A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"Impossible to say for sure," Elora answered thoughtfully. "But I think she would have said something if she did. Plus, it\'s far harder to detect me than to find some bloodlines. After all, our physical and metaphysical essences are essentially blended together so completely that it would be hard for anyone to tell them apart.

Still, I\'m keeping my omnisense turned off for now, since that would be far easier to detect."

Erik was a little worried about losing Elora\'s ability to scan the surroundings for possible dangers, but since Elora had already mentioned that many of the sigils in this place seemed to be shielded from omnisense, perhaps there wasn\'t much point anyway.

So he simply agreed, and climbed the stone stairs at the end of the hallway. After a few moments, he stood in front of the naked wall, right next to a fidgeting Eira, who was looking at him with naked enthusiasm. "Come on, come on! Show me what I\'ve been waiting all these years for!"

He chuckled a little at her gaze, "Alright, alright. But what do I do, exactly?"

"Just put your hand on the wall! The key sigil will check your bloodline, and confirm the presence of the affinity seed! If it all checks out… the door will open! Finally!" she exclaimed with shining eyes.

"Wait, affinity seed?" both Erik and Elora exclaimed at the same time, their voices tinted with surprise. But while Erik\'s voice filled the air, Elora\'s resonated only within the confines of his soul.

"Yeah!" Eira nodded happily. "But we\'ll get to that! Come on, come on!"

While Elora was busy sweeping Erik\'s body for anything she might have missed over the last seven years, Erik felt like Eira would explode if he waited any longer. Thus, he extended his right hand, and put it against the wall.

Immediately, a sigil appeared to encircle his hand, and Eira\'s eyes glazed over a little.

Her mouth opened, but rather than the bright voice Erik was already getting used to, it was a monotonous and robotic one.

"Checking bloodline… Descendant of Fenrir detected… Checking affinity seed… Affinity seed detected… Checking Earth\'s current stage of awakening… First stage detected… Welcome, Harbinger."

Erik slightly raised an eyebrow at the mentioning of his ancestry, but didn\'t pay it much heed. Obviously he\'d heard of Fenrir before, but he wasn\'t really surprised that who he presumed was one of the first werewolves, would end up in Earth\'s myths.

Instead, he was far more taken aback by Eira\'s sudden robotic manner. Still, he quickly reminded himself that she was much like an AI with certain hard-coded responses that she couldn\'t resist, even if she could be considered alive.

What truly surprised him, however, was the tittle by which she addressed him at the end. "Harbinger…? Harbinger of what?" he mumbled with a concerned eyebrow raised.

He didn\'t have time to think about it, however, as the wall in front of him suddenly began to shake and tremble, much like the platform had done earlier. He quickly pulled his hand away and took a step back.

Next, the wall slowly started sinking into the ground, and as the wall receded, Erik suddenly found himself on the threshold of a grand, circular hall.

This place was clearly build from a far superior material to what they had seen so far. Rather than the rough looking yellow-gray color, this room was build from a dark, polished stone that acted almost as a mirror, causing the floor to look like the surface of a still, dark lake.

The ceiling arched above, and was held up by several majestic columns that were also placed in a circular fashion. Runes and sigils appeared carved in various locations around the hall, causing the place to gently pulse with a sense of ancient power.

In the middle of this circular hall was another altar, although different from the previous ones, as it was a square, rather than a rectangle, and a strange orb was placed on top of it. Small lights twinkled on the orb\'s surface, as if they reflected the night\'s sky.

Several doors led from the circular hallway deeper into whatever structure this was, with Erik standing smack dab in the middle of one of these doorways.

The doors were made of an unknown, dark wood and reinforced with bands of a silvery metal. Above each of these doors was a plaque that likely explained where the door would lead to, but when he tried to read them, he realized they were a little blurry.

Before he could think about why that was, however, he was suddenly encased in an exuberant sideways hug. "It really is you! Aaah, I can\'t believe the door finally opened and my wait is over! Now we can find her!"

Before Erik could respond, Eira suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared in the middle of the circular room, just in front of the altar with the orb. "Come, come! I\'ll show you around! It\'s a great place, I promise!"

Strangely, however, Erik noticed that Eira too seemed a little blurry suddenly, while her voice reached him as if through a layer of water.

Feeling his confusion, Elora\'s thoughtful voice enlightened him. "It\'s a separate dimension. There\'s actually nothing behind this wall, except rock, dirt, and… a portal."

Now realizing what he was looking at, Erik\'s eyes opened wide in surprise. He had heard of these things before, but never actually seen one. They were relatively cheap and easy to maintain, but very hard and expensive to create.

The hardest part in this was finding an object related to the space affinity that the dimension could be tethered to. \'And I suppose that should be the orb in the middle there,\' he immediately realized.

Space was one of the rarest affinities that either Erik or Elora knew off, being even rarer than those of darkness and light. Naturally, it was also proportionally powerful.

"Okay, so… why do I feel like I\'ll be stepping into the lion\'s den here?" Erik asked Elora with a complicated expression.

"Because we essentially would be," Elora chuckled softly. "I mean, we aren\'t without our methods of resistance, but yeah, stepping into someone else\'s dimension is not something to be done lightly.

Still, what other choice do we have? We can\'t remain ignorant of everything that\'s happening, and… if there really is an affinity seed within you… Not only would that explain a few things, but we really can\'t pass up the opportunity."

"I suppose you\'re right," Erik chuckled, with a tinge of greed and desire for power seeping into his voice.

So he turned around to the four people behind him. "Will you girls follow me, no matter what the future holds?" he grinned softly, knowing their answer.

And he wasn\'t disappointed. Emma, Astrid, and Emily still had many questions about what was happening here, but none of them had any desire to stay behind.

As for Alice, while she hadn\'t been with these people for very long, she greatly admired Erik and felt a great affinity for Emma. Plus, she was never one to shy away from a challenge.

Thus, all four of them nodded with determination, and followed Erik as he stepped into the circular hall.