"Slanbrea left a seed of light within you," Saul said quietly.
"What does that mean?" Anfey asked. He knew that it could not be very serious, and Saul must have already spoke with Bruzuryano about it, or else he would not be so calm.
Saul paused for a second and said, "It can help you harness the power of light quicker. But if you ever start practicing real light magic, you will find yourself uncontrollably drawn to it."
"Does that mean I will start practicing light magic?"
"Some may even spend their entire lives studying it."
"But I don’t want to," Anfey complained. "What should I do? Should I avoid every missionary and every book about light magic?"
"It’s not as serious as you think," Bruzuryano said with a frown. "The Heart of Nature should effectively repress the power of the seed."
"Can’t you make it disappear?" Anfey asked. He thought that the Heart of Nature was not a permanent solution, and the only way that he wouldn’t be affected was to remove the seed.
"You can talk to the pope."
"Never mind then," Anfey said, shaking his head.
"Think about this," Bruzuryano said. "Don’t you remember what happened in the temple? You can’t use magic, but you can control the druids’ magic because of the Heart of Nature. With that, you can be very powerful."
Anfey hesitated. He didn’t want to study nature magic, but if he rejected Bruzuryano, it would make their relationship tense. He still had to ask Bruzuryano for favors and he didn’t want to alienate the man. But he could not agree to the offer either because of his relationship to Saul. If he studied with Bruzuryano, he would make both Saul and Yolanthe distrust him. He would get nothing if he made a king his enemy.
"Bruzuryano," Saul interrupted. "Didn’t Anfey just say that he wanted to study with me? We can talk about other things in the future. Nothing good ever comes from forcing someone into a decision."
Bruzuryano sighed but did not say anything more.
"The unicorn," Anfey suddenly said. "Its mother was an evolved unicorn. Will it reach maturity faster?"
Bruzuryano shrugged. "Unlikely," he said, "but the Heart of Nature may quicken it by a few years."
Anfey sighed, "As long as I don’t have to wait thirty years."
"This unicorn is behind in its development, you know," Bruzuryano said.
"What? Really?" Anfey asked, frowning. The unicorn certainly did not look it.
"Human infants need their mothers," Bruzuryano said. "Unicorn do too. What did you feed it?"
"Wild berries, mostly. We couldn’t find anything else in the forest."
"Well, that’s why."
"Is there a way to fix it?"
"No."
Anfey frowned and searched his mind for everything related to the unicorn. "What about unicorn blood?"
"Unicorn blood?" Bruzuryano asked with a frown. "You’re not saying that you want to bleed this unicorn, are you?"
"No, of course not," Anfey said, shaking his head. "It’s the older unicorn’s."
"How cruel," Bruzuryano said, shocked. "The unicorn already gave you the Tear of Stars, and you dared take its blood!" If it was any other magic beast, Bruzuryano would not have reacted so sharply. However, for a druid, unicorns were holy and pets of the Goddess of Nature. Bleeding a unicorn was unthinkable.
"There’s a reason to it, my lord," Anfey said earnestly.
"Spill it, then."
"We had to protect it. If we hadn’t become stronger, we wouldn’t have been able to even protect ourselves, let alone the unicorn. We were all mages, and the blood was a great boost to our power. We shouldn’t let it just rot away!"
"That does not justify your actions," Bruzuryano said coldly. "Unicorn blood is of no use to unicorns. If you really cared about it, your own blood would have sufficed."
"Maybe that is a way," Anfey murmured.
Bruzuryano frowned and shook his head. He didn’t expect Anfey to agree to his statement. "You don’t have to do that," Bruzuryano said. "You could bleed yourself dry and increase the unicorn’s maturity rate by a day."
"But it will help?"
"No, not really," Bruzuryano said, "unless you want to die." He knew that if Anfey really did try to bleed himself and feed the unicorn, Saul would blame him, even though Anfey would be doing it on his own volition.
"Don’t worry," Anfey said with a smile. "I won’t bleed myself dry. I don’t have a death wish." Unlike people in this world, Anfey had common knowledge from another world and knew that loss of a small amount of blood would not affect him. People who donated blood regularly were often even healthier than people did not. Anfey didn’t mind feeding the unicorn his blood once a month.
Bruzuryano shook his head. He paced around the room, sighing and muttering to himself. He was much more experienced than Anfey and could read people better than Anfey had anticipated. "There may be a way to quicken its growth," he said finally.
"What is it?"
"You have to find a person before that," Bruzuryano said. He did not want to tell Anfey, but he felt obligated to. Anfey was too stubborn and hot-headed. What if he let out too much blood by accident? For followers of the Goddess of Nature, people chosen by the Heart of Nature were seen as messengers sent by the Goddess herself. They were responsible for educating the followers in the right way and bringing hope. Bruzuryano could not let Anfey die no matter how much he disliked the idea that Anfey held the Heart of Nature.
"Who?"
"Jacob."
"Jacob? Why?" Saul asked.
"Have you already forgotten what Jacob’s life goal is?"
"You mean… the sacred spirit potion?"
"Of course. We have unicorn blood, which is the hardest ingredient to find."
"Where are we supposed to find Spring of Life? All those ingredients are way too hard to find. And way too expensive."
"Have you forgotten? I am an arch druid. If I were to ask the elf queen, she would let me have some of those things. Spring of Life shouldn’t be a problem."
"They have a new queen?" Saul asked, shocked.
Bruzuryano grunted out of frustration. He was trying to propose a solution and got too distracted. Normally he would never make such a great mistake. "You know, I’m starting to think you’re purposely trying to pry."
"No, of course not," Saul said, shaking his head. "I’ll pretend I never heard anything about the elves. You should know how expensive the other ingredients are. Spring of Life isn’t the only problem."
"I have some of it," Bruzuryano said, "I’ll try to take care of the rest. I need you two to swear that you will tell no one about the elves." Saul said he would pretend he hadn’t heard anything, but Bruzuryano couldn’t let it go so easily. The new queen was still young, but in another century or so, the first elven supreme power would be born.
"Of course," Saul said, nodding. "Although it should be three people."
"Two," Bruzuryano said firmly. He knew that Saul counted Yolanthe as well. "The queen is still young and poses no threat to your precious little kingdom. Everyone alive now will be long dead by the time she achieves her full strength. More likely than not, Maho Empire itself will be gone by then. What are you worried about?" Bruzuryano needed to calm Saul, and the only thing he lied about was how long it would take for the new queen to come into her own.
"Fine," Saul said. "Alright. I swear to the gods that if I tell anyone about your secret, my soul will toil in hell for all eternity."
"Anfey."
"I swear to the gods that if I tell anyone about your secret, my soul will toil in hell for all eternity," Anfey repeated Saul’s oath.