Chapter 192: Net of Prophecies

Dumbfounded, Jura tilted his head like a confused hound and asked, "What do you mean?"Zaelyane shook her head, took out her smoking pipe and answered while filling it with dried intoxicating herbs. "Haden had left the mountains at a young age, right?"

He nodded.

She snapped her fingers, a bright green flame appeared on her fingertips, and she continued, "In the world beyond the red and black mountains, only one in a thousand awakens their aura..."

Jura blinked in disbelief and muttered, "One in a thousand...? Isn’t that too low?"

She placed the mouth of the smoking pipe between her lips, lit the dried herbs and said with a faint nod, "It is."

Smoke drifted out of the pipe; she inhaled it with her mouth, and Jura stared at her with a deadpan expression.

A few moments passed, she continued to take puffs out of her pipe, and he commented, "Every time I meet you, you remind me how different you are from her."

She exhaled the smoke and said flatly, "Hmm? You still haven’t forgotten her?"

He fell silent, eyes shining with memories that he hid from both the world and himself.

She took another puff and decided to continue the previous topic. "But unlike the red and black mountains, the outside world doesn’t lack ether."

"Ether?" He mumbled in confusion before he slapped his palm and said, "Ah! The energy that Sylvarae use to cast their sorcery."

She nodded. "Yes, humans cannot absorb ether, but it still reacts to them. The human ancestors studied these reactions and created ether arts that can be used to bend these reactions accordingly."

His eyes gleamed like a child who had just learned about a new toy, his lips parted, and he muttered, "Haden knows these ether arts?"

She exhaled the smoke, nodded and said, "Most probably. As everyone can learn ether arts, the outside world mainly focuses on them, so after leaving the mountains, he would have trained in ether arts instead of aura techniques."

His eyes shifted towards Haden, and he mumbled in shock, "So... Haden hasn’t used his full strength since he returned to the mountains?"

"Yeah..." She nodded, and both of them stared at him like they were staring at a monster.

All of a sudden, a thought appeared in Jura’s mind, and he asked instantly, "Now that the barrier is gone, can he use his full strength?"

"He can," she answered, her gaze drifted towards the north, and she added, "They must’ve been alerted already."

Jura’s expression darkened as the memories of the war fifty-seven years ago passed through his eyes. His hand moved towards his bow. Gasping, he said, "W-Why do they want us to be either trapped or dead?"

She shook her head, her gaze moved towards Haden’s hut, and she whispered, "They are simply trying everything they can to break through the prophecised fate."

Jura bit his lower lip, his body trembling in fear and fury; however, before he could cause any trouble, he stormed out of the hut.

She stared at the door with her usual flat expression and mumbled under her breath, "No matter what, in the end, they will fall... I will make sure of it."

—

Granny Nena sat in the chair with a troubled expression.

Low snores resounded in her hut, and her eyes shifted towards the girl sleeping on her fur bed.

The girl was obviously Dora, and she was also the reason behind her trouble.

"I didn’t know this would happen... I shouldn’t have lied to her..." She mumbled, her eyes darkening in guilt.

Suddenly, the door to her hut creaked open, and someone walked inside.

"Why are you here?" Granny Nena asked without looking at the person who had just barged into her hut.

"Why is my daughter here?"

Granny Nena raised her eyebrow and finally looked at Lara, who was staring at Dora with a puzzled expression.

Her lips shook as she answered weakly, "It’s complicated..."

Lara looked at her. She narrowed her eyes and demanded, "Explain it to me."

Granny Nena stayed silent for a few moments before she sighed and answered, "Each prophecy is different in one way or another. Some can be told and some cannot."

Taking a deep breath, she continued, "And in the ones that cannot be told, exists prophecy of worthiness. Only those who are worthy are allowed to hear it, and unworthy are bound to it; living and dying with it."

Lara tilted her head and said, "What does that have to do with her...?"

Granny Nena lowered her head and answered in a low voice, "About twelve years ago, I had performed a ritual for a prophecy of worthiness and even though I had made sure that nobody could listen to it..."

Lara’s eyes widened.

Granny Nena lifted her wrinkled hand, pointed a finger at Dora and said, "For some reason... this girl still heard it..."

Colour drained from Lara’s face and she muttered, "That prophecy... what was it about?"

GrannyNena answered with a faint smile, "It was about your son... about how he would regain his wings and free us from these mountains."

Lara blinked, her gaze shifted towards Dora, who was still alive, she whispered, "Then... shouldn’t she be not alive?"

Granny Nena sighed deeply and mumbled, "Yeah, she was supposed to die with the prophecy, but for some reason she is still alive..."

Lara looked at her with a troubled expression and asked, "Isn’t that a good thing?"

"It is." Granny Nena nodded, and after closing her eyes, she continued, "But that means someone or something has altered her fate from its natural path..."

"What does that mean?"

Granny Nena opened her eyes, a sharp glint passed through them, and she said in a low voice, "It means that she can now guide fate in any way she wants... her actions no longer follow a fixed path, she is the one who decides the path — for herself and for anyone who crosses hers."

Dumbfounded, Lara blinked and commented with an amused chuckle, "Quite fitting for the descendant of the God of Travel, don’t you think?"

"She is dangerous," Granny Nena spat in response.

Lara looked at her with an amused expression and said, "Yes, for a seer like you."