Chapter Ninety-Six: Listening

Aurelia often had the same bitter thought: “Is your brain made of arcane? Can you see nothing beyond it?”

But complaints were not easily voiced. While Patrick immersed himself in arcane study, Aurelia would lie quietly on a nearby chaise longue, resting in silence.

The Windrunner family was one of the great noble houses. Privilege had always been theirs by birth, yet the stern discipline of the family had also made every one of them swift, resolute, and brisk in action.

The elven woman had not returned to Silvermoon City. Affairs in the Eversong Woods were left to Hoxbeard and one of the direct descendants to manage, so Aurelia had little to worry about. And with winter drawing to a close and the weather turning warmer, troll activity had weakened considerably. Her staying in the Sun Temple to reorganize the troops and assist the temple lord with military affairs was only reasonable.

Galind Shalon and Elenora Windstrike were the representatives Aurelia had appointed, so the elf woman found herself with rare leisure, able to enjoy a long-missed holiday.

As for Patrick, he was still wholly absorbed in his magical experiments. Aurelia had long grown used to elven arcane casters; there had never been an elven mage who did not live and breathe arcane study. That was simply how the high elves of Quel'Thalas were.

By day, Aurelia handled routine military matters in the camp, while Patrick oversaw the Sun Temple’s daily administration. Only at night did they have the chance to sit together and speak freely of what each had learned that day.

The atmosphere throughout the Sun Temple was excellent, and society was developing at a remarkable pace. Among the clans under Windrunner influence, there was already a trend of coming to the Sun Temple to seek their fortune. Though the temple lay close to the front line, the elven population gathered there grew larger by the day. Patrick was building on a grand scale, taking full command of public works and civic development, and encouraging those restless elves who refused to accept their lot and sought to climb higher.

“You really don’t act like a young elf at all,” Aurelia said, setting down her utensils and describing the impressions she had formed over these past few days in the Sun Temple.

“The new administrative measures you’ve introduced here have greatly stirred the people’s spirit. Since I became Ranger-General, I’ve seen far too much among the elves of Quel'Thalas, yet I have never seen a place where the people could reach this kind of vitality.”

She was truly impressed. The rate of development here was almost unbelievable. Patrick had only been stationed in the Sun Temple for how long? It had not been half a century, not even a tenth of one, and yet the place was advancing at a breathtaking pace, as though each day brought a new world into being.

Patrick said, “I’m also from a clan in Silvermoon City. Our Caboron family understands very well what the elves beneath us long for, and what they need. What the people need is absolutely not endless pleasure, nor the political struggles of spellcasters. What they need is their own interest—or rather, a chance to rise in status.”

Aurelia let out a sigh. Wasn’t the Windrunner clan the same? Their contribution to the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas was beyond question. In the whole kingdom, if Windrunner wanted to gather rangers, it needed only the name Windrunner. For that very reason, the patriarch of the Windrunner family was also a member of the Silvermoon Council, though not one of its executive councilors.

Because rangers were non-casters, being sidelined by the council’s mage faction was perfectly normal. Thus, there was no Windrunner territory within Silvermoon City itself; even Windrunner Spire stood on the western shore of the Ghostlands.

When Patrick had appointed Galind Shalon as an executive councilor of the Sun Temple, it had looked very much like poaching in plain sight. Yet Aurelia had also considered that, given the Windrunner family’s prestige, Patrick’s move would accomplish nothing if she truly wished to resist it. So instead, she found herself pleased that Patrick, as a high-ranking spellcaster, did not share the disdain for rangers so common among the great men of Silvermoon. That alone lit a spark in the elven woman’s heart.

“Back in the Eastern Temple, your grasp of tactics was absolute, and your sense of the larger situation far exceeded my expectations. Later, in the battle in the Eversong Woods, you fully proved your military talent and your ability to command. But seeing you study arcane so intently, I finally understood this: an elf’s success may have little to do with talent at all. What matters most is the sweat of diligence.”

Seeing the seriousness on Aurelia’s face, Patrick also spoke to her of part of his future plans. Aside from the coming orc invasion and the fall of Silvermoon City, he wanted to tell Aurelia what he intended to do in the years ahead, and in doing so, to show his trust in her.

“Actually, my thinking is very simple. We need to build our strength slowly and take the Ghostlands completely into our hands. In the future, the Ghostlands will be our own territory.”

When Aurelia heard the words “we need to build our strength slowly,” the smile on her face grew even brighter.

“In the Ghostlands, the Council’s influence really is thin.”

Her mood improved considerably.

“After thousands of years of development, their power has long taken root in Silvermoon City. There is nothing we can do about that.”

Patrick agreed. “That’s exactly why I want to break free of Silvermoon City’s constraints and choose to remain in the Ghostlands. Only here can I truly show what I’m capable of.”

After that, he returned to the workbench. The first tetrahedral spell array had already been successfully completed. Within the tetrahedron, the fourfold runic sequence formed a unified magical effect—constraint. This intricate rune structure could create an ability that bound space itself, and Patrick had shaped it into a spatial containment spell.

The four pieces of arcanite engraved with runes were placed inside the sealed spatial array and protected so firmly by the spell sequence that they rested at the very center of the tetrahedron. Unless one understood the tetrahedral spell structure and destroyed its framework, it would be impossible to touch the runes inside directly.

Likewise, only by breaking the fourfold rune structure of Tir, Sol, Lum, and Nef could the effect of this Constraint spell be undone and the sealed space within be exposed.

He would make eight of these tetrahedral arrays in all. Each tetrahedron would function as a complete spell, and together the eight arrays would connect and combine to form a sealed cubic space. Patrick intended to place a platinum disc inside it, while the eight arrays would stand like the eight corners of a cube, sealing the disc tightly in the center.

The creation of these spatial arrays had consumed half a year’s worth of his council allocation. In particular, engraving the thirty-two rune patterns into the arcanite had been extravagantly expensive. But for the sake of the platinum disc’s function and stability, he had gritted his teeth and done it anyway.

This was Patrick’s first time crafting such a massive arcane construct. With the energy source of the Tower of Sunlight now in place, he needed to provide a stable power supply within the tower itself, while also relying on the connection between the platinum discs to achieve spatial localization.