The Times of Our Lives

"Oh." Béatrice's cheeks turned violet for a different reason now. Refusing to admit she was embarrassed, she tried to play the outburst off as just minor confusing. "That makes sense. I have been compared to a marshmallow as well, but I have never been called a Marshmallow elemental. I suppose elementals and golems are one in the same. I even saw a Blood elemental around the school, but I assumed they were a sub-category of Water."

Taking the bag, Béatrice continuously threw marshmallows into her mouth, trying to get rid of her blush. There were more important matters than figuring out what was considered a golem and elemental. The ashling was not the one Béatrice knew; there was no reason to worry about her. What annoyed her was that Charlie dared to question her relationship with ashlings.

After smalling the last batch of marshmallows she threw into her mouth, she gave Charlie a convincing smile and told him, "Truthfully, I do not know many. I used to date one in the far past when I was younger. I do not think she explicitly stated she was an ashling, but it was hard to argue she was not with her appearance. A species similar to ashlings or a hybrid of an ashling and another Fire elemental sounds more likely. She had long beautiful flames for hair that she kept tied behind her back. Her eyebrows were made out of flames as well and were so large and pretty. She was not muscular like I usually liked them, but her cur—" Béatrice slapped a hand over her mouth before she said more. There was a point to what she was saying, and she missed it completely and went down a whole other road.

Once she felt controlled enough, she slowly lowered her hand and resumed. "A-Anyway, elemental sub-species are stuff oricenta already learn from a young age. Elementals, golems, dragons, faes, demons, we are taught basic knowledge of similar species. Ash—that was her nickname—and I would research various subjects together. We were both women of science. I would research her physiology, and she would research mine. We had to be careful, being opposites, but charms helped with that. All I wanted to know was that she was okay. We had lost contact for quite a while."

"You did not offend," she sighed, still annoyed that she let out information like that. It seemed the necromancy part of this discussion was over anyway. Now Béatrice had to give information back to Charlie and talking about her only romantic relationship other than Ade was only a small price to pay. "I am a biologist. I could not have stayed cooped up on those islands, no matter how expansive they were. After so many years, many of us travel off islands to pursue our passions, then come home to relax before doing it again. Our continent was named is called Ilada, by the way. There is not only one island, but the capital is a city called Lehora.." Laying herself back down, she ruffled her feathers, trying to get comfortable. "If you would like to know more, I am sure I could help answer, but questions pertaining to where this island is, how to get there, where to find oricenta elsewhere, and anything else like that will not be skipped.

This was only preparation for questions she had later on for Charlie. She could repay that some other time, but for an old lich like him that valued knowledge, learning more about a rare and hidden species must have felt like a gift to him. She knew that he already had some information on oricenta, but they were an intelligent species and made sure to keep the information others had on them to a minimum. Nowadays, word of mouth was how they existed, but with more oricenta feeling comfortable leaving the islands for some time, soon enough they would reintegrate with the rest of those behind the veil. Before long, oricenta would stop being seen as a relic of a past or as a group of people who may not have even existed.