They sat and read in silence for quite a while before Yarrow spoke up, "We should go get some food and drink. The library will be here whenever you want to learn some new spells."
She nodded slightly and joined him for a meal before they headed back to her home so she could work on making the potions for a bit. As much as she wanted to wait until she had the items to increase her abilities, she knew that every day she waited meant more potions to create each time she worked on them.
Yarrow watched curiously, though Ash was a bit certain he was only present to keep her from overusing her magic. She frowned slightly as she finished up, moving on to cooking a small meal since it wasn't yet late enough for dinner. It was a quiet day overall and he stayed with her as she wove her spells as well. He politely took his leave before her pain started and apologized that he wouldn't be available the next day to join her for the auction.
When she recovered, she went to the temple and sat on the island enjoying the peace. She was uncertain of what to do in order to make sure she'd be safe on her own in the auction. It was customary to join up with someone else even if they were a stranger and all it took was adding them to the lowest tier of friend list.
That meant she'd be able to use any teleportation array in order to return home and they would be entirely unable to follow her. She took a deep breath as she read over the notes Luna had left on the auction.
The auction started mid morning, just before lunch, and continued until mid-afternoon meaning there was no worry of her pain becoming an issue. The only way it would come into play at all would be if she did something that overtaxed her body in Terra. All that meant was that she had to remain safe and calm. Safety would keep her from using large magical spells and calm would keep her heart rate down and keep that from causing her pain.
It was common for people to team up in order to get hold of one of the lots being auctioned and then split the results. That meant she'd need to keep a wary eye out for people that sat alone in the auction. They would be more amenable to joining her than a group would be to taking her in.
She decided that she wouldn't be the one to suggest teaming up, not wanting to seem overeager. She'd use her unicorn eyes in order to decide what to bid on and let someone choose to join her. She knew how to spot danger and so could avoid dangerous people if she needed to. She could also take advantage of the fact that certain types of danger spoke very loudly. If someone particularly dangerous was interested, they'd be unlikely to find someone to pair up with them and increase their chances of winning.
Since she could escape easily enough, it was lower risk for her than most to team up even with someone that was highly dangerous. Her name wouldn't be enough to track her and the friend system didn't come with things like location.
Luna's notes said the auction started generally with low-tier items though some better ones were known to be mixed in. That meant she'd need to bring something with her to keep her attention a bit while the first items sold. She had a book or two Luna had bought the other day and decided to bring them both rather than any of her notes. She didn't want to chance someone dangerous seeing her notes on spellweaving. That would make her interesting and she didn't want that.
The doors would be sealed with magic when the auction started, meaning that the people inside at that time would be her only option. If there was no one for her to join when she got there, she'd have to sit alone and hope someone approached. People could leave at any time and each purchase was a singular thing, whether by group or a solo purchaser. That meant the room would clear as things sold, making bidding a little less competitive towards the end.
The people with large amounts of money to throw around, though, were likely to wait for the last rows of the auction. Those would be almost entirely out of her reach, whether alone or with someone else to help considering she didn't want to drop too much money on the auction. She'd already gone over her finances, taking into account the fact that she wasn't taking major quests on for the adventurer's guild any time soon. Using that, she and Luna had set a limit for her spending on the auction and that was the only money she'd bring with her that day.
There were seven rows of items for sale at the auction with ten bundles per row. The first two rows would have the most competition and the last two would be out of her budget. That meant she had three rows worth of stuff to look over and hopefully win something out of.
She understood as well that the item in the auction could only be stored in her combat pouch and that its contents would go to anyone that managed to kill her. Earthborn often did bidding by proxy in the auction, paying a Godsborn to bid for them and take on the risk of loss. They also often just sat out the entire timer on the item being able to move to their proper inventory, two hours, enjoying the bar that the auction house was at all other times of the month. Beyond that, the protections against attacking the Earthborn were far stronger than the ones on most Godsborn and essentially only paladins acting under orders of a god were able to attack Earthborn within cities.
She'd likely leave as soon as she had her items or the auction had progressed to the point she was unlikely to win. If she thought leaving was a risky move, she'd stay and order some food and drink once the place returned to being a bar.
Her plan in place, Ash curiously activated her Unicorn Eyes skill and looked around the little island at everything around her. All of the divine plants radiated magic and were marked as very high ranked items, so much so that she couldn't even identify them using the skill. She'd have to spend more time with the skill active and it was getting safer to do so by the day considering cosmetic enchantments were spreading among the Godsborn at a rapid pace.
Her attention eventually slid to the small Star Ash and she stiffened in surprise. The tree was passively using magic. A closer examination of it provided her with two more of the words she needed to rebuild her mass cleansing spell: Purify and Corruption.
Corruption was a strange word, though, feeling as if it held a deeper meaning than just being altered from its original purpose.
Sidus showed up on the small island as she was frowning at the tree and easily enough could feel what she was looking at, "Ashterra. Even should you learn the proper words here, promise you will not use that magic."
"I promise," she turned to him and smiled a little sheepishly, having been caught at what felt like disobedience of his orders, "I think the words could help me make smaller spells, though, that would be of use. I will always ask you, first, though before I weave them."
He nodded, "You seemed confused or perhaps just curious about something," he prompted as he settled himself beside her. She explained what she'd seen and he nodded as he listened, "Corruption is," he hesitated as if thinking, "It is not a malevolent force, dear Ashterra. Magic is merely not meant to have extreme amounts of emotion caught up in it and acts differently when it does."
Seeing the worry that entered her eyes, he continued swiftly, "It is hard for gods to fall to corruption, Ashterra. Even when we do experience emotions it is on a different scale than mortal creatures and it takes a large force on that scale to tip things. My anger at the danger you were in was not small," he admitted, "But you were well protected by your own power and others of the pantheon were ready to step in and keep their paladins in check should you have needed help. My anger was in no danger of spiraling out of control, of overtaking my reason. Even if it did, Umbra would have held me in check until I regained my senses and all would be well. You are dear to me, just as she is, and that means you do have greater power to cause massive changes in my emotions…But just as with Umbra, most of the changes you enact are things that I need to remain balanced, to remain myself, not things that cause my magic to deviate from its true purpose."