most of the items, it seemed, converted all kinds of Essence into a s

Arran worked through the night, then into the next day, foregoing breaks and sleep as he absorbed Essence Crystals one after the other. With each new Essence Crystal, he could feel his affinity to Essence growing stronger — more and more, it felt like his Essence was part of him, rather than some alien substance he could only barely manipulate.After just a day, Arran had finished absorbing the Purified Essence of close to a hundred Essence Crystals, and the effect left him marveling at how much his control of Essence had improved.Previously, it had been like writing a letter while holding the pen with only his elbows, and looking back now, he was almost amazed that he had managed to succeed in casting spells at all.But now, things were completely different. He could feel that the Essence was truly his to control, to be used however he wanted, and the awkward clumsiness he had always felt while wielding magic was rapidly melting away.He finally began to understand the real differen

"We'll talk about the Essence Crystals later," Arran said. "First, let me take a look at that wound."Snowcloud nodded, wincing as she gazed down at the arrow sticking from her leg.As Arran inspected the wound, he saw that although the arrowhead was embedded deeply in Snowcloud's thigh, it did not look like it had struck the bone."I'm going to pull out the arrow," Arran said. "Are you ready?""Do it," she said, clenching her jaw.Carefully, Arran took the arrow firmly in his hand. Then, with a single quick movement, he pulled it from Snowcloud's leg.She cried out in pain for a moment, gasping as the sharp arrowhead sliced through her flesh once more on its way out."All done," Arran said. Then, he took a bottle of water from his void bag and carefully cleaned the wound. With the arrow gone, it didn't look nearly as bad — though it was deep and oozed blood, it seemed like a clean cut that should heal well enough."I'll take it from here," Snowcloud said, taking out a small flask fro

"We could just go around the village," Arran said, looking at the smoke floating up into the sky. "Whatever happened to the village is long over, but those who did it might still be there."Even if he was curious to see what had happened to the village, perhaps the wiser choice would be to just avoid it altogether. It wasn't his first instinct, but then, his instincts rarely led him away from danger."We can't," Snowcloud replied with a small shake of her head. "If the village was attacked, we can get a sense of who's responsible." In a softer voice, she added, "And there might be people still alive.""All right," Arran said, not needing much convincing. "We can take a look, but give me a few moments to prepare first."Wary of going into danger unprepared, he changed into the black armored coat he got from Lord Sevaril and belted on his starmetal sword. With his Duskcloak within reach as well, he figured he would have a good chance of escaping even if there were a dozen strong mages i