Sylver yawned into his palm, as Spring tossed the last bowl full of ashes into the churning mess of raw pork and cow carcasses. The sigils underneath the giant glass cylinder began to glow a bright yellow light, as the mixture of red, white, and grey, flickered as golden tendrils passed through the minced meat, and turned it into a liquid.

Spring sat near the trays full of Sylver’s hearts and stared at the swirling mass inside the glass cylinder.

Sylver worked on Edmund’s tracker while he waited for everything to finish mixing, and for the 3rd stage of the ritual to begin.

The green glowing sphere had condensed and condensed, until only a cone, barely bigger than 9 matches tied together, remained. Sylver held the tiny thing in the palm of his gloved hand, as he ever so gently picked it up using a pair of lead forceps, and placed it down into a small wooden box that was lined with pure platinum on the inside.

It would have been better to keep it contained in pure lead, but that wasn’t an option, since Sylver would be incapable of using [Fog Form] while he carried it, and he shivered at the thought of accidentally losing it if he had a shade carry it.

There was enough mana inside the damaged sword for Sylver to track Edmund 4 times.

The only reason Sylver wasn’t jumping with joy at the fact that he now had a straight path to Edmund, was that there were too many conflicting emotions in the way.

He was worried about Lola, and what she had become in his absence. He wasn’t in a position to complain about her drinking, but that didn’t mean she was right to drink whenever she was upset.

There was also the [Hero] issue, but if Lola’s report was to be believed, there didn’t seem to be any real problem. The [Hero] came, scammed Lola out of billions of gold worth of equipment, and left.

For the time being, Sylver would let the [Hero] do whatever it was he was sent to Eira to do. And visit him when he’s strong enough, assuming the [Hero] is still alive by then.

Aside from that, Sylver was proud of Lola.

He was beyond proud.

To say she had surprised him was a very gross understatement. He didn’t think she would just sit on her ass for 5 years, but this was above and beyond anything he could have imagined.

If not for the revelation regarding the sword, Sylver was certain she would have told him everything with her head held high.

The news regarding a secret high elf council was…

Lola said she’s handling it, so I’ll leave it to her to handle.

With that thought, Sylver put the soon-to-be-sorry council out of his mind.

Or rather, he put it near the back of his mind, to be dealt with later, after Edmund was saved. If the council were still around by the time Sylver came back. Lola had everything under control, aside from her drinking, but no one is perfect.

I need to get the dark elves situated first…

Or I can leave them with Ron for the time being… Or have Lola find housing somewhere in Arda for them…

None of them are stupid enough to tell anyone about their Eldar tree sapling, but who’s to say the council won’t find out some other way?

Not to mention moving them while the Krists are everywhere isn’t the brightest idea…

…

I’ll talk it over with Ruslana and Zelvash and see what they think.

Sylver removed his robe from his body and closed both of his eyes.

He cracked his neck as he felt every bone in his body begin to glow and vibrate with a tickling hum.

Sylver spread his arms out, and Spring, along with Fen, and Reg, appeared around him, and very gently, but quickly, sliced along his arms, shoulders, face, torso, legs, and feet.

Sylver waited for his primal energy field to adjust, and with surprising ease, his skin slid off his arms, as if he was removing a pair of shoulder-length gloves. He lifted his left foot, and all the skin up to his thigh slid down and floated in front of him. He lifted his right foot, and the same occurred.

Sylver opened his eyes and looked down at himself.

His arms and legs were completely clean of flesh, only black bone littered with golden tendrils remained. Sylver reached up with his clickety clackety fingers and found the “seam” Spring had made at the back of his neck.

It took a fair amount of pulling, but finally, Sylver managed to remove the entirety of his head. He turned the still warm skin over in his hands, and looked down at his own face, missing only the eyeballs. He let go of it to float in front of him.

With practiced ease, Sylver pulled his eyes out, and let them float with the rest of his skin.

Sylver pulled at the skin on his chest, until it peeled away, to be pulled off the way someone might take their vest off. Spring helped him get his arms through, and Sylver made the resulting layer of flesh float along with the rest.

He was a skeleton, with bones that looked like someone had inlaid gold into pitch-black marble. The gold tendrils all joined together the closer they got to his chest, with the tendrils traveling up and down his spine being large enough that it almost looked like his whole spinal column was made of gold. His internal organs remained where they should be, by some sort of invisible force.

Sylver used [Deadly Darkness] to make a set of stairs for himself, to walk towards the top of the giant glass cylinder.

“You know what you’re doing?” Sylver asked suddenly, towards the pair of shades carefully moving the floating skin onto a mannequin made out of stone.

“Pull you out if you stop moving,” Spring answered calmly.

Sylver locked his bony fingers together and pulled them forward until they all cracked. Sparks of golden light crackled dangerously and sprinkled down into the churning liquid below.

“You’re going in after I’m done, by the way,” Sylver added, and Spring tried to respond, but Sylver didn’t hear him, on account of the fact that he had stepped into the seemingly boiling liquid flesh, and disappeared into it.

[Hello! If you are reading this anywhere other than at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36065/sylver-seeker please be aware that there are over 50 more chapters on the Royal Road version!]