At dawn, Aira returned to the treehouse and found Ainorrh and Lila waiting for her.

  "How was your night, Aira?" asked Ainorrh. "Did you probe our defenses? I think I sensed you out there, on the fringe."

  "I hope I didn't mess anything up," said Aira, a bit surprised. "I was just exploring the arcane currents of this world and tried to understand the ambient magic of this area. There are some similarities, but it is quite different in so many ways compared to what I've been used to. Maybe you can instruct me in the future so that I won't infringe on your defenses by mistake?"

  "Why not," answered Ainorrh, her voice thoughtful. "In the end, it could be insightful for both of us. I can probably bring in some other people as well, to offer some insights depending on their specialties."

  "I can't wait to try that!" exclaimed Aira.

  "Would you be able to make your party larger to add more people?" asked Ainorrh. Then she smiled and continued: "I think this study group would benefit from the opportunity to discuss our actions."

  "Sure, that's definitely an option," said Aira. "I still have some reserves. But I don't know yet how fast the size of the group will increase. I'll need to try bumping it by one level first."

  "You make it sound so easy," said Ainorrh. "You just upgrade your skill and that's it?"

  "That's how it always worked for me," said Aira. "And at least this function of the System didn't change after I was transferred to this world."

  "It would be nice if you could teach us how you do that as well," said Ainorrh. "For us, upgrading a skill demands a whole ritual."

  "I'm not sure that is something that could be taught," said Aira. "But, well, I'll do my best. For now, though, would you tell us more about you and this city? What is your role here? How did you become the leader of this community?"

  Ainorrh smiled, a hint of pride mixed with nostalgia in her expression.

  "I told you before that my first skill helped me to organize the enlightened during the first months after the transformation," she said. "That's how I started to build a group of like-minded people around me. When the world fell apart, I gathered the frightened and the lost. Together, we learned to weave our first spells and shape the air into shields when the humans came with their guns. We grew together, not just in strength but in understanding, and they trusted me to lead."

  She paused, her gaze becoming unfocused for a moment.

  "Most of them aren't with us anymore," Ainorrh continued. "The war took away many lives. But then, was it the fact that I was from this area, or was it something else? But it seems that I've always had a strong connection to the energy that saturates this area. The energy of the Air element."

  "So, did you live here, in this city?" asked Aira. "Lila and I had so many questions about this place."

  "Yes, I did. I lived here," Ainorrh answered. "Although, not right here, near the park. Oh, yes, it wasn't a forest then. Just a park. But I'm sure you figured out that the city was massive. Even using the fastest means of transport, it could take an hour or more to get from the outskirts to the center."

  "You mentioned the Air element," said Aira. "How did you figure out that it was your affinity?"

  "It was a slow process," said Ainorrh. "Is it the same for you that you get a new skill every five levels?"

  "Yes, that's how it works for everyone I know," said Aira. "So, does it work similarly in this world as well? Through the… Nexus?"

  "Exactly. And my second skill had obvious Air affinity," said Ainorrh. "Over time, I learned to harness it, to guide and protect my fellow enlightened. They recognized my abilities, and eventually, I became their leader. Pretty straightforward."

  Ainorrh nodded thoughtfully as if agreeing with some unspoken truths.

  "Power is a strange thing," she said. "It can unite and divide, create and destroy. Here, the elemental power binds us together, giving us purpose and strength. But the Nexus, the new force of nature that manifested during the Fall—the System, as you call it—divided many."

  "I can't even imagine having to go through that," said Aira.

  "We quickly realized that humans didn't seem to have access to the Nexus," Ainorrh continued her story. "All our attempts to communicate through it with them were fruitless."

  At that moment, Lila, who received the translation almost simultaneously thanks to Aira, gave a start.

  "I remember you said there's no chance for me to communicate with you directly," Lila said, her voice laced with a mix of curiosity and challenge. "But, by the roots, did you really try everything? Sounds to me like you've barely scratched the bark on what's possible."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Oh, we tried," said Ainorrh. "We tried a lot. More than you think would be possible. We had centuries, you know. I don't think there's a way to connect a human to the Nexus without turning them to become an enlightened. And that isn't easy either and doesn't work for everyone."

  "So, I'm stuck on the wrong side of the tree line forever, huh?" Lila asked. "If I stay here with you?"

  "That's probably the case," Ainorrh sighed, a heavy sadness in her voice. "In the first years after the System's introduction, we tried to establish communication. But human xenophobia resulted in hundreds of thousands of enlightened killed. Our voices became guttural, inhuman, and even when we tried to carve our words into stone, our stiff, untrained hands made the letters unrecognizable. Every attempt to bridge the gap felt like reaching for a star that grew dimmer the closer we came. Not even to mention that it was unsafe for us to get within the shooting distance to humans."

  "Now it's a bit easier for us," continued Ainorrh. "Firstly, our skills improved immensely. But also, the degradation of human civilization increases our safety. Your current level of technology is much lower compared to the last years before what you call the Fall."

  Aira and Lila listened intently, not wanting to interrupt the story. For both of them, that was a source of information they wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. Neither human legends, oral history, nor the archives the two women found at the ancient facility helped them reconstruct the events after the Fall.

  "Later, when we became better at using the skills provided by the System, we tried to create messages using our attunement with nature," said Ainorrh. "We arranged trees and floral displays strategically to form symbols and messages. But humans always reacted to these occurrences with superstition. They saw them as ominous signs rather than attempts at communication. We should have realized that earlier. We weren't too far gone from remembering our old human selves yet. Still, after even more fruitless attempts, our community decided to stop trying. We were content to be left alone, to live without the constant threat of being hunted."

  "Well, I'm not surprised you wanted to get some distance from the humans in a situation like that," said Aira. "Especially when all of you were still on your first levels of progression."

  "Oh, we progressed pretty fast during the first years," said Ainorrh with a sad smile. "War does that to you. But then, the progress became slower. We separated. Our cultural paths with humans finally diverged. Even in the Old World, a couple of hundred years could have changed any language dramatically. With our new ways of communication through the Nexus, we haven't used written language for hundreds of years. We have other elders like me, who remember the old times. Still, I'm not sure that even one of us would be able to remember how to communicate using these old ways. Not that modern humans would recognize or understand our language or we could figure out what they say."

  Aira felt a pang of sympathy for the enlightened. "It must have been so isolating," she said. "To be so misunderstood and feared."

  "It was. But over time, we adapted," Ainorrh answered, nodding. "We learned to rely on each other and to find strength within our community. We created our own rituals and our own ways of thriving in this world. We don't care about that lost contact anymore."

  Lila was deep in thought, still processing the information. After a moment of silence, she asked Aira to pass her question to Ainorrh.

  "Do you think we can build a bridge over this chasm?" Aira translated, leaving some of Lila's peculiar wording in the message. "To find a way to communicate and coexist with humans? Or are we just planting seeds in barren soil?"

  Ainorrh considered it for a moment. "Perhaps. With individuals like you who are willing to listen and understand, there is always hope. But it will be a long journey, filled with challenges and resistance."

  ***

  Days were inevitably becoming longer, and even outside the haven of the enlightened city of Wentouk, the weather was getting more and more pleasant. Spring was turning the year towards summer, improving the mood for everyone. And even if the enlightened didn't need to rest and sleep the same way as humans, their moods were also improved by the shorter nights.

  As days passed by, Aira and Lila fell into a comforting routine. They started their days with a bit of physical and meditative training. Then they explored the forest. When they strayed from the sanctuary of the enlightened, the ruins loomed like a relic of a forgotten age. Towering structures, now overtaken by moss and ivy, whispered of a world consumed by time. Faint echoes of bird calls mixed with the creak of shifting stones as if the city itself was exhaling memories of its past glory.

  Ainorrh didn't forget her offer as well. The two women studied with her, learning the history and the ways of the enlightened. Aira even had an opportunity to try some magical practices the enlightened shaman showed her. Evenings were dedicated to more training, and while Lila rested at night, Aira continued her exploration of this Air affinity magic that filled everything in this city and was so new to her.

  Every day, Aira tried to find a new location for her nightly meditations. Interestingly, her spatial positioning affected her sessions profoundly. In some places, she almost felt like she was able to touch the arcane powers even without any gadgets. But other locations closed off the magical footprint of the enlightened city almost completely.

  This time, she sat on the top floor of one of the ancient buildings that surrounded the magical forest. Aira reached the thirtieth floor at the right moment to see the last light. The sky burned with hues of orange and gold as the sun dipped behind jagged ruins. Aira closed her eyes, feeling the cold wind bite her cheeks, carrying with it the faint smell of moss and stone.

  The air up here was thinner, sharper, as though it had been untouched by centuries of decay below. In the end, this was one of the reasons why Aira came here in the first place. She wanted to have all of her senses engaged to the maximum.

  Tapping into the magic of Air was like chasing whispers in the wind. It slipped through her senses, playful and elusive, beckoning her forward with fragments of power that she could feel but not fully grasp. Each moment she lingered, the element seemed to toy with her, as if testing her resolve. But all of her experience told her that if she continued to try different approaches, one of them should allow her to unlock the full potential of this flavor of magic.

  Of course, she had to rely on her only relevant skill in that exploration. Energy Manipulation allowed Aira to probe vast areas to search for energy signatures. It gave her the ability to attack foes and influence gadgets. The latter ability Aira used on a daily basis while communicating with Lila.

  She tried probing this area with the skill since the moment they first approached the ancient city. But the result was always the same: a massive blob of energy Aira sensed but couldn't untangle. She could not decipher it well enough to see its integral parts.

  But there also was something else she hadn't yet tried. Something she figured out during her meditations without gadgets.

  Sometimes, you had to follow the tiniest strands of power to reach their origin point. This time, Aira wanted to try a more delicate approach.

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