Chapter 11 : Late Morning
"What?" questioned Anton "What did you do?"
"We ran away!" repeated Kianna as she tightened her arms around her torso.
"Kianna!" cried Fiona as she angrily nudged her sister's shoulder "What are you doing!?"
Anton let go of Kianna's face and leaned back a bit as he looked from her to Fiona and back.
"What are you talking about Kianna?" asked Anton as he met her eyes "What happened?"
"Nothing!" declared Fiona as she pressed herself against her sister "We don't want to talk about it!"
Kianna's face showed her misery clearly as she stared at her sister and kept her ears laid back submissively. Fiona's ears were pointed straight back behind her head as she gave her sister an exasperated glare and bared her clenched teeth.
"Right!?" growled Fiona through her teeth.
Kianna said nothing as she let her eyes fall to the water.
Anton stayed silent as he assessed the two dark elves. After several moments of stillness he settled back into his chair and dropped his aura.
For some time all three sat in silence.
Although nothing was said between them, and neither was actually even looking at the other by this point, the tension between the two dark elves never lessened.
Deciding to let them end their silent stand off on their own, Anton went to look away from them and go back to his book when he stopped short. Kianna had been lightly shivering for some time now and Anton had assumed that this was due to her emotions rather than the temperature around her. But as he went to look away from them he noticed that Fiona now had a very slight shiver to her as well. Taking his right hand, he reached out to feel the bathwater.
Fiona flinched and cringed away as her eyes darted first to his hand and then to his face. Mistrust was still clear in her large eyes as she stared at him.
Roused by the movement taking place around her, Kianna looked up at her sister before shifting her attention to Anton. Unlike her sister, this dark elf had no apprehension in her eyes and merely blinked in curiosity as she watched him.
Slowing his movements, Anton continued to reach forward until he was able to feel the bathwater.
"...Why didn't either of you tell me that the water was starting to get cold?" he asked as he gently shook the water from his hand.
The sisters said nothing as they both tightened their arms against their sides.
With both of the dark elves still watching intently, Anton ran his fingertip in a circle at the waters surface to assess it's temperature. Mumbling quietly to himself about cold baths, he lightly tapped at the water with just the very tip of his middle finger.
The dark elves cringed back in surprise as a ripple of energy washed across the surface of the water and instantly heated it back to a comfortable warmth.
"Whoa! ...That was magic!" cried Kianna as she frantically looked around herself "How did you do that?"
"Very, very carefully" said Anton as he watched Fiona feel her chest where the energy had washed through her "Too much mana and I could have boiled you both alive"
The dark elves both froze before looking up at him in unison.
"Yes, I am being serious" said Anton with a grin "If I wanted to I could incinerate you both, bones and all, into nothing but little piles of dust"
With their eyes going wide and their ears pointing themselves straight upwards in panic, the unease was clear on their faces as the dark elves turned to each other and then looked back up at Anton.
"And that's not even close to the worse thing I could do to you" teased Anton as his grin spread into a thin smile "That would actually be a pretty quick and merciful death"
Fiona swallowed a lump in her throat and leaned herself back as Kianna flattened her ears back submissively and hunched down.
"You two never stood a chance" said Anton as he looked from one to the other "And had you been raised right you would have known that"
"...What do you mean?" questioned Kianna as she raised her ears back up a bit "How would we have known that?"
"Because I made myself and my abilities clear the moment we met" explained Anton as he shifted his gaze to Fiona "You just thought it was the A/C kicking on"
"...That was you!?" exclaimed Fiona "Back at the bar!?"
"Mm hm" nodded Anton "That was my aura. And as dark elves you two should have not only been able to recognize that immediately, but have been able to resist it as well"
"Just because we're dark elves?" questioned Kianna as she raised her ears back up completely.
"That's right. Not every species has the ability to manipulate auras, or even feel them at all. Auramancy is a specialty of the dark elves though. It's how they influence emotions, creating fear and despair or making everything seem calm and safe" explained Anton "Almost all of the dark elves major abilities utilize their auras in some way or another. This is one of the reasons that dark elves are considered so powerful and potentially dangerous. You see, unlike a mana pool, an aura can't be easily cut off or bound. There are ways to do it but it isn't an easy thing to do and most of the world doesn't even know it can be done. This is again why dark elves are considered so frightening. Because even if you were to place a manabinder on a dark elf, that dark elf could still use a big chunk of it's abilities. This means that they can't be stopped or controlled very easily, if at all"
"...So that's how Sierra made people be afraid of her!" exclaimed Kianna "She was using her aura!"
"That's right" nodded Anton "She used her aura to influence other people's emotions and created a sense of fear in them. This can be crippling to anyone who doesn't have any way to resist her influence. And why the dark elves can so easily stand up against and take down multiple people at one time. Or people that have tens times their physical strength"
"What do you mean!?" asked Fiona "How does making fear make them stronger than other people!?"
"It doesn't actually make them stronger. In fact it doesn't even make their opponents any weaker. But it doesn't need to either" explained Anton "You could have all the strength in the world. But how is it going to do you any good if you're too afraid to even move?"
Fiona made a small sound as she looked downwards in thought.
"Auramancy is actually the reason I went to Tantarra in the first place" said Anton as he settled back into his chair "I wanted to learn more about it and how it works. So I figured I'd go to the experts. It took me a little while to fit in but I finally found a few dark elves that were willing to teach me, and after I learned the basics they even taught me a few useful abilities that blend both mana and auramancy. So it was time well spent. Learning more about the dark elves themselves was a bonus that also turned out to be surprisingly interesting"
"Wait!" cried Fiona as her head snapped back up "You know how to use dark elf abilities!?"
Anton leaned over and put his palms down on the edge of the tub as he loomed above the sitting dark elves. In the span of a second all of the lights in the room seemed to dim down to almost nothing as if they were cringing away from him. Both of the dark elves felt an unnatural chill creep up their spines as the world around them became cold and foreboding. Despite the still warm water they both began to shiver uncontrollably and without thinking they instinctively huddled together and wrapped their arms around each other. Looking upwards their eyes went wide in shock as Anton's whole form went pitch black and featureless, save for his eyes which stood out so brightly against the darkness of his face that they seemed to glow as they became piercing and soulless.
