To my surprise, Luralie was a strict teacher. The air around her changed as soon as we entered her own personal library. She insisted on me studying a book written by her old master, however, it was written in old elvish. Luckily, old elvish was the only kind of elvish I could read and was because it was a simple language that shared similarities with Spanish. Which, thanks to my mother's side of the family, I was pretty fluent in.
It goes without saying that Luralie was pretty surprised that I could even read it to begin with, but she didn't ask any questions. However, after reading through the first few pages, I had a question.
"Matriarch, I have a question."
"Luralie." She replied.
"Excuse me?" I looked up from the book, a little confused.
"Call me Luralie, or I won't answer your question." She said, crossing her arms, while a slightly sulky look on her face.
"Ok. Luralie, I have a question." I rephased. I felt a little uncomfortable calling her by her first name. But I knew that she wouldn't answer me unless I do, plus, I've never really been the one to follow social norms anyway.
"What is it?" she asked with a smile on her face.
"Well, it says here that in order to approach a spirit, you need to utilise your spirit energy to use your spirit voice. I know that earlier I was able to do something similar, but that was an accident. So, Luralie, how do I use spirit energy?" I spoke, looking down at the book in front of me for reference.
She patiently listened to me, and was silent for a few moments, as if to think about her response purposefully.
Then, she opened her mouth to speak. "For the most part, each person uses their spirit in a different way, so I cannot give you a definitely way to activate it. But I would say that you should try to remember how it felt when you activated your spirit." She explained, speaking slowly and methodically.
I listened and decided to try what she said. It didn't take much for me to remember the feeling. I felt the strange connection once more and with it, my vision doubled, though one of my visions was seeing things in negative colours.
'Ok, I've managed to activate my soul once more. But if I spoke now, I'll be speaking twice like last time. For now, I need to just use my soul instead of my body.' I thought as I tried to move my soul without moving my body.
However, it was like trying to move your eyes independently of each other.
"You're trying to do everything with your body. Your spirit is a part of you, not your body." Luralie's voice cut through my struggling mind. Her words were a balm for my burning brain.
I was trying to force everything using my physical self. I didn't even process the possibility of being more than a body.
For some reason, as soon as I made this realisation, I felt a pulse between my body and soul, as if my soul was telling me off for missing something so obvious. I smiled a wry smile at how foolish I had been.
This time, instead of trying to force my soul to do something, I focused on the connection between us and with an intension.
"I think I understand how this works now." My soul spoke in a voice that seemed to reverberate around the room.
"Yes, that is how you do it." Luralie replied with a smile. Her voice spoke without her lips moving. She was using her spirit voice.
"Fascinating." I replied, as my soul looked around the room. However, I was nearly sick because both visions overlapped and seeing two different views, especially one that was moving without me moving, was the reason why I nearly brought up my breakfast.
"I didn't think that you would learn spirit voice in such a brief timeframe. For someone like me, who was hailed as a one in a millennium genius, to meet someone who has completely eclipsed me, is quite humbling." Even though, the face she made was a look of exasperation. Her voice seemed to be pleased. I was a little confused with the contradiction, however, I remembered a phrase I heard once 'the path of a genius, is a path of loneliness.'
Before, I could reply, the door to her personally library opened, and in stepped an elven servant and announced that she had a message for Luralie. However, as she accepted the piece of parchment, I was distracted by what I heard next.
"If you were born several hundreds of years earlier. I would have married you." The book that I had in my hands slipped from my grasp and fell onto the floor. Luralie smiled a cheeky smile, seemingly pleased that she managed to get a reaction from me.
"It seems that my presence is required. We will have to postpone our lessons." She spoke with a tense voice and a furrowed brow.
"I take it that it is something I cannot help with?" I asked, and she shook her head.
"Then, I won't take any more of your time. Though, I wonder if I can make a request?" She held a regal form, as she listened, seemingly not wanting her people to figure out how childish she was.
"What is it?" She asked, with a slight curiosity.
"I was wondering if I can remain here. I see many books that take my interest. Especially, those books on herbology." I said, looking at the bookshelf off to one side. They were written in old elvish, but still piqued the interest of my inner alchemist.
"You know alchemy?" She asked, her voice was both surprised and somewhat hopeful.
"I'm still in training. But I've been known to create my own potions from time to time." I replied, remembering that I was still considered a novice.
"…Do you have any examples on you?" She asked after a brief pause.
I was a little confused by her sudden interest, but soon shrugged it off and produced a minor healing potion from my inventory and placed it on the table.
She picked it up and examined it. Her eyes seemed to look over every inch of the liquid inside with scrutiny.
"You did create this, correct?" She asked, looking from the potion back to me. The look in her eyes seemed to burrow into me, as if reading every move I make, without any of her child-like antics.
'She isn't the matriarch for nothing.' I smirked internally.
"I did. If you have some hanal flowers and spiky grass, I'll gladly make you another." I replied, locking eyes with the impressive woman.
After a second of silence, the sudden intense stare faded and was replaced with a beautiful smile. "Then, you are more than welcome to stay. Read to your hearts content." She said before turning about and heading for the door.
In the space of a few seconds, I was left alone in a room filled with books and felt a little bewildered by the storm that was Luralie.
I didn't hold back, however, and walked over to the books of herbology. Picking up a book called 'Mushrooms and their ecology'. It was written in the same handwriting as the book Luralie made me read, so I had wondered if the same person wrote all of these books themselves. Judging by the sheer volume of books, it would be an impressive feat, to say the least.
The book that I sat down to read was filled with diagrams and instructional information of mushrooms, which wasn't a surprise, given the title. However, it was very educational, in the space of an hour, I learnt about several different mushrooms and what they were used for. My alchemy skill helped me to figure out how I could combine them with, and I soon came up with a few new potions that I would very much like to try.