章 156: Mature and Elegant

Four hours later, in a foreign room, Emile came to his senses. It wasn't that he was unconscious, but the man was just tired.

The Spirit Flames drained him of essence entirely, leaving him with nothing more than scraps that dogs wouldn't touch. The severe lack of essence heavily restricted Emile, especially since he was so used to it coursing through his veins and tempering his body.

Nevertheless, though, after the Ceremony finished and Skipper deactivated the flames they brought Emile to this room. The room was cozy: a small unit with a bed and chest.

Unfortunately, Emile was far too large for the bed provided by the foxes so his legs hung off the edge. Collecting his thoughts, Emile replayed the Ceremony in his head.

Willow and Blood told him what had happened, how he sat there for more than five minutes, how the flames grew and light engulfed the room. Emile didn't remember any of it.

Instead, he remembered the butterfly. Two magenta wings each with a black swirl. It flew with grace around Emile, riding his essence like the wind through the trees.

If the butterfly wasn't mysterious enough already, Emile could not get that voice out of his head. It was a woman's voice.

Mature and elegant, the voice definitely didn't belong to a child. It was alluring, carrying no hint of surprise and eagerness, but instead expressed confidence and desire. It was a greeting after all, the only problem is that the greeting was cut short and the butterfly had disappeared.

The door to his room creaked open, revealing a pair of red eyes peering in. Emile and the red eyes made eye contact and his door burst open, slamming into the wall and crashing with a loud bang.

"You!" Blood yelled as he ran into the room.

First, he stopped at Emile's bedside. He opened his mouth to start speaking when he turned around, eyeing the door he came through.

He backpedaled and shut the door, calmly this time, before approaching Emile.

"What happened?!" He asked broadly, "And that mural —" he paused and looked around, taking extra precaution, "that was the same potion wasn't it?"

"The same bottle —" Emile replied, he released a long sigh as he leaned back into his pillow, "the woman in the mural is probably the one who made the potion we found."

"Is that why your Ceremony was so much different? Were you recognized?" Blood asked.

"I don't think so," Emile said while looking around the room, "they seem to worship the woman. If they knew her and I were connected I'm sure we'd never hear the end of it."

"That's true," Blood readily accepted his explanation, "so then what did happen?"

"I'm not sure, but something weird did happen. The moment my essence touched the flames my vision changed. I was alone in the room, the flames were small and modest, and circling me was a dark pink butterfly."

"A butterfly?" Blood repeated.

"Yes, I know it sounds insane."

"No no, it very well could have been there for all I know. I couldn't see a damn thing."

"The butterfly spoke to me," Emile said.

"Now you lost me."

"Oh, so you can believe talking foxes but the butterflies are too much?"

The two boys smiled at each other. The one thing they could consistently rely on was their attitudes, they didn't want to admit it, but all the petty arguing brought them a lot closer than they even knew.

"So what did this butterfly say?" Blood asked.

"It's nice to meet you."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Her voice was cut off right after that."

"Her?" Blood's eyebrows rose, "What about Willow?"

Emile looked at the mischievous grin on Blood's face, he really enjoyed this joke more than he should.

Since Emile didn't respond and his deadpan expression hinted that he'd probably never respond, Blood changed topics:

"We explored Underneath. It's a pretty incredible place, hundreds of foxes live here, all in little families they call packs. There are two main packs, they have names but all you need to know is that one group contains the black foxes and the other the gold foxes."

"Where are the others?"

"Roy is in the library. He obviously can't read anything, but he's trying to I guess. And Willow went to the blacksmith."

"Did you check the gardens? Are there really plants?" Emile asked, expectation filling his heart.

"You think I visited the garden?" Blood responded sarcastically.

Emile rolled his eyes and threw his covers off. Lifting his heavy legs out of bed, Emile struggled to stand. His legs ached and cracked, his body was still ridiculously sore.

He stood up fully and turned to Blood.

"Well then let's go," Emile took his first step towards the door.

"Go where?" Blood asked behind him.

"To the gardens!"

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