A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Looking at Emma's confused face, Erik asked what was wrong, "You look confused about something. Just speak up, whatever it is. Your life has been bad enough without entering any agreements you don't fully understand."

Emma was grateful for his words and uttered her confusion with a little apprehension, "I just wonder what you could want from me? I have no powers like my sister, and I don't even have a powerful body. You could probably squish me into a cube with one hand."

Realising what she was confused about, Erik grinned at her with mirth, "Do you really believe you are powerless? Seventy percent of the human race dies out, and every one that survives displays magical powers, except you?"

Emma was stunned at his words. Did she really have power like her sister? But why did she never display anything then?

Erik continued to grin at her confusion and shook the hand that was still clasping Emma's, "If you want to know more, make the deal. Since my partner and I need your service in the next ten years, we'll obviously make sure you'll be as strong as possible."

Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times, wanting to know more immediately, but eventually just decided to accept that answer.

She wasn't done asking questions, however, as she now looked at her sister, "What about Emily? Say you get her back to some kind of normalcy. Will I then have to leave her to go with you?"

Erik shrugged in response, "Perhaps, perhaps not. We have our plans for Emily. We'll see how she feels when we're done with her treatment. There's a good chance she'll simply follow you. But yes, there's also a chance you'll be forced to part."

Not entirely happy with that answer, but realising Erik also simply wasn't sure about what the future held regarding Emily, Emma decided to ask her last question, "You keep talking about your partner; when will I get to meet her? She seems like an important part of this deal."

Erik couldn't help but smile when thinking of Elora, "She's very important to me. But not so much for our deal, as you'll mostly have to deal with me. If you want to meet her, you can, but only after you make the deal. Her existence must be kept a secret from the rest of the world for now, and the covenant will prevent you from talking about her."

Erik's insides tickled as Elora sent him a mental kiss for his first words, making him chuckle.

Since Emma had all her questions answered, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She was aware that she would be signing away the next ten years of her life but felt that the rewards were worth it, so when she opened her eyes, she accepted the offer.

"Then I accept."

As soon as she uttered those words, the dark green energy at Erik's wrist started moving again and, under Emma's nervous gaze, started enveloping both their hands.

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Then, a change occurred as the energy suddenly started gathering around the backside of their hands before seemingly being sucked into two vortexes, one on Erik's hand and the other on Emily's.

When it was done, Emily felt like something inside her had changed, as if her entire being was suddenly weighed down a little. Additionally, a small mark appeared on the back of her hand in the form of a howling wolf head flanked by two fairy wings.

As she inspected the mark with interest, she suddenly heard a woman's voice right next to her ear, "Like it? I designed it myself."

Emma yelped and jumped half a meter back, "W- What?!"

In the place she just stood now floated a tiny, beautiful woman with wings, causing Emma to go slack-jawed.

Elora giggled at her little prank before she flew in front of Emma's face, rested her left hand on her hips and used her right hand to point at Emma's face, "Listen up! Erik may have a bleeding heart for you two sisters, but I don't! Serve us well, or you'll find out why no one wants to make enemies of the fairies!"

Having said her piece, she turned into a cloud of light specks and returned to the comfort of Erik's soul. Elora had no interest in dealing with the two sisters outside of pranks and sexual activities.

Emma, who was still coming to terms with the fact tiny women with wings apparently existed, felt strangely intimidated by Elora's words, as if the woman spoke with the weight of magic itself.

Erik laughed softly at Emma's reaction and said, "Meet my partner; her name is Elora. Don't worry about her words too much. As I said, you'll mostly deal with me. Just try not to antagonise her, as she can be a little vindictive."

Seeing Emma calm down a little, Erik decided it was time to get started, "Anyway, show me to the kitchen. I think we need to get some food in you before we talk about the next steps. You can also ask me any questions you have left."

Emma just nodded and started leading them to the kitchen while asking some more questions, some of which Erik answered and others he didn't.

For some of them, however, he simply didn't have clear answers, like how or why he ended up in the Ashcroft estate.

After all, while Elora had a theory about how he ended up on Söl, that one was mostly reliant on coincidence, but this second teleportation certainly seemed to be more than that.

Not only because of the chains involved but also because he just happened to end up in front of the Ashcroft estate just in time to help out Emily, who just so happened to have the rare darkness affinity and had a sister with equally rare circumstances.

It was all a little too fantastical to be a mere coincidence.

And yet, they had no idea what kind of being could possibly orchestrate all of this or why they would want to.

While they knew the universe had plenty of powerful individuals, it would be impossible to pinpoint a single one who not only had the power to do all this but also had the intent, all without identifying themselves.

But then again, Earth itself was plenty mysterious in and of itself.

Regardless, there was no point in thinking about questions with unknowable answers for now, so he focussed on getting something to eat.

When they arrived, Emma was surprised to find there wasn't any food stored, something which Erik quickly explained by telling her that Emily and her slaves relied mostly on the aetherium in the air to sustain them.

In fact, it was the same for everyone else in the world, which was also why Emma had had so little to eat lately, as no one was preparing food anymore.

There were just not enough people like her who were still alive in this world but didn't get many benefits from the aetherium.

Luckily for Emma, one of the features worked into Erik's armour was a few cubic meters of spatial storage, which held a few week's worth of food, including some other bits and pieces.

Not eating was actually a little short-sighted, as the aetherium used to replace the lack of food might have well been used for other things, but the people on Earth weren't currently concerned with long-term benefits, as short-term survival was often still a serious concern.

He picked some particularly nutritious food, which would help Emma get back on her feet. As this was food from Söl, it was naturally saturated with magic and thus provided even more health benefits to Emma.

Emma and Erik prepared the food together, but Emma seemed to have no more questions and also preferred to remain silent. Whether that was because of trauma or simply her personality was uncertain.

Regardless, working together like this allowed Emma's trust in Erik to grow a little more.

After they had eaten something, Erik sent Emma to get some sleep, as it was getting late, and she still needed to recover a little more before they would get started on treating Emily and exploring Emma's own powers.

Meanwhile, Erik didn't really need much sleep, so he decided to head for the study where Emma had been locked up and which held the aetherium infusion sigil, thinking he might as well use it for his own purposes.

When he arrived, Elora appeared in a sparkle of light specks, "That girl really did a good job with this despite it being her first time doing anything remotely similar. Maybe she has talent in sigil craft."

Erik smirked, "Are you perhaps offering to teach her, Elora?"

He expected a dismissive response, but instead, she remained serious, "You joke, but I think I actually might. Assuming she sticks around, that is."

Erik was surprised. Apparently, Elora really was impressed with the sigil.

Elora lost her serious expression and looked at Erik with delight, "Anyway! It's time to add another bloodline!"