Fruitless Search

Nissa's tearful reunion with her mother was a similar event that many of her people experienced for themselves over the next two weeks. It would begin with the same silver portal shimmering into existence and people ranging from a single individual to groups as large as her mothers group being reunited with any living loved ones in the city. Nissa and her mother would wait with baited breath during each opening to see if the missing members of their small family would emerge; namely Nissa's father and little brother. It hurt each time they didn't appear, but at least she had some hope that they could be found and saved by capable hands.

She noticed that arriving with each portal were pairs of Fenrir's cousins who would seemingly communicate to Fenrir and then return to the gateway before it closed.

Naturally Nissa would ask Fenrir what they spoke about and most of the time he would give her a straight answer that usually involved the recent group and its situation, but other times he would give a heavy sigh and quote "refuse to leak information". She didn't notice it at the start, but the pillar of hope that Nissa felt she had lost, had ever so slowly begun to solidify once again in her heart.

In either situation, Nissa gathered reports from each group, or individual. Each story was miraculous from a blinded child found amidst the ruins of the capital to groups of fleeing soldiers saved by a man who turned their enemies to stone!

'That was an interesting one to hear, turning the enemy into stone. Halvor's binding must encompass more than that mysterious lightning he used… Hmm..' Nissa thought.

Placing down the report she was reading, Nissa turned inward towards her own access to magic. Her particular binding was vastly different from her first life, with good cause. Each insight and spell form that she had learned, elevated her from a powerful knight she previously was to the battlefield juggernaut she was developing into. It wasn't easy, although she had made great strides in her Divine Binding, there was still much she didn't understand or couldn't do.

Yet Nissa was inspired by reports of Halvor's displays of magic and attempted to sink into her binding to hopefully explore a new aspect of it. There would be times where her binding would let her explore according to her strength, and other times, much like now, where it would direct her towards something she could learn and hopefully apply. Nissa flowed along the river of her binding until she was brought to a memory of a veteran battlemage who, while meditating, shaped their magic into a plethora of different weapons. A spear, a sword, a knife, a lance, and after considerable effort the battlemage's magic solidified into a pair of vambraces that covered his arms.

This was new, Nissa had previously learned to shape her magic into such forms which she used heavily in clearing enemy troops en masse, but now she was shown another form to shape her binding.

What happened next for an undetermined amount of time was Nissa reliving the memory in a loop as she studied the efforts and feel of the battlemage's magic as he condensed the armor pieces. Weapons were a familiar subject to her, their weight, their edge, their build, but more importantly how they were handled. So it was easier for her magic to bring to life their ethereal forms. Armor was also familiar to Nissa: its weight, it's shape, it's durability, but this process was still slow like the building of an unused muscle. With time, she was able to focus the shape of her magic into orange constructs that appeared to be armor, but she could feel they lacked something. Now that she thought of it, both her conjured weapons and this newly made armor lacked something; something that would push them to the next level. When Nissa was pondering over the next level it seemed her time was up as her binding swept her away from the memory and back to the real world.

Thankfully time moved slower inside those memories and only a couple minutes passed since Nissa closed her eyes. A tad frustrated with being interrupted mid thought she turned to Fenrir.

"Tsk, Don't suppose you'll be sharing how Halvor shapes his Binding, eh Fenrir?" Nissa lightly asked as her gaze moved towards the wolf who was lazily pawing at a ball he "liberated" from a group of children.

"Oh, it's not that hard. Just experience and time... Did you know..." Fenrir answered and then soon followed up on some tangent of a deity who lived underground.

"Forget I asked..." She mumbled to herself, tuning out the rest of his story.

**

Nissa eyed the reports in front of her and was reminded of the other significant reason for her unending search: Finding Kai. After her Goddess restored her life and memories, Galea had asked for two things: Save her world, and save Kai. To aid her in these things, Galea granted Nissa her Binding of War and sent her back to a young age. To date, Nissa had been failing both requests; as the near destruction of her country, family, and people were close at hand, and her quest to find Kai had been equally disappointing.

She couldn't save what she couldn't find and Nissa could not find him. Not when she was growing up, not when she liberated Dawns Hope, not during the vicious fighting that preceded the last battle. Kai Dorren did not exist in her world, but she knew he did exist... or existed! He was her lieutenant and was right next to her when she died in her suicide mission to free the Heart!

It was frustrating. Nissa was able to find families with the name Dorren where he came from, but each one did not have a child, a sibling, an uncle, or even a grandfather with the name Kai. Nissa ignored the looks her spies and commanders gave her for her persistent search because her Goddess had requested it of her and she would persist in trying to her last breath.

Despite the betterment of her situation, thanks to Halvor's timely aid, she couldn't help but continue to feel failure in pursuing any part of the Goddesses petition.

Nissa's thoughts were interrupted as she noticed that Fenrir assumed his "communication mode", his ears straight up and his snout in the direction of the message. It was almost comical to see him do that every time a message came to him, and Fenrir was surprisingly resistant to any jab at his particular actions.

'Might be another group.' Nissa thought as she called one of her guards to ready a messenger to Wynfir. However her assumptions were misplaced as his ears relaxed back to their regular spots and Fenrir took on a contemplative look.

After a few moments of silence, Nissa questioned him. "...Fenrir? Another group?". His gaze then moved towards her and he shook his head.

"No, not this time. Boss needs someone to mend his armor. He took a rather nasty hi... " Fenrir sucked in his breath as he quickly stopped his next words from escaping, but Nissa had heard enough as a look of concern formed on her face. Seeing his epic blunder, Fenrir lowered his furry head and sadly bemoaned his actions.

"J-Just great! He's gonna k-kill me… again!"

Nissa at the same time, was opening her mouth to recommend her Armor Smith Jim, until she heard the last part of his comment. She was stunned. 'Did he just leak information?' was her first thought and it was quickly followed up by 'Halvor is injured?!' which she vocalized. "Is Halvor alright? Does he need help?"

An almost physical cloud of misery hung over Fenrir as he sighed in defeat and responded "He was, but he's okay now. He heals up rather quickly, but his armor doesn't. That's why he needs a smith who can shape Manasteel."

"Manasteel?"

Nissa was unfamiliar with the presumed ore, of course she had known and used mithril and other various enchanted ores in her armor and weapons, but 'Manasteel'? No. Fenrir rolled his eyes and replied as if he had recited it a thousand times. "Its basically mithril that's been forged with magic." He then looked expectantly at her as he awaited her answer.

Nissa knew her own weapon was forged with mithril, but from what she knew; Mithril was the antithesis of magic and was the best ore that resisted it's touch. However she did know the "peculiar" smith she employed was the best shaper of any ore she could find, and he would hopefully know more about forging this Manasteel.

"Let's go ask Jim."