The following week, the two Remnants did what they could to learn as much as possible about magic and Remnants. They did this while helping Nana out in her shop. This, it turned out, meant they did absolutely nothing. Unlike Nana, who had probably done this for millenia, they were awful at faking work. Nana made it seem natural.

  Besides this, they looked around the complex some more. They never attempted going the way they initially came from, but they went most everywhere else. They had found a pool in a room illuminated with, unexpectedly, sunlight.

  It was warm, with a gentle breeze running past them from time to time. They had spent a few afternoons in this room, being waited upon by Peons. What had previously been a modern luxury apartment complex was now a full on resort.

  The pool even had a beach, where Jessie was more comfortable rexing in the sun with a towel underneath her. Erik was more comfortable in a deck chair.

  “Do you think this tan will carry over to Earth when we leave?” Jessie asked after wondering about something for about a minute.

  “Probably?” Erik answered in a high pitched voice.

  “I mean, I’m surprised I even got a tan. Our bodies are supposedly practically frozen in time, right? How am I getting a tan?”

  “Ah. Good old fashioned temporal dispcement and quantum entangled dark matter particle technology. That’s always the answer,” Erik answered, almost professionally.

  “Do you know any other big words or just ‘quantum’? Jessie asked.

  “Of course! I did mention temporal dispcement, right?” he joked.

  “If you had only stopped there.”

  “Hey, I don’t need to know what big words mean, I just need to know I know the words, pup!”

  “Pup?”

  “I said that, didn’t I?”

  “You really did.”

  Eight days post-death, the pair discovered another room. They were sure they had been there earlier, but hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Now, however, they saw something quite pleasing. At least for Erik.

  “Oh, yes! Exactly what we needed!” he shouted into the newly discovered room. They were still standing in the dull hallways of normal Afterlife.

  “Please, no.”

  Inside the new room was a rge, brown wooden cabin, with a dark tiled roof. Through the windows shone a warm, fiery orange light that flickered slightly.

  “Hell yes, and you’re coming with me. We’re going skiing!”

  Jessie groaned when she got back out of her apartment. She was cd in thick outer clothing, which had enough surface area to cover her entire body thrice over.

  She wore rge ski boots which were incredibly hard to walk in, and the outerwear certainly didn’t help. Even under her outerwear she wore thick, wool and cotton clothes. On her head, she had skiing goggles with a dark orange tint.

  She somehow managed to walk all the way to Nana’s shop, where they were supposed to meet up. Having an actual need of something not provided by their rooms, Nana’s shop actually had something stocked - skis.

  Jessie was more baffled by this than the winter hellscape they had found, especially since she had been working there part-time for a week now, and hadn’t seen anything resembling skis.

  “Erik has gone on ahead of you, dear. He told me to pass the message along,” Nana said.

  “Of course he did,” Jessie sighed. “Skis please?”

  Nana handed the overdressed girl a pair of skis designed for slom. Jessie attempted to graciously accept the skis, but barely managed to grab them at all. She wandered away with one ski over her right shoulder and between her barely moving legs, and the other horizontally crossing her chest and the other ski.

  The difficulties of walking were magnified when entering the white hellscape where the cabin was. Instead of walking on solid ground, it quickly turned soft and cold, and nearly twenty centimetres deep in some pces.

  After a few minutes of further struggling, she arrived on the patio outside the cabin, where another set of skis were propped up to the outer wall of the brown cabin. Jessie mimicked this, and before opening the door, she tossed her snowy white hair out, ruffling away as much snow as she could before doing the same with her clothes. She then entered the cabin.

  “What the fuck?” was all she said when she was greeted by Erik, who was sitting nice and comfy on the sofa in front of a massive, lit firepce. The interior of the cabin was actually quite beautiful. A lighter shade of wood made up the walls, which was decorated with red and blue curtains, and several picture frames in gold and bronze.

  The furniture was all magnificently carved wood from the chairs to the table. It was old-looking, but had a certain charm that Jessie couldn’t do anything but love. What angered her was the couch-decor.

  Erik wore a dark green woollen sweater, regur denim trousers and some thick bck socks, also made of wool. That was it. He calmly smiled at her, waving around the room with a rge red mug in his hand, as if to show her around.

  “Beautiful, right?” he asked.

  “What the fuck? Why aren’t you dressed? We were going skiing, remember?” she said, anger filling her voice.

  “Yeah?” he asked, not certain why she was so bothered.

  “So let’s go? Get dressed,” she said, pointing towards the door she had just stepped in from.

  “No, no, this is skiing!” he said, waving around the room once more. “Take those clothes off, grab some hot cocoa or coffee, and get comfy!” He then proceeded to take a slurping sip from the steaming mug in his hands.

  “Skiing is out there, in the snow,” Jessie stated. “With skis.”

  “Nah, no one does that anymore. Skiing is sitting inside a warm cabin with friends and family, having a cosy time in front of the fire. Laughing, pying games and making jokes until someone inadvertently opens the first beer of the night. From that point on, that’s what we call downhill skiing,” Erik ughed.

  “I had mentally prepared for actual skiing… But that doesn’t sound so bad,” she admitted. “Though I’ve never been skiing before.”

  “Trust me, it’s this. Besides, the weather is awful. Didn’t you see? It’s snowing mad out there.”

  “Of course I saw, I was just there!”

  “Rex! If it clears up, we’ll go skiing,” Erik said, pronouncing skiing as if it wasn’t the true meaning of the word.

  A few hours ter, they were both sitting there, ughing, joking and having a good time.“Another batch of hot cocoa, madame?” Erik asked, getting up to go to the kitchen.

  “You know what, I think I want a nice cold beer right about now,” Jessie responded.

  “Oh, going downhill, then. I got you,” Erik said, opening the fridge and taking two bottles of nice, frosty beer out. As soon as the cold beer exited the fridge, condensation covered the gss like mist.

  “Downhill is what normal people call afterski, right?”

  “Hell no! Also, what?” Erik excimed. “I’m normal.”

  “What’s the difference, then?”

  “There’s no difference, I’m just norwegian. Hell, all scandis are more or less the same… Except the Swedes… bless them, they try.”

  “The difference between afterski and ‘downhill skiing’? And don’t say the tter is a sport, ya dolt,” Jessie said, with a knowing smile on her face. She grabbed the ice cold gss bottle being handed to her, her hand instantly wet from the condensation on the outside of the bottle. She took a sip, and pced the bottle on a coaster on the table. While probably magicked here somehow, she didn’t want to ruin the beautiful woodwork.

  “You know me too well, already. Downhill skiing is your average get-together with your friends and family, where it doesn’t really matter if someone pukes all over the floor, because that vomit is filled with love,” Erik started, then took a sip of his own before continuing.

  “-except in a skiing lodge! Afterski, on the other hand, while still happening at a skiing lodge, is basically just a nightclub where people are overdressed in a whole different way. That means, like at all nightclubs, the puke is only filled with misery, heartache, bad decisions and music so loud you can only hear the high tones and only feel the bass.”

  “Not a fan of nightclubs?” Jessie asked.

  “Not a fan of nightclubs. Big fan of downhill skiing, though!” he ughed, bringing his bottle towards Jessie.

  “Cheers,” she said.

  The morning after, during breakfast, Erik got a vague fshback of the night before. He looked at Jessie, wanting to say something, or ask something, only he didn’t know which words to use.

  “We swore never to speak of it again,” she said, her eyes dark and bloodshot.

  “Right,” Erik said.

  Three days ter, the two Remnants saw something unexpected. Having found a room with a pool-beach and another with a winter hellscape and a nice cabin in it, unexpected was hard to come by. There were no other words for it, however.

  “Is that…?” Jessie asked.

  Erik took a look in the direction Jessie was looking, and somehow did a genuine double-take. “I think it is.”

  The Remnant, a tall, ashen-blonde woman looking like she was in her mid-twenties had her hair neatly braided in one thick braid which seemed to gently flow over her right shoulder and down along her body. She wore a green tunic and bck shorts of some kind of leather. Green thigh-highs lead straight into a pair of brown leather boots.

  The entire ensemble resembled a cssic starter-costume for Ranger-csses in some games. Her hair did nothing to hide the woman’s most defining feature, however. Her ears… were pointy. They weren’t human-y pointy, they were pointy-pointy. Like german shepherd-pointy. Like elf-pointy.

  Not only was this the first other Remnant the two had ever seen besides themselves, but it was a real, genuine elf. While the elf didn’t seem to notice the staring pair, she started walking in their general direction. Her walk was immensely graceful. It was like the elves of Tolkien’s works brought to life. Well, Afterlife.

  The pair, who sat a small distance from Nana’s shop taking a break from work, didn’t seem to catch the elf’s interest at all as she lusciously moved to the front of Nana’s stall. Being greeted by Nana, the elf smiled, showing a beautiful set of white teeth surrounded by soft, thick, pink lips. What came next was the real shocker, however.

  As the elven dy greeted Nana, a wave of cacophony and hellish sounds reached both Erik’s and Jessie’s ears, and they both covered their ears in pain in complete sync. It was like a thunderstorm in their heads, rattling their brains.

  The immense headache following this was one of the worst things Erik had ever experienced. Besides burning to death, obviously. Jessie looked to feel exactly the same. Nana stood resolute as ever, and even responded to the green-cd girl.

  Unsure what was happening, a new wave came unto them once more as the elf spoke again. While being sort of prepared that time, it was just as bad as the first time.

  Nana pointed over towards the doors to the apartments, and the elf smiled a gentle smile. Suddenly, she noticed the pair sitting to the side, hands covering their ears in pain. She seemed to understand what had happened to them, as she apologetically bowed, smiled and went on her way.

  Curious, the pair immediately rushed over to Nana’s.

  “What the hell was that?” Erik asked, his head still spinning and throbbing.

  “Oh, that one? She’s an elf, dear. I would recommend staying away from her, at least for now. You two and her aren’t quite…” Nana started, trying to find the right word for whatever that was. “Compatible yet,” she finished.

  “You got that right. A bulldozer just ran over my brain,” Erik groaned.

  “What do you mean yet?” Jessie asked, curiously looking towards the elf now entering the hallways with their apartments. She had a gleam in her eye that Erik didn’t know what meant. The elf looked back just then, smiling at them.

  “You aren’t really magic beings yet, and nguages from other magical realms can be… hard on your bodies. Know that that woman will feel the exact same pain you just did if you talked to her. You should talk to her once your Crests are more developed, however. The things you can learn from each other. That’s real beauty,” Nana said, suddenly somewhere else in her mind.

  “I think you’re right,” Jessie said, also somewhere else entirely, still looking towards the doors the elf had entered, which were now shut.

  “So elves are a thing,” Erik said. They were both once more in his living room, having a drink and enjoying each other’s company. “And the Peon told me about werewolves and vampires, so we assume those are things as well.”

  “He told me about clowns,” Jessie interrupted.

  “Right, and clowns. Of course that’s a thing. And you’re a witch, I’m a titan, and we just heard an elf speak, and my brain practically liquefied.

  “I don’t think ‘elf’ is her Remnant type. Like, we’re both human even though we’re not the same Remnant type, right?”

  “I guess… But maybe not really? You’re saying that even though she’s an elf, she can be a witch as well, which I suppose is true.”

  “Well, we’re probably not human anymore, not really. Humans don’t die and come back to life some time ter. Maybe this has fuelled the vampire and zombie stories from back home? ‘To become a vampire you need to die with vampire blood in your system’?” Jessie asked, contempting her own humanity.

  “I don’t think ‘The Vampire Journals’ didn’t accidentally get things right, but maybe you’re on to something. But how can we interact with her if she makes our heads melt just from speaking?”

  “You didn’t hear anything Nana said?” Jessie asked, sighing.

  “Elves are a thing, Jess. Why would I listen to an old woman when elves are real?” he asked, gesturing enthusiastically with his arms.

  “Because she expined it? The elf is from a whole other world, maybe even another dimension as far as we’re concerned. If magic is what took us here, that means magic took her here as well. I don’t think the magic of Afterlife bothers with transting everything.

  You can understand me just fine, right? No headaches when we talk,” she continued.

  “Well. Not as much, maybe,” Erik joked.

  “Because we’re from the same pce. And when I say pce, I don’t necessarily mean Earth, I mean… that elf could be from a whole different universe.”

  “Universe?” Erik asked.

  “We don’t know the limits of Afterlife. It might be… interversal? Is that a thing?”

  “Superversal! Afterlife just keeps on surprising you, doesn’t it?” Erik asked.

  “Superversal is not a word.

  “It is now. We’re past science here, Jessie. We’re ass deep in liquid magiscience here. We can call it whatever we like!”

  “Magiscience isn’t a word, either,” Jessie groaned. “Nana said our Crests needed to develop more for us to interact with the elf. Maybe that means our magic might be the solution, not the Afterlife’s magic. You’re a titan now, I’m a witch. We’re technically not human, especially not when we get our Crests.”

  “So, you and I from Universe A can’t tolerate the elf because she’s from Universe B, but human us could have understood a vampire had he been from Universe A? Is that your theory?”

  “Maybe. So I’m thinking it’s more the actual nguage. Like a song where the sound file isn’t supported by your phone, only instead of refusing to py it or give an error message, it just tries it anyway and just screeches instead of pying the song.”

  “We’re simply just… incompatible?” Erik asked.

  “Well, we can look at her just fine. Had she understood our alphabet, we could probably communicate. Even body nguage might be hard, since we have no idea what kind of culture she’s from. Have you ever seen anyone bow before? Like, for real?”

  “Never. So, until we get our Crests, the only thing we can do is star- I mean, admi- err, I mean, stay away from her?” Erik asked, intentionally fumbling his words.

  Jessie ughed. “Yep. For her sake, too.”

  The next morning, Erik wasn’t feeling good at all. His chest was hurting intensely along with his head and practically every muscle in his body. The pain varied from pce to pce, even the type of pain. His head was refusing to interpret any visual signals, and had locked his eyelids shut. It also felt like it vibrated, which did not feel good at all.

  As his brain knocked around, repeatedly hitting its own protective skull, it felt like he suffered a barrage of small concussions. His muscles refused to do anything apart from aching, possibly because his brain was having a fiesta all by its lonesome. The aching could only be described as a slithering ache, like the muscles had been repced by snakes that were also poisonous to the touch.

  The worst of all was the pain in his chest. It was a searing pain much worse, he reckoned, than actually having his chest on fire and melted away. He didn’t remember hurting so much when he was… alight.

  He couldn’t help but let out groaning screams every now and then. He had completely lost control of his entire body.

  He heard gentle knocking on his door. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t move anything but the parts that moved all by themselves. It knocked again, just as gently. Erik wasn’t sure how long it had been since the initial knock, but it felt like hours, if not days. He screamed.

  Jessie opened the door and rushed in, letting the door sm into the wall with a bang. She rushed to him where he y in his bedroom, covered in sweat and, in all likelihood, every other bodily fluid possible. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed just like his luck that a pretty girl would come to take care of him, and there he was covered in his own bodily fluids, scaring her off. She didn’t leave, though.

  At first, she looked panicked. She buzzed around, finding towels, both wet and dry, warm and cold. She then rushed around some more, finding no more than three different gsses of water, as if the type of gss would mean anything. A fourth gss with an amber liquid was appreciated, however, though Erik figured that gss in particur was one hundred percent panic.

  Erik saw her next to him, holding a wet, cold towel to his head before she vanished, like smoke. The next second, if that, she reappeared from the door to his bedroom. He didn’t know if he was hallucinating or not, but something wasn’t making sense.

  “I talked to Nana, and she has purposefully and severely downpyed what getting our Crests feel like. You’ll feel like this for the rest of the day, but should wake up tomorrow with just a soaring high fever, muscle-aches, headache and mild-to-aggressive tendencies towards suicide,” Jessie expined.

  Inside, Erik felt better. Jessie joking around even now really did help. Inside, meaning his mind, not inside his body. That pce hel awful.

  She did what she could for him, but eventually left him to be. She realised that he wouldn’t want her to hover around him all day. That would make him feel bad. And also, he might have then had to do that for her in return, whenever she started her ‘awakening’. He really didn’t want that.

  An unknown amount of time ter, Erik managed to crawl into the shower before passing out. Somehow, he had managed to turn the water on first, as he woke some time ter soaking wet, the skin on his hands rubbery and wrinkly.

  A few minutes ter, he had also somehow managed the soapy bit of a shower, and rolled around on the floor on a pile of dry, clean towels and bathrobes which was somehow weirdly comforting. Finding a dry bathrobe, he somehow got it on correctly, and went out of his bathroom. It was nice that there was always enough stuff for what he needed.

  As he opened his apartment door to knock at Jessie’s, her door opened as well almost at the same time. The scantily-cd, long legged woman exiting was definitely not Jessie. Thank the gods it wasn’t Nana, either. The curvaceous, ashen-blonde elf paused, stared at Erik for just a moment, then smiled a sinful, almost mischievous little smile, before closing the door behind her and walking deeper into the hallway, presumably to her own apartment.

  Her lithe movements truly were a sight to behold, especially given her state of dress. For a second, one blessed second, he didn’t feel any pain whatsoever. That second ended much sooner than every other second had the st day.

  Approaching Jessie’s door, it once again opened by itself, and another woman showing a lot of skin appeared. What would have truly surprised Erik at this point, was another elven dy. It was Jessie this time.

  “Oh, fuck!” she excimed, covering her bikini-cd body quickly by closing her bathrobe and tying it up. “Heeey,” she tried, acting like nothing had happened. She looked down the hallway for a second, spotting the elf and looked back at Erik with a wry smile. “So, I did a thing…”

  Jessie’s apartment was the mirror image of Erik’s in terms of construction, but the style and decor were different, likely fitting her tastes rather than his. Jessie pced two ice cold gsses of water on the sofa table in front of him, then going back to the kitchen area to get something to drink for herself. Erik immediately grabbed both gsses, pressing one against his temple and the other up his shirt and against his chest.

  While the burning sensation had calmed a little bit, he still felt like he was submerged in embers, but his head and chest had it the worst. Jessie came back a moment ter, sitting next to him on the couch.

  “So I’m stuck in my room having a magic awakening which feels like dying three times over, and you go to the beach to pick up chicks?” Erik said, feigning hurt with an attempt at a smile.

  “It just sort of happened,” Jessie started. “I was nervous about going through what you were going through, so I went to the pool to calm down and rex. The elf was there, so we greeted each other wordlessly. I had my sungsses, so of course, I kept checking her out, and noticed she did the same.”

  “But how did-” Erik started, but stopped to focus on moving one of his gsses to a hotter area. “How does that work? You can’t talk, right?”

  “The first day, it was kind of awkward. The second day, oof! That elf needs a leash. Not even an hour after I got to the beach, we were back in my room. No talking needed, just hot, mind-melting, crazy se-”

  “Thanks, got it,” Erik interrupted, trying not to visualise it. Jessie giggled in response. “So I’ve been out for two days?

  “Three, actually. Enough for a lot of encores, if you know what I mean,” Jessie said with a sly wink.

  Had he really been out for so long? Everything was just a haze. All he could remember was pain and fire.

  “I checked up on you, you know! Several times a day, but you were out.” Jessie said, almost apologetically.

  “Yeah, I didn’t know it had been that long. Don’t worry, I’m not mad. And thanks,” Erik said, smiling at Jessie.

  Two days ter, Erik wasn’t in as much pain any more. He had noticed red bruises on his chest, itching like mosquito bites. He guessed that was his Crest forming, reaching his outer skin yer.

  Nana had said the Crest would be almost like a tattoo, which Erik wasn’t all that happy about. He didn’t have any tattoos, nor did he want one. He didn’t mind them on other people, and he understood why people got tattoos, but he wasn’t the type for it.

  Right now, he felt like immediately after he’d burned himself on the stove, and holding his body under cold, running water. His skin felt oddly tight, but didn’t really hurt anymore. He had felt well enough to hang with Jessie the past days, who still hadn’t started feeling the effects of her Crest.

  Jessie had split her time between Erik, Nana’s shop and the elf. Erik didn’t mind the highly sexual retionship between the women, as it allowed him time to rest and rex. He had even visited the winter cabin just to y in the snow to cool.

  What he did mind about it was the two young and beautiful women indulging right next door. He was just a man in his early twenties, after all. There were only so many things his mind could distract itself with before thinking about it.

  The following day, Jessie didn’t answer when Erik knocked on her door, and Erik went around their usual hangouts to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found. He returned to her door, attempting a knock again, but still didn’t get an answer.

  He opened the door as he thought maybe her Crest had started developing. Erik had barely managed to let out a scream when his ‘awakening’ had started and Jessie was at his door. He had mixed feelings about the scene in front of him.

  Both naked women in front of him were breathing heavily, and the amount of limbs writhing around was hard to keep track of. It was unclear whose body was on top of the other, but what was happening was pin as day; both of them had started developing their Crests. With a stressed sigh,

  Erik got to work, getting wet towels, cold water and bnkets to cover the girls up. Both the girls knew he was there, but didn’t seem capable of acknowledging that fact. Maybe they tried not to, as when Jessie let out an audible groan, the elf likewise tensed up and seemed to be in more pain than earlier. Of course they were trying to keep silent, they couldn’t speak to each other unless they wanted an interdimensional headache.

  When it was the elf’s turn to let some sound out, Jessie almost rolled up into the foetal position in response, her body tightening. Erik didn’t experience anything other than a dull headache, however.

  “Okay girls, I’m going to have to split you up,” Erik said, and Jessie’s eyes locked onto his with a fierce expression. Erik understood why she reacted that way, and when she looked at the elf beside her having no adverse reaction to his loud words, she rexed again, at least as much as she could given the circumstances.

  “You’re both hurting each other. The couch pulls out for some reason, so I’ll put one of you there,” he said in response, leaving the bedroom to prepare the sofa.

  When everything was ready, he pced an arm under the elf’s thighs and the other under her back, lifting her up and carrying her to the couch. She groaned something, and the tiny amount of pain in his head somehow gave meaning to the words. He didn’t understand her words at all, but the meaning behind them was somehow transted; thank you.

  Erik did what he could to care for the girls the following days, but like him, they were mostly sleeping the days away. They were never conscious at the same time, and they both asked about the other when they were present enough to speak.

  Erik learned that his newfound power to know the meaning behind the elf’s words worked both ways, so she knew the meaning behind his words as well, even though her Crest hadn’t developed enough to do the same.

  He also realised that the girls’ retionship wasn’t purely sexual, but both of them cared a lot about each other. How that had happened with barely any communication, he didn’t know, but he was happy for Jessie.

  Her name, or rather, the meaning of her name, was Floral Pattern of Plentiful Colours. It was a mouthful to say, so he tried to avoid it whenever they talked, but he did say it a few times, and she did confirm that was her name.

  However the transtion worked, it was possible to communicate with her from now on. When they were feeling better, Jessie moved to the couch as well. They couldn’t understand each other quite yet, but the unrelenting pain whenever they heard each other speak was mostly gone. It allowed them to ugh more openly and without restraint, so obviously Erik couldn’t stand to be around them. New couples or intense flings were always obnoxious for other people.

  Jessie hadn’t deserted Erik, however. The three of them hung out a lot over the next few months, and Nana had been right; they could learn a lot from each other. Her name was Nwhirenahosuo, which was much more difficult to say than Flower Pattern of Plentiful Colours, but Hosu was the equivalent of her family name or surname, and she didn’t mind being called that.

  After Erik, and eventually the two women, developed their Crests more, communication got easier between them, and it wasn’t any longer just the meaning of their words that got through, but it became clear to understand, and the pain went completely away.

  Erik’s Crest resembled something like a bck hole, where from the centre, four bck, curved lines swirled outwards and grew thinner. On each of these lines were one rge hexagonal shape at its root, and two smaller ones along each line, the st one right at the thin end of the lines. Nana had expined this during the first week, but they wanted a reconfirmation when all their Crests were mostly developed, at least visually.

  All Crests were different, in one way or another, and the core of the crest would fill with a symbol signifying the Remnant’s core power. The remaining month or so in Afterlife would mainly build this power into something more or less unique to the person, though also based on their type.

  A Werewolf would be a lot less likely to have a core power to fling fireballs than a witch was, though it wasn’t impossible. A werewolf would be more likely to be able to inflict disease or enhance themselves or others, for example.

  The shapes further away from the core of the Crest were additional powers, which wouldn’t actually grow on their own, but had to be absorbed from crystals or gems. They wouldn’t be able to get any of these in Afterlife, however. Hosu was just as ignorant about these things as Erik was, as her own world was also a magic void, just like Earth. Her apologetic bow on her first day in Afterlife was because Nana had told her to speak less loudly, it turned out.

  Erik and Jessie both found that odd, but they had probably expected elves to be a magical species, not just another species simir to humans. All the games, books and films had lied to them.

  What they had been right about was their retionship towards nature. Hosu lived in a treehouse. The tree itself was her house. The house hadn’t been built on or in the tree, but it had been grown.

  Her people abhorred the idea of damaging nature for one’s own benefit, but the uncomfortable conversation about how houses were built on Earth went fine, as she understood that they were from a whole other pnet, and cultures varied, even among the elven pnet. It didn’t seem like they were that different, all things considering.

  They had wars among their different nations just like humans did, and some nations were more theologically inclined than others. They had no magic, except for in their stories, just like Earth. If there were any Remnants around, they were hiding, or at least not making it known they had magic.

  Erik supposed there had to be living Remnants back home. According to Nana, Remnants were mostly blessed with long lives, especially if they kept getting stronger.

  Getting their Crests, core powers and other abilities from absorbing gems was only the first step in becoming a magical being. The powers would all be ‘low-powered’ at the beginning, but they could grow stronger over time, if the Remnant tried to do so.

  Erik jotted down Nana’s expnation for this, but it didn’t make much sense to him, so he tried transting it to more familiar terms.

  To grow a power, the Remnant had to do three things; They had to gain experience, kind of like weapon experience in some games, where using this and that weapon gave experience in that weapon type. This was the most logical, as this was just like everything else: do something over and over again, get better at it.

  The next part was something Nana called ‘contemption’, which sounded much like meditation. Erik didn’t have much experience with meditation, but he figured it was meant to clear his mind.

  Contemption, on the other hand, was meant to be used after the ‘experience’ part, where he would look back at his previous experiences where he used his powers, figuring out how they work, what they could do if he had used them differently, and so on. This didn’t mean much to Erik, and neither did the fact that Nana said that ‘his soul would help’.

  The third thing was perhaps even more abstract; realisation. Nana had said this was split into two parts, though where one part ended and the other began was unclear at best.

  This was the natural progression from the second step, as after one had meditated on how to improve, they would both have to realise how to do it, then make it real. Erik thought this was a stuck-up way of expining something, but Nana, in her own mysterious way, only said that his soul would help with this as well.

  He supposed that somehow quantifying his growth and ability to do magic wasn’t as easy as in games, where the character sheets just showed everything you could and couldn’t do, as well as how powerful this and that spell was. He hoped his soul really would help him out.